//------------------------------//
// Prompt #521: Born of the Night 
// Story: Ponywatching 
// by ThunderTempest 
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A light tickle made itself known on Princess Luna’s foreleg, and she glanced down.  There, crawling over her leg was an almost abnormally large black spider, a blue star patterned on its back. Luna tilted her head to the side.

“What are you, little creature? A spider, certainly, but not one we have seen before.” Luna watched as the spider worked its way up her leg, toward her barrel, tentatively testing each step of its spindly legs. She watched as it climbed up her neck and tried to dive into her mane, attempting to catch the fake stars. Luna remained perfectly still as the spider dangled off the end of her muzzle, lowering itself to the floor. The spider crawled back over to Luna’s leg, and bit down.

Liquid fire injected itself into Luna’s veins, and her horn lit up, a glow surrounding the area where the spider had bitten her. Now that she was containing the venom, she could analyse it more thoroughly. There was something familiar about the spider’s venom. Indeed, Luna had felt that same sensation of cold fire that the venom brought before. It was very much like the feeling she had experienced with the Nightmare. Luna levitated the spider up to her eye level for a closer inspection, even as she pushed the magic-rich venom out of her body.

Now that she had a clear look at the spider, it was clear that it was no natural spider. The body’s underside was twisted and warped, and the spider as a whole was too large to be anything but magical. Luna looked up, out of the hole in the roof of the ruined castle. As she expected, it was a new moon this night. The spider hissed at her, and a gentle skittering reached Luna’s ears.

She looked around to find hundreds of the star-backed spiders crawling out of every single hole and crack in the walls, and crawling towards her. With a single powerful sweep of her wings, Luna took to the air and left the castle.

****Time****

“Tis true what you say,” said Zecora, as Luna sipped at a mug of tea, “The star-backed spiders emerge  in the castle every thirteth day. Though their greatest numbers are always in the winter months, I have seen an increase beyond that in recent months.”

“It would be because of our...return,” said Luna, “the spiders are partially born of dark magic. Our magic, specifically. They are attracted to any source of it. They crave it. With our return to Equestria, we brought that same magic back before our purification. To an extent, it still lives on in us.”

“Do not fret, Princess of the Night,” said Zecora, “the spiders have yet to harm anypony, despite their numbers, for they are easily discouraged by fire and light.”

Princess Luna sighed, and drained her tea. “Let me know if they start to become more aggressive. I will take care of them.”

“I have culled their numbers before,” said Zecora, “but I will call upon you, should their ranks swell more.”