It was another late night, the festival still going strong. The Griffon kingdoms had shows going on all over the grounds of varied displays. Most ponies would fear the presence of a griffon, but during these times of celebration, the tension between them seemed to vanish entirely as the ponies cheered on the performers.
Sakka no Kouma wasn’t scheduled to get onto her stage for a few more hours, so she settled down in her wagon home. She pulled some paper and a pencil from a drawer on a table within, and set them upon the table. There was a scented candle that was lit in a ceramic bowl on the corner of the desk, the scent reminding her of the sweet smell of her homeland’s springtime. The scent was a refreshing breath of home that allowed the mare to escape Equestria’s bitter Autumn nights, if only for a moment.
Before she could could her pencil to the paper however, she was interrupted by her friend hopping into her tent. “Sakka, there’s a problem!”
“Yuki, do you ever talk to me when there isn’t a problem?” Sakka responded with a chuckle. “What is it?”
“They’re freaking out because they saw two ponies in love and getting kissy-kissy with one another.” Akamori said, chuckling as he entered the tent. “Such a child, getting grossed out by two ponies in love!”
Yuki growled at the jab. “Obviously you couldn’t see the truth with your clouded heart. You should try thinking with your head one of these days instead of following your pe-”
“Yuki!” Sakka interrupted, notably annoyed by the bickering between the two. “What is it?”
A laugh erupted from the tanuki as he responded before Yuki could explain themselves. “I already told you, they-”
“Akamori, did I ask you?” Sakka asked, her stern expression causing the loudmouth tanuki to shut up for once. With an exasperated sigh, Sakka looked back towards Yuki. “Okay, what happened?”
“There’s a stallion being seduced by a spiderpony near a lake in the Everfree forest.”
A silence filled the room for a few moments before the sound of drinking filled the air. Yuki and Sakka turned their gazes towards the tanuki, a bottle of sake in his right paw. “Yeah, that’s a load of $#%@! That mare had 4 legs. I counted.”
Sakka blew out the candle, grabbed her saddlebag and hopped out of her wagon. “That’s because you’re a pervert, Akamori. One whose heart is clouded by love or lust can not see the true form of those creatures.” Sakka then started running towards the forest. As they were running she added “They hunt after one’s feelings of intimacy and take advantage of them by disguising themselves as an attractive companion.”
“Kind of like changelings?” A pony asked, running alongside them and joining them.
Startled by this stranger showing up, Sakka tripped and fell onto her broken right wing.
“Oh my gosh! Are you okay? I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to startle you like that!” The unicorn stammered out, quickly helping Sakka to her feet.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t notice you getting close to me.” Sakka responded. “And you are?”
“Oh! Right! Sorry, I’m Lyra! Lyra Heartstrings! It’s a pleasure to meet you!” The unicorn looked like she was bouncing in place, a very excited smile on her face.
“Well it’s nice to meet you, Ms. Heartstrings, I am Sakka no Kouma, but you can call me Page Turner.”
A Silence filled the air between the ponies before Page Turner picked herself up and started galloping towards the everfree again.
“Neat! So you were talking about spiderponies? They sound like they’re similar to changelings! That’s fascinating!” Lyra stated enthusiastically, levitating a notepad and pen beside her while she ran.
“Actually, Changelings feed off the love and leave their target drained of whatever magic they possess, weakening them so that draining the love forcefully is possible, but these spiderponies don’t really feed off the love or lust of ponies. They just use those to catch ponies.”
“Fascinating!” Lyra explains, scribbling down notes as she goes along through the trees of the forest. “So if they don’t feed on the pony’s love or lust, what do they feed on?”
“The ponies themselves. They can also sustain themselves on eating insects, but they can't cheat death by only eating bugs. Eating a pony lets them live longer.”
Lyra’s eyes lit up with amazement. “I’m going to sound like a broken record here, but that’s… FASCINATING!” Lyra wrote down the notes as she giggled with glee.
“Why are you so interested in the spiderponies?” Akamori asked, finally catching up with the two ponies while riding a flying leaf.
Lyra let out an audible squeal. “Oh my gosh, an actual Tanuki! This day was already amazing before, and it just got better!”
Catching up alongside them, Yuki asked the unicorn “What made this day amazing before this?”
“My marefriend proposed to me today at the festival.”
“Well that’s great!” Akamori said. “I love it when two mares come together, hehe.”
“Akamori!” Page scolded.
Lyra’s face could not be beaming more. “A kitsune?! And a white one at that! This might be the best day of my life! At least until my wedding day!”
Yuki smirked. “Well if seeing me makes it the best, or soon to be second best day of your life, then it’s an honor.”
“The lakes just up ahead, we gotta be quiet.” Page Turner stated.
They all slowed down and approached the lake, hiding behind some bushes.
“Ya know, miss, ya never answered my question. Judging from the cutiemark, ain’t you more of a musician?” The tanuki inquired.
“Yeah, that’s my main talent and job, but I totally love cryptozoology.” The unicorn responded. She peeked through the bush and saw the creature seducing a stallion by the lake bed. “Oh wow, they’re a lot cuter than described! I thought they’d have 8 spider legs, not 8 pony legs!”
“Okay, Sakka, how come she can see it but I can’t? You said-”
“If your heart was clouded with love or lust you could not see them for what they truly were. Her heart is not clouded as her love is solidified and set to one recipient. You on the other hand are obsessed with finding it. Your heart’s journey is focused on it, and hers found it on the way of a different path.” Page Turner explained.
“Too long, didn’t listen.” The tanuki retorted.
“Because she’s not a dirty pervert like you, dingus.” Yuki said.
“So what are we doing here?” Lyra asked, her notepad at the ready.
“Checking whether or not the spiderpony is in love or just hungry.”
“What?” Lyra asked, confused.
“It’s not uncommon for a spiderpony to actually harbor feelings towards a pony. Part of their behavior is to lure ponies towards a lake. When feeding, spiderponies draw their victims to a lake so that they can use the water to increase the stickiness of their strings, sneaking them around their victims legs so that they can drag them and drown them before feasting on them. But if a spiderpony trusts a pony they care for enough, they will often force their true form to become visible, and a deep lake like this one offers a great escape route if things go wrong.”
Lyra wrote down everything Page Turner said, totally invested in what she was teaching her about this creature.”So why don’t we just go and say hi? If they’re friendly, we’ll know by how they react, right?”
Page shook her head. “Actually, if we disturb them during this time-”
“BRRRAAAAAPPP!” Akamori belched out.
Everyone stared in disbelief at the loud tanuki. Within moments all of them were caught in sticky strings that they couldn’t get their legs out of. Lyra instinctively stuffed her notepad into her saddlebags , but the strings wrapped tightly around her horn, interrupting the flow of magic and causing her pencil to fall into the bushes before she fell over onto the ground with a loud thud as her legs were pulled towards the lake.
Yuki shut their eyes as they started to get dragged away, the sticky strings slowly covering the rest of his body, leaving only the head exposed.
“Hey! What’s the big idea you freak! Let me go! I can show you a good time if you do! Hehe, I’ve never gotten to-MPH!” Akamori was interrupted by the strings covering his mouth, leaving him to breath through his nose.
“What’s going on?!” Lyra asked.
“When they are interrupted during this part, they become immediately aggressive. They feel threatened and outnumbered and thus insecure, as they feel most vulnerable when doing this.” Page stated, barely managing not to groan i pain as her broken wing gets crushed by the tightening strings.
“Lilyheart, what’s going on, what are you doing?!” The stallion asked in a confused frenzy.
“Sorry dear, I wanted this to be just us, but now that more have shown up, this has become much more complicated!” The spiderpony spoke.
Some muffled moaning came from Akamori before the spiderpony glared at him and squeezed her strings around him tighter, causing his moan of pleasure to turn into a groan of pain
“I wasn’t planning on a feast tonight, but I suppose I have no choice.” the spiderpony said, hanging her victims upside down from a large tree, slowly lowering them into the lake.
“Lilyheart please! I know you’re in there, stop this! Please!” The stallion pleaded, tears coming from his eyes. “It doesn’t have to come to… whatever this is!”
“I’m sorry, deary, but it does have to. I’m really, truly sorry!” The spiderpony spoke.
Suddenly, a flash of gold radiated from Yuki’s body, engulfing the area in a bright light. Once the blinding light has settled down, Yuki floated there, free from their bindings, sporting 5 tails spread out in a star pattern behind them. “Release them. Now!” Yuki commanded, their voice feeling like it had the power to shake the earth itself.
The spiderpony pulled the strings back towards the ground near the base of the tree and severed her connection to the strings holding them in place. She waited there like a foal put into time out, just watching the strings evaporate at the touch of the kitsune’s tails. After Yuki finished releasing everyone from their bonds, they turned to face the spiderpony. “Look me in the eyes.” they demanded. The spiderpony followed the command obediently. “Explain yourself before I destroy you for hurting Sakka no Kouma.” Yuki barked at the spiderpony.
“Yes, please! Tell us what’s going on, Lilyheart! What is this? What are you?!”
The spiderpony sighed before explaining. “I fell in love with this stallion here, and I wanted to show myself to him here. I was on edge and nervous. I’m sorry. I trusted him to see it. I didn’t want anypony else to see me. I panicked, and just reacted the only way I knew how to defend myself.” She turned towards the stallion. “Shoeshine, This is who I am. This is what I am. I’m sorry. I’ll leave you alone forever if you don’t love me.”
The stallion went silent for a few seconds before opening his mouth. “How disgusting of you.” He said.
Lilyheart’s face bore a pained expression. “I’m sorry, dear.”
“I hope you are! You think I loved you for some superficial reason like appearance?! I saw through you the moment I laid eyes on you! I chose to speak to you because you looked so lonely. I never thought that making a friend would blossom into this romance we have now, but I am glad it happened! I loved you, Lilyheart, not your appearance. You were so sweet and kind to me, and you actually cared for me! We weren’t lonely anymore! Why would I give that up just because you weren’t a typical Equestrian pony?”
Tears erupted from Lilyheart’s eyes as she cried out one last “I’m sorry!” before her speech devolved into an unintelligible mess of sounds. Shoeshine ran up to the spiderpony, who stood a little higher than he did, and hugged her. “It’s okay! I’m sorry I yelled at you, sweetheart. Just don’t ever think I won’t love you! You know that will never be true!”
Yuki settled down, three tails vanishing from behind them, leaving only two visible tails left. “Well that went better than expected.” They commented.
Lyra’s face returned to the surplus of excitement that was there before. “I get to see two love stories play out in one day, too? EEEEEE!” Lyra squealed and started shaking in place.
Page chuckled at the overly excited pony. “This certainly has been quite an evening.” After a few moments passed, the odd couple hugging their problems away just nearby, Page Turner suddenly gasps. “Oh no, I gotta head to the stage for another storytelling session, and I forgot to write the story out beforehand!”
Lyra turned to Page “Hey, you got a beautiful love story right here to tell your audience.” The unicorn turned to look at the couple. “And maybe some visuals to go along with the story. Hey! You two! Wanna come back to the fair with us? We could use you guys for an awesome story!”
“We?” Page Turner asked.
“Yeah, I can provide the music and set the mood tonight. Oh! And I’ll invite my marefriend, she’s probably worried sick wondering where I ran off to!”
Page laughed. “Okay, that sounds good. I’ll see you when the show starts, Ms. Heartstrings.” Page turned towards the approaching couple. “You two lovebirds want to help me out with telling a story? I’m sure the audience would love it!”
“Sure! We could help.” Shoeshine said.
“Great! Then come with us and we can get the show ready!” Page said as she led them all back out of the Everfree.
The story came to a close, and the audience cheered. Page walked to the center of the stage and motioned for Lyra, Lilyheart, and Shoeshine to come out onto the stage. “Thank you everypony for coming to hear me. Tonight is a special night and I want to thank my friends who helped me. The lovely musician, Ms. Lyra Heartstrings, and our beautiful lovebirds, Lilyheart and Shoeshine.
They all took a bow, and in the clear light of the stage, Lilyheart’s body was clear and visible. Her legs and body coated with soft yellow fur, white and pink dots scattered throughout the coat in a symmetrical pattern. Her eyes shone with a gleaming royal blue. And Shoeshine’s simple tan coat with his auburn mane was now clearly visible as well, his cutiemark being three white seven-point stars. The audience’s applause died down after a few minutes and everyone went their separate ways. Page Turner said goodbye to her newfound friends as she retired to her wagon for the night. After the excitement they went through tonight, they needed the sleep.
The pegasus mare reapplied the bandages to her broken wing before pulling the covers of her bed over herself, happily drifting off into the world of dreams. Meanwhile, somewhere off in the distance, in an empty field, the ground shook gently for a few moments before stopping.