Apple Bloom's Mansion 2: the Phantom Valley

by Lucar

Fifth Mansion: Treacherous Mansion

Since she was too small to drive the caravan, Apple Bloom was forced to walk to the Treacherous Mansion passing by a path circling the mountain. It was long. It was hard. The snow was still here all the way. But she didn't give up.

And so, after a whole hour, she reached the portal leading to the mansion. The doors were big and heavy, so she had to use all her weight to push one open.

And here she could admire it. The Treacherous Mansion. A huge two-story building sitting on a huge pillar of stone and earth in the middle of a round seemingly bottomless ravine, like a huge black hole in the middle of the lake where the water dropped to disappear into the darkness. The path leading to the mansion had almost totally collapsed, to the point that in some places, all that remained were very narrow and brittle bridges, and the mansion's right front corners wasn't on the ground at all, giving the impression that the building could fall at any time. This same corner seemed to be invaded by vegetation, roots coming out of the floor and keeping it stable while the top of trees were poking out of the roof. At the left, Apple Bloom could see a well as well as a doghouse and a staircase on the side of the cliff leading to a door. Debris, however, were blocking said door. Gargoyles were guarding the front door. Hopefully, they won't start moving.

Add in a small cold breeze and crows and bats flying around, and this mansion reached the top one of the 'most scary buildings ever' in the filly's opinion. Nothing she saw until now, not even the Gem Manor and the ruins of the Castle of the Two Sisters in the Everfree Forest reached it. No wonder Smart Spirit refused to enter it. No sane pony would enter this building without a very good reason.

And she had a very, very good reason to enter it.

Putting a hoof on Applejack's hat to make sure that it wouldn't be taken by the wind, Apple Bloom, after a big gulp, started slowly crossing the first narrow part of the path. However, when she reached the end of this narrow part, the following part of the path collapsed, only leaving two narrow pieces, not only forcing her to move again while keeping her balance but also forcing her to jump from the first piece to the other to reach the other end. She then crossed the last part of the path, but as she got close to the end, it started to collapse under her hooves. A quick jump saved her.

Calming down after this near death experience, she approached the entrance door and got ready to use the key from the Secret Mine to open it.

Only for something to jump through the door on her face, sending her on her back and making her drop the key. She got up on her hooves, only to see the ghost dog taking the key before running toward the area with the well.

Apple Bloom was seeing red.

"Ya stupid dog! Give me back this key! Ah ain't time to play with ya! Ah must save everypony!"

The dog just looked back at her curiously in return, making her groan in rage. To make things worse, some of the ghosts in the mansion heard her and started laughing at her through the windows, some of them even spitting their tongues.

Just wait until Ah open this door... she thought with a growl.

She went after the dog only for him to jump to the staircase beside the cliff leading to the door, probably to a basement. So she went to the door, but again, it was blocked by debris. She only could see through a hole the dog waiting for her, a helmet now on his head, in a tunnel with some armors.

"This time, ya won't escape, dog! Ah swear!"

"Bark! Bark!"

Thinking for a few seconds, she got an idea. She went to the well and looked down, seeing that its bottom missed some parts of its wall, meaning that she will probably be able to reach the underground from there. She looked up and saw the bucket. So, carefully, holding its rope, she climbed in it, then slowly let it go down into the well.

Once at the bottom, she left the well and entered a small path in the earth with some mushrooms leading to a weakened wall of stone bricks. A couple of bucks was all it took to destroy it, letting her enter the underground tunnel where the dog was waiting for her, only for him to run away through a wall of debris blocking the tunnel from whatever was behind, leaving the helmet behind.

Then, the armors in the tunnel, four in total, started moving to attack her with spears and swords. She charged and tackled the nearest one before it could start attacking and she ended in a pile of armor parts beside the Green that had been possessing it. Apple Bloom and the Green stared at each other, the filly giving the ghost a big evil grin that made him gulp. The next moment, Apple Bloom slammed the ghost on the three other armors, and the four Greens that possessed them were captured.

She then looked through a hole in the wall of debris blocking the tunnel and saw the dog in a semi-circular room looking back at her, barking happily before he traversed the ground, probably to a level below. So she looked around and saw another weakened wall on the right side of the tunnel. Apple Bloom bucked it, destroying it, and entered another path in the earth, in the cliffside, the part that was being invaded by roots under the front right corner of the manor.

There, she had to turn a wheel to rise a grate blocking a door leading back to the interior of the underground. Another armor was waiting for her in the corridor at the other side, as well as some big spiders hanging from a web in the ceiling. The armor was easily destroyed, the spiders squished, and the Green coming out of the armor captured. She then walked down the corridor toward a hole leading to the room that Apple Bloom saw through the hole in the wall of debris.

Like she saw, it was a semi-circular room with four gargoyles holding torches and a big chain linking the ground to the ceiling in an alcove at the opposite side of the wall of debris. More armors were here, but using the carpet on the floor, she destroyed all of them easily and captured the Greens. After some thinking, she then lit some matches and threw them in the torches to light them, causing the chain to suddenly rise with a part of the ground under it. Out of the ground was rising a throne with another armor sit on it that immediately started to attack her while more Greens came and took the spears left by the others to help it. Apple Bloom slammed one of those Greens to destroy the armor and captured the ghosts.

She then went to sit on the throne, activating a mechanism that lowered it back to the floor below.

Catacombs...

Okay, catacombs. After the graveyard, it wasn't so bad. The problem, however, was that a veil of purple energy was covering each paths. Apple Bloom quickly discovered that it wasn't hurtful and that she could traverse them, but she also discovered that most of them just brought her back to the part of the catacombs with the throne.

A maze... Shit...

To make it worse, ghosts, mostly Greens but also a few Reds and some possessed armors, attacked her as she searched the right path. But then, she remembered something and she lit her DLD, looking at the ground, revealing the footprints of the dog that were revealing the path.

Following the footprints, she reached a door that led... to a laboratory. The kind you find in stories with mad scientists. And two Greens with goggles were exactly doing it. One of them was beside a table with an inanimate armor on it, and the other was beside a wheel that he started to turn, causing a machine to hit the armor with electricity.

And the armor started to rise under the mad cackles of both ghosts. The ghosts then pointed at Apple Bloom and ordered the armor to attack her before they flew back to watch the show.

"Twilight would be so freaking out..."

As the armor took a sword, Apple Bloom tackled it, turning it into a pile of pieces. But no ghost came out of it, and the armor reconstituted itself to the ghosts' joy. Apple Bloom rapidly looked around to find a way to destroy it and stopped at the wheel. Getting an idea, she avoided a swing of the sword and bucked the armor, pushing it on the table. She then rapidly turned the wheel, hitting the armor with electricity. She didn't stop turning it, increasing the power of the electricity. It increased and increased, causing the armor to spasm more and more, turning hot red, until it melted to the ghosts' horror.

The ghosts were then quickly captured by the filly before she exited the laboratory, entering a second part of the catacombs. The maze continued here, as well as the attacks from the ghosts, Greens (with or without armors), Reds, as well as Pinks now. Thankfully, this maze wasn't as long as the first part. Well, following the footprints. Just by going right, and right again, she found a door that she passed, entering a room where she was on top of a staircase, with the dog waiting at the bottom.

Again, the dog ran away, forcing her to run after him while dealing with another armor as well as some Blues hiding in barrels. Following the dog in a corridor, she saw that she was in a dungeon with three cells. Following the steps, they led to the second cell, which was the only one that she couldn't enter. Thankfully, the wall between this cell and the first one was weakened, and the door of the first one was on the floor. So she entered the first cell (dealing with some more Blues hiding in barrels), bucked the wall to destroy it, and entered the second cell where she found the dog in a barrel. She didn't let him time to run away. The dog was captured in a few seconds, and he dropped the key.

Apple Bloom stared at the Poltergust, daring the dog to come out.

He didn't.

She danced in victory. Finally, that stupid dog was captured! He won't bother her ever again! Almost bouncing like Pinkie Pie, she took the key and backtracked through the catacombs until returning to the throne that she used to return to the semi-circular room. From here, she returned to the well where she climbed in the bucket before she pulled on the rope to make it rise. Once at the top, she carefully got out of the bucket, returning in front of the manor.

Having lost too much time because of the dog, Apple Bloom immediately went to the front door of the manor and opened it.

Only to enter a room with two dozens Greens all armed with swords and shields led by Diamond Cup now surrounding her. There were also two Reds menacingly hitting the palm of their hand with a bat. Some of the Greens were also wearing helmets. The doors closed behind her.

"Well... This gives a foretaste of what's waiting for me..."

With a signal from Diamond Cup, all the ghosts charged at her, weapons ready. Apple Bloom quickly put the Poltergust to red and activated it before sweeping the room with its vortex, rapidly catching all the ghosts only for more to come, mainly armed Reds, but also armed Greens and Pinks as well as two real ponies probably from the Old Clockwork judging by their uniform. She had to stop the Poltergust to avoid it from overheating, forcing her to run around avoiding the attacks from the many ghosts. Once the overheat gauge was empty again, she reactivated it and captured the remaining ghosts.

Once there weren't any ghosts remaining, she looked around to see if more were coming. Seeing nothing, she put the Poltergust back to yellow and sighed in relief. Just in this room, she captured more ghosts than in the other places, excepted the mine.

After that, she started to explore the room to see if there was anything of interest. But excepted a big staircase leading to a second level and some gargoyles, there wasn't much. All the second level had were some windows revealing to Apple Bloom that there was an inner courtyard. In this courtyard, there was a giant gargoyle holding two cages, and around it, there was a lot of ghosts commanded by Golden Hair. The ghosts used their power to make the giant gargoyle disappear.

Clever. Too bad Ah saw you. Ah'd have never guessed there's a giant gargoyle there, and it's probably important for me to continue if ya're making it disappear.

Now, with a clear objective in mind, Apple Bloom returned to the first level and looked left and right. There was a door in each sides of the room, and she wasn't sure which one to choose.

So she chose randomly and went for the door at the left of the entrance. She then had to traverse a small hallway with two armors and some other ghosts attacking her, including Purples dropping from the ceiling and a Brown blocking the door at the other end. Once all those ghosts were defeated, she passed the door that was blocked by the Brown and entered a room with a lot of suits of armor, weapons, and objects that were found in previous times of Equestria.

Apple Bloom wasn't surprised to see all the suits of armor starting to move, commanded by Jumpscare using one of them. However, they possessed various weapons, from the usual swords and spears to axes and even spiked maces. Apple Bloom had to act quickly and tackled the armor directly at the right of the entrance before she slammed the Green in it on some of the other armors to destroy more of them. She wasn't able to destroy all of them before the Green was captured, so she had to repeat the action while avoiding their weapons as they attacked her. Once all the armors were destroyed, making sure that the Greens couldn't possess them again, she captured the ghosts, some of them starting to use the weapons to continue to fight her.

With the room cleaned, she could continue her way, passing a door at the right of the entrance. She entered another hallway, this one forking a little further to the right. No armor here, but a lot of gargoyles, and she could see some ice around a door at the end. As she advanced, a food cart suddenly barreled from the right path and Apple Bloom barely jumped out of the way before the cart ended up hitting a wall. Some Greens came out of it, a little dazzed, and Apple Bloom captured them before more ghosts appeared, including an Orange using what was on the cart to attack her.

Curious, she went to the door surrounded with ice and entered a cold room covered in snow with some ice, an igloo, a mammoth that she poked to see if it moved, and some holes with fishes in the floor. Here, Zircon was waiting with three real ghost griffons and a lot of Pinks as well as some Blues throwing fishes at her from buckets of fishes. She had to use the DLD a lot, as well as lot of random ghost-slamming around. Once the room was cleaned, she spotted behind a wall of ice a key with a head shaped like a gargoyle head hooked to the wall. Having no way to melt the ice, she left the room and took the path to the right after dealing with some more ghosts.

In this path, there were two doors in the left wall, both leading to the kitchen. A lot of Greens attacked her here with rolling pins, knives, and other kitchen tools, as well as the ghost of a cook that she was surprised to find in this place. Nothing of interest was discovered in this room however, so she left and continued down the path until another door at the end leading to the courtyard.

Here, she had to fight all the ghosts she saw through the windows earlier, including Golden Hair. She had to use the Poltergust in red mode again, especially when five Browns dropped at the same time. Once the courtyard was empty of ghosts, she used the DLD to bring back the giant gargoyle and started to inspect it, focusing on the two cages that were open. Having a hunch, she took two stones around the courtyard and threw them at the cages, finding out, as she thought, that the cages could be lowered. Each cage lowered revealed a keyhole at the base of the statue, so two in total, and Apple Bloom remembered the gargoyle key back in the ice room. She will have to find a way to get it and find where the other was. From here, looking up, she saw that there were also three balconies at the left, right, and back of the courtyard. However, she had no idea yet how to reach them. Having explored the left side of the manor, she found no stairs that could potentially lead to the left balcony.

She left the courtyard by the right door, entering a hallway symmetrical to the last one with yet more ghosts. The two doors to the left led to two restrooms. In one of them, a Red was sitting on a toilet reading a newspaper, and because of this, didn't see or hear her enter. So she pulled a rope and caused water to come out of the toilet, propelling the Red in the air. She used his surprise to easily capture him. In the other restroom, however, a Green tried to pull the same prank on her, but she got him simply by pretending to exit the room, making him appear as he booed at her in disappointment. This was a mistake for him, and he ended in the Poltergust.

She had to clean the hallway again before she went to the left toward a door with sand around it. The room behind it had a path circling it, leading to a lower level with sand passing by a giant statue. At the bottom, there was a lot of coffins from which mummies burst out, commanded by Clean Order. Thankfully, there was a lamp on the sand, and Apple Bloom used it to burn all the mummies one after another before she captured the ghosts that came out of them as well as the butler and some Pinks and Reds as well as two ghost ponies from the Old Clockwork.

All the ghosts gone, she exited the room, cleaned the hallway again, and passed the door at the other end surrounded with small vines, entering a room full of plants with some tribal statues and even a small waterfall. On the floor, there were some logs, and inside a tunnel from which came the water, there was a giant carnivorous plant (exactly like in the Haunted Towers) guarding the second gargoyle key. The plant wasn't letting her approach, so she had to be careful of it while capturing the many ghosts that ambushed her in the room with tribal spears and masks, including Opal Note at their head. Once the room was clean of ghosts, she exited by the door at the left, leading to a small hallway (with more ghosts) that led back to the entrance hall.

After cleaning the entrance hall of ghosts that had returned here, she sat to think of what she had to do to get the keys. One of the keys was trapped behind a wall of ice, so she had to use fire to melt it. The lamp in the room with the mummies could work, but its fire may not be powerful enough. But she could use one of the logs in the room with the plants. As for the second key, a carnivorous plant was guarding it, and no Twilight to deal with it this time. But, back in the room with the armors, she could take a sword and use it to cut the plant!

Plan in mind, she returned to the room with the armors. Once here, she had to deal with some ghosts who took possession of the armors again before taking one of the swords. With a sword in hooves, she returned to the jungle room, still fighting many ghosts on the way, and after avoiding an attempt of the plant to eat her, used the sword to cut it, opening the way to the key.

After taking the key, she took one of the logs and went to the room with the mummies and used the lamp at the bottom to light the log. She then quickly ran all the way through the courtyard to the ice room to use the burning log to melt the ice and get the second key. Only then did she deal with the many ghosts that chased her through the hallways and across the courtyard.

Both keys in her possession, she returned to the courtyard and placed the keys in their keyholes. This caused the statue to lower into the ground, and a spiral staircase with a rotor to take its place. The staircase was leading to the back balcony. Here, there was only one door, and it was locked.

So she returned to the base of the spiral staircase and turned the rotor. As she thought, it caused the staircase to turn clockwise. And so, now she could reach the right balcony where she passed a door, entering a new hallway with its lot of ghosts for her to fight.

Once the hallway was empty, she saw that there were three doors in the wall in front of the entrance, so she went to the one most at the left, only for this door to reveal to be a trapdoor crushing her against the wall.

Groaning in pain, rubbing her muzzle, she said, "Ah forgot about those darn doors..."

She went to the next door, testing it carefully, ready to jump out of the way. Thankfully, this one was a real door, and she entered a room with a chair, a table, a lot of stacks of books, and a bookcase where all the books were of the same color and that seemed to miss one. After cleaning the room of all paranormal activity, she found by looking through the hole in the bookcase that it was a secret passage to a room about trains. She supposed that she had to find the last book to open it, so she searched it but didn't find it in this room.

So she left and went to the last door, this one also real, and entered a room engulfed in a fog that seemed to somehow come out of a porthole in the wall. She could also feel the room swaying as if it was a ship, and a Red was at a ship's wheel, turning it left and right, causing the swaying. There were also some other objects linked to ships and sailing, as well as a part of a real ship and a statue of an octopus on a barrel.

She closed the porthole to stop the fog from entering the room and get a better sight before she captured the Red at the wheel to stop the room from swaying. More ghosts came once the Red was gone, but Apple Bloom captured all of them. Seeing that there was nothing in the room, she left it, finishing her exploration of the right side of the manor.

So she returned to the courtyard and used the rotor to spin the staircase until she could reach the left balcony and enter a hallway symmetrical to the other, also with three doors. After capturing the ghosts here, she went to test the first one on her right. Contrary to the equivalent in the right hallway, this one was real and led to a room displaying stuff like models of airships and balloons. In the center, there was a huge balloon. Again, after cleaning the room of all ghosts, she found nothing and left, going to the next door.

This one led to a small room that didn't possess much, only a table with some stuff on it, a ladder, and four cardboard boxes. Then, as she approached the boxes to search them, Ruby and Sapphire suddenly came out of two of them, Ruby holding a book possessing the same color as the books of the bookcase. But before she could act, they passed the wall to the room with the airships and balloons.

She chased them there and found the twins in the basket of the big balloon at the center of the room. Many ghosts appeared to attack her while the colts started to bombard her with bombs. She began to run around in order to avoid the bombs while capturing the ghosts, often letting them drag her around to get away from the bombs. Once the last ghost was captured, she quickly picked a bomb that the twins had just thrown and threw it back at the basket where they were, destroying it and sending the colts flying because of the blast. But just as she started capturing them, Swift Wave appeared and Ruby threw the book at her before she flew away.

Once Ruby and Sapphire were captured, Apple Bloom used the DLD to follow Swift Wave's trace, returning to the hallway and seeing that she passed the wall to the courtyard. She wasn't sure where, from there, she went, so she used the DLD on all the walls, having to spin the staircase a lot, until she found out that Swift Wave passed the wall of the right balcony to the right hallway. From the hallway, Swift Wave then passed the wall to the nautical room.

Swift Wave was on the ship, but Apple Bloom first had to fight her way through more ghosts, including Octy the octopus from the Gem Manor who became Apple Bloom's manor's cook. No pot for him to hide, so he was easier to fight than in the Gem Manor, as easy as it is to avoid eight tentacles while facing other ghosts. A long fight later, Apple Bloom finally managed to capture Octy, but as she climbed the ramp to reach Swift Wave, Crystal Ball appeared and took the book before flying away.

"Stop it! Ah already'd enough of this with the dog!" yelled the filly in annoyance, only to be splashed by water spit by Swift Wave.

In return, she captured the chubby mare and exited the room to follow Crystal Ball's traces with the DLD. Crystal Ball passed by the entrance hall only to reach the left hallway of the second story, entering the last room Apple Bloom hadn't explored yet. Ironically, this room was full of displays about paranormal stuff, like photos with a ghost visible in them, an ouija board, weird items and dolls, and a giant crystal ball at the center, in the floor. Crystal Ball was floating above her namesake, the book floating beside her.

Again, there were many ghosts in the room to stop her from capturing Crystal Ball, and to make things worse, there were some Oranges that were throwing the various objects in the room at her. Crystal Ball herself was levitating and throwing those objects in a greater quantity. And every now and then, she made the crystal ball flash, blinding Apple Bloom and making her vulnerable to attacks. Just because of that, she got hit a lot in this room, even with the Poltergust in red mode.

It was with a bloody muzzle that she left the room with the book in her possession. She returned to the room with all the books and placed the book back in the bookcase. The bookcase moved to the left, letting her enter the room with the trains. Here, Emerald was waiting with a key, surrounded by many, many ghosts. The old mare immediately started firing lasers from her eyes, forcing Apple Bloom to move to avoid them. Running between the ghosts, avoiding their punches, she approached Emerald and trapped her before slamming her on the ghosts. Even with Emerald gone, it was still a long fight.

But, finally, she had the key to the last door on the back balcony of the courtyard. So she returned there and used it to open the door, entering a terrace where there was an altar.

At first, as she carefully advanced, nothing happened, but as she approached the altar, a portal suddenly opened, and out of it, as well as from all the walls of the terrace, came a huge number of ghosts. Not only ghosts from the valley, all the kinds she encountered, but also painted ghosts from Pyrite, and what remained of the Gem Family she hadn't captured yet, Golden Shoes, Silver Shoes, and Platinum Shoes. There were also normal ghosts, mainly from ponies, but also of other species like zebras, griffons, donkeys, and so on, all of them seemingly controlled. There were even Breezies!

Apple Bloom had to call back all her skills from the battle of the roof back at the Gem Manor to deal with this real army of ghosts. The Poltergust almost overheated more than once, and she also had to abuse the DLD. Later in the fight, there were even some wraiths that appeared, but thanks to the DLD, she could force them out of their shadow form to capture them.

Just as things started to calm down with the number of ghosts diminishing, a painting ghost alicorn came out of the portal and fired a huge magical beam at Apple Bloom, and the filly barely dodged it. Quickly, Apple Bloom ran to it before it could fly out of her range and trapped it, not letting it go despite all the beams it fired at her. She slammed it a lot to weaken it, but the alicorn still put up a great fight before it was captured.

From there, the battle didn't last long. Ghosts stopped coming, and about one minute later, they were all captured, and Apple Bloom sat in front of the portal to recover some energy. She was exhausted.

And she still had Pyrite and his ally to fight... If only she had one of these potions from Zecora to recover.

She remained sitting in front of the portal for a whole hour before she felt ready to continue. Her muzzle had stopped bleeding and her injuries weren't too painful anymore.

She jumped into the portal.

---

She appeared on a small floating island, and she looked around at the spiritual world she was in now. She was probably the first living being to enter it. The spiritual world was an infinite purple void with countless random stuff floating everywhere, mainly islands and buildings, or parts of buildings. The air was very cold and empty. Not even a breeze could be felt. It was a wonder that there was even air to breathe, and it was saturated with spiritual energy to the point that her hairs were constantly on end all over her body.

There was a path formed of smaller floating island leading to some ruins with a giant statue of Celestia standing on a wall. Jumping from island to island, she joined the ruins.

Applejack was there, half conscious.

"Applejack!" yelled Apple Bloom as she started to run.

Only to be stopped by a voice yelling "Not so fast!" just as a Shadow seemingly made of pure magic appeared between her and her sister.

Looking up, Apple Bloom spotted Pyrite floating above the mare. "YOU!!!"

Not minding her shout, Pyrite started talking as Applejack and the Shadow started floating beside him. "You faced animals, objects, time, and nature. What else do you think causes a lot of death among ponies? Magic, of course. More than anything, magic caused a lot of suffering, and will cause more in the future. Magical accidents, power hungry tyrants like Sombra, wars, or just wild magic suddenly going out of control. So face the last Shadow, Dark Magic, and be ready to fight the ponies' best friend, but also their worst enemy."

Finishing with the evilest smirk ever, Pyrite flew away, leaving behind Dark Magic and Applejack.

Then Dark Magic entered Applejack's body, taking possession of her.

Before Apple Bloom's horrified eyes, Applejack painfully transformed, the mare groaning in pain as a horn started to grow out of her forehead while bones poked out of both sides of her barrel to form skeletal wings. Flesh then appeared on the bones, followed by orange feathers, ending Applejack's transformation into an alicorn. But it wasn't over. The mare opened her eyes that had become green with purple smoke coming out of them, and she gave the filly a glare promising murder. Her fur and mane became darker, and purple crystals appeared on her body, forming a crystal armor with claws at the forehoofs. Finally, more crystal appeared, forming two swords that floated at both sides of Applejack.

Apple Bloom started crying. "Applejack..." She closed her eyes, clenching her teeth. "Pyriiiiite...!" she growled. She opened her eyes and glared at Applejack, or rather, at the Shadow possessing her. "Ah can still save her! It isn't over!"

She charged, and Applejack fired a beam of dark magic on her path, causing a purple crystal to sprout from the ground. Apple Bloom avoided it with a bounce at the side and circled it to continue to approach the mare. Applejack swung a sword but the filly jumped above it, then lowered her head to avoid the other before she turned around and gave Applejack a buck on the teeth.

Applejack turned into shadows and moved away. She then heavily stomped the floor, spreading a shockwave that destroyed the crystal she sprouted earlier and that forced Apple Bloom to jump. The filly then used the Poltergust to throw one of what remained of the crystal toward Applejack, hitting her on the face.

Applejack fired back many dark beams that Apple Bloom did her best to avoid, each of them causing a crystal to appear on the ground. After some time, Applejack fired beams toward the sky, and most of them rained back randomly on the arena while a few homed in on Apple Bloom until hitting an obstacle like the crystals. Apple Bloom eventually managed to approach Applejack again, and after avoiding the swords, she bucked her on the face. But this time, instead of letting her time to turn into shadows, Apple Bloom immediately activated the Poltergust and slammed the mare against the wall, breaking some of her crystal armor that quickly reformed.

Applejack got up and stomped the ground, destroying all the crystals with another shockwave. She then used magic to levitate all the remains of the crystal and threw them at the filly who ran back and forth to avoid them, eventually catching one of them with the Poltergust and throwing it back at the mare. Apple Bloom then ran to Applejack as she was stunned and trapped her in the Poltergust's vortex before slamming her around, breaking her crystal armor more and more, resulting in the mare getting more and more injured until she turned into shadows and flew away.

Applejack sent her swords to attack continuously the filly but Apple Bloom caught them with the Poltergust and slammed them against the ground, breaking them. She then threw the shards at Applejack before she charged at her and bucked her face again, knocking her out.

Dark Magic came out of her and Apple Bloom immediately trapped it to capture it. Dark Magic tried to use magic, mainly magical beams homing in Apple Bloom or sprouting crystals on the way to free itself. Eventually, it was able to escape, and it returned inside Applejack's body. Her body then grew until she was as tall as Celestia, and her mane and tail began to float to a non-existent wind. However, her eyes became slited, and her teeth became sharp, so she looked more like Nightmare Moon than Celestia.

Clouds appeared above them, and lightning bolts began to randomly strike the arena while Applejack created shadow versions of her normal self to attack Apple Bloom. The filly could do nothing to them, so she could only avoid their attacks while approaching Applejack to attack her. Applejack was however too tall for Apple Bloom to reach her face and buck it, so she instead bucked the left foreleg, bending it and forcing Applejack to kneel. Only then did she buck her face before she used her Poltergust to slam her head first on the ground. But this time, Applejack punched her back despite the hard blow, the force of her punch sending the filly flying a few feet.

Apple Bloom spat some blood and jumped away to avoid a dark beam and the crystal it sprouted. Applejack then sent magic toward the clouds and Apple Bloom began to run while jumping left and right to avoid the lightning that started to target her. Thinking quickly, Apple Bloom ran toward Applejack and passed under her, between her legs. Applejack was hit by the lightning as a result.

Thanks to it, the lightning stopped raining on Apple Bloom and she took the occasion that Applejack was paralyzed by the electricity to return to her. She bucked her back legs, making them bend. She then climbed on her back and jumped to her neck, clinging to it while she started to punch her face again and again and again. Applejack struggled to get herself rid of the filly, but Apple Bloom had a strong grip.

Applejack eventually calmed down and grabbed Apple Bloom with her magic to throw her away only for Apple Bloom to take the Poltergust off of her back and to bonk Applejack on the head with it, freeing herself from the magic before she could be thrown. Apple Bloom then climbed to the top of Applejack's head and smashed the horn with the Poltergust, making the mare yell in pain. After some more smashing, Apple Bloom eventually broke the horn.

Applejack finally turned into shadows under her and moved away, causing the filly to drop on the ground. Already, Applejack's horn was starting to regrow, so Apple Bloom acted quickly and ran to Applejack. The mare attacked her with crystal claws and hit her once, leaving some very painful and bloody claw marks on her side, but Apple Bloom continued despite this and headbutted Applejack's belly, taking out her breath. She then trapped her with the Poltergust and slammed her around.

Dark Magic eventually came out of her and Apple Bloom trapped it only for it to escape again and to return inside the mare. The transformation that resulted was the worst. Applejack's size tripled, but her body became deformed. Her right front hoof became a claw while her left front leg and left back leg became very muscular. The right eye became bigger than the other and bloodshot, and her teeth became like the ones of a monster, poking out of her mouth and even piercing it, causing blood to drop from her mouth along with drool. Some of her ribs teared her skin, poking out of her, and some of her mane and tail fell while the rest became disheveled. Finally, her horn came back but looked more like a scythe now while her wings became giant bat wings with sharp claws at the end, and purple crystals came out of her body here and there.

Now, Applejack was roaring like a real monster, and she slammed her hoof on the ground, causing dozens of crystals to appear all over the arena. Apple Bloom jumped to a place where no crystals were coming out of the ground only to see Applejack now charging at her, teeth ready to tear her to shreds. With a roll, she barely avoided the mouth, and the mare instead rammed the wall, destroying it. Applejack shook her head to recover from it, then turned to Apple Bloom, growling.

Only to be impaled by the horn of the statue of Celestia falling on her. Purple crystals immediately started to spread all over her body from the wound until it was entirely trapped in it.

And it broke into pieces.

"NOOOOOOO!!!" yelled Apple Bloom.

Dark Magic came out of the remains, and Apple Bloom yelled as she charged at it. She trapped it and slammed it. And slammed it again. The Shadow was slammed, and slammed, and slammed, five times, ten times, twenty times, fifty times... until it finally disappeared inside the Poltergust.

Taking huge breaths to recover from her rage induced actions, Apple Bloom looked around her at the crystal remains of Applejack, crying, and began to try to assemble them to reform the mare, repeating to herself, "Ah can still save her...!"

Until she was hugged from behind. All she could see were orange, cold, transparent hooves. "Stop it, Bloom... It's over..."

Apple Bloom stopped moving and slowly turned her head to look behind her.

There she was, now a ghost, Applejack, looking at her sadly. "Ah'm sorry... Ya did yer best... Ah'm proud of ya, sugarcube."

But then, before more could be said, purple energy hit Applejack, and she put her hooves on her head, teeth clenched.

Apple Bloom gasped. "Resist, AJ! Resist!"

Applejack groaned. "Ah... can't..." Then, she dropped, and her expression became blank as she started to wordlessly float away into the purple void.

Just as Apple Bloom started running after her, the arena suddenly tilted, and she fell onto a smaller island that began to float toward a huge island with a single tower at the center.

She could spot Pyrite on top of the tower.

Comments

[Skyeheart]

Scootaloo captured them before more ghosts appeared, including an Orange using what was on the cast to attack her.

Just a quick thing to correct.

[Lucar]

10116121
Thanks.

[The Kelduo]

First of all, I know this story is rated Teen, but you should still watch your language. I'm talking about the S word.

Second of all...
Sonic.exe: *exists*
Dark Magic Applejack (second and third form): I'm about to end this demon's whole career.

And the armor started to rise under the mad cackles of both ghosts.

It's alive! IT'S ALIVE!!!

[Lucar]

10139837

First of all, I know this story is rated Teen, but you should still watch your language. I'm talking about the S word.

As long as it's not too recurrent, it's no problem, or else there would be much more M rated stories.

Sonic.exe: *exists*
Dark Magic Applejack (second and third form): I'm about to end this demon's whole career.

At least, Sonic.exe wasn't defeated by a child and his own stupidity.

[Teraunce]

Until she was hugged from behind. All she could see were orange, cold, transparent hooves. " Stop it, Bloom... It's over... "

Well pyrite really needs to redie now. Also what an apt name for he sought fool's gold.

[Bookwurm666]

some Blues throwing fishes at her from buckets of fishes

New Zealand anyone?

appeared on a small floating island, and she looked around at the spiritual world she was in now. She was probably the first living being to enter it.

No just the first one to do so willingly.