Chapter 25: Clover the Clever
There wasn't already much left to explore in this part of the third floor. Without counting the throne room, only two doors remained, and once they saw that the key was unlocking the one leading to the base of the big tower and that the map was updated to add the new circular room, the hunters understood that the other door (near Eternal Rest's apartments) was probably leading to the third floor's janitor's closet. A quick verification revealed it to be true, and of no importance (excepted for the presence of a Hugger).
The entrance of the tower didn't have much excepted a chest of drawers, a mirror, a coat hanger with a couple of cloaks, and many candles. After dealing with the many Shadows that guarded the place, the hunters climbed the curved staircase leading to the room above which possessed a small round table below a chandelier with a chair at the center. One side of the room simply had a closet and some empty shelves while the other side was a small kitchen, with an oven, cupboards, and all.
A Goost appeared and fell right on the table, destroying it, and several Tail Spears surrounded him, but the fight was rapidly over. Applejack went after the big ghost while the fillies dealt with the smaller ones. And it wasn't the two Super Throwers that came just after that made it harder.
Next room just above, a bedroom. Surprisingly, however, no enemy came, leaving the hunters to continue to the last floor of the tower, a room with a desk and chair, some bookshelves, and some kind of magic circle at the center below a chandelier. Still no enemy, but an opening North led to a balcony with a telescope, where the ghost of an old light brown unicorn stallion with a darker brown mane was sitting against the guardrail. As the hunters approached, the stallion then rose his head to look at them.
Twilight gasped. «That's him... Clover the Clever...» she said in awe as Clover rose in the air.
"The last of the Founders, finally," said Applejack.
«I heard that he was skilled in magic, but I'm sure that it will be nothing for you by now. Ohohohohoh!» said E. Gadd.
While he talked, Clover began to use his magic to fire several beams, and he materialized a mirror that he used to randomly deflect some of them. When the hunters fired projectiles in return, he then materialized a shield around himself, stopping all of them. Little Ghost easily broke it with a powerful enough energy ball.
Clover immediately teleported into the room, and the next instant, the chandelier dropped right on the magic circle. He then bent the branches until they were all straight before he began to make it spin faster and faster, the candles letting out streams of fire. The hunters had no choice but to move to the balcony to avoid this attack, excepted Scootaloo who rolled on the walls and Little Ghost who flew.
The filly ghost thus had the occasion to attack Clover, which she took, approaching him and activating her Poltergust. Before she could weaken Clover too much, however, she was suddenly hit by one of the branches of the chandelier. But then, the stallion was hit on the head by Scootaloo dropping on him, and she quickly took her pony-form before she activated her Poltergust and took over from her friend. But like before, it wasn't long before she was hit by one of the branches of the chandelier. Clover manipulated these things very well, even while struggling to escape from the vacuum cleaners!
All the while, the other hunters had attacked from the balcony with elemental projectiles, and since Clover had been busy with Little Ghost and Scootaloo, he didn't protect himself from them and was hit several times, but he resisted. Once he escaped Little Ghost and Scootaloo, he then took a book among the many ones in the shelves and teleported back to the balcony. There, he grew the book in size and began to attempt to crush Apple Bloom between the now giant book's pages. But the book was quickly destroyed with fire.
This left him open to the others who took the occasion to all catch him at the same time. Too far of the chandelier to use it to escape, he however sent a beam of magic at the balcony, and the next instant, it was bending downward until everypony except Little Ghost began to slide. This forced Apple Bloom to turn into a ghost to levitate the others back into the tower, leaving Little Ghost alone to deal with the mage. With only one filly left, it wasn't hard for Clover to find a way to escape: he levitated two bookshelves from the inside of the tower and crushed her between them. Because Little Ghost was a ghost, it wasn't as effective on her as it would have been on somepony who still possessed a physical body, but it was still enough to stop her from sucking him up.
While Little Ghost recovered from this, Apple Bloom, still a ghost, took over and materialized dozens of balls of spiritual energy all around the stallion who had to choice but to teleport to escape from the coming onslaught. However, when he reappeared, the filly immediately attacked him again with a second round, and this time, the balls hit him before he could react. With only a few seconds remaining before she had to return to normal, and since the balcony was still bent downward, Apple Bloom then flew back into the tower while continuously firing a storm of projectiles at Clover before he could even recover from the previous attack.
While Apple Bloom was forced to return to normal, forcing herself to remain in the tower since the balcony was still bent, Little Ghost had recovered from being crushed by the bookshelves. Once her friend's onslaught had stopped, she then moved so that when she fired a blast of energy at Clover, the stallion was sent flying into the tower so the others could attempt to catch him together.
But Clover began to make the chandelier spin again, only for Applejack to buck it and send it crashing into the ceiling (the chain holding it making it move up) before it could start to spew fire. However, as a result, the chandelier began to move like a pendulum, forcing the ponies to be careful as they now had to deal with the many books from the bookshelves that Clover was now throwing at them. When the bookshelves were empty of books, Clover then made several wooden spears from their wood and attempted to pierce the hunters with them.
When it didn't work too, and Clover was now terribly weakened, his horn then glowed brighter, and the next instant, the walls on stone of the room were destroyed. In consequence, the ceiling dropped on the hunters. Little Ghost barely had time to send Apple Bloom toward the stairs where she fell down before it crashed on them. Thankfully, the damage didn't go beyond the last floor of the tower beside some parts of the floor collapsing into the bedroom.
Nothing on Apple Bloom, luckily. However, seeing that she managed to escape, Clover followed her and attempted to repeat what he did. So Apple Bloom fired a Poltergun beam at him to make him stop, and she activated her Poltergust in Red Mode, finally managing to capture him.
Rather than taking directly the key that appeared beside her, she looked up at one of the holes in the ceiling caused by the collapse, blocked by debris. She wasn't really worried for the others -they were already dead, after all- but she wondered how they'll be able to join her. Little Ghost could traverse the floor (and Applegoo had returned in her container), but not the others which, she was sure, still had their physical bodies. But then, the debris were levitated away, and a few seconds later, the others all dropped through a hole.
"Ya alright, Bloom?" then asked Applejack.
"Eeyup. Only a few bumps from falling down the stairs," answered the filly.
"Let me help about this," said Sweetie Belle before she healed her friend with her singing.
"So, you got Clover?" asked Scootaloo,
"Within a few seconds after he followed me down there."
"Sorry I couldn't join you, I was freeing the others," said Little Ghost.
"That's okay. He's very weakened, it wasn't hard."
«Well, that's it, the last of the Founders is captured. Good job everypony. Now that they're free, they will be able to rest in peace if they decide to,» said Twilight.
«Not before they defeat Thanatos,» reminded Spike.
«Which is soon enough. Not much of the castle is left,» said E. Gadd. «But before, there's that last guardian.»
As she listened, Apple Bloom grabbed the key that appeared. "Only what's up the staircase beside the Great Hall is left to explore." She then got an expression of determination. "It's almost over..."
They all nodded.
Then, they exited the tower (the clones of goo getting out of their containers before) and returned in the Great Hall. In there, the giant skeletal claw returned, but this time, it wasn't alone as there was a second claw. And so, not only they used the same attacks than previously, but they also acted together to do a few more, like attempting to crush the hunters between them the same way you attempt to crush a fly. There was also that attack where the two claws placed themselves side by side and linked each other with rope-like bolts of purple electricity before they moved in tandem, attempting to hit somepony with the electricity.
But again, it only took some Poltergun beams to force one to retreat, and the second rapidly followed, letting the ponies enter the staircase beside the Great Hall. They climbed them until they were back in the third floor, in the last section still unexplored.
Not minding the locked door leading to the back of the throne room, they used the key they obtained from Clover to unlock the other door in the West wall.
They entered a large, very well decorated hallway, but not that long with not a lot of choice. A narrow space beside the staircase led to what was certainly another closet for janitors, and there were only two other doors, one North in the middle of the hallway and the other at the end. Surprisingly, however, the hallway was empty of enemies. Finally a moment of calm!
They had to find out which door was the one already unlocked, which revealed to be the one at the end. It led to a chamber that looked a lot like Clean Order's room back in the Gem Manor, but creepier and with furniture of much better quality (and without all the burn marks and the ashes). There was also a door South.
A Boggy and some Slitherers appeared, the Boggy using the objects in the room to attack and defend itself. Despite this, it was quickly captured, but its capture was followed by a couple dozens of Shadows, so while some of the hunters dealt with what remained of the Slitherers, the others destroyed the new arrivals. Five wraiths then appeared near the end but didn't last long.
No key appeared however, but they didn't need one as the South door revealed to be already unlocked.
It led to a bathroom that also served as a restroom, with the bathtub filled. There again, wraiths came but were rapidly captured before what looked like a Wisp but purple colored appeared. The next instant, the purple Wisp (?) surrounded itself in the water of the bathtub, creating a golem of water that began to use water tentacles to attempt to drown Apple Bloom. But the hunters used electricity to electrify the golem, and so, the purple Wisp inside it. Ice was also used to freeze the tentacles and break them, reducing by the same occasion the size of the golem.
Eventually, they just froze the whole golem and destroyed it, forcing the purple Wisp out. It was then easily captured, making the key appear.
Back in the hallway, they used it to unlock the North door and enter a dinning room, with a very long table and some furniture full of plates and cutlery. One of the chairs, at one of the extremities of the table, was more shaped like the throne in the throne room, so it was certainly Thanatos' personal dinning room.
Only the ghost of a butler was present, a purple unicorn stallion with a black mane who possessed a much better-looking uniform than all the other butlers encountered until now. Probably the one that lived in the other room, the... head-butler?
"I'm glad to finally encounter you," started the butler. "I would have preferred to welcome you the moment you entered the castle, but my Lord told me to wait for you to reach this place. I am Flawless Tool, the housekeeper of this castle and Lord Thanatos' personal butler. You see, when we have guests in the castle, it is my duty to... take care of them." He then disappeared, but his voice continued to be heard, resonating all over the room. "So, please, let me do my job. It will be over quickly."
"Yeah, no thanks," said Apple Bloom before she used the Poltergust's visor and rapidly spotted the ghost attempting to approach her from behind.
In answer, despite the shock of being discovered, Flawless Tool threw a knife and quickly flew away. He couldn't escape from the visors however, so the hunters chased him. To stop them, Flawless Tool made the plates and cutlery fly everywhere in the room, distracting them so he could attempt to sneak again. But it wasn't enough and he was caught by Scootaloo while the others sucked up the flying objects. So the butler sent instead a chair to hit the filly robot and free himself. But Sweetie Belle took over her friend, and she was rapidly joined by Applegoo and Applejack, leaving no chance for Flawless Tool to escape.
He was soon enough captured, making the key appear.
"Again, our equipment made this fight too easy," said Sweetie Belle.
Apple Bloom chuckled. "We won't say the same thing once we'll fight the fourth guardian directly followed by Thanatos."
At this, they took the key and returned to the staircase that they climbed again until reaching the fourth floor. The last floor of the castle without counting the roof and the towers.
The key unlocked the door at the top of the stairs, letting them pass it.
And it closed behind them.
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Way back in book 2, I noted that single normal enemies were getting mentioned offhandedly. Now, a relatively advanced but singular enemy has been demoted all the way to parenthetical.
10535096
But I wouldn't really call a Hugger an advanced ghost. They're those slime-like ghosts that take the form of puddles of goo until someone walks on them. Very easy to capture. Ghosts like Big Brains, Goosts, Super Throwers, Swarms, or Boggys are more the ones that I would call advanced.
No surprising. What could a simple Hugger do against a team of seven well equipped ghost-hunters?
This reminds me of the boss fight from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time where Link battles some kind of pink orb that attacks with tentacles made from all the water in the room.
For once in my life, I can finally say... the butler did it.
I stand corrected. The butler almost did it.
10535196
In this case, anyway, the whole staff did something.
.
10535245
Yeah, but none of the staff were able to kill any of the protagonists. Only Eternal Rest and Thanatos have been able to kill at least one of the protagonists in your Apple Bloom's Mansion stories.
10535261
But they killed many ponies and other beings before. Even the mind-controlled staff.
10535196
Oh, you mean Morpha? Yes, it was a challenging boss the first time I encountered it, but I managed to defeat that boss during my playthrough in Ocarina of time. Both N64, and 3DS versions.
10537686
I've never actually played Ocarina of Time. I only know about Morpha from watching a couple of Ocarina of Time videos on YouTube: an "All Bosses No Damage" one, and a 100% TAS.
The only Legend of Zelda game I've ever played was The Wind Waker, and that was about ten years ago. It took me forever to figure out how to damage the first boss, Gohma. But I got so scared and disturbed when Gohma's armor was destroyed that I powered off the game.
I also quit Kirby's Return to Dream Land the first time I saw Magolor's final form.
Is the next chapter almost ready?
10542195
Not really. Since it's a chapter with one of the guardians, then it's a little more complex. Also, I'm taking my time.
10542201
K. Any progress on your other fic? I recall you saying you needed help with the lyrics.
10542202
Like I said, Kelduo is doing them, but he first needs to reread the whole A Sweetie Dreamland story, and he takes his time too.
10542220
Actually, the reason why I'm taking my time with re-reading your story is that I'm trying not to completely dominate the comments section.
10542274
Oh, but it's no problem. I wouldn't mind. ^^
Awesome as alaways, since this fic is about to come to a close. What are you gonna do after your done with it?
10542559
I'm gonna finish A Sweetie Dreamland and then work on the united sequel to the three stories.