Ghost Busting 2

by Edguy0009

Final Challenge Part 1

The walk to Treacherous Mansion was a quiet one other than the crunching of snow beneath the feet of the Makuta and the Nui-Jaga as Apple Bloom rode in its back with it looking worryingly at the filly and her friend and tried to comfort the former who brushed it off, causing the Rahi to chitter in sadness before her friend spoke.

"This is it, the last manor." He said after an hour of walking up the mountain, arriving at said manor before turning towards the filly, "I have an admission to make." He added, earning the attention of the filly.

"What's that?" She asked.

"Although I don't know who is behind all this, I do know what is behind it." Kratus replied, though the filly was upset that her partner kept this information from her, she knew he had his reasons, "Pyrite's ally is a Lord of The Dead." He added, earning Apple Bloom's curiosity, "As the title suggests, they control the dead. But to a greater degree than a necromancer along with more abilities than a necromancer."

"How d'ya know all this?"

"Because, during my travels, I've encountered Lords of The Dead, some friendly with others hostile."

"And yer thinkin' we're dealin' with the latter?"

"I don't think we are, I know we are." Kratus replied, opening the entrance to the grounds of the manor, with the two taking in the sight of 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 in 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, they saw a well, a doghouse and a staircase on the side of the cliff that led to a door with debris blocking it, though a pair of gargoyles guarded the front door, both hoping they won't move before the two approached the door after traversing the path with Apple Bloom securing her sister's hat, only for the ghost dog from before to jump out from the door and grab the key, both the filly and Makuta seeing red.

"Ya stupid dog, give that key back! We ain't got time ta play with ya, we got everypony to save!" Apple Bloom said before the dog took off after looking back in curiosity with the duo growling as a result, though the ghosts inside the manor heard the noise and laughed or blew raspberries out the window, the Makuta giving a glare after shaking his fist.

When we get in there, they're gonna pay for that. Kratus thought before he and the filly went to after the dog first by seeing where it was before going into the well after checking to see if they could sneak up on the dog that way with them entering a tunnel with the dog leaving while dropping the helmet on its head that they saw it had when the checked to see where it was before the four suits armor they saw earlier attacked, only for the Makuta to melt them with his heat vision with the ghosts inside leaving resulting in their capture allowing for Apple Bloom to peek into the hole between the debris with the dog inside a semicircular room while the Makuta smashed a weakened wall in the tunnel and found another entrance to the underground, though whether by the growing darkness that his friend sensed inside of him, or by growing impatience, the Makuta decided not to raise the grate but decided to pull it apart with his magnetism as Apple Bloom followed, worried about her companion who opened the door with spiders and a suit of armor waiting for them, the Makuta shooting each one with his skyblaster and gave the ghost a death glare along with a growl with it struggling in the tendrils of shadow the Makuta summoned to capture it, though when he went to attack it with his sword along with more tendrils of shadow, Apple Bloom managed to snap the Makuta out of his anger with it hiding behind the filly who noticed that the terror in the ghost's eyes, terror it held for the Makuta while she noticed that said emotion broke the Lord of The Dead's hold over it.

"It'll be okay, he won't hurt ya now." Apple Bloom said, trying to comfort the ghost who continued to look at the Makuta who looked at it with indifference before turning around, the ghost deciding to remain where it was shivering in fear as the Makuta and filly entered the room with a big chain linking the floor an alcove before the armor in the room attacked before the Makuta reduced them to piles of molten metal with his heat vision with the filly capturing them, not wanting them go through the same trauma that the green ghost in the tunnel went through before the two went to the throne that lowered it to the floor below, the Makuta growling at sight of the purple energy surrounding the entry ways as he recognized what it was, a maze that the two completed after Apple Bloom used the DLD to find the paw prints of the ghost along with dealing with the ghosts that possessed the armor in the maze with them ending up in a lab where two green ghosts were performing an experiment on armor while laughing like mad scientists with the armor coming to life with the two ghosts retreating to watch the show after pointing at the two companions.

"Don't they know it's useless?" Kratus growled, using his heat vision to melt the armor with Apple Bloom capturing them with the two going through another maze and dealing with red, green and pink ghosts, before finding the dog at the bottom of a staircase, the Makuta attempting to stop the dog before it could flee and failing with the two pursuing it into a dungeon and after dealing with the blue ghosts hiding barrels, they found the dog and captured him with the dog unable to come out with the two teleporting back to the front of the mansion and unlocked the door where they found Diamond Cup leading twenty-four green ghosts armed with swords and shields with red ghosts holding baseball bats with other green ghosts wearing helmets. Though once Diamond Cup gave the order to attack, the Makuta grinned, tossing his sword up much to the confusion of everyone else before the hilt grew, returning it to being a swordstaff with shadow energy gathering around the blade and with one mighty swing, the Makuta unleashed the energy in a wave that slammed into the ghosts as he sliced the bats the red ghosts held in two and gathered the swords and helmets in a ball with his magnetism before reducing them to molecules with his inorganic molecular disruption as Apple Bloom captured the ghosts only for more to arrive. Mostly armed red ghosts with some green and pink ghosts along with two pony ghosts from Old Clockwork, ending in their capture with Apple Bloom having to pause for a bit to prevent the Poltergust from overheating.

"Didn't know ya could turn yer sword." Apple Bloom said, earning the Makuta's attention after checking the room.

"Into a swordstaff?" Kratus asked, interrupting. "This is what it normally looks like, only that a certain deity we know changed it into a sword for tight quarters with me able to change it depending on the situation." He added, changing it back to a sword before the two entered the second floor and found ghosts under the command of Golden Hair with them causing a giant gargoyle statue holding two cages to disappear with both thinking the same thing.

Clever, too bad we saw you. Never would've guessed that there's a giant gargoyle here, and since you made it disappear, then it must be important for us to continue.

"Come, we'll find a way to recover it." Kratus said with the two returning to the first floor and entered the door to the left of the entrance, entering a hallway with the ghosts attacking them with some possessing armor that the Makuta shattered using tendrils of shadow allowing for their capture along with the brown ghost blocking the door at the end, and entered a room full of armor and weapons from Equestria's past, all possessed by ghosts under the command of Jumpscare who operated one of his own with the Makuta melting the armor with his inorganic molecular disruption. While lamenting the loss of historical artifacts that were in pristine condition, he couldn't let that get in the way of doing his job with the two entering a door to the right and entered another hallway with lots of gargoyles with a door with ice around it, though as the two walked across the hallway a food cart barreled from the right with both avoiding it before it slammed into the wall with dazed green ghosts appearing with Apple Bloom taking the opportunity to capture them before more ghosts appeared including some orange ghosts that attempted to use what was on the cart to attack the two of them, though they ended up captured with the two entering the door surrounded by ice and found themselves in a room covered by ice and snow, an igloo, a mammoth that the filly poked and found that it wouldn't move, along with some fishing holes with Zircon waiting for them with three ghosts of gryphons, some pink and blue ghosts that threw fish from the buckets with the Makuta frying each one with his chain lightning and by that, he burnt them to a crisp with Apple Bloom capturing the ghosts and spotting a key in the shape of a gargoyle's head with the Makuta melting the ice to free it and deduced that it had a relationship with the gargoyle statue. Though the two of them decided to explore the rest of the mansion that they could access without the key with them leaving and head down the right path and dealing with ghosts along the way before entering a kitchen where green ghosts attacked them with kitchen utensils along with a ghost of a cook with Apple Bloom capturing them all before they took a path before Apple Bloom spoke.

"So, what d'ya think this Lord of The Dead wants from us?" She asked the Makuta.
"Despite my interactions with Lords of The Dead in the past, I have no idea as each had different personalities, though the friendlier ones sometimes requested my help with some tasks."

"Such as?"

"One asked to help him undo what some idiot did; making it so that everything living was turned into an undead." Kratus replied, opening the door and finding it returned them to the courtyard where the ghosts from the windows attacked along with Golden Hair with Apple Bloom turning the Poltergust to red while the Makuta unleashed a sonic attack that stunned the ghosts allowing for their capture with the five browns that dropped down. Once the courtyard was empty of ghosts, Apple Bloom used the DLD to make the gargoyle statue visible again and found that both cages were open with the Makuta throwing two stones into the cages, lowering the arms and finding that, as the Makuta deduced earlier. There was a keyhole, but guessed wrongly for it had two, meaning that it required two keys with the two wondering where the second was before noticing three balconies, one right, left and at the back with no way to enter the left balcony from the left side of the manor as neither saw staircases that led to it before they entered the right side of the manor through the door on the right with a hallway similar to the one on the left with two doors on the left of this hallway leading to two bathrooms with a red in one and using the toilet before Apple Bloom "pranked" it before capturing it with a green ghost attempting to do the same in the other, though Apple Bloom and Kratus fooled it, causing it to appear and boo them in disappointment before it ended up in the Poltergust.

The two had to clear the hall again before they entered the door with sand around it, and finding that it had a winding staircase that led to the lower level with sand passing by a giant statue. Once at the bottom they found coffins from which mummies commanded by Clean Order burst out, the Makuta lighting them all with heat vision allowing for the capture of the ghosts inside along with the butler along with pink and red ghosts that appeared before they left the room and cleared the hall of more ghosts and entered the door surrounded by vines finding themselves in a room full of plants, waterfalls, tribal masks, logs and a giant carnivorous plant guarding the second key before ghosts wearing masks and wielding tribal spears led by Opal Note attacked with Apple Bloom capturing them as the Makuta dealt with plant after calling it a weed with his blade and retrieved the second key before the two left to the hallway again with a lot of ghosts glaring at them, "I think they're mad at us for sequence braking, which is a gaming term." Kratus told the filly before the two cleared the hallway and returned to the courtyard with the two inserting both keys at the base of the statue, causing it to lower as a spiral staircase replaced with it, at first leading to the rear balcony that had a locked door, though they found that the staircase could rotate using the rotor and turned it, causing it to rotate clockwise with it stopping at the right balcony.

"Now we're getting somewhere." Apple Bloom said as the two found the door unlocked before they cleared the hallway of the ghosts before approaching the left most door that they spotted after entering, though it turned out to be a trap with Apple Bloom rubbing her nose, "I forgot those doors existed." She said.

"That one doesn't anymore." Kratus said after using disintegration on it in retaliation before the two used the next door that, thankfully for the two of them, was a real door that led to a room with a table and chair, stacks of books and a bookshelf with same colored books with one missing, "A study." The Makuta said, as the two cleared out the paranormal activity before checking where the missing book was and found a secret passage to a room with a train theme and unable to find the book in the room, the two left it to the last room and found it rocking like a boat while full of fog coming from a hole in the wall and a red ghost at a wheel and other objects linked to sailing with a statue of an octopus on a barrel with the Makuta closing the hole and Apple Bloom capturing the ghost along with the ghosts that appeared afterwards before the two left the room and returned to the courtyard since they finished exploring the right side of the manor and turned the rotor causing it to turn to the left balcony and entered a hall that had three rooms and dealt with the ghosts there and tested the door to the right and found it was a real door that led to a room full of model airships and balloons with a large balloon in the center before clearing the room of ghosts and exiting it to head to the next door.

The room the door led to was small with a table with stuff on it, a ladder and four boxes with Ruby and Sapphire jumping out of two of them as they approached, with Ruby holding the book the duo needed causing the Makuta. Despite not like having to hurt young ones, even if they're ghosts to take aim at Ruby and fired his skyblaster before they could escape, though Sapphire, having seen the Makuta move. Grabbed Ruby and ran with him making the Makuta miss as the twins headed to the airship and balloon room with the two pursued them and found the two colts in the basket of the large balloon before more ghosts appeared and attacked while the colts threw bombs at the duo with the Makuta's armor shrugging off the explosions before he sent a ball of fragmentation energy at the basket, causing it to explode and sent the twins flying, allowing Apple Bloom to capture them, though Swift Wave took the book from Ruby before the Makuta nailed her, though she recovered quick enough to escape with the book with the Makuta glaring at her.

The two found Swift Wave in the right hallway before she entered the nautical room with the two fighting ghosts on the way to her, including Octy the Octopus from the Gem Manor who became the cook for Apple Bloom's Mansion, though the fight was easier since he didn't have jars to hide in but as the duo climbed the ramp to Swift Wave, Crystal Ball took the book from her.

"Stupid baton pass using a book." Kratus growled before vaporizing water sent at them by Swift Wave, with Apple Bloom capturing the fat ghost before the duo went off in pursuit of Crystal Ball.

The duo chased Crystal Ball into the room to the second story on the left that the two didn't explore, with the Makuta appreciating the irony of the theme, paranormal activity with an ouija board, pictures with a ghost in them, weird items and dolls that the Makuta guessed were used for voodoo and such with the final thing being a crystal ball with the mare named after it hovering above it with the book floating nearby with more ghosts appearing to stop them, including orange ghosts throwing objects at them with Crystal Ball through a greater amount but when she used her namesake…
"PEST!" Kratus growled after the flash of light died down, causing him to believe that the crystal ball would be a nuisance, covered the object in shadow, preventing Crystal Ball from using it effectively no matter how hard she tried to clear the shadow away, though some light got through the shroud, not enough to blind Apple Bloom and Kratus, but enough to dampen their vision long enough for the ghosts to injure the former, though that proved useless as the fight ended with the duo capturing the ghosts and retrieving the book.

The duo entered the room where the passage to the train themed room was with Apple Bloom having a bloody muzzle with the Makuta placing the book back causing the bookshelf to move to the left, allowing the two to enter the train themed room where Emerald waited for them with the key while surrounded by many ghosts before the mare attacked with her eye beams, though the Makuta reflected them away or countered with his own while he and the filly dodged attacks from the ghosts until he decided to use an ability that he used yet, he let out a howl that caused the ghosts in the room to cover their ears stopping their attacks though he prevented it from effecting Apple Bloom with silence allowing her to capture the ghosts at her leisure as the Makuta continued to howl while he used another ability he hadn't used yet, confusion that dazed the ghosts, he only stopped when Apple Bloom captured the last of the ghosts.

The key the two retrieved unlocked the door on the back balcony with it leading to a terrace with an alter, the two cautiously approached the altar with the Makuta moving his skyblaster from side-to-side, but as they neared the altar, portals opened up from all directions including one at the altar with ghosts pouring out, including Golden Shoes, Silver Shoes and Platinum Shoes, with Little Ghost nowhere in sight, though the other normal ghosts included ones from the valley and the ghosts of ponies, gryphons, zebras and breezies along with painted ghosts made by Pyrite, all controlled by the Lord of The Dead with the duo nodding to each other before the Makuta changed his sword back into a swordstaff along with growing to his true height of 14 ft as the battle began.

Apple Bloom captured the ghosts while Kratus acted as crowd control, using his abilities to push the ghosts back while blasting them with his skyblaster allowing Apple Bloom capture them in small groups with the Poltergust almost overheating several times as the crowd thinned, though wraiths also appeared with Apple Bloom dealing with most of them as Kratus absorbed one with his Shadow Hand and crushed its will and nailed two more with his skyblaster set to light ammunition, though once they were dealt with and things started to calm, another portal opened with an alicorn ghost coming out and firing a magical beam.

"Fortunately for us, there's only two Alicorns capable of defeating me with a third potentially able to give me trouble, though I'm not saying which ones." Kratus said before he engaged the alicorn allowing for Apple Bloom to capture the rest unhindered by it with the Makuta defeating the alicorn with multiple strikes from his swordstaff and his skyblaster allowing for its capture.

The two rested in front of the portal for an hour with the two ready to continue, Apple Bloom's muzzle stopped bleeding and the rest of her wounds weren't painful anymore with the Makuta having regained his power after meditating with the two entering the portal after Samuel wished them luck.

They appeared on a small island inside the spiritual world, a purple void with countless random objects floating around, mainly objects, buildings or parts of the latter with the air cold and empty, not even a breeze, though it was saturated with spiritual energy.

"This spirit world is different from the ones I've entered." Kratus said with Apple Bloom looking at him in curiosity, "The ones I've entered looked like the living realm." He added before turning towards the path made of islands that led to a ruined statue of Celestia, "Stay alert, there's no telling what will happen." He said, Apple Bloom nodding an affirmative before the two crossed the path to the statue and found a half conscious Applejack inside the ruins with Apple Bloom disregarding the warning from earlier, excited to see her sister before a Shadow made of magic appeared between the filly and her sister, then they heard the voice of one the ones they're after.

"Not so fast." Pyrite said, floating above Applejack.

"You." Kratus said in an eerily calm voice, shadows wiggling and writhing before Pyrite spoke. Though his voice appeared calm, he was intimidated by the sight of the Makuta furious.

"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." He said, giving an evil smirk before disappearing, leaving behind Dark Magic and Applejack, the former taking possession of her body, causing the Makuta to let out an enraged yell that echoed for bios as something happened.

To her sister's horror, 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 bone, 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, some forming two swords that floated at both sides of Applejack with her foes vowing to save the mare and glared at the shadow possessing the mare.

The two charged with Applejack firing a beam of magic in their path, causing a spike of crystal to rise, the two dodging it by moving to the side, with Applejack swinging her swords, the Makuta catching both in his hands with the possessed mare attempting to pull them out, only for cracks to form in the crystal before they shattered, rendering them useless before the Makuta delivered an uppercut with Applejack turning into a shadow and moved away and stomped on the floor that created a shockwave that shattered the crystal with Apple Bloom hitting the possessed mare with Makuta using his skyblaster using shadow energy as ammunition along with tendrils of shadow before Dark Magic left the mare allowing Apple Bloom to use the Poltergust on the shadow, though it defended itself with its power before possessing Applejack again and transformed her once more, this time giving her a nightmare form while changing her side. With the process of forcing the shadow out of her repeating though, instead of delivering an uppercut to the mare, Kratus threw her into the wall with the shadow leaving the possessed mare with Apple Bloom using the Poltergust once more, but before it could posses the mare again, the area darkened briefly as cold wind blew, causing it and Apple Bloom to freeze before they heard a growl coming from the Makuta with them hearing Samuel who finally was able to observe the duo's progress, though what he saw horrified him.

"No… no no no, not again." He said, his voice filled with worry and terror as the Makuta let out a primal roar, sending a shiver down the spine of the filly and the shadow, "Apple Bloom, snap out of it and RUN!" He shouted, snapping the filly out of her terror.

"What happened to our friend?" She asked, her voice filled with terror as the Makata charged the shadow like wild animal.

"His rage has blinded him, there's now only a beast in control." The deity said sorrowfully.

"Ya make it sound like it's happened before."

"Because it has, and it happened multiple times in a life he lived before who he is now. Sometimes I was able to stop his rampage, though sometimes it ended on its own before anyone innocent got hurt… or worse." Samuel said, causing the filly to gulp as she watched the fight, her enraged friend absorbed every attack from the shadow before it possessed Applejack again, though it never got the chance to change the mare for the Makuta slammed the mare into statue forcing the shadow to leave the mare with the Makuta turning his attention to the shadow and attacking it before they heard Apple Bloom shout, snapping the Makuta out of his rage and returning his armor to normal and causing him to turn around and found that a piece of the horn impaled Applejack, killing her with the filly in tears before turning towards the direction of the Makuta.

She knew it wasn't her companion's fault that her sister died, but she could see that her friend looked shocked then remorseful that it happened before she turned to Dark Magic then activated the Poltergust and slammed the shadow into the ground fifty times before it disappeared with her walking up the Makuta and told him it wasn't his fault then… she cried into his leg with Makuta kneeling down rubbing her back, unable to say words to comfort the filly as he still blamed himself before they heard Applejack.

"Both of ya, stop it. It's over." She said, her orange hooves transparent as she hugged them, "I'm sorry, but ya did yer best." She added before a beam of purple energy struck her, causing her to clench her head with the duo telling her to resist, only for her to get a blank look and float away into the void with the arena tilting as they went after her, causing them to fall onto a smaller island towards that floated towards a larger island with a tower in the center and on the top…

Pyrite, the two glared at him when they saw him.