Friday, April 1st, Dawn, Dusk’s Cottage.

Bronze sat alone at the kitchen table, sipping at her tea, her wings hanging over the back of the chair and lazily flexing. “Lyra was right; whatever is in this stuff, it really works wonders. I need to find a better place to hide this from Dusk; if Redheart knew I was keeping something this strong when he’s around, she’d tear out my pinions!”

Draining the last sips of the refreshing tea, she nearly jumped when a soft knock echoed from the back door. Leaping up, her whole body reacted instantly, going tense. “Just… who could be knocking this early?! And at the kitchen door?! Nopony ever delivers to the kitchen door.”

Pulling the curtain away from the window set in the door, Big Mac’s quiet smile waited for her on the other side, the placid and giant stallion waving a little at her. Still tense, but suddenly feeling a little foolish for getting so worked up, she pulled the door open and stormed outside, standing stiff before the big stallion and poking an aggressive finger into his chest. “Just what do you think you’re doing, knocking this early?! You practically gave me a heart attack, Mac!”

The stallion smiled down at her, lifting his burdened hand and offering her a heavy basket laden with fresh apples, their ripe texture making her mouth water just looking at them. “AJ said the nurse recommended Dusk eat more fresh fruit, so I picked the best of our orchard’s early crop.”

Still feeling her nerves firing off at random, Bronze took a deep breath to try and forcefully calm herself, and accepted the basket from him, feeling a little incredulous. “But… really?! Apples this early in the season? How?”

Already turning away from the house, the stallion stopped for only a moment, looking back over his shoulder at her and giving a small smile. “We’re Apples. We care for our orchard and it cares for us. Give us a week, two at the most, and we’ll have enough built up to start selling them at the market.”

A little shocked, she waved at him as he turned to move off again, muttering to herself. “If the Canterlot elite only knew just how much they relied on ponies like him…” Shaking her head and taking the basket back inside, she couldn’t resist, and picked one of the smaller apples off the pile. Biting into the fresh fruit, she gasped as the juices gushed out, dribbling down her jaw. Embarrassed, she looked around for a moment, sure she’d heard the sound of somepony on the stairs. Her mind turned to how much fun it would have been if Dusk were to come downstairs and join her…

Pushing away those dirty thoughts, she rushed to wipe off her chin and left the basket on the kitchen table. Turning to leave, a delighted trill pulled her attention back to the table, where she saw the little fluffy bug creature that had occupied Dusk so much last night. She grinned at the creature, and placed her apple before it, gesturing to the creature. “Go ahead, enjoy this one, I’m late for my jog. I’ll have another when I get back.”

Bronze Feather watched the little creature gobble up the fruit she’d offered it, cooing its delight. Stepping out through the kitchen door to start her jog, she laughed a little at the sight of the creature snuggling up with the basket. “Little thing has good taste, and a massive appetite, that’s for sure.”

6:20 am, Apple Farm.

Applejack took great care, rubbing her bare palm over the tree's trunk, getting a feel for its weak pulse, talking softly to the sickly applewood, her tail flicking with the worry she was holding in. She'd been out here every morning, caring for the orchard for three weeks, well before Winter Wrap-Up, but something had snuck in under her watch and irritated a number of the orchard's otherwise healthy trees.

When she felt the calm feeling of a healthy tree echo back from the very furthest roots of the tree, she wished the apple tree a good day in brilliant sun, already able to feel the rejuvenated tree's sap begin to flow sluggishly now, but with the promise of great vigor as the sun warmed it further.

Turning from the tree at last, she took another minute to survey the apples that hung overhead, making quick, rough guesses and memorizing the trees that were falling behind. "Two heavy baskets this early in the spring is promising; a good harvest this year will make up for what we spent extra last Applebuck Season. But I just don't like how the east field’s looking. Maybe me and Mac should spend a few extra days out there next week."

Walking at an easy gait, Applejack took her time heading back to the house, and kept surveying the apples in the trees overhead, until the sudden sharp noise of barking split the air.

The panicked noise of Winona's shrill bark turned her blood cold, and before she knew it, her casual pace had turned into a breakneck run, cutting between trees and pumping her legs at full speed. Bursting free at the edge of the orchard, Applejack cut short, looking around while catching her breath to figure out what had set her friend off.

It didn't take long, as the dancing dog stood on the porch, joined by Apple Bloom and Granny Smith who were both swatting brooms in the air, the elderly mare cursing a mild blue streak at- Applejack's jaw dropped and she ground her feet into the fresh grass, cursing sharply herself. "By The Light! Where did so many more of Fluttershy's little buzzing creatures come from?!"

Diving head first into the melee, Applejack lost count of just how many of the tiny buzzing creatures had collected inside the house, and the noise of their wings beating all at once was a roar that drowned out all other sound.

With a spare broom and the extra hands, it took what felt like forever, but they found victory in the end, and at last the family gathered on the porch, watching the last remnants of the wild horde buzzing around the farmyard. The rest had been driven into the mostly-empty barn, in hopes of holding them until she could figure out what to do with so many of the creatures. Growling between gritted teeth, Winona came to AJ's side, her tail held rigid. Scratching between her friend's ears, Applejack's voice showed how tense she felt. "Just where in blue blazes did a swarm like that come from? Granny, I shoulda asked you last night, have you ever see anything like those creatures before?"

The canine answered first, her hackles still high and shoulders stiff. "No clue. Came in to wake Apple Bloom since Mac's in town and you were busy in the orchard. Found a dozen of them feasting from the basket of apples Mac left before heading to town. Then when I came back downstairs, the swarm had filled the kitchen!"

Granny was quiet for a long while, scratching one ham-sized fist across her jowl, and sucking on her good tooth, lost deep in thought. AJ was just about to repeat her question to the old matron when she spoke up, her voice very hesitant, something that made Applejack uncomfortable. Granny was never unsure of much of anything. "Well, it's been a long time, long before your pappy or even your grandpappy was born. Way back, when I was hardly five, maybe six years older than you are now AJ. See... I had this cousin, a distant cousin, three or four times removed at least, and we always thought of her as a little kooky, a bit of the wild type."

The mare eyed AJ to make sure she was keeping up, scratching still at her jaw before continuing. "And you see, she married some farmer way off in the south-east. Well, we never heard from her in ages, not until I was busy raising your grandpappy, and the letter she sent was crazy. Talked all about taking up rock farmin' after some blight of fuzzy little buggers had stripped their land right down to the dirt'n stone. I always thought it another of her wild tales 'til now. Wish I'd paid her letter more mind."

Eyeing the devastated kitchen and half-eaten apple basket through the window, AJ stiffened up, setting her jaw. "Not your fault, Gran. If you'd warned me such a tiny bugger could do so much damage in a swarm yesterday, I'd have called you mad! Respectfully of course." She added at the end, not wanting to raise the old mare's ire. "Look, Apple Bloom, can you try and clean up the kitchen while Winona watches the ones we got trapped in the barn? I gotta get word to town, and maybe even check the other farms. There's no telling if we were the only ones that got mobbed this morning or not. It's just lucky that Filthy bought the last of our winter stores and the barns ‘re empty, else we'd really have a mess on our hands."

When the others acknowledged they could handle things while she went to check up in town, a worried thought flared up in AJ's mind. "Mac... he locks the door to his cider still in the cellar tight against bugs, right? Only, I'd hate to hear them get into there, no telling how much damage they could do..."

Granny scoffed, waving her worries off. "Nah, after your grandpappy got wind I was 'helping out' in there, he did a great job of reinforcing the basement. Not a chance in Tartarus of them getting in there!"

Turning towards town, Applejack set a rapid pace, planning to check on the nearby farms as she made her way towards Fluttershy’s.

6:40 am, Dusk’s library.

Bronze felt as good as a 'Shining Sun' platinum bit, running across the open roads of Ponyville and stretching her weary bones and stiff wings, feeling the vivid warmth of Lyra's tea spreading everywhere... including places she felt quite personally.

Enjoyable thoughts and feelings spread, but she wanted them dealt with before she went home, before... before he got up.

Blushing darkly at the enjoyable thrill that rippled in her most private places, Bronze lengthened her stride and pushed faster, driving herself past her usual, carefully measured pace, past the hardest Lyra had ever pushed her. She thrilled in feeling the powerful muscles in her legs pull with every stride.

She knew she was pushing things too near to her limit when the muscle of her bad leg began to ache sharply with every stride. Centralized in her calf, it brought her jog to an end then and there, warm feelings in the rest of her body or not. She began walking now, taking on an easy pace to give her grieving flesh a chance to calm down on the way home.

Her thoughts from earlier returned, and she bit her lip, hard. Feeling flushed, she almost turned to take a different path, a different route... "But to whom? Dash? She's hardly any better off than I am. Pinkie’s probably busy with work... Applejack's too far away, and has too many prying ears around for any real privacy this early in the morning... and Rarity... not Rarity. Not until I've provided her with proof I'm good enough for him."

No options left, Bronze swallowed her pride and turned again towards the library, trying to walk with confidence, but the nagging pull of her calf muscle made her leg feel weak.

Just as she approached the back door, a piercing whine split the air. "Noo!! Those apples were for Dusk!"

Pushing her wings to beat the air to take pressure off of her aching calf, Bronze rushed at the back door, bracing her weight on her good foot and twisting the knob to swing the door open. Bronze was shocked to see Barb in mid-battle with a dozen of the tiny buzzing creatures over the apple basket that Mac had left, a single ripe red-green fruit bouncing around inside the basket as the two sides battled back and forth for control of the last piece of fruit.

Rushing through the narrow doorway, Bronze had to put weight on her leg, and was shocked by the trail of pain that shot up her leg from her scar. Ignoring it, she rushed to Barb's side, shooing away the wild and buzzing mass of creatures from the other side of the basket before handing it back to Barb.

The little dragoness was nearly in tears, her cheeks burning red with frustration as she cradled the basket tightly to her chest. "Th-thanks, Bronze. I was getting ready to drive them off with fire, but I was worried what Fluttershy would say if I accidentally hit one. Besides, Dusk doesn't like roasted apples."

Bronze was busy doing her best to keep weight off her right leg, the sharp throbbing hadn't dulled and now that her adrenaline had dropped, the pain was getting harder to ignore. Brushing a hand through the dragoness' cranial spines, she offered a thin-lipped grimace while attempting to smile. "Go wake Dusk, at least now he has plenty of research subjects, wherever the others came from. I need a shower."

If the dragoness noticed anything was off, she didn't say a word about it. Bronze made for the shower, forcing her aching calf to take the weight of her stride. Going straight into the bathroom, she locked the door, and struggled to strip her drenched jogging clothes.

Limping into the shower, she turned on the cold water at full blast, but sat on the edge of the tub, aggressively massaging her thumbs across the thick scar-flesh on the back of her calf. The cold water made her teeth ache and chatter, but it numbed her aching muscles a little, not to mention how it drove away the last lingering side effects of her morning tea.

When memories of experience with training bruises told her she was going to stiffen up if she let the cold run any longer, Bronze finally turned on the hot water. Soon it replaced the cold and soothed every aching joint, relaxing her tender muscles into a gooey state.

Sudden frantic knocking at the bathroom door pulled her out of daydreams and back to reality, Dusk’s voice indistinct over the sound of the shower. Rushing to shut it off quickly, she was at last able to make him out. "- trapped in a cage on my desk. We'd better go see Fluttershy together; at the rate they reproduce, she's probably overwhelmed already! Barb will go check up on Rarity on the way to Applejack's; there’s no telling how wild they'd get on the farm! So hurry up and get dressed!"

Her relaxing shower quite ruined by whatever Dusk was talking about, Bronze pushed her gripes aside and clung to the positive part: Dusk wanted her to accompany him, even if something had gone wrong, again. Calling back at him, she tried not to sound overly enthusiastic. "Of course, Dusk. I only need a minute!"

Suddenly feeling rather glad for the argument she had with Barb yesterday in the hall, Bronze dressed in the simple gray cotton shirt and shorts she normally wore under her armor. "At least this time Barb can't complain I'm not dressed properly."

The cotton was all skin-tight and wafer-thin, but what did it matter? After all, she just needed to make it to her room-

Standing and waiting for her outside the bathroom, Dusk was obsessed with an odd little bronze lamp, where he'd trapped a single of the tiny annoyances with space to move and fresh air from the hole in the top. As he scowled at the creature, she froze up, suddenly very aware of just how her thin shirt and shorts clung to her breasts, hips and sex, not to mention how they exposed her abs, back, and upper hips.

Looking distracted, Dusk nodded idly as he continued to study the creature held in the lamp. He seemed unaware of her attire, though that didn’t stop her from feeling suddenly exposed. She blushed fiercely, wings fluttering in an unconscious attempt to cool the sudden heat she felt on her face. Dusk began to address her without turning his gaze from the lamp. "Finally. Come on, Bronze. At the rate this one was reproducing before I isolated it from the others, it must be fully matured. Who knows how many of the same breeding age Fluttershy has!"

Stunned and still struggling to try and hold her ground while the thin cotton squeezed every inch of her breasts, almost like it was trying to restrict her breathing, Bronze nodded quickly at him. "I just need a proper shirt and pants, Dusk."

Finally looking at her, he found himself unable to keep his eyes from roaming across her barely-concealed body. "O-oh… I uh, wow, Bronze..."

Her blush redoubling, Bronze shoved past him, down the hall to her room, tail snapping in embarrassment as she passed him. She called back at him after she slammed the bedroom door. "Ju-just stop staring and tell me what you're talking about, you perv! I thought you said Fluttershy’s gave birth to yours yesterday afternoon!"

Thus as she changed and throughout the entire run to Fluttershy’s cottage, Dusk explained the theories he'd managed to form based on the creature’s insanely short breeding cycle and massive appetite. So obsessed was he with the threat of their hunger that Dusk pushed for her to keep up a rapid pace, leaving him breathless and her visibly limping as they approached the bridge to Fluttershy’s home.

Back at Dusk’s library, the lamp containing the tiny creature had been left upon Dusk’s desk, forgotten as they rushed out the door.

7:30am, Fluttershy’s Cottage.

Fluttershy hummed quietly to herself, sweeping out of her room and tickling the tired brood-mother under the chin. It had taken most of the night, and the poor thing looked almost stretched out compared to all her daughters, not quite twice the size of any of them. But her pregnancy was finally finished, and the creature had dozed against her cheek all night. It was still breathing weakly this morning, in shallow pulls, but it seemed far more cheerful this morning, and happily sat upon her shoulder once she’d dressed.

The children danced about her head, making Fluttershy giggle at their song, still impossible for her to decipher, yet so playful and happy that she couldn't wait to hear more, to get to know them better. She worried about how many of them there were now; it was impossible to get them to hold still for long enough to get a count of even a third of the swarm.

Entering the main floor, the spacious room that combined living room with kitchen, Fluttershy giggled at the wild animals that quickly moved in to gather around her ankles, their mixed voices a cacophony that she had no problems understanding, and they all begged for the same thing: breakfast.

Tenderly scratching a happily chittering beaver behind the ears, Fluttershy cooed gently at the gruff fellow. “Yes, yes. Don't you worry! I'll feed you all right now, I promise!”

The gentleman calmed his grumbling a little and nuzzled into her hand, before straightening up and returning to batting his broad flat tail against the floor. Fluttershy couldn't help but laugh a little at his behavior, and moved on to the cabinet, popping open one of her homemade tin can of nuts and dried berries. The rabble around her ankles doubled in volume, so she rushed to fill three or four bowls with the mixed treats.

Turning from the counter, she settled the first two on the ground for her critter friends, when all of a sudden, the fluffy mother seemed to slip from her shoulder and into one of the bowls. Astonished, she watched as the critters swarmed in, worried about the swarm mother’s health.

Rushing into the mob, she pushed aside the hungry critters to reach the bowl, only to find that the brood mother had emptied it, and now sat munching happily at a mouthful of the mixed fruit and nuts that distended her tiny body a shocking amount.

Behind her on the counter, the sound of frantic eating foretold of what the rest of the horde was doing. Turning around, Fluttershy was astonished to see the rest of the swarm had descended upon the other two bowls and the open tin can, the hundreds of hungry mouths assaulting the food, eating mouthfuls at a time, often swallowing massive amounts without chewing.

Rushing back to the counter, she tried to shoo them away, only to be overwhelmed by a hundred more that rushed into the space she made by forcing others away. “Stop it! That's the critters’ breakfast! Why must you keep eating everything?!”

The creatures didn't care enough to answer her, eating the rest of the week’s rations she’d prepared for the critters’ breakfast. Sobbing in frustration at her inability to communicate with the bottomless stomach that the horde seemed to share, Fluttershy sunk to her knees, only to have the beaver climb into her lap, cuddle against her chest and chitter supportive words to try to calm her down.

The sudden pounding knock at her door was followed by a panting voice. “It’s Dusk!” she realized with sudden hope.

“Fluttershy? Fluttershy!? Please tell me you've got some control over these creatures… please?”

Panic swelling up, Fluttershy shivered with growing fear as the beaver offered her a paw to help her stand up. Struggling to keep her emotions in check, Fluttershy called out across the house to Dusk. “I... I need your help, Dusk! I can’t understand them, I can’t control them! I-I don’t even know why they won't listen to me! I just don’t understand!”

Halfway across her house, the door smashed open and Bronze charged in, looking around frantically for a moment before rushing over to grab Fluttershy around the shoulders, the guard mare’s eyes wide and voice showing her worry. “By The Light! Dusk, get in here, quickly! This is… this is bad! I think she’s got hundreds of the little blighters… Ma… maybe even thousands!”

The sudden combined sound of violent wretching made Fluttershy fight against Bronze’s strong grip, turning around to look back at the horde that filled the air of most of her house. Almost all of them had paused in eating, and were as one creature caught up in a violent coughing fit. Dozens of them spit up all at once, and from the spittle-coated balls, wings sprouted and brilliant eyes of vivid azure-green looked up with wonder. Then as one, they all rose into the air, and swarmed around what little of the food remained uneaten, joining their parents in an aggressive orgy of feasting. Unable to help herself, Fluttershy cried out. “Wh- but… but some of you are hardly four hours old! And I never saw any of you breeding! You can’t possibly reproduce that quickly!”

Dusk rushed to her side, pulling an arm around her hips and looking around the room for a moment, his eyes going wide as he discovered something. Looking down at her, he cupped her jaw, his voice begging a little. “Fluttershy, please… tell me there are locks for all of your animal doors!?”

As if to answer him for her, the tiny creatures all turned away from their meals, towards the many doors, window slits, and exit vents built into the cottage, and bull-rushed from the house, filling the air over her cottage. As one, they began to flow towards town.

Following them outside, Dusk and Bronze still supported her, and together they watched the sky as at least a thousand tiny mouths rushed towards town. For a moment their combined silence weighed heavily in the air. From behind them, a very disgruntled voice filled it. “Well, I guess with winter officially over, it was only a matter of time before things went back to crazy." He looked at Dusk, not hiding the snark in his tone. "So, how are you going to get us out of this mess this time, oh fearless leader?”

For a moment, Dusk and the others stared at the rabbit. The sound of rushed footsteps suddenly came from the south. Crashing from the treeline, AJ came at a run, her eyes bugging out with shock. “Dear Celestia tell me I’m seeing things, Fluttershy! And here I thought we had a horde of them trapped at the farm! Please tell me I’m seeing things!”

When nopony answered her, the earth pony’s shoulders drooped and she spat at the dirt by her feet. “Well? What do we do now!?”

Fluttershy felt Dusk soften his grip on her side, and she made herself stand up straighter, trying to rely less on Bronze’s kind support. The stallion took a few steps forward, and pounded his fist into his palm. “We need help. Did you manage to round a lot of them up? Are they still trapped at the farm, AJ?”

The mare straightened up, smiling at him, and tilted her hat back, nodding at him. “I had Granny an’ Apple Bloom an’ Winona’s help. But we managed to force the vast majority of them into the barn. With all the winter shutters closed, they shouldn’t be able to escape.”

Resolve filled his eyes, and Dusk turned back, nodding at Fluttershy, his voice filled with a confidence that smoothed over Fluttershy’s worried heart. “Then it is settled. We follow the horde and round up everypony in town. If we can trap them in ponies’ houses, we do. If we can’t, we do our best to herd them to the farm. Containing them is most important matter of all; we can’t let them continue to feed and reproduce.”

Stepping close again, Dusk grabbed Fluttershy’s elbow, and she hardly realized he did the same to Bronze, feeling held in place by his confident gaze. His eyes focused on them each in turn, his voice serious and the determination in his eyes was powerful. “Can you two try your best to keep an eye on the horde? Maybe try to use some storm clouds to round them up? I don’t think they are good flyers, so I doubt they’d be able to fly through a thunderstorm.”

Bronze answered him so quickly, Fluttershy worried she’d not even taken a moment to think about it. “Better if I rush ahead and pick up Dash, Thunderlane, and Rumble, right? The three of them are way better with weather magic than either of us. Fluttershy can keep an eye on them, so she can use her whistle to let us know where they go when I come back with help.”

Both now looking at her, Fluttershy swallowed sharply, and pointed a free finger at the slowly-flying brood mother, lost far behind the rest of the horde and struggling to catch up with the rest. “I… I think even I can keep up with her. It seems they all have the same thought in mind, almost like ants in some ways.”

Dusk grinned at her, and squeezed her elbow tightly, his pride at her discovery dancing in his eyes. “A fantastic observation. Try to keep track of them all as best you can. We will meet you in town one way or another.” He turned back to Applejack, giving her a nod. “Got your breath back? Then let’s go. Knock on every door you see and rally everypony at Town Hall. I have a feeling today is going to be a very long day.”

8am, Rarity’s Boutique.

Rarity idly pulled her brush through Sweetie's hair, softly humming along with the filly’s quiet song, reciting the tune that went with it by memory alone. When the girl’s curls were just perfect, she hugged her around the chair, kissing her on the cheek. “Oh, Sweetie! You look simply fantastic! I’m sure you’ll put on a fabulous welcome party for Lady Dis Lee! Are you sure you won’t sing for her? She’s known to love poetry and has for years employed personal poets, two of whom went on to be Poet Laureate to Princess Celestia herself!”

The filly blushed darkly, shaking her head and burying her face into Rarity’s shoulder, nearly squeaking with embarrassment. “No, momma! I can’t! Ponies will make fun of me! Besides, I’m no poet! I just like the songs Ms. Lyra teaches!”

Laughing a little at her filly, Rarity brushed a supportive hand down the girl’s back. “Oh hush, hush. It’s okay, dear. I won't make you do something you’re not comfortable with. Maybe if we have some quiet time with the lady, I’d be happy to-”

A sudden sharp banging noise from downstairs made Rarity jump, while Opal suddenly rushed into the room, diving under the filly’s bed and hissing sharply. Staring at the cat’s path under the bed, she stood, crossly glaring towards the door. “Opal! Just what did you do? Don’t tell me you broke something valuable in the kitchen!”

From under the bed, the feline’s angry hissing stopped only long enough for the her to spit out her annoyance. “It’s the little fluffy things you insisted in bringing home last night! They are emptying the pantry and keep knocking over jars and tins to get at more food!”

Still upset, Rarity glared at the bed again, her voice growing sterner. “Now Opal, please. How can one little fluffy critter do such damage? I can’t help but feel like you’re just jealous and blaming the darling little thing to reduce your blame!”

Sticking her head out from under the bed just far enough to glare up at her, the feline glared at her, her eyes livid. “One? One!? Ha! Try two hundred. I don’t know why you brought that menace into MY home, but you’ll not find me cleaning up their mess!”

Feeling upset at the feline, Rarity squeezed Sweetie Belle’s hand, standing up straight and nodding a little to herself. “Right, enough of this. Come along Sweetie, clearly we will have to go downstairs and get to the bottom of this since Opal isn’t up to telling us the truth.”

The cat’s bitter snort and refusal to come out from under the bed worried Rarity a little, as did the sound of another tin falling from the shelf and bouncing on the floor. As she walked down the staircase to the main floor, three more sharp bangs followed the last, and a sudden premonition of dread ran up her spine. “Sweetie… maybe you should-”

A violent pounding at the door cut her off, making her freeze up a little. From outside, Barb’s voice came as a shout, worry clear in her insistent tone. “Rarity! Rarity! Please answer! Dusk says the critters Fluttershy found are really dangerous. We need to cage yours before it eats too much and starts spitting out babies everywhere!”

Doom hanging over her head, Rarity squeezed the filly’s hand and stepped around the corner looking into the kitchen and saw the horde of tiny creatures who had filled the house. “Oh, by The Light! What is going on!?”

The kitchen had been pulled apart by the horde. Hundreds more of the tiny creatures had joined the one she already had, and together, they filled the room, emptying the pantry on the floor in their wild ambition of feeding. Releasing her hand, Sweetie rushed to answer the door, letting the dragoness into the house. As she rushed to join Rarity, her jaw dropped as she witnessed the mess of food and massive swarm that filled the room. “Wha… we didn't have a quarter as many at the treehouse! Rarity, why do you keep so much food around the house?!”

Ashamed, Rarity wilted a little, shaking her head. “Well… I-I entertain ponies all the time! How was I to know they would swarm into the pantry and start breaking open boxes and jars?!”

Having followed Barb back to the kitchen, Sweetie squeezed at Rarity’s hand, her voice filled with fear. “I... Momma… what do we do?”

As if prompted by Sweetie’s question, the creatures finished the last of the food and rose from their feasting place in the boxes and tins, swarming around one another and swirling up into the air. One led the rest, sniffing at the air and shaking a little as it searched for a moment. Then jumping higher into the air, it rushed with surprising speed over Rarity’s head, and out the open door that Barb and Sweetie had left ajar.

Together, they stared as one towards the open door. Rarity at last broke the silence. “They couldn’t possibly be hunting for MORE food, could they? They ate nearly two months worth of sugar sweets I had shipped from Canterlot special order!”

Stepping into the open door, a rather wide-eyed Roseluck looked around, then spoke in a haggard voice. “Dusk sent me to warn you ponies about the little bug creatures. But… err… I guess you already know, don’t you?”

8:10am, Ponyville Train Station.

The sound of somepony walking around the train platform woke Pinkie from her nap, far too early. Still exhausted, and smacking her lips as she sat up and rubbed at her eyes, Pinkie tried to focus on the blurry blond-and-gray figure who walked around the raised platform, but smiled a little and gave a tiny wave while yawning against her own exhaustion. “Morning! Hope I'm not taking up too much space.”

Derpy giggled a little and shook her head, her voice gleeful as she crossed back across the floor to stand before Pinkie again, sitting down on a barrel and pulling mail out of her sack to start sorting. “It's okay, Pinkie! Sorry if I woke you, I was just checking the mail the overnight express left behind! You're waiting for the noon train, right? Got one massive delivery for Canterlot!”

Pinkie grinned a little and patted the makeshift bed she'd made atop of the crate of baked goods, pride beaming in her eyes. “It took us days, but Mr. and Mrs. Cake did a fantastic job in making Princess Celestia’s order with no time or extra help!”

Derpy laughed gently and continued to organize her mail, ever watchful, but much quieter than before, much to Pinkie’s relief. “I'm impressed. That looks like more than enough food to feed the Canterlot army!”

Pinkie was about to scoff and dismiss Derpy when a horde of ponies passed the train station, all carrying brooms, bats, and a dozen other household tools, swinging them vigorously overhead to try and… try to … “Dear Celestia! Derpy, please tell me I'm seeing things! That isn't Rarity, Sweetie Belle and Barb in a battle with parasprites, is it? Please tell me I'm seeing things wrong!”

Clearly confused, Derpy looked around in confusion, her jaw falling a little slack. “I- What? I mean, that is clearly Rarity and Sweetie. But what are parasprites? And why are there so many of them?”

Rather than answer, Pinkie reached under her ‘bed’, and pulled out a trombone from some hidden stash the mail mare had never noticed before. “Here Derpy, take this; you need to protect the train station before they come and eat everypony out of house and home!”

Now thoroughly confused, Derpy stared down at the musical instrument, still trying to understand half of what Pinkie had just said. Taking an experimental blow on the mouthpiece, she winced at the off-key note the trombone produced before looking at Pinkie, ready to ask a thousand more questions. “But Pinkie! What are parasprites? And what are you going to do to stop ten thousand little bug creatures?”

Pinkie had drawn vivid pink lines across her face, like some kind of warpaint. Grinning at Derpy, the mare turned away from the platform clearing her throat. “I'm going to do what Grandmama Pie warned me I might someday have to do. I'm going to save Ponyville before it winds up a ruin, just like the town that used to stand by my parents’ farm.”

Startled, Derpy looked again to the tiny creatures that now flooded the skies over Ponyville, a shiver of dread running down her spine. “What? How!? Pinkie, how are you gonna save Ponyville?”

The mare looked back over her shoulder and gave Derpy the oddest grin and a one-handed salute. “I'm gonna make music!” With that serious, yet playful image burned into her mind, Derpy could only watch as Pinkie ran off, leaving her alone to ‘guard’ the train platform with only a trombone.

11am, Apple Farm.

With the use of clouds overhead to keep the creatures pinned low enough to the ground so the other ponies could drive them into Applejack’s barn, Dash drew back and surveyed the weather team’s work, circling about overhead and calling out occasional instructions to the fresh members of the weather team that had traded in to relieve her and Rumble. Crossing her arms, she gave the colt a nudge. “Well kid, two weeks left in town and you get to show how much your control has improved already. I’m impressed. You?”

Exhausted, Rumble pushed damp hair from his eyes, and looked up at her, breathless. “I-Well… I mean, we did good, right? It took all morning, but we finally got them all rounded up and contained, right?”

Dash snorted a laugh and gave him another nudge in the side, shaking her head. “Don’t be so serious, kid. Look, they ate some crops, they stole a lot of food, but we stopped them before they got too crazy in attacking the farms. To tell the truth, I’m kinda glad about the ones that were in my house. They ate a lot of the leftovers I’ve been meaning to clean up for a few weeks now, and that made them slow and bloated and sickly.”

“Is that why they were clinging to you like you were the only safe place they could perch? It was weird, it almost looked like they were a-”

Nudging the foal again, she scowled down at him, giving him her darkest glower. “Look colt, you’re gonna swear to secrecy about that or I’ll find some way to convince Dusk to withdraw your application to weather school.”

Rumble winced and shut up quickly, which ended the conversation. Glad that was taken care of, she gave him a stiff nod. Trying to find some way to fill the uncomfortable silence, he cleared his throat. “I-Well, um… Some fantastic weather today, eh Rainbow Dash?”

Still glowering at him, she shook her head, biting down on her lower lip and tugging it a little, giving him a stiff nod. “Better choice of topic, colt. Now I’m going to go talk to Dusk and the others. You and Thunderlane keep this storm blocking all the doors of the barn, okay?”

Dash didn’t wait for his answer, and instead dove down to join Dusk where he stood talking with Rarity, Applejack and the Cakes. Circling around to land beside him, she just picked up the last bit of their conversation. “And you searched everywhere in town? I could have sworn that Pinkie was in town somewhere!”

Rarity bit her lip, shaking her head a little as she shifted her stance. “Well… I saw her at the train station this morning. I was really confused though, when we stopped to talk to Derpy, she said Pinkie gave her a trombone and swore her to protect the train station from ‘the parasprites’.”

The way Dusk stiffened up, Dash knew something in that statement had worried him, and snuck in behind him, slipping her arms around his neck so she could lean on his shoulders and rest her head against his cheek. “What’s that about, Rarity? Is that what these damn things are called, ‘parasprites’?”

Rarity shrugged, but Dusk muttered softly to himself, unable to hide his concern. “I-I swear I’ve read that name somewhere recently. Mrs. Cake? Did you see Pinkie anytime after we started rounding up the townsponies?”

The bakers both looked worried, shaking their heads in embarrassment. “No… no, sorry Dusk. We looked for her, but everypony was so worried about the parasprites getting into the bakery, we nailed all the windows closed and bolted all three doors. I’m afraid we might have locked her in the house, but I’m sorry to say we didn’t have time to go back and check.”

Applejack shook her head, giving a little sigh. “I wish I’d taken the time to go talk to Derpy some more. She looked so worried, and she was playing the trombone. Odd that, the parasprites kept their distance from the platform whenever she pointed it at them.”

Suddenly, Dusk pulled out from Dash’s arms, leaving her hovering and hanging onto thin air, a little disappointed. “Ah-ha! I knew I remembered the name! The book on disasters! I swear, it had a chapter on parasprites! I need to go back to town; we need to know what we can do to stop them!”

Landing beside her, Bronze gave Dash a little smile, her voice quiet. “Then why don’t we go with him and bring AJ along? That way we can keep him safe from them, and if more of the parasprites are around town, we’ll have a way of sending word for backup.”

Inside the barn, more violent noises rose as the ponies sealed the door, and the building rocked on its foundations, the whole building shifting a little. Dusk winced visibly, but nodded. “You’ve got a point, Bronze. We four could move the fastest and you two could scout for Pinkie and more of the parasprites. Besides, Barb should be back at the library, and I don’t feel right leaving her alone in town. Not when we don’t know how to stop these creatures, and you can hear them in there, still reproducing en masse.”

Everypony looked at the barn, and Applejack winced a little. “I just hope they don’t break into Mac’s stills. He’s spent years expanding them, and I’d hate for them to get ruined. You go ahead, I’m gonna grab my hammer, just in case.”

Dash grunted a sigh, her shoulders slumping. “Not to mention cider season is coming, and I don’t want to be left out ever again!”

11:10am, The Cakes’ basement.

It was time. Pinkie inspected her weapon, adjusting the shoulder straps a few inches longer, and double checked the buckles that kept the leather in place. Feeling a little pride at how well she’d kept the metal in shape, she traced the chrome arms that held the cymbals, and the felt-coated mallets spaced to make safe contact with the massive drum.

At last, she straightened up, stepped into place, and strapped on the one-mare band, closing the buckles to keep it from slipping. She adjusted the harmonica so she could easily reach the mouthpiece without needing to strain her neck. Another set of straps connected the drum mallets to her knees, and a long string attached the cymbals to her elbow, giving her full control of the music it created.

She took a few careful steps across the basement floor to test the system out, making sure everything was properly connected, before she picked up a maraca in her left hand and a tambourine in her right. Finally, she double-checked her warpaint, nodding with confidence. “Well… Grandmama Pie… I hope you were right about this!”

11:30am, Dusk’s Library.

Dusk shoved the door open, stopping for a moment to wave back at Dash when she blew a signal to warn him she was moving off to search for Pinkie. With Bronze's help, the two could at least cover most of Ponyville while Dusk hunted for Barb. Dusk stepped around the bookshelf that had been pushed to seal the door as he moved inside. Looking around the house, he called out, his worry evident. “Barb? Barb! Are you here still? Did the parasprites get in?”

From the kitchen, the muffled sound of the dragoness’ cry sent a chill up his spine, making him worry and rush through the house, fear for her safety driving him to put his other concerns of the day aside.

Followed by Applejack, Dusk bolted straight for the kitchen, and stopped, his jaw hitting the floor at the sight he discovered. Sitting alone on the floor, the dragoness was surrounded by piles of plates, collected leftovers from the house, and a number of things from the icebox that he’d long forgotten about. Scowling a little, he put hands on his hips, glaring down at the little dragoness. “Just what do you think you’re doing, Barb? Now isn’t the time to be eating!”

The dragoness blushed and shoveled the last of the roast she’d thawed and cooked down her throat, gnawing aggressively at the thick chunk and burping with deep pleasure. “Well, I figured that any food that I ate would ensure that there was less food for the parasprites to eat, right? So I decided that the safest thing I could do was to eat as much of it as possible to make sure there was no chance of the parasprites could get at it!”

Dusk groaned, and Applejack’s laughter at the little dragon’s logic only made it worse. Shaking his head, he turned to the mare and gave her a nudge. “Can you help her clean this mess up before a parasprite does sneak in and assist her in gorging the contents of my ice box?”

Wiping a tear from her eye, Applejack nodded to him, and kissed his cheek. “Sure, Dusk, sure. Just go look into your book. I’ll get Barb ready to go. Who knows, maybe by the time we get back to the farm we’ll have figured something out.”

Dusk muttered quietly to himself, leaving the room and returning to his study, glad to see the book was still waiting on his desk, the bookmark Bronze had shoved into it so many days ago still in place. “I’m sorry, Shining. I promise I’ll get back to my study of the mad creature, for your peace of mind if nothing else.”

Flipping the book open, he searched the list of chapters, muttering to himself as again he found no sign of a chapter on the parasprites. “It… It doesn’t make any sense! By The Light, why!? I swear, there was a chapter titled ‘The Eaters’ or something like that!”

Overwhelmed, frustrated, and feeling more than a little pressured by the insanity of the damage the parasprites had already done, he hurled the book at the library wall in frustration, turning to walk from the room, calling to the girls in the kitchen. “That’s another dead end! AJ, We have to go to the Everfree. Zecora. She’s our only hope, maybe she’s heard of something about them! Unless Dash or Bronze found some sign of Pinkie. Oh! And Barb, send Princess Celestia a letter! We need her help! She must have some way of helping us out!”

Abandoned, the book flipped through a dozen pages as it lay upon the floor, at last settling upon a random page, far later in the book. A single line of text stood out, though Dusk would never see it in his current, frustrated state: “At long last a final solution was found. The only thing in the world that might stop the magically-immune Smooze. Thus were the parasprites born, ‘The Eaters’ created as a solution that might finally stop the ever-growing magic blob.”

11:40am, Dusk’s Library

Pinkie grunted with effort, but forced the library door open. Driving the heavy bookshelf aside, she squeezed inside the library and called out at the top of her lungs. “Dusk!? Barb! Bronze? Somepony? Is anypony home? I really need to tell you about the parasprites! They’ll eat everything, even the seeds we planted the other day if we don’t stop them quickly!”

Nopony answered her, and Pinkie’s shoulders deflated. “No… am I too late? Have they already scared everypony away?”

Entering the kitchen, she was shocked to see the icebox standing open, empty and melting, along with a pile of dishes, recently rinsed off, but still needing a proper cleaning sitting in the sink. “Dusk and Barb were here, I’m sure of it. Why did I take so long to prepare my band? I’m such a fool, I shouldn't have taken so long polishing things! I could have saved everypony! It’s not like I need the chrome to shine!”

Deflating, Pinkie stepped out of the library, pulling the bookshelf close as she sealed the treehouse up again. Gnawing on her lower lip, she looked around town, still whimpering a little as she tried to think. “But where are the parasprites!? Nopony around anywhere and so many plants still standing. Some are half-eaten… But if they didn’t eat everything, where did they go?!”

A soft breeze blew through the air, and struggling to fly on it, a bloated parasprite only just managed to stay aloft. Her eyes went wide, and Pinkie straightened, shocked, but smiling now. “I know what you are! You’re a brood mother! Well, where are they? Show me!”

For her part, the fat parasprite gave no answer, instead sniffing at the air, and then shifting to fight against the breeze to fly off to the south, ignoring plenty of food in town as she hunted for something, possibly her family? Pinkie suddenly felt reassured, remembering Grandmama Pie’s words. “Grandmama really was right! The parasprites move in a horde, even the old fat ones. All I gotta do is follow her and find out just where the others are hiding.”

Delighted, Pinkie gave her maraca a shake, watching as the brood mother flinched in mid-flight at the hint of music, reassuring Pinkie of more of her great grandmother’s words. “Alright, Ponyville. I’ll stop them. I promise, Grandmama, no more towns are gonna starve because of a parasprite!”

Noon, Zecora’s hut.

Dusk was amazed at how quiet the Everfree was. Sticking close to Applejack's side, he watched for any signs from Dash or Bronze as they circled overhead.

“This here is damn eerie, Dusk. I've lived by the Everfree all my life, but I ain't ever seen it this quiet.” Warily, she shifted her grip on the silvery-blue metal of her warhammer’s handle, her shoulders obviously tense under her light cotton shirt.

Feeling little better off, Dusk was beginning to wish he had something to hold like she had her hammer, the silence that had dominated the forest felt far more unnatural than the intense threats that normally moved about.

Applejack’s hand suddenly slipped into his and gave his hand a supportive squeeze, and when he looked back at her, she gave her shoulders a easy shrug, winking playfully. “Let's just get to Zecora’s, alright? Unless Barb gets some word from Princess Celestia.”

Dusk laughed gently, squeezing her hand back and looking again overhead at the circling pegasi, trying to pick out little Barb on Bronze’s back. “She… well, she stopped shouting all the time and flaming constantly. I guess riding piggyback on a pegasus isn't quite as reassuring as in a chariot. I suppose that we should have given her rides before, to help her acclimate better.”

Applejack shook her head, rolling her eyes. “All I know is you’d never find me in one of those chariots! Those kinds of heights just ain’t natural, no matter what the pegasi say!”

Dusk shook his head, grinning at her again. “Really, AJ? Come on, it’s not that bad. I’ve only flown in a few times, but once you get used to the elevation, it really isn’t any different than riding in a cart.”

Scowling a little at him, she shook her head, making sure to firmly stomp her feet against the ground. “You kidding me? Thank Celestia I was born an earth pony, otherwise I’d probably be the only other pegasus besides Fluttershy who's scared of heights.”

Deciding he was better off leaving the conversation at that point, Dusk pressed on into the woods, unable to help but picture a mare as large as Applejack with small wings like Scootaloo, or one of the other foals. “Or worse. Bulk’s. The fact he can fly at all is a wonder onto Princess Celestia’s good graces.” Still, the image was funny enough that he smiled as he tried to picture her too scared to fly more than a foot or two off the ground.

Zecora’s hut finally appeared, and Dusk had to take a moment to notice all the changes she’d made to her clearing, impressed at how much she’d expanded the space. Muttering to herself, AJ stepped past him, her eyes growing wider as she looked around at all the changes to the yard. “Now just how did one mare get all of this done by herself?”

Dusk had to agree, as there were now three massive gardens and a thick woodpile that stacked from the base of the house up to the freshly thatched roof. He was shocked at all the changes, and arched a brow at Applejack. “Seems she really has done a lot of work to make this into a proper home. See that garden on the north side? I think I can only identify half of those herbs, and that woodpile looks ready for one wicked winter.”

Applejack stepped up beside him, nodding a little. “You’d think she was preparing for the return of the Windigos! That thatching is thick and fresh too. Kinda like the thatching Granny and Mac used to do before Mr. Rich payed for the new tar an’ shingles roof to celebrate Apple Bloom's birth.”

From the house, the door opened, and the proud mare, still dressed in the winter dress Rarity had made her crossed her arms over her chest and gave them a grin. “For windigos, I am going to have to say no. But any sign of an indigo sky makes me fear for three more months of endless snow! But enough of this; from your faces, something is amiss. Dusk Shine and Applejack, what brings you back to my humble shack?”

Relief at Zecora’s quick arrival and positive mood helped quiet his worries about the Everfree forest and hopefully the parasprites as well. “Zecora, we’ve got real trouble in Ponyville. Yesterday, Fluttershy found a creature I think may be called a parasprite, and now Pinkie’s missing, and suddenly we have thousands of them. I think we’ve managed to corner them all in AJ’s barn, but they’re still breeding, and short of simply killing them all, I-I just don’t know what to do with them! Have you ever heard of them?”

Realizing just how many of his worries he’d suddenly unloaded on the zebra, Dusk needed a moment to recollect himself, yet Zecora gave him no time for that at all. “Parasprites you say? Please tell me your research has lead you astray.”

Her panicked tone made him stiffen up, he could feel his blood pressure spike and lifted two of his fingers to squeeze the bridge of his nose as he tried his best to soothe the blooming headache that her reaction inspired. “I-Well, I don’t know for sure. I can’t find anything in my book that I swear had a whole chapter about them just the other day! But they are small, have four wings and tiny, short black legs. They’re brightly colored balls of fur and have no end to their appetite! Do… do you know of anything else they could be?”

Sorrow overtook Zecora’s eyes and she shook her head, her shoulders drooping. “I’ll not lead you awry, if what you’ve described is true, a nightmare truly waits for you. Tales of crops and harvests consumed. If these creatures are in Ponyville... you're doomed.”

Something in her horror caught in Dusk’s chest, and he felt his back stiffen. He had had enough of this... enough of all of that insanity! Almost growling, he straightened up, the flare of pain in his shoulders pushed away his exhaustion, and he curled his lip to sneer a little. The sound of footsteps landing behind him as Dash and Bronze joined them. In a deep growl that surprised even himself, he spoke. “I’ll never let that happen, not to Ponyville. Never! Too many good ponies trust in me. I’ll burn the parasprites all to the ground before I let them harm Ponyville!”

Barb lept from Bronze’s shoulder and rushed to his side, panting a little for breath. “But... but Dusk! We still haven’t received any kind of answer from Princess Celestia! Wh-What can we do?”

Dusk looked to the little dragoness, then back at Zecora and the other mares. “I’ll… I’ll try something. There has to be SOMETHING I can do to stop them. If I can’t think of a solution… I’ll burn them all to the ground. I’m sorry Applejack, I’ll replace the barn, but Ponyville’s safety is too important.”

The mare walked to his side, squeezing his hand in comfort again. “Dusk, if you have to, you have to. A barn we can replace. But even if you get Dash and Bronze to ferry you, it’ll be an hour before you make it back. Who knows how many of them there’ll be by the time you get back?”

Dusk squeezed her hand back and fluffed Barb’s head spikes before taking a deep breath. “I’m going to teleport back. Before they have time to reproduce any further. You four can get back to town safely on your own, right?”

Barb looked worried, stepping up and grabbing his other hand. “But Dusk, that’s way farther than you’ve ever teleported before. Are you sure it’s safe?”

Dusk shook his head, grunting a little and squeezing her hand in return. “I did it once before, Barb, when I was fighting Trixie. Just... stay close to AJ and the others and get home quickly. If the parasprites are what scared the monsters of the Everfree into being this quiet, I have to deal with them, now.”

And that was that. He stepped away from the mares and the dragon and focused on the distant farm, trying his best to regulate his breathing to keep the headache from getting any worse. “Redheart was right. I need a cup of her tea right now, badly. Someday I’ll find out what she puts in the damn tea so I can made a dry version for days like today.” His mind clearing and his thoughts finally settling, he recreated the teleportation pattern in his mind, hurling himself back to the farm.

12:10pm, Apple Farm

Dusk knew he’d landed, yet for a moment, all he could see was stars as a sudden wave a vertigo overwhelmed his every sense, and he struggled to tell up from down. Hands and voices from all directions rushed to his side and ponies he still couldn’t make out rushed to support him while he tried his best to gather his breath and clear his vision.

It was Rarity who he was finally able to make out, but only by her voice as she kissed his cheek. It was filled with worry, yet she was clearly trying to hide it as best as she could. “Oh, Dusk… we... we’ve been getting really worried about you all. The parasprites have grown in number so much, they’re starting to fill the barn so full the building is simply bursting at the seams! Di-Did you manage to find some kind of solution?”

Finally getting his balance back under his feet, Dusk turned to look towards the barn, panting a little for breath. “By The Light… how many of them are there!?” He’d thought that Rarity might have been exaggerating, yet as his vision cleared at last, he could see that weak boards of the barn had bust and small clusters of parasprites were escaping, while whatever ponies were around rushed in to nail the board back and seal the horde itself in again. “Oh dear Celestia… what do I do-”

And then he knew it. He knew what to do. Squeezing Rarity’s hand, he straightened up and looked into her eyes. “Rarity… do you… do you trust me?”

The mare froze up, yet a slow smile spread over her lips and she gave him a gentle nod, squeezing his hand back and resting a hand on his chest. “I do, Dusk. Just say what you want me to do and I’ll do everything I can to help you.”

Remembering how he’d been able to follow Cadence’s magic back into the source of her power, Dusk reached out into his magic and spoke very carefully. “Reach for your magic, and when you feel the pressure of my magic pushing into you, let me in. I’ve been running around too much today, and I need more power to make this spell work. And pray. Pray to Celestia I’ve got this spell right.”

He’d expected her to panic, or pull back a little. Instead she simply smiled up at him, and leaned in, kissing his cheek while she rested her weight against his chest, sighing happily. “Of course, Dusk, I trust you. If my magic can help, I’ll give it all to you.”

Forming a thought in his mind, Dusk followed his magic as he reached into Rarity, navigating the path to her magic, feeling her caressing the flame of power, and with care, he drew a strand from the fire, showing her how to guide it back to him. With all of his strength, he focused upon the thought of one thing alone. Hunger. Aching need for sustenance. For a meal. For food to quiet the screaming desire, for drink to sate his thirst. Reaching out, he focused his little remaining power and all that Rarity fed to him into the idea of hunger at last fulfilled, satisfied, abated. He flooded that single concept into the magic and poured it all into the barn, layering it thickly time and time again, until his magic ran dry and Rarity’s began to ebb.

At last he opened his eyes, and looked again to the bulging walls of the barn, glad that while exhaustion was flooding his stiff limbs, and the throbbing in his shoulders had grown only worse, he could rely on Rarity’s support as he waited to see if his magic had finally settled the horde.

Fluttershy took a few steps from the crowd, watching a dozen escapee parasprites that had been washed over by Dusk’s magic. The little things looked confused, circling around in place as it sniffed at the air thoughtfully. Biting at her lower lip, she reached over to Big Mac, pulling one of the apples he had collected from the orchard to share with the ponies who were helping watch over the barn. Swallowing back her fear, she stepped forward, offering the ripe red fruit out towards the parasprite, her voice quivering a little with fear. “He-hey little one. How would you like an apple?”

The parasprite turned at her words, flying forward a few feet, before stopping and sniffing with great care at the rich chunk of ripe fruit she was offering to it. As one, everypony froze up, watching as the creature hesitated, seeming to hold its breath and think for a moment.

Then it violently lunged forward, snapping up the whole apple in a single bite, hardly even chewing as a loud swallowing sound filled the silence. There was a moment of quiet, then the creature shuddered violently, and then spat six times, the wet and sticky fluffballs landing all over Fluttershy. As though they had one mind they unfolded, and instantly went to work, tearing away at her heavy sweater, her long sleeved shirt underneath that, and her wire-reinforced bra without a moment’s thought of pause. But her scream of panic and embarrassment was not the only sound that was heard, as a horrific tearing noise filled the air, and everypony turned to look to the barn. Massive chunks of wood were being violently shredded apart by the voracious horde of parasprites held within.

But worse of all was the sound of the parasprites retching, as they paused between bites to spit forth another four or five balls of baby parasprites. The new babies immediately dove straight into the meal, growing in size with only a few bites and then in turn also joining their parents as they too began to spit up newborns.

As one pony, the crowd screamed, turning to flee en masse from the horde that was now doubling in size every minute. Defiant in the face of the terror of Ponyville, Pinkie strode forward with confidence, stomping a foot down and lifting her maraca proudly over her head and giving it a single shake. “Never fear, Ponyville! Pinkie is here to save you from this parasprite menace!”

For just a second, everything froze, ponies and parasprites all stiffening up as she declared her presence. Her chest inflating, Pinkie bent forward, to touch her lips to the harmonica, and just as the first notes formed, the spell broke, and as one crazed mob, the parasprites and the fleeing ponies steamrolled over her, knocking her from her feet as the parasprites swarmed over ponies, trying to eat their clothing, while everypony fled the farm.

Dusk couldn’t believe his eyes, and pulled himself together, pushing past the last of the fleeing ponies, glad that the parasprites were busy chasing after the other ponies, giving him a chance to reach the mare’s side and grab her hand, doing his best to help her stand back up. “Pinkie! By The Light! Where were you? What do you know about these parasprites, and just what in Tartarus are you wearing?!”

Pinkie didn’t even need a moment to collect herself; with his help, she rushed to her feet and grabbed him by the collar, stunning him as she pulled him from his feet, a sudden deadly serious tone filling her voice, shocking him. “Dusk! Don’t tell me you fed them! There are so many now and you had them all gathered in one place!? Couldn’t you have waited just a few more minutes so I could use grandmama’s song to stop them!? Why’d you have to give them magic!?”

Suspended off the ground, exhausted, and feeling more than a little disconnected from reality, Dusk could only stare down at her, and ask the only question that felt appropriate. “Wait! Just wait a second, Pinkie! Feed them magic!? They’ve been eating any food they could find until now. What does my spell trying to sate their hunger have to do with anything!?”

Exasperated, Pinkie lowered him to the ground and hugged him tight. “I’m sorry, Dusk. Grandmama said she’d killed them all ages ago, so I didn’t really think I’d ever have to fight parasprites! They don’t eat food! They only use food to reproduce. They eat magic, Dusk! Magic is what really feeds them. Now that they’ve eaten your spell, their metabolism has gone into overdrive. They’ll reproduce super dooper stupidly fast! I don’t know if I can play loudly enough to stop them now!”

Rarity had joined them, her light fall jacket missing, but she didn’t appear to have been otherwise harmed by the parasprites. Gripping Pinkie’s shoulder, she got the mare’s attention. “But Pinkie, music kills them? How? They never seemed that sensitive to noise.”

Straightening up and letting Dusk go, Pinkie shoved her maraca into Rarity’s hand and reached around under her tail, pulling out an accordion. “Because, Rarity. Music confuses them somehow. They can’t eat at all if you play music loud enough, and they just kinda dance around in circles in rhythm with the music. Grandmama said she found out by accident while tuning her banjo while they were packing to flee the farm!”

Fluttershy’s voice was very weak, as if she didn’t want to call any further attention to herself. “So… So you mean that if we could round them up and play loud enough music… we… we could stop them… sta-starve them. Save Ponyville from my mistake?”

Turning to look to the mare, Dusk was ready to comfort her, but found himself unable to speak. Rarity had done her best, but the fact was, her small fall jacket simply couldn't be made to properly cover Fluttershy’s ample bust. Rarity had turned it backwards and tied the arms together over her wings to keep it in place, giving her a measure of modesty. Even so, the small jacket left her exposed to a degree he’d never seen her in a public setting. Just as clearly, Fluttershy had been crying very hard, her eyes red from the shock and shame of all she’d caused. Yet she had somehow pulled herself back together and was trying to help.

Pinkie gave Fluttershy her biggest grin and best nod. “Yep yep yep! That’s how Grandmama said it works!” She froze, and watched as the bloated brood mother floated past her eyes. Scowling, Pinkie lifted her accordion, and with surprising skill, she began to play, the music flowing forth made the bloated creature freeze up, slowly turn towards her and watched in silence for a moment. Then it began to ‘dance’ along with the rhythm of the music, swaying from side to side and giving small happy chirps that sang along with the beat. For almost a minute, Pinkie continued the song, until the parasprite burst into a small cloud of cobalt-blue magic, leaving behind no sign it had ever existed. Shocked another of her grandmama’s tales had been true, Pinkie looked at where the parasprite had been. “Oh wow! Grandmama Pie said they only disappear THAT quickly if they’re really really old. She must have been the first one of this swarm!”

Something in the hue of that flare of magic bothered Dusk, but he couldn’t say where he’d seen it. Taking a long, slow breath to calm himself, he turned back to look at Pinkie and the other mares, forcing himself not to get too excited. “Alright. So that's the plan then. Pinkie, just keep playing your music. We will try our best to gather everypony back together and drive the parasprites back into one herd. If possible, we will try to drive them all to city hall. If it takes so little time for the music to put them down, then… well, baiting them with food or clothing or anything that gets their attention is worth the risk of them breeding more.”

Happy to see Dusk was doing his best to take charge again, Pinkie started up her accordion again, walking in place to start the drum and cymbal up again. “No problem Dusk! I had this one-mare-band built so I could play music for hours! Just drive them towards Town Hall and I’ll show you how Pinkie the Party Pony performs!

1pm, Ponyville Train Station.

With a roar, the afternoon express chugged its way at last into Ponyville, delayed by some red tape the guards wouldn’t talk about. Fancy Pants muttered darkly to himself, offering Fleur his hand as he rose, stepping towards the nearest door and scowling at the train's engineer. He had come up with a number of excuses, all that still tasted like half-truths to Fancy.

When the last chugging noises had calmed down and the engineer gave him a sharp nod, Fancy Pants pushed the door open, stepping out onto the platform, glad that he was free of the train at last. A package floated along behind his lady, suspended in the air by his magic. Still, he kept it close; it was far too valuable to simply check with normal baggage.

As he surveyed the platform, a shocking contrast of background noise between the inside of the train and the small town outside came at a rush. Sitting just a few feet away, a mare in her early thirties sat against a massive shipment of muffins, a fine silver trombone at her lips, blasting slightly off-key music at the sky. Clearly red in the face and a little exhausted, Fancy worried that she might have gotten a little too much sun and took a step towards her to check on the poor mare's condition. “Excuse me, dear lady, are you quite alright? Excuse me if this is too forward, only it appears you’ve turned as red as an apple!”

Lowering the trombone and panting a little for breath, the blond pegasus gave him a wide grin, shaking her head. “No, no! I'm glad you asked, sir!” She paused, taking another breath and raised her trombone again, blasting the air over his shoulder with a powerful note, and half-deafening him. He was only just able to make out what she was now yelling as she lowered her trombone again. “Sorry about that, mister! But Pinkie said this was the only way to keep the parasprites under control! And look, it's finally working!”

Turning as she pointed, Fancy pants realized why things had gotten so loud when he took in the small town as a whole. Near the platform, hundreds of tiny puffball creatures had been stunned by the blast of the mare's horn, and lay upon the ground, their four legs twitching with shock. Past that, the nearest line of houses all had chunks missing at random, as if some beast had descended upon the town and began taking bites to taste a hundred different materials.

Fleur grabbed his shoulder, pointing in another direction, her shock and amusement in her voice at equal levels. “By The Light, is that Magistrate Dusk Shine!? Just what are they doing!?”

Turning to follow where she was pointing, Fancy nearly barked out with laughter. A line of ponies ran together, random pieces of clothing held high over their heads, leaving several of them running shirtless, while others had used their pants, towels, blankets or whatever other clothing they could lay their hands on. As a team, they ran across the clearing before the train station, spinning the items they all held high overhead as they ran across the grass.

And Fleur was right! Leading the group of ponies was Dusk Shine, his shirt spinning rapidly. And what was even stranger, was that chasing his shirt and snapping at it in mid-flight was an army of those tiny fuzzy creatures, so numerous their wingbeats created a cacophonous buzz that drowned out all other sound.

Taking Fleur Dis Lee’s hand, Fancy stepped away from the edge of the platform to get further away from the swarm, his jaw agape as he watched them turn towards the center of town.

Three sudden sharp blasts of the trombone by the mare at his side sent many more of the tiny things crashing to the ground, stunned by the noise. Dozens more ponies suddenly appeared from all directions, carrying everything from buckets to boxes to jugs and even a few carts. As a team, they rushed the stunned creatures, scooping the ones too weak to fly up by the bucketfull and dumping them into the carts. Foals lined around the carts, many with small recorders, flutes or other light and portable musical instruments. None played the same song, yet they all worked together to suppress the creatures from recovering.

Turning together as one, they moved to follow after the rest of the horde that still chased the first group of ponies that were still running along; baiting in yet more of the horde that hung overhead, filling the sky to a pitch blackness. The rapidly-moving crowd of ponies and bugs headed on as one crazed mass, until they disappeared from sight.

At last the trombone mare stood up, clearing her throat and drinking from a jug of apple juice Fancy hadn't noticed before. Offering it to him, she grinned. “Don't worry mister, lady. This is working. I daresay there looks to only be a tenth of the swarm left. Every lap, more and more of the swarm gets caught up in Pinkie’s song and the ones I stun get shipped to the town center where she's playing. Be careful not to spill any of that juice; we found out the hard way that it's their favorite food.”

Eyeing the mare for a moment, he simply wondered just what had happened in the last few days in Ponyville. Accepting the juice she offered, he took a swig of the fresh, refreshing juice before passing the jug to Fleur. “And just what happened in Ponyville, miss? I've never seen such insanity. Yet all I've ever heard of Ponyville tells me it's normally just a simple farming town.”

Accepting her drink back from Fleur, the mare took another swig and checked the sky, before shrugging a little. “First, let me say hello properly, sir! I'm Derpy Hooves, Ponyville’s mailmare.”

Accepting her offered hand, Fancy dipped low and kissed her knuckles, grinning up at her. “A pleasure, noble courier! I am Fancy Pants, and this is my wife, the Lady Fleur Dis Lee.”

Delighted, Derpy put aside her juice and rushed to take a solid grip of his hand with both of her own. “Oh, you're Dusk’s guests! He said the other day he expected you two and Princess Cadence to visit sometime. A real shame it turned out to be today!”

About to answer her, the sound of a growing number of ponies moving towards the train station again distracted him from whatever answer he'd been thinking about. Again, the same show passed by the train platform, but this time, the number of parasprites they chased had cut down from hundreds of thousands to merely thousands at best. And this time, none of them tried to come up onto the platform.

After the ponies turned again towards the center of town, a small group of ponies broke off from the rest of the team, approaching the platform in a cheerful mood, however bedraggled they might appear. Leading them, Fancy again recognized Dusk Shine, his hair drenched with sweat and his shirt long since lost, yet his eyes shone with a brilliant light that reminded Fancy of somepony... “Oh… dear…”

Dusk pushed away from the others and rushed up the steps of the platform, still grinning as he approached. “Well Fancy Pants, I'm sorry we didn't properly greet you sooner, but as you can see, we've had quite a crazy day. So welcome to Ponyville! Lady Fleur, I'm afraid Rarity’s plan to treat you to a quiet lunch at the cafe will probably have to wait for another day. Most of Ponyville is going to need a few weeks to recover after today.”

Unable to ignore the stallion’s infectious good mood, Fancy clasped Dusk by the arm, just short of the elbow, and Dusk gripped his in return. “Well met indeed, Dusk Shine! If you can still stand and smile after a day like the one it looks you've had, it must have turned out better than it looks like it went.”

Fleur laughed musically, her voice dancing with delight that was matched in her eyes. “Oh, of course, dearest Dusk Shine. It's quite understable. I do hope we can have proper time to talk later. However, it's clear that Ponyville has a lot more reasons for visits besides the occasional fencing lessons with your lady!”

Dusk shook his head and returned Fancy’s handshake, but broke it so he could turn to Fleur and give her a shockingly professional bow. “Then my dear lady, we will do our best to entertain you in the future!”

The mares who'd collected at the base of the platform were suddenly talking again, rapidly, before the one with rainbow hair gave the lady he recognized as Rarity, regardless of her current state of misdress, a sharp nudge in the ribs. She glowered at the others but did her best to ‘straighten-up’ her damaged dress and wild hair before she stepped up onto the platform with them. “Forgive me for interrupting, but Dash says it's begun happening in the center of town, just in front of the hall. I think… Dash swears we captured them all, and we all think that maybe you should be there.”

Fancy saw a flicker behind Dusk’s eyes. Fear, pain, exhaustion, and duty. They all passed in only half a second before the stallion’s face went calm and cool. “By The Light, he doesn't admit it, not even to himself, yet he handles it all and is ready for more. No wonder she wants him to have the blade.”

Dusk was already talking when Fancy managed to catch back up with the conversation. “Rarity, you and Dash are right. We should be there. Fancy, Fleur, this is not going to be pretty. If you don't-”

Fleur took up Dusk’s elbow as if he'd been offering to escort her to some dance. “No, magistrate. We will come along. Some things must be witnessed, so we can tell of the day Dusk Shine saved Ponyville from the parasprite horde.”

Humbly, the young magisrate shook his head and lifted one hand to wave off the words of praise. “I only made it worse. It was Pinkie who figured out from her Grandmama’s stories of a swarm that ruined her family farm. Save all of your kind words for her.”

Thus, they walked to the center of Ponyville, Fancy taking up Rarity’s arm just like Fleur had taken Dusk’s. As they walked, a tiny sound rose to a powerful song, the music of a half-dozen instruments played together in harmony by an expert band.

The mare called Pinkie Pie walked in small circles at the steps of the town hall, playing all all but one instrument in the song by herself and somehow managing to make some beautiful music in the process.

A mare sat on the steps just to the side of Pinkie, an exquisite golden harp on her knee. Her vivid green-white hair was wild and her bangs fell a little over her eyes. Their music had an effect, not just on the watching ponies, but on the gathered pests as well.

The tiny creatures seemed to number in the hundreds of thousands, but as his gaze swept across the massed horde, Fancy revised his number to well over a million., They blackened the sky, yet as one, the parasprites danced back and forth, matching the music's rhythm.

For some time nothing happened, but then Fancy caught sight of it, a distant tiny puff of magic as one of the creatures simply imploded. The wiff of magic on the air was familiar, and hinted at something he couldn't quite remember. Soon what was one became ten, a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand, more. So many of them, all at once, growing puffs exploded at random, the number only increasing at a rate he couldn’t count, to the point he couldn't even guess at just how many of them were dying every second. Somepony was crying, and he could hear Dusk pull the pink-haired mare to his chest, whispering something private to her while her yellow-feathered wings shook as she was racked with sobs.

Then it was simply over. The last few puffed out of existence and the quiet breeze blew away what little motes of magic that remained behind. Unable to dismiss the familiar feeling that magic roused in the back of his mind, Fancy pulled his package close, gripping it tightly in his hand. It might be wrapped in a heavy package, but he felt better with a blade in his hand.

4pm, Ponyville Train Station, Derpy’s Mail Cage.

Lyra could feel hir fingers cramping up as shi swiftly drew hir quill across the last few lines of the page before hir, scowling deeply at the words the whole time shi worked. Distantly, shi heard Vinyl also hard at work at her own writing, all the while humming to some internal rhythm that left Lyra’s nerves on edge. With no small amount of relief, shi drew the last few notes across the page and thrust the quill back into the portable inkwell Vinyl had set up on top of the crate between them. Inside the mail cage at the train station, they’d worked for what felt like hours to record their interpretation of the day's events.

Sitting back and massaging hir aching fingers with hir other hand, Lyra’s fingertips were still sore from playing hir lyre for so long to support Pinkie’s song, and the writing had only aggravated things further. In no mood for pleasantries, shi simply muttered from the corner of hir mouth. “I’m done, Vinyl.”

Vinyl looked up over her thick sunglasses, her vivid cerise eyes turned to read over hir writing, at last giving a measured nod. “Then package them up, together with the book. I’ll finish my notes and take one of the evening trains back to Canterlot.”

Lyra hissed a frustrated breath between clenched teeth as shi turned hir gaze up, glaring at the mare again. “Just tell me one thing Vinyl. Did they have a backup plan? A solution if Dusk hadn’t found Pinkie and discovered how to lure in the parasprites with apple juice? Was there any way to save Ponyville if they failed?”

Vinyl slowly lifted a hand and drew her thick shades off her eyes, her own expression scaling back as she relaxed a little, as always bobbing her head to some internal music she alone could hear. Her lips curling slowly into a smile, and she lazily tilted her head, gesturing with out looking to the other items locked up with them in the cage. “Of course we had plans. I was only a few minutes from stepping in if Dusk was unable to stop them from doing any more harm.”

Looking towards the corner of the cage Vinyl had motioned towards, shi couldn’t identify anything of interest. “Wha-Just what are you talking about Vinyl? No more games, tell me, what were you going to do to save Ponyville all by yourself?!”

The mare grinned, sitting back and sliding her thick shades back onto her eyes. “Don’t you remember? Derpy mentioned it already. My backup plan is stored here. We talked about it a little when we met here in the trainyard, months ago.”

10pm, Dusk’s Library.

Dusk’s fingers shook as he drew the thick red ribbon from the long case. He could feel the magic that poured out from inside the case, radiating even through the thick wood of the box.

A shower had done him a lot of good, and Rarity had insisted on redressing him before they had gathered again and ate dinner. Now at last, with the mares downstairs, he and Fancy Pants finally had a moment of quiet together. Giving Dusk the box he’d held so tightly to his chest the entire night, and Dusk’s horn nearly hummed as the magic pulsed from inside the box and through his fingers. It was old magic, something ancient, older than any magic he’d ever touched, save for those rare times he’d ever encountered things of Princess Celestia’s creation.

His breath caught in his throat as he gripped the top half of the box and slowly lifted it away, revealing... a blade.

No, not merely a blade, Dusk thought after a moment. This was something more than that. It was simply contained inside a shape crafted by mortal hands, made to look like a blade. The impossible value of the it was simply unmeasurable in Dusk’s knowledge of the metals that had been used to forge it. If it had only been made of Mithril, he’d estimate it to be worth millions of bits. Instead, the blade's sheath itself was covered with inlays made from the finest mithril designs, coating over leather made from some species he couldn't identify.

The handle and its pommel were both made of Orichalcum, more than he’d ever seen in one place. The polished bronze-copper metal was inlaid with three star-sapphires in the handle that glowed with their own inner light. But even all of that did not equal a hundredth of the value compared to the blade itself. An impossible length of silver-blue that he could identify only as Adamantine. He’d never imagined that so much of the metal could be forged together like this. His voice was weak as he lifted his eyes to look at the stallion, his voice a whisper, too weak to even ask a question. Instead, he simply stated what tiny facts he could put forward to balance against the reality of what he saw lying in the box before him. “Princess Celestia has a single ring she wears only one day a year. It has three star-sapphires inset into the ring’s metal, but the metal itself is worth ten times all three of them put together. “Ad-” He needed to swallow before he spoke again. “Adamantine is so hard to forge, no smith has ever tried to forge anything larger than a ring.”

Fancy Pants shook his head, kneeling at Dusk’s side, and admiring the impossible blade. His voice was just as quiet. “One smith did. Clover the Clever was a student of Starswirl the Bearded. His greatest, if the amount written about her lifetime of work is anything to judge by. The Princess tells me Clover spent fourteen years crafting this blade for her lover, as her engagement gift. While history records the fallout of Clovers grief in great detail, even her lover's name and sex have been forgotten. Lost in a blind fit of rage, Clover took the blade and hunted the hive down to the last larva, inaugurating the blade in the blood of every member of the hive that killed her lover. Only when it was done did she return to Starswirl’s school. She gave the blade to Princess Celestia and had the blade locked away, refusing to ever handle it again in her lifetime.”

“I can’t take this, Fancy Pants. This blade is an artifact older than Equestria, older than anything I’ve ever seen written of in any of the records I’ve read! I’d… I’d be defacing the blade to even pick it up.”

The older stallion gave a small nod, and cleared his throat gently. “The Princesses said to bring you this, Dusk, but I have never felt such power in a blade before. I’m afraid I agree, Dusk. I’ll have something more traditional made for you. We should hide this, lock it up and bury it. At least until the day we both feel comfortable with this ever seeing the light of day again.”

Dusk shook his head, and pushed the cover back onto the box, though his eyes never blinked once until the box was sealed again. Swallowing carefully, he placed a hand on Fancy Pants’ wrist, his voice careful. “Do you know how to craft a spell lock?”

Downstairs, Barb moved around the library, cleaning up what little damage that had been done by the parasprites. “Thank Celestia they never came here. After Dusk’s rant about his book being too light the other day, I’d hate to see what might have happened if they had eaten even one of his books.”

A sudden pressure formed in her throat, and she couldn’t help but start coughing sharply as she felt a letter coming. Turning away from the books, she let the magic form its end loop, coughing again to clear the hot magic from her throat and snatching the letter. With Princess Celestia’s seal holding it closed, she could already guess just what it was about. Snapping the seal and pulling open the note, she had to laugh a little at the rushed writing of instructions on how to stop a parasprite threat. The panicked writing made it clear, even if the Princess’ own words didn’t, that something else had kept her busy, leaving no time to answer them until just now. Scribbled at the bottom were the hastily-written words. “Do this quickly, Dusk! Parasprites breed at impossible speeds and will doom Ponyville in hours if not stopped. I pray this letter finds you before it is too late!”

Taking up a nearby quill, Barb adjusted a spare piece of parchment on Dusk’s desk, and prepared to write her reply when a soft and happy trilling noise drew her attention to a small lamp resting upon the desk. Trapped inside, a single cheerful parasprite stared back at her, dancing happily in place. “Well little one, you’re still alive. I suppose I should include that in my letter to Princess Celestia. But why are you still alive, when the others died off? Pinkie said her music made it impossible for you to feed.”

Looking past the parasprite, Barb noticed a book on the floor in one corner of the room. As she finished writing and sent the letter away, she wandered over, picking up the book and checking to make sure Dusk’s bookmark was still in place. “Better put this back on his desk. I wonder how it got all the way across the room?”

Meanwhile, Deep in the Everfree.

Moonlight Dreamer sat alone upon a tree stump, a silver flute between her lips. The soft song combined with her magic somehow carried across the Everfree forest, its notes reaching every ear inside the endless woods. Dancing towards her, the last few of the lost parasprites flew together, forming a small circle around her and landing upon the ground at her feet. At last, when the final few had disappeared, she drew the flute from her lips and rolled her head back, looking to the distant sky. “Winter Harvest, was I wrong? Was all of this a mistake? To make so many ponies suffer? There had to be a better way. To make more of these-”

Winter’s voice was dry, almost emotionless as she cut the younger mare off. “It was needed. We had things to do and can’t be around for every test. And remember, if these creatures had never been created, the Smooze-”

The mare wiped tears from her eyes and gave Winter a little nod. “The Smooze wouldn’t have been stopped. But nopony would be foalish enough to ever make another Smooze. The rebellious madmen who made the last one are long gone, and we were very careful to burn every record of the spell that created the first.”

Monday, April 4th, Noon, Canterlot Castle.

Dusk held the simple lamp, watching the last parasprite as it flew about in tiny circles, dancing on its tiny wings as it circled inside its tiny cage. Watching the creature, so joyful, perhaps totally innocent, it appeared to be unworried by everything that had happened to the rest of its horde.

Princess Celestia’s letter after his report on parasprites was kind and apologetic, yet she had requested he bring her the last of the creatures alive. Now he waited in silence as he stood alone in the antechamber to her private rooms, wondering just how long it had been since he’d been let in.

A sharp grinding noise of metal on metal caught Dusk’s attention. Turning to face the source of the sound, he scowled as a hole in the wall opened, revealing Silken Flight and Princess Celestia in a pathway he had never seen in all his time as her student. He was about to ask a question, but Silk put a finger to her lips, and shook her head. Following them in silence, he crossed the room with great care and stepped after them into the hidden tunnel. As the door slid shut behind him, Dusk found himself left in darkness, save for a small lamp that Silk carried.

Following them down a spiral staircase that descended into darkness for what he estimated to be three thousand, eight hundred and forty-six steps at one point six three six feet in height. The trip down was exhausting, and yet he was sure now, they had gone so deep into the mountain that Canterlot was built upon, they must have been at least a mile below the castle now. Lifting her torch, Silk ignited two lamps before a door easily eight feet in height. There was no lock, handle, bolts or visible holes in the dark metal that ate all the light from all three torches.

Celestia turned to him at last, her voice so soft he strained to hear her whispered words. “The blade Fancy Pants brought to you has been housed here since I moved to Canterlot. This vault holds artifacts unmentioned in all of Equestria’s history. Like the blade, what you will see here has been removed from written records. You hold in your hands something just as dangerous as any inside. Come inside, Dusk, but touch nothing. Someday when things calm down again, we will talk of what you see in here, but trust in me, the death of Equestria, of all ponykind exists in this vault. Worse than anything Nightmare Moon could have ever done.”

She touched the door with her bare hand and pushed it open. The flare of her magic as she did so was so powerful that he wondered if, even after the last three days of rest, he could recreate a spell with the form she had just shaped...

Two hours passed, and Dusk emerged from the vault, his breath shallow, his eyes burning and his shoulders screaming. He turned to Silk, gripping her hand for support for a moment as he looked back at Princess Celestia, who was casting a spell to reseal the door. “How-How do you stand it, Silk? I could hardly breathe. And the one shaped like a black sun? It made my bones ache.”

The spymistress shook her head, her voice drained. “I think it’s because you are a unicorn, Dusk. Things in there scare me, but I think some of them try to eat my magic. Last-last time, I couldn’t even climb the stairs on my own. Princess Luna had to carry me up the stairs.”

Behind them, Princess Celestia slammed the door closed, her voice sharp. “Not a word more. Never again until I say it is safe. Most of all, the Black Star.”

Author's Notes:

This... this was a real monster. I did all but the first 3k or so over two days. Hopefully it is worth the wait!