Apple Bloom's Mansion 4: The Castle of Death

by Lucar

Chapter 17: The Ice Tower

Thanks to the map again, getting out of the maze wasn't a problem. Also, by now, all the traps had been activated, and no Crawler appeared to stop them, so the way out was like a walk in the park.

A walk in the park with some fights against ghosts but whatever.

From the exit, the key wasn't leading far: the door it opened was just at their left, the only door in the hallway leading to Gusty's tower, at the beginning of the East wall.

The room this door led into was a long, but not large one, barely as large as the hallway outside. More particularly, the walls of this room were filled with portraits, barely leaving any place on them.

Each portrait represented somecreature, whether they're ponies, griffons, zebras, or something else, males or females, young or old.

And as the ponies advanced, they felt as if the portraits were watching them.

"They're looking at us, I'm not going crazy," said Scootaloo.

"Of course they're looking at us. Remember where we're?" said Apple Bloom.

"Then what are we waiting to destroy them?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"For the horseshoe to drop," answered her friend.

And it dropped. As the ponies reached the center of the room, the portraits suddenly took life, a ghost coming out of each of them. In just a few seconds, the ponies were surrounded by dozens of cackling, threatening ghosts, and the portraits were all now blank.

Apple Bloom looked at the ghosts, smirked, and said "Nice of ya'll to come out of yer hiding places so we can capture ya'll easily. Girls, Red Mode!"

The ghosts stopped laughing.

In the following moment, all the hunters activated their Poltergusts in Red Mode, rapidly sucking up all the ghost as well as some of the blank portraits. In a few seconds, the room was entirely cleaned.

Excepted for a group of seven portraits on the back wall. However, they weren't really portraits. They were... strange.

Two were of an eye (a left one and a right one), one was of a smirking mouth, and four were of reptilian claws. The eyes gave the ponies the evilest glare they could give, the mouth showed its sharp teeth, and the claws came out of their respective picture, ready to strike.

"Erh... That's something," commented Apple Bloom.

«I say! This is certainly the most original foe I ever saw,» said E. Gadd. «I can't say if it's a ghost simply possessing the seven pictures or if the pictures are actually given life by some power.»

"In both cases, the solution seems simple," said Applejack. "We destroy them."

It revealed however to be really hard to approach. The four claws constantly attacked, the eyes fired little bolts of energy, and if somepony was getting too close, the mouth would try to eat them. This left them to use the ice shards as their main weapon, which wasn't as effective as a good buck. The only one who could do some real damage was Little Ghost with her powers, and also Apple bloom once she decided to join her friend as a ghost. The pictures, however, revealed to be more resistant than any normal ones to the point that when Scootaloo attempted to suck one up, it didn't even move.

But the ponies rapidly decided to focus their fire on one picture at a time, starting with one of the claws, and before long, the thing had only three claws remaining, making the fight much easier. They then destroyed the mouth so Applejack could approach and do her powerful buck without this danger to worry about, and after that, they destroyed the two eyes, turning the animated set of pictures blind. from there, it was child's play to destroy the three remaining claws that were randomly swinging in their attempt to hit them.

With the monster entirely destroyed, the key appeared at the end of the room.

Back in the hallway, it led East at the last door after the one leading to the chamber of the doll house and before the path leading to the East Wing.

In the new unlocked room, there was nothing excepted a big central pillar with a spiral staircase. However, Apple Bloom could feel that it was colder in there.

"Ah think we're at the base of that ice tower we saw," she informed.

"So, more windigo hunting," said Little Ghost.

"And maybe other ice stuff, like Icys," said Sweetie Belle.

"Ready to fire fire then," laughed Scootaloo as she fired a small stream of fire from her Poltergust.

They climbed the stairs and reached the room above. It was a circular room entirely covered in ice and without any windows in the walls. Despite the cold, there were some candles with the purple flames, and in the opposite side of the room from the entrance, another staircase started, certainly leading to another room above.

As expected, several Icys welcomed them, but there were also some ghosts of ponies in warm clothes and even a couple of polar bears. But most of all, there were a lot, and really, A LOT of penguin ghosts armed with ice spears or ice halberds.

The fight almost immediately started with the Icys throwing ice and the polar bears ferociously charging at the ponies.

Applejack went to deal with the bears while the fillies dispersed to fight the rest.

Apple Bloom was immediately surrounded by penguins and ponies, and she used a Burst against the floor to create a shockwave to push them back, stop their attacks, and get some place. Then, she caught one of the ponies, the biggest earth pony stallion of the lot, and spun, using him to hit the other ghosts around before she used him as a shield to stop an ice shard from one of the Icys. She then slammed him on two penguins who attempted to attack her from behind with their spears before he was captured with a Power Surge. She immediately fired fireballs at the Icys attacking her to stop them long enough so she could then capture some of the penguins, including the two she previously slammed the stallion on. The penguins were rapid to capture, so their number rapidly diminished before the Icys restarted to attack her only to be attacked by Little Ghost who decided to deal with them.

A group of penguins charged at the earth pony filly, but as she readied herself to fight them, they were suddenly rammed by one of the polar bears that was now revealed to be in control of Sweetie Belle who was riding it. As the bear rampaged among the penguins, Apple Bloom then went to help Scootaloo to deal with another group just as Applejack captured the other bear and started to fight a trio of unicorn ponies who had been firing magical beams at her. At the same time, the clones of goo were moving around dealing with any ghosts they approached to.

In a little over one minute, the room was entirely cleaned and the ponies could climb the staircase to the floor above.

The room there was exactly like the previous one, but instead of a small army of ghosts awaiting them, there was just one. Sitting on a throne of ice was an unicorn mare, coat blue like the ice, mane white like the snow, crowned with a tiara of ice. Her eyes were actually closed, but despite this, she knew that the hunters were here because she began to speak.

"So the hunters who are after Lord Thanatos are finally reaching my domain..." At this moment, of all things, sunglasses floated from behind the throne and put them before she took a more relaxed position on it, placing her right foreleg on a support and using it to support her head as she smirked. No doubt that if she still had back legs, she would cross them. "Welcome. I was awaiting you."

Apple Bloom looked at the 'cool' queen of ice perplexed. "Uh... Twilight? Do ya know a queen like her?"

«Mmmh... Not at all,» answered the alicorn.

The queen laughed. "I don't think anypony from Equestria knows about me. I lived deep in the Frozen North where only the suicidal would dare to go, in my own little cool kingdom away from Celestia."

"Oh? Then what were you ruling? Penguins?" asked Scootaloo with a small laugh.

The ghost of a penguin armed of a spear appeared just beside the throne, and the queen petted it as her smirk grew. "You guessed right." She then sighed. "I had SO many of them under my rule... Too bad they were so weak. I would have loved to invade Equestria to turn my little cool kingdom into a bigger cool kingdom. But Celestia would have roasted me." Many dozens of penguins then appeared around here. "But they should be more than enough against you. Attack."

The penguins charged to spear the ponies only for Little Ghost to create a small shockwave that blasted the ones in front away and stopped the others. The ponies then took the occasion to all put their Poltergusts to Red Mode and began to capture the birds, their number rapidly diminishing.

It was hard to judge the queen's reaction to this, her eyes still hidden behind her sunglasses. However, she lost her smirk, but it simply could be because she was observing.

Before long, all the penguins were added to the ponies now huge collection of captured ghosts, and the queen then decided to move, getting up from her throne and floating a few steps toward the hunters.

"Seems like I overestimated them. I didn't know they were THAT weak. Unless I underestimated you? I'm not sure. Anyway, it seems like I will have to do the work myself."

At this, she took off her sunglasses and threw them away before ice began to form on her body, first covering her legs and ghost tail before moving up to cover the rest, finishing with her head. This new body of ice was shaped to look like her if she was still alive, so it possessed back legs and a tail. The body then grew, more ice forming on it, until it was the size of Celestia, with wings and a longer horn now present.

"We already got a king, so Ah guess it's time to get a queen!" said Apple Bloom.

"I don't think so. I don't know who was that 'king', but I'm on another level."

To prove her point, she used her ice power to create a few dozens of ice ponies around herself.

"Could that king do that?"

"Erh... No," answered Apple Bloom. "But he didn't have that big weakness that we can use and abuse," she continued with an evil smile as she sent fired a small stream of fire into the air to show the queen how doomed she was. "Shall we start, Snow White?"

"Snow White?! It's Queen Frozen Heart! Remember this! Queen Frozen Heart!"

"Snow White it's," said apple bloom matter-of-factly with a nod and a smug smirk.

Her friends laughed.

The queen sent her ice minions to attack.

And there was FIRE!

The minions melted one after another under the streams only to be quickly replaced by new ones created by Frozen Heart who started to fire ice beams at the hunters, the beams creating ice upon impact, whether they were on the ground or on a pony. It didn't take long for them to get close enough of the queen that she took flight only to be bombarded of fireballs that slowly melted her ice body that she regularly had to reform.

She flew to the back of the room, formed a giant, perfectly spherical ice boulder, and kicked it to send it rolling toward the ponies to crush them. Applejack, boosted by a song from Sweetie Belle, quickly placed herself between it and the fillies and bucked it, sending it back at the queen and making it crush her instead before it bounced against the wall to start to roll around the room.

Frozen Heart quickly reformed her crushed ice body, snarled, and flew up the stairs. Careful of the still rolling ice boulder, the ponies followed her on the roof of the tower.

The queen was up in the sky, smiling smugly as the two windigos that the hunters had spotted at various occasions were circling around her.

"You know? I'm probably the only pony in history to have tamed windigos. Now, let's see how you will fare against my pets."

With a movement of her foreleg, she sent the two windigos at the hunters. They exchanged looks, then separated into two groups, put their Poltergusts into Red Mode again, and each group took on a windigo. When the two windigos were trapped, the two groups then slammed them against each other again and again Power Surge Slam until they were captured.

Twelve seconds, it was all it took to capture the two spirits, to the queen's very visible horror.

Little ghost used this to teleport directly behind the queen and hit her with enough force to send her crashing on the roof of the tower, destroying her ice body again. But Frozen Heart recovered and reformed her body. Only, this time, she made it huge, towering over the ponies, now the size of an ursa minor.

It made her a bigger, easier target for fireballs and fire streams, but it also made her more dangerous as she attempted to crush the ponies under her hooves or to slap them beyond the edge. She also used a lot of ice projectiles that the ponies had no problem to avoid or destroy (melt).

It was clear that Frozen Heart was using a lot of power because she lost control of it little by little, the attacks becoming easier to avoid and the ice body getting smaller. She began to materialize ice ponies, and penguins came to help her, but they were only a small distraction. A windigo also came from somewhere in the purple void probably to help its mistress, but it only served as ammunition for the ponies to slam on the queen's body.

Frozen Heart then let go of her shrinking body and formed instead a real blizzard that she sent at the ponies who began to get covered in ice, even Little Ghost and the clones of goo.

But Apple Bloom then turned herself into a ghost and sent with her own power a huge stream of intense fire at the queen. She was quickly joined by Little Ghost, turning the stream bigger and more powerful as it engulfed Frozen Heart who could only shriek in pain and fear.

When the stream disappeared, Frozen Heart, entirely burned to the point of being entirely black, dropped on the roof as the blizzard stopped. without the blizzard, the ponies had no problem breaking the ice that had partially covered them before they quickly captured the burned queen who couldn't even resist.

And a key appeared.

Another tower entirely cleaned, leaving another occasion for the ponies to contemplate the castle from outside, this time from the Southeast where they had a good view of the East Wing, of the training yard just North, the water tower just beside it with the waterfall, the Wind Tower where they fought Gusty, and the two huge towers near the center of the castle. They also could see a squared tower at the West that they had briefly seen before they entered the castle, near the entrance.

And as the ice around started to melt, the ponies took the key and left the tower.

"She was right about one thing. Princess Celestia would have totally roasted her. She really wasn't that powerful," said Scootaloo.

"A little, still," said Sweetie Belle. "She really had great control over ice."

They left the tower and went West, following the direction of the key they just got which was the direction the other key, the one they got from the doll house, was also leading. After a moment, and an encounter with another zombie pony-spider thing, they found themselves back in front of the door to the Great Hall, where the doll house key was leading, but they continued to follow the other key, having an idea where it was leading to.

There was only one door still locked in that direction: the third door from the one leading to the entrance hall, between the one leading to the room with the mirror and the one leading to the room with all the objects that had been invisible.

And judging by the position of the room compared to what they saw outside, it was probably the room at the base of the squared tower.

And after some Splitters, a Super Thrower, and a freaking bugbear among others, the ponies discovered that they were right.

It was a room totally empty bare for a staircase against the walls, leading up directly to the roof at what was certainly the fourth floor of the castle.

And once they were on the roof, they found themselves surrounded by a dozen guards, including a pegasus mare with a light orange coat, and two toned orange-red mane.

Private Pansy.

She was armed of a spear which, knowing about her Fluttershy-like personality, absolutely didn't suit her.

And she materialized a dozen spear made of pure energy and threw them at the hunters, starting the battle.

Dodging thrown spears while capturing more or less trained soldiers was not easy, but they quickly managed to diminish their number until only two remained while a couple more appeared. With this much manageable number, some of the hunters went after Pansy who began, in return, to materialize spears right out of the ground under their hooves, forcing them to constantly move.

Despite that show of power, Pansy really wasn't a fighter. So once they reached her, her direct attacks were very easy to avoid before she was trapped in a vortex. She still materialized spears to try to free herself, but the struggle didn't last long before the fourth Founder joined the three others captured so far.

Not long after Pansy was captured, as the hunters fought the guards that were still coming, a group of pegasi flew on the roof.

they weren't ghosts. they had flesh and blood bodies.

However, the pegasi had the disturbing particularity of having their head replaced by a giant eye from which they could fire lasers. classic.

Since they flew, Little ghost went to deal with them, followed by Apple Bloom in ghost form, while the others finished with the still coming guards (and other ghosts that began to appear). Thankfully, those... pegaseyes were as solid as normal ponies, and so, were easy to "kill" with the filly ghosts' huge powers.

As the roof was finally cleaned and the key appeared, Apple Bloom hoped they would soon find the laboratory so they could stop it from producing those abominations of nature.

Author's Note:

I wanted Pinkie to make a reference to Let it go about Frozen Heart, but I didn't know how to place it.

Comments

[The Kelduo]

The room there was exactly like the previous one, but instead of a small army of ghosts awaiting them, there was just one. Sitting on a throne of ice was an unicorn mare, coat blue like the ice, mane white like the snow, crowned with a tiara of ice. Her eyes were actually closed, but despite this, she knew that the hunters were here because she began to speak.

"Oh? Then what were you ruling? Penguins?" asked Scootaloo with a small laugh.

The ghost of a penguin armed of a spear appeared just beside the throne, and the queen petted it as her smirk grew. "You guessed right."

I can't help but think of Ice King from Adventure Time. Was that an accidental reference?

[Lucar]

10442293
Totally accidental. I haven't watched Adventure Time.

[Windy0]

It revealed however to be really had to approach. The four claws constantly attacked, the eyes fired little bolts of energy, and if somepony was getting too close, the mouth would try to eat them. This left them to use the ice shards as their main weapon, which wasn't as effective as a good buck. The only one who could do some real damage was _ Little Ghost with her powers, and also Apple bloom once she decided to join her friend as a ghost. The pictures, however, revealed to be more resistant than any normal ones to the point that when Scootaloo attempted to suck one up, it didn't even move.

A couple of errors I found.

[Lucar]

10442306

It revealed however to be really had to approach.

Corrected.

The only one who could do some real damage was _ Little Ghost with her powers

I don't see the error here.

[Windy0]

10442315
There was a second space in the second one.

[Lucar]

10442883
Ah, thanks.

[LordCalamity]

Sorry if I missed out on this chapter, I was just busy with you know, life and stuff.
I just realized you made Elsa from Disney's Frozen as a boss.

[Herald of Opera]

10447406
Nah, this was more along the lines of the original fairy tale.

[Spellflame]

10477035
Details!!!

[Herald of Opera]

10526883
Here's the Wikipedia page.