//------------------------------// // Chapter 33- To Save a Friend // Story: Of Flame and Shadow // by Garuda IV //------------------------------// All around them they could hear the screeching of the vampire fruit bats as they began to charge them. Without wasting any time, Luna and Twilight threw up a magical barrier right before they became swarmed by the bats and their fangs. Not wanting to waste time with this, Discord teleported himself out of the barrier and stood before Flutterbat, angrily glaring at her. "Aww, what's the matter?" Flutterbat mockingly asked with a smug grin. Giving an angry snort, Discord reached a paw towards her to grab ahold of her, just to find himself quickly covered in bats as they began to sink their fangs into his hide. Letting out a furious and pained roar that sounded like a mixture of a dragon's and lion's roar, and an eagle's screech, Discord snapped his claw and turned them all into bat-shaped chocolate bars. But, as soon as they landed on the floorboards, another swarm was all over him, biting away at whatever open areas they could. Annoyed with them, Discord teleported himself back into the safety of the barrier. "Whoa!" Rainbow exclaimed as she saw him. "Dude, look at yourself!" "You're bleeding everywhere!" Rarity cringed. Looking over himself, Discord saw that his entire body was indeed covered in bite marks. With a small grumble, Discord snapped a claw and began healing his injuries. "They're imbued with magic," he told them. "I don't know how, but that thing that's possessing Fluttershy has given all of those bats some form of magic." "Can't you remove it like you did with our horns and wings when we first met you?" Twilight asked. "Give me a moment," Discord said before snapping his claw. Feeling like nothing happened, he snapped it again before switching to his paw. After a few more attempts, he gave an infuriating growl. "Why isn't my chaos magic working?! I can't remove their magic!" "Would you like to know why?" Flutterbat giggled as she asked. "It would be rather helpful if you would tell us, dear," Rarity nodded. "Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt, considering that you can't do anything to them. The reason why that such a high level of chaos magic isn't working on them, Discord, is because it doesn't work on the dead." "But they're all alive!" Discord argued. "I was talking about my magic," she deadpanned. "I'm a ghost possessing this pegasus, and thus my magic is death magic. And besides life and death, nothing can stop death. Not even your chaos." "Please tell me she's bluffing," Rarity said. "Unfortunately, she's telling the truth. While my chaos does affect nearly everything, death is something that I cannot touch. Even if it's a spirit that's possessing ponies." "What about Dark?" Twilight asked. "Why is it that your chaos magic was able to work on him and not her?" "Because he's alive and is susceptible to my magic. And despite what, or rather who he is now, he's still alive while this ghost is purely dead." "Then why don't we go get him for help? Shouldn't he be able to do something about this ghost?" "He could, but we don't need him," Discord dismissed. "We can handle this on our own, right? After all, you've all been in worse situations than this." "Yes, but none of them involved directly fighting a friend who's trying to harm us with an army of theirs." "Doesn't matter!" he snapped before turning to Pinkie. "Pinkie, can I borrow that holy water?" "Sure," she said in a chipper tone before placing it in his paw. "Just be sure to get her with it. It's my last bottle until I get another crate shipment of it next week." "'Another shipment'?" Rainbow questioned. "What the hay do you need a whole crate of holy water for?" "... reasons." Ignoring the rest of their talking, Discord teleported himself back out with the holy water in his claw. Reappearing in front of Flutterbat, Discord immediately opened the bottle with his paw before flinging the water out of the bottle in an arc towards her. Even though he was standing just six feet away from her, time seemed to slow down for him as he watched the water fly over towards Flutterbat before he then saw that a swarm of bats had used themselves as a shield against the holy water. But, what really surprised him was that as soon as the water touched the bats, they each gave out a shriek as they fell to the floor and began to dissolve into individual piles of ash. "What?!" Discord shouted in surprise. "How is that possible?!" "Oh, my," Flutterbat said as she kicked a ash pile away. "Well, that was unexpected." "What did you do to them?!" "Oh, nothing much. All I did was give them some of my power. It's strange, though. I guess that they got a large enough dose that they've somehow become vulnerable to holy water, but quite not enough to make them immune to your chaos magic like I am. Oh well, they're replaceable." As Discord's continued to stare at Flutterbat, he noticed something shimmering from the corner of her eye. With a second look, he could see that it was a tear. Noticing his gaze, Flutterbat brought a hoof up to the area and wiped it up. Looking down to the teardrop on her hoof, she lowly hissed before flicking it off to the side. "Apparently that pegasus mare isn't as controlled as I thought she was," Flutterbat spoke. "Perhaps I should try a bit harder-" "You will not!" Discord bellowed as he continued to fling the holy water out of the bottle, each one blocked by another wall of bats that would dissolve after being hit. "I won't let you hurt a single hair on her-" "Discord, stop!" Hearing Fluttershy's actual voice pleading to him, Discord stopped and looked down to see that her normal eye-color had returned. But what really got to him were the tears and sadness in her eyes. "Why would you do that to those poor creatures?" "Fluttershy," Discord slowly and sorrowfully said, "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to. They were just flying in the way." "But you still kept doing it." "To try and save you!" Closing her eyes, Fluttershy sniffled and wiped her tears. Once she opened them, though, they'd returned to their blood-red color, accompanied by a devious grin. "You're so easy to fool," Flutterbat malevolently giggled. Realizing that he'd been fooled, Discord was about to spray another round at her when he felt several pairs of fangs biting down on his claw, forcing him to release the bottle of holy water. With it out of his reach, the rest of his body once again became swarmed by bats while a few others grabbed the bottle and flew away with it. Seeing them flying away, Discord reached out to it with his magic, but couldn't grab ahold of it. Guess my chaos doesn't work on holy water either, he thought before wincing in pain from being bitten. Darn these little buggers anyway. Taking a moment, Discord used his chaos magic to turn the bats that were biting him into balloons with a picture of a black bat before teleporting himself back into the barrier and healing himself. "Did ya get her?" Applejack asked. "Sorry, but the bats blocked the water and flew-off with the rest of it," Discord apologized. "Awww, bummer," Pinkie said before sighing. "And that was my favorite bottle too." "But we're not finished yet. When I hit the bats with the water, they turned to ash." "They did what?!" Rarity shrieked. "I'll explain another time, but when I did, I saw that Fluttershy-" "Flutterbat." "Whatever! Point being, I saw that she was starting to tear-up about them. While Fluttershy may be possessed, she's still in there somewhere." "So all we need to do is to try and draw her out?" Twilight asked, listening in on them while helping Luna hold the barrier. "Yes, but every time I go out there, those darn bats swarm me like an all-you-can-eat buffet." "What about turnin' them varmin's inta an apple or somethin'?" Applejack suggested. "I could, but do you want Fluttershy to witness them all be turned into that and then be eaten by the others or herself?" Discord questioned. "... Ah suppose not." "Princess Luna," Twilight spoke up, "could you control the bats like you did earlier?" "Normally I could," she began to answer, "but considering their vast numbers, I could control over half of then and send them off. However, once they're out of my range, they'll either just come straight back here, or go to Applejacks' farm." "Ooh! Ooh! I have an idea!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Discord could teleport him and me-" "Him and I, dear," Rarity corrected. "Yeah, yeah. Anyway, he could teleport us over to my place so that I can grab my sleeping powder." "Why would you have sleeping powder?" Rainbow questioned. "And don't say, 'reasons'." "Actually, I was going to say because I might've been planning to use it for a prank... or six." "Okay, but why not do them tonight on Nightmare Night?" Pinkie smirked. "Because reasons." With an irritated groan, Rainbow facehoofed. "Just go get your stupid powder already." With a nod from Pinkie, she looked up over to Discord before he teleported the two of them away to pickup her sleeping powder. A few seconds later after hearing the bats screeching and trying to bite through the barrier, Twilight let out a low sigh. "I'm starting to wish we would've gotten Dark now," she said. "He probably could've taken care of this by now." "You seem rather confident in him," Luna observed. "He's been training with Nocturne since we've gotten back from Canterlot, so either one of them should know how to deal with this kind of situation." "Let us first try it their way. If it's all the same to you, I'd rather not use his powers to solve this. And besides," Luna furrowed her brow, "if this ghost has indeed seen the cloaked figure that attacked us, then he might know what this pony looks like. Like his coat color, eye color, main color, or even his cutie mark if possible." "In that case, Pinkie's sleeping powder would be perfect for capture." A few minutes later of waiting and watching the bats trying to bite through, Discord and Pinkie returned. "We're back!" she happily announced wearing a saddlebag. "Did ya get it?" Applejack asked. "Yepperoni," Pinkie answered before pulling it out. "Oh, did I forgot to mention that it's actually a sleep powder bomb?" "Figures," Rainbow sighed. "Seriously, Pinkie, what's up with you and your bombs and cannons?" "What?" she wined. "They're fun and make a loud bang! And you know how much I love a good bang." "... that sounded so wrong that I'm not even going to start." "Rainbow!" Rarity chastised while cringing at the crude comment. "What? She practically set herself up for that one." Pinkie on the other hoof, just laughed it off. "Hehehe, so true." "Later, girls," Twilight told them. "Pinkie, can you use your sleep powder bomb now?" "Already did," she smiled, watching the timer on the bomb tick down from five. Hearing their talking, Flutterbat looked down to see that the bomb had somehow ended up inches away from her front hooves. With eyes wide, she immediately spread her leathery wings and flew out of the house a split second before the bomb went off, covering the entire interior and exterior of the cottage in pink powder. After a minute had passed to make sure that the powder had taken effect, Twilight casted a quick wind spell and blew the remaining powder away to reveal the cottage now littered with a few hundred vampire fruit bats laying asleep all over the place. "Sweet, it worked!" Pinkie bounced. Waiting a few more seconds to make sure that the powder and been cleared out completely, Luna removed the barrier and allowed the others to walk out. But, as they scanned the room, they saw that Flutterbat wasn't among them. "Darn it!" Twilight irritatedly said. "She got away!" "I guess we should've closed and locked all of the doors and windows," Discord grumbled. "If I head out now, I can still catch her," Rainbow offered. "Alright, go ahead, and be careful," Twilight told her before she gave a salute and zipped off into the night sky to look for Flutterbat. "So what now?" Applejack asked. "Thanks ta Pinkie and Discord, them bats are all knocked out." "Now we go and help look for Flutterbat," Luna said. With a round of nods, they began to make their way out of Fluttershy's cottage. Before she walked through the door, though, Rarity noticed that they were one draconequus short. Seeing Discord standing in place staring at the empty spot that Flutterbat had previously occupied, she walked over to him and put a tender hoof on him. "Discord?" Rarity softly spoke. "Are you alright?" "I failed her," he muttered. "Pardon?" "I would always tell Fluttershy that I would look out for her and keep her safe, but instead, I failed her. I was the one who turned her into that thing." "You didn't know at the time. It's not your fault." "Yes it is!" he snapped. "Regardless of whether I knew about it or not, it doesn't change the fact that I was the one who gave her those apples that turned her! And besides, I still should've known about it. Even if she didn't tell me, I should've still been able to pick up on it, but I didn't! And now I can't do anything to help her." "What do you mean? Of course you can." "Like what? I can't use my magic on Fluttershy or the spirit possessing her, and I can't harm the bats without her crying over them." "We'll find a way, we always do. But until we free her, you can't give up on her. Not when she needs you the most." Discord let out a tired sigh. "I know. I just feel so useless right now. It feels like no matter what I've done so far tonight, I can't seem to get any closer to helping her." "Well, standing here moping like this isn't going to help her either," Rarity told him as she began to guide him towards the door. "Just remember that the rest of us want her back safely too, and that we'll be right here until we do." Feeling a little better about the situation, Discord smiled down to Rarity, which she gratefully returned. Walking out of the cottage, they saw that Luna and their friends were standing there waiting for them. "You right there?" Applejack asked. "I'll be fine," Discord answered. "Just feeling a little useless right now." "Now is not the time to mope about it," Luna told him. "Right now, we need to find Flutterbat and return her to normal." "Do you know which way she was last seen heading?" Rarity asked. "I saw Rainbow's trail heading over towards Ponyville," Twilight answered, "but she's not the only one. I've been seeing more vampire fruit bats heading over there too." "Then let us waste no more time," Luna said. "The longer we allow for this to continue, the more danger that Ponyville and the orchard will be in." Over Ponyville, Flutterbat was hiding amongst the buildings to hide from Rainbow while a group of bats were gathering out of sight above the town. She caught a brief glimpse of her from when she turned to see if she was being followed and dived down into the town. As she hid herself within the shadows of the alleyway, Flutterbat hissed. "They may have delayed me," she seethed, "but they won't stop me." Why are you doing this? Fluttershy tearfully asked inside her head. "What? How is it that you're still able to speak?" Flutterbat wondered. "You shouldn't even be able to make me tear up like you did before." You had those poor bats sacrifice themselves like that, and yet you act like they weren't worth anything to you. "Of course they weren't. They're just bats, nothing more than rodents with wings." They're more then that, Fluttershy protested. They all have a family of some kind, just like I'm sure you once did. Flutterbat sighed. "That was a long time ago, in a different life." Is that why your ghost is still here? Shaking her head, Flutterbat bore her fangs. "I don't need to answer to you! You're just a voice in my head at this point." But this is still my body. "Not for much longer it's not. And once my fleet of vampire fruit bats are reassembled, then there'll be no way they can-" "There you are!" Looking up above her, Flutterbat saw Rainbow had found her and was closing in on her. Flying away, she called upon some of the bats that had gathered and ordered them to intercept Rainbow. But, while it would take a little while for them to catch up to them, Rainbow was closing the gap between them. And soon enough, she'd gotten ahold of Flutterbat and pinned her to the ground. "What the hay, Flutters!" Rainbow shouted. "Why are you- OUCH!" Rainbow's questioning was cut short when Flutterbat bit her foreleg before kicking her off of her. Now free, Flutterbat took-off again, this time covered by her bats that had managed to catch up to them. While a dozen of them were flying away with her, another dozen were swarming Rainbow, biting her as she struggled against them just to stand up. After enough swatting, she was able to get back up to her hooves and into the air after Flutterbat. Continuing the chase, Rainbow once again closed in on her. But as she drew closer, she failed to notice that the bats that had just attacked her were trailing after her, along with another group from above. Noticing the ones from up top, Rainbow picked up the pace, finding herself within a few feet of Flutterbat... and the bats surrounding her. Seeing her catch up to them, the bats began to break-off from Flutterbat and started to attack Rainbow. But, even though she managed to avoid most of them, she found that a few of the had latched onto her with their fangs, one of which was firmly biting down on one of her wings. And despite wanting to catch her, Rainbow knew that if she continued this alone that she would probably find herself in more trouble than she already was. Diving down, Rainbow began to spiral and try to shake off the bats that were still attached to her. After a few spins, she managed to get them off of her. With her now free of her unwanted passengers, she leveled out and began making her way back towards where her friends would be coming from. Making her way over to the other side of Ponyville, she soon saw her friends flying towards her with Discord carrying Pinkie and Rarity on his back. "Rainbow," Twilight called out, "where is she?" "She got away," Rainbow sighed in disappointment. "I had her, but then she bit me and had those darn bats come and attack me whenever I tried to get close." "Wait, she bit you?!" Luna asked in alarm. "Uuh, yeah? Why? Is that bad?" "Being bitten by a thestral like her may cause you to also turn into one yourself." "Does that mean that Rainbow is going to be turned into a bat pony too?" Pinkie wondered. "That depends. She may or may not be turned, but just incase she does, I'm going to briefly head on back to Canterlot so that I can get you the remedy." "Can't Discord just use his chaos magic to remove it?" Rainbow nervously asked. "Sorry, but I cannot," Discord answered. "Since the bite came directly from Fluttershy while she's being possessed, my magic won't work on it." "Okay, okay. So we just need for Princess Luna to get over to Canterlot and get this remedy, right?" "That is correct," Luna nodded. "Just out of curiosity," Twilight began, "how long will it take for her to transform?" "It could be anywhere from within a few minutes to a few hours. Nopony can say for sure." "In that case, can you go get it and be back before Rainbow transforms?" "I can try. I'll also make sure to bring a few extra just incase she bites somepony else." "What about my rings of garlic?" Pinkie asked, wearing a ring of garlic around her neck. "... that might actually work," Luna slowly admitted. "But just incase, I'll still bring extras." "Alright, I'll just give everypony one of these then," she said before reaching into her mane and tossing a ring of garlic around the others, including Discord. Nodding to them, Luna teleported herself back to Canterlot Castle to get the remedies. While she was gone, the rest of them landed before Twilight told Rainbow to try to rest and relax. "Shouldn't we be out there trying to get Flutterbat?" Rainbow asked, pointing a hoof over towards Ponyville. "After we give you that remedy," Twilight told her. "For now, I want you to try and relax yourself. If we keep your heart rate low, we might be able to buy you some more time before you start to change." "Ooh! What do we call her if she does change?" Pinkie eagerly asked. "How does, Rainbow Bat sound? You know, leave out the Dash for Bat." "I'm not going to turn into a bat pony, Pinkie," Rainbow argued. "But you miiiiight~" "That's enough for now, you two," Twilight told them before turning to Discord. "How're you doing?" "Considering that things could've turned out worse back there, fine I guess," Discord half-heartedly answered. "Look, I know that you want to get that ghost out of her and to turn Flutterbat back to being Fluttershy, but this may take some time with the rate things are going." Discord shook his head. "We need more help. Twilight, could you go get Dark to come and help us?" "But what about Spike and our sisters?" Applejack asked. "They'll all be unprotected." "Actually, I don't think that they'll be in any actual danger. From the sounds of it, I don't believe that Flutterbat actually wants to hurt anypony." "But we don't know that for sure," Rainbow rebuked. "After all, she didn't exactly tell us what it was that she wanted to gain from all of this." Twilight sighed. "Look, if it'll make you feel girls feel better, when I go get him, I'll set up a barrier around the house so nothing can sneak in. Is that alright?" Twilight waited until she got an agreeing nod from the three elder sisters. "In that case, I'll be back in a little bit with Dark." With their approval, Twilight teleported herself back to Sweet Apple Acres to fetch Dark to assist them. Dark was sitting up straight in his sleep with the fillies and Spike asleep beneath the cover of his wings. He'd tried to keep himself awake, but was too tired to do so. And besides, he still had his Shadow Dragon patrolling around the house, so he felt like it wasn't exactly necessary for him to be awake too. This, however, lead him to being unable to see the flash of light just behind him. Teleporting into the Apple house's living room, Twilight saw Dark sitting up facing towards the fireplace. "Hey, Dark? Can you come give us a hoof with this?" Twilight asked him, only to go unanswered. "Dark? Are you even listening to me?" Slightly annoyed by him ignoring her, Twilight walked around to his front to see that he was actually asleep. Smiling slightly knowing that he wasn't in fact ignoring her, Twilight was about to nudge him awake when she noticed a lack of Crusaders and Spike. Seconds later, she started to hear snoring coming from Dark, who as far as Twilight could tell, didn't snore in his sleep. But after listening to it again, she followed the sound over to his wings that he had wrapped around his front. Taking a peek inside, Twilight's smile grew as she saw the three fillies snuggling up against Spike again. Letting them be for now, Twilight turned her attention back up to Dark. "Dark," she quietly called while gently nuzzling his cheek. "Dark, can you get up?" "Hmm?" he grumbled. "Can you wake up for a while?" Cracking an eye open, Dark could see Twilight's eyes looking back at him. "Twilight?" he yawned. "Hey, how'd it go with Flutterbat?" Twilight's mood dampened slightly. "Not very well I'm afraid. Turns out that a ghost is possessing her, and Rainbow has been bitten by her. Princess Luna has returned to Canterlot to get a remedy that'll prevent her from being turned into a thestral." "A what now?" "Bat pony." "Ah." "Anyway, we've decided that we need some extra help if we're going to get Fluttershy back to normal." "Alright, but what about them?" Dark asked, nodding down to the sleeping kids beneath his wings. "We can't exactly leave them alone, can we?" "I'll set up a barrier before we leave." "Okay, but we should probably get these four tucked away first then if we're going to be leaving them. I doubt that sleeping on the floor would feel very comfortable for them." With an agreeing nod from Twilight, Dark slowly and carefully retracted his wings back to his sides, exposing the fillies and baby dragon to the cooler air that they were kept from. Feeling the sudden change in temperature, the three fillies shivered before snuggling closer to Spike, using him as their source of warmth. With a quiet giggle, Twilight took the four of them into her magic, levitated them up off the floor, and brought them up behind her as she made her way upstairs with Dark following closely behind. Remembering which room was Apple Blooms, Twilight entered it, brought back the bed sheets, laid the four sleeping kids onto the bed, and tucked them in. "You sure we should be putting all of them to sleep together in the same bed like this?" Dark questioned as he walked in to see her tucking them away for the night. "I mean, you remember what happened when Rarity did it for Spike and Sweetie Belle." "I do," Twilight said turning around to face him, "but Spike's already with Sweetie Belle, so I doubt that he'll end up with Scootaloo and Apple Bloom too." "But what about that one thing where a relationship can be made up of more then just two ponies?" "You're talking about a herd, right?" "Yeah, that's it." Twilight paused and tapped her chin in thought. "I suppose it's possible... but I haven't seen any signs that those two would be interested in Spike." "But that's the key thing. We both haven't seen any signs, So as far as we know, they very well could have feelings for him, but we just haven't been around them to notice it." "I suppose that's true," she relented briefly, "but that's something that we'll have to think about another time. Right now, we've got to get back to the others." With a nod, Dark followed Twilight out of Apple Bloom's bedroom and out of the house before Twilight casted a barrier around it. While she was busy with that, Dark called his Shadow Dragon over and ordered it to continue guarding the house until they or one of their friends returned, and to also alert him if it was to be attacked. With their business out of the way, Twilight told Dark where they were meeting up with their friends before she teleported away, followed by Dark who Shadowported right behind her. Back on the outskirts of Ponyville, Twilight reappeared before her friends, followed closely by Dark. As he looked over his friends, he could see Discord looking glum while Rainbow was sitting down, holding her injured leg up off the ground. "Does it hurt, Rainbow?" Dark asked as he walked over to her. "Kinda," she answered. "It just stings a little bit is all." Sitting down in front of her, Dark tenderly took the hoof of her injured leg into his claw and took a look at it, seeing the pair of puncture marks left behind from the bite. "I know it's just a bite, but are you gonna be alright?" "Accordin' ta Princess Luna," Applejack began answering, "Rainbow's gonna be turned into a bat pony if she doesn't get the cure for it." "And where is this cure?" "The princess teleported herself back ta Canterlot ta fetch it. She should be here pretty soon by now." "Alright. In the meantime, I'll go ahead and heal it up for you," Dark told Rainbow before he casted his Healing Flame on her. "Thanks, Dark," she thanked. Taking a few steps off to the side, Dark sat himself down by Rainbow, followed by Twilight who sat herself down alongside him with an approving nod. "Not to sound rude, Twilight," Rainbow began, "but don't you know some healing magic?" "I know of a few spells," she answered. "Why?" "Just curious is all." "Is my healing not enough?" Dark asked. "Because I understand if you want Twilight to heal it." "It's okay, I just-" Blinded by a flash of light, Luna appeared before the group with a saddlebag over her back. "I apologize for taking so long," she apologized., "I forgot which shelf I put it under. I thought it was under the 'Remedy' section, but was for some reason under 'Supernatural' instead." "Kinda can go either way with deciding where to place it, considering the type of disease that we're dealing with," Dark commented. "True, but now I have it, so here," she said, levitating a bottle over for Rainbow to drink. Uncorking the bottle, Rainbow took a few sniffs before recoiling from the scent. Looking over to Luna who gave her an assuring nod, Rainbow scrunched up her nose before chugging the potion. She continued to drink it until there was nothing left, making sounds of disgust once she was finished. "Good," Luna spoke. "That should prevent you from turning, along with making you immune if you're to be bitten again." "Shouldn't the rest of us have some then just incase?" Rarity asked. "While I do have enough for everyone here, I would much rather not use them unless you're bitten. This kind of remedy is rather difficult to make, and I have only a few bottles left back at the castle." "Then we'll just have to be extra careful," Twilight said. "No, you won't," Discord told her, his eyes seeming to glow slightly. "This night started because I gave her those apples, causing her to transform and become vulnerable to that ghost. So, with that said, I will be the one to face him." "Well then," Dark began, "if you're going to face him all alone, then why am I here? Because I was told that my help was needed." "Weren't you told about what happened?" "Fluttershy, or rather Flutterbat, is being possessed by a ghost, and Rainbow was bitten by her." "While those are both true, what you probably don't know then is that my chaos magic doesn't work on undead creatures like the ghost." "So you can't just remove it with your magic?" "Pretty much," he huffed. "Okay. So then, how can I help?" "You're the Lord of Death, which means that the ghost and any other undead are susceptible to your death magic." Dark hummed to himself in thought. "Well?" Rainbow spoke up. "Are you going to help or not?" "That depends," he slowly said before looking back up to Discord. "Tell me, if given the chance, would you want to finish-off the ghost yourself, or would you be alright if it was by one of us?" "While it would be quite joyous for me to deal with it myself, I'll be happy if I can just get Fluttershy back to her old self." "In that case, you're on your own." Discord looked upon Dark in shock while the others gaped at him. "You're not gonna help?!" Applejack shouted. Feeling like he picked a poor choice of words, Dark began to clarify. "I didn't mean it like that. What I meant to say was that Discord is on his own in fighting that ghost. If he wants to fight it and beat if on his own, then I'll provide him the means, but he'll have to take it from there." "Oh. Okay." "What did you have in mind?" Luna questioned. With a small smirk, Dark got up and walked over to Discord. Standing a few feet away from him, Dark reached a claw out to his side and summoned his Soul Reaver before planting the blade into the ground. "What in the world?!" Discord yipped as he jumped back away from it. "This is my Living Weapon, Death Reaver," Dark told him, "and you, Discord, have my permission to use it against the ghost possessing Fluttershy." "Flutterbat," Rainbow corrected. "Whatever." "Wait," Discord interrupted, "you want me to take a Living Weapon? How is it that you even have one?" "I made it by accident," Dark said with a shrug. "And besides, you have my permission to use it, so you should be fine." "I know that, but what I'm curious about is how would it work?" "Simple," Nocturne answered through the sword, "because we're both apart of this weapon, which includes our death magic." "Oh?" Discord questioned, cocking an eyebrow as he looked over the sword. "So we meet again, Nocturne. So, how is it that you ended up in there exactly?" Nocturne grumbled. "Save your curiosity for another time, Discord. Right now, we have a job to do, right?" "Right, of course," he said before reaching over to it, only to stop short. "Now, are you sure that I'll be safe using this?" "This boy has already given you his blessing, so you'll be fine. Now take it already!" Taking the sword in his claw, Discord plucked the weapon up out of the ground. "Out of curiosity," Discord began questioning, "why are you letting me use such a powerful weapon?" "Because, Discord," Dark began, "you would do the same if I was in your place... right?" "... I suppose I would. So, what now?" "Now you go and find your girlfriend," Nocturne told him. "As we make our way over to her, I'll start to share some of my death magic with you so that you can use it to remove that ghost from her." "As for the rest of us," Luna began, "we'll make sure that the vampire fruit bats don't leave the town and get near the orchard." "I also left my Shadow Dragon the guard the Apple house and orchards," Dark said. "If they get too close to it, it'll let me know and attack them if necessary." "Seems like we have a plan then," Twilight spoke before turning to face Ponyville. "Alright, everyone, let's go save our friend!"