Chapter 24: Bad Organ
Thanks to a key that they found among the debris, the hunters were able to open a door that led from the laboratory directly to the dungeon (the last one that had remained closed in the West side of the dungeon) and to leave the underground without having to retrace their steps through all the trapped rooms.
As they left, they could see that the eyeballs became lifeless. Good!
"So, you now possesses Grogar's powers?" asked Scootaloo as they traverse the dungeon.
"Eeyup, apparently," answered Apple Bloom. "And whatever other powers Big Brain possessed."
"But you don't know how to use those powers. You don't know anything about necromancy like Grogar," said Sweetie Belle.
"Actually... Ah don't know how to explain it, but as Ah absorbed these powers, Ah also gained an idea of how to use them. It's... like an inner knowledge that was passed with the energy. Or maybe it's more like an instinct?"
«I think I see what you mean. Back when Celestia, Luna, and Cadance gave me their magic, I immediately knew how to use this magic to, for example, move the Sun and the Moon. Of course, I was missing experience, so I wasn't as good at moving them as Celestia and Luna...»
«You don't say. It was like the Sun was drunk,» said Rainbow Dash with a snicker.
«Hardy har har. Anyway, so it seems that our skills are imprinted in our magic, or ghost energy in the ghosts case, and if the magic is absorbed by somepony else, then those skills are passed along as some form of, as you said Apple Bloom, inner or instinctual knowledge.»
Applejack frowned at this. "Should Ah be worried then? Grogar had a lot of dark magic that Apple Bloom now possesses. Will she get corrupted by it?"
By now, they have stopped at the bottom of the stairs leading back to the first floor.
«Dark magic feeds of feelings such as hate and anger, so as long as she controls herself, resists its power and doesn't use it, or AT LEAST uses it only with strict parsimony like when I used it back in the Crystal Empire, she should be alright.»
"The necromancy too?"
«Necromancy is more complicated. It's Death magic, so it includes everything from simply communicating with a spirit in the afterlife to raising a corpse, with or without trapping a spirit in it. And the thing is that most of it isn't dark magic. Ethically questionable, but not dark. It's like Sweetie's mind control when she sings. Dark magic implies a lot of mind control, but not every mind controlling stuff is dark magic. Her form of mind control is more some kind of hypnosis like the ones that Little Ghost, Thanatos, and Eternal Rest can use. A power that seems to be common among the most powerful ghosts. I'm sure Apple Bloom would be able to use it if she trained.»
"But I'm not that powerful," said Sweetie Belle.
«You are not, which is why you are forced to sing to use your powers. You use singing as a catalyst.»
«I think we're getting on a tangent here,» said Discord. «What you must know about necromancy is that with enough power and control, it can let you manipulate a soul, or create one. It's what Grogar used to create me, Thanatos, and many monsters that plague, or plagued Equestria. And it's very certainly what Thanatos used to create all these purple ghosts like Bogmire or the ones you fought in Evershade Valley, and what Big Brain used to create these patchwork alicorn ghosts. But it is NOT dark magic. It can also be used to heal a soul. To put it simply, with this power, you're like a doctor for the souls. And like a doctor, you can do good or horrible stuff with it.»
"Too bad Ah haven't time to train to use it. It'd be useful in our situation," said Apple Bloom.
«At least, it's more raw power to use against Thanatos. You will need it,» said Discord.
"What other powers did you get?" asked Little Ghost.
Apple Bloom thought for a moment. "Mostly basic stuff that Ah already more or less know how to use like elemental powers, but Ah think Ah also got a better control over a great number of objects at once. Ah think Ah got it from Big Brain, probably used this power to manipulate his tools while doing... what he's doing. Like Rarity actually! And... Twilight, Ah think Ah'll ask yer help once this is over. Grogar was as much a magical genius as ya. Ah got a lot of spells and it'd be too long to list."
«Be thankful he didn't have his bell and was weakened by centuries of imprisonment and torture,» said Discord.
«I would be happy to help you! But... I won't be able to help you for the necromancy. It's one of the forms of magic in which I'm not at all experienced,» said Twilight.
"Darn, now Ah've the image of a necromancer Twilight in mah head. That's nightmare fuel," said Applejack with a chuckle.
«I would make a very good necromancer, thank you.»
At this, the discussion ends, and the hunters return in the first floor where the battles restart. Despite the disappearance of Big Brain's abominations, and the fact that by now, the majority of the gargoyles, armors, and robots were destroyed, the battles were even harder, the number of ghosts reaching crazy proportions. Especially ones possessing golems made of debris, as well as the strongest ghosts like Super Throwers, Swarms, and even Crawlers (although the bigger hallways makes it easier to fight them). Wraiths, until now absent in the hallways, now started to appear too, forcing the ponies to be extra careful to ensure that no ghost was turned into one. Skillful ghosts such as captain pirates, brigand leaders, archmages, ninjas, and so on also became more present.
In clear, the hallways were now absolutely hectic! No timeouts!
And now that they had finished the basement, the first floor, and the second floor, they had to traverse the hallways aaaaall the way to the staircase between the Great Hall and Copper Gear's apartments leading to the third floor, where the last key was guiding them.
It was also the staircase that led to the throne room... There was only one hallway up there, and the staircase was leading right in the middle of it, beside a door in a curved wall that was the base of the big tower they saw at several reprises, one of the last two towers they have yet to explore, the other being the tall one. Further South was another door in the East wall, and then, where the hallway turned East, another door could be seen in the South wall. If they remembered correctly what they had seen from the training yard and the walls, the hallway then led in this direction toward a small balcony.
The throne room was in the opposite direction however. The hallway turned around the staircase before going West. The throne room was at the end after two doors, one at each sides. Again, from what they saw from the walls, and helped by the map, the door in the North wall was leading to another balcony, and the one in the South wall was leading to a room that was at the top Northwestern corner of the Great Hall, just beside the throne room, and it was from this room that the organ was coming.
The third floor's hallway was as full of ghost as the rest, and the possessed gargoyles and armors even made their grand return. Since the ponies hadn't explored this part of the castle yet, then they were all obviously still intact. But this at least meant no golems.
The key led to the South, at the door in the South wall in the corner. It was the only door in this part of the hallway beside the one leading to the balcony at the end.
The newly unlocked door led to a room that the hunters quickly understood who it belonged to. The painting hanging above the fireplace in the South side was a big proof: it was one of Thanatos and Eternal Rest snuggling together inside a big black heart.
It was Eternal Rest's living room, which meant that they were in her apartments inside Thanatos' castle.
The room actually looked a lot like the one back in the hotel, with the couches in front of the fireplace, the shelves full of objects, and so on. It was just a little less luxurious, more gloomy, and without the lasers.
A lot of ghost maids were present. As the hunters were busy capturing them, ghosts took possession of the couches, and dozens of Little Tricksters and Buffys came from behind the objects on the shelves. The couches were easy to destroy, and the ghosts were rapidly captured, but then, what seemed to be a fire spirit came out of the fireplace.
It was quite the surprise. An actual elemental spirit, made of pure fire. Apple Bloom hadn't expected to encounter one in the castle. They were apparently more the kind to remain in the normal world. Well, technically, windigos were elemental spirits of ice, but they were a special case. They could be attracted by the hate in the Spirit World.
Still, the spirit was easy to deal with. Some water weakened it, and from there, it only took a couple of seconds to capture it. Two more fire spirits followed this one and were as easily captured despite one of them managing to send a fireball, making the key appear.
It led to a door in the East side of the room, and they entered Eternal Rest's bedroom. It was also pretty much a smaller version of the bedroom from the hotel where more maids and a couple of butlers awaited them. In the middle of the following fight, two Big Brains (Apple Bloom thought about changing their name to not confuse them with Big Brain the mad doctor, but she decided against it. She will simply say 'doctor Big Brain' when she will be talking about the last one) appeared and began to throw the objects that were on the shelves, and Throwers joined them. A Bulky also appeared to use one of the biggest, heaviest objects, a small statue, as a blunt weapon.
Despite the number of ghosts, the hunters captured them without much effort. But by the time they were done, the room was a ruin. But nopony cared, it won't be used anytime soon, and if Apple Bloom had any say in it, she will ensure that this castle will be destroyed once it was over.
The key appeared after the last ghost was captured, and it opened a door South, leading to the bathroom which was exactly like the one in the hotel, with sauna and all. There, there were mainly ghosts armed with mops as well as a couple of masseurs. Two water spirits also came out of the water-filled bathtub; they attempted to drown Apple Bloom by creating a water bubble around her head, but some bolts of electricity stopped them. When the two spirits were captured, a fire spirit then appeared and sent fire into the water, creating a cloud of vapor that greatly reduced the visibility in the room. Various ghosts using projectiles like Icys or unicorns or ones armed with CS-Guns used this to come and attack from the cover of the vapor. However, the visibility wasn't THAT reduced, and at worst, the hunters could still see the silhouette of the ghosts through the vapor.
The fire spirit was quickly captured to stop it from creating more vapor, and from there, the hunters dispersed to deal with all the other ghosts, the clones of goo being careful to not walk on water as they avoided the projectiles and were dragged around by the ghosts attempting to escape.
When a wraith attempted to use the vapor to sneak around only to be spotted by Little Ghost, it was quickly shot with Poltergun beams and captured. The battle ended quickly after that, and the key appeared in the bathtub.
It unlocked a door beside the fireplace back in the living room, which led to the library, which was the only room that didn't look like the equivalent of the hotel. It looked more like a the usual library, with bookshelves all around and a table in the center under a chandelier. There was also a door at the South, which, from the map, was leading to the balcony they had seen from the South wall.
After they destroyed a few possessed books, a wind spirit suddenly appeared and started to blow strong winds that created chaos, causing hundreds of pages of books to fly around, some of them ending up blinding some of the hunters as they landed on their eyes. This left them terribly vulnerable to the other ghosts in the room (which were hard to distinguish because of all the paper), some maids, a servant whose role was probably to place the books where they belonged once they were read, Throwers and Hiders, and even a Super Thrower throwing the freaking bookshelves! And there were also countless of Little Tricksters.
Thankfully, the Poltergusts could suck up the paper, so some of the hunters did this, letting the others deal with the ghosts, starting with the wind spirit.
What the heck is the weakness of wind?" thought Apple Bloom before she said "Buck it!" and turned herself into a ghost. Then, using the power recently gained, she levitated all the bookshelves in the room and threw them at the wind spirit who ended up at the bottom of a pile of broken wood, totally stopping the winds. Apple Bloom then charged into the pile, found the recovering spirit, and captured it before it could escape. She then came out of the pile and returned to normal.
Without the wind spirit to cause chaos, the other ghosts quickly followed, but no key appeared once the last one was captured. As usual in this situation, the hunters searched the room with the Dark-Light Device but found nothing, so they passed the door to the balcony.
Nothing was present at first, but after they took a few steps, a dark portal opened, and a giant skeletal purple claw came out of it.
"What is THAT?!" shouted Sweetie Belle.
Nopony had time to answer as the claw suddenly attempted to crush them.
Even as they avoided it, a dark, loud cackle came from the portal.
The hunters immediately counterattacked by firing beams after beams at the claw which, in return, attacked by sending purple fireballs and purple energy balls that bounced on the surfaces, and it also attempted to slap them or to make them fall from the balcony. After taking about two dozens beams, however, it retreated into the portal which closed, and... something appeared.
It didn't seem to be a key, but it seemed only to be a part of something.
After they exchanged looks, Sweetie Belle said "I think we have to explore more of the third floor to find the other parts."
"You don't say..." said Scootaloo with an eyeroll.
"But where else could they be..." wondered Little Ghost.
"Well, we got this on a balcony, so maybe we'll get the other parts on the other balconies of the floor," proposed Apple Bloom.
Thinking that it was the most sound idea, they returned in the hallway and went East toward the door at the end. They passed it, entering the balcony above the training yard where the purple skeletal claw returned for a second round.
However, it used different attacks, using purple lightning bolts and explosive projectiles. It also attempted to impale them with its sharp fingers.
Like previously, it retreated after taking many beams, another dark cackle sounding from the portal before it closed. The second part of what was very certainly the next key then appeared, and the hunters took it before they returned in the hallway.
"Ah really wonder to what this claw belongs to," said Applejack.
«Nothing good, that's certain. A very powerful ghost,» said E. Gadd.
«Maybe the fourth guardian?» wondered Twilight.
"It would attack us already?" asked Sweetie Belle.
"Eh. Why not?" said Apple Bloom with a shrug before she frowned. "Seeing the purple color, it's probably another creation of Thanatos.
«I hope it won't be as nightmarish as the one from the giant tower,» said Rainbow Dash.
«With Thanatos, everything is possible,» said Discord.
Only one balcony remained, so they fought their way in the hallway until they reached the part leading to the throne room. Then, they took the North door, entering the North balcony that had a good view of the graveyard.
The giant claw returned again, with new attacks: purple sweeping lasers and arrows made of darkness. This time, the hunters attempted to suck it up, hoping to capture whatever this claw belonged to, but it easily resisted them and still attacked. So the hunters returned to using beams, forcing it to retreat for the third time.
And the third, and last, part of the key appeared.
The three parts assembled formed a key actually shaped like a music note, and they had a good guess of which door it unlocked. It was just in front of the door to this balcony.
The door to the room where the organ was playing.
And when they entered, they saw that it was only that, a room with a huge organ, the organ being actually part of a giant gargoyle sculpted on the wall, with a window in the South wall giving a view of the Great Hall. However, the organ was playing alone. No ghost in sight.
But then, the organ stopped playing.
"You finally arrived..." said a voice coming from the organ before the gargoyle's head gained life. "Helloooo there. Grand Organ for you. Lord Thanatos' personal music conductor and professional maker of dramatic ambiances. Here for a dramatic fight?"
"And to give ya a dramatic exit!" said Apple Bloom as she readied herself.
"Ah! I like that! Don't disappoint me! AAH AHAHAHAHAAAH!!"
The gargoyle then fully took life, its long arms ending in sharp claws now facing the hunters while music notes began to come out of the pipes, slithering in the air as they dropped to the ground, each notes exploding upon contact. The gargoyle then began to hit the ground in rhythm with its fists. BOOMBOOM! BOOMBOOM! BOOMBOOM! Each hit creating a shockwave.
Apple Bloom jumped to the side to avoid an explosive note and began to approach while jumping above the shockwaves, followed by Applejack, Scootaloo, and the clones of goo while Sweetie Belle and Little Ghost remained behind, Sweetie Belle singing to boost the strength of her friends while Little Ghost used her powers to send many projectiles.
As the first group came too close, Grand Organ, while continuing to hit the floor in rhythm, began to target the hunters with the fists, forcing them to continuously run and jump as they attacked the keyboard with bucks and air punches.
Grand Organ then began to change the effect of his notes. Instead of slithering in the air, some began to simply drop and hit the ground heavily like boulders, and others began to home in on the ponies. Despite the added difficulty, the ponies didn't stop attacking, but they were often forced to move back before returning.
"Not bad! But how about this?!" shouted Grand Organ before the pipes suddenly extended into the ceiling. The room then shook because the pipes came out of the ceiling, but also of the walls and the ground at various points while the song doubled in intensity. What came out of the pipes weren't music notes anymore, but snakes made of fire, beams that exploded like fireworks, or simply very strong winds that pushed the ponies back. Sometimes, the pipes even suddenly extended to violently hit the opposite surfaces, somehow causing said surfaces to undulate.
To put it simply, the attacks became very hard to predict and avoid, mostly turning the fight to Grand Organ's advantage. The hunters were forced to attack from a distance, mainly using ice projectiles for the ones who weren't Little Ghost. So Apple Bloom turned herself into a ghost and joined Little Ghost in unleashing her powers to rapidly destroy the organ. Little by little, the pipes and the keyboard were damaged, deforming the song that only gained even more in intensity in return!
"AHAHAHAAH!!! COME OOON!!! THIS IS MY BEST PERFORMANCE!!!" yelled Grand Organ before he turned the song into a real cacophony, pretty much doing the equivalent of smashing the keys in rhythm! A purple aura appeared all around the organ! Any projectiles were replaced by series of purple music notes flying out of the pipes like the wind and hitting hard! And the whole castle began to shake! "LET'S NOT STOP NOOOW!!! DON'T RUIN MY CLIMAX!!!"
"Woah!" shouted Scootaloo before she ducked to avoid the notes that were about to hit her like a train, then jumped back to avoid a piece of the ceiling falling. "That idiot is gonna bring the whole castle down on our heads!"
"And I'm sure that if I wasn't already dead, I would become deaf!" shouted Sweetie Belle.
Apple Bloom, still a ghost, growled. She had to act quickly, she was almost out of time.
She began to levitate the keyboard.
"Hey! What are you doing? I need that!" shouted Grand Organ before he began to use his powers to keep the keyboard.
So Apple Bloom put more power in her levitation and teared off the keyboard from the organ with so much force that she almost sent it flying to the opposite side of the room. This immediately stopped the cacophony, making Grand Organ yell in rage. But then, Apple Bloom threw the keyboard at the organ, targeting the gargoyle head above it, and destroyed it. What remained of the keyboard then fell on some of the pipes, damaging the organ far beyond repair.
Apple Bloom then turned back to normal just as Grand Organ, a brown unicorn stallion wearing a white wig, came out of what remained of the instrument.
Despite the tiredness visible on his face, Grand Organ became to chuckle. "Despite the premature end... I couldn't dream of a better dramatic finish. Good job, young ones..."
With a smile at this, Apple Bloom captured Grand Organ.
And the next key appeared.
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Nice to see you working on this. How many chapters left until the end now?
10530320
Normally, four chapters plus the epilogue.
Just wait until season nine...
You mean strong winds.
Apparently, heavy objects are the weakness of wind!
You should put the word "and" in between levitation and teared.
10530562
Corrected, thanks.
10530327
How's the next chapter looking by now?
10534683
Almost finished.
That is what scares us Twi
Smoke and, to a lesser extent, fire. That is the weakness of wind. You know what they say after all: "Smoking kills"