Today was a school day. Normally their father would take them to school, but when Pinkie woke up he had already left for town. Walking to school with their mother was a rare occasion. It only increased the uneasiness she was feeling.

At school the three sisters split up. Blinkie would return home with her mother, and Inkie and Pinkie would go to their respective classrooms. Maybe a day of learning could ease the pink filly's mind.

Pinkie, of course, was very popular among her classmates. She had shared plenty of laughs with every single one of them. But when it came to sharing her troubles with them, she would refuse. She only talked to her family, especially her sisters, about her problems and worries. However, this didn’t seem to be an option this time around. Her sisters were suffering from the same distress, and as a big sister she insisted on being their tower of strength – not the other way around. Pinkie hadn't seen her father for an entire day and the following days wouldn't be very different. That only left her mother. She remembered how she wanted to ask her mother about the rock farm, and that deep empty sadness that seemed to radiate through the air at that moment. In the end Pinkie decided she would just have to swallow her sadness.

*  *  *

The second day of work, whilst physically much more exhausting, was much more enjoyable for Clyde Pie. He had started to connect with his fellow dock workers and they shared quite a lot of stories. During lunch break the others asked him, how he got to be a stevedore like the rest of them. They listened carefully, as he recounted all the events of the past two days. He didn't want to leave out a single detail, especially about those strange creatures his daughters had found. He couldn't shake off the feeling, that they played a significant part in the loss of his farm. His co-workers neither knew the animal he was talking about, nor had they any idea what might have happened to his plants. Clyde figured that half of them probably didn't believe a word he said, but were just too polite to say anything.

The others also shared various stories about their past and about their experiences as stevedores. It seemed like a well rehearsed ritual they always went through, when someone new joined the circle of dock workers.

One particular story intrigued the farmer pony. It was Long Arm's tale, of how he ended up at the docks after he lost his entire belongings in a fire. He also had three foals and a wife at home, fully dependent on his income, since his wife had suffered a number of burns during that same fire, leaving her unable to work. He too struggled for a couple of weeks, but eventually things worked out, also thanks to the support he had gotten from his fellow co-workers.

A thought just occurred to Clyde. He had just assumed complete responsibility for what had happened to the farm. While Martha had worked on the farm just as hard and much as he had, it didn't feel right for him to let his wife search for a job. Maybe it was because the strawberry farm actually had been an inheritance from his wife's side of the family. Maybe because he already owed Martha enough for giving him three wonderful daughters. Or maybe it was just because it was time to pay her back for everything.

His thought process was precipitously ended, when the overseer called all of them back to work. There was still half a day of backbreaking labor before him.

*  *  *

The next couple of days were all the same. Getting up, going to school, listening to lectures for a couple of hours (occasionally dozing off), returning home, working on the rock farm, keeping her sisters company, eating dinner, then bed. Pinkie's mood didn't lighten up at all.

She couldn't tell which part of the day bothered her the most. When she was in school, everything they learned and did seemed trivial. She got scolded a few times at first, for not paying attention, but Pinkie was a good enough student to bluff her way out of it.

The times she got to spend with her family was mostly exhausting. Her sisters were just as worried as her - both made much less of an effort to hide it - and Pinkie's efforts rarely paid dividends. One day her father actually had a day off. The entire family was so very happy to spend some time together. However, this pleasure was a short one. Clyde was visibly tired from his work and had to spend most of the day resting. The day was over way too quickly.

Then there was also the time spent rock farming. The physical labor was a good method to stop the pink filly from thinking, but the atmosphere during the farming was very silent and depressing. The very look of the barren plains around her home seemed to drain the life out of her.

*  *  *

Fortunately, over the course of a week the work of a stevedore didn't get harder. Sure, Clyde's muscles were sore after every day, but he was able to pull through the days with ease. Also, with time he got to switch places with the ponies securing the loads, which gave him a good break every once in a while.

He really felt the toll his labor had on his body on his day off. He had promised himself to make up for all the time he couldn't spend with his family, but he ended up sleeping through most of the day and even thereafter he felt too worn out to really do much. All he could hope for, was to make things better the next time around.

Such a possibility came to Clyde sooner than he would have thought. One day the overseer called everypony over, to tell them that a big shipment from Liverfoal wouldn't arrive, since the entire shipment had been destroyed by some creatures they called Parasprites. Basically that meant everypony could go home, obviously without receiving pay for the second half of the day.

“Looks like it will be turnip stew again tonight,” Clyde jokingly said to himself. He wanted to make his way back to the farm, when he overheard the conversation of two other dock workers.

“Did you hear? Allegedly, the shipment didn't arrive because it mysteriously vanished the day before it could be loaded onto the ships. Nobody knows what happened to it,” the first pony said.

The other pony elaborated: “I heard it was stolen. Makes sense, I mean how else could such a huge load of crops just vanish from one day to another? Still, the official version is that some little flying creatures had eaten everything in one night.”

Naturally those words caught Clyde's attention.

He approached the two ponies. “ Excuse me, did you just say strange flying animals ate a shipload of crops meant for Baltimare in a single night?”

The second pony responded: “Yes, at least so I heard.”

“This is very important to me: Please tell me everything you have heard.”

*  *  *

The information provided by the dock workers wasn't very precise, but Clyde was now sure: The creatures his daughters had found were called Parasprites, and they were the ones that devoured his plants. The farmer pony decided he would need to talk to the overseer, at the very least to get some closure.

On his way, Clyde lost himself in thought: “Liverfoal. Now where was that? It's somewhere near Manechester, I know that much, but is it even part of Equestria? Darn it, I really should remember such things.” Geography had always been a weak point of Clyde Pie.

Clyde spotted the overseer, who was still making arrangements because of the lost shipment, and approached him immediately. “Excuse me sir, do you have a minute to spare for me?”

“Certainly! Just give me a moment until I'm done here and I'll come right back to you Mister … umm... to you.”

To say that pony had a bad memory for names was a gross understatement. At least Clyde really only had to wait for a minute before the overseer was finished.

The overseer politely asked: “So, what can I do for you?”

Clyde felt the need to reintroduce himself. “I'm Clyde Pie, one of the new guys, and I was hoping I could ask you some questions about today's shipment.”

The forepony tried to make a mental note of that name before answering. “Sure, what do you want to know?”

“You told us the shipment was canceled because of Parasprites. What exactly happened?”

“I can only tell you what I've been told by the guys on the other side. They said a load of crops worth several ships mysteriously disappeared over night and they figured Parasprites must have eaten them. They had found a couple of those animals still nibbling on some bags of wheat in the morning.”

“What about those Parasprites?” Clyde grew nervous saying those words. “What do you know about them? What do they look like? Where are they from?”

“Well I don't know that much about 'em, but they look pretty much like flying furballs. I think they are actually from somewhere around Liverfoal. This hasn't been the first time they had a shipment canceled because of some trouble with Parasprites. Oh, and I heard they can multiply at a rapid pace.”

“Have you ever heard of them being spotted around Baltimare?”

“No, they never appeared anywhere around here. I think I would have heard of that.”

“Thank you very much.” Clyde still had lots of questions, but he couldn't put them into words and he wouldn't gain much more information from the overseer.

“You're welcome. Then I'll be seeing you tomorrow, same time as always.”

“Yes. So long!” In his mind Clyde was already browsing through the Baltimare Public Library. An afternoon with his family would have to wait.

*  *  *

Pinkie Pie was pushing around a couple of rocks to the south field. Over time the rocks had gradually gotten bigger, as if they were really growing. It was more likely that her mother had repeatedly replaced the smaller pebbles with bigger ones, to maintain the illusion.

Pinkie let out a sigh. She had a particularly bad day. Even if she wanted to, nothing would get her to smile. Or so she thought...

Spontaneously, with a loud boom, the sky lit up in the entire spectrum of colors, leaving behind what must have been the biggest and brightest rainbow there ever was. Pinkie Pie's smile grew wider and wider, to a point where it almost physically hurt. Next Chapter: Chapter 5: High or low Estimated time remaining: 29 Minutes