> Apple Bloom's Mansion 2: the Phantom Valley
>  by Lucar
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anypony outside of Manehattan will say it: nights in Equestria are generally peaceful. At worst, you hear a dog howling to the moon, or a drunk pony singing loudly as if participating in the worst singer contest, but that's all. Peaceful nights are very common for everypony.

For Apple Bloom, peaceful nights became rather uncommon since she started her career as a ghost hunter. It was during the night that ghosts tended to be more active. Not like they weren't active the day too, but easily three quarters of the ghosts prefered the obscurity, and so, only came out in dark places or during the night.

Most of the bad ghosts were among those last ones, like this was the case for the one that Apple Bloom was hunting.

"IIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHH!!!"

"Stop... moving... darn it!"

She received a message from Manehattan about a ghost haunting an alley attacking anypony entering it during the night, so of course she came along with her two trusted companions helping her hunting ghosts to deal with him. It wasn't hard to find the alley, and as planned, the ghost came out as soon as the sun set. As it turned out, the ghost was the one of a very buffed stallion who, alive, lurked this alley to steal and kill anypony entering it two hundreds years ago until guards came to arrest him. It was then revealed that, when facing a serious enough threat, this stallion was a real filly who ran away without even watching where he went. Result: he died falling in a hole to the sewers, neck broken.

And so, it was without surprise that as soon as Apple Bloom started sucking him up with her Poltergust, the stallion flew out of the alley into the street, dragging her behind with his great strength. The filly was thus forced to avoid running ponies and carts while trying to capture the ghost.

Apple Bloom jumped on the head of a stallion to bounce on a cart, yelling "Sorry!" to the stallion before she jumped on another cart, then jumped again to return on the ground while forcefully pulling down on the handle of the Poltergust to slam the ghost and stun him a little. However, the ghost quickly recovered, but before he could restart flying away, an invisible force slammed him again against the floor.

"I am here, Apple Bloom!" The approaching ghost of a yellow furred, brown maned newborn unicorn filly shouted.

"Just in time Little Ghost! Where's the prof?"

"He is coming, but we shouldn't wait for him. Let's finish this guy."

"Agreed!" Apple Bloom shouted before she slammed the ghost again. Too weakened by it, the ghost couldn't resist the vortex anymore and got sucked inside the Poltergust.

"Got him!"

"Yay!" shouted Little Ghost before she gave Apple Bloom a hoof bump.

"Thanks for the help."

"Sorry I couldn't stop him earlier. He really took us by surprise. He was really fast for such a big stallion."

"No kidding."

It was at this moment that an old gray unicorn stallion with a Poltergust on his back came to them out of breath. "Finally... caught you..."

"Sorry Smart Spirit, ya missed everything."

"That's no problem. At least, you caught the ghost. Good job."

"Thanks."

"Now let's return to the Poltermobile. You have school tomorrow and I don't want to get chewed by your sister for bringing you back too late."

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. "She knows by now that Ah take naps after school to palliate this, so Ah'm now used to not sleeping much."

"But you still need to sleep," replied Smart Spirit with a laugh.

Unbeknown to them, they were being watched.



In the spiritual world, in a certain castle with the entrance inside of the mouth of the skull of a dragon, a skeletal ghost was watching the trio of ghost hunters through a small portal before his throne, his intention particularly focused on the earth pony filly.

Beside him were two other ghosts also watching Apple Bloom, the first being the one of a bearded yellow unicorn stallion with white mane and tail who looked at the filly with pure hate. The second was the ghost of a beautiful purple mare with a blue mane in a beehive style and wearing an elegant dress looking at the filly with interest while petting a three tailed ghost cat.

"I must say, she's getting really good," the mare then said.

"Too good," the stallion said. "Lord Thanatos. Why are we waiting? If... you don't mind me asking..."

The skeletal ghost, Thanatos chuckled before answering, "I just wanted to see if she was really worthy of amusing me before acting. It is nice to watch her catching ghosts, but right now, I can see that she wouldn't stand even the shadow of a chance against me."

The mare huffed. "Of course. Nothing can stand a chance against you, my Lord, and certainly not a little filly, as skilled as she is with this machine."

Thanatos nodded. "Yes, but... she could still give me some fun. Those little hunts are entertaining, but maybe it is time for me to... play a game with her. And finally let you have your revenge, my dear Pyrite."

"Oh oh oh oh oh! What will you do, my Lord?" the mare asks.

"Glad you asked, my dear. I will finally put to use this valley full of ghosts who thought they could escape my rule."

"Oooh! The Evershade Valley? I was waiting the day you would finally show those idiots that they can't get away from you," said the mare. "So you will use the valley to trap this little filly?"

"Yes, and I will need you."

"With pleasure, my Lord," The mare replied with a purr.



Time sure passed quickly for Apple Bloom since this night in the Gem Manor. Before she knew it, almost a year passed. A lot of things happened during this year, from the Crystal Empire coming back to Tirek's rampage. Even her friends, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, found their Cutie Mark.

How ironic. Apple Bloom had to face a manor full of ghosts and save everypony to get her mark, while Sweetie and Scoot's marks were right under their muzzle all this time: a music note and a wheel in fire, respectively, meaning that Sweetie Belle was a singer and Scootaloo could do awesome stunts with her scooter. And yet, Apple Bloom was the one who got her mark first.

If the Gem Manor hadn't appeared, she wouldn't be surprised to discover that her mark would have been something related to apple farming.

But she wasn't regretting getting a mark in ghost hunting. Yes, she had to regularly go hunt ghosts all over Equestria, often in the middle of the night and risking her life, but in return, she made so much great friends, starting with professor Smart Spirit without who none of them would be here. There was also the Gem family who, despite a bad first impression, was a really nice family to be around, especially Little Ghost with whom she became almost inseparable. Then, there were all the nice ghosts she encountered throughout her hunts. Oh, and Diamond Tiara's face when she learned that Apple Bloom was now richer than her? Worth it. Her face when she saw her newly finished manor bigger than hers? Also worth it.

This really made her feel special to be so close to a world that almost nopony knew about. Well, since ghosts started rampaging here and there, after many of them escaped to the four corners of Equestria at the end of her fight against Little Ghost, more ponies were now aware of them, but none of them had as much contact with the paranormal world than Apple Bloom.

One thing that annoyed her, however, was that she still hadn't found that jerk named Pyrite, but she still hoped to find him one day.

And this day was closer than she thought.



Ding dong!

"I'm going! i'm going!"

"No, Platinum! You may scare them!"

The little ghost filly didn't listen however and opened the door to see who rang. She couldn't help but look in awe at the absolutely beautiful purple unicorn mare wearing an elegant white and blue dress and very stylish purple shades standing in front of her.

"Oh my. Look at what we have here," the mare said with a coo. "Hello, little one. My name is Eternal Rest. What is your name?"

Before Platinum Shoes could answer, still in awe at the mare, a silver furred earth pony ghost mare came followed by an old gray ghost unicorn stallion, the both of them looking at Eternal Rest in wonder.

"You are not scared, miss?" Silver Shoes asked.

"Uhuhuhuh. Don't worry about this. Living or dead, a pony remains a pony," replied the mare. "May I enter? I want to talk with the famous ghost hunters who live in this manor. They may be interested in what I want to say."

"Of course, miss. I will guide you. Silver Shoes, could you go warn Smart Spirit?" asked Clean Order, the butler.

"Yes."

"I will warn Apple Bloom!" shouted Platinum Shoes before she flew out of the manor.

Eternal Rest chuckled. "Lovely filly."

Clean Order led the mare to the parlor, which looked closely like the parlor of the Gem Manor, but bigger with more furniture, often apple themed. Near the center of the room was a round table big enough for half a dozen ponies to sit around, where the butler led the mare to sit and wait.

"Do you want anything miss?" he asked.

"No, thank you."

"Smart Spirit shouldn't take long. He must be in his lab. Young Mistress Apple Bloom, however, will probably take more time to come."

"I can wait. I am in no hurry."

Like Clean Order said, it didn't take long for Smart Spirit to enter the room. "Hello, miss. Nice to meet you. My name is Smart Spirit. I heard that you want to say something to me?"

"Yes, but we should wait for... Apple Bloom, was it? Before I properly introduce myself and start to say what I am here for."

And so, later, Apple Bloom entered the room, followed by Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Little Ghost, and Platinum Shoes. By the time they arrived, most of the Gem Family was in the room, curious to hear what this mare who wasn't scared of them wanted to say.

At seeing Apple Bloom's friends, Eternal Rest raised an eyebrow. "I didn't expect more than one filly to come."

"They're just curious," the Apple filly said. "Ah hope it's no problem."

"Oh, not at all," the mare replied with a chuckle. "I love foals. So adorable. Especially you with your bow, I could just eat you."

Apple Bloom looked away, blushing and rubbing her head. "Uh... P-please, could we avoid speaking about eating me? Ah'd some bad experience..."

"I see," Eternal Rest said with a giggle. "Very well. So, now that everypony is here, let me introduce myself. I am Eternal Rest, owner of a luxurious hotel very far away. I am also, like the professor here, a very big fan of everything that touch to the paranormal. Call it a hobby."

"Ohoh! A fellow passionate!" Smart Spirit said. "If you want, I can show you my lab!"

"Maybe later. I'm not just here to discuss our common passion, but also because I thought that you may be interested in what I possess. But first, let me ask you a question. Does any of you know about the legendary Evershade Valley?"

At this, Smart Spirit nodded while the others all looked in confusion. "A haunted valley in eternal night that is said to be between our world and the spiritual world," he said. "Home to many spirits that we can only see in the later. Me, among many others who learned about it, searched the entrance for some time without success. Its apparition is apparently rather recent."

Eternal Rest smirked. "Then would you believe me if I said that I know where is the entrance?"

Smart Spirit gasped.

"Thought so," said the purple mare with a chuckle before, using magic, she materialized a folded paper that she gave to Smart Spirit. "Here is a map."

Smart Spirit unfolded it, everypony else gathering around him to look. They studied the map, then Smart Spirit exclaimed "Seriously? A tunnel in the North? In a random mountain?"

"Of course. Did you expect it to be in the cliff under the old castle in the Everfree Forest?"

"Nah. Too obvious."

"Exactly. I, myself, only found it by luck. I was traversing the North in search of inspiration exotic for my hotel, but a blizzard surprised me and I had to take cover in a nearby tunnel. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that this tunnel led to the Evershade Valley. I immediately knew that I had to come here to share my discovery with you. I am sure that a paranormal genius like you will discover many things while studying this place. I also encountered the local ghosts, and you will not have to worry about them. They are all pacifist, albeit very mischievous."

“We can’t thank you enough, miss Rest. This will be a huge step for the paranormal community.”

“You are very welcome. Now, I must go. I still have a hotel to run, you see. But I can’t wait to read about your future discoveries.”

“Thank you miss Rest. It was a pleasure to have you here.”

Once the mare was gone, Apple Bloom, after looking at her walking down the hill, turned to the prof. “So, we’ll go to this Evershade Valley?”

"Oh yes! Please! Yes!" shouted Scootaloo.

"I will go to Evershade Valley."

"What? Why?"

“I will probably pass weeks, or even months studying there, and you still have school. I will take my old caravan.”

Apple Bloom sighed while the others looked down in disappointment. “Ah understand. But then, who’ll drive me to go hunt ghosts?”

“I trained your sister to drive the Poltermobile. If you can’t, then you can always take the train. Accompanied by an adult, of course.”

“Applejack? Driving the Poltermobile? Now Ah wanna see that!”



As Smart Spirit said, he took the caravan and went to the North to find the entrance of the Evershade Valley. Before that, he made sure to copy the map just in case. Diamond Cup also went with him to help, and the ghost regularly came back to say how the situation evolved.

Yes, they found the valley. Yes, the ghosts were friendly. Yes, the night was eternal. They discovered that there were five manors there, or rather two mansions (one of them being a museum), two towers side by side, a clockwork factory on top of ruins, and a mine. Those were all places that once were in Equestria, but they were abandoned, and they somehow ended in the valley. The prof installed his lab in the first mansion which he decided to call Gloomy Manor, this mansion being apparently the safest of all. The ghosts were apparently a great help, happy to be useful. Apple Bloom would like to meet them.

But one day...



In the sky above the valley, a certain skeletal ghost floated, looking down at the various manors with a smirk. “It’s time to start our little game,” he said before he raised a claw, deathly purple energy coming out of it and spreading everywhere in the valley.

Down in the Gloomy Manor, Smart Spirit was busy studying in his lab alongside Diamond Cup, a yellow unicorn stallion with a mustache, head of the Gem Family. At their sides were strange green ghosts a little smaller than adult ponies and faintly looking like one without mane. The little ghosts were doing their best to help, but they couldn’t help to turn everything into a game. As long as they didn’t break anything, the prof didn’t mind them, and they were still very useful assistants.

But then, purple energy reached them, and all the ghosts in the room suddenly started to spread havoc.

“What’s going on?” Smart Spirit yelled. He then saw that Diamond Cup was also struggling, holding his head. “Diamond Cup! Are you alright?!”

"Ugh... So... Somepony is... trying to... control me..."

Before Smart Spirit could reply, one of the ghosts suddenly grabbed him. “Hey! Let me go!” he yelled as he struggled, to no avail as more and more ghosts caught him. “Diamond Cup! Get out of there! Go warn Apple Bloom!”

Diamond Cup nodded, then flew out.

Outside, Thanatos watched Diamond Cup fly toward the exit of the valley. "Yes. Go warn her." He then turned to five strange purple ghosts beside him. "Now, go. One of you to each manor." Then, he turned to Pyrite who was behind him. "Remember. No fighting her until the end. In this game, you are the final boss."

Pyrite restrained himself from rolling his eyes. "I can wait a little more. That is, if she doesn't get killed before."

Thanatos chuckled. "If she defeated Bogmire and the little prodigy, then I have no doubt that she will pass my Shadows. But I will still make sure that she struggles to reach you, or it wouldn't be as entertaining. If she still manages to die on the way... Well, too bad."



Later.

Apple Bloom was having dinner with her family when, suddenly, Diamond Cup stormed in the house looking like he saw a ghost, surprising everypony.

"Apple Bloom! Something happened in the valley! Smart Spirit needs your help!"

Apple Bloom recovered from her surprise upon hearing this. “Diamond Cup? What’s going on? What happened?”

"The ghosts of the valley, they suddenly turned hostile! Somepony took control of them, and they captured Smart Spirit!"

"Wait a minute! Did ya say that somepony took control of ghosts?" shouted Applejack.

"This is what I could feel! They also tried to take control of me, but I was able to escape the valley before!"

Apple Bloom stared at Diamond Cup in worry, then at her family. Granny Smith sighed. "Just go save yer friend!"

“Ah’m going with her,” Applejack said. “But before that, Ah must go warn the others. Ah don’t know who took control of the ghosts, but ya may need our help to deal with them.”



Rapidly, Apple Bloom, Applejack, as well as Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy were gathered inside the Poltermobile in front of Apple Bloom’s mansion, Applejack at the wheel. Around them were the Gem Family, wishing them good luck.

“You are sure we can’t come?” Little Ghost asked.

“Sorry Little Ghost,” answered Apple Bloom with a shake of her head. “But with somepony able to take control of the ghosts involved, it’s too risky to bring ya.” She turned to the six mare in the car with her, remarking how Fluttershy was shaking. “It’s also risky to come for y'all. Ya aren’t trained to defend yerself against ghosts.”

“Maybe, but whoever took control of the ghosts may be a powerful wizard. You are trained to fight ghosts, not wizards,” said Twilight. “Don’t worry, we will remain in Smart Spirit’s caravan. If any ghost comes, we should be able to deal with them with the Poltergusts here.”

“If a filly could clean a whole manor by herself in one night, then we can defend ourselves against some simple ghosts,” Rainbow Dash added with a nod.

“And ya need me to drive ya to the valley,” Applejack said. “And Ah refuse to let ya go to that there place alone. Not with all those dangers. Ah remember one of the manors is on a cliff that could crumble anytime, right?”

“Uh, yeah. The Treacherous Mansion. Even Smart Spirit refused to enter,” said Apple Bloom as she inspected her Poltergust a last time before the departure, making sure that the flashlight now integrated worked. She also made sure that the Dark-Light Device was installed in it and working properly, the flashlight emitting a rainbow light when activated.

This last device was a recent invention that Smart Spirit created with the help of Twilight. Ghosts tended to use illusions to impede their progression, and only Little Ghost could dispel them. But since Little Ghost wasn’t coming, then this device will be able to dispel them in her place. She will just have to watch out to not overheat it.

"Ah'm ready."

Applejack nodded and started the Poltermobile, the ghosts waving goodbye to them.

The journey to the North took a few hours even with the fast vehicle. They had to stop on the way in the Crystal Empire to rest before continuing in the morning. Following the copy of the map given by Eternal Rest, they quickly found the tunnel leading to the Evershade Valley.

The tunnel was big enough for the Poltermobile to enter, but the path was so rocky that it was a miracle that the wheels didn’t break. The tunnel eventually ended at the start of another path very badly maintained surrounded by dark, dead trees. It was morning, and yet, the sky was now as dark as the night, without any stars visible. Only a dark moon partially hidden by black clouds was giving some light to the place.

The path eventually divided into three paths. One continued forward between the dead trees toward a manor, Smart Spirit’s caravan visible not far from the barrier at the entrance. A second was going to the left toward a forested plateau (the trees being alive there) with two towers barely visible before leaving to cold mountains behind, a mining complex barely visible among them. A third path was going to the right, traversing an old bridge toward a desert area where the clockwork factory could be seen on top of another plateau.

The Evershade Valley welcomed the ponies in all its gloomy glory, and Apple Bloom immediately knew that what happened in the Gem Manor last year was nothing compared to what was awaiting her in this place.
> First Mansion: Gloomy Manor
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Carefully, Applejack drove the Poltermobile to Smart Spirit's caravan in front of the portal of Gloomy Manor, the structure well deserving its name. It was smaller than the Gem Manor, but the atmosphere was easily as creepy. The dead trees and the dark sky played a big role in it, but the pitiful state of the manor, between the broken windows to the portal constantly opening and closing and squeaking because of the wind, passing by the front yard not at all tended, added a lot.

All the mares gulped.

"Ya're sure ya want to go in there alone, Bloom? Maybe Ah should come with ya... What if that wizard who took control of the ghosts was here?" Applejack asked as she stopped the Poltermobile beside the caravan.

Apple Bloom lowered her ears. "Ya're right, Applejack, but Ah don't know... There'll be a lot of ghosts in there, and Ah'm not sure Ah'll be able to protect ya. The prof could barely protect me when Ah started exploring the Gem Manor and he followed me."

"Then Ah'll just have to learn like ya learned."

"Then I'm coming too!" Rainbow Dash shouted.

Twilight shook her head. "No, Rainbow Dash. You too, Applejack. We will remain in the caravan. We will only impede Apple Bloom if we come with her. Don't worry, I have something in mind, so I can teleport to her if Apple Bloom is in danger. But first, let's all enter the caravan."

At this, the mares and filly all left the Poltermobile and entered the caravan. The inside of the caravan hadn't changed much. The machine to stock the ghosts captured was still here, but now, there was something else: a camera device beside a screen.

Twilight helped Smart Spirit create it not long after the Gem Manor incident, just in case Apple Bloom had to go explore another manor full of bad ghosts. They hadn't needed it until now. The camera device was on a pink headband that Apple Bloom took and put on her forehead. She then pressed a button on the camera while Twilight pressed one on the screen, and the screen now displayed what the camera was filming.

"Good. It works," said Twilight. "Now, we will be able to follow her and see if we have to intervene."

While Twilight said it, Apple Bloom took and put the same communication device that she used in the Gem Manor, putting an end in her ear and the other end before her mouth. Seeing this, Twilight took one too, and gave one to everypony else.

"Test. Test," Apple Bloom said once all the devices were activated.

Hearing her through the device in her ear, Twilight nodded. "It works."

"Eeyup," Applejack confirmed.

"I confirm," Rarity said.

"I read you loud and clear," Pinkie Pie said. "I always dreamed to say that!"

"Hey! I wanted to say that!" Rainbow Dash shouted. "Anyway, yeah, I read you."

"Uh... It works too for me," Fluttershy said, the poor mare looking around for any ghosts suddenly coming out of the walls.

Fully prepared, Apple Bloom started to walk toward the exit of the caravan, but before she could leave, Applejack hugged her. "Good luck, Apple Bloom."

"Thank ya, Applejack. Don't worry, Ah'll be careful. But remember to remain on guard, too. Ghosts could come anytime."

"Don't worry about us!" shouted back Rainbow Dash as she got one of the Poltergusts they took with them from Apple Bloom's manor on her back. Pinkie got one too, taking poses with it. "We will manage!"

Apple Bloom smiled at them, then exited the caravan. Once out, she turned to the manor; the building looking very imposing to the little filly. But after the Gem Manor, this didn't deter her at all.

She opened the portal and entered the front yard, but she barely did a few steps before she suddenly heard the portal violently closing behind her. Looking back quickly at it, she saw nothing. The wind had stopped blowing right now, so it couldn't be it.

"They haven't lost time," she said.

«The ghosts already?» Rainbow Dash asked.

"Eeyup. They saw us coming," Apple Bloom answered before she looked around. "Ah'm surprised they aren't already attacking."

«They are probably waiting for the right moment,» Twilight said. «Don't lower your guard.»

"Of course."

Apple Bloom turned back to the entrance of the manor and walked to it. However, when she tried to open the double door, it remained closed.

"Darn. Locked." She looked around. "And no trace of the..." That's when she spotted a mouse holding a key in its maw. The mouse looked at her, then ran away. "Ya've got to be kidding me! Come back here! Give me that key!" yelled the filly as she started running after the mouse all around the front yard.

«Hum... Maybe if you ask nicely and stop chasing him, the mouse will give you the key?» Fluttershy proposed.

Hearing her, Apple Bloom stopped running and took a big breath. "Worth a try... Uh... Mister mouse, could ya give me that key please? Ah need it to enter the manor."

The mouse looked back at her, grabbed the key from its mouth, and stuck out its tongue at her before placing the key back and running away again.

"Welp, sorry, Fluttershy, the nice way didn't work. Sorry for what Ah'm about to do," said Apple Bloom as she took the handle of her Poltergust.

«Please. Even if he was rude, try to not hurt him.»

"I'll try to not hurt him too much," replied Apple Bloom before she activated the Poltergust. She then pointed the hole at the fleeing mouse, and the rodent was sucked into the pipe with the key. She then took off the Poltergust from her back, dropped it on the ground, and opened it. The mouse jumped out of it, but Apple Bloom was able to catch its tail in her mouth, leaving the mouse dangling. She then raised a hoof under it, the meaning clear: "Drop the key and I will let you go." The mouse complied and spat the key on her hoof.

So Apple Bloom released the mouse who quickly ran away, and she placed the Poltergust on her back again before returning to the entrance. "Ah hope not all mice'll be as annoying here," she then said.

«At least it was funny,» said Pinkie.

"Speak for yerself."

Placing the key in the keyhole, Apple Bloom was able to open the double door and to finally enter the manor. The entrance room was rather simple: three doors, one just in front of her, one to the left, and one to the right. At both sides of the front door were two armors, surrounded with many paintings, and at both sides of the entrance door were two vases. Some other furniture and a chandelier completed the room.

Apple Bloom looked at the armors in suspicion. Ghosts may be hiding in them, and they may use their swords to attack her. So she slowly approached them, ready to jump back as soon as they start moving. Once close enough, she bucked them, reducing them to piles of armor pieces. Assured that ghosts weren't ambushed in the armors, Apple Bloom turned to look at the three doors, wondering which one led to Smart Spirit's lab.

She should have looked through the windows outside to see what was in the rooms at the left and the right.

There was better luck for the front door to be the right one, probably leading deeper into the manor, but just in case, she decided to go check the two other doors, starting with the left one.

The door led to a very dusty garage with an old carriage, among other things like a chest.

Two green ghosts were here, one of them sitting in the carriage and looking at the other who was pulling at one of the wheels. Eventually, the second ghost was able to tear off the wheel from its place and showed it to the other. The first ghost then took it and threw it at a pile of objects on a table, knocking down the whole thing the same way that foals knock down piles of bottles in fairs to gain prizes. While the ghost threw the wheel, the other started pulling on another, only to spot Apple Bloom. The ghost then tapped the carriage to gain the attention of the other and pointed at the filly who readied her Poltergust.

The ghost then teared off the wheel he started to pull and threw it at Apple Bloom who lowered her head to avoid it. She then ran to the ghost who threw the wheel and activated her Poltergust. However, as the ghost started to drag her, the other ghost suddenly opened the door of the carriage on Apple Bloom's face, and the filly fell on her rear, rubbing her injured muzzle.

«Oh no! Are ya alright, Bloom?!» Applejack yelled.

"Don't worry, Ah had worse," answered Apple Bloom before she glared at the two laughing ghosts. They didn't laugh long as Apple Bloom started sucking up the one who opened the door, and this time, nothing stopped her from capturing him. The other ghost tried to punch her, but she easily avoided him and even slammed the ghost on him. Soon enough, the two ghosts were captured.

But then, she heard loud metallic stomps approaching her from the entrance of the room, and she quickly turned to spot the two armors from the entrance room, no longer piles of pieces, approaching her. More green ghosts could be seen in them, holding the swords in their mouth.

She quickly ran to the closest one, then jumped back to avoid the swing of his sword. She then quickly bucked him in the chest, forcing him to take a step back. She then took the occasion to jump on his back and face the other ghost, signing him to attack. The other ghost did so and swung his sword. Apple Bloom avoided it by jumping down from the back, and the second ghost accidentally beheaded the other. Well, he beheaded the armor, and the ghost in it started yelling at the other.

And so, Apple Bloom activated the Poltergust and forced the ghost out of the armor before she slammed him against the other, the force of the blow enough to turn the armor into a pile of pieces again, with the second ghost coming out of it a little disoriented. So Apple Bloom slammed the first ghost on him to keep him from recovering his senses, and before long, the two ghosts were captured.

«Yeah! You show them, Apple Bloom!» Pinkie Pie yelled.

«You defeated those ghosts like they were nothing despite their armors! It was so awesome!»  Rainbow Dash said.

"Thanks," replied Apple Bloom before she started to throw some of the pieces of the armors through the windows, assuring that the ghosts would have a harder difficulty to reform them. "Ghosts in armor're nothing new for me."

Once done with the armors, she quickly checked the chest only to find nothing. She then left the room and decided this time to check the door at the right of the entrance, entering a mudroom with another door in front of her. No ghosts attacked her there, but through a window on her left, she spotted something moving. She quickly moved to watch through it and saw an outside area with a doghouse between two dead trees. Around said doghouse, a white ghost dog was playing with a key. After some more playing, the dog eventually threw the key in the branches of one of the trees. Instead of recuperating it, the dog lost interest in it and moved away.

"Now a dog..."

«He was so adorable,» Fluttershy said.

"He sure was, but something tells me that he'll be a thorn soon. Already, he's forcing me to fetch a key from a tree."

At this, she passed the second door to exit the manor and reach the doghouse. Here, she used the Poltergust to suck up the key from the tree, only for a ghost to suddenly jump out of the hole in the tree with a "Boo!" causing her to jump back in surprise. She quickly turned the Poltergust to him, but then, a second ghost came out of the doghouse and took the dropping key before flying away into the manor.

Cursing, Apple Bloom quickly captured the first ghost, then chased the other one all the way back to the entrance where he was waiting for her. Before she could activate the Poltergust, two other ghosts came out of the vases, one holding a crowbar while the other was holding a bat. Two more ghost came out of the garage, the two of them armed with the swords of the armors.

She turned to one of the swordghosts first and activated the Poltergust on him, also catching the ghost with the key in the vortex. She let the two of them drag her away of the other swordghost, avoiding him spinning around with the sword, then slammed them on the ghost with the crowbar, disarming him. As the two ghosts were captured, she quickly bucked the bat that the last ghost was swinging at her, knocking it out of his mouth, then activated the Poltergust on the second swordghost before using him to slam the others. One by one, the last three ghosts were captured, and she got the key.

«Ahah! Those ghosts are smart, but they aren't that tough!» Rainbow Dash said.

"True, but they can use weapons, so who knows what they'll use against me. And like ya said, they're smart, so they'll probably put a lot of traps and ambushes like they just did. Also, there'll probably be other, much stronger ghosts in this valley, and maybe even in this manor."

As she talked, she tested the last door she hadn't opened yet, and discovered that it was locked. So she used the key and opened it, entering a hallway with four armors, two at each sides. As soon as she entered, the armors turned toward her, revealing to have ghosts in them, each armed with a sword.

The worst part was that since it was a hallway, there wasn't much place to move around them. But then, she saw that they were walking on a carpet, and with the help of the Poltergust, she pulled it. All the armors crashed on the ground into piles, and the ghosts were exposed, disoriented. She then trapped the closest ghost in the vortex of the Poltergust and quickly slammed it on the second ghost. As the first one was captured, she quickly ran to the third one as he started reforming the armor, and trapped him before using him to slam the fourth one before he could also reform his armor. She then ran back to the second ghost and captured him before finishing with the fourth. Like before, she then threw some of the pieces of the armors through the windows to make sure that the ghosts won't be able to reform them easily.

Once done, she passed the door at the end of the hallway, and entered a two-story room. A door was directly at her right, beside the staircase leading to the second floor, and another door was a little further to the left, not far of a fountain. Behind the fountain was a wall full of gears with a crank.

Not knowing where to go, she tested the right door first, and entered a room with a toilet, a closet with hanging coats, a bathtub, and a sink. In the bathtub, two of the green ghosts were taking a bath, one of them scrubbing the back of the other. The two ghosts then spotted her and screamed, the ghost with the brush throwing it at her, and Apple Bloom used the door as a cover to protect herself. The two ghosts then came out of the bath to attack her, but she quickly dealt with them.

Seeing nothing of interest in this room, she returned to the previous one. This time, she went to the left door, entering another, L-shaped, hallway. Two doors were present on the wall in front of her. Taking the nearest to her first, she finally entered the lab.

Now, time to find out if the Prof left something for her. Anything. Who knew, maybe even the wizard who took control of the ghosts left something.

But before that, she had to deal with the ghosts in the lab, and there were a lot. Apple Bloom counted eight of them. Upon seeing her, they all took an object to attack, including books, to Twilight's dismay. One of them who took a broom even started to twirl it around like a professional in martial arts, only to hit the head of another ghost by accident, and the ghost punched him back.

She couldn't help but to giggle at this. Those ghosts were annoying, but they were funny, too. No wonder the Prof liked them.

Despite their number and their weapons, the now usual tactic of trapping and slamming worked very well to capture all of them rapidly without Apple Bloom getting hit once. Some of the ghosts started to throw objects at her when their number diminished, but she was able to use the various machines and other stuff in the room to cover herself. Three more ghosts came from the pivoting board, trying to take her by surprise, but the filly was faster and was able to trap and capture the three of them at the same time. A last one tried its luck from the fireplace but met the same fate.

The room cleaned, she started to look around for anything that could tell her where was the prof. After a few minutes passed looking at the many papers scattered around, she eventually found a map of the manor draw by Smart Spirit. And it even indicated the secret passages! Apparently, there was one in the fireplace to enter this room from the one above, and there was also a room under the stairs accessible from the two-story room, but she didn't remember seeing a door.

The ghosts probably made it disappear with their illusions. She may have to use the Dark-Light Device and see if there was something important in there. There was even a secret pocket between the lab and the room beside it, hidden behind the wallpaper. Speaking of, she did see that the wallpaper was partially torn off from the wall here. Another place to look at. On the second floor, another fireplace also acted as an alternate entrance to the room beside the lab.

This manor was smaller, but it certainly possessed more secrets than the Gem Manor.

Keeping the map, she then found beside it a message.



Find him in the cellar! Bwahahahaha!



This smells a trap... she immediately thought. But having nothing better, she looked back at the map to see how to go to the cellar. Apparently, the only way to go to the cellar was to take an elevator from the lobby on the second floor. But the door to it was hidden behind an aquarium in the foyer, so she will have to use the crank she saw here to move it.

Her objective clear, she returned to the foyer, only to find a buffed minotaur-like red ghost tearing off the crank and flying away with it into the hallway she came from. Three other red ghosts then pulled off three gears from the wall and flew away, one of them following the first one while the other two flew to the hallway on the second floor.

Apple Bloom looked at what remained of the mechanism in disbelief, then groaned before returning to the first floor hallway.

"Thanks Celestia the ghosts in the Gem Manor weren't that annoying."

«Well, they were just painted creations of Pyrite,» Twilight said. «Those are real ghosts with real brains. Yes, I know they don't have brains; you know what I mean.»

While Twilight talked, Apple Bloom had the bad surprise to see a green ghost locking the door to the lab with a key. When the ghost spotted her, he did an "Ah ahah ahah ah!" then flew through the door.

Apple Bloom had a not at all happy expression. She went to try the other door leading to the studio, only to discover that, while it wasn't locked, something was blocking it from the other side. So she entered the secret pocket to see if there was anything and did find a key at the end. There was also a hole in the right wall, and she could look through it to see what was blocking the door to the studio.

In the room, she could see a blue, lanky diamond dog-like ghost painting one of the red ghosts on a canvas, the red ghost flexing his muscles while taking a pose. Looking at the door, she could see that it was blocked by a pile of objects.

Groaning again, Apple Bloom exited the secret pocket and looked into the second part of the hallway. She could see only one door to her left, the map saying that it led to the library. But curiously, she could hear somepony play a piano in it.

This brought back some very bad memories. The door was locked anyway, and the key she possessed didn't open it.

According to the map, there was also a door at the end of the hallway leading to a patio, but no door in sight. Again, an illusion. So she used the Dark-Light Device to make it appear and entered the patio, a simple exterior area leading to the kitchen at her left, with some dead flowers, a large fountain, and the statue of some stallion, probably the ancient owner of the manor before it was abandoned and finished here. There was also a door to her right leading, according to the map, to the small room under the stairs of the foyer.

Some green ghosts took her by surprise by jumping out of the water of the fountain, but they didn't last long. The area cleared, she tried to enter the kitchen, but the door was also blocked by a pile of junks. Looking through the windows, she could see some of it, along with a green ghost chasing a blue ghost with a rolling pin, to the amusement of some other ghosts.

With the kitchen out of her reach, she took the door to the room under the stairs, finding another key as well as a green ghost jumping out of a chest. The ghost captured, she used the Dark-Light Device to make appear the door to the foyer, and passed it.

Now, she could probably return to the hallway to test her new key on the door to the library, but she decided instead to visit the second floor. However, as she climbed the stairs, they suddenly turned into a slope!

"Woah!"

She fell back to the bottom, and a blue ghost came out of it, laughing at her. The blue ghost then flew away, joined by three other blue ghosts, and they separated to the four corners of the room. They then entered the furniture.

Her left eye twitching, Apple Bloom got up and went after the nearest blue ghost hiding in a vase. As she approached him, the ghosts started to regularly come out of their hiding place to throw objects at her. Reaching for the vase, she bucked it, destroying it and revealing the ghost in it. Before he could fly away, she activated the Poltergust and captured him, making sure to avoid the objects thrown at her meanwhile.

One by one, the ghosts were captured the same way, until no one remained. With the stairs back to normal, she climbed them carefully. On the second level of the room, she passed in front of the aquarium behind which she could see the door to the lobby, then reached the door to the second floor hallway, just above the one to the first floor hallway.

Like in the first floor hallway, the second floor hallway possessed two doors in front of her, but wasn't L-shaped. Near the end of the hallway, she could also see a trapdoor with a cord leading to the rafters. She decided to test the door in front of her first and discovered that it was locked. So she used one of the keys she got and was able to open it, entering the parlor, a phonograph in it playing a spooky song.

One of the red ghosts who stole the gears was sitting on one of the chairs, listening calmly to the song. But then, he heard her entering and looked at her before getting up, ready to attack with his big arms. But Apple Bloom was used to fight muscled ghosts, so it wasn't hard for her to roll out of the way to avoid his punch before activating the Poltergust. While capturing him, he obviously dragged her around thanks to his strength, trying to ram her into objects or to force his way out of the vortex, but the filly managed to avoid every obstacle and to hold on until the ghost was captured, letting his gear fall.

Apple Bloom took the gear but...

"Uh... Twilight? Ah've nothing to keep it."

«I'm coming to take it,» the princess replied before she teleported in the room. Apple Bloom gave her the gear. "You are really impressive, Apple Bloom. I wish I could help more than that."

"It's okay. Thanks."

Twilight nodded and teleported back to the caravan with the gear.

Remembering the secret passage in the fireplace, Apple Bloom entered it and pulled down a lever hidden in it, opening a trapdoor under her. She fell to the fireplace of the lab, surprising the ghosts in it, including the green one with the key and the red one with the crank. Shaking her head to recover her senses after this fall, Apple Bloom quickly got up and trapped the red ghost in the vortex of the Poltergust before he could act.

The three green ghosts in the room then recovered from their shock and started attacking her, but thanks to the red ghost dragging her, she was able to avoid everything they did against her and even managed to slam the red ghost on the one with the key, making the both of them drop their objects. Once the red ghost was captured, the green ones didn't last long.

As Twilight appeared to take the crank, Apple Bloom used the key to open the door and exit the lab. She then returned to the foyer to return to the second floor, but as she climbed the stairs, they turned again into a slope!

"Seriously?!" She yelled once at the bottom, to the amusement of the blue ghost that caused it.

Like previously, the blue ghost went to hide in the furniture to throw objects at her, joined by two others. However, green ghosts also came armed with various weapons to distract her from the blue ones, which worked for a few seconds. So she went to get the blue ghosts first, finding them, trapping them, and slamming them on the green ones to stop them from chasing her.

Once the last ghost disappeared in the Poltergust, she ran up the stairs and returned to the second floor hallway to open the second door, using the other key she found before, and she entered the bedroom. Here, there was another door to her right leading to the study, but again, it was blocked, probably by another pile of junks. This meant that she had to use the bed on the wall. No ghosts attacked her there, so she didn't lose time, pulled on the rope to reveal the bed, went on it, then pressed a button on the wall beside it to make it return to the wall, taking her with it.

She didn't think that the bed would return so fast, resulting in her getting propelled to the wall of the study opposite to the bed. Groaning in pain, she briefly rubbed the hurting spot before getting up.

"Note to self, cling to the cover next ti-Woah!"

Seeing a red fist coming, she quickly lowered herself to avoid it and activated the Poltergust on the red ghost. He was quickly captured, and Apple Bloom took his gear. Looking around to see if there wasn't another ghost coming, she saw that the red ghost had been reading a book on a chair beside the fireplace.

Oh well.

Once Twilight took away the gear, Apple Bloom turned off the fireplace and entered it. Like in the parlor, she pulled down a lever and opened a trapdoor under her. The filly fell to the studio, interrupting the two ghosts from earlier in their artistic activity. Like in the lab. She quickly got up and trapped the red ghost before slamming him on the blue one before he could go hide. The two ghosts captured, she looked in curiosity at the artwork of the blue ghost and immediately started to laugh when she saw that he painted black mustaches on the red ghost.

Through the communication device, she could hear that she wasn't the only one laughing.

«Those ghosts are so funny! Too bad they're meanies,» said Pinkie.

«Remember, Pinkie, they are controlled,» Rarity said. «Once we take care of whoever controls them, they will be back to their friendly self.»

«Yipee! And I will do silly pranks with them!»

«Oh, Celestia please, no...» Applejack said, groaning.

Apple Bloom giggled again. "Anyway, Twilight, Ah've the last gear."

At this, Twilight appeared with the two other gears and the crank, as well as some tools. Taking the last gear, she spoke, "I will remain with you to repair the mechanism."

"Okay. Ah's wondering what Ah'd do. Thanks. Just remain close to me."

Twilight nodded before she used her magic to levitate the pile of junks out of the way, letting them open the door to the hallway. Back in the foyer, Twilight immediately started to repair the mechanism.

Two red ghosts then appeared, each armed with big, spiked clubs, while four blue ghosts appeared behind them and went to hide in the furniture.

"Uh... Twilight. Ah don't think Ah'll be able to protect ya against the objects those blue guys'll throw."

"I will just use a shield. You should focus on the red ones."

"Aye!" said Apple Bloom before she ran to the red ghosts. The two tried to smash their club on her, but she jumped to the side and trapped the two of them, getting herself dragged around by their combined strength. Two green ghosts appeared to save them, but she was being dragged too rapidly for them to successfully hit her. The two red ghosts eventually got the idea to separate, and Apple Bloom was forced to give up one to focus on the other. Once the red ghost was captured, she dislodged a blue ghost hidden in a nearby object and slammed him on the green ghosts chasing her before capturing all of them. She then saw that the second red ghost was approaching Twilight, and she quickly ran to trap and capture him.

Another red ghost then came out of the wall followed by two other green ghosts, but Apple Bloom immediately trapped the red one and used him to stun the green ones. One by one, the remaining ghosts in the room were captured, and they stopped coming, leaving Twilight to finish repairing the mechanism in peace.

"Thhhhere!" she shouted as she finished replacing a gear. "It should work. Let me test." She turned the crank, and sure enough, the aquarium was lowered behind the fountain, opening the way to the lobby.

"Good job, Twilight!" Apple Bloom shouted.

"Thank you. You were impressive too. Thank you for protecting me. I really didn't want to be knocked by those big red ones," she said with a shiver. "I will ready the girls. If the wizard is in the cellar, then we will have to be here."

"Okay," Apple Bloom said with a nod before Twilight teleported back to the caravan.

She climbed the stairs, thankfully not turning into a slope this time, and passed the door to the lobby. Here, she found the elevator, only to have bad news.

"The elevator's locked! Darn it!"

She could hear some of the girls sigh.

«This would have been too easy, uh?» Rainbow Dash asked.

«Too easy. Too easy. Ya saw all she had to face just to get that there aquarium lowered?» Applejack asked back.

«Right.»

Apple Bloom groaned. “Well, then... Off to find the key...” She looked back at the two doors in the lobby, one in front of her leading to the second level of the library (she could still hear the piano) and one to her left leading to a balcony. Thankfully, there wasn't much left to explore.

The door to the library was locked, so she went to the door to the balcony. Which was above the patio where there was another door leading to the dining room, only to discover that it was blocked by a pile of junks too. The ghosts inside the room, seeing her trying to enter, raised their glasses at her before drinking, the wine in the glasses passing through them and going on the chairs.

«Such a waste of good wine!» Rarity huffed.

«What will you do now? I could teleport to get rid of what's blocking the door,» Twilight proposed.

Apple Bloom shook her head. "No, Twilight. Ya'd be at the mercy of the ghosts. There're still the rafters to explore."

So she returned to the hallway and used the Poltergust to reach the cord and pull it down, opening the trapdoor and deploying a ladder. She climbed it, only to face two new armors, a big one armed with a spear and another armed with an axe.

And no carpet to make them crash. No choice, she had to do it the old way. She went between the two armors and jumped above the swung axe. She then jumped away to avoid the spear, the weapon impaling instead the other armor. As the spear armor tried to pull its weapon out. Apple Bloom ran behind the axe armor and bucked it on the rear, making it crash against the other. They both crumbled in a pile, and the two green ghosts who used them came out dazed. The filly quickly captured them.

With the place clear, Apple Bloom started to look, seeing that she was just on a platform in a corner of the room surrounded in two sides by holes, with just a small, narrow path leading to a key in the opposite corner. She could see that the path passed just above the library, and she could see the piano seemingly playing alone. But she didn't dare jump because of the height.

Slowly, she walked on the narrow path, looking where she placed her hooves. However, halfway, a red ghost appeared and started attacking her. She couldn't even try to capture him in return, because she knew that he would be able to drag her out of the path and make her fall. So she had no choice but to avoid his attacks while advancing until reaching the platform with the key. It was only here that Apple Bloom trapped the red ghost, and she pressed her hooves against a box to make sure that he wouldn't be able to drag her into a hole.

Once the ghost was captured, she took the key and carefully returned to the entrance of the room. Exiting it, she returned to the lobby and used the key on the door to the library, opening it.

The second level of the library was mainly a loft going all around the room from the left wall to the right wall passing by the back wall. The left and right walls were full of shelves with books, and looking down through the barrier supposed to stop ponies from falling, Apple Bloom could see stacks upon stacks of books around the piano that still played alone. There was also a fireplace beside it, but she knew that it hadn't a secret passage this time.

It was still too high for her to risk a jump, so she continued her way until reaching the right side where there was a door to the dining room.

In the dining room, the ghosts were still here fooling around with the food, but they quickly spotted her and started to fool with the food in another way: by throwing it at her.

Along with the silverware, including knifes.

Apple Bloom quickly went under the table to avoid the projectiles, and the ghosts followed her. So the fight mostly happened under the table where Apple Bloom had to be careful to not hit her head, which still happened two times.

Once the room was empty of ghosts, she destroyed the pile of junks blocking the door to the balcony, then wondered what to do from here. That's where she saw a dumbwaiter. Getting an idea, she jumped in it and pressed the button on the wall beside it to make it go down.

And so, she entered the kitchen with all the ghosts she saw earlier: five greens and two blues. Upon spotting her, the green ghosts immediately took everything they could get their hooves on, from rolling pins to knives to frying pans, while the blue ones went to hide in the fridge and in a drawer.

One minute later, they were all in the Poltergust. Apple Bloom almost missed the painting ghosts. At least, they presented some challenge and were diversified. Well, those ghosts weren't as diversified, but they clearly made up with their intelligence, leading them to pick up weapons and to use different tactics to get her.

She destroyed the pile of junks blocking the door to the patio, then passed the door to the first level of the library. Slowly, she advanced while looking at the piano still playing. Then, little by little, an orange earth pony-like ghost taller than the others with a very big head (a brain even visible in it) appeared on the chair of the piano, revealing to be the one playing it. He looked smugly at Apple Bloom as he stopped using his hooves to play, and yet, the piano continued to play as he floated away, front hooves crossed. Books then started levitating around him.

Two other ghosts like him then appeared, causing more books to float around while they laughed, looking down at her like unicorn nobles looked at peasant earth ponies. Then, as they started to throw the books at Apple Bloom, they turned invisible.

«Stop using books as weapons!» Twilight yelled, almost deafening the filly.

"Ugh... Twilight, not now, please..." Apple Bloom said as she activated the Dark-Light Device. Not only the device could reveal illusions, but it could also reveal invisible ghosts, and even reveal traces of ghosts, like when they traversed walls.

So, while running around avoiding the books, she used the Dark-Light Device to reveal the ghosts. When she discovered one, she immediately activated the Poltergust on him. The ghost was clearly surprised to be caught, but quickly got over the shock and started to fly around to escape, still throwing books at her with his telekinesis power. She stopped him by slamming him around, successfully hitting one of the two other orange ghosts this way. She continued to slam the ghost on him, so he couldn't recover until the ghost was captured.

The third ghost clearly didn't like seeing any of them getting captured and seeing the other being beaten, because he doubled the amount of books thrown at her, successfully hitting her as she started sucking up the second ghost. Despite the hit, she didn't release her hold on the ghost and used him to move around and avoid the books. When the second ghost was captured, she got hit again, but she quickly recovered and started to run around while looking with the Dark-Light Device. When she finally found the last ghost, she activated the Poltergust and captured him without too much problems despite the books. The piano stopped playing.

Two keys dropped from the ceiling, probably kept levitated here by the ghosts. One opened the door connecting the library to the hallway. The other was the one for the elevator to the cellar. Finally.

"Ah got the key to the elevator."

«We saw. Thank you for showing those ghosts to not mess with books,» Twilight said.

«What Twilight wanted to say was "good job, Apple Bloom, it's almost the end,"» Rarity said.

«"And you got them good despite their freaky power and all mighty expression,"» added Rainbow Dash.

«Wait for us at the elevator. We're coming,» Applejack then said.

"Uh no. Ah'll wait for ya'll at the entrance to escort ya. Ghosts may attack ya between the entrance and the lobby. What if they were able to reform those armors?"

«Then I'll bring my cannon!» Pinkie shouted.

«No need to wait for us at the entrance. I will teleport all of us directly beside the elevator,» said Twilight.

"Ah, yeah."

«Ugh... Ah hate when ya teleport us,» said Applejack. «It makes me feel like Ah ate a rotten apple.»

«Or like when we drink too much at one of Pinkie's parties,» Rainbow said.

«You will get used to it,» Twilight then said.

Stopping listening to the mares, Apple Bloom made her way back to the lobby, only for the stairs to turn into a slope AGAIN! After dealing with the ambushing ghosts (three blues, two greens, and one red), she continued. However, just as she was about to pass the door to the lobby, she walked on a puddle of purple slime-like stuff without knowing, and the next instant, she was inside a purple hippogriff-like slime ghost trying to suffocate her. She was able to struggle enough to free herself and to separate the ghost into three smaller versions of himself that were quickly captured.

"Now there're ghosts like that... Ah'll have to watch where Ah walk."

After this, she entered the lobby, and she was soon joined by Applejack and the others teleporting here thanks to Twilight. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie had a Poltergust on their back, and most of them had now their face looking green. After some minutes passed recuperating from the sickness, the six mares were ready, and they went to the elevator. However, they discovered that the elevator was just big enough for one of them to enter with Apple Bloom.

Huffing, Twilight spoke, "I will go with her to the cellar, then return to you and teleport us here," making the ponies groan again.

"And why don't you teleport us directly to the cellar?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I can only teleport to places I know how they look and where they are, or else, I take the risk to teleport inside a wall, or in the earth. I already told you that, like, five times."

"Right, right."

"Hum... Could we not simply take the elevator one after another? If you don't mind me asking," asked Fluttershy, the mare making sure to be in the middle of the group.

"And take the risk of leaving one of you isolated at the mercy of the ghosts? No. Also, something may happen as soon as Apple Bloom reaches the cellar, so we need to be here and ready as soon as possible," answered Twilight. "So, please, try to not be sick after I teleport you."

"Easier said than done," Applejack said.

With their plan made, Apple Bloom and Twilight entered the elevator and activated it to go down to the cellar. However, barely the elevator started, it suddenly stopped.

"What now..." Apple Bloom said.

Twilight pressed repeatedly the button to try to restart the elevator, to no avail. "Darn it. It must be broken or stuck. It's an old elevator, after all. Or it's the gh-"

Before she could continue, the elevator suddenly shook, and the next instant, it started to fall, with the two ponies screaming. Thankfully, the fall wasn't long, so it was more fear than harm. But now, the elevator was unusable.

"Well, at least, I can teleport us out," the alicorn said once they recovered. Seeing that they were now on a wooden platform with some stairs leading to the cellar proper, and that no ghosts or wizard suddenly appeared to attack them, she then said, "Wait for me. I'm bringing the others," before teleporting.

She quickly came back with the five other mares, again getting some of them sick. Once they recovered, they went down the stairs, seeing that the cellar was a big, long room with some barrels and armor thankfully not moving.

And suspended to the ceiling, trapped in a shadowy cocoon, was Smart Spirit, unconscious.

"Professor!" yelled Apple Bloom in both relief and worry at seeing him.

"Here you are," they heard suddenly. Then, the familiar ghost of a yellow bearded stallion appeared beside the prof. "You made me wait. Seems like I underestimated the ghosts of the valley if they were able to slow you down that much."

"Pyrite! Ah should've known you'd something in it!" Apple Bloom yelled. Then she put a hoof under her chin, thinking. "But it can't be only ya. Ya don't have the power to control ghosts."

"Mph. Clever girl. You are right, I now have a very powerful ally who is helping me get my revenge. But don't expect to encounter him. You will die before that. If not from me, then from one of those guys," explained the ghost before he pointed down at something back on the ground.

Looking down, the ponies saw some weird ghost looking like Bogmire, but with a spider-like head and two spider-like legs instead of arms.

"Eeeek!!! What is that?!!" Rarity asked with a yell.

"I present to you Death Widow. My ally created it and his brothers just for you." He then chuckled. "Have fun." And then he disappeared.

Death Widow screeched, and the next instant, coming out of the holes in the walls, millions of spiders appeared and started to climb it. Before the ponies' horrified eyes, the spiders eventually formed a giant spider with a head looking like the fusion between a pony skull and a spider head, eight big holes forming the eyes.

"This is absolutely disgusting!" Rarity yelled.

"Spiders? Ah! No prob-"

A sudden invisible force interrupted Rainbow Dash, expelling the six mares to the wall behind them. A prison made of bones then appeared around them, trapping them. Shadow-like rings also appeared on Twilight and Rarity's horn, blocking their magic.

"Now, now. This is Apple Bloom's fight, and I don't want any interlopers. So just remain here and enjoy the show. I was already nice enough to let you help in the manor," suddenly said an unknown voice before it cackled.

"Who is it?! Show yourself!" Twilight yelled.

"Oh, I will show myself, but not now. Much too soon. Now, may the fight START!" shouted the voice before it slowly faded with another cackle as the giant agglomeration of spiders started attacking Apple Bloom with its legs.

"Twilight, ya can get us out of here, right?" Applejack asked. "Don't tell me he's able to block yer magic."

Twilight bit her lips. "He is... I can't use my magic anymore... Whoever he is, he's powerful enough to be able to block my magic."

"What?! But you're an alicorn!" Rainbow Dash shouted.

"Exactly... And you know what this means?" asked Twilight.

"Whoever is this meany pant is more powerful than an alicorn," said Pinkie Pie. "Wow. He must be as powerful as Discord. Maybe he's Discord's evil twin brother? Or the super powerful evil emperor of the dead. Or a really, really, really powerful necromancer. Or-"

"Please, Pinkie. We understood," Rarity said.

"So, we can't do anything?" Applejack asked.

Twilight shook her head. "No, we can't."

At this, the mares all looked back at Apple Bloom still facing Death Widow. The giant spider constantly tried to impale the filly with its legs, or to bite her with its teeth, or even to headbutt her, but the filly was always able to dodge its attempts at killing her. More than once, the attacks caused spiders to fall on her, and more spiders also climbed her from her legs, but her constant rolls always made them fall from her, if not crushing them.

As soon as the giant spider started attacking, Apple Bloom activated the Poltergust and started sucking up the spiders. Before long, the machine was full of them to the point that their remains started to come out by the vent, but she continued eating the giant spider little by little. Eventually, she sucked up enough spiders to reach its core: Death Widow itself. The vortex immediately trapped it, and the giant spider crumbled back into the millions of spiders that hadn't been sucked up. They quickly spread all around and went after Apple Bloom to climb her as she was dragged around by the Shadow. If she didn't watch out, her body would disappear under thousands of spiders, and only bones would remain of her.

So as she was dragged by Death Widow, she made sure to force him to drag her away of the spiders, and she rolled to get rid of the ones who were able to climb her. Once far enough, she slammed the Shadow on the spiders following her, crushing a lot of them.

Death Widow then was able to free itself from the vortex, turned into a shadow, and got away from Apple Bloom. It screeched again, calling for more spiders to reconstruct its giant spider body. It was even bigger than before, meaning that it would take more time for Apple Bloom to suck up the spiders until reaching Death Widow.

The giant spider also started spitting silk at her, trying to trap her in a cocoon, or at least to slow her enough that she wouldn't be able to avoid its attacks in time. So Apple Bloom ran to one of the armors and took a sword in her mouth.

When she was too slowed down by the silk sticking on the ground to dodge in time, she used the sword to cut the giant spider's legs about to impale her, then used her Poltergust to suck up the spiders that formed said legs. When the spider tried to bite her, she was able to cut the head, leaving the spider open for her to suck it up to the core, the cut parts taking time to reform.

Again, she reached Death Widow and trapped it in the Poltergust's vortex until it escaped.

Another screech, another wave of millions of spiders coming from the holes to reform the giant spider. Only, again, it was bigger, and it had now the torso of a pony skeleton, but instead of skeletal forehooves, it had scythe-like appendages. So she now had to deal with those appendages in addition to the rest. Also, because of the torso, the spider had more range to bite or headbutt her.

The sword was again very useful, but this time, because of spiders constantly coming out of the walls, whatever was cut was very quickly regrown, so Apple Bloom had to work quick to suck up the spider to the core. For this, she tried to remain on the spider's side, where she would only have to avoid the silk spit by it, but the spider was very quick to turn. So she decided to get practically under it, almost placing the end of the Poltergust against its body. Here, the spider couldn't reach her at all except with its scythes, but they didn't work well here, so it tried to let itself fall on her. But again, Apple Bloom was only practically under it, not under it, so she had no problem avoiding this. As much as the spider moved to get away, Apple Bloom always moved in response to remain more or less under it, and before long, she reached Death Widow.

This time, the Shadow didn't escape and was captured. Immediately, the spiders ran away back into the walls. The cage of bones around the mares and the rings around Twilight and Rarity's horn disappeared, as well as the cocoon of shadow trapping Smart Spirit. The old stallion fell along with a key, for some reason.

Apple Bloom rapidly ran to him screaming his name and shook him to try to wake him up.

But the stallion wasn't moving. Actually... he wasn't even breathing...



Thanatos was howling in laughter, almost falling from his throne made of bones. "Perfect! Just perfect!" He turned to the ghost of a certain stallion at his left. "What did you think, Smart Spirit? Wasn't it funny? Her expression? What? Oh, don't give me that look. It was never precised if she would save you dead or alive. I prefer dead. Especially when it makes such funny moments." He looked back at the portal showing him Apple Bloom. "Now... what should I do..." The portal focused on the six mares behind the filly, and he smirked. Three other portals opened, the first one showing Apple Bloom's family, the second one showing Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, and the last one showing the Gem Family. His smirk became wider. "So many choices... So many possibilities... I wonder how long our little games will last before you break."
> Second Mansion: Haunted Towers
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The mood among the ponies couldn't be more negative after their discovery of Professor Smart Spirit's death. Apple Bloom was inconsolable for many long minutes before she swore to at least save Smart Spirit's ghost from whoever was controlling them. And she also swore to make Pyrite and his ally pay.

Yes, they will pay. She will make sure of it. She won't rest before those two were sent to Tartarus.

Finding a note wrapped around the key that was with Smart Spirit's body telling to them that it opened the entrance to the Haunter Towers, the ponies took the stallion's body before Twilight teleported all of them back at the caravan. Twilight then placed the body inside a chest, intending to leave it here until they could properly bury it. Applejack then took the wheel of the caravan, and they started to move toward the Haunted Towers.

Nopony spoke a word during the ride until Apple Bloom said, "Girls..."

"Yes, Apple Bloom?" Rarity answered.

"Ah'm scared..."

"We are all scared. With this place full of ghosts..."

Apple Bloom shook her head. "Ah'm not scared because of that there valley. Ah'm scared for y'all." She looked at all the ponies, one after another. "What if... What if...?"

"I see what you mean," Twilight said. "And... as much as I would like to say that everything will be alright, I know that this would be wrong. If this being helping Pyrite is really as powerful as we think, then we are all in danger, no matter where. All we can do is remain close to our Poltergusts and hope to not get captured."

"But..." Fluttershy began. "But... What if he decides to target somepony back home?"

"No way. The Gem Family surrounded Ponyville with an anti evil ghost circle thingy," Rainbow Dash said.

"But this is not any ghost. This may not even be a ghost. This is a being possessing enough power to block the magic of an alicorn." She gulped. "As long as he's out there, nopony is safe."

Rarity became very pale despite her fur being already white. "So, you mean... Sweetie Belle..."

Twilight nodded. "This is why we must stop this being as quickly as possible before he decides to kill somepony else."

"Hey! Girls! We're approaching the towers!" Applejack shouted.

Hearing her, everypony went to the windows to look at the two towers in question.

Surrounded by dead trees, the towers really imposed, especially with that giant oak tree that grew between the two of them. They didn't seem as decrepit as the Gloomy Manor, so they were probably more recent, but this just meant that there would be fewer holes, no fewer ghosts. A huge water tower could be seen on top of the right tower, while the last floor of the left tower had its wall and roof made of glass, probably a greenhouse.

"Wowee! Seems like ya'll have t'climb a lot, Bloom," Applejack said.

"No problem," the filly replied.

"Ya still want to go alone? What with this killer that's lurking around?" the big sister asked.

"From what ya told me, Ah don't think this guy'll attack me now. He seems to want to see me struggle first. Why else Pyrite'd want to wait to attack me?" Apple Bloom looked at the other mares. "But again, Ah'm really scared he'll attack y'all while mah back's turned."

"And again, there is nothing you can do against this," said Twilight. "If he doesn't intend to attack you, probably because he seems to have an interest in you, then you must continue no matter what until you find him. And if he's a ghost, then capture him. We will try to help as much as we can on the way."

"But if this guy is that powerful, then how will Apple Bloom be able to fight him?" wondered Rainbow Dash.

"Ah was able to defeat Little Ghost despite her power, so Ah should be able to defeat him as long as Ah watch out for him," the filly said. "If he's a ghost, then he'll be as vulnerable to the Poltergust as any other ghosts. Ah just need to reach him."

"But again, he may not be a ghost," Twilight said.

"Well... That's why ya're here, right?"

"But he could stop us from intervening like he did with that spider,"

Apple Bloom frowned. "At least, we'll try. We must stop him." She sighed. "Too bad ya don’t have the Elements anymore."

"Couldn't we reuse that Rainbow Power we used against Tirek?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I don't know if we can reuse it," Twilight said. "We will get to it once we find this being."

"Unless he finds us before," Fluttershy said.

"He already knows where we are. I think he's watching us, thinking his next move," Pinkie Pie said, her mane not as poofy as before.

Everypony gulped.

"W-well... Ah'm going to the towers. Ah'll have a lot of works. Ah don't know where Ah have to go in there, but if Ah remember correctly what the prof said about those towers, they work with some water generator. So if Ah want to explore them, Ah'll have to activate it first."

"A water generator?" Twilight asked. "That's rare. This explains the water tower at the top. If you need my help to start it, just ask, and I will be here. Also, while watching you, I will try to draw a map and to place in it any secret passage you find so I can guide you, so think to watch everywhere."

The filly nodded, then opened the door to exit the caravan.

The key obtained in Gloomy Manor opened the portal to the courtyard. Which had various plots of dirt with plants, alive or dead, planted in them. In front of her was another big portal with a pinwheel leading to the oak tree. However, it was at the other side of a pit that was meant to be filled with water to rise a wooden bridge. But right now, the pit was empty, so she had to activate the water generator before she could hope to reach the portal. At the left and right were doors to the towers, the right one being metallic.

This seemed important. So Apple Bloom opened the metallic door, and jackpot, she entered the room with the generator. A red ghost was here, but upon spotting her, it flew to the floor above.

"Darn. He probably went to warn the other ghosts that Ah'm here."

«Let's forget about him and activate the generator. You should look around and see if there's something stopping it from working.»

Apple Bloom did so and looked around the room to search for anything that could activate the generator, only to find nothing.

"There's nothing."

«Mmh... If the generator isn't broken, then the water must be clogged. You will have to go look at the water tower.»

"Okay. It shouldn't be a problem. Wait..." Apple Bloom approached the door leading to the rest of the tower, at the left of the entrance, and discovered that it was locked, and that it only could be opened by pressing a button beside it. "Darn it. That's what Ah thought."

«No choice then, you will have to go in the other tower. Don't worry, I saw that there was a bridge linking the two towers at the second floor, and another made of the branches of the oak tree at the fourth floor. You should be able to reach the roof thanks to one of them.»

"Let me look first if there isn't something hidden here. There's a chest."

After saying this, Apple Bloom went to open the chest, and indeed found a key in it. With this key in her possession, Apple Bloom exited the room and went to open the door to the left tower. It turned out that it was locked, and the key she found in the chest opened it.

She entered a room separated in two by a canal also empty of water. Like in the courtyard, the only way to reach the other size was to fill it with water to cause a wooden bridge to rise. The canal was too deep to jump from the bottom, and too large to jump from one side to the other. Apple Bloom could spot a door in the right wall at the other side, as well as a stair leading to a second level of the room.

Searching around in the first part of the room, she found nothing hiding a key, so she sat and rubbed her head, thinking.

"So the way is blocked, no matter what?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Seems like it, but... there must be one. Wait..." Apple Bloom activated the Dark-Light Device and looked around again. This time, she found an invisible door in the right wall. "Ahah!"

«Ah! Those ghosts thought they were smart!» Rainbow Dash proudly shouted.

«Good job, Bloom!» Applejack shouted.

Finally advancing, Apple Bloom opened the door and entered a greenhouse full of wooden planters filled with plants. There were also vases, chariots, and many vines creeping around, having caused many windows to break.

"Seems like the proprietor loved plants."

«But now that the towers are abandoned, they're going out of control,» said Twilight. «Watch out to not trip on a vine.»

Apple Bloom started advancing, only for a shelf to fall on her suddenly. She barely avoided it by jumping backward, and she could hear a ghost laughing. She quickly activated the Dark-Light Device, but the ghost was already gone. She continued advancing, keeping an eye on the other shelves, only for a vase to almost fall on her. Again, she quickly activated the DLD, and this time, caught the green ghost responsible.

As she caught him, two more green ghosts appeared and armed themselves with shovels, followed by a red ghost who started to throw vases at her. She went for the red ghost first and used him to slam the green ghosts and disarm them. She was free to capture them without more problems.

She reached the second door leading back to the previous room at the other side of the canal. Before that, she spotted through a window before the door that there was an outside area, as well as a hole in a wall leading to it, but seeing no door leading to the room with the hole, she activated the DLD and found another invisible door just at the right of the one she passed. The door actually led to some closet room with some tools, and the hole was here in a wall, leading to the outside area, a small garden in which the entrance was blocked by many vines that had destroyed the portal.

Among the vines, she spotted a chest. Thanks to her earth pony strength, she had no problem freeing the chest from the vines, and was able to open it to find a new key.

«Eheh. That's two times you find a key in a chest. It's like you're in a dungeon,» Pinkie said.

"Ah know a colt who would love it."

Taking the key, she returned to the previous room. She then climbed the stairs and tested the key on the door at the top, and it worked. So Apple Bloom entered a room with-

"GYAAAAHHHH!!!"

Apple Bloom immediately exited the room upon spotting the big carnivorous plant turning toward her, mouth opening and ready to devour her.

"Carnivorous plants! There're giant, pony eating carnivorous plants in there!"

«Wait here. I'm coming,» Twilight said before she appeared. "Time to remove some weeds."

Apple Bloom nodded and opened the door again, and Twilight immediately killed the plants with some magical beams, freeing another chest.

"Here we go."

"Thank ya, Twilight."

"You are welcome. Now, I must return to the caravan."

When Twilight teleported away, Apple Bloom opened the chest, finding another key.

«Ta dadadadaa!» Pinkie shouted.

"Pinkie..." Apple Bloom said with a giggle.

There was another door in the same wall as the one she passed to enter, but the key didn't open it because it was already opened, so Apple Bloom passed it. This led back to the previous room again, but only to a small platform separated from the rest and leading directly to another door at her left. This door led to the bridge that Twilight told her.

On this bridge, for some reason, crows (living one, not ghosts) attacked her, and she was forced to defend herself by bonking them with the handle of the Poltergust. She eventually just decided to trap them in the vortex of the machine and to slam them on the bridge, knocking them out.

"They left me no choice," she told before Fluttershy could say anything.

Not hearing any answer from the animal lover, she continued her way through the bridge and reached the door to the right tower. Which the key she obtained opened. She entered a room that looked like a laboratory with glass containers, and here again, the plants were growing out of control, to the point that they broke the flooring on the room above.

Three green ghosts armed with shovels and three red ghosts were waiting for her there, one of them probably the red ghost that flew earlier. Thankfully, there was enough space on the floor for Apple Bloom to move around and avoid getting too close of the ghosts. She used this at her advantage to force them to group together as they chased her, and she was able to trap all of them in the vortex of the Poltergust.

With six ghosts trapped at the same time, it was no surprise that some of them managed to escape, but she was still able to catch two of the green ones and one of the red ones. The last green ghost was rapidly captured, and Apple Bloom managed to trap again the last two red ghosts at the same time, and this time, they didn't escape.

Exploring the room, Apple Bloom entered a part where there had probably been an elevator, but it wasn't here anymore. However, there was now a weird purple balloon-like plant coming out of a wall.

"Uh... Okay... What now?"

«Use that balloon plant to fly up!» Pinkie Pie shouted.

«Are you sure Pinkie?» Twilight asked.

«It's a balloon plant, and you can use balloons to fly! Of course, I'm sure! Just blow air in it, and you will see!»

Having no other choice, Apple Bloom listened to her and sucked up the plant until it was stuck in the hole of the Poltergust. "Lucky the prof upgraded it so it'd blow air to expel stuff that Ah may've sucked in." At this, Apple Bloom pressed a button that caused the Poltergust to expel air instead of sucking it up.

The air entered the plant and inflated it. Luckily, the air was hot enough to cause it to float up and take the filly with it. Apple Bloom looked up and saw some plants with thorns in the way, so she blew air from her mouth at the balloon to make it move. Thanks to this, she was able to move and to go all the way to the fourth floor, entering the room where the floor was destroyed with the plants.

She landed in front of a door, almost out of breath. After taking away the plant from the hole of the Poltergust, she opened it and exited the tower, reaching stairs outside of it. As she climbed them, more crows attacked her, and she dealt with them like before. At the top of the stairs, she reached the roof of the tower under the water tower.

Some disgusting goo was dripping from an exit along the pipe into a wooden bucket placed on a conduit. Beside it was a big machine linked to the water tower with a big button, and another pipe was coming out of the machine into the tower below.

Apple Bloom also discovered that this wasn't exactly the end of the tower. There was another room on this floor, but no way to enter it from here. It wasn't her goal, anyway.

"Ah'm at the water tower. Ah suppose Ah just press this button and the water'll flow to the generator, right?"

«That's it,» Twilight answered.

Apple Bloom nodded, but as she approached the machine, the bucket suddenly rose into the air, floating alone. Looking with the DLD, she discovered that it was actually a green ghost holding it and ready to slam it on her head. She bucked the bucket out of his hooves before activating the Poltergust and capturing the ghost.

With the ghost gone, she pressed the button and activated the machine. Apple Bloom could see water filling it from the pipe, linking it to the water tower, before it continued its way out of the machine to the generator. Looking down toward the courtyard, she could see the pit filling with water, raising the bridge to the portal before the oak tree.

Smiling at her victory, Apple Bloom spoke "Eh! Ah could've been a plumber in another life!"

«I don't know. I don't see you wearing green and saying 'mama mia',» Pinkie said.

"Wha-"

Apple Bloom was interrupted by something big suddenly entering the pipe from inside the water tower. Turning toward it, she could hear whatever it was slowly moving in it, some goo coming out by the joints, until reaching the exit above the conduit. Out of the exit then dropped a big, fat brown ghost that seemed to be a fusion between a slime and an earth pony. He was stinking like a pony that didn't take a bath for years, and goo was constantly dropping from his body all around him.

Apple Bloom put a hoof on her muzzle to stop the horrible odor from entering. "Ewwwww!"

At her reaction, the ghost laughed and even sniffed under his foreleg, enjoying his smell. He then spotted the bucket beside him, took it, and ate it, before farting, to everypony's disgust.

«How can such a disgusting ghost exist?» Rarity said.

"Ah don't know, but Ah'm putting him in mah list of the worse ghosts encountered."

The ghost started attacking, spitting goo at Apple Bloom. She quickly ran out of the way and activated the Poltergust. But the ghost was so big that he wasn't even moving. Worst, it was Apple Bloom who was getting closer to him, and she definitively didn't want to approach him, so she walked back while continuing to suck it up. The ghost continued to spit his goo at her, so she was constantly forced to move left or right while continuing to move backward. More and more of the goo constituting his body was entering her Poltergust until, finally, the ghost lost the fight and was captured.

«It was sickening...» Twilight said. «And we weren't even there with you. I can't imagine how horrible it was for you.»

"VERY horrible... Ah thing Ah lost mah sense of smell..."

«Let's change topic. Now that you activated the generator, you should be able to open that door back in the first floor.»

"And reach the portal with the pinwheel. Ah wonder where it leads, Ah didn't see anything at the other side, just the bottom of the tree."

«It may be worth checking. There must be a secret passage, or something.»

"But now, Ah have to return down here," The filly finished with a sigh.

So the filly returned to the laboratory where there was, thankfully, another 'balloon plant' for her to descend back to the second floor. Here, she had to fight four Greens armed of shovels, another Green armed with a bucket, and one Red. After dealing with them, she traversed the bridge (where she had to deal with more crows), traversed the room where there had been the carnivorous plants, and descended the stairs back to the first floor. With the water now flowing, she didn't need to pass by the greenhouse and simply traversed the canal by walking on the floating bridge. Some Greens attacked again, but they didn't last long.

She exited the tower and returned to the courtyard where she traversed the floating bridge to reach the big portal with the pinwheel. Not seeing any other way to open it, she activated the Poltergust and used it to make the pinwheel turn. Only for a Red to suddenly come from behind the portal to punch her right on the muzzle, sending her rolling backward.

"Ow..."

While the red ghost laughed, five Blues appeared and teared off five of the six vanes of the pinwheel and flew to the right tower. Growling, Apple Bloom rubbed her muzzle a little before getting up. She quickly captured the Red that punched her and ran after the Blues, entering the right tower. Back in the room with the generator, water now dropped on it to make the wheels turn.

Having only one way to go from there, she pressed the button beside the door at her left and opened it. She entered a small room where three of the Blues who took the vanes were here messing with them. Upon spotting her, they flew away in fear, separating into two groups: one went through the wall in front of Apple Bloom, and the two others passed through a door at her right.

Thanks to the fact that every door here had a carpet in front of them, she understood that there was an invisible door in the wall that the lonely Blue traversed, and used the DLD to reveal it. Now having to choose between the two doors, she decided to go after the lonely Blue first, entering a room that served as somepony's chamber and living room, with a bed, a table, a closet, and a stove, among other furniture.

She searched the furniture one after another in search of the Blue and found him in the closet. But before she could activate the Poltergust, the Blue threw a cloth on her eyes, and by the time she took it away, the Blue had flown away again, thought the floor.

"What?" She tapped the floor. "There's a room under here?"

«Maybe. I saw that the floor was weird under the bed, you should check it,» Twilight said.

"Mmh... But how do Ah remove that bed?"

«If you can't move it, look around. If you want, I can come to help.»

Apple Bloom tried to push the bed into the wall, seeing that there was a hole for it to enter, and it moved. "This won't be necessary." A few seconds later, the bed was fully inside the wall, and she could feel the floor lower under her weight, but it didn't cause anything. Apple Bloom looked around again in search of a solution, then looked at a bucket filled with water that was beside the bed. She took it and almost immediately, with her and the bucket's combined weight, the floor under her started to move down, revealing to be some sort of elevator.

At the bottom, she heard a click and understood that she could walk away without risking the platform from going back up. Leaving it, she saw that she was now in a very dark underground room that was actually another laboratory with one of those carnivorous plants inside a glass container. There were also some more of those 'balloon plants', so she could use one to return to the previous room without having to find a way to make the platform move back up. A path flooded with water to her right led to a door.

Twilight quickly appeared to destroy the plant before returning to the caravan while Apple Bloom dealt with some Greens wandering the room. With the Greens captured, she checked the drawers of a table at the extremity of the room and found the Blue she chased in there. Before he could escape again, she captured him, making him drop the vane he was holding. Like with the gears back in Gloomy Manor, Twilight came to pick it.

Pushed by curiosity, Apple Bloom went to the door in the flooded path and entered what seemed to be a sewer. A couple more Greens that were wandering here were captured, and she found a chest at the other side of fake bars with a key inside.

«Ta dadadadaaaa!» Pinkie shouted again, causing everypony to laugh.

Apple Bloom took the key and continued to explore the sewer, seeing a hole in the ceiling with something blocking it that seemed to be able to move down, like the platform earlier. Further, hidden behind some moss-like plant at the extremity of the sewer, she found a hole in the wall and passed it, entering a smaller room dig in the earth...

With two coffins...

"Oh... Oops... Eheheheh... Ah entered a tomb... Sorry..." the filly said, walking back to the sewer.

«Wait! What's a tomb doing here?» Applejack shouted.

"Uh... Maybe there's a family graveyard, like back at the Gem Manor." She looked back at the hole in the ceiling, seeing that the thing that was blocking it had the shape of a coffin. "So Ah'm under a graveyard." She gulped. "Ah hope the dead will remain dead here. Ah don't want to fight skeleton zombies again. Ah don't even have a chainsaw this time."

«What?!» The six mares shouted back in the caravan.

"Ah went through some stuff back at the Gem Manor, ya don't want to know. But Ah must say, cutting skeleton zombies with a chainsaw was very awesome, and very scary."

«How did you get your hooves on a chainsaw?!» Applejack shouted.

"Three words: Cook of Tartarus."

«He was here?!» Twilight shouted, almost choking.

"Eeyup."

«I'm scared to ask, who was this 'Cook of Tartarus'?»

"A cannibal cook from eight hundred years ago."

«Oh...» Apple Bloom could almost see the ponies become green.

With nothing left to do here, Apple Bloom returned to the laboratory and used a 'balloon plant' to return to the chamber. Here, she took the time to look through a window and confirm that, yes, there was a graveyard, at the other side of the giant tree. She then returned to the small room and went to open the door where the two other Blues escaped, only to discover that it was locked. So she used the key she found in the sewer and opened it, entering a shed full of gardening tools. A Red was here, back to her, looking curiously at a fountain. Beside the fountain was another door.

Since the Red hadn't seen her coming, she was able to catch him by surprise. Some Greens armed with shovels came to help him, but she just used him to slam them, and she captured all of them before they could try anything. She then started searching the room and found a Blue inside a drawer. The ghost was quickly captured too, and he dropped a vane. Not finding any other Blues, she left the room by the door beside the fountain, Twilight having taken the vane.

She exited the tower, entering a garden. The third Blue was right in front of her, but he quickly flew over a hedge to a second part of the garden. She chased him, jumping above the hedge, only for one of those fat, stinky ghosts to appear behind her with two Greens armed with buckets.

"Not again!"

She quickly ran away from the brown ghost and waited for the Greens to come after her before she captured them. At least, a good thing about the Brown was that he couldn't fly, he could only do little jumps to advance, and he was so fat that he was very slow, so it left time for her to deal with the Greens. Once she was done with the Greens, she put the Poltergust to red and use its full power to capture the Brown in record time.

With the Poltergust back to yellow, she searched the vases and found the Blue, and captured him. Three vanes found, two to go.

Through a window, she saw that there was a secret room behind the fountain. Where she could see the bed that she had pushed from the chamber. So she returned to the shed and went to the fountain. Searching it, she found a well-hidden button and pressed it. In this order, this caused water to come out of the fountain and to splash on her face, and the fountain to suddenly spun, throwing her against the wall in the secret room.

She groaned and spat some water. "Ah'm starting to hate secret passages in this valley."

Rubbing her head, she got up and looked at the room. It was a four-story room with stairs linking the levels. However... the first staircase (linking the first floor and the second floor) had only a few steps moving up and down alone, and the second staircase (linking the second floor and the third floor) was broken.

So she carefully climbed the first stairs at the same speed as the steps were moving, and a Green ambushed her at the top, trying to punch her from behind. She felt him and immediately jumped forward before turning around and activating the Poltergust to capture the ghost. With the ghost captured, the steps of the first stairs all reappeared.

A door was just in front of the stairs, but when she tried to open it, the door suddenly crushed her between it and the wall.

«Woah! What happened?» Rainbow Dash shouted.

Apple Bloom groaned in pain and got back up, glaring at the door. "The door crushed me!" She went to open it again, but this time, she jumped out of the way and watched as the door slammed against the wall, revealing that it led to nowhere. "Fake doors that are actually traps... Greeeat..." She rubbed her muzzle. "Oww... It hurts..."

«Now you will have to be careful while opening doors...» Twilight said with a groan. «At this rate, you will have to watch out for chests trying to eat you.»

«I don't know why, but it felt like you foreshadowed, Twilight,» said Pinkie.

Apple Bloom groaned again. "Please, Ah hope not. Ah'd mah dose of things trying to eat me back at the Gem Manor. Ah've already the carnivorous plants to watch for here..."

Nothing more being said, she went to try the other door at the left of the stairs and carefully opened it, ready to jump away if it started any sudden movement. Thankfully, this door wasn't a trap and led to yet another lab, this one having a machine similar to the one under the water tower. This machine was connected to a pipe going toward a glass container at the center of the room, but there was a part of the pipe missing. Inside the glass was a small sprout. There were also many tables with dozens of glass tubes containing colored liquids beside two more glass containers with big flowers in them.

She started by cleaning the room of all its ghosts, five Greens and two Reds. One of the reds actually took her by surprise when he created a shockwave by slamming his two forehooves together, but she quickly recovered and captured all of them. A purple ghost was also there, waiting to trap Apple Bloom in his body, but the filly saw the purple puddle and captured the ghost. She didn't see however the second puddle behind a table. She made the purple ghost pay this.

With the room cleared, she searched the tables and other furniture to see if there wasn't one of the last two Blues hidden in them, but found nothing. So she went to the machine and pressed the button on it, activating it. But she forgot that the pipe was missing a part, and so she got the nasty surprise of taking a sudden shower.

"Seriously?" she asked with a deadpan look. She could hear Pinkie and Rainbow laughing.

Annoyed, she shook off the water and looked around again to see if she missed anything. Finding nothing, she activated the DLD and discovered that the missing part of the pipe was actually in its place, but needed to be dark-lighted. With the pipe back, Apple Bloom pressed the button again, and this time, the water dropped on the sprout.

She wasn't sure in which way it would help her advance, but then, before her eyes, the sprout started growing and became a large stalk that destroyed not only its glass container but also the ceiling. Strong red leaves then grew, and by a miracle (or maybe not, you never know with this place), they formed a stair for her to reach the floor above.

«Uuuuh... I'm not a specialist of agriculture, but I know enough to know that plants are not supposed to grow that fast after being watered,» Rainbow Dash said.

«Excepted with magic,» Twilight said. «But I think this growth spurt was actually caused thanks to those experiments they've done in this room. Just look at all those liquids.»

"Well, whatever caused it, it worked for me. Now, Ah can continue."

Carefully, she climbed the stairs formed by the red leaves and reached the room above the laboratory. Which was yet another laboratory full of potted plants where she could hear somepony play an organ above. Two Greens were fooling around with the potted plants, and Apple Bloom spotted a Purple ambushed before the door back to the room with the stairs. She went for the Greens first, taking them by surprise since they hadn't seen her coming. The Purple went next. She then searched the room and found one of the Blues, getting a fourth vane. Only one left to find.

She passed the door back to the room with the stairs and climbed them to the fourth floor where she passed a door to the next room above the lab. It was a room infested of plants crawling around, with many broken wooden planks, tiles, and armchairs littered around. In the center of the room was an organ with some plants surrounding it, 'balloon plants' being among them.

A Red was playing the organ, and the last Blue was occasionally coming out of the tubes, having fun. Since the Red was back to her, and since in his fun, the Blue wasn't spotting her, Apple Bloom was able to approach and to trap the Red, stopping his horrible music. Two more Red and a Brown appeared.

Apple Bloom slammed the Reds with the one trapped by her Poltergust, then used him on the Brown to stop him from spitting goo before the Red was finally captured. She then trapped the two last Reds at the same time, only to be dragged into a puddle of goo and to slip on it, causing the Reds to escape. Before the Reds could return, she turned to the Brown and put the Poltergust to red before she activated it. She managed to capture the Brown just in time to be able to avoid a shockwave sent at her by one of the Reds, and she was able to easily capture them in turn.

With all the ghosts gone, she approached the organ and rubbed her forehooves together, smirking. She then jumped and slammed her whole body on the keys, causing a real cacophony, and the Blue was thrown out of one of the tubes. Before he could recover, he was captured, and he dropped the last vane.

Twilight appeared and took the vane. "Alright. Do you want me to teleport you back at the pinwheel so we can start to repair it?"

"NO! No. No teleportation, please. Ah..." She turned to look at the opposite side of the room. "Ah still've to go check over there." She then pointed up. "And there may be something up there, so Ah'll also use one of those balloons."

Twilight nodded. "Very well. I will wait." At this, she teleported back to the caravan.

So Apple Bloom took one of the Balloon Plants and used it to ascend to the ceiling of the room. Here, on a platform partially broken, she found a door leading to a small balcony where a key was waiting for her. This balcony was just above the famous bridge made with the branches of the oak tree, and it was so! Scarily! High!

Gulping, Apple Bloom returned to the previous room and used a Balloon Plant to descend back. She then used the key she just obtained to open the door to the bridge and carefully traversed it while dealing with the many crows nesting here. Reaching the other end of the bridge, she opened the door and entered a small room similar to the one on the first floor (that was leading to the chamber and the shed). Here too, there were two other doors, one in front of her and one to her right. She carefully tested the two and found out that the one to her right was locked, so she opened the other one and entered a bedroom with three beds.

On the beds, three Blues were sleeping, but they heard her coming and woke up. She still managed to get one before the two others went to hide in their beds. The two Blues then quickly moved the beds, challenging Apple Bloom to find the beds they were hidden in, but the filly was able to follow the beds, and when they stopped moving, she found and captured a second Blue. The last one used the same game, moving the beds faster, but the filly wouldn't let herself fooled by such a childish game, and the last Blue was captured. A key was found in one of the beds, which opened the door at the other end of the room.

She entered a solarium with three flights of stairs leading to the floor below, and she entered a cozy room (as cozy as it could be with how old it was), with a table, three chairs, and even three portraits. One was showing a fat purple earth pony mare, the second was showing a thin aqua pegasus mare, and the third was showing a small yellow unicorn mare.

Probably the old owners of the towers.

The room was actually separated in two by a wall, and the second part was what looked like a kitchen with a door at the left.

Two Purples were all the ghosts in the room, so Apple Bloom quickly traversed it and passed the door in the kitchen part, entering a very creepy room with a big doll house, some jack-in-the-boxes, alphabet blocks, and a LOT of dolls, including a big mare-sized one beside the doll house.

And when she entered, the heads of ALL the dolls turned toward her, causing quite the fright among the mares back at the caravan. But the real horror started when the dolls started approaching Apple Bloom. The filly looked at the approaching dolls, then returned to the kitchen. There, she searched in the drawers and took a knife. Armed, she returned to the room with the dolls and started slashing at them as they jumped at her. She slashed, bucked, grabbed, threw, and slashed again, and even teared their heads with her teeth.

Before long, all the dolls were in pieces, even the big one, and the room was now full of Greens with a Red. Apple Bloom put the Poltergust to red and cleaned the whole room in ten seconds flat. She, however, had to empty the Poltergust from the remains of the dolls she sucked up with the ghosts.

"Did ya really think your little doll play'd scare me? Ah fought a house-sized doll, and it's much scarier!"

«Wow... You have my respect, Apple Bloom,» Rainbow Dash said.

"Thanks."

After some searching, she found the key inside the dollhouse, and she guessed that it opened the last locked door back in the small room above. So she returned to it (dealing with a lone Green armed of a knife on the way) and unlocked said door, entering a large bathroom with, of all things, a reclining chair.

A Brown and two Purples were in the room, and Apple Bloom decided to start with the Purples first, not risking them trapping her while she was busy sucking up the Brown and avoiding his goo. So it was only when she was done with the Purples that she started sucking up the Brown, only for two Greens to come. So she stopped sucking up the Brown and dealt with them, being careful of the puddles of goo starting to be everywhere. Once the Greens were gone, she finished the Brown.

Finding nothing special in the room, she went to inspect the very suspect reclining chair, even more since she spotted a circular hole in the ceiling above it. She looked around it, then climbed it, and suddenly, the floor around the chair started to rise, and she entered a new room.

She recognized the room to be the one with the walls and ceiling made of glasses at the top of the left tower, and it turned out that it was a room with a pool, invaded by plants too.

She quickly remarked that one of the frog statues at the corners of the pool was missing and used the DLD to reveal it. A key came out of the statue and fell in the water, and the filly jumped in the pool to get it, the pool just full enough for her legs to reach the bottom while keeping her head out of the water.

That's when she felt a ghost passing behind her, but when she turned around, nopony was here. However, she saw something invisible moving away in the water and getting out of the pool only to come back to try to creep behind her. Apple Bloom didn't leave the ghost its chance and activated the Poltergust at him, revealing him to be a new type of pink griffon-like ghost. Seeing more ripples in the water as she captured this one, it seemed that he wasn't the only one in this room, and they seemed to love sneaking to attack her from behind. Too bad for them they choose to ambush her in this pool, but this may not be the same story in other rooms if more of them showed up after that.

With some slamming, she was able to stop all the Pinks in the room, four in total, from approaching her, and before long, they were all captured. With this, she was done exploring the two towers.

But then, what was that key opening?

Probably something behind that pinwheel portal. Apple Bloom remembered there was a graveyard somewhere behind the oak tree. So she descended the towers, returning to the bathroom, traversing the bridge, descending the stairs, using the plant, descending the stairs again, and returning to the courtyard.

"Okay, Twilight. Ah'm ready to repair the pinwheel."

«Alright, I'm coming. Like in the manor, I will repair it while you watch for the ghosts.»

"Okay, but be careful. Remember that Red who punched me through the portal?"

«Yeah, I remember. I will try to keep an eye.» The next instant, Twilight appeared. She nodded at Apple Bloom and spoke, "Let's go."

They approached the bridge to the portal, and Apple Bloom stopped before it to keep guard while Twilight continued to the pinwheel, the five vanes floating beside her with a wrench. Just as she started repairing it, ghosts appeared and started to approach. Apple Bloom saw Greens, Reds, and a Brown. Just in case, she activated her DLD and found out that Pinks were also here.

She put the Poltergust to red and activated it. Greens and Pinks were quick to be caught, and the Reds soon followed, but Apple Bloom had to pause to avoid overheating the Poltergust too much, which would lead to an explosion that would destroy the whole courtyard and its surroundings. A Pink took the occasion to push her right into a Purple that Apple Bloom hadn't seen appear, and she was trapped in him for a couple of seconds before she was able to free herself. Those two seconds were enough for the Brown to approach her, and he almost body slammed her. She jumped back and restarted sucking around, catching the Brown, the three little Purples that resulted from her breaking out of the original one, the Pink who pushed her, and a lot of other ghosts who were about to reach Twilight just as she finished.

As soon as she was finished, Twilight teleported away, leaving Apple Bloom to focus back at fully defending herself. By now, only three Greens, one Pink creeping around, and one Red were remaining. So she put the Poltergust back to yellow and quickly trapped the Red before using him to slam the other ghosts. The Pink still managed to creep his way to her, and she barely avoided his claws as she let the Red drag her away. The Red was then captured, soon followed by the Greens. The Pink was harder, but she managed to find his location thanks to her DLD, and he was captured.

«Ah don't think they like Twilight that much...» Applejack said.

«No kidding...» The alicorn said. «They really don't want me to help you. Thank you, Apple Bloom.»

«One of them even came here, but I captured him!» Rainbow Dash shouted proudly.

«Dashie's first ghost!» Pinkie Pie shouted.

Apple Bloom giggled, then went to the pinwheel. Like before, she used the Poltergust to turn it, and this time, no ghost came to stop her. Before long, the portal was open, and she could approach the oak tree. She saw that there was a circular door at its base, carved in the wood, and when she approached it, it opened, letting her enter the tree that was revealed to be hollowed.

The place was rather well lighted by torches. The center of the room was covered in water, and at her left, right, and front were three alcoves. At the left and right of the alcove in front of her were stairs connected to more flights of stairs continuing for the equivalent of four levels, always by pairs.

The alcoves at the left and right led to dead ends with a few big spiders, but Apple Bloom understood that the alcove between the stairs probably led to the graveyard, so she decided to climb the stairs first and see what was at the top. However, when she climbed the first flight of stairs, it suddenly turned into a slope, and a Green appeared at the top laughing at her.

"Grrr... Not again..."

The Green was quickly captured, but the stairs didn't return to normal, leaving her with no choice but to take the other flight of stairs. As it turned out, it was a game of 'choose the good path'. Every two flights of stairs, if she chose the wrong flight, the stairs disappeared, and she had to fight a ghost. If she chose the good flight, nothing happened excepted the fire of a torch beside the flight turning from blue to red to reveal that it was the good path.

Once at the top, she found a round entrance to another room. However, as she approached it, a door suddenly slammed closed in front of her, the door looking like the face of a monster with evil eyes and sharp teeth (the door opening in two at the teeth). It also had a big keyhole for a nose.

Apple Bloom jumped back in fright at this. And she wasn't the only one.

«Darn it! That stupid door almost gave me a heart attack!» Rainbow Dash yelled.

«It almost chomped Apple Bloom!» Pinkie said. «It seems like this is where you must go.»

"Y-yeah..." said Apple Bloom before she took a big breath. "But first, Ah must find the key. It'd be in the graveyard."

«You are very courageous to talk about exploring a graveyard so casually,» Twilight said.

"Ah explored a lot of graveyards since Ah started ghost hunting, Ah'm now used to it. Ah made some good friends in those."

«Yer becoming one weird filly, ya know?» Applejack commented with a laugh.

Apple Bloom giggled. "Ah know."

At this, she descended the stairs back to the last alcove she hadn't explored yet. The alcove turned to the right, going slightly downward with many roots growing in the dirt walls and floor. It ended in a dead end with a big root and a layer of moss with mushrooms. Behind the moss, she spotted a suspiciously small green root hanging from the ceiling. Studying the root, Apple Bloom decided to try something and jumped at it to grab it. Using the weight of her body, she pulled the root down, and in the next instant, a part of the big root opened to reveal a platform.

"Yes!"

«There are really secret passages everywhere,» said Twilight.

Apple Bloom jumped on the platform just big enough for an adult to stand on it, and suddenly, the wood under her rose. The next thing she knew, she was spat out of the beak of a big statue of the head of a crow.

She groaned as she got up. "Why... Just, why..." She then looked around and saw that she was at the extremity of the graveyard. There was not a ghost in sight, but a lot of crows who, thankfully, didn't attack her.

"Ah swear, if one of them say 'nevermore'..."

«You know The Raven?» Twilight asked.

"We studied it in school."

She started exploring the graveyard, staring at the tombs and daring any zombies or skeletons to come out of them. But surprisingly, she was not attacked once, not even when she approached what looked like a crypt, which seemed to be the only place of interest here. Using the key found in the pool, she opened the door and entered it.

«And you enter a crypt, just like that, without even hesitating?» Rarity asked.

"Part of the job. Before ya ask, yes, Ah already went in a crypt. Some ghost was throwing the coffins in it, and we were called to deal with him."

«Okaaaay...»

The inside of the crypt was in really bad condition. The shelving was damaged, and many coffins were missing. The wall at the end was also very weakened, and Apple Bloom could see that there was something behind it through the small holes, seeing some light. So she bucked the wall and caused it to crumble, revealing a secret room lightened by two torches at the end, at both sides of a big chest. Apple Bloom opened it, finding inside a big, creepy wooden key with the same face as the door in the tree.

«TADADADAAAAAA!!!» Pinkie shouted, making again everypony laugh.

"Pinkie... Thank ya... for making us laugh after... what happened."

«No problemo! We must continue to smile no matter what happens! This is what Smart Spirit would want. Also, he's not really gone.»

"Ah know, but him dying this way still sucks."

«Language,» said Applejack.

"And Pyrite and his ally'll still pay for this. Even if they rest as ghosts, ya don't kill mah friends. And Ah swear, if they touch to one hair on any of y'all, Ah'll find a way to bring them back to life to make them regret being born in the first place."

The mares couldn't see her expression, but they knew she was actually giving a really hateful one.

«Ya know revenge isn't the answer, right?» Twilight said.

Apple Bloom sighed. "Ah know... Revenge or not, Pyrite and his ally must be stopped. But after what they did, and what they may do, ya can't blame me to make it personal."

Twilight sighed. «You're right... We can't...»

With this wooden key in her possession, she exited the crypt, only to see a stone thrown at her. She barely moved her head out of the way and saw an Orange laughing at her before becoming invisible. A dozen Greens, and some Red and Blues were also here, the Blues going to hide in the vases on some of the tombs.

Putting her Poltergust to red, she started running around assembling all the Greens and Reds into a single group, then activated the vacuum to suck up all of them rapidly. She then put it back to yellow and started hunting the Blues while keeping an eye on the Orange. Once all the Blues were captured, being careful of stones thrown at her, Apple Bloom went after the Orange, using her DLD to find him and capture him.

That's when the ghosts of three familiar, beautiful mares appeared, chuckling at her. A fat pink earth pony, a thin aqua pegasus, and a small yellow unicorn (so small that she was barely bigger than Apple Bloom). They all had vain expressions, the pink mare and the aqua mare were wearing a hat while the yellow one had a bow like Apple Bloom, and the three were holding mirrors that they sometimes used to admire themselves.

The pink mare tried to hit her with her mirror, but she jumped to the side and activated the Poltergust on her, only to be rammed from the side by the aqua mare. She was sent to the floor, but quickly recovered and rolled to avoid a magical beam from the yellow mare. The aqua mare charged at her again, but Apple Bloom trapped her and quickly used her to slam and stun the yellow mare, stopping her from firing more magical beams. The pink mare then came to attack her, and she wasn't much affected by Apple Bloom slamming the aqua mare on her. She tried to get away, but the mare followed her very closely and was about to bonk her with her mirror, leaving Apple Bloom no choice but to let the aqua mare escape before jumping away.

She trapped the pink mare who used her big weight to drag her and try to make her hit the tombstones, but Apple Bloom knew the trick and jumped above them. She also started to move left and right to avoid the magical beams from the yellow mare who had recovered. When the aqua mare came back to ram her from behind, Apple Bloom jumped at the last second, letting the mare pass under her, and she violently pulled down on the Poltergust, using the pink mare to crush the other. She then trapped the two of them in the vortex, and they were both captured in the next few seconds. The yellow mare didn't last long by herself.

"Those are the first ghosts looking like real ponies that Ah catch in this valley. Ah wonder if there'll be others."

«Speaking of. Were those other ghosts even... ponies, griffons, or whatever before?» Twilight wondered. «They look like ponies and others, but aren't exactly the same. They don't even talk.»

"Yeah. Like Pyrite's painted ghosts. Smart Spirit said that this valley's inhabited by many ghosts originating from the spiritual world. Maybe they're species of ghosts born in the spiritual world. Or maybe ghosts become like that after passing enough time in it."

«It's so fascinating! But we would probably have to go to the spiritual world to answer all those questions,» Twilight said.

"Ah don't even know if we can go in the spiritual world," said Apple Bloom.

«Something we will have to explore someday, but not now.»

Apple Bloom nodded and looked around. "Now... How do Ah go out of this graveyard? Wait..." She remembered the hole in the sewer with what seemed like a coffin blocking it. "Ah think Ah know." Exploring the graveyard a little more, she eventually found a coffin not in a tomb. After some hesitation, she climbed it, and the coffin started moving down. "And Ah was right."

«Using a coffin as a secret passage... It's such a bad taste,» Rarity said.

Apple Bloom shrugged. "Ghosts."

«The towers were built before they were haunted,» Twilight reminded.

"Right."

Now back in the sewer, she returned to the courtyard passing by the underground lab, the chamber, and the generator room. No ghosts stopped her, excepted an unexpected one.

As Apple bloom approached the oak tree, the white ghost dog she had seen back in the Gloomy Manor came out of nowhere and jumped on her before licking her.

"Hey! Stop it!" The filly shouted with a laugh, trying to stop the dog.

But then, the dog spotted the wooden key that she had dropped, and he barked happily before taking it and playing with it.

"No, dog! Give me this key! It's not yours!"

The dog looked at her, then ate the whole key before he ran to the right tower and passed through the wall.

"No! Bad dog! Come back here!" The filly yelled as she started chasing the dog.

However, when she entered the generator room, she saw him nowhere. So she activated the DLD and looked around until she found his footprints and followed them until finding out that the dog traversed another wall toward the shed. So she opened the door with the button, traversed the small room, and entered the shed. She then used the DLD again to follow the footprints and find out that the dog had entered a drawer. So she opened it only for the dog to jump on her face and to lick her again before running away.

«Awww... The doggy is playing hide-and-seek with you,» Fluttershy said.

"But he still has the key. Even if he's just playing, he's giving me no choice," Apple Bloom said with a groan as she got up, rubbing her head from the drool.

She didn't see where the dog ran, but the DLD revealed that he passed the wall to the garden. She quickly found the dog waiting for her only to run away again, this time passing the wall to enter the room with the stairs. Groaning again, she returned to the shed and used the fountain to enter the room, making sure to not get thrown against the wall this time. She found the dog climbing the stairs and quickly chased him, but in her haste, she didn't see the purple puddle, and before she knew it, she was trapped inside a Purple that she quickly captured.

The dog calmly waited for her to climb the stairs, then he climbed the wall and went to the floor above. "Come on!" she yelled. As if to tease her, the dog looked back at her from the platform above and barked. Apple Bloom growled, but slowly, her growl turned into a smirk. "So, ya want to play? Alright. We'll play."

«Here's some music for you!» Pinkie shouted before she started playing some music.

Apple Bloom ran into the lab and climbed the plant in record time before returning to the room with the stairs, only for the dog to pass the wall immediately. So she quickly returned to the previous room, only to see him climb a wall and walk under the ceiling before passing it.

Huffing, Apple Bloom returned to the stairs and climbed them to go to the room with the organ, only to discover that the organ wasn't here anymore, and the dog's footprints were leading right to it. So she used the DLD and made the organ reappear. She slammed the keys and caused the dog to come out of a tube, only for the dog to circle her to the point of making her fall before he went to hide behind the organ. Apple Bloom went after him, only to get trapped by a Purple again, and the dog escaped!

Apple Bloom captured that stupid ghost and ran after the dog toward the bridge of the fourth floor, only to be stopped by a Brown dropping right in front of the door along with a few Greens.

"Ah've no time for this!" she yelled before she put the Poltergust to red. Ten seconds later, she entered the bridge, traversed it, and spotted the dog through a window in the bathroom, rolling on the floor looking at her. "Wait 'til Ah get ya," she said before she entered the tower.

Entering the bathroom, she saw the dog disappear into a sink beside the toilet. When she approached it, the dog came out. But this time, Apple Bloom was ready and avoided him. But the dog was able to pass the wall behind her before she could activate the Poltergust. Resisting the urge to yell, she exited the bathroom, quickly captured the Purples that appeared in the small room on the way, and entered the bedroom. Following the dog's footprints, she went to a bed and removed its cover, revealing the dog. The dog tried to trip her to escape again, but Apple Bloom, while unbalanced a little, remained up and finally trapped the dog!

"Gotcha! Woah!"

The dog started to struggle strongly to escape, still having a lot of energy despite the chase. He forced the filly to spin and move in all directions and almost escaped more than once, but Apple Bloom was determined to not let him escape and was able to keep up. Eventually, the dog was captured, and the key was dropped. However, as she took it, the Poltergust started shaking, and the dog burst out of it, licked her, and escaped.

"WHAT?! How did he escape?! The only ghost who escaped until now's Little Ghost! Don't tell me that dog's actually that powerful!"

«Or maybe he had too much energy for the Poltergust to contain,» Fluttershy said with a laugh.

«Don't worry, Apple Bloom. Once you come back, I will strengthen the crystal. If you encounter this dog again, he won't be able to escape!» Twilight said.

"If Ah encounter him, and Ah hope not."

«Come on, Apple Bloom. You know as well as all of us you will see that doggy again,» Pinkie said.

Apple Bloom just groaned.



Apple Bloom was able to return to the giant oak tree without anything special to happen on the way to make her lose more time, just a few ghosts trying their luck. Once in the tree, she climbed the stairs and used the key to open the door, the door opening like a jaw.

"Finally. Now, time to find out what... what..."

As Apple Bloom entered the room after the door, she found herself at the bottom of a very big staircase made of twenty flights of stairs divided into three per rows. And it was clear that it was another game of 'find the right path'.

Apple Bloom stared, jaw dropped, speechless, at the eerie staircase as if it was Tirek himself, before she looked at it filled with determination.

"Challenge... accepted..."







By the time she reached the top of the staircase, Apple Bloom was almost crawling on the ground, out of breath. "Ah... Ah wish Ah was Tirek... so Ah'd destroy... that place..."

She then spotted a crow perched on a vine. "Caw! Nevermore!"

Apple Bloom looked at the crow with bloody murder, but was too exhausted to do anything to it. So she just growled and said, "Ya're right... Nevermore..."

She then fell on the floor and remained here, recuperating her breath for many minutes, the crow flying away. Once she recuperated enough, she got up and approached a weak wall of wood with a ball of vine stuck to it. She used the Poltergust to grab the ball and pulled, and pulled, and pulled again until the wall was destroyed, opening the way to a path among the branches of the oak tree. At the end of the path, she pulled a cord to drop a ladder, and she climbed it to enter a wooden platform with a small staircase leading to a tree house.

She then started to climb the stairs to enter the house, only for the stairs to start moving and to expel her. When she recovered and looked up, she saw that the stairs were possessed, now forming a face with a jaw full of shards of wood looking like very sharp teeth. The back of the staircase was also covered in blue fire.

It then started chasing her, jaw opening and closing.

"Now stairs want to eat me! They want me to've the phobia of stairs or what?" she yelled while she tried to escape the stairs.

"This is Wild Oak," she suddenly heard Pyrite speak. Looking toward the tree house, she spotted him, smirking. "Why don't you feed him? He seems very hungry," he said before disappearing with a cackle.

Apple Bloom growled, but quickly got Pyrite out of her mind to focus on the immediate threat: the staircase trying to eat her. Oh, and also trying to burn her. Apparently, it could shoot blue fireballs from its 'eyes'. Yay.

But eventually, she got the idea to go on the edge of the platform and to wait for the staircase to charge at her. At the last second, she rolled out of the way, and the staircase couldn't stop in time to avoid falling to its doom. The ghost possessing it, a Bogmire-like ghost looking more like a tree, came out of it to avoid the fall, and Apple Bloom immediately trapped it. However, the ghost started to use the tree to defend itself, trying to hit her with its branches until it was able to escape.

The ghost then took possession of the tree house, the two windows at both sides of the door filling with blue fire to become eyes while the door became a mouth. The house couldn't move, but it fired bigger fireballs more often, and it used a piece of carpet as a tongue to try to grab her and to bring her so it could chomp her.

But Apple Bloom used the Poltergust on red to grab the carpet and pulled hard, then pulled again, and again, causing the branch on which the house was to bend toward her. The house clearly understood what she was planning and looked at her in panic. Apple Bloom waved at it with a smirk, then released the carpet. The branch on which the house was was sent back with such a force that it broke, and the house fell. Again, the Shadow escaped it to avoid the fall, leaving it at the mercy of the filly.

She had no mercy.

But the ghost still managed to escape, and this time, it went to possess the tree itself, and its leaves turned into blue fire as it started to bend to make her fall beyond the edge of the platform. A face then appeared on the floor of the platform, and the tree bent to make her slide into its mouth. She hung to the barrier surrounding the platform and looked around to find a solution. Fireballs then started to be fired from the branches, and she got an idea. She let herself slide toward the mouth, but jumped above it and caught the barrier at the other side to not fall. As she passed above the mouth, the ghost accidentally fired fireballs into it, burning its inside.

It stopped bending to try to eat her and decided to use its branches and fireballs to attack continuously, forcing the filly to run around until she was able to jump above the mouth again, and again, the ghost accidentally firing fireballs in it. A last passage, and as the tree started burning from the inside, the Shadow had enough and got out only to be welcomed by Apple Bloom who was able to capture it this time.

The Shadow dropped a key, and Apple Bloom quickly took it before she escaped, descending the ladder from which she came to get away of the fire that was rapidly spreading. Followed by the fire, Apple Bloom returned to the eerie staircase and descended it before returning to the main room of the tree. She descended the last few flights of stairs before the first floor and got out, the tree now absolutely covered in fire.

But the fire didn't last long, because it was at this moment that a strong storm started extinguishing it. But despite that, the tree was now, so to say, dead.

But she, at least, was alive and in possession of the key to the next manor. Judging by the clock on it, it was the key to the Old Clockworks.
> Third Mansion: Old Clockworks
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The ponies were now on their way to the Old Clockworks, the clockwork factory in the desert part of the valley. Apparently, the prof did some great explorations of this factory, because the ponies found some paper with drawings and descriptions of various things about the building.

Apparently, the place was the oldest building of the valley, and had been abandoned after a terrible accident where ponies got crushed between gears, and... traces could still be found of it. The factory was built on old ruins that the prof hadn't explored yet, but he found a secret passage leading to it and did a drawing of some compass that was the key before explaining that the secret passage was in the court. The prof wasn't sure why ponies built the factory on top of ruins, but he suspected that it was to search for anything of value that was in here. The ruins had already been explored by archaeologists in the past, but who knew? Ruins are often full of mysteries, so maybe the archaeologists had missed something. But as a result, the prof wasn't expecting to find anything in there excepted maybe ghosts millennia old.

The main entrance door of the factory also operated with a special mechanism based on clocks. Whoever wanted to pass it had to turn the clock hands and find the right hour to open them. It was a mean to assure that nopony outside of the employees of the factory could enter. Thankfully, Smart Spirit, with a lot of patience, found the right hour and placed a clock with the solution beside the door. A similar door, but bigger, was inside of the factory, and Smart Spirit suspected it to lead to the clock tower, but he hadn't been able to open it before getting foalnapped.

It meant that there were two possible places for Apple Bloom to probably find the key to either the Secret Mine or the Treacherous Mansion: the ruins, or the clock tower. In the previous location, the keys were found in a basement and at the top of a very tall tree, so those places were her best chances. Well, she didn't doubt that she would somehow have to explore the whole building.

Ah, and also, since the building was the oldest of the valley, it was probably very dilapidated. And since it was in a desert, there was probably sand everywhere. Thankfully, the caravan had no problem rolling on the sand.

As the vehicle was climbing the slope around the plateau on which the factory was, the ponies could already see the clock tower, and soon, the rest of the building appeared to them. It was a two-stories building (without counting the tower) build in L, with most of the windows covered with planks, if not downright (half) buried in sand. From the outside, the building seemed in good condition, but there were also some railings that were not in good condition at all, with whole portions missing (forcing the caravan to roll around the crumbled remains as it climbed the slope).

Soon, Applejack stopped in front of one of these barriers that were used to stop carts from entering private property and that could be raised to let pass the ones that were authorized.

"Here ya go, Bloom!" shouted Applejack to be heard.

The filly almost immediately exited the caravan while the mares looked through the windows.

"Wow! It's not as tall as the manor and the towers, but it's very big!" said Rainbow Dash.

"It's a factory. Of course it's big," said Twilight. She looked up at the clock tower. "You know, Apple Bloom, if the key to the next manor is up on this tower, then Rainbow or I could transport you here."

"Ah don't think Pyrite's ally will let me cheat like that," replied the filly. "Well, here Ah go..." she then said before she advanced toward the building, crawling under the barrier to enter the court. The court had many clocks on the ground among debris and... dynamite?!

«Why the heck is there dynamite here?» asked Applejack.

«Maybe it was to do fireworks?» wondered Pinkie.

«No, I think that it was to blow walls of the ruins in the hope of finding secret rooms. As for why they're spread everywhere, the ghosts are probably responsible,» Twilight thought.

"Well. The danger level of this place just climbed from at least ten levels," said Apple Bloom before she approached the entrance of the factory. Like Smart Spirit said in his notes, the door was composed of a giant clock, and Apple bloom knew what to do. She spotted a smaller clock on the ground beside the door that read 3:30, and she started turning a rotor beside the giant clock that caused the hands to turn. Once the hour hand was between the 3 and the 4 and the minute hand was on the 6, she stopped turning it, and the door opened.

And so, she entered the factory, and it was about as bad as she thought. The wooden floor was full of small holes that forced Apple Bloom to watch out to not trip, and there were all sort of objects, from gears to crates passing by spools of ribbon spread chaotically everywhere. There were also many balls of ribbon, some clocks, and even numbers that are put on said clocks. At her left was an elevator with a rotor to turn to make it rise to the second level. In front of her was a door, and on her right was a safe and another door. From what she could see of the second level of this room, it was simply a path hugging the walls to link the elevator, a door at the north, and a door at the east before ending in the center of the room.

No ghost attacked her, so she started exploring by opening the safe, only to find that there was just another ball of ribbon in it. She then tested the doors in the first level and found out that the one beside the safe was closed while the one in front of the entrance was open. She decided that she would explore the second level later and passed the door to enter another two-floor room rather special. It was an open room above a canyon, opening to the left to a pit with a railway, and the room itself was separated into two parts by this pit, a raised wooden bridge the only thing linking the two parts beside some narrow metallic beams in the second level. The part where Apple Bloom was was only a small wooden path leading to a door in the right wall, and the other part at the other side of the pit was bigger, with many crates surrounding a turntable with a track. Behind the turntable was a staircase leading to the second level.

There was no way for Apple Bloom to lower the bridge from this side, so she continued her way to the door and opened it, revealing it to not be locked. However, in the next room that only consisted of a flight of stair leading to a basement, the path was immediately blocked by a pile of debris.

"Darn it!"

«Not this way...» Twilight said.

«But then where?» Rainbow Dash asked.

«Maybe by the second level of the first room?» Fluttershy said.

Right, there were two more doors. So Apple Bloom returned to the entrance room and used the elevator to reach the second level, only to discover that the two doors here were locked.

«Mmh... Maybe there's a key hidden somewhere?» Twilight hesitantly proposed.

"Yeah... Ah only see that," said Apple Bloom with a sigh. "But there're dozens of places where it'd be hidden..."

«Why not try that ball of ribbons you found in the safe?» Pinkie Pie said. «A ball of ribbon in a safe, it's very suspicious, don't you think?»

Apple Bloom stopped moving as she processed it, then facehoofed. "Of course... Thank ya, Pinkie."

«You're welcome!»

At this, Apple Bloom returned to the first level, took the ball of ribbon found in the safe, and unraveled it, discovering a key.

"Finally!"

«Good job, Pinkie!» Applejack congratulated.

The key opened the door beside the safe, entering what seemed to be a workshop with a table with many tools and drill press beside it. Two Greens wearing welding masks were here, having fun with the tools. Thanks to this, they didn't see Apple Bloom coming, and she was able to capture them by surprise. But then, the tools started levitating, and they were thrown at her one after another. Jumping and rolling to avoid them, Apple Bloom activated the DLD and discovered an Orange that she quickly captured.

No other ghost appeared, and she passed by the door at the opposite side of the room, entering another two-floor room. Until now, all the rooms she visited had sand covering more or less partially the ground, but here, no ground could be seen, the sand having almost entirely covered it, coming from broken windows. The main feature of the room was a huge door with many gears and a huge clock that was missing the hands. On the second level, there was just a bridge linking two doors from west to east.

"Ah think Ah found the door to the clock tower."

«But it's missing the clock hands. And the rotor too,» Twilight said.

«Consarn it!» Applejack shouted. «Those ghosts probably took them!»

«But it means that the clock tower is probably your goal,» Twilight said.

"Well. Ah've mah reason to explore the factory now..."

Apple Bloom was about to continue her way toward a door at the opposite side of the room when, suddenly, two sand tornadoes appeared and started to approach her.

Tornadoes don't appear like that in a room, so Apple Bloom quickly guessed that ghosts were at the origin and, while running away from the tornadoes, activated the DLD. She found out that the tornadoes were created by Greens spinning very rapidly on the sand, so she activated the Poltergust toward one of the tornadoes and trapped the Green in it. She then slammed the Green on the other, stopping him from spinning, and the two Greens were rapidly captured. Four more came and tried the same tactic, but Apple Bloom quickly trapped two of them at the same time, leaving her enough space to avoid the other two. But as she captured the two Greens, a fifth one came, but instead of spinning on the sand, it threw a bomb at her. Acting quickly in panic, she kicked the bomb toward the two still spinning Greens, and they were blown away by the explosion. Apple Bloom then captured the three Greens one after another.

«Nice kick!» Rainbow Dash shouted.

«Ah can't believe ya just kicked a bomb,» Applejack said.

"Yeah, me too. Ah acted on reflex."

«The face they made when they saw you kick the bomb: It was priceless!» said Pinkie.

«So, where do you think they took the hands?» Rarity asked.

«Ah've no idea. They could be anywhere. Ah'll just continue to explore.»

So Apple bloom went to the door at the east and opened it, entering a room with a very badly damaged floor, to the point that there was a big hole separating the room in two, as if something had blown up. Seeing the boxes full of sticks of dynamite here and there, it wasn't hard to guess what. There was also a door on the opposite side, but it was blocked by debris.

She traversed the hole and climbed to the other side of the room. Here, she used the Poltergust to reach a rope and bring down a stairwell. She had to jump to reach it, and she climbed it, only for a Pink to appear in front of her at the top and to push her, making her roll down the stairs, to the amusement of a few other ghosts, Greens and Pinks, that appeared.

Apple Bloom groaned and looked up at the Pink who pushed her. "Ya'll so regret this..."

As she got up, the Pinks, three in total, turned invisible to do what they did best while the Greens, only two, went to the boxes of dynamites. They each took a dynamite and used some ghostly power to light the stick before throwing it at her.

"Eep!" She jumped away, avoiding the explosions, but before she could stop the Greens, she had to defend herself against two Pinks about to claw her. She let them drag her away from two more dynamites thrown at her, then slammed them on one of the Greens. Once the two Pinks were captured, she avoided the claws from the third Pink and approached the Green she stunned to trap him before he could restart. However, the second Green threw a dynamite at her. Since she was beside a box of dynamite, she took the risk of grabbing the dynamite and throwing it away. She then trapped the first Green and slammed him on the other, then slammed him on the last Pink who appeared behind her. After the capture of the first Green, she went to the other before finishing with the Pink.

"Ah really hope this won't become a habit. Ah already've enough of bombs."

«With the heavy presence of dynamites in this factory, I fear that you will encounter more of them...» Twilight said.

«Just be careful, Bloom...» said Applejack.

"Ah will."

Apple Bloom climbed the stairs again and passed the door at the top leading back to the room with the big clock door. Before she could traverse the bridge to reach the door at the other side, she had to use the DLD to reveal some parts that had been turned invisible.

After the door, she entered a small room full of paper with a desk, a file cabinet, and some books on them. Two Greens were holding stacks of paper that they threw at her, causing them to fall on her and cover her eyes. Despite their trick, Apple Bloom didn't panic and activated the Poltergust, capturing the two ghosts and also sucking up a lot of paper that she had to get out of the Poltergust once done.

There didn't seem to be anywhere to go from there, but having nowhere else to go, Apple Bloom started searching the room, opening the drawers of the desk and cabinet in search of anything, mostly a key. In the back of a drawer in the desk, she found a button partially hidden behind papers and she pressed it, causing a part of the west wall to retract, revealing a second part of the room smaller with just a desk and a chair beside a door.

The wall was already starting to return in place, so Apple Bloom ran to pass only to be blocked by a Pink appearing on the way. She was then forced to fight four Pinks and a Red, attacking this last one first before he could slam his hands to create a shockwave. She then used him to slam the Pinks as they approached her unseen, and in the end, she captured all of them easily. She then pressed the button again and she entered the second part of the room. She then looked in the desk to find a key as well as the exact same compass that Smart Spirit talked about in his notes.

"Yes! Ah found the compass! Ah'll be able to reach the ruins!"

«Good job, Apple Bloom!» Applejack shouted.

«Maybe the clock hands are in there?» Twilight wondered.

«Ruins would be a really good place to hide them,» Rarity agreed.

Agreeing with them, Apple Bloom used the key to open the door beside the desk, returning to the entrance room. She went to the elevator where she had to turn a rotor to make it rise to her level before using it to return to the first floor. She then exited the factory, returning to the court.

She looked around, searching for anything unusual that would indicate the location of the secret entrance, then looked at the compass to see if there was a clue. That's when she saw that the compass wasn't showing the north, but a direction seemingly random. However, when Apple Bloom moved the compass, the needle was always pointing at the same place, a little to the southeast.

She followed it until seeing a strange object in the sand. She remarked that it had the same shape as the hole in the back of the compass (a four branched star), so she inserted it, and the compass started spinning, somehow causing the sand to move, revealing a big metallic double door. Apple Bloom quickly moved back, just in time because the compass entered a hole in the doors and caused them to open. She then looked down and saw that she would have to jump and let herself slide down some conveyor belt. There would be no way to get back up.

Despite this, she jumped and soon landed in a lift to a small room. After a small groan, she got up and jumped out of the lift before looking around. There was a lot of sand, a bed, a wheelbarrow, some shelves, and a few other stuff, but the more remarkable thing was the door to exit the room: a pulley-operated gate blocked it, and it had to be raised by placing something heavy enough on the lift Apple Bloom fell on.

Some Greens tried to attack her with rocks, a shovel, and a pickaxe, but she quickly dealt with them. She then placed the rocks on the lift and raised the gate, gaining access to the door. After passing it, she followed a path until it was blocked by a big pile of debris, forcing her to take a different path through a wall to her right. This led to the canyon separating the court in two and on which the factory was built.

Two bridges were normally connecting the two sides of the canyon, but they were both destroyed, so to continue, Apple Bloom was forced to cling to and use two zip lines, one to go to the other side, and one to reach the passage leading to the part of the earlier path that was blocked. By the time she reached it, she was shaking.

"T-t-t-this was as s-s-scary as the w-wraiths..."

«Maybe Ah should come. Ya shouldn't be the one pulling such life-risking stunts,» Applejack said.

"T-t-too late," replied Apple Bloom before she took a big breath to calm herself. "Ah did it, so Ah should continue. Hopefully, it'll be the only time."

At this, she continued to follow the path, dealing with some big spiders on the way as well as a Pink following her that she spotted thanks to a mirror. Some Blues also came out of crates to throw spiders at her, of all things. At the end, the path reached a door before continuing to the right toward another door.

«If I made this map right, the door at the right should lead to those stairs that were blocked by a pile of debris,» Twilight said.

"Thanks. Ah'll go see if there's anything," said Apple Bloom before she passed the door.

Twilight was right. The door led back to the staircase. Midway on it, she found a key as well as a box of dynamites with a box of matches on it. She then got an idea. She took a dynamite, took the box of matches, took a match from it, and approached the pile of debris.

«Uuh... Ya should drop that stick. Ya shouldn't play with explosives,» Applejack said.

"Ah'm not playing," replied Apple Bloom as she used the match to light the wick of the dynamite before she planted it in the pile of debris. She then ran back downstair before the dynamite exploded, destroying the pile of debris. "Yes! It worked!"

«Clever, but dangerous,» Twilight said.

"No choice. Also, it's no more dangerous than the ghosts, the zip lines above the pit, pony eating books, pony eating pianos, wraiths, possessed manors, zombies..."

«Ok! Ok! I understand!»

«Yer getting too much in danger for mah taste,» Applejack said.

"It's part of the job. And remember, Pyrite and his ally're the ones forcing me to get in danger to save a friend."

Applejack just sighed in return.

Apple Bloom returned to the underground path and passed the other door, entering a room with boxes of dynamites, barrels, shelves with containers, and even a sarcophagus. Blues and Greens quickly appeared and started to throw dynamites at her, so she ran around to avoid the explosions while capturing the ghosts, each explosion weakening the structure of the room.

When she was done with the ghosts, the sarcophagus suddenly opened, and out of it came a mummy. A real mummy slowly walking toward her, moaning.

«Woah! It's a genuine mummy?!» Rainbow Dash asked.

"Aaaand Ah regret not having a bat or a chainsaw..." Apple Bloom said with a gulp.

She rolled to avoid the mummy trying to grab her and looked around to find something to defeat it. She then looked at one of the boxes of dynamite, took a stick, used a match to light it, and threw it at the mummy. The mummy was blown to pieces, and the ghost possessing it, a Green, appeared. Apple Bloom rapidly got rid of him.

"Skeletons, mummies, possessed armors... Ah swear, one day, Ah'll encounter a vampire."

«Ah hope not!» shouted Applejack. «Those monsters would kill ya before ya know it!»

«I agree. Vampires are smart, strong, fast, have all kinds of powers, can survive from pretty much anything, and can empty somepony from their blood in a few seconds. You wouldn't stand a chance,» Twilight said.

"Then let's hope Ah never encounter one," said Apple Bloom with a shiver before she frowned. "But, right now, vampires're the last of mah worries. Ah'm about to visit an old tomb probably full of mummies, and Ah can only hope Ah won't get cursed because of this..."

«Oh my... Are you talking about that story where a group of archeologists found a tomb, but died one after another mysteriously in the following months?» Rarity asked.

«That curse... Yes... A well-known case. I always thought that those deaths were just coincidences, but now...» Twilight said.

Pinkie gulped. «W-well... At least, this tomb has already been found, so maybe the curse doesn't work anymore.»

"Ooor... It still works and is the reason why those workers died crushed by gears," said Apple Bloom in worry.

.............

"Okay. Let's stop thinking about this, or we won't advance," finished the filly before she approached a wall that had been partially destroyed to reveal a secret entrance with a door. She then passed the door, only for the earth to shake as Apple Bloom heard something collapse in the previous room. Looking back in said room, she saw that the exit was now blocked. "Great. Ah'm now stuck."

«I can still teleport you out of there,» Twilight said.

"Thanks," said Apple Bloom before she looked back in front of her at what was awaiting her. A long slide down a tunnel. Apple Bloom stared at the slide for a few seconds, then smiled, and ran to it before letting herself slide down with a "Yaaahooooo!!!"

After a few seconds, she reached the bottom and passed another door, entering a large room that spiraled downward with broken mine cart tracks at the bottom, as well as a hole in which sand was continuously falling from the ceiling. Looking up, Apple Bloom could spot another level out of her reach. So she descended, and after dealing with a few Greens using shovels and pickaxes, she turned to a mine cart that she spotted. Getting an idea, she tugged the mine cart until it got lodged in the hole, stopping the sand from falling in it. As a result, the sand started filling the room, raising her to the inaccessible level.

She still had to fight some more ghosts coming out of the sand, mainly Greens using shovels, pickaxes, and stones, but also some Pinks, and even a Red. At least, Apple Bloom could follow the Pinks even if they were invisible because they were displacing sand as they moved. When the sand reached the inaccessible level, Apple Bloom quickly spotted a door and ran to it before it was buried.

She entered a hallway plunged in darkness, the only light beside her lamp on her forehead coming from a torch beside the entrance. Thanks to her lamp, she could see huge spider webs blocking the way, so, after thinking for a moment, she took the torch and used it to burn the webs. She soon entered a room that had nothing in it but a stone tomb in the center with some torches lighting it from the walls.

"Seems like the end..."

«Don't tell me you will open this tomb,» Rarity said.

"It seems like the only thing Ah can do. The clock hands may be in it."

«But a big and powerful mummy could come out of it to attack you!» Pinkie shouted.

«Yeah, maybe ya should let Twilight come and open it,» Applejack said.

"Come on, AJ. Ah already fought a mummy, Ah can deal with another one,"

«Ya'd dynamite back then.»

"Ah'll find a way. Mummies here're just corpses wrapped in ribbons possessed by ghosts. No big deal."

As Applejack groaned, Apple Bloom slowly approached the tomb and pushed the cover, only for a hoof wrapped in ribbon to punch her chin, sending her on her back. The mummy that punched her then started to levitate out of the tomb while three more mummies came out of the sand covering the ground.

The levitating mummy crossed its front hooves, seemingly letting the three others to deal with Apple Bloom, so the filly started running around while looking for a solution to defeat them without explosives. Looking at the torches on the walls, she then took one and used it on a mummy about to attack her, burning it. Despite the fire, the mummy continued to go after her, so she ran away to put the other two on fire. The mummies eventually stopped moving, their bodies becoming too damaged by the fire, and the three Greens possessing them came out. When Apple Bloom captured them, she turned to the levitating mummy.

The mummy raised its hooves, causing sand to levitate around it to form a sand tornado. It then started to throw smaller sand tornadoes from it at Apple Bloom, and the filly had to walk left and right to avoid them. Not able to approach because of the tornado surrounding the mummy, Apple Bloom threw the torch she still had at it, and was able to hit. The mummy started burning, but it quickly used the sand to put out the fire.

Changing tactic, the mummy started to create spikes of sand directly under Apple Bloom, forcing the filly to run without stopping to not get impaled. While running, she passed beside a torch, took it, and threw it at the mummy, burning it again. However, this time, as the mummy started to use the sand to put the fire out again, Apple Bloom approached it, seeing the end of the ribbon wrapping it hanging from its back hoof. Once close enough, she used the Poltergust to catch it and tugged, causing the mummy to spin in the air and unwrapping it, revealing its putrefied body. Confused, the mummy dropped on the sand, and Apple Bloom bucked its head, beheading it.

A ghost looking like an Orange, but blue colored, came out of the corpse and looked at Apple Bloom in rage before it went to the tomb and took a clock hand out of it. Using its powerful telekinesis, the ghost then pulled on the walls and the ceiling, weakening the room and making it starting to collapse. With a cackle, the ghost then fled.

Twilight appeared, grabbed Apple Bloom, and teleported before the ceiling could fall on their head, and they appeared back in the caravan.

"Thanks Twilight," said Apple Bloom in relief, Applejack immediately hugging her.

"It was a close call. This ghost was really powerful," said the alicorn.

"But it was still an awesome fight! You showed him!" said Rainbow.

"I can't believe you beheaded him," Rarity said. "It was just..."

"Ewww!" Pinkie finished for her.

"Exactly," Rarity said. She then saw something and turned green. "And... gulp I think there are some remains on your hooves..."

Apple Bloom looked and saw what she was talking about. "Eww..." She got out of Applejack's hug, exited the caravan, and used the sand to rid herself of what remained glued to her back hooves.

"Where do ya think the ghost went?" asked Applejack from the caravan.

"No idea. He could be anywhere now, Ah'll have to search," the filly answered.

"But with how powerful he's, will you be able to capture him?" Fluttershy asked.

"Ah fought worse." Her hooves cleaned, she turned to the factory. "Time for me to return."

She crawled under the barrier and returned inside the factory, started by the door to the right, taking the path through the workshop, the room with the big clock door, the one with all the dynamites, before climbing the stairs to go all the way to the room where she found the compass, but no trace of the blue ghost. However, on the way, she had to fight many Greens (including some doing sand tornadoes and throwing bombs), a few Reds, two Blues, some Pinks, and even a Purple ambushing her in the last room. Back in the entrance room, she decided to go explore the underground, and so took the door of the first level to the north, to the room with the turntable.

That was where she found him, at the turntable side of the room. He was floating above the turntable, using his telekinesis to play with bricks. The ghost then spotted her and seemed surprised to see her alive. He quickly recovered from his surprise and cackled before daring her to come with a sign of his hoof. He then started to throw bricks at her. Apple Bloom had no choice but to return to the previous room to escape his attacks. She then wondered how she would be able to reach the ghost.

She then remembered the key she found on the stairs with the box of matches and tested it on the last closed door at the second level, opening it. She entered a small room that was actually a chamber with a bed and all. On the bed, for some reason, there was a bucket floating on its side beside a key. Looking with her DLD, Apple Bloom found out that it was a Green sleeping with his head in the bucket and hugging the key.

It was kind of funny and cute. Too bad she had to get this key to continue. So she captured the ghost in his sleep before he even had time to realize what was happening to him. Apple Bloom then took the key he dropped and used it to open the door just in front of the entrance.

She was back in the room with the turntable, and the blue ghost was still here, staring at the door where she escaped, brick on hoof, ready to throw it.

Stopping paying attention to the ghost, Apple Bloom saw that to reach the other side of the room, she had to walk on the beams linking the two sides.

The beams were just above the pit.

"Oh boy."

«Wait. I'm coming to help,» said Twilight.

"No. Don't. The ghost will spot us, and we'll have faces full of bricks. Don't worry, those beams're narrow, but Ah'm small. It should be okay."

So Apple Bloom slowly began to walk on one of the beams, cautiously taking each step. On the way, however, she was stopped by metallic tubes blocking the path, and with hesitation, she looked to her right at a second beam. Gulping, she went on her back legs and jumped, successfully landing on the beam. After balancing herself, she returned on her four legs and advanced, only to have to jump back on the first beam before finally reaching the other side.

After calming herself with some big breaths, Apple Bloom followed the path only to see that it wasn't leading to the stairs leading to the turntable, but to a door at her left that she had to take to reach said stairs. The door led to a hallway where a large conveyor belt formed most of the floor. Four doors were on the left wall, including one directly at her left, and three doors were on the right wall, including one directly at her right that should be the one leading to the stairs. Buuuut...

Locked.

"Darn it."

She spotted a key at the other end of the hallway, hooked to the back wall, so she went to take it. However, when she walked on the conveyor belt, it started to move backward, making her walk in place. She began running, but it wasn't working either. She could jump, but she decided that it wasn't worth it to tire herself like that before fighting a powerful ghost. So she went to search another way to reach the other end and entered the first left door directly accessible to her.

She entered a room with two tables with wood shavings, tools, and a wooden sculpture of an arrow. There was also a barrel on the floor and a small staircase leading to a platform with a small kiln. Beside the table with the arrow was a second door leading back to the hallway, and in front of it was an opening to a small balcony.

An Orange appeared and threw the tools at her while some Greens appeared too. Now knowing the trick, she went after the Orange, trapped him, and used him to slam the Greens before capturing all of them. With the room cleared, she exited by the second door, returning to the hallway. There she went to her right for the second door in the east wall, the filly now able to reach it without the conveyor belt stopping her.

She entered a large storage room containing a lot of huge crates stacked upon each others. As she started to advance toward the next door, some Reds burst out of some of the crates to attack her, and due to the lack of place, she was hit a couple of time by their shockwaves, but thanks to a lot of slamming, she managed to capture all of them.

She exited the room through the second door (the third in the east wall of the hallway) and moved to her left to reach and enter the third door in the west wall, entering a room filled with steam blinding the filly. After some searching with the help of her hooves, she found a valve that she turned to stop some pipe from releasing steam. However, she could still hear another pipe releasing steam, so she continued searching, only to find nothing. She found the pipe releasing the steam, but not the valve, which seemed to be missing. So she activated the DLD and, as she guessed, found out that the second valve was invisible. Once it was visible again, she turned it, stopping the steam from filling the room. She then left the door open to let the steam out, and once she could see further than her muzzle, she observed the room to search for the second door.

As she already guessed, the room had a lot of pipes connecting to a big kiln actually closed. However, she discovered that the second door of the room was behind the kiln, and she had to enter it and pass through a secondary exit to reach it. So she went to open the double door of the kiln, only for them to open on her muzzle, knocking her back.

The two Greens that opened the door began to laugh only for Apple Bloom to recover faster than they thought, and the filly captured them before they knew it. But then, a Brown dropped before the entrance of the kiln, and Apple Bloom had to deal with him to pass.

Finally, she was able to reach the end of the hallway only to see that the key was at the other side of a gap with an axle with two wheel-like gears. In front of the gap were three gears in the floor that were actually spring gears, two of them being broke. The middle one was still working, so Apple Bloom walked on it, and the spring propelled her to the other side of the gap where she took the key. She then used one of the wheel-like gears to return to the other side.

She returned to the beginning of the hallway and used the key to unlock the first door of the east wall, finally reaching the stairs leading to the turntable where the blue ghost was still looking at the other side of the room. However, the ghost heard her walking down the stairs and turned around, surprised to see her there. Just for the heck of it, Apple Bloom pointed at the door of the second level before the beams with a smirk, and when the ghost spotted it, he facehoofed.

But the ghost quickly went away from Apple Bloom before she could activate the Poltergust, and he began to use his power to make the turntable spin while he opened the crates, revealing them to be full of bombs. He then entered the turntable, creating a dust devil, sucking up Apple Bloom toward it, forcing the filly to walk back. One after another, bombs also rolled to the turntable before being scattered randomly in the room (the ghost still making sure to avoid sending them to the crates).

While running around in order to avoid the bombs, Apple Bloom began to think of a way to force the ghost out. But in the end, she didn't need to. The ghost eventually ran out of bombs to throw, and he came out to see that the crates were now all empty.

"Uh oh..."

Well, he still had the bricks, but before the ghost could start throwing them, Apple Bloom went to him and trapped him. Some Pinks came to try to save him, but Apple Bloom saw them coming thanks to the sand and slammed the blue ghost on them. The blue ghost still tried to save himself by throwing bricks, but Apple Bloom managed to avoid all of them, and eventually, the ghost was finally captured, and he dropped one of the clock hands, the minute hand.

But not the hour hand.

Once Apple Bloom captured the Pinks still in the room, she took the hand and spoke, "Ah got the minute hand, but not the hour hand."

«Uh. I really thought he would have the two hands,» Twilight said. «I have no idea where the hour hand may be, but at least you got the minute hand. Speaking of, remember the rotor is also missing.»

"Mmh... Ah haven't explored the east part of the factory yet, they may be there."

«But the way is blocked by the debris,» Rainbow said.

«Hum... Girls... I think I know where the hour hand is...» Fluttershy said.

«Really? How» Twilight asked.

After a small silence, some of the ponies muttered a «Uh?» Before there was more silence.

Then, Twilight said with an audible facehoof, «Oh... You're kidding me...»

«Are they serious?» Applejack asked.

"What's going on?"

«There are ghosts in the court, and they're playing with the hour hand,» explained Twilight.

Apple Bloom facehoofed. "Why are they playing with the hour hand in plain view instead of hiding it? They're stupid or what? Twilight, can you quickly come to take the hand, please?"

«Of course.»

Once Twilight took the hand, Apple Bloom pulled a cord to lower the bridge linking the two parts of the room, then went all the way to the entrance of the factory to exit it. Back in the court, she saw three greens that were playing with the hour hand, throwing it at each other. As soon as she came out, the ghosts spotted her, but before they could do anything...

The white ghost dog came out of nowhere, caught the hand, and ate it before jumping through the wall to enter the building, followed by the enraged Greens.

"Come on! Not again!"

«Do I play the song again?» Pinkie asked.

«No thanks, dear,» Rarity said.

Apple Bloom ran back inside the building, spotting the three Greens searching around for the dog. Two of them went to the workshop while the last one remained behind to continue to search. Apple Bloom quickly dealt with him, and with the DLD, followed the traces of the dog to the workshop. She saw one of the Greens pass the wall to the room with the clock door, and the other Green was probably already there. But Apple Bloom didn't follow them, still using the DLD to follow the dog. And judging by the steps left behind...

The dog was in the drill press!

However, before she could even examine it to force the dog out, the dog surprised her and jumped on her face to lick her. One of the Greens then came back, hearing the dog barking. So the dog left Apple bloom and climbed the wall before passing the ceiling, followed by the Green.

The room above was the one where she found the compass, so she had to traverse the clock door room to reach the room with the stairwell, then traversed the clock door room in the other sense in the second level to enter the room with all the papers. No trace of the Green who came here, but Apple Bloom found the dog in the file cabinet. But before Apple Bloom could activate the Poltergust, the Green came out of the drawing table and went after the dog, forcing the dog to run through the retractable wall.

Apple Bloom growled in exasperation before she retracted the wall to follow them. She returned to the entrance room where the Green was hiding behind a crate to ambush her, to no avail. Once the Green was captured, Apple Bloom followed the dog's steps to the chamber where she found the dog in a closet. This time, no Green interrupted, but the Dog managed to trip her before getting away toward the room with the turntable.

She yelled some obscenities.

«Eep!»

«Oh my...»

«Apple Bloom, we'll have a little discussion about yer language,» Applejack said.

"AH DON'T BUCKING CARE RIGHT NOW!"

Apple Bloom slammed open the door to the turntable room and spotted the dog at the other side of the beam. Not caring, Apple Bloom ran on the beams, jumping from one to another when needed. However, the third Green appeared and scared the dog away before flying after him until they disappeared in the hallway with the big conveyor belt. She rapidly followed them, but in the hallway, they were nowhere to be seen.

With the DLD, Apple Bloom followed the dog's steps to the first room to the left (with the small balcony) only to be tripped by the dog running under her as he was chased by the Green. By the time she recovered, the dog escaped back to the hallway, and the Green, seeing her death stare, flew to the neighboring room (with the big kiln). She went after the dog, only for the Green to return with reinforcement: three Reds and a Brown blocking the door.

Apple Bloom stared at the ghosts.

She put the Poltergust to red.

Ten seconds later, she exited the now clean room.

The dog was waiting for her only to enter the storage room, and Apple Bloom chased him here only for the dog to immediately return to the hallway. She returned to the hallway, but the dog returned to the storage room. She returned to the storage room, but the dog returned to the hallway...

She took a big breath and calmly went to the second door of the storage room. She returned to the hallway, this time behind the dog who hadn't seen her coming out.

Again, she put the Poltergust to red, and the dog didn't even resist five seconds before he was captured, and the hour hand dropped.

"And this time ya remain in-"

The dog burst out of the Poltergust, licked her face, and flew away.

«WHAAAAAT?!! How could he escape again? I powered up the crystal!» Twilight yelled.

"Not enough it seems..." a very annoyed filly said.

«I will not let a dog make a fool of me! Once you come back, I will power up the crystal so much that it will be as impossible to escape as Tartarus!»

«Tirek was able to escape,» Pinkie said.

«You know what I mean! Anyway. Now we've got the hour hand. All that remains is the rotor. How will you reach it if it's in the east past of the factory?,» Twilight asked Apple Bloom.

Apple Bloom sighed, putting what happened with the dog in the back of her mind to return to a more important matter. "Ah've an idea. But first, can ya take the hand back to the caravan?"

«Alright.»



Apple Bloom returned to the room with the stairwell and all the boxes of dynamite.

«Okay, so what will you do now?» Twilight asked.

Apple Bloom smirked. "Watch and admire."

She went to the box of dynamites nearest to the blocked door and pushed it to the pile of debris. For good measure, she pushed in a second box.

«Wait... you aren't seriously thinking to-»

"Yes, Ah am!" interrupted Apple Bloom as she lit a match.



Behind the door, a few ghosts, three Greens with shovels and a Red with a club were standing guard when the door and the wall surrounding it were suddenly blown up in a huge explosion, blowing them away and causing the elevator in the room to crash to the level below. Through the smoke caused by the explosion, Apple Bloom walked in the room, then looked at the now stunned ghosts. Giving them a predatory look, she activated the Poltergust and captured them one after another easily.

With all the ghosts captured, Apple Bloom saw that she was in a two-floors room with a now crashed elevator. She could see the level below thanks to the grided floor, but since the elevator was now broken, there was no way for her to reach it from here. So, instead, she went to the opposite door and passed it, entering another two-floors room with a floor entirely grided with a path leading to conveyor belts stopping her from reaching the other side. The conveyor belts worked thanks to huge gears that were also operating a huge pendulum and a giant scale sin used to reach the floor below.

Having no other choice, she used the scale, and when she got out of it, the only way now accessible to her was a door leading to the basement floor of the elevator room, at the bottom of a flight of stairs leading to a part of the room covered in sand. There were also two other doors at the opposite side, one at the first floor and one under it, but the first one was inaccessible because of the conveyor belts, and she needed the second scale to be lowered to reach the second. She will have to find a way to lower the scale. Through a hole in the wall beside the door, she could see that both doors led to the same room with stairs, a chest, some crates, and a few other things. Ghosts were in there, including a Pink holding the rotor. They were trying to find a place to hide it. Before she could see more, one of the Greens saw her watching and blocked the hole with a brick.

Now knowing where was her goal, she set out to find something heavy enough to throw at the scale and lower it.

«You know I could simply appear on the scale to lower it, right?» Twilight said.

Apple Bloom stopped moving. "Oh, right."

So Twilight did as she said and appeared on the scale to lower it, letting Apple Bloom reach the door. The ghosts clearly weren't expecting her to enter so soon because she totally took them by surprise, the Pink still holding the rotor. As Apple Bloom started sucking ghosts left and right, an Orange then appeared, and the Pink gave the rotor to him before joining the fight, letting the Orange fly away with the rotor.

Once Apple Bloom cleaned the room, the filly chased him. The Orange was waiting for her on the sand covered floor of the previous room, so she joined him here, only for four mummies to come out of the sand while three Greens appeared and started to spin to create small sand tornadoes while the Orange flew to the basement floor of the elevator room. There wasn't any dynamite or torch here for Apple Bloom to use, so the filly had to use the same method she used against the levitating mummy in the tomb: use the Poltergust to unwrap them, then behead them with a good buck on the head while they're stunned. One by one, she then captured the seven Greens. Two more Greens armed with shovel, two Reds, and four Pinks then appeared to try their chance, only to fail, obviously. An Orange even came to throw sand tornadoes at her, but he wasn't as powerful as the blue ghost she fought, and she quickly got rid of him.

With all the ghosts captured, she went to the basement level of the elevator room, which was just a bridge staircase leading further down above a pit of sand where the elevator crashed. She passed the door at the bottom and entered a very particular room. There was just two paths hugging the west wall and the east wall in front of each doors, and between the two paths were a giant gear in the center of the room actually not working and a zip line at the side passing above a platform against the north wall linked to the gear by a small bridge. She saw that another bridge could be unrolled to link the west path and the gear. As for the zip line, it could be called from the two sides of the room thanks to rotors. Thankfully, all of this wasn't above a bottomless pit, but a small pit with a floor either grided or covered in sand with a lot of mice. If Apple Bloom fell in the pit, a spring gear could propel her back on the gear.

Apple Bloom used the zip line to reach the west side of the room, only to discover that the door here was locked. She then understood that there may have an invisible door on the north platform, and so she unrolled the bridge to reach the gear before traversing the other bridge to the north platform. There, she used the DLD to make the door reappear, and she passed it.

An even more particular room appeared to her. It was a room full of gears, above a bottomless pit, and it was built so the only way to reach some parts was to walk on the teeth of some of the gears as they turned. She also spotted the key in an open locker at the other side, protected by two Reds, but one was busy reading a newspaper, and the other was smashing one of the other lockers for some reason. Sadly, the only path reaching the lockers was inaccessible for now because the gear leading to it wasn't working. There was another gear that could have led to it, but it was turning in the wrong sense.

However, she saw that a gear was missing above the pit, and it didn't take long for Apple Bloom to put two and two together. So she took the path leading to the gear turning to the wrong sense and took a flight of stairs leading to a horizontal gear beside the missing one. Walking on it, she approached and used the DLD to reveal the missing gear, causing the gears that weren't working to work now.

Somehow, the two Reds hadn't seen any of this, so the filly was able to walk on the teeth of the now working gear to reach the path leading to them without having to fight. She still had to traverse a hollow gear on the way before reaching them.

Now, she could use the surprise to attack them, or sneak to the key and take it without fighting. But again, each ghost captured was one less ghost who could attack her later, so she chose to fight. Thanks to the surprise, the two ghosts were easily captured, and Apple Bloom was soon leaving the room with the key.

Back in the room with the giant gear in the center which was now turning thanks to Apple Bloom repairing the mechanism, Apple Bloom used the key to open the west door and entered a room with a working conveyor belt suspended above some barrels and a cuckoo clock with a lever in the wall opposite to the entrance door.

Having nothing else to do, she pulled down the lever of the cuckoo clock, activating it. Once the two clock hands were on the 12, a big cuckoo bird came out of the clock, used its beak to grab her by the scruff of her neck, then returned inside the clock with her, only to come out at the other side before dropping her, revealing a second part of the room a little bigger. The conveyor belt was still here, and a switch on the floor could open a barrier, but nothing much else.

This part of the room was directly linked to another room by a passage in the west wall, and when Apple Bloom entered it, she spotted the Orange with the rotor at the other side of a big gap with three vertical gears forming a bridge, one of which was invisible, so she had to use the DLD. To reach him, she had to use three valves to turn the gears and be able to walk in the gaps between the teeth.

But the Orange was smart and used his powers to turn the gears too to stop Apple Bloom from reaching him. However, Apple Bloom could see that it tired him a lot because of their size and weight, so she continued to turn the valves, forcing the ghost to continue to turn the gears. After a few minutes of this, the ghost collapsed, exhausted. So Apple Bloom turned the gears again to traverse the bridge, reached the ghost, and captured him easily. Finally, she had the rotor in her possession.

«Let me take it,» Twilight said before she appeared and took the rotor. "I will wait for you to return to the clock door so I can repair it while you protect me."

"Okay."

At this, Twilight teleported back to the caravan, and Apple Bloom traversed the rooms one by one to return to the clock door. However, once she was back in the room with the sin scale, she was pushed from behind and fell back on the sand-covered floor. Turning around, she saw that a Red was the responsible, but before she could make him pay for this, six Oranges appeared and circled her, starting to use their power to create six tornadoes and surround her with them. As the six tornadoes started circling her, the Oranges started to close on her, but Apple Bloom managed to trap one of the Oranges with her Poltergust and spun to make him ram the five others, ruining their tactic.

The five remaining ghosts recovered and tried to do the same thing, but Apple Bloom repeated her actions and was able to stop them again while capturing a second ghost. So the four remaining one separated to the four corners and started to throw small tornadoes at her. Putting the Poltergust to red, Apple Bloom ran to one of the Oranges while avoiding the tornadoes and captured him in a few seconds.

The three remaining ghosts took a triangle formation to attack her, but Apple Bloom still rapidly captured another, and before long, the last two ghosts were captured. Despite his fear, the Red who pushed her tried to ram her, but his charge was stopped by the Poltergust.

And now, she could finally return to the clock door room. Once there, Twilight appeared with the clock hands and the rotor, and after a nod to Apple Bloom, she started to repair the door.

As they thought, ghosts began to come to stop her, many of them being green ones armed with shovels, pickaxes, or bombs. For those last ones, Apple Bloom didn't have to worry. If they threw a bomb at Twilight, the mare would use her magic to throw them back at the ghosts. Thankfully, the repairs were fast, so the assault didn't last long, and thanks to the sand, the filly could see the Pinks approach, so there wasn't much difficulty. The main problem was the two Oranges appearing and using the sand in the room to send sand tornadoes at Twilight, so Apple Bloom had to get rid of them quickly. When the clock door was repaired, Twilight, now a little covered in sand, teleported back to the caravan, leaving the filly to deal with the remaining ghosts.

Once the room was empty, Twilight spoke «Thanks again. But now, I have to take a shower to get rid of all that sand.»

"There's a basin somewhere that ya should be able to fill with water," Apple Bloom replied as she started to think of how to open the door. She could try to turn the clock hands until she finds the right hour, but it would take a lot of time.

That's when she saw the solution through a hole in the wall beside the door: on gears visible behind, she could see a 7, a 3, and a 0. 7h30.

"Ah think Ah found the solution to open the door."

«That was fast,» Rainbow Dash said.

Apple Bloom turned the rotor, and once the hour hand was between the 7 and the 8 and the minute hand was on the 6, she stopped.

The door opened, letting Apple Bloom access the room with the gears that she saw through the hole. However, a problem quickly appeared: the exit was near the top of the room (which was a two-floor room), and there was no apparent way to reach it. But she then discovered that the floor of the room was actually an elevator. But the only way to make it rise was to turn valves between the gears. But the valves were out of her reach, so she had to use the Poltergust to turn them.

Soon enough, she reached the exit, and once she passed the door there, she entered a room with a lot of crates forming a path to a ladder to a trapdoor. However, once she approached the ladder, she was suddenly launched in the air by the floor, revealing it to be a spring.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!"

She passed right through a trapdoor, and she found herself in the air outside of the factory before finally dropping back. With a big groan, Apple Bloom slowly got up and looked around while rubbing her head and closing the trapdoor.

She saw that she was now on the top of the clock tower, or belfry, and she was on a giant clock beside a giant cuckoo.

«Woah. We saw you flying from the caravan,» Rainbow Dash said.

«Be on your guard. One of those shadow ghosts must not be far,» Twilight said.

Just as she said that, the door of the cuckoo opened, and a Bogmire-looking ghost with clock hands instead of arms came out, the arms regularly and randomly changing position to form hours. Pyrite came behind it.

"Death by animals, death by objects... But now, it's time for you to face something that nopony can escape: death by time. No matter who you are, no matter what you are, time always wins in the end. Everyone has a final hour," said Pyrite before he waved at the ghost. "Meet your Final Hour."

The ghost then jumped inside the clock, and the clock hands started to move. Pyrite smirked at her. "You should hurry. Time is flowing, and for you, will soon run out." At this, he disappeared.

Apple Bloom quickly understood what he meant when she saw that she was becoming taller, or rather, older. The ghost, Final Hour, was accelerating her time, and if she didn't stop it soon, she would die of old age. But how could she stop it?

By breaking the hands, of course! But she wasn't strong enough to destroy them.

Not strong enough now. But if she was an adult...

So Apple Bloom waited and waited as time passed. Then, once she was about twenty years old, judging that she was now probably strong enough, she went to buck the base of the clock hands. Thanks to how old the factory was, the hands weren't as solid as they should be, so after a few bucks, they broke, and the ghost came out for Apple Bloom to trap and try to capture. While Final Hour tried to escape the vortex, it used the broken clock hands to try to impale her, so Apple bloom had to move constantly to avoid them until the ghost was able to escape and to return to the clock, repairing it.

The hands, however, were now turning a little faster, and various ghosts, Greens, Reds, and Pinks, appeared to stop her from breaking it again. So, instead, she slammed them on the hands, damaging them. Slamming the Reds was particularly effective.

By the time she broke the hands again, forcing out Final Hour, Apple Bloom was probably twenty years older, but she was still in top form. Final Hour sadly managed to escape her second tentative of capturing it and returned to the clock, repairing it again. But now, the hands were turning even faster, were hot red, and were covered in a protective shield.

More ghosts came, some of them dropping mummies, while others used bombs and dynamites. Already feeling herself weakening because of how old she was getting, Apple Bloom took a shovel dropped by a Green and used it like a bat to send the bombs away from her while also attacking any mummies that were coming too close. She tried to send the bomb toward the mummies to blow them, but above all, she tried to send them toward the clock hands to destroy the protective shield, all the while running around to avoid being burned by the minute hand that left almost no place to avoid it.

To her horror, she soon found herself having to fight a lumbago too, but despite the pain, she continued, and soon, the shield covering the hands was destroyed. Two more bombs were all it took to destroy them after that, and this time, Apple Bloom didn't let the Shadow escape. Seeing their leader captured, the remaining ghosts flew away.

Almost as soon as Final Hour was captured, the effects of his power disappeared and Apple Bloom was a filly again, to her relief. The door of the cuckoo then opened, and a key came out of it to drop beside her.

Taking heavy breaths, Apple Bloom smirked and spoke, "Maybe one day time'll win, but right now, Ah won."



Above Ponyville, Thanatos was floating, looking down at the town.

"What a peaceful town, so full of life... Mmh... Should I kill all of them? Nah... Too soon to go this far. In another game, maybe." He turned toward the Everfree Forest and approached, getting closer to Apple Bloom's mansion. "Right now, I will just do this." He sent a wave of energy toward the mansion. "Now, my little ghosties, time to get some new potential victims!" That's when he felt something. "Oh? She's resisting my control? Why am I not surprised? Well, this will be interesting."
> Fourth Mansion: Secret Mine
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Little Ghost was thrown by a powerful wave of paranormal energy, causing her to pass through a few trees before she dropped on the ground. Almost immediately after her family fell under the control of somepony, she went to confront the responsible, leading to a terrible fight in the Everfree Forest. But Thanatos, as he called himself, quickly revealed to be extremely powerful and totally overwhelmed Little Ghost. Knowing how powerful Little Ghost was, this wasn't anything. She still managed to land a few hits on the guy, but he easily brushed them off before counterattacking.

This guy really wasn't any ghost, and she knew it immediately when she saw what he was, but she still had to try to save her family, and also to save Apple Bloom's family and friends. Just before the fight started, Thanatos sent her family to capture them.

But in the end, she failed, and a ghostly chain appeared around her neck.

"You put up a good fight, I must say, but you should have flown away," said the skeletal ghost behind her as he brought her to his face, letting her see his smirk. "Now, who will tell little Bloom that I captured her loved ones? Oh well, I will find something. Maybe by showing her the corpse of her dear grandma? Oh, now I wonder what will be on her face!"

"No! Please! Don't do that!" Little Ghost pleaded.

"Yes. You're right. I won't do that. It would be a little redundant with what I'm planning. Mmh... Oh! I think I know!"



Slowly, with great difficulty because of the snow, the caravan climbed the mountain toward the Secret Mine. Again, Twilight was looking at Smart Spirit's notes about the place.

"A griffon gold mine that was abandoned once it was depleted of its gold. Extremely damaged by the elements. The main entrance is a secret elevator in a chalet, but if it isn't here, then there will be no choice but to jump in a hole through the ice in a neighboring fishing hut. Don't worry, the snow at the bottom will cushion the fall."

"Okay," Apple Bloom said.

"There's a gondola leading to a workshop, but it's too damaged, so you will have to use a zip line. However, because of the cold, things tend to get trapped in ice, so it's advised to bring something hot if you don't want to be forced to search everywhere for coal to burn. Dynamite is also present, probably to blow the strong walls of stone and dig deeper."

"Thankfully, Ah kept the matches. Too bad we don't have anything hot to melt the ice. Ah suppose Ah'll have to use the coal."

"Because of the damage, Smart Spirit was forced to create some makeshift paths and other ways to move around in some places. Finally, I think I know where you will find the key to the next manor. It will probably be in the deepest part of the mine. But where exactly, you will have to explore."

Rarity gave a scarf to Apple Bloom. "It's all we have to cover you from the cold."

"Better than nothing," the filly said.

"Brrrrrr... I don't know if this will be enough," Rainbow Dash said. "I can already feel the cold, and we're still inside the caravan."

"Then we should sing! It's good to keep ourselves warm!" Pinkie Pie said.

"Hey! Girls! We're reaching the end of the road! Ah can see a chalet not far!" Applejack shouted as the caravan stopped. "Ah don't know if it's a good idea to come out! It's freaking cold out there, and it looks like a blizzard'll start soon!"

"Sorry AJ, but Ah must go! Just come inside and keep the windows closed while I'm in the mine!" shouted back Apple Bloom before she exited the caravan, only to start shaking. Like her sister said, it was freaking cold.

Applejack joined her and hugged her. "Be careful in there. Ah heard mines're very dangerous."

"Ah'll be," said Apple Bloom before she began to advance toward the chalet, her hooves leaving little holes in the snow.

The chalet had nothing special. It was simply a small building made of wood, tall enough to have only one floor, and large enough to have only one or two rooms, with only one window on each sides of the door. A small staircase led to the porch, and through the windows, Apple Bloom could see that the inside was just one big room, and she could see a Blue playing with a rocking chair in front of a fireplace. Sadly, walls of ice on both sides stopped her from exploring around the building.

Using the key from the Old Clockwork, she opened the door and caught the Blue by surprise, capturing him. More ghosts came, Blues to hide in the furniture and Pinks to creep on her while she was busy with the first ones. Thankfully, a mirror present in the room showed them despite their invisibility. There was also a polar bear rug beside the rocking chair, and Apple Bloom was taken by surprise when the rug tried to bite her, the filly barely avoiding it. She slammed a hoof on its head, forcing a Green to come out.

All the ghosts were rapidly captured, excepted a smart Blue that was throwing objects at her from an upper area of the room with no apparent way to reach it. Thankfully, Smart Spirit had noted about a secret elevator in the fireplace, so she went in it, spotted a button on one of the walls, and pressed it. The Blue was very surprised to see her coming and didn't escape in time.

With the last ghost captured, she returned to the polar bear rug and inspected it. Smart Spirit's notes said that the elevator to the mine was under it, but the button to call it was broken, so unless the elevator was already here, there was no way to use it from this room.

Which meant that she had no choice but to go to the fishing hut.

She could hear Fluttershy cry at the sight of all those animal parts present in the room, from small mammal skins to antlers above the fireplace, but Rainbow warned them: griffons have fewer problems using animal parts to decorate or as clothes.

Paying no mind to this, Apple Bloom passed the door beside the fireplace, leading to a smaller room in the back of the chalet with a stove with a pair of skies, moccasins, pots and dishes around it. A door was at the right, but when she approached it, she saw that the door was partially trapped in ice. So she went to the stove to take a coal when, suddenly, the stove lit, surprising Apple Bloom. A Green came out of it and used her surprise to punch her, but Apple Bloom avoided it and trapped the ghost, only for two more Greens to come out of the stove holding each a burning coal, ready to smash them on the filly's head. To no avail, because Apple Bloom trapped them and captured them almost immediately.

Carefully, she then rolled one of the burning coals to the ice trapping the door, and let the fire melt it. Once the ice was gone, she passed the door, exiting the chalet. It led to an area with a frozen lake with a hockey goal and, for some reason, a sleigh at the side. Behind the goal, in the distance, the Treacherous Mansion could be seen, and as Smart Spirit said, she could see that the mansion was on a cliff in the middle of a bottomless pit in the giant lake of the valley.

«And ya'll have to enter this death pit?» Applejack asked very worriedly.

"Eeyup..."

She stopped staring at the mansion far away and turned to the small hut at the other side of the frozen lake. Carefully, she traversed the lake, trying not to slip, only to discover that there was no door to enter the hut. Apple Bloom rolled her eyes and activated the DLD, reforming the door.

Really, those ghosts, they should know better by now.

She entered the fishing hut where several fishing poles and buckets full of fishes were kept. The wooden floor was broken, forming a big hole above the ice of the lake, and the ice itself had a hole leading to the mine.

She jumped in the hole and landed on a pile of snow entirely covered in ice. A giant fish was trapped in one of the walls, and a slope of ice was linking the part of the room where she was to an upper level. There was also an abandoned mining shaft linking the two levels in the ice.

And it was freaking freezing like Tartarus in there!

"Ah should've taken one of those coats of fur back in the chalet..." Apple Bloom said as she hugged herself to gain some warmth.

Some Greens came to attack her with pickaxes along with a Red, but she quickly captured them before she started to explore to find a way to the second level. She then paid attention to a geyser of cold air in a corner of the room and got an idea. She jumped in it, and the air sent her right to the second level of the room. A door was immediately at her left here.

Passing it, she entered a hallway with three doors visible: one to her left in the middle, one to her right near the end, and one at the end of the hallway, in front. There were some pickaxes on the walls and some barrels full of coals, as well as a sheet of ice in the right wall.

While she went to the first door, the one to the left, to test it, she had to deal with more Greens and a Purple. Finding out that the door was locked, she went to the next, the one to the right, having to deal with another Purple on the way. This door was open and led to an area outside of the mine. Buildings were visible, as well as the broken gondola (revealing that there was one just behind the sheet of ice back in the hallway), and two sets of zip lines were leading to another one. However, one of the zip lines had its ropes covered in ice, making it impossible to use, and so, to reach the second gondola. And since she had to cling to the ropes of the first zip line to reach the second, there was no way that she could get a hot coal to it.

It wasn't there that she could continue right now, so, after dealing with three Greens and a Pink, she returned to the hallway and went to the last door, only for a Brown to come and block it with his disgusting spectral body. With the use of the usual method, the Brown was quickly captured, and she passed the door.

She entered a room, or rather, a part of a room. This room possessed an elevator, probably the one leading back to the chalet, but the part with the elevator was separated from the rest, a path slash bridge leading to another part of the mine, by another, suspended bridge above a bottomless pit with a strong wind. Bad news, the bridge was almost broken. Apple Bloom, her, was on a part of the room separated from the rest by the pit, at a different level, a small square platform linked to the part of the elevator only by a zip line actually not working. Second bad news, the only way to activate it was a button beside the elevator. Beside her platform, there was a scale-like elevator, one of the scales being too high, and the other too low. In the one too low, there was a key. Third bad news, there was nothing for her to throw at the raised scale to lower it and make the other rise.

«Do you want me to come?» Twilight asked.

"No need. Ah think Ah know what Ah'll do."

She returned to the hallway, grabbed a coal from one of the barrels, and went back to the scale-like elevator. Using the Poltergust, she threw the coal to the raised scale. It wasn't enough to lower it, so she had to return to take a second coal and throw it. This was enough to lower the scale for her to reach the key using the Poltergust.

The key opened the locked door back in the hallway. Before that, she was forced to fight more Greens using pickaxes as well as some Blues throwing coal at her from the barrels. The door led to another hallway with a door at the opposite side and a frozen body of water covering most of the floor. Again, she was attacked by four Greens, one Red, and three Pinks. Too bad for the Pinks. The ice on the floor was a good mirror revealing their position.

«Ghosts are surprisingly aggressive since you entered the mine,» Twilight said. «They have been attacking you almost constantly.»

"Probably because Ah'm approaching the end. This mine's the last place before the mansion where Pyrite and his ally're probably waiting for me, so they're making things more difficult for me."

Apple Bloom passed the door, entering yet another hallway covered in snow with a part covered in ice at her left with a chest at the end. At her right was a small staircase leading to a door. She went first to open the chest carefully, only to have to deal with Pinks again, easily captured thanks to the ice revealing their position. The chest possessed a key that opened the door at the bottom of the staircase, but she first had to deal with a Brown in front of it helped by two Greens with pickaxes.

The room she entered was entirely covered in ice with crates full of dynamite, and many Greens, Reds, Pinks, and Blues came to fight her, the Blues lighting and throwing dynamite at her. Thankfully, the ice was thick, so the explosives only managed to blow holes in it. At least, they were careful to not throw dynamite too close of the crates. Still, to avoid the risk of an accident, she put the Poltergust to red and targeted the Blues in priority, capturing them rapidly. Once all the Blues were gone, she put it back to yellow and captured the rest in a slower pace using a lot of slamming, especially using the Reds.

Once all the ghosts in the room were captured, she opened one of the crates and took a dynamite, getting an idea. With it, she returned to the hallway with the sheet of ice on one of the walls blocking the entrance to the gondola, lit the dynamite with one of her matches, and let it at the base of the ice before running away. When the dynamite exploded, it destroyed the ice, revealing the door of the gondola.

But then, the familiar ghost of an obese white stallion came out from the Gondola, Pearl, followed by Lapis Lazuli and Topaz.

Apple Bloom looked at them in disbelief. "Pearl? Topaz? Lapis? What're ya doing here?"

But the ghosts didn't answer, turned to the gondola, and each created a ghostly chain to block it before they flew away. Topaz went up, Pearl passed the wall behind her, and Lapis Lazuli went to the chasm with the two zip lines. Running after Lapis, Apple Bloom passed the door leading to the chasm, only to see Lapiz fly to the other side of the chasm, to a lower level of the mine she hadn't explored yet.

"They... They weren't themselves..."

«They looked like the other ghosts, as if they were controlled...» Twilight said.

«Oh no... It means that Pyrite's ally went to Ponyville!» Rarity shouted in panic. «What if he captured Sweetie Belle!»

«And Scootaloo!» Rainbow Dash shouted.

«Big Mac! Granny Smith!» Applejack shouted.

«The Cakes...» Pinkie said.

«E-everypony! Calm down!» Twilight said. «We already knew this could happen. And, sadly, there's nothing we can do but hope and continue what we're doing. We're almost at the end.»

This calmed the ponies, but they were still worried about their loved ones. Thinking about her family and her friends, Apple Bloom returned to the room with the crates of dynamites where she found Pearl with some Pinks and Blues that began to throw dynamite at her. As Pearl started spitting fireballs at her, Apple Bloom started running around while capturing the Blues one after another to stop them. She then captured the Pinks before going after Pearl. Without surprise, the ghost's heavyweight coupled with the ice easily caused her to be dragged around. But Apple Bloom didn't let him go and eventually captured him. When she captured Pearl, some chains broke out of the Poltergust.

She then exited the room by a door at the left, entering the path in the room with the elevator. But now, she had to find a way to reach it. Thankfully, while the bridge was broken, it was easily repairable by pulling on the ropes to straighten it out. However, from this side, she could only pull on the rope of the left part of the bridge, forcing her to use the raised half as a tightrope to cross the pit and reach the other side. Because of the strong wind, she almost fell more than once, but she remained slow and careful, so she managed to reach the elevator side. Some Greens appeared but were quickly captured. She then pulled on the rope of the right side of the bridge, fully straightening it. She then activated the zip line to the platform as a shortcut just in case before taking the elevator.

Back in the chalet, she quickly found Topaz with some Greens and two Oranges using coals as projectiles. Topaz immediately attacked her by slamming the ground to create a shockwave, but she avoided it, trapped him, and slammed him on the Greens while avoiding the coals thrown by the Oranges. When Topaz finally entered the Poltergust, the stunned Greens didn't last long next, and the Oranges quickly followed with the help of the DLD and the mirror.

All that remained was Lapis, but she first had to explore the rest of the mine until finding where he went. So she took the elevator back to the mine, traversed the bridge, and took the door at the opposite side of the path where ice covered the ground.

She entered a place with railroads going to various parts of the mine, but they had collapsed. The only way was a makeshift bridge made of wooden planks linking where she was to a second part across a gap. A wall made of planks seemed to be here at first, but it was destroyed to be used for the bridge. All that remained were the vertical planks and a lamp left on the floor.

Carefully, she crossed the bridge and found a key trapped in ice at the other side. Taking it, she crossed the bridge again and used the lamp to melt the ice, letting her use the key on the door back at the other side of the bridge. After the door, she entered what was essentially a big ice slope to deeper parts of the mine. Like in the Old Clockwork, she let herself slide to the bottom where she found out that if she wanted to get back up, she would have to cling to an one-way zip line that would bring her back to the top before returning down there. Again, it seemed to be a makeshift one.

Thanks Smart Spirit, and Diamond Cup who probably helped him, along with some of the ghosts of the valley. At the bottom, she had to rotate a propeller on a barrel to rise a mechanism blocking a door to a building. She entered a room with a bonfire in the middle and... two possessed griffon armors. The main difference with the pony version was that not only they had weapons (spears), they also had sharp claws. They were also very light to let the griffons fly, so they were faster than the heavier ones she fought until now. But it also made them more vulnerable to her bucks. After avoiding their spears, she jumped to the closest armor and bucked it before it could use its claws to attack her, and the armor went in pieces, causing the Green possessing it to come out.

More Greens and two Reds came then to help the last armor, but instead of going to the armor to buck it, she slammed a Red on it, destroying it. However, as she started capturing the ghosts, an Orange appeared and started attacking with the two spears. Constantly moving left and right to avoid them, Apple Bloom finished capturing the other ghosts before she went after the Orange.

Once the room was clean of ghosts, she looked around and saw that a big chunk of ice was blocking the exit at the left of the entrance, beside a window. So, with the Poltergust, she grabbed a burning log in the bonfire and went to melt it only for the window to be suddenly opened by a Pink, not only letting the cold and strong wind of the now raging blizzard enter the room which caused the fire of the log to be put out, but also letting enter some of his friends Pinks and Greens. Huffing in annoyance, Apple Bloom captured the ghosts, closed the window, lit the log with the bonfire, and finished melting the ice before passing the door, entering a shaft with a gear-powered lift with a rotor.

As she turned the rotor to move the lift down, she was constantly attacked by Greens with, every now and then, a Red and a Pink coming. The door at the bottom of the shaft was a special one, because Apple Bloom had to turn a mechanism on it to make it spin. It spun so suddenly that it almost sent Apple Bloom flying in a pit in the next room. She only stopped herself by grabbing a rope acting as a barrier to stop creatures from approaching the pit.

"Wowee! That was close!" she said once she was back on ground, or rather, on snow.

«You should know by now to be careful around those mechanisms. It's not the first time they send you flying,» Twilight said.

"Yeah..."

There was nothing much in this room. It was simply a path circling a pit by her left, passing behind an ice wall, with some toppled mine carts and a lantern hanging above the pit. After defeating some more Greens, she passed the door at the other side and entered another building.

She was now in a room with two doors in her left and another in front. The first two doors each led to a room that were separated by a conveyor belt going further into the mine. However, the first door was closed by two metallic bars, and Apple Bloom had to pull on two ropes to raise them and be able to open the door. The problem was that one of the ropes was trapped in ice. There was a small bonfire in front of the second door, but no coal to burn and throw at the ice to melt it.

Again, she was attacked by Greens, Reds, and Pinks, as well as a Brown blocking the last door and two Purples ambushed in front of him. Avoiding the claws of one of the Pinks, she quickly trapped a Red about to create a shockwave at her and used him to hit some of the other ghosts (especially the other Reds) while avoiding the goo spit by the Brown. Once all the Reds were captured, she finished the Greens and Pinks and captured the two Purples before attacking the Brown. While capturing him, because of the bonfire, there wasn't much space to avoid his goo, so she had to free him a couple of time to avoid them before she was able to capture him.

Once the Brown was captured, she passed the last door and found herself on a smaller version of the earlier elevator in a room full of barrels of coal with another conveyor belt and a big machine beside it. Turning the rotor of the elevator, she lowered it to reach the rest of the room, finding out that the machine served to put the coal in the conveyor belt that was probably used to send the coal back in the other room where the conveyor belt ended. However, she could see that a part of the conveyor belt was broken, so she had no choice but to bring some coal on the elevator, rise it back to the door, open said door, and pass it with the coal. First, she had to deal with yet more ghosts, including two Oranges throwing coal at her.

Back in the previous room with the coal, she used the bonfire to burn one and used the Poltergust to throw it at the rope trapped in ice. Once the ice had melted, she used the Poltergust to reach and pull the two ropes, freeing the first door that she immediately went to open.

The new room had a railway and many pipes. She quickly spotted a key trapped in ice hanging from the ceiling, so she returned to the previous room leaving the door open, took a coal, burned it, returned in this room, and threw the coal to the ice, getting the key. Surprisingly, no ghosts came this time.

She used the key to open the last door, entering a room that seemed to be a quarry judging by all the mine carts scattered and all the pickaxes. It was probably here that the excavation ended, the griffons not finding gold anymore. Lapis Lazuli was there, waiting for her with THREE BROWNS AND FIVE ORANGES! The Oranges were starting to levitate the pickaxes to use them as weapons, while the Browns all started spitting their goo at her.

Putting the Poltergust to Red, she went after the Oranges first, quickly capturing them while remaining far enough of the Browns. However, she only managed to capture two of them before the three remaining Oranges joined the Browns, floating above them with Lapis. So Apple Bloom targeted the Brown at the left and quickly captured him while avoiding the projectiles of the others.

As she attacked the Brown at the right, Lapis started to attack her using his billiard stick, so Apple Bloom stopped attacking the Brown and targeted him. Lapis wasn't a tough ghost, so he was rapidly captured, breaking the last chain. She then finished the right Brown and captured the remaining Brown and Oranges one by one. By the end of the battle, she got some goo on her and some scratches from the pickaxes, but she was mostly okay.

However, she now had visited what was seemingly the deepest part of the mine, and no trace of the key to the next mansion and the Shadow guarding it. Only one place was left to explore: the workshop. Now that she had captured Pearl, Topaz, and Lapis Lazuli, the doors of the Gondola were probably open.

She first had to backtrack all the way back to there from the quarry, and all the way, ghosts attacked her, including the ghost of a real griffon who probably died in the mine. The ghost wasn't more of a threat than the rest, but Apple Bloom was surprised that she didn't encounter more. Now that she thought about it, it was surprising that she didn't encounter ghosts of real ponies back at the Old Clockwork. Ponies died there after all, so their ghosts should have been there, right?

She had the presentiment that the last manor, the Treacherous Mansion, will be where she will encounter them. Pyrite was probably gathering all the remaining ghosts of the valley there to get her with their number.

Soon enough, she was back at the gondola and entered it. She wasn't sure what she would find in it, but she was certainly surprised to find a cannon. And she knew how she could use it to melt the ice of the second zip line to reach the workshop. She took one of the coals back in the hallway, used the lamp back in the room with the makeshift bridge to light it, then returned to the Gondola where she put the coal in the cannon. She then lit the wick with one of her matches and targeted one of the frozen ropes of the second zip line. Thankfully, the zip line was slow, so it wasn't hard despite the weight of the cannon. The coal hit its mark and melted the ice of one of the ropes.

And so, she was able to use the two zip lines to reach the other gondola that she entered. The second gondola was totally destroyed, missing one of its walls and partially missing two others. The missing wall led to two narrow beams on which the gondola was in balance, and Apple Bloom had to cross them to reach the workshop. However, there was a nest of crows nearby, and they would attack her if she started crossing the beams.

Stupid crows building nests in the more annoying places.

She carefully started walking on one of the beams, and as she thought, the crows came to attack her. Balancing on her hind legs, she took her Poltergust and blew them away before continuing. The crows didn't come back, so she was able to reach the workshop without more problems, excepted maybe the beginning of a fear of heights. Who wouldn't after walking on narrow beams above bottomless pits while being attacked by crows or having to resist strong and cold winds? Between the Old Clockwork and this mine, she had her dose. Also, she was an earth pony, so altitude wasn't already her cup of tea. It was more of Scootaloo's.

Anyway, it turned out that the entrance of the workshop was locked by a mechanism similar to the one that was blocking the door of the first floor of one of the Haunted Towers, and she had to find how to activate it. So she passed the only door that remained: the one at her right leading right into a generator room, the generator working on coal. There were barrels of coal beside a conveyor belt that was bringing the coal to this room, so she took some of the coal in them with a shovel and threw them in the furnace before she used a match to light it. With the generator now working, she returned to the entrance of the workshop and pressed a button, unlocking the door.

And so, she entered the workshop which was a big ravaged room where a big part of the floor was missing, revealing the ice under it. Above it was the Shadow waiting for her. Like the others, the Shadow was Bogmire-like, but had a body that seemed to shift constantly between a rocky one, a watery one, a windy one, and a fiery one.

Thanks to this, Apple Bloom immediately guessed that this one controlled the elements.

«I really wasn't expecting it to be there of all places,» said Twilight.

«Well, this place was really hard to reach,» Rarity said.

While they talked, Apple Bloom took the handle of the Poltergust, preparing herself. The Shadow then entered the ice, causing a hole to appear in it. Looking down at the hole, Apple Bloom saw it create a whole room in the ice. So she looked around and saw a ladder that she dragged to the hole. She used it to enter the newly created room without taking the risk of breaking a leg and found the Shadow waiting beside Pyrite.

"Something that the ponies can fully fight are the elements. They can tame them to use it for everyday activities, but when they must face their fury, the only possible answer is to escape, or die. Now face the incarnation of this fury: Nature's Wrath. I wonder how you will die. Cooked? Buried? Frozen? We will see soon enough," said Pyrite with a cackle before flying away.

Almost immediately, Nature's Wrath surrounded itself in wind, creating some armor body with it. It then started to send sharp wind at Apple Bloom, forcing the filly to move around the wind body, trying to find a way to reach the Shadow. So she looked around at the room they were in, and that was when some big chunks of ice fell from the ceiling. Rolling to avoid more sharp winds, she approached one of the chunks and used the Poltergust to throw it at the ghost. The wind was strong, but not strong enough to stop the chunk of ice from reaching Nature's Wrath, and it was hit. However, this wasn't enough, and it continued to attack her. So Apple Bloom threw more chunks of ice at it until Nature's Wrath broke a pipe and lit the gas coming out of it to create fire. It then used the fire to create itself a body armor of fire.

It then started throwing fireballs at her, and no way for her to reach it with the chunks of ice. However, the fireballs caused the ice of the room to melt, causing a part of the workshop to collapse, including barrels of coal and boxes of dynamite. She went to the coal and started to throw them at the ghost with the Poltergust, hitting it a few more times until it was finally stunned, causing its elemental armor body to disappear. She immediately went to attack it, but as she trapped it, the ghost started to defend itself with sharp winds, fireballs, spikes of ice, and spikes of rock until it was able to escape.

Nature's Wrath then surrounded itself in water that it froze, creating an ice body that looked like a big ice golem that started to throw ice shards at her. She went to the pipe with the burning gas and sucked up the fire, causing it to come out of the Poltergust by the vent as a big stream of fire. She made sure to target the ice golem with it while also avoiding the ice shards as best as possible until the golem melted enough to be destroyed.

Nature's Wrath replaced the ice by rocks coming out of the ground, turning the ice golem into a rock golem, and it started to attack her with boulders and sharp rocks. So Apple Bloom went to the box of dynamite, took one, lit it, and threw it at the golem, blowing it up partially. She continued to throw the dynamite until the golem was destroyed, and the ghost was stunned again, opening it to Apple Bloom's counterattack.

Again, the Shadow escaped and created a new armor body. However, the body was now constantly shifting between wind, fire, ice/water, and stone, doing the same with its attacks that gained in intensity. With the wind, it was now throwing tornadoes and used it to cut parts of the ceiling to make it collapse on the filly. With the fire, it was sending streams of fire and even melted the stones to create lava. With water/ice, it created big spikes of ice out of the ice floor and also sent big waves of water to drown her. With stone, it created big spikes of rock out of the stone floor and did earthquakes to make her lose balance and even cracked the ground to make her fall in the cracks.

Apple Bloom had to run constantly while watching where she was going, and all the while, she had to use what she used earlier to attack the ghost, from throwing chunks of ice to throwing dynamite, depending on the element of the body. But then, a big earthquake separated the pipe with the fire from the rest of the room, and a fireball destroyed the box of dynamite in a huge explosion, only leaving the chunks of ice and the coals. But the ghost sent the coals to drop in the cracks and destroyed any chunks of ice that appeared, leaving the filly with no weapon.

Until more of the workshop collapsed, and a sled with a cannon linked to a container full of bombs fell in the room. Apple Bloom quickly went to it, took command of the cannon, targeted the ghost, and pressed a button, firing a bomb at it. She then fired again, and again, and again, until the body was finally destroyed, leaving the ghost stunned and vulnerable. Apple Bloom trapped it, and this time captured it.

The key to the Treacherous Mansion dropped from a chunk of ice in the ceiling that immediately melted upon its defeat.

Apple Bloom took the key and shouted, "Ah did it, girls! We can now go to the last manor! Girls? Girls? Hello?"



Thanks to the ladder that was still intact, Apple Bloom was able to return in what remained of the workshop and exited the mine to return to the caravan. When she entered it, nopony was present, and it was as if a tornado had passed.

She only spotted Applejack's hat remaining on the floor and took it, looking at it blankly. Clenching her teeth in rage, she took off the headband with the camera and put her bow in its place before placing AJ's hat on her head.

"Pyrite... and whoever is working with ya... If ya touch them, Ah swear, Ah'll make ya suffer for all of eternity."
> Fifth Mansion: Treacherous Mansion
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Since she was too small to drive the caravan, Apple Bloom was forced to walk to the Treacherous Mansion passing by a path circling the mountain. It was long. It was hard. The snow was still here all the way. But she didn't give up.

And so, after a whole hour, she reached the portal leading to the mansion. The doors were big and heavy, so she had to use all her weight to push one open.

And here she could admire it. The 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 into 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, Apple Bloom could see a well as well as a doghouse and a staircase on the side of the cliff leading to a door. Debris, however, were blocking said door. Gargoyles were guarding the front door. Hopefully, they won't start moving.

Add in a small cold breeze and crows and bats flying around, and this mansion reached the top one of the 'most scary buildings ever' in the filly's opinion. Nothing she saw until now, not even the Gem Manor and the ruins of the Castle of the Two Sisters in the Everfree Forest reached it. No wonder Smart Spirit refused to enter it. No sane pony would enter this building without a very good reason.

And she had a very, very good reason to enter it.

Putting a hoof on Applejack's hat to make sure that it wouldn't be taken by the wind, Apple Bloom, after a big gulp, started slowly crossing the first narrow part of the path. However, when she reached the end of this narrow part, the following part of the path collapsed, only leaving two narrow pieces, not only forcing her to move again while keeping her balance but also forcing her to jump from the first piece to the other to reach the other end. She then crossed the last part of the path, but as she got close to the end, it started to collapse under her hooves. A quick jump saved her.

Calming down after this near death experience, she approached the entrance door and got ready to use the key from the Secret Mine to open it.

Only for something to jump through the door on her face, sending her on her back and making her drop the key. She got up on her hooves, only to see the ghost dog taking the key before running toward the area with the well.

Apple Bloom was seeing red.

"Ya stupid dog! Give me back this key! Ah ain't time to play with ya! Ah must save everypony!"

The dog just looked back at her curiously in return, making her groan in rage. To make things worse, some of the ghosts in the mansion heard her and started laughing at her through the windows, some of them even spitting their tongues.

Just wait until Ah open this door... she thought with a growl.

She went after the dog only for him to jump to the staircase beside the cliff leading to the door, probably to a basement. So she went to the door, but again, it was blocked by debris. She only could see through a hole the dog waiting for her, a helmet now on his head, in a tunnel with some armors.

"This time, ya won't escape, dog! Ah swear!"

"Bark! Bark!"

Thinking for a few seconds, she got an idea. She went to the well and looked down, seeing that its bottom missed some parts of its wall, meaning that she will probably be able to reach the underground from there. She looked up and saw the bucket. So, carefully, holding its rope, she climbed in it, then slowly let it go down into the well.

Once at the bottom, she left the well and entered a small path in the earth with some mushrooms leading to a weakened wall of stone bricks. A couple of bucks was all it took to destroy it, letting her enter the underground tunnel where the dog was waiting for her, only for him to run away through a wall of debris blocking the tunnel from whatever was behind, leaving the helmet behind.

Then, the armors in the tunnel, four in total, started moving to attack her with spears and swords. She charged and tackled the nearest one before it could start attacking and she ended in a pile of armor parts beside the Green that had been possessing it. Apple Bloom and the Green stared at each other, the filly giving the ghost a big evil grin that made him gulp. The next moment, Apple Bloom slammed the ghost on the three other armors, and the four Greens that possessed them were captured.

She then looked through a hole in the wall of debris blocking the tunnel and saw the dog in a semi-circular room looking back at her, barking happily before he traversed the ground, probably to a level below. So she looked around and saw another weakened wall on the right side of the tunnel. Apple Bloom bucked it, destroying it, and entered another path in the earth, in the cliffside, the part that was being invaded by roots under the front right corner of the manor.

There, she had to turn a wheel to rise a grate blocking a door leading back to the interior of the underground. Another armor was waiting for her in the corridor at the other side, as well as some big spiders hanging from a web in the ceiling. The armor was easily destroyed, the spiders squished, and the Green coming out of the armor captured. She then walked down the corridor toward a hole leading to the room that Apple Bloom saw through the hole in the wall of debris.

Like she saw, it was a semi-circular room with four gargoyles holding torches and a big chain linking the ground to the ceiling in an alcove at the opposite side of the wall of debris. More armors were here, but using the carpet on the floor, she destroyed all of them easily and captured the Greens. After some thinking, she then lit some matches and threw them in the torches to light them, causing the chain to suddenly rise with a part of the ground under it. Out of the ground was rising a throne with another armor sit on it that immediately started to attack her while more Greens came and took the spears left by the others to help it. Apple Bloom slammed one of those Greens to destroy the armor and captured the ghosts.

She then went to sit on the throne, activating a mechanism that lowered it back to the floor below.

Catacombs...

Okay, catacombs. After the graveyard, it wasn't so bad. The problem, however, was that a veil of purple energy was covering each paths. Apple Bloom quickly discovered that it wasn't hurtful and that she could traverse them, but she also discovered that most of them just brought her back to the part of the catacombs with the throne.

A maze... Shit...

To make it worse, ghosts, mostly Greens but also a few Reds and some possessed armors, attacked her as she searched the right path. But then, she remembered something and she lit her DLD, looking at the ground, revealing the footprints of the dog that were revealing the path.

Following the footprints, she reached a door that led... to a laboratory. The kind you find in stories with mad scientists. And two Greens with goggles were exactly doing it. One of them was beside a table with an inanimate armor on it, and the other was beside a wheel that he started to turn, causing a machine to hit the armor with electricity.

And the armor started to rise under the mad cackles of both ghosts. The ghosts then pointed at Apple Bloom and ordered the armor to attack her before they flew back to watch the show.

"Twilight would be so freaking out..."

As the armor took a sword, Apple Bloom tackled it, turning it into a pile of pieces. But no ghost came out of it, and the armor reconstituted itself to the ghosts' joy. Apple Bloom rapidly looked around to find a way to destroy it and stopped at the wheel. Getting an idea, she avoided a swing of the sword and bucked the armor, pushing it on the table. She then rapidly turned the wheel, hitting the armor with electricity. She didn't stop turning it, increasing the power of the electricity. It increased and increased, causing the armor to spasm more and more, turning hot red, until it melted to the ghosts' horror.

The ghosts were then quickly captured by the filly before she exited the laboratory, entering a second part of the catacombs. The maze continued here, as well as the attacks from the ghosts, Greens (with or without armors), Reds, as well as Pinks now. Thankfully, this maze wasn't as long as the first part. Well, following the footprints. Just by going right, and right again, she found a door that she passed, entering a room where she was on top of a staircase, with the dog waiting at the bottom.

Again, the dog ran away, forcing her to run after him while dealing with another armor as well as some Blues hiding in barrels. Following the dog in a corridor, she saw that she was in a dungeon with three cells. Following the steps, they led to the second cell, which was the only one that she couldn't enter. Thankfully, the wall between this cell and the first one was weakened, and the door of the first one was on the floor. So she entered the first cell (dealing with some more Blues hiding in barrels), bucked the wall to destroy it, and entered the second cell where she found the dog in a barrel. She didn't let him time to run away. The dog was captured in a few seconds, and he dropped the key.

Apple Bloom stared at the Poltergust, daring the dog to come out.

He didn't.

She danced in victory. Finally, that stupid dog was captured! He won't bother her ever again! Almost bouncing like Pinkie Pie, she took the key and backtracked through the catacombs until returning to the throne that she used to return to the semi-circular room. From here, she returned to the well where she climbed in the bucket before she pulled on the rope to make it rise. Once at the top, she carefully got out of the bucket, returning in front of the manor.

Having lost too much time because of the dog, Apple Bloom immediately went to the front door of the manor and opened it.

Only to enter a room with two dozens Greens all armed with swords and shields led by Diamond Cup now surrounding her. There were also two Reds menacingly hitting the palm of their hand with a bat. Some of the Greens were also wearing helmets. The doors closed behind her.

"Well... This gives a foretaste of what's waiting for me..."

With a signal from Diamond Cup, all the ghosts charged at her, weapons ready. Apple Bloom quickly put the Poltergust to red and activated it before sweeping the room with its vortex, rapidly catching all the ghosts only for more to come, mainly armed Reds, but also armed Greens and Pinks as well as two real ponies probably from the Old Clockwork judging by their uniform. She had to stop the Poltergust to avoid it from overheating, forcing her to run around avoiding the attacks from the many ghosts. Once the overheat gauge was empty again, she reactivated it and captured the remaining ghosts.

Once there weren't any ghosts remaining, she looked around to see if more were coming. Seeing nothing, she put the Poltergust back to yellow and sighed in relief. Just in this room, she captured more ghosts than in the other places, excepted the mine.

After that, she started to explore the room to see if there was anything of interest. But excepted a big staircase leading to a second level and some gargoyles, there wasn't much. All the second level had were some windows revealing to Apple Bloom that there was an inner courtyard. In this courtyard, there was a giant gargoyle holding two cages, and around it, there was a lot of ghosts commanded by Golden Hair. The ghosts used their power to make the giant gargoyle disappear.

Clever. Too bad Ah saw you. Ah'd have never guessed there's a giant gargoyle there, and it's probably important for me to continue if ya're making it disappear.

Now, with a clear objective in mind, Apple Bloom returned to the first level and looked left and right. There was a door in each sides of the room, and she wasn't sure which one to choose.

So she chose randomly and went for the door at the left of the entrance. She then had to traverse a small hallway with two armors and some other ghosts attacking her, including Purples dropping from the ceiling and a Brown blocking the door at the other end. Once all those ghosts were defeated, she passed the door that was blocked by the Brown and entered a room with a lot of suits of armor, weapons, and objects that were found in previous times of Equestria.

Apple Bloom wasn't surprised to see all the suits of armor starting to move, commanded by Jumpscare using one of them. However, they possessed various weapons, from the usual swords and spears to axes and even spiked maces. Apple Bloom had to act quickly and tackled the armor directly at the right of the entrance before she slammed the Green in it on some of the other armors to destroy more of them. She wasn't able to destroy all of them before the Green was captured, so she had to repeat the action while avoiding their weapons as they attacked her. Once all the armors were destroyed, making sure that the Greens couldn't possess them again, she captured the ghosts, some of them starting to use the weapons to continue to fight her.

With the room cleaned, she could continue her way, passing a door at the right of the entrance. She entered another hallway, this one forking a little further to the right. No armor here, but a lot of gargoyles, and she could see some ice around a door at the end. As she advanced, a food cart suddenly barreled from the right path and Apple Bloom barely jumped out of the way before the cart ended up hitting a wall. Some Greens came out of it, a little dazzed, and Apple Bloom captured them before more ghosts appeared, including an Orange using what was on the cart to attack her.

Curious, she went to the door surrounded with ice and entered a cold room covered in snow with some ice, an igloo, a mammoth that she poked to see if it moved, and some holes with fishes in the floor. Here, Zircon was waiting with three real ghost griffons and a lot of Pinks as well as some Blues throwing fishes at her from buckets of fishes. She had to use the DLD a lot, as well as lot of random ghost-slamming around. Once the room was cleaned, she spotted behind a wall of ice a key with a head shaped like a gargoyle head hooked to the wall. Having no way to melt the ice, she left the room and took the path to the right after dealing with some more ghosts.

In this path, there were two doors in the left wall, both leading to the kitchen. A lot of Greens attacked her here with rolling pins, knives, and other kitchen tools, as well as the ghost of a cook that she was surprised to find in this place. Nothing of interest was discovered in this room however, so she left and continued down the path until another door at the end leading to the courtyard.

Here, she had to fight all the ghosts she saw through the windows earlier, including Golden Hair. She had to use the Poltergust in red mode again, especially when five Browns dropped at the same time. Once the courtyard was empty of ghosts, she used the DLD to bring back the giant gargoyle and started to inspect it, focusing on the two cages that were open. Having a hunch, she took two stones around the courtyard and threw them at the cages, finding out, as she thought, that the cages could be lowered. Each cage lowered revealed a keyhole at the base of the statue, so two in total, and Apple Bloom remembered the gargoyle key back in the ice room. She will have to find a way to get it and find where the other was. From here, looking up, she saw that there were also three balconies at the left, right, and back of the courtyard. However, she had no idea yet how to reach them. Having explored the left side of the manor, she found no stairs that could potentially lead to the left balcony.

She left the courtyard by the right door, entering a hallway symmetrical to the last one with yet more ghosts. The two doors to the left led to two restrooms. In one of them, a Red was sitting on a toilet reading a newspaper, and because of this, didn't see or hear her enter. So she pulled a rope and caused water to come out of the toilet, propelling the Red in the air. She used his surprise to easily capture him. In the other restroom, however, a Green tried to pull the same prank on her, but she got him simply by pretending to exit the room, making him appear as he booed at her in disappointment. This was a mistake for him, and he ended in the Poltergust.

She had to clean the hallway again before she went to the left toward a door with sand around it. The room behind it had a path circling it, leading to a lower level with sand passing by a giant statue. At the bottom, there was a lot of coffins from which mummies burst out, commanded by Clean Order. Thankfully, there was a lamp on the sand, and Apple Bloom used it to burn all the mummies one after another before she captured the ghosts that came out of them as well as the butler and some Pinks and Reds as well as two ghost ponies from the Old Clockwork.

All the ghosts gone, she exited the room, cleaned the hallway again, and passed the door at the other end surrounded with small vines, entering a room full of plants with some tribal statues and even a small waterfall. On the floor, there were some logs, and inside a tunnel from which came the water, there was a giant carnivorous plant (exactly like in the Haunted Towers) guarding the second gargoyle key. The plant wasn't letting her approach, so she had to be careful of it while capturing the many ghosts that ambushed her in the room with tribal spears and masks, including Opal Note at their head. Once the room was clean of ghosts, she exited by the door at the left, leading to a small hallway (with more ghosts) that led back to the entrance hall.

After cleaning the entrance hall of ghosts that had returned here, she sat to think of what she had to do to get the keys. One of the keys was trapped behind a wall of ice, so she had to use fire to melt it. The lamp in the room with the mummies could work, but its fire may not be powerful enough. But she could use one of the logs in the room with the plants. As for the second key, a carnivorous plant was guarding it, and no Twilight to deal with it this time. But, back in the room with the armors, she could take a sword and use it to cut the plant!

Plan in mind, she returned to the room with the armors. Once here, she had to deal with some ghosts who took possession of the armors again before taking one of the swords. With a sword in hooves, she returned to the jungle room, still fighting many ghosts on the way, and after avoiding an attempt of the plant to eat her, used the sword to cut it, opening the way to the key.

After taking the key, she took one of the logs and went to the room with the mummies and used the lamp at the bottom to light the log. She then quickly ran all the way through the courtyard to the ice room to use the burning log to melt the ice and get the second key. Only then did she deal with the many ghosts that chased her through the hallways and across the courtyard.

Both keys in her possession, she returned to the courtyard and placed the keys in their keyholes. This caused the statue to lower into the ground, and a spiral staircase with a rotor to take its place. The staircase was leading to the back balcony. Here, there was only one door, and it was locked.

So she returned to the base of the spiral staircase and turned the rotor. As she thought, it caused the staircase to turn clockwise. And so, now she could reach the right balcony where she passed a door, entering a new hallway with its lot of ghosts for her to fight.

Once the hallway was empty, she saw that there were three doors in the wall in front of the entrance, so she went to the one most at the left, only for this door to reveal to be a trapdoor crushing her against the wall.

Groaning in pain, rubbing her muzzle, she said, "Ah forgot about those darn doors..."

She went to the next door, testing it carefully, ready to jump out of the way. Thankfully, this one was a real door, and she entered a room with a chair, a table, a lot of stacks of books, and a bookcase where all the books were of the same color and that seemed to miss one. After cleaning the room of all paranormal activity, she found by looking through the hole in the bookcase that it was a secret passage to a room about trains. She supposed that she had to find the last book to open it, so she searched it but didn't find it in this room.

So she left and went to the last door, this one also real, and entered a room engulfed in a fog that seemed to somehow come out of a porthole in the wall. She could also feel the room swaying as if it was a ship, and a Red was at a ship's wheel, turning it left and right, causing the swaying. There were also some other objects linked to ships and sailing, as well as a part of a real ship and a statue of an octopus on a barrel.

She closed the porthole to stop the fog from entering the room and get a better sight before she captured the Red at the wheel to stop the room from swaying. More ghosts came once the Red was gone, but Apple Bloom captured all of them. Seeing that there was nothing in the room, she left it, finishing her exploration of the right side of the manor.

So she returned to the courtyard and used the rotor to spin the staircase until she could reach the left balcony and enter a hallway symmetrical to the other, also with three doors. After capturing the ghosts here, she went to test the first one on her right. Contrary to the equivalent in the right hallway, this one was real and led to a room displaying stuff like models of airships and balloons. In the center, there was a huge balloon. Again, after cleaning the room of all ghosts, she found nothing and left, going to the next door.

This one led to a small room that didn't possess much, only a table with some stuff on it, a ladder, and four cardboard boxes. Then, as she approached the boxes to search them, Ruby and Sapphire suddenly came out of two of them, Ruby holding a book possessing the same color as the books of the bookcase. But before she could act, they passed the wall to the room with the airships and balloons.

She chased them there and found the twins in the basket of the big balloon at the center of the room. Many ghosts appeared to attack her while the colts started to bombard her with bombs. She began to run around in order to avoid the bombs while capturing the ghosts, often letting them drag her around to get away from the bombs. Once the last ghost was captured, she quickly picked a bomb that the twins had just thrown and threw it back at the basket where they were, destroying it and sending the colts flying because of the blast. But just as she started capturing them, Swift Wave appeared and Ruby threw the book at her before she flew away.

Once Ruby and Sapphire were captured, Apple Bloom used the DLD to follow Swift Wave's trace, returning to the hallway and seeing that she passed the wall to the courtyard. She wasn't sure where, from there, she went, so she used the DLD on all the walls, having to spin the staircase a lot, until she found out that Swift Wave passed the wall of the right balcony to the right hallway. From the hallway, Swift Wave then passed the wall to the nautical room.

Swift Wave was on the ship, but Apple Bloom first had to fight her way through more ghosts, including Octy the octopus from the Gem Manor who became Apple Bloom's manor's cook. No pot for him to hide, so he was easier to fight than in the Gem Manor, as easy as it is to avoid eight tentacles while facing other ghosts. A long fight later, Apple Bloom finally managed to capture Octy, but as she climbed the ramp to reach Swift Wave, Crystal Ball appeared and took the book before flying away.

"Stop it! Ah already'd enough of this with the dog!" yelled the filly in annoyance, only to be splashed by water spit by Swift Wave.

In return, she captured the chubby mare and exited the room to follow Crystal Ball's traces with the DLD. Crystal Ball passed by the entrance hall only to reach the left hallway of the second story, entering the last room Apple Bloom hadn't explored yet. Ironically, this room was full of displays about paranormal stuff, like photos with a ghost visible in them, an ouija board, weird items and dolls, and a giant crystal ball at the center, in the floor. Crystal Ball was floating above her namesake, the book floating beside her.

Again, there were many ghosts in the room to stop her from capturing Crystal Ball, and to make things worse, there were some Oranges that were throwing the various objects in the room at her. Crystal Ball herself was levitating and throwing those objects in a greater quantity. And every now and then, she made the crystal ball flash, blinding Apple Bloom and making her vulnerable to attacks. Just because of that, she got hit a lot in this room, even with the Poltergust in red mode.

It was with a bloody muzzle that she left the room with the book in her possession. She returned to the room with all the books and placed the book back in the bookcase. The bookcase moved to the left, letting her enter the room with the trains. Here, Emerald was waiting with a key, surrounded by many, many ghosts. The old mare immediately started firing lasers from her eyes, forcing Apple Bloom to move to avoid them. Running between the ghosts, avoiding their punches, she approached Emerald and trapped her before slamming her on the ghosts. Even with Emerald gone, it was still a long fight.

But, finally, she had the key to the last door on the back balcony of the courtyard. So she returned there and used it to open the door, entering a terrace where there was an altar.

At first, as she carefully advanced, nothing happened, but as she approached the altar, a portal suddenly opened, and out of it, as well as from all the walls of the terrace, came a huge number of ghosts. Not only ghosts from the valley, all the kinds she encountered, but also painted ghosts from Pyrite, and what remained of the Gem Family she hadn't captured yet, Golden Shoes, Silver Shoes, and Platinum Shoes. There were also normal ghosts, mainly from ponies, but also of other species like zebras, griffons, donkeys, and so on, all of them seemingly controlled. There were even Breezies!

Apple Bloom had to call back all her skills from the battle of the roof back at the Gem Manor to deal with this real army of ghosts. The Poltergust almost overheated more than once, and she also had to abuse the DLD. Later in the fight, there were even some wraiths that appeared, but thanks to the DLD, she could force them out of their shadow form to capture them.

Just as things started to calm down with the number of ghosts diminishing, a painting ghost alicorn came out of the portal and fired a huge magical beam at Apple Bloom, and the filly barely dodged it. Quickly, Apple Bloom ran to it before it could fly out of her range and trapped it, not letting it go despite all the beams it fired at her. She slammed it a lot to weaken it, but the alicorn still put up a great fight before it was captured.

From there, the battle didn't last long. Ghosts stopped coming, and about one minute later, they were all captured, and Apple Bloom sat in front of the portal to recover some energy. She was exhausted.

And she still had Pyrite and his ally to fight... If only she had one of these potions from Zecora to recover.

She remained sitting in front of the portal for a whole hour before she felt ready to continue. Her muzzle had stopped bleeding and her injuries weren't too painful anymore.

She jumped into the portal.



She appeared on a small floating island, and she looked around at the spiritual world she was in now. She was probably the first living being to enter it. The spiritual world was an infinite purple void with countless random stuff floating everywhere, mainly islands and buildings, or parts of buildings. The air was very cold and empty. Not even a breeze could be felt. It was a wonder that there was even air to breathe, and it was saturated with spiritual energy to the point that her hairs were constantly on end all over her body.

There was a path formed of smaller floating island leading to some ruins with a giant statue of Celestia standing on a wall. Jumping from island to island, she joined the ruins.

Applejack was there, half conscious.

"Applejack!" yelled Apple Bloom as she started to run.

Only to be stopped by a voice yelling "Not so fast!" just as a Shadow seemingly made of pure magic appeared between her and her sister.

Looking up, Apple Bloom spotted Pyrite floating above the mare. "YOU!!!"

Not minding her shout, Pyrite started talking as Applejack and the Shadow started floating beside him. "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."

Finishing with the evilest smirk ever, Pyrite flew away, leaving behind Dark Magic and Applejack.

Then Dark Magic entered Applejack's body, taking possession of her.

Before Apple Bloom's horrified eyes, 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 bones, 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. Finally, more crystal appeared, forming two swords that floated at both sides of Applejack.

Apple Bloom started crying. "Applejack..." She closed her eyes, clenching her teeth. "Pyriiiiite...!" she growled. She opened her eyes and glared at Applejack, or rather, at the Shadow possessing her. "Ah can still save her! It isn't over!"

She charged, and Applejack fired a beam of dark magic on her path, causing a purple crystal to sprout from the ground. Apple Bloom avoided it with a bounce at the side and circled it to continue to approach the mare. Applejack swung a sword but the filly jumped above it, then lowered her head to avoid the other before she turned around and gave Applejack a buck on the teeth.

Applejack turned into shadows and moved away. She then heavily stomped the floor, spreading a shockwave that destroyed the crystal she sprouted earlier and that forced Apple Bloom to jump. The filly then used the Poltergust to throw one of what remained of the crystal toward Applejack, hitting her on the face.

Applejack fired back many dark beams that Apple Bloom did her best to avoid, each of them causing a crystal to appear on the ground. After some time, Applejack fired beams toward the sky, and most of them rained back randomly on the arena while a few homed in on Apple Bloom until hitting an obstacle like the crystals. Apple Bloom eventually managed to approach Applejack again, and after avoiding the swords, she bucked her on the face. But this time, instead of letting her time to turn into shadows, Apple Bloom immediately activated the Poltergust and slammed the mare against the wall, breaking some of her crystal armor that quickly reformed.

Applejack got up and stomped the ground, destroying all the crystals with another shockwave. She then used magic to levitate all the remains of the crystal and threw them at the filly who ran back and forth to avoid them, eventually catching one of them with the Poltergust and throwing it back at the mare. Apple Bloom then ran to Applejack as she was stunned and trapped her in the Poltergust's vortex before slamming her around, breaking her crystal armor more and more, resulting in the mare getting more and more injured until she turned into shadows and flew away.

Applejack sent her swords to attack continuously the filly but Apple Bloom caught them with the Poltergust and slammed them against the ground, breaking them. She then threw the shards at Applejack before she charged at her and bucked her face again, knocking her out.

Dark Magic came out of her and Apple Bloom immediately trapped it to capture it. Dark Magic tried to use magic, mainly magical beams homing in Apple Bloom or sprouting crystals on the way to free itself. Eventually, it was able to escape, and it returned inside Applejack's body. Her body then grew until she was as tall as Celestia, and her mane and tail began to float to a non-existent wind. However, her eyes became slited, and her teeth became sharp, so she looked more like Nightmare Moon than Celestia.

Clouds appeared above them, and lightning bolts began to randomly strike the arena while Applejack created shadow versions of her normal self to attack Apple Bloom. The filly could do nothing to them, so she could only avoid their attacks while approaching Applejack to attack her. Applejack was however too tall for Apple Bloom to reach her face and buck it, so she instead bucked the left foreleg, bending it and forcing Applejack to kneel. Only then did she buck her face before she used her Poltergust to slam her head first on the ground. But this time, Applejack punched her back despite the hard blow, the force of her punch sending the filly flying a few feet.

Apple Bloom spat some blood and jumped away to avoid a dark beam and the crystal it sprouted. Applejack then sent magic toward the clouds and Apple Bloom began to run while jumping left and right to avoid the lightning that started to target her. Thinking quickly, Apple Bloom ran toward Applejack and passed under her, between her legs. Applejack was hit by the lightning as a result.

Thanks to it, the lightning stopped raining on Apple Bloom and she took the occasion that Applejack was paralyzed by the electricity to return to her. She bucked her back legs, making them bend. She then climbed on her back and jumped to her neck, clinging to it while she started to punch her face again and again and again. Applejack struggled to get herself rid of the filly, but Apple Bloom had a strong grip.

Applejack eventually calmed down and grabbed Apple Bloom with her magic to throw her away only for Apple Bloom to take the Poltergust off of her back and to bonk Applejack on the head with it, freeing herself from the magic before she could be thrown. Apple Bloom then climbed to the top of Applejack's head and smashed the horn with the Poltergust, making the mare yell in pain. After some more smashing, Apple Bloom eventually broke the horn.

Applejack finally turned into shadows under her and moved away, causing the filly to drop on the ground. Already, Applejack's horn was starting to regrow, so Apple Bloom acted quickly and ran to Applejack. The mare attacked her with crystal claws and hit her once, leaving some very painful and bloody claw marks on her side, but Apple Bloom continued despite this and headbutted Applejack's belly, taking out her breath. She then trapped her with the Poltergust and slammed her around.

Dark Magic eventually came out of her and Apple Bloom trapped it only for it to escape again and to return inside the mare. The transformation that resulted was the worst. Applejack's size tripled, but her body became deformed. Her right front hoof became a claw while her left front leg and left back leg became very muscular. The right eye became bigger than the other and bloodshot, and her teeth became like the ones of a monster, poking out of her mouth and even piercing it, causing blood to drop from her mouth along with drool. Some of her ribs teared her skin, poking out of her, and some of her mane and tail fell while the rest became disheveled. Finally, her horn came back but looked more like a scythe now while her wings became giant bat wings with sharp claws at the end, and purple crystals came out of her body here and there.

Now, Applejack was roaring like a real monster, and she slammed her hoof on the ground, causing dozens of crystals to appear all over the arena. Apple Bloom jumped to a place where no crystals were coming out of the ground only to see Applejack now charging at her, teeth ready to tear her to shreds. With a roll, she barely avoided the mouth, and the mare instead rammed the wall, destroying it. Applejack shook her head to recover from it, then turned to Apple Bloom, growling.

Only to be impaled by the horn of the statue of Celestia falling on her. Purple crystals immediately started to spread all over her body from the wound until it was entirely trapped in it.

And it broke into pieces.

"NOOOOOOO!!!" yelled Apple Bloom.

Dark Magic came out of the remains, and Apple Bloom yelled as she charged at it. She trapped it and slammed it. And slammed it again. The Shadow was slammed, and slammed, and slammed, five times, ten times, twenty times, fifty times... until it finally disappeared inside the Poltergust.

Taking huge breaths to recover from her rage induced actions, Apple Bloom looked around her at the crystal remains of Applejack, crying, and began to try to assemble them to reform the mare, repeating to herself, "Ah can still save her...!"

Until she was hugged from behind. All she could see were orange, cold, transparent hooves. "Stop it, Bloom... It's over..."

Apple Bloom stopped moving and slowly turned her head to look behind her.

There she was, now a ghost, Applejack, looking at her sadly. "Ah'm sorry... Ya did yer best... Ah'm proud of ya, sugarcube."

But then, before more could be said, purple energy hit Applejack, and she put her hooves on her head, teeth clenched.

Apple Bloom gasped. "Resist, AJ! Resist!"

Applejack groaned. "Ah... can't..." Then, she dropped, and her expression became blank as she started to wordlessly float away into the purple void.

Just as Apple Bloom started running after her, the arena suddenly tilted, and she fell onto a smaller island that began to float toward a huge island with a single tower at the center.

She could spot Pyrite on top of the tower.
> Final
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Applejack was dead...

And now, she was a ghost controlled by Pyrite's mysterious ally.

Like Smart Spirit.

Like the Gem Family.

And maybe even like the others...

Who was dead? Who was still alive? What about Little Ghost? She was the only member of the Gem Family she hadn't fought for now. Were they keeping her as a trump card?

She didn't know.

Apple Bloom only knew one thing as her small island was approaching the giant one with the tower at the center: Pyrite was the responsible for all this.

He was the one who freed Bogmire to assassinate his entire family and get their fortune.

He was the one who escaped the first time.

He was the one who went to seek help from this mysterious ally of his.

So he was indirectly the one who caused the death of Smart Spirit and Applejack.

This had to stop.

Apple Bloom still wasn't over her sister's death, but when her destination was finally reached, she put it in the back of her mind and jumped from her island to the other, entering Pyrite's chosen arena for their battle. The stallion was waiting for her at the top of the tower, so the filly already began to walk toward it, full of rage and hate toward him.

Really, if he wasn't already dead, she would kill him.

And maybe make him suffer a little before that.

But knowing that he would soon rot in Tartarus for all eternity was enough.

But then, dozens of canvas appeared around the arena, and floating paintbrushes started to paint on them. Rapidly, the arena began to be filled with painted ghosts. Hundreds of them of all kinds she fought back in the Gem Manor, from the earth ponies ones to the most powerfuls ones like the hydra and even dragons, without forgetting alicorns, chimeras, bugbears, rocs, and sea serpents between others.

There was no way for her to fight all of them at the same time.

So she ran to the tower, knowing that the only way for her to win was by capturing Pyrite. As the first ghosts reached her and began to attack her, the filly using the Poltergust in red mode to suck up the weakest while running, she entered the tower and began to climb the spiral staircase leading to the roof.

But the ghosts quickly circled the tower and started to enter it or to attack her through the walls, not even needing to break them or to go through the windows. They just needed to pass through the walls, entirely or partially (like just a claw), and it was done. Before long, the filly had to defend herself against dozens of ghosts while climbing the stairs.

Regularly, she had to stop to deal with a big wave of ghosts blocking the way, or to avoid projectiles, the swing of a giant claw, the fire breath of a dragon, or even a hydra head trying to gobble her.

She wasn't sure what would happen to her if she was gobbled by a ghost, but she didn't want to find out.

Against those bigger ghosts, she didn't specifically attempt to capture them, she just trapped their head or claw in the Poltergust's vortex and pulled in a direction to slam it against something else, be it another ghost or the wall. All the while, she had to make sure to not be dragged beyond the edge of the stairs, which didn't even possess a railing to stop her, without forgetting to be careful to not overheat her Poltergust.

She didn't count, but just by climbing this tower, she probably captured as many ghosts as back on the terrace.

But eventually, she managed to reach the top and got on the roof where Pyrite was waiting for her above a bell, revealing this tower to be one of those watch towers with a bell at the top to warn from invasions. Already, the roof was being surrounded by ghosts. Dozens of dragons, hydras, sea serpents, and others' head with poking above the edges. Pegasi, alicorns, rocs, and others were flying in the sky above. But they stopped attacking her.

Instead, Pyrite chuckled. "Finally, you are there... Now that Thanatos had his fun, I can have my revenge. Oh, but I must admit, seeing your expression when you discovered that the old fool was dead and when your sister died was worth the wait. But now, I will kill you, and take back what is mine."

"Ya'll only've one thing, Pyrite: an eternity in Tartarus with this Thanatos," Apple Bloom growled.

Pyrite laughed. "Thanatos? Imprisoned in Tartarus?" He smirked at Apple Bloom. "Thanatos is one of the few beings in existence that Tartarus can't keep imprisoned. His power is beyond anything you can think of. If you face him... he could kill you on the spot if he wanted. You are just a larva compared to him. Not like this will happen since you will die now."

At this, Pyrite levitated a big hammer from behind the bell and gave a big swing, hitting the bell with it.

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG!!!

The sound was so strong that Apple Bloom was forced to put her hooves on her ears while yelling in pain. "AAAAAAAAHH!!! MAH EARS!"

She was then clawed from the side by a dragon, and she was sent on the floor, bleeding, only to be hit by a magical beam from an alicorn, sending her flying a few feet further.

Meanwhile, because of Pyrite, the bell started swinging back and forth, causing a clapper inside to continuously strike it again and again, making it toll. Because of this, Apple Bloom's ears were continuously assaulted, but painfully, she resisted the urge to cover them and rolled out of the way of a punch before she activated the Poltergust to capture most of the ghosts surrounding her, including a swarm of parasprites that was charging at her.

Pyrite struck the bell again, restarting it while countless more painted ghosts came to replace the ones that were captured. After capturing some more ghosts to get herself some space, Apple Bloom then captured a head of a hydra approaching her from behind and made it hit a roc. The hydra was one that she seemingly weakened while climbing the tower, because it was then sucked up inside the Poltergust.

She then started to approach Pyrite, having to roll, jump, and fight her way through dozens of ghosts. She slipped on a banana peel from a fat ghost, and almost got roasted by a dragon as a result. She was only saved by her letting herself being dragged away by a Cerberus, the three headed dog ghost making her approach the bell even more. She then let the dog get away and finally trapped Pyrite. However, just a few seconds later, she was forced to let him go to avoid a buffalo stampede.

Pyrite then used telekinesis to throw her back near the edge of the tower, where she was almost crushed under the claw of a sea serpent. She rolled from under it, only to be burned by a phoenix before being punched by a minotaur. Spitting a tooth, Apple Bloom rolled to avoid the snake tail of a chimera, trapped said chimera, and spun to make it slam against many other ghosts circling her, giving her some space. She then slammed it on the head of a roc charging at her.

Letting the Poltergust cooldown, she began to run back toward Pyrite, only to be blocked by a dragon slamming its claw on the way before breathing fire at her. She rolled to avoid the fire, then rolled to avoid a hydra's head, then trapped the dragon's head and slammed it against the hydra's head before making it slam on a Cerberus. A bugbear then approached, sting ready, and she was forced to release the dragon to avoid it, only to be hit by a pegasus.

She bounced back on her hooves and continued her way toward Pyrite as the ghost struck the bell more and more, to the point that Apple Bloom's ears were constantly hurting. But then, a centaur started draining her magic, and she had to deal with it, trapping it and slamming it around on a bugbear and a cockatrice before capturing all of them. She then puffed air on the potion of a zebra, sending it back toward the ghost as well as a deer, turning the both of them into frogs, before she captured a phoenix, giving her the occasion to approach the bell again.

For the second time, Pyrite was trapped in the vortex only for Apple Bloom to be forced to release him to avoid being roasted by two dragons. However, when he was released, Pyrite didn't return to the bell. Instead, he floated in the air above it, out of her reach.

That coward!

At least, she could see that he was getting weaker and weaker. Painting all those powerful ghosts was taking its toll on him, and Apple Bloom didn't help. Fewer ghosts were coming, and he was more transparent. And now that he stopped striking the bell, it eventually stopped tolling, stopping the assault on her ears.

But now, she was probably half-deaf...

Not thinking about it, Apple Bloom continued to fight the many ghosts, finally capturing one of the dragons, while thinking of a way to reach Pyrite. As she rolled out of the way of the claws of a roc, she then got an idea. She waited for a roc to attack her, then put the Poltergust to green and caught the roc in its vortex. Letting the roc dragging her, the giant bird eventually flew to the air with her behind.

Pyrite understood what she was doing as the roc passed above him. "No! You stupid bird!" He began to fly away, only for Apple Bloom to drop (avoiding by the way the fire breaths and magical beams of many ghosts) toward him. Putting the Poltergust back to red, she was able to catch Pyrite, and she pulled down, slamming him on the bell.

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG!!!

For Apple Bloom, it was as if the death bell was sounding for Pyrite. She knew it. He was done.

She slammed him on a Cerberus charging at her.

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG!!!

She slammed him on a hydra head.

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG!!!

She slammed him against a group of yaks.

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG!!!

She spun, making him slam against all the ghosts surrounding her.

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG!!!

Finally, she slammed him on the floor where Pyrite clung to a stone brick protruding from the rest.

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG!!!

He could feel his strength leaving him, so he yelled in panic. "NO! NO! Lord Thanatos! Help! Lord Thanatos!"

Then, a voice answered in his head. Sorry, Pyrite, but you lost the game. Ciao!

As Pyrite's eyes widened in horror, he could hear Thanatos laughing. It was under his laugh that Pyrite's grip on the stone grip finally failed.

"LORD THANATOOOOOOOOOOO-" Pouf!

Everything stopped. Just as dozens of ghosts were charging at Apple Bloom from all sides to save their master, Pyrite was finally captured, and the ghosts disappeared like mirages. The bell stopped tolling.

It was over.

Apple Bloom sat down, badly hurt, but smiling. "Ah finally... got ya..." She then looked around. "But... where's Thanatos? Where's everypony?"

As if to answer her question, a small island came floating beside the edge of the roof of the tower. Understanding what she had to do, Apple Bloom slowly advanced toward it and jumped on it. The little island then began to float away to an unknown direction.

Until a few seconds later, the purple void of the spiritual world disappeared to leave her in pure darkness. Nothing to see, nothing to hear... Alone...

Just as it started to be unbearable for the filly...

Dong!

"Uh?"

Dong!

Dong!

Dong!

A bell could be heard in the darkness.

A bell that gave Apple Bloom a very bad feeling, chilling her to the bone.

A second bell then started tolling at the same rhythm as the first one, followed by more bells, until a dozen bells were tolling at the same time all around her in the darkness.

Then, at both sides of her little island, purple fires appeared, forming a path that the island was following.

And then Granny Smith, Big Macintosh, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Twilight, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Spike appeared around the island, trapped in round cages that began to fly in a circle.

"Everypony!"

"Apple Bloom!" yelled Sweetie Belle.

"Help!" yelled Spike.

Apple Bloom looked around her at the cages, wondering what to do. Then, an organ began playing, and she turned around, seeing a huge castle rise from the depths of the darkness. As the skull of a dragon started to open its mouth, the cages flew toward it, passing a huge double door that opened inside the skull.

Apple Bloom entered the castle almost just after them, her island stopping in front of the double door. Now in some entrance hall, Apple Bloom followed the screams of the ponies and climbed a big staircase leading to the second level of the hall. There, she passed another double door and entered a hallway with another double door in front of her. However, the screams weren't coming from it, and she followed them in the hallway, passing some doors before climbing another staircase leading to another hallway.

She followed it until reaching a huge double door with four keyholes in the mouth of a pony skull painted on it. She didn't need any key, thankfully, because the double door opened as she approached it, letting her enter a room plunged in darkness. The organ was particularly loud there. The only thing she could see in the darkness were the cages with the ponies in them, as well as Little Ghost chained to something she couldn't see.

Then, torches on the wall suddenly lit with purple fires, lighting the room a little, but not much, the filly still barely able to see anything as she slowly advanced.

"Well, hello there," she suddenly heard from the darkness between the cages.

"Thanatos?" asked Apple Bloom.

"Yes, I am Thanatos," answered the voice as two small purple fires appeared in the darkness, forming eyes. "Good job in defeating Pyrite and winning my little game. I hope you liked it. It was quite fun to watch."

"It's as fun as a burial," the filly said.

"Really? Thank you."

"It wasn't a compliment."

"It sounded like one to me."

"Applejack and Smart Spirit're dead!" Apple Bloom yelled in rage, making the ponies gasp.

"I know," said Thanatos as the ghosts of Applejack and Smart Spirit entered the room, floating beside the fiery eyes. "Aren't they lovely like this?"

This only made Apple Bloom growl and say, "Ya sick... Ya'll join Pyrite!" which made Thanatos laugh.

"So cute. But, let me ask you. Do you know who I am?"

Apple Bloom looked in confusion. "Thanatos."

"Yes... But who is Thanatos?"

"Uh... A powerful ghost?"

Thanatos laughed. "Yes, but not just!" A skeletal claw came out of the darkness and started doing circles. The next instant, Smart spirit, Applejack, and dozens of other ghosts started flying in a circle near the ceiling. "I control the dead." The ghosts then came to the floor and bowed. "I am their Lord." He grabbed Little Ghost, showing her to Apple Bloom. "My power is beyond anything they possess, even her." Then, the cages with the ponies started rapidly circling him, making them scream.

"Stop it!" yelled Apple Bloom.

"The livings are mere playthings to me. Just one little touch with the tip of one of my fingers..." He booped Sweetie Belle, and the filly fell dead, leaving only her ghost to float in the air, confused.

"SWEETIE BEEEELLE!!!" Rarity, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo screeched.

"And they break," Thanatos continued as he sent some purple energy at the new ghost, getting Sweetie Belle under his control. "Becoming a new servant to me," he finished.

Apple Bloom roared and charged at Thanatos, only to be stopped by all the ghosts, including Applejack, Smart Spirit, and Sweetie Belle.

"Death is my domain, because I. AM. DEATH! Or, to be more exact..." The darkness surrounding him disappeared, fully revealing the skeletal being on a skeletal throne. Everypony gasped. "I AM THANATOS, THE SPIRIT OF DEATH! AAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAH!!!" the skeletal draconequus yelled before roaring in laughter, arms spread as he revealed his glory.

Apple Bloom looked at Thanatos in horror, gulped, and glared at him. "This changes nothing! Ah'm still gonna capture ya and save everypony!"

"Oh?" Thanatos asked smugly before he jumped from his throne and landed among the ghost, scratching Sweetie Belle's chin. "Then, please, entertain me."

The surrounding ghosts began to attack Apple Bloom. Those were mainly ponies of the three main tribes, earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns, but there were also a couple of griffons and zebras in the lot.

As Apple Bloom began to defend herself against the ghosts, rapidly capturing two of them, she was suddenly hit by a wave of energy sent to her by Thanatos, throwing her back toward the now closed entrance of the throne room. Her back hurt terribly, especially with the injury she got there when she was clawed earlier, but Apple Bloom resisted the pain and rapidly got up, catching Applejack before she could punch her.

She used her to push back the ghosts charging at her before she was captured, and Apple Bloom jumped to her right to avoid another wave of energy sent by Thanatos. She then ran between the ghosts, jumping left and right to avoid magical beams from the unicorns, and approached Thanatos, only for him to materialize bones and to throw them at her with a force that would make them impale her. She went to hide behind one of the pillars in the room, using it as a cover while she captured more ghosts, including one of the griffons.

She then saw something coming and quickly lowered her head, barely avoiding Thanatos' finger, and trapped him in the vortex of the Poltergust. However, after just two seconds, Thanatos escaped it very easily with an explosion of energy that sent the filly rolling backward. Before she could recover, she was hit again by another wave of energy that sent her flying to a wall further in the room.

"It's so bad... You are clearly weakened after all you went through. You are suffering. You are tired. You are losing blood. You are slowing down... And you know what this means?" asked Thanatos with a smirk. "You. Will. Fail." His smirk became wider. "Everypony will die," he singsonged.

You will fail.
Everypony will die.
You will fail.
Everypony will die.
Fail.
Die.
Fail.
Die.
FailDieFailDieFailDieFailDieFailDieNOFailDieFailDieFailDieFailDieFailDieFailNODieFailDieFailDieFailDieNO!

"AH WON'T LET IT HAPPEN!!!" Apple Bloom roared as she trapped Thanatos just before he could boop her. This time, before he could free himself, she slammed him around so rapidly that it was a miracle that she wasn't losing consciousness from all the blood she was losing.

Thanatos still managed to free himself with an explosion of energy, but Apple Bloom rolled on her hooves, jumped at Thanatos, and blew air right on his face, sending him flying. As she landed, she then targeted the nearest ghost and trapped him, before she slammed him on a pegasus charging at her from behind. She then lowered her head to avoid a punch, trapped the ghost responsible, and swung her to get hit by a wave of magical beams fired by unicorns, including Smart Spirit before she slammed her on the last griffon.

She then sidestepped to avoid a magical beam and went to attack and capture the unicorns. As she captured them, Apple Bloom jumped to avoid a wave of energy from Thanatos, spun, and threw the ghost currently trapped in her vortex toward him. Smart Spirit and Sweetie Belle were then captured, along with the majority of the ghosts, leaving only two unicorns, a pegasus, and a zebra.

She trapped the pegasus and slammed him on Thanatos as he was about to touch her from behind, then used him as a shield against the unicorns before he was captured. She then went after the unicorns and trapped the both of them at the same time before she slammed them on the zebra. She then let them drag her to avoid some bones thrown at her by Thanatos.

As the unicorns were captured, she saw something wrong with the floor under her, and she jumped away just in time to avoid bones coming out of it. With more jumps and rolls, she avoided more bones as well as another wave of energy before she trapped the zebra and threw her at Thanatos. This time, Thanatos avoided the ghost, but Apple Bloom ran to him and trapped him before slamming him around again until he freed himself.

He teleported away, and she finished the Zebra before she went after him again. Thanatos then materialized purple fires and sent them at the filly by dozens, but she ran between the flames and jumped to avoid more bones coming out of the floor. But Thanatos then teleported to touch her with his finger, and she rapidly put the handle of the Poltergust on the way to stop him. So Thanatos grabbed the handle and used it to slam Apple Bloom a couple of times before she manages to swing the handle and to slam him in return. She then trapped him, slammed him again...

And captured him.

Before she could yell her victory, however, Thanatos burst out of the Poltergust, laughing, before he slammed her with a strong wave of energy that sent her flying toward the throne, making it explode into countless bones flying in all directions. The filly groaned in great pain under the shouts of the ponies in the cages.

"Oh boy! I didn't have that much fun since forever!" Thanatos shouted as he continued laughing. "Very well, you win this one!"

Apple Bloom got up with difficulty, groaning again, and looked at Thanatos. "What?"

"I'm giving you this one. You can't defeat me, but you put up a good enough fight for me to consider letting you and your friends and family go, and this includes the ghosts. I still want to play with you, but I will wait a few months before we restart our little dance with a new game." He smiled widely. "I can't wait to have more fun with you! You made my life so much better! Before you, I was so bored I really wished I could die! So, until next time! Rest well!"

He then snapped his fingers, destroying the cages imprisoning the ponies. With another snap, he opened a portal that sucked everypony before closing.

Eternal Rest then appeared beside Thanatos, smiling at seeing him happy. "Do you have an idea of what you will do next time, my Lord?" she asked.

"Not at all, but I have a few months to think. I'm not in a hurry."

"My Lord, if you wish, I would gladly participate in your next game."

"Ooh! Then I think I know what we will do!"
> Epilogue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The ponies and Spike came out of the portal and fell in a pile, excepted Little Ghost, who remained floating in the air above them, regaining control. With some groans, they got up, with great difficulty in Apple Bloom's case, the filly taking heavy breaths, and they looked around.

"Where are we?" Twilight asked.

Apple Bloom quickly recognized the place. "We... We're on... the terrace... of the Treacherous Mansion..." She then lost strength and began to fall, only to be stopped by Twilight who placed her on her back with her magic. Big Macintosh rapidly went to her to look at her injuries.

"She needs to go to a hospital, quick," he said.

"The nearest hospital is dozens of miles away," said Twilight with a frown.

"There are bandages... and other medical stuff... in Smart Spirit's caravan..." said Apple Bloom. "M-maybe... there are ghosts... who can help... who are good doctors..."

"That's hoping Thanatos released all of them from his control," Twilight said.

"However... the caravan... is back at... the Secret Mine..."

That was when they started to hear somepony crying, and they saw Rarity holding Sweetie Belle's corpse, Pinkie Pie and Scootaloo looking at it on the verge of crying too. Pinkie's mane was now all flat. Then, Granny Smith began to cry too, taking Applejack's hat that had fallen beside Apple Bloom. The mood spread to everyone else.

"We will hurry to the caravan, to heal Apple Bloom, and also to free Applejack and Sweetie Belle trapped in the Poltergust," said Twilight, using a wing to get rid of some tears.

Rainbow roared and punched the altar, only succeeding in hurting her hoof. "And then we will find a way to make this Thanatos pay for what he did!"

"And stop him from continuing..." Fluttershy said with a gulp. "He said that he would 'play' with Apple Bloom again."

"But how do we defend ourselves against the Spirit of Death?" Spike asked.

"We could ask Discord," Fluttershy proposed. "Maybe he knows something because... you know... they are both Spirits."

"At worst, we may have to retrieve the Elements from the Tree," Twilight said. "But I don't like it. This may cause the vines to spread again."

"But... without Applejack..." Pinkie said.

"She's still there... as a ghost... Maybe it will still work," Twilight said, unsure.

"Can we please go?" Big Mac said impatiently as he nuzzled Apple Bloom.

Rainbow Dash approached. "Give me the Poltergust. I will defend everypony on the way, just in case there are still bad ghosts."

Apple Bloom nodded and slowly took off the Poltergust from her back, giving it to the mare. Then she finally lost consciousness. Once the Poltergust was on Rainbow's back, she nodded to Twilight, and they started to advance, followed by the rest, Rarity placing Sweetie Belle's body on her back.

It turned out that Rainbow Dash didn't have to worry. The ghosts they encountered on the way to the entrance of the mansion were back to themselves, and actually looked at Apple Bloom with worry, clearly wanting to help. Many of them followed the group. It was awkward for the ponies, but they quickly got used to them, and were even thankful of their presence. The ghosts even comforted them, easing their pain while they guided them to the entrance.

However, at the entrance, they discovered the broken path. Rainbow Dash looked down at the bottomless pit under the manor. "Yike! Apple Bloom had guts traversing this path above this pit!" She then looked at the manor and couldn't stop a gulp at its creepiness.

"How do we traverse?" wondered Rarity. She was answered by a Red taking her in his arms while a Green carefully took Sweetie Belle's body. "Oh my! Thank you, you gentleghost!" The Red rubbed his head, blushing. Other ghosts did the same with the ponies who couldn't fly and Spike, and they flew to the mountain of the Secret Mine, leaving behind the Treacherous Mansion. Thanks to this, it only took them a few minutes to reach the caravan not far from the chalet, and they entered it.

With the help of some of the ghosts, they immediately went to work to heal Apple Bloom while Twilight took the crystal of the Poltergust and went to the machine to transfer the ghosts, or free them. She turned it on, and placed the crystal on its socle, and with the press of a button, a screen above the crystal lit up, showing all the ghosts trapped in it.

"Oh, my Celestia! That's a lot of ghosts!" She shouted in amazement.

"I see Sweetie Belle!" shouted Rarity as she placed a hoof on Sweetie's image.

"And Applejack and Smart Spirit," Rainbow Dash said.

"Pyrite is here too!" Little Ghost shouted. “She captured him! And my family... again...”

"And the ghost dog too, and one of those weird dark ghosts again," said Twilight. "And a few normal ghosts. I recognize some of them from Thanatos' castle. I will use the yellow crystal for those. We don't know if they were controlled too or if they were really working for him."

"And don't forget the red crystal for Pyrite and the dark ghost," Rainbow said.

"Of course."

She started with the red crystal, transferring Pyrite and Dark Magic into it.

Holding the red crystal, Twilight said, "Next stop for you: Tartarus. You deserve it."

She then transferred the ghosts captured in Thanatos' castle to the yellow crystal. Done with this, she took the green crystal and placed it on the second socle, making the screen display the ghosts in both crystals. A looooot of ghosts.

"She must have captured the majority of the ghosts of the valley!" Twilight said, amazed.

"Remember, one of those ghosts was captured by me," Rainbow proudly said.

"And now, time to release them," Twilight said before she pressed a button, getting the machine to release all the ghosts in both crystals.

The ghosts were released outside of the caravan, and everyone excepted Fluttershy and Granny Smith (remaining at Apple Bloom's side) exited the caravan to see them in the cold of the mountain.

Maybe they should have waited to return to the Gloomy Manor before releasing them...

Before long, the caravan was surrounded by hundreds of ghosts, mainly the ones from the valley, but also the Gem Family, the ponies from the Old Clockwork, the griffons of the Secret Mine, some other ghosts encountered (like the cook in the Treacherous Mansion), as well as Smart Spirit, Sweetie Belle, and Applejack.

As the ghosts recovered their senses, Rarity immediately went to hug Sweetie Belle, only to pass through her and to fall on the snow, which amused many of the ghosts around, only to be calmed by others who understood it wasn't a situation to laugh at. Sweetie Belle then went to hug her sister, not passing through her, joined by Scootaloo. Little Ghost, her, went to hug her parents while the remaining ponies went to Applejack.

"Applejack, are you alright?" Twilight asked.

"Ah feel like Ah just woke up after one of Pinkie's crazier parties. Outside of this and the fact Ah'm... dead... Ah feel alright," answered Applejack while rubbing her head. She then looked at the mare, then around, and asked worriedly, "Where's Apple Bloom?"

"In the caravan," answered Big Mac before he approached, unsure. Applejack understood what he wanted to do and hugged him. They were joined by Twilight, Pinkie, and Rainbow.



Apple Bloom woke up on a bed in the caravan, and she was quickly surrounded by her friends and her family, dead and alive, all looking at her with worry.

Applejack was the first to speak. "Apple Bloom?"

Apple Bloom rubbed her eyes and looked at her body, seeing that it was now wrapped with many bandages. She was still feeling some pain, but much less than back at the Treacherous Mansion after returning from the spiritual world. She then looked around her at the ponies, and her eyes stopped at Applejack, tears starting to appear. Applejack immediately hugged her, and she returned the hug, crying.

"Ah'm so sorry Applejack! Ah couldn't save ya!"

"Hey now, ya saved me... partially. Don't be hard on yerself, ya could've done nothing to stop what happened. At least Ah'm still there, and not under the control of that monster."

"Listen to yer sister, youngin’," said Granny Smith. "Even if some of us died, ya still saved everypony, including all the nice ghosts in that there valley! Ah saw ya fight, and ya're like a tiger! Ya pushed yerself beyond yer limits against that pile of bones! Be proud of what ya did!" She then sighed as she looked at Applejack. "Ah regret that Applejack died, Ah didn't want to outlive mah grandchildren, not after already outliving mah son," She looked back at Apple bloom, smiling. "But it's not yer fault. It's that Thanatos fella's fault."

"And Pyrite," Applejack continued.

"Eeyup," said Big Mac.

Apple Bloom didn't reply and just looked back and forth between Applejack, Sweetie Belle, and Smart Spirit. "Hum... Are ya... alright?"

"As alright as we can be when we're dead," Applejack answered.

"This will certainly take some time to get used to," Smart Spirit said as he looked at his transparent hooves. "But I don't mind being a ghost. I was already old. It was only a matter of years before I would kick the bucket. I was already prepared for this."

Sweetie Belle remained silent for a few seconds, looking down. "I... don't know..."

Little Ghost hugged her. "Hey, it's not so bad being a ghost!"

"Uuh... Yeah... But... There are a lot of things that I will miss and... I would have liked to live a little longer?" She said with an unsure smile. "So I wouldn't be stuck as a filly forever?"

"What's so bad about being a filly forever?" Little Ghost asked, pouting.

"Uuh..." Sweetie Belle opened her mouth to answer, but closed it. After some more thinking she opened it again, closed it again, only to speak finally "I find nothing."

"Exactly," Little Ghost said with a giggle. "There's even a good thing with remaining a filly." At this, she flew in front of Smart Spirit, spread her front hooves to him, and gave him her best puppy dog eyes. "Cuddle? Please?"

"Ugh... How could I say no to this?" said the old stallion before he hugged the filly ghost. "If I was still alive, I would have died of a heart attack..."

Little Ghost giggled and looked back at Sweetie Belle. "By remaining fillies, we remain adorable, and grown-ups can't resist us."

"That's evil, you know?" Smart Spirit said.

"Don't care. I can have all the hugs I want, and nopony can say no."

Sweetie Belle giggled at this before she sighed. "Still... I wonder now what will happen to me..."

"Whatever will happen, we will remain at your side, through life and death," said Scootaloo. "Right, Apple Bloom?"

"Of course," Apple Bloom confirmed with a nod. "And ya don't have to worry about the rest. Ponyville has now gotten used to ghosts, so ya'll still be able to go to school with us and to go around town. For being a singer, well, ya saw how many ghosts there're. They'll love to have ya singing for them. And Ah'm sure yer family won't mind having ya haunting their home."

"Of course not!" shouted Rarity from the back. "Sweetie Belle can haunt my house as long as she wants! And our parents will say the same thing!"

"And mah manor's always ready to welcome a new ghost to haunt it," Apple Bloom said before she sighed. "Like ya said, ya'll still miss a lot of stuff, like... ice creams."

"NOOOO!!! I can't live without ice cream!" Sweetie Belle shouted.

"Uh... you're already not alive anymore," Scootaloo said.

"Oh, yeah... I can't... Uh... not live? Erh... Unlive? Yes. I can't unlive without ice cream!"

"Ya can always try to eat stuff, but it'll just pass through ya," said Apple Bloom. "Wait... Back in the Gem Manor, Pearl and the dog could eat food... Maybe it's because of the curse?"

Speaking of dog, she then spotted the ghost dog approaching her, Fluttershy behind it. The dog was looking really sad. "I'm glad to see you recovered, Apple Bloom," the mare said before she rubbed the dog. "This is Polterpup, and he's very sorry for everything he did to you. All the ghosts are, but him especially. In reality, he's a good boy."

"Aww Ah can't stay mad at him. Come here, ya," Apple Bloom said as she patted the bed, inviting the dog to jump on it. With a happy bark, the dog jumped on the bed and started licking her. Giggling, Apple Bloom started to rub his belly in return.

"He likes you," Fluttershy said. "He wants to remain with you."

"Ah can see that," replied the filly. "So, ya want to come to mah manor?" she asked the dog.

"Bark! Bark!"

"Alright, but Ah'm warning ya, we already've a dog. Ah hope ya'll get along well."

"Bark!" Polterpup was visibly very excited to encounter another dog.

Apple Bloom giggled again, then looked back at Sweetie Belle. "Ah just remembered. We're going to see Discord. Maybe he'd bring ya back to life." She turned to Applejack. "And ya too."

"Oh please! Please! Please! I hope!" Sweetie Belle shouted.

"Ah hope too," said Applejack with a chuckle as she showed the ghost tail that replaced her bottom body. "Ah don't think Ah'll be able to buck trees with this."

"It shouldn't be long before we reach the Crystal Empire," then said Twilight from the back. "We will pass some days here to recover from this adventure. Then, we will take the train to Canterlot. Big Mac and Granny will then take the one to Ponyville with Scootaloo while we go to the castle to talk with Celestia about Thanatos and what we will do against him. Of course, Discord will come, I hope."

"Why can't Scootaloo come?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Because school, duh," Scootaloo replied with a roll of her eyes. "Stupid school."

"Wait, who's driving?" Apple Bloom asked.

"A ghosty," Pinkie answered, back to normal, almost.

"What?"

"I'll show you," Little Ghost said before she used telekinesis to make Apple Bloom carefully float. Slowly, she then brought the filly to the front window where she could see that they were driving in the snow among the mountains of the Frozen North, and the one driving was an Orange. A Green was in the place beside him, and he looked back at the window. Seeing her, the Green smiled and waved. She waved back. In front of the caravan, there was also the Poltermobile, also being driven by a ghost, but she couldn't see which kind. Many other ghosts were flying around both vehicles, including some members of the Gem Family who weren't in the caravan or in the Poltermobile.

Seeing that she was awake, many of the ghosts entered the caravan to thank her, to apologize to her, and to have some fun with her. The fun with the ghosts continued until they arrived at the Crystal Empire.

The face of the crystal ponies when they saw the two vehicles approach with dozens of ghosts surrounding them... Thankfully, the ponies quickly warmed up to the ghost seeing how jolly they were, especially the foals who got some rides on their backs or in their front legs/arms.

Apple Bloom was sent to a hospital just in case there was anything serious they missed, but the ghosts did a really good job patching her. In just a day, she recovered enough to be able to walk as long as she didn't do anything too hard on her body. Meanwhile, Applejack, Sweetie Belle, and Smart Spirit got better used to being ghosts, but the filly still couldn't wait to be brought back to life by Discord.

The next day, they took the train to Canterlot, reaching the city a few hours later. The majority of the ghosts of the valley returned to the valley before that, only leaving a small number to follow the train with the Gem Family using the two vehicles. As Scootaloo, Big Mac, and Granny Smith went to the train to Ponyville, the rest of the group began to advance toward the castle, and the ghosts followed the train to Ponyville excepted Diamond Cup and Polterpup (without forgetting Applejack and the others).

The guards let them enter, giving an unsure look at the ghosts among them. A good number of the staff of the castle got scared of them, but nothing went wrong and some even found Polterpup adorable.

Soon enough, they were led to a room, and Celestia entered a few minutes later. At seeing that Applejack, Sweetie Belle, and Smart Spirit were now ghosts, and how Apple Bloom was bandaged, she immediately understood that something horrible happened, and was greatly saddened that there were some dead, especially a foal. Twilight then revealed Sweetie Belle's body (Smart Spirit was to be buried back in Ponyville) that she placed on a table, and Fluttershy called Discord. The draconequus almost immediately answered the call.

"Hello Fluttershy. It's good you called me. I was starting to get bor- Oh..." He saw the state of some of the ponies in the room, then saw Sweetie Belle's body on the table. "Oh, I see." He materialized a dark cloak on him, as well as a scepter with a skull from which green energy was escaping. "You want me to do some necromancy? I... must warn you, I never tried to bring back the dead before."

"It would be nice," Fluttershy said. "But first, do you know someone called Thanatos?"

"Oh, yes! He's my little bro! I'm not really fond of him. His gruesome way of having fun with the living rubs me the wrong way. Well, I was like him at first, but I never went so far as to kill my victims. At worst, they were turned crazy. But it's not surprising, he's the Spirit of Death after all." He looked at the ghosts in the room. "Let me guess, you encountered him and got a first glance at his deathly humor?"

"I didn't know there was another Spirit than Discord," said Celestia. "And one so dangerous. What happened?"

The ponies then told all that happened, from discovering the Evershade Valley to Apple Bloom's fight against Thanatos. Discord was visibly nervous.

"Yike... I wouldn't like to be you, Little Bloom. Being in Thanatos' collimator is fun only for him."

"Can't ya stop him?" asked the filly.

"Technically, I could. Death is the servant of Chaos, after all. Howeveeer... He warded his castle against me with the help of some magically powerful ponies that you may or may not know the names, like one Clover the Clever, or Gusty the Great?"

Twilight gasped. "He has their ghost under his control?"

"And much more, I'm afraid. He has a real army," confirmed Discord. "I can't enter the castle to talk some sense into him, but I can try to help in some other way..." He sighed. "To capture him. He's too powerful to be captured with your weak vacuum cleaner. With the help of the eggheads in this room, I can come up with a way to trap him, but it may take some time. Too bad you don't have the Elements anymore."

"I will put the most brilliant minds of Equestria in this," said Celestia. "Thanatos must be stopped before he kills more."

"Speaking of..." Discord booped one by one everypony in the room. "This should reduce his fun. Now, you won't be instant killed if he touches you, it will take him a whole minute. And for the ghosts, you won't be controlled as easily. It's all I can do against him. Now..." He materialized, his necromancer panoply again. "Time to try to bring back the dead!" He turned to Sweetie Belle. "You first. Your body is already here, so this should be easier."

With a snap of his fingers, the room was turned into a ritual room with a circle full of symbols at the center. Sweetie Belle's body was placed at the center of the circle, her ghost was floating above it, and everypony else was sitting around the circle, Discord holding a book with a face that was screaming. Twilight, who was just beside him, saw that the cover of the book was made of pony skin.

"Wait, is that-" Discord put a finger on her mouth to silence her.

"I must focus. Necromancy is delicate."

Twilight nodded and kept her mouth shut, letting Discord start the ritual. He opened the book and began to read a passage of it in a language not of this world, and everything in the room, ponies and objects excepted Sweetie Belle's body, started to float as a tornado of energy appeared in the circle. Demonic laughter started to resound around them as the room was plunged into darkness. The ponies could swear they saw things in it. Then, after about one minute, Sweetie Belle's ghost was sucked in her body, and everything stopped, returning to normal.

Everypony remained silent after what happened, many of them in amazement or in shock. Then, after a few seconds, a groan broke the silence. A groan from Sweetie Belle's body which started to move.

"Swee-" began to shout Rarity as she started to move toward the filly, only to be stopped by Discord blocking her with an arm.

"Wait," he said. "I must verify first. We don't want you to have your brain devoured by your sister, after all."

Some of the ponies gulped, Fluttershy shouting an "Eep!" as she stepped back.

Discord approached Sweetie Belle as the filly opened her eyes and looked at him. First bad sign: the pupils were fully dilated, and this wasn't changing despite the light. First good sign: Sweetie Belle didn't seem to be about to jump at Discord to attack him, devour his brain, or whatever. She looked at him with confusion, then at everypony in the room, then at her body, before she sat, looking at her front hooves.

"So..." started Discord. "Are you yourself?" he asked.

Sweetie Belle looked back at him. "Uh... Yes, I think... But... I feel cold..."

"You don't have the urge to try to devour my brain or whatever else?"

She shook her head. "No."

Discord then put a finger against her throat, trying to feel a pulse. "Welp... At least, you aren't one of those brainless zombies. Or, would it be best to say that you're now a lich? No matter, I would have preferred if you were fully alive. Let me try again."

With a snap, Sweetie Belle was now on a clinic table, and Discord was now disguised as a doctor holding defibrillators. An electrocardiogram was now attached to her, and right now, it displayed a flat line with a BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP!

Discord rubbed the defibrillators together, shouted "CLEAR!" and placed the defibrillators on Sweetie Belle's body, causing electricity to traverse her. Seeing that it didn't work, Discord did it a few more times before giving up.

"Very well!" said Discord as he rubbed his paw and claw together. "Time to use the big gun!"

With a snap, Sweetie Belle was attached to the table by the four limbs, and a machine similar to the one in the laboratory back in the underground of the Treacherous Mansion appeared while Discord was now disguised as a mad doctor, white blouse, goggles, disheveled hairs, and all.

Discord then put two screws in Sweetie's head, turned around, and shouted, "Lower the lever, Igor!"

Another Discord, very ugly, deformed, hunchback, answered "Yesh maashteeer! Gaghiahahahuha!" He then grabbed a lever and lowered it, activating the machine. The mad Discord walked back and began to cackle as a huge amount of electricity came out of the machine and entered Sweetie Belle's body. After a whole minute, Mad Discord signed Igor Discord to stop the machine, and Igor Discord did so.

The poor filly was now looking like a porcupine, some electricity still crackling between her hairs. Mad Discord then placed the end of a stethoscope on Sweetie's chest to hear her heart. He then knelt and started crying as he yelled "IT'S NOT ALIIIVE!!!"

Rarity approached. "Can't you just simply snap your fingers and make Sweetie's body work again?"

"I could... But something would still be missing: the link between the soul and the body. And the truth is I can't recreate it. I really tried here, but it didn't work."

"But if Sweetie's body works while her ghost is in it, then she would be alive, right? Link or not," Rainbow Dash said.

"Without the link, the body would reject Sweetie Belle's ghost, and it would be like a newborn. A new soul would form in it. It would have Sweetie Belle's memories, still stocked in the brain, so with it, it would become like Sweetie Belle after some time, but it wouldn't be Sweetie Belle, it would be a new soul acting like her," said Discord before he crossed his arms. "At this point, the only way for her to become alive again would be for her to learn dark magic and to use it to form an artificial link, like Sombra did to remain alive all this time."

"It would be best to avoid it," Celestia said. "The risk of being corrupted is too high, and she could become like Sombra."

"So I'm stuck as a... Uh... You said a lich?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Unless you prefer being a ghost?" Discord asked.

"I don't know..."

Discord sighed and booped Sweetie Belle. "There, I made sure that you won't decompose." He snapped his fingers, and Sweetie's eyes now looked normal. "And here're some illusions to hide anything that would reveal that you're dead." He smiled. "This way, you will be able to have a normal life until ponies see that you aren't getting older. It should give you enough time to decide what you will do."

Sweetie Belle jumped at him and hugged him. "Thank you!"

Snap!

"Uh? What was that sound?" she asked.

"Oh, just the sound of my spine snapping in two. Nothing to worry about," Discord said. "Just, words of advice, you should watch out your strength. As an undead, you don't have all those limits that you had when you were alive. You know, for example, when you try to lift something, but it's so heavy that it hurts your muscles. Well, as an undead, you don't feel pain, so you can lift things without feeling the pain in your muscles. To put it simply, your physical capacities augmented A LOT. Something to remember next time you hug somepony. At least, you will be a killer in the Equestrian Games."

"Okay..." Sweetie Belle sheepishly said.

Discord turned to the remaining ghosts in the room. "I don't suppose any of you want to join the lich side?"

"Uh... Me?" Applejack hesitantly said. "I'd like to continue working at the farm."

"Of course, just let me..." He snapped his fingers, but nothing happened. Discord looked at his fingers in confusion. "Uh? Wait. Let me try again." He snapped again, to the same result. "Come on!" Another snap, but still nothing. "I should be able to bring your body from the spiritual world!" Another snap, still nothing. "Drat! Thanatos probably did something to it!"

Applejack groaned. "Dang it..."

Apple Bloom growled. "What did he do to AJ's body?"

Discord shrugged. "Who knows? But I need a body to turn her into a lich. Anything in mind?"

"Ah refuse to use somepony else's body," said Applejack.

"Why not a robot?" Pinkie proposed. "She would be Applebot!"

"This could work," Discord said with a nod as he re-materialized his mad scientist panoply. "She will be a ghost in the machine!"

"Ah'm not sure about becoming a machine," Applejack said before she sighed. "But if there're no other alternatives..."

"I will make sure to add in the earth pony magic," Discord said.



The next day, everypony was back in Ponyville. They were actually gathered in the cemetery, watching the coffin containing Smart Spirit's body slowly being lowered in the hole where it will rest forever. It was really strange, because the ghost of Smart Spirit was there among them, and there were a lot of other ghosts, the totality of the Gem Family, Polterpup that Apple Bloom was petting, and some of the ghosts of the valley.

The ghosts of the valley changed the emplacement of the entrance of the valley, so it was now not far from Apple Bloom's Mansion, in the Everfree Forest. This way, they will have easy access to it, and they will be able to visit the ghosts here and study them to advance the paranormal science and develop better magic and technology on it. They will also be able to go to the altar of the Treacherous Mansion to study it and maybe find a way to open a portal to the spiritual world by themselves.

The goal of all this: the capture of Thanatos.

Apple Bloom looked at Applejack. The mare was now inhabiting a robotic body made in her image, her hat back on her head. It will take some time to get used to this, especially for Applejack. Walking around with a metallic body, hooves going Clang! Clang! instead of Clip! Clop! not being able to eat with them anymore, not being able to sleep anymore, having to drink apple juice instead to recharge (it was chocolate milk at first, but they changed it), talking with an artificial voice as if she was talking through the communication device... But like she said, at least, she could still work with this body. She would have felt horrible to leave the majority of the farm work, mainly the apple bucking, to Big Mac. Still, this won't be like when she was alive. This cold metallic body... It had nothing to do with a real flesh and blood body. Apple Bloom will miss Applejack's warm hugs.

Then there was Sweetie Belle. At first glance, she looked normal, thanks to Discord, so not many ponies knew about her new, undead nature. But, that was it, she was an undead. No amount of illusions will change it. She was now inhabiting a cold, dead body, and it was no better than inhabiting a robotic body. The two main differences were that Sweetie didn't need to drink apple juice, or anything else, to recharge, and the fur was at least a little warm so the physical contacts weren't that cold. What great differences... But it could be worst. Her body could have been left to decompose, and after a few months, she would have turned into a walking skeleton. This would have been veeeeeeery weird and creepy.

Point to Discord. He could have left her to turn into a skeleton, probably spreading some chaos. This showed how better he was now.

But still, her sister was a robot, one of her best friends was a lich, and Smart Spirit was now a ghost (at least, he didn't mind). Three ponies close to her were killed.

And more could follow. Thanatos made it clear. This was just the first 'game'. More would follow.

Until she broke.

She imagined herself glaring at the Spirit of Death. Maybe he was watching her right now.

Thanatos... Someday, somehow, Ah'll end ya.