//------------------------------//
// The Summer of the Giant Moth 
// Story: Future Progressive: The Speedfics and Drabbles of Present Perfect 
// by PresentPerfect 
//------------------------------//

The Summer of the Giant Moth
by Present Perfect

From the depths of the Mareiterranean there rose the great lizard Celestiazilla. Its teeth dripped ichor. Its scales scraped the clouds. Its roar shook the earth.

Unfortunately, at that moment, in the Everfree Forest, the mane six (and Derpy) were busy blasting King Sombra's newest robot, the CrystalTron 5000, to bits with the Elements of Harmony (and a muffin cannon). The Rainbow Beam of Death™ cut a swath of carnage and friendship through the treeline and out into the ocean, straight through Celestiazilla's big, dumb, scaly face.

With a croak of harsh finality, the great beast toppled over into the sea.

But the thing they never tell you about death is, your bowels loosen and evacuate upon the moment you shuffle off the mortal coil. Yeah, it's not all lighted tunnels and visits with dead relatives. Unfortunately, Celestiazilla had been asleep for centuries and didn't really have any food in his stomach. So instead of a tremendous death poop, it was more a tremendous death fart.

And that's how the giant moth was born.





"Saints alive," Applejack said, dropping her cider to the ground.





"...So it's still there?" Twilight asked. Applejack nodded.

"Plastered to the side of the barn." Applejack nodded again I guess. Twilight almost hadn't recognized her, on account of her friend being nearly totally white, and sober.

"What're we gonna do, Twi?" AJ shook, licking her lips. "Ah got all mah crops 'n money 'n cider 'n hats in that barn!"

"There's only one thing for it," Twilight said, maring up and putting on her warface. "We need Fluttershy."





"That's a really big moth," Fluttershy said quietly, which was the only way she knew how.

"That's what Ah said," Applejack said again.

Twilight paced along the length of the moth's wingspan: twenty paces easy. It was, no doubt about it, a big moth.

"Do you have any ideas what to do about it?" she asked her friend.

"Umm, well... We could try to shoo it away..."

One round of gentle shooing later...

"Well, that sure didn't work." Applejack frowned and stomped the ground.

"Why not leave it there?" Pinkie Pie asked, suddenly appearing in the scene.

"Ah can't get in my barn!" AJ snorted.

"Actually," Twilight noted, "you can. You've got another door on the mothless side."

"Oh," said Applejack.

"Um," said Fluttershy.

There was a pause.

"It'll probably get bored soon and leave," she added.



	

All that summer -- the Summer of the Giant Moth, Pinkie called it -- Applejack learned to ignore the moth. It made a daily circuit of the barn, following the sun, but otherwise seemed content to just stay there. Big Macintosh didn't go in the barn. Apple Bloom thought it was fun, but her friends were warned not to mess with it. Granny Smith never noticed it was there.

Rain or shine, the moth remained. Applejack started telling time by which wall it was clinging to. The Running of the Leaves came and went.

Applejack named it Claude.

"Oh, Claude told me a funny joke the other day," she said once to Rainbow Dash, who refused to speak to her for a week afterward.

"Claude's been feelin' a little under the weather," she remarked to Rarity, who took refuge beneath a taffeta dress and wasn't seen by anypony but Sweetie Belle for a month.

Then, on the fateful day of fate, there came a sound like a tremendous death fart, and Claude fell.

"Claude!" Applejack rushed to the barn, tears in her eyes. She stood in shock over the form of the moth, upside-down on the cold earth. "Hold on, buddy, Ah'll get help!"

But there was nothing Fluttershy could do. He didn't even have eyelids to close dramatically. She just shook her head and walked away.

Then she stopped! "Oh!"

"What is it, Fluttershy?" asked Twilight, who was totally in this scene. She's nosy.

"Look."

Fluttershy pointed to a pile of big white things, the size, shape, texture and flavor of ping-pong balls.

"Are those... eggs?"

Applejack's face set in determination.

"Mah path is clear."

She gathered the eggs together and kept them in the cider cellar. She sat on them all through that winter, despite Fluttershy's exhortations that moths and chickens do not hatch their eggs in the same manner. Apple Bloom brought her soup and apples, while Big Macintosh disposed of Claude in the town dump. It was a fitting tribute.

In spring, Applejack awoke, having missed Winter Wrap-Up, to the feeling of fluttering under her hooves.

"Land's sakes alive!" she breathed.

"But moths hatch caterpillars from eggs," Fluttershy protested, before being ejected violently from the scene.

And then Applejack's farm was eaten by baby giant moths.

And as they chewed on her apple trees and gala dress simultaneously, Applejack let out a wistful sigh.

"I'm the happiest mother," she said. "Fifty times over. Thank you, Claude."





Dear Princess Celestia,

Today I learned that giant moths are a biological anomaly.

Oh, and sometimes a tragedy can become a blessing after it's passed.

Also, some ponies really shouldn't have their boutiques so close to giant moth breeding grounds.

Your Faithful Student,

Pinkie Pie I mean Twilight Sparkle