> Munching Rainbows
>  by Frozen
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Getting a drop on the Parasprites
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Miss Dash, this box contains the samples you requested."

A light brown pegasus wearing a white lab coat carefully closed the small blue container which was filled with several shimmering glass vials, and slowly hoofed it towards the mare with the multi-colored lightning bolt for a cutie mark.

"Sheesh, I don't get why you're so antsy around this stuff…" She said, lifting the container by the handle and turning to leave.

"It's not like it'll blow up or something." The pegasus scoffed at the overly cautious lab assistant.

At least she hadn't heard of any major accidents around the cloud factory, besides an occasional overproduction of morning-fog.

A mischievous grin flashed across her face as she could not resist exiting with a bang. She stopped at the edge of the cloud foundation, waving her hoof at the brown pegasus.

She shouted "Welcome to the Dashie Zone!" as she sent the box tumbling towards the ground. A shocked expression on the scientists face was worth the potential penalty points for reckless flying.

After waiting seemingly forever, while looking at the frenzied gesturing worker, she leapt off of the cloud, her wings folded and firmly pressed against her flanks, plummeting towards the ground. 

"It's GO time!"

As she gained speed she slipped on her flight goggles, enjoying the ever quickening wind rushing by her, feeling her ears being flattened by the increasing resistance.

Her face was contorted into a wicked grin reflecting the sheer pleasure the pegasus found in her daring dive that teased a tear of joy out of her. 

Soon she could make out more and more details on the ground, which, just seconds ago, was only a blotchy green clearing right beneath the cloud factory in Cloudsdale.

Right on time she passed the box containing the fragile merchandise. She continued to careen towards the ground, now opening her wings and pouring on even more speed.

"…and now for the finale!"

Only a few hoof lengths above the ground, the cyan pegasus swerved away while breaching the sonic barrier, leaving the rainboom to explode outwards in her wake and sending a pack of bunnies flying, as they were pulled up by the vortex behind the mare.

Using the speed which had build up as she plummeted down, the mare performed half of an inside loop, now flying with her hooves pointed to the city in the clouds, back towards the rainbow streak that her rapid descent had left in the sky. Just as planned the cyan daredevil intercepted the box and grabbed it in mid flight.

Lazily soaring to the ground, she had her eyes on the bunnies, using her wings to catch their fall. She received several scolding glances and some pretty explicit gestures from a  certain white bunny as she lowered herself to the ground, ensuring the safe return of her involuntary passengers to their meadow homeland. Her wings now freed from the animals that had clutched her feathers for their lives, she rolled over on her back and put down her goggles again, savoring the dopamine fueled rush.

Suddenly there was a bright white flash beside her, revealing Twilight out of nowhere.

"Are you alright, Rainbow?" She said as she poked at the unmoving pegasus, her horn beginning to glow.

"Hey, can you hear me? The magically amplified voice boomed at the seemingly unconscious blue mare, almost rivaling the traditional royal Canterlot voice of princess Luna.

The bewildered unicorn had expected the spell to enhance her voice, but this was a little too much. Rainbow Dash shot up to her legs and nearly bucked the disruptive element, stopping her defense just inches in front of Twilight's horn.

"Geez, thanks for ruining my nap!"

Twilight was visibly relieved and continued to explain why she was there.

"I got the word that some clumsy pegasus had managed to stumble off the clouds, unable to catch him or herself, so I teleported to see if everything was alright."

Rainbow Dash steamed up and started pacing around Twilight.

"Clumsy? I don't get it. Ridiculous! Who said that?"

Unable to stifle a little grin, she answered to her friend.

"I picked it up at the sugarcube corner and if you promise me to be more careful, I won’t tip off Gabby Gums about this juicy story.“ The genuinely concerned unicorn menacingly raised an eyebrow.

She felt a bit sorry for the poor pegasus, but what else could she do to knock some sense into her?

Twilight didn't want her friend to hurt herself nor did she want to report her to the pegasus flight administration - possibly getting her banned from flying before she absolved another safety training and exposing her to the ridicule of being called 'Rainbow Crash' by pegasus foals just learning to fly. 

"I got everypony pretty scared there, didn't I?" Rainbow dug at the ground, a bit shamed.

"It was an accident, wasn't it?" She winked to the element of loyalty.

Rainbow got the hint and copied the voice of a certain grey pegasus: "I just don't know what went wrong…"

She knew Twilight only wanted her to be a bit more careful - this must be the eggheads way to express that.

"Do you want to walk with me for a bit?" Twilight said, adjusting her backpack and moving towards the beaten path that lead into the Everfree Forest.

Rainbow Dash followed in her tracks, commenting that she needed to pass by Zecora's to deliver some ingredients she had asked her to get.

"I wonder what she is up to now, probably some weird potion…" She shrugged and moved up to Twilight's side.

"Zecora and I have a little project going. If our assumptions are correct, there is a way to produce a herbal potion which is capable of deterring parasprites. Just in case they show up again."

Thinking back, parasprites had been always around Equestria, but especially in the harvest season those little fluff balls excessively multiplied, consuming almost anything edible they found.

"What are you going to do about those 'rats of Everfree Forest'? Just dunk em' in your potion? That seems like a lot of work…" Rainbow pictured the apple family working in a barn, dipping them one by one into some liquid while Fluttershy commands the critters into the production line.

"Oh that's not necessary, we could just spray anything that has to be protected and be done in no time."

"You know, I have an idea on how to get that done in Ten. Seconds. Flat." A smirk formed on her face.

"No - we're not going to Rainboom it over Ponyville, Rainbow." Twilight had suspected that this would come up. Normally Rainbow Dash was bored by this sort of topic.

Twilight had overlooked a pothole, and stumbled to the ground.

"Clumsy, heh?" Rainbow retorted. She couldn't keep that remark to herself. Rainbow offered her a hoof to get up.

The bottom of Twilight's saddlebag had been torn open, releasing a couple of books, the obligatory quill and parchment, and a jar filled with some brown gooey mass.

"No!" 

Twilight quickly wrapped her magic around the jar, before it could hit the ground.

"That was close." She scooped up the rest of the objects with her magic and levitated them by her side.

"This is a sample of what I think the parasprites expel and use to mark their territory."

"Parasprite poop." Rainbow was disgusted.

"Not necessarily - but possible." That said, she jokingly levitated the jar closer to the pegasus that was repulsed by it.

"Well I found a pegasus repellent…" Twilight giggled at that.

They approached Zecora’s house and entered through the open door.
> Birth of a Supersprite
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Rainbow Dash and Twilight found Zecora’s house abandoned. This was a chance for Rainbow Dash to get a good look at all the mysterious artifacts Zecora had brought home with her after her recent visit to her country.

Twilight softly set down all the objects she had levitated since her saddlebag had ripped. She floated the saddlebag off her back and gave it a disappointed glance - she knew that it was nothing like her old saddlebag, but that was gone ever since a pack of parasprites had devoured it right off her back. 

Since ‘The Great Parasprite Plague’, about a month ago, she had gone through several replacements, which Rarity had insisted on fashioning for her. They were a quite a bit more comfortable, but just could not match the sturdiness of an original Canterlot made saddlebag.

"…umm Twilight…," She heard the slightly muffled voice of Dash and turned around towards her. She shrieked at the cyan colored wooden mask which bore an intimidating, grim, expression.

"Gotcha." Rainbow Dash said, giggling while she lowered the mask.

"That thing is awesome! I bet that Fluttershy jumps straight up to Cloudsdale when I sneak up on her…" The multi-chromatic maned pegasus beamed in anticipation of the pranks she could pull if she could convince Zecora to trade her the mask.

Twilight thought for a second about telling her friend about the zebra that had silently stepped up behind her.

"Could you get me that book from the table behind you?" Twilight tried to sound as innocent as possible. Moments later a startled pegasus ducked behind her.

"Hello Twilight, hello Dash - thank you for waiting, I hurried here in a rash." Both Twilight and Rainbow greeted back, still wondering about the constantly rhyming zebra.

"Oh, thats fine - we just arrived a few minutes ago. Are you all set for our experiment?" She said as she gestured towards a checklist she had placed on the table.

While the Zebra unbuckled a belt, which held small pouches and a sickle, Rainbow Dash picked up the blue container from the counter and set it down beside the mask she wanted to trade, or at least borrow for a couple of days.

"Yes Twilight, we are all set, now that I returned from the woods, retrieving some it's most precious goods."
Twilight summoned a small beaker off a shelf and unlatched the top of her jar. As her horn began to shimmer, a small lavender bubble began to form inside the jar, enclosing a small amount of the sampled material. Twilight slowly steered it above the beaker and let her magic collapse, releasing the contents into the beaker.

"It is quite an effort to grab liquids with magic, but this ensures that the sample is not contaminated."

"Yeah, yeah…" the pegasus commented, drawing the attention to her. "If bragging about it helps you with the fact that you just touched parasprite poop with your magic, tell me more…" Rainbow Dash said as she rolled her eyes at the unicorn.

Zecora now added a few ground up herbs into the beaker, monitoring the change of color in the mixture. Twilight levitated the blue container off the ground and onto the table. She focused on the clasps to open them, but a cyan coated hoof pulled the box out of her focus.

"Oh Zecora…" she fluted "I've got something that you need and you have something that I want…" she held up the mask with one hoof while clutching the blue box with the other.

"If you brought me what I need, you shall be rewarded greatly, indeed." Zecora gestured at the box.

Rainbow Dash put down the mask and unlatched the clasps to slowly open the lid. There was a shimmering glow, radiating from the container. As the lid was lifted, Twilight and Zecora gasped as they were bathed in shimmering light that constantly changed its color.

Dash saw the mesmerized looks on her friends faces and took a look for herself. She could not spot anything unusual, besides the few vials, filled with some of the base ingredients that were commonly used to produce rainbows.

Twilight broke the silence and addressed Zecora. "Are we happy?" No reaction. "Zecora. Are we happy?"

Zecora slowly closed the box and nodded. "Thank you Rainbow Dash, these samples are quite pure - our success will be ensured."

"uh… girls, are you alright? You looked like you had stared right into pony heaven?"

"Oh, I forgot to tell you." Twilight started into a lecture on how the pegasus eyesight differed from the earthbound ponies.

About an hour later, Rainbow Dash found herself sitting at the table in Zecora’s house, left to watch the experiment on her own while Twilight had gone into town to fetch some treats and Zecora had left for her meditation on the front lawn. She had been volunteered to stir the bubbling contents of the beaker.

Twilight had told her that the reaction would be completed within the hour they added the samples which Rainbow had retrieved from the cloud factory. As soon as the mixture had stopped bubbling, she would be allowed to leave the experiment unattended - but not a moment earlier.

Rainbow Dash was bored to death and struggled to keep her eyes open while she listened to Zecora’s soothing low voice from outside. The Zebra kept slowly repeating a mantra. In an effort to keep herself occupied, she picked up the mask she had bartered for the samples and started thinking up a list of pranks she would pull.

A certain, competitive earth pony came to her mind. She still had to pay Applejack back for switching out her beverage for soapy water at the last party.

Thinking of that, there was still a slight scent of soap stuck in her nostrils, through which she had expelled part of the bubbly beverage shorty after guzzling down what she had expected to be apple cider.

"Applejack!"

Rainbow Dash jumped and almost hit the ceiling with the realization that she was about to miss the appointment with her to exercise for the running of the leaves.

She had to get moving, or else she wouldn't hear the end of Applejack accusing her of being too sore from their last unit and therefore skipping the training.

Although she would have been right about that - her pegasus hooves were still a little tender - there was no way she would serve Applejack another excuse to brag about how she was 'just built to buck'.

Applejack's voice rang in her head, her accent slightly exaggerated.

"All ya' floatin' fellas jus' don't stack up 'gainst me!"

"Eep!"

Rainbow Dash saw that she had spilled part of the liquid which she was supposed to watch and started viciously rubbing her coat clean with what she realized was Twilight's old saddlebag.

"Aww crud! These stains won't come out easily…"

A second later the stains had disappeared, as if they never touched the expensive lavender fabric. She took a look at the table and saw the last spilled drops seep into the wood, vanishing without a trace.

The mixture in the beaker had stopped bubbling. Rainbow Dash got up quickly, tucking in the mask behind her wing and started to the door.

"Your magic goop has stopped bubbling Zecora, I'd like to stay but I've got to set somepony right about who's the most athletic runner of Ponyville!"

Along her way she saw Fluttershy prancing through the bushes, checking on a few bird’s nests.

The yellow pegasus mare had braced herself at the first clip-clopping sounds that quickly closed in on her, taking cover behind a tree sapling that hardly offered any cover.

"…ello Flutter…"

Judging by the quickly fading greeting and the rainbow colored tail that stuck out of the dust cloud that had just raced past her, it was the blue pegasus she had a bone to pick with. She bit her lip, wincing at this saying, but she drew a blank as she tried to put it in another - less carnivorous - way.

"…um don't you dare running away from me missi! There's something…" The rest of her words did not come out. The usually calm keeper of the animals was hit by a gust of wind and some leaves the cyan mares trot had stirred up.

Plucking a few leaves out of her coat, her face turned grim. "… I. need. to. talk. to. you. about!"

She set off to go after Rainbow Dash, followed by angel her pet rabbit.
	
> Rainbow Dash puts a hoof in her mouth
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Rainbow Dash, still charging down the now broadening path towards the Apple families  orchard, was getting anxious about her belated arrival to the training. This close to the harvest, Applejack had little time to spare - but being the competitive mare she was, she pushed her work around the farm back into the evening hours with pleasure.

She slowed down as she ascended the mound, eagerly hoping to see Applejack's trademark hat.

"Aww frick…!" she said, while she exhaled sharply. She ground to a halt and bucked at the cornerstone they usually met at before starting their warm up.

Perhaps Big Macintosh, the monosyllabic brother of the earth pony she was looking to meet up with, could help finding her.

She started into another sprint and veered off towards the edge of the orchard, where she could hear the rhythmic alternating sounds of strong bucks hitting trees and the rumbling of apples falling to the ground.

She walked up to the stallion, as he lunged out to the apple tree again.

"How I'd like them apples…" she whispered to herself, blushing ever so slightly as the cover of this months Stallion’s Health came to her mind. She had snuck a peek at it while waiting in Fluttershys cottage for the monthly polishing of Tanks shell - it had a quite racy centerfold.

Shaking off her goosebumps, she got back to the task at hoof.

"Hey there Big Mac! I've been wondering - could you tell me where to find your sister?" 

Big Macintosh blew his dreamy mane out of his eyes and answered. 

"Eeyup."

He pointed a hoof towards the water pump.

"She's a might' bit riled up about somethin' though… Could you do me a good one 'n' stop 'er from floodin' the orchard again?" 

Big Mac had taken a worried look while telling her this. The rainbow-tailed pegasus ran a hoof through her mane, biting back a comment on what she'd like to use the spare water for - in all shortness: it involved mud and wrestling.

"Ungh… I knew she would throw a fit about that!"

She headed towards the water pump that was squealing metallically while Applejack was running inside a half barrel that was attached to a crankshaft and a belt that moved the pump.
Rainbow Dash set down her mask by the pump and flapped her wings, flying up to Applejack's eye level on the pump. Ignoring her tardy pegasus friend, the earth pony put on a stern look, gazing into the distance.

"Look Applejack," the pegasus still had to decide what to say, she felt that just saying that she was sorry wouldn't cut it today. "Applejack, I'm late because I helped Twilight with something. You know, against those parasprites that ruined your barn last month… I really hurried back here as fast as I could!"

The expression on Applejack's face softened as she jumped out of the driving wheel.

"Ah' guess ya' won't need a warmup then?" Were the last words the lazily flapping pegasus heard as the orange mare left her in a cloud of dust.

Stunned at how smoothly this was settled, she dropped to her hooves and sprinted to keep up with her. Usually the mares just circled around the borders of Ponyville, but this time Applejack cut through the orchard to show off her leaf-shaking talent. 

They skipped over the applecarts while weaving between the trees and ended up exhausting  themselves quicker than usual.

"It's a nice change, having soft grass and leaves under your hooves instead of gravel and dust, isn't it?" Applejack offered.

"Yeah, it's nice… But the mud is getting stuck in my hooves, it’s kinda yucky to clean them out you know?"

Applejack chuckled at that.

"It' always somethin'…"

Time passed by and Rainbow Dash noticed a tingling sensation in her right front hoof. Avoiding the discussion around being built to run, she came up with the second best excuse for returning to the farm and ending the exercise for today.

"I worked up quite an appetite - do you mind calling it quits for today?" Dash called over to the earth pony that had just leapfrogged a tree stump, to avoid crashing into it.

"Sure sugar cube! Last one's back at the pump gets to fetch tankards an' cider for both of us!"

The thought of climbing up the steep stairs of the cellar with a pitcher of cider balanced on her head was enough to summon her last reserves and get ahead of Applejack.


***


Picking clean her mud encrusted hooves with a stick, Rainbow Dash sat at the pump. She had outpaced Applejack a while back gaining a big edge. She suspected that Applejack gave away this victory to keep her motivated.

A sudden glimmer on her cyan hoof, accompanied by another tingling sensation gained her attention. Eying her hoof closely, she could not make out any bruises or cracks.

"Ya' sure you wanna fill up on mud before having apple pie?" The panting earth pony had a worried look on her face.

Then it suddenly hit Rainbow - deep in her thoughts about the tingling hoof, she must have unconsciously chewed on the stick she had used to clean her hooves with.

Rainbow Dash shrugged and retorted "Ehh - a bit of dirt won't hurt…"

Applejack cocked her head at this statement coming from a mare that had once lectured her about the myth of the five seconds rule.

When they reached the porch, Rainbow Dash laid down on a deckchair and put on her sunglasses. Before heading down into the cellar and stopping by the kitchen, Applejack adjusted the sunshade for her grandmother, who had dozed off in the sun again.

The earth pony almost lost her balance when Rainbow Dash complimented her on the edible decoration she had spotted on the tablecloth.

“What the hay?” the countrymare exclaimed.

She set down the cider and cake before trying to shove her hoof down Rainbows mouth to make her throw up the decorative candles and gemstones.

“I get why Sweetie Belle tryed to eat ‘em, her being a wide-eyed foal ‘n’ such, but you’ve got some explain’ to do! Now spit!”

"Get off of me!" Rainbow struggled with her and shoved the earth pony back. "I'm fine!" Ashamed of her dietary mishaps, she excused herself and disappeared around a corner.

"What is wrong with me?" she spoke to herself. She expected the candles to leave a bad aftertaste or at least make her stomach hurt, but instead she felt less hungry. She even had that urge to take a nap - just like after every meal she had since she was a little filly.

Regardless how she felt right now, she had to cover up the events of this noon. The last thing she wanted to waste her time on was explaining this to Twilight Sparkle, so she went behind some bushes to rid herself from her uncommon meal.

Applejack peeked around the corner and spotted a bush with rainbow colored mane that was producing retching noises.

"That silly pegasus, I wonder what that was all about…"

After sipping some water from a smaller hoof-operated pump on the side of the house, the bile taste was nearly gone. Rainbow Dash hoped that she would be spared of questions on this topic. She joined her friend on the porch, enjoying the sun and some apple pastries.

Something was wrong.

What she expected to taste of butter and sugar sweet apple slices with a hint of cinnamon and citrus, turned out to be almost flavorless and lacking the usual appealing consistency. She barely managed to swallow her bite, so she reached for the cider in an effort to wash down the sub-par pastry. 

As soon as she had lifted the tankard to her maw, letting the usually refreshing beverage flood her mouth, she was nauseated and had to keep herself from spitting out the revolting liquid. She turned around and emptied her mouth into a flowerpot on the porch.

"Oh my gosh that tastes like a sweaty wing pit!" she exclaimed.

Applejack apologized to her winged friend, reasoning that the cider must have gone bad in the now empty barrel. The sweet cider that she had poured herself was fine, so she went down into the cellar and fetched some fresh cider for Dash, even tasting it before heading up again.

While Applejack was gone Rainbow Dash picked up a cupcake. It was a chocolate cupcake with bright red frosting and little caramel drops on top. Still a bit insecure about her luck with food today, she only touched the frosting with the tip of her tongue.

Nothing. She tasted nothing.

The frosting was merely soft to the touch and nothing else. She panicked and felt her tongue with her hoof.

Now she was overwhelmed by an onslaught of different, indescribable but yet enticing tastes! Rainbow Dash ripped her hoof from her watery mouth, making a popping sound as she saw Applejack pushing open the door to the porch again.

"There ya' go!" Applejack said as she pushed a tankard towards the pegasus. The earth pony had fixed her eyes on Rainbow Dash, waiting for her to taste the cider.

Hesitantly she lifted the tankard and sipped from it. The taste was unbearable, but she didn't want to hurt Applejack’s feelings or raise any suspicions about her behavior, so she let the beverage flow out into the tankard again and forced a grin and said "Soo much better now!"

"Well, feel free to nap on ma' porch for a while - I've got some chores to do. See ya!"

As she laid down in the evening sun, Rainbow's stomach rumbled loudly. She snuck up to the table and looked around her - she was unobserved.

Rainbow Dash scooped up a few decorative gems with her tongue and proceeded to eat them, barely able to contain her excitement about the taste.
	
> Late night snacking
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Rainbow Dash slowly ascended to her cloud home above Ponyville as her surroundings grew darker in the sunset. Her stomach kept growling, and she contemplated the taste of the recently acquired ritual mask she held onto with her teeth.

Soon she reached the steps of her place and let out a relaxed sigh as her hooves sank into the cloud matter. Now that the clouds supported her, she once more stretched her wings and yawned, before carefully folding them up against her sides.

The pegasus set down the mask by the door and closed it from the inside, as her eyelids seemed to gain a dramatic amount of weight.

"Sorry Daring Doo," the mare whispered to herself as she pushed the book off her pillow, while making herself comfortable on her bed - she was just too tired for reading this night. Cuddling up to her favorite plushie that resembled a member of the Wonder Bolts in full gear, she slipped into softly snoring slumber.

In her dreams she found herself at Sugar Cube Corner, sitting comfortably nearby the counter. So close by the kitchen, she was immersed by the smell of freshly baked goods and the scent of piping hot coffee and chocolate as the pink waitress passed her table every so often.

Though Sugar Cube Corner was constantly abuzz with at least a dozen mares and gentle stallions, this spot was almost never taken. The customers preferred to be left undisturbed while enjoying their sweet treats in silence or private conversation with their company and therefore avoided getting too close to 'the test site'.

This well-known saying captured the consequences of sitting down at this table pretty well. Pinkie Pie was known to serve up her newest creations to anypony willingly or unknowingly placing themselves at this table - free of charge - but there were strings attached and not only to the balloons that were tied to the chairs.

No one left this table without being thoroughly interviewed on their opinion about the served pastries and beverages the pink earth pony with an affection for sweet desserts and parties had newly invented.

Suddenly her pink eyes were covered by a kitchen towel, that was knotted above her mane. Rainbow Dash wanted to rise a hoof to lift the blindfold, but found herself unable to do so.

"Order up - time for tasting," announced the high pitched voice of Pinkie Pie from her side. Her feathered wings puffed up a bit as her mind began to race at the thought about what she would be presented with.

The cold, slightly moist tip of a filled spoon softly touched her lower lip as Pinkie Pie giggled in anticipation for the pegasuses reaction. The rainbow-maned mare let the bite of ice-cream she had just licked off the spoon melt on her tongue focusing and enabling her to give the most accurate feedback on the presented sample.

"…wait for it," Pinkie Pie encouraged Dashie in a lower voice, now whispering into her ear. And there it was, the mildly flavored ice-cream had dissolved and gave way to some tasty, slightly crunchy deposits.

"Oh sweet Celestia," the slowly chewing pegasus moaned while being overwhelmed of the tastes congregating into a sea of flavor that left her stumped for a description.

"See for yourself!" Pinkie Pie ripped the blindfold from her test subject’s head, giving her hoof a shocked look as she saw a few strands of rainbow colored mane dangling down along with the kitchen towel. The chief weather pony blinked away a few tears of joy as the blurriness faded away, revealing the plate in front of her.

Rainbow Dash violently erupted from her sleep and tumbled off her bed. Her eyes were wide open and she was staring to the ceiling, but the picture of the dessert plate just wouldn't fade away. 

The contents of the bowl she had been presented with at the end of her dream were clearly recognizable as a warped miniature representation of Ponyville. The dessert her mind had conjured up was topped of by melting rooftops. It was a surreal sight that even included a silver spoon that had been jammed into town square, halving several market stalls. Rainbow Dash got up as she felt her hunger rising.

"I really need to fea..," she stopped and corrected herself. "I really need to get my hooves on something to eat."

With these words she swung herself out of the door and circled above Ponyville. Her mouth was getting watery at the sight, but she knew she needed to be careful about this.


***


"Good night Spike."

Twilight had just extinguished the candles around her bed, as she put down a book and closed her eyes.

"Good morning, Owlowiscious," the tired librarian greeted her pet owl as she heard the soft whistling of air brushing against feathered wings. The unicorn fell asleep before she could take notice of the crunching sounds coming up from the libraries main room as a shadowy figure planted its teeth into several books, dropping each one after a few bites.

"A bit dry - but a good start into the series," whispered the shadowy figure as another book dropped to the floor, sliding into the spotlight of the moon. The light that was cast into the night revealed a partly devoured book cover that depicted Daring Doo dangling above the gaping maw of a crocodile.

The still smacking pegasus lifted itself off the ground and slipped through the window, back out into the night.


***


Twilight Sparkle was rudely awakened by a pink Pony that ran screaming by her library. She shook her head and messed up mane, at what she thought she had heard.

"Sure Pinkie Pie, go ahead and announce that we're about to get eaten in our sleep… She's so random sometimes. I hope this blows over soon," the sleepy unicorn muttered to herself while adjusting her blanket.

The next thing she heard was muffled by her pillow, so it took her awhile to react to it. The now fully awake protégée got out of her bed and followed the sobbing sounds into her library.
Her eyes widened as she levitated several books off the ground, all of them had bite marks and were missing chunks.

"This must be Daring Doo and the slathered in slime... something," were the only words that came to her mind as she levitated the dripping remains of another book into a trashcan. Still looking for the source of the sobbing she found Spike curled up around an empty box that had once held a precious gem.

"It's gone, Twilight!" The baby dragon exclaimed in pain over his loss. 

"What have I done? I don't dese… buuurrp," with this a scroll materialized itself, abruptly ending the lament about the loss of the dragon.


“My faithful student,
I have received worrisome reports from all over Ponyville
(see attachments) and wish that you, Twilight Sparkle
take up investigations on the case of the new Parasprite 
plague! 

I await your report by noon.

This scroll is to be used as proof of authority when needed.

Signed and sealed by your majesty,
Princess Celestia”


Just seconds after reading these last words that were followed by the royal seal she heard spike.

"Oh not this aga… bbuurpp!" The baby dragon was pushed back by a massive pile of scrolls that spilled from his mouth.

"Spike go fetch the pinboard - It looks like another case," Twilight summoned a pair of sunglasses and put them on, "has been served up!"

"Yeah… I don't exactly follow your metaphor but as long as we catch the thief that stole my precious gem I'm with you." The baby dragon waddled away, carefully stepping around some wet puddles that were once covered by books.
> A Brush with Derpy
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


“When reaching for the clouds,
one might as well get carried away while doing so,
for perfection has exorbitance
at its heart.”
-unknown, 203 years before princess Celestia


The ascending sun illuminated the cozy home in the clouds, that Rainbow Dash called her own. The small building had been crafted from the finest Cirrostratus the pegasus had gotten her hooves on, which were hard to come by since these clouds tend to vanish when hit by the warm rays of the sun. 

At the time she had decided to settle down near Ponyville she put in the extra effort to stabilize those fragile clouds, following the wise words of an unnamed philosopher, that her parents had passed on to her as she left Cloudsdale.

Her bedroom lightened up gradually, as the sun rose higher even though there were no windows. Contrary to the earth pony structures that were made up from concrete, wood and plaster, the hoof-crafted clouds absorbed the oncoming light and bathed the rooms within in soft, evenly distributed light from all directions.

The usually uniform, white light that shone through the surrounding structure was tinted as it filtered through ochre splashes that slowly dripped down to the floor and formed puddles on the ground.

A blue ear, partly covered by rainbow streaked mane twitched at the buzzing sound of chitinous wings that passed it, scaring the source of the disturbance away. Seconds passed and the high pitched noise returned, this time falling silent before the pegasus ear sprung into a defensive reaction.

Rainbow Dash slowly woke from her sleep and rolled over to the other side, now facing away from the increasingly brightening wall, hoping to slip back into blissful sleep. She lost her battle against her rising awareness of her surroundings as her mane grew itchy. The mare set herself upright on her bed, while she wiped the sleep from her eyes.

“What the,” the pegasus was awe-struck as she looked around her bedroom. The floor was covered in small puddles of slime, the decorative cloud pillar she used as a nightstand was clearly showing what seemed to be bitemarks.

She stumbled towards her bathroom, stepped into a tub made of clouds and tapped a hoof against  the small dark cloud that was held in place above the tub.

“When I step out there again, I won’t be as groggy and everything will turn out to be all fine...” the pegasus said, calming herself. She felt revitalized by the cold water that trickled down onto her head and coat, relieving the mares tension.

Suddenly several sets of beady eyes pushed past her mane to inspect the source of water. Openly disapproving of the wettening mane, the creatures took off and huddled together on a nearby cabinet, making purring noises in the process.

“And that’s what I get for listening to Rarity about letting my mane grow longer...” the pegasus rued the day she had let the fashionista talk her out of buzz cutting her mane to lower her air resistance. Her suspicion about having picked up the parasprites while running with Applejack weren’t going to last long.

She let out a long and surprisingly loud yawn as she stretched all of her appendages at once, limbering herself up and shaking off her sleepiness. She felt a burp coming up and since she was without company she let go of it without bothering about etiquette.

The air blast she had just belched out sent an ochre slime ball flying towards the wall, where it impacted and left a stain resembling those she had seen in her bedroom.

The ball bounced off the wall and came to rest at her hooves, blocking the drain.

“Eww.” The pegasus lifted a hoof to investigate the ball before shrieking back, noticing that it had grown wings and unsettlingly big eyes. Her jaw dropped as the creature took off at an incredible speed, punching a hole straight through a cloud wall, leaving a small prismatic streak in its wake.

Still comprehending what just had happened, she suddenly clutched her throat, as it was getting harder for her to breathe. She slipped and tumbled out of the slippery bathtub, while struggling for a grip and almost hit her head on the lavatory.

Rainbow Dash panicked as she felt a lump pressing against her windpipe. Time slowed down drastically as her breath was cut off by the ascending foreign body when her legs gave in, leaving her to lay helplessly on the ground.

As if the little creatures had set their minds on mocking her, they buzzed around her ear, moving in and out of her visibility. Although she was too weak to fight them off, her annoyed gaze conveyed a message that threatened them with punishment. The pegasus felt her legs twitching as the world around her slowly fell dark.


***


Her vision was covered by a slight haze as Whitetail Woods rolled by beneath her, while she followed along a small river upstream. Her flight passed another, more dense forest as she approached a second railroad crossing while the rooftops a small town appeared out of the fog.

Soaring downwards she realized that the town that stretched out beneath her wings was Ponyville. She could see several ponies pulling carts filled with apples through the streets, towards the market place. The glistening shine that reflected off those delicious apples indicated that they were freshly harvested, straight from the Apple families orchard.

Now that she was closer to the ground she noticed that many ponies were converging towards a gathering in front of the town hall. Upon inspection she found her friends sitting in the first row and noticed that they had lowered their heads in a mourning fashion.

Nearby the building, a golden chariot had just touched down while the guards lined up to present for the princess. Meanwhile the mayor had stepped up to the lectern and commenced a speech.

Her curiosity spiked and she tried to stop and see that was happening down there, but her wings carried her farther away. The last thing she noticed, was a portrait framed by many roses in the colour of her mane, depicting her in a prideful pose.

This was the last clue she needed. The realization of her demise hit her like the business end of a dragons tail. 

Something felt strange though. 

Wasn’t she supposed to feel nothing assuming she was dead? She noticed her sore throat, which didn’t surprise her, seeing that she had probably choked on something but she couldn’t come up with an explanation for the pangs in her ribs.

Even if she had passed on in her bathroom above Ponyville, it was common knowledge that Pegasi kept the ability to rest on clouds even beyond their biological lives. This ruled out falling to her death and encouraged the pegasus to look for more inconsistencies, supporting her doubts.

While she was pondering the possibilities, her course had changed towards Cloudsdale, leaving the castle of Canterlot to her right. The Rainbow Falls at the borders of Cloudsdale that normally were only visible from a certain angle, seemed to have gained intensity, up to the point that they finally resembled the fairytale-like pictures printed on postcards and other memorabilia that were sold in the tourist-ridden gift shops of Cloudsdale.

“Aww come on! You couldn’t come of with anything cheesier? Geez, just give up and show yourself!”

The allegedly dead blue pegasus mare felt mocked by whomever she was controlled by and was willing to face any enemy that would present himself to her. But nothing happened.

“So, let me guess what comes next... You set me down in front of my parents house? Don’t forget to bring the dramatic string quartet, while I break down in sobs as I see them through a window.” Although she technically hadn’t any eyes to roll, she tried anyway. It’s the thought that counts.

As she predicted, her journey stopped in front of a conveniently large window of her birth house, that allowed a view into the living room where her parents weep for her while flipping through a photo album. The scene was disturbed by a faint scream that grew louder by second.

“Watch Out below! Waaahhhhhh...”

A grey pegasus crashed out of the sky, toppling several pillars in the progress and then bumping painfully into Rainbow Dash’s side.

“You’re here too? It’s a miracle that you survived your constant accidents, but this day had to come, didn’t it?” Suddenly she was able to move and feel her side where the mailmare had hit her.


***


“Are you O.K. Rainbow Dash? Do you need me... medica... hmpf... Do you want to see a doctor?”

The life came rushing back to the now slightly darker blue mare that had soaked in the overflowing water of her bathtub. As she opened her eyes, she was greeted by the lazy eyes of the Ponyville mailmare. 

“I’m sorry that I damaged your nice house... Do you think you can fix it?” The grey pegasus looked to the ground and massaged a forming bruise on her head.

Feeling uncomfortably cold, Rainbow Dash shook off most of the water and assessed the situation, beginning with a sharp pain around two horseshoe outlines that had been imprinted on her ribcage.

Her gaze went towards a pegasus sized hole in her bathroom wall, that made way for the sunshine that now fell directly onto the opposing wall. Her face lit up with a wide grin, as she lifted her eyes off the embossed pegasus shape on that wall and turned towards Derpy to embrace her in a thankful hug.

The walleyed pegasus was shocked beyond her wildest dreams at what Rainbow Dash whispered into her ears as she hugged her fiercely. 

“You saved my life, Derpy... You... are a hero!”

“Can I have muffins instead? I don’t want to go out on adventures into the jungle and search for shiny rocks, that's too dangerous for me, you know...” the mailmare answered with a slight slur in her voice while her eyes wandered off into different directions.

Rainbow Dash suddenly shrieked as she became aware of the worrisome silence around her. The other parasprites that had mocked her earlier this morning were gone and the fact that her mane wasn’t itchy anymore ruled out the possibility of unwanted passengers. She assumed that they must have fled through the gap in the cloud that the impact of her saviour left. Her mind went wild at the possible dangers that could arise from this.

“That can’t be good...” she said under her breath.

“Yes Rainbow Dash, going on adventures is really dangerous - you should read up on that, perhaps Twilight can lend you some of her Daring Doo books.”

Rainbow Dash’s mind sprang into action at this remark. Loosening her hug, she saw something sticking out of the mailbag that would exactly fit what she needed to conserve a sample of the slime that slowly dribbled down the bathtubs wall.

“Would you mind if I took that empty wax paper bag off your hooves? It’s empty and you don’t really need it, right?” Rainbow Dash asked as the hug increased in awkwardness.

“It’s fine Rainbow Dash, I can get a new one and make that into a hoof puppet... Do you want to make hoof puppets together, or are you saving up for a costume?”

“I have something a bit different in mind...” the blue pegasus explained as she softly pried herself away from the mailmares embrace.

“Ohhh... Like a fort?” The pegasus excitedly rose her fore hooves towards her muzzle, only to sink back on her rear disappointedly eying Rainbow Dash as she skimmed the slime off the bathrooms wall, into the reasonably waterproof bag.

Rainbow Dash turned around to face the slightly resentful pegasus.

“Ungh, Derpy! Stop being a baby and cheer up a little. Here take this to Twilight... and have yourself a bunch of muffins or bags, what ever you want!” She hoofed the bag over to Derpy and placed a few bits beside it.

“Oh, look you made a muffin!” The gold eyed pegasus squinted slightly and pointed a hoof towards the shape she saw in pattern the coins had formed. Rainbow Dash tried her best to see what Derpy had hinted at and gave up, raising an eyebrow.

“That’s nice, but I need you to deliver this as soon as possible...” she said, pushing her forehead against the mares flank to urge her to get up. 

The ways of the two Pegasi parted as Rainbow Dash set course towards the Everfree Forest while a cheerfully humming Derpy fluttered her way into Ponyville.
> Confrontation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Cupcakes! So sweet and tasty …” 

The pegasus stopped humming her gleeful song and her pupils widened in fear as the shopfitting pony took down the sign that used to adorn the Sugar Cube Corner.

“Oh, No No No...” the pegasus whispered, tears welling up in her eyes.

The earth pony climbed down the ladder and leaned the damaged sign against a pony-drawn caravan that was partly covered by a tarp. He noticed the mailmare that stood frozen in place, staring at the dirty outlines that were left in place of the old sign. The stallion approached Derpy, to find out what had left her so sad.

“Is something wrong?” The stallion asked with a calm voice.

“They’re closing the Sugar Cube Corner...” Derpy sobbed at the realisation that she might have had her last cupcake this morning and regretted that she had wolfed it down in a hurry, because she had overslept this morning.

“Well at least until we get ‘er fixed up again, thats what I do.” The stallion gestured at his flank. He had a cutie mark consisting of a cash register crossed by a hacksaw.

“That means no cupcakes today, right?” The pegasus lightened up a bit.

The shopfitting pony trotted over to his chariot, opened up a red lunch box and pulled out a paper bag. As he returned to Derpy he set down the bag in front of her.

Derpies eyes darted between the paper bag that showed the insignia of the Sugar Cube Corner and the stallions eyes, gratefully smiling at the gift and the earth pony.

“I’m more of a hay ‘n’ cheese kind of pony... and these samples that crazy pink pony pushed on me as a template for the new sign would go stale, so why waste them?” The charitable crafts pony explained.

“Hmm, pink pony...” Derpy pondered the description, remembering a reference to a pink pony on her delivery list.

“Yes, she’s in there. I barely understood her name this morning, mainly because she talked so fast and kept on rambling on about the ‘mean meany pants’ that has caused all this damage. I won’t complain about business, though.”

She thanked the stallion for the muffins and trotted towards the door.

“Hey, let me put away that ladder for you first, it brings ill luck to walk under a ladder!” The superstitious stallion called after Derpy. She looked over her back towards the stallion, wondering what he meant as she passed beneath the ladder and ran into the locked front door. The force her collision exerted on the door made her head and a small bell that was fixed on the other side of the door jingle.

Pinkie Pie unlocked the door and pulled Derpy inside, muffling her surprised shriek with a hoof.

“Quiet, - My pinkie sense tells me that someone’s watching us.” The party pony glanced through the blinds of the door.

“Are you playing hide and seek Pinkie Pie?” Derpy asked, wondering why muffling her screaming would protect Pinkie from being seen.

Without waiting for an answer Derpy produced a package from her messenger bag and let it slide over the ground to Pinkie. The pink mare ducked away to cover herself beneath a table at what Derpy had just done.

“Are you crazy?” She shouted at Derpy, carefully approaching the package and pointing at an array of warning stickers, ranging from ‘Fragile’ to ‘Explosive’.

“Oh, sorry I mistook them for stamps of some kind...” Derpy fiddled a with the strap of the messenger bag, trying to hide her embarrassment.

Pinkie Pie tore open the carton, revealing a wooden crate.

“Is that a new kitchen appliance?” Derpy eyed the crate.

“Not exactly - It’s just the missing part I needed for my rocket saddle, you know?” The pink pony casually explained.

“That sounds fast...” Derpy gasped.

“It does, right?” Pinkie giggled.

“But on the other hoof I won’t misplace it again, like my hot air balloon, because it’s a lot smaller.” The pink pony scratched her mane as she glanced at the pictographic manual that had been attached to the crate.

“Have fun with that... Err … I’m a little behind on my deliveries... See you Pinkie!” The messenger pegasus turned towards the door, not wanting to get involved in the potential outcome of pinkies contraption.

Pinkie sighed as lifted her eyes off the manual to wave Derpy goodbye. She had given up on trying to decipher it since the diagrams weren’t really helpful. 

A purring noise and a set of big beady eyes that looked past Derpy’s mane, captured her attention.

“HA!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed and pulled a gramophone out of a secret compartment in the wooden flooring beside her, quickly cranked it a few times as the music she had once used to lure away the parasprites, started up. 

“You didn’t expect me to hide these all over Ponyville, am I right? And now bow to my will!”

The parasprite seemed unimpressed and buzzed towards the brass horn before consuming it in one big bite, muting the music instantly. Before taking off at a rainbow blazing speed, it hovered over towards Pinkie Pie and stared at her.

“So... We meet again...” A shadow fell over her face, cast by the new shop sign that was lifted into place.
> Ms. Pie's sense for preparedness
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Spike returned from Rarity’s boutique and strolled nimble-footed into the library.

“Ahh, right on time Spike. Come here and I’ll show you something...” She greeted without moving her eyes off the board in front of her. The unicorn focused on the pinboard that was plastered in pictures that came with the reports Celestia had forwarded to her shortly before Spikes depart.

“Look Twi, what Rare has made for me!” The dragon lifted up his dragon tail and ogled a gem encrusted bracelet that stuck at the tip of his tailspike.

“Oh how thoughtful of her! Did you find enough gems so she can deliver her first big order of exclusive nightgowns in time? And more importantly - did you take pictures of the scene?”

“Yeah, we could find enough gems to make up for the stolen ones. And to answer your second question: a gentle dragon never tells...” the dragon had put on an absent smile.

“I’m not sure if I want to question what is on your mind either, but I’m talking about photographic evidence...” Twilight clarified.

“Those pictures weren’t photographic at all! She is a graceful mare and knows it is best to stay classy.” The dragon sharply replied, turning his back on the librarian.

A few moments later, a dictionary engulfed in a purple aura tapped against the scales of the baby dragon. “You honestly should look up the definition of ‘photographic’ - you’re in for a surprise...” the lavender unicorn advised her assistant, trying to contain herself.

The dragon grabbed the book and read the passage that was highlighted. Slightly blushing he sucked air through his teeth, then approached Twilight, handing her pictures of the destroyed property while avoiding eye-contact.

The unicorn that had been recently assigned to investigate the reports of damaged and missing property nodded, satisfied as she attached a picture that consisted of a wide angle shot showing the interior of the dressmaker’s shop to the board. She was confident of her theory that ruled out the parasprites from the list of potential suspects.

“Spike, please think back to the day we started cleaning up after the parasprites. They had caused extensive damage all over Ponyville. Now, take a look at these pictures and tell me: Do you see anything like that?” Twilight knew the answer, but she wanted an independent opinion. 

“Uhmm... I guess so, there are bite marks all over the place.”

“Let’s take a look at the details...” Twilight flipped the pin board and presented him with several magnified and enhanced copies of the previously shown pictures. 

“See here...” Twilight levitated a small red marble and let it circle in front of a picture that Spike immediately recognised as the Sugar Cube Corner’s kitchen.

“Can you explain to me how parasprites are supposed to cover the whole kitchen in flour? It is implausible that they created this mess using only the flap of their little wings.” The unicorn now was fully engaged in presenting the gathered evidence.

“But there are other inconsistencies, like this...” The marble floated over to another picture and tapped against it, now circling around a bunch of bouquets that had been piled up in a front of a display inside the local florist’s shop. Twilight sent a questioning look to Spike, that was still confused about the conclusions she made.

“Does this look to you like the result of a parasprite eating frenzy? Even if you’d assume that this was done by a single parasprite, there is no way that they would have spent time on throwing the flowers onto one big pile while eating the vases. The creatures that we suspect have no will of their own - they act on pure instinct. Eat. Sleep. Multiply. As simple as that.” Twilight let these words simmer, as she hoped that her assistant would pick up on the consequences these insights had.

“That means...” the dragon slowly said, still not quite grasping the implications of Twilight's words.

The unicorn let the marble float back onto the table while the dragon stretched his words hoping the well read element of magic would cut him off and continue with her explanation before he ran out of words.

The door was pushed open and the mailmare entered, conveniently ending the need for Spike to pretend that he had an answer.

Derpy put down a paper bag that bared the logo of Sugar Cube Corner and explained to Twilight that Rainbow Dash had sent her to deliver this package. Twilight opened up the bag and found familiar ochre slime within.

“Where... Where did she get this?” Twilight asked and lifted her eyes towards the grey pegasus.

“Hmm...” The pegasus scratched her mane in a pensive manner.

Twilight was getting a bit impatient at the thought that she had yet to write her report for princess Celestia. But the arrival of the grey pegasus would prove to be a very fortunate coincidence.

Derpy continued to scratch her mane with growing vigor, until a parasprite tumbled out of it. The flushed out insect started to fly around the mailmare, gaining speed in the process until a loudly buzzing rainbow streaked set of rings formed around the stunned pegasus mare.

“Uhh thats pretty...” the grey mailmare mumbled and produced a muffin from her mailbag for her to nibble on while watching the spectral spectacle that played out around her.

The dragon stepped up from behind Twilight and rubbed his eyes in disbelief.

“What has she gotten herself into now? Wait, did she somehow shrink Rainbow Dash?”

“No Spike, it’s worse. He... He... It’s only a parasprite that is probably capable of supersonic flight... And these things never come alone...” The thought of this struck fear into her, that was slowly consumed by her curiosity.

“What now Twi? Do you plan on keeping it? I’ve got a feeling that it’s getting hungrier by the minute and just staring at it won’t keep the library from becoming an appetizer for that beast!”

Derpy naively acted on the idea of a having a pet parasprite, extending a hoof and trying to coo the parasprite into landing on it. Her hoof must have been a bit too close to the flightpath of the parasprite as it was deflected towards Spike after the impact on Derpy’s hoof.

Although the parasprite had lost a huge amount of its momentum, it still knocked the little dragon over, before crashing at Twilight's hooves. She levitated the creature off the ground, as it slowly recovered from the series of crashes.

Twilight's horn became brighter as a the air surrounding the parasprite rapidly cooled down, creating  small snowflakes from the air moisture. The parasprite tumbled to the ground as Twilight's magic collapsed, leaving her panting on the ground.

“Sure, go ahead Twi and hit another one of these creatures with your magic - if you get lucky we end up with another monstrous mutation!” The dragon still painfully remembered the outcome of her last magical encounter with the parasprites.

“I’m not retracing the faded script on any book again, just a fair warning.” Spikes wrist still hadn’t recovered from restoring the books that some parasprites had quenched their craving for ink on.

Meanwhile the frosty rime that Twilight had cast upon the parasprite melted away, leaving it free to fly again. 

“If only Pinkie Pie were here...” Twilight sighed still catching her breath, hoping for the random party pony to show up as she often did when her name was mentioned. But nothing happened.

“Pinkie Pie? Right! She even toured with her act as a one pony polka band doubling as a paraspritecatcher... Wait a minute! She had records pressed of her performance in Las Pegasus...” As the parasprite gained a second wind, Spike sped to towards a shelf, knocked his paw on the Spine of a book entitled “Hiding in plain sight”.

The shelf began to rattle as it slid partway down, revealing the secret compartment it covered up.

“Please be Pinkies polka, please be Pinkies polka...” The dragon begged for his luck, anxiously hoping off one leg onto the other.

Twilight stared speechlessly as the dragon swung around, cranking a record player that started to play a familiar music. She ducked as a high pitched buzzing noise shot over her horn towards the source of the music. The parasprite lifted Spike off his feet, dangling him by his tail. 

The parasprite flung Spike across the library. Twilight that felt responsible for him since she had once freed him out his egg, stepped in by levitating a seat cushion into place to break his fall.

A bit shaky from his tumble through the air, he looked at the record players remains that were scattered across the ground.

“Couldn’t you just catch me with your magic?” Spike asked, dusting himself off.

“Sorry Spike, I exhausted myself on that flash freezing spell.” Twilight apologised.

“Since when do we have a secret compartment in that wall behind the shelf anyway?” She looked inside the small compartment.

“Uhh, you know when we talked about a safer place to hide the elements of harmony?” Spike asked.

“Yes, you brought that up and I decided against it because I know your taste for Gems.”

“Thanks Twilight, what’s next? Do you want to mock me about how I couldn’t protect a hoard if I had one? Pinkie Pie asked me if I could hide something for her, so I put it in there.” The dragon felt offended.

“Aww Spike! I didn’t mean that.” Twilight moved up to him, placing her hoof on his scaly back.

“We talked about stopping to enable Pinkie’s randomness for her own good.” Twilight reminded Spike of the decision the closest friends of the party pony had come to after Pinkie Pie had made a series of extremely inappropriate appearances all over Ponyville, several of them involving massive amounts of whipped cream, compressed air and streamers.

“How did you even know what music was on this record?” The librarian tried to stop the pictures of the baby dragon dancing to Pinkie Pies polka, rushing through her mind. Before she could lose her containment, Spike spoke up.

“Do you recall that time we used to find little pots filled with sunscreen all over Ponyville?” The baby dragon teased, taking in the rare sight of the purple unicorn’s cluelessness.”

"They appeared only a few weeks after Pinkie Pie had caught herself a nasty sunburn while following Rainbow Dash around on her cloud cleanup day...” Spike smiled at the memory of a game of tag he had started that morning.

“Pinkie gets a sunburn and stashes sunscreen everywhere she goes. At least her logic is flawless this time... Ponyville gets swarmed by parasprites and she deposits records of her music that once lured them away. It’s like dealing with a big squirrel...” Twilight thought out loud.

The parasprite had landed besides a small glimmering piece of jewelry and sniffed at it.

“Twilight, quick do something!” Spike turned her head onto the parasprite to get her attention. Twilight's levitation spell formed around Rarity’s gift to Spike and lifted itself off the ground. Twilight was too exhausted and as the spell broke, the bracelet fell again - this time the parasprite didn’t hesitate and nabbed it off the floor before it flew away, shattering a window it escaped through.

“That’s unusual...” Twilight remarked.

“Unusual? Try theft of a delicious sign of affection!” The dragon wailed.

“We’ve got to find Pinkie Pie before that thing finds her.” Twilight went on, ignoring the baby dragon. “Judging from what happened to you, anypony that tries to deter these things is at great danger.”
> The storm begins
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Applejack! Applejack!” Apple Bloom shouted, darting towards the big water pump. Applejack kept moving the drive wheel slowly as Big Macintosh oiled the mechanisms bearings.

Applejack's little sister collapsed near the pump, panting before she could pick herself up again to answer to her siblings questioning glances. Her Cutie Mark Crusaders cape gave away that her reportings would revolve around the three fillies experiences today.

Noticing the cape that covered her sisters flanks, potentially hiding a fresh cutie mark, Applejack got ready to jump her sister for a congratulatory hug.

Apple Bloom took a deep breath before she launched into a rapid account of what had happened, her voice heightening as she ran out of air.

“We went crusadin’ for our cutie marks and today Scootaloo wanted to try ‘n’ earn a weather science cutie mark, so we borrowed Twilight's telescope to look at some clouds but then we saw a rainbow colored hurricane. It is moving towards the orchard so I immediately ran off as fast as I could to warn you!” Apple Bloom’s breath had reached an end, rendering her legs wobbly for a second as she nearly fainted from exhaustion.

“A rainbow colored what now?” Applejack wasn’t quite sure she had heard right.

“A tor-na-do, Applejack! You know - big swirly thing that sucks up stuff from the ground and spews it out its top.” Apple Bloom repeated herself rolling her eyes at the fact that she had to explain this phenomenon to a grownup.

“Horse Apples! There was no storm scheduled for today! Oh I’ll buck ‘em a new one if ma’ trees get hurt!” Applejack was furious and flung her tail hard against the inside of the wooden drive wheel. The wooden plank twisted itself, absorbing the blow from the blonde maned earth pony.

“Simmer down sis’... Foal’s already down the well, nothin’ you could do ‘bout it now,” Applejack's brother said, hitting the definition of ‘calm giant’ right on its head.

He adjusted his yoke a bit, as he was reminded that any shortfall in their orchards harvest would need compensation, partly coming out of his ‘yoke-fund’. The apple red stallion had almost saved up enough bits to pay for a new custom fit, Canterlot made, high durability yoke that would finally allow him to load up a few more pounds in muscle without having to deal with the yoke grating against his body.

“Oh you go ‘head ‘n’ fool ya‘ self ‘Lumber Mac’ !” Applejack snapped at her brother.

“Another tale ‘bout how I used to lose ma temper...” Big Macintosh yawned as he produced a wheat stalk and started chewing on it.

“Lose ya temper, huh?! Disappearin’ into the buckin’ woods for three days don’t ‘xactly qualify as losin’ one’s temper!” The bearer of the element of honesty called her hypocritical brother out.

“Where did you go Big Mac?” Apple Bloom interjected curiously.

“I strolled down along the river near Ghastly Gorge, soul-searchin’ after an argument with ya sis’ ‘bout droppin’ family tradition in favour o’ more yield on the orchard...” Big Mac summarized his dispute with his sister calmly.

“The Ghastly Gorge? There’s no trees along the river there!” Applebloom sensed that something about Big Macintosh's story wasn’t right and suspected that her siblings were keeping something from her. She thought of herself as a ‘big pony’, and didn’t take kindly to being shut out of adult conversations.

Before Big Macintosh could answer to his suspecting sister, Applejack stepped down from the pumps drive wheel and let her glace pass over her brother and younger sister. “Aww shucks, if its gonna cost us we might ‘s well stick around for the show, eh?” As much as Apple Bloom wanted to pry for details, walking her siblings to where the Cutie Mark Crusaders had made their discovery was much more pressing than her curiosity for the story Applejack held back from her.

Near the beaten path that passed the orchard and led towards the farm they found the abandoned Telescope, that the fillies had borrowed from Twilight. Sweetie Belle raised a hoof to the sky pointing out the rainbow hued tornado.

“I haven't laid ma eyes on anythin’ like that ‘till today...” Applejack stated flabbergasted, slightly nudging her brothers hoof with hers. “What ‘bout you Big Mac?”

“Nnnope... sure looks mighty impressive...”

Applejack trotted towards a small mound to get a better look at the formation above the orchard. The red stallion stood frozen in his steps until he was startled by Apple Bloom that jumped up and down in front of him.
“Tell me - ‘bout the - Ghastly - Gorge - Forest! - Pleeeeeease?” Apple Bloom pleaded between her jumps.

“Alright squirt, but this’ll have to stay ‘tween us understand?” The red stallion had lowered himself down to Apple Blooms eye-level, pulling her in with one hoof.

“You know your sister is very passionate about earth pony tradition right? And I’m more open minded to innovate if it helps me doin’ what I do best.” Big Macintosh started into his explanation. His ears drooped a little at what he said next.

“Because of a big hailstorm our apple harvest was going to be small that year and so I was very stubborn ‘bout wanting to hire a unicorn to help us with the zap apple harvest so that we could get more out of those trees. I said some stupid, hurtful things and your sister hit me right back - she was right doin’ so.” The stallion looked down at the ground where he dragged his hoof about the grass.

“And thats why you ran into the woods? Why didn’t you talk to anypony else about it?” Apple Bloom said, feeling with her brother.

“Quick Apple Bloom, your sister’s comin’ back round’!” He shoved her to his side, pretending to look at the colourful spectacle.

“Seems like it gets bigger an’ bigger, we better head back into town and warn the others.” Applejack suggested adjusting her hat.

“What ‘cha lookin at?” Rainbow Dash's voice sounded from behind them, startling the three members of the Apple family.

“What’d I tell ya about sneakin’ up on me?” Applejack's rhetorical question shot over Dashie’s head.

The blue pegasus ignored Applejack's complaint with great confidence and silently congratulating herself on her ability to fly very stealthy.

“What’cha looking...” Rainbow Dash repeated herself before she fell silent at the sight of the unusual tornado.

Suddenly Rainbow Dash found herself confronted with three pairs of questioning eyes. This feeling bothered her until she felt something vaguely familiar, mistakable for a bit of air that wanted to escape her stomach. On any other day she’d simply swing herself up a few hundred feet to belch unnoticed, but with the escapade in her bathroom she felt that a bit of embarrassment would be easier to live off than the injuries inflicted by a head first crash.

“Uhh god... Hmmmpp... Buhurrrpp!” Yet another ochre slimeball escaped between Rainbows teeth. According to Zecora this would go on for a couple of hours, before the antiparasitic potion would take effect and clean out Rainbow Dash’s stomachs.

If the taste and scent were any indicator, the blue pegasus felt confident that this would bring her back to normal. Under the influence of the substances the growing parasprites emitted into her body, the potion had tasted sweet like nectar and smelled of daffodil-chocolate cake in the morning dew. Rainbow Dash had asked for a refill but only earned disgusted and slightly nauseated looks from Zecora.

Her little slimeball had grown wings by now and was headed towards the growing rainbow tornado.

“Mind t’ share what the hay’s goin’ on here? Am I seein’ things again?” After her last encounter with the effects of prolonged exposure to paint fumes inside of a closed shed, Applejack knew what to look for. The mare examined her hooves for the tell tale signs of hallucination. This time she didn’t see little ponies on her hooves that seemed to plot against her - a good sign that this was really happening.

Rainbow Dash was about to begin her explanation of the events that had put her in the current, slimeball spewing state, but her voice was drowned out by an increasing buzzing sound. Apple Bloom was the first to notice that the tornado was getting closer to the orchard.

The buzzing and swirling swarm of parasprites consumed anything that stood in their path, from big apple trees and empty carts to the roots of weeds. Not even the fertile mother soil was spared by the insatiable horde of flying fluff balls.

Suddenly the swarm of parasprites lifted itself off the ground, to hover above the swath it had cut into the orchard and its surroundings. The constant buzzing faded out, making way for a normal conversation.

Unfortunately Rainbow Dash hadn’t covered her ears, thinking that her experience with the loud hissing sounds she dealt with while flying at high speeds, would enable her to endure these levels of loudness. She looked at the three ponies in front of her and noticed that they were moving their muzzles, but all they seemed to produce was a distant whistling noise that was accented by the throbbing sound and feel of blood coursing through her eardrums.

“Stop it with the mumbling, for Lunas sake!” Rainbow Dash said with the loudness of a retired earth pony that had lost most of its hearing working as a blacksmith.

Rainbow Dash tried to make sense of the gestures that Applejack now made.

“No Applejack, I’m not going insane! You just have to speak more clearly.” Rainbow Dash interpreted the orange earth ponies hoof that tapped on her ear as a comment on her mental health.

The blue mare finally became aware that her ears had been affected by the extremely loud noises of the parasprite swarm when she flapped her wings to lift herself off the grounds. A nosedive into the grass beneath her later, she knew that her sense of balance was also disrupted, ruling out flying as an option in the foreseeable future. 

She had learned about the inner workings of the pegasus ear at her school up in Cloudsdale. What she experienced was mostly temporary, likely to disappear in the next couple of days. Rainbow Dash was not as sure if that would also apply to her hearing.

Applejack examined the blue pegasuses head for injuries, knowing that even a low drop could result in a concussion. The earth pony had a hard time instructing the blue mare to fix her eyes on a hoof she moved from side to side in front of her head.

A few steps away from them, Apple Bloom poked her brother to gain his attention. The red stallion had his eyes and ears fixed on the mares that took turns screaming and gesturing wildly at each other, trying to communicate. His youngest sister could see that it was hard for him not to break into laughter.

Big Macintosh managed to turn away from the scene, now facing Apple Bloom again. He knew what she wanted to know and blinked a tear of laughter away before starting into the rest of his explanation.

“I went bucking for firewood because I was furious about the stubbornness of your sister. She put her own will above the good for the farm. But mostly I was furious about the hurtful words she used while dismissing my arguments.”

“And how’d you make up with her? I don’t see unicorns working in our orchard...” Apple Bloom asked.

“That’s why your sis’ called me ‘Lumber Mac’. I was pretty steamed up about our fight and worked it off, bucking down many many trees in the progress. But this didn’t help, no, it made things even worse. My thoughts always came back to your sis and how she insulted me. One night I was ready to leave the farm and Ponyville altogether.” He shook his head at his past self.

“I wanted to give Applejack something to think about before leaving the farm, so I stacked up the freshly bucked firewood about three times as high as myself, making it clear that I’m not the namby-pamby earth pony she had insulted me as.” The red stallion reared up and stretched one leg upwards to indicate the approximate height he was talking about. Apple Bloom had always been impressed by her brother’s strength, but this left her in awe.

“Nothin’ to be proud of Apple Bloom. Your sis’ found me passed out on top of that pile. She wrapped a blanket ‘round me in the mornin’ hours and nursed me in the following days. I had exhausted myself to the point the doctors were really concerned.”

“Well stop braggin’, will ya ‘Big Axe-ingtosh’ ?” Applejack had stepped up beside her brother.

“Lemme’ wrap this up real quick for ya Apple Bloom. I apologised to your brother as soon as he was awake for more than ten minutes. Hell, I even called in some unicorns for a tryout. But your brother here changed his mind, talkin’ ‘bout keepin’ true to our family traditions even if it meant dealin’ with the consequences.”

“But wouldn’t it be easier to grow the zap apples with the help of unicorns?” Apple Bloom asked innocently.

Applejack and Big Macintosh looked at each other for a second and responded in unison.

“NO!”

“See Apple Bloom, if we’d drop our family tradition, we’d lose the the thing that united the Apple family for generations.” Applejack explained, pulling her Brother closer.

"Eeyup.” The red stallion concurred. He had sworn himself to do anything in his power to keep the family united. Big Macintosh had been changed ever since that conflict, forming him into the calm and well-adjusted stallion he was now.

“I can’t hear what you’re jappin’ about but from the looks it’s something sappy! Now hug it out or whatever and get moving, we need to get to Ponyville!” Rainbow Dash still had no concept of how loud her voice was.

“Deaf pegasus says ‘What?’...” Applejack chafed the pegasus that motioned them to follow her into Ponyville.

“What?”


***


Twilight and her assistant had returned to the library, without any success in locating Pinkie Pie. Spike transcribed what Twilight dictated at an unusually rapid pace since the librarian had stretched the definition of noon quite a bit and was now struggling to get the report finalized and sent off to Celestia.

Going over the letter, Spike added the finishing touches to the formal report when suddenly a fiery dragons breath escaped his mouth, setting the parchments edges on fire.

The expelled fire was accompanied by a scroll that bore the princesses seal. Since the royalty only uses the especially soft and yet thick parchment of highest quality, the scrolls momentum easily knocked over the inkwell that spilled over the almost finished letter to the princess of the sun, extinguishing the little flames licking at the edges of the parchment.

“Dear Twilight Sparkle,
It has come to my attention that a swarm of some
kind has formed in the outskirts of Ponyville.

Please find attached an aerial view of the affected
region.

I patiently await your report. Please do not refrain
from	retreating to a safe place when you see
yourself in danger.

Signed and sealed by your majesty,
Princess Celestia

Notice: Enclosed materials are to be 
treated with confidentiality.”

The silence was only disturbed by Spikes grinding teeth as he discarded the drenched parchment containing the now indecipherable report to the princess.

Twilight's focused her magic on a piece of fabric that had been fixed to the royal scroll. The obsidian coloured piece of fabric gave off a faint white glow, as she channeled more energy into her horn.

It gained a second lavender layer as the fabric started gradually changing its colour. Spike cleaned the ink of his paws while he watched as more and more threads changed their colouring. The picture that constructed itself in front of their eyes was taken from a point near the cloud level.

Twilight had read about magic imaging, but the level of detail in this picture surprised her. It showed the Apple families orchard from the pegasus eyes view, which in this case was a misstatement because pegasi obviously couldn’t cast an imaging spell.

Taking this picture would require an alicorn or an experienced aerobatic team, consisting of a pegasus flyer that entrusted the unicorn rider with control over its flight instincts using a saddle to maneuver through the air. This in itself was a challenging task which only the most experienced unicorn riders would be able to accomplish, because in opposite to the traditionally used pegasus riders, they weren’t familiar with the mechanics of aerial movement. Casting a spell while being strapped to the back of a pegasus was what convinced Twilight that this picture was taken by expertly trained members of a royal flight squad.

The librarians eyes widened as she saw the brown swarth that cut into the orchard and stopped about halfway to the other side of the plantation. Something obstructed the view onto a part of the orchard. Twilight moved slightly closer towards the piece of fabric whereupon the picture that was formed by the different coloured threads in the enchanted fabric enlarged itself, granting a close up view of the object. Though the picture wasn’t as sharp as it had been, she could make out individual members of the swarm.

“... just like in that old novel I read, where that alicorn struck her underlings with ten plagues …” Twilight muttered slowly, pondering what would be the step to take. Should this swarm move over Ponyville the consequences would be devastating for any pony, an equineitarian crisis would follow in its way.

Spike carried in a pot of hot lavender tea that Twilight regarded as thinking fuel. They needed to come up with a plan to dissipate the swarm and lure the parasprites away from any neighboring village.

Twilight gave a startled yelp as she saw that Spike dropped the pot and spilled the tea all over his scaly legs. She was glad that she wouldn’t have to calm Fluttershy this time and floated him a towel. Any pony else would have received extensive burns, but to the baby dragon the almost boiling hot tea was merely lukewarm. This hadn’t kept Fluttershy’s nursing instincts from kicking in last time, resulting in a thickly bandaged baby dragon.

Spike looked at the scroll that had formed itself from another one of his flaming outbursts and blew little angry billows of black smoke through his nostrils.

“Thats it, I’ll drown her in scrolls!” He turned in his steps and came back from the storage cabinet, pushing a big pile of empty parchment scrolls into the library.

Before he could take in enough breath to incinerate it in a notion of payback for Celestia’s bad timing when it came to sending scrolls, the vengeance breathing dragon was engulfed in a magic aura and floated towards his bed. Twilight tucked him in and stuffed an emerald gem into his mouth, sending the previously agitated baby dragon into his well deserved sleep.

“Sleep tight Spike...” Twilight said, realizing that she had put a lot of strain on her assistant.

Twilight turned back to the scroll she was greeted by streamers as she unrolled the parchment.

“Hello every pony,
Please assemble at the Sugar Cube Corner’s
delivery entrance.

Urgent matters have to be discussed.

Pinkie Pie requested me to inform you
that there will be cake.

Signed and sealed by your majesty,
Princess Celestia”
> Cloudy with a chance of parasprites
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The doorknob shone in a purple aura as Twilight closed the library's door behind her. A chilling breeze picked up and pushed against her coat, sending goosebumps up her neck. Now that the sun had set the streets were abandoned except for some earth ponies sweeping dirt off the pavement into the gutters, humming an old song road sweeper’s song in the rhythm of their work.

The librarian took her bearings, planning for the shortest route to the Sugar Cube Corner. She loosened a strap on her saddle and pulled it a bit more to her lower neck, protecting herself against the evenings breeze. Her ears twitched as she heard Rainbow Dash’s voice rasping around a corner. 

“Stop talking behind my back!” The pegasus chided, after turning around towards Applejack.

“I’m just sayin’, perhaps...” The earth ponies voice cut out, but her lips kept forming words that Twilight couldn’t make sense of even though she had only recently joined a speech-readers class, after her curiosity had been spiked by a scientific publication that discussed lip-reading and it’s effects on retentiveness while gathering knowledge from books.

“Not falling for that one anymore, element of honesty! Don’t forget, my other senses are way more awesome right now. My feathers are so sensitive, they pick up on the slightest air turbulence.” Rainbow Dash’s eyes bugged out as she realized what she just revealed to Applejack. A blink of an eye later, the countrymare howled directly at the grounded pegasus mares wings.

“That’s a mighty useful ain’t it Dash?!” Applejack’s voice, trained by years of yelling commands to Winona while driving cattle, broke against the mares blue feathers, dishevelling them.

“Unngh...”

The pegasuses reflexes took over, assuming that there must be an oncoming storm that it’s host needed to brace itself against. Rainbow Dash easily doubled her size by involuntary fluffing up her coat and wings as her expression raised to another level of annoyance.

“Hey girls, Big Macintosh!” Twilight greeted the group. “Where are you going?”

“Well, we’re followin’ Frostbite McDeaferson here. She told us ‘bout a meetup at the Corner, you’re commin’ too?” Applejack would have been turned to stone, if her eyes had met the blue pegasus standing behind her.

“Yes, the princess letter seemed very urgent. Do you think she assembles the elements of harmony to do something about that swarm?” Using the elements powers to fight off the parasprites seemed a little drastic to her.

Noticing Twilights concern about using this kind of force against the parasprites made Applejack panic.

“I don’t know Twi, right now I couldn't sleep well even if that princess of our’s banished ‘em to the buckin’ moon. You haven’t seen yet what they’re capable of doin’.” Applejacks face took on a stern look. “They savaged some o’ my oldest trees, munched ‘em up from twig to root. Heck, they even chowed down on my fertile soil! Gimme a pair o’ wings an’ I’d be off buckin’ em into the stone age before ya’ll could count to three!” The earth pony’s scrunched blonde tail whipped around with her words, revealing how much thirst for action she had.

They moved along in silence, accompanied only by the sound of their hooves that echoed through the streets.

Twilight lead the group into the dead end behind the Sugar Cube Corner, where they were expected at the delivery entrance. The darkness behind the Sugar Cube Corner gave the term ‘blind end’ a whole new dimension.

Suddenly the ancient iron gate creaked closed behind them. Right after the gate had latched with a metallic clunk, Twilight and her friends were bathed in almost blinding light, focused at them from the surrounding rooftops.

“HALT!” A deep voice shot down at them. “You are surrounded by the royal guard and will obey any orders or face us in a fight to the death!” The voice proclaimed.

“Uh... Ok, so... umm do you need to see an invitation?” Twilight levitated Celestia's letter out of her saddlebag.

“Contact!” A slightly younger voice rang out over their heads from the far left. The crackling discharge of a unicorn’s horn lit up the parchment turning it into little embers.

The same voice gave a startled yelp. “Hold your fire, silly!” Pinkies voice seemed to come out of the same direction.

“We need everypony to comb their mane for parasprites.” The party pony explained.

“An’ you had t’ kettle us because o’ that?” Applejack chided the element of laughter.

“You will submit to any precautionary measures that have been put into place or we will assume that you are collaborating with the elements threatening Ponyville!” The deep voice of a royal guardian rendered Pinkie’s explanation inaudible.

“Pinkieeeee... Why do I think that you’ve set off this insanity?” Twilight squinted to find the pink earth pony.

*CRASH*

Pinkies head poked out of a bunch of stacked up crates. “I wrote to the princess, but since I don’t normally do that I used your dictionary...”

“What’d ya’ write? Spill!” Applejack wasn’t inclined to remove her scrunchies because getting them out always involved the inadvertent plucking of some of her hairs, which was especially agonizing with her tail.

“I wanted to adapt ‘sneaky meanie pants’ to something more … so-filly-cated.” Twilight face hoofed at the possible outcome of this. “So I came up with ‘guerrilla threat’ and obviously that’s what the silly tin-ponies are freaking out about now.” She pointed a hoof at an ironclad guard that was perched on the rooftop across from her.

“Allow me to clarify the origin of our orders. Princess Luna has commanded us to guard her sister after discussing Miss Pinkie’s letter with Celestia. Now please, do as you are ordered.” The voice that had initially greeted them explained calmly.

“I saw one of them, Twilight, you have to believe me! Those aren’t the gullible little parasprites we used to know, that one hid in Derpy’s mane and mocked me not to mention that it ruined a perfectly good gramophone.” Pinkie had crawled out of the partly smashed remains of the crate now and walked up to Twilight.

Although the blue pegasus couldn’t understand any word they spoke, she felt that she had to stand up for Pinkie. Deducing from pink ponies gestures towards the pile of brushes, she thought that the holdup was about brushing their mane for parasprites that liked to hide in the mane of unknowing ponies. She stepped up to the choice of coat and mane brushes and picked one up, before handing it over to the random party pony.

“Hmpf! Urrrghhh....” Pinkie Pie stopped brushing the multi colored pegasus tail when she heard the pegasus panting, blushing a little bit. “Oh... I didn’t mean to... tickle you in that way...”

The pegasus dropped to her knees and continued making ratcheting sounds, her surroundings becoming blurry again. Big Macintosh was the first to realize that Rainbow Dash was choking on something and wrapped his forelegs around her ribcage before rearing up, lifting the pegasus off the ground and pushing against her abdomen a few times. The stallions last thrust sent a little ochre slimeball with blue polka dots flying towards Applejack, that barely dodged it. 

“I sense a party coming up! We can have a paaaaaartaaaayyyy for the new couple in town! Uhh... and I’m feeling awkward silence in the near future...” The pink earth pony exclaimed as her mane seemed to vibrate in anticipation of party planning.

“Doesn’t surprise me that she’s into that kind of stuff, but in front of other ponies... Sheesh, get a shed right?” Pinkie Pie whispered to Twilight, conspiratorially winking at her.

Twilight raised an eyebrow at her and started brushing her purple mane with a comb she summoned from the pile next to the entrance to the Sugar Cube corner.

“Uhhh... it’s near... All silencie and akwardie!” Pinkie was very fond of her senses.

“Pinkie Pie! It’s inappropriate to share such assumptions with anypony. You of all ponies should know.” The lavender mares mind echoed with the Pinkie Pie trademark threat ‘FOREVER!’

“Besides the compromising looks of Big Macintosh’s actions, he probably saved her from choking. That was the Heimlich Maneuver, right?” Twilight sounded a bit more unsure than she realized.

“Sure as wheat grows t’wards the sun! What else would it be, it’s not like you could confu... oh... OOOhhh!” Big Macintosh fell silent and cleared his throat. “Y’all got a dirty mind and should be ‘shamed for ‘magin’ her in such a scenario.” The red stallion judged the surrounding ponies, successfully distracting them from a faint blush that had built up on his own face.

“Aaand it’s happening right now!” The element of laughter exclaimed right before the minute of awkward silence and stares began. Rainbow Dash tilted her head while grinning at the red stallion, blushing heavily. 

“Look, there!” Dashies voice croaked as she recovered from the lack of oxygen, leaning on Applejack’s brother, one wing stretched out to point to where the ochre slime ball had landed. She found that the recently expelled parasprite near Applejack made for a good diversion.

The ochre lump with blue dots blinked its huge eyes as it shook off some remaining ochre silme before translucent and wrinkled wings sprouted from its sides, vivant colours slowly coming to live in them. Batting it’s new wings the parasprite staggered towards Applejack and perched itself on her back.

Applejack looked at the creature on her back and felt it’s little claws clamping down on her coat, tickling her a little bit.

The damp parasprite shivered and slowly closed its eyes, right before it slumped off her back, hitting the ground with a wet clack. Applejack stared at the unmoving creature at her hooves, her despite of these creatures was gone and she was left with the realization that the parasprites had the same right to live as any creature in Equestria.

“Everypony step away from that creature and the contaminated blue pegasus, decontamination will commence!” The voice from the far left commanded. Rainbow Dash didn’t react, but Applejack made up for that.

“Ya’ better rethink that or I’ll buck your horn so hard you’ll be pickin’ pieces out of your butt for weeks.” Applejack shoved herself in front of Rainbow Dash, taking a protective stance. She looked over to the little ochre slump that had dropped off her back as it was engulfed in bright blue and green flames.

“What’s is all this commotion about?” Celestia’s luminescent mane shone in the doorframe of the Sugar Cube Corner as she stomped a gold shod hoof on the pavement, calling for order around her.

“Shield the princess!” The commanding pegasus shouted out. Three heavily armored pegasi leaped down around the princess spreading their armored wings to protect Celestia.

“Call off yer’ dogs will ya?!” Applejack barked at the princess.

The majestic alicorn closed her eyes as her horn lit up with magic. One by one she teleported the guardians appointed by her sister back to the castle.

“I’m sorry about my overprotective sister. Come in every pony and tell me about what you discovered on these parasprites.” Celestia turned and moved back into the Sugar Cube Corners kitchen.

Big Macintosh moved towards the entrance and was stopped by Pinkie Pie that had darted into the doorframe, blocking the way for him. The pink earth pony glared at the red stallion, grabbing a brush of the pile without losing her fix on him. “Brushie. Brushie.” She poked him in his chest with the handle.

***

Inside, Celestia had taken a seat at the head of a table for eight, to her right sat Applejack, then Big Macintosh and Apple Bloom. On her left Twilight settled down onto a comfy chair, right next to Rainbow Dash. The table was brimming with pies and sweets, most of them were still warm from the oven.
“Pinkie Pie, you said there would be cake, but I didn’t think there would be such an abundance of it here. I hope you didn’t just bake because of my visit!” The ruler of Equestria gingerly sniffed some of the creations that were in her reach, taking in their enticing smells.

“Silly Celi, you don’t know how I get when I’m upset... I just have to knead dough, or I drive myself crazy doing nothing.” Pinkie weaved a hoof at Celestia’s concerns.

The alicorn looked pleased at the casual way Pinkie Pie addressed her.

“Daffodil Tea?” Pinkie Pie asked across the table, holding up a pot of tea. She moved around the table, filling anyponies cups and recounted her latest confrontation with the parasprites.

“Fascinating. The parasprites we are dealing with have evolved, but what could possibly force them to develop the capability of near supersonic flight?” Twilight thought out loud, launching into a small discourse on how any evolution occurs because of biologic or environmental pressure the lifeform has to adapt to.

Rainbow Dash looked at Twilight and tried to suppress the throbbing sounds in her ear to filter out her voice but her effort was of no avail. She felt that her head seemed to gain weight, like always when she was bored. The nearly deaf pegasus cut Twilight’s comments on evolution short by clearing her throat. “Yeah, enough with the egghead-talk. We’ve got to do something about those beasts, before we all end up taking meds only to stop spewing slimeballs at each other’s heads.”

Celestia suppressed her urge to cough with a napkin after swallowing up on her tea, startled by Rainbow Dash’s unexpectedly loud voice.

“Oh, I’m mighty sorry princess,” Applejack apologized. “I should’ve warned ya’ll ‘bout Dashie’s tempo... tempotally... temporaill... Aww Shucks! She can’t hear ya at the moment, we all hope that she’ll get better soon.” The countrymare was embarrassed as she noticed Pinkie Pie raising an eyebrow at her.

Celestia nodded and her horn started glowing. The blue pegasuses ears twitched in different directions as the princesses magic spread inside her inner ear. The throbbing sounds slowly faded out, so did the whining sound she had heard now and then. “This should do for awhile.”

Rainbow Dash could finally hear her surroundings again and let out a joyous yelp.

“Now, what did you say about spewing slime?” Celestia asked.

“Aw it’s nothing. Just some parasprite eggs in my stomachs.” Rainbow Dash did her best to seem unaffected by the fact that there were parasprites growing inside her stomach. She didn’t want to show any weakness in front of Celestia.

“This is it!” Twilight exclaimed. “Princess, I think I know what caused all the damage around Ponyville that night!”

“Yeahhh about that...” Rainbow Dash scratched her mane, feeling a sore spot under her coat, right where she had landed earlier that day. “I might be responsible for that one.”

Twilight came to the pegasuses defense. “It’s alright, you were affected by some psychoactive component that the parasprites use to make you collect the needed nutrients for their offspring, kind of like a symbiotic partnership.”

“Eh... whatevs’, only a couple of hours left and that’s over.” Rainbow Dash grabbed a piece of key lime pie and stuffed it in her maw, freezing in mid chew. “Excuwve me, orgot aout thatw for aw mowment...” The pegasus said with a her mouth full of cake. She ran off to the bathroom, struggling to hold in the putrid substance that she had expected to be creamy refreshing.

Pinkie Pies mane deflated with a squeak, falling straight down her face like her hairs had been fitted with plumb-bobs. “She can’t taste my cake anymore?” Her bright blue eyes welled up with tears for her friend.

“Don’t worry, that’s probably a side effect of the parasprites encouragement to change her eating habits.” The librarian explained to the devastated earth pony. Her statement was punctuated by repeated gargling sounds produced by the pegasus that rinsed her mouth with water.

“So what are we gonna do ‘bout these creatures? I don’t think that we can just sit them down and talk to them...” Apple Bloom offered.

The room grew darker as shadows spread from the farthest corner like a dark shroud that descended upon the hind section of the room. “Good evening my loyal subjects! Sister, we see thou are concerned, let us propose a plan of battle...” The dark blue alicorn stepped out of the shadows, her hooves making almost no noise as if she hovered just an inch above the ground.

“Quick Twi, ya’ know tha drill - brush ma’ mane ‘fore somepony freaks out ‘n’ incinerates somepony...” The orange mare with the cowboy hat glared daggers at Luna while she voiced her sarcastic comment.

“Come on girls, I’m sure Luna just did what she thought was best for her sisters safety! I’m positive she’s got a great plan to share...” Twilight looked pleading towards the earth pony, that still was sceptical about the princess of the night.

Celestia’s sister nodded to the unicorn to her left. The unicorn guard stepped forward and recited the plan in a sharp military intonation.

“First priority of our approach is the containment of the airborne threat. Our plan provides that a shield will be cast around the evacuated area. We assume that our opponent might be using the environment to hide from us. This danger will be neutralized by including up to ten feet of ground beneath them into the barrier.” The unicorn stepped back looking over to his right, where the pegasus guard stepped forward.

“The fifth pegasus squadron will enter the zone and lead the first strike against the parasprite threat. We are prepared to use necessary force and armament to break any resistance against reallocation.”

“I heard enough!” Celestia pounded a hoof on the table. “There will be no violence against any being in my kingdom, and you know that Luna! I am truly disappointed that you would relapse to this again.”

“Only thing I’d agree with ya’ll is corrallin’ those animals to move ‘em someplace else might be reasonable. But they’re too damn fast for Winona an’ myself. If only we’d know how to lure ‘em away...” Applejack scratched her chin, thinking back to the time she had to get rid of a horde of bunnies that had invaded her lettuce plantage. Carrot Top had helped her out to lure them away with a trail of her finest vegetables.

Rainbow Dash returned from the bathroom, where she had overheard Applejack’s comment on Luna’s plan. “Well this pegasus can help you with that.” The blue pegasus took a heroic pose.

“Great Rainbow Dash, but we need to be able to steer them with our bait. It won’t do us any good if we just serve them a nice treat. We need to be able to lure them away or something, they’ll easily catch up to us and then we’re at square one...” Twilight’s mind struggled to come up with a solution for this problem.

“Well, Granny Smith has a sayin’ that could help us.” Applejack pushed herself off the chair, preparing to run from an angry pegasus. “Notin’ slower than a walkin’ pegasus.” She glanced over to Rainbow Dash and found that she exercised restraint in the presence of royalty. The blue mare gave a sly smirk and communicated her message with a few gestures, going through the motions like she had somepony in a stranglehold while roughing up their presumably blonde mane.

The unicorn guard stepped forward again, clearing his throat to gain everyponies attention. “The royal guard’s arsenal has several magic agents at it’s disposal, ranging from permanent to reversible prevention from flight. I would suggest that we deploy this before engaging the threat.”

“An’ how did ya’ intend ta get that stuff on ‘em?” Applejack asked pointedly, seeing a big hole in the suggested plan.

“Simple. We have trained personnel that will engage the enemy in close combat, ensuring the correct distribution of the agent of choice.” The pegasus answered her question coldly.

“But won’t they expose themselves to that stuff?” Twilight feared that she knew the answer.

“This is an acceptable risk of combat. The Cloudsdale legions have sworn allegiance to Equestria and it’s rulers, acknowledging that their duty might put them in dangerous situations.” Luna’s pegasus guard swelled with pride.

“Ooorrr you could stop being such a numbnut brute and start acting like a smart cookie!” Pinkie Pie interjected casually, leaning on a crate she just pushed it. She knocked on it’s side, sending the front panel of the crate falling over on the ground, revealing a saddle with several tubes and wires strapped to it.

“What in tarnation’s that s’posed to be?” The orange mare voiced her cluelessness.

“AWESOME! That’s the kit they tested in Wonderbolt’s Monthly, right?” Rainbow Dash recognized the equipment from a fan magazine she had subscribed to.

“With slight modifications, yes.” Pinkie Pie picked up a hoof full of bolts and screws. “I put it together all by myself and improved the design.” The earth pony explained. “I’m sure that those were just spares, in case some silly pony lost a screw or ten.” She muttered under her breath. “It even came with a certificate!”

Twilight levitated the thin parchment and read the document. “Pinkie, it says that you must refrain from any legal actions against the manufacturer.”

“Duh! Why would I sue myself?” Pinkie weaved a hoof and giggled at the silly remark of her unicorn friend.

The pegasus guard looked at the saddle and stepped back and nodded approvingly. “This can be fitted with a standard mount for tactical purposes.”

“Ok, so now we’ve got ‘em on the ground an’ hopefully under control. What’s next?” Apple Bloom asked between bites of a muffin.

“I know I’ll regret this but... Twi, tell us where the parasprites originally came from.” Rainbow Dash prepared herself for an hour long, excruciatingly boring lecture on the origin of the parasprites.

***

The next morning they met up on a grass field, right next to the orchard. The parasprite swarm had drifted a little closer to the farm and hovered just above the tree crowns.

“Are you sure that you can take them on?” Rainbow Dash asked Pinkie Pie. “It’s really windy up there.” She knew how dangerous turbulences were from first hoof experiences.

“Ok Pinkie, I think you’re all set. Remember, open the pressurized canister only a second before you enter the swarm and circle mostly above it for full effect.” Twilight instructed the party pony. 

“Okie Dokie Lokie!” The pink mare was all but nervous.

“A last check then... All straps secured?” Twilight read of her checklist.

“Check, Check and double check!” Pinkie Pie had nipped at every strap that secured the saddle to her back.

“Pulls for nozzle adjustment fixed to hind hooves?”

“A bit tight, but better than loose. Check!”

“Emergency chute and rocket separation cord in reach of your maw?”

“Wait... ehh... thatch ah scheck!” Pinkie Pie tugged lightly at the release handle that would separate the rocket from her saddle and engage the parachute in case of an emergency.

“Tail fireproofed?” Twilight inspected the bunched up tail, that had been wrapped up in dark fireproof material. “Check.”

“You’re clear to switch the safety off and prepare for lift off!” Twilight informed Pinkie.

The earth pony lifted her left hoof and flipped up the cover, exposing a big red button labeled ‘Go pony, go!’. She positioned herself as if she intended to jump up on a box in front of her and felt the increasing vibrations of the igniting rocket as the exhaust continuously pushed harder, negating her weight. Finally, the pre launch stage of the rocket burned out and the pink pony was propelled through the air. 

“Weeeee.....” Pinkie Pie’s voice faded quickly as Twilight and Rainbow Dash lost track of the party pony for a moment while moving out of the smoke around them.

Twilight’s eyes followed the rocket’s contrail that headed towards the swarm.

Pinkie had reached the swarm and circled a bit too high above it, looking down into the eye of the storm. The parasprites seemed to chase each other for no reason, generating a violent updraft that had launched the airborne earth pony into these heights.

Pling!

That was her signal to get down into the swarm. A mechanism on the rocket signaled that half of the fuel had been consumed which meant that the generated thrust would degrade soon, making it more maneuverable. She stretched her hind hooves out, creating more drag and adjusting the nozzle to push her down. Finally she opened the valve of the pressurized container, releasing her payload into the swarm below her.

The parasprites reacted startled at first, breaking their formation, but it was too late for them to escape, because the turbulences inside the swarm effectively distributed the magical potion very quick.

“Ha, they’re startin’ to land. Great work Pinkie!” Applejack was pleased with the shrinking swarm of parasprites. They instinctively set down on the ground to prevent a crash landing, knowing that something was wrong.

Pinkie pulled the release and the rocket was separated itself from the saddle, plummeting towards the ground. The parachute deployed and took her for a scenic flight above the orchard.

“Mission accomplished, Pinkie Pie saves the day. Oh gosh, Applejack will be so thankful... Uhh all that cider for free...hmmmm...” The mare enjoyed the breeze as she neared a clearing where she would land safely.

***

“Uhh Twilight, weren’t they s’posed to land ‘round here? I can’t corral them if I can’t see ‘em...” Applejack was followed by Winnona and Twilight as well as some pegasus guards and family members.

“Perhaps the perspective has played a trick on us. Maybe they are...” Twilight fell silent as she turned towards her right.

“...that way...” Her eyes widened as she saw a shimmering wall splashing through the alleys of the apple trees.

The horde that rushed their way was so dense that it compressed the air in front of it, hitting Twilight with debris of all kind. She pressed her eyes closed and braced herself against the gusting wind, casting a shield spell around her group.

Suddenly everything fell quiet around them.

The daylight that had filtered through the trees was tinted by the lavender tone of the unicorns magic, but that light faded away quickly as more and more parasprites clinged onto the shield.

“Everypony all right?” Applejack asked, checking herself for bruises.

Everypony else gave some kind of feedback, nopony was hurt.

“Oh we’re in trouble, ain’t we Twi?” The countrymare was reminded of the day she had woken up to a cattle stampede that headed towards her. Now they were trapped beneath what seemed to be an agitated swarm of earthbound parasprites.

“At least … they're not … attacking the shield …” The glow surrounding Twilight's horn increased in intensity, as beads of sweat formed on her head. “It’s only the weight that’ll crush us, if my spell breaks.” The purple unicorn broke into gasping breathing as she channeled more magic into her spell.

Applejack took her hat off and started fanning some air around her friends head.

“An’ what are we gonna do now?” Applejack tried to make out how the other ponies around her were doing, but she didn’t meet any eyes. Altogether they stared at the massive mound of parasprites that had piled itself above them.

“We cry for help. Everypony, plug your ears!” Twilight set herself down on her behind, freeing her own hooves to shield herself from the noise she expected.

“Huh? Ya’ sure somepony’s gonna hear us through all that buzzin’?”

“Don’t know - don’t care.” The librarian wasn’t in the mood to discuss her plan and plugged her ears with both forelegs.

Her horn started spraying sparkles as she took a deep breath, somehow shrinking the magic bubble around then which pushed the some pegasi that were sitting right next to the magical barrier closer to the center.

Twilight began reciting her cry for help, broadcasting it using the shield as a membrane of a giant speaker, pulsating it at the frequency of her voice.

“Follow my voice! Five ponies and a dog stuck beneath parasprites! We don’t have much oxygen left and my shield will collapse soon. Help us!”

The message repeated itself as Twilight concentrated on, sending the needed pulses through the shield.

“And now we wait. Everypony please lay down and try calm down. We need to conserve air.” The librarian instructed the ponies accompanying her.
> I'm sorry
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello everyone!
I'd like to apologize to anyone who was waiting for this story to be finished.
I made a big mistake, but I learned from this! If there's going to be a new project, I'll approach it a different way.
Thanks again to Alex for helping me with proofreading this story, I hope you had as much fun as I had with it!