> Count's Traveling Haunted House
>  by misskoifishpony
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Our first Nightmare Night together
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Harvest moon shining over Ponyville was radiant, full, and glowing with calm beauty tonight. Princess Luna especially made the Harvest moon special for her honorary holiday: Nightmare Night. The moon looked like a fresh and ripe pumpkin, sitting peacefully in the sky as if it was in pumpkin patch. The moon was also accented with a couple of streams of grey fog in order to bring splendor to the shadows lurking behind the moon. All of Luna's constellations come out to play tonight, unafraid of any monsters or tricksters that lie below them. All of Ponyville was a buzzed and active on this spooky night. Trick or treaters skipping from one house to the next singing rhymes of ghosts and spooks, the smell of warm pies traveling through the cold but crisp air, and sparkling green lights hanging on the rims of the town hall.

While the rest of the ponies were busy going from stand to the next in the town square, there was one pony waiting in the front of the town hall. And that pony was Twilight Sparkle. Although tonight, she didn't look like Twilight Sparkle. She magically dyed her coat pure white, along with dying her mane a light shade of rainbow. She even slightly curved her mane to give it a wavy and moving effect. She wore golden shoes on her hooves with a matching gold tiara. Tonight, she was dressed her mentor Princess Celestia. Twilight figured she dress up as something every pony would recognize no matter what. She definitely learned her lesson from last Nightmare Night.

Twilight was waiting patiently at the town hall for her friends. They were planning to visit every fun haunted house in Ponyville. But according to Twilight's watch, Spike and Rarity and Sweetie Belle were precisely 10 minutes late.

Twilight sighed and thought How long does it take to coordinate costumes? Rarity already had the costumes prepared, so what's the hold up? 

Twilight didn't mean to think these impatient thoughts, perhaps she was excited to have an actual Nightmare Night. Last Nightmare Night was spent helping Princess Luna, which was something she would never regret. But Twilight wanted to experience all the joyous activities that make this holiday great, especially with her friends. As for the rest of her friends, they still had 5 minutes left.

Meanwhile lurking in the shadows, a colorful rainbow colored pony skeleton smirked at Twilight from behind the Welcome to Ponyville sign. The skeleton pony tiptoed towards her and then decides to hang itself on a pillar next to her. Twilight felt something was behind, so she looked around to find it but only saw her shadow instead. She sighed then rotated her heads towards the pillar to the right of her with her eyes closed.

"Booga-Boooga!" said the come to life skeleton.

Twilight let out a girlish high pitched scream before she hid her face into her hooves. But this was short lived when she heard a very familiar chuckle.

"Rainbow Dash!" shouted a very angry Twilight.

This exclamation only made Rainbow burst laughing even more she flew up around Twilight. Once Rainbow finally caught her breath, she answered "You should have heard your scream. It was so…so…girly! It should just like those school fillies in the corny black and white horror flicks! It's especially funny having that scream coming out of dear and mighty Princess Celestia!"

Her last statement made Rainbow Dash burst out laughing again, while Twilight gave her a very stern and frustrated expression on her face.

Twilight groaned "Well, at least you're not late and that's what counts. Anyway, have you heard from the others yet?"

Rainbow Dash said "Yeah, I saw AJ and Apple Bloom walking from Sweet Apple Acres on my way here. So they should be here soon. Not sure about Rarity, or Fluttershy or…what? What's on my tail?"

She pulled her tail to her face to discover a green little creature wearing a Pinkie Pie mask on its face.

Rainbow asked "Pinkie Pie?"

"I'm right here Silly Billy!" exclaimed the real Pinkie Pie popping up from behind Rainbow's tail. Pinkie Pie was wearing a costume that looked like her pet alligator Gummy.

Pinkie then said while picking Gummy off of Rainbow's tail "Does Gummy look great in his costume?"

Rainbow states awkwardly "Uh…yeah he sure does. The resemblance in just…remarkable."

Pinkie replies while cuddling Gummy "I know right?! This whole idea of dressing up as each other was his idea. Isn't he just the most creative little thing?"

Twilight giggled "He sure is Pinkie."

The three mares soon heard a distant "HOWDY Y'ALL!" coming from the left of the town hall. It was Applejack and Apple Bloom, dressed as a mama timber wolf and her cub.

Once the earth ponies saw their friends, they waved excitedly at them and ran over to the town hall.

Pinkie Pie was the first to say "Wowie-Ca-Zowie! You guys look great!"

Rainbow added "Yeah seriously, your costumes look so awesome!"

Applejack replied "Aww thanks guys. Hope Apple Bloom and I weren't too late."

Twilight then answered "Well not too terribly late."

"Rawr!" Roared Scootaloo as she pounced on top of Apple Bloom.

Scootaloo was dressed as a dark brown feathered griffon. Apple Bloom giggled while Scootaloo was on top of her, she even added her own little roar as they start to wrestle with each other like the vicious mythical creatures they were.

After their one minute hustle, Rainbow said to Scootaloo "Cool costume kid. I bet even a real griffon can't tell you're a pony underneath those feathers." Then she gave her little adopted sister a playful noogie on top of her head. This made Scootaloo chuckled in glee.

Scootaloo looked around and then asked "Is Sweetie Belle here yet?"

Apple Bloom answered "Not yet. But I'm sure she'll be here soon."

Scootaloo said to Apple Bloom "Do you know what her costume is? I tried asking her about, but she kept telling it was a surprise."

Apple Bloom replied "Not a clue. But I have a feeling it's going to be a real treat if she's keeping it as a surprise."

Applejack added "Same with Rarity. She never mentioned a peep about her costume."

Twilight grumbled "Spike did the same thing with me. Hopefully they get here soon."

Applejack comforted Twilight "Don't worry, um your magnificence."

Then Applejack chuckled into her hoof while Twilight glared at her with an expression saying 'Really? Seriously, that joke?' Applejack defended "Sorry Twi, I couldn't resist on that one. But seriously Twilight, Rarity and them won't keep us waiting too long."

Then all of a sudden, a beautiful gust of snowy wind sweep through the group.

"Sn-snow? This time of year?" remarked Twilight as examined the snowflakes landing on her hooves.

Once the gust died down, the gang was able to see what was causing the snowy wind. They saw Sweetie Belle dressed as Anna from Frozen, particularly her pink and blue wintery outfit. Sweetie Belle braided even her hair into twin pig tails. While Rarity was dressed as Elsa in her sparkling blue gown and cape. Rarity even had the matching messy but elegant side braid. Spike, dressed up as the adorable Olaf, was holding Rarity's trailing cape in the back of her. Spike's costume was so puffy and big that it made him waddle just like Olaf with each step he took.

The gang also noticed that both Rarity's horn and Sweetie's horn were glowing, meaning they were the ones who cast that winter spell.

Then Rarity started to sing with glee "Let it go! Let it go! Let the storm rage on! The cold never bothered me anyway." She added a little giggle at the end, showing great excitement and love for her new role, "Oh my, aren't I as giddy as a school filly?"

Sweetie Belle eagerly waved her front hoof "Hiya guys!"

The gang waved and said hi back. They also crowded around the Frozen trio and complimented them on their costume choices.

Twilight then commented "I also liked the winter wind spell you guys." Rarity and Sweetie Belle both said thanks to Twilight.

Applejack chuckled "It really makes a spectacular entrance for your special costumes that you couldn't tell any pony."

Rarity replied "Well, this whole surprise thing was Sweetie Belle's idea believe me."

Sweetie Belle scolded Rarity "But the whole Frozen ensemble costume idea was your idea. So don't put the whole blame on me."

Apple Bloom asked "So how come you guys were late anyway?"

Spike hold up his claw and said while panting "It was my fault. My costume…it slowed down me. It's a lot heavier than it looks."

Rarity added while patting on top of his soft head "I tried telling Spikey-Wikey that he could have worn a different costume, but he was so insisted on being the Olaf to my Elsa."

Spike sighed "And believe me, it was worth it."

Twilight giggled at this and then poofed up a water bottle for Spike, which he took gladly.

Sweetie Belle asked with giddiness in her voice "So are Fluttershy and Discord here yet?"

Scootaloo responded with the same excitement "Not yet, but they will be. I just can't wait to see their costumes, especially Discord's!"

Apple Bloom questioned "I wonder what their costumes will be."

Sweetie Belle replied "Maybe they dress up as tale as old a time? Perhaps…" she sighed before continuing "beauty and the beast."

Rarity giggled while patting on top of Sweetie Belle's cap "Oh Sweetie Belle, why would Fluttershy and Discord dress up as that?"

Sweetie Belle was about to answer, but then Apple Bloom and Scootaloo quickly covered her mouth. Apple Bloom quickly stated "Haha she was just kidding around." Scootaloo remarked "Yeah just kidding around."

Rarity shrugged her shoulders and slightly chuckled at the CMC's suspicious little behavior. Once Rarity turned around to talk to the other mares, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo finally released their hooves from Sweetie's mouth.

Rainbow Dash crossed her arms and scowled "Well they better get here soon. The Haunted Houses will get lines soon and I hate lines."

Twilight notice this bitter tone towards Discord in Rainbow's voice and said "Rainbow…don't tell me that you still don't trust Discord."

Rainbow replied "Oh no! It isn't that! It's just…Fluttershy never goes out on Nightmare Night. She never goes when I ask her. The only time she did it with me is when she fillies, experiencing our first Nightmare Night on the ground. And now here's Discord, easily convincing Fluttershy to go with him no worries."

Pinkie Pie put her arm around Rainbow's shoulder and said "Aww c'mon Dashie. It is Discord's first Nightmare Night ever with friends. I'm sure that if things go well with Fluttershy tonight, she'll want to celebrate Nightmare Night with us every year!"

Rainbow smiled at Pinkie "You're right. Maybe bringing along Discord might not be a bad idea?"

Then Rainbow saw a head stone planted in the ground for decoration a couple a foot away from the town hall and decided to sit there, and wait patiently for Fluttershy and Discord. However, she interrupted by an unsettling grumble from underneath her.

She quickly got off from the spot, and crawled towards her friends by the town hall. The gang immediately notices this and soon they start to feel the unsettling grumble and earth quake coming from the head stone decoration. The ground began cracking a haunting bright green color and a mysterious invisible force began craving BJ on the head stone. They were starting to panic and embraced each other, just waiting for the monster about to pop up from the ground. Soon the cracking by the head stone created a large gap in the ground which triggered a medium sized explosion. The explosion made pieces of grass, stones, and dirt to fly everywhere. All of the girls screamed at the top of their lungs as they witnessed a tall and long creature coming out of the ground with his arms open wide, reeling his head as if he was going to howl.

But instead of a howl, they were meet with a familiar laugh. "Oh my! Haha you should have seen your faces! It was so…I don't even know how to describe how good it was!"

It was Discord dressed up in a white, black, and purple striped suit with paint smeared all over his face, making himself look like Beetlejuice himself.

"Discord!" shouted a concerned Fluttershy rapidly crossing the bridge with Stellar Eclipse following right behind her.

Fluttershy was dressed in a sleek and medieval looking red dress with puffy sleeves, along with a short cape tied to the back of her neck. She made her long mane into a large yet formal bun on a top of her head and decorated it with a silver and red jeweled tiara in the front of the bun. But the most distinct feature of Fluttershy's costume was the fact that she looked like her Flutterbat self again. Her coat was a darker shade of yellow, her mane was a darker shade of rose, her teal eyes were bloody red, her wings were leathery and spikey instead of soft and feathery, and she had tiny little fangs. This all made her look like a regal but deadly vampire queen.

While Stellar Eclipse was dressed as a white and blue cyborg on the left side of his body, with a robotic red eye for his left eye, and his chair matching the color theme of his costume. Fluttershy and Stellar finally made it to the head stone, and once they got there, Applejack screamed "It's…It's Flutterbat! Twilight! Twilight!"

Twilight crouched down into an attack position, her glowed her horn ready to do the spell to reverse Fluttershy's new state and says "I'm on it!"

Fluttershy then called out to Twilight "No, no, no Twilight! It's okay, I'm still Fluttershy. I mean, I look like Flutterbat but I'm still Fluttershy underneath."

Discord remarked while landing on the ground "Do you like it? I designed the whole outfit and spell myself! When I heard about that whole Flutterbat fiasco from Fluttershy, I just couldn't resist."

Rarity said "So this costume was your idea?"

Discord added cheerfully "Indeed! Isn't marvelous?"

Rarity nervously answered "Um…indeed marvelous."

Rainbow huffed and turned away from Discord "Yeah well, either way, I'm not scared of any Flutterbat or Discord!"

Discord smirked and raised his eyebrow at Rainbow and said "Oh really? Is that so?" Discord then thought to himself Sometimes she is just too amusing! 

Fluttershy went up to Discord and said "Discord, I think maybe your little," she cleared her throat before stating, " 'surprise" might have been too much for them."

Twilight comforts her friend with "Relax Fluttershy, Discord was only doing what ponies are supposed to do on Nightmare Night. Not too long ago, Rainbow Dash spooked me. And…I got quite a kick out of it. Trust me Fluttershy, it can be fun getting scared."

Discord said cheerfully "Oh I like this holiday already!"

Stellar Eclipse said to Fluttershy "She's right Fluttershy. I mean I thought it was pretty funny."

The cutie mark crusaders added "Me too! Me too!"

Fluttershy smiled at her friends' comforting words, but then remembered something important "Oh where are my manners? Every pony, I would like you to meet Stellar Eclipse."

All the ponies gave Stellar a friendly greeting, while Rainbow went up to Stellar "What's up Stellar?"

Stellar responded "Nothing much." Then they gave each other a brohoof in a calm and nonchalant way. Stellar played along with Rainbow's "cool" manner, Fluttershy told him that Rainbow loves to act this way especially around other stallions just to prove how awesome she is.

Fluttershy then said to Eclipse "Stellar, I want you to meet…"

She points to Applejack "Applejack, she's Apple Bloom's older sister".

Then she points to Rarity, "Rarity, she's Sweetie Belle's older sister."

After that, she points to Pinkie Pie "This is Pinkie Pie and…"

Pinkie Pie then adds while holding up Gummy "And Gummy! Don't forget Gummy!"

Stellar chuckled at that. Fluttershy then points towards Twilight and Spike "And this is Twilight and her number one assistant Spike."

Spike put his claw out to Eclipse and said "Nice to meet ya!" Stellar shook Spike's claw and replied "Nice to meet you too, and it's nice to meet all of you."

> Just Be Wherever You Are
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Discord suddenly poofed himself between Stellar and Spike and remarked "Okay, okay, we got the formalities out of the way. Now can we go?!"

Fluttershy said to Discord "Yes, yes we can go. But first, we need to figure out where to go."

Discord then answered Fluttershy "But Fluttershy, I thought we could go to that cool Haunted House in the mountains."

Then he magically conjured up a poster in his claw and showed it to the group. It was titled in an oozing dark red color "Count Batula's Traveling and Flying Haunted House." Underneath a title, it showed a picture of an orange and black tower and pillar based castle decorated with stone gargoyles on a dark and moonlight night. A figure what appeared to be a bat pony was casting a shadow on the moon behind the castle. And on the bottom of the poster, it was labeled with "Now coming to the high hills of Ponyville on Nightmare Night!"

Fluttershy couldn't look at the poster with her friends, yet she commented "Um Discord, I don't know if the others would like to go and…"

Stellar Eclipse answered Fluttershy while raising his hoof "I wanna go."

Spike shouts "Same!"

Fluttershy squeaked "What?"

Rainbow exclaimed "Oh yeah! Now this is what I'm talking about!"

Scootaloo adds "If Rainbow's in, I'm in!"

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle both said 'We're so in!"

Applejack shouted "Sounds like a real blast! I'm in."

Rarity elegantly stated "I suppose it can be quite thrilling to visit such an official haunted castle. Oh count me in!"

Twilight then summarizes "I guess it's all settled then. Count's Traveling Haunted House here we come!"

Everyone cheered with great joy, while Fluttershy quietly cheered her small little "yay." Discord at once happily snapped his fingers, automatically transporting them to their next destination.

It was true that Discord zap them to the mountains near Ponyville, but the ponies didn't see the haunted house anywhere once they got there. They only saw the discomforting heights lurking below them and the sharp dark cliffs surrounding them.

Rainbow was the first to say "Sooooo…where's the haunted joint?"

Discord shrugged his shoulders and replied "It must be around here somewhere. At least I brought us into the right area."

Fluttershy meekly looked over the trail edge near the group, she quietly said "Are you sure it's safe to be traveling around here?"

Twilight replied "Well it has to be at least, if this Count Bat guy wants customers to come to his haunted house."

While everyone was looking around and high above them, Stellar Eclipse looked up and saw something "I think I found what we were looking for."

Everyone followed the direction of his hoof and then gawked at the ominous dark storm cloud hosting a very tall and large castle. The storm cloud was near the top of the mountain and the castle looked exactly like its picture in the poster, except it looked far creepier and exceptionally older looking.

Pinkie cheered "Whoopee! Let's go!"

Pinkie's skipping was interrupted when she accidentally tripped over Fluttershy's quivering and crouched body on the ground. Pinkie immediately exclaimed "Fluttershy?! Are you alright?"

Every pony gathered around Fluttershy, all very worried about what was making Fluttershy act this way. Fluttershy then replied in a very frighten tone "I-I can't do it….It's too high…too dark. Please go on without me."

Applejack put her hoof on Fluttershy's shoulder, which caused Fluttershy to look up into Applejack's peaceful green eyes. Applejack then said to her "We can't leave you behind sugar cube. Visiting that haunted house wouldn't be the same without you."

Rainbow Dash then remarked while pounding left hoof into her right hoof "Plus you got me to protect ya!"

Discord added "And I will too of course! All I have to do is say boo, and those 'monsters' will be running to hills screaming for their mommies."

Rainbow replied with a smirk "Oh yeah, that was so not showing off or anything."

Discord ignored what Rainbow said and crouched down near Fluttershy. He offered her his lion paw and whispered "I'll be with you every step of the way."

Fluttershy smiled sweetly at Discord and gladly took his paw. Once she was up, she grabbed Discord's lion paw arm and leaned into it. This made Discord blush ferociously as he looked down at Fluttershy.

Ever since Fluttershy kissed him on the cheek, Discord always acts this way whenever Fluttershy touches him. Doesn't matter if it's a touch on the paw or claw, or a hug, or even Fluttershy sitting closely next to him, Discord gets nervous and feels his heart almost pound out his chest every six seconds.

Discord pondered to himself Why does this keep happening me? The kiss was so long ago…and yet…look at me! Oh Fluttershy why did you have to give me that agonizing kiss?! That agonizing…that…wonderful…soft kiss. Argh! Stop that!

Fluttershy looked up to Discord with big and gleaming star like eyes and said "Thank you Discord."

Discord in that moment could feel his heart almost break a heart vessel inside his chest, which caused him to look away from Fluttershy and scrunched his face in pain. Her cuteness was just…too much for him! During Discord's and Fluttershy's little scene, the rest of the ponies were awkwardly staring at them wondering what the heck was going on. That is except for Stellar Eclipse and the CMC. They knew exactly what was going on. They've been seeing this for months now. Rainbow was the one pony most puzzled by this.

She wondered Why is Fluttershy being more cuddly with Discord lately? I mean, I know they like to hug and hold paw and hoof every now and then, but these small touches having becoming more like public snuggles. And why is Discord looking like he's about to pass gas whenever she touches him? Well, maybe not passing gas because his face gets all flushed when it happens. Maybe it's best I don't know what's going on with their strange relationship. 

Pinkie Pie quickly shook her head and body of this awkward feeling and proclaimed "Well let's hit the road!"

Gummy popped out of Pinkie's mane holding a small ukulele in between his gums. Pinkie sees this and shouts "Great idea Gummy! Travel music is exactly the sort of thing we need right now!"

She strummed some strings on the ukulele with her right front hoof and started to play a relaxing tropical tune. The gang journeys forward done the trail, bobbing their heads to the melody.

After a couple of minutes of traveling along the mountain, Sweetie Belle begins to sing along with Pinkie's melody…

Isn't this such a beautiful night,

Whoa, we're underneath the thousand shining stars.

Isn't it nice to find yourself somewhere different?

Whoa, why don't you let yourself just be wherever you are?

Look at this place,

Sweetie Belle, while dancing along to the beat, turned around and faced Fluttershy and Discord. She then sang to them…

Look at your faces.

I've never seen you look like this before.

Isn't it nice to find yourself somewhere different?

Whoa, why don't you let yourself just be wherever you are?

This made Fluttershy lean her head against Discord's arm while skipping along the trail with him. In return, Discord's cheeks turned beet red again and he tried to focus on the trail in front of him. Instead of Fluttershy's touch and Sweetie Belle's song. Rainbow, while flying by Stellar, saw this and was confused by Fluttershy's gesture and by Discord's reaction. She raised a suspicious yet curious brow at this.

Sweetie Belle then repositioned herself back into the front, as if nothing happened and sang…

Look at this place,

Look at your faces.

Sweetie Belle closed her eyes, lifted her head up to the stars and their sparkling beauty and sang…

They're shining like a thousand shining stars.

Isn't it nice to find yourself somewhere different?

Whoa, why don't you let yourself just be wherever you are?

Then Sweetie Belle's dancing and singing began to slow down as Pinkie's ukele notes started to slowly finish off the song…

Why don't you let yourself just be somewhere different?

Whoa, why don't you let yourself just be whoever you are? 

Sweetie Belle accidentally bumped into something tall, hard, and harsh. She just realized that she still had her eyes closed. She rubbed her aching forehand and looked at what she just ran into. It was just the mountain. But it was the sound of booming thunder and crackling lighting that made Sweetie Belle look up. She saw a giant dark black storm cloud, carrying a massive and terrifying castle on top of it.

> A Haunting We Will Go
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Discord magically transported them in front of the castle. The gang saw a magic detector and remover, similar to the one from the Equestrian Games, and a small stand next to it. The pony in charge of this stand was Derpy. She was wearing a purple and green witch hat and cape for her costume. She waved at the visitors and exclaimed "HI GUYS!"

The mane 6 waved back at Derpy and returned her excited greeting. Rainbow said with a grin "What are you doing here Derpy?"

Derpy explained "I'm here helping out Count Batula with his haunted house. I get to greet ponies I know and don't know, then see their terrified faces escaping out the castle every 5 minutes! I also get paid in muffins and candy!"

Pinkie gasped "HE PAYS YOU IN CANDY?!"

Twilight grabs Pinkie by the mane in order to pull her back into reality.

Derpy instructs the group "Anyway, the haunted house is free. However, Count Batula requires all magical beings enter through machine in order to prevent any pony from ruining the illusions inside."

Discord sighed "Ugh, can't we just promise not to use our magic and go in anyway?"

Fluttershy remarked to Discord "Discord, if you want to go in the haunted house, we have to follow the rules. You do want to join in, right?"

Discord mumbled while crossing his arms "Yes I do."

Twilight was the first pony to go through the scanner, then Rarity and Sweetie Belle, and then Discord finishes up the line-up. Although, Discord had to duck his head and half of his body to enter through and in this process, he got stuck. Fluttershy gently pulled him out, and when he came out, Fluttershy's bat like features disappeared. Only her red costume remained. Then Derpy gave them all flashlights, along with a cheerful good luck on their haunting journey.

The gang cautiously approached the front doors of the castle. The ginormous doorknobs looked like vicious vampire fruit bats, holding brass rings in their mouths. Discord was the only one that had enough courage for the moment to grab the brass ring and knock on the door. It made the door slowly creaked open. The group took a deep breath in before entering.

The inside of the castle was pitch black, so dark that the ponies couldn't see their own hooves walking out before them. They also heard a disturbing silence filling the air of this darkness. Once they were all in, the door rapidly closed behind. This made some of the ponies leap out of fear, thus letting out a couple of sounds of panic. And yet, they continued forward. They were about to turn on their flashlights when they heard a tiny squeak. This was followed by some screaming from Fluttershy and Discord.

Twilight quickly turned around, and pointed her flashlight behind her "Fluttershy! Discord!" In the spotlight, she didn't find any pony there.

The rest of the ponies of the group saw this and simultaneously called out to Fluttershy and Discord, trying to find them in the spooky hall. Fluttershy's soft voice, muffled by some barrier, called out "Down here!"

Rainbow worried voice shouted "Fluttershy?! Where are ya?"

Discord responded "Right below you Rainbow. Fluttershy and I fell through a trap door, so now we're in the secret halls underneath the castle floor. I have to admit, this little trick even surprised me. Kudos to Mr. Count Batula for playing this old trick so quickly in the game!"

Fluttershy comforted Rainbow "Don't worry Rainbow, we're fine. Discord and I can you and the others at the exit."

Rainbow nodded her head and responded "Sounds like a plan. We will meet you guys there."

Twilight says "Alright, now let's see if we can…"

Twilight was cut off the candles placed all over the walls and furniture in the castle magically lighting themselves. But the candles' glow was not the comforting warmth or light reminisce of a cozy fireplace, but rather, the glow of a dimly lit cave. This light seemed unnatural…as if the light was coming the lava pits of Tartarus.

All of the sudden, music started to play. With no known resources of instruments or music players to be seen. They couldn't see any pony, but they could hear them creepily sing along with the melody…

Colts and fillies of every age,

Wouldn't you like to see something strange?

Come behold a ghastly sight!

This, our castle, on Nightmare Night!

Then monstrous ponies slowly creeped out of their unusual hiding spots and approached the visitors in front of them. This made the gang back away from them in terror because these ponies' costumes looked too real to be fake. They looked too scary to be true ponies underneath their disguises. These petrifying creatures sang…

This is Nightmare Night!

It is such a fright!

Pumpkins scream in the dead of night!

The pumpkin lyrics triggered disturbing carved pumpkin, with their faces oozing with pumpkin guts from their mouths and eyes, to drop from the ceiling and appear before the gang. This made them shriek and run away from the demented pumpkins.

However, the gang immediately ran into more monstrous ponies. The monstrous ponies sang evilly…

This is Nightmare Night, every pony turn out the light!

Trick or Treat

Till the neighbors gonna die of fright!

It's our castle, every pony scream!

Nightmare Night is on the scene.

This made our heroes back up towards a fine gold and antique table. But they soon discovered a large and hairy were pony hiding underneath. He clawed beneath their hooves and sang in a deep voice…

I am the one hiding under your bed.

Teeth ground sharp and

Eyes glowing red.

Our heroes quickly scurried away from the were pony, but ran into a green pony hanging about on a giant spider web. The green pony had snake heads for her front hooves and silky spider webs for her mane. She sang…

I am the one hiding under your stairs,

Hooves like snakes and spiders in my hair!

The gang cried in terror at the sight of this snake pony, and tried running toward the entrance. But they stopped by the mob of scary pony creatures. They proudly sang to them…

This is Nightmare Night,

This is Nightmare Night.

Nightmare Night!

Nightmare Night!

Nightmare Night!

Nightmare Night!

The females of the mob began to sing harmoniously…

In this castle we call home,

Every pony hail to the Nightmare Song.

Then a mysteriously red cloaked pony, his hood masking his face in darkness, sang to his scared little visitors with glee…

In this castle, don't we love it now?

Every pony is waiting for the next surprise!

Round the corner, colts hiding in the trash can.

Something's waiting to pounce, and how you'll

He gave them a playful bite at them and shouted

CRY!

That made the ponies screamed at this gesture. The mysterious cloaked pony let out a hearty and deep laugh at this and then sang…

This is Nightmare Night!

Well, aren't you scared?

The gang decided to gallop away from the mob, and especially away from the leader of this mob. Nevertheless, the leader sent two flying witches after them and the witches sang…

Well that's just fine!

Say it once, say twice!

Take a chance and roll the dice!

Ride with the moon in the dead of night.

The monster mob behind the witches yelled out…

Every pony Scream!

Every pony Scream!

Nightmare Night is on the scene!

The frightened ponies ran into a wall. They looked up to see a painting of a demented clown pony. But this demented clown started singing to them in his haunting high pitched voice…

I am the clown with the tear-away face.

Here in a flash and gone without a trace!

Then the ponies went a gust of a crisp fall wind blow their mane. They looked to their right, and saw a female white ghost pony. She sang…

I am the "who" when you

Call "who's there?"

I am the wind blowing

Through your hair!

The ghost pony raised her see through hoof up to an open window high above the scared ponies. The ponies looked up to the window and the window showed the bright and full Harvest Moon, but it was covered in the shadow of the red cloaked pony. He then sang to them…

I am the shadow on the moon at night.

Filling your dreams to the brim with fright!

The monsters began rounding the ponies back into the center of the room slowly, still continuing on with the song…

This is Nightmare Night.

This is Nightmare Night.

Nightmare Night!

Nightmare Night!

Nightmare Night!

Nightmare Night!

Then our heroes started to sing nervously, as they stared into the eyes of the creatures before them…

Spooky creatures everywhere,

Everyone's out to scream and scare.

The creature interrupted them with…

That's our job!

You got that right!

In this castle of Nightmare Night!

The red hooded pony then made himself known by hanging upside like a bat from the chandelier hanging above the visitors, he sang to them with evil joy…

In this castle, don't we love it now?

Every pony is waiting for the next surprise!

His fellow monsters followed in his excitement and sang after him…

This is Nightmare Night.

This Nightmare Night.

Nightmare Night!

Nightmare Night!

Nightmare Night!

Nightmare Night!

A trio of bat ponies started flying in the air and sang in harmony…

In this castle we call home,

Everyone hail to the Nightmare song!

The gang all of sudden felt a deep shaking underneath their hooves as they huddled closely together at the center of the room. The shaking was followed by magical flying dark tubes and tunnels coming from the ground, the walls, and the ceiling. The first tube sucked in Pinkie Pie and the CMC into the left wall. The second tube sucked in Rainbow Dash and Stellar Eclipse into the right wall. The third tube sucked in Rarity and Spike into the ceiling. And the final tube sucked in Twilight and Applejack into the ground. While this was happening, the monsters all cheerfully sang together while waving their claws and hooves in the air…

Lalalala

Lalalala

Lalalala

Lalalala

Nightmare Moooooon!

> Something About You
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the blinding darkness below the castle floor, Discord and Fluttershy heard a storm of stomping hooves above them. The stomping made pieces of dirt and dust fall gently upon the top of their heads. Along with loud muffles sounds of their friends's screams and the musical number taking place. This made Discord look up to the ceiling with slight annoyance and asked "What in Equestria are they doing up there?"

Fluttershy glanced up to the ceiling as well and answered "They uh…must be meeting with the scary attractions in the haunted house. Maybe some other visitors just showed up as well?"

Discord replied with slight suspicion "I suppose so." But then he complained "Hopefully we'll get to experience those scary attractions too."

That made Fluttershy whimper with fear. Discord almost forgot about Fluttershy's initial hesitations about this place. He slapped himself in the face for his inconsiderate statement. He comforted her with "But we can still have fun just…exploring this hallway together! Who needs those fearful bumps in the night to have fun? Not I!"

Fluttershy then replaced her whimpering with a soft giggle, she was so thankful for Discord's consideration for her feelings and for his optimistic nature. Fluttershy decided to turn on her flashlight given by Derpy. However, no matter how many times she turned the clicker on and off, the flashlight didn't come one. She even tried shaking it, but this shaking caused some glass pieces to fall on to the floor.

Discord raised his lion paw proudly in the air and proclaimed "Not to worry my dear, I shall light our way!" He summoned a bright green flame to float gracefully and beautifully in the air above Discord's palm, showing his control over the mysterious and chaotic flame.

During Discord's process of summoning the green fire, Fluttershy decided to turn the light bulb part of the flashlight towards her face. She lightly poked her hoof at the light bulb to see what fell out of the flashlight. She cried out "Ouch!"

Discord immediately lowered down to one knee, looking at Fluttershy at her eye level. While still holding the green flame in his lion paw, he took Fluttershy's hoof with his eagle claw and saw a tiny piece of glass on the inside of her hoof. Luckily it wasn't in the frog. Fluttershy gasped at the sight of this glass in her hoof. Fluttershy closed her eyes, while Discord quickly and lightly pulled the glass out.

Once the glass was out, only a tiny dot of blood come out. Fluttershy still had her eyes closed, expecting that sharp piece of glass to come out at any moment. And once it was out, it would cause her agonizing pain and numbness to her hoof. If Fluttershy saw this small amount of blood, she would have fainted into Discord's arms. Discord smirked happily at Fluttershy's predictable but adorable predicament.

Discord activated a healing spell through his thumb, and used his thumb to smoothly massaged over Fluttershy's little wound on the inside of her hoof. The thumb had a faint but radiant glow to it. When the spell was done, the hoof was clean of any scars or dots of blood. Even though the spell took only a second to heal Fluttershy's wound, Discord continued to massage the inside of Fluttershy's hoof with his thumb. He noticed how soft and plushy it was. Discord didn't know why he was mesmerized by this, but it seemed like the more he ran his thumb over the inside of her hoof, the more entranced he was. He wondered if Fluttershy's cheek was soft like this. He figured No, it's probably twice as soft as this. Based on how soft her…lips were…I wonder…what it would feel like if I…

Fluttershy felt this soft massage by Discord's thumb, with her eyes closed, she gladly stated "Oh thank you Dis…"

But her thank you was interrupted a sudden moist brush on the inside of her hoof. It sent a rapid and tingling feeling up her spine. It made her open her eyes immediately, and she saw Discord…kissing the inside of her hoof! She screamed inside her mind What? What is he doing?! Why is he…? Her mind soon became rumbled and jumbled with so many thoughts and feelings all at once that she couldn't think. Not to mention that immense heat was building in her cheeks, and it somehow leaked to the inside of her head. And the heat certainly didn't make the thought process inside her mind any easier.

It took a minute for Discord to realize what he was doing. He sharply opened his terrified eyes, and glanced up at Fluttershy while still pressing his lips against the inside of her hoof. He saw the deep red blush across her face and her giant confused eyes looking at him. He nervously removed his lips from her hoof, and then swiftly released her hoof from his grip. He quickly turned his back to Fluttershy, to hide his blush that was immediately spreading all over his face and neck. He immediately covered his face with his eagle claw. He may have been holding a warm fire in his paw, but it wasn't its heat that made him feel like he was on fire. He screamed to himself Don't this! Don't this! Don't this! Not now! And how…how is my neck blushing? Neck! Stop it!

His tail robotically picked up Fluttershy from the waist, and removed her a foot away from the glass piece area. Discord squeaked "Moving on!" This initiated Discord to immediately walk forward into the darkness.

Fluttershy stared at Discord for a moment before following him. She was thankful that her blush started to die down once Discord released her hoof from his claw.

Discord mentally pondered Why did I do that? One moment I was healing her little wound…and the next thing I know…I'm kissing her hoof! Okay Discord, let's think this through. First, I activated the healing spell. Then, I noticed how nice and soft the inside of her hoof was under my thumb. Naturally, I caressed it. Nothing wrong with that. I only did it for a couple of seconds. She didn't mind it. So it has to be okay…right? Okay, then what happened? Um…the inside of her hoof was plush and sweet like…how her lips were…that day…when she…No! Don't finish that thought or else this blush will never go away! I hate this stupid blush! What's its purpose? To make you look like a fool?

But then Discord discovered Although her blush was simply…precious. Wait a minute! She blushed too! She's feeling embarrassed too! But…why? She didn't do anything wrong. Maybe she felt awkward about it? Probably terrified by the whole experience. Wait…no Fluttershy doesn't blush when she's terrified. So it was probably because she felt awkward about it. Ugh that's even worse! She shouldn't feel that way! I'm an awkward idiot! Not she! Oh anyway, where was I? Oh yes, I was thinking how her soft hooves reminded me of her soft lips. It made me wondered if her cheeks were that soft. But no…soft cheeks wouldn't make me kiss her hoof. Well, I do want to…kiss her cheeks. What?! No I don't! I can't! It wouldn't be me! It wouldn't be moi!

Discord then questioned himself But it was okay when…Fluttershy kissed my cheek. So why wouldn't it be okay if I did the same? Oh why did she have to do that in the place?! I was perfectly content and satisfy with our hugs and embraces, and now…I can't enjoy them without thinking about what happened that day! Hold on…did I kiss her hoof in order to get back at her? Did I do it in order to give her a taste of her own medicine? Make her go through what I went through? Argh! Do you even hear yourself?! Why would I want to punish Fluttershy? Especially over an act of kindness! Besides, even if that was my intention, wouldn't I just go for the cheek instead of the hoof? Ugh this is so confusing…in the most unpleasant manner. Let's just settle with I was caught up in the moment and was curious how the inside of her hoof would feel against my lips. Ugh for some reason, that sounded so wrong. 

Fluttershy was worried about her dear friend as she was walking behind him. He was mumbling to himself in words and syllables that she couldn't understand. Yet he hasn't said a single word to her ever since the…just the thought of it made Fluttershy nervously hide her blushing face in her hooves. But Fluttershy knew she couldn't think about that now when she has made her friend Discord feel awkward and guilty as if he committed a crime. In which, he didn't. Fluttershy didn't mean to make him feel this way and this made her feel guilty. She knew that he didn't do anything wrong. Actually, he showed a very sweet gesture of kindness. Strange…for some reason…it reminded her of that day…when she…kissed Discord on the cheek.

The thought of that day gave Fluttershy's a warm and comforting buzz inside her heart. And this warm yet comforting feeling made her smile again. She looked back at Discord, and knew that if she brought up what happened earlier to him, it would only make things worse. But she also couldn't let this silence go on any further. She had to think of something else to talk about. Wait, is Discord…? "Discord, are you…using your magic?"

Discord perked his ears at this, and then let out a relaxed sigh. He thanked the heavens for the change of subject. Discord replied "Oh Fluttershy, did you honestly think that little magical scanner can take away all of my glorious chaotic powers? Please! That little machine only blocked out 1/18th of my magic. Maybe even less than that!"

Fluttershy was about to respond that, but Discord added "And I meant what I said at beginning. I never back on my promises Fluttershy. Especially when it comes to good illusions and tricks."

Fluttershy smiled at that comment. She was happy to see how just the thoughts of a well-executed trickery brought Discord such joy. Fluttershy started to catch up with Discord, making her walk side by side with Discord. She then said to him with joy in her voice "You know, maybe having something scary appearing around the corner…might be fun?"

Discord's wide grin returned to his face, but didn't notice Fluttershy by his side. He was ecstatic that Fluttershy is finally joining in the spirits of this holiday. Yet, this made him curious about one thing. "Fluttershy? How come…you hate Nightmare Night?"

Fluttershy widen her eyes at this question and hesitantly answered "Oh no, it's not like I hate Nightmare Night. It's just that…I'm just a scaredy pony. A pony who gets scared easily…who gets scared of everything. Let's just say…I celebrated Nightmare Night a lot as a filly…with my family. I wasn't able to enjoy this holiday like my family did…due to my…easily frighten nature."

Discord was so surprised when Fluttershy mentioned her family. They have never discussed that subject before. He wonders why she has never brought them up before. Then again, he has never asked about them before. Discord was curious on what they were like. It sounds like Fluttershy is the black sheep of her family, such a strange thought for Discord to wrap his head around. But based on Fluttershy's tone about her family, Discord decided not to question Fluttershy right now about it.

Fluttershy then explained to Discord while walking in front of him "But now, because of my friends…and you…I get to see that Nightmare Night is fun with and without the spooky things. I also see that it's okay to be scared on a night like this because every pony is scared like me." She then added a little smile after that last statement, showing that last thought gave her a peaceful and tranquil comfort on her mind.

Discord looked at Fluttershy with a small but peaceful smile. He was enthralled in her innocent happiness and her moment of bravery. He felt he was in a dream…watching her skip lightly into the dark hallway before them. In this dream, he just realized how fascinating her skipping was to him…how fascinating her movement was to him. Just overall, how fascinating she was to him. He began to sing himself harmoniously while still keeping his sights on Fluttershy…

Sweet little Fluttershy, fascinating. 

Sipping coffee, dancing
Sweet little Fluttershy, you are a wonder
Sweet little Fluttershy

Sitting in the window
Or standing on the stair
Something in you cheers the air.

Sweet little Fluttershy, silhouetted
Stay within me, glancing
Stay forever, breathing lightly
Sweet little Fluttershy, Sweet little Fluttershy.

Blowing out the candles
Or combing out your hair
Even when you leave,
you still are there, you're there

Sweet little Fluttershy, at the mirror

In the gardens, letter-writing

Flower-picking, weather-watching

How you make me sing!

Proof of heaven as you're living

Sweet Dear, yes sir, Little Fluttershy,
Yes!
Sweet little Fluttershy!

Yes!

Sweet little Fluttershy!

Discord's song in his head was abruptly ended when he accidentally bumped into Fluttershy as she stopped at a fork in their road. They two splitting hallways, one for the left and one for the right.

> Giggle with the Gargoyles
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A circular opening appeared the right side of a hallway filled with large stone Gargoyles holding fiery torches. The opening echoed the screams of Pinkie Pie and the three fillies following her. After two minutes of straight screams of terror, the group of ponies finally landed into this hallway. But in the process, landed into a jumbled pony pile with Pinkie Pie on top. This made the fillies groan in pain, feeling the immense pressure on their spines. Gummy popped his head out of Pinkie's mane, showing how dizzy he was by the swirling in his eyes and how his head followed in this motion.

Pinkie Pie clumsily got off the CMC, still feeling like the room was spinning all around her. "Let's do it again! Let's do it again! Let's…" Then Pinkie Pie collapsed on the floor.

As the CMC detangled themselves from the pile, Apple Bloom still dizzy from the ride commented "Let's…not do that again."

Scootaloo looked around and asked "Where are you we?"

This made the other ponies look around, and they noticed the Gargoyle statues that surrounded them. But they were thankful that the hallways was lit, giving those monsters they meet earlier less chances to spook them.

Pinkie Pie turned her head all around, with a very analytical and serious expression on her face. She concluded "It looks like…we're in…the Gargoyle Hallway!"

Sweetie Belle responded "How do you know that Pinkie?"

Pinkie Pie answered cheerfully "Because of the Gargoyles silly!"

Sweetie Belle sighed "I was hoping you knew because you had a map on you."

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom sighed together "Yeah."

Pinkie Pie noticed the 'down in the dumps' looks on their faces, and cheered "It'll be okay. We don't need a map! Especially for a super duper fun haunted house! Besides, ponies don't usually make haunted houses hard to navigate through, it's not like they want to trap us in here forever and ever!"

Scootaloo said to Pinkie "Are you sure about that Pinkie? Did you see those monsters back there? They didn't look like some fillies trick or treating. They looked like the real deal…not that I'm scared or anything."

Apple Bloom added "I agree with Scootaloo."

Sweetie Belle nodded her head in agreement.

Pinkie Pie then said with a smile "In my opinion, it doesn't matter if the boogie oggie monsters are real or not. Like my Granny Fine Pie once said, all we need to do is giggle at the ghosties!"

Scootaloo questioned "How does giggling at ghosts and monsters make them go away?"

Pinkie Pie answered "Giggling at the ghosties make the ghosties not ghosties anymore. Laughter can make even the scariest of things into fun and happy things!"

Scootaloo replied with a confused "Huh?"

After Scootaloo made her remark, she saw something starting to move behind Pinkie Pie. The supposedly lifeless statue on the wall began to step off their platforms. While carrying their torches, they slowly sneaked up to Pinkie Pie. They crouched their backs like lizards, and open their mighty wings to emphasize their terrifying presence. They flared their sharp rows of teeth and the fiery torches made the teeth gleam and shine.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle then noticed the monstrous gargoyles just above Pinkie's shoulder. The CMC huddled together in fear and tried to quietly warn Pinkie. But Pinkie Pie just smiled like she always does and said "I'll show ya."

The gargoyles opened their jaws wide, about to let out their colossal roars, but they were interrupted by a swift turn around by the pink pony in front of them. She gave them a sly smirk before blowing a loud and spitty raspberry at them.

The gargoyles were confused, as they kept glancing back forth within their group, trying to find an answer on this pony's behavior. Pinkie then did a variety of silly and goofy faces, accompanied by a variety of bending and twisty dance moves that went with each face. It looked like Pinkie was voguing without music. Not only were the gargoyles entranced by this strange behavior, but the three fillies behind the pink pony were enthralled in her little dance as well. No pony or gargoyle in the room didn't know what to do, as Pinkie Pie continued in her interpretive dance. Even Gummy joined in his owner's fun, by imitating her hoof and arm movements while remaining still and stoic in his owner's mane.

Eventually, the gargoyles happily joined in Pinkie's goofy face dance with bright smiles on their faces and joyful yet hearty laughter escaping from their smiles. The CMC gasped at the sight of this. They couldn't understand how these scary monsters somehow gave in to Pinkie Pie's silliness. Just a minute ago, they were about to pounce on her and possibly eat her.

The group dance escalated quickly into the gargoyles beat boxing a beat while Pinkie and Gummy break danced on the floor. Gummy spinned into a ball on his side while his owner did the worm. The three fillies were amazed by their incredible flexibility. Once Pinkie and Gummy stopped dancing, the gargoyles let out a booming group laughter and gave high fives to the two dancers.

The CMC slowly and cautiously approached the happy group before them. The one of the gargoyles, looked like the leader of the monster gang, exclaimed to Pinkie "Haha for a cute little pink pony, you sure know how to bring a smile to a monster's face!"

Another gargoyle added "Although, I have a feeling we couldn't scare ya even if we try!"

The third gargoyle commented "I don't think any monster here can!"

The gargoyle leader then said "I don't care what old Batula says, we can't scare away a new friend. Especially a new friend with guts galore!" He gave a playful punch into Pinkie's arm, she giggled at his friendly gesture. But she still rubbed out her arm due to that gargoyle strength of his.

Gummy started to chew on each of the gargoyle's tail, to show a sign of acceptance and friendship which made the gargoyles chuckle. Pinkie saw the cautious fillies behind the gargoyles and shouted "C'mon silly fillies, come join in the fun!"

The gargoyles quickly turned around to face the small fillies. Once the gargoyles saw them, they gave them bright and toothy grins. This made the fillies feel uncomfortable and almost feel awkward around the strange creatures.

However, Pinkie Pie then reminds them "Remember girls, the giggling at the ghosties can make them not ghosties!"

The CMC looked at Pinkie Pie first before turning their attention back to the still grinning and slightly friendly gargoyles. Scootaloo was the first to offer her hoof to them and she nervously greeted "Hi…nice to meet ya."

The leader of the gargoyle took Scootaloo's hoof eagerly, and pulled her into a tight bear hug. The other two gargoyles joined into this hug. The leader then laughed "Pleasure to meet you too HAHA!"

Pinkie Pie was so thrilled and excited about this that she joined into the hug too while pulling in Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle with her. Pinkie Pie and the gargoyles giggled and snorted at this new bonding experience, while the three fillies were gasping for air.

Luckily for the CMC, the hug didn't last long and they were able to breathe again. Pinkie Pie then asked the gargoyles "Do you guys want to join us on our haunted house journey?"

The gargoyle leader answered with gusto "We would be delighted! In fact, we can take the short cut to the exit. We know the best routes with the best scarers."

Pinkie Pie screamed cheerfully "PERFECT!" This began the odd little group's journey down the hallway and deeper into the mysterious haunted castle.

> Very Knightly
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spike had a rather difficult time opening his eyes. Not only was his body throbbing in pain, but his head was experiencing an unpleasant headache. And of course, his over-puffed costume helped with this situation by over-heating his body. This made him sweat to no end. He wondered why he agreed to walk around in this ridiculous costume. But this made he realize "Rarity!"

"I'm over here Spikey!" exclaimed Rarity from a distance.

This gave Spike the energy to open his eyes and turn his head to the right. He found Rarity hanging from the top of the castle's spikey pillar by her long and sparkly cape. He just realized that giant tube transport them on the castle's roof. He also noticed how Rarity's braids and tail were now incredibly messy, and how there were new tears and rips in her fabulous costume. Rarity crossed her front hooves over her chest to show dismay for her humiliating position. She would unhook her cape from this pillar if she could. Unfortunately, her magic isn't strong enough to lift her own body weight, no matter how light she is. The heaviest thing Rarity can lift with her magic is a basket filled with fabrics.

Spike responded to Rarity's call with "Hold on Rarity, I'm coming!"

Despite having the aching feeling his head and the soreness in his muscles, Spike tried to wiggle and stretch his body into a standing position. However, his large costume prevented Spike from doing so. But Spike ignored this, and focused on getting to Rarity. Rarity saw how much uncomfortable and inflexible the costume was, and decided to magically unzip Spike from his Olaf disguise.

Spike was surprised by this, and during the unzipping Spike shouted to Rarity "Rarity! No!" After that, Spike tried to pull the zipper up with his left claw.

Rarity scolded Spike "No Spike! You've been in that costume for far too long!"

Once Rarity pulled Spike out the Olaf disguise, she toss the costume over his shoulder. And this made the costume fly over the edge of the castle roof. Spike sighed in exhilarating relief, and gave Rarity a thankful smile. Even though Spike a little disappointed in letting Rarity down on their costume idea, Spike could tell that Rarity wasn't disappointed in him. Rarity instead gave him a comforting smile, a sign that she was more worried about his welfare than over some silly costume.

Once Rarity magically placed Spike on the ground, Spike immediately ran over to Rarity and pulled on her front hooves. The first tug was no success. He tried the second time with more tension put into his little arms, but it failed. He prayed that third time was the charm, however instead of pulling Rarity off the pillar, it made Rarity whisper "Ow."

Spike's tug on her front hooves made her legs stretch in pain, and his claws started to dig into the fur and skin before her hooves. Spike let go of Rarity's hooves to shake out his claws, trying to prepare them for the fourth try. Spike even spit into his purple claws and rub them together to create some heat and friction. This disgusted Rarity to her core, but she tried to not show her disgust because this is Spike's way of helping her. Besides, Spike wasn't sick and dragon spit is not to terribly disgusting if comparing it to the spit of other creatures.

With a determined look on his face, Spike let it out a "Let's do this!" before placing his claws on Rarity's hooves.

This fourth try was Spike truly testing the peaks of his strength. Not just the strength in his arms, not his overall strength. He even used the muscles in his legs to help support this tug a war. After two minutes of agonizing pulling and stretching Rarity's front legs to their limit, Spike finally managed to unhook Rarity from the pillar. But the price of this mission caused Rarity's long cape to rip, and she ended up with a cape that only went to her withers. Rarity landed harshly into Spike's arms. It took the remaining strength in his arms and legs to keep Rarity's upper body up. Luckily this didn't last long, Rarity was able get up quickly on her own.

Rarity smiled sweetly into Spike's eyes which made him to smile in embarrassment and try to advert his eyes from her beautiful starry eyes. Rarity then looked behind to see the damage done to her fabulous handmade costume that took her all October to make. She gasped softly seeing her shimmering cape reduced to a small, wispy, piece of cloth blowing in the breeze.

Spike shared in Rarity's despair and looked at the cloth in sadness and guilt. Rarity looked back at Spike, feeling so awful in forgetting his kind rescue. She cooed at him "It's alright Spikey-Wikey. That silly cape was getting too heavy for me anyway. Thank you for being my knight in shining scales."

She added a little muzzle nuzzle with Spike with the mention of her "knight in shining scales". Spike couldn't contain his blush as it started to spread across his cheeks and creating a fiery heat in his nose. He clenched his teeth and almost held his breath during the experience.

After their little nuzzle, Rarity cheerfully added "Well now that we got that little mess out of the way, how we about we start looking for the others?"

It took a moment for the little dragon to get back into reality, but after Rarity patted the spines on top of his head, he quickly cheered with Rarity "Um yeah! Let's do it!" Rarity couldn't help but giggled at her little Spike.

Rarity observed her surroundings, looking all over the roof for some kind of smooth and easy exit off it. When she looked past the pillar she was hooked on to, she noticed a drain pipe system. She carefully went over to the drain pipe and looked over to find the pipe going down all the way to the ground. At the bottom of pipe, Rarity saw the castle's magnificent but dreary looking garden. It reminded her of a cemetery combined with the Everfree Forest. The pipe was big enough for them to climb down on, which was just perfect with Rarity.

Rarity called out to Spike "I found a way down!"

Spike swiftly made it to the drain pipe and looked down at it to assure that this way was safe for him and Rarity. He smiled at Rarity and said "This is perfect! Great job Rarity."

Rarity pushed her front hoof through her mane and stated "Well I do try."

While Spike was helping Rarity climb down, the duo didn't notice a large pair of menacingly looking red eyes observing them from behind the spikey pillar. The glowing eyes belong to a massive shadowy figure with sharp claws that could claw out titles and stone that made up the pillar. The shadowy figure smirked at the two creatures with his snarling fangs.

> Down We Go!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stellar Eclipse was the first pony to come out of the magical traveling tunnel. He was thankful that his moves at the skate park helped him in his movements and balance during his unexpected trip through the tube. However, his landing into the mysterious hallways was not as smooth as his ride. Even though he landed with the perfect skid halt, his landing was accompanied by a loud Screeeech! He could just feel his precious wheels getting murdered during this. He prayed that the sparks coming out this "screech" didn't set his wheels on fire.

Once his landing was complete, he quickly looked all around the chair like a worried mother hen. Checking to see if his chair and wheels survived the trip. He sighed in relief seeing that his chair and wheels were still okay. He can still stroll around, although later tonight, he probably have to tighten some bolts and buff out some scratches. But he will worry about that later.

Stellar looked around the hallway to see where in the world he was at. He noticed that the hallway with lit with blue torches and small stone raven statues holding these torches near the ceiling. It looked like it was a short hallway with a suspicious turning corner to the front of him, just five feet away. He was about to explore it when he heard a raspy, female, and echoing scream coming from the tunnel on the wall.

He immediately looked into the tunnel and saw a light blue and rainbow maned pony coming towards him. He let out a soft "Oh no."

Rainbow Dash crashed Stellar Eclipse right in the face, making the two ponies fall harshly into the stone floor. Rainbow Dash was on top of Stellar, she started to rub the side of her head with a couple of groans and grumbles. When she was able to open her eyes, she was surprised to see the brown pony underneath her.

She instantly started flapping her wings and got off her new friend, worried that her weight crushed his stomach or his spine or his legs. She panicked and exclaimed "Oh Stellar! I'm-I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to..!"

Stellar Eclipse slowly lifted his head and his upper body, while adding a couple of mumbles of pain. He answered Rainbow Dash "It's alright Rainbow. Don't worry, just like you, I'm a lot tougher than I look." Then he added a wink at the end of his statement.

The wink made Rainbow smirk at him as well as giggle at him. She helped pull him back on his wheels. Their little crash didn't cause any more damage to his chair. They gave each other a smile, however Rainbow then realized something, "Hold on a minute! Were you saying I don't look tough?"

Rainbow Dash, while still in the air, gave Stellar a slightly angered look. She even placed her front hooves on her hips to highlight her point. Stellar Eclipse stayed calm through this and smiled. He responded "I didn't say that."

He teased Rainbow by sticking his tongue a little, but before quickly bringing his tongue back in his mouth. He smirked during this little tease. This only made Rainbow furious, as she began to growl at him. Her growl only made Stellar burst out laughing.

Rainbow cried out "That's it!"

The skeleton Pegasus chased the cyborg Pegasus down the hall by air. Stellar's laughter echoed loudly throughout the mysterious hallway. Rainbow was surprised how fast he was on his damaged chair of his, but that didn't discouraged her from chasing him.

Stellar Eclipse was very satisfied in his mind, knowing he was doing all the right things in making Rainbow Dash his friend. At least, according to what Discord said in terms of making friends with Rainbow. Either way, he had fun creating a bond with Rainbow Dash.

When Stellar finally went around that sketchy corner, he discovered why this hallway was so short. He saw a swirling, deep, staircase going at least ten floors down into the shadows of the castle. He also paid great attention to the fact that the stair had no steps. So it looked like a giant terrifying slide. He halted right away when he saw this.

Rainbow Dash finally caught up with Stellar, and saw the reason why her prey stopped. She let out a deep and mischievous little smile on her face. She still kept this expression as she hanged her head upside down in front of Stellar's face. Once Stellar saw this, he expressed a nervous look on his face just begging 'Please don't'.

Rainbow instantly kicked down the lock switch on the side of his chair, which forced Stellar to sit down on his butt. She also pushed on the button that let out to extra wheels on the back end of Stellar's wheels in the front. This made him looked like a pony go chart. Rainbow hitched on Stellar's back, holding tight on his shaggy mane. She let out a deep but epic "Oh yeah" while looking into the staircase with determination and excitement.

Stellar Eclipse whimpered "I'm sorry."

Rainbow furiously flapped her wings, making them buzz at hyper speed like a bee. This made the two ponies fly down the staircase like a roller coaster. Rainbow let out an echoing "Wooooohoooo!" on her roller coaster ride, while Stellar screamed like a filly all the way down.

> Her Fears
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight and Applejack clinged to each other for dear life as they helpless slide down the tube that sucked them. The trip may have lasted mere minutes, to them, it lasted for hours. Maybe it was their screaming that made the trip last longer? Either way, once Twilight and Applejack saw a soft light at the end of this tunnel, their screams lessened and they started to gain some hope. Hoping that this tunnel would lead to some kind of safety.

However, they shocked to find them flying in the air after leaping off the end of this tunnel. Twilight was so surprised by this new development that her wings opened by instinct instead of by command. Once Twilight felt the gusting wind underneath her wings, she remembered to flap them furiously so that she can land herself and her friend back on the ground. She kinda felt like an idiot not remembering these wings in the place first, yet she was thankful that Rainbow Dash was not with her reminding her of her mistake.

When the two friends floated back on the ground, they noticed where the tunnel had taken them. They were in a giant, glittering, lightly colorful yet dark, crystalized, underground cave. It reminded Twilight of those caves underneath Canterlot, however these caves outshined Canterlot's caves by a mile. These caves had beauty…eerie beauty yes…but beauty nonetheless. Twilight and Applejack couldn't describe what specifically made these caves special besides being located underneath a floating castle.

Twilight also observed how there little mosquitos and other kind of little flies and bugs flittering about. Twilight put her front hoof on her chin and pointed out "Hmmm…fascinating."

Applejack nervously asked "What is it Twilight?"

Twilight responded "Even though these caves are designed to be solely gem caves, these caves are also the perfect habit for nocturnal life."

Applejack added "Nocturnal life?"

Twilight explained "The soil here is very rich, as if it's been enriched by the contributions of other creatures like worms and such. There's a lot of moisture in the air, not to mention I hear some sources of water not too far from here. Plus, there are bugs and little holes in the walls all around us. By my calculations, I say that we're in a bat cave."

Applejack exclaimed "A bat cave?!"

Twilight giggled "For some reason, I'm not surprised that this Count Batula has a bat cave."

Applejack nervously looking around her, especially above her head, as if looking for giant monsters waiting to attack her head. Applejack tried to clear her mind and focus on finding an exit out of the cave. She listened to the dipping sounds of water and started heading towards that direction.

With a serious yet firm look on her face, Applejack called out to Twilight "C'mon, let's head out this way!"

Twilight followed right behind Applejack, while still taking mental notes of the cave's scenery. Each detail of the cave made Twilight smile and awe at it in wonder, while Applejack narrowed her eyes into the darkness and paid no attention to the rest of the cave.

After two minutes of peaceful walking into the caverns of the cave, Twilight asked Applejack joyfully "How do you think Batula created a bat cave underneath his haunted house?"

Applejack quickly answered, while trying to keep his nervousness in check "I don't know."

Twilight added "A cave like this seems to need magic to create it as well as to maintain it. However, based on the crystal formation, it seems that this cave is very naturally made. Which is…very strange."

Applejack, not really paying attention to what Twilight, said "Ugh yeah…very strange."

It was in Applejack's response that Twilight noticed a distinct change in AJ's attitude. Twilight with concern in her voice questioned "Applejack…is everything alright?"

Applejack stopped, while still keeping his back to her. Twilight stopped when AJ did, and tried to look over her friend's shoulder to see her face. Applejack took a deep breath, about to answer Twilight's question, but then she heard a soft but booming Thud! in front of her.

Applejack immediately saw the trio of bat ponies they saw earlier with Batula's taunting gang. The earth pony, despite showing deep fear in her eyes, she instantly stood in front of Twilight. She was ready to defend her friend at all cost from any critter and monster that lurked in these spooky caves.

The trio bat ponies arched their backs like stealthy cats, and opened their magnificent bat wings at the frightened ponies in order to make them bigger than they were actually were. Their tiny fangs popping out their mischievous smiles gleamed in the light of crystals. As the bat ponies silently approached the two friends, Twilight and Applejack noticed that they were mares. They also saw how their eyes glowed at them. This glow radiantly embraced their haunting teal eyes.

Applejack quickly scanned her surroundings, trying to find something that could help her. So far rocks…rocks…crystals…more rocks…torch…wait torch! Before she went for her weapon, she sneered at her bat pony enemies. She slide her lower body harshly to reach the torch on her left. Applejack ripped the torch from the wall, and pointed the torch like a sword at the bat pony trio. This gesture confused the batty mares.

Applejack let out a mocking "HA!" before galloping towards her opponents.

The bat ponies let out a sincere scream, and huddled into each other's arms. They can only stare into the eyes of this crazy pony about to attack them. Twilight saw how scared these creatures were of Applejack. She knew that despite their appearance and how they acted earlier, it's not like they were changelings ready to tear them limb from limb. Twilight galloped towards the trio and cried out to Applejack "STOP!"

> Together Again
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As their journey progressed deeper into the maze that was Count Batula's haunted mansion, Pinkie's gang of gargoyles and fillies expanded rapidly into a large mob of monsters and ponies. Pinkie Pie was able to make friends with all of the tricky monsters and creatures that tried to scare them. In a mere hour, Pinkie was able to conjure up a joyful and laughing crowd of beasts. Pinkie the whole time kept telling them joke after joke, as their laughter build in volume with each joke. Their laughter echoed immensely throughout their halls and in the other halls of the castle.

At first, the CMC were a little nervous and frightened around the new gargoyle friends. As Pinkie added more monsters to their group, their terror slightly increased which made them very tensed in their first impressions. However, as the CMC observed the monsters' jubilant personalities around Pinkie Pie, they realized that these creatures weren't so bad after all. They may look real scary on the outside, but deep down they were individuals trying to give them a fun Nightmare Night by scaring them. These beasts were mischievous and fun like their friend Discord. Soon, the three fillies were able to laugh and joke with their new friends as well.

As the massive gang approached the end of the hallway, Pinkie exclaimed loudly while trying to get over her previous giggles "Okay, okay. I've got a good one. So I was with my friend Twilight, and she says she was working on this pie. I said that I was happy to help her with it. Twilight told me how she doesn't need any help. So then, I said 'Well, make sure to give me a slice of it when you're done.' Twilight was surprised by this and then said 'Pinkie, it's a mathematical kind of pie.' So of course, I said in return 'In that case, give me 1/8th of that mathematical pie for me please?'"

That joke made all her new friends burst out laughing. They all tried to catch their breaths as they were still recovering from the all jokes before. However, they didn't mind the lack of breath as they were still on the adrenaline of these joyous jokes. The leader of the gargoyles gave Pinkie a good pat on her shoulder for the good joke. Pinkie Pie and the cutie mark crusaders joined in their laughter. The only creature that wasn't laughing was the toothless alligator in the pink pony's mane. He was too busy paying attention to where his owner was going. At least, that's what it looked like anyway. It was hard to tell where he was looking due to his vacant and wall-eyed eyes.

As Pinkie was about to turn the hallway corner, she stopped when she heard loud clashing sounds near her hooves. This sudden stop made the rest of the monsters following her stop as well, but also curious onto why their new friend stopped because they did not hear the sounds of crashing like she did. She perked her ears up and looked down to see Rainbow Dash and Stellar Eclipse jumbled into a pile against the wall opposite from the stairs just to the left of Pinkie.

Pinkie's face immediately lit up as she was happy to see her friends again. Even though, they were not apart for a very long time. But that didn't matter to Pinkie Pie. She cheered while waving her hooves high in the air "Rainbow! Stellar!"

Pinkie Pie skipped merrily towards them, while the three fillies followed her and shouted "Rainbow! Stellar!"

Rainbow was the first to lift her head, still seeing swirls and stars in her eyes which fogged the image of her friends in front of her. Despite this, she had a smile on her face and said in a dizzy haze "That…was…awesome!"

Rainbow was about to pass out, however Pinkie Pie was able to catch her in her front hooves. Scootaloo went by Rainbow's hanging head in Pinkie's arm, and gently lifted it with her muzzle. Stellar Eclipse slowly raised this head from the crash and let out "Ah, don't worry about me. I'm just the pony go chart."

He let out a squeaky laugh/sigh before passing out back onto the floor. Pinkie Pie giggled at this, and handed Rainbow to the crusaders to help their passed out friend stand up again. Pinkie went to Stellar and helped pulled him up from the wall. She quickly looked at his chair to see if it was alright. Most of his costume was damaged and torn apart during the crash, his chair seemed alright except his back left wheel looks like it got bent. So that wheel might be squeaking for a while. But Pinkie Pie was happy to help him in any way she can.

When Stellar Eclipse was able to get a grip back on reality and recover from his throbbing headache, he muttered when he saw the pink pony's face "Pink-Pinkie Pie?"

She answered sweetly "In the flesh."

Just around that time, Rainbow was able to get a grip too. She held on to her forehead and remarked "Ugh…where are we?"

She unconsciously turned her head to the left finding rows upon rows of ferocious looking eyes looking back at her. Her eyes rapidly widen at this, and quickly swifted her body into the arms of her tiny friends. She able to get a better look at the owners of these ferocious eyes and saw that they belonged to the mob of monsters that they meet earlier in the evening. Once she saw the monsters curiously staring at her, she let out a high pitched that almost shattered everyone's ears.

Stellar Eclipse blocked this scream from his ears with his front hooves and shouted "Rainbow! What in the…?"

He then saw the source of Rainbow's screams, which made quickly panic and mutter out frightened out parts of syllables as he shake in Pinkie's arms.

Pinkie Pie giggled at her shaky friend and patted his head "It's alright every pony, these are my friends."

Stellar stopped shaking while Rainbow stopped screaming, and then looked at Pinkie as if she was crazy. Rainbow was the first to proclaim "WHAT?!"

Pinkie Pie pointed one of her front hooves to the monsters and said "Every beastie, I want you to meet my friends Rainbow Dash and Stellar Eclipse."

The monsters all smiled and gave a friendly wave to the two new ponies. Pinkie Pie then directed to her attention to Rainbow and Eclipse "Rainbow…Stellar…I want you guys to meet the Batty family!"

They both asked "The Batty family?"

Pinkie Pie explained "These are members of Count Batula's family. Who would have known that this haunted house was a family business? Or that Batula's last name is Batty? Isn't that funny?" Then Pinkie let out a snorting laugh after her last question.

Rainbow whispered to Pinkie "How is it possible that they are all related? Some of them aren't even the same species."

Pinkie Pie smiled "Distant family relations."

Apple Bloom remarked to Rainbow with a smile on her face "It's alright Rainbow, they're real nice once you get to them."

Stellar Eclipse gave the creatures in front of them a stiff wave and nervously laughed "Hehe pleasure to meet all of you."

As Stellar Eclipse was leaning into Pinkie's shoulder, the leader of gargoyles went up to Rainbow and Stellar and said "You ponies sure are lucky to have Pinkie Pie as your friend. I bet she makes you guys crack up every day."

Rainbow chuckled "Haha you could say that."

While still carrying Stellar, Pinkie began to journey around the hallway corner and announced to the group "C'mon every pony! Let's keep moving!"

The monsters and the CMC didn't hesitant to follow Pinkie Pie, and yet Rainbow decided to travel in the back. Just to keep an eye on these monster friends of hers. As much as she trusted Pinkie's judgment, Rainbow always likes to double check to make sure her friends are right on their judgments. As she gradually started to follow the group, she began to wonder if the others were alright. She began to wonder if Fluttershy was alright.

> I'm Here
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fluttershy  didn't mind Discord bumping into her, her mind was too occupied by the two paths in front of her. She gave them a quick side to side look, before casting her eyes nervously down at her feet. Discord found that little gesture slightly unusual, even for his nervous Fluttershy. However, he tried to ignore his gut feeling and focused on the fork in their road. After a minute of silence, Fluttershy turned her head slightly to Discord and asked "Which way should we go?"

Discord returned his gaze back at Fluttershy, to see if she was still casting her eyes to her hooves. Even though her head was in his direction, he could tell that something was distracting her. So, he decided to give these two hallways another glance. He noticed that one hallway was lit and decorated with armored knights, while the other was completely dark just like the hallway they have been traveling in. He knew that more tricks and illusions lurked in the dark hallway, but he had this inkling feeling that Fluttershy knew this fact as well. Maybe that was what was making her act so strangely? She didn't want to ruin his good time.

He pretended to ponder on this and stroked his beautiful beard with his eagle talon. He smirked before answering "Let's go this way." He pointed to the lit hallway on the left.

He was about to enter confidently and proudly into the hallway, expecting praise or at least a thank you from Fluttershy, but was stopped when she said nervously "Are you sure that way…is…the way?"

He stopped in mid-step, and turned his head robotically towards Fluttershy who looked even more anxious and tensed then she was before. He gently placed his front leg forward and answered her "Well this hallway is lit. And it can take us to more lit hallways. I have a feeling that the lit hallways is part of this Count Batula's map for this place. If we are on the right path, we will be out of there before you know it! And besides…I'm sure there are less ghosts and ghouls down this way. That is what you want, right?" He added a little toothy grin in order to soothe Fluttershy's worrisome thoughts.

Fluttershy rapidly lifted her gaze from her hooves and looked directly into Discord's eyes with a slightly surprised look on her face. But her eyes also expressed as if Fluttershy forgot something important…as if she forgot an important detail to always keep in the back of her mind. She quickly shook this expression from her face, and she responded sweetly but also hesitantly "Oh um, of course…let's…go down the lit hallway."

Fluttershy slowly walked by Discord and entered into the hallway. Discord extinguished the green flame in his lion paw, and watched Fluttershy in concern. Discord scratched his head in confusion, why does this pony have to be so confusing sometimes?! Discord wondered to himself. He also thought to himself She sure loves to puzzle me, doesn't me? And yet…I love it when she does that. Wait…what? Stop it! This is no time to thrive on the chaos of this situation! 

Discord slowly followed closely behind Fluttershy as they softly progressed through the haunting hallway. He let out a soft sigh before rubbing the back of his long neck. Discord couldn't shake this feeling that Fluttershy is scared or anxious about something, but what was it? Why can't she tell him? They tell each other everything. Then again, Discord knows it takes him a while to open his own hard shell about certain issues. Maybe the topic of her own fears and cowardly thoughts are one of her more sensitive issues? But still…he wants to let her know in some way…that she is okay…especially with him.

Discord's tail gradually and gently creep by Fluttershy, and started to coil around Fluttershy's waist. To Fluttershy, this coil didn't feel constrictive or hard…it felt like a soft embrace. Like a wing hugging a cloud. The end of his tail was especially soft as it brushed against her withers. Once the tail wrapped itself entirely around her waist, Fluttershy immediately stopped and blushed. However, Discord continued to walk forward as if nothing happened.

Because of Discord's walking, Fluttershy was quickly snapped out her thoughts and followed in his lead. Even though Fluttershy felt so embarrassed in this situation, she strangely felt safe being in the embrace of Discord's tail. It was as if he was holding her hoof like they have done many times before. Except this time, it had the squeeze and warmth of their hugs. Fluttershy then let out a small smile at Discord and blushed.

> Pepe Le Wolf
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, Rarity and Spike followed a sign directing into the castle's spooky back yard garden. The sign was painted with the words "Exit", so they assumed "exit" meant the exit out this haunted mansion place. However, that wasn't the case…especially after an hour of trenching through the vines and cobwebs that surrounded every inch of their path. And all those vines, branches, and cobwebs kept hitting Rarity and Spike in their faces. Especially in Rarity's face. For some reason, the universe loved Rarity that night. Because of these natural elements, Rarity's hair and costume looked like some demented version of a princess.

Not only did they have the pleasure of the garden's natural delights, they also had giant spiders, beetles, rats, and owls popping in front of their faces scaring them to death. Those creatures took every opportunity, every five minutes or so, to surprise and terrify the pony and the dragon. These little surprises, after an hour, started to deeply annoy Rarity. And this annoyance made her very grumpy. Combine this with her overall tiredness and frustration to get out of that garden, Rarity was not a happy camper and she was not afraid to show it. In order to show this, she kept groaning and grumbling every time she swatted away a branch or a spider web getting near her face.

Spike clearly saw this frustration, and he wanted to help Rarity forget her stress. He suggested to Rarity "Um Rarity?"

Rarity answered while swatting away a giant beetle about to scare them "Yes darling? What is it?"

Spike, a little taken back by Rarity's willingness to hit another living thing, continued "It seems like we are getting nowhere this way. Maybe…we should…head back the other way?"

Spike prepared himself for a frustrated remark by Rarity, knowing that Rarity can be very stubborn once she has set her mind on something. She never gives up, even if it drives her crazy. Not to mention for a beautiful mare, she can be quite strong and can be very determined when taking charge. It was what he loved about her, but in times like this, he terrified him to the core. He was surprised to hearing Rarity sigh in defeat.

Rarity turned back to face Spike and said "You're right, this little path of ours is getting us absolutely nowhere." She gave him a little smile before adding "Let us go…"

Her thoughts were soon interrupted by a booming thud right behind her tail. Spike let out a small but panicking scream before pointing is claw to this lurking and shadowy creature behind Rarity. However, she didn't turn around just yet.

The creature happily came out of the darkness of the tree's shadows and revealed his true identity in the moonlight peeping through the clouds over the garden. It was the werepony that they saw earlier when they first came into the haunted mansion. In the light, Spike could see the more detailed feature of this hairy pony. His ragged fur was a shade of dark brown, his eyes were the colors of a fire, and his ears were slightly bigger and furrier than those of a bat ponies. But the detail that catch his attention the most were the massive paws that were his front hooves. He remembered those hug claws trying to catch his feet from earlier, that made him gulped in fear.

The werepony stood up on his hind hooves, rising his paws over Rarity's head and let out a low but nightmarish RAWR! The roar blew through Rarity's mane like a hurricane and it was accompanied by his spit and drool. And yet, Rarity didn't mind this. Spike noticed how her face was very straight and emotionless through this experience. He had a bad feeling that something was going down.

The werepony smiled evilly at his own roar and waited for the sweet sounds of girlish screams. Instead, he was rewarded with Rarity turning around to face him and shouting "Oh Rawr! Rawr! Rawr yourself!"

The werepony was very much taken back by this and started back up when Rarity continued shouting "Oh yes I'm so scared! Scared by a little roar! I can roar too you know! Watch this…ROAR! Growl! Ruff! Oh look at me, I'm the BIG BAD PUPPY!"

After Rarity's light rant, she started to pant slightly trying to catch her breath. All she can do was stare with deep frustration at this werepony with his back against the tree. All that he can do was stare at this loud and expressive pony in front of him, truly shocked to find himself terrified by her and secretly asking for her mercy. Spike's jaw dropped to the ground when saw Rarity's rant, so surprised to find this beast looking like a puppy at Rarity's hooves.

After a long moment of silence, the werepony uttered with a lump in his throat "I don't know what to say…"

That statement didn't erase Rarity's frustration and annoyance in her eyes as she kept staring at the werepony. As if waiting for an apology for scaring a lady such as herself.

The werepony slowly started to approach Rarity. Rarity didn't back down from her position, showing no fear in the face of this creature. The werepony uttered "Yet all I can think to myself is…"

Rarity was surprised when the werepony…grabbed her front hooves with his paw and leaned into her face with hearts in his eyes! He sighed "how can I scare away something as terrifying and as cute as you?!"

Rarity soon felt an embarrassing blush building upon her face, her mind with swirling with the confusing turn of event. All that she could let out was "GAH?!"

The werepony brought Rarity into a dancing dip position and sighed "Oh what a sweet sound!"

Rarity screamed inside her head WHAT IS GOING ON?!

The werepony stared deeper into Rarity's eyes and said with a smile "What is your name my sweet but ferocious creature?"

Rarity was feeling uncomfortable and awkward by how close the werepony was holding her and how close his face was to hers. She stuttered while trying to turn her face away from his face "R-R-Rarity. Rarity is-is my name."

The werepony's face brightened when he heard her speak. Her voice was attractive even in a non-shouting state. But more importantly, her name was ringing in his ears. He sighed "Yes. That's exactly what you are. A rarity. Opposites combined into one. Contrasts living in harmony. The monstrous and the beauty in one pony."

Rarity exclaimed while trying to push him away with her front hooves "The monstrous?!"

The werepony eagerly asked "Tell me, are you part werepony by any chance?"

Rarity insulted by that question huffed "Well I never!"

The werepony ignored this and beamed "Or perhaps part monster in general? Oh, it doesn't matter if you are or if you're not. To me, you're the most beautiful monster I've ever seen."

Rarity lets out a frustrated grunt, trying to get out of the werepony's powerful grip around her waist. The werepony was about to lean closer into Rarity and sing another praise to her when he was interrupted with a small nip on his tail.

This nip didn't caused any pain to the werepony. He let Rarity out of his embrace, and looked at his tail to find the little dragon snarling his teeth into it. The werepony let out a flamboyant yet hearty laugh at this, and started shaking his tail. Despite the shaking, Spike didn't let go. He was determined to show his punk what he was made of. NO PONY HOLDS HIS RARITY.

The werepony chuckled "Haha would you look at this? Your little dragon friend likes me."

Rarity, silently creeped away from the werepony, let out a nervous chuckle "Yes…it appears to be so."

Spike noticed this on the corner of his eye. Rarity gave him a look that when she starts to run, he runs too. Spike gave her a small nod on this new plan.

Rarity then began to head back towards the path that leads them out of the garden, while still keeping her gaze on the smitten werepony. This made the werepony eagerly grin at her, sweetly showing her all of his sharp teeth. Those sharp teeth made Rarity gulped in fear, but she quickly regained her composure.

She remarked in fake cheerful tone "Well, this whole experience was quite…interesting. But we better get going. So many more scary places to visit, so little time. Plus, we need to meet up with our other friends soon. You know how it is…"

The werepony followed her mindlessly as she slowly progressed down the trail, not really paying attention to what she was saying. Spike release his grip from the werepony's tail, and tip-toed to be behind Rarity.

As soon as Rarity saw Spike by her side, she quickly added before speeding off "Ta-ta!"

Rarity galloped with Spike holding tightly on her back, leaving a trail of dust behind. She headed towards the castle with great haste. The werepony let out a dreamily sigh, showing an expression of love on his face. Apparently, he wasn't insulted by Rarity's behavior but rather felt encouraged. He pranced down the trail like Pepe Le Pew after his new pony crush, with his eyes closed and a goofy grin on his face.

> Her Confessions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Applejack froze in mid-strike, holding her torch just barely above Twilight's head. Their muzzles were just an inch away from each other, forcing the two ponies to stare each other awkwardly. Applejack gave Twilight a look that basically said "What in the hay do you think you're doing Twilight?" While Twilight's look responded 'I should have probably think this plan through.'

Applejack calmly went back on her four hooves, blew out the torch before setting it back on the ground. She asked Twilight "Why did you stop me Twilight?"

Twilight lowered her front hooves back on the ground, which helped released tense from her body. This gesture made the shivering bat ponies relax the tension in their bodies as well. However, their attention kept switching back and forth from Twilight to Applejack.

Twilight responded to Applejack's question with "Applejack…you were about to hit these ponies with a burning torch. All because they scared us? Which is what they're supposed to do?"

Applejack answered with frustration in her voice "Oh heck no! Did you see the way they were looking at us? They weren't just gonna scare us, they were…they were…they were about to do something we may soon regret!"

Twilight returned the frustration with "How do you know that? We don't even know them!"

Applejack pointed to the bat ponies behind Twilight, which made the purple alicorn look behind her into the eyes of the scared bat ponies, "Just look at them Twi! They are not just some trickster ponies in costume prancing about Nightmare Night, they're REAL bat ponies."

After looking into the teal eyes of the bat ponies, Twilight quickly turned her attention back to Applejack and remarked "So what if they're real bat ponies. What difference does that make?"

Applejack scolded "It makes a HUGE difference!"

Twilight gripped the sides of her head in anger and said "I don't understand this Applejack. We've never met any bat ponies. YOU have never met any bat ponies!"

Applejack cried out "FLUTTERSHY WAS A BAT PONY!"

Twilight's eyes widen in confusion and she calmly stated "Huh?"

Applejack then hung her head in shame, and this directed the bat ponies' attention towards the emotional orange earth pony. Applejack uttered "Fluttershy…she…she was a bat pony. Being a bat pony turned our sweet sugar cube into a hissing monster who barely recognized us. Us…her friends! She may have not been a vampire pony who sucks ponies' blood…but the way she glared at us with those orange eyes…the way she sucked the life of the apples hanging in the trees…the way she moved in the shadows as if she was a shadow herself…it sent shivers up my spine. The way…that she was…it was unnatural. She wasn't a pony anymore…she was an animal. A mindless animal."

Applejack took a deep breath and closed her eyes before continuing "I know that Fluttershy could never be that way again. I know that bats, no matter what kind they are, are not monsters. But ever since that whole incident…I couldn't get Flutterbat off my mind. I kept having nightmares about her. I kept having nightmares about bat ponies! I know it sounds crazy but…but…"

All of sudden, Applejack felt a warm yet gentle hoof on her shoulder which made her look up to see her friend Twilight. Twilight gave her a comforting smile, as if trying to say 'It's okay to be scared.' Applejack soon felt some of her fears, her nightmares, and her insecurities went away when she smiled back at her friend. The two friends gave each a tight and healing hug, to release all of the stress and events that happened earlier.

While Applejack was hugging Twilight, she looked over her friends' shoulder to find the trio of bat ponies with their heads hung low. As if they felt guilty for what they did to them…what they did to Applejack. Their expressions to Applejack…in that moment…looked like a small filly ready to be scolded by her mother. Their faces became very…pony-like to her.

Applejack slowly released Twilight from her grip, and gradually approached the group behind her friend. It wasn't until Applejack was directly in front of them did the bat ponies noticed the earth pony's presence. They quivered back into each other's embrace, and shut their eyes tight. Preparing themselves for Applejack to attack them. Applejack's ears dropped, and her mouth slightly parted open. She was shocked to find these terrifying creatures…quivering at her hooves.

Applejack offered her hoof to them and sweetly whispered "It's alright now."

One of the bat ponies looked up and saw Applejack's motherly green eyes staring back at her. Then the bat pony noticed Applejack's hoof right below her gaze. She looked at the hoof before returning her gaze back at Applejack. Applejack gave the bat pony a side smile while saying "I'm…real sorry there sugar cube. It…it won't happen again. I promise."

After Applejack's statement, the two other bat ponies lifted their heads from the huddle to look at Applejack. The first bat pony kept looking at Applejack while slowly taking the offered hoof. Applejack helped her up first, before gently helping the other up as well. Twilight gradually approached the group with a smile on her face, letting the bat ponies know that she is a friend too.

The bat pony, who first took Applejack's hoof, quietly asked "Is it…is it true? You know Fluttershy?"

Applejack and Twilight look at each other in astonishment first before Applejack answered "Yeah…she's a friend of ours."

Twilight added "How do you know her?"

> Little Mouse
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

After what seemed to be a half an hour of walking, Discord and Fluttershy were still walking down that same lit hallway. So far, they haven't encountered any monsters and ghouls on this path. Not even a fake trinket to drop from the ceiling to give them a good scare. They kept strolling through the long hallways, turning left to right. Then right to left. And so on and forth. It seemed endless, especially Discord. He was starting to get bored on how long this little maze was. Count Batula should have called this place the Haunted Labyrinth.

Discord was silently begging was something, just anything to pop up in order to break the silence and to break the route of this horrible hallway. His feet were killing him, and his eyes were getting sick of this candlelight. He can almost feel the bangs and dark circles form underneath his eyes. However…there was…one perk about this situation. During their wandering of this hallway, Discord's tail was still wrapped around Fluttershy's waist.

Discord couldn't believe how Fluttershy was still allowing his tail to be around her waist. Maybe she was enjoying this like he was? That thought made Discord smile a little and blush. He didn't know why it made him smile and blush…it just did.

Discord's suspicions were correct. The reason Fluttershy was still allowing his tail to be coiled around her was because she was enjoying it too. She couldn't really come up with a good answer as to why she enjoyed other than it made her feel safe. She felt safe just like she would feel safe back in her cottage with her animals. She couldn't explain why it made her feel safe. Maybe because he was her friend? To her, that wasn't the full answer. Maybe it was the thought that he was deeply concerned about her? To Fluttershy, that was part of the answer but not quite there yet.

Discord's and Fluttershy's blissful thoughts were soon interrupted by the soft but gradual build of beautiful organ music echoing in the hallway. Discord and Fluttershy tried to look beyond the corner approaching them, to see where this organ was. But more importantly, who was the pony playing the organ? Discord's tail tightened around Fluttershy's waist in accordance to his protective instinct over her. Fluttershy looked up to Discord to see what exactly he was going to do next.

With an expressionless but determined look on his face, he slowly starts walking towards the corner which forces Fluttershy to do the same. However, because of her building fear, she felt like walking slowly like Discord. As they were heading towards the corner, the beautiful organ music leisurely increased in volume little by little. As the volume increased, the echoes bouncing off the hallway began to die down a little. It was a sign that the organ is indeed right around the corner.

When Fluttershy and Discord turned left at the corner, they were greet by a bright but dark orange light. The lighting looking like the glow of the Harvest Moon. They almost had to squint their eyes in order to see through this light and properly walk around this corner. Being in the darkness and dim candlelight for so long has made Discord and Fluttershy almost blind.

Once they adjusted to the light, they saw an opened arch entrance. And through this arched entrance, Discord and Fluttershy saw a large but stone ballroom with multiple stain glass windows placed high on the ceiling. Even though, the ballroom depicted the multiple colors of the stain glass, the Harvest Moon's orange glow was the dominant light in the ballroom. The ballroom was empty…except for a massive and towering organ in the center of the room and a red cloaked pony playing it.

Discord and Fluttershy watched the red cloaked pony play for a couple of minutes. They watched him play with both suspicion and curiosity. The red cloaked pony ended his song gracefully, yet this graceful ending left an echoing and haunting sound. Discord then swifted his position to be almost in front of Fluttershy, but Fluttershy was still able to keep her gaze on the organ pony.

The organ pony removed his buttoning for his red cloak and it fell off his shoulders with ease. Then, he stretched and expanded his giant dark brown and black bat wings. With his red cloak gone, it is revealed that the pony has a dark brown coat with a dark black mane and tail. His mane and tail had small streaks of grey and white. Both his mane and tail were elegantly long and tied by black ribbons.

A booming but hearty laughter filled the atmosphere in the ballroom, and it made Discord and Fluttershy tense up instantly. The organ pony turned around to face them, while laughing maniacally. Discord and Fluttershy were able to get a good look of his face. He had one large vampire fang sticking out on his left side on his mouth. To accompany this tooth, there was a normal vampire fang on his right side of his mouth. He also had bushy and defined black eyebrows above his glowing golden eyes. His face was long and refined, and his bat ears were tall and pointed to match his face.

The bat pony laughed and proclaimed in his Transylvanian accent "Good evening! Visitors, welcome to my beloved and humbled abode!"

Discord snarled at the bat pony and extended his claws and talons.

The bat pony started to fly towards the couple, and continued "I am Count Batula, the master of this manor! And I…"

Count Batula's planned out speech was interrupted when he saw Fluttershy, hiding slightly behind the ready to attack Discord. Count Batula's eyes widen and his jaw almost dropped to the floor when he saw her giant teal eyes.

The only thing he could utter in that moment was "M-M-Mouse? Is that you, my little mouse?"

Fluttershy gave him a nervous smile, she popped her head out of Discord's side and waved "Hello Papa."

Discord exclaimed "PAPA?!"

> Family Reunion
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Count Batula's terrifying bat pony face lit up with the biggest smile ever imagined, as he heard his sweet daughter calling him papa. He immediately dove towards Fluttershy, picked her up by her armpits, and the two ponies flew high up in the air together. Once, they were in the center of the ballroom ceiling, Fluttershy smiled sweetly at her father. This initiated a tender and tight hug, as their wings flapped slowly in the air to keep them afloat.

When their hug was over, Count Batula smiled and giggled in joy seeing his daughter's face once more. He then loudly proclaimed "Oh little mouse, it's so joyous to have you back home once more! This is truly a Nightmare Night worth celebrating! Everyone, come on out! Our little mouse has returned!"

As soon as Count Batula exclaimed his command into the empty ballroom, Discord then felt a sudden and unsettling rumble coming from all directions of the ballroom. As if there were more hallways and passages leading to this place. As the seconds passed by, the rumbling and shaking increased until the slamming of doors and hooves finally filled the air. Before Discord knew it, he was almost being run over by mobs and globs of various kinds of monsters and funny looking creatures coming from his hallway. He also noticed that portals and opening were appearing out of nowhere all over the ceilings and walls of the ballroom, and more monsters and beasts were coming from those as well.

From the portal on the right wall, Pinkie's gang of monsters were entering through and immediately ran towards the center of the ballroom like the other creatures. Pinkie Pie, the CMC, Rainbow Dash, and Stellar Eclipse struggled to catch up with their new friends. When they got to the ballroom, they were panting and wondering why their new friends ran so quickly to get here. Then, the group of friends saw Discord by an entrance not too far from them and decided to walk up to him. They noticed that Discord's jaw was dropped to the floor…literally. It was very strange to find their chaotic friend to be shocked by…anything.

Rainbow Dash was the first to asked Discord "Discord, what's up? Where's Fluttershy?"

Discord responded with pointing his eagle talon towards the center of the ballroom.

Rainbow followed where his eagle talon was pointing at. Once she discovered what he was pointing at, her jaw also dropped all the way to floor. The other friends followed in this lead, as they witnessed Fluttershy…in the center of this ballroom with the monsters.

Fluttershy was in the middle of this giant mob of creatures that were filling up the ballroom completely. Instead of being attacked, Fluttershy was happily smiling and laughing and chatting with the beasts around her. And the monsters were smiling and laughing and chatting with her. The ballroom became loud with the sounds of their multiple questions and jokes and praises for Fluttershy. Yet Fluttershy wasn't nervous or shy about this attention. She answered the questions and jokes and praises in her calm but sweet voice. It seems like Fluttershy deeply knows all of the creatures in this mob, and the creatures felt the same. Some of the monsters even gave Fluttershy loving and gentle hugs, which she graciously accepted with open arms.

After a few minutes of this meet and greet, the trio of bat ponies entered from an opening from the left side of the ceiling while carrying Applejack in their hooves. Twilight flew soon after them. The group landed gracefully before Discord and the others. The bat ponies turned around and saw Fluttershy in the mob. They let out a squeaky cheer before calling out to Fluttershy "FLUTTERSHY!"

Fluttershy heard this cry, and happily exclaimed back to them "Moon Blossom! Night Shade! Star Wing!"

Fluttershy and the bat ponies flew to each other's arms, and they had comforting group hug. During this hug, Fluttershy sighed "Oh it's so good to see you again girls."

Rainbow Dash broke the jaw dropping silence with a "What…What's going on here?! Who are they?"

Applejack answered "Those are Fluttershy's cousins."

Rainbow Dash shouted "Say What?!"

Twilight added "And the rest of the mon-I mean, creatures who live in the Haunted Mansion are Fluttershy's relatives. Apparently, Count Batula is Fluttershy's dad."

Discord squeaked while still staring at the mob before him "D-d-dad?"

After Fluttershy gave her bat pony cousins a hug, something come out of the top portal on the ceiling. It was a beautiful pure white pegasus, with wings wide, large, and impressive just like Princess Celestia's wings. She had long and wavy raspberry mane, styled like Fluttershy's usual mane style. She also had long and elegant eyelashes accenting her giant teal eyes. Fluttershy's friends began to see where their shy friend got her good looks from.

The beautiful pegasus gracefully floated towards Fluttershy with her arms out wide to her. She cried out to Fluttershy in a Transylvanian accent "My little mouse!"

Fluttershy answered "Mama!"

The mother and daughter then shared in a long overdue hug. Fluttershy's mother wrapped her daughter in her massive wings, while Fluttershy kept them floating with her fluttering wings. The white pegasus remarked to Fluttershy while softly caressing her daughters' face "Oh my little darling. So beautiful…so…"

Then she looked up and down at Fluttershy's costume and then continued "How come you're dressed as Grandmamma?"

The mob of monsters then responded in a loud but prayerful tone "Grandmamma Countess…may she rest in peace in Princess Luna's beautiful night."

Fluttershy's friends looked around awkwardly, trying to figure out why those creatures responded with a statement like that. This family keeps getting weirder and weirder by the second.

Fluttershy's face then flushed a deep shade, just realizing how unusual her costume would look to her family and to her mother. She took the pins and ties out of her bun in order to make her hair fall down to it's natural style. She looked down still embarrassed and responded "Um…you see…I uh…"

Her mother smiled at her and quickly stated "If you wanted to wear a dress for Nightmare Night, I could have lend you one of mine my little pumpkin. Or better yet, make you a new one. Especially one more befitting of your Batty beauty."

Fluttershy gave her mom a nervous smile and responded "Um thank you mama."

Count Batula flew up to his beloved wife and daughter and remarked "Mavis, Mavis, it doesn't matter what our Fluttershy is wearing. What matters is that she is here! Here to celebrate Nightmare Night with us!"

Mavis gave her husband a scary and scolding snarl. She released Fluttershy from her grip and shouted "Ugh is that all you can think about?! Nightmare Night! It's because of your Nightmare Night Haunted House that…our little mouse doesn't celebrate this glorious holiday with us! It's the sole reason why she doesn't visit us!"

Count Batula cooed at his darling wife, while her back was turned towards him, "Now, now my angel, please."

Mavis quickly remarked "Oh no, don't' coo at me like a pigeon! I am NOT your angel tonight!"

Count Batula growling under his breath, but clenching his teeth to give an impression of a smile at his wife "What am I supposed to do my dearest? Not celebrate Nightmare Night…the most important event…in the whole…Batty family calendar!"

Mavis rapidly turned around and harshly crashed her face into Batula's face. Her furious teal eyes staring straight into the soul of Batula's golden eyes. She gave a furios and bone chilling stare at her husband, similar to The Stare that Fluttershy uses. Count Batula responded with his golden eyes glowing vibrantly, as if he was trying to hypnotize his wife. But his own stare could never work on her. And her stare could never work on him. They were evenly matched. Our heroes began to see where Fluttershy got her disturbing stare from.

Mavis yelled out "Argh this Haunted House was truly the worse idea that you've ever had! You know that?!"

Count Batula let out a frustrated "Oh that's it!"

This started an engaged, confusing, and angry verbal argument between the married couple. Fluttershy tried to stopped her parents from fighting by whispering between them "Mama! Papa! Please! This isn't the reason why…please calm down."

Her attempts to calm her parents down failed. She had to think of something to get their minds off that certain topic. Something that they would instantly agree on or at least cheer about together. Fluttershy kindly asked them with a small smile on her face "Would…you guys like to meet my friends?"

The squabbling parents instantly stopped their conversation when they heard Fluttershy's question. They responded at the same time "Your friends?...We love to!"

Fluttershy sighed in relief before floating herself and her parents down to the ground where her friends were. Once they landed, Fluttershy pointed her hoof to each member of the group and said "Mama…Papa…I would like to introduce to you…"

"Twilght" Twilight then smiled and bowed "It's nice to meet you."

"Applejack" Applejack then added while tipping her hat "Howdy."

"Pinkie Pie" Pinkie waved furiously at them with a big smile and said "HI Fluttershy's parents!"

"Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo" The CMC then gave little smiles at the adults before them, feeling a little shy around them.

"Stellar Eclipse" The wheelchair pony then added "How do you do?"

"This is Rainbow Dash. You know, that nice friend who always stood by me at Flight camp." Rainbow Dash, slightly nervous by Fluttershy's parents' presence, added "Hehe nice to finally meet you guys."

Count Batula was the first to shake Rainbow's hoof "No no, the pleasure is all ours Rainbow Dash!"

Mavis included into the conversation "We can't tell how much we appreciate your friendship with Fluttershy, especially during Flight camp."

After their conversation with Rainbow Dash ended, Fluttershy concluded with "And this is Discord."

Discord then poof away his Beetlejuice costume and makeup to reveal his true and original form. Once that was away, he magically poofed an explosion of confetti and glitter into the air before Fluttershy's parents. He bowed before proclaiming "The Lord of Chaos at your service!"

Mavis grinned and let out an amused awe "Oooohh a lord! Did you hear that darling?" Then she poked her husband in the ribs with her one of her front legs, which made him grunt in slight pain. However, this didn't changed Count Batula's disapproving yet scornful scowl on his face. He slightly growled at the draconquues.

Discord saw this scowl, and it made to slightly back away from Batula. Discord showed a nervous look on his face. But yet, at the same time, he was trying to be brave despite his nerves. Discord may be intimidated by the fact that this pony was Fluttershy's father, but he wasn't going to let any pony get the better of him.

Mavis heard the growl and scolded while stepping on his front hoof "Batula!"

This made the Count yelp in pain and hold his injured hoof with his other front hoof.

Mavis let out a frustrated sigh before changing her tone to speak cheerfully with Fluttershy "I must say my little mouse, he is very ferocious and very monstrous looking."

Fluttershy whispered her back "I wouldn't say he looks ferocious or monstrous…at least not to me anyway."

Mavis then expressed a mischievous smile on her face "Are you sure…that he is…just a friend?"

Fluttershy responded "Yes mama, he's just a friend."

Mavis adds soon after "Hmmm, that's…interesting. Because I see something more."

Fluttershy furiously blushed and scolded her mother with "Mama!"

This caused Mavis to giggle in delight at her daughter's embarrassment.

> The Finale
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rarity entered into the ballroom, with massive amounts of sweating soaking from her body. She had heavy panting going on, and Spike holding tightly on her mane while sweating and panting as well. They entered from the hallway next to the one where Discord and Fluttershy came out of. Spike was the first to pass out and he clumsily fell off Rarity. Twilight and Applejack were the first to go to Spike aid. Twilight called out to Spike "Spike!"

The rest of the group ran towards Rarity just to the side few inches away from Spike. Rarity was trying to desperately to stay standing up, and in result her legs wobbled with no end. She slightly looked up to her concerned friends. Fluttershy was the first to ask "Oh Rarity, are you alright? What-what happened to you and Spike?"

Rarity panted "I-I can't decide what's worst…tonight or…the Grand Galloping last year."

After Rarity managed to utter those words, her werepony admirer skipped merrily out of the portal behind her with an excited grin on his face. Once he saw his beloved Rarity, he called out "Ah there you are my beautiful beastie!"

Hearing that werepony's voice made Rarity freak out and in result made her tired legs finally give up on her. The werepony witnessed Rarity falling to the ground, and pounced into action to catch her. He exclaimed "Rarity!"

Luckily, he was able to catch her before her head would crash into the hard stone floor. Rarity's fluttered opened once she was in comfort of the werepony's large and furry front arms and paws. She sighed as if just waking up from a nap "Oh my…what a dream I just had…there was…"

The werepony smiled and answered softly "It was no dream my sweet little marshmallow."

Rarity's eyes immediately opened to their full capacity. She slowly turned her face to the front. She found herself staring in the face of the creature she was trying to get away from. She pushed her front hooves against his chest and shouted "GAH!"

The werepony chuckled at this, and beamed brightly at his adorable lover. He was enjoying every moment holding her in his arms in this romantic position. He didn't even notice how much she struggled in his embrace. While barely using his strength, he managed to crush Rarity's front hooves back into her chest by nuzzling into her messy mane with his large muzzle.

Rarity tried to push and extend her front hooves out, but she couldn't. She felt she was suffocating in the werepony's powerful grip.

Meanwhile, Rarity's friends were all staring at this situation with awkward and uncomfortable expressions. Fluttershy tapped the werepony on the shoulder and said "Um…Diego?"

The werepony named Diego stopped his nuzzling, and turned his head towards Fluttershy while still holding Rarity in his arms.

He exclaimed "Fluttershy!"

Then, he released Rarity from his grip and gave Fluttershy a big bear hug. He added a loving "Cuz! Good to see ya!" during this hug.

Fluttershy squeaked during this tight bear hug "Good to…see you too…Diego."

All the while, Rarity landed somewhat harshly to the floor after Diego's release. It didn't hurt, but it most certainly insulted Rarity. This made the white unicorn tapped the ground with her front hoof in slight irritation.

During the incident with Diego and Rarity, Twilight and Applejack were able to wake up Spike by splashing water in his face. And soon in this process, bringing Spike back on his feet. They slowly walked towards their friends.

When Diego released Fluttershy from their hug, Fluttershy asked Diego "Could you…give me a moment with Rarity?"

Diego responded while walking towards the mob in the center of the ballroom, "Sure thing!"

Once Rarity set her sights on Fluttershy, Rarity exclaimed while jumping into Fluttershy's arms "Fluttershy! Thank Celestia you're here! Thank you so much for….well you know."

Fluttershy answered "I'm so glad that you're okay Rarity. Sorry about my cousin Diego. He can be very…affectionate."

Rarity questioned "How in the world can a werepony be your cousin?!"

Fluttershy chuckled nervously "Well, he's a very distant cousin on my father's side of the family."

Rainbow whispered into Rarity's ear "Well, her dad is a bat pony. Not to mention, all the monsters in the room are her relatives."

Rarity shouted while whispering to Rainbow "Pardon?!"

Rarity then robotically turned her head towards Diego and the large gathering of creatures in the center of the ballroom. While Diego was happily chatting with some relatives, he felt some pony's gaze right behind him. He turned his head to find Rarity…staring at him. This made Diego smirk at her. Then he pursed his lips at her as a sign that he was sending Rarity a kiss from all the way across the room. After that, he gave her a dashing wink.

All of that made Rarity placed her front hoof to the side of her head in pain, and she sighed in confusion "Oh I need to lie down."

Once the group of friends were gathered, Fluttershy slowly turned to her parents and explained to them "Mama…Papa…I'm sorry that I haven't visited in a while."

Her parents looked at each other first before Mavis answered softly "It's alright little mouse, we…we understand."

Count Batula added "We should have…I should have known how this Haunted House can be too much for you."

Fluttershy responded "Actually Papa, after tonight…this haunted house isn't too bad."

Count Batula asked in a joyous voice "Really?!"

Fluttershy giggled "Really."

Count Batula let out a hearty laugh before squeezing his wife tight in his arms. This hug made Mavis smile at him, happy to share in his joy. Count Batula exclaimed "Haha that's my girl! Truly the bravest of us all! Able to face a dragon in the eye and save Equestria all by herself as the Element of Kindness itself!"

Fluttershy explained "Papa, my friends and I save Equestria together as the Elements of Harmony. Not just me."

Count Batula waved his hoof in front of him and nonchantly stated "Yeah, yeah. Sure. Of course my little mouse."

Fluttershy sweetly gazed at her parents before saying "I promise to visit the family for now on. Once week, I promise. That is…if you guys don't mind settling the Haunted House here in the mountains of Ponyville?"

Batula and Mavis looked at other excitedly, before responding together "We're moving here!" The married couple gave each other a hug before Count Batula announced to the family "It has been decided my family! The Batty family shall move here to Ponyville so that our dear little mouse can visit us!"

All the creatures in the room cheered and celebrated at the great news. The renewed spirits of the family made Fluttershy and all her friends smile. Fluttershy felt so good to see her family once more, while the others were truly able to see how loving and non-scary Fluttershy's family is.

After an hour or so getting to know the family and partying with them, the gang started heading out of the castle. Fluttershy's family gave them a good and happy farewell before they left. Showing their excitement for when Fluttershy and her friends will return. As the gang was walking around the mountain trail, Fluttershy told her friends "I'm so sorry that I didn't you guys sooner…about my family. It's just that my family can be a lot…to take in all at once. I just didn't know what to do, especially when we started heading towards the house. I panicked and before I knew it, we were there and…"

Twilight placed her hoof on her shoulder and said softly "Don't be sorry Fluttershy, we completely understand. Every pony knows how that feels like…to have a crazy family."

Applejack remarked "Ain't that the truth."

Pinkie pie cheerfully added "You betcha." while the rest of the gang added their similar sentiments about the topic. They all agreed that families can be crazy both on the outside and on the inside. However, despite this, that is what makes families great and that is why we love our families no matter. Not to mention, they will always love you even when they are crazy.

It wasn't until tonight…under the light of the Harvest Moon…on Nightmare Night…did Fluttershy truly understood this. She silently gave her thanks to the Harvest Moon…to Nightmare Night…and to her friends for this lesson. Her beautiful smile glowed softly in the dark but shimmering night.

THE END....for now;)