Stargate: Shangri-La

by Grey Ghost


Crosscurrent

"Okay, state your name for the camera please," Floyd instructed as he framed the shot. It hadn't taken him long to set up and get rolling. He had decided to start with Cadance first, who was sitting on her bed, wearing a soft smile.

"My name is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza but my friends call me Cadance," she responded, adjusting her wings.

"Alright Cadance, why don't you tell us a bit about yourself?"

"Sure! What would you like to know?"

"Well, you said you used to be a pegasus, could you tell us a little about that?"

"Oh certainly!" She flashed a smile, clearing her throat, "I'm an orphan, I was found in the woods as a baby by an earth pony family who took me in and raised me as their own. When I was about twelve a pony named Prisma, jealous of the villagers, used a necklace to steal their love."

"She stole their love?" Floyd clarified, raising his eyebrow.

"Yes, and I went to confront her. I managed to reverse her spell and return the love to its rightful owners and turn Prisma away from her horrible ways. At that moment, I was transported to a very strange place. It was empty and filled with mist. I met Princess Celestia there and she adopted me as her niece. She cast a powerful spell and returned me to Equestria, but as an alicorn."

"Huh, you should talk to Dr. Jackson about that, he'd probably find it interesting."

"Because of his past experiences?" Cadance asked. "Or curiosity?"

"Probably both," Floyd cleared his throat, "Can you tell us about your country? You've mentioned an Empire before and an 'Equestria,' would you mind sharing anything about them?"

"It's something of a difficult topic to explain, but I'll do my best," Cadance said. She looked pensive for a moment as she organized her thoughts. "Equestria is the largest pony society in the modern age. My aunts have been leading it ever since Discord was defeated, and it has prospered. The Crystal Empire, on the other hoof, was a small colony in the far north, as far as we have rediscovered.

"It seemed to have been much larger than it is now, but shortly before Discord's rule it seems like it declined, and after Discord's reign, though he focused more on the south, it never recovered." Cadance closed her eyes. "At some point about a thousand years ago, a unicorn named Sombra took it over and enslaved the crystal ponies. We don't know how long he ruled, but when my aunts found out, only one city remained, the one around the castle and the Crystal Heart.

"They tried to free what remained of the Empire from him, but failed. We don't know how, but he somehow cursed the entire empire, and it was lost until just a few years ago." Cadance shuddered, her feathers ruffling somewhat. "Everything about him seemed like hate. Hate and greed. The Crystal Heart seemed to destroy him when crystal ponies and I connected with it. Part of his curse affected knowledge of the Empire, which is why it's been about impossible to find out what exactly happened during his reign, and the ponies that were under him… it's clear they were scarred. We don't want to force them to remember just because we are curious."

"I see," Floyd nodded, tapping the amulet as he thought up his next question, "Discord. Can you tell me about him?"

"Discord, he's probably one of the few beings in existence with enough magic to rival my aunts," Cadance admitted. She lit her horn and let the blue glow add to the room's lighting. "Being an alicorn, I have much more power than any unicorn, earth pony or pegasus, far more than I did before I ascended, but I'm still weaker than my aunts are. He is a draconequus, the spirit of chaos and disharmony, and in some ways he's even more powerful than they are.

"Actually," she said, looking over the Bon Bon and Lyra. "They might be able to tell you more. When he escaped his prison he was most active in Ponyville."

"I'll keep that in mind. Now, you probably already talked to Doctor Jackson about this, but what can you tell us about your aunts? Just so the leaders back home know what to expect when they can finally meet."

"Hmm… Well, I might not be the most impartial of sources but I'll try," Cadance admitted with a giggle. "I've known Aunt Celestia far longer than I've known Aunt Luna, so I'll start with her. For the last era she's been the ruler of the majority of ponykind. She is… harder to describe than I realized, honestly. She's been as much a mother to me as she has been an aunt, and when she calls others 'her little ponies,' she really means it. But that doesn't mean she looks down on any of the other species. Equestria has long had good relationships with the minotaurs, zebras and griffons and she makes sure to keep those connections amicable.

"Aunt Luna is still coming out of her shell and finding a new place for herself, but there are times when she can be a bit more forceful in negotiations than aunt Celestia, mostly because she's adjusting to the modern climate." Cadance smiled a bit ruefully at a particular memory. "But her political hooves are just as firm as her sister's. A minotaur trade minister thought he could play her for a foal, but she proved him wrong in short order."

"What exactly happened?" Floyd asked, gesturing for her to continue the story.

"It started out simple enough. Aunt Luna had just started running her court again when minister Bronzed Bond thought he could weasel the deal in the minotaur's favour. Aunt Luna didn't even need a minute before she saw through his intentions. She is a master of subtle dealings, having to aid ponies through their nightmares and difficulties at night, and when he couldn't just talk her into going his way, he tried bullying her." Cadance winced in sympathy. "Aunt Luna's voice can be quite... impactful when she lets loose."

"She's also amazing at Nightmare Night!" Lyra piped up with a bright smile.

"Nightmare Night?" Floyd asked, moving the camera to her.

"It's a night where ponies dress up as scary things and go door to door for candy! It was made in, I don't want to say honor but uh… how would you guys describe its connection to Nightmare Moon?"

"Tribute?" Bon Bon offered. She had been hanging back, unobtrusively keeping an eye on the other three.

"That works," Lyra agreed. She warmed up to the subject. "It started from the idea that the spirit of Nightmare Moon might escape on that one night of the year. The idea of costumes was so she would pass you by as she looked for victims. The candy was to give her something to eat so she didn't get too curious.

"The original cause was far darker," Lyra admitted when as she continued. "When Nightmare Moon was first sealed, ponies were always afraid she would break out. So for a while nopony would leave their homes at night in some places. Others would only leave if guards were around, or disguised as somepony, or something else. Princess Celestia eventually stomped down hard on the fear, from what I read, being distraught that ponies were still afraid of Luna's night, so it mostly died out. It came back sometime later from parents using it to discipline foals."

"Huh..." Floyd commented, rubbing his chin, "Sounds like a holiday we have back on Earth called Halloween. The original belief was, during the fall, the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead would thin and on one night a year, it became so thin that spirits could freely walk the world. People would dress up as monsters to either trick the spirits into thinking they were one of them or scare them away completely."

"Really? That's amazing!" Lyra did a little trot in place. "Nightmare Night takes place in the fall too. The Teachers really must have had some influence on both our societies. After a certain point, coincidences become a pattern. I might get a stained glass window for this!"

"Don't get overly-enthusiastic," Bon Bon quickly chided.

"But the thing I want to know is, who is Nightmare Moon?" Floyd asked, trying to get them back on topic.


The conversation between Floyd and the ponies continued on for a while, shifting from topic to topic as the conversation flowed naturally. Eventually Floyd had to cut it short, having filled up his tapes, and it was getting rather late.

"Doc is going to love going over all this stuff." Floyd disassembled his tripod, placing it back into his bag. "It'll probably make his week." He zipped it up, dusting his hands off. "Well, good night ladies." He hefted it over his shoulder, moving over to the door.

"You too Floyd!" Lyra smiled, waving. "This was a lot of fun!"

"Yes, fun," Bon Bon said, eyeing Cadance who had been trying to hide her yawns.

"Hopefully we'll be able to go home tomorrow." Cadance stretched out, letting her shoes clatter to the floor. "I'm so worried about Shiny…" she sighed, removing her regalia, placing them on the night stand.

Bon Bon, who seemed to have taken it upon herself to act as Cadance's handmaiden, was the last one by the door when Floyd left. The door shut on her slightly frowning face, leaving Floyd alone in the hallway.

"What's gotten into you Bonny?" Lyra asked, looking at her. "You've gotten all frowny." Lyra slid off her bed trotting over to her. "Is everything ok?"

Bon Bon stared at the door in silence before sighing. "No, no it's not, Lyra."

"What's wrong?" she asked, pulling her into a hug, "You know you can tell me anything right?"

"Lyra, I know this is an amazing thing for you, finding out about an entire city of The Teachers, meeting a whole new kind of pony, it's a great adventure," Bon Bon huffed frustratedly. "But not only are we dependent on these humans' goodwill, but Princess Cadance is tied up in it too! I've done things like this, and they don't normally turn out well. The only one who tends to make these situations work out is Daring!"

"You're worrying over nothing Bonny." Lyra rolled her eyes. "Everything will work out fine. Just try and enjoy it okay?"

"That's generally when everything goes to Tartarus," Bon Bon grumbled.

"Bon Bon, Lyra is right," Cadance spoke up, adding her own opinion. "You don't need to make more stress for yourself than you need to."

"But Princ-"

"Cadance," Cadance correctly gently. "Just Cadance is fine. As wondrous as this place has seemed, the humans here don't seem that much different from us ponies. And they are trying to get us home just as much as we want to get home."

"Yeah!" Lyra added with a smile. "We'll all be fine!" she nuzzled Bon Bon’s cheek, pulling away and heading back to bed.

Bon Bon still looked reluctant, but Cadance giggled, smiling at her. With a sigh, Bon Bon at least made the effort to put her concerns behind her. Despite the soft bed and covers, she found it harder to relax there than she did even when hunting the escaped bugbear.


In spite of Dr. Jackson's parting remark, the route back into the other occupied areas of the city wasn't a difficult one. Like Atlantis, the more residential areas of the city were connected with wide passageways that made Floyd's walk to his room that much easier.

"And he said it would be hard." Floyd smirked to himself, opening up the door and heading inside. He placed his bag on the floor, stretching his shoulders out. "Nice place…" he mumbled to himself, taking in his surroundings.

In terms of temporary housing, it wasn't a bad room. Good enough to keep even when they expanded the cleared areas of the city.

"Eh… I could use a shower." He pulled his shirt off, moving to the bathroom. He blinked, noting a small ball of fuzz on the sink. "The hell?" he asked, reaching out to touch it.

The ball of fuzz shifted when his finger poked it. Two startlingly blue eyes revealed themselves just before a mouth opened and teeth clamped on his digits.

He shouted out a string of choice obscenities, flailing his arm around and smacking the thing against the sink until it released his fingers. "The hell?!" he asked, clutching his fingers, looking at it.

The small creature was dazed, but it shuddered, as if shaking itself. It licked the trace of Floyd's blood from its jaw and brought its transparent wings to life, the buzz and its chirr combining into a hum as it darted towards him.

"Gah!" he darted away, running out of his room, still clutching his fingers. "Doc! We have a problem!" he shouted, racing around turn after turn. He had no idea if the doctor was even in this section of the city but he figured the shouting would bring someone running.

It was a big city, and Dr. Jackson had a lot of responsibilities that were keeping him away from potential rest the moment, but the yelling did attract the attentions of others. A few doors slid open after Floyd raced past them, their confused occupants more than interested in what was driving someone to disturb the peace. Most of them were unaware of the discovery Thorne's team had made, so the sight of a man and a flying pink ball that seemed steadfastly attracted to him only confused them further.

Someone must have called up to the control room about the issue, for it wasn't long before the radio crackled. "Hendrix, what's going on?"

"Some thing just… bit… oh come on…" He came to a stop, his eye twitching. During his run, he had moved into one of the unexplored sections of the city. Lying there, at the end of the hall was a skeleton, his bones covered in more of the fuzz balls. "We have a very, very bad problem…" he spoke softly into the radio, taking a few slow steps backwards.

"We have a list of them," the voice called back. There were a lot of gate room technicians, it was just one of many Floyd didn't yet know. "What did you find?"

"How about a swarm of hungry fuzz balls?" He kept backing up, praying to whatever deity was listening that they didn’t wake up. Unfortunately, he forgot about the one that was chasing him. It buzzed up behind him, sinking its jaws into his shoulder. He swore, smacking it away, before freezing up. The smell of blood wafted over to the sleeping creatures, all of them opening their too-big eyes, wings buzzing. "Please tell me we have a flamethrower?" he asked, rapidly back up, panic starting to set in.

"Swarm of hungry... Oh, so there are more of those things that they found?" the person on the other end of the line sighed. "Toss them a candy bar or something. They seem to calm down if you feed them. Though, I'm not sure if it would make them swarm you more or not."

"One of them just bit me twice… and I found a swarm of them surrounding a skeleton… uh… I think they smelled the blood…" The fuzzies, now that they were fully awake, seemed to lock eyes on him. They buzzed their wings, rising up as one, darting toward him. He turned on his heel and ran, losing himself rather quickly in his bid to escape the swarm.

"They what?" There was stunned silence. When the radio sounded again, it was a call for security teams.

"That doesn't help me at all!" Floyd shouted, not even bothering to actually use his radio. Up ahead he spotted another skeleton, this one picked clean as well. The skeleton was useless but the pistol-like weapon wrapped in its bony fingers was looking rather useful. Floyd dove for it, losing his radio in the process. He landed on the floor with a thud, groaning softly. Shaking himself out of it, he wrenched the weapon away from the skeleton.

"Please work," he begged before rolling onto his back, aiming what he hoped was the business end down at the swarm. The weapon hummed to life under his touch, various pieces of it lighting up. The swarm was descending on him as he fumbled, trying to find the trigger. It stung his fingers, but didn't seem to do anything more. One last desperate check finally caused the weapon to discharge, a burst of electricity erupting from the barrel. The swarm, which had almost reached him, was quickly fried, the roasted bodies dropping to the ground smoking. Floyd collapsed to the ground, too relieved to care that his radio was going off.


"You know," Devon commented as he chipped away at the cave wall laced with streaks of gold with his pick. It had been a while before the doctors found a suitable deposit, and he hadn't been thrilled to find that the cave exploration turned into mining. "I never imagined I would visit another galaxy, only to moonlight as a prospector." The chunk of rock finally broke free under his attentions, and fell to the ground to join the other chunks that he and the others had been chipping free.

"It could have been worse," Dr. Hill commented as she examined the rocks, placing the ones that made her standards separate from those that didn't. "We lucked out finding deposits that are so easily accessible. I was afraid we would have to use the C-4 to get to the usable palladium sources."

"As entertaining as that would have been," Marshall spoke up, returning from the most recent load he had carried to the jumper, "I prefer not having had need to use our C-4 supplies yet. Where are Doctors Moore and Anderson?"

"Exploring the cave a bit more," Devon said, a trace irritated. "Moore asked me to help Dr. Hill collect supplies while he did a rough assessment. Anderson accompanied him for safety."

"Dr. Moore suspects that there might be a larger palladium deposit deeper in the cave," Dr. Hill chuckled, amused at their team's youngest member's mood. "While we can get enough palladium from the trace deposits in the cave wall, we could potentially mine this location."

"And send the excess back through the gate to give the IOA something to be happy about," Marshal commented dryly. A short distance behind him, the remote that trailed him clamoured to a stop. "How is our progress?"

"With all that Lt Manley has dug out, we should have more than enough to get the transporter back online, with enough leftover to make replacement components for at least a few more things. If we need to, that is," Dr. Moore replied quickly.

"Thank god, my arms are killing me," Devon groaned, setting the pick down. He blinked and quickly added, "sir."

"No need for you to be self conscious," Marshal smiled. "I'm a bit worn out myself hauling all that rock back to the jumper." He pulled out his radio. "Moore, Anderson, come in."

There was a delay before slightly distorted voices responded. "This is Dr. Moore. Go ahead, Maj Marshal."

"I hope you've gotten enough spelunking in," Marshal said, frowning at the frying on the connection. "We are going to be packing it up."

"With all due respect, Major," Dr. Moore responded, his irritated tone carrying over even with interference, "we can easily put in a few more hours and collect a much larger supply for our stores."

"I'm not debating that point," Marshal calmly responded. "But at the moment Dr. Hill assures me we already have enough to repair the transporter and possibly a few more jobs of the sort in our future. Getting our royal guests back home is the priority. We can always come back later."

"I... suppose," Dr. Moore reluctantly agreed. "Very well."

"We'll meet you at the jumper, sir," Anderson added, his own voice no clearer. "Maybe thirty minutes, based on how long it took us to get this far."

"Excellent." Marshal cut the connection and raised an eyebrow at his companions. "Thirty minutes?"

Devon merely shrugged, a sentiment Dr. Hill shared. With nothing further to do, and the official order to pack it up, they cleared out everything they could and needed. Packing up their light sources and tools before loading up the remote with as much as it could hold, they manhandled the rest out of the cave back to the jumper.

Their task was only just beginning back at the jumper, though. They not only had to get everything back inside, but also account for all the ore they collected while still leaving space for the human cargo. It was an experiment in space management for them all and before they knew it the thirty minute window had come and gone with no sign of their missing two members.

"Beginning to think we should go look for them, sir," Captain King called out from the cockpit. "They might have gotten lost down there."

"And what's to keep us from getting lost as well if they did?" Dr. Hill comment as she ran her sensors over the samples, making the best of the time by ranking the chunks based on purity. "You can always try the radio if you're worry about them."

"Anderson, Moore," Maj Marshal tapped his radio. "How long?"

"Sorry, sir," Anderson's voice came back, sounding a bit short on breath even over the slightly frying connection. "We took a wrong turn."

"Told you," Capt King smiled softly from her side. Beside her, Devon chuckled silently.

"There is some weird green... stuff on the walls though..." Anderson continued. "We are backtracking now. Just a few minutes more."

"Don't take too long," Maj Marshal sighed. "We are burning daylight as it is."

"Moving as fast as we can, sir," Anderson responded.

"I'm collecting a sample of the residue for the biologist to take a look at. They will like that," Dr. Moore added.

Maj Marshal shook his head slowly. "Next time, remind me to give them a ball of string and some chalk."

"Sir, you might want to put the cloak up," Samson's voice cut in suddenly. The last member of their team had been on watch duty. "You've got two locals heading in your general direction. More ponies, if you'd believe it."

Capt King, after a sharp nod from Marshal, took the recommendation, quickly hiding the jumper and its occupants from sight, the door closing. The Major's expression had turned stern. "Are you getting that, Anderson?"

"Copy that, sir, orders?"

"Hold position for now," Marshal replied without much hesitation.

"They will be on top of you shortly," Capt Samson reported tersely. "Two unicorns, I think. They are smaller than the one in the city."

"Foals?" Devon offered questionly.

"Keep out of sight and maintain position, Samson," Marshal ordered. "Anderson, Moore, keep in the caves." Both parties responded with affirmatives. "Everyone else, sit tight."

Tensions were high as they all waited, but in time the two ponies appeared. It was pretty clear Devon's guess of foals was spot on, their proportions clearly off from the adults back on Shangri-La, and their faces youthful, as alien as they were. They both lacked marking on their flanks as well. Even from inside the jumper it was easy to make out what they were saying.

"I really don't like this," the cream coated and slightly smaller of the pair said as they looked around fretfully, red mane bobbing. "Mother always said not to come here unless it was earth-blessing..."

"What mother doesn't know won't hurt," the other, having a matching mane colour but with a chocolate coat, said firmly. "We just want to see if we can get a blessing too!"

"But what if the mantis gets us?” the smaller one asked, a hint of fear in his voice. It was easier to make out their gender now that they were closer.

"Sir, they might walk right into the jumper," King murmured. "Just because we are cloaked doesn't mean we are out of phase."

"I heard the mantis isn't real. It's just something they made up to scare foals from wandering!"

"Like what we're doing?" he asked, even more fearfully than before. "I changed my mind! I-I don't mind not having a blessing! Can we go home now?"

"Skitter-leaf," the girl taunted, turning on him with an air of bravado.

"Yes!" the colt agreed, nodding, tears in his eyes. "I'm a skitter-leaf. A big nose one! Can we go now!?"

"The engines," Devon said quietly.

"No way! Not till we get a blessing!" she said firmly, stomping her hoof.

"What?" Marshal asked, eyes on the scene taking place outside.

"I just wanna go home," the colt wailed. "Before mother realizes we snuck away from morning chores!"

"You're not leaving me here, and I'm not leaving!" His sister grabbed his tail and started dragging him, heading directly towards the jumper.

Devon put a hand on the console, and for a brief moment the jumper responded to his impulses, the drive pods whining to life. The effect was immediate. Both foals started screaming and literally high tailed it out of the clearing the jumper was parked in. The others stared at Devon.

"Sorry sir," Devon swallowed. "I figured scaring them before they could find the jumper was the best bet. And they already seemed skittish… They were kids, sir."

"Sir, looks like the two of them are gone, ran all the way out of range," Samson reported over the radio.

Maj Marshal nodded slowly. "Good thinking, lieutenant. Anderson, Moore, it seems we are in the clear. Continue outside. Jumper is waiting. Samson, keep up your watch in case they come back."

"Yes sir!"

"Not so uninhabited after all," Dr. Hill commented.

Maj. Marshal sighed. "That's for Gen. Carter and Dr. Jackson to handle. We already have one first contact to deal with."


"From what we can tell, the internal body structure is remarkably simple, with a large portion of its cells being undifferentiated, and a good portion of the rest being pluripotent," Dr. Heyman, head biologist for the expedition, reported. He was down in the new and still-being-organized biolabs, but was in contact over the city coms. Gen Carter, along with Dr. Jackson who had been dragged from his workstation where he was poring through the database, were both in the medical bay where Floyd found himself for the second time in less than a day. "It not only makes them extremely adaptable, but also prolific, voracious and able to consume just about anything organic."

"And what does that mean for us?" Dr. Jackson asked. "And what was with the swarm that attacked Hendrix?"

"Well, from what I could tell, these creatures are willing to consume anything organic, but will normally settle for non-living or plant matter. However..." his voice trailed off a bit. "Apparently they undergo biochemical shifts depending on certain external stimuli and conditions. In this case: shifting from omnivorous to almost solely carnivorous."

"Can you describe what they looked like again?" Gen Carter asked. "To compare it with the sample we have."

A bright flash filled the room, as Cadance and the other ponies appeared in the room.

"There was screaming, is everything alright?" Cadance asked, her eyes going a bit wide when she saw Floyd, who was sitting on a table as one of the medical staff stitched up his shoulder.

"They can teleport?" Dr. Jackson asked, staring at the trio of ponies as they swarmed around Floyd.

"Sorry…" Bon Bon gave a sheepish smile. "I tried to tell them that everything was fine but they just had to see for themselves..."

"It wouldn't be the first time we encountered a being able to teleport, Daniel," Gen Carter commented, keeping her cool despite the sudden arrival. "You used to be rather fond of it yourself."

"Right," Dr. Jackson said slowly, shaking his head. "Anyway. Remember when I said we don't know what surprises might be left in the city for us? Well, we found one!"

"What?" Cadance asked, leaving Floyd to suffer Lyra's cuddles. "Nothing too dangerous I hope."

"Dangerous? Yes," Dr. Jackson said, looking in Floyd's direction. "Too dangerous? We don't know."

"We can't be sure," Gen Carter added.

"I would hedge my bets on 'too dangerous'," Dr. Heyman spoke up. "On their own an individual is not that much of a threat, for all their voracity, but combine that with their swarming and ability to asexually procreate once they have amassed enough biomatter by ejecting a mass of rapidly maturing totipotent cells? It's potentially as devastating as R-75 proved to be if not controlled."

Dr. Jackson leaned closer to Gen Carter. "Ah, which one was that again?"

"Prior Bug," she whispered. "How's Hendrix?"

"Aside from needing a few stitches, he's fine," the nurse said. "Nothing strange in his blood work or in the traces of residue on his skin. No turning into a bug for him either."

"That sounds like…" Bon Bon looked up at Dr. Jackson. "These… things, are they small, big eyes, four insect wings?"

The human eyes in the room turned to her. Gen Carter was the one to break the silence. "I take it you've heard of these before?"

"They're called parasprites," Bon Bon started, nodding her head, "They normally inhabit the Everfree Forest but sometimes a few wander out. By themselves, they're harmless but if you feed them enough they puke out another one. They've been known to eat whole regions out of food. They aren't normally carnivorous unless they have no other food source."

"Oh Faust," Lyra pipped up, sitting in Floyd’s lap, "I remember those things, it was a nightmare!"

"Great, so this galaxy has its own prior bugs, and they come with wings," a new voice grumbled over the com. "New galaxy, same old problems."

"If you don't mind, General Carter," Dr. Heyman took over, "my team and I will focus on devising an insecticide that will work on them. At least the first of the two we have doesn't seem to have the carnivorous traits."

"You don't have to hurt them!" Lyra hopped off Floyd's lap, looking at them in horror.

"Parasprites can easily be corralled by music," Bon Bon added helpfully, "Usually big band music."

"So, sorta like the Pied Piper?" Floyd guessed. "I think I could manage to do something like that."

"Oddly specific," Dr. Jackson murmured, softly enough that it could be mistaken as a comment not meant to be overheard. He clasped his hands together with a wry smile. "Okay, so do we have band music around?"

"We can lead them pretty much anywhere in the city with the intercoms," Gen. Carter contributed to the subject. "Assuming we can find a place to contain them. And music they would follow. I don't know about you, but I left my concert track back in Colorado."

"Well, it doesn’t have to be big band," Cadance shook her head, "Any sort of music will do as long as it has a good rhythm. If you can get them into one location I can deal with them."

"Deal with them?" Dr. Heyman asked after his prolonged period merely listening. "How do you propose to do that?"

"Crystallize them," Cadance said simply. "Well, not really, but I can trap them in crystal until they can be released back into the Everfree."

"Really? You can do that?" Gen. Carter said, true interest sparking in her eyes. The nurse treating Floyd's wounds raised an eyebrow, having only heard secondhand about the so called magic of the ponies, teleportation entrance notwithstanding.

"I may have to protest the last part of that plan," Dr. Heyman interjected.

"If you're worried about the parasprites, don’t be." Bon Bon shook her head. "They’ll go into hibernation very quickly, and judging by how long these ones have been here, I think it's safe to assume they can handle being encased in crystal."

"The crystallization is hardly, well, not my primary concern," Dr. Heyman said to Bon Bon, a slight hesitation as he amended his initial response.

"No way you're letting those things back into the wild!" the second voice spoke up again. Heyman's voice could be heard indistinctly as he tried to shush her. "I don't care if you've seen their type before, these buggers are a couple thousand years out of place with the rest of the ecosystem! Do you know what kind of- HEY!"

"If you would," Dr. Heyman said, apparently taking back control. "Gunter is right though, if you can contain them, it's best we keep it at that, at least until we can safely determine how to dispose or relocate them."

The three ponies just stood there silently before bursting out into laughter.

"T-the ecosystem hasn’t changed in a thousand years! We ponies take great pride in the maintenance of our weather." Cadance giggled, putting a hoof to her mouth. "Honestly, I’d suggest not bringing that up with any pegasi, they’d be rather insulted with what you're implying."

"Weather smeather! I'm talking about introducing an unknown number of potential carnivores into an established biosphere!" Gunter was clearly not speaking into whatever they were using down in the lab, just talking loud enough to be heard. Nor did she seem to care about the weather comment, whether from indignation or the grapevine reports on what ponies did was her secret. "Species displacement! Overpredation! Ancient diseases! Extinction of competitors! Cats and Dogs living together!"

"Well, that's why we’d put them back into the Everfree," Lyra spoke up, "The only time we ever have problems with them is when one slips out. Do you have any idea what that place is like?" she asked, her eyes widening ever so slightly.

"Why don’t you tell us, so we can stop yelling at each other." Floyd rolled his eyes.

"The weather does what it wants, the animals fend for themselves, it's a madhouse!" Lyra shuddered, as if those were the most horrible things ever.

"Oh, that's horrible," Dr. Jackson sassed dryly. His expression turned apologetic when Gen. Carter frowned at him. "Sorry. Now, biology and weather might not be my focus, but that sounds normal."

"As hard as it may be for you to believe, no other civilization, or planet that we've been to has that level of control over their environment," Gen.Carter picked up.

"There was the touchstone on Madrona, but even… that..." Dr. Jackson found himself on the receiving end of another one of Gen. Carter's frowns. "Nevermind. Not important."

"That sounds... horrible. Not knowing if it’s going to be a bright sunny day or a snow storm..." Lyra shuddered even more. "At least since Twilight came to Ponyville we’ve been able to get Winter Wrap-up done on time..."

"We’re getting off topic," Bon Bon cut in, "There really isn’t a problem releasing them back into the Everfree considering what else lives there. Manticores, cragadiles, timberwolves... and I think an Ursa Major and Minor live there..."

Gunter snorted in derision, loud enough to be picked up. "Someone clearly knows nothing about biodiversity."

"Dr. Gunter! That's enough," Gen. Carter said firmly.

"General! They eve-"

"I said enough. For now, we will focus on corralling and containing the parasprites, as they call them." Gen. Carter took control of the situation. "What we do with them will be decided later. Heyman, I'd like you and your team to continue your work. Call it a plan B. In the meantime, I'll see if the control room can find a way to determine how many of these we have to deal with. Dr. Jackson, I'd appreciate if you could ensure all of our teams are back in secured areas."

"Yes ma'am," Dr. Heyman acknowledged.

"I can see if they found any good places to direct them to as well," Dr. Jackson added.

Gen.Carter merely nodded. "Mr. Hendrix, I want you out of danger for this. You've already gotten yourself wounded. If you are up to it, I'd like to put you and Lyra in touch with our communications team and see if we can't find something that might bait our little bug problem."

"I can do that... there's bound to be something in the thousand songs I brought with me..." he muttered something to himself in a language other than English as the nurse dabbed a cotton swab on his wound.

"Good," Gen. Carter responded. "I know it's late, people, and we already had a fairly long day, but it doesn't seem as if it's ending yet."

"Just tell me where you want me." Cadance nodded, a determined look on her face.