Apple Bloom's Mansion 3: The Hotel of Eternal Rest

by Lucar

Basement, Grand Lobby, and Mezzanine Part1

Apple Bloom woke up, hearing somepony call her while she was licked. She felt that she was on something soft, but it wasn't a bed. Eventually, she opened her eyes and saw that the one licking her was Polterpup, and the pony who was calling her was Little Ghost. She then saw that she was sleeping on towels in a bin. Looking around, she saw that she was in the laundry room, in the basement, seeing baskets of towels, piles of towels, washing machines, some sinks and basins, as well as shelves full of cleaning products.

For a moment, she wondered why she was there, but then she remembered.

Eternal Rest revealing herself to be working for Thanatos, capturing everypony, using some talisman to weaken Little Ghost...

She killing Scootaloo...

Then Apple Bloom escaped with Little Ghost and Polterpup, jumping in the laundry chute. Even if she fell on towels, it was still quite the fall from the fifth floor to the basement. No wonder she lost consciousness for a slight moment.

At the thought of Scootaloo, tears appeared in her eyes. The fear of what Eternal Rest did to the others made it worst. But she quickly calmed down and jumped from the bin. Remaining there crying won't save them.

"Are ya alright?" she asked the ghosts.

Polterpup barked and nuzzled her in answer.

"I'm still weakened by this stupid talisman in me," said Little Ghost as she still tried to get said talisman out. "Outside of this, I'm alright. What about you?"

"Ah'm alright too..." answered Apple Bloom with a sigh.

Little Ghost put a hoof on her back. "We will save them!" she almost shouted with determination. Then her expression became hesitant. “As for Scootaloo... Well, we will save her ghost and... find something, like we did with Sweetie Belle and Applejack.”

"Wait. We?"

"Of course!" answered Little Ghost as she placed her front hooves against her sides. "We know now that Thanatos can't control me."

"That's before you're weakened."

"Erh... Maybe. But remember what Discord did. Even weakened, I should be able to resist. Besides, it's not like I'm safe anywhere. Thanatos already showed that he could get me no matter where I go, so I should as well remain there and help you! I'm a ghost hunter too, after all!" She hugged Apple Bloom. "You will not be alone this time!"

Apple Bloom hugged her back. "Thank ya, Little Ghost. Ah'm glad to not be alone, for once."

They gave each other a hoofbump. "Now let's get our Poltergusts!"

"And show Eternal Rest that she shouldn't have messed with us!"

At this, they moved to exit the room. On the way, they found some bags of bits and a few gems on the tables and shelves. Apple Bloom, when she saw the first bits, smirked and took them.

"She won't need this money once we're done with her."

Little Ghost rolled her eyes with a giggle. "Aren't you already rich enough?"

Apple Bloom laughed. "Ah'll find some use to it!"

"But where will you put it?"

""Ah still've the magic pouch Ah used in the Gem Manor. It must still be in the caravan. It's now linked to the treasure room in mah Manor."

"So, we're ransacking a five stars hotel. You know what?" She pulled a shelf, making it fall with everything on it. "I always wanted to do something like that!" she shouted with a wide smile before she frowned. "If only I wasn't weakened, it would be even funnier if I had all my powers. I could go loose." She pulled on another shelf. "That's for weakening me! You witch!"

Apple Bloom laughed. "Alright. Ah get the money, ya go wild. Let's make her regret."

"Yay!"

By the time they exited the laundry room, not a single bit and gem remained (placed in a small basket on Apple Bloom's back) and the room was in total disorder, shelves on the floor, towels teared in pieces, and so on.

There wasn't much in the hallway linking the laundry room to the staircase to the first floor and the elevator, some creepy pictures on the walls, some trash cans, and a door on the left leading to the parking.

The parking was rather empty. A few carts under sheets, suitcases and luggage spread a little everywhere, and a small caged area to the left with a generator producing the electricity. At the extremity of the parking, on the right, was the caravan, the lights on.

"There's somepony in the caravan!" said Apple Bloom.

"Maybe we aren't the only ones who escaped!" said Little Ghost excitedly.

"Let's still be careful," warned Apple Bloom as she started to slowly approach the vehicle. "Can ya look through the window?"

"Aye!" Little Ghost silently flew to one of the windows, hid beside it, and looked before smiling. "Sweetie Belle and Applejack are in here!"

Apple Bloom gasped and opened the door. "Applejack! Sweetie Belle!" she shouted, gaining their attention.

"Apple Bloom? What're ya- Woah!" started to say Applejack before she was tackle hugged by her sister while Polterpup went to lick Sweetie Belle.

After a small giggle, Sweetie Belle asked, "Is it already morning?" She then saw how relieved Apple Bloom was, to the point of almost crying. As a skeleton, she couldn't frown, but if she could, she would be now. "Something happened?"

"Eternal Rest! She's a ghost who works for Thanatos! She captured everypony!" quickly said Apple Bloom, making the robot and the lich gasp. "And she... She killed Scootaloo!"

Sweetie Belle put her hooves on her mouth in horror, and Applejack's expression became somber.

"Tell me everything that happened," said the robot.

So Apple Bloom and Little Ghost told everything that happened, from Rarity's scream that awakened them to Apple Bloom jumping in the laundry chute to escape Eternal Rest. At the end of their tale, seeing the filly on the verge of crying again, Applejack put her hooves on Apple Bloom's withers.

"Listen, Bloom. There's nothing ya could've done to stop what happened to Scootaloo. Without a Poltergust, ya would've been killed too."

"Ah know... Ah... Ah've just enough of seeing ponies Ah love getting killed... Ah've enough of Thanatos... Of all this... Ah can't take it anymore!"

Applejack's eyes became red. She can't growl, but she would. "When the day comes, Thanatos'll regret everything he put ya through. Remember, we're searching for a way to capture him." She sighed, and hugged Apple Bloom. "Until then, be strong. Even if we all get killed, remain strong." She looked at her in the eyes with a soft smile. "Remember, dead or alive, we'll remain with ya. As robots, liches, ghosts, or whatever else."

Apple Bloom sighed, but gave a small smile, nodding. "Right."

"You know..." started to say Sweetie Belle hesitantly. "I now wonder what Scootaloo will be."

"A robot," answered everypony else.

"Right... It's obvious now that you tell it. So, you will go capture Eternal Rest?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"Of course," answered Apple Bloom. "Little Ghost'll come with me."

Little Ghost nodded. "I may be weakened, I can still use a Poltergust."

"Then let me come too!" shouted Sweetie Belle in determination.

"What?" asked everypony.

"Even if I'm learning, three Poltergusts are better than two! And since I'm a lich, and a skeleton now too, I'm sure I can be useful in other ways! Like... Uh... Drat. What could I do that Little Ghost couldn't?"

"Nothing," answered Little Ghost smugly. "Ghosts rule."

"Excepted that ghosts are very vulnerable to magic and other ghosts," said Apple Bloom. "Sweetie Belle isn't. She'd take those lightnings Eternal Rest used without problems."

"So I can use my body as a shield."

"But remember, you're very fragile now as a skeleton. A heavy blow, and your bones are scattered on the floor. And it will take time to reform."

"Right. So, just against stuff like the lightnings. Not trying to block a weapon," said Sweetie Belle with a nod.

"Unless it's an arrow. Arrows should be okay to block."

Sweetie Belle looked at her skeletal body, putting a hoof in her rib cage. "If the arrow doesn't simply pass between my ribs."

"Well, no matter what ya can do, Sweetie, you're welcome to join," said Apple Bloom. "Like ya said, three Poltergusts are better than two."

"Make it four," said Applejack. "Ah'm coming too."

"Really?!" said Apple Bloom happily, only for her smile to become sheepish. "But we only brought three Poltergusts..."

Applejack smirked, raised her front right leg, and her hoof opened before it started sucking. "Ah've mah own functional Poltergust. Surprise!"

The fillies looked at her with jaws dropping, literally in Sweetie's case.

Applejack laughed. "Now, let's save our friends!"

---

The team of four ghost hunters, a filly, a filly ghost, a filly skeleton, and a robot mare, exited the parking, the fillies each now having a Poltergust on their back. Apple Bloom also had the magical pouch dangling from a belt. Polterpup also followed them, but walked around, exploring and playing. Following the hallway, they quickly reached the elevator and entered it, only to discover a really bad news: all the buttons of the elevator except the one to B1 were gone.

"Whaat?!" shouted Sweetie Belle.

Apple Bloom sighed. "Welcome to mah world..."

"But now, where could they be?" wondered Applejack.

"Let's just explore, and we will probably find at least one," said her sister before she left the elevator, followed by the others.

Since the elevator wasn't a solution for now, they climbed the staircase to the Grand Lobby, which had changed a lot. There were still the decorations for Nightmare Night, but the room was now darker. There were now skulls, the flowers were dead, and the swan sculptures were replaced by gargoyles and creepy pony statues that gave the ponies a bad vibe.

They then saw five blue pony ghosts at the entrance, blocking it with wooden planks.

"There!" shouted one of them as he finished hammering a nail. "Now she won't be able to escape!"

"Where would she go, anyway?" asked another. "The hotel is in the middle of nowhere."

"And it's not like she would leave behind her friends," said a third.

Polterpup suddenly jumped out of the door, scaring the ghosts. The ghosts quickly recovered and glared at him as he sat between them. Polterpup then barked toward Apple Bloom, leading the ghosts to spot them.

When they saw that Apple Bloom was there, with the Poltergust, and not alone, they gulped.

"Erh... Shouldn't she be alone? Why are they four?"

"I escaped with Apple Bloom," answered Little Ghost, smirking.

"We weren't in our rooms," said Applejack and Sweetie Belle, also smirking (well, Applejack smirked. Sweetie Belle couldn't).

"Oh..." said the five ghosts.

"Why didn't the mistress warn us?" asked one of them.

"Because she probably doesn't care, it's up to us to deal with it," answered another.

"Well, we're doomed, but orders are orders,"

"Before we start, a little precision," said Apple Bloom. "Ah'd still escape by the parking."

The ghosts facehoofed.

And they were all captured in the following seconds very easily, Apple Bloom capturing two at the same time. However, during the chaos of the ghosts trying to escape the vortexes only to be slammed around, Applejack accidentally broke one of the pony statues.

Revealing that there was a skeleton inside.

When the ghosts were captured, the ponies looked at what remained of the statue, and at the skeleton. They then looked at the other statues in the room in horror.

"They're petrified corpses..." said Applejack.

"There are foals among them..." said Sweetie Belle.

Apple Bloom growled. "Now it's not just about us. Eternal Rest must be stopped."

"So that's her collection she talked about?" wondered Little Ghost. "Now I'm scared for the others..."

Everypony's expressions became somber at this, and they climbed the stairs to the second floor. However, they found out that the big double door, as well as the simpler door on its right, were locked. This left them no choice but to explore the Grand Lobby in search of a key that they found in the office of the bellhop. During the exploration, Apple Bloom found more bits and gems here and there. More blue ghosts came, probably to investigate what happened to the five they captured, and they attacked, but the hunters easily dealt with them.

The key opened the big double door, entering the ballroom.

To their surprise, they found Twilight and Spike there, at the end of the room. Twilight was standing on a pedestal, wings spread at her sides, and Spike was standing on her back. They weren't moving as a ghost different from the others, a blue earth pony stallion in an uniform, inspected them. The stallion talked in a familiar voice, revealing him to be the Steward. The black cloak, skeleton mask, and fake scythe left on a chair confirmed it.

"Perfect! Now, don't move, and wait for the cement to come. You will be the masterpiece of the hotel!"

"She'll be no such thing!" yelled Applejack.

The ghost yelped and abruptly turned around in panic, seeing them.

"What?! Already there? And why are there four of you? I thought there would be only Apple Bloom and the filly ghost!"

"Ya really have bad communication in this hotel," said Apple Bloom. "Applejack and Sweetie Belle weren't in their rooms. They weren't captured."

The Steward looked left and right in panic, then went to a chair, took it, and threw it at them. The ponies scattered to avoid it (except Little Ghost, who just passed through it), and they ran toward him as he approached another chair. Yelling in panic, the Steward began to swing the chair around, to no effect because the ponies didn't need to approach that much to trap him. Before he knew it, the Steward was trapped in four vortexes at once, and he ended up captured in Little Ghost's Poltergust in record time, the ghost yelling "I knew this would happeeeee-" Pouf! His hat was almost left behind, but a hoof of the stallion came out, grabbed the hat, and disappeared back in the vacuum cleaner.

Two elevator buttons, F1 and F5, were dropped.

"If I didn't know better, I would say that ghost hunting is easy," said Sweetie Belle.

"Yeah, trust me, it's only the beginning," said Apple Bloom.

While they talked, Applejack approached Twilight and Spike, who still weren't moving, waving a hoof in front of them. "Twilight? Spike? Hellooooo!" She put her hooves on Twilight and shook her. "Sugarcube! Come back to yer senses! Say something! JUST BUCKING MOVE!!"

"They are hypnotized," said Little Ghost, frowning. "Probably by Eternal Rest. She must be really powerful then. And they were ordered to not move. Remember, I used the same power."

"So we must capture Eternal Rest to get them out of it?" asked Applejack.

"It's a possibility," said Apple Bloom. "Luckily, Smart Spirit developed a way to free somepony from this hypnosis, but we must return to the caravan to get it."

"I could get to the caravan by myself and come back with the Dehypnotist," said Little Ghost.

Apple Bloom shook her head. "Too risky. Weakened as ya're, ya're too vulnerable alone. We must not separate."

"Alright, but then, how do we move them?" asked Little Ghost, pointing at Twilight and Spike. "If we try to move them, they will fight back."

"In that case..." Applejack gave a big hit on the back of Twilight's head, knocking her out. "Grab Spike, Little Ghost."

"Okay." Little Ghost grabbed Spike by the tail, the dragon starting to struggle and breathe fire, to no effect, while Applejack put Twilight on her back.

Author's Note:

Name: Steward
Age when dead: 21
Time of death: 10 years ago
Cause of death: broken neck after falling from a window
Info: Yeah, his actual name is Steward. Steward the Steward. He was the Steward of a prestigious hotel in Canterlot. Steward passed his entire life following orders from ponies treating him like dirt, from his parents (both unicorns nobles) to his boss in the hotel because he was an earth pony born at the wrong place. Because of this, he developped a very submissive personality, following any orders given to him out of fear, no matter what were those orders, even when that order was to jump through a window because his boss had enough of him.

Comments

[phantom ghost hunter]

10131630
Well okay its just that a lot of ponies are dying left and right oh and by the way with the relic thing I figured that it would be more like he was not able to completely destroy it so he broke it and scattered the pieces of it or he didn't know about it or that a draconequus could not touch it (for the record I'm not suggesting I'm just explaining my idea) anyway I hope you find a way to bring them back.

[Lucar]

10134481
Well, the Death tag and Horror Tag aren't here for nothing... Despite the comedy, it's a very dark saga.

[phantom ghost hunter]

10134483
Okay its just sweetie belle and scootaloo had there whole lives ahead of them so can you at least find a way to bring them back to life maybe give them new lives to live.

[Lucar]

10134489
In a way, Sweetie Belle as already a new life... as a lich (or whatever you call an undead whose soul is bound to the body and not to a phylactery). And Applejack as a robot. That's a way to live like any others. *shrug*

[phantom ghost hunter]

10134505
Well I hope you have a plan for scootaloo.

[Lucar]

10134507
I have one. Or rather, Eternal Rest has one for her.

[phantom ghost hunter]

10134510
You know I getting really close to grabbing my ghost buster gear (like my proton pack and trap) and attacking that guy for killing so many ponies.

[Lucar]

10134546
Good! That's the feeling I want to give about Thanatos and Eternal Rest. Two SSS-class jerks who consider the livings only as objects, and the deads as servants/slaves.

[The Kelduo]

10134558
10134546
I don't think a proton pack and trap will be enough to capture Thanatos. *places my diamond sword on a crafting table* Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

[Lucar]

10161265
Mmmmmmmmmmhh......🤔 Nope. Sorry.

[GrimDarkSurvivor]

I feel real sorry for Steward because he's just taking orders.

[Herald of Opera]

I feel like the boss in question was being sarcastic, and probably regrets what happened. Because Equestria. The contrast between that and Eternal Rest is somewhat the point.