//------------------------------//
// Chapter eight. New friends part three 
// Story: Shadow in the Dark 
// by Thestoryteller 
//------------------------------//

The farm was beginning to take shape as everypony did their task. 'The lumber' that Ranger spoke of was a large pile of uncut logs. The logs were nailed into the ground and stacked on top of one another until they had made a wall. 

Then using empty potato sacks they stuffed them with bundles of hay. The hay bags were then stacked against both front sides of the two walls. Eventually the two walls were seven feet and ten inches. Windows were carved into the wall as well as doorways were sawed into the house and barn.

Eventually the windows were barred up, the wall was constructed, and they were now eating lunch.

"Okay." Nightwing said as he swallowed a piece of his sandwich. "I want all of the weapons and tools from all around the house and barn in a pile in the living room to see what we got." 

The group went all around the entire house and barn, searching for weapons of any kind. Until they had all of the weapons and tools in different piles in the the living room.

"Okay we got five crossbows, one hundred and thirteen arrows, forty two explosive arrows, two scythes, a plow, three shovels, two bows, and lastly twenty sticks of dynamite...Ranger." Nightwing said.

"Yeah."

"Why do you have twenty sticks of dynamite?" 

"We used some of it to build our cave in a mountain for the winter." Blossom answered.

"But why do you have it in your house?!" Nightwing demanded.

"Well where else would we put it?" John asked.

"Oh I don't know, maybe somewhere else besides in a place made of wood!" 

"Yeah that probably wasn't a very good idea." Ranger muttered.

"Wait...this might be a good thing." Nightwing said as began to think of a plan. "Of course we can plant these in the wheat field as booby traps."

"There see...something good came out of this." John boasted.

"Don't-don't do John. Nobody likes a suck up." Nightwing said.

"So what should we do?" Eve asked.

"Ranger and I will head out into the field, after lunch of course, and plant some of these in the field. Then attach a fuse to all of them and lead it to the wall, that way we can ignite the traps from the wall."

Nightwing walked over to the map and levitated a marker to him. Using the marker Nightwing marked three circles on the map.

"Okay we'll plant the dynamite in these three areas. We'll plant seven here." Nightwing pointed to the right circle. "Seven here." Nightwing pointed to the left circle. "And the rest here." Nightwing pointed to the center circle. "We'll need to bury them in about one foot deep hole. Once we want to set off the dynamite I'll fire a trigger at them to set them off. Sound good?"

"...y-yes." Ranger said unsure about the plan.

"Great! Let's get to it." Nightwing said as he grabbed both Ranger, the Dynamite, and two shovels, and using shadow stalking he teleported both of them to the outside of the wall.

"Will never get used to that." Ranger mumbled as he followed Nightwing to the entrance of the wheat field.

"Right here's your ten." Nightwing said as he levitated ten sticks of dynamite onto Rangers back. "And here's my ten." Nightwing said as he held his ten sticks in an aura. "You get the left side and I'll get the right. And we'll meet up at the center, and remember to keep them not to far apart but not to close as well. Got it?"

"Got it." Ranger confirmed.

Both Ranger and Nightwing went their separate ways into the field. The wheat was tall and made it hard to see anything else in front of him that wasn't wheat. But Nightwing and Ranger both had a map of the field so Nightwing knew where he was going.Finally Nightwing made it to the area he was supposed to be. He lowered his map.

And came face to face with a Spook with burning yellow eyes that bored their way into Nightwing's eyes.

"Bugger." Nightwing cursed.

Both Nightwing and the Spook stood as still as statues. Each afraid wether they should move or not. At least that's what Nightwing thought. Since he couldn't really tell what the Spook was thinking.

Nightwing's eyes looked down and saw that the Spook was making odd movements with its hooves.

'Is it...is it trying to say something in sign language?!' Nightwing screamed in his head.

The Spook continued to make hoof motions and sure enough it was using sign language.

"What the hay does that mean?" Nightwing asked the Spook once it stopped making hoof motions. "You just said 'don't protect the farm.' Why would I not protect the farm?"

The Spook began to make different hoof motions. Nightwing frowned as the Spook continued. Nightwing always hated sign language, mostly because he could never tell if the one who was using it was lying or not. That's right Nightwing can only tell if someone's lying only if they can speak.

"'It must be destroyed.'" Nightwing repeated the Spooks hoof motions. "What must be destroyed? What are you talking about?"

The Spook placed a hoof on Nightwing's head and an image appeared in his mind. An image of Flash with blood red eyes and matching mane and tail appeared in his mind. Behind the Flash it appeared as if the whole world was burning as the sky was blood red. The Spook removed it's hoof from Nightwing's forehead and the image faded away. Nightwing stumbled back a bit as he tried to regain his balance.

A tentacle came from the Spooks back and wrapped itself around Nightwing's crystal. 

"The Cataclysm is coming." The Spook spoke through the crystal. 

The Spook then let go of the crystal, turned, and disappeared into the wheat. Leaving Nightwing alone in the field.

".....it's gonna be one of those days huh?" Nightwing asked as he observed his crystal. 

Nightwing dug seven holes and planted a stick of dynamite in each hole, then buried it. Once all the holes were dug and the dynamite in place. Nightwing went to the center area where he met up with Ranger. The two buried the last of the dynamite and then headed back to the house.

"You okay Nightwing?" Ranger asked with a concerned look.

"Hmm? Yeah, yeah I'm...fine." Nightwing said as he lost his train of thought.

"You don't seem fine." 

"I just...have a lot of thinking going on right now." 

"Ah...okay." 

The two made it to the house and Nightwing teleported the two back into it. 



Time had passed and it was now night. Nightwing took the guest bedroom that he had first awoken in when he was brought here. He looked at the pictures he first saw when he woke up. They looked the same but there was no Appleseed. 

'I guess when he left the mind field vanished as well.' Nightwing guessed.

He looked at the desk next to the bed and saw a piece of paper with a small bowl of ink and a quill in it. Nightwing levitated the quill and began to write on the piece of paper.

'Dear Teach.

How you doing? Me I'm great. Anyways as you probably already know I activated my houses self destruct (told you it would come in handy). So yeah, I'm fine by the way, so there's no need to worry about me. The vault was teleported to a safe location as well. I'm currently helping out some new friends of mine in case you were wondering. So I hope your doing well.

Your student, Nightwing.'

Nightwing rolled up the letter and tied it closed with a ribbon. A flame was shot from Nightwing's crystal as the letter turned into smoke and flew out the window. Tired and bored Nightwing pulled back the covers, hopped into the bed, and fell asleep.




'Did you tell him?' 

'Yes. I warned the Knight.'

'And did he listen?'

'I am unsure. But I hope he listened.'

'And if has not?'

'We will have no choice.'

'So...nothing has changed?'

'No...nothing has changed. We will give them two moons. Then we strike.'