Written by Jondor
***
Two young pegasus fillies sat at the bottom of the stairs to the cellar, staring at a door that hadn’t been there before.
Stormwalker sat in front. Her coat the dark grey of a thunderhead, her mane and tail medium length and light blue as rain with zigzags of bright yellow, recalling lightning. She had her mother’s magenta eyes, bold and determined, fixed narrowly on the unknown door, yet she was unwilling to approach yet.
Morning Dew cowered behind her sister. Her coat the bright pink of the sun’s first light reflected off the clouds, her mane and tail long and rainbow striped as sunlight passed through dew drops with the colors exactly reversed in order from that of her sire. Purple, blue and green bangs shielded the brilliant cyan eyes, wide with fear, fixed upon the unknown door, yet she was unwilling to back away.
“What’s taking so long?” Her scratchy voice sounded down the stairs as Rainbow Dash trotted down to find out why her daughters hadn’t brought up the parsnips for dinner yet.
“Mom? What’s behind that door?” Stormwalker held out a forehoof to point. She held it as steady as possible, but it still trembled slightly.
“That’s just the old root cellar. Your mom must have moved the shelves we stuck in front of it.” Dash waved a hoof dismissively. “We haven’t used it since we expanded the cottage, so it’s probably just full of spiders and junk.” Dash tried to shoo the kids toward the much larger root cellar to get the parsnips, but they would not budge.
“We heard noises behind there.” Morning Dew whimpered, cowering even lower behind her sister.
“I told you it’s just a bunch of bugs and stuff.” Dash groaned and stepped toward the door. “Look, I’ll show you there’s nothing in there. Then you can get the parsnips upstairs so your mom can cook dinner, while I put the shelf back, okay?”
Dash cracked the old wooden door open with a creak, letting out a heady aroma of mildew and mold. Before the door could open more than a hoof width, she slammed the door shut again, a look of horror on her face.
“What’s wrong, mom?” Both fillies asked, eyes wide.
“Upstairs, now!” Without waiting for them to move, Dash grabbed a filly in each of her wings and ran up the stairs, slamming the cellar door behind her.
Stormwalker and Morning Dew shook their heads a bit at being dropped unceremoniously just outside the kitchen, then peered around the door frame to listen in on their parents.
“Did the girls have trouble finding the parsnips for dinner?” Fluttershy asked softly.
“They were too busy staring at the door to the old root cellar.” Dash said flatly, her wings beating the air softly as she hovered, head and shoulders above Fluttershy, as she always did when she had to put her hoof down. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you, babe?”
Fluttershy squeaked, turned pink and looked away as Dash crossed her forelegs and scowled.
“You remember last time, don’t you?” Dash ticked off on her hooves. “We had to rebuild AJ’s barn, Carrot Top’s barn, Berry Punch’s distillery, Bon-Bon’s shop, Quills and Sofas, Town Hall, half the houses in Ponyville.”
Fluttershy cowered and squeaked apologies and excuses. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. They’re just so cute, I couldn’t help it.”
“Dinner can wait, we need to go get Pinkie and fix this now.”
“Mom, you have something in your mane.” Storm’s voice from the doorway piped up before Dash could take a single step.
Dash froze as she felt tiny insect-like legs crawling across her head. Her magenta eyes swivelled upward to look directly into a pair of bright green eyes set in a perfectly round, red body with insectoid wings.
All three other ponies hit the floor and covered their ears as Dash bolted, her scream and the light from her rainbow contrail filling the small kitchen as the parasprite hovered around happily and began to consume every bit of food it could spot.
“PINKIEEEEEEEE! HEEEEEEEEEELP!”