> Apple Bloom's Mansion 3.5: Luigi's Mansion
>  by Lucar
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1: King Boo
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sun had barely risen when the caravan reached Canterlot. After some careful driving through the streets, it reached the gates of the castle. The guards immediately recognized the vehicle and led it to a parking normally for the carriages. They weren't surprised to see some ghosts and a robot come out along with princess Twilight. They were shocked, however, to see a skeleton, a scooter rolling by itself, and a small army of living dolls come out.

It was gonna be another weird day, uh?

Celestia was warned of their arrival just after she finished her breakfast, and she asked them to be led to the same room than the previous time, after that incident with the Valley. She immediately understood that it was very serious.

When they arrived in the room, she could only look in horror at Starlight who was now a ghost. She guessed that the skeleton was Sweetie Belle, but she couldn't see Apple Bloom, Fluttershy, and Scootaloo. Was one of them the scooter? Wait, Fluttershy was now a doll nestled in Rainbow Dash's mane. And all those dolls...

It really was very serious.

"What happened, my little ponies?" she asked in worry.

Twilight then explained everything that happened. They were invited to a hotel by one Eternal Rest, the same mare who told Apple Bloom about Evershade Valley, but it revealed to be an ambush. Eternal Rest was actually a minion of Thanatos, and she captured everypony excepted Apple Bloom, Little Ghost, Sweetie Belle, and Applejack. Apple Bloom then had to climb the hotel floor by floor to save everypony, fighting many ghosts including some powerful ones like Piano Virtuoso, Emperor Gorros, a cavepony named Ooga, queen Leyla Rahfa, or captain Blackbeard. Eternal Rest, however, killed Scootaloo and Fluttershy and forcefully bound them respectively in the scooter and in a doll. In her fight against Apple Bloom, she also killed Starlight Glimmer. The dolls were other victims that were all part of Eternal Rest's 'Collection' that Apple Bloom saved. Finally, Apple Bloom managed to capture Eternal Rest, and the hotel was destroyed, but Eternal Rest was able to open a portal through which Apple Bloom disappeared, and now, they were told by Thanatos himself that Apple Bloom was in another dimension.

It was so much to take on, but Celestia had to take them one at a time.

First, Apple Bloom. She called Discord who appeared in the room almost immediately.

"You called?" he said before he remarked the dolls, then saw Starlight, then Scootaloo, then the very depressed Polterpup, and understood that something went wrong. He growled. "My brother?" Before they could answer, he then spotted Fluttershy in Rainbow Dash's mane, and his expression turned to horror before he grabbed her to better look. "What has he done to you?!"

Slowly, in a small voice, Fluttershy answered. "It... It was somepony working for Thanatos... Eternal Rest..."

"THAT WITCH?!!" he yelled. He quickly calmed however when he saw Fluttershy cover in fear with a squeak. "Oh, I'm sorry my dear. I didn't mean to scare you."

"You know about this witch, Discord?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Of course I know about her. Wherever my brother went, that mare was almost everytime beside him. She was his most faithful and powerful minion, and she was easily as sadistic as him. I hated her."

"She..." began Fluttershy. "She killed me... then trapped me in this doll... then she t-t-she tortured me with her lightning. It... It was... so..."

Discord put her against his chest and began to pet her. "Shhh... It's over," he said before his expression morfed to pure hate. "I see what you did, brother..." he spat. "You didn't like that I began to interfere so you went after the one I hold the most dear. You made a grave mistake."

The ponies looked insure for a moment at seeing him so... hateful. Discord never showed that much hate until now.

Eventually, Applejack spoke. "Discord, we need yer help. Eternal Rest sent mah sister to another dimension."

Discord groaned, putting his claw on his face. "She did? Very well. Give me a few days to track her. I just hope she wasn't sent to a dimension where time advances faster than ours, or we may recover her as an old mare. Bah, if this happens, I will just use some age regression." He then looked at Fluttershy. "Do you want me to get you out of this doll body?" he asked.

Fluttershy took some time to answer as she thought. "I don't know. I fear that I will scare the animals if I become a ghost. Many of them are so sensitive..."

"Alright then. You want to become a robot like Applejack?"

"Huum... How about I just remain a doll, but you make me the size of a pony?"

Discord rubbed his head. "Erh... I don't know about animals, but I personally find the idea of a pony-sized living doll more scary than a ghost. But if this is what you want, then very well. You can always change later if this causes problem." He then slowly put Fluttershy on the floor, floated back, and snapped, turning Fluttershy pony-sized. Discord then returned at Fluttershy's side and put an arm around her before he turned toward Scootaloo.

"Talk about irony," he said.

"You don't say..." replied Scootaloo. "Just get me out of here."

Discord nodded, grabbed the scooter, and pulled Scootaloo's ghost out of it. He then turned to Starlight. "What about you?"

Starlight sighed. "I don't know... I'm still not over the fact that I'm dead... I think that I will remain a ghost for now."

"I'm so sorry Starlight..." said Twilight.

"Don't be, Twilight. There's nothing you and the others could have done. The instant Eternal Rest entered my body, I was doomed."

Discord gave a nod and turned to Little Ghost. "I can see that Thanatos used a trick to weaken you," he said before he grabbed Little Ghost and pulled the talisman weakening her out. "There."

Little Ghost sighed in relief. "Thank you, I feel much better. It was like I was dragging a weight."

Discord turned to Sweetie Belle. "Do you want me to turn you back to a more fresh-looking undead?"

"I got some good uses of this skeleton body, but yes, please. Other ponies aren't used to skeletons."

So Discord snapped his fingers and Sweetie Belle was back to a more normal-looking filly, even if she was still an undead.

Discord then looked at the over one hundred dolls in the room and rubbed his head again. "This may take some time..."

One of the dolls said "Rescue the filly first, we can wait a few more days."

All the other dolls nodded.

"We owe her our freedom," one of them said.

"Please, be quick, she may be in a dangerous dimension!" said another.

"Very well then, if nothing more needs to be done... Ah, yes, tell me where Apple Bloom fought Eternal Rest. I need to get some remnant of the energy used to create the portal to better track her."

Twilight nodded. "Give me a map and I will give you the location of the ruins of Eternal Rest's hotel."

"Once you give it, I will send guards to retrieve anything we can from them, like the bodies of everypony who died there," said Celestia.

Starlight sighed again. "You won't find mine. Eternal Rest made it explode."

"And you will have to send a lot of guards. There are a lot of ruins, and the majority of the bodies were just skeletons that are now in pieces," said Rainbow Dash. "As for Fluttershy's body..."

"Eternal Rest forced us to fight it," said Sweetie Belle. "We beheaded it and cut its right wing before it fell beyond a window from the fifteenth floor. What must remain of it..."

Discord growled again, but quickly calmed down. "I can reconstruct her body with my magic. I will even help the guards gather the bodyparts of everyone who died in this cursed hotel, even Starlight's. What about Scootaloo's body?"

"It was thrown out a window from the fifth floor by Eternal Rest," said Little Ghost.

Celestia sighed. "This tragedy must stop."

"I'm still working on a way to capture Thanatos and keep him trapped," said Discord.

"Well... While ya work to recover Apple Bloom, Ah'm gonna free all the good ghosts she and her friends had to capture," said Applejack. "Wherever she's, Ah hope she's alright... Ah wish Ah could do more..."



King Boo (the round, white ghost) divided himself into two, and the two of them began to charge energy in their gem as stormclouds gathered above the roof. Areas of the roof then began to crackle, and Apple Bloom, Luigi (the guy in green), and Gooigi (the slime) quickly moved on one of the areas that weren't crackling before lightning struck the ones that did. The two King Boo did a second attempt, but they all escaped again.

In her mind, Apple Bloom was cursing Eternal Rest. Because of that witch, she was now in this situation! She popped out of her portal on this roof right in the middle of a big battle opposing Luigi to King Boo. She quickly understood that Luigi was in a similar situation than she was. He and his friends as well as his brother were invited in this hotel by the owner only to be ambushed by this King Boo. Luigi, armed of this version of a Poltergust, then had to climb the hotel floor by floor to save his friends. But it seemed like he had it easier. This King Boo didn't seem to want to kill them, but to trap them in a frame, the same frame that was now floating beside King Boo in which many people could be seen. And now, Apple Bloom had to fight King Boo too.

She wasn't given a choice. As soon as King Boo remarked the Poltergust on her back, he became furious and attacked her along with Luigi and Gooigi. Luigi quickly explained to her who they were and what was going on, she told him in return who she was, and they allied themselves to fight King Boo.

But a fight against another powerful ghost really was the last thing she needed right now. After her fight against Eternal Rest, she had to fight to remain conscious. Her body was hurting everywhere, covered in bumps, burns, and cuts, and she was so tired after this long night of constant fighting.

At least, the beginning of the fight against King Boo wasn't problematic. His attacks were easy to dodge, much easier than Eternal Rest's attacks. Then, King Boo did the error of throwing some explosive spiked ball that exploded into several smaller bombs. Luigi then grabbed one of the bombs with his Poltergust and fired it right in the mouth of the ghost. So the bomb exploded in him, and King Boo fell on the roof stunned, his long tongue out. Apple Bloom, Luigi, and Gooigi then managed to grab the tongue with their Poltergust before they slammed him a few times. The slams were so strong and King Boo so big that they left cracks on the roof. Really, for a ghost, King Boo was heavy!

King Boo escaped however, and when he recovered, he divided himself. And now, here she was, in the middle of a second round of dodging King Boo's attacks. Excepted that now that he had a clone, they were harder to avoid. Already, the lightning attack was covering more area on the roof. Then, both King Boo flew high above the roof and violently slammed on it three times each, the real King Boo producing shockwaves.

At least, the clone didn't produce them when he slammed himself on the roof.

It seemed that Luigi's Poltergust was much heavier than Apple Bloom's, or he had less strength, because the poor guy couldn't jump high compared to her. So he and his slimy clone had to use bursts of air on the floor to propel themselves high enough to avoid the shockwaves. A really interesting use of the Poltergust that Apple Bloom decided to note in her mind.

After this, the two King Boo fired from their gem fireballs that rolled on the floor while they moved back and forth. The balls were rather slow, but because of the clone, their number was more problematic, and Luigi got hit on one of his legs. Apple Bloom herself got a few hairs of her tail burned.

This attack was followed by one where both Boos slammed their long tongue on the roof. This one was probably the trickiest to dodge because the Boos anticipated their moves and tried to trap them, and this got Gooigi destroyed. Thankfully, when the slime was destroyed, it reappeared in the tube on Luigi's Poltergust, and just one second later, it came out as good as new ready to continue the battle.

Once the King Boo stopped slamming their tongue, they then moved to both sides of the roof and began to move their tongue in a spiral pattern. It was a new one, and rather hard to avoid as they had to anticipate the spiraling movement of the tongues to either jump above or pass below. Luigi badly anticipated and got hit.

Finally, the two Boos took an explosive spiky ball from nowhere and threw them at Luigi and Apple Bloom. The balls exploded, releasing their content. One released random objects while the other released bombs. Like before, Luigi went to take one, and Apple bloom took another just in case.

She wasn't sure if Luigi remarked it, but the clone had less fangs than the real King Boo.

Luigi fired and successfully targeted the real King Boo, making him eat the bomb that exploded inside him, causing the clone to disappear. King Boo dropped on the roof, stunned, and like previously, the three of them grabbed his tongue and slammed him as much as they could until he escaped again.

King Boo disappeared only to come out of the frame where Luigi's friends and family were trapped. Then, he fired a bolt of electricity at it, and the image in it turned into a multicolored spiral as the frame began to grow. It grew, and grew, and grew, until it was so big that it could trap the whole hotel! As an effect, trees and objects from the hotel began to float toward it, and the hotel itself began to shake as it was pulled!

Apple Bloom and Luigi exchanged a look, then readied themselves. They had to end this fight NOW!

King Boo then created two clones, and the three of them laughed before they began to attack again, starting with the lightning attack.

Now, it was so bad that only a small area of the roof wasn't crackling, and they had to hurry to run to it before the lightning struck. And they did it three times this time! The third time was a close call because the safe area was at the opposite side of the roof from where they were.

The Boos then did a new attack were they three many explosive spiked balls in the sky above the roof. The balls exploded and released dozens of bombs that rained everywhere on the roof, immediately exploding. Their best solution was to go to a corner of the roof and blow air to push the bombs away before they exploded.

The fireball attack was even more difficult to avoid. There were just so many that there was almost no place to move, and more than once, the ghost hunters got some burns.

The attack were they slammed their tongue followed, and it was Tartarus to avoid being trapped by them. When they made them spiral after that, however, they all managed to avoid them this time, Luigi getting the thing.

They had some respite with the body-slamming attack, easier to dodge even with the two clones. They just had to not stop moving to avoid being under the shadows of the Boos when they slammed, and then they had to jump to avoid the shockwaves produced by the real King Boo.

Finally, the three Boos threw an explosive spiked ball, one of which released the much awaited bombs. As Luigi grabbed one, however, the Boos threw more spiked ball in the air, repeating the bomb raining attack. So Luigi quickly fired at the real King Boo, making him eat the bomb, then ran to a corned to escape the rain while King Boo dropped on the roof, stunned.

When the rain of bombs stopped, the three hunters quickly ran to King Boo and grabbed his tongue. Finally, they slammed him once. Twice. Thrice.

And King Boo's tongue was sucked in Luigi's Poltergust. Gooigi and Apple Bloom, knowing that it was the end, let go and watched as King Boo attempted to escape, without success with his tongue stuck. In the end, he was entirely sucked in the vacuum cleaner, only leaving the gem of his crown behind.

Apple Bloom dropped on the floor.

FI-NAL-LY! Now, maybe she'll be able to sleep. She really needed it.

So, as Luigi took the gem, and the giant frame returned to normal, Apple Bloom lost consciousness.
> Chapter 2: Recovering
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

With the help of Smart Spirit, Applejack freed all the ghosts that had been sent to the green crystal. So, the maid, the night guard (Cruller, she remembered), the cook, Piano Virtuoso, Director Cut, Ducky, and DeathJay. All the others were either in the yellow crystal or the red crystal. The muscled stallion from the fitness center was still in Apple Bloom's Poltergust along with the cat, Eternal Rest, and all the ghosts she caught since the fitness center, so they were stuck in the other dimension with her.

The ghosts came out one by one and appeared outside the caravan, in front or Apple Bloom's mansion. Some members of the Gem Family as well as some ghosts of the Evershade Valley were present to help, or simply to watch. Many others were guiding the dolls into the manor to settle them while they waited for Discord to recover Apple Bloom.

Once all the ghosts of the green crystal were out, Applejack then freed the many, many ghosts of the yellow crystal. The Tricksters, Buffys, Throwers, Creepers, and Slappys, but also the bellhop, Ooga, and the triplets. Those ghosts were attracted toward a huge area with a ward to keep them in it. They weren't sure of what they will do, after all. They didn't show any problems following Eternal Rest's orders.

The freed ghosts looked around in confusion and surprise when they saw that they weren't in the hotel anymore.

Applejack then amplified her voice to be heard by all of them (an useful robot gadget she got from Discord).

"EVERYPONY! AH'VE GOOD NEWS! WE DEFEATED ETERNAL REST! YA'RE FREED!" she shouted.

The ghosts all looked at her in disbelief.

"No way... They really did it?" asked DeathJay.

"Well, slap mah head and call me silly!" said Ducky in awe.

"Are we... really freed?" asked Director Cut.

"Y'all are," confirmed Applejack as she pointed at all the ghosts who had been in the green crystal "Ya proved ya're clean." She then turned toward the ones who had been in the yellow one. "Them, however..." She walked toward them and shouted "WHAT ARE YER INTENTIONS NOW THAT YA AREN'T CHAINED TO THAT WITCH?! YA ATTACKED US WITHOUT REMORSE, BUT YA MAY NOT BE EVIL, SO PROVE THAT WE CAN TRUST YA!"

The bellhop immediately advanced in front of the others to talk. "I was only following orders. I didn't mean any harm to you and the others, but orders were orders. If Eternal Rest is really gone then I have nothing against you or anypony."

All the other ghosts excepted Ooga and the triplets began to talk at the same time, over each others, to tell something similar to him, or to say that they just didn't dare to show hesitation, they were too scared, or something like that.

Applejack signed them to calm down. "ALRIGHT! ALRIGHT Y'ALL!" She then turned to the last four ghosts who didn't talk. "And ya?"

"Chief of Ooga defeated, then Ooga follows new chief!" shouted Ooga.

Right. She should've expected that. "Apple Bloom's the one who captured Eternal Rest, but she isn't present right now, so ya'll have to follow mah order. And mah order is: don't hurt others. Beside this, ya can do whatever ya want."

"Yes, chief!" shouted Ooga.

"This leaves ya three," said Applejack as she looked at the triplets.

The three mares hesitated for a moment before Magica Hat said "We were just angry that you captured our Oogy Boogy!"

"And... We wanted to have some fun," said Magica Card.

"And old meanie was breathing behind our neck," said Magica Wand.

"But now that Oogy is free and that he wants to follow you, we're totally okay with you!" said Card.

"Yes yes yes!" shouted the others, head nodding expectantly.

Applejack eyed them, then nodded. "Very well." She destroyed a part of the circle creating the ward with her hoof. "Do whatever ya want as long as it doesn't harm anypony, or ya'll join Blackbeard, Gorros, Leyla, and the others in Tartarus. Ya're welcome to remain in the manor behind me if ya want. Apple Bloom built it as a refuge for ghosts. The Evershade Valley's also a nice place for y'all. Just ask the other ghosts to guide ya. Ya can also go and make friends in Ponyville, the folks're used to ghosts."

Applejack then entered the caravan, leaving the ghosts by themselves for a few seconds before she came out with some film reels on her back. She walked toward Director Cut who wasn't really sure what to do now, like most of the ghosts.

"Here're yer film reels, Director Cut, without a scratch."

"Oh! Thank you!" shouted the filmmaker happily before he took the reels. "How are the fillies? I imagine that after this long night and the certainly terrible fight against Eternal Rest, our little superstar must be resting."

Applejack sighed. "Apple Bloom was sent to another dimension by Eternal Rest..."

"Oh... I'm... sorry..."

"Don't worry. We're working to bring her back. It's a matter of days. Ah just hope she's alright."

Director Cut nodded. "Dimensional travels can be very dangerous. I know this because it's used a lot in movies. But I don't doubt she's alright. She's a little fighter, she proved it when we shot my movie."

"Eheh. Yeah. Ah know this very well. She went through a whole pocket dimension full of mind controlled ghosts almost by herself. And before that, she destroyed a possessed manor all alone. She has resource. But this means ya won't be able to continue yer movie right away."

"I will wait. I can use this to better work on the scenario and find actors for the other characters. Good luck finding her."

Director Cut then flew toward the manor probably to start working on his movie. Applejack then sighed, looked around to observe the ghosts finding out what they will do and interacting with each others, then decided to just return to the farm. There wasn't much more she could do there beside worrying.



Bip...

Bip...

Bip...

It was the first thing Apple Bloom heard as consciousness returned to her. She opened her eyes only to close them immediately as she was dazzled by the light in the room. Little by little, she reopened them, letting them adjust to the light. Once they were fully open, she rubbed them to rid them of some dust before she looked around.

She quickly understood that she was in a hospital room, in a bed. Through a window, she saw that it's day. Morning, noon, or afternoon however, she had no idea. There were a few other beds in the room, all separated by curtains, so she didn't know if she was alone in the room or not.

Looking down at herself, she saw that, to her surprise, she wasn't covered in bandaged like she expected after how much she was injured in this adventure. However, she also had all that medical stuff attached to her to ensure that she wouldn't starve in her sleep. If they had to use this, then she must have slept a long time. And there were also those wires connected to that machine doing bip.

She really was in a sad state. But at least, Eternal Rest was captured, and everypony was safe from her, if not alive, sadly.

Damn it. Three more deads. Scootaloo, Fluttershy, and Starlight. If this continued, then everypony will end up dead before they capture Thanatos.

And now, she was in another dimension... Actually, maybe it was a good thing. Without her, Thanatos had no reason to continue his 'Death Games', and everypony will be safe.

Or, after reflection, maybe not. Without her, Thanatos could report his attention to Applejack, Sweetie Belle, or Little Ghost who proved that they now knew how to use a Poltergust. And any Poltergust users were potential toys for him to have fun. She had to return to her dimension.

But... How? Did this dimension have a mean to travel to other dimensions? To hers? This one had ghosts too, obviously, so maybe she could find one powerful enough, and kind enough, to send her back to her dimension. That is if they could even find her dimension. Eternal Rest's portal seemed to have sent her in this one by chance, or because there was this fight against King Boo happening and so the dimensional barrier was thinner because of his power, or because her fight against Eternal Rest and Luigi's fight against King Boo were pretty much the same event but with different beings. There were many possibilities as to why the portal transported her to this dimension at this place at this moment, but Eternal Rest knowingly sending her there was certainly not one. She probably would've preferred that the portal sent her in the void of space, or inside a volcano, or several hundreds of meters up in the sky, anywhere where she would have died without doubt.

Darn, she was already getting bored. Wasn't there a way to call a nurse or a doctor? She remarked a button beside the bed, but she wasn't sure if she should press it. What if it turned off something important? She could just shout, but her throat felt very dry.

So in the end, she just settled to wait for a nurse or a doctor, as boring as it was.

A nurse came a few minutes later, probably to verify if she was awake or still sleeping. When Apple Bloom saw her, she couldn't stop to look at her curiously. The nurse seemed to be a fusion between whatever Luigi was and a mushroom. She lacked whatever was called the big round thing that Luigi had in the middle of the face, above his moustache. Instead, there were just two small holes for her to breathe. On her head was a mushroom hat white with pink dots. She was also smaller than Luigi, about half his size, so this made her about as tall as Apple Bloom. Maybe a little taller. She will better see once she will be on her legs.

When the nurse saw that she was awake, Apple Bloom slowly waved at her with a smile. The nurse gave a big happy smile in return and immediately approached Apple Bloom to give her a glass of water.

"I'm so glad you're awake. There, drink. Is there anything I can do for you? Luigi told us you could talk."

Apple Bloom slowly drank the water before she answered. "Thank ya. Can ya tell me how long Ah slept? Ah guess it's a long time."

"Yes. You were in a coma for a little over two weeks. When you were brought here, you had a lot of injuries, and you had lost a lot of blood. We were really worried."

"Darn... Ah's that bad? Thank ya for taking care of me."

"You sound young. How old are you, if I may ask?"

"Ah'm twelve years old," answered Apple Bloom.

This got a gasp from the nurse. "How could a kid get so badly hurt?"

Apple Bloom was confused. "A kid? But Ah'm not a goat, Ah'm a pony."

The nurse wasn't sure how to reply to this. "Uh... For us, 'kid' is a synonym of 'child'."

"Weird... Well, this is a long story, but basically, Ah'd to fight a very powerful witch ghost and her army of ghost minions to save mah friends that she'd captured."

...

"Really?"

"Really."

"Wasn't there an adult who could have done the job in your place?"

"No one that's as experienced as me in ghost hunting. Beside, the Lord of Death Thanatos wouldn't have liked to see somepony take mah place. Long story again."

The nurse stared at Apple Bloom. "For someone so young, you seem to have quite a rambunctious life. And as shocked as I am, I'm also amazed to learn that someone so young could fight, and defeat apparently, such an army. You must be very resourceful."

"Ah's helped by some friends. Without them, Ah'd have died more than once."

The nurse gave her a warm smile at this, then said "Now that you are awake, we will be able to let you go. We already gave you a mushroom, so you are fully healed. I just have to go warn Doctor Toadstein so we can take off all those wires and give you permission to leave the bed. A guard then should come to lead you to princess Peach. She really can't wait to meet you."

"A princess? Why? Does this have something to do with what Ah did on the roof of that hotel?"

"I don't know all the details of what happened, but apparently, you saved her against King Boo with Luigi. She was also very worried. You were so close to death."

"Uh... So, one of Luigi's friends trapped in that frame was a princess?" Apple Bloom asked before she giggled. "Lucky me. Ah'm in this dimension since barely five minutes and Ah already save a princess."

"Dimension?" muttered the nurse before she decided not to ask. She already understood that this child wasn't ordinary. She then left the room, and not long later, came back with the doctor. A creature of the same species than the nurse, but with a mushroom hat white with brown dots. They then took off the wires one by one.

Apple Bloom then finally asked "Sorry, but what are you?

"Uh?" asked the doc in return.

The nurse then whispered in his hear "She said she came from another dimension."

"Oh, I understand. Well, we're called Toads."

Again, Apple Bloom was confused. "What? But ya don't look like toads. Ya know, those animals that look like frogs, but bigger."

The doc laughed. "Actually, we're named after toadstools. Don't worry, we aren't poisonous."

Then, a Toad with a white, red dotted mushroom hat and a spear entered the room and said "I'm here to escort the pony to the princess."

"Give us a minute," said the doc as he took off a last wire. "You can get out of bed."

Apple Bloom nodded and got out of bed. She then took her ribbon that was on a stand beside the bed and reformed her bow. She would ask where was her Poltergust and her belt with her bag and everything, but she guessed that these Toads probably didn't know, so she planned to ask the princess. She also wanted to ask about this mushroom that apparently helped her heal faster, but she thought this could wait. She looked at the guard and said "We can go."

The guard nodded and walked out of the room. Apple Bloom thanked the nurse and the doc, then followed him.

She discovered that the room was part of the princess' castle. No wonder, if she saved the princess, then she probably wanted her to have the best care. After some turns, encountering more Toads with hats of various colors on the way, they finally entered the throne room where princess Peach was awaiting her.

And for the third time since she awakened, Apple Bloom was confused when she saw that the princess of the Toads... wasn't a Toad.

Why are you so confusing, world?
> Chapter 3: Encounters
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Princess Peach certainly wasn't a Toad. Actually, she clearly was of the same species than Luigi, but possessed more delicate traits. Where Luigi possessed short brown hairs under his cap, Peach possessed long blond hair that cascaded to her back. She was wearing a beautiful pink dress that Rarity would admire with a brooch that seemed to be a sapphire, and she also had sapphire hearings and some white clothe covering her arms. Of course, as a princess, she had a golden crown adorned with sapphires and rubie on her head.

She was sitting on a silver throne padded of red at the top of a staircase, and the guard led Apple Bloom to a sun symbole on the floor just in front of said staircase. When they stopped, she immediately bowed. This wasn't Equestria, but she still had to show respect to royalty.

But it was hard to not question her as to why she wasn't a Toad.

"Princess," began the guard. "This is Apple Bloom, as you asked."

Princess Peach gave a small giggle. "Rise, Apple Bloom," she said in a very melodic voice. When Apple Bloom rose, Peach also rose from her throne and walked down the stairs until she was just in front of the filly. She then put a knee on the floor to be at eye level, the princess being about two times taller than Apple Bloom, like Luigi.

"I must thank you for helping Luigi saving me, Mario, the Toads, and professor E. Gadd against King Boo. Luigi told me everything, how you fought King Boo despite all your injuries. You were very brave, and strong. How can I thank you, my little hero?"

Apple Bloom looked at her pleadingly. "Do ya've any mean to bring me back to mah dimension?"

"Oh..." Peach became very saddened. "That's right... Luigi told me that you came out of a portal. I'm sorry, the only thing related to dimensional travel we have is a magical book leading to a paper version of our world. I will ask the friendly Magikoopas we have if they can use their magic to get you back to your home."

"Thank ya princess," replied Apple Bloom with a sigh. It was better than nothing. "And... Uh... Do ya know where're mah Poltergust and mah belt?"

Peach got up with a smile and clapped her hands. "Yes. We left them to professor E. Gadd. We judged that it was safer to leave them to him. He knows his way with technology, and he was very interrested in your Poltergust and that gadget that was in your belt. They must be in his new laboratory, in the new hotel he built with our help." She giggled. "A new source of income for his studies and experiences, he said."

"Uh..." began to say Apple Bloom to herself. "Maybe Ah'd do the same with all the bits Ah got from Eternal Rest's hotel... Ah'm already super rich, but some income shouldn't hurt. Ah'd put it to good use..." After some thinking, she exclaimed "Like a movie studio for Director Cut! He'll need one!"

This got Peach curious, but before she could ask, she heard Apple Bloom's stomach growl, and the filly blushed. The princess giggled and said "How about we continue our discussion around some nice food? You didn't eat for over two weeks, after all."

"Hum... Eeyup..."



Peach was fascinated by everything she learned about Apple Bloom as the filly told her story while she ate. From a simple apple farmer child searching with her friends her place in the world, she became a rich and heroic ghost hunter now at war against some incarnation of Death. What happened to her was pretty much what happened to Luigi.

First, she had to explore a haunted mansion to save her loved ones.

Then she had to go through a whole haunted valley.

Finally, she had to climb a haunted hotel.

It was exactly Luigi's story, but Apple Bloom's was much more tragic and difficult. King Boo was a saint compared to that Thanatos. And even that Eternal Rest, who was supposed to be a counterpart of Hellen Gravely, was worst than anything Mario and Luigi fought (excepted maybe the Shroobs and the Dark Star). And now, because of that witch, this poor kid was stuck in this dimension, far from her family and her friends.

She hoped that the Magikoopas will be able to help.

Or, maybe... But it would probably take an eternity...

"Maybe prof E. Gadd could help you," said Peach. "If the Magikoopas aren't able to bring you back home, I mean. He's a little eccentric, but he's a real genius. He was able to invent a time machine, and in our world, he's the inventor of the Poltergust. Maybe, if we ask him, he could research dimensional travel, and he will somehow invent a machine that will bring you back to your home."

Apple Bloom was happy at first, but she quickly got second thoughts. "How long it'd take for him?"

Peach sighed. "I don't know... It would probably take him a few years." She then got up and went beside Apple Bloom to hug her. "I'm sorry."

"Thanks... Ah don't worry. Ah'm sure that, sooner or later, mah friends'll find a way to bring me back. Ah just hoped to find a solution for it to be sooner." After a pause, she changed topic. "So, this E. Gadd is the creator of the Poltergust that Luigi used?"

Peach returned to her place and nodded. "Yes. It was his latest version. He called it the Poltergust G-00, or Poltergoo for short."

"Uh. Ah suppose it's in reference to that tube containing Gooigi. It may be useful to've a slime clone."

"If you want to see him, I can contact him. Actually, he also wanted to talk to you about your Poltergust."

Apple Bloom nodded.



A letter was sent by Paratroopa to E. Gadd, and Peach went to talk to the Magikoopas to see if they could help apple Bloom return to her home. Meanwhile, Apple Bloom, at Peach's advice, used the rest of the day to explore the town around the castle, Toad Town, with two guards guiding her.

It was a nice town that reminded more of Ponyville than Canterlot. And in her exploration, she discovered a lot of things about this dimension.

Like in her world, there seemed to be a lot of species. She already knew the Toads, and Peach's species called humans, and she saw the Paratroopa when Peach gave to him the letter, a winged bipedal turtle. But in this town, she discovered many more, starting with the Koopas who were just Paratroopas without wings. Apparently, Magikoopas, who were rare, were Koopas who can use magic. They could be identified easily because they always wore a robe, a hat (pointed or not), and glasses. Another turtle species present that Apple Bloom could see sometime fly in the sky were Lakitus, turtles that flew in clouds.

Living clouds. Like, really. Clouds with faces. Because in this world, some clouds were alive. This would so mind blow the pegasi back in Equestria. How could water vapor be alive? And apparently, clouds weren't the only example of things that shouldn't be alive, well, alive. In the distance beyond the town, Apple Bloom could see hills with faces.

It almost made her faint. If Twilight even sees this...

Back in Toad Town, there were also the Goombas, some kind of living fungus on feet (she saw one with wings flying in the sky), some masked guys named Shy Guys, a few bipedal reptiles of various colors named Yoshis... Over there in front of a shop, a couple of bipedal moles, Monty Moles. Over here, a Boo was in a dark alley talking to a Koopa that looked different from the others, this one possessing a helmet and a hammer, a Hammer Bro. There was even a giant yellow carterpillar with a flower on the head, this one named Wiggler!

When she asked the guards, she learned two things. First, the kingdom they were in was named Mushroom Kingdom (she forgot to ask Peach). Secondly, there were hundreds of species living in this kingdom, and what she was seeing in Toad Town was just the tip of the iceberg. And that was just in the Mushroom Kingdom. This world had a lot of countries each with their own species and sub-species.

There were even alien species regularly visiting! ALIENS!

The guards were very amused by her reaction at this.

After this, she decided to stop exploring for now and to return to the castle. Peach told her that she would prepare a room for her for the night, and right now, she wanted to sleep. Too much mind blows at once, and she barely walked a few minutes out of the castle.



Sadly, while Magikoopas could work together to open portals to other dimensions, they couldn't open one specifically to Apple Bloom's dimension. They needed to know where her dimension was exactly in the great infinity of the multiverse, and they had no idea and no way to find out.

So this left E. Gadd, but frankly, Apple Bloom hadn't much hope. How could he find her dimension, after all? Well, she wasn't a scientist (even if she was starting to become one under Smart Spirit's tutelage), so she didn't know much about the subject. Maybe he knew of a way, or he will find one somehow. An unknown energy, or some physical law or other science mumbo jumbo. But again, this could take years of studies and researches. Apple Bloom hoped that her friends would find a way to her sooner somehow.

They received an answer from E. Gadd the morning of the next day, and the prof couldn't wait to meet Apple Bloom. To go to his lab rapidly, he instructed her to go to Luigi's mansion where he will be able to teleport her with something called the Pixelator. And so, after a good breakfast (the cooks of Peach's castle were as good as the cooks of Celestia's castle), Peach escorted Apple Bloom to Luigi's mansion. Before that, the princess made sure to warn him of their arrival with a letter. It was the perfect occasion for Apple Bloom to correctly meet the two heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom (and the world, and even the universe). Peach told her about the Mario Brothers and some of their adventures.

This Bowser guy was the most determined bad guy ever.

Luigi's mansion was far outside of town. Like Apple Bloom, Luigi built it after his first ghost hunting adventure. Well, apparently, it was E. Gadd who built it for Luigi as a thanks for helping him using the money Luigi found in the haunted manor which had been apparently an illusion created by King Boo to lure Mario and Luigi to capture them. One of the big difference between her story and Luigi's story. Her haunted mansion had been the real deal. She knew it because she had to blow it up. You can't blow up an illusion.

Luigi's mansion was more a secondary house for Luigi. He lived mainly with his brother Mario in a smaller, humbler house outside of town. Luigi essentially used the manor when he wanted some calm, like after an adventure. So, for vacation purpose. Of course, this meant that Luigi was probably in his smaller house with Mario, so as Apple Bloom and Peach departed from the castle with a couple of guards (not like they would be useful if Bowser decided to kidnap the princess for the 1548th time (yes, Peach counted)), Mario and Luigi were probably departing from their house out of town. The two groups will certainly meet each other on the way.

And this was what happened once Apple Bloom and Peach exited town. The Mario Brothers were waiting them on the way, both waving at them.

And Polterpup was with them!

But Apple Bloom's happiness at seeing the ghost dog didn't last long when she reminded herself that this Polterpup was very certainly NOT her Polterpup, but Luigi's Polterpup. Since Luigi got through the same adventure in the Evershade Valley than her, then she had no doubt that he probably adopted the Polterpup too.

Luigi was exactly like she remembered from that fight against King Boo, without the Poltergust of course. As for his brother, Mario looked a lot like him, moustache (groomed differently) and all. However, he was a little smaller and overweight, and anything green among Luigi's clothes was red for Mario. Also, instead of a L, there was a M in the front of his cap.

Judging that the Mario Brothers were enough of an escort, the guards returned to the castle.

After the greetings and presentations, Apple Bloom, Peach, Mario, and Luigi began their journey to Luigi's mansion together, Polterpup running around.

"Thank you for the help against King Boo," said Luigi to Apple Bloom. "This fight was much easier than the others I had against him thanks-a to you."

"Well, Ah couldn't leave ya to fight him by yerself when Ah'd act. Not like he gave me a choice when he attacked me." She gave Luigi a big smile. "Princess Peach told me everything. It's incredible how ya went to fight ghosts and all to save yer friends and especially to save yer brother despite ya being so scared of them. It's very courageous."

As Luigi seemed embarrassed by her praises, Mario gave a small slap on his back, almost making him topple. "That's-a my bro for you!" he said proudly. "But you must be very courageous too. You're just a child, and yet, you apparently hunt ghosts."

"Oh yeah, it was scary at first, being alone in a big haunted mansion full of ghosts, but now, Ah'm used to it. Ah even made a lot of friends among ghosts." She pointed at Polterpup. "Ah even've a Polterpup too!"

Hearing his name, Polterpup looked at Apple Bloom curiously.

"Really? There's a Polterpup in your dimension too?" asked Luigi.

"She told me she went through Evershade Valley too," informed Peach.

Apple Bloom nodded. "The manor, the valley, and the hotel, like ya, but with many differences apparently."

"Curious. You come from a different dimension, and yet, you went through the same things than Luigi?" asked Mario, confused.

Apple Bloom shrugged. "Ah've no idea how this is possible, but it happened."

They then passed the following minutes of the journey talking about their respective adventures, then about each others' world. Well, it was mostly Apple Bloom asking about this world as she looked around at the landscapes so alien. Hills with eyes. Mushrooms as high as mountains. Floating blocks. Pipes everywhere.

The most curious for her had to be those blocks with a '?' floating a little everywhere above the ground. They apparently possessed various objects. Mario and Luigi gave her some examples by hitting some of these blocks. They mainly gave gold coins, but one of them gave what she thought at first was the head of a Toad. It was actually just a red with white dots mushroom possessing eyes that was apparently one of the most common objects of the Mushroom Kingdom that were used to heal injuries, generally minor ones. But apparently, it wasn't one of those mushrooms that had been used to heal her as she was in a coma, but one called a 1-Up Mushroom, a much more effective mushroom used to wake up and heal unconscious people. They didn't work that well for people that close to death like she was, who had a major blood lost and who was in a coma, but it helped a lot. There were many other kinds of mushroom apparently. Mario listed a lot of them. There was one that could shrink you until you were no bigger than a mouse, or another that could turn you giant! There was one giving you a helmet with a propeller to propel yourself in the air and slowly float down, one that could turn you into a Boo, one that could turn you into a bee, or into a spring... There were so many!

And that was without speaking of all the other objects a block [?] could give. It almost made Apple Bloom dizzy. Flowers that could make you shoot fireballs or ice balls, feathers giving you a cape to fly, various costumes to give you special abilities, and so, so many other things...

And then, there were the pipes. Mario explained that they were the main mean of transport in the Mushroom Kingdom and in some other places. You enter a pipe, and a few seconds later, you come out of it somewhere else. Many were blocked however, filled with dirt. They could be dangerous too because they were often home of carnivorous plants named Piranha Plants, plants big enough to eat someone like Mario in one bite. And there was no way to know where a pipe will lead before using it, so they could lead somewhere dangerous like above a lake of lava and you wouldn't know before the last second.

Now, they were approaching such a pipe, but Luigi warned her that this one led not far of his manor, so it was safe. One by one, they jumped in it, and it easily became the weirdest experience for Apple Bloom. She wasn't falling, it was more like she was on an invisible elevator slowly moving down. Everything became black, and then, before she knew it, she exited the pipe with the others. Somehow, on the way, without her knowing, she had turned upside down to exit the pipe head first instead of hooves first.

Apple Bloom stared at the pipe a moment, trying to understand what the heck happened, then followed the princess and the brothers when they began to advance again. Luigi's mansion could be seen not far ahead, and it was smaller than Apple Bloom expected. It looked more like a big house than a manor, seemingly possessing two floors and not even being half the length of her own manor. Either Luigi found less money in his first adventure, or he decided to not use all of it. Knowing Luigi, it was probably the second. He probably thought that such a small manor was all he needed. Contrary to her who built her manor for the ghosts, this manor was built only for him. The only thing that this manor had in common with hers was that it was built on top of a small hill.

They passed the fence surrounding the manor, and Luigi used a key to open the door.

"Welcome!" said Luigi.

He guided them to the living room which possessed a fire place, a shelf with some books, some furniture, a small round table, and a chair facing some machine with a screen.

"What's this?" asked Apple Bloom.

"It's a television," answered Peach. "You don't have this in your dimension?"

"Nope."

"It's-a normally used to watch movies, but the prof will use it to telepixel you to his lab," informed Luigi.

Then the television suddenly turned on, showing the image of an old human almost entirely bald excepted for a tuft of hair at the top of his head and possessing huge round, weird glasses hiding his eyes.

«Exactly!» shouted the man. «So you're Apple Bloom? Glad to finally meet you, I looked forward to it. The Pixelator is activated. Just jump through the screen, and you will be teleported to my lab.»

"At least it isn't the old model from Evershade Valley. It was scary," said Luigi.

«There was nothing to be scared of. You always came out without missing a piece. By the way, the three of you are welcome in my hotel too if you want.»

"I'm sorry, professor, but I must return to the castle. I was only accompanying Apple Bloom," said Peach.

"Same. I was only guiding her to the manor," said Luigi before he turned to the filly. "It was nice meeting you Apple Bloom."

"Yes, it was a pleasure. I hope to see you again. I will keep a room for you if you decide to return to the castle," said Peach.

"And I could help you visit the kingdom," said Mario.

"Thank ya everyp... Uh, everyone. And thank y'all for yer help. Bye," said Apple Bloom with a wave.

"Bye!"

"Goodbye."

"Byebye!"

Apple Bloom turned back to the screen and put a hoof to test it. The hoof entered the screen that emitted a small light. Seeing that it worked, she jumped in the screen and disappeared in it before the television turned off.
> Chapter 4: E. Gadd
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a flash, Apple Bloom came out of a screen just in front of the old man who was sitting on a very high chair in a room full of machines that Apple Bloom couldn't fathom their use, except maybe the computer beside the old man. Apple Bloom also spotted her Poltergust on a table beside the computer.

The old man clapped happily and said "Nice to finally see you in person! Or is it in equine?"

"In pony," rectified Apple Bloom.

"Anyway. I'm sure that you guessed who I am, but let me present myself correctly. I am the professor Elvin Gadd, or E. Gadd for short. Nice meeting you, visitor from another dimension, and welcome to my new hotel, the E. Gadd Resort. You have NO idea how much I want to research you."

"Ooh, Ah may've an idea. If ya're like one of my sister's friends..."

"Then I would like to meet this friend one day if it's possible to open a permanent dimensional gateway between our two dimensions. And for this, I may actually need to do some researches on you. Who knows, I may find something that could help. And while I'm at it, I would love to meet whoever created this wonderful Poltergust that you brought with you. Unless it's you?"

"Nope. His name's Smart Spirit. He's pretty much yer counterpart."

"Crimini! Now I really want to meet him! If he's as much of a genius as me, then the both of us will change the world! Speaking of your Poltergust." E. Gadd turned his chair to face the table and took her Poltergust before he gave it back to her. "Here it is! I'm sure you want it back."

"Thanks," said Apple Bloom as she took the Poltergust.

"Being able to control the level of power of the Poltergust? What a brilliant idea! How did I not think of it? I definitively took note of this for my next version of the Poltergust. And it is so light compared to my Poltergust, certainly a huge bonus."

As E. Gadd talked, Apple Bloom opened the Poltergust. "Uh? Where's the crystal?"

"Oh! Sorry about that. While I was studying it, one of the ghosts trapped in it tried to escape. I had to put it in one of the special ghost-trapping glass containers of my vault." He pointed to a red and yellow cylindrical machine with a small screen and a rectangular metal lip under it in a corner of the room. "You can go look if you want. This is where all the ghosts Luigi caught are kept, including King Boo." With the press of a button, the screen of the vault turned on.

Curious, Apple Bloom walked to the vault and looked in the screen displaying a glass container with her crystal trapped in it. Outside the crystal was Eternal Rest who had been able to get out. However, the glass container seemed to be strong enough to contain her as she attacked it to escape. It was such a pleasure to see her trapped in there! She saw that there were other containers, and with the press of a button beside the screen, Apple Bloom was able to move them, seeing that the next container had King Boo trapped in it. He wasn't happy at all. Looking at the other containers, she saw that they all contained a human version of the ghosts she fought in the hotel (excepted the pirate who, there, was a ghost shark). One of the containers however, the one between the old bearded man (Green Hoof's counterpart) and the caveman (Ooga's counterpart), was empty. Remembering the order of the floors, then it was probably the container supposed to trap Director Cut's counterpart.

To be sure, she asked. "Is the empty container where the filmmaker from floor 8 was supposed to go?"

"Yes, but Luigi decided to not capture him because he was the only ghost who wasn't a jerk to him. Now, he must be out somewhere doing new movies."

Nodding, Apple Bloom changed row and found a row of containers full of Boos. It wasn't as interresting to watch because all the Boos looked identical. They were just smaller versions of King Boo without the crown and the dark area around the eyes, and with a pink tongue instead of King Boo's purple one.

There were no other ghosts in the vault, so Apple Bloom brought back the container with Eternal Rest and her crystal.

"How will we get the crystal out without freeing Eternal Rest? Trust me, ya don't want her out. She killed three of mah friends in cold blood and killed many other ponies and other creatures. And she's really powerful, like, she's the one who's able to open the portal that brought me in this dimension."

"Don't worry, I know what to do. Wait here," said E Gadd before he jumped from his chair and exited the room. He came back a few seconds later with Luigi's Poltergust on his back. He jumped back on his chair, pressed some buttons on his computer, then walked to the vault. He then put the end of his Poltergust in the port, and something apparently entered the vacuum cleaner.

"There. Now, she's in the Poltergust," he said. "Don't worry, the Poltergust G-00 is strong enough to contain her." Taking off his Poltergust, he then returned on the chair and pressed more buttons on his computer. A small part of the vault then opened, and a mechanical claw came out holding the glass container with Apple Bloom's crystal, Eternal Rest not in the glass anymore like E. Gadd said. "You can take it."

"Thanks!" Apple Bloom took the container and opened it, freeing the crystal that she then grabbed. "But now, Ah've to find how to free the ghosts trapped in it."

"Why do you want to free them?"

"They were forced to fight me by Eternal Rest. In truth, there were only a few evil ghosts among all the ones Ah encountered, and they're all in another crystal back home, excepted Eternal Rest's Polterkitty who's in this crystal."

"I see. Well, from what I could discover about this crystal before Eternal Rest's attempt to escape, it's magic, and sadly, this isn't my domain. I will have to call a Magikoopa to help you. This will be the perfect occasion to start studying it! On another matter, I remarked that Eternal Rest looked a lot like Hellen Gravely without her makeup, and you just said she has a Polterkitty too. So, she's Hellen Gravely's counterpart?"

"Eeyup," answered Apple Bloom before she pointed at the vault. "All the ghosts in this vault had a counterpart in mah world that Ah'd to face, excepted the Boos. Ah talked about this to Luigi, he and Ah lived through the same adventures with some differences."

"Oh? So you started your ghost hunting career with a haunted mansion in the middle of dark woods?"

"Eeyup. We've such dark woods just beside mah hometown. The manor appeared in it."

"Then you had to explore five manors in a haunted valley?"

"The exact same ones. Gloomy Manor, Haunted Towers and so on."

"And before appearing in this dimension, you went through a fifteen-stories hotel?"

"With two basement floors and the final battle on the roof."

"But then, if this Eternal Rest was your 'Hellen Gravely', who was your 'King Boo'?"

"It's complicated. Ah fought Eternal Rest both in the fifteenth floor and on the roof, so she played both roles. In the haunted mansion, my 'King Boo' was the baby ghost, and in Evershade Valley, 'King Boo' was the peinter from mah first adventure who had escaped."

"So, in your first adventure, 'King Boo' was Chauncey's counterpart, in your second, it was Vincent Van Gore's counterpart, and in your third, it was Eternal Rest. But then, you don't have a real 'King Boo'?"

"Ah've one, but he puts yer King Boo to shame. His name's Thanatos, the Lord of Death. In mah first adventure, he didn't appear, but he's indirectly responsible. Ya remember Bogmire? In mah dimension, he's created by Thanatos. The inhabitants of the manor of mah first adventure had captured him, but they were betrayed by one of them, Pyrite, that Vincent's counterpart who wanted his family's fortune. He freed Bogmire who cursed the manor and sent it to the spiritual world. The curse killed everypony in the manor and trapped them in what would've been eternity, but Little Ghost, Chauncey's counterpart, became powerful enough to take control of the curse and send the manor back in the world of the living. Mah sister and her friends went to explore the manor but didn't come out, so me and mah friends entered the manor. Ah's only saved from being captured thanks to the intervention of Smart Spirit. With his help, Ah captured Bogmire, saved everypony, and destroyed the curse. However, Pyrite escaped.

He went to the spiritual world and warned Thanatos about me. Thanatos took interest in me and mah Poltergust and started 'playing' with me because he was bored. He sent Eternal Rest, disguised as a living mare, to tell us about Evershade Valley, and Smart Spirit went to the valley to study the ghosts in it. Thanatos then captured him and took control of all the ghosts in the valley, which led to me starting mah second adventure. In this adventure, he killed Smart Spirit as well as one of mah best friends Sweetie Belle, and mah sister Applejack died because of one of the powerful ghosts he created to face me. After Ah defeated his five ghosts and Pyrite, he made me enter his castle where Ah encountered him. We fought, but he barely used his powers. For him, it's just a fight 'for fun'. So Ah captured him, but he easily escaped mah Poltergust, told me that Ah'd won, and sent me back to Evershade Valley with everypony he'd captured.

The hotel was his second 'game'. He sent Eternal Rest to fight me, she captured most of mah friends, and Ah'd to explore her hotel, find the buttons of the elevator and fight their guardians to save everypony and reach her. Ah don't know however if Ah'd to fight Thanatos after Eternal Rest because as Ah defeated her, she opened that portal and sent me here. Ah've yet to find a way to keep Thanatos trapped once he's captured, the crystal isn't powerful enough as ya saw."

E. Gadd did a clap. "Well, maybe I can help you! I may have a mean to keep him trapped! I'm not talking about my Poltergust and my vault. As you saw, they're better than your crystal, but I don't think they're strong enough against someone who calls himself 'the Lord of Death' and who can create ghosts. However, in another lab, I have an invention that could work, and thanks to the Pixelator, we can go to this lab right now if you want."

"Show me!" shouted Apple Bloom excitedly.

"Very well," replied E. Gadd before he pressed some buttons on his computer, reactivating the screen from which Apple Bloom came out. Then, he took a microphone and said in it "Toady? I will be away for a few minutes. If anyone wants to see me, tell them to wait. I will be in my lab in Boo Woods." He then jumped from his chair, took his Poltergust, and walked toward the Pixelator, waving Apple Bloom to follow him.

They stepped through the scren and entered a different lab. This one seemed to be underground, the walls and floor being made of rock or dirt. There was a long ladder leading to a small tunnel in the ceiling, some machines, a shelf full of books, and two doors, one at the left of the ladder and one at the other side.

They passed the left door and entered a long room. There, Apple Bloom looked in awe at the huge machine taking most of the room. The machine was divided into different sections, starting at her left with a section possessing a rectangular metal lip for the Poltergust. This section was connected to another with a similar design, but taller, by a pipe, and this second section was connected by another pipe to a big round section with a round window. This round thing seemed to be full of a liquid, but Apple Bloom wasn't sure if it was water. There was then a conduit exiting the round section and stopping just above the beginning of the next one, a very long section passing below a pincer, then below two other machines before it entered a bigger one and finished with a trapdoor. Behind all this were other sections, giant cogs and other stuff making the whole thing work.

"Here it is!" shouted E. Gadd. "One of my greatest inventions, result of decades of researches on ghosts! The Ghost Portrificationizer!"

"The what?"

"The Ghost Portrificationizer! Just you wait to see this baby work. Be ready to be swept off your feet! Erh... Hooves!"

At this, E. Gadd pluged his Poltergust in the slot in the first section, and Eternal Rest was ejected out of the vacuum cleaner and into the machine that activated as a result. Eternal Rest traversed the pipes and entered the round section where she could be seen floating in the liquid as some kind of blue ball with yellow glowing eyes. The section then began vibrating violently as the liquid swirled as if there was a whirlpool, and Eternal Rest was little by little flattened in the liquid before everything became dark in there. The long section then activated, and some moving plate came and placed itself under the exit of the conduit from which Eternal Rest, now as flat as a pancake, came out. She dropped on the plate that began to move. It passed under the pincer, then reached the first machine from which came a second plate. The second plate revealed to be a crusher to flatten the ghost even more, and Eternal Rest was now as thin as paper. She was then moved to the second machine that possessed pink... things out of which came electricity that shocked the ghost. Eternal Rest then entered the last machine, and something was pressed in it. The plate then came out of the machine above the trapdoor, not with a ghost, but with a portrait. Two claws grabbed it as it was moved to be vertical, revealing what was the portrait.

The portrait was Eternal Rest facing Apple Bloom and E. Gadd, looking absolutely enraged with her red glowing eyes. Her hairs were an absolute mess floating in all directions in a non-existant wind, and purple lightning surrounded her.

As the claws brought the portrait in the trapdoor that closed behind for a second before reopening, Apple Bloom looked back and forth between E. Gadd and the machine, jaw dropping.

"Did-did-did-did this machine just turn Eternal Rest into a portrait?!"

"Exactly!" shouted E. Gadd with a laugh. "This machine was made to turn ghosts into portraits. At first, I was collecting them, but I was starting to run out of money despite my café in Beanbean Kingdom, so I began to sell them. Those portraits are gold!" He then put a hand on the machine and rested against it with a very proud expression. "The ghosts can't escape from their portraits without an outside help, no matter how powerful they're. It's free to you to decide what you'll do with them after. If you want, I will give you a copy of the blueprints so you can build it once you're back in your dimension. Of course, you will have to modify it so it works with your version of the Poltergust. Now, follow me to the gallery so we can admire the new addition."

E. Gadd then opened a door beside the trapdoor, and Apple Bloom followed him, jaw still dropped. They then entered a door with two staircases leading to upper levels and a double door between said staircases. Against the wall on the level just above the double door, there was now Eternal Rest's portrait.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" asked E. Gadd. "I would've preferred putting in her Polterkitty, but that's not bad.

Apple Bloom was without words.

"Now, let's work on building you a better weapon to face the Lord of Death. Your Poltergust is very good, but I'm sure that we can find ways to upgrade it."

Apple Bloom's shock slowly turned into joy. She finally could see the end of the tunnel. Soon, Thanatos will be part of the past.
> Chapter 5: The Poltergusts
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Later, Apple Bloom and E. Gadd returned in his hotel with Eternal Rest's portrait, and the scientist gave the filly the blueprints of the Ghost Portrificationizer to study while he went to prepare something. A dozen of minutes later, he led her to a huge room entirely white. However, it possessed various small objects placed seemingly randomly like trinkets, books, sheets, and so on. Behind all those object was a giant statue of a ghost made from various elements like wood and metal.

On the floor, lined beside each others, were three Poltergusts that all possessed some differences.

The first looked like her Poltergust, but bulkier and without the button to control the power and the gauge to show when it was overheating. Also, there wasn't the vent to release the dust and other stuff sucked beside the ghosts, but it possessed wheels.

The second one looked a lot like the first one but possessed a green light on its back above a red switch, and there was a red button on the handle beside the one activating the sucking and the switch deciding if it was in 'suck' mode or in 'blow air' mode. There was also a gauge divided into three colors: blue, green, and red, above a button, and another switch.

The last one was the Poltergoo, with its big tube full of goo in its back. Additionnaly to all the switches and buttons of the previous model, there was also a big lever.

"I present to you the three models of Poltergusts that I developped so far," said E. Gadd. "The Poltergust 3000, the Poltergust 5000, and the Poltergust G-00."

"Uh. What about the 1000, 2000, and 4000?" asked Apple Bloom.

"1000 and 2000 were prototypes that didn't work correctly. 4000 was a kart that I developped for racing," answered the prof. "Now, let's give you a small run down of those three babies, first with the Poltergust 3000. Put it on."

Apple Bloom nodded and took the Poltergust 3000. The first thing that she remarked was that it was much heavier than her Poltergust. No wonder that Luigi could barely jump with it on his back. If she wasn't an earth pony, she doubted that she could lift it. Slowly, she put it on and put a hoof around the handle, ready to press the red switch.

"I tested your Poltergust, and there are some crucial differences," began E. Gadd. "Yours can only suck up very small objects, and you have to open it to get them out if they can't pass through the vent. My Poltergusts, all models, can suck bigger objects, and anything sucked that isn't a ghost is promptly destroyed. Excepted money because I'm not crazy. Money is teleported to a special vault. I can't imagine how hard it must have been to catch ghosts while paying attention to the objects around so you didn't accidentally suck them. Well, with my Poltergusts, you don't have this problem anymore. Try to suck all the objects I placed in this room, excepted the giant statue of course."

Apple Bloom had a hard time believing that the Poltergust could do such a thing, but she activated it and did as she was told, and to her surprise, the Poltergust really was able to suck objects, even objects that were bigger than the entrance of the Poltergust. Some objects, however, weren't sucked, like a trash bin, a big vase, or a suitcase.

"Incredible!" she said. "It looks like magic!"

"There's a quote that says 'technology advanced enough is comparable to magic' or something like that," said E. Gadd. "Maybe magic is a form of advanced technology we don't understand yet? Anyway, there's another feature that I would have loved to show you, but I can't, sadly. You see, in his first adventure, Luigi found three special medals that gave the Poltergust the special power to suck elemental ghosts and use them to spit fire, water, or ice. I still have the medals, but no elemental ghosts around. You will just have to believe my words for this one. That's all for the Poltergust 3000, let's pass to the Poltergust 5000."

Apple Bloom nodded, took of the Poltergust 3000, then put the Poltergust 5000 in its place. It was as heavy as the first one.

"Now, there are three main features that I added with this one. The first one, you know it, is the Dark Light Device. Where for you, it is a separate device in your belt, for me, it's a device part of the Poltergust. The use is the same: cancel the power of a ghost on a object by forcing the Spirit Balls out, and turn visible the trail of some ghosts like the Polterpup and the Polterkitty."

"Spirit Balls?" asked Apple Bloom.

"By your question, I assume that they don't exist in your dimension. In our dimension, this is what ghosts use to turn objects invisible or to possess them. The DLD force those balls out, and you just have to suck them before they return in the object to stop their influence on it. How does this works in your dimension?"

"It isn't as complicated. We just point the DLD at the invisible object for a few seconds, and it turns it visible. Nothing to suck. But Ah didn't think that it'd be used on the possessed objects. It'd have made our job easier."

E. Gadd laughed. "Really? You didn't use the DLD on the possessed objects? Then what did you do against them?"

"We destroyed them."

"Simple and effective. Ohohohohoh! So, next comes the Strobulb. It's a powerful flashlight made to stun the ghosts because, as you know, ghosts fear the light."

"Uh? Not at all. They don't fear the light, they can come out in the sun."

"I should have been more precise. They fear STRONG lights. A sudden FLASH and they stop moving for a few seconds depending of how powerful the flash was, giving you the opening to suck them."

"Mmh... Ah never needed to stun ghosts to capture them, and Ah don't know if this works on the ghosts of mah dimension. This'll need to be tested."

"It this works, it'll make your life much easier. To switch between the Strobulb and the DLD, you just have to use this switch right there," said E. Gadd as he pointed at the switch not far of the tri-colored gauge. "In Strobulb mode, the Strobulb will automatically be turned on to work as a normal flashlight. Then, you will just have to press the red button near the end of the handle to charge the flash." At this, E. Gadd turned the Poltergust on with the switch on the back, under the green light. Immediately, the handle morphed to look like a flashlight, and like E. Gadd said, it was automatically turned on.  "Now, give it a try. Uh, please, don't target me."

Apple Bloom turned to a random direction and pressed the red button. The Strobulb stopped emitting light, but a small sound becoming more and more high-pitched showed that it was charging. She then stopped pressing the button, and the Strobulb unleashed a big flash of light that could certainly dazzle anyone targeted by it, not just ghosts. Without waiting for E. Gadd's instructions, she then switched to the DLD and pressed the red button to activate it, the flashlight now emitting a rainbow light. Apple Bloom quickly had to stop however because she could feel the handle overheat. Putting the Poltergust to Strobulb mode, she then pressed the button to start sucking. The handle morphed into the familiar rectangular shape and began to suck air. With a press of the last switch, the Poltergust then began to blow air.

E. Gadd clapped. "You really are a pro! But now, let's talk about the main feature of this Poltergust: the Power Surge. You certainly remarked this tri-colored gauge. Well, you see, once you start capturing a ghost with this Poltergust, this gauge starts filling." At those words, E. Gadd pressed a button on a remote control, and a part of the floor opened to reveal some machine. The machine then activated, and above it, a ghost looking like a more human version of a Prankster from Evershade Valley appeared. "Don't worry, it's just a hologram. Now start capturing it, but keep an eye on the gauge. Once you see the blue part totally filled, press the button under it. Don't forget to stun the ghost first with the Strobulb."

Apple Bloom nodded and began to charge a flash with the Strobulb. Once it was charged enough, she unleashed it, and the ghost was stunned, revealing... a heart? Apple Bloom immediately began to suck it, and when she saw that the blue part of the gauge was filled, she pressed the indicated button. The Poltergust then got a small power surge that clearly weakened the ghost as its heart looked weaker. The ghost was then captured.

"Great job!" shouted E. Gadd. He then pressed another button, and this time, a ghost looking like a Bulky appeared. "Now, capture this ghost, but this time, wait until the gauge is totally filled."

Apple Bloom immediately stunned the ghost with the Strobulb, revealing its heart, and she did as she was told. As she sucked the ghost, she waited for the gauge to be totally filled (so she had to wait for the red part to be filled), and once it was done, she pressed the button. This gave the Poltergust a HUGE power surge, and the ghost was promptly captured despite being clearly stronger than the green one. A capture that would have taken some time was over in an instant! For this brief moment, the Poltergust had the power of her Poltergust in red mode!

"Woah..."

"Awed? That's not a surprise," said E. Gadd proudly. "That's all for the Poltergust 5000. Let's pass to the Poltergust G-00."

Still awed, Apple Bloom nodded, took off the Poltergust 5000, and replaced it with the Poltergust G-00.

"Now, there're some changes between the Poltergust 5000 and the Poltergust G-00. It keeps the Strobulb and the DLD, however, the Power Surge is used for something else: slamming. Once it's charged, then press the button and it will give you a power boost to help you slam the ghosts, even the bigger ones normally difficult to slam by yourself. This way, you can slam the ghosts much more rapidly than you're used to, which revealed to be more effective than the original Power Surge."

"Eeyup. Nothing beats slamming ghosts on other ghosts."

"We agree on this! Ohohohohoh! How about you try this?" At this, E. Gadd pressed a button, and the machine created two ghosts looking like a Tricksters. "You know the dance."

Nodding with a smile, Apple Bloom stunned one of the ghosts and began sucking it. Instead of directly slamming it like she would do, she waited for the gauge to fill, then pressed the button. This gave a small power surge that prompted her to slam the ghost, and she made sure to target the other. She pressed the button again and again until the first ghost was captured, and the second one was very weakened.

"Booyah! If they were real, it would have given them a super headache!" shouted E. Gadd. "If you find the good timing, you can slam the ghost seven times before the gauge empties itself, causing the ghost to escape if he isn't captured by then. So you can choose between slamming the ghosts the normal way, slowly but without limit, or with the Power Surge, rapidly but with a limit. Now, this Poltergust has three other features. You see this lever? Grab it."

As the second ghost disappeared, Apple Bloom put a hoof on the lever on the handle. Suddenly, the handle morphed again, and of all things, a toilet plunger appeared at the end.

"What?"

E. Gadd then pointed at the trash bin still in the room. "Target this trash bin and pull down the lever."

Curious, Apple Bloom did so, and the toilet plunger was suddenly fired at the trash bin. The plunger stuck on it, and revealed that it possessed a small rope with a big knot.

"Now, suck the rope. You may need to approach."

So Apple Bloom approached and sucked the rope. the knot got stuck in the mouth of the vacuum cleaner, and the Power Surge gauge began to fill. Understanding what she had to do, Apple Bloom waited for the gauge to fill, then pressed the button. With the power surge it gave, she was able to slam the trash bin and to destroy it.

E. Gladd clapped. "This is the Suction Shot, useful to destroy bigger objects blocking the way and to open paths. You can also use it on ghosts. Nothing is funnier than a ghost with a toilet plunger stuck on their face, blinding them. This makes them impossible to stun for a moment, but when you are surrounded by ghosts, blinding one can greatly help. Also, you have unlimited ammunition. When a plunger is fired, another appears in its place."

"Cool!" shouted Apple Bloom. She was curious to know how he did it for the infinite ammunition.

"Now, there's what I call the Burst, but I don't think it will work with you. There's a button on the side of the Poltergust that will make it create a large gust of wind under it. It's meant to propel you in the air to avoid things like shockwaves. But since you're quadrupedal, then the gust of wind will go behind you, not under you. At best, it will propel you forward if you do it against a wall, but not upward."

Apple Bloom nodded. Maybe they'll be able to remedy to this.

"The next feature, you know him! Gooigi!"

At E. Gadd shouting his name, the goo in the tube came out to form Gooigi who waved at Apple Bloom and said with his high-pitched voice "Hello!"

"Hello!" waved back Apple Bloom.

"Gooigi is the result of long researches on Goo, and also some luck. Goo is something I created from ghost energy, and Gooigi is entirely made of it. I will lead you to the entries I left if you want to know the details, but the point is that Gooigi can do almost everything that Luigi can do and much more, like entering conduits and other narrow passage, or passing through bars.  Arrow and other piercing objects have no effects on him. However, he has some defaults that I couldn't eliminate no matter what I did. For example, he can't yet open doors. Fire and water also destroy him immediately, and strong enough blows can hurt him. He's also very fragile, so just a few of those blows are enough to destroy him. Thankfully, if he's destroyed, he simply reappears in this tube, and he can come back out of it almost immediately."

"Woohoo!" shouted Gooigi.

"I can make an 'Applegoo' for you if you want. With the biological data I took when you used the Pixelator, it'll be easy. It will take some time however, and I will need some footage of you capturing ghosts."

"It'd be useful," agreed Apple Bloom.

"Now, about Gooigi. He can perfectly act on his own, but he's unpredictable. He can catch ghosts and all, but he does what he wants, which isn't always what WE want, like sneaking on a ghost for example. So I developed a way for the one using the Poltergust G-00 to transfer their mind to control Gooigi directly. However, as a result, the users' body enters a sleep-like state. All you have to do is to think about this, and your mind will move between your body and Gooigi's body, and you can also use it to recall him inside the tube. Come on, give it a test!"

Apple Bloom looked at Gooigi, unsure, and Gooigi looked back at her with his blank expression. Eventually, she did like E. Gadd said, and the next thing she knew, her body was now Gooigi's. She already was used to walking on two legs. She had to walk this way a lot while using the Poltergust, but the absence of a tail to balance almost made her fall. Also, having a slimy body was absolutely weird! She feared that it would lose shape at any moment, leaving her as a pile of goo on the floor. Thankfully, Gooigi retained his shape, and slowly, she began to walk around, testing the body of goo. E. Gadd made various objects made of bars, like fences, enter the room for her to test, and she could pass through them very easily. She could reach places that only Little Ghost was able to reach until now!

She eventually decided that she was done testing with Gooigi and would rather wait to have an 'Applegoo' to test with. So she returned to her body and made Gooigi return in the tube.

"Byebye!" he said before disappearing.

"Now, the last unique feature of the Poltergust G-00. Just you wait," said E. Gadd. With the press of a button, he made some kind of box with an octagon part possessing three holes glowing yellow come out of the floor. "Approach this outlet," he then said.

Apple Bloom approached the outlet, and suddenly, electricity came out of it and linked itself to the Poltergust. This scared her for a moment, but she quickly discovered that this didn't harm her. Actually, she felt the Poltergust vibrate.

"Now..." began E. Gadd as he pointed at the giant statue. "suck it up!" he yelled before he ran out of the room, making the machine creating holograms disappear in the floor with the press of a button.

Apple Bloom looked at him as if he had lost his mind, but then pressed the button while targeting the statue.

And a huge vortex came out of the Poltergust, sucking the statue piece by piece as bolts of electricity came out of the Poltergust in a huge racket! The statue wasn't the only thing sucked. As Apple bloom turned the Poltergust around, all the objects remaining in the room were sucked and disappeared in the Poltergust! By the end, when she stopped, the room was entirely cleaned of all objects excepted the outlet!

That thing was beyond the red mode, and it wasn't even overheating!

THAT. WAS. CRAZY!

"Celestia..." muttered Apple Bloom in awe.



Apple Bloom listed all the features of the three Poltergusts and added in the features of her own Poltergust.

Her goal: create a Poltergust with all those features. Against the Lord of Death, everything was good to take. However, she will have to find a way to make that Poltergust spit fire, water, and ice without needing the medals. She wasn't even sure that there will be elemental ghosts in Thanatos' castle. She had to find something to replace them. Then, there was the Super Suction. Having it without the need to plug the Poltergust to an electrical source would be very great! She very doubted that there will be outlets in Thanatos' castle. If she and E. Gadd could also find a way to improve the Goo so she wouldn't need to control it... Magic will certainly be very useful. That Magikoopa couldn't arrive too soon.

But that Poltergust wasn't the only thing she had to develop. There was still that device she had in mind that could turn her into a ghost temporarily. She was sure that E. Gadd could help her create it, but magic may also be needed too.

Having Smart Spirit and Twilight with her would have helped a lot. Twilight was a magical genius, and Smart Spirit was very good at applying magic into technology. With E. Gadd's technology, nothing would be impossible.

But she had to wait for a portal between this dimension and hers to be opened, either from one side or the other, and who knew how long this will take.
> Chapter 6: Found
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Later that day, the Magikoopa arrived, and with her help, all the ghosts excepted the Polterkitty were released from the crystal. Apple Bloom quickly explained to them the situation, and after the shock of hearing that she had captured Eternal Rest (and that she had been turned into a portrait), they all accepted to remain in E. Gadd's hotel while awaiting the occasion to return home. Some of them also accepted E. Gadd's request to study them. They were ghosts from an entirely different dimension, after all! Who knew what he will find out?

Apple Bloom then asked Deep End to help her train physically. She already was strong, was very well in shape, and had a very good stamina, but against Thanatos and his castle full of dangers, she wanted to get better, much better. She wanted to have E. Gadd's Poltergust on her back and still being able to jump. She wanted to be able to do laps around Ponyville without feeling fatigue. Thankfully, E. Gadd built this hotel with a fitness center, so she had everything necessary for this.

She also decided to train with the four available Poltergusts. She wanted to master all their features so that, when they finished building the Poltergust with all of them, she would already master it. The white room where E. Gadd presented to her his Poltergusts was perfect for this. The holographic machines present there could create all the fake ghosts she needed to train.

And outside of training, she began to study the Poltergusts. E. Gadds brought copies of his three Poltergusts as well as their blueprints for her to disassemble so she could see how they work. She wanted to help E. Gadd design the Poltergust possessing the features of all the others, and for this, she had to know how they work. She already had some experience building Poltergusts when she trained to build one before the incident with Eternal Rest, but these Poltergusts were entirely made from technology, with not a single trace of magic. They were really different. But with this technology, E. Gadd managed to make them more effective to keep a ghost trapped, so if she could ally this technology to the magic of the crystal...

Thankfully, for the magical side, she could count on the help of the Magikoopa, named Kamat, even if her magic was somewhat different from the one used by the unicorns in Equestria.

At the same time, she retook her studies on ghosts and paranormal with E. Gadd's help with the goal in mind to build that gadget that could turn her into a ghost. When she told E. Gadd her idea, he was immediately interested in this, and they began to work hard together to create this gadget, again with the help of Kamat.

E. Gadd also worked to create 'Applegoo'. Following what he did leading to Gooigi's birth, he dumped some of his Lunoman Greenie Blend coffee into a vial of liquid that was actually ghost energy, creating goo. He then inputted Apple Bloom's biological data captured by the Pixelator into it so the goo took Apple Bloom's shape, including the bow. All that remained were to use footage of Apple Bloom using the Poltergust and capturing ghosts to make Applegoo learn by mimic, so E. Gadd filmed Apple Bloom as she trained in the white room. He didn't forget to put in the chip for control and to use the formula to give the goo a fluid quality to pass between bars and other small spaces.

In a matter of a few hours, Applegoo was ready, and Apple Bloom began to train alongside her in the white room when she was using the Poltergust G-00.

For the next few days, this turned into a routine, Apple Bloom alternating between training, studying, and some moments of rest where she explored E. Gadd's hotel and the area around it, which was the SAME valley than the one back home, with the lake and the mountains. E. Gadd even made her visit this dimension's Evershade Valley, which was also the exact same with just one difference: the presence of a floating crystal moon in the sky keeping the ghosts in the valley from going crazy. And of course, the various 'manors' in here were still in bad shape, nobody having restored them like Apple Bloom did in her dimension.



It was almost three weeks after Apple Bloom arrived in this dimension, and about a week after she woke up from her coma. She was actually sitting on a high chair like the ones E. Gadd used, in a chamber beside the lab that E. Gadd gave to her. She was now wearing a blouse and rereading notes she and the prof took after some experiments on ghosts from her dimension. It turned out that ghosts from her dimension were rather similar to ghosts from his dimension, the main difference being that the ghosts from her dimension had less problems with light than the ones from his dimension. Still, the Strobulb worked on them, but instead of stunning them, it dazzled them, not like it changed anything in the end. Stunned or dazzled, it made the ghost an easier prey for her.

With those notes, she was thinking of how they could use those data to create her Spectral Transmograftizer as E. Gadd named it. It was a mouthful, but it was strangely easy to remember and pronounce.

"Uh. I wasn't expecting to find you muzzle down in notes Twilight mode," suddenly said someone behind her, making her jump. Thankfully, she kept enough control to not throw the notes in the air and fall from her chair.

However, she quickly recognized the voice, and she looked behind her to see Discord looking at her notes from above her whither, a big smile forming in her muzzle. "Discord!"

"I think it's the first time I hear somepony shout my name with such happiness," commented the draconequus with a chuckle.

E. Gadd then entered the room. "Is there something, Apple Bloom? I heard you... Uh?" He stopped himself when he saw Discord who waved at him. "Oh! You must be Discord. Apple Bloom told me about you. So you were able to track her to this dimension?"

"Yes. It was easy. I just had to get the remnant of the energy that Eternal Rest used to create her portal and use it to reopen that same portal. Only took me a few minutes. The portal dropped me just on top of this building."

"No wonder," said Apple Bloom. "The portal dropped me on the roof of this dimension's version of Eternal Rest's hotel. Since then, the hotel's destroyed, and a new one's built in its place."

"Really now?" asked Discord. "Building a hotel doesn't happen in one day. How long have you been in this dimension?"

Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow. "Almost three weeks. Why? Hasn't three weeks also passed in Equestria?"

"Come on. I just said that it took me a few minutes to recreate Eternal Rest's portal. Do you really think it took your friends three weeks to call my help after you disappeared? Only a few hours passed in Equestria, not even half a day. In case you don't know, time doesn't necessarily flow at the same speed between dimensions. This is a little what I feared. I was expecting to find you as an old mare, if not dead from old age. Anyway, are you ready to return home?"

Apple Bloom almost immediately shouted "Yes!" but stopped herself, starting to think.

Less than half a day in Equestria equaled almost three weeks in the Mushroom Kingdom...

This meant more time to prepare against Thanatos before he would act again!

"Ah'm sorry Discord, but Ah'll remain in this dimension for now. Can ya bring Twilight and Smart Spirit however?" She smirked. "Give us a few days Equestrian time, and we'll be ready to face Thanatos."

Discord looked at her as if she had grown a second head, but then understood. "Oooh! Clever girl! Alright, give me a few minutes. No, wait, in this dimension, this will probably take an hour or two."

"Okay. We'll wait. Oh, but before..." Apple Bloom jumped from her chair and entered the main room of the lab. There, she took the microphone beside the main computer, pressed a button, and said in it "To all the Equestrian ghosts! Any of y'all who wants to return to Equestria now comes to the lab! Someone's ready to transport ya back!"

Almost immediately after she was finished, ghosts began to come to the lab, some coming only by curiosity like Deep End because they wanted to remain there to help. When ghosts stopped coming, Discord took it as his cue and opened a portal in the fabric of space before he flew through it, followed by the ghosts that wanted to return to Equestria. Once the last ghost passed it, the portal closed.



Back in Equestria.

Twilight was back in her castle and tried to get over the events of the previous night by doing her favorite activity: reading a book. Starlight was also in the castle getting used to her new nature. It was decided that, as long as she didn't pass on to the afterlife, she would remain Twilight's protégée and student in friendship. Becoming a ghost didn't mean that it was the end.

Then, Discord appeared and cleared his throat to gain her attention. He could have used the occasion to prank her, but after the terrible events at Eternal Rest's hotel, he thought that it wasn't the moment.

"Discord? Already back?" asked Twilight when she saw him.

"Yes. It didn't take long to find the ruins, and for me to find the remnant of the energy like I said. And, you know what? I already found Apple Bloom!"

"Really?" asked Twilight. "You brought her back?"

"She didn't want to."

"What?"

"Before I explain to you, I should gather everypony, including Smart Spirit."

"Wait. Some of them must be sleeping. It was a really long night."

"Alright then, I will just gather the ones I'm sure aren't sleeping." At this, Discord snapped his fingers, teleporting in the room Applejack, Fluttershy, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Little Ghost, and Smart Spirit. As confusion spread, Discord quickly said to them "My friends, I gathered you there today to tell you that I found Apple Bloom!"

"Really?!" shouted the fillies.

"Where's she?!" shouted Applejack.

"Is she alright?" asked Fluttershy.

"Yes. She's perfectly fine. She appeared somewhere nice where she was given a roof and all, and only three weeks passed for her."

"Only three weeks?" repeated Applejack.

"Okay, yes, that's a lot compared to us, but at least, it's only three weeks, not, say, three years, or three decades. Speaking off, I should hurry, or night will fall in the other dimension by the time I return there with Twilight and Smart Spirit."

"Uh?"

"Why us?"

"Wait, ya mean Bloom's still in the other dimension?" asked Applejack.

"That's what she wanted, yes. Since time flows more rapidly in this other dimension, then she wanted to remain there to prepare herself against Thanatos, invent stuff to fight him and all. So, when she'll be ready, many months will have passed for her, but only a few days for Equestria."

"That's... very clever," said Twilight.

"As for why she wants me to bring you two, that's because she needs your help."

"That's understandable," said Smart Spirit.

"With pleasure," said Twilight. "But wait a moment. I need to get some stuff." At this, she teleported.

"Bring me with ya," then said Applejack. "Ah want to be with her."

"Me too!" shouted the three fillies.

"Ah don't think so, ya three. Ya'll need the authorization of yer families first," said Applejack.

At this, the fillies spread to go ask their families.

"Ah'd also go warn Granny and Big Mac. Don't wait for me. Ah'll be back in a few minutes," said the robot mare before she exited the room.

"I will go warn everypony else," said Fluttershy.

"That's what I expected of you, my dear," said Discord.

Then, Twilight teleported back in the room with a small bag and a pile of papers floating in her magic. "There. All the notes on the researches already done. And in this bag are some of the anti-ghost cannons that were collected in the hotel. I'm sure we can find some use for them against Thanatos."

"Good thinking," said Smart Spirit.

"I also warned Starlight that I will be absent for the next few days. She will tell Spike once he wakes up, and I told her to tell Spike to warn the princesses."

"So we're ready," said Smart Spirit to Discord.

With a nod, Discord opened the portal again and stepped through it, followed by Twilight and Smart Spirit.



They appeared in the room where Apple Bloom worked previously, but now, it was empty of its occupants. However, they could hear the familiar sound of the Poltergust being used, and they followed it to a big white room. Apple Bloom was there, among weird machines in the floor that were somehow materializing ghosts that looked like ghosts from both Evershade Valley and Eternal Rest's hotel and some others that didn't look like anything they knew, small and yellow, tall and pink, big and blue, green that ate bananas, and so on. At her side was some slimy green creature that looked like Apple Bloom, and at the entrance of the room, back to them, was what Twilight recognized was a human, an old one very small.

"Mmh... Those holograms are really starting to be easy for you to fight," said the old man. "Maybe I should put in datas from the portrait ghosts as well as from the ghosts from Hellen's hotel. They should give you more difficulty."

"Ah wouldn't mind training against King Boo," said Apple Bloom as she slammed three ghosts at once very rapidly. Then, she spotted Twilight and the others behind the man. "Prof, they're here. Stop the machines."

The man looked above his shoulder and saw the ponies. "Oh! You must be Twilight and Smart Spirit!" he said as he pressed a button on some device, causing all the machines to turn off and the ghosts they created to disappear. "We were waiting for you. I'm professor Elvin Gadd, or E. Gadd, nice meeting you," he then said as he went to shake Twilight's hoof.

"Nice meeting you, professor," she said.

"Nice meeting you too. you were training Apple Bloom?" asked Smart Spirit as he shook the prof's hand.

"Yes. Apple Bloom trains everyday to ready herself for when she will face that Thanatos fella and his army of ghosts," answered E. Gadd. "I can't wait to work at your sides, I was told that you were both genius. Especially you, Smart Spirit. Apple Bloom told me that you were the one who invented the Poltergust in your dimension. You certainly know a lot about the paranormal in your dimension."

"That I do."

"E. Gadd also invented the Poltergust in this dimension," informed Apple Bloom as she approached them. "Ya two're pretty much counterparts of each other."

At this, Smart Spirit looked at E. Gadd in another light, making the old man laugh.

"How about I lead you to the living room so we can talk around a table with some coffee?"

"While you do, I will return to Equestria," said Discord. "Expect me to return in an hour or two again. Your friends and your sister also wanted to come."

This made Apple Bloom smile. She really missed her sister and her friends. She couldn't wait to see them again.
> Chapter 7: It's Time to Do Science!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apple Bloom decided to wait the arrival of her friends and Applejack to recount what happened to her since she arrived in this dimension. Instead, for the next hour or so, she explained to Twilight and Smart Spirit, with E. Gadd's help, what she wanted to do. They already knew about the Spectral Transmograftizer, so she mainly explained about the Poltergust. She did a demonstration of E. Gadd's three Poltergusts and told them about how she wanted to include all their characteristics into Smart Spirit's Poltergust while trying to keep that last one's lightness compared to them.

Twilight then took out the anti-ghost cannons from her bag and said that they could use them to make it so the Poltergust could fire the same energy. It would be a great weapon against Thanatos! She also reminded about how Apple Bloom had to defend herself physically a lot, especially in her recent adventure with all these possessed objects, so she gave the idea of finding a way for Apple Bloom to better defend herself. Training to become stronger won't be enough if Apple Bloom finds herself fighting a possessed closet or whatever else. Yes, if they're able to add to the Poltergust the capacity to spit fire, then she could better defend herself, but she needed something more direct.

Already, they were noting down what they will do to make all those stuff possible when Discord entered the room with Applejack, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Little Ghost.

"Applejack! Girls!" shouted Apple Bloom in joy before she jumped from her chair and ran to tackle-hug her sister. Her friends then all gave her a group hug as they shouted her name. "Ah missed y'all so much!"

"Well," began Discord. "My job is done." He then gave Apple Bloom a mask of his face sticking out his tongue. "Once you want to return to Equestria, pull the tongue of this mask, and I will come. Right now, I'm returning in Equestria to keep watch in case my brother does something. Tata!"

The draconequus then passed through another portal back to Equestria, leaving Apple Bloom with her sister and her friends.

Once the initial joy of being reunited with Applejack and her friends was over, they all gathered around a table again where Apple Boom briefly resumed what she went through since she arrived in this dimension. Which wasn't much. The fight against King Boo upon arrival, the almost two weeks of coma that followed, the brief exploration of Peach's castle and of Toad Town (taking the time to explain to Twilight the craziness of this world so she wouldn't freak out as soon as she looked through a window), and her arriving to E. Gadd's lab where she trained and studied since to be ready against Thanatos.

And with Twilight and Smart Spirit's arrival, they will be able to seriously work on some projects.

In return, Applejack explained what happened in the few hours that passed in Equestria since she disappeared. The hotel collapsed just after the end of her fight against Eternal Rest, and when they discovered what happened to her thanks to Little Ghost, they immediately went to ask Discord for help in Canterlot. Applejack then freed all the ghosts who weren't in the red crystal, and they all either went to live in Apple Bloom's mansion or went in Evershade Valley. Twilight also revealed that Celestia's guards found more chests that they had missed in the ruins of the hotel, and all the gold in them was given to Apple Bloom under Celestia's orders. The princess thought she deserved it.

Oh, and of course, Discord helped Apple Bloom's friends, which was why Scootaloo wasn't trapped in her scooter anymore for example.

"Oh! Ah must show y'all!" eventually said Apple Bloom as she jumped from her chair. "Follow me! Ah want to show ya something!" Apple Bloom then led everypony back to her room and pointed at a certain portrait on a wall. "Look!"

They all looked and saw on the wall the portrait of Eternal Rest.

"A portrait of Eternal Rest?" asked Applejack. "Uuuuh... Why?"

"It isn't just a portrait. It is Eternal Rest!"

"What?!" shouted everypony else.

"How is this possible?" asked Twilight.

Apple Bloom looked at E. Gadd, prompting him to talk. "It's thanks to a machine I have in another lab, the Ghost Portrificationizer."

"The what?" asked Scootaloo.

"A machine to turn ghosts into portraits?" said Smart Spirit. "Genius! How did you come up with that idea?"

"Well, you see, my ghostly equine counterpart, I was..." E. Gadd then began a long explanation full of scientific babble that Smart Spirit and Twilight listened like students in a classroom. To her friends' surprise, Apple Bloom also listened and even took note.

"You understand what he says?" asked Scootaloo.

"Not everything. Ah'm not that much into 'egghead' territory yet as ya'd say. Ah'm just taking note for later."

"For when you will be an actual 'egghead'?" asked Sweetie Belle with a giggle.

"Eeyup."

Meanwhile, Applejack stared at the portrait, and was internally cackling like a madmare at Eternal Rest now trapped in a portrait, hopefully for eternity. She got what she deserved, and just for this, Applejack will never get bored of watching this portrait. She was sure that Rainbow would think the same thing.

Once E. Gadd was finished with how he came up with the Ghost Portrificationizer, Apple bloom then talked.

"Ah want to build one back in Equestria. Ah find the idea of trapping evil ghosts in portraits better. It's more effective than the crystals, and they can be admired. Even Thanatos shouldn't be able to escape. It'll be mah own collection."

"Ya'll even trap the ones that were already sent to Tartarus, like Pyrite?" asked Applejack.

"Of course. Ah want to add all of them. And everypony'll be able to admire them."

"Like, a museum?" asked Little Ghost.

"Exactly. Ah've been thinking it since Ah saw the Ghost Portrificationizer in action. Ah'll build a museum in Evershade Valley where ponies'll be able to come and admire the portraits. Gotta use all that money Ah got. Also, instead of doing like professor Gadd and build a new hotel in the place of Eternal Rest's one, Ah'll build it beside the museum, and they both won't be far of the Gloomy Manor where I'm planning to build the Ghost Portrificationizer in the basement."

"Sounds great!" said Sweetie Belle.

"Don't forget to ask the ghosts in the valley first," said Twilight.

"Of course, but Ah'm sure they won't mind. Also, the hotel and the museum aren't the only things Ah'm planning to build in the valley. Director Cut'll need a movie studio, DeathJay'll want a club to DJ... A Gym for Deep End. A theater with a big stage for the ones who want to do shows like Piano Virtuoso, the Magica triplets, or even for Opal Note. Maybe a school for the ghosts who died very young like Platinum Shoes, Ruby, and Sapphire, without forgetting ya three, Sweetie, Scoot, and Little Ghost."

"At this point ya'd just build a whole town," said Applejack with a laugh.

"That's where Ah's leading to. Ah'll build a whole town for ghosts around Gloomy Manor, a 'ghost town' so to say. Mah manor and the ones in the Evershade Valley're starting to be a little overfull of them."

"You don't say. We can't take a step in your manor without encountering a ghost," said Scootaloo. "And now, I'm one too."

"That's really ambitious, Apple Bloom," said Applejack, impressed.

"But Ah won't start until we're done with Thanatos," finished Apple Bloom.

"Then what are we waiting for?" asked Twilight. "It's time to do science!"



Thus began long months of work, of fail and retry, of crazy science, and every now and then, of stuff blowing up.

They began to work to create what Apple Bloom called the Supreme Poltergust. The Poltergust possessing the features of all the other, light enough to let them jump like her Poltergust, but strong enough so powerful ghosts captured like Eternal Rest won't be able to escape once they recovered their energy.

They drew dozens of blueprints, created dozens of prototypes, and did hundreds of tests to ensure that it was the most effective possible, especially for a quadrupedal being like Apple Bloom, but also for bipedals because E. Gadd planned to keep a copy for Luigi is case King Boo escaped again.

Magic was used a lot for this Poltergust to make sure that it would remain light despite all the features. It was especially used so it could fire elements, fire, water, and ice, but also lightning bolts, because why not? For keeping the ghosts trapped once they were captured, they used the magical crystal again, but they put it as the core of a containing chamber like the ones in E. Gadd's Poltergusts, which amplified it, and the chamber itself was amplified by magic from the crystal and from wards put in it.

After some researches on the anti-ghost cannons, or rather, Poltergun as they decided to call it, they were able to create one as a feature of the Poltergust. With just one press of a button, the Poltergust will be able to fire a small beam that can hurt a ghost, but not injury living beings or ghosts possessing objects. However, this led to a small problem.

With all those features, the handle of the Poltergust was full of buttons, switches, and gauges (without forgetting the lever for the Suction Shot)!

E. Gadd then got the idea of using a technology similar to the one used to transfer someone's mind to control the goo, and went to develop a headpiece linked to the Poltergust by electromagnetic waves. Thanks to a chip in the headpiece, the user would be able to control with the mind the Poltergust. Much better than pressing switches and buttons! Additionally, there'll be a visor showing the various gauges AND while he was at it, he put in a nocturnal vision, infrared vision, and even a feature that showed ghosts in the field of view with cursors, even in the dark. The flashlight wouldn't be needed anymore! And it could even see what was invisible, so they won't need to search randomly with the Dark Light Device to find stuff that was turned invisible, and ghosts like Creepers will be less annoying!

As for the more direct way to defend against possessed objects, mummies, zombies, and stuff, E. Gadd killed two birds with one stone by also finding a way to use the Burst for quadrupeds: shoes! To be more exact, shoes that, once put, could be linked to the Poltergust by small pipes. With a thought, air will then pass by the pipes and burst out of the shoes, creating a shockwave that will propel the user in the air and everything around backward. To use it against possessed stuff, Apple Bloom, in this case, would then just need to point the sole of one of her hooves at the attacking object and burst air from just this one. The object will violently be propelled backward and will end up crashing against something, damaging it more or less depending of how much power was put into the burst and how much heavy and solid the object was. For the worst case, the shoes could plant themselves in the floor so the user could give the strongest burst possible without being propelled backward by it. Or forward, because in Apple Bloom's case, she could use her back hooves to attack enemies behind her. Heck! She could even create streams of air from her shoes to fly!

This needed a LOT of training to control it. There were a lot of crashing and muzzle bleeding, and a few concussions. Thankfully, E. Gadd kept mushrooms for healing.

And so, the Supreme Poltergust was finished, but now came the hardest part: developing the Spectral Transmograftizer. How to turn a living being into a ghost, then back into a living being?

This needed a lot of experiments on ghosts, but also on living beings. E. Gadd used mice, and the ponies told themselves to never tell Fluttershy. It was apparently common to use mice in this world for experiments. They experimented both with magic and technology, alone or together, and after more months, they were able to create something. However, that something was a cabin in which someone could enter, and someone else would activate it to turn whoever was inside into a ghost, and turn them back to normal.

It was a good beginning, but inside Thanatos castle, this clearly wouldn't work. They needed something smaller, lighter, and that could be activated without needing anybody else.

At least, they could use this cabin for more experiments, and things advanced faster from there. They discovered, for starting, that someone turned into a ghost couldn't remain a ghost too long, or else, it would be impossible to turn them back to normal. In clear, they would be dead for good. Thirty seconds was the limit (actually, it was thirty four point twenty nine seconds, but they rounded it down), and sadly, some mice were sacrificed to discover this.

As guessed, someone already dead couldn't be brought back to life. This saddened Apple Bloom because she hoped deep down that she could bring her friends back to life this way.

Once they knew that it was safe to use the cabin as long as they kept a watch, Apple Bloom used it on herself, becoming a ghost for half a minute with success. However, there was something that annoyed her as a ghost.

The power of a ghost was determined by many thing (when they weren't just gifted like Little Ghost). How strong they were physically and mentally (especially mentally) when they were alive, the powers they possessed (magic, mind powers, and so on) and how powerful those powers were when they were alive, time (the more time passed, the more a ghost could gain power. How much power was also determined by the other factors), training, skills, and a few others.

Apple Bloom was strong physically but was far from ponies like Applejack, Big Mac, or Bulk Biceps. Heck, Deep End was very strong (the guy was buffed!) and yet he possessed little power. He could smash stuff with his strong hooves, throw balls like cannonballs, lift heavy things, create shockwaves, but that was all. Not much compared to other ghosts like Leyla Rahfa who could manipulate sand. Apple Bloom, her, was just a filly stronger than average, so what could she hope to do from this point?

Mentally, she wasn't better. She would say she had a good mental, but again, she was just a filly. Nothing extraordinary. At best, when she was a ghost, she could levitate a small object.

She hadn't much power too. As an earth pony from an apple farming family, she had a better affinity with plants than average, but this was far from being developed to its full potential. She barely could control a small plant as a ghost.

As for the skills... Well, her greater skill was at catching ghost with her Poltergust. She was very good at fighting, and she was an excellent carpenter. She was also kinda good with potions even if she didn't really follow that path. Of course, she developed some skills in science and technology first thanks to Smart Spirit, then thanks to E. Gadd. All good skills, but beside the ghost catching and the fighting skills that she naturally used (duh!), all the others weren't really useful in a fight against ghosts. Maybe she could use her carpenter skill helped by her plant control to control wood, but she would need a lot of training. She could also train to brew potions, but she wasn't sure they would work against ghosts. Science was mainly knowledge that she could use in the right circumstances, and technology... How could she use her technology skill in a fight beside what she already had on her back?

So yeah, as a ghost, she didn't have much power, and was more what would be called a physical fighter, which she already was when she wasn't a ghost.

She wanted more power. She wanted to shoot lightning like Eternal Rest, to levitate heavy stuff, to possess powerful objects like the T-Rex or a freaking ship like Blackbeard!

Okay, the possession may not be possible because of the limited time, but she wanted all the rest! And because of this same time limit, she could barely train, so it wasn't this way that she would gain that power!

When she told Twilight, Smart Spirit, and E. Gadd about this, they agreed to try to find a way while they tried to improve the Spectral Transmograftizer.

While all this happened, E. Gadd also tried to help Apple Bloom's friends.

Sweetie Belle was an undead who was very good at singing, so there wasn't much he could do to help her unless she decided to become a cyborg, which she refused. Everybody however had the same idea: she could use that singing in some way. E. Gadd knew that various creatures used singing to do various things. Make someone fall asleep. Give themselves and others a boost. Or even to control someone else!

If Sweetie could learn to use her singing this way, she could become a great support! For this, however, the undead filly could only train by herself, which she did since E. Gadd told her about it a few days after her arrival, when she wasn't busy training with her friends to become better at fighting ghosts. At the same time, E. Gadd created a 'Sweetiegoo' for her.

Scootaloo wanted to be a robot like Applejack. When E. Gadd was told however about how useful she had been as a scooter, he got a genius idea: create for her a robotic body that could transform into a scooter (with thrusters, please)! If he had ever the occasion, he could even make it so she could plug herself to the Poltermobile or to Smart Spirit's caravan to drive them! Megagenius!

Scootaloo loved that idea. They just had to wait for the body to be created, and then, they would call Discord so he could bind her to it. Contrary to Applejack, however, her robotic body wouldn't heavy, more focused on speed than pure strength. She still would have the Poltergust integrated like the mare.

Speaking of, there wasn't much to do with Applejack. She was the muscle, with a very good skill at using a lasso. All she needed was an update of her integrated Poltergust.

Then, there was Little Ghost. She didn't need much help too. She was a very powerful ghost who could use all kinds of powers to fight the other ghosts. She still needed a shield to protect herself against Poltergun beams, a shield that she could also use to protect the others from projectiles and other stuff like she did in the hotel. For this, a simple shield would be enough, but with the help of Twilight, E. Gadd created some kind of mirror shield that could deflect some of the projectiles. This way, Little Ghost could send the Poltergun beams back to the ghosts who fired them.

Of course, every now and then, they took pauses to explore the Mushroom Kingdom and visit princess Peach as well as the Mario brothers. Well, when Peach wasn't kidnapped by Bowser and the brothers weren't busy travelling the kingdom to save her. Gosh, Bowser even kidnapped her in front of their muzzles a couple of times! Each times, they couldn't stop it from happening because he was always surrounded by his army, especially his son Bowser Jr, the Koopalings, and the Magikoopa Kamek. Of course, they joined the brothers to save the princess afterward, sometimes helped by a yellow Toad and a blue Toad.

Those adventures were very interesting experiences, but also very dangerous. They had to jump above seemingly bottomless pits, fight hundreds of Goombas, Koopas, and other minions, swim in very dangerous water (which they somehow could breath in), escape traps in Bowser's fortresses, jump above lava, traverse haunted manors infested of Boos and other ghosts and full of illusions and other tricks to make them lost...

Oh, and Bowser had a whole armada of flying ships.

As Mario and Luigi would say: mama mia!

And so, months passed, and passed...

Eventually, they managed to develop the Spectral Transmograftizer enough to reduce it into a gadget small enough that Apple Bloom could put it against her chest (not falling thanks to magic). By then, it was just a disk-shaped device with a red button. All Apple Bloom had to do was to press the button to become a ghost, and press it again to return to normal.

Almost at the same time, Twilight, Smart Spirit, and E. Gadd found a way to help Apple Bloom become more powerful as a ghost.

But they first needed to open a portal between the two Evershade Valleys. A permanent one.
> Chapter 8: Power
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

They moved to the Mushroom Kingdom's Evershade Valley where they began to build two portals in Gloomy Manor's lab (they had to take most of the machines in there and put them in E. Gadd's bunker not far of the manor).

Here was the first part of the plan: once they finished building the two portals, they would call Discord and ask him to send one of the portals to the Gloomy Manor's lab of Equestria's Evershade Valley along with Twilight and Smart Spirit. The two would then prepare their portal and activate it. The portals being linked to each other, then this should activate the other in the Mushroom Kingdom's Evershade Valley, opening a stable pathway between the two dimensions.

While they worked, E. Gadd also added a last modification to Apple Bloom's Poltergust. More specifically to the headpiece to link it to the Spectral Transmograftizer so that when Apple Bloom pressed the button of the device to turn into a ghost, a countdown would appear in the visor to show her how much time remained before she had to press the button again and turn back to normal.

However, the Spectral Transmograftizer device needed a cooldown after its use, something that the cabin version didn't have because there was more place to put the necessary stuff to avoid such a thing from happening. Turning someone into a ghost and back to normal needed a lot of energy! As a result, after each use, no matter how long Apple Bloom remained as a ghost, she needed to wait about two minutes to turn into a ghost again. E. Gadd also added this cooldown time for the visor to display.

After that, having enough to train against simple holograms, E. Gadd sent the ghost hunters into real haunted mansions (there were some of them a little everywhere in the Mushroom Kingdom) full of jerk Boos who gave Mario some problems in the past. Those mansions were quite the challenge, not because of the ghosts (they were too easy to catch, even the Big Boos), but because, like said previously, they were mazes of illusions where the exit was often hidden.

E. Gadd even sent them to an island not far of the Mushroom Kingdom: Delfino Island (named like this because the island had the shape of a dolphin in the middle of a jump out of water). The island was a beautiful tropical paradise where Mario apparently had a major adventure previously. Some of the main features were a volcano in the head, a park theme in a smaller island forming the tail, and a hotel present on the beach at the beginning of the tail.

It turned out that the hotel was haunted, and it was time for some ghost hunters to clean it up. Beside, there was an unique species of Pink Boos in this hotel that E. Gadd was interrested to research. Apparently, if those Boos were hit by water, they turned into platforms for a few seconds.

The manager, a member of one of the local species named Piantas, was delighted to finally have someone coming to catch the Boos. Those stupid ghosts were causing a lot of problems both to the staff and the customers. Nothing harmful, thankfully, but still enough that people were now coming to the building less often. If this continued, the manager would have been forced to close it for good.

The hotel cleaned of ghosts (even receiving a very good pay for this), the ponies then took the occasion to have a small vacation there for a few days. In their mind, it was the best vacation ever. They never went to a tropical island before, and the Piantas really did everything to make their stay the best possible. Everything was good to explore, from Delfino Plaza with its many stands selling delicious fruits to Pianta Village, a charming village where they could discover some local customs, passing by the Bianco Hills with its mill, Gelato Beach, without forgetting Pinna Park. The fillies especially loved Pinna Park.

Hard to imagine that Mario apparently fought a giant Bowser Bot right in this park.

Once they were back in Evershade Valley, E. Gadd gladly took the pay given by the hotel's manager, then continued to work on the portals which by now were almost finished. The prof also thought about opening a ghost hunting business. If the pay given by the manager was anything to be judged on, it would add some serious benefice for his experiments and studies.

In the end, almost a year had passed in the Mushroom Kingdom since Apple Bloom's arrival when the portals were finished. As planned, they called Discord and they explained to him what they wanted to do. Understanding, he then snapped his finger before he immediately looked a little tired.

Everyone looked around to see what he did, only to see that nothing apparently changed.

"What did you do?" asked Twilight.

"I permanently slowed this universe's time to make it flow as rapidly as our universe's time. Imagine all the problems this would have caused if left like it was with our two universes now linked."

"You can do that?!"

"Of course. But it was very tiring. Doing something in an universal scale is very draining. Do you mind if I wait a few minutes before I transport you and the portal back to our dimension?"

They didn't mind at all, so they waited, and when Discord was ready, he opened a portal back to Equestria's Evershade Valley in the fabric of space and transported Twilight, Smart Spirit, and one of the portals through it. A few minutes later, the portal left was activated, and Twilight came out of it, confirming that the two portals, and so the two dimensions, were linked successfully.

Then began the second part of the plan to give Apple Bloom a huge boost of power as a ghost. As E. Gadd, Twilight, and Smart Spirit created the portals, they also created a machine just outside the prof's bunker. This machine was a capsule with many prods inside and outside. It's purpose was to give Apple Bloom the power boost she wanted. For this, Apple Bloom will have to enter the capsule. The machine will then, through the prods, absorb a small amount of ghost energy from all the ghosts gathered around it and put this absorbed energy into the filly.

No need to precise that it will be very painful, but they hadn't any other way.

"Why not power up a ghost already powerful like Little Ghost?" one would ask. "Why not do this to ALL the ghosts?" another would wonder. Yes, a powered up Little Ghost could probably kick Thanatos' bony butt, and having a whole army of powered up ghosts would be even better!

BUT!

This machine only worked with the Spectral Transmograftizer. All the absorbed energy will be stored in the device, and once Apple Bloom will press the button to turn into a ghost, all that stored energy will be transfered into the filly during the transformation process.

As for why they had to build the portals and link the two dimensions first, it was to be able to gather as much ghosts as possible to transfer their energy into Apple Bloom. The more ghosts present and the more powerful they're, the more powerful she will become.

And between the two dimensions, Apple Bloom and the others made a LOT of ghost friends, including some powerful ones (Little Ghost being at the top).

Gathering them took some time however. They had to go to all the places where there was at least a friendly ghost and tell them about the plan. Most of them were in the two Evershade Valleys, in E. Gadd's hotel, in Apple Bloom's mansion, and in Ponyville, but there were some who were in other places, haunting small houses, cemeteries, hospitals, and so on. All ghosts bound to an object were included, even if there weren't many left. After finding where Apple Bloom was, Discord freed all the ghosts that were trapped in dolls (most of them passing on).

Everypony was happy to see them again and to see, especially, that Apple Bloom was alright. Many were surprised when they remarked that the filly had grown a little (one year passed for her, after all). And all couldn't stop laughing when they saw Eternal Rest trapped in a portrait, Apple Bloom placing it in her chamber in her mansion (she had a chamber in the mansion, and one in the farm, without counting the one she now had in E. Gadd's hotel).

They weren't the only one happy to see Apple Bloom back however. In the spiritual world, Thanatos was also very happy and couldn't wait to start a new game with her. However, he was curious to see what she was planning first. Why was she gathering all the ghosts? Then, he heard the plan and he smirked.

Oh. This will be interesting! he thought.



Thousands and thousands of ghosts from both dimensions were now gathered around the machine, Apple Bloom in it. E. Gadd was beside the machine, looking at all the ghosts gathered.

That was a lot more than he expected. Apple Bloom wasn't kidding. She really befriended a lot of them in her hunts. He actually began to worry that the Spectral Transmograftizer won't be able to handle all that energy without exploding.

Apple Bloom was worried too, but she was still determined as she looked at him and nodded, ready to press the button of the device on her chest. E. Gadd nodded back, then looked again at all the ghosts who readied themselves as he placed his hand on a big red button on the side of the capsule.

He pressed it, and the machine activated. A couple of seconds later, it began to absorb the energy of the ghosts, only 1% of each. The energy came out of the ghosts (who groaned a little in pain), traversed the air, entered the machine by the prods outside of it, then was sent into the Spectral Transmograftizer by the prods inside the captule.

Apple Bloom almost immediately felt pain as the device began to overheat, burning her. Having no choice, she pressed the button, beginning the transformation into a ghost. However, where it usually only took one second to transform with only a small light emitting when it happened, the transformation took this time a dozen of seconds, continuing until the machine stopped absorbing energy. Almost as soon as she pressed the button, a blinding light emitted from the capsule, forcing everyone to look away, especially the ghosts from E. Gadd's dimension who were more vulnerable to light.

Then, the light disappeared not long after the machine stopped absorbing energy, revealing Apple Bloom in her ghost form, eyes closed and teeth clenched in pain before she passed through the capsure and on the ground. E. Gadd quickly pressed the button of the Spectral Transmograftizer to turn her back to normal before he helped her to get back on her hooves. They were quickly surrounded by everyone, closest friends and family at the front.

"Are ya alright?" asked Applejack worriedly.

Apple Bloom took some big breaths. "Y-yeah. The pain's already disappearing."

"How do you feel?" asked Sweetie Belle.

Apple Bloom frowned in thought, then sat before looking at her front hooves. "Not... different, actually. Guess Ah'll have to wait to turn into a ghost again to see if it worked."

"Well then..." began Little Ghost before she whistled. Some of the ghosts nodded and flew away before they came back, transporting various objects, from small ones like plates to big one like closets. When Twilight saw that there were some books among the objects, she quickly took them, glaring at the ghosts for even thinking of using books to experiment Apple Bloom's power.

When they were done, forming a huge pile of objects, the Spectral Transmograftizer had long since cooled down. so Apple Bloom pressed the button and turned into a ghost again. She still couldn't feel anything different at first, but when she began to gather energy, she remarked that she definitively had more of it. Quickly thinking, she threw the energy toward the pile of objects, not in the form of a ball, lightning bolt, or anything else however, but as an invisible force that sent ALL the objects flying up in the air in all directions.

"Woah..." said Apple Bloom and many others as they looked up at the objects that went high in the sky.

Then the objects began to drop back.

"Uh oh..." said Apple Bloom.

"TO THE BUNKER!" yelled E. Gadd before he began to run toward the entrance of his bunker not far.

Everyone with a physical body followed him to avoid the rain of objects, Apple Bloom having to turn back to normal on the way.

More training to come to control that new power...
> Chapter 9: Ready
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Applejack, and Little Ghost were gathered in front of the altar, on the terrace of the Treacherous Mansion of Equestria's Evershade Valley. With them were their friends and families, waiting anxiously as the five ghost hunters readied themselves for what was, hopefully, the final adventure against Thanatos which, obviously, will be the most dangerous.

By some miracle, Thanatos didn't start another of his "Death Games", leaving Apple Bloom to train with her new powers in the weeks that followed. And, ooh boy! She couldn't wait to use them on Thanatos and his army! She became powerful enough that she could rivalise with Eternal Rest! If only she wasn't limited at 30 seconds at a time...

She wasn't the only one who had developped some tricks with her ghost powers. Sweetie Belle had trained hard with her singing, Applejack could now create shockwaves by slamming her hooves on the ground, and Scootaloo could leave a trail of fire behind her when she rolled in her scooter form.

And so, here they were, finally.

Finally ready.

Prof E. Gadd, who was also present, then gave each of them a white boxy object.

"Those are batteries. It came to my mind that there probably won't be any outlet in Thanatos' castle for the Super Suction, so use them instead. But watch out, those batteries aren't illimited. They each will give you only one minute of power, so use them wisely."

"Thanks, prof," said Apple Bloom as she and the others put the batteries inside their Poltergusts, beside the crystals.

Twilight then came and gave Little Ghost something that looked like a white gun (made for hooves) but with a prod at the end. "We also developped this. I remembered that Thanatos could also open portals that he used to send everypony out of his castle and back there, so we worked on countering this. If he opens a portal, then simply fire at it with this Anti-Portal Gun, and it should close."

Little Ghost took it with a smirk. "Ah! Yeah! He won't be able to eject us from his castle! I can't wait to see his face when he will discover it."

Sweetie Belle looked at her. "He's probably watching us, so there will be no surprise."

"Actually..." began Discord who was also present.



Thanatos stared at his portal that he normally used to watch Apple Bloom. The portal was now full of statics, some of them forming Discord's best trollface.

"Discord..." he growled.



"Gotta keep some surprises against him," finished Discord with a big grin.

"Ah!" shouted Rainbow Dash as she gave him a hoof/fistbump.

Apple Bloom laughed, then asked "Anything else?"

In answer, she was hugged by Granny Smith and Big Mac who wished her good luck. They were worried sick, but they knew that they had no choice but to let the filly go. At least, Applejack will be with her. Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Little Ghost were also hugged by their loved ones present, each also receiving good lucks and other good words.

As this happened, the most powerful ghosts present worked together to open the portal to the spiritual world on the altar. A ramp was then placed to lead into it.

With the portal open, the five ghost hunters began to walk/float toward it, waving goodby to everyone else before they passed through it.



The portal led them on a floating stone platform like there were so many floating everywhere in the spiritual world. Nothing had changed, it was exactly like the previous time Apple Bloom was there.

Then, a familiar organ began to play as some of the platforms moved to form a path. Like before, Thanatos' castle rose from the darkness at the end of the path, as huge as before. It dwarfed everything that Apple Bloom explored before, even Eternal Rest's hotel. Hundreds, thousands of ghosts could be seen flying around its towers. Many, many gargoyles lined the walls, seemingly staring at the team of ghost hunters as they began to approach.

Unlike before, however, the dragon skull forming the entrance didn't open, not even when the hunters reached it.

Instead, it chuckled.

"Poor fools who want to brave the domain of Death..." it then began as its eyes suddenly glowed purple. "Welcome to your new home."