Third Mansion: Old Clockworks
The ponies were now on their way to the Old Clockworks, the clockwork factory in the desert part of the valley. Apparently, the prof did some great explorations of this factory, because the ponies found some paper with drawings and descriptions of various things about the building.
Apparently, the place was the oldest building of the valley, and had been abandoned after a terrible accident where ponies got crushed between gears, and... traces could still be found of it. The factory was built on old ruins that the prof hadn't explored yet, but he found a secret passage leading to it and did a drawing of some compass that was the key before explaining that the secret passage was in the court. The prof wasn't sure why ponies built the factory on top of ruins, but he suspected that it was to search for anything of value that was in here. The ruins had already been explored by archaeologists in the past, but who knew? Ruins are often full of mysteries, so maybe the archaeologists had missed something. But as a result, the prof wasn't expecting to find anything in there excepted maybe ghosts millennia old.
The main entrance door of the factory also operated with a special mechanism based on clocks. Whoever wanted to pass it had to turn the clock hands and find the right hour to open them. It was a mean to assure that nopony outside of the employees of the factory could enter. Thankfully, Smart Spirit, with a lot of patience, found the right hour and placed a clock with the solution beside the door. A similar door, but bigger, was inside of the factory, and Smart Spirit suspected it to lead to the clock tower, but he hadn't been able to open it before getting foalnapped.
It meant that there were two possible places for Apple Bloom to probably find the key to either the Secret Mine or the Treacherous Mansion: the ruins, or the clock tower. In the previous location, the keys were found in a basement and at the top of a very tall tree, so those places were her best chances. Well, she didn't doubt that she would somehow have to explore the whole building.
Ah, and also, since the building was the oldest of the valley, it was probably very dilapidated. And since it was in a desert, there was probably sand everywhere. Thankfully, the caravan had no problem rolling on the sand.
As the vehicle was climbing the slope around the plateau on which the factory was, the ponies could already see the clock tower, and soon, the rest of the building appeared to them. It was a two-stories building (without counting the tower) build in L, with most of the windows covered with planks, if not downright (half) buried in sand. From the outside, the building seemed in good condition, but there were also some railings that were not in good condition at all, with whole portions missing (forcing the caravan to roll around the crumbled remains as it climbed the slope).
Soon, Applejack stopped in front of one of these barriers that were used to stop carts from entering private property and that could be raised to let pass the ones that were authorized.
"Here ya go, Bloom!" shouted Applejack to be heard.
The filly almost immediately exited the caravan while the mares looked through the windows.
"Wow! It's not as tall as the manor and the towers, but it's very big!" said Rainbow Dash.
"It's a factory. Of course it's big," said Twilight. She looked up at the clock tower. "You know, Apple Bloom, if the key to the next manor is up on this tower, then Rainbow or I could transport you here."
"Ah don't think Pyrite's ally will let me cheat like that," replied the filly. "Well, here Ah go..." she then said before she advanced toward the building, crawling under the barrier to enter the court. The court had many clocks on the ground among debris and... dynamite?!
«Why the heck is there dynamite here?» asked Applejack.
«Maybe it was to do fireworks?» wondered Pinkie.
«No, I think that it was to blow walls of the ruins in the hope of finding secret rooms. As for why they're spread everywhere, the ghosts are probably responsible,» Twilight thought.
"Well. The danger level of this place just climbed from at least ten levels," said Apple Bloom before she approached the entrance of the factory. Like Smart Spirit said in his notes, the door was composed of a giant clock, and Apple bloom knew what to do. She spotted a smaller clock on the ground beside the door that read 3:30, and she started turning a rotor beside the giant clock that caused the hands to turn. Once the hour hand was between the 3 and the 4 and the minute hand was on the 6, she stopped turning it, and the door opened.
And so, she entered the factory, and it was about as bad as she thought. The wooden floor was full of small holes that forced Apple Bloom to watch out to not trip, and there were all sort of objects, from gears to crates passing by spools of ribbon spread chaotically everywhere. There were also many balls of ribbon, some clocks, and even numbers that are put on said clocks. At her left was an elevator with a rotor to turn to make it rise to the second level. In front of her was a door, and on her right was a safe and another door. From what she could see of the second level of this room, it was simply a path hugging the walls to link the elevator, a door at the north, and a door at the east before ending in the center of the room.
No ghost attacked her, so she started exploring by opening the safe, only to find that there was just another ball of ribbon in it. She then tested the doors in the first level and found out that the one beside the safe was closed while the one in front of the entrance was open. She decided that she would explore the second level later and passed the door to enter another two-floor room rather special. It was an open room above a canyon, opening to the left to a pit with a railway, and the room itself was separated into two parts by this pit, a raised wooden bridge the only thing linking the two parts beside some narrow metallic beams in the second level. The part where Apple Bloom was was only a small wooden path leading to a door in the right wall, and the other part at the other side of the pit was bigger, with many crates surrounding a turntable with a track. Behind the turntable was a staircase leading to the second level.
There was no way for Apple Bloom to lower the bridge from this side, so she continued her way to the door and opened it, revealing it to not be locked. However, in the next room that only consisted of a flight of stair leading to a basement, the path was immediately blocked by a pile of debris.
"Darn it!"
«Not this way...» Twilight said.
«But then where?» Rainbow Dash asked.
«Maybe by the second level of the first room?» Fluttershy said.
Right, there were two more doors. So Apple Bloom returned to the entrance room and used the elevator to reach the second level, only to discover that the two doors here were locked.
«Mmh... Maybe there's a key hidden somewhere?» Twilight hesitantly proposed.
"Yeah... Ah only see that," said Apple Bloom with a sigh. "But there're dozens of places where it'd be hidden..."
«Why not try that ball of ribbons you found in the safe?» Pinkie Pie said. «A ball of ribbon in a safe, it's very suspicious, don't you think?»
Apple Bloom stopped moving as she processed it, then facehoofed. "Of course... Thank ya, Pinkie."
«You're welcome!»
At this, Apple Bloom returned to the first level, took the ball of ribbon found in the safe, and unraveled it, discovering a key.
"Finally!"
«Good job, Pinkie!» Applejack congratulated.
The key opened the door beside the safe, entering what seemed to be a workshop with a table with many tools and drill press beside it. Two Greens wearing welding masks were here, having fun with the tools. Thanks to this, they didn't see Apple Bloom coming, and she was able to capture them by surprise. But then, the tools started levitating, and they were thrown at her one after another. Jumping and rolling to avoid them, Apple Bloom activated the DLD and discovered an Orange that she quickly captured.
No other ghost appeared, and she passed by the door at the opposite side of the room, entering another two-floor room. Until now, all the rooms she visited had sand covering more or less partially the ground, but here, no ground could be seen, the sand having almost entirely covered it, coming from broken windows. The main feature of the room was a huge door with many gears and a huge clock that was missing the hands. On the second level, there was just a bridge linking two doors from west to east.
"Ah think Ah found the door to the clock tower."
«But it's missing the clock hands. And the rotor too,» Twilight said.
«Consarn it!» Applejack shouted. «Those ghosts probably took them!»
«But it means that the clock tower is probably your goal,» Twilight said.
"Well. Ah've mah reason to explore the factory now..."
Apple Bloom was about to continue her way toward a door at the opposite side of the room when, suddenly, two sand tornadoes appeared and started to approach her.
Tornadoes don't appear like that in a room, so Apple Bloom quickly guessed that ghosts were at the origin and, while running away from the tornadoes, activated the DLD. She found out that the tornadoes were created by Greens spinning very rapidly on the sand, so she activated the Poltergust toward one of the tornadoes and trapped the Green in it. She then slammed the Green on the other, stopping him from spinning, and the two Greens were rapidly captured. Four more came and tried the same tactic, but Apple Bloom quickly trapped two of them at the same time, leaving her enough space to avoid the other two. But as she captured the two Greens, a fifth one came, but instead of spinning on the sand, it threw a bomb at her. Acting quickly in panic, she kicked the bomb toward the two still spinning Greens, and they were blown away by the explosion. Apple Bloom then captured the three Greens one after another.
«Nice kick!» Rainbow Dash shouted.
«Ah can't believe ya just kicked a bomb,» Applejack said.
"Yeah, me too. Ah acted on reflex."
«The face they made when they saw you kick the bomb: It was priceless!» said Pinkie.
«So, where do you think they took the hands?» Rarity asked.
«Ah've no idea. They could be anywhere. Ah'll just continue to explore.»
So Apple bloom went to the door at the east and opened it, entering a room with a very badly damaged floor, to the point that there was a big hole separating the room in two, as if something had blown up. Seeing the boxes full of sticks of dynamite here and there, it wasn't hard to guess what. There was also a door on the opposite side, but it was blocked by debris.
She traversed the hole and climbed to the other side of the room. Here, she used the Poltergust to reach a rope and bring down a stairwell. She had to jump to reach it, and she climbed it, only for a Pink to appear in front of her at the top and to push her, making her roll down the stairs, to the amusement of a few other ghosts, Greens and Pinks, that appeared.
Apple Bloom groaned and looked up at the Pink who pushed her. "Ya'll so regret this..."
As she got up, the Pinks, three in total, turned invisible to do what they did best while the Greens, only two, went to the boxes of dynamites. They each took a dynamite and used some ghostly power to light the stick before throwing it at her.
"Eep!" She jumped away, avoiding the explosions, but before she could stop the Greens, she had to defend herself against two Pinks about to claw her. She let them drag her away from two more dynamites thrown at her, then slammed them on one of the Greens. Once the two Pinks were captured, she avoided the claws from the third Pink and approached the Green she stunned to trap him before he could restart. However, the second Green threw a dynamite at her. Since she was beside a box of dynamite, she took the risk of grabbing the dynamite and throwing it away. She then trapped the first Green and slammed him on the other, then slammed him on the last Pink who appeared behind her. After the capture of the first Green, she went to the other before finishing with the Pink.
"Ah really hope this won't become a habit. Ah already've enough of bombs."
«With the heavy presence of dynamites in this factory, I fear that you will encounter more of them...» Twilight said.
«Just be careful, Bloom...» said Applejack.
"Ah will."
Apple Bloom climbed the stairs again and passed the door at the top leading back to the room with the big clock door. Before she could traverse the bridge to reach the door at the other side, she had to use the DLD to reveal some parts that had been turned invisible.
After the door, she entered a small room full of paper with a desk, a file cabinet, and some books on them. Two Greens were holding stacks of paper that they threw at her, causing them to fall on her and cover her eyes. Despite their trick, Apple Bloom didn't panic and activated the Poltergust, capturing the two ghosts and also sucking up a lot of paper that she had to get out of the Poltergust once done.
There didn't seem to be anywhere to go from there, but having nowhere else to go, Apple Bloom started searching the room, opening the drawers of the desk and cabinet in search of anything, mostly a key. In the back of a drawer in the desk, she found a button partially hidden behind papers and she pressed it, causing a part of the west wall to retract, revealing a second part of the room smaller with just a desk and a chair beside a door.
The wall was already starting to return in place, so Apple Bloom ran to pass only to be blocked by a Pink appearing on the way. She was then forced to fight four Pinks and a Red, attacking this last one first before he could slam his hands to create a shockwave. She then used him to slam the Pinks as they approached her unseen, and in the end, she captured all of them easily. She then pressed the button again and she entered the second part of the room. She then looked in the desk to find a key as well as the exact same compass that Smart Spirit talked about in his notes.
"Yes! Ah found the compass! Ah'll be able to reach the ruins!"
«Good job, Apple Bloom!» Applejack shouted.
«Maybe the clock hands are in there?» Twilight wondered.
«Ruins would be a really good place to hide them,» Rarity agreed.
Agreeing with them, Apple Bloom used the key to open the door beside the desk, returning to the entrance room. She went to the elevator where she had to turn a rotor to make it rise to her level before using it to return to the first floor. She then exited the factory, returning to the court.
She looked around, searching for anything unusual that would indicate the location of the secret entrance, then looked at the compass to see if there was a clue. That's when she saw that the compass wasn't showing the north, but a direction seemingly random. However, when Apple Bloom moved the compass, the needle was always pointing at the same place, a little to the southeast.
She followed it until seeing a strange object in the sand. She remarked that it had the same shape as the hole in the back of the compass (a four branched star), so she inserted it, and the compass started spinning, somehow causing the sand to move, revealing a big metallic double door. Apple Bloom quickly moved back, just in time because the compass entered a hole in the doors and caused them to open. She then looked down and saw that she would have to jump and let herself slide down some conveyor belt. There would be no way to get back up.
Despite this, she jumped and soon landed in a lift to a small room. After a small groan, she got up and jumped out of the lift before looking around. There was a lot of sand, a bed, a wheelbarrow, some shelves, and a few other stuff, but the more remarkable thing was the door to exit the room: a pulley-operated gate blocked it, and it had to be raised by placing something heavy enough on the lift Apple Bloom fell on.
Some Greens tried to attack her with rocks, a shovel, and a pickaxe, but she quickly dealt with them. She then placed the rocks on the lift and raised the gate, gaining access to the door. After passing it, she followed a path until it was blocked by a big pile of debris, forcing her to take a different path through a wall to her right. This led to the canyon separating the court in two and on which the factory was built.
Two bridges were normally connecting the two sides of the canyon, but they were both destroyed, so to continue, Apple Bloom was forced to cling to and use two zip lines, one to go to the other side, and one to reach the passage leading to the part of the earlier path that was blocked. By the time she reached it, she was shaking.
"T-t-t-this was as s-s-scary as the w-wraiths..."
«Maybe Ah should come. Ya shouldn't be the one pulling such life-risking stunts,» Applejack said.
"T-t-too late," replied Apple Bloom before she took a big breath to calm herself. "Ah did it, so Ah should continue. Hopefully, it'll be the only time."
At this, she continued to follow the path, dealing with some big spiders on the way as well as a Pink following her that she spotted thanks to a mirror. Some Blues also came out of crates to throw spiders at her, of all things. At the end, the path reached a door before continuing to the right toward another door.
«If I made this map right, the door at the right should lead to those stairs that were blocked by a pile of debris,» Twilight said.
"Thanks. Ah'll go see if there's anything," said Apple Bloom before she passed the door.
Twilight was right. The door led back to the staircase. Midway on it, she found a key as well as a box of dynamites with a box of matches on it. She then got an idea. She took a dynamite, took the box of matches, took a match from it, and approached the pile of debris.
«Uuh... Ya should drop that stick. Ya shouldn't play with explosives,» Applejack said.
"Ah'm not playing," replied Apple Bloom as she used the match to light the wick of the dynamite before she planted it in the pile of debris. She then ran back downstair before the dynamite exploded, destroying the pile of debris. "Yes! It worked!"
«Clever, but dangerous,» Twilight said.
"No choice. Also, it's no more dangerous than the ghosts, the zip lines above the pit, pony eating books, pony eating pianos, wraiths, possessed manors, zombies..."
«Ok! Ok! I understand!»
«Yer getting too much in danger for mah taste,» Applejack said.
"It's part of the job. And remember, Pyrite and his ally're the ones forcing me to get in danger to save a friend."
Applejack just sighed in return.
Apple Bloom returned to the underground path and passed the other door, entering a room with boxes of dynamites, barrels, shelves with containers, and even a sarcophagus. Blues and Greens quickly appeared and started to throw dynamites at her, so she ran around to avoid the explosions while capturing the ghosts, each explosion weakening the structure of the room.
When she was done with the ghosts, the sarcophagus suddenly opened, and out of it came a mummy. A real mummy slowly walking toward her, moaning.
«Woah! It's a genuine mummy?!» Rainbow Dash asked.
"Aaaand Ah regret not having a bat or a chainsaw..." Apple Bloom said with a gulp.
She rolled to avoid the mummy trying to grab her and looked around to find something to defeat it. She then looked at one of the boxes of dynamite, took a stick, used a match to light it, and threw it at the mummy. The mummy was blown to pieces, and the ghost possessing it, a Green, appeared. Apple Bloom rapidly got rid of him.
"Skeletons, mummies, possessed armors... Ah swear, one day, Ah'll encounter a vampire."
«Ah hope not!» shouted Applejack. «Those monsters would kill ya before ya know it!»
«I agree. Vampires are smart, strong, fast, have all kinds of powers, can survive from pretty much anything, and can empty somepony from their blood in a few seconds. You wouldn't stand a chance,» Twilight said.
"Then let's hope Ah never encounter one," said Apple Bloom with a shiver before she frowned. "But, right now, vampires're the last of mah worries. Ah'm about to visit an old tomb probably full of mummies, and Ah can only hope Ah won't get cursed because of this..."
«Oh my... Are you talking about that story where a group of archeologists found a tomb, but died one after another mysteriously in the following months?» Rarity asked.
«That curse... Yes... A well-known case. I always thought that those deaths were just coincidences, but now...» Twilight said.
Pinkie gulped. «W-well... At least, this tomb has already been found, so maybe the curse doesn't work anymore.»
"Ooor... It still works and is the reason why those workers died crushed by gears," said Apple Bloom in worry.
.............
"Okay. Let's stop thinking about this, or we won't advance," finished the filly before she approached a wall that had been partially destroyed to reveal a secret entrance with a door. She then passed the door, only for the earth to shake as Apple Bloom heard something collapse in the previous room. Looking back in said room, she saw that the exit was now blocked. "Great. Ah'm now stuck."
«I can still teleport you out of there,» Twilight said.
"Thanks," said Apple Bloom before she looked back in front of her at what was awaiting her. A long slide down a tunnel. Apple Bloom stared at the slide for a few seconds, then smiled, and ran to it before letting herself slide down with a "Yaaahooooo!!!"
After a few seconds, she reached the bottom and passed another door, entering a large room that spiraled downward with broken mine cart tracks at the bottom, as well as a hole in which sand was continuously falling from the ceiling. Looking up, Apple Bloom could spot another level out of her reach. So she descended, and after dealing with a few Greens using shovels and pickaxes, she turned to a mine cart that she spotted. Getting an idea, she tugged the mine cart until it got lodged in the hole, stopping the sand from falling in it. As a result, the sand started filling the room, raising her to the inaccessible level.
She still had to fight some more ghosts coming out of the sand, mainly Greens using shovels, pickaxes, and stones, but also some Pinks, and even a Red. At least, Apple Bloom could follow the Pinks even if they were invisible because they were displacing sand as they moved. When the sand reached the inaccessible level, Apple Bloom quickly spotted a door and ran to it before it was buried.
She entered a hallway plunged in darkness, the only light beside her lamp on her forehead coming from a torch beside the entrance. Thanks to her lamp, she could see huge spider webs blocking the way, so, after thinking for a moment, she took the torch and used it to burn the webs. She soon entered a room that had nothing in it but a stone tomb in the center with some torches lighting it from the walls.
"Seems like the end..."
«Don't tell me you will open this tomb,» Rarity said.
"It seems like the only thing Ah can do. The clock hands may be in it."
«But a big and powerful mummy could come out of it to attack you!» Pinkie shouted.
«Yeah, maybe ya should let Twilight come and open it,» Applejack said.
"Come on, AJ. Ah already fought a mummy, Ah can deal with another one,"
«Ya'd dynamite back then.»
"Ah'll find a way. Mummies here're just corpses wrapped in ribbons possessed by ghosts. No big deal."
As Applejack groaned, Apple Bloom slowly approached the tomb and pushed the cover, only for a hoof wrapped in ribbon to punch her chin, sending her on her back. The mummy that punched her then started to levitate out of the tomb while three more mummies came out of the sand covering the ground.
The levitating mummy crossed its front hooves, seemingly letting the three others to deal with Apple Bloom, so the filly started running around while looking for a solution to defeat them without explosives. Looking at the torches on the walls, she then took one and used it on a mummy about to attack her, burning it. Despite the fire, the mummy continued to go after her, so she ran away to put the other two on fire. The mummies eventually stopped moving, their bodies becoming too damaged by the fire, and the three Greens possessing them came out. When Apple Bloom captured them, she turned to the levitating mummy.
The mummy raised its hooves, causing sand to levitate around it to form a sand tornado. It then started to throw smaller sand tornadoes from it at Apple Bloom, and the filly had to walk left and right to avoid them. Not able to approach because of the tornado surrounding the mummy, Apple Bloom threw the torch she still had at it, and was able to hit. The mummy started burning, but it quickly used the sand to put out the fire.
Changing tactic, the mummy started to create spikes of sand directly under Apple Bloom, forcing the filly to run without stopping to not get impaled. While running, she passed beside a torch, took it, and threw it at the mummy, burning it again. However, this time, as the mummy started to use the sand to put the fire out again, Apple Bloom approached it, seeing the end of the ribbon wrapping it hanging from its back hoof. Once close enough, she used the Poltergust to catch it and tugged, causing the mummy to spin in the air and unwrapping it, revealing its putrefied body. Confused, the mummy dropped on the sand, and Apple Bloom bucked its head, beheading it.
A ghost looking like an Orange, but blue colored, came out of the corpse and looked at Apple Bloom in rage before it went to the tomb and took a clock hand out of it. Using its powerful telekinesis, the ghost then pulled on the walls and the ceiling, weakening the room and making it starting to collapse. With a cackle, the ghost then fled.
Twilight appeared, grabbed Apple Bloom, and teleported before the ceiling could fall on their head, and they appeared back in the caravan.
"Thanks Twilight," said Apple Bloom in relief, Applejack immediately hugging her.
"It was a close call. This ghost was really powerful," said the alicorn.
"But it was still an awesome fight! You showed him!" said Rainbow.
"I can't believe you beheaded him," Rarity said. "It was just..."
"Ewww!" Pinkie finished for her.
"Exactly," Rarity said. She then saw something and turned green. "And... gulp I think there are some remains on your hooves..."
Apple Bloom looked and saw what she was talking about. "Eww..." She got out of Applejack's hug, exited the caravan, and used the sand to rid herself of what remained glued to her back hooves.
"Where do ya think the ghost went?" asked Applejack from the caravan.
"No idea. He could be anywhere now, Ah'll have to search," the filly answered.
"But with how powerful he's, will you be able to capture him?" Fluttershy asked.
"Ah fought worse." Her hooves cleaned, she turned to the factory. "Time for me to return."
She crawled under the barrier and returned inside the factory, started by the door to the right, taking the path through the workshop, the room with the big clock door, the one with all the dynamites, before climbing the stairs to go all the way to the room where she found the compass, but no trace of the blue ghost. However, on the way, she had to fight many Greens (including some doing sand tornadoes and throwing bombs), a few Reds, two Blues, some Pinks, and even a Purple ambushing her in the last room. Back in the entrance room, she decided to go explore the underground, and so took the door of the first level to the north, to the room with the turntable.
That was where she found him, at the turntable side of the room. He was floating above the turntable, using his telekinesis to play with bricks. The ghost then spotted her and seemed surprised to see her alive. He quickly recovered from his surprise and cackled before daring her to come with a sign of his hoof. He then started to throw bricks at her. Apple Bloom had no choice but to return to the previous room to escape his attacks. She then wondered how she would be able to reach the ghost.
She then remembered the key she found on the stairs with the box of matches and tested it on the last closed door at the second level, opening it. She entered a small room that was actually a chamber with a bed and all. On the bed, for some reason, there was a bucket floating on its side beside a key. Looking with her DLD, Apple Bloom found out that it was a Green sleeping with his head in the bucket and hugging the key.
It was kind of funny and cute. Too bad she had to get this key to continue. So she captured the ghost in his sleep before he even had time to realize what was happening to him. Apple Bloom then took the key he dropped and used it to open the door just in front of the entrance.
She was back in the room with the turntable, and the blue ghost was still here, staring at the door where she escaped, brick on hoof, ready to throw it.
Stopping paying attention to the ghost, Apple Bloom saw that to reach the other side of the room, she had to walk on the beams linking the two sides.
The beams were just above the pit.
"Oh boy."
«Wait. I'm coming to help,» said Twilight.
"No. Don't. The ghost will spot us, and we'll have faces full of bricks. Don't worry, those beams're narrow, but Ah'm small. It should be okay."
So Apple Bloom slowly began to walk on one of the beams, cautiously taking each step. On the way, however, she was stopped by metallic tubes blocking the path, and with hesitation, she looked to her right at a second beam. Gulping, she went on her back legs and jumped, successfully landing on the beam. After balancing herself, she returned on her four legs and advanced, only to have to jump back on the first beam before finally reaching the other side.
After calming herself with some big breaths, Apple Bloom followed the path only to see that it wasn't leading to the stairs leading to the turntable, but to a door at her left that she had to take to reach said stairs. The door led to a hallway where a large conveyor belt formed most of the floor. Four doors were on the left wall, including one directly at her left, and three doors were on the right wall, including one directly at her right that should be the one leading to the stairs. Buuuut...
Locked.
"Darn it."
She spotted a key at the other end of the hallway, hooked to the back wall, so she went to take it. However, when she walked on the conveyor belt, it started to move backward, making her walk in place. She began running, but it wasn't working either. She could jump, but she decided that it wasn't worth it to tire herself like that before fighting a powerful ghost. So she went to search another way to reach the other end and entered the first left door directly accessible to her.
She entered a room with two tables with wood shavings, tools, and a wooden sculpture of an arrow. There was also a barrel on the floor and a small staircase leading to a platform with a small kiln. Beside the table with the arrow was a second door leading back to the hallway, and in front of it was an opening to a small balcony.
An Orange appeared and threw the tools at her while some Greens appeared too. Now knowing the trick, she went after the Orange, trapped him, and used him to slam the Greens before capturing all of them. With the room cleared, she exited by the second door, returning to the hallway. There she went to her right for the second door in the east wall, the filly now able to reach it without the conveyor belt stopping her.
She entered a large storage room containing a lot of huge crates stacked upon each others. As she started to advance toward the next door, some Reds burst out of some of the crates to attack her, and due to the lack of place, she was hit a couple of time by their shockwaves, but thanks to a lot of slamming, she managed to capture all of them.
She exited the room through the second door (the third in the east wall of the hallway) and moved to her left to reach and enter the third door in the west wall, entering a room filled with steam blinding the filly. After some searching with the help of her hooves, she found a valve that she turned to stop some pipe from releasing steam. However, she could still hear another pipe releasing steam, so she continued searching, only to find nothing. She found the pipe releasing the steam, but not the valve, which seemed to be missing. So she activated the DLD and, as she guessed, found out that the second valve was invisible. Once it was visible again, she turned it, stopping the steam from filling the room. She then left the door open to let the steam out, and once she could see further than her muzzle, she observed the room to search for the second door.
As she already guessed, the room had a lot of pipes connecting to a big kiln actually closed. However, she discovered that the second door of the room was behind the kiln, and she had to enter it and pass through a secondary exit to reach it. So she went to open the double door of the kiln, only for them to open on her muzzle, knocking her back.
The two Greens that opened the door began to laugh only for Apple Bloom to recover faster than they thought, and the filly captured them before they knew it. But then, a Brown dropped before the entrance of the kiln, and Apple Bloom had to deal with him to pass.
Finally, she was able to reach the end of the hallway only to see that the key was at the other side of a gap with an axle with two wheel-like gears. In front of the gap were three gears in the floor that were actually spring gears, two of them being broke. The middle one was still working, so Apple Bloom walked on it, and the spring propelled her to the other side of the gap where she took the key. She then used one of the wheel-like gears to return to the other side.
She returned to the beginning of the hallway and used the key to unlock the first door of the east wall, finally reaching the stairs leading to the turntable where the blue ghost was still looking at the other side of the room. However, the ghost heard her walking down the stairs and turned around, surprised to see her there. Just for the heck of it, Apple Bloom pointed at the door of the second level before the beams with a smirk, and when the ghost spotted it, he facehoofed.
But the ghost quickly went away from Apple Bloom before she could activate the Poltergust, and he began to use his power to make the turntable spin while he opened the crates, revealing them to be full of bombs. He then entered the turntable, creating a dust devil, sucking up Apple Bloom toward it, forcing the filly to walk back. One after another, bombs also rolled to the turntable before being scattered randomly in the room (the ghost still making sure to avoid sending them to the crates).
While running around in order to avoid the bombs, Apple Bloom began to think of a way to force the ghost out. But in the end, she didn't need to. The ghost eventually ran out of bombs to throw, and he came out to see that the crates were now all empty.
"Uh oh..."
Well, he still had the bricks, but before the ghost could start throwing them, Apple Bloom went to him and trapped him. Some Pinks came to try to save him, but Apple Bloom saw them coming thanks to the sand and slammed the blue ghost on them. The blue ghost still tried to save himself by throwing bricks, but Apple Bloom managed to avoid all of them, and eventually, the ghost was finally captured, and he dropped one of the clock hands, the minute hand.
But not the hour hand.
Once Apple Bloom captured the Pinks still in the room, she took the hand and spoke, "Ah got the minute hand, but not the hour hand."
«Uh. I really thought he would have the two hands,» Twilight said. «I have no idea where the hour hand may be, but at least you got the minute hand. Speaking of, remember the rotor is also missing.»
"Mmh... Ah haven't explored the east part of the factory yet, they may be there."
«But the way is blocked by the debris,» Rainbow said.
«Hum... Girls... I think I know where the hour hand is...» Fluttershy said.
«Really? How» Twilight asked.
After a small silence, some of the ponies muttered a «Uh?» Before there was more silence.
Then, Twilight said with an audible facehoof, «Oh... You're kidding me...»
«Are they serious?» Applejack asked.
"What's going on?"
«There are ghosts in the court, and they're playing with the hour hand,» explained Twilight.
Apple Bloom facehoofed. "Why are they playing with the hour hand in plain view instead of hiding it? They're stupid or what? Twilight, can you quickly come to take the hand, please?"
«Of course.»
Once Twilight took the hand, Apple Bloom pulled a cord to lower the bridge linking the two parts of the room, then went all the way to the entrance of the factory to exit it. Back in the court, she saw three greens that were playing with the hour hand, throwing it at each other. As soon as she came out, the ghosts spotted her, but before they could do anything...
The white ghost dog came out of nowhere, caught the hand, and ate it before jumping through the wall to enter the building, followed by the enraged Greens.
"Come on! Not again!"
«Do I play the song again?» Pinkie asked.
«No thanks, dear,» Rarity said.
Apple Bloom ran back inside the building, spotting the three Greens searching around for the dog. Two of them went to the workshop while the last one remained behind to continue to search. Apple Bloom quickly dealt with him, and with the DLD, followed the traces of the dog to the workshop. She saw one of the Greens pass the wall to the room with the clock door, and the other Green was probably already there. But Apple Bloom didn't follow them, still using the DLD to follow the dog. And judging by the steps left behind...
The dog was in the drill press!
However, before she could even examine it to force the dog out, the dog surprised her and jumped on her face to lick her. One of the Greens then came back, hearing the dog barking. So the dog left Apple bloom and climbed the wall before passing the ceiling, followed by the Green.
The room above was the one where she found the compass, so she had to traverse the clock door room to reach the room with the stairwell, then traversed the clock door room in the other sense in the second level to enter the room with all the papers. No trace of the Green who came here, but Apple Bloom found the dog in the file cabinet. But before Apple Bloom could activate the Poltergust, the Green came out of the drawing table and went after the dog, forcing the dog to run through the retractable wall.
Apple Bloom growled in exasperation before she retracted the wall to follow them. She returned to the entrance room where the Green was hiding behind a crate to ambush her, to no avail. Once the Green was captured, Apple Bloom followed the dog's steps to the chamber where she found the dog in a closet. This time, no Green interrupted, but the Dog managed to trip her before getting away toward the room with the turntable.
She yelled some obscenities.
«Eep!»
«Oh my...»
«Apple Bloom, we'll have a little discussion about yer language,» Applejack said.
"AH DON'T BUCKING CARE RIGHT NOW!"
Apple Bloom slammed open the door to the turntable room and spotted the dog at the other side of the beam. Not caring, Apple Bloom ran on the beams, jumping from one to another when needed. However, the third Green appeared and scared the dog away before flying after him until they disappeared in the hallway with the big conveyor belt. She rapidly followed them, but in the hallway, they were nowhere to be seen.
With the DLD, Apple Bloom followed the dog's steps to the first room to the left (with the small balcony) only to be tripped by the dog running under her as he was chased by the Green. By the time she recovered, the dog escaped back to the hallway, and the Green, seeing her death stare, flew to the neighboring room (with the big kiln). She went after the dog, only for the Green to return with reinforcement: three Reds and a Brown blocking the door.
Apple Bloom stared at the ghosts.
She put the Poltergust to red.
Ten seconds later, she exited the now clean room.
The dog was waiting for her only to enter the storage room, and Apple Bloom chased him here only for the dog to immediately return to the hallway. She returned to the hallway, but the dog returned to the storage room. She returned to the storage room, but the dog returned to the hallway...
She took a big breath and calmly went to the second door of the storage room. She returned to the hallway, this time behind the dog who hadn't seen her coming out.
Again, she put the Poltergust to red, and the dog didn't even resist five seconds before he was captured, and the hour hand dropped.
"And this time ya remain in-"
The dog burst out of the Poltergust, licked her face, and flew away.
«WHAAAAAT?!! How could he escape again? I powered up the crystal!» Twilight yelled.
"Not enough it seems..." a very annoyed filly said.
«I will not let a dog make a fool of me! Once you come back, I will power up the crystal so much that it will be as impossible to escape as Tartarus!»
«Tirek was able to escape,» Pinkie said.
«You know what I mean! Anyway. Now we've got the hour hand. All that remains is the rotor. How will you reach it if it's in the east past of the factory?,» Twilight asked Apple Bloom.
Apple Bloom sighed, putting what happened with the dog in the back of her mind to return to a more important matter. "Ah've an idea. But first, can ya take the hand back to the caravan?"
«Alright.»
Apple Bloom returned to the room with the stairwell and all the boxes of dynamite.
«Okay, so what will you do now?» Twilight asked.
Apple Bloom smirked. "Watch and admire."
She went to the box of dynamites nearest to the blocked door and pushed it to the pile of debris. For good measure, she pushed in a second box.
«Wait... you aren't seriously thinking to-»
"Yes, Ah am!" interrupted Apple Bloom as she lit a match.
Behind the door, a few ghosts, three Greens with shovels and a Red with a club were standing guard when the door and the wall surrounding it were suddenly blown up in a huge explosion, blowing them away and causing the elevator in the room to crash to the level below. Through the smoke caused by the explosion, Apple Bloom walked in the room, then looked at the now stunned ghosts. Giving them a predatory look, she activated the Poltergust and captured them one after another easily.
With all the ghosts captured, Apple Bloom saw that she was in a two-floors room with a now crashed elevator. She could see the level below thanks to the grided floor, but since the elevator was now broken, there was no way for her to reach it from here. So, instead, she went to the opposite door and passed it, entering another two-floors room with a floor entirely grided with a path leading to conveyor belts stopping her from reaching the other side. The conveyor belts worked thanks to huge gears that were also operating a huge pendulum and a giant scale sin used to reach the floor below.
Having no other choice, she used the scale, and when she got out of it, the only way now accessible to her was a door leading to the basement floor of the elevator room, at the bottom of a flight of stairs leading to a part of the room covered in sand. There were also two other doors at the opposite side, one at the first floor and one under it, but the first one was inaccessible because of the conveyor belts, and she needed the second scale to be lowered to reach the second. She will have to find a way to lower the scale. Through a hole in the wall beside the door, she could see that both doors led to the same room with stairs, a chest, some crates, and a few other things. Ghosts were in there, including a Pink holding the rotor. They were trying to find a place to hide it. Before she could see more, one of the Greens saw her watching and blocked the hole with a brick.
Now knowing where was her goal, she set out to find something heavy enough to throw at the scale and lower it.
«You know I could simply appear on the scale to lower it, right?» Twilight said.
Apple Bloom stopped moving. "Oh, right."
So Twilight did as she said and appeared on the scale to lower it, letting Apple Bloom reach the door. The ghosts clearly weren't expecting her to enter so soon because she totally took them by surprise, the Pink still holding the rotor. As Apple Bloom started sucking ghosts left and right, an Orange then appeared, and the Pink gave the rotor to him before joining the fight, letting the Orange fly away with the rotor.
Once Apple Bloom cleaned the room, the filly chased him. The Orange was waiting for her on the sand covered floor of the previous room, so she joined him here, only for four mummies to come out of the sand while three Greens appeared and started to spin to create small sand tornadoes while the Orange flew to the basement floor of the elevator room. There wasn't any dynamite or torch here for Apple Bloom to use, so the filly had to use the same method she used against the levitating mummy in the tomb: use the Poltergust to unwrap them, then behead them with a good buck on the head while they're stunned. One by one, she then captured the seven Greens. Two more Greens armed with shovel, two Reds, and four Pinks then appeared to try their chance, only to fail, obviously. An Orange even came to throw sand tornadoes at her, but he wasn't as powerful as the blue ghost she fought, and she quickly got rid of him.
With all the ghosts captured, she went to the basement level of the elevator room, which was just a bridge staircase leading further down above a pit of sand where the elevator crashed. She passed the door at the bottom and entered a very particular room. There was just two paths hugging the west wall and the east wall in front of each doors, and between the two paths were a giant gear in the center of the room actually not working and a zip line at the side passing above a platform against the north wall linked to the gear by a small bridge. She saw that another bridge could be unrolled to link the west path and the gear. As for the zip line, it could be called from the two sides of the room thanks to rotors. Thankfully, all of this wasn't above a bottomless pit, but a small pit with a floor either grided or covered in sand with a lot of mice. If Apple Bloom fell in the pit, a spring gear could propel her back on the gear.
Apple Bloom used the zip line to reach the west side of the room, only to discover that the door here was locked. She then understood that there may have an invisible door on the north platform, and so she unrolled the bridge to reach the gear before traversing the other bridge to the north platform. There, she used the DLD to make the door reappear, and she passed it.
An even more particular room appeared to her. It was a room full of gears, above a bottomless pit, and it was built so the only way to reach some parts was to walk on the teeth of some of the gears as they turned. She also spotted the key in an open locker at the other side, protected by two Reds, but one was busy reading a newspaper, and the other was smashing one of the other lockers for some reason. Sadly, the only path reaching the lockers was inaccessible for now because the gear leading to it wasn't working. There was another gear that could have led to it, but it was turning in the wrong sense.
However, she saw that a gear was missing above the pit, and it didn't take long for Apple Bloom to put two and two together. So she took the path leading to the gear turning to the wrong sense and took a flight of stairs leading to a horizontal gear beside the missing one. Walking on it, she approached and used the DLD to reveal the missing gear, causing the gears that weren't working to work now.
Somehow, the two Reds hadn't seen any of this, so the filly was able to walk on the teeth of the now working gear to reach the path leading to them without having to fight. She still had to traverse a hollow gear on the way before reaching them.
Now, she could use the surprise to attack them, or sneak to the key and take it without fighting. But again, each ghost captured was one less ghost who could attack her later, so she chose to fight. Thanks to the surprise, the two ghosts were easily captured, and Apple Bloom was soon leaving the room with the key.
Back in the room with the giant gear in the center which was now turning thanks to Apple Bloom repairing the mechanism, Apple Bloom used the key to open the west door and entered a room with a working conveyor belt suspended above some barrels and a cuckoo clock with a lever in the wall opposite to the entrance door.
Having nothing else to do, she pulled down the lever of the cuckoo clock, activating it. Once the two clock hands were on the 12, a big cuckoo bird came out of the clock, used its beak to grab her by the scruff of her neck, then returned inside the clock with her, only to come out at the other side before dropping her, revealing a second part of the room a little bigger. The conveyor belt was still here, and a switch on the floor could open a barrier, but nothing much else.
This part of the room was directly linked to another room by a passage in the west wall, and when Apple Bloom entered it, she spotted the Orange with the rotor at the other side of a big gap with three vertical gears forming a bridge, one of which was invisible, so she had to use the DLD. To reach him, she had to use three valves to turn the gears and be able to walk in the gaps between the teeth.
But the Orange was smart and used his powers to turn the gears too to stop Apple Bloom from reaching him. However, Apple Bloom could see that it tired him a lot because of their size and weight, so she continued to turn the valves, forcing the ghost to continue to turn the gears. After a few minutes of this, the ghost collapsed, exhausted. So Apple Bloom turned the gears again to traverse the bridge, reached the ghost, and captured him easily. Finally, she had the rotor in her possession.
«Let me take it,» Twilight said before she appeared and took the rotor. "I will wait for you to return to the clock door so I can repair it while you protect me."
"Okay."
At this, Twilight teleported back to the caravan, and Apple Bloom traversed the rooms one by one to return to the clock door. However, once she was back in the room with the sin scale, she was pushed from behind and fell back on the sand-covered floor. Turning around, she saw that a Red was the responsible, but before she could make him pay for this, six Oranges appeared and circled her, starting to use their power to create six tornadoes and surround her with them. As the six tornadoes started circling her, the Oranges started to close on her, but Apple Bloom managed to trap one of the Oranges with her Poltergust and spun to make him ram the five others, ruining their tactic.
The five remaining ghosts recovered and tried to do the same thing, but Apple Bloom repeated her actions and was able to stop them again while capturing a second ghost. So the four remaining one separated to the four corners and started to throw small tornadoes at her. Putting the Poltergust to red, Apple Bloom ran to one of the Oranges while avoiding the tornadoes and captured him in a few seconds.
The three remaining ghosts took a triangle formation to attack her, but Apple Bloom still rapidly captured another, and before long, the last two ghosts were captured. Despite his fear, the Red who pushed her tried to ram her, but his charge was stopped by the Poltergust.
And now, she could finally return to the clock door room. Once there, Twilight appeared with the clock hands and the rotor, and after a nod to Apple Bloom, she started to repair the door.
As they thought, ghosts began to come to stop her, many of them being green ones armed with shovels, pickaxes, or bombs. For those last ones, Apple Bloom didn't have to worry. If they threw a bomb at Twilight, the mare would use her magic to throw them back at the ghosts. Thankfully, the repairs were fast, so the assault didn't last long, and thanks to the sand, the filly could see the Pinks approach, so there wasn't much difficulty. The main problem was the two Oranges appearing and using the sand in the room to send sand tornadoes at Twilight, so Apple Bloom had to get rid of them quickly. When the clock door was repaired, Twilight, now a little covered in sand, teleported back to the caravan, leaving the filly to deal with the remaining ghosts.
Once the room was empty, Twilight spoke «Thanks again. But now, I have to take a shower to get rid of all that sand.»
"There's a basin somewhere that ya should be able to fill with water," Apple Bloom replied as she started to think of how to open the door. She could try to turn the clock hands until she finds the right hour, but it would take a lot of time.
That's when she saw the solution through a hole in the wall beside the door: on gears visible behind, she could see a 7, a 3, and a 0. 7h30.
"Ah think Ah found the solution to open the door."
«That was fast,» Rainbow Dash said.
Apple Bloom turned the rotor, and once the hour hand was between the 7 and the 8 and the minute hand was on the 6, she stopped.
The door opened, letting Apple Bloom access the room with the gears that she saw through the hole. However, a problem quickly appeared: the exit was near the top of the room (which was a two-floor room), and there was no apparent way to reach it. But she then discovered that the floor of the room was actually an elevator. But the only way to make it rise was to turn valves between the gears. But the valves were out of her reach, so she had to use the Poltergust to turn them.
Soon enough, she reached the exit, and once she passed the door there, she entered a room with a lot of crates forming a path to a ladder to a trapdoor. However, once she approached the ladder, she was suddenly launched in the air by the floor, revealing it to be a spring.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!"
She passed right through a trapdoor, and she found herself in the air outside of the factory before finally dropping back. With a big groan, Apple Bloom slowly got up and looked around while rubbing her head and closing the trapdoor.
She saw that she was now on the top of the clock tower, or belfry, and she was on a giant clock beside a giant cuckoo.
«Woah. We saw you flying from the caravan,» Rainbow Dash said.
«Be on your guard. One of those shadow ghosts must not be far,» Twilight said.
Just as she said that, the door of the cuckoo opened, and a Bogmire-looking ghost with clock hands instead of arms came out, the arms regularly and randomly changing position to form hours. Pyrite came behind it.
"Death by animals, death by objects... But now, it's time for you to face something that nopony can escape: death by time. No matter who you are, no matter what you are, time always wins in the end. Everyone has a final hour," said Pyrite before he waved at the ghost. "Meet your Final Hour."
The ghost then jumped inside the clock, and the clock hands started to move. Pyrite smirked at her. "You should hurry. Time is flowing, and for you, will soon run out." At this, he disappeared.
Apple Bloom quickly understood what he meant when she saw that she was becoming taller, or rather, older. The ghost, Final Hour, was accelerating her time, and if she didn't stop it soon, she would die of old age. But how could she stop it?
By breaking the hands, of course! But she wasn't strong enough to destroy them.
Not strong enough now. But if she was an adult...
So Apple Bloom waited and waited as time passed. Then, once she was about twenty years old, judging that she was now probably strong enough, she went to buck the base of the clock hands. Thanks to how old the factory was, the hands weren't as solid as they should be, so after a few bucks, they broke, and the ghost came out for Apple Bloom to trap and try to capture. While Final Hour tried to escape the vortex, it used the broken clock hands to try to impale her, so Apple bloom had to move constantly to avoid them until the ghost was able to escape and to return to the clock, repairing it.
The hands, however, were now turning a little faster, and various ghosts, Greens, Reds, and Pinks, appeared to stop her from breaking it again. So, instead, she slammed them on the hands, damaging them. Slamming the Reds was particularly effective.
By the time she broke the hands again, forcing out Final Hour, Apple Bloom was probably twenty years older, but she was still in top form. Final Hour sadly managed to escape her second tentative of capturing it and returned to the clock, repairing it again. But now, the hands were turning even faster, were hot red, and were covered in a protective shield.
More ghosts came, some of them dropping mummies, while others used bombs and dynamites. Already feeling herself weakening because of how old she was getting, Apple Bloom took a shovel dropped by a Green and used it like a bat to send the bombs away from her while also attacking any mummies that were coming too close. She tried to send the bomb toward the mummies to blow them, but above all, she tried to send them toward the clock hands to destroy the protective shield, all the while running around to avoid being burned by the minute hand that left almost no place to avoid it.
To her horror, she soon found herself having to fight a lumbago too, but despite the pain, she continued, and soon, the shield covering the hands was destroyed. Two more bombs were all it took to destroy them after that, and this time, Apple Bloom didn't let the Shadow escape. Seeing their leader captured, the remaining ghosts flew away.
Almost as soon as Final Hour was captured, the effects of his power disappeared and Apple Bloom was a filly again, to her relief. The door of the cuckoo then opened, and a key came out of it to drop beside her.
Taking heavy breaths, Apple Bloom smirked and spoke, "Maybe one day time'll win, but right now, Ah won."
Above Ponyville, Thanatos was floating, looking down at the town.
"What a peaceful town, so full of life... Mmh... Should I kill all of them? Nah... Too soon to go this far. In another game, maybe." He turned toward the Everfree Forest and approached, getting closer to Apple Bloom's mansion. "Right now, I will just do this." He sent a wave of energy toward the mansion. "Now, my little ghosties, time to get some new potential victims!" That's when he felt something. "Oh? She's resisting my control? Why am I not surprised? Well, this will be interesting."
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It was at this moment the Greens realized... They ****ed up.
Wouldn't it make more sense to call it the Final Hour?
By the way, I always wondered what would happen in the game if the clock got back to 1 in the boss fight. Does it mean an instant game over?
10130289
Nope, the phase just restarts
10327684
I just can't listen to this song without thinking of the Puppet from Five Nights at Freddy's.
That one-liner Bloom used at the end reminds me of a classic MtG flavor text: "Some day, someone will best me. But it won't be today, and it won't be you."
"Ah call it 'Shock & Awe' it actually works surprisingly well for ghost hunting even though ya'd think they wouldn't be that scared by it or affected much aside from the shockwave knocking them back"