Apple Bloom's Mansion

by Lucar

Act 2

After a few minutes of rest looking at the portraits to memorize her future potential targets, Apple Bloom finally returned to the manor, ready to continue. Back in the foyer, she quickly dealt with the two ghosts welcoming her while carefully avoiding going under the chandelier, then approached the double door between the stairs with her key.

But then, a thought struck her mind. She looked up at the wall above the entrance to spot two windows, which were clearly the ones lightened when looking at them from outside, and yet, the foyer's light wasn't on!

She shook her head, closing her eyes. "Uh... Prof? It's normal that light can be seen through a window from outside, but the room's light is off?"

«Yes. Ghosts love that kind of trick. Those lights are probably illusions. Don't mind it.»

"Okay..."

She turned back to the door, inserted the key, and successfully opened it, entering a hallway much longer than the one she cleaned on the second floor. Looking first at her left to spot just one door at the end, then at the right, her eyes grew in fright before she immediately lowered her head just in time to avoid being stabbed by two thrown knives. Their origin was the ghost of a mare wearing a maid outfit, with a good deal of cutlery floating around her. She threw more knives at Apple Bloom, and the filly quickly ran back to the foyer. The maid chased her, but Apple Bloom was ready and as soon as she floated in front of the door, the filly activated the Poltergust, sucking up first all the cutlery, the pipe being big enough for them, before catching the mare. With the calm coming back, she went back to the entrance of the manor, went in front, opened the Poltergust, and dropped the cutlery before kicking them away.

"Prof, Ah got a maid. If ya're interested, there're some knives and stuff now in front of the manor."

«Thank you. My cutlery was getting a little old. And good job.»

Apple Bloom returned to the hallway, carefully looking left and right for more ghosts. With no dangers in sight, she started going to the left to test the door at the end.

Locked.

So she went to the right where the hallway continued toward two other doors, one in front, and one at the right, while it branched at the left. The door at the right was locked, but the one at the front wasn't, so she opened it only to discover that it led to a staircase leading to the basement.

By Celestia, this manor was already very haunted, so how much haunted the basement must be? Basements are known in horror stories to be the most haunted place of a house along with attics!

But if the door was open, then there was a possibility that she must continue by there. So despite her fear, she went down the stairs, dealing with some bat ghosts, and discovered two more doors, one at the left and the other at the right. They were both locked.

"Darn."

Well, she said that, but deep down, she sighed in relief. Basements are scary!

Quickly, she climbed back the stairs and returned to the hallway of the first floor, and started taking the path that branched, where there were two more doors at both sides, both locked too, but she could hear music coming from the one at the right, and somepony eating loudly from the one at the left.

She arrived at another fork, but the hallway going to the right didn't go far before reaching a locked door, so she took the hallway going to the left. Here, she was attacked by another maid, also throwing knives, so Apple Bloom hid herself behind the wall of the fork, waited for the maid to approach, and caught her. As soon as the maid was caught, an unicorn appeared and started using its magic to levitate some of the cutlery that hadn't been sucked up by the Poltergust before throwing them at the filly. Again, Apple Bloom used the wall to protect herself, and caught the ghost once it approached enough. With the ghost gone, she also sucked up the cutlery so no other ghosts could use them.

She passed a first locked door at her right from which she could hear somepony play piano, then another locked door at her left, before the hallway turned to the right with two doors at the left wall, and one last door at the end. The first door was locked, but not the second. It led to a bathroom.

Inside, a pegasus ghost immediately attacked her, and she lowered her head to avoid his wing lariat before sucking it. An earth pony and a griffon followed it. But as she thought that it would be all, the ghost of a diamond dog, again, one of those weird ghosts with no features, appeared, caught Apple Bloom and started strangling her. So she quickly did like with Golden Hair and pointed her Poltergust at it before pushing the button. The diamond dog was strong, but by pressing her legs against the wall separating the bathtub from the rest of the room, she was able to avoid being dragged, and before long, the diamond dog was captured and a key appeared beside her.

"Now, there're diamond dogs."

«They will not be a problem I hope.»

"Ah don't think, Ah'll just avoid getting too close of them. Their claws are no joke."

After some searching, she found out that this key opened the door where she could hear music earlier, and entered what she discovered was a ballroom.

A ballroom with two corpses, and two dancing ghosts; two earth ponies, one a stallion with a golden fur and silver mane, and the other a mare with a silver fur and golden mane. Apple Bloom immediately recognized them as Golden and Silver Shoes. From what she learned, Golden Shoes was Golden Hair's brother, and Silver Shoes was his wife. And the both of them were great dancers that even Princess Celestia had loved to watch.

But how did they die? No marks indicated that they were killed by something, and they were clearly not dead from asphyxia like the twins. Until now, the ghosts tried to kill her the same way they died, so knowing how these two died may be important to prepare herself.

"Hello, little one! Come dance with us!" Golden Shoes suddenly said upon spotting her.

"Yes! It is wonderful!" Silver Shoes said.

Apple Bloom looked at the two ghosts in wonder and suspicion until she felt her body starting to move alone. "Wha-? Hey! What's going on?!" Before she knew it, she was dancing along with the two ghosts, and she couldn't stop! "Stop!"

"Why stop when we can dance forever?" Silver Shoes asked.

"Prof! Two ghosts are forcing me to dance! What do Ah do?!"

«Let me guess: Golden and Silver Shoes.»

"Yes! Them! Ah can't stop dancing!"

«Oh dear... It's hard to fight body manipulation. In those situations, the best way is to try to resist. If the ghosts are close enough, then at least try to regain control of your forehooves and use the Poltergust on them. If you can't, then I'm coming.»

Regaining control of her forehooves... Resisting their manipulation... Alright! So she started putting her strength on stopping her forelegs from moving. Putting in more and more effort, her forelegs started slowing down, becoming desynchronized with the back legs, until she was able to force them to stop moving. But they were still compelled to move because of whatever the ghosts were using to force her to dance, so she had to keep her focus, gritting her teeth as she forced her forelegs toward the handle of the Poltergust, the limbs moving painfully slow. After much struggle, almost losing a couple of times, she was able to grab the handle, and letting her limbs move by themselves again while forcefully keeping her hold, she waited until the end of the Poltergust eventually faced the two ghosts before she pressed the button.

Immediately, the two ghosts were trapped in the vortex and tried to escape, breaking the curse that forced the filly to dance and letting her focus on capturing them. It wasn't easy because she was capturing two ghosts at the same time, so with their combined strength, they were easily able to drag her behind them, and Apple Bloom had a hard time keeping her hooves on the floor. Things got harder when the ghosts separated and went in opposite directions, forcing Apple Bloom to pull on the handle to force one of them back toward her while she let the other drag her. Eventually, Silver Shoes disappeared inside the Poltergust, letting the filly focus exclusively on her husband, who soon followed her.

She sighed in relief, sitting down to let her hooves rest a little after that forced exercise.

«You got them?»

"Yeah... It wasn't easy. Looks like they were forced to dance to death." She got shivers at this. Being forced to dance for hours, maybe even days, until they fell dead from exhaustion? To think that it could have happened to her!

Before she could think more, new ghosts appeared in the ballroom: two earth ponies, one pegasus, and a fat one with the bananas. She immediately targeted the fat one before it could throw a peel. It didn't stop it from throwing some peels as it tried to escape her, but at least it won't bother her by throwing peels on her path as she was capturing the other ghosts. With the fat ghost captured, she quickly spun around and rolled away to avoid being rammed by the pegasus before she started capturing it.

When the pegasus was gone, a donkey appeared behind the two earth ponies, the three of them grouped together as they approached her. So, as crazy as it was, she targeted the three at the same time. Like with the dancing ghosts, the three ghosts were able to drag her, and one of the earth ponies was able to escape as they flew at different directions, but at least, she was able to capture the others even if she was forced to jump above the corpse of Golden Shoes to not trip on him.

Another fat pony appeared, but this one actually tried to body slam Apple Bloom, while a diamond dog appeared too. She rapidly finished the last earth pony before she turned to the fat pony and targeted it while keeping an eye on the dog. As she was dragged by the fat ghost, two more ghosts appeared behind the diamond dog, these being ghosts of earth ponies holding ghostly spears. An unicorn also appeared to complete the lot.

Frowning, Apple Bloom finished the fat pony, then ran away from the approaching diamond dog, circling it to approach the unicorn. With a roll, she dodged a magic beam, then activated the Poltergust, catching it and one of the spearponies in its vortex. As the two ghosts dragged her, the second spear pony threw its spear at her, and she jumped forward to not be impaled by it. Her jump however almost led her to the diamond dog who was ready to grab her, so she stopped catching the unicorn and the spearpony and quickly reactivated the Poltergust on the dog, stopping it in its attempt. However, now, as she captured the dog, she was forced to avoid the magical beams and thrown spears from the other ghosts, letting the dog drag her to help herself in avoiding the projectiles. When the dog finally disappeared inside the vacuum, she turned to the nearest spearpony who was about to thrust its spear at her and captured it too. The remaining spearpony and the unicorn soon followed. And the key appeared.

She rubbed her forehead. "Wowee! That's violent! Ah think Ah counted ten ghosts!"

«Ten?! Cough! Coughcough! Cough! I never heard of so many ghosts at the same time!»

"Two of them were armed with spears."

«Well, that will make things harder...»

Apple Bloom took the key, and spotted the door at the opposite side of the room from the entrance, at the left wall. She tested the key in it, and it opened, letting the filly enter what was clearly some storage room full of crates along with a mop, a bucket, and chairs piled on each other.

As she entered, another new type of ghost appeared: a minotaur. As soon as it appeared, it approached her enough before slamming the floor with its strong hands, creating a shockwave that took Apple Bloom by surprise. As she recovered, two griffons appeared behind the minotaur. Drat!

Thinking quickly, she waited for the two griffons to reach the minotaur before she activated the Poltergust, trapping all three of them in the vortex. As expected, the minotaur was a strong feller and had no problem dragging her behind it, even less with the help of the griffons. The two smaller ghosts eventually managed to escape, but she made sure to not let the minotaur go! And before long, it was captured. She quickly turned to the griffons, who made the error to remain together, so again, she trapped the two of them in the vortex, and this time managed to capture them.

"Hey, little one, not bad!" she suddenly heard from behind the crates. Turning to them in panic, she spotted the ghost of a cloaked purple stallion half hiding behind. "How about I give you a reward? Do you want a candy? I have some on me. I'm sure you will love them."

Suspicious stranger alert!

In less than one second, she targeted the ghost and activated the Poltergust, making him drop something as he started flying around in panic. It wasn't long before he was caught. Looking down at where he dropped something, she spotted a dagger.

"Uh, prof? Ya know anything about a purple stallion who attracted foals with candies before stabbing them?"

«It rings a bell. Wait a moment,» She heard him searching for something in what was probably a pile of paper if she identified the sound correctly. After a few seconds... «Ah! There! Ugh... Nasty feller this one. His name was Red Steel, and he was a blacksmith assistant from around five hundred years ago. A real monster bearing a pony skin. The guy attracted fillies by promising candies to them, then did... stuff to them before killing them with a dagger. He killed at least four times before he was discovered. He died devoured by timberwolves as he tried to escape the royal guards by entering the Everfree Forest. Good riddance, if you want my opinion.»

"Well, Ah think Ah caught our first ghost who will go into the red crystal," said Apple Bloom with a shiver. She didn't want to know what Prof Spirit meant by 'did stuffs to them'.

«I didn't think that it would be used for any other spirit than Bogmire and whoever is the traitor. Keep your senses alert, there may be more psychos like him in this manor. And they may be more dangerous than the Gems. Thankfully, I have with me piles of archives, newspapers, and other docs to inform me of all the known bad ponies of history. This way, I always know who I'm facing.»

Apple Bloom looked around at the floor. "The key hasn't appeared."

«Look around if there isn't a ghost hidden, like in the wardrobe room. This time, try to not get punched. Ohohoh.»

So Apple Bloom looked around the crates, tapped them, even opened one with a buck, but nothing ghostly came out. A thought then struck her as she looked at the room.

"Wait! This room's smaller than it should be!"

«What do you mean?»

"It's hard to explain... The ballroom was big, you see? But this room isn't as big. But it should, because if not, it would mean that there is another room beside it. But there was no door leading to such a room in the hallway, and there're no doors in the ballroom or this room."

«Oh! I see! A room is missing! If I was to draw a map, there would be a big black square between the hallway and this room! Only one explanation: it's a secret room! There must be a secret passage. Look at the wall.»

Apple Bloom did as told and started looking closely at the left wall. After a few seconds of searching, briefly interrupted by a spearpony, she eventually spotted a hole.

"There's a hole."

«Then you have to insert something. If you haven't gotten any key, then this means that this something is in one of the rooms you already explored. Do you remember anything that could enter this hole? Look around in the room where you are first, just in case the 'key' is already there.»

Looking around a little, she replied, "All that could enter in this here room is the handle of the mop, but Ah don't think it's it."

«Trust me, don't judge too quickly. I found many secret passages in my life, and I can tell you, some of them had weird solutions. Putting the handle of a mop in a hole wouldn't be the weirdest. Come on, it doesn't cost to try.»

"Alright..." replied Apple Bloom with a sigh. Following Smart Spirit's instructions, she took the mop and put the handle in the hole. To her surprise, pushing the mop in it caused a door to open in the wall. "It worked!"

«Ohohohohohoh! If you think there's a secret passage, count on me! I'm an expert!»

Entering the secret room, she saw that it was an extension of the first one, but with more expensive stuffs, like cutlery made of precious metals, pots, or high-quality cleaning tools and products. She even found a purse full of gold coins on one of the crates! On the floor in the middle was a trapdoor with a crank beside it, and on the wall behind it was a ladder.

There was probably more stuff stocked in there.

Apple Bloom went to the crank, and again, was forced to put the mop in a hole in it to turn it and open the trapdoor. Once the trapdoor was open, she cautiously approached it to look, but she couldn't see anything in the darkness of the room below, even with her flashlight.

And then...

"Boo!"

"Waaaahhhh!!!" Quickly stepping back in fear, Apple Bloom took the Poltergust and pointed it at the ghost who just came out of the trapdoor, only for the bucket from the first room to suddenly come and clog the end of the machine. "What?" shouted Apple Bloom as she looked at the bucket stopping her Poltergust from creating a vortex.

Then, she heard the ghost laughing and turned to it, only to see that the ghost was actually Little Ghost. She looked at her annoyed. "Ya almost gave me a heart attack!"

"I couldn't stop myself!" Little Ghost continued laughing for a few seconds before stopping. "No wonder other ghosts love scaring ponies, it's so funny!"

"Where're mah friends?!"

"Your friends? Oh! They are down there!" She pointed down at the trapdoor. "We were waiting for you. Good job for beating Mr. Bear. It was an awesome fight! You were impressive!" She then saw Apple Bloom looking at the trapdoor in worry. "Don't worry, they are alright. Nothing happened to them. I made sure of it. Because it's what friends do, right?"

"Friends?"

"Yes! They are now my friends! They are so fun to be around! And soon, they will be able to live in the manor with me without risking being killed! Well, at the condition you don't die while cleaning the manor. It would be nice if you could at least take out Bogmire before you are killed. Like this, even if you die, there is no risk for him to make you crazy like all the others, and I could still be your friend. But, you know, I would like to become friends with you now. The others can't wait for you to join us." At this moment, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, but also Applejack, Twilight, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Spike floated out of the trapdoor before landing around it, looking at her with big smiles... and empty eyes.

"Little Ghost's right, Bloom," Applejack said. "Join us."

"Yeah! We will have so much fun!" shouted Pinkie.

"And we could go ask the others at school to join us too!" Sweetie Belle said.

Apple Bloom started stepping back, absolutely terrified. “E-everypony...?”

"Come on Apple Bloom! You don't want to come? We will all be together... forever."

At this, everypony started advancing toward the filly.

"Yes, join us."

"Join us."

"Join us."

As they advanced and repeated "join us", Apple Bloom continued stepping back, her heart racing, her body shaking… then she suddenly heard Prof Spirit scream through her communicator.

«Run!»

And she ran away. She ran even faster than she would run in the Running of the Leaves. She didn't even take time to close the doors as she exited the storage room and the ballroom. She could hear them following her. As she ran in the hallway, objects that weren't there before were suddenly here trying to block her way, like a closet, a table, a piece of armor that was moving alone trying to catch her... Ghosts of all kind that she encountered until now as well as a few new ones like hippogriffs, a manticore, a swarm of parasprites, and even a chimera, also appeared to attack her and stop her. And she could swear the hallway was distorting, as if it was spinning, becoming shorter and longer at the same time, and blurry like a mirage! Thankfully, there wasn't much distance between the ballroom and the foyer, so she was quickly able to escape this craziness before she could lose her balance and/or get caught. In the foyer, she barely avoided being slammed by the chandelier balancing like a pendulum before she reached the exit. As she ran, and ran, and ran, she looked behind her, seeing the windows flashing, crazy laughter coming from them, and she spotted Applejack and the others at the entrance, watching her before the doors closed, and everything stopped.

But now, she could see Little Ghost waving at her through one of the windows of the foyer, with a big, friendly smile.

Apple Bloom was quickly joined by Smart Spirit.

"That was the most intense paranormal manifestation I ever saw, and I was outside the manor! Are you alright?"

He was suddenly hugged by a crying Apple Bloom, almost getting the wind knocked out of him. "No!"

Smart Spirit awkwardly put a hoof around her. "Let... Let's return to the lab."

She nodded.

---

One glass of hot cocoa later, and Apple Bloom calmed enough to recount what happened.

"What do Ah do, prof?" asked the filly, some tears still in her eyes.

“This filly appears to be extremely powerful. But to save your friends, somepony must go in the manor with one of my Poltergusts to continue cleaning it. If you don't want to return, I would perfectly understand, but then, I will have to find somepony else. Ponyville is not far, so it shouldn't be long to find somepony who would accept facing this manor.”

"Impossible."

"Uh?"

"Each time that something bad happens in Ponyville, everypony runs away screaming. The only ones who don't mind facing dangers are... in this manor, and in this lab. You'll find nopony courageous enough to face something like THAT. Even Bulk Biceps screams like a filly when there's a catastrophe happening, and he's the most buffed pony Ah know. And... And even if ya find somepony, would they fare better?" Apple Bloom took a big breath. "Ah already proved that Ah'm good at fighting ghosts, but the next pony ya find may not, and they may be killed, or end up controlled by Little Ghost..." She stared at Prof Spirit, determined, but also terrified. "Ah... A-Ah must return to the manor. Ah'm their best chance right now..."

"You are sure? After what happened?"

She gulped, thinking about this very scary event. "Ah fought pony-eating books. Ah fought a ghost trying to strangle me with her mane... Ah fought a giant animated teddy bear. This..." She laughed to reassure Smart Spirit... and herself. "This isn't the ghost of a stillborn filly and her weird tricks that'll scare me!"

The prof sighed. "Very well..." He then rubbed her back, smiling. "You are the bravest pony I ever encountered. Be cautious. But... Maybe I should come back with you."

"But... What if Applejack and the others are still there? You wouldn't stand a change, you're too old."

"Ugh... Thanks for reminding me... Well then, before you go, let's empty your crystal. And I will also take this purse of coins you found. I prepared some place to stock all that gold." He showed the filly a mostly empty chest in which he put the coins before he gave her a new purse. "I enchanted this one so each time you put something in it, it'll appear in this chest."

"Thanks."

---

Once everything was done in the lab, Apple Bloom slowly returned to the manor. As she approached it, she briefly looked up at the windows, seeing that Little Ghost wasn't there anymore.

She opened the entrance just enough for her head to pass, so she could look around at the foyer and see if anypony, or anything, was here. Seeing nopony, she entered, and spotted under the chandelier a new key, probably left here by Little Ghost, so she could continue her 'cleaning duty'.

Darn, she forgot to ask her about why she forced her to capture her own family.

Rather than going under the chandelier to take the key and risk being crushed, she took her Poltergust and used its vortex to bring the key to her. She then could hear a little "Aww..." coming from nowhere.

Of course, Little Ghost was watching her.

With a new key in her possession, she entered the hallway the same way she opened the foyer, quickly looking if there was nopony before passing the door. The hallway was now full of the obstacles used earlier to try to stop her, like tables, closets, crates, pots, and all other kinds of furniture small enough for the hallway.

Keeping her ears raised, she started testing the doors one by one to find out which one the key was opening. When she passed beside the ballroom, and after she captured the ghost of an earth pony, she suddenly heard the door of the foyer opening and closing, before a voice shouted, "Apple Bloooom! We know ya're here! Where're yaaaaa?"

That was Applejack! And judging by the hoofsteps, she wasn't alone!

"We will find you, and you will join uuus!" Fluttershy said.

As quickly as she could without making a sound, Apple Bloom opened the door to the ballroom, passed it, and closed it, before listening, trying to calm her heart. Slowly, she heard them approaching, and she decided to run toward one of the curtains in the room to hide behind. Just in time, as the door opened, and she briefly spotted Applejack, Fluttershy, Twilight, Spike, and Scootaloo entering. Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Sweetie Belle weren't here... Hopefully, they were on the second floor.

She watched discretely as they traversed the room, calling her in that haunting way, thankfully not spotting her, before they entered the storage room. As soon as the door closed, she moved to exit the ballroom.

"Got you!" Bonk!

Pinkie Pie, because she was Pinkie Pie, suddenly appeared out of nowhere in front of her, grabbing her. In reaction, without even thinking, Apple Bloom took the bat and bonked the pink mare on the head, knocking her out.

"Sorry Pinkie!"

Released from her grip, she then ran to the door and returned to the hallway, quickly watching left and right to see if there was somepony else. Seeing nopony, she put a chest of drawers just in front of the door, trapping the ponies and dragon in the ballroom, and immediately tested the door just in front, the one from which she could hear somepony eating.

It wasn't the good one, curse!

Somepony started banging on the door of the ballroom, and she didn't lose time to run to the second half of the hallway while she was also hearing the door of the foyer opening again. Quickly, she tested the doors one by one, until she found the good one leading to the washroom.

Before she could breathe, she was attacked by a pegasus coming out of the toilet bowl and throwing a ball of water at her face, taking her by surprise, which caused some of the water to enter her nostrils. As she coughed, the pegasus then punched her, getting her on her back. From the floor, she quickly took the Poltergust and trapped the pegasus in the vortex, and in return, the pegasus threw another ball of water at her eyes, but she closed them to avoid the water entering them and captured it.

The key appeared in the toilet bowl, and she took it just as the door opened, revealing Rainbow Dash smirking and shouting "Hey!" only to take the toilet bowl in the face before the filly escaped.

"Sorry Rainbow!"

In the hallway, she quickly tested the doors again while escaping, only to end face to face with Rarity who caught her in her magic, Sweetie Belle at her side. In panic, she took the Poltergust and targeted the white filly, making sure that it was at yellow before activating it. She trapped Sweetie Belle in the vortex, then slammed her against Rarity, breaking her spell.

"Sorry Sweetie Belle! Sorry Rarity!"

Back on land, Apple Bloom reached the door with the pony eating but found out that it wasn't the good one either. At least, the chest of drawers was still in front of the door to the ballroom, but she could tell it won't resist long as she could hear Applejack now bucking the door. So she ran to test the next door.

The key opened the door beside the one leading to the basement. Getting an idea, she opened then violently slammed the door to the basement before she entered the newly opened room and slowly closed the door. Keeping an eye open in case any ghosts attacked her, she could hear the others falling to her deception.

"She went to the basement!" she could hear Rarity shout before passing.

"We'll get her!" Applejack shouted, soon following her with the others.

Soon, the hoofsteps disappeared downstairs. The problem was that they would quickly come back, and one of them could get the idea to test this door...

"Good job for escaping them, young one," She suddenly heard from her right. In panic, she turned her head to find the ghost of an old purple unicorn mare with a gray mane sitting on a golden chair in front of a well-decorated table with a crystal ball. Lying on the chair, beside her, was her body. The old mare, Crystal Ball, Apple Bloom recognized, giggled. "You don't need to be scared of me, little Apple Bloom, I am not a hostile ghost. Oh, right." She waved her hoof, and Apple Bloom could hear a click in the door. "Now, it's closed. Your controlled friends will not be able to open it. You are safe here."

Almost as soon as she said that, Apple Bloom could hear Applejack and the others climb the stairs from the basement, then open the door to the hallway.

"But if she isn't down there, where is she?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"We will find her again sooner or later," Twilight said.

Somepony then tried to open the door. "Still locked," Spike said. "She isn't there."

"Darn, she got us good," Applejack said.

Apple Bloom could hear them move away and breathed in relief.

"Uh... Thanks..."

"You are welcome," replied Crystal Ball with another giggle. "You are a filly full of resources."

Apple Bloom approached her before sitting. "How...?"

"How am I still sane despite Bogmire's curse? Well, you see, little one, I am a medium, and I possess a good amount of spiritual powers. Enough to use them to protect my mind from the curse." She sighed. "But protecting myself is taking almost everything I have, so I can't even move, and I can barely talk..."

Apple Bloom's ears lowered in sadness."So, ya're trapped here, even if ya're still sane?"

"Even if I could still move, I would still be trapped. I was able to protect my mind, but the rest of the curse still takes effect: everypony that Bogmire killed is trapped in this manor. We can only get out to the graveyard and the garden. But now, I can see it. I can see that thanks to you, there is a possibility for all of us to be free. And just for that I am ready to help you with all my power, even if it means giving up my mind to the curse."

"Ya don't have to!"

"Come on Apple Bloom, you know that whatever happens, the end will be the same: you will capture me in this impressive machine created by my great, great and much greater grand nephew. Yes, your new friend, Smart Spirit, is a descendant of our family. He didn't tell you because he thought that he didn't need to. And he was right. You don't need to know, but it will help you understand the full story. You see, when Bogmire was freed, Diamond Cup and Golden Hair had another son who wasn't in the manor. His name was Prismatic Gem, and he was studying to learn about our family secret: ghost hunting. When the manor disappeared, he immediately understood what happened, and from there he and his descendants prepared themselves for its potential return to stop Bogmire from causing more suffering. This Poltergust on your back is the result of over one thousand years of preparation for this very night. I'm very proud of what they did. However, I'm very disappointed that he couldn't get himself to have a son or a daughter!"

«Ugh...»

"Really, one thousand years of preparation almost for nothing! You fool, your life wasn't just about ghost hunting! You should have at least tried to find a mare!"

«Uhhh...»

Apple Bloom laughed, making Crystal Ball smile.

"At least, he found you." She then started moving her forehooves around the crystal ball. "Now, let me try to help you, but I will have to be quick before the curse clouds my mind. And once I'm done, you will capture me before I try to kill you."

Apple Bloom lost her smile at this. "Okay..."

"You are searching for Bogmire... Well, it won't be long before you find him. He loves places full of death, and you can guess which place stinks of it more."

She gulped. "The graveyard."

"Yes. He is in there. But... Even if you are able to capture Bogmire, I can see... that it will not stop the curse..."

"What?"

«What?»

"I... I can't see why... A great power is blocking my vision... I fear that a ghost more powerful than Bogmire was able to take over the curse... It's probably the reason why the manor reappeared. That's all the help I can give you concerning this..."

"Not even on who's this ghost? Or where it is?"

"No, I'm afraid... I don't think it's Pyrite, the one who freed Bogmire, because even if he has gained a lot of powers thanks to the curse, he didn't gain enough to be able to take over. But now, I can tell you about your sister and your friends. And about Little Ghost." She stopped moving her hooves around the crystal ball to look directly at the filly. "Little Ghost died in the womb of her mother, but like me, her mind didn't get infected by the curse. The reason? Because her mind wasn't properly developed at the time. It's only in the following years that it developed. I helped her by teaching her to speak, and about some other things... You know what this means? That even if you stop the curse, it will not free the ponies and dragon under Little Ghost's control." She sighed. "Something important that I forgot to teach her is morality, and because of that, she has absolutely no idea that what she's doing is wrong. All... All she wants are friends... and to have fun with them..." She restarted moving her hooves around the ball. "If you survive, she will be waiting for you at the last room of her little game, the very room where Bogmire was sealed, in the basement. There, with your job done, she will probably use her powers to make you join her, like the others. It's where you will have a chance to fight her and save your friends. But you will first have to clean the whole manor room by room."

"But why is she making me capture her own family?"

The old mare looked at her sadly. “You saw them... Diamond Cup was reading the same book again and again, Golden Hair was grooming her hair without stopping, Ruby and Sapphire weren't stopping playing hide and seek, Golden and Silver Shoes wouldn't stop dancing... The ponies trapped in the curse are repeating what they were doing at their death forever... For Little Ghost, they aren't family, they are just... hindrances. Dirt to be cleaned by your vacuum to let place for her new 'real' friends. And yes, this includes me... Like I said, despite talking, I can't do much. I'm... boring. When I taught her everything I could think of, she lost interest in me. So I must disappear to let my place to one of her friends. That's all I can say about her...

As for Pyrite, he is on the third floor. He knows about you, and he will use all his gained powers to stop you. He is the master behind most of the ghosts that you fought until now, what Smart Spirit calls Shadows. When you will capture him, the Shadows will stop bothering you." She stopped moving her hooves, her eyes becoming empty. "That's... all... Quick... Capture me... I'm... losing... myself.......... Please....... Free us....."

Apple Bloom nodded, took the Poltergust, and activated it. The old mare didn't even try to resist, she was caught in a few seconds. She looked at the machine on her back "Ah promise." She said as she could hear the door unlocking.

«She gave us some important information. We now know who the traitor is, even if I already had my doubts, to tell you the truth; we know that capturing Bogmire won't work anymore and that a more powerful ghost took over the curse, and we know that you will have to fight Little Ghost to free your friends, unless you are able to convince her to release them. But you know... Little Ghost demonstrated really strong powers... I wouldn't be surprised if she is the one who took over the curse. You know? To force the manor to reappear in our dimension so she could get friends.»

"You might be right. And she'll be in the last room, in the basement."

«And to reach it, you will have to capture all the other ghosts that you will encounter, which includes all the members of the Gem family, Bogmire, the servants, and whatever ghosts entered the manor since it appeared and will get in your way, like Red Steel. Now, our objective is clear.»

"Yes." She took the key and went to the door in the wall at the left of the entrance. "What can you tell me about this Pyrite?"

«He was born from a young love when Emerald was just 17 years old. Because of this, he couldn't be considered as the rightful heir of the Gem family, and it's his younger brother, Diamond Cup, who got everything. So he became a painter, but he had a hard time selling his paintings, so he was constantly living in poverty. I was kinda taking pity of the poor guy, until Crystal Ball just confirmed that he is the one who unleashed Bogmire and, by consequence, caused the death of his family. I understand that he was jealous, and probably desired their fortune, but going this far? Ugh! Definitively red crystal for him!»

Apple Bloom opened the door and entered a room with six beds.

"Uh? That's a lot of beds."

«Oh, you must have entered the chamber of the servants.»

"Six beds, so... six servants?"

«Seven. The butler had his own room. You already got two maids. There must be also at least one cook and one gardener.»

Suddenly, the six beds rose in the air, and one after another, they were thrown at the filly, to her surprise. She avoided the first one by lowering herself against the ground, before she quickly jumped left and right to avoid the others. She had to jump above the last one.

The beds now formed a pile against the door, blocking the exit to her, and the next instant, a manticore, surrounded by three spearponies, appeared, all of them Shadows. The manticore was probably the one that attacked her earlier as she was running away. It was the same color (red), and it was clearly the most dangerous of the bunch, so she targeted it first. Of course, she was dragged by the animal, and it tried to use its tail to stop her, but she didn't let it go. The spearponies, however, forced her to let it go, because they just wouldn't stop attacking her with their spears! So she aligned the three, and activated the Poltergust, doing all she could to capture them before the manticore returned to attack her.

The manticore jumped at her just as she captured the last spearpony, and she rolled out of the way of its biting attempt before she started capturing it again. At this moment, a minotaur appeared with a pegasus, and the bipedal bull immediately slammed the floor to create a shockwave. The filly jumped, using the manticore's strength to jump higher and pass above the shockwave. While she jumped, the pegasus charged at her, and again, she was forced to give up on the manticore to let herself fall and avoid a wing lariat. She fell right beside the minotaur, and before it could slam the floor again as she was recovering from her landing, she activated the Poltergust on it, and the bull dragged her away just in time for her to avoid the pegasus diving at her, the pony disappearing through the ground as a result.

By the time both the pegasus and the manticore came back to attack her, she had finished the minotaur, and she targeted the two remaining ghosts at the same time. The pegasus was the first to lose the fight, but the manticore still resisted for at least fifteen seconds before it was finally captured.

But now, four pony ghosts appeared, an earth pony and a pegasus with water in them, another pegasus with lightning, and an unicorn with ice. The two ghosts with water were the first to attack, trying to hit her with balls of water that the filly avoided, understanding what was their tactic. They would hit her with water, and she would become more vulnerable to the lightning and to the ice.

"You didn't tell me ghosts could use elements! Ah thought the one Ah fought in the washroom was a special case!"

«Because I never had to fight ghosts that can use elements. Unicorn ghosts can use their magic to throw fireballs and other elemental projectiles, and pegasus ghosts can throw lightning bolts from clouds, but so can any living unicorns and pegasi with the necessary knowledge. But elemental ghosts? I never encountered one. But I suppose that a ghost with enough power can use them. You mean you are fighting such ghosts right now?»

While the prof was talking, Apple Bloom targeted who she considered as the most dangerous of the ghosts: the lightning one. After using one of the beds of the pile as cover to protect herself from the elemental projectiles, the lightning one went to her to attack, only for Apple Bloom to trap it in a vortex before quickly capturing it.

"Eeyup! Two waters, an ice, and a lightning. Ah just got the lightning one."

«By Celestia's sun! Pyrite really wants you dead now!»

"Wasn't it already the case with the diamond dog trying to strangle me?"

«Good point.»

By now, she was able to target the three remaining ghosts at the same time, and easily captured them, getting used to capturing more than one ghost at once. But then, five earth ponies with fire in them appeared and started throwing fireballs at her.

"Consarn it! How many there're?!"

Running around to avoid the fireballs, she was eventually able to trap three of the ghosts in a vortex. She let them drag her so she could still avoid the fireballs from the two others until she captured them before she was finally able to catch the last two. But then, two more ghosts appeared: zebras. The two immediately started throwing potions at her, and Apple Bloom didn't want to know what would happen if she was hit by one of them. Would she be turned into some weak animal? Would she be turned into stone? Would she become sick? Become a monster? Become a colt?! Yick!

So she made sure to avoid the thrown potions and was eventually able to capture the first zebra. But as she captured the first one, she couldn't dodge a potion coming from behind, and after an explosion of smoke, she found herself turned into a little foal about as old as the Cake Twins. Thankfully, it wasn't one of those regression thingies that also regressed her mind, so she was able to retain it, but now, she was far too small to hold the Poltergust, her whole body now small enough to pass through the straps, and her communicator also fell from her ear.

But she wasn't too small to lift the handle! So she ran to it, lifted it toward the zebra, and pressed the button. What she forgot was that now, she didn't have the strength to resist being dragged by it... So when the zebra started flying around to escape the vortex; she found herself riding the handle of the machine as it was flying behind, and she made sure to not release the button until the zebra was gone!

As soon as the zebra disappeared, the effect of the potion seemed to disappear with it because the next instant, she was back to her normal age.

Laughing as she placed the Poltergust and the communicator back at their place, Apple Bloom said "That was fun!"

«What was fun?»

Before Apple Bloom could answer, yet another ghost appeared, also a zebra, but this one was different. It wasn't a Shadow... It was the real ghost of a zebra! And as soon as he appeared, the beds started floating around him as he remained in a sitting position in the air, his back legs crossed and his eyes closed.

"Ah... will tell ya later. A real zebra ghost just appeared, and he seems to mean business."

«A zebra? Wow! I only encountered one zebra ghost before! They are rare in Equestria!»

"Zebras are superior," the zebra suddenly said calmly, eyes still closed. "Everything else is inferior."

"Oh. We've an idiot who thinks zebras are the best."

«Oh! I know this one! One minute!»

The zebra started throwing the beds at Apple Bloom, and the filly started running around him, searching for an opening to approach and activate the Poltergust. But the zebra was fast. As soon as he had thrown a bed and it missed, he brought it back to him immediately, so he was never missing ammunitions.

«There! His name was, or is, Zalor! A few dozens years ago, he was the leader of a group of zebras who were preaching the superiority of their race. At first, nopony took them seriously, but then they started murdering non-zebras, and Zalor eventually destroyed a bridge, causing a train and all its passengers to fall to their death. The zebras captured him, and he was executed along with all his followers.»

Apple Bloom frowned. "Then Ah'll show him how much he is inferior to EVERY creatures in this world!"

She stopped running around him and decided to wait for him to throw one of the beds at her. When he did, she jumped on the bed and bounced from it toward the striped ghost, readying and activating the Poltergust, catching him in the vortex. Of course, Zalor started escaping, and in his panic, threw the beds at her with a very bad accuracy, giving her enough space to easily avoid them. However, one of the beds cut through the vortex, and Zalor escaped, disappearing. He reappeared back in the center of the room, and the beds started to float again around him. Having enough, Apple Bloom turned the Poltergust to red before activating it toward the zebra. She actually caught one of the beds in the vortex, and improvising, she slammed the bed against Zalor, stunning him and making him drop the other beds. She used this occasion to capture him, and this time, he didn't escape. As soon as he was gone, she put the Poltergust back to yellow.

"Got him."

«Good job! At this pace, you will have caught every criminals in Equestria's history before the end of the night!» Smart Spirit said with a laugh.

Apple Bloom looked down to spot the key and took it before exiting the room. Back in Crystal Ball's room, she quickly took care of the zebra and two griffons attacking her there before she went to the exit. Raising her ears, she couldn't hear anything at the other side of the door, so she slowly opened it and could see nopony in the hallway. Entering it, she moved slowly, and when she reached the fork, she looked at the right hallway while remaining behind the wall, and spotted Scootaloo and Fluttershy turning to the left toward the washroom and bathroom. Deciding not to go this way for now, she continued forward, passing beside the door to the foyer, before she went to the closed door at the very end. The luck was with her this time, because it turned out that the key opened this one. The doors to the foyer suddenly opened behind her, and quickly, she entered the new room before slowly closing the door, hoping that nopony saw it close.

Then, behind her, a pegasus, a griffon, and a hippogriff appeared, and she quickly forced them to shut up before they could make too much sounds, using a cabinet as support to avoid being dragged too much. A few seconds was all it took for silence to return in the room and for a key to appear. She quickly returned to the door to listen if anypony was approaching.

She didn't hear anything, thank goodness!

She focused back to the key on the floor of what she discovered was a laundry room, with a basket of clothes and a basin like usually used to wash clothes in, actually empty, among other things. She took the key, and went to the door in the wall at her left, the key opening it.

She entered a room which was clearly a chamber, with a bed and all, but had also some items like a glass smoother on a board, a bucket, and also a place to sew. However, most of the room was blackened and full of ashes, and Apple Bloom didn't take long to find the reason, immediately spotting the burning ghost sitting on a stool near the bed. She couldn't see much through the fire, but judging by all the items in the room, and the clothes she could see on the board with the glass smoother, this pony was Clean Order, the butler, the gray stallion who had a portrait in the parlor, and also in the ballroom.

Did he burn alive until nothing remained of him but ashes? At this point, she couldn't decide anymore who had the most horrible death.

As soon as he spotted her, the butler on fire floated toward Apple Bloom, forehoofs raised, ready to give her the same fate that he got. On fire or not, he was still a ghost, and so vulnerable to the Poltergust. However...

"Prof, please, tell me the Poltergust can catch a ghost on fire without burning or overheating."

«Don't worry. It can perfectly catch the ghost of somepony who died burning and is burning as a result.»

She didn't need more and activated the Poltergust. However, the butler didn't let himself get caught that easily and immediately started firing dozens of fireballs at her as he was flying away to escape her. She was quickly forced to give up and run away from the fire, and as soon as the butler was able to escape, he turned around to face her and throw his fireballs with more efficiency. When Apple Bloom tried to approach him, Clean Order started spinning, sending some kind of fiery shockwave all around him which forced her back. So instead, she took the bucket and threw it at him, and did the same thing with one of the stools, the glass smoother, and the board, before she went to a table and bucked it at him. All of those objects thrown at him eventually stunned the butler, especially the table, and Apple Bloom quickly put the Poltergust to red again before pushing the button, quickly catching Clean Order.

"There goes the butler."

«Alright, I'm removing him from the list.»

"But now, Ah think there's another secret room beside this one."

«Room too small for all the space it should take?»

"Eeyup."

Apple Bloom started checking the wall at the left of the door until she found behind a portrait of Emerald a little key hole. Understanding, she started searching the room for a key, other than the one that appeared after the capture of the ghost, and eventually found it among the ashes. Probably Clean Order had it on him when he burned. Apple Bloom shivered, thinking that those ashes she just touched were once a pony. She put the key in the hole and opened a door hidden in the wall, entering a... Woah...

A room entirely made of gold, with no less than seven treasure chests, and many gems of all kinds a little everywhere!

"Uh..... Woah.... Uh.... Prof? Ah think ya'll need a second chest... And maybe a third..."

«You found that much?!»

"Maybe even more..."

Suddenly, a swarm of parasprites appeared along with two earth ponies, two pegasi, and two unicorns, all armed with spears. Apple Bloom immediately ran to the first unicorn, this one beside one of the earth ponies, and quickly captured the both of them while jumping above a chest to avoid the charges from the pegasi. Meanwhile, the swarm of parasprites also started charging at her, sharp fangs ready to leave nothing of her body, not even bones. With the unicorn and earth pony captured, she immediately turned to the parasprites, put the Poltergust to red, and activated it while still running to not be impaled by the spears of the other ghosts. The whole swarm, dozens of parasprites, was swallowed by the Poltergust in just a few seconds, and as soon as the last bug disappeared, she turned the vacuum back to yellow before turning to the two pegasi charging at her again. The two of them were caught a few seconds later, leaving an unicorn and an earth pony who didn't last long against the filly.

No key appeared. Obviously, Little Ghost didn't intend for Apple Bloom to find this room.

But now, she had seven chests to open and to empty into her purse! And she must not forget the gems!

She opened the first chest, and she was greeted with thousands of coins! Each of those old bits worth one hundred actual bits! IT WAS MORE MONEY THAT SHE COULD HOPE TO MAKE IN HER LIFE WITH THE FARM! AND IT WAS JUST ONE CHEST! She could almost faint right now!

"Prof... Prepare to become millionaire..." She looked at the other chests, some of them bigger than the one she just opened, and the gems. "Maybe even a billionaire..."

She heard Smart Spirit fall on the floor.

She started placing the gold coins in the purse before she got an idea. She opened the Poltergust, took out the crystal, and placed the purse in its place, opened toward the hole from which the ghosts usually came. Then, she started sucking up the coins with the machine, rapidly emptying the chest, and she could hear the old stallion shocking through the communicator. Before long, all seven chests were empty, and Apple Bloom replaced the crystal in its place before she started placing the gems in the purse until nothing remained.

"Done! The room's empty! So, prof, ya'll be able to find some place for all this?"

«I... may need to go to Ponyville to place all this gold somewhere.»

"Ya can go to our clubhouse, in Sweet Apple Acre's orchard. Ya can find it easily, it's a small house on a tree."

«You don't mind if...»

She giggles. "Go on. Ah can survive by mahself for a time."

«I will remain in contact.»

Apple Bloom left the room, then traversed Clean Order's chamber and the laundry before slowly opening the door to the hallway.

Fluttershy spotted her.

"She is here!" She shouted happily.

"Horseapple!"

She quickly closed the door, turned around, and went to the basin. She turned it upside down, then went under it to hide, hoping that the others won't find an upside down basin weird. She heard the door opening, and they entered the room.

"Where is she?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"She probably went to that room!" Pinkie Pie shouted excitedly.

"Come on Apple Bloom, where are ya?" Applejack called.

"Apple Bloom?" Spike called as they opened the door to the room of the butler.

"Apple Bloom?"

"Apple Blooooom!"

"Come join us!"

She heard everypony entering the room, and when she heard the last hoofsteps leave, she poked her head out from under the basin

"Hey! There's another room!" Pinkie shouted.

"Woah! This one is made of gold!" Rainbow Dash shouted.

"Apple Bloom, you're in there?" Scootaloo asked.

Slowly, she left from under the basin and went to the exit of the room, looking toward the butler's room just in case somepony suddenly turned around and spotted her, because they hadn't closed the door. She was able to exit the laundry and started running.

Then Pinkie Pie came out of one of the closets. "Hey! No running in the hall-!" Bonk!

Like the previous time, she was quickly knocked out by Apple Bloom's bat. "Sorry again, Pinkie."

With fewer doors to check out, it didn't take long for Apple Bloom to find out that the key opened the one from which she could hear somepony playing a piano, and she entered a room full of old musical instruments of all kinds. Toward the end of the room, she spotted an orange unicorn mare with a black mane playing a piano.

A piano full of blood. And no other trace of the mare's corpse around.

"Prof, Ah found Opal Note," she informed.

«Ok.»

She approached Opal Note until the mare spotted her from the corner of her vision. She immediately turned to her, before jumping and disappearing in the piano.

"Oh... Ah don't like it..."

The piano started shaking, and after a few seconds, it started bouncing toward the filly, its lid opening and closing with fangs appearing while making a deafening cacophony.

Apple Bloom's eyes went wide before she screamed, "Nope! Ah'm outta there!"

She ran back to the door, only for it to open, and for everypony else to enter.

"We finally found... ya?" Applejack said before she spotted the piano.

Half of everypony ran away, only Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Pinkie remaining with Apple Bloom. Suddenly, the piano was covered in Twilight's magic, and the lavender mare threw it as violently as she could at the other side of the room before slamming it repeatedly against the walls, the floor, and the ceiling until it was in pieces and Opal Note's ghost got out.

"Uh... Thanks Twilight, Ah'm taking over from here."

Apple Bloom quickly ran to the confused ghost of the mare and was easily able to capture her, a key dropping beside her. She took it and turned around, only to see the four mares just in front of her, smiling.

"Now you can join us," The four of them said at the same time.

"Mmh... Nope!"

Putting the Poltergust to red, she trapped Rainbow Dash in a vortex, and quickly slammed her against the other mares, only Pinkie dodging her before grabbing Apple Bloom.

"Got yo-" Bonk!

Apple Bloom used her bat to knock out the pink mare (again), and immediately ran to the exit, only to see the rest of the gang entering the room.

"Is the scary piano gone?" Fluttershy asked.

"Rarity! There's a mouse at yer hooves!" Apple Bloom shouted.

"IIIIHH!!!" Rarity and Sweetie Belle both jumped into Fluttershy's front legs, the poor yellow mare muttering an "Oh dear..." before collapsing under their weight right on Scootaloo and Spike.

"Sorry, everypony!" Apple Bloom shouted as she exited the room before closing the door. She then quickly did like with the door to the ballroom and put a drawer table in front of it, then a chest, then a crate, then another chest, and finally a small closet before breathing in relief. She could thank Little Ghost for filling those hallways with obstacles to use.

She went to the still locked door beside the washroom, and the key opened it, letting Apple Bloom entering a room with a pool table, a chess set, and some other games. Slowly circling the table was a cyan unicorn stallion with a darker blue mane: Lapis Lazuli. Beside the table was his corpse, impaled by a sharp cue stick.

Apple Bloom was then suddenly levitated on the table, among the balls, and the stallion was about to hit her with the stick as if she was a ball. Without losing time she took the Poltergust back to yellow and trapped him in a vortex. As the stallion started escaping she was dragged on the table, and either by bad luck or by the stallion's intelligence, she was dragged back toward the balls, and she found herself sliding on them. Growling, Apple Bloom quickly kicked a ball at the ghost's back of the head, stunning him a little long enough for the filly to finish him.

Three unicorn ghosts then appeared and levitated some darts from a box before throwing them at the filly. She jumped from the table and went under it, forcing the ghosts to approach. She punished their stupidity by trapping the three of them in the vacuum's vortex before capturing them one by one, the last one causing a key to drop beside her.

She used it to open a door at the left of the entrance, and entered a simple room with a table, two armchairs, and a shelf full of books. A swarm of parasprites immediately appeared, followed quickly by a fat pony with the bananas and a diamond dog. She went first against the parasprites before they tried to devour her, then went for the fat pony as it was starting to put peels everywhere. As she captured the fat ghost while avoiding the diamond dog, a hippogriff appeared with a donkey, the donkey using the lightning element.

She saw the donkey prepare to fire a lightning bolt, and as the fat pony was finally disappearing inside the pipe of the Poltergust, she kicked the table over, using it as a shield. Once the donkey fired the lightning bolt and missed her, she jumped over the table, avoiding the diamond dog's claw, and started sucking up the donkey while a cockatrice appeared. Upon recognizing the animal ghost, Apple Bloom quickly turned away her eyes to not get turned into stone, finished the donkey, and turned the handle toward the half-chicken half-snake animal, catching it, and the diamond dog, in the vortex. To make sure that the cockatrice wouldn't turn her into stone while she was dragged, Apple Bloom closed her eyes, which, however, opened her to the hippogriff who clawed her. But she didn't let go of the button, and she eventually felt something enter the Poltergust. Cautiously opening an eye, she saw that she was still capturing the diamond dog, meaning that the cockatrice was gone. She then saw the hippogriff come back, this time to buck her with two hooves forming from its ghost tail, and she violently pulled on the handle, causing the diamond dog to slam on the hippogriff. She then released the button and pressed it again, trapping the two of them in the vortex, and capturing them.

Then, a chimera appeared, dropping on the table and destroying it before roaring.

«Woah! What was that?!»

"A bucking chimera!"

The chimera bounced toward Apple Bloom, and the filly quickly jumped back to avoid being clawed. Immediately, she activated the Poltergust on the chimera, and while the beast was pushed a little by the vortex, it was able to resist! But Apple Bloom didn't release the button, and decided to run to the left, only to be almost bitten by the tiger head. When she tried to go to the right, the goat head charged at her, horns first, and she rolled out of the way, letting the beast pass her. Apple Bloom was now behind it, facing the snake tail who started thrusting itself at her to bite her. She dodged the biting attempts with some small jumps before putting the end of the Poltergust right in front of its path. The snake's head ended stuck inside it, and it started struggling to get out, moving left and right, dragging the filly who wouldn't let go. The chimera started spinning to catch her with its tiger paws, but it couldn't reach her as she was flying with the tail, until the beast just decided to use its tail to slam her on the floor, which successfully made her release it.

Groaning in pain for a moment, she opened her eyes to see the chimera bouncing at her again, and she quickly put the end of the Poltergust in its way, turned it to red, and activated it. Since the chimera was bouncing right at her, it couldn't escape the vortex and jumped right in the hole. It put its paws on the floor as its tiger head ended stuck in it, resisting as best as it could, the goat head even trying to reach the filly with its horns, until the machine took the upper hand and the ghost was captured. The key appeared.

Apple Bloom remained on the floor for a couple of minutes, taking big breaths, before she got up and took the key.

"Ah... Ah captured the chimera..."

«Wowie! I must say, you are getting all my respect! The best I was able to catch in my time was the ghost of a chimera, so I know how much of a pain they can be! But you seem exhausted. Maybe you should get out of the manor for a time to rest. I'm coming back from Ponyville.»

"No, it's... It's okay. Ah just need to catch mah breath. And Ah feel Ah'm close to Bogmire."

She heard him sigh. «The instant you capture Bogmire, you come back, ok? But if you feel that you are getting too tired, don't hesitate to get out of there to rest a little. Don't be stubborn at the risk of your life. I know how much you Apples are a stubborn bunch.»

Apple Bloom laughed.

She exited the room, and as she traversed the room with the billiard and all, she had to fight a manticore with a group of four griffons. She didn't need to fight them, but she told herself that a ghost caught now was a ghost that wouldn't bother her anymore. So she activated the Poltergust and caught the manticore and one of the griffon in its vortex. By the time the other griffons reached her to attack, she had captured the first one, but the manticore was able to resist. So she let it go and targeted the three remaining griffons, quickly capturing the three of them before she finished the manticore as it was bouncing at her.

With all the ghosts captured, she exited the room and traversed the hallway, noting that Applejack and her friends were still trying to escape their prison, and went to the only door still locked in it without counting the ones at the extremities: the one from which she could hear somepony eating.

She entered the room and spotted a huge white unicorn stallion stuffing himself with a real buffet made of all kinds of food, even... Even meat! Much to Apple Bloom's disgust, there was meat on this table, and the ghost had no problems eating it in his eternal gluttony! Beside the ghost, Pearl, she could see his body on the floor, absolutely stuffed with vomit beside his mouth.

Pearl spotted her, and waved at her to come, and before Apple Bloom knew it, she was sitting on one of the chairs around the table, stuffing herself (but not touching the meat).

Consarn it! It's like with the dancers! I must resist! But, at least, the food is good.

With difficulty, not helped by her stomach starting to hurt, she stopped her front hooves from reaching to the food and took the handle of the Poltergust. She caught Pearl in its vortex, and the very obese stallion started to fly around to escape. Because of his weight, she could only let herself being dragged, most of the time on the table where she got all the food on her face. By the time Pearl was captured, she was covered from head to tail in food, and the room became a mess, with plates and candlelights knocked over on the floor and some of the chairs on their side.

Not minding how messy she was now, and thankful that she was used to heavy meals with her family, Apple Bloom took the key that appeared and opened the door at the opposite side of the room, entering a kitchen. Again, a kitchen without any of the modern technology, like a wood stove instead of an oven.

In this room were two real ghosts, the two of them clearly cooks. However, one of them was... weird. It was a badly burned chubby pegasus stallion holding a very big knife and wearing a bloody uniform... And he had a very crazy look as he smiled down at a living mouse he was keeping down. A smile with teeth looking like fangs. The stallion raised his giant knife, then brought it down on the poor mouse. Not being able to control herself, Apple Bloom barely held back the content of her stomach with a gulp. But this small sound was enough for the ghost to hear her, and he turned his head to look at her, showing his sharp teeth as he smiled happily.

"Aah! Fresh pony meat!"

The other ghost, looking more like a normal cook, turned to her and raised a knife.

Horrified, Apple Bloom spoke, "Prof! There's a weird ghost cook pony with fangs that wants to eat me!"

«Oh Celestia... I can think of only one pony that would eat other ponies and sharpened his teeth into fangs.» said Smart Spirit before he gulped. «Sharp Knife, also called the Bloody Cook, or the Cook of Tartarus, a monster who lived over eight hundred years ago. He... survived in the wild by learning to eat meat when he was a colt. One day, he opened a restaurant for griffons and other carnivores and omnivores in Canterlot, but in the following weeks, several disappearances of ponies were reported... You can guess where they disappeared. When he was discovered, he disappeared in the alleys of Canterlot, and the guards searched him for months as he continued hunting everything that could be eaten. During that time, he sharpened his teeth into fangs to have fewer problems eating. Celestia herself was the one who found him, hidden in a basement of a house in which he had killed all its occupants, and she was so angry that she turned him into ashes right on the spot. He... particularly loved plump fillies.»

Apple Bloom looked at her very stuffed, round belly, then saw the ghost licking his lips, and said, "Horseapple..."

Sharp Knife threw his knife at her, and with an "Eep!", Apple Bloom closed the door, the knife passing partially through it. The stallion took the knife and used it to open a bigger hole in the door before he looked through it.

"Here comes the Cookie!"

Apple Bloom went to a chair, turned the Poltergust to red again, and caught it in the vortex before throwing it at the door, to the stallion's surprise. The chair broke the door from its hinges and took away the crazy cook with it. She quickly ran back to the kitchen to deal with him while he was stunned, but the other cook then came and tried to cut her with his knife. Apple Bloom had no other choice but to target him first, making sure to turn the Poltergust back to yellow, and before long, the first cook was captured. But as she was busy with the cook, Sharp Knife recovered and started levitating more knives around him. He started throwing them at the filly as she ran out of the kitchen to escape. The stallion chased her, now holding... A CHAINSAW?!

Apple Bloom threw another chair at him, but the cook maniacally laughed as he cut it in half with the chainsaw before charging at the filly. She quickly ran to the next chair and used it as a shield, and while the mad cook was cutting it, she activated the Poltergust. But as she was capturing the stallion, the ghost of a fat pony appeared, ate a banana, and threw the peel in her path. She slipped on it, and the cook escaped.

"Seriously?!"

She got her revenge on the fat pony, but the cook came back with his chainsaw, cutting the table in two to reach her. She ran back to the kitchen, took a pan, and threw it at Sharp Knife, hitting his face with it. At this moment, three water pegasi appeared and started bombarding her with water from all directions, and an ice griffon got out of the icebox, preparing to throw ice. Too bad for it, it appeared just beside Sharp Knife. Apple Bloom, not paying attention to the water despite her mane now drooping in front of her eyes (at least, it got rid of the majority of the food still on her body), activated the Poltergust and caught the two ghosts in her vortex, and this time, successfully captured Sharp Knife along with the griffon. The three water pegasi followed just after.

Apple Bloom shook her body like a dog to get rid of most of the water, put back her mane correctly, and took the newly appeared key.

"Ah think Ah'm gonna have nightmares for a few nights..."

«It's only now that you think you will have nightmares? Any filly your age would have started thinking this when facing Diamond Cup's pony-eating books.»

Apple Bloom slowly laughed at this. The prof was right. Since she started exploring this manor, she got in at least ten... or twenty situations that will certainly cause her some nightmares.

She opened the door at the end of the kitchen, beside the wooden stove, and it led her out of the manor. She immediately recognized it as the lawn she saw from the balcony just above, and she quickly spotted the dog, a bulldog, eating some meat.

The meat from the leg of a pony. And its dog bowl was full of body parts of ponies. Again, Apple Bloom had to use all her strength to resist puking. She recognized some of the parts as belonging to the two maids and the cook she captured.

So it's where the bodies of the servants ended? Sharp Knife is probably the one responsible, as well as for the meat Pearl was eating. That stallion was horrible.

However, she couldn't find the body of the dog, but frankly, she wouldn't be surprised to learn that it was eaten by the ghost of the dog. It seemed to be ravenous.

At the other side of the lawn was a portal, and at its other side, she could spot the graveyard, her destination. But first, she had to deal with the guard dog which, by now, probably had a taste for pony meat.

So she approached it, Poltergust ready. The dog spotted her and stopped eating before it charged at her, growling and fangs ready to tear her apart. And gosh! This dog was bigger than her! She quickly turned on the Poltergust and caught the dog in the vortex. Thankfully, nothing came to stop her, and the dog wasn't as heavy as Pearl or as strong as the chimera, so it was quickly captured.

Soon the portal to the graveyard slowly opened with a rusty sound.

She gulped. "That's it, prof. Ah'm about to fight Bogmire. Don't be surprised if Ah disappear, like in Little Ghost's chamber."

«Understood. Good luck.»

She entered the graveyard looking everywhere to spot her target. She focused a little in worry at the graves, not wanting to approach them. There was a total of eleven of them, one of them on top of some stairs at the rear.

Then, from nowhere, lightning struck the first ten graves one after another, surprising Apple Bloom so much that she fell on her butt. A few seconds after the last grave was hit, boned hooves started to come out of the ground in front of them, and before long, ten skeletons with more or less flesh on them were rising from their graves, their eyesockets glowing with a purple light not of this world.

Apple Bloom immediately ran back inside the manor, returning to the kitchen. Quickly, as she was panicking, she looked on the floor and spotted Sharp Knife's chainsaw. She took it, turned it on, and returned outside as the skeletons were reaching the door. Striking the skeletons one after another with the chainsaw, she cut them, then cut them again, and again, and again, until all that remained of them were piles of pieces of bones. When she made sure that they could never get back up, she dropped the chainsaw and took some big breaths to calm herself. Just in case, she crushed their skulls one by one.

After a whole minute, she started advancing again, slowly moving toward the last grave at the top of the stairs. When she was close enough, lightning struck it, and Bogmire appeared. It was exactly like Smart Spirit drew it: a purple... thing. It was tall, with two arms, two yellow, glowing eyes, and one big mouth, with... She was not sure what they were. They looked like fangs, but they looked more like extensions of its mouth as if it was melting, like the arms. And contrary to the totality of the ghosts she encountered until now, it didn't possess a ghost tail. Instead, it was... moving on the floor like a slime. It was looking like nothing she knew. It was as if it wasn't from this world, which may be the case.

"Prepare to learn... true fear... and true despair..."

Darkness came out of him, and soon, the graveyard was plunged in it. Apple Bloom, while terrified, remained alert, just in case the ghost attacked her in the dark. When she could see again, she was in a large circular arena surrounded by a fence; itself surrounded in pure darkness, with purple smoke floating and occasionally taking Bogmire's shape, and Bogmire itself was nowhere to be seen. Then, lightning struck at the opposite side of the arena and Bogmire appeared, and its shadow stretched before it came out of the ground, forming a giant shadowy duplicate of itself. The light of the arena then slowly decreased, to the point that all Apple Bloom could see was the glowing eyes of Bogmire and its clone.

Bogmire's eyes disappeared.

Apple Bloom decided to deal with the clone and activated the Poltergust on it. She could feel the clone struggle a little before she felt it being captured. By the time she dealt with the clone, Bogmire reappeared and created another clone, this one its size. Because of this, in the dark, she couldn't identify who was the real Bogmire. When she saw one of the pair of eyes disappear again, she immediately ran to the other and captured the clone while keeping an eye this time to spot where Bogmire will reappear.

She saw two eyes reappear not far, and soon, another pair appeared further, these clearly belonging to a clone a little bigger, unless Bogmire could change its size, and as soon as she had finished capturing the current clone, she ran to the first pair before they could disappear. When she turned the Poltergust on, she trapped the real Bogmire in the vortex. The arena lightened, and she could see the clone starting to chase her. She was so focused on the closer one; she didn't spot the lightning coming from nowhere, and she was struck by it, making her release the purple ghost. Thankfully, this lightning didn't seem that powerful, so she was just a little burned and shocked.

More lightning bolts struck the arena seemingly at random as it was darkening, each of them creating a clone of different size, some of them the size of Bogmire, some of them bigger, and some of them smaller (even reaching her size). When the arena became too dark again, she could see at least a dozen pair of eyes slowly coming at her. She quickly turned the Poltergust to red and sucked all of them. Then, a lightning bolt struck again, but no clone appeared. Instead, two familiar purple glow appeared. A skeleton! She took her bat and struck it on the head with all her strength! More skeletons appeared, some of them the size of a foal, and all of them quickly got struck by Apple Bloom's bat.

But then, the arena lightened again, and Apple Bloom saw that those were not skeletons, but... Applejack, and the others.

And now, they were all dead.

"No... Nononono... This can't be..."

She could see their ghosts rising from their bodies, and they all turned to her, angry, hateful, hurt... Bogmire appeared behind them, laughing darkly.

"Oh, you killed them. Didn't you come to save them?"

"N... Bu... H... Th... Ah..."

"But now, maybe you will get the idea to save them from me? To free them?"

Suddenly, all the ghosts are enveloped in a purple fire, and Apple Bloom could hear them screaming in pain.

"Stop it!"

The purple fire disappeared, and nothing remained of the ghosts.

"Now, they will wander the spiritual world for all eternity, and you will never be able to save them."

Then nine shadows stretched from Bogmire toward the corpses, and they started to rise, their body blackening, twisting in weird angles, their eyes becoming pure glowing white, inexpressive... The hooves of the ponies became claws, black, fanged mouths appeared on their face, the horns of the unicorns became sharp, the wings of the pegasi became bat-like, and for Spike, everything simply became sharper, from his fangs to his claws, his spikes, and his tail.

The arena darkened again, only their eyes remaining visible, slowly approaching, circling her.

Their distorted voices were starting to whisper...

"You killed us..."

"Now it's our turn..."

"It's what you deserve..."

"Murderer..."

"You failed us..."

"You must suffer..."

"Like we suffered..."

At each whisper, Apple Bloom curled more and more into a ball, shaking, crying, alone, scared, despaired... Dark claws were slowly coming at her.

"Hey!" She suddenly heard from the darkness. "Don't listen to them, you silly filly! Our friends are still alive! They are still in this room you trapped them in! Hey! Everypony! Say something!"

"Howdy little sis! Ah can confirm it! We're still as alive as the day we were born!"

"Yeah! But... Why must we say we are still alive?"

"I think some meanie ghosty tricked her into thinking that we died."

"Well, don't listen to him! We aren't dead!"

"I couldn't die so young!"

"And you still have to join us!"

"Yes! Join us!"

"Join us!"

"Join us!"

Apple Bloom stopped listening as she was raising her eyes from behind her hooves, looking at Bogmire's eyes in rage. Not minding the approaching shadows, she took the Poltergust and charged through them toward the purple ghost, whose eyes widened in surprise. Because of its shock, it didn't teleport in time to avoid being caught in the vortex of the machine, and it found itself struggling to escape as the arena was lightening.

The shadows ran back to save their master, and Apple Bloom was forced to give up on Bogmire for now to deal with them. The shadows revealed to be as easy to catch as the clones. Suddenly, Bogmire appeared beside her and, with a wave of its arms, animated Apple Bloom's bow into strangling her, causing the flashlight to drop. Despite the bow strangling her, Apple Bloom didn't try to struggle to get rid of it, and simply turned the end of the Poltergust toward Bogmire before pressing the button. As soon as Bogmire was caught in the vortex, the bow stopped strangling her and fell. Bogmire started raining lightning bolts to save itself, but the filly moved left and right, dodging all of them.

Finally, Bogmire lost its strength, and the Poltergust started sucking it up.

"How... How could I lose...?! Again?! And to a filly!" it shouted in rage before disappearing in the hole.

"Because Ah wasn't alone."

The arena was plunged in light, and Apple Bloom was transported back to the graveyard with her bow and her flashlight, a key now at her hooves. She sat on her butt, tears threatening to fall from her eyes, body heavily shaking.

"P... P... Prof?"

«Apple Bloom? Oh, thank Celestia you are alright! Does this mean...?»

"Yeah... Yeah... Ah captured Bogmire."

«Your voice is shaking...»

"It... was a tiring fight... Very tiring... Ah think... Ah think Ah need some rest... Really..."

«Understood. I will be waiting for you.»

---

Returning to the lab wasn't hard, thankfully. Only a few 'small' Shadows tried to stop her: five ponies, two griffons, a zebra, and a cockatrice, as well as some mice, bats, and even a rabbit in the lawn area. Apparently, Applejack and the others hadn't escaped yet.

Back in the lab, after a hug and a glass of hot cocoa, Apple Bloom recounted her fight against Bogmire while Smart Spirit put the ghosts in the green and red crystals.

"I suppose we can thank Little Ghost."

"Yeah. Ah owe her one."

"But even if you were helped, capturing Bogmire is still a great exploit. You did what very few could have done."

"And now, Ah'll have to return, because there's more to do."

"But first, after such a fight, you really need some rest." He pointed at his bed, an old mattress. "You should go sleep a little, I will wake you up in an hour."

Apple Bloom nodded. "Yeah... Thank ya..."

"And remember, your friends are alright. You will save them."

Again, Apple Bloom nodded as she went on the mattress, and immediately fell asleep.

Author's Note:

I have a question for anyone knowing about it: were pipe rooms existing before? I understand that in some civilizations, plumbering existed, but I don't know if it means that there were pipe rooms.

Comments

[Golden Flare]

9874973 I was thinking that when this story came out! Weird, huh?

[phantom ghost hunter]

WOW that was intense but I can't wait to see what you use to replace boolosis on the balcony.

[emeraldhuskydragon0]

The piano started shaking, and after a fiew seconds, it started bouncing toward the filly, its lid opening and closing with fangs appearing while making a deafening cacophony.

*super Mario 64 intensifies*

[Lucar]

9876365
Ohohohoh! This will be a big fight!

9876372
That's exactly the inspiration!

[The Kelduo]

Before she could breath, she was attacked by a pegasus coming out of the toilet bowl and throwing a ball of water at her face, taking her by surprise, which caused some of the water to enter her nostril.

I think you mean 'nostrils.' With the singular form of the noun, you're implying that she has only one nostril, or that one of her nostrils is clogged. Also, in my opinion, water up the nose has got to be one of the worst nightmares for swimmers, besides drowning and sharks. I learned that the hard way once due to a swimming pool blunder...

The stallion chased her, now holding... A CHAINSAW?!

" Here comes the Cookie! "

A stereotypical serial killer like from horror movies? And as a ghost? That's enough to cause ten nightmares!

Apple Bloom stopped listening as she was rising her eyes from behind her hooves, looking at Bogmire's eyes in rage.

If this was a Dragon Ball episode, then at this point Apple Bloom would have taken on her, uh... What's the most powerful, most furious Super Saiyan form in the series?

He was born from a young love when Emerald was just 17 years old. Because of this, he could be considered as the rightful heir of the Gem family, and it's his younger brother, Diamong Cup, who got everything.

Any filly your age would have started thinking this when facing Diamong Cup's pony-eating books.

I found those typos (Diamong instead of Diamond).

[Lucar]

9876490

I think you mean 'nostrils.' With the singular form of the noun, you're implying that she has only one nostril, or that one of her nostrils is clogged. Also, in my opinion, water up the nose has got to be one of the worst nightmares for swimmers, besides drowning and sharks. I learned that the hard way once due to a swimming pool blunder...

Corrected. I didn't see I forgot the s. Thanks. And yeah, it's horrible...

A stereotypical serial killer like from horror movies? And as a ghost? That's enough to cause ten nightmares!

This guy was a joy to write.

If this was a Dragon Ball episode, then at this point Apple Bloom would have taken on her, uh... What's the most powerful, most furious Super Saiyan form in the series?

Well, let's see... There's the SSJ, the buffed version that Trunk had, the SSJ2, the SSJ3, if we accept Dragon Ball GT, the SSJ4, then the SSGod, the SSBlue, the SSPink, whatever is called the evolved SSBlue Vegeta used in the Tournament of Power, and the SSJ version Broly/Legendary Super Saiyan. So I would say this last one.

I found those typos (Diamong instead of Diamond).

Corrected.

[The Kelduo]

9876393
Do you think that piano was inspiration for the possessed piano fight in Wild World (the Hypernova level with the King Fuwa Rover; I speak of the boss ghost) of Kirby Triple Deluxe?

[Lucar]

9876556
There was also a little of that in mind. This piano is like the one in Super Mario 64, but possessed like in Kirby Triple Deluxe. But mainly, I had Super Mario 64 in mind when I wrote this.

[Spellflame]

9876393
Hey can you do a Chimera with the Lionhead fire the goat head ice and the snake head lighting

[Lucar]

9876583
I will think about this. I was thinking of doing another chimera fight in act 4.

[Spellflame]

9876595
Thanks, it is something I think would be awesome!

[The Kelduo]

9876564
I think you misunderstood what I said. Do you think that the piano boss fight in Triple Deluxe was inspired by the piano in Super Mario 64?

[Lucar]

9876686
Ah yes, well, probably. I'm not 100% sure, but almost certainly.

[phantom ghost hunter]

9870547
How about a draconequus of the ghost world I mean discord is the draconequus of chaos so what do you think?

[Lucar]

9877711
Ouch. I don't think Apple Bloom would be ready to face such a powerful opponent. If a ghost draconequus had to appear, then it would be in a sequel, when Apple Bloom will have more experience dealing with powerful ghosts.

[phantom ghost hunter]

9877719
Oh Well how about a three headed dog or a hydra or even a roc hey I know a centaur minus magic draining.

[Lucar]

9877749
I was thinking about those, but seeing their size, they wouldn't appear before the roof, and again, I had a special project for the hydra ghost.

[Herald of Opera]

So, instead of Melody Pianissimo's canon fight, her counterpart turns into something from a completely different Mario game? Sounds legit.

[Lucar]

10293014
I absolutely wanted to put that piano somewhere, and that moment was the perfet occasion. Also, in this story, I had that small guilty pleasure of putting Apple Bloom against nightmarish things, and what was more nightmarish than that piano?

[Slamp5000XL-3-0]

Vaya, el trauma que se meterá Apple Bloom cuando termine con todo esto.