Chapter 7: Helping Friends

The group, leaving the pumpkin patch, heads off as Shining remarks, "Well, we are done with the pumpkin patch; Time for us to check on the Residential Area to look for anything happening there."

"Right, the gate is right behind the Town Hall." Twilight comments as the group go up to the Residential Gate. The mare tries to open it but it won't give away, even with her magic. "No good, Shining. It's locked and this thing cannot be opened even with magic."

"Hang on." Golden Heart said as he lower his horn, sending a glow right into the lock. Soon the gate is unlocked, allowing the group to enter. "There we go."

"Wait, wait, you can do that?" Spike asks Golden Heart in amazement.

"Yep; Goldie got some unlocking cool powers!" Pinkamena explains to Spike happily.

In the Residential Area, the group heard someone yelling, "No brakes; look out!" The group run into the area and found Mr. Mime on his unicycle...which is going out of control with the Pokemon doing his best to keep himself balance. "Someone help me before I crash into something!"

"What's going on here?" Rarity asks the witches who are nearby.

The first witch explains, "I was on my way home to get supplies when I heard the screaming. I saw Mr. Mime riding around like. Those Diamond Dogs must've put some motor in his unicycle because now he won't stop it."

"So how can we get the unicycle under control?" Luna asks the first witch curiously.

"The only way it seems to do so is to remove the motors and no amount of magic can do so. Don't you got anything in your bag that can help, Shining?"

"Well, a good shock might get the engine to stop working." Shining said thoughtfully. The stallion turns into his Oswald Claws form and throws a present at Mr. Mime's unicycle. It stopped...but only a few seconds before starting up again.

"So much for that idea," Lorcan remarks with a groan.

"Hmmm, well, the only way to stop Mr. Mime is to use a tool to take the motor out by hand." The first Witch said thoughtfully. "But where can we find such a tool?"

"I got this." Rainbow said as she takes out what appears to be a familiar device from the mansion.

"Where did you get that?" Twilight ask Rainbow in concern.

"Oh, I took it from Lord Chester's place before heading off to the Pumpkin Patch. Figure we would need it."

"Yes, good call." Golden Heart said as he takes the driver from Rainbow, giving it to Pinkamena. "Pinkamena, if you please?"

"Okie dokie lokie," Pinkamena laughs madly as she rush over to Mr. Mime on all fours with Shining following her. The stallion stops the unicycle with one of the scare present. This allows the pink pony to use the bone driver to get the engine right out of the unicycle.

Soon Mr. Mime came to a stop. As his friends came over, the Pokemon groans in exhaustion, "Finally, I've stopped. Ooooh, my eyes are spinning. Ugh!"

Mr. Mime threw up as the others turn away to avoid seeing him gagging. Once the Pokemon's done, they turned back to him with Fluttershy ask, "Oh dear. Mr. Mime, are you okay?"

"Sure am, thanks. Though I sure hope those Vampire Quartet up the street are okay. I think I saw some of Discord's goons going that way when my cycle went outs of its mind.

"Say, didn't Spot mention something about the Mayor's house?" Spike asks, recalling what Spot mentioned before.

"Hope so too, but the gate is locked so we can't get through." Shining explains to Mr. Mime with a nod.

"Well, that's no problem! I got a secret lever on top of my house!" Mr. Mime exclaims to Shining with a grin. "I shall open the gate up for you, consider it thanks for saving me. BTW, the vampires' houses are on the other side."

Mr. Mime heads off to open the gate. Pinkamena joked, "Not much of a secret anymore, eh?"

The group heads off while Lorcan remarks, "I hope those blood suckers can keep their teeth away from me."

"Lorcan, you're a ghost and the vampires only scare, not suck blood." Twilight points out to Lorcan with a frown.

"Don't care, those vampires annoy me."

---

The group enters the Vampire Mansion, looking around with Rarity calling out, "Hello, anyone here!"

"I guess they aren't. Come on, let's get." Lorcan said as he prepares to leave but Luna grabs him with her magic, "Loony!"

"Thank, look, there's a note on the table." Luna said, spotting a note on a table nearby.

The gang looks through the note carefully. Fluttershy looks worried as she said, "Eep, not good. According to this, those four are trapped in bat mode and can't change back unless they are back here."

"Hoo boy, how will we help the Vampire Quartet?" Spike asks the others in concern.

"We just got to go looking around the Residential Area some more." Twilight suggests as the group leaves the mansion. "Perhaps we gotta catch them and bring the vampires back ourselves."

Upon arrival, the group saw a black bat flying near the gate. Lorcan jumps up and grabs it, saying, "Hey, Loony. I got a bat!" The bat bites him, causing the ghost dragon to let him go, "OW; you mother bucker!"

The black bat taunts Lorcan, "Come and get me, shorty!"

Lorcan, eyes twitching, ask angrily, "What?"

Luna sighs as she uses her magic to grab the black cat. The mare said, "This must be Count Bloodcount. The other three must be in the Residential Area somewhere. While I go put this one back inside the mansion, you all must split up to look for them."

"Right, good idea," Shining said with a nod. "If we find them all, we can get back on track and find out what Discord is up to."

The group goes into a group of three. One group goes right onto a rooftop while two more goes into the sewer. Rarity comments, "Better search those sewers than I do. At least we can avoid being attacked by those blasted monsters this way."

Just then a familiar scream and microphone feedback is heard. The group groans in annoyance as Discord makes another announcement over the speaker, "My dearly adored denizens of Discord Town. Thanks to my infamous thinking, not only have I decided to not only became the ruler of this place but all the other holidays as well. Soon we will be able to celebrate 'Chaos Day' seven days every year...and I will be the Seven Holidays King! The plans are set so I will secure the final holiday myself. I do have a debt to replay after all. Stay tuned. Ba ha ha ha ha ha," More feedback is heard as Discord adds, "And on a side note, some of our friends are coming to visit our fair Discord Town. So do not forget to welcome them with open arms and a couple of bows to them. That's all. Good day!"

Discord's feedback ends as a concerned Golden Heart said, "I think I may have figure out what happened to the other holiday leaders..."

The group spots a bat with horns flying to them. Golden Heart grabs him while saying, "Bowser; Right?"

"Of course, it's me! Now change me back right now!" Bowser demands to Golden Heart, making the alicorn sighs in annoyance.

"You see, you got to earn your normal self back, not demand it."

"Unfortunately, he can be a bit stubborn at times." Shining said to Greasy with a shrug.

Shining's group goes back into the mansion. Luna and Golden Heart put Bowser and Bloodcount back into his coffins before closing the lid for the first one.

The coffin shakes before the lid opens, revealing Bowser back to normal. The koopa said, "Thank goodness I am back to my old self."

"What happened?" Shining ask Bowser in concern.

"Oh, well, the other vampires and I opposed Discord's plan, told him that this wasn't the Halloween you wanted. But then that monster tricked us and trapped us in our bat forms."

"Well, that explains it."

Rarity closes the lid to Bloodcount's coffin. It shook before the vampire came out, back to normal. Bloodcount groans, "Thank goodness I am back to normal. You still need help in finding Horseula and Duckula. They got the last two pieces needed."

"Oh...my strength," Bowser groans a bit.

"You look undead tired, perhaps you should rest." Rarity suggests to the vampire in concern.

"Ja, for centuries we have been entrusting to guard the keys to the Mayor's home. Like I said before, Horseula and Duckula has the remaining pieces of the puzzle."

"We will give you guys our parts." Bowser said as he and Bloodcount gave the first two pieces of the keys to Shining.

"Right, we're counting on you guys." Horseula said with a nod. That's two pieces down, where's the next two?

Just then, the group spots Pinkamena, Rainbow and Fluttershy coming in with a bat with a duck bill before they put him into his coffin. The lid was shut tight before the coffin shook a bit.

Duckula, back to normal, came out while exclaiming, "Yes, I'm normal and better again! Here, Shining, take this."

Shining takes the third part of the key while saying, "Thanks, rest easy."

Just then, the group saw Lorcan, struggling with a horse like bat, coming in with Twilight and Spike, the scarred dragon remarks, "Wasn't easy but I got the blood sucker...oh, and Spike and Horseula too."

Twilight frowns as she uses her magic to grab Horseula, putting him into his coffin before the lid closes. The coffin shakes like mad before the horse vampire came out, back to his vampire self.

"Here is the last piece, Shining." Horseula said as he gave the last piece of the key to Shining.

"Thanks." Shining said with a grin. Now the group got all 4 pieces in all!

The vampires' coffin lids open up as Bowser remarks, "Thanks you so much for your help. Now it's time we tell you about Discord's plan. He has kidnapped all the other Holiday Leaders."

"What," The heroes gasp in shock and alarm, especially Golden Heart and Pinkamena.

"Yeah, he dragged them here and stole the Holiday Doors from the Hinterlands." Duckula explains to the good guys. "Those Diamond Dogs hid the doors in each area of the town to keep the leaders from returnign home."

"So that's it, the leaders of Thanksgiving, Easter, Valentine's Day and the rest of the holidays are being held prisoner in this town somewhere." Shining said with a frown.

"I thought there was something suspicious when we tracked them here." Pinkamena said with a nod. "So why did old, big and ugly kidnapped the holiday leaders?"

"Discord wants to take over the other holiday and become the Seven Holidays King." Bloodcount explains, much to the shock and anger of the heroes.

"THE SEVEN HOLIDAYS KING; that is intolerable!" Shining exclaims furiously to the vampires.

"And not right. No one would want to celebrate a holiday involving the same figure every year!" Twilight exclaims in agreement. Discord is going too far this time. Bad enough that he has taken over Halloween Town but now the other towns of the other holidays, especially Christmas, is in danger as well!

"Right, unless you find the Holiday Doors and put them back into the Hinterlands, you won't return the Holiday Leaders even if you were to find them." Horseula said with a nod. "Get those doors back and stop Discord and his army!"

"Right, but we need more info on the location of the next Holiday Door." Golden Heart explains to the vampires.

"Right, but where can we look?" Spike asks with a frown.

"Why don't we talk to the Mayor? We have all the keys so we can get inside now." Twilight suggests to her friends with a thoughtful look.

"Right, come on, to the Mayor's house!" Shining exclaims as the group leaves the mansion.

---

The Mayor's home looks like her head except with a hat on, the latter is being used as a tower. The group arrives as Lorcan glances at the home itself, remarking, "Sounds like this mare is wanting some major attention."

"Here's an idea!" Spike exclaims with a grin. "Perhaps if we were to put the pieces into the places of the Mayor's face, we can get this door unlocked."

"Good idea...though how did you know that the door was going to be locked?" Twilight ask Spike puzzled.

"Come on, after what we've been through. We got to deal with another locked door in this adventure one way or another, right?"

"True."

The group put the key parts into the right places and looks at what they have made. Fluttershy smiles while saying, "A puzzle! Oh, I love those."

Shining goes up to the door, just then a familiar voice yell out, "Shining, up here! Please hellllp!" Everyone looks around to see where the Mayor is at, especially when the stallion came back up, "Hellllp!"

"What?" Rarity asks as everyone looks up. They see the Mayor, in her sad expression stuck in a cage near the very top of her own home.

"Hellllp!"

"Oh dear, it's the mayor!" Fluttershy gasps upon seeing the Mayor's predicament.

"We got to get her down." Luna said to the others sternly. "We better take the stairs inside."

"But do we really have to go up there?" Rarity whines a bit. "Can't I just teleport or we fly up there?"

"We are all exhausted from our fighting so far, so it's best to go in by foot. Let's go!" Shining exclaims everyone goes inside the house. They have to rescue the Mayor and in a major hurry!

Everyone rush into the house, finding a stairway like the one back at Lord Chester's place. They run through it, fighting off any monsters that get in their way. They fight continuously while Golden Heart and Luna perform their alicorn magic to destroy their enemies.

Once the gang reaches the top, they found the Mayor waiting. Shining exclaims, "Mayor! Are you okay?"

"Shining! You have no idea how happy I am to see your pony corpse head. I thought I was going to be stuck here forever!" The Mayor exclaims in relief to see Shining. Golden Heart uses his unlocking power to unlock the cage, allowing her to come out with a happy expression.

"Do you know where the Holiday Door in the Residential Area is at?" Rarity asks the Mayor curiously.

"I believe I saw some of Discord's goons right on my roof. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if they got it with them."

"Better climb down from here and get to somewhere safe, Mayor." Shining said to the Mayor in precaution. "We don't know how ugly this could get."

"Thanks, Shining and friends, good luck!" The Mayor exclaims as she went downstairs. The group meanwhile goes up the stairs until they found the door to the roof.

"We better be careful. Who knows what we will find out here?"

"Right," The group said as they enter the rooftop, knowing that they themselves will be in a major battle soon.

Author's note
Okay, the gang has freed the Mayor but what will they find on the rooftop?

Lorcan: As if we didn't know.

Me: Right, for in the next chapter, the Diamond Dogs return for one final round. Then the heroes must go through a cavern to find the holiday leaders and Discord. Read, review and suggest.