"So help me Celestia those fillies will earn their cutiemarks alright. In being DEA-NO Twilight, bad thoughts, bad thoughts! You're past that now!" grumbled Twilight, upon the discovery that the three little troublemakers had managed to wedge Scootaloo's scooter into Twilight's buggiest creation yet, the Surge Protector. It didn't take much to fix, but the hassle alone was strumming her already frayed nerves.

The tree-house was still dark as she made her way back in, and began the descent back down into the holding pen, where she had in her infinite genius decided was the storage place for the breakers that would restart the system.

"Alright Fluttershy, let me just get the power back on and we can con-" was all she managed before noticing that in her absence, the darkness had given way to The Darkness to act, and it was currently wrangling her friend and assistant.

But it saw her. Even with it's rage boiling over, and it's patience worn paper-thin, The Darkness had nothing with which to combat a force capable of crushing dust into diamond, save for a hostage. And so it took to the one card it had, and with a vile hiss, withdrew into it's host.

What it didn't expect was for Fluttershy at that moment to be freed. Twilight had simply opened her straps, which was odd since she hadn't said anything until:

"Fluttershy..." she mumbled, voice teeming with strain. Through the fear Fluttershy managed an answer.

"Y-yes...?"

"I'm going to need you all to leave the library right now. I need you to not be around as I erupt into a Royal Canterlot Breakdown. They're dangerous and you could get hurt."

That was odd indeed. The Darkness had thought itself a prisoner just moments ago, and now it was set free because it's captor was...upset?

"C'mon Angel, let's go." cooed Fluttershy as Angel Bunny began to protest, but within moments he was scooped upon a wing and Fluttershy jogged the two of them out of there. All Angel could do in that situation was quip.

"Da Magic of Friendship wins again.."

"THREE. THREE DAYS. CAN WE JUST GO THREE DAYS WITHOUT SOME KIND OF ANCIENT EVIL COMING TO RAVAGE THIS LITTLE WORLD?" was the last audible thing Fluttershy heard as she scarpered from the vicinity of the angry ranting. She'd been hesitant to rush out into the sun again, but as she tentatively prodded the outdoors with a hoof, there was no burning pain.

All she got was weak pleading against it, and as she stepped out, the voice of the darkness was just out of her hearing, grumbling and complaining. But still it's remaining presence was an upset.

"What are we gonna do Angel? Oh I can't keep spending every day like this, with this...thing in my back" she complained.

The Darkness had not the energy to respond, nor the desire to care.

Angel began squeaking and stomping his little feet. Although Fluttershy was able to 'get' him, his no longer being close to Twilight left him without language, but his attempts were met with a measure of success all the same, as Fluttershy had learned to include Angel's mime of 'that chair-stealing "butt" ' (Fluttershy was going to have to have another talk about proper language with the little rabbit) into her knowledge of his repertoire, and so Fluttershy realized who she meant.

"Angel you're a genius! Oh, why didn't I think of him sooner!" and she set off at a run, with Angel tucked tightly beneath her chin.

Angel practically melted in the affection. He was a bunny after all.

Fluttershy knew to head back to her house, because it was to be expected at this point that Discord would be there, and as if by a miracle or plot-device, he was indeed there.

"Uhm...Discord?" she timidly approached.

Discord was not one to turn down the approach of his one and only real friend, and so he quietly and calmly put down the trio of squirrels he was juggling, and removed their ballerina tutus, to address her approach.

"Why yes, Buttershutter, what can I do for you?"

"I uh, I have a bit of a problem.."

"Well now, I certainly cannot allow that. Tell me little buttercup, what is your problem?"

I uh...I have a creature of darkness and murder in my spine." she deadpanned.

"My my, that is quite the concern." Discord mused. "I trust you've already attempted to communicate with it?"

"Mhm."

"Could I try?"

"He won't come out in the light."

"tsk tsk. Not a problem dear Shutterfly. Allow me." he said, as he snapped his fingers, and about 12 feet above Fluttershy, a small replica of the moon appeared. The shadow it cast above Fluttershy was just large enough to cover her in dense shadow, which drew the attention of the interloper within.

And the localized nighttime drew the attention of a few mortals, but a god need not worry about them. His friend had a problem.

"Come out come out little atrocity. We must have words" cooed Discord, and deftly reached over Fluttershy's trembling head, and placed a top hat, upside-down, on Fluttershys back. He reached down into the hat, until a few moments later he pulled out one of The Darkness' readily identifiable heads from out of the top hat.

"TAH-DAH!" Yelled Discord.

Incidentally, Angel was insulted by this action for absolutely no obvious reason.

"What." he said confusedly, being held by one of his two throats, albeit non threateningly, by a face he hated the look of, for various far-reaching reasons.

But he got no direct reply. Instead he simply received curiosity.

Then he was let go, and reflexively, he withdrew quickly into the top hat, which quickly poofed away with him .

"I'm terribly sorry Flutters but there is nothing I can do about this particular creature." he stated, matter-of-factly, but with a deliberate hint of sorrow in his voice.

"...oh" mumbled Fluttershy, despondent, while Angel bounced up and down on the spot, most likely decrying the cost of his chair to one so very useless.

The awkward silence was want of an explanation, and Discord felt compelled to provide.

"Unfortunately Fluttershy, that creature that lives wrapped around your spinal chord is nothing from this plane of existence that I've ever seen, and I've seen some things. I have absolutely no idea what chaos magic of this universe could actually do to such a being, else I would have simply removed it with a snap." he offered, pleasantly.

And then he removed Angel from his ankle, so as to stop the vicious biting.

"And now if you'll excuse me, I have to go. Certain matters of chaos to attend to."

And with that, he grabbed ahold of the miniature moon, and mounted it. With a snap, a black Lone Ranger mast appeared on his face, with the accompanying hat, and the moon on which he sat floated up into the sky.

"Well" sighed Fluttershy, turning to Angel, who was doing a stellar job of blending his feelings of rage and sympathy.

"But I have to get back to tending the creatures. Their lives don't stop being important due to my problem."

"Why are we doing thisss again." asked what sounded like a clacking pile of chattering stones.

"Reconnaissance fool. We mussst gather information on their daily habitss, so as to make an inflitrationn." responded another.

"...That iss a ssstupid plan."

The edge of the Everfree posed endless and repeated threats to Ponyville. This time however, it was housing less a threat and more a foreshadowing, as a pair of chitin-covered scouts for the changeling hive were using binoculars to observe the parts of Ponyville that the Everfree faced.

As the Everfree was a bit ways off from Ponyville, this allowed the scouts to speak freely.

"You dare quesstion the queen!?" hissed Dagger to his partner, Cloak.

Maybe a bit too freely.

"Sssslightly! Do you know how difficult it will be to blend in here?" retorted Cloak, the stealth expert of the two.

"We sshall find a-"

"A clossse-knit rural country community! Everypony there knows everypony else!"

"We will find appropriate dis-"

"And what of those whossse forms we take? We'd have better chancesss just showing up and claiming to be desssserters of the hive!"

"DO YOU REALLY THINK ME SSSSO SSSTUPID!? THIS IDEA IS HORRIBLE AND WILL MOSSST LIKELY RESULT IN FAILURE BUT THE QUEEN HASSS ORDERED IT AND IT SHALL BE SO!" barked Dagger.

"Even if the idea isss flawed." he stated, bluntly.

The two of them took deep breaths and calmed themselves.

"Until further ordersss we are to sit here and reconnoitre the area. We will wait until our time is come..."

Dagger grinned, baring his lethal fangs. The tactical specialist of the two was somewhat excited to be trusted with stacked odds.

"We will make our move."

Author's Note

Now some of you may have thought that what with there being a break over the holiday, that I would've posted this already.

Yeaaah, so did I.

I am INCREDIBLY sorry about the delay but rest assured that this story shall not just die. I have a clear plan of how I want it to go with only a few parts I might get stuck on.

I'm just throwing Science at the wall and seeing what sticks.