The Legend Of The Lonely Ladybug

The Spider Whisperer

Above the canopy Rainbow Dash moved around in circles in futile attempts to observe the forest that lied beneath, crossing her arms in frustrated disappointment when it gave her no results. "Damn it! I can't see anything down there in this light," she growled.

Coming upon a beautiful looking flower that grew at the top of the tree, the mare halted to flap in place and studied it curiously. "Wow," she uttered to herself while watching it. To Rainbow's shock it snapped it's petals shut in an attempt to bite her snout when she got too near, a not so pretty offense to it's audience.

"Only Twilight and Rarity can illuminate their surroundings," Fluttershy told Rainbow a short distance away. The mares had stayed close to each other and were following the main group from above the forest by tracking the illumination of the unicorns. "I wish I had a horn too!" Rainbow shouted back in boredom.

***

Down in the forest the other mares had stopped to rest at a clearing after hours of searching. Twilight looked uneasy. The group still had found no clues to where the calves might have headed. With no such clues their efforts would not bring them any closer towards success. It might not even help prove whether or not the calves would still be alive.

"It's hopeless. The forest spans a vast distance. They could be anywhere," Twilight uttered as her face sank. Deciding that she was hungry, the lavender mare dug into her saddle pocket and pulled out a salad wrap, starting to munch on it. Near her Pinkie was eating what still remained of the corn that she had smuggled from the farm which Twilight was careful to avoid looking at, preferring not to lose her own appetite by the sight.

Applejack stood firmly in her position near them, determined eyes observing every direction with a resilient fire burning behind them which fueled her towards her goal. "Like Ah've said, it can take all night, the next day and even the night after that till I abandon them. Vanilla! Ginger! Rubber!" the work horse began shouting again, "Follow mah voice if ya can hear me!"

Pinkie Pie was heard mumbling something, still muffled by the corn which made Rarity all the more annoyed. Her own desire to touch any food had been lessened by the sight of the drool covered skeleton of the corn sticking from the pink earth pony's mouth.

Having finished the salad wrap, Twilight sat down to think and was speaking to herself, a troubling realization creeping in her mind. "Damn you, Twilight Sparkle! You should have brought Owlowiscious along. He'd be a perfect scout to help us. How come I didn’t think of that in time? Now it’s only going to be harder to find them." Sighing, she recalled how the owl had guided her to safety through the pitch black forest when they had saved Spike from a particularly grumpy dragon.

Pinkie had relaxed, persistently sucking at the remains of the corn until she suddenly sprang up upon seeing something and pointed up mumbling to alert Twilight and Rarity. "M-m-m-mmmfff! M-m-m-mmmff!"

"What is it?" Twilight asked. In an instant Rarity's unease returned. "I think she saw something." Pinkie kept mumbling. Twilight and Rarity looked far up to their right upon spotting what she had gestured at. Applejack drew near the others, also viewing it. High above between the trees a small red light had appeared, floating at mid-air in silence, moving sideways and starting to circle the clearing where they were which perplexed everyone.

"Never seen a red gloworm before," Applejack uttered. "I......doubt that's a glow worm...," Rarity whispered fearfully, uncertain about what she should expect from what she was viewing. In Everfree such uncertainty wasn't uncalled for. Twilight observed the phenomenon behind narrowing eyes. “It’s a ladybug.”

What she and everyone else saw was a red symbol floating in mid-air against the darkness of the forest that depicted a round beetle-like insect, a red carapace covered in black dots and a darker head with two antennae. A ladybug no less.

"Come this way," a whisper spoke to them without warning, echoing around them in the transmitting space of the forest. The brightly glowing ladybug moved away from them, down another path between the trees, away from the clearing.

It's intention was clear but could the ponies trust it? Making up her mind, Twilight acted at once and jumped to all fours, galloping down the same route it had taken. The others heard her determined shouting. "Come on! Come on! Follow that light!" Rarity looked on without budging in contrasts to her friend. "How do you know it's safe?" she called to the lavender unicorn.

"I'll take my chances," Twilight's voice replied back from the darkness as it became more distant. "You mean our chances!" Rarity screamed and went after her friend, trying to keep up as he group rushed to chase the red glow. Pinkie Pie bopped up and down like a bouncing rubber ball, the corn remains still carried in her mouth without a single sign of nervousness.

Everfree was a dangerous place but if it were a person it would be utterly ashamed knowing that it would never be able to break this particular earth pony.

***

Above the canopy Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy took note on Twilight’s odd movement which made Rainbow rub her mane confusedly. “What’s going on? She has picked up speed.”

“Maybe……they have met something?” Fluttershy assumed.

Doing a somersault and starting to descend, Rainbow called out as she went below the canopy. “Come on, Fluttershy, we have to go down to see what’s up!” Fluttershy did not comply and remained stationary, the rattle of her teeth acting as an argument. It would take a lot more to make this mare go back after Rainbow's earlier gag had scared her out of her mind. The other pegasus seemed to have learned it because she immediately came back to get her. “Come on, Fluttershy!” she shouted demandingly.

“Oh……….oh. Okay…..,” Fluttershy mumbled nervously and began to follow after Rainbow until her wrecked nerves got the best of her. She only got back up a few meters until a sharp tugging in her tail stopped her scramble. Looking down, she noticed that Rainbow had grabbed her tail with her teeth as a last resort and was giving her a stern glare. If it depended on her friend Fluttershy wasn't going anywhere but down after the others.

***

The glowing ladybug smoothly glided through the forest. Right behind it was the group of Twilight, Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie, all in full gallop to stay in visible distance to the mysterious being that guided them.

“You will find them under the roots of the tree right behind me. Watch out for the trapdoor spider,” the whisper spoke again after the red light eventually slowed down, diving out of sight as soon as it stopped communicating. Twilight brought everyone to a stall after noticing something ahead. “There they are!”

Applejack had gone rushing past Twilight, being quick to spot the three tiny silhouettes below the tree some thirty hooves distance from where the group had emerged. “Rubber! Vanilla! Ginger! We came to take you back home. What’s wrong?” the work horse called loudly. At that moment Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy joined the others, having found them with the aid of Twilight's illumination and Applejack's calls. In their viewpoint the three calves had taken shelter between the large roots, spooked half-dead by something. Rainbow was grinning upon seeing them, remembering how they had departed the field only five hours ago and had expected the search to take much longer. With Twilight's teleportation they could all return home.

“We found our quarry,” the pegasus sighed. “Yes. But something isn’t right,” Twilight was heard, sounding iffed which made Rainbow's grin take a backseat. She knew what it meant, when Twilight suspected something it was rarely out of place.

“Kids! Why aren’t ya answering?” Applejack exclaimed worriedly. “Didn’t that voice warn us about a spider?” Rarity uttered, turning her head around nervously. “That ladybug sure didn’t take us here to misguide us," Twilight stated while she examined the open, slightly damp and marshy area that they had emerged to with seriousness, "Keep your eyes open.”

“That does it. I’m going to them,” Applejack grunted and boldly headed for the tree without fear at anything that would attack her. It took a short moment to the others to gain confidence but the others ended up following, eyes scanning the surrounding forest. Ahead of them Applejack reached the tree and peeked between the roots at Vanilla, Rubber and Ginger, Lenny the cat placed between Ginger's hooves that shielded it from an unseen enemy. Despite the confusion Applejack attempted to comfort the calve's unease. “It’s okay. Applejack’s here. Let’s get ya back home."

Vanilla's standing eyes stared at her rescuer, fearing for her safety aside her own. “Watch out, Applejack! It senses vibrations!” the tiny nervous voice of the filly warned the adult earth pony. What ever had scared the kids so deeply had left a visible mark. Acknowledging the mysterious nature of Everfree Forest, Applejack retreated her head back out upon the calve's warning to observe the forest yet what could be threatening them at the moment hadn't shown any signs of appearing. “What in darnation is going on in here??” the mare uttered and glanced around her in confusion, only seeing the other mares who now stood beside the tree. Like their friend, they were looking around.

Twilight's unnerve was slowly disappearing. Any giant spider that she had ever been in contact with would find it hard to ambush them in an open marshy environment without being seen. “No spiders here,” the unicorn concluded. "M-m-m-mmmfff," Pinkie Pie started mumbling again without making sense because the corn still muffled her voice which Rarity growled at in return and yanked the vegatable out of her mouth, loudly expressing her irritation with a grunt. “Will you please stop sucking at that corn?!” the unicorn cried out in anger in regards to the disgusting antic.

Having again lost her corn, Pinkie licked her lips with a "hmph" before speaking. “Just wanted to emphasize that the voice specifically spoke about a trapdoor spider which tunnels itself underground," she began until her focus suddenly became directed elsewhere when she spotted something. "Oh, and I also want to notify you about the presence of that wyvern.” The pink pony then pointed a hoof at the trees.

A local forest inhabitant had found the search party.

To the pony's dismay what looked like a trunk of a bulky tree turned out to be the wing membrane of a stealthy creature. The wings pulled apart to reveal a malevolent beast closely resembling a dragon or a hydra that stood on two legs like an over-sized chicken, sporting long talons with sharp claws in separate arms hidden under both wings and a head of a carnivorous fish. A long tail uncoiled itself, a split to which several barbed forks ended at each tip. The mouth opened wide to vocalize a spine tingling screech like nails scratching on a chalk board.

Momentarily distracted away from the danger, Pinkie Pie was looking at her eaten corn, studying and sniffing it until she pulled back, realizing how long she had tried to feed off the vegetable. “Blegh! I need a new corn.”

The wyvern approached the group, forcing them to retreat against the tree, the calves still having not moved from underneath. “Fluttershy!”Twilight's scared voice raised above the scared gasps and whimpers of her friends and the commotion of the monster. The mare pegasus squeaked once she heard her friend who continued. “Only you can stop that creature. Do something now!” Twilight shouted.

“Like what?” Fluttershy asked which made Applejack stare at her in dismay. “You know, like, talk to it?”

“Oh, I don’t know about that…….," the shy pegasus argued which only helped to heat AJ's temper. “Just remember the dragon!!” the work horse barked, now made impatient by Fluttershy's hesitation, a coaching that seemed to finally hit it's mark. “Oh………okay……” Fluttershy gave in and began to flap her wings, flying to meet the wyvern.

Seeing the approaching pegasus, the dragon-like beast halted it’s progress and snarled, drool falling from between it’s long teeth. Fluttershy reluctantly approached and tried to communicate. “Uh………hi, mister or miss wyvern, whatever gender you are,” the mare began. Another snarl left the wyvern's mouth that was licked in preparation by a long tongue. The beast liked what it saw, a potential dinner that had willingly come within it's reach, it's behavior indicating that it hadn't eaten for days. Instead of panicking Fluttershy simply continued. “I was simply going to ask you if you could possibly………leave us be?”

Behind her the group witnessed a conversation you wouldn't expect to find yourself in. Utterly dismayed, Twilight found her own hoof embedded against her face, a gesture that Applejack repeated. They had not expected Fluttershy to be so reluctant. Everyone was in danger yet the shy mare pegasus was unusually slow to act on everyone's behalf.

The wyvern sprang forward like a snake, trying to grap Fluttershy who evaded it in time with a sideways dive, the monster tracking it’s floating prey. A new snarl emanated from the long throat and the mouth widened to roar with a great force, the gust of air blowing Fluttershy's mane back and splattering her with strands of sticky drool.

The creature's last mistake. Shy or not, no one would be messing with Fluttershy's hygiene. Her eyes narrowed and began to radiate, locking to those of the wyvern. The Stare! Any creature that gets captured by it stands no chance. No different from it's preceding victims, the wyvern became frozen in place, visibly surprised as Fluttershy approached her attacker, settling right in front of the beast's eyes like she were repeating her encounter and discussion with the mountain dragon that had taken place years ago.

The tables had turned.

“That is not how you speak to a fine lady!” Fluttershy exclaimed angrily to which the wyvern returned a feedback of scared squirming, becoming visibly afraid, “Listen miss or mister wyvern!", I don’t know where you have learned your bad manners but that has got to change at once!" the enraged mare lectured, "You have no right to treat innocent travelers the way you do! Did I make myself clear?” she added and crossed her front hooves.

The creature was already nodding in panic, having curled up to a ball which grew a wide grin to every face in the closeby audience. “All she needs is some better self-confidence," Applejack giggled

Fluttershy wasn't done yet. “Now I’m going to ask you to be kind enough and leave us alone right away," she kept scolding the monster, "And don’t you dare bother anypony else either from this point on or else we are going to have another conversation about your manners. Alright?” To this the wyvern nodded in surrender and hastily uncoiled itself from it's fetus stance, moving away from Fluttershy with surprising speed. It's fear had overwhelmed what hunger had tormented it. This wyvern certainly wouldn't be attacking her again.

Deeming the situation safe, the naturalist rejoined her friends, the other mares applauding at the feat that she had once again pulled off. “You did it again, Fluttershy!” Rainbow congratulated to which she added a shoulder punch. “Way to go, sugar!” Applejack added to the already overwhelming praise.

”I think now is a good time to get the kids back home. This forest offers more dangers than that thing," Twilight remarked and pointed at the wyvern a distance away that they could still see retreat across a clearing littered by jagged trees.

It didn't get much further. An invisible entity snatched the creature diagonally from under the ground with a giant pincer and dragged it out of view, a happening that was over in a time shorter than it takes for you to say cupcake. The ground elevated from a belch at where the pincer had emerged, having swallowed it's prey. Witnessing it as it happened, the search party was muted by utter shock of the surprise.

“Poor wyvern still had so much more to learn,” Fluttershy deemed with sadness and wiped away a tear. As badly as it had behaved toward her she still felt sympathy for the creature.

Before them the clearing started to move again like a vertical lid, accompanied by loud tremors that shook the ground underneath the mare's hooves. Something immensely large was pushing it up from beneath as easily as you can open a garage door, the trees growing on top of the lid wobbling and spraying dry leaves from their aged branches. The enormous entity that had eaten the wyvern revealed itself, several armored limbs and feet that belonged to a giant trapdoor spider unlike any that Twilight and her companions had ever seen emerging with flexible motion. This spider was a colossal monster almost half the size of an Ursa Major, so huge that it had to live under the forest. Things had gotten more serious, an unfortunate fact that made Twilight's ears droop down.

“That………….is………….one……….big…..spider!!" Rarity barely managed to express from behind her own rattling teeth. “Wow! Compared to that the spiders in our barn look like scrawny mites,” came from the awestruck work horse who's mouth was hanging on it's hinges. Having exited it's hole, the spider looked down at the ponies, mandibles clicking against each other, the grid of eyes glowing greedily which everyone backed away from.

Twilight's limbs wobbled as she faced what new doom threatened her life, still taunting herself for having forgotten Owlowiscious before she noticed that Fluttershy had inexplicably disappeared from her side. “Uh……….Fluttershy?” she called out nervously as the waking spider's deep grunting and burping filled their ears. “F-F-Fluttershy? We……really…….need you again,” the unicorn repeated during which the monster finally moved forward, dragging it's huge sack of a body towards them, the long feet leveling the soft green turf. It belched again, another ground trembling step bringing it even closer as it's massive bulk brushed against the foliage. The forest was barely offering it enough space to move without toppling from it's path.

“Fluttershy! Where are you?!" the unicorn's terrified voice called for the only pony in the group who could turn the tables for their favor again, said pony now uncooperatively hiding under the big tree with the fillies and the colt. Two hooves shielded her head, every joint in her body trembling, a sight which Applejack's head popped between the roots to spot and gape at. "You’re not afraid of spiders!!" she literally roared. Instead of answering Fluttershy squeaked in fear, further shielding herself.

“Y-y-y-yes I am,” she stuttered quickly.

"How come?!" AJ shouted disbelievingly at what she was being told, "Ya get along fine with ones back at home!”

“Not when they are the size of a corn field.”

Despite loyalty to friends some occurrences can overwhelm a pony to such an extent that it leaves very little room for reasonable thinking. The animal handler had met her match. Taking it in, Applejack’s eyes crossed over each other from the sheer disbelief overload which resulted to an expected conclusion. The work horse flopped to her stomach and laid still, having fainted.

The spider was rubbing it's longer mandibles together like a cook sharpening knives. It was getting ready for the dessert following the wyvern. What distance there still was between it and the mares wasn't enough to give them the time needed to get out of the way. Twilight thought furiously, a neural process that did not fail her when she came up with a plan to buy everyone an opening. The unicorn concentrated at the essential move of her strategy and clenched teeth. A bright flash of light followed, released from her still glowing horn that was aimed at the monster's eye grid, a plan that succeeded to momentarily blind the attacker. “Run! Take cover!” Twilight cried out and rushed to the opposite direction, she knew that her small trick would only slow the spider for a few seconds, seconds that could separate them from painful death that she wanted her and her friends to be safe from.

Yet she had forgotten something essential, skidding to a halt once she remembered what it was. “The calves and Fluttershy!” Twilight gasped in horror. It was too late to regroup, the spider had already regained it's sight and lifted itself on all eight legs to chase the ponies that messed with it's vision, the fatter middle section now levitating over the forest on the support of the legs that carried the immense weight of it's user.

Things had gotten very serious indeed.

“Applejack!” Rarity called at the earth pony who now lied motionless beside the other threatened hiders. Applejack had gained consciousness just enough to realize what peril now faced her, Fluttershy and the calves when she looked up to see a giant armored leg land not far from her position. Deciding to take the gamble that she knew might already be lost, the mare rolled to the safety of the tree's underskirt, dropping her hat in the process. Her hoof reached over to grab it to pull her beloved decorative possession out of view, a perfect timing when the spider circled around the tree. If the ponies stayed still and quiet long enough there was still hope that they'd remain undiscovered.

“I’ll save you!”

The colossal spider looked up just in time to notice a cyan blur come flying at it with a bullet's speed. Landing a square hit at it’s armored face, Rainbow ricocheted back from the carapace of her robust opponent and came to a halt a few meters away, eyeballing the colossus and what it was doing. Even with the futility of trying to cause enough damage to the giant insect she put up her hooves with eagerness to fight it. “You might be hard as nails but you still have to keep up with me!” the mare gloated.

The spider grunted, lifting one of it’s pincers to deliver a strike which Rainbow dodged. An individual tree became an alarming example of the monster's brutal strength when the hit intended for the pony struck and shattered it's trunk. Not hindered by fear of what she had seen happen to the tree, the mare continued her attack with two corkscrews, skillfully passing around the spider’s legs to seek an optimal position. Rainbow spun like a drill bit and went for another offense, this time attacking one of the eyes in the grid with well aimed blow. Again the spider rubbed it’s face, getting antsy which tempted the mare pegasus moon and cackle at it. “Oh, look at the big bad spider. Over here, slow poke!” she again gloated to lure the eight legged behemoth away from her friends.

She had successfully drawn the creature's attention to herself but what happened next took Rainbow by surprise; The spider suddenly gave a primal shout of such intensity that it formed a strong whirlwind which struck her and caused the mare to spin backwards, ending up flattened against a tree. Without a sign of passive slowness the maddened spider was already upon her. Screaming, Rainbow pulled away to save her coat from a pincer that proceeded to uproot the tree as fast as you can unwrap a candy paper. Saved from the initial attack, the pegasus gasped when the trunk crashed over her landing position. The spider had used the tree as a fly swatter to hit what to it's point of view was a pesky blue fly that had yet again saved itself by moving out of the way.

Despite it's immense size the spider effortlessly jumped after her, chasing the flying pony through the clearing and threw away the tree that it was carrying. Agile like a four armed boxer with a fix at the flying nuisance of a meal, it delivered punches to thin air, each strong enough to shatter the pony's every bone. Now in a pickle, Rainbow was finding all of her acrobatic skills invaluable in avoiding herself from becoming mincemeat.

Momentarily losing track of what it was trying to turn to pudding, trees uprooted themselves at the path of the monstrous spider when it tore through the forest in a not-too-good mood, unused to work so much in catching meager evasive food, a beast that you wouldn't want to be in the same proximity with when it goes ponypoop crazy. Said lesson in her mind, the pegasus that had become a target to it's rage regret letting her guard down with beliefs about a finished mission as she pressed her back against an individual tree that she used as her hiding spot after diving out of view. Rainbow swallowed quietly and felt a new impact tremor rock her surroundings. Her breather wasn't going to last long, the colossal spider was already getting close.

Yet she wasn't by herself. Twilight and Rarity had joined right beside her to use the same tree for cover. “It’s tougher than I anticipated. There’s not much else that I'm capable of,” Rainbow whispered to her friends. “You can distract it," Twilight whispered back, "That way I will get enough time to reach that tree and teleport the children back to the corn field." “More of the same for other words," the tomboy of the group sighed, "Sounds like a plan."

The tree pulled away and was replaced by snapping pincers. The screaming mares fled for their lives as one such pincer burrowed itself to the soil, having again missed it's intended three targets. The titanic monster invertebrate hadn't given up on venting it's fury. And the ponies were it's stress relievers, something that was against reminded to Twilight, Rainbow and Rarity by a crashing noise that was followed by a whooshing current of air that blew their manes over their eyes. A trunk had just been uprooted and flung with great force, smashing against other trees several yards away. The spider's poor aim had thankfully spared them from an instant death.

Nearby a rattling suddenly became audible. “Stop rattling your teeth, Fluttershy," Applejack's loud exclaiming followed. Hearing it, the spider turned curiously. Distracted from chasing the other mares, it moved back towards the tree where Applejack and Fluttershy had been situated, their cover now blown. The group was running out of precious time.

“Oh no!” Twilight exhaled upon noticing, "Rainbow! Distract it away from them!"

The only pony capable of manouvering fast enough to stand a chance had taken flight again and was floating still on the support of her wings as she listened. “Here we go again.....," Rainbow shrugged reluctantly and went for a new dive, preparing herself for a new desperate struggle with a lethal powerhouse. Even with her expectations on a good basis she gad underestimated the opportunistic memory of her opponent that now anticipated her approach, having learned a thing or two about the pesky airial attacker. Guessing her position, the colossus positioned one of it’s limbs sideways to cut her off.

Unable to dodge what she couldn't spot in time, Rainbow bounced against the hard armor with all wind knocked out of her lungs and fell like a damaged fighter plane that formed an impact crater on the forest floor. Loose soil rained to litter the edges of the hole, two cyan hooves and a rainbow tail sticking above the ditch. “That was cheating! I want a rematch!” a delirious voice uttered from the bottom of the hole.

Scooping her up, the spider studied it’s captured meal with curiosity, stroking the rainbow mane and shaking her. It’s tongue slurped, sliding against the other tusk-like mandible. The wyvern may have been larger than most of the ponies but the spider's appetite was not gone. A small delicacy is still a delicacy which the colossus took along like a big child carrying a small blue doll during it's move towards the hiding ponies that it had seen. Helpless to assist, Twilight and Rarity remained aside to watch the unfolding tragedy, feeling small and helpless themselves against a foe that they had ran out of ways to repell.

The spider came upon the tree to uproot it which revealed Applejack, Fluttershy and the calves from underneath akin to pastel colored parodies of small burrowing insects that attempt to stay out of a predator's reach. Under the mercy of their potential doom, the eyes of the fillies and the pegasus grew wide. By now Applejack's toughness had gone on a vacation, the work horse feeling a new sensation within herslef when every bit of her body turned to jelly at the sight of the giant spider that reached at them. They had found the calves but could Mane 6 survive the forest inhabitant?

“Stop right there!” a powerful voice hissed which for reasons unknown seemed to have an immediate effect when the spider hesitated. “You won’t eat those ponies! Step away from the tree!” the voice continued, the same whisperer that had guided everyone to the location.

A brain housed deep within a mountain of soft parts and a hard carapace became confused. During it's entire thousand year lifespan no being had spoken to it like this. The giant spider was grumpy and hesitant, not appearing to have fully understood the demand of the whisper that continued, “I said step away from that tree!” it sounded much louder with a clear male tone.

Whoever was speaking had abandoned his mere whisper, all for a true need against an especially difficult customer that finally backed away from the uprooted tree. “Put her down. Now!” the voice shouted in awareness of the tiny captured figure that still dangled from one of the pincers. Afraid by the strange speaker that mastered it's tongue, the behemoth squealed nervously, carefully lowered Rainbow to the forest floor and swiftly pulled back once releasing it's grip from her. The voice had it under it's charm.

In the darkness of the trees the glowing ladybug symbol approached. As it got near the shadows subsided and revealed a green pegasus with a slightly messy brown mane sporting red highlights. The ladybug was situated at his flank, an apparent cutie mark. “Good girl. Now go back into your hole," his words resonated around the forest which the spider growled unhappily at. The other tiny creature had confiscated it's dessert.

"Just get out of here, you big brute!” the green pegasus exclaimed more loudly. Still repelled by the strange voice that spoke to it, the monstrous body sagged from a deep breath as it took in what it had been ordered to do. The colossal spider's cracking limbs leveled the soil when it pulled itself back to the giant hole entrance, crawled inside and forcefully slammed the lid shut which caused the trees on top to shake for a moment before everything settled to a rain of dry leaves.

The pegasus kept an eyeful watch on the spider’s hole to make sure that it wouldn't come back. Starting to descent from where he had been floating on his wings, the strange pony ended up next to Fluttershy, the calves and Applejack who simply returned a silent look at his surprisingly feminine facial features, the hooves of the pegasus eventually coming down.

“Are you hurt?” the pegasus asked the mares.

***