3 - It Comes in Sheets
Luna beat her wings in powerful, desperate motions, trying to get the mare to help, but the progress of the rot that was rushing through her could not be slowed by her attempt. The mare writhed and screamed, and Luna could not blame her, seeing the remains of her legs slough free in a doughy mass.
It hit her torso and only accelerated. That was when she saw something besides the loss. Something was crawling, slithering? Something was moving just under the mare's skin. As it approached Luna's hoof, she recoiled, dropping the poor mare to the street.
But it wasn't a mare that hit the ground, splattering like ground beef as she was devoured by the thread that had latched onto her, reducing her to nothing as it fed and grew. The bloated thing wriggled on the street, as if dancing on the mangled remains of the mare.
"That... is messed up," eloquently noted Spike with a shake of his head. "Uh, Luna?"
Behind them, the threadfall was coming. Without the complex wind currents of the ocean, the fall had resumed its more 'natural' pattern, coming down in great sheets of wispy thread instead of condensed great balls of knotted twine. It was spreading out across the city, covering everything in the hungry worms.
"We must fight," hissed out Luna as she turned in the air. She directed her horn at a great lump on a building and fired her magic, sending it flying, chunks removed, but compared to the more that kept falling, it was an impotent attack.
"It's getting closer!" Spike trembled with rightful fear as the falling tangles of thread came closer at an alarming rate, threatening to sweep over them.
"You wished to fight, now is your time. Prove you meant your words," chastised Luna as she blasted a tangled clump of thread from the sky, knocking it clear, but she could not entirely destroy it, only break it up into smaller pieces that seemed to still writhe and dance when they hit the ground. "Blast it all..."
The threadfall came over them. It was not a complete blanketing, but clumps of wispy thread were falling around them. Spike yelped with terror as a tangled mass of thread drifted towards them. With a great puff of flames, he tried to dissuade it. The flame caressed against the thread, then lit ablaze.
The wispy mass was apparently quite flammable, the flames rushing up along each thread. It broke apart, each individual part burning to a crisp quickly, leaving nothing behind moments later. "Spike, do that again!" bade Luna as she swerved to avoid a hungry mass falling towards her. "Don't stop!"
Spike didn't need to be told this. Seeing his flame reduce the threat to ash, his eyes lit up with a manic surge of triumph. He was needed, and he could do it. "Yes, Ma'am!" As he was carried, he huffed and puffed, burning away the thread that came towards them.
"That isn't enough." Luna vanished, appearing a moment later with Spike higher up. "We need to..." She trailed off, going pale near the snout. "By harmony itself..." She was looking towards the city park. Where the thread had landed on buildings and streets, there was nothing for it to eat, and they did little but threaten anything that would wander too close to them.
The park was another matter entirely. Trees were shriveling as if consumed from the bottom up, while thread devoured branches and leaves wantonly, not moving, per se, but absorbing and growing as they touched things. Flowers were reduced to sludge, and the entire place had lost the vibrancy of life entirely.
"Woah... Hey!" Spike spotted thread growing fat off of someone's rooftop garden, reducing it to more of the thread, writhing and awful. He bathed the rooftop with his flames. The garden wouldn't be saved, but it wouldn't host the thread either. A fair trade, he silently decided. "What is this stuff?"
Luna slipped between here and there, appearing with Spike with a pop. She hissed, a bundle of thread just a little too close to where they appeared and burning along her side, thankfully without attaching to her. "Whatever these... things are, they must be stopped. Set them ablaze, good dragon." She grabbed the bundle that had left a painful line and floated it right in front of Spike, held securely in her magic.
He puffed a little spurt near its bottom, letting the flame wash up over it, consuming the hungry bundle of thread. "Is... this what happened to Trottingham? Oh, wow, they... aren't made of concrete, are they?"
"Now is not the time to ponder that." Though Luna knew all too well that the roofs of Trottingham were comprised of wood more often than not. "I do not envy Twilight, even in the midst of this." Her duty would surely be a heavy one, having to bare witness to the result of such a thing. "Remain focused, we are not safe." She swerved sharply to avoid another bundle even as Spike set it ablaze on the way past. "Yes, just like that."
A bright flash lit the air in the distance. The sound of it came later, a loud bang and pop, followed by others. Explosions? "What...?" Luna swerved towards it, avoiding thread with careful flight and short teleporting hops, trusting in Spike to continue clearing what thread he could. Each brief roar of flames consuming the dread enemy brought a small measure of solace to her.
Coming closer to the explosions, she saw a unicorn, blue in color, eyes wide in panic. She was fighting the thread as it rained down around her, sending off... fireworks. Explosions and streamers and even great bursts that looked like her face went off all around her as the mare desperately tried to avoid becoming thread food as her clothes had been already.
"Is that Trixie?" Spike torched a bundle of thread that would have fallen towards her. "Trixie, get inside! Where's your wagon?"
"These... things ate it!" She screamed up at them. "They almost ate Trixie along with it!" She stomped her forehooves as a cone of fiery streamers burst from her horn. "Trixie will not tolerate this slight! That was her most treasured possession!"
Luna swooped down, grabbing Trixie by the scruff of her neck. With a toss of her head, she lobbed Trixie up and back, landing right behind Spike. "We will see you to safety."
"Safety? What is safe?!" She waved a hoof wildly at the falling thread all around them. "Trixie would rather have revenge!"
"Great, help me then." Spike blew flame in desperate puffs, trying to at least keep themselves free of thread. "This is a lot for one dragon, lemme tell ya."
"Oh, very well. If you need Trixie's help so badly..." Not that she looked that upset to be carried away from her place where she thought she'd fight to the bitter end. She directed her horn and became a mobile platform for streaking bursts of fireworks, expanding the sphere of safety around themselves with brilliant bursts of fire that could set the thread ablaze alongside Spike's efforts.
Luna turned her efforts to reaching the corrupted park. "Mayhaps some can still yet be saved..." But when they arrived, the park was in a terrific state. What was once a lush place of plants, an oasis in a sea of pavement, had become a blighted wasteland, appearing as if bombed with great troughs in circles and other divots like holes, though the thread that fell did so without the impacting force they had at the start of the fall, implying the holes had not come from simple impacting force, leaving their source a mystery.
There were no plants remaining, every morsel devoured, leaving nothing but undulating thread, seeking more food, always seeking, always hungry. "Set it ablaze," she ordered sternly. The park could not be saved, but the great and bloated worms could be purged at the least. "I wish I had learned more fire magic."
"That is why you have Trixie here," huffed Trixie with a satisfied smile, but her magic was far less efficient at scouring the ground, each of her fireworks eager to sail into the sky and explode in a show of her power.
Spike, on the other claw, had no such trouble, washing the park with purifying flames. The park burned, a bright light against the overcast day. "Hey... Luna," he panted, trying to regain his breath. "I'm running low back here. Does this ever end?"
"This we know not. Trixie, how fare you?" She ducked low suddenly, one tangle coming dangerously close.
Trixie grabbed onto Luna with a squeak, holding on for dear life until the ride evened out. "I could do this all day," she assured. Despite her brave and confident words, her Great and Powerful magic was starting to falter, the bursts coming slower, exploding over a smaller radius. They were all becoming tired from fighting for their lives.
"We have no choice." Luna blinked out, appearing just below the overhang of a building. She stormed its doors and crashed into it, but the doors were barred and did not allow her or her passengers inside.
Spike raised a brow. "Well, they listened at least... Maybe we should... just, you know, stay here?" He pointed up at the cement overhang that provided a tiny slice of relative safety. "Maybe we'll be alright."
Trixie waved a hoof, an arc of fire in a rainbow of colors fanning with it to catch a carpet of thread that almost blew in towards them. "Trixie does not agree. You can teleport, she saw it. Teleport inside."
"Ah, yes." She blushed faintly at not having thought of such a clear answer. They were suddenly inside, but far from alone. Ponies crowded in around them almost instantly, their eyes wide and bodies trembling.
"What is that?!" asked a stallion with a shaking voice, thrusting a hoof out the window that separated them from the alien menace that was carpeting their city.
"Why aren't they getting rid of it?" demanded a mare, more angry than scared. "I have things to do."
"Things to do?!" blurted another pony. "Those things ate my award winning daisies!"
"Award winning? You never showed that thing off to anyone but us, and we're tired of hearing about them."
"You take that back!"
"Are we going to be alright?"
"Luna, save us!"
Spike held up his claws. "Calm down, everypony. We're... on the case." He had to pause to catch his breath. Never had he had to breath fire so frequently before and for such an extended period of time. "We can fight them, I just... need my breath back."
"It is as he said," assured Luna with a soft nod. "We require only a moment of solace, then the fight will resume. Spike, Trixie, how are you feeling?"
"Trixie is feeling safer." She casually hopped down from Luna. "Thanks for the ride."
Luna hiked a brow at the unicorn. "You will not see this through to the end?"
"Why should she? Those things are dangerous, if you didn't notice." She reached out and poked Luna right in the middle of the new scar she had along her side from top to bottom right along her barrel.
Luna's eyes became wet, pain making her knees wobble in place. "It is... the price we pay to defend the city," she hissed out, trying to fight it. "Will you not join us in this endeavor? Your assistance would be appreciated."
"Yeah, besides, you're going to forgive them after they ate your wagon?" Spike hiked a brow. "That doesn't sound Great or Powerful to me. That makes two wagons, doesn't it?"
Trixie went red in the face, glaring at Spike. "Just for that, Trixie should let you get eaten!"
"Yeah, no, I have fire." Spike shrugged softly. "But you don't have a wagon, and it's their fault."
Trixie danced from hoof to hoof with a rising grunt of anger. "Oh very well! Trixie will make them regret their foalish decisions."
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Its going to be a long ride to plot out the total footprint of just this first hit. No word yet from lands hit overseas?
Jeez. Reminds me of the Tarr from Slime Rancher. It exists to make more Tarr... and more Tarr... and more Tarr......
Just hold down the trigger and KEEP FIRING!
9602409
We'll be staying with Luna and Spike until their fight is over before seeing what Twilight finds in Trottingham.
Ponies are dying, their city is besieged: "My itinerary is in shambles!" "My flowers!"
9602800
... Yep, sounds like the ponies we love and adore.
9602815
I was going to say, "That's completely in-character, that is."
I have yet to see the story that isn't improved by adding Trixie to it.
Needs more fire-callers.
external-preview.redd.it/oPgj_KZOvMo89DHK5LAFsE4507yjKONptqDRuYblap0.jpg?width=574&auto=webp&s=6fbbdf88db9900a8e22953191db5a0942d674efc
Somebody get Sunset on the line.
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Alright, you've got my interest, the Pern series is one my favourites.
Despite some minor grammatical things here and there, you've definitely got an interesting start going here, I'm digging the Equestrian take on first threadfall, and definitely looking forwards to seeing how they start large-scale measures to protect against it.
They do have a quick and easy way to deal with the Everfree Forest, though... just gotta be careful to contain the edge near Ponyville, and be prepared for a very upset Fluttershy.
9630818
That would be a lot of dead animals yes. Poor bear.
Honestly, Thread isn't that huge a threat to Equestria, at least once they understand its weaknesses, given that ponies have weather-on-demand. Or insane unicorns that accidentally repurpose rapidly self-replicating parasprites to eat ridiculous things. But this learning period is going to suuuuuuuuuuuuck.
It's good to see a DoP crossover here, I've been waiting to find one. Also, all hail Princess L'na; dragonridden.
9676822
But I know what you mean about wanting to see a DRoP fic! 
Female riders don't tend to have their name shortened with the honorific. Not all male riders got it either, depending on how long their name was, now that I think about it. So her name would still be Luna.
9678025
I know, but I figured that it was more of a habit that had something to do with that period of time when the only female riders rode golds. (Or am I misremembering things?)
9678378
I think you might be misremembering something. Females have always ridden golds. It was greens who had female riders but had to switch to males due to women being needed to repopulate after several plagues and other disasters, and because pregnant riders tended to suffer miscarriage from going between if they didn't realize they were with child early enough. As for the male honorific shortening of the name, it started with the dragons doing it on their own, and the riders kept with it because the shortened names were easier to call out during threadfall. Pernese dragonwomen tended to have shorter names than men already, as far as I can tell, so I guess the dragons just never bothered with changing them.
9643292
Yup, Equestria can handle the thread itself once they figure it out. The clean-up is the problem. The areas hit are basically a wasteland, food production is down the drain.