One Little Drone

Chapters

The Ark
The Expedition
The Survivor
The Flash
The Cry
The Mission
The Assembly
The Reprieve
The Corrosion

The Ark

Niadra quietly gazed out the filthy viewport at the front of the Infested Protoss refugee ship, watching a strange ball of green and blue drawing closer in the slime covered glass.

The Daelaam Ark had originally been a refugee ship, loaded with Protoss colonists during their flight from the ice planet of Kaldir. The mighty Kerrigan, the Queen of Blades, had landed on the icy planet originally to find more essence to improve her Swarm, only to find a large Protoss colony established there already. The Protoss were foolish enough to attempt to escape and warn the Golden Armada of their presence on the planet, but Kerrigan and her Zerg halted their escape at every turn...

Enter the Daelaam Ark. The Protoss had used this ship to colonize Kaldir and was using it to escape from the pursuing Zerg. There was no way to catch them. They were safe... But suddenly, a lone Protoss presence on the planet was revealed. Not leaving one of their own behind, she was transported onto the ship... and was subsequently destroyed by a Zerg larva that had been planted inside her by the humanized Queen of Blades.

Niadra was this larva. Kerrigan guided her throughout the ship, helping her survive and grow. When Niadra had matured into a full Broodmother, all hell broke loose. Niadra and her spawned Zerg swept through the Daelaam Ark, eradicating the Protoss within thoroughly and brutally.

When the last Protoss had fallen and the Ark's warp drive was destroyed, Niadra let out a triumphant, terrifying cry, and the Zerg she had spawned all joined in. Niadra reached out to Sarah Kerrigan to inform her Queen of her success. She was met with silence.

They were alone.

That day, Niadra resolved to grow her new Brood, using the ship itself and its former inhabitants to sustain themselves until they day they were needed again.

That was fifty years ago. Since then, her once thriving and terrifying Swarm had begun to dwindle as resources ran low. After they had run out of corpses to feed upon, they turned to the creatures the Protoss had been keeping in captivity for study. When they had been picked clean, they began to use the minerals stored on the ship. And following that, the ship itself.

While the outside of the vessel appeared perfect, the once pristine, shining, glorious interior of the ship was now dirty, damaged, and dark. They had fed upon the energy source to allow for their own growth and it left the ship devoid of light and power. All non-essential systems had been devoured; weapons, engines, sensors, anything not protecting the ship or keeping them alive. The Zerg Creep covered every inch of floor, fleshy and dark and emitting a certain odor that its creators recognized as theirs.

Broodmother Niadra watched the planet they approached with a small degree of anticipation. While her loyalty to her Queen was absolute, the prospect of settling in on an actual planet was welcome to her. It wasn't just the fact that the ship was slowly running out of oxygen, but it certainly put pressure on her. Her Zerg needed sustenance and time was running short...

At last, they had closed in on the planet enough to be pulled in by its gravity, making it accelerate towards the rocky ball of green. But without power to engines, there would be no way to safely land on the planet; Niadra was well aware of this. She ordered her Brood to prepare for a harsh landing upon the planet's surface as gravity pulled the ship directly into its atmosphere. Niadra wondered idly if entering orbit around the planet would have been better than a crash landing... No, it would have been a death sentence, with no way of restoring power or entering the atmosphere themselves. They did not have drop pods.

This could go badly, she remembered. Her Brood would no doubt be cut down by the landing, but with luck it would only be a small cut. It was a chance she had to take.

The Daelaam Ark began to rumble as the golden ship began to push into the atmosphere. The heat shield protected its hull for as long as possible, but without power to sustain the ship's plasma shields, it began to rip itself apart around them. Some of Niadra's Zerg cried out as they burned, but the Broodmother stood firm at the ship's non-functional helm. One could only guess why.

The heat tore holes in the ship and ripped her Zerg to pieces, leaving the craft in a state of grievous disrepair. Deep breaches of the hull had drained those compartments of air, but the braced Zerg attempted to endure. Some perished, others did not.

But after two agonizingly long minutes, they were through. Parts of the ship with holes in the hull flooded with oxygen, filling the craft with fresh, clean air. The bulk of the ship was on fire, though, further damaging it and dooming it.

Niadra watched through the forward viewport as the vessel rushed towards its eventual landing site: a heavily forested area with a sizable river running along it. On their path towards the ground, Niadra managed to briefly take in the surroundings, even as they hurtled right through them. They passed a large mountain, which had a curious, brilliant structure perched upon its side. The colors of this world, even in the planet's nighttime, were bright and vibrant... This was all she could gather before she noted that the ground was coming up fast.

She braced herself.

Nighttime in Ponyville was as peaceful as it usually was, with most of its residents having turned in for the night or being on their way to doing so. Animals were asleep in their pens or nests and little foals had long since exhausted themselves into a deep slumber. It was quiet, serene, perfect and picturesque.

Fluttershy sat near her fireplace at her cottage, quietly sipping a cup of tea that Zecora had given her ingredients for; she had had trouble with falling asleep recently, and the Zebra had very kindly given her an herbal remedy for her insomnia. She liked its taste. It had only needed a tiny bit of sugar.

The pink maned pegasus took a long sip of her now-warm beverage, letting out a quiet sigh and a following, fleeting yawn. Being awake so late did have its perks, she'd admit. The quiet allowed her time to think, and the relative solitude made her feel a little safer to relax. No eyes to judge meant no need to be shy. That being said, all of her animals were asleep and it was also rather lonely. And the quiet, while refreshing every now and again, allowed her mind to wander into bad places sometimes.

Fluttershy rubbed her eye with one hoof, quietly wishing she didn't need the tea to fall asleep. The cottage was dark, illuminated by the occasional candle and the light from her fireplace. But these lights were enough to cast shadows all over the place, and every time she saw one, she flinched and cowered, if only once per shadow. It was unnerving for the poor little pegasus... Perhaps another cup of tea might help it along?

The Element of Kindness stood up and walked to her kitchen to put on another kettle, heating it slowly in case she decided to change her mind. And that's when a new light filled the room, never mind the entire area. She gasped and cowered behind a table as the illumination moved... it looked like something was burning and falling!

The sudden, loud, metallic noise it made upon landing confirmed it, its impact gently rattling her home. Her thoughts immediately turned to her animals, which she could now hear crying out in panic and protest at the foreign object and its rude interruption of their slumber. Fluttershy ran outside to check on her animals, bursting out her front door and stopping in her tracks at what she saw. She was not afraid of it for once... But she was awestruck...

Despite the fact that the object was currently on fire, it was alien and... beautiful. Its golden surface, while charred and slightly melted by an intense heat, gleamed gloriously in the firelight... Fluttershy's next thoughts were about the fire. She spread her wings and flew straight up to fetch a cloud, finding one nearby and moving it over the strange object... and that was when she saw it. In the distance, heading away from Ponyville, was a ball of flame that was on a westbound course. She could only guess at its true destination, but for the time being, she focused on putting out the fire. She squeezed the water out of that poor cloud and extinguished the flames.

Flammable crisis averted, she flew back down to solid ground and stared at the object from afar, slowly beginning to approach it. The thing was about as large as... Big Mac, perhaps, but it still seemed too small to hold anypony or any other creature that Fluttershy might have the (mis)fortune of encountering.

After a long minute of just walking forward, she concluded that it was just an object. Nothing within it was alive... But it made her stomach turn uncomfortably; a grotesque splattering of red adorned the non-golden side of the jagged debris. Fluttershy did not want to think about who or what left it or how. She needed to tell somepony and quickly. And so she spread her wings once more and made a beeline for Ponyville, hoping that her friend was still awake.

Twilight Sparkle took a long drink of coffee from her mug and then poured herself another cup as she pored over a new book she had found that day. It was a mystery novel, penned by an emerging writer by the name of Novel Tale. And she was enjoying it profusely. She had attempted to go to sleep midway through the book, but she couldn't stop thinking about where she had left off. Thirty minutes more and she could take it no longer. She picked the book back up and resumed where she left off, a soft smile adorning her face. So wrapped up in her book was she that she didn't even notice the strange light that streaked across the sky until it was almost gone.

"... Huh?" she uttered quietly, marking her page and walking over to her window. Her eyes shot open and her mouth hung slightly agape. "A shooting star!" she emitted in an awed tone, watching it fly west over Ponyville. As she saw this, she also noted some things falling off of the star... while meteorites often broke up upon entering the atmosphere, this one was obviously no longer in the atmosphere, considering how low it was to the ground and how much light it was giving off.

Chancing blindness, she looked into a telescope she had placed at that window and aimed it at the unidentified flying thingy, watching its descent... Upon closer inspection, it didn't appear to be a meteorite at all... but some kind of... flying contraption. Sure, it was on fire, but it was also coated in gold plating that peeled off as it fell. Twilight wondered at the possibilities.

When the UFO was out of her sight from that window, she moved her telescope to another to continue watching... It must have been one heck of a thing, because she saw it near the ground and then disappear into a mass of trees in the western distance. Her eyes lit up; if she could get out to the White Tail Woods and examine the object, who knows what she'd find! This thought alone excited her more than the book had, getting her to do a little excited dance in place as she knew nopony would see it.

She heard a sudden knock on her door, startling her a little bit and making her look at the staircase back to the library. Twilight crept to the stairs - careful not to wake the sleeping Spike - and went down them, using her magic to open the door before she got there.

"... Fluttershy? What are you doing here this late?" the unicorn asked, watching as her shy friend walked in with a rather... spooked look on her face. "Are you alright?" The yellow pegasus didn't answer until she was close to her friend, looking down and away as she spoke with that soft, meek tone of hers.

"I'm sorry. I hope I didn't wake you."

"No, I was already awake. Did you see that shooting star thing?"

Fluttershy nodded. "I did. I saw it going toward White Tail Woods."

"I think it was an airship of some kind!"

"Y-You do?" Fluttershy answered, her tone seeming discouraged.

"... Is that a bad thing?"

"... W-Well, I... Something fell next to my cottage... it scared all of the animals and it was on fire..." The meek pony took a deep breath before continuing. "... And it had b-b.... blood on it... I think..."

Twilight raised an eyebrow at that one, her excitement souring a little. "... Blood...?"

Her friend nodded, saying nothing. Twilight Sparkle let out a soft sigh and put a hoof on Fluttershy's shoulder.

"Do you want to sleep here tonight?"

Fluttershy nodded.

"Okay... I want to see it tomorrow, though... do you mind?"

Fluttershy shook her head no.

"Alright. Let me make up a bed for you."

The sun had just begun to rise over the eastern horizon, casting its dim first light upon the wreckage of the Daelaam Ark. The Protoss vessel was a scene of carnage and grotesque horror... Zerg blood was everywhere, as were pieces of the ship. The ship itself was still smoking and on fire, but not as badly as it had been before - perhaps the impact was good enough to snuff some of it out.

If any life forms had seen fit to explore the ruined Ark, they would find nothing. All of its occupants were dead. Every last one. Even Broodmother Niadra, whom had stood so stoically (and perhaps foolishly) at the helm of the doomed ship had perished - her midsection had been crushed under bent metal and earth and the gore stretched for at least ten yards from her corpse in several directions.

All was quiet.

... Until something shifted under a mound of dirt, then popped out and shook itself off. It was an insect-like creature, with six large eyes and crab claws. Its back was lightly armored, and a strange orange-ish webbing connected four bone appendages sprouting from both sides of its body. A Zerg Drone.

It blinked its six eyes twice, then turned itself to examine its surroundings.. Or rather, it tried. Instead, it got a faceful of dirt. Its float bladder must have been damaged in the crash... It tried again, and to no avail. A deep, guttural hiss escaped its maw as it began to use its webbed, fleshy "wings" to turn itself, gazing upon the wreckage. The ship was destroyed and all of the Zerg within were dead. It did not care that it was in a forest.

It noted something odd. Nothing was exerting control over it. It wasn't being told to do anything. It wasn't being made to gather resources, to defend itself, or to mutate and spend the rest of its life as a building in service of the Swarm.

It knew only one thing: it must multiply.

The drone clumsily began to turn itself away from the Daelaam Ark's wreckage, then started to move itself forward, navigating around trees mindlessly while creatures around it hid from it. They knew it to be an alien, but that was enough to deter them from approaching it or attempting to eat it. In its wake, it left a trail of messy, but obvious tracks, using its stabilizing membranes to drag itself forward and occasionally attempting to float.

Twilight examined the fragment of the ship closely, trying not to think about what had been splattered across the interior of the debris as she looked it over. "... It's definitely not something anypony we know would make..." she remarked while the rest of her friends, never mind a few of Ponyville's early risers looking on. "... When did the Princess say they'd be taking it?" she asked, glancing towards the rest of the Elements.

"Any minute now. I do wish they could leave it here, though... Such gold would make delightful dresses!" Rarity replied, earning an eye roll from a few ponies.

"Rarity, I don't even know if it is gold," Twilight reminded her, shaking her head. "Besides, it's from outer space! It could be aliens!"

A look of "You can't be serious" washed over many faces, but none of them got to express their disagreement as a chariot appeared in the sky and began to fly down to them. Once landed, the pegasi drawing it, plus a few earth ponies in the slightly larger chariot, approached the artifact and pulled it out of the ground. Twilight attempted to speak to them, but was met only with silence. It was like she wasn't even there to them. Then they carefully loaded it into the chariot before taking it away. They said nothing to anypony.

"... Well... That was rude..." the purple unicorn commented, frowning a little.

The Drone had finally traveled far enough. It had found what it was searching for: minerals. They were not plentiful, but even on this strange world, there were those precious blue crystals, just waiting to be harvested.

The Zerg worker immediately set about to gathering them. Its pincers cut and picked away at the blue crystals, occasionally taking a large chunk it had broken off to a small, grassy clearing within the Woods. It mindlessly mined those minerals and did not stop for anything, despite the long, daunting, tedious task (only made worse by its inability to hover. By itself, the progress was slow - agonizingly slow. It gathered them one by one, taking at least a good 15 minutes to pry any worthwhile piece off.

By the time it was finished, it was already midday. A sizable pile of minerals were gathered in the clearing, gleaming softly in the light. The Drone stood next to them, looking at them with its expressionless eyes. After a moment, it approached them and began to devour them quickly. It broke them down with its pincers and crab like claws, eating them voraciously until not a single piece remained.

The very second it was finished, the Zerg laid down on the grass, its finned spines resting on the ground as its eyes closed. Its body began to expand into a sort of cocoon, growing larger and larger until it was the size of a small house. And there it remained for a long while, changing and preparing to continue to multiply...

Author's Note

Will be updated sporadically alongside Your Kingdom is Gone. Hope you guys like it!

I had this idea a day or two ago and I thought... huh... This could work... So here it is. Please, leave feedback when you're done. I love feedback. It lets me know that people actually read my shit, as opposed to just looking at it and going "Oh, another story about something from space landing in Equestria." I won't deny that this is true. But... Well, what do you want from me? I'm just a dude writing fanfiction on the internet and reading other fanfiction written by other dudes.

Extra Author's note: I predict that the next few chapters may be shorter. I don't know. Just warning you.

Also, Novel Tale is from a story called "A Novel Tale" by Blissey1. I referenced him because I'm a lazy fuck. In all seriousness, I liked that story a lot. I thought it was pretty well thought out and gave a pretty neat perspective on changelings. Give it a read if you haven't.

Bye.

The Expedition

Celestia's noon sun shone down on Ponyville wonderfully that day, despite it all. The ponies whom had seen the "shooting star" that night were ecstatic and eagerly spreading the word about the foreign object. Some ponies dismissed it. Others shared the wonder with their friends.

No matter the case, Twilight Sparkle and Applejack wore saddlebags while Spike rode with the former, buying supplies for their trek. See, Twilight Sparkle knew where the Protoss ship had crashed: somewhere in the White Tail Woods to the west. And she just had to go and find it! At best, it could provide research that would change Equestria forever! ... And at worst, it would make an interesting letter to the Princess.

"Aren't ya worried that it could be dangerous?" Applejack quipped, dropping a few bits on a store counter as the clerk made four canteens float right into the earth pony's saddlebags, which were for Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and herself. Twilight and Rainbow Dash already had one.

"Applejack, come on," Twilight replied, turning around and leaving the building while Spike reclined on her back and munched on an apple. "I think we'll be fine looking at a crashed... thing." Twilight still wasn't sure what that object was from last night, but that was the purpose of this expedition, wasn't it?

"But what about that blood on that thing in Fluttershy's yard?" the orange mare persisted, following Twilight towards the library where everypony (hopefully) was waiting for them. "I don't think some ol' space rock up an' killed somepony. Whatever made those stains could still be out there!"

Twilight nodded in acknowledgement; Applejack had a good point. It was also a point she had considered long before and fully accepted. But with the six of them, they had little to fear, she figured. "I know, Applejack, but we'll be fine! C'mon!" she said in reply, shaking her head.

"... Ah never said ah wasn't comin', Twi," Applejack pointed out, shaking her head.

"Oh, good! Then come on!" Twilight excitedly emitted, beginning to gallop off towards her home while Applejack quickly began to chase her.

Shortly after their arrival at Twilight's home, Spike had disembarked from his caretaker's back and went around the library to prepare Twilight's balloon. Sure, they had Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash to search from the air, but the bookworm had decided that going by air would be quicker and safer.

Upon entering the library, she saw everypony preparing and waiting for their return. Rainbow Dash was stretching and getting ready for a good flight. Fluttershy was quietly sitting in the corner of the room, clearly lost in thought and not liking where her mind was leading her. Pinkie Pie was very happily having a nonsensical conversation with Twilight's pet owl. And Rarity was fussing over her messy mane; apparently a certain cyan pegasus had seen fit to crash into her and to ruin her perfectly groomed mane.

All of the above turned to look up at the arriving mares, smiling and greeting them in friendly tones. Even Fluttershy gave her unnerving contemplation a rest to say hello. "Good afternoon, everypony~" Twilight said, using her magic to lift the canteens from Applejack's saddlebag and into reach of the mares they were for. "Please fill these. Are you all ready?"

The resounding reply was a yes. Even the shy yellow pony gave an affirming answer, despite its near inaudible volume. Twilight smiled widely and jumped a little with excitement, running back out of the library at breakneck, Pinkie Pie speeds. Even Pinkie Pie, the second out the door, couldn't catch up to her. The other four ponies could only hazard guesses... if they tried, anyways. They didn't.

With the two most excited ones out of the way, Applejack let out a sigh and removed her hat to wipe her face with a hoof. "... I hope ya'll're ready," she told the others, though seeing as Rainbow Dash flew out the window the second she opened her mouth, she really only had two listening.

"Is something the matter, Applejack?" Rarity quipped, approaching the earth pony with an appropriately puzzled expression. "It's just a meteor, right? Filled with gold and Celestia knows what else-ohoooooooo! I'm so excited!" That sudden descent into squee surprised even Rarity, the white unicorn having to take a moment to compose herself. Applejack could only laugh at that, but continued regardless. "Ah'm just sayin' Ah've got a bad feelin' is all... call it a hunch."

"Oh come now, Applejack," came the reply she was expecting. "I'm sure that... blood has a perfectly good reason for being there."

"You're soundin' aw'fly greedy right now, Rarity," the farmer observed aloud. For a moment, the Element of Generosity looked offended, but a few seconds later, she composed herself once more.

"You're absolutely right, Applejack. That was childish and selfish of me," she apologized in her normal tone, closing her eyes shaking her head - presumably at herself. "This is an expedition, not a gem hunt. Come, Fluttershy, let's not keep the others waiting."

Rarity left the library, leaving Applejack slightly surprised, but impressed. That just left Fluttershy, but it seemed like she wouldn't have to start the conversation herself.

"Um... Applejack?"

"Yeah, Sugarcube?"

"... I'm really worried... I think somepony might be hurt over there..."

Applejack had to REALLY strain herself not to express her worry over their own skins; she didn't want to terrify poor Fluttershy. So she just nodded in agreement and turned to leave, followed closely by Fluttershy.

A short ways away from Twilight's library home, Spike had prepared the hot air balloon the ones without wings would be flying in for the duration of their trip, the pink and purple balloon inflated and ready. The six mares approached it and the baby dragon grinned, proud of his work. "Here you go, girls!" he declared, then immediately ran to Twilight, whom smiled and nodded. She opened her saddlebag and made a big, juicy emerald float out. "You've earned it~" she told him happily, passing the gem to the little guy and watching him stare at it hungrily. She didn't normally reward him with such big gems, but for something like prepping the balloon (which was hard for a little guy like him), Twilight thought he deserved it.

Spike snatched the stone out of the air and hugged it, then walked off towards the library to feast. Twilight hopped into the balloon and watched as her all her friends got in with her, save for Rainbow Dash. Obvious reasons.

"Everypony ready?"

Another resounding yes. A yes that prompted the purple unicorn to lift off with the balloon, carrying them towards the White Tail Woods.

It was a relatively uneventful half hour of flight as the mane six flew west. They wouldn't ever have any issues finding the wreck, thanks to the smoke coming from the still burning wreckage. With help from Rainbow Dash, the balloon began to descend towards its destination.

It wasn't long after that before all six Elements were standing near the wreckage, eyeing it with varying degrees of excitement. Applejack and Fluttershy were in the same boat about their feelings being here, the unicorns were ecstatic and practically flew to the ruined Ark, and Pinkie Pie bounced after them while humming a strange tune in a low tone. And Rainbow Dash was flying to grab a raincloud to try to put out the flames.

Twilight had to marvel at the object... it was huge, gleaming in what sunlight reached it. Its parts were twisted in an obviously unintended manner that still struck her as... majestic. Moreover, the ship seemed awfully similar to a manta ray in shape, despite the damage.

But there was definitely one thing that bugged the lavender unicorn, as well as Rarity and Pinkie Pie: it reeked of death. She wrinkled her nose and used her magic to cover it, her and her friends' faces showing their disgust.

"Ewww! What's stinky?" the party pony said for all of them while Rainbow Dash flew overhead with a cloud or two and began fighting the fires.

"I don't know... I might as well find out now," Twilight said in turn, taking a deep breath through her mouth before stepping closer to a large hole in the ship's hull.

Despite the daylight and the many holes in the Protoss craft, the interior was still very dark. She could barely see more than a few feet in front of her. Of course, she had a fix for that. Her horn lit up and an orb of light appeared at its tip, casting a cool purple light over the darkened ruins of the ship.

She immediately regretted her decision. As soon as the light came on, her eyes shrank to pinpricks and she jumped back in surprise with an accompanying scream. Her breathing became heavy and her stomach began to churn uncomfortably. Very close to where she had been standing, a dead Hydralisk was hanging from the ceiling, its bottom half impaled on a jagged piece of metal. Its horrifying visage was blank, but it also gave a close, easy, disgusting view of its fangs and its grotesque head and eyes. It didn't help that it was still bleeding, the red liquid dripping onto the metallic floor at a steady pace.

Immediately, Twilight's friends ran in to check on the frightened unicorn, but Twilight quickly turned to them. "Waitwaitstop!" she said frantically, trying to get in their way. The sudden movement didn't lessen her nausea any. "D-Don't look! ... urp..." she then insisted, forgetting about the light still radiating from her horn. Her friends, of course, looked past her to see what had scared her and let out a collective gasp upon seeing the corpse and catching the rancid stench.

Fluttershy immediately fainted while Applejack used her hat to cover her mouth and nose. Rarity backed away and Rainbow Dash awkwardly returned to putting out the exterior fires. Only Pinkie Pie seemed to be cool about the situation.

"That's gross!" she commented loudly, trotting past her brainy friend and getting a closer look at the lifeless Zerg. As Twilight turned to look at her friend, the light illuminated more of the room and... well, that did it for her stomach. The sight of many scorched, broken, crushed, impaled Zerglings lined up against the wall with viscera spread all over the room brought a lump of hot bile up into Twilight's throat. She immediately turned her head and shut her eyes, letting it out with several disgusted, distressed noises.

Applejack, now more concerned about her friend, began breathing deeply and approaching Twilight, trying to ignore the smell and the death that threatened to empty her own belly. "You gonna be okay, Sugarcube?" she asked in a concerned tone, rubbing Twilight's back with a hoof.

Once Twilight finished vomiting, she groaned, spitting at the taste and shaking her head out. "... I-I think so... Ughhh... Sweet Celestia, it's..." she started, then just walked back out the way she came. "... I need a moment..."

Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie was now taking that opportunity to explore the ship. For whatever reason, the overpowering stench and atrociously gory display didn't affect her as much as it had her friends, so she decided to look around more. The ground beneath her suddenly felt squishy as she went deeper into the dark ship, letting out a disgusted "ewwwwww..." as she stepped out of it. A hole in the ceiling showed it to be a dark purple layer that covered the floor, but it also appeared to be... disappearing, receding... Without the Zerg to sustain it, the Creep was beginning to vanish.

Pinkie Pie backed up into the light and took off her saddlebags, then pulled out... a gas mask? Considering its size, it shouldn't have ever been able to fit, but then, Pinkie Pie had never been one to make sense. Anypony that would try to make sense of her would just be wasting their time.

"And don't you forget it, Mister."

... Right...

Extra awareness aside, the pink pony left the ship with the mask firmly clutched in her teeth, approaching Twilight Sparkle and putting it down next to her. The nauseous unicorn looked at it, then at her friend, then managed a smile as she put the thing on. "Thanks, Pinkie..." she muttered, using her magic to adjust the mask before taking a deep breath. Then she rose, starting back towards the ship and steeling herself. "... I'm going back in to look around..."

And so she did. She reentered the destroyed Protoss ship and did her best to ignore the gory displays that surrounded her. She recast her light and walked into the same room Pinkie Pie had stopped in, spying Rainbow Dash flying away through another hole in the ceiling; she probably needed another cloud. Immediately, she saw the Creep, noting its recession and watching it intently. Her horn glowed a little brighter as she produced a quill and notepad from her saddlebag, beginning to record what she was seeing.

She poked the floor coating slime and grimaced at its squishy texture, taking note of it. Even as her hoof drew near it, and even as it died away without its creators, the substance felt warm. Twilight swallowed and began to walk over the Creep, her expression clearly disgusted as she crossed the gross, gooey... carpet. She entered through another door and found herself bathed in light from a large window at the other end of the room. Sure, it was dirty on both sides, but the extra rain water from her flyer friend's work helped a little.

This light helped her to see... just how horrendous the room was. Closest to the window, she could see a huge creature that had been... for lack of a better way of putting it, crushed, burned, and sliced in half. Her eyes followed the trail of red straight to its corpse, and noted just how far the spray must have been. "Thank Pinkie for gas mask," she scribbled on her notepad before readying a new page and taking more notes.

Of course, she needed to move further into the bridge, but as she did, she had to avert her eyes very quickly. There were so many dead creatures lining the floor in this room that she nearly screamed and passed out. So much blood - on the walls, on the ceilings, on that huge creature near the front, even on the Creep. "Therapy," came another note to self.

Twilight dimmed her light to reduce her exposure to the horrific scene around her, trying to tell herself that she was safe as she crossed the room and distanced herself from the front of the Ark. But as she half-blindly trudged through the bridge, her front right hoof knocked something hard, small and glassy. The impact made her jump quite a bit, a terrified yelp escaping her lips and being muffled by her mask. Thankfully, the light from the window was enough to find the culprit without use of her spell. She picked it up with her magic and examined it closely.

It was a metallic cylinder with glass rounding the middle, a strange black liquid contained within. On each end of the tube, there were foreign symbols that she couldn't make out. The unicorn carefully slipped it into her saddlebags and continued on, leaving the bridge.

Once out, she cast her light again and... smiled a little. The new room seemed quite clear of death and viscera, so the unicorn took a few ste- NEVER MIND. Charred bodies everywhere! Twilight grimaced fiercely, looking to the other end of that room for a hole and dashing to it. Then she immediately jumped out of it, ripping the gas mask off once she had landed and breathing heavily. She shut her eyes and collapsed onto the ground next to the ship, her entire body shaking.

Having a concerned, cyan hoof touching her shoulder didn't help much. Rainbow Dash's touch made her jump quite impressively. Her pinprick-ed pupils snapped onto the rainbow maned mare, standing in a wary manner. "You okay, Twilight?" she quipped, folding her wings as she felt a few lingering drops of water hit her back. At least the fires were out now.

Twilight Sparkle calmed down once she saw who it was, sitting on her haunches and bowing her head. "... I... I don't want to go back in there again..." she uttered in a voice just barely loud enough to be heard. "... E-E-Everything in t-there is dead..." the bookworm then stammered, swallowing hard and then magically whipping out her canteen to take a long drink. "... D-Don't let Fluttershy go in there... she'll never sleep again..."

Hearing this, Rainbow Dash nodded and came along side the distressed pony, helping her to get up and to walk around the ship. By this time, Applejack and Rarity were looking at the hull of the Ark, shooting ideas about how to peel off that gold between each other. Pinkie Pie was still humming that strange tune and Fluttershy was near a patch of upset earth, examining it intently.

When they saw their brainy friend enter sight, though, they all ran over to see what was wrong. All but Fluttershy, anyways. They began bombarding the scarred mare with questions, but instead of answering them, she threw her notepad down on the grass to let them read it. She didn't want to repeat what she had seen.

Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash gathered around the notepad and peered at her writings. Pinkie Pie uttered a cheerful "you're welcome" at one point, but said nothing else like her friends. Twilight watched them read, but noticed Fluttershy's absence... Her eyes went wide again; had Fluttershy seen the inside? She got back on her hooves and looked past the other's heads, seeing the yellow pegasus standing several yards away and looking at something.

Twilight ran to her shy friend, seeing her glance back as she approached. "Fluttershy? Is everything alright?" she quipped, stopping next to the Element of Kindness while the sounds of four sets of hooves approaching them filled the crash site.

"... Y-Yes... I just..." Fluttershy began, looking away for a moment. "I saw this patch of dirt here... like something came out of it." She looked towards said patch of dirt, letting Twilight see it. "And there are these tracks over here... M-Maybe somepony is still alive?" she posed in that same sweet, meek, unassuming tone she always used when she wasn't around new ponies or angry. "... Oh... but what if they're hurt...? It looks like they were hurt..."

Twilight turned her attention to those markings in the grass as the rest of the Elements arrived, watching the lavender unicorn approach those tracks and slipping the notepad back into her saddlebags. They were understandably disturbed now, but seeing Twilight distracted them. "... I've never seen tracks like these before," she mused aloud.

"Me neither..." added Fluttershy, spreading her wings and flying a few feet off of the ground. She could see the strange tracks extending from there, and deeper into the White Tail Woods. Twilight looked back at the rest of her friends, taking a deep breath before speaking.

"I think we should follow them..."

All ponies present agreed, to which the Element of Magic nodded. The mane six began to follow the trail in a brief period of complete silence.

The walk, though, was calming. They all knew these Woods as the site of the Running of the Leaves in autumn, but hadn't had a reason to enter them otherwise. It was an interesting thing, especially for Applejack and Rainbow Dash as they made a point of trying to recognize points that the race had taken them to. Pinkie Pie just continued to hum while Rarity tried to figure out what the hay that song was. Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle led the group, keeping tabs on the tracks and leading the other four mares along without a word.

The cocoon had grown... it was beginning to root itself on the ground, to steady itself... The Drone within was preparing for the final stages of its new mutation, writhing around inside in apparent agony. The process wasn't exactly pleasant, given the rapid growth and mutation. But it lived for the Swarm, control or not. And without this one little Drone putting itself through hell, the Swarm could not grow.

And so it squirmed and struggled within its self made cocoon, preparing to fulfill its soon-to-be singular new purpose: multiply...

Author's Note

Edit: Here, have a shitty paint image I made of the tracks.

Chapter 2 already! Woo! I'm on a roooooooooooooll. Yep. Less than 24 hours and I'm givin' ya chapter 2. *self back pat* Comments and feedback are welcomed greatly. Seriously, I work better when people like what I do. On the other hand, if I'm doing something wrong, point it out. Help me improve... Or just be a dick for my amusement. I dunno... I feel like I forgot something...

Not sure if this needs a mature rating.

The Survivor

The trail of alien tracks led the six main mares through a good portion of the White Tail Woods at this point, their trek having lasted over an hour. The small amount of energy they had begun with had long since dissipated, and the six mares now walked in near silence. Even Pinkie Pie was quiet, discounting her persistent humming.

Twilight Sparkle was now quietly wishing she had asked somepony to go and get the balloon. Her hooves were getting tired from the long walk and while she wasn't about to break down over it, it was still there and annoying. She took a moment to look back at her friends. Rainbow Dash was clearly bored out of her mind as she flew in low, lazy circles around the group, her hooves behind her head as she tried to amuse herself. Pinkie Pie was still humming weird tunes. The rest just walked along, saying nothing and probably lost in thought.

At the very least, their excursion had given them time to stop thinking about the death. While the first leg of their tracking trek was wrought with worry and apprehension, they had calmed down considerably as time dragged on. Fear still held onto their minds, but they did have somepony they knew they could rely on: Fluttershy.

Fluttershy was a very valuable ally to have in a situation like this; whatever left these tracks would no doubt be put at ease by their animal loving friend's caring nature. And if worse came to worst, it would definitely crumble under the Stare, alien or not. Her presence helped put them at ease, whether the shy one realized it or not.

Applejack fiddled with her hat as she went along, shaking her head out after such and letting her eyes restlessly wander, occasionally watching her flying friend and sharing her boredom.

Rarity was fiddling with a small piece of the ship she had snagged when nopony was looking, mentally putting together patterns and designs for a new clothing line based of the ruined majesty of the craft she took it from. It could be her ticket to stardom!

Fluttershy intently watched the strange tracks still thinking about the poor creature that could have left them. They looked like whatever had made them was hurt and had to drag itself to wherever it was going. Could it be a survivor? Part of her hoped it wasn't; that Hydralisk was definitely scary, no doubt about it, so the thought that there could be more of them didn't sit well with her.

Speaking of whom, Fluttershy took a look forwards to see where the trail might curve when she saw something in a clearing ahead. The yellow pegasus stopped and looked back at her friends. "E-Everypony... look..." she uttered in that barely audible tone of hers. The other five mares ran forward to see what Fluttershy had seen and then gasped when they did.

In that clearing was a strange, orange, fleshy looking mound, twitching and throbbing in place. It gave off a subtle, but no less disgusting scent that filled the immediately surrounding air, but not reaching far enough to affect the Element Bearers.

"... What is that?" Rarity emitted, her brain likely still deciding whether or not to be disgusted. Then she turned her gaze a few degrees to the right and her eyes lit up. "And what are those?!" came her next query as she locked eyes on a collection of blue, shining crystals, beginning to gallop towards them with stars in her eyes.

"It looks like a big lava bubble!" came Pinkie's observation, beginning to bounce off towards the cocoon before anypony could stop her.

"Wait, Pinkie!" Applejack and Twilight called, beginning to chase the pink earth pony towards the mutating Zerg. Fluttershy began cautiously approaching the cocoon while fighting herself to keep going, and Rainbow Dash flew into the middle of the clearing, looking around for the alien. She honestly didn't think that that gross mound of flesh beneath her was it. Idly throwing her gaze downwards, she raised an eyebrow; she could see the silhouette of something moving around inside it... To her, it looked like a scorpion.

Twilight and Applejack pursued their airheaded friend all the way to the alien cocoon and the former used her magic to stop her from using it as a trampoline, making her float back down to solid, grassy ground. "Pinkie Pie, we don't know what that is! Don't touch it!" she scolded, giving Pinkie Pie a once over and sighing. Pinkie had managed to touch it, and her front hooves were now lightly coated in a thin, slimy layer of colorless goop.

"Relax, Twilight~!" the bubbly one chimed in reply. "I'm okay! And nothing bad's gonna happen! You worry too much." The bookworm could only shake her head and rub at her head with a hoof, letting out a frustrated groan as Pinkie Pie bounded away.

"So what do ya think it is, Twi?" Applejack queried, watching as Twilight pulled out her notepad and quill and began taking down observations about the organic growth before them. "It doesn't look like it could've left those tracks. Doesn't even look like it has legs."

Twilight nodded at that and began to walk around the cocoon, putting that question down in her notepad and flipping to a new page. "Your guess is as good as mine, Applejack..." she replied, looking back and forth between her writing and the orange bubble rapidly.

"Twilight! Come look at this!" That call came from Rarity, whom was beckoning Twilight over to that cluster of odd blue crystals. The purple unicorn began walking towards her fashionista friend, but stopped on her way there. There were more tracks in the grass here, but they overlapped with each other in many places. Some of these tracks were also slightly deeper than the others, but she wasn't sure why.

"... Looks like somethin' was goin' back an' forth here," Applejack observed, her eyes following the path between the cocoon and the mineral patch.

"I was thinking the same thing..." came Twilight's agreement, continuing on her way towards Rarity. The Element of Generosity met them halfway.

"Twilight! Can you believe this?!" she cried dramatically, pointing a hoof at one particular set of crystals. That set looked like something had been trying to break it, and several chunks of it had been forcefully removed. "That alien had the nerve to ruin these... beautiful gems!"

Applejack and Twilight walked closer to the partially mined minerals and examined them, the latter doing so more closely than the former. Twilight Sparkle had never seen these kinds of crystals before, but she could see why Rarity was outraged at their damage. The mid-afternoon sunlight hit those minerals and made them shine brilliantly. It wouldn't take a genius to deduce that Rarity was now fiercely brainstorming. "... Are these sapphires, Rarity?" Twilight inquired, derailing Rarity's train of thought.

The marshmallow-y pony peered up at Twilight, then at the mineral patch. A moment later, she let out a quick, gentle sigh. "I'm afraid not. I'm not sure what kind of gems these are," she admitted, seeming just a smidgen embarrassed that she didn't know. "Could they have come with the..." She trailed off, searching for the word. "... ship?"

Twilight frowned and looked down thoughtfully, then at the crystals. She eyed the bottom of said crystals, then dug gently at the ground near the base of said crystals. It was then that she noticed how the grass seemed to stop growing a few feet away from the minerals, leaving simple dirt to surround them. Oh well. Easier to dig.

A brief bout of digging at the base of the mineral patch revealed that they were firmly stuck in the ground. "... Well, they go down a little deeper, but I don't think they came from the ship," Twilight observed aloud. "Besides, I don't think they would be all the way over here if they had come with it."

"But how could they be here for so long without anypony findin' 'em?" Applejack posed, trying to dig the hole a little deeper. "Ah mean, the Runnin' of the Leaves goes through most of the Woods. Somepony shoulda seen 'em before if they were here."

Twilight nodded at that; Applejack had a point. But then again, the last Running of the Leaves competition was nearly a year ago. It wasn't entirely impossible that they could've formed in that time. "... Rarity? I suppose you're going to anyways, but make sure you can take home some for me, too, okay?" she requested, receiving an "of course!" from the fashionista, who then set about to attempting to try and mine off some pieces.

The purple unicorn then turned around to face the cocoon, walking towards it while Applejack set about to assisting Rarity. She could hear grunts of exertion and comments on how tough it was to break as she walked away. She could see Rainbow Dash flying just a few feet over the top of the cocoon, watching the movement inside as if she were in a trance. Fluttershy had worked up the courage to begin checking the morphing Zerg for injuries. And Pinkie Pie was poking and prodding it all over with her tongue stuck out the side of her mouth. Who could possibly guess what she was doing?

Twilight noticed Rainbow Dash first, trying to get her attention with a quick "Hey, Rainbow Dash?" She didn't respond at first, so the unicorn tried again. "Hey, Rainbow Dash?!" This time, the rainbow maned pegasus shook herself to attention, looking to her sides before down at Twilight.

"Oh, what is it, Twilight?"

"What are you watching?"

Rainbow blinked once at her friend before answering. "Watching? ... Oh, uh... It looks like there's some kind of bug moving around in there. Looks kinda like a scorpion," she answered, looking back down at the top of the cocoon. Her eyes shot wide open. "Whoa! It just got huge!"

Twilight sorely wished she could fly; she would have loved to see what RD was seeing. She imagined it would explain why the cocoon suddenly stopped moving. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash had elected to start flying back upwards; she could see the cocoon's occupant getting bigger and bigger and her gut told her not to be so close to it.

It was a good gut feeling. The cocoon suddenly burst open to make way for some sort of... living structure... It looked like a sort of pyramid, but it had odd, large "teeth" sprouting from around its base and a mouth-like opening at the top. What's more, it pulsed and throbbed with life, its frame appearing to be firmly planted in the ground... Speaking of which, as soon as its cocoon opened, an odd, disgusting, but familiar purple substance coated about an inch of ground around the new "building."

A collective chorus of disgusted noises emitted from the main six, eyeing the alien structure with varying levels of intrigue and discomfort. Fluttershy began to back away from the newly sprouted hatchery while the other five mares slowly drew closer to it.

"Eughhh... Is this it?" Rainbow Dash queried, flying back and down to hover close to the ground near her friends. "There's no way that huge thing is our alien!"

Twilight had to wonder what the speedy pegasus was expecting to see. Then again, she was expecting to see creatures that were tall and wore bright, shining garbs. She was hoping against hope that they'd be intelligent, possibly sentient... You know, like the Protoss. Oh well. A giant fleshy tooth pyramid was what they had, so she'd make the best of it.

Inwardly chuckling as she saw Rarity deftly stopping Pinkie Pie from touching it in the corner of her eye, the Bearer of Magic started taking notes again, walking in a circle around it as she attempted to make a rough sketch of the gross growth. And as she neared the other side of the new hatchery, she saw Fluttershy very slowly approaching it again. Her expression was, of course, fearful and apprehensive, but there was also that look in her one currently visible eye that Twilight recognized. Whatever she was looking at, she cared about.

"Fluttershy? What are you doing?" she asked, approaching the yellow equine and seeing her freeze in place, looking back and forth quickly between Twilight and... whatever it was.

"Shhhh! ... Look..." came a hasty reply before she beckoned for Twilight to come closer.

Upon doing as quietly instructed, Twilight came to see what Fluttershy had seen. She wasn't entirely sure of what to make of it. The thing looked like some sort of armored worm... It was small, only a little over a foot tall, covered in a segmented, hard looking carapace with spines and spikes lining the top and sides. Its head was adorned with rather sizable mandibles and... it seemed to lack any obvious eyes. There were little indentations in its head with a green glow contained within, and perhaps they were it? Either way, the little larva had its head turned towards the mares and made easily audible hissing and chirping noises. Whether they were friendly or not was up for debate.

"It looks like a worm..." Twilight commented as Fluttershy stood beside her, trying to coax the little larva closer. And the little guy acted as if it wanted to, but it could not seem to get its little legs to take it there. Fluttershy seemed slightly discouraged, but approached the creature anyways, a soft smile curving her mouth. The Bearer of Kindness got close to it and spoke quietly to it, making it squirm wildly and hiss and chirp loudly.

In its squirming, one of its mandibles ended up hitting the sweet pegasus in her front right leg, piercing it and getting her to let out a sort of yelp as she drew back. "Owww! ... Owwww..." she let out, sitting on her haunches and looking at her now lightly bleeding leg.

"Fluttershy!" Twilight exclaimed, tempted to pick up the larva with her magic and fling it somewhere. She only restrained herself from doing so when the tiny Zerg approached the hurt equine with low, almost concerned sounding noises and a lot less energy. Using her magic, she pulled out a bandage and placed it over the small wound, also using said magic to stop the blood flowing until the plaster had been stuck over her leg. When Twilight was done, Fluttershy gave a soft smile, gently patting the apologetic Zerg with the other hoof.

"It's okay, little guy... I'm okay..." she reassured it. The little Larva let out a higher chirp, rubbing its head carefully against Fluttershy's other leg while ignoring/not noticing the glare Twilight Sparkle was giving it. Nor did it react when the rest of the Element Bearers came around the hatchery to see where their friends were. And while they started to try and ask what they were doing, they all shut their mouths the moment they saw that... thing.

A minute passed between them all and nopony said anything, the only noises being the occasional breeze or a random noise from the alien. And before anypony could try, the little larva stiffened up. All eyes turned to it as it shook very slightly, and then... well, exploded. Its organs burst from its body and meshed together with each other, rapidly forming a hard egg-like cocoon around itself.

A collective cry of shock and revulsion emitted from everypony present. Rarity fainted right there and then from the display while Applejack and Rainbow Dash backed away from it slowly. Fluttershy began tapping softly on the egg and trying to peer inside as it began to pulsate. Pinkie Pie started to grin wildly and then bolted off somewhere, going unnoticed by her friends. And Twilight stood there with a look on her face like she wasn't sure whether or not to be fascinated or frightened. Regardless, she took out her notepad again and began hastily taking down notes.

"... Ughhhhh... That's just not right..." the farmer mare commented, still eyeing the egg. Then she glanced at Twilight, raising an eyebrow and then turning to Dash. "... How'd'ya think Twilight's not feelin' queasy from all this?" she muttered, earning a nonchalant shrug from the cyan one.

"Hey, Egghead's probably seen worse in those caves under Canterlot or something. Or in that..." She paused again, not sure if the word "ship" really applied here. "... thing that crashed here last night..." Another pause. "Scratch that, she definitely saw worse in the thing," she then concluded, remembering the look on Twilight's face when she had emerged from the Protoss vessel's wreckage. Another, much longer silence passed over the two ponies before Applejack finally spoke up.

"Ya think we should go home? Ah know Twi won't want to, but Ah'm startin' to think this place's bad for her."

Rainbow looked away, thinking about it for a moment before replying slowly. "Weeeell... maybe ask the others?" she posed, shrugging again. "I dunno. You know how she gets." The farmer simply nodded and went to try to wake Rarity while scanning the horizon for a certain pink pony.

"Consarnit, where'd ya get off to, Pinkie..." she said to herself as she began fanning the unconscious fashinista with her hat, impatiently eying the white mare. Her green eyes scanned the horizon, lingering on the mineral patch at the edge of the clearing a little longer. "... Rainbow Dash! See if ya can find Pinkie Pie!" she then called, both getting the flyer to salute and get airborne and making Rarity come to.

"Please don't shout like that, Applejack..." she groggily mumbled, rubbing at her head as AJ replaced her hat upon her head. As the Bearer of Generosity got back on her hooves, she turned her gaze to the egg, watching it jostle and wobble while Fluttershy fussed over it. She opened her mouth several times to say something, but could not, and after getting a look and a whisper from the orange mare, she followed her over to Rainbow Dash instead.

... Tapping. It heard tapping. It heard faint scratching. It heard speech. It wanted desperately to see what was making these sounds. And so it began to fight.

Fluttershy had since climbed on top of the egg, rubbing at the very top to see if she could peer inside at the creature within. She didn't seem to notice that half of her friends were now gathered in a circle several yards away and were having a hushed conversation without her.

Twilight Sparkle was still taking down observations and questions on paper with her quill, only pausing to dip for more ink every now and then. She was so focused on this that she had forgotten about most of the world around her... and with good reason. She was beginning to remember the scene back into the Daelaam Ark, and she didn't want to. Note taking was as a good distraction as any.

At least until the egg began to rumble. Fluttershy barely had time to register what was happening before the egg she had perched herself upon had suddenly burst open like a balloon, leaving her flailing in the air before landing on something hard, damp, and... floaty.

Minerals. Must mine. Multiply.

Fluttershy found herself being carried upon an odd, bony, fleshy creature while her friends stared at her. She looked down and saw it. It was an insect-like creature, with six large eyes and crab claws. Its back was lightly armored, and a strange orange-ish webbing connected four bone appendages sprouting from both sides of its body. And it was floating away from her friends, headed straight for that mineral patch.

"Fluttershy!!" her friends called out, making her look back at them with a slightly panicked expression. Even the previously absent Pinkie Pie was there, now chasing after the creature carrying her friend.

The shy pegasus trembled as she rested atop the Drone, looking down at it and managing to turn enough to get a look at its head and eyes. "... Um... excuse me... can you let me off? Pretty please?" she asked in that soft voice of hers, making the Drone slow down a little. It only did so, however, because it was reaching its destination. Fluttershy watched as the former Gashyrr Wasp approached the most mined crystal cluster and began picking away at it with its pincers and occasional use of its mandibles.

Meanwhile, in Ponyville, a certain draconequus was having a rousing game of one-on-one table tennis with himself, rapidly smacking the plastic orb back and forth between himself and himself. It was a long, intense rally, both selves repelling the ball from their side with semi-practiced finesse. But it finally came to an end in the table's net when both Discord and Discord froze up. The offending Discord vanished in a puff of nothing while the original turned to face a wall to the west. The absurd creature felt something.

"... Kekekekekekeke..."

Twilight and company chased down the pegasus-toting Zerg, reaching it and Fluttershy just as it began mining at the minerals. "Fluttershy! Are you okay?!" Twilight exclaimed, her horn glowing as she prepared to defend the yellow mare.

"YOU!" Rarity subsequently shouted, glaring daggers at the drone. "YOU DID THIS?!"

"Simmer down, Rarity. It's not doin' anythin' bad," Applejack said to try and calm the Generous one, though her own voice was uncertain.

"I-I say we send it packing!" came an also unsure voicing from Rainbow Dash, hitting her front hooves together as she hovered next to it.

"Is it floating?" Twilight Sparkle's off-topic quip got the other girls to give her an inquisitive glance, wondering how Twilight could be thinking about that when Fluttershy was so clearly being held captive by this odd creature.

"Twi, priorities," Applejack reminded, sounding disappointed.

"I-It's okay, everypony... really... I'm okay..." Fluttershy insisted, politely smiling at her friends while the Drone she was lying on mindlessly attempted to gather minerals. "It just wants these... crystals..." she then added, beginning to gingerly get back on all fours and to watch the Drone work. The other five ponies present began to observe as well, having to marvel briefly as the little guy dug at those stones.

The next several minutes were spent trying to figure out what exactly it was doing, what it was doing with Fluttershy, why Fluttershy was so content to ride the Drone, and even trying to communicate with the creature.

"My name is Twi-light Spar-kle!" came one such attempt, loudly and slowly from the bookworm pony. Nothing but silence.

After all that time, though, progress was made. A sizable chunk of crystal's broke off in the Drone's mandibles. Seeming satisfied that it had gathered such, it then turned to float back to the hatchery, its prize in its mandibles and its rider firmly holding on. Fluttershy had to admit one thing: riding around on its back was, if nothing else, fun. "Weeeeeeeeee..."

All but Rarity turned to follow the floating drone (she was intently examining the Drone's handiwork), and in doing so, they noticed two things about the Zerg hatchery. First off, there was now a ring of that same dark purple mush surrounding the "building", its scent pervading the air around it. The same that had coated the floor of the Protoss colony ship before, that is. And secondly, looking at the hatchery now, it was obvious that the structure was, indeed, a hatchery of some kind. More of those armored worm things - probably larva, mused Twilight - had appeared around the base of the structure, though they did not go very far from their Creep-ringed birthplace.

Perhaps the Zerg functioned like insects? Maybe this structure was their hive? Twilight took a mental note to make a written note of that in a moment. Besides, she got to see the Fluttershy-toting Drone as it dropped the mineral chunk... somewhere. It did not enter the hatchery, but merely dropped it into some sort of opening. Probably. None of the main six could see where it went - not even the airborne weatherpony. As soon as the minerals were dropped, the drone reversed its course towards the minerals and Rarity, turning around while moving.

Twilight stayed at the hatchery this time, whipping out her notepad to take down that mental note and to make more observations about the Zerg. "They seem to spawn from this structure, which seems alive, but they appear on their own... They don't have an obvious egg stage, and instead seem to appear on their own from this 'hive'," she wrote, drawing her attention to the slowly expanding Creep. "The 'hive' also has a ring of a dark purple substance surrounding it, which seems to be spreading out evenly from the structure."

She took another glance at the coated ground and frowned slightly. "It covers the ground, possibly feeding on grasses." Twilight stepped closer to the structure and prodded the Creep with a hoof, gritting her teeth. "This is the same growth that I encountered on the crashed object, smell and all. While it was disappearing on the object, it is growing here. It is unknown if this substance is dangerous or not, but caution is recommended for any further observations."

The unicorn then set about to examining the sparse remains of the Drone's egg, her quill scrawling even more information at a slowly building rate. She intently examined them, noting that while the egg was hard as stone previously, what was left of it was now flimsy, thin, and extremely slimy. Good; more to write about, more to distract. It wasn't so much that she was going to start thinking about it. No, it was mostly her being afraid of thinking about it and not wanting to think about it, which always leads to thinking about it.

Sparing some magic to wipe off her hooves, she took to writing again, only to be scared half to death by a prod to her barrel. "Gyaaa!" came the obligatory startled cry, whirling around to see Pinkie, Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash standing (and flying) beside her. "... Gosh, you scared me!" she then gasped, putting a hoof to her chest. After a very brief recovery, she then looked between her gathered friends, noting the intent, concerned looks adorning their faces. "... Is... something wrong?"

The four mares looked at each other, wordlessly debating who should start before Rarity finally began. "Twilight, dear, I think we've all seen enough for today," she said in an assertive manner, stepping towards the lavender pony.

"We should go home and have some cupcakes! That'll cheer you up!" the baker added cheerfully, bouncing closer to Twilight. Said unicorn raised an eyebrow and put her notepad and quill back in her saddlebags, noticing that Fluttershy was now calmly flying over and leaving the Drone to its mining.

"... Cheer me up...? Girls, I'm fine..." she tried to reassure them, shaking her head and softly laughing an unconvincing laugh. They weren't convinced.

"Twilight, c'mon. It's gon-" Rainbow Dash stopped in mid-sentence as she remembered something, nervously chuckling and ascending slightly. "I'll be right back." She promptly zoomed back the way they came, a rainbow-y streak following in her wake. Before Twilight could question why or stop her, Applejack sat down and sighed. "Twi, Ah don't know what ya saw in that thing, but yer not okay. We're goin' home."

Twilight frown became more pronounced as she heard that. She wasn't a filly, and was very quick to remind everypony of such. "I'm not a filly, Applejack! I'm just. Fine." As she said this, she stamped a hoof on the grassy ground, glancing down and noticing just how close the Creep was getting to her now. "... And I really don't think I should g-..."

"... Umm... Twilight...?" Fluttershy's voice to her left got her attention, turning her head to look at the meek pegasus. "... Um... sorry for interrupting, but everypony's right...we should get back before it gets..." She paused to gulp. "... dark..."

"But I c-"

"No buts, sugarcube. We're takin' ya home."

Twilight let out a frustrated growl, turning towards the hatchery in time to see another Larva burst into an egg. Twilight began to try to approach it, but was stopped by a flanking Rarity, standing firm in her way. "Twiliiiight..."

"Girls, you don't understand!" she angrily huffed, stamping her hoof again. "This... stuff is spreading! Don't tell me you haven't noticed!" Not noting Fluttershy's slight cringe, she saw them all look at the Creep, sizing it up and trying to remember where it was last time they saw it. "What if this stuff keeps spreading? What if it spreads all the way to Ponyville?! It could be dangerous! Those things could be dangerous!!" Twilight then added, her voice rising steadily as she began to push back against the advancing mares. "I have to stay! I NEED to be here!"

A slightly out of breath Twilight Sparkle looked between her friends to see their thoughtful expressions. She knew she had gotten the wheels in their heads turning.

"M-Maybe she's right..." Fluttershy quietly emitted, landing next to the unicorn and looking down at the ground. "... I don't want to see anypony get hurt..."

"But it's gonna get dark soon!" Pinkie Pie protested, including the travel time back to the balloon and the flight home. "And I promised Mr. and Mrs. Cake I'd be back tonight! C'mon Twilight! Pleeeease?"

"Promised them what? What could be more important than everypony's safety!?" came Twilight's less angry reply.

"I dunno!"

Twilight Sparkle had to take a long pause before answering; that Pinkie Pie seemingly thought an unknown task was more important than these aliens infuriated her. And she was mostly used to Pinkie's antics.

... Still... she knew Pinkie. If something was going to happen, that "Pinkie sense" of hers would be driving her crazy right now, wouldn't it? Twilight took a deep breath, and exhaled sharply, closing her eyes and suppressing her worry. Everything would be fine... But still...

"... Fiiine... I'll go," she started, lowering her head in defeat, though she quickly raised her voice again to cut off any incoming replies. "But I'm coming back first thing tomorrow morning, with or without you!" She hated to be so strict about something, but this entire situation made her unbearably nervous.

The fact that a giant, bulbous creature burst out of that newly formed egg and into the sky didn't help matters. Nor did the slightly loud, guttural, throaty roar it let out upon its escape. Everypony present gasped and screamed and darted away from the hatchery as the newly born Overlord came to hover above its birthplace, its bulbous, gross, lightly shining form casting a shadow onto a soon-to-be-covered patch of grass near the five ponies.

"SEE?!" Twilight quickly asserted, unable to keep the shock and fear out of her voice. "That thing could eat us!" It seemed as if she were correct, too, as the controlling beast began to float over to them. Once it was directly overhead, it....... did nothing. It didn't descend to devour them, it didn't shoot acid at them, nothing dangerous. All it did was emit a series of deep, sloppy sounding groans and growls, as if it were trying to say something. Then it turned around and floated back to the hatchery, staying there for a moment before beginning to follow the singular Drone around.

Everypony stood there for a minute or two, quiet. Then Pinkie Pie giggled and began to comically attempt to imitate the Overlord's saliva spewing speech. Rarity took a quick step to the side to avoid the inevitable spit storm. Then Twilight Sparkle let out a deep, defeated sigh. "... Come on, everypony... let's go home..." she decided, starting to walk back the way they had come with her head slightly hung. She didn't want to leave and the prospect of what could happen in her absence scared her to no end, but... on the other hand, she was exhausted from the long walk, worried out of her mind, and her heart and stomach just couldn't take any more surprises or stress.

So to take a quick glance upwards and see her balloon peeking out over the treeline was something of a relief. She could see Rainbow Dash waving to her from the balloon's basket, never mind how she was screaming to her. "Twiliiiight! I can't land this thing!" The other Element bearers couldn't help a giggle as the unicorn in question teleported into the basket and brought it down to land in the clearing. They made a great effort to steer clear of the hatchery, the Overlord, and the Creep. Once they were on the ground, the rest of the main 6 ran to the balloon and boarded it. Before long, they were airborne again and floating off towards Ponyville.

Poor Twilight could still see the Overlord patrolling the clearing, even as her balloon carried them away. She rubbed at her head with one hoof and groaned. Lack of Pinkie's twitching aside, she couldn't shake that gut feeling. You know, the "something bad's going to happen" one. Still... one floating jellyfish couldn't destroy Ponyville, could it? All it had done to them was make Pinkie Pie spit a lot.

Her gut wrenched at her and another, lower groan escaped her lips, looking back at her friends to see them all either watching her or watching the increasingly distant Zerg. "... Thank you, everypony..." she managed, trying to suck up the pain that her nerves were stirring up. "You're right."

Only then did Applejack express her opinion. "... Ah'm leavin' Big Mac with the chores tomorrow mornin', Twi. Ah'm comin' with ya," she replied, straightening her hat. "Jus' cause Ah'm worried 'bout ya'll don't mean Ah like those things..." Twilight allowed a slight smile to appear upon her countenance, nodding her thanks to the farmer mare. It was good to know that somepony else was on her side of the matter.

"They need a name," Rainbow Dash added immediately after, getting a look from the others. "What? They should! And we get to! We found 'em! ... Right?"

The other mares nodded, all thinking of names for the creatures for all of... 20 seconds.

"Oooh! Oooh! I got one! Zany Eating Rawr-y Grossies!" All others gathered in the basket gave Pinkie Pie looks as if she had said something funny that had just fallen flat.

"Naaaah..." Rainbow dismissed. The party pony looked back and forth between them all, then giggled softly and briefly.

"Z.E.R.G. for short~" Again, they all stared, but only for a second, having to nod and admit their liking of the name.

"Fine. Zerg it is then..." Twilight Sparkle decided, shaking her head out and looking back to the west. Part of her was glad she couldn't see the floating Overlord anymore. She closed her eyes and began to think ahead... Princess Celestia would be getting a letter as soon as they got back, after all.

The Ponyville library's door swung open as the purple unicorn returned, resting her saddlebags on a hook and promptly removing her notepad and that odd cylinder from such. She briefly gazed at the container and the weird liquid it held, but she didn't dwell on that. Not now.

"Spiiiiike!"

She heard a banging from behind a table, seeing a certain baby dragon rubbing his head and giving Twilight an annoyed look. "Ow... Hi Twilight..."

"Oh, there you are... quick, take a letter, Spike," she told him, clearing her throat as the dragon raced to get a quill.

Dear Princess Celestia,

As you are no doubt aware by now, something fell from the sky last night and crash landed in the middle of the White Tail Woods. The object was massive, covered in what we believe to be gold, and filled with disturbing... things. I was able to enter the object (I am still unsure of what to call it myself. My friend Rarity said it was a ship, but I can't see this thing floating) this afternoon and... I wouldn't wish the experience on anypony. Everything inside was destroyed and dead, gore was everywhere, and the stench was nothing short of overwhelming.

After I left the object, my friend Fluttershy found a trail of tracks leading from the crash site to a clearing within the woods, where my friends and I found a cocoon and a large patch of odd crystals. These crystals don't concern me. What does is the cocoon. When it burst, it became huge! It must be some sort of hive. It was producing larvae that very quickly transformed into these floating crab... fly things that It had this slimy purple growth coming from it that covered the ground and spread very quickly around it (I found the same thing inside the object). When we left it, it was roughly 6 feet away from the" hive", whereas it had started not even an inch from such. It is spreading quickly, and I'm afraid it might not stop spreading.

I believe somepony should be sent to watch the site. I don't know if the growth is dangerous or not, but I just have a terrible feeling about all of this. I intend to revisit the site early tomorrow morning. I am going to have Spike send my notepad along with this letter so that you may read more about what I've seen.

Please reply to this soon, but any time will be fine. I'm not expecting to sleep very well tonight anyways... What I saw inside the object was... disgusting and haunting, to say the least...

-Your Faithful Student

Twilight Sparkle

P.S. I would like my notepad back when you're done, please.

Twilight Sparkle sat on her haunches as she read the letter over one more time, then handed the letter to Spike along with her notepad, to be promptly sent to the Princess.

"Thank you, Spike... now please put on a pot of coffee... I'm going to be here a while..." she then said, taking a deep breath and beginning to magically pull books from the shelves... She knew there wouldn't be any books on the aliens, but she figured insect physiology was as good a place to start as any...

Author's Note

Chapter threeeeeeee's author's notes have four big parts! Yay!

First off, I have a secret to tell you all. Listening? Good... I have never actually played Starcraft 2 myself. I've watched a brutal walkthrough of both campaigns a few times, and that's how I understand most of the story, but I haven't played it myself. I don't know how that Zerg virus from that Outbreak and the Haven missions works and I definitely don't understand this whole "essence" thing. What I DO know is that Hydralisks and Vikings are fucking cool.

I also played Starcraft Brood War when I was 15. I hacked while playing online. I was subsequently punished. ~~I'm not apologizing.~~ I don't remember most of the story from that game, especially not from Brood War, but I know enough to make this story work (I hope.) Just know that if I fuck up, it's because I'm not a huge Starcraft nut like a lot of my friends OR it's because I'm giving my own interpretation about how the Zerg work.

Item number two, I'm restricting the Equestrian Swarm to units that were incorporated into the Swarm up until Enemy Within. Zerglings, Swarm Queens, Roaches, Hydralisks, and possibly Aberrations. No Mutas, Ultras, or any of the other stuff. Due to being starved for resources, Broodmother Niadra did not have the ability to spin new sequences in Abathur's absence.

Thingy three! Am I doing Pinkie Pie wrong?

And lastly, on a more random note, random poll!: Out of the main 6, who would make the best Zerg Queen? Besides Fluttershy, anyways.

As always, comment and leave feedback. Tell me what I'm doing right or yell at me for what I'm doing wrong. I need to stop making these notes so long. Scary thing is I have more. Ah well.

The Flash

Twilight stifled a yawn as she looked up from Bees: The Anthology, seeing the wall clock reading a lovely 4:54 AM. She'd gone without sleep for the last several hours and it was getting to her at last. She couldn't be happier for it, either. She wanted nothing more than to pass out right there and then, but she just couldn't. The thought of those things spreading around Equestria unchecked was unbelievably unnerving to the bookworm.

At the very least, though, she knew Princess Celestia knew of their find. Twilight had received a reply letter about an hour after her own was sent, and it helped to put her mind at ease. Only a little, mind you.

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I must agree with you on this matter. From what I've seen of your notes, these aliens must be watched carefully. Come tomorrow morning, I will send a group of ponies to this site to monitor it at all times. In the meantime, I am having your notes copied for our own use, but until that is finished, I will need to keep them.

I must ask that you do your best to learn more about these creatures yourself, and that you also notify me whenever a major discovery is made. Not only is it important that I know, but the few other ponies I have informed about this matter are very eager to learn more.

The group of ponies I have sent will stop in Ponyville to pick you up and escort you to the site themselves. I am sure they will appreciate your help.

You did the right thing in sending your letter, Twilight. While I do not enjoy the prospect of treating these aliens as... well, aliens, the security of Equestria is too important to allow these visitors to remain unchecked. Thank you.

-Yours Truly,

Princess Celestia

Another sigh escaped her lips as she turned a page, her eyes scanning the text rapidly as she tried to make connections. Her eyelids were becoming heavy as lead at this point, and she knew that all the coffee in Equestria couldn't keep her awake much longer. She shook her head out and marked her page, then forced herself to climb the stairs to her bedroom and to collapse on her bed. She could barely form a complete thought before sleep took its hold on her for however long it could.

Two large, bulbous figures hovered about the White Tail Woods' canopy line in the very early morning, moving slowly and seemingly aimlessly. By this point, the two Overlords were watching a group of seven Drones at work while an eighth hatched from a newly formed egg and promptly joined its brethren in their mining efforts while another Larva burst apart to form a new egg. They needed something to scout with, after all. This site did not have a nearby Vespene geyser, after all, and in order to build a "sufficient" defensive force, they would need the precious gas.

Thankfully, Overlords did not take long to hatch. With the added control, they ordered all of the current Larva to begin morphing into drones, while they also willed one particular drone to break off of mining to move to the edge of the Creep.

The dark purple growth had since ceased its expansion, but that did not do much for the vegetation that was unlucky enough to be growing too close. The Creep had long since smothered the grass and the trees that the Creep touched were either dead or in the process of dying.

The Drone hovered to the very edge of the Creep, only stopping for a moment before it turned around and moved back towards the center of the clearing. It stopped halfway there, lowering itself onto the fleshy ground and shutting its many eyes. Its body then began to expand into a cocoon while the Creep began to work. It actually began to eat away at the ground directly beneath the cocoon, preparing it for the structure that would soon form in its place.

One of the newly hatched Overlords began to float off to the south, its control-free mind directing it there. Even without their Queen, a Broodmother, or a Cerebrate to direct them, the free group of Zerg knew what needed to be done.

First order of business: a fuckton of Vespene gas.

The hoofpaths out of Las Pegasus were generally empty, as everypony who wanted to leave went by train. The few who did go on hoof rarely had a reason to be taking the north path unless they just loved the outdoors that damn much. Especially this early in the morning.

The one pony on the north road was not one of these ponies. One unicorn mare let out a deep sigh and shook out her head, her hat jostling around uselessly upon her head. Her fur was a brilliant blue while her mane and tail took a paler version of the color. Both were somewhat hidden violet cape and hat, both spangled with blue and yellow stars and dots. Behind her was a large cart, the cart she both lived in and used for her work. Every magician needs a stage, after all.

The Great and Powerful Trixie sorely wished her last show had gone better... or just plain gone. It wasn't that her reputation was ruined after two ignominious fiascoes in Ponyville. No, those were her fault (well, the first one was Snips and Snails, but nopony cared). This was just plain bad luck.

She had gotten a gig in the "2 Princesses Hotel and Casino" as a nighttime act, and everything was looking up for the magician. She had come straight from Ponyville to this adult pony's paradise a week ago and spent the next several days trying to get a show. She was running out of bits, so for a stallion named Sharp Eye to come to her rescue and get her a gig was a godsend.

So it was a great shame that a careless mare (a mare that had evaded Trixie's gaze ever since) accidentally destroyed all of her props and a lot of the main stage's lighting (somehow). That setback hadn't delayed the show, it cancelled it. To say the least, Trixie Lulamoon was outraged. She had demanded that they call a ponyhunt for the guilty one, but they had refused. The casino refunded everypony's tickets, which meant no bits for Trixie. Now officially broke, she elected to get out and spare herself the added embarrassment of being recognized as the Great and Powerful Trixie That Probably Messed Up Her Own Show... or something equally humiliating or utterly stupid.

Letting out another sigh and straining a little to turn her cart slightly to the right in order to stay on the path. She continued to mull over the possibilities for another show, where to get new props - and most importantly - the venue.

Appleloosa? Nopony there appreciated a good show; they had their cider and dancing and Celestia knows what else. Vanhoover? Probably an option, but she'd have to do quite a bit of traveling to reach it. She'd need extra bits if she wanted to get there, and she was already rationing her money for food. Cloudsdale was out of the question. Canterlot... well, Trixie wasn't sure if she wanted to visit the City of the Sisters after tossing Celestia's student out of town. By all accounts, Princess Celestia was merciful, but... No. Manehatten was probably her best bet, though it was on the other side of Equestria. Their appreciation for the arts had gotten her out of a few monetary binds and she did have a friend or two there.

Ponyville? Trixie suppressed a frustrated grunt. Granted, she had come out and apologized for her admittedly heinous actions (calling herself the "Great and Apologetic" Trixie was quite the effort on her part), but even if Twilight Sparkle forgave her so easily, she knew she couldn't go back. Not everypony was as forgiving as her, and they'd definitely remember her. No, Ponyville was a last resort.

Besides, just because she had been forgiven didn't mean that she liked Twilight Sparkle. Not in the slightest. Even if her opinion had gone from "Trixie despises you with every fiber of her being" to "Trixie no longer wishes to associate with you," the thought of being anywhere near the purple unicorn didn't sit well with her.

Shaking her head out again as she bowed her head and began just focusing on where she was going. She knew she had a long trek ahead of her, and thinking about past mistakes wasn't going to speed things along any.

Corporal Summer Blossom stifled a yawn as she followed the rest of her squad and the ponies they were escorting out west, rubbing one eye with a hoof as she lazily flew over the aforementioned ponies. She wished she knew why the Princess had ordered them to the White Tail Woods. Granted, she knew about the "meteor" that had fallen there, but what she didn't understand was why there were researchers in the carriage below her. Or why they needed so many cameras. Or why the researchers wouldn't speak to her. Why were they being so secretive?

Of course, she was just a guard. Once a pony dons that golden armor, they represent the defenders of Equestria. To misrepresent them was to bring great disgrace upon that pony... Or at the very least, that pony would earn the ire of their brethren for a week or two.

But surely this was a waste of time! Aliens or not, Equestria was a place of peace. Sure, there had been incidents with the Return of Nightmare Moon, Discord's escape, and the Changeling Invasion, and those were terrible things indeed. But other than that, there were no wars. And she liked it that way. She wasn't like her foolish brother who wanted nothing more than to kick some flank.

But at least in Canterlot, she could be bored around ponies she knew. These nerds were strangers... and nerds. She didn't like nerds. Most of them were boring, and she could tell with a glance that the unicorns in the carriage were no exception. One was even called Eureka. It could be an explorer or a treasure hunter, but no, that stallion was a neeeeeeerd.

This wouldn't be so boring if there were other pegasi to talk to. But no, she was the only one, and this cart was being pulled along by earth ponies on the ground. On the ground. Summer Blossom wondered briefly why her superiors hadn't given her a straight answer as to why they couldn't take a flying chariot to the White Tail Woods, but dismissed the musings quickly. It would just make her angry. She gazed down at the three accompanying guards, then at the four unicorns/neeeeeeerds in the carriage, emitting a long sigh.

"... Buck this..." she muttered under her breath, doing lazy rolls in the air as she followed her team. At the very least, she could see Ponyville in the distance, as well as the first rays of light from Celestia's coming dawn. They were halfway there.

The cocoon erupted in a shower of blood to reveal a new... pool. Its... waters(?) were green and the sides of this pool were lined in strange teeth. The very same second that this new structure burst into existence, all of the Larva surrounding the Zerg hatchery burst out into new eggs, rapidly changing within their cocoons...

It wasn't long at all before the first Zerglings took steps upon Creep covered Equestrian soil. Two eggs burst to release a total of six Swarmlings, all of them looking fearsome and ferocious. They were bipedal, sporting appendages that closely (and nightmarish-ly) resembled the arms of a mantis and were likely purposed for ripping and tearing. Sprouting from the first segment of hardened carapace armor were two more appendages, each adorned with three bone spikes that could only be meant for violent use. And the orange webbed set of bony growths lining their spines was sharp, appearing similar to the stabilizing membranes of their Drones while actually serving no obvious purpose.

Immediately, the Overlords willed them to begin searching around the base's perimeter, senses piqued to search for trouble and resources. What they found instead was quite intriguing.

Trixie Lulamoon was having a less than tolerable time with her cart. The path that cut through the White Tail Woods was seldom traveled and never maintained, allowing roots and rocks of various sizes to liter the dirt path. The magician had to constantly make maneuvers around such obstacles, but was not always successful. She sometimes heard the scraping of wood or stone upon the underside of her cart while she avoided obstructions.

It was only a matter of time, though, until she messed up. While attempting to pull the cart around a particularly sharp looking rock, her cart got caught on two larger ones, leading to a foolish tug and a very broken wooden wheel. The unicorn looked back and uttered a series of curses as she took off the harness she used to pull the cart, walking back to examine the damage. The wheel was now lying in at least five big pieces, with a few smaller ones scattered everywhere. A frustrated sigh/groan escaped her maw as she pushed the cart off of the rocks with a combination of her own strength and magic. Then she propped the wheel-less axle up on a loose stone as she entered the cart, looking for her wood glue.

"What are they?"

"They're hideous..."

"Bucking gross..."

"What are they doing to those crystals?"

"No, what ARE those crystals?"

"Weren't we supposed to pick up Twilight Sparkle?"

The above statements were strewn about the researchers' conversations as they reached the site of the Zerg base, watching the organisms move about in odd, meandering, somehow purposeful manner. The guards escorting them had set about to unloading equipment from the carriage and handing it off to be set up, some sharing the researchers' curiosity and awe at the aliens' ways while others merely didn't care.

"Do you think they're dangerous?" one guard asked, a light blue earth pony wielding a spear. He was staring cautiously at the hatchery as another Overlord burst from an egg, as well as a trio of Zerglings. To him, the massive floating monstrosities and the much smaller, yet carnivorous looking Zerglings seemed very much dangerous.

"I am inclined to agree, Private," one of the researchers agreed - a male, snow white unicorn in a lab coat - using his magic to set up a camera and to begin to aim it at as much of the area as possible. "Those little ones have got to be some sort of soldier or hunter."

The Private glanced at the unicorn stallion, eyeing the white lab coat he was wearing and spotting his name sown into the right side of it. Then he turned his attention to the well developing mineral mining operation, noting the working Drones and gesturing in their direction. "And those are workers, Mr. Tracker?" he asked, getting said unicorn's gaze to follow.

"I believe so. Twilight Sparkle's notes definitely support such an idea, although I am surprised that Miss Sparkle would have forgotten such a detail..." Of course, Tracker had never met Celestia's student himself, and had just heard about her from other ponies. He knew she was a studious pony with an eye for detail and a penchant for meticulousness and checklists.

Another researcher - a unicorn mare with a maroon coat and yellow mane - approached them. "She may not have encountered them at all. Her notes claimed that these creatures start as a larva, then rather violently explode to become an egg. That egg rapidly hatches into various creatures like the ones we can see now... Judging by the fact that that..." The mare paused, looking towards the relatively new spawning pool and grimacing at the color of the liquid within. "... cespool is not mentioned in her notes either, it's possible that they can change and grow very rapidly."

Both Tracker and the Private nodded, the former finally finding a good place for a ground camera. The Private then heard rustling to his left, looking up as he saw Summer Blossom and a third researcher (also a male unicorn) named Long Lens attempting to set up a camera in a tree. A part of him was glad that he lacked magic or wings; if he had the ability to, he'd probably be up there, trying to steady that heavy contraption in the branches and being barked at by his bored superior.

He then glanced around at the Creep, having to quietly marvel at the near perfect circle it made around the hatchery. It only stopped being perfect when it reached a tree, whereupon the offending vegetation was choked. The once strong oaks were now weak looking, thin, and very obviously dead.

Meanwhile, the maroon mare was hammering a series of stakes into the ground, each marked with the date and time. They knew that the Creep was spreading quickly. They needed to know how far it would/could spread and how fast it could do so. After all, the dark violet growth had expanded to an unnerving 54.2 yards in all directions from the hatchery. If it could kill the trees with its touch, who could say it wouldn't do the same to ponies? It was true that Twilight Sparkle claimed she was able to walk upon the Creep without harm, but her notes explicitly stated that long term effects were unknown.

Corporal Summer Blossom sighed and slowly backed away from the now steady camera while Long Lens cautiously released his telekinetic hold on it. It stayed. They let out hushed, triumphant cheers, the pegasus guard landing and bumping hooves with him. It was as she did so that she noticed all of the Larva around the hatchery exploding into eggs, tapping Lens's withers and gesturing with an outstretched wing.

Long Lens gazed out at the hatchery with a frown. "I imagine they're just creating more workers," he then dismissed, leaving the Corporal standing there with a worried expression. She didn't like the fact that all of those larvae suddenly began morphing, even with what little she knew about them.

Either way, the time they had spent setting up the camera in the tree had been enough for the other two to be set up around the site, a researcher standing ready at each one with an amount of flash powder ready to be magically ignited. With four of them aimed at the site, they all hoped that four photos would be enough for their research. They knew it wouldn't. Oh well. There'd be time for a game of cards later to decide which of them was going to be developing the results.

The now ready cameras were focused and aimed to capture as much as possible, with the exception on one that was trained directly on the Zerg hatchery itself. The pony manning it was yet another unicorn, a mare named Good Point with a lime green coat and slightly darker mane and tail. She aimed and zoomed at the hatchery, trying to find the most detail while capturing the entire structure in her lens.

She quietly muttered to herself as she tried to find a good view. She was never good at this. She had tried to convince Long Lens to do it for her, but he had said they wanted to get these shots taken quickly so that they could end this excursion soon. She began to lose track as her annoyance got the better of her, trying to rush it and constantly having to resteady her camera's aim.

At the very least, she got a good view of a group of nine Swarmlings hatching from their eggs, beginning to scamper around the site seemingly randomly. It got all present to stare at them with fascinated, nervous, and/or fearful expressions. Some of the Zerglings appeared to be looking at them, their scary looking, sharply lined maws open and leaking drool upon the Creep.

The Private nudged Tracker and whispered. "Aren't you supposed to get photos of those things, too?" he quipped, getting the lab coat wearing unicorn to nod and to shift his aim towards the Swarmlings... He made a few adjustments... and ignited the flash powder as he took the picture with the old camera.

The resulting flash of light caused all of the Zerglings to whirl around to face the group, their intentions unclear. For a moment, they just stared, and it put every single one of them on edge. Summer Blossom grit her teeth and lowered her head, preparing to fight with the blade attached to her armor. The Private leveled his spear at the Zerg. The other guards readied their weapons. The researchers all froze, as if the slightest twitch would spell their doom.

The following minutes were spent on tenterhooks, the ponies warily watching with slow or held breath while the Zerg just stood there and eyed them, not moving from their positions, but clearly unafraid. It wasn't until an errant twitch of the Private's spear that the anxious staring contest was broken.

Their speed was incredible. The Zerglings suddenly darted forward, their legs carrying them swiftly towards the ponies while the Creep gave them the extra strength to move that much faster. By the time the guards realized what was happening, these creatures were nearly upon them.

Corporal Summer Blossom spread her wings to get airborne and began to flap them, pushing off of the ground as hard as she could while trying to draw her sword with her teeth. The Zerg had other ideas. Two Zerglings reached the edge of the Creep and leaped for the pegasus, their appendages missing their mark in a way that would embarrass more thoughtful creatures. And yet, their apparently useless webbed spine became less useless, slashing the guard's front right leg and grazing her underbelly. She cried out in pain, her flight faltering briefly before adrenaline reached her.

The Private gasped and turned to attack the offending Zerg, not noticing the hasty magical barrier that Tracker and Long Lens had erected. His spear was thrust at the Zerglings, trying to get them to back off as he yelled such fearsome phrases like "G-Get back!", "Stay away!", and "I'm w-w-warning you!" They were not impressed.

With just two Zerglings within the barrier, the rest were left to deal with the other guards. An earth pony and a unicorn, both male, attempted to attack the rest of the group, blades held high. The earth pony was brought down swiftly with a spike through the top of his muzzle, followed by a brutal, gory bite to his neck. The unicorn was stunned just long enough to delay a magical swing of his sword, instead of getting to prepare for a second strike, the sword came down upon the murderous Zergling's head. Despite all the power behind the swing, it only made a dent in its armor. And before he could even think about trying again, a second Zergling pounced upon the unicorn and set about to literally ripping him apart with its spikes, arms, and teeth. Viscera and gore flew all over as his screams echoed through the forest, quickly added to by the dying screams of one Good Point and another researcher whom had failed to fend them off or flee.

Long Lens and Tracker didn't dare to look. They had the Private and Summer Blossom to guard them, but considering that the other seven Zerglings were now either trying to break down the shield or running towards them in an attempt to do so, the shield was necessary.

The earth pony Private and his airborne superior were frantically dodging attacks from and striking at the Zerglings, though the shield offered little room to do so. The Zerglings within fiercely fought the defenders, one of them quite badly injured from the intense fighting between them. As a last ditch effort, the injured one rushed in Summer Blossom's direction. The wounded, bleeding pegasus ascended quickly to avoid those spines, but quickly realized that she probably shouldn't as a piercing, terrified, scream echoed off the walls of the magical shield. The wounded Zerg had knocked over Long Lens, breaking his concentration and leaving a very nervous, scared, and now straining Tracker to strengthen the shield in hopes of protecting them.

"No! Nononono sweet Celestia, n-" he began to cry, tears streaming from his bloodshot, pinprick eyes just before the wounded one bit down on his face, tearing his muzzle from the rest of him with a series of sickening cracks and crunches.

"NOOO!" Summer Blossom yelled, diving at it and thrusting her sword down onto the beast and actually managing to kill it. The Zergling somehow burst apart in a shower of blood and innards, covering the walls of the shield. The two guards looked at each other in the corporal's moment of triumph, but then were swiftly reminded of how dire the situation was. Violently. The remaining Zergling lunged at the first pony to ever kill a Zerg, tanking a preventative spear in the side to get to the flier.

Poor Summer Blossom didn't see it coming until it was too late.

She felt its arms hitting her outstretched right wing and slashing it, a pained yelp coming from her maw as she attempted to take off. And despite the Private's second lunge and her own frantic fighting, It was over for her. The creature's other arm came about to spear her right through her flank, going in right through her flowery cutie mark and emerging easily and gorily from her unmentionables. Her deafening screams hurt the Private's and Tracker's ears, but the former used that opportunity to harshly kick the one Zergling in the side and then to harshly shove his spear through its neck multiple times until he was absolutely sure it was dead.

He then turned to the heavily bleeding pegasus, whom was lying on her side and quietly, pathetically whimpering. The Private began to panic, looking around him at the shield bashing Zerglings. He could even see that more had hatched and were setting about to attacking the shield. He then looked back to Corporal Summer Blossom, seeing that her eyes had shut and she had stopped moving. Either she was now the late Corporal Summer Blossom or she was going to be in a few minutes.

He now intensely, intensely regretted not speaking up about Twilight Sparkle when they had passed through Ponyville... With her magical prowess, they most certainly wouldn't be in this situation... or, at least, they could be running away right now... The despaired earth pony looked at Tracker. The researcher's eyes were shut and his teeth were grit as he strained to keep the shield up. The magical wall had shrank considerably to allow the two stallions room to move and fight, but little else. It was very obvious that Tracker was running out of magic...

"... I don't want to die... I don't want to die... I don't want to die..." the Private began quietly murmuring, falling onto his side and curling up into a little ball of hopelessness.

Tracker let out a weary grunt of exertion as he tried to hold the barrier, but his body was feeling the effects of overusing his magic. He feel to his side and panted heavily as his horn's glow intensified one last time... before he fainted. The shield vanished all at once, and the group of ten Zerglings immediately closed in on them to seal their doom. Only one scream rang through the trees as the Private desperately begged them to stop ripping him open and devouring him...

A minute later, there was silence, only broken by the squishy sounds of feasting Zerglings.

Fluttershy shivered as she took a deep drink of the last of her tea, then poured herself more as she sat in her living room with a very gracious Discord. The being of chaos was aware of his dear friend's sleeplessness and figured it was only fitting to help.

"Thank you, Discord... This is nice..." the meek little pegasus murmured, watching as the embodiment of disorder chuckled and smirked at her.

"You needed it, Flutters~" he said in that playful, light voice of his, willing another cup of tea into existance and his hand for his consumption. "Nopony can simply forget such things..." The draconequus had already been told everything by the gentle pegasus. As much as she knew, at least.

"... It was just so horrible, but... I don't see how they're dangerous... Twilight thinks they are, but... um... I think they're harmless..." Fluttershy commented, taking a short sip of hot tea as she sat with her chaotic friend. "... I got to ride on one... It was fun..." She looked down at the floor, embarrassed to admit that, despite the smile now curving her lips.

Discord then gave a soft chuckle, shaking his head and then letting out a soft sigh. "Fluttershy, oh Fluttershy..." he began, his mismatched hands clasping together tightly. "As much as I detest being so blunt... you couldn't be any more wrong..." Her gaze snapped to him with an anxious, curious look in her cyan eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, but Discord detached an arm to hold it to her muzzle, silencing her. "It pains me to admit that I don't know what they are, but I will tell you this, dear Fluttershy~" He then leaned in to whisper into her ear.

"It won't be long before all of Equestria is in chaos..." With that sad, he then reclaimed his arm and arched his back with a hearty, evil laugh. "Delicious, DELICIOUS CHAOS! HAHAHAHAAAHAHA!" he declared, lightning flashing all around him while he slipped. Then he became conscious of Fluttershy's concerned, yet stern glare, rubbing the back of his head before giving her a sort of "I'm sorry, okay!?" look. "Yeah, I let that one slip, but I'll be *bleep* if it didn't feel great!"

Fluttershy shook her head and looked down at her plastered leg, wondering about what Discord had said. Sure, he was the physical manifestation of chaos and discord itself, but he was reformed now... surely he wasn't responsible for this... No, if he WAS responsible for the Zerg, then surely he'd keep this to himself...

"... I need to tell Twilight..." she muttered to herself, though Discord caught it.

"An excellent idea, Fluttershy... Your friends and your princesses don't know what they're up against..." he agreed, leaning in again and grimacing as he made yet another non-cryptic statement. "And alllll of Equestria is doomed if they are not prepared."

After hearing those words, Fluttershy darted out of the cottage, rapidly taking to the air to find her bookworm friend... hopefully she hadn't left yet...

Trixie let out a satisfied grunt as she attached the last clamp to the repaired wheel, which would hopefully keep it together until the glue dried. She was now glad to be as handy with such woodwork as she was. She picked up the wheel with her magic and carried it into the cart with her, placing it down gently as she then sprawled out on her bed... Sure, it was still morning, but after pulling the cart all that way and then having to search for the wheel pieces and glue them together and keep them held together, she would be lying if she said she wasn't tired. So she laid down upon her bed, closing her eyes as her hat fell off. She could continue when the glue dried...

Twilight Sparkle waited at her window with a deep sigh, saddlebags on, watching the sky and the streets for the carriage that was meant to pick her up. Sure, Princess Celestia had forgotten to specify a time, but a quick letter to ask for one yielded a response of 6:00 AM. It was now 6:10 AM.

"Where the hay are they?!" she yelled, promptly taking a long swig of coffee and then a bite of a cupcake Pinkie Pie had left for her in the middle of the night for some reason. She wasn't complaining. It meant that she didn't have to wake Spike. But she WAS complaining as her ride never came. She just kept waiting and waiting for something that wasn't coming. Ever. Not that she knew that.

What she DID know is that she could see a familiar shape of a pegasus flying towards the library. Judging by the mane blowing in the wind and the fact that she wasn't a speedy blue blur, she guessed it was Fluttershy. She was right. She saw the mare land outside her tree and approach the door, whereupon she magically opened the door and met her halfway. "Fluttershy? Are you alright?" she quipped, noting the Kindness Bearer's worried visage.

"N-No...! We need to warn the princesses! Quickly!" she let out in a panicked tone as she passed her friend and entered the library. Twilight looked on with a concerned, confused expression... as well as one of hope. More specifically, hope that this didn't mean what some part of her thought it might mean. The unicorn swiftly followed her in.

"Fluttershy, calm down... warn them about what?" Twilight said softly, if anxiously, coming up next to the pegasus and watching with sorrow as the meek one pulled away from her hoof.

"Th-Those aliens... T-Th-Th-They want to hurt ponies..." she stammered, tears welling up in her eyes. "D-D-D-Discord said the princess need to know about them, a-a-"

"Discord?!" Twilight groaned. She should've known that darned draconequus was still up to something... Still... "Erm... no offense, Fluttershy, but... I don't think Discord is the most reliable source of information."

Fluttershy promptly whirled around to get face to face with the Element of Magic, her eyes now pinpricks. "I know! B-B-But w-w-w-we still have to warn them! What if they come to Ponyville?!"

"Fluttershy, calm down!!!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, frowning at the pegasus, whom was now backing away from her. "... What did Discord tell you?"

"H-He told me that they're dangerous and that if we d-d-d-don't prepare, Equestria is... is..." She found herself freezing up as mental images of what a post-Zerg Equestria would look like, shivering and spacing out as she unconsciously finished her own sentence. "... doomed..." At this point, tears were freely flowing from her eyes.

Twilight grimaced as she caught that last word, moving in to embrace her friend tightly. She didn't have to be Applejack to detect the utter terror her words and eyes carried. "... Alright... alright... I'll send her a letter, Fluttershy..."

"... Can I stay here...?"

"Yeah, I guess..." she uttered softly. She'd be waking Spike up after all. The unicorn mare turned around to head up the stairs, only to see the dragon standing there with paper and quill in claw.

"Thanks for waking me up, Twilight," he dryly, sarcastically told her, though his quill was ready. Earning a sorry smile from his caretaker, she began to dictate.

"Dear Princess Celestia... My friend Fluttershy has serious concerns about the aliens... I am unsure of your knowledge of the situation, but Discord has apparently stated that unless we are prepared for them, these aliens (I can't bring myself to call them "Zerg") will play a part in Equestria's doom. I write this to you to urge you to, at the very least, inform the Guard and - by extension - Captain Shining Armor of this threat. I regret that I can't provide any further information, as the escort you sent to get me still hasn't arrived as of-" She paused to look at the clock. "... 6:18 AM."

Twilight then paused again, looking down thoughtfully as she felt as though she were forgetting something, but concluded that she wasn't. "Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Twilight Sparkle. ... Get all that Spike? Good! Send it!" She didn't even wait for him to nod, but judging by the tell tale sound of dragonfire, she didn't need to.

With the letter sent, she turned her attention to a calming Fluttershy talking to a multicolored owl, then to her assi- multicolored owl? "... Discord!" The strange avian looked back at Twilight, than instantly reverted to his normal self before bending down to get face to face with the bookworm.

"Yeeeeeeeeeeeeees?"

"Tell me what you told her." As soon as she said that, a big black box with a glossy surface appeared, Discord pushing a button on its side to make it flicker to life. It then played the scene from Fluttershy's cottage that morning, but Twilight was only half watching it as she saw something through Fluttershy's window: a carriage being pulled by four guards, one of whom was flying in a very "bored Rainbow Dash" manner. She frowned; they'd forgotten her.

Once the memory was done playing, the box vanished and Discord leaned against an invisible wall, emitting a simple "well?" before watching the unicorn walk away into another room. She had to think about this...

Discord willed himself into existence within the White Tail Woods, just on the edge of the Creep where those poor researchers had been. He was floating just above an eating Zergling, and had to chuckle at some of the sounds they were making as they munched. He couldn't help giving that one a light kick in the side, making it hiss and flail about at something it could not see.

The physical manifestation of Discord then touched a tree and ripped a perfect wooden sign out of its trunk, hammering it into the ground on the very edge of the Creep before vanishing.

It read "No Flash Photography."

Author's Note

I couldn't find a good way to end this chapter.

On a completely unrelated note to this story, I find that when I'm writing one story, ideas for others begin to creep into my brain. I've had several ideas for an FTL: Faster Than Light crossover and a few for a story where a Gardevoir ends up in Equestria. I imagine the latter would be pretty mundane and HiE-y, but I think I'd enjoy writing it.

As always, comment and gut me for what I do wrong.

And look at this.

The Cry

Eggs burst open with violent force as two more Drones burst forth from them, accompanied by yet another Overlord. The Zerg had been producing a lot of workers and Overlords in the last several hours that morning, the sunlight reflecting more off of the newly hatched creatures than their older brethren. If anypony was still alive and not being digested, their reasons could only be guessed at.

Two Drones and one Overlord broke away from the clearing where their first base was situated, floating off to the east... Their scouts had found something...

Twilight Sparkle rolled onto her side in her bed as she let loose a groan, her heavy eyes half closed as she frustrated-ly tried to snooze. Having to get up early so much was doing a number on her in terms of fatigue, and the frustration caused by the Zerg and the - dare she say it - stupid guards wasn't helping any.

All of this information, all of these mental images, all of Discord's ridiculousness was driving poor Twilight up the bucking wall. She wanted to believe her friend and... well, she most certainly did. She was the first to raise questions as to the intentions of the Zerg and just how dangerous they were. In truth, she was still inwardly annoyed that her friends had cut yesterday's excursion so short. She still had so much to learn about the aliens, so the fact that she hadn't filled a full notebook with research made her inner perfectionist violently cringe.

"Urrghh! Craaaap!" she irately groaned, rolling out of bed and briefly checking her mane in the mirror. Then she brought herself over to her windows, using her magic to move her telescope to the west facing window once more. Once it was set up correctly and steadily, the purple unicorn gazed through it and raised an eyebrow. "... Oh no..." came a soft uttering, magically retrieving paper and a quill to jot down notes. One of those huge, bulbous, scary looking beasts was floating above the White Tail Woods, heading east.

For a moment, she thought to raise alarm. At first, it looked like it was on a course towards Ponyville, but she studied its movement and took an educated guess that it was not coming to town. Instead, it was headed in the direction of the Everfree Forest.

However, before she had much more of a chance to speculate, the Overlord halted and began to turn around, heading back the way it came. "What...?" she muttered, watching the immense creature floating away. A small part of her was disappointed. The better, more sensible part of her was relieved, but only a little. That thing had been getting rather close to Ponyville and she shuddered at the thought of somepony seeing it.

Immediately, her thoughts shifted to a worst case scenario, wherein all of Ponyville would begin to panic and they would all be slain... somehow. But in the interest of her own sanity, she shook her head out and banished such thoughts from her head. "No, Twilight..." she told herself softly. "It was probably just exploring..." She paused for a moment as she watched it. "... But why would it be exploring...? Was it looking for us? ... No, if it was, it wouldn't have stopped there... It must have been able to see Ponyville..."

The observing unicorn watched the Overlord until it disappeared from view, stepping away from the telescope and taking a deep breath to calm herself. "Everything will be fine... Everything will be just... fine..." she reassured herself, looking at her hooves. "For now just... go downstairs and keep reading..."

And so Twilight did just that. She left her bedroom and descended into the library, noting that it was much emptier than before. Fluttershy and Discord were gone, and Spike didn't come into view until she reached the bottom of the steps. The baby dragon was standing on a chair next to her previous night's research, bookmarking pages and replacing books. He turned his reptilian gaze up to her for a spell, giving her a friendly smile.

"Oh, thank you Spike, but I need you to put all of those back... I'm not done with them yet," she told him, gaining a slightly annoyed look from the dragon. He quickly turned to undo his work, however, finishing such with Twilight's help in just a few short minutes.

With all of the books replaced, she resumed her research, pausing briefly to ask her assistant to unlock the front door and to put up the "open" sign.

Hopefully, nopony would bother her. Hopefully.

Trixie watched the foliage warily as it rustled, though a major part of her wanted to turn tail and run. She could always build another cart. Heck, she'd built hers on her own. Lumber was easy enough to come by. And she could always come back for it. Upon further thought, some ponies might even bring it to her for her out of the kindness of their hearts.

The flight option was beginning to sound really good right about now... It was very true that whatever it was could be non-threatening to her. Even with her minuscule magic, she could defend herself, too. But what frightened her most was the fact that the offending creature was not showing itself."W-Wh-Whoever you are, the Great and Powerful Trixie demands that you show yourself!" she declared loudly, stamping her cart's wooden floor with a hoof to accentuate that last word. "Come out!"

Once she finished speaking, the noises stopped completely... it was all eerily quiet, even with the melodic chirping of the birds... The magician grit her teeth and looked around her. "... Trixie does not want to be here anymore..." she muttered quietly as she stepped away from her window. She cast her gaze to the wooden wheel lying upon the floor. Still not dry.

"... No," she then told herself, standing firm and shaking her head out. "It was... just a deer or something..." With those words, she shut all of her windows and closed all of her blinds before lying down on her bed once more. Her cape fell behind her and her hat ended up falling off of the bed as her head hit her pillow, the unicorn letting out a stressed sigh.

"Get a hold of yourself, Trixie. You're jumping at every little noise you hear now..." she scolded, pounding the side of her head with a hoof. "You're becoming needlessly paranoid..." The mare forced herself to yawn and then shut her eyes, magically taking hold of her pillow and tugging it downwards to clutch between her legs. A small part of her felt self-conscious for doing such a foalish thing, yet she felt compelled to do so anyways.

The Great and Powerful Trixie laid there in bed for a long time, clutching her pillow as her mind went wild with the possibilities... It could be an ursa major for all she knew! No, they were too big... It could be timberwolves! Or a cockatrice! Or perhaps something equally scary. Her attempts to get the fear mongers in her head to shut up were unsuccessful for a long while, but eventually, she reined them in and subdued them, taking a deep breath.

She was in no danger... if she was, she'd know it by now, right? She'd be able to hear them moving outside her cart, and they'd probably be trying to get in by now if they wanted her. There would be ample warning for su-

This self assuring train of thought was viciously derailed as the sound of splintering wood and the accompanying vibrations rocked her cart. "Ahhhhhhhhh!" came her startled cry, her entire body shuddering violently for a split second as she snapped her gaze to the other end of her mobile stage. She quickly rose from her bed, ignoring the fact that she had trodden upon her hat as she eyed the spot where the sounds had come from.

Whatever it was, it had seriously damaged the wood, a visible crack appearing in two places along the plank. Of course, the fact that it kept happening didn't help. Wood began to break in two different places, as well as the original while Trixie screamed in horror. "No! No! Go away!" she commanded fearfully, backing away from the wall a few steps until her hind legs touched the edge of her bed. Her breathing became rapid and her eyes shrank to little pinpricks. Suddenly the prospect of abandoning her cart sounded even more appealing.

Especially when after the third or fourth impact, the wall broke and six slender, hooked, spiked appendages protruded from the newly created holes. These appendages began to tear at the rest of the wall violently, with alien, frenzied, hungry cries sounding from that side of the cart.

Trixie decided to cut her losses.

The blue mare dashed to her cart's door and shoved it open forcefully with a loud grunt, leaping down from the wooden cart and dashing back the way she had come. She didn't dare to look back, either, only willing herself to run. She didn't need to. She could hear the sounds of splintering lumber and then rapid steps behind her, keeping pace with her.

The Great and Terrified Trixie began to pant heavily as she dodged the occasional large rock or root that littered the dirt path, having to accept the fact that her pursuers sounded closer each time she maneuvered around a sharp stone. It was as she dodged one such stone that she chanced a backwards glance, and it only scared her more.

Three creatures with predatory appendages dashed after her, their growls and cries loud, strange, and bowel-emptying-ly fierce. Before she could take in any more detail, she forced herself to look ahead to keep running, just barely leaping over an exposed root as she did so.

Their footfalls became increasingly louder the longer they ran. Trixie realized that, despite her adrenaline, she was slowing down, and forced herself to break into a headlong sprint once more. She also realized that it was extremely possible she would never outrun these creatures.

"Heeeeelp!" Trixie screamed at the top of her hard-working lungs, her voice echoing through the trees. "Somepony help meeeeeeee! Please, somepony!!"

It was as she finished this first round of screaming that a glimmer of hope reached her. Despite the tree cover, she began to see the buildings of Las Pegasus on the horizon. Far on the horizon. If she could make it there, she'd be able to hide or get the guards to save her. Or if she could be heard, somepony might come to her instead and drive off these creatures.

'Keep going, Trixie...! Keep going! Almost there!' she optimistically thought as she willed herself to go faster. As she did so, she found herself deviating from the main path, darting through the trees in an attempt to lose her pursuers or - at least - widen the gap between them.

With that said, she began to find that darting around trees wasn't the best idea... From the sounds of their angry vocalizations, they were getting closer as she took care not to run into a trunk. Again, she lifted her head and screamed.

"Help me! Please! Somepony! Heeeeeelp!" Her voice was raspy and breathless now. She could feel her adrenaline failing her as fatigue instead began to take over. Her body protested loudly and painfully as she dodged yet another tree trunk, gasping for breath as she tried to keep going.

It was then that she made a mistake. She shut her eyes and grit her teeth tightly as she tried to speed up, but it was enough to blind her to yet another rebellious root. Her front right hoof caught it and, in her panic, she toppled head first onto the ground.

When she came to rest, she found herself on her side, gazing weakly at the approaching Zerg. She began to rapidly shake her head, trying to wake up from this nightmare. Then she ignored the futility of another call as she let out one final scream.

"HELP ME! Ahhhhhh!" Her exhausted, spent, pained frame went completely limp as adrenaline failed her at last. At the very least, her body allowed her one last mercy as the Zerg closed in on her: she passed out.

"Orrghhh... Note to self... urp... no more carrot cocktail..." complained Gold Leaf as he slowly flew over the city of Las Pegasus, feeling his stomach doing strange and undesired things to him. He was beginning to seriously regret not eating at home. The stallion held at his belly with a hoof while he flew, constantly contemplating a quick landing to try and alleviate his nausea.

In fact, a sudden heaving forced him to land atop a roof and vomit in a corner, gagging and groaning as he lost his early lunch. Once he finished, he let out another groan and wiped his muzzle on his front left leg, looking around briefly to see if anypony had witnessed his sickness. Thankfully, nopony had.

His fittingly golden fur and stark white mane and tail blew softly in the wind, thankfully leaving him out of the smelly range of his sick. "... Ughhhh... Maybe... I'll just sit here for a minute..." he muttered to himself, walking slowly to the other side of the roof and sitting on his haunches in a corner. The air certainly seemed to help when he wasn't airborne.

Gold Leaf sat there for several minutes, his stomach slowly ceasing its violent protest as he rested there. The pegasus found himself wondering why he didn't come up here more often. He was no stranger to high altitudes and he certainly enjoyed the height, but being up here, despite the taste in his mouth, was quite relaxing. "I should show Bauble this spot sometime..." he mused aloud, rubbing the underside of his muzzle with a hoof.

"Help me!"

The male's ears perked as he heard somepony's voice coming from the north. It was faint and distant, no doubt muffled by the trees the sound had to bounce off of. Yet he could understand it, and his wings spread immediately. "Somepony's in trouble!" he found himself yelling, leaping off of the building and gliding down to the ground as he searched for a guard.

"Who is in trouble, citizen?!" The sound of a loud, female voice beside him startled him, seeing a golden armored pegasus mare with similarly, if reversed, coloring to his own. She looked rather pretty...

'No! Bad Leaf! You have a marefriend!' he internally scolded himself, looking to the guard again and getting serious. "I heard somepony calling for help! I think they're in the White Tail Woods!" he replied, keeping his airborne path steady as the mare kept up with him.

"Where?"

'... What the hay. Nothing else was going to happen today,' he told himself as he started to pick up speed, flying towards the edge of the city with the guard hot on his tail. "Just follow me!" With that, Gold Leaf and Private Misty Light took off towards the call of distress, hoping to find its source before it was too late.

Twilight Sparkle froze for a split second as something occurred to her. She had an idea. An excellent idea. Twilight Sparkle had a wonderful, excellent idea. "Mayor Mare!" she declared randomly, hitting her front hooves together in what could be interpreted as a pony equivalent to snapping fingers. "I should go to her, make a plan for an attack!" she then continued, catching Spike's attention from across the room.

The unicorn pulled a long, blank roll of paper from a spot on a shelf and a map of Ponyville, her quill flying across the blank sheet as she she sketched a rough, though accurate approximation of the town. She could make it look pretty later; right now, it needed to be accurate first.

The baby dragon approached his caretaker and then hopped up onto a chair to get a look at what she was doing. He didn't say anything at first, intently watching her work, but eventually he saw her tracing arrows towards the library, the town hall, and Sweet Apple Acres, among a few other locations she hadn't labeled yet. "What are those arrows for, Twilight?" he quipped, getting her to throw a sidelong glance at him before returning to her work.

"They're evacuation routes," she answered simply. "If those things come to Ponyville, I want to make sure everypony can get out safely."

"Things? You mean Zerg?"

Twilight paused again for a second. "... Sure, fine, Zerrrr-guh!" she said replied in a rather immature tone. "Look, it doesn't matter."

Spike shook his head and smiled sincerely. "But don't you think everypony will want to know what they're called? It's a whole lot easier than calling them "aliens" every time!"

Twilight looked at Spike and placed her quill inside an ink pot, a soft smile curving her muzzle. "... Good point, Spike. Thank you," she told him, pulling him into a quick hug before beginning to work again. The dragon nodded at her once released and then hopped down from his perch, wandering off to get himself a snack before he continued his daily chores.

Gold Leaf and the guard accompanying him had been surveying the woods for an hour and come up empty-hoofed. It amazed him, too. To him, it felt like he had combed half the darn woods in search of the damsel in distress, and it was accurate. They had searched a good portion of the southern White Tail Woods. The guard was not amused.

"Mister Gold Leaf, do you have any idea what my superiors would do to me if they knew you dragged me out here for absolutely nothing?"

"I'm telling you, I heard somepony calling for help! I'm not lying!"

"I'm talking to you for Celestia's sake!" she asserted, stamping her hoof into the grass with a frustrated tone. "It's bad enough that you dragged me out here for nothing, but the fact that you're keeping me here is unbearable." She paused and moved her head to reach for something attached to her side. "I am going to fine you for this, by the way."

"... You're joking, right? You're writing me a damned ticket for this?"

"I am."

"Why?!"

"Out of spite." Her tone was not indicative of whether or not she was being sarcastic.

Gold Leaf opened his mouth several times to protest, but the pegasus mare's angry gaze silenced him. A deep sigh escaped his maw instead; it was going to be a real chore to explain all this to Bauble...

Rainbow Dash yawned loudly as she stepped out her door and streeeeetched her wings and legs, letting out a satisfied sigh when she finished. Her stomach rumbled angrily at her as she did so. It wanted food badly, but its owner told it "not yet."

There were certain perks to waking up late in the morning. One could skip breakfast and go straight to lunch (or brunch), she didn't have to try to avoid the ditzy mailmare as often... She looked down at her hooves. She couldn't think of any others, other than the fact that she valued her sleep.

All that aside, she spread her wings wide and ran to the edge of the cloud that her impressive, rainbow spewing home, leaping from it and allowing the wind to catch her powerful wings as she began to glide. Then she started flapping, rapidly gaining speed as she jetted towards Ponyville proper.

She reveled in the feeling of wind blowing through her multi-colored mane and tail, grinning a little as she flew. It was then that she remembered what she was meant to do that day. Rarity had some sort of suit that she wanted the self-proclaimed fastest flier in Ponyville to test out... Normally, she'd be reluctant to do something so boring, but the fashionista had hinted at the fact that somepony special had commissioned the suit... Rainbow Dash thought it could be the Wonderbolts, but the white unicorn was being tight lipped about the whole thing.

It made her suspicious, but not enough to be in any hurry. Rarity hadn't given her a time to stick to, so she'd squeeze in a good flight before heading to the boutique. So she zoooooomed over Ponyville, doing a few little stunts here and there. A few rolls, a few loop-de-loops, a few near misses on buildings. Everypony in Ponyville knew what this sort of routine looked like and they all knew to hit the dirt when RD flew past. It was better for their skeletal systems.

Ten minutes passed and the Bearer of Loyalty had reached the other side of Ponyville and turned herself upwards, beginning to climb rapidly with her legs pointed in front of and behind her for speed. Her ascent brought cooler air as she reached the clouds and then beyond them. She would've been moving them, but... hey, there were other weathermares, who appeared to be hard at work in her absence.

To be truthful, she was glad she had chosen to skip work this morning. If she hadn't, she probably wouldn't have gotten a view of the Ghastly Gorge to the southwest as she flew higher. She looked in its direction and ceased her climb, looking at that gorge with a quizzical expression.

"... What the heck...?" she muttered, starting to lazily glide in its direction as she eyed the object of her intrigue.... or rather, objects.

As she approached the gorge, she could see them in greater detail... and her gut sank as she came to a hover. "... Oh crap! I gotta tell Twilight!"

"I appreciate your concern for the citizens of Ponyville, Miss Sparkle, but I am not sure this is the best thing to do."

"Please, Mayor Mare, I'm not saying it's going to happen... But if it does, I think it would be best for everypony if we had a plan for it," Twilight Sparkle explained, gesturing to the large poster she had unrolled on the mayor's desk. "I'm not asking for drills or anything, I'm just asking that this be made public..."

The mayor looked down at her hooves and let out a sigh, thinking quietly for a moment before responding. "... Alright. I'll call a meeting soon."

Twilight let out a deep sigh of relief and smiled softly at the mare across from her. "Thank you so much, Mayor Mare... If nothing else, it puts my mind at ease..." she said as she stood to leave, using her magic to open the door to the mayor's office. "Goodbye!"

"Have a nice day, Miss Sparkle."

With that, the bookworm left the town hall, stepping outside into the rays of Celestia's sun. Another deep sigh left her lips, a wider smile curving them as she started to trot back home. She felt so much better having taken her plans to the mayor; all that was left to do was to grab lunch and spend the rest of the day... trying to research the Zerg...

Her smile faded as she remembered what she needed to do. She really didn't want to keep up her research, as strange as it was for her to admit it. But the Princess herself had told her to continue, and she'd never disobey her dear teacher... She wondered if she could possibly request that somepony else be assigned to it...

She also wondered why she could see Rainbow Dash making a beeline straight for her. Her eyes widened and she dove to the side for cover as the weathermare made a clumsy but successful landing where she had just been standing a few seconds ago. "Jeeeeez! Rainbow Dash, what's go-"

"T-Twilight!" Rainbow Dash yelled, cutting her off. "They're in the Ghastly Gorge!"

Twilight's expression became scared. She had a feeling she knew what this meant, but she didn't want to believe it... "Who? Who's there?"

"The aliens!"

A certain nausea hit the purple mare as soon as she heard that answer. Another deep sigh escaped her maw as she looked in the direction of her library. "... A-Alright... Let me stop at the library and grab my notepad, then I want you to show me what you saw." Rainbow Dash responded with a sort of salute, folding her wings and beginning to follow the unicorn home.

Now thoroughly worried, Twilight said nothing else on the trip back home. The Zerg were on the move, and though she didn't know what it meant, she somehow knew it wasn't good.

Author's Note

I find that this theme and many other pokémon legendary themes are very fitting while writing a character that's running from something.

Lemme know what ya think!

The Mission

"Sweet Celestia..." Twilight uttered softly as she and Rainbow Dash stood at the edge of Ghastly Gorge, gazing down at its newest and most frightening occupants: Zerg. Two large growths adorned the rocky surface at the bottom; one was an orange cocoon identical to the one that the first Hatchery was currently pulsing and writhing as that scorpion-like creature squirmed and 'swam' about inside. The other was enveloping a set of crater-like geysers set in the ground there, tendrils filling the holes and growing around it in a disgusting, rather dirty looking manner.

"What do you think they are?" the flier beside her quipped, folding her wings as she told herself not to fly down and investigate.

"I'm not so worried about that... I'm worried about why they're here," came Twilight's quick retort, biting her lip as she stared down fearfully at them. "... I hope they hold that meeting soon..." she then said to herself more than anypony, her mind swimming with terrible possibilities.

"Meeting? What meeting?"

"Oh... I uh... I made a plan for an evacuation of Ponyville... just in case the ali-" Twilight sighed. "Just in case the Zerg attack Ponyville..."

"Oh... Good thinking, I guess," Rainbow Dash said in response, taking off and hovering a few feet off the ground.

Twilight turned her gaze back down to the morphing Zerg and sighed again, shaking her head gently. She was at a loss about what she should be doing... Those researchers hadn't come back for her yet, nopony had seen them since, and she didn't know if trying to... exterminate the traveling Zerg was a good idea...

Extermination wasn't an option that she considered lightly. The idea of these aliens having a leader and said leader being alerted to their violence didn't sound appealing to the bookish unicorn. Nor did the prospect of violence. If it meant the safety of Equestria, though...

Somepony needed to learn what was going on... And as she saw Rainbow Dash bored-ly hovering in a circle around her, she began to formulate a plan... She turned around and started to walk back to town, the cyan mare wordlessly following, despite watching Twilight's face intently.

"... What'cha thinking about, Egghead?" she eventually asked, beginning to fly backwards in front of the Element of Magic. Twilight turned her gaze to meet Rainbow's, staring at her quietly for a few seconds in thought.

"... Rainbow Dash... What would you say if I asked you to go and fly over to the site for me?" she posed, tilting her head slightly. The loyal pegasus raised an eyebrow and then smirked a cocky smirk, bumping a hoof off of her chest.

"Are you kidding?! Of course!" she replied confidently, landing on all fours and backing up at Twilight's pace. ".. I mean, I think you should stay here. Take a nap or something. You need to relax, Twilight."

Twilight offered her friend a soft smile as Rainbow expressed her concern, softly nuzzling her in reply. "... You know, maybe I should... Thank you..." Rainbow chuckled and spread her wings again, taking off a few inches and beginning to hover again. She looked like she was about to zoom away, and Twilight took a telekinetic hold of the weathermare as a precaution. Sure enough, she tried to fly away, but groaaaaned as she realized she was being held back. "Before you go, though... I need you to promise me a few things..."

Rainbow Dash let out a sigh and hung her head, looking thoroughly bored already. "... Uh-huh?"

Twilight nodded. "First things first, I don't want you to get close to them... Stay away from them as much as you can, but tell me as much about them as you possibly can." Rainbow Dash folded her wings and allowed Twilight to set her down.

"Uh-huh."

"Next, I want you to tell those guards and researchers that they forgot to pick me up. I'm seriously not happy about that one. Give them a piece of my mind for me."

"Yeah," RD muttered in a dismissive manner, idly looking away.

Twilight raised an eyebrow, but continued. "And lastly, if you're in danger at all, get back to Ponyville as fast as you ca- Oh, actually, make sure they don't follow you here if they do!"

"Goootcha."

Twilight had to check. "... I also want you to make a pound of caramel with clouds."

Rainbow Dash shot her bookworm friend a weird look, emitting a flat "what."

"I wasn't sure if you were paying attention."

"Learn everything I can, yell at those guards, be safe, and don't lead them to Ponyville. Don't worry, Twilight!" Rainbow Dash summarized as they reached the top of a hill that overlooked the rest of southern Ponyville.

Twilight rubbed the back of her head as she came to a stop, smiling at her friend once more. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I just..." She sighed softly. "... I'm scared..." With that admission, her eyes met Rainbow's and for just a second, she caught a degree of empathy. Rainbow Dash was in the same boat, even if she hadn't said anything.

"I gotcha, Twilight," Rainbow Dash said in acknowledgement, nodding at her as she landed again. "I'll tell you what. Gimme your note thing and a quill and I'll write everything down."

"... I can't thank you enough, Rainbow Dash..." she told the flier, moving in to hug her tightly. "... Be safe."

"Ahhhhhhh... I'm glad you could come on such short notice, Fluttershy~ Waiting for Rainbow Dash wasn't getting me anywhere, after all~" Rarity let out happily as the pegasus in question entered the Ponyville Day Spa's spa room, the yellow pegasus smiling softly as she approached the hot tub.

"I-I'm glad I could, Rarity... All of this has been so stressful for me..." she replied, climbing into the hot tub and letting out a happy sigh.

"I heard that Discord said something to you that scared you..." Rarity then said in turn, not wasting any time on that front. Fluttershy blinked once, then shrank away slightly, letting herself lower into the warm water until the surface tickled the bottom of her muzzle.

"... Y-You did..." she muttered quietly, looking down and away as her pink mane hid one of her eyes. Rarity leaned closer.

"You can tell me, Fluttershy... Anything you say to me stays in this room~" the seamstress reassured in a calm, friendly tone. For a few seconds, Fluttershy did and said nothing, but she eventually lifted her head and swallowed.

"... Um... Discord told me that... the aliens are dangerous... and that Equestria is in.... um... s-s-serious trouble if we don't do something..." she softly admitted, looking Rarity in the eye. "I know that it's Discord and... that I'm not supposed to completely trust him, but I don't think he was lying..."

The unicorn looked down at the warm water and furrowed her brow in thought, letting out an accompanying hum as she pondered her friend's quiet words. Fluttershy awkwardly looked down as well, wondering if she had said the wrong thing. Before she could meekly and pointlessly apologize, though, Rarity spoke up.

"I see... Well... what do you think, dear?" she queried, tilting her head slightly. The pegasus gave her an inquisitive look and the Bearer of Generosity smiled softly. "Do you think he's right?"

Fluttershy nodded.

"Then I think you should go and speak to Twilight after you leave," Rarity concluded, putting a hoof to her chest. "Of course, that's just my opinion."

"... Thank you, Rarity... but I already went to her this morning..." she replied, returning her friend's smile.

"Oh... well, then let's change the subject!" Rarity awkwardly chimed, briefly wracking her brain for a new topic. "... Oh! I heard Lyra came out to Bon Bon the other day."

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow and allowed a soft smile to appear on her face. "She did?"

"Oh yes! Let me tell you, I wasn't expecting-"

The flight to and over the White Tail Woods was slow... slower than Rainbow Dash would've liked. She was doing her best to pace herself, not wanting to tire herself out early in case things went south. Still, being the athletic mare that she was, her version of "slow" was still pretty fast.

It wasn't long at all before the huge, bulky forms of several wandering Overlords became visible. She ended up approaching one that wasn't going anywhere, eying it closely. She was looking for claws or fangs or... heck, big boxing gloves or whatever. "... You don't look so bad to me..." she told it, receiving nothing but a guttural groan in return.

Of course, once it opened its mouth, she saw teeth. Teeth that were longer than she was tall. She nervously backed away from its maw when she saw them, but much to her relief, the Overlord did not attempt to pursue her. Rainbow Dash stared at it for a few long seconds before it moved, turning around and ponderously floating in the opposite direction.

The weathermare took a deep breath and held her head with a hoof, telling herself to leave the big ugly aliens alone as she continued on her airborne path to the Zerg base. From the air, it wasn't a long trek, either.

After a few short minutes of flight, she found herself in sight range of the hatchery that they had seen the day before. It still looked just as disgusting as before, she mused. But the hatchery wasn't what she was interested in. No, she instead found herself drawn to four new structures that now laid upon the Creep.

The first was closer to her side of the clearing. To her, it looked like a... shrimp. An orange shrimp that had been... turned inside out and covered with spikes. It faintly pulsated with life and gave off an odor that the mare couldn't quite place.

The second "building" looked like a huge... head... A boar's head perhaps, if that boar was orange, had four big, non-existent eyes, a muzzle that was split open, huge spikes in place of tusks... Yeah, that wasn't a boar. The structure also had four sizable spikes lining the top of it, as well as a set of three holes in itself. One hole was situated directly in the top, free of spikes but nearly enclosed by a sort of bone. The second hole appeared in the middle-front of the Zerg structure, adorned with a foreign looking skull. And the last was on the ground, presumably to allow creatures in and out. Yet it was alive itself... Rainbow Dash couldn't help a cringe.

The third, almost directly below her, looked like a huge mouth, spikes lining a rim while the inside was filled nearly to the brim with a bubbly, acidic looking green liquid. And the fourth was placed at the complete opposite side of the Creep ring. It appeared to be nothing more than a fleshy base with a single... tendril protruding from the center. Said tendril was topped with formidable looking spikes on a flared, conic growth adorning the tip. From where she was hovering, she could see it gently swaying from side to side, as if it were bored.

Rainbow Dash reached into her saddlebags and began to try to sketch the new buildings, but eventually settled for just describing them as best she could. She didn't get very close however. Twilight had only asked for eyes, nothing more.

Movement at the far sound end of the clearing caught Rainbow Dash's eye, stopping in the middle of comparing the Spawning Pool to one of Zecora's cauldrons. She began to slowly move in that direction, meaning to see what was happening. She only got a few feet before four aliens emerged from the brush. Three were weird... aliens that looked like something out of Fluttershy's worst nightmare. The fourth was one of those things that the same mare had been riding the day before. But they weren't what the weathermare was focusing on.

No, it appeared somepony else had the privilege/misfortune of riding on a Drone. Rainbow Dash had to get closer to see exactly who, but when she saw her, her jaw dropped.

"Trixie?!" she found herself yelling in disbelief. Indeed, the magician was sprawled out on top of the Drone, looking very battered, dirty, but surprisingly intact. Rainbow Dash couldn't see any obvious injuries from where she was flying. But instead of flying down to try and help her like the better part of her was urging her to do, she stayed put, watching as the Drone and its three Swarmling escorts carried the Unconscious or Probably Dead Trixie to the evolution chamber and vanished inside it through an opening she hadn't noticed.

"...Serves her right..." she found herself muttering and subsequently frowning at herself for as she began to turn around. She had seen enough. That's when she saw a sign, three stakes, and a group of cameras on the ground. "... Huh?" she let out softly, looking behind her at the seemingly occupied Zerg before carefully descending to examine the site.

She quickly wished she hadn't.

A few weapons were strewn about, as well as destroyed bits of armor and... bones. The skeletal remains of eight ponies were scattered about amid patches of blood covered grass and a singular, small pile of unconsumed viscera. The skeletons were in bad shape, too. It looked like their ribs had been torn out to allow access to meat that must have been hard to get to. Never mind a lot of other bones.

The skulls got to Rainbow Dash the most. Their eyes were gone. One of them was missing its muzzle... and on a few of the corpses, it appeared that the Zerg had ripped and torn through the tops of their heads to get to their brains.

Without missing a beat, Rainbow Dash felt her lunch coming up rapidly, dispensing foodless bile onto the ground before she could stop herself. "... H-Holy shit..." she whispered to herself after she finished vomiting, not bothering to correct the heinous language she had just used as she eyed the remains. Rainbow Dash put away her notes and eyed one of the cameras, landing on the grass as her tail brushed a sign. She snuck a backwards glance at it: "No Flash Photography." Before she could wonder who put it there, she saw an indentation in a tree trunk that was perfectly shaped like that sign.

"... Discord, you jerk..." she internally accused, approaching a body and spying a glint nearby. Metal. Not a weapon, but just... metal. Tags. She picked them up and dropped them into her saddlebags with a deep sigh, glancing to her right towards one of the big, tripod-mounted cameras that was aimed at the clearing. "... Maybe I should bring one of these back for Twilight..." she quietly muttered to herself before turning around to face the camera and a spine crawler.

... Spine crawler?

While she had been busy throwing up and generally being more freaked out than she physically let on, the tendril-endowed structure had somehow moved from the westernmost edge of the Creep to about ten yards from her. Before she could try to figure out what had happened or why, the length reared back and then dove at the flier.

"Whoa!" she yelled, darting to the side and spreading her wings immediately. "Stop! Sto- Ahh!" The spine crawler immediately lunged at her over and over, making her dodge several times before she wizened up. She powerfully took off from the ground and did an aerial about-face, her teeth clenched and her eyes wide as she bolted. She didn't even think about the possibility of being followed. She couldn't afford to. Ponies had been killed and Trixie was probably about to join them. Twilight needed to hear about this. Now.

"It hurts..."

The freaked out flier streaked into Ponyville airspace at breakneck speeds, headed directly towards Twilight's library while many an innocent, clueless pegasus had to dive out of the way to avoid injury. Unfortunately for a certain mailmare, Rainbow Dash didn't grab her notice until she had zoomed past her, leaving poor Ditzy Doo spiraling into a conveniently and fortunately placed bale of hay.

Once the tree she called home came into view, Rainbow Dash banked hard to the left, beginning to fly in a wide, speedy, unstable circle in an effort to slow down. She knew rather well how entering the library at such a speed would end for her. All the Daring Do books in Equestria wouldn't save her from the subsequent boredom of another hospital stay. She'd read them all, after all.

After a minute or so of flying in a circle, Rainbow Dash zoomed through an open window and into Twilight Sparkle's unoccupied bedroom. "Twiliiiight?!!" she called as she started gasping for breath, walking towards the room's closed door and pulling it open. "Twilight! Are you here?! ... Jeez..."

"Rainbow Dash?!" Twilight called back from the floor below, making the cyan pegasus bolt downstairs to meet her friend. The unicorn met her at the bottom of the stairs, eyeing her flier friend with a cross between surprise and happiness over seeing Rainbow Dash return safely. "I honestly thought you'd be gone longer..." she then admitted while the panting pegasus pony closed the gap between them. She noted her friend's breathless state and instantly jumped to conclusions... Rainbow Dash needed to get back in a hurry. Why?

"Rainbow Dash, what happened...?" she nervously quipped, watching as the weathermare reached into her saddlebags and came out with Twilight's other notepad gripped in her teeth. The unicorn took it in her magic and began to look over Rainbow Dash's rather sloppy writing, leaving the mare responsible to plop down on her haunches and to catch her breath. In truth, though, her attention was more on said mare...

Rainbow Dash looked like she had been fleeing from something, that much was easy to see. But what wasn't easy to see, and nearly escaped Twilight's notice, was the subtle shaking of her front legs, the wideness of her eyes, the slight staggering of her breaths... Rainbow Dash was scared. For the sake of her pride, Twilight said nothing about it, instead thinking about the implications of such.

"... Those.... The-The Z-Zerg... Hah..." she started, hanging her head as she sucked air through her teeth. "... Th-They killed ponies..."

Twilight's eyes widened as those words left Rainbow's lips, standing there in stunned silence. She knew Rainbow Dash was serious... Prankster or no, she wouldn't joke about this... but... "... Are you sure, Rainbow Dash...?" she managed after a long, awkward silence.

The fast flier nodded gently and reached into her saddlebags again, this time coming back with a set of tags dangling from her teeth and a grim look in her eyes. Twilight fell back on her own haunches as she shook her head gently while Rainbow Dash dropped the tags and slowly walked to Twilight's side.

"... One of those things attacked me, too... Otherwise I would've... brought one of their cameras for you..." she added, sitting beside the bookworm while Twilight stared off into the distance.

"... Rainbow Dash... I'm sorry... I'm so, so, so sorry..." Twilight loudly emitted in between tear-fighting gasps, shaking her head furiously for a second or two. "I never should have asked you to do that...! I knew it would be dangerous and I asked you to do it anyways! I'm sorry!"

Rainbow Dash stared at Twilight Sparkle with wide eyes and an open mouth, watching as her friend began to weep softly. She scooted closer and put a hoof gently on Twilight's withers, patting her softly while looking somewhere past her head. "It's fine, Twilight... I'm fine. Besides, those Zerg can't touch me. I'm the fastest flier in Equestria!" she proudly consoled, getting Twilight to raise her gaze to the prismatic mare's own with just a ghost of a smile.

"... You're... You're right... N-Now... T-Tell me everything..."

"Well, Trixie was there... I mean, she kinda has it coming..."

"Rainbow Dash!!"

"What?! She does! ... Besides, I think she's still alive."

"Really? How could y-... ugghhh... alright... start from the beginning. Tell me everything."

"... Everything?"

Twilight took a deep breath and steeled herself. "... Everything."

Author's Note

So, to recap, the Zerg's main base is now comprised of one hatchery, an evolution chamber, a roach warren, and one spine crawler.

Again, I don't know how to end chapters.

Leave a comment, tell me what you think!

The Assembly

Princess Celestia let out a soft sigh as she nodded towards the noble that currently had audience with her, offering him a polite, sincere smile that she had perfected over many centuries of Equestrian politics. That wasn't to say this particular noble needed the less sincere "polite, sincere" smile. She realized the importance of funding equinitarian organizations like the "Blue Wings," if for reasons other than providing her little ponies with assistance where it is needed most.

It meant that she was slipping.

Equestria was beginning to very subtly deteriorate. More and more ponies were beginning to find themselves without homes and there had been a very alarming increase in Equestria's overall crime rate. In fact, the city of Manehatten was host to the first bank robbery Equestria had seen in very long time. If that wasn't a sign of the times, she didn't know what was.

"Thank you very much, your Highness, for your time," the noble emitted with a bow before turned about and left the throne room, leaving the Princess of the Sun alone with her guards.

"Who is next, Fine Print?" she quipped softly, getting the attention of her personal aide: an elderly unicorn stallion with a beige coat and black mane and tail with a magnifying glass appearing each of his flanks. His spectacle-adorned muzzle wrinkled in concentration as he examined the list floating before him, peering at the name of the next pony in line. "... That would be one... Marigold..."

"Send her in, please!" Princess Celestia replied, a pleasant smile adorning her muzzle. From what she remembered, Marigold was a very funny mare. Every time she met with the Princess, the two would part while laughing uncontrollably. "And I would like a kettle of tea, please."

"As you wish, your Highness," her aide replied, making a few gestures with a hoof and watching as a young mare ran out of the throne room to fetch the Princess said tea. As the door opened, a pegasus slipped in and smiled widely at the ruler, chuckling already. She was a mare of a brownish-gold coat and mane and tail, her wings folded neatly at her sides and her bright blue eyes locked firmly on the visage of the elder royal sister.

"Your Highness! It's been far too long!" she happily declared, casually approaching the throne and stopping midway between it and the door.

"It has indeed, Marigold. What's been keeping you away?"

"I have a coltfriend now, Princess. And he's a real doozy, if I do say so myself,"

Celestia giggled like a gossiping teenager, leaning in from her throne to demonstrate her intrigue. "Is that so?"

"Yep! But onto business first. I need to-"

Marigold was cut off by a sudden manifestation of smoke appearing to the side of Celestia's head, which spontaneously combusted and then formed into a rolled up scroll, as well as a small pouch. "That didn't take very long..." the Princess mused aloud, staring at it curiously while grabbing them with her magic. She wanted to put it aside until after her audience with her good friend, but upon seeing the label wrapped around the scroll, she sighed and opened it. "I'm sorry, Marigold. My student seems to be growing impatient with me..." she apologized, peering at the letter with a good humored expression.

"Oh, it's just fine, Princess~" Marigold emitted, shuffling her hooves and beginning to subtly bob her head to a nonexistent beat. Her blue eyes were fixed firmly upon the Sun Princess's countenance, watching her read the letter. Celestia's eyes scanned the paper with initial interest, but as she went on, her expression devolved into a very well developed poker face.

After reading the letter, Celestia rolled it back up and peered into the small pouch for a few short seconds. Drawing the cord on the pouch to close it, the ruler smiled apologetically at her subject and friend. "I'm very sorry, Marigold, but I'm afraid this requires my immediate attention."

The pegasus covered her muzzle with a forehoof as she giggled softly. "Alright, Princess~ I'll see you again soon!" Marigold replied calmly, turning around on her hooves without bowing and leaving the room.

Once she was gone, Princess Celestia rose from her throne and began to walk towards a side door that led to hers and Luna's chambers, as well as a few other rooms not open to the public. "... Tell them that I cannot see them today, guards. Promise them an audience tomorrow... Please give Date my apologies and permission to take leave tomorrow. I realize how hard his job is."

"Yes, your Highness," a guard replied, trotting to the main doors and breaking the news to all the nobles lined up outside the room.

Celestia entered a very well kept hallway and began to move towards Luna's room, shaking her head a little as she allowed her poker face to fade. She was disappointed that she couldn't spend time with Marigold, but this issue was much more important. Important enough to prompt Celestia to enter Luna's bedroom unannounced. To her surprise and slight dismay, Luna was very much awake, idly leafing through a book while lying on her bed. Celestia's entrance prompted her to put it down.

"Sister? What troubles you?" she immediately quipped, not needing any words from the Sun Princess to know what she was feeling. A deep sigh left Princess Celestia's lips and she approached the other alicorn, magically shutting the door and opening the letter. She cleared her throat and began to read aloud, though not before casting a quick sound dampening spell to keep things private.

Dear Princess Celestia,

This letter is not to nag you about the tardiness of your troops, but of something far more grim. I now understand why they have not come. The Zerg have killed them. My friend, Rainbow Dash, was brave enough to fly to the site and to check on the Zerg. Her account of her experience will, I'm afraid, likely be the subject of mine and her nightmares for a long time. According to her, the Zerg have also attacked her, though she managed to escape unharmed.

What's worse is that the Zerg are now expanding their territory. Rainbow Dash discovered more Zerg at the bottom of the Ghastly Gorge near Ponyville. Their reasons for doing so are anypony's guess, but I fear for the safety of Ponyville with them drawing so close. That's not to say I'm not preparing, though. There will be an assembly at the town hall tomorrow morning to inform all of Ponyville of the Zerg, the threat they pose, and to acquaint them with an evacuation plan I put together in case the Zerg attempt to attack us.

If you have any advice for me, please do send it quickly. I need to prepare a speech for the assembly to try and minimize the panic that I'm confident will follow. This assembly will take place at 10 AM tomorrow morning at the town hall, in case you wish to make an appearance.

-Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle

Celestia and Luna stood in silence for quite some time, eyeing each other and the pouch awkwardly. Eventually, Luna shook her head out and took a deep breath. "... We think, at the very least, a doubling of the guard is in order," Luna suggested, making an accompanying gesture with her front left hoof. "If these Zerg creatures are dangerous, we mustn't take chances."

"Agreed," Celestia replied in short order, though she did not attempt to say anything further when she heard the subtle but telltale sound of Luna inhaling to continue.

"And we believe that thou must change thy arrangements with the Griffon Empire," the Princess of the Night added, closing her eyes for a long time as if in thought. "The time for such excursions for the sake of diplomacy is no longer."

Celestia nodded in agreement. She had already begun worrying about the relations with the Griffon Empire. Were it not for the Zerg, she would be on a chariot heading east towards the Griffon Empire to negotiate over... over... Hmmm... What am I negotiating for again...? she found herself thinking. But now with a potential enemy now apparently growing within Equestrian borders, leaving would be, for lack of a better word, stupid.

She shook her head out and exhaled deeply through her nose, turning to leave the room. "... I must make preparations, then," the sun princess relayed, hearing the rusting of sheets as her little sister rose from her bed and did a quick trot to catch up. It wasn't like she was going to get any sleep at this point.

A new cocoon burst open to form a second hatchery for the Zerg's first base, larva already beginning to spawn from the breeding structure while the original seemed to be... growing somehow... The top half of it was being engulfed a messy mass of slime, flesh, and slimy flesh. The eggs surrounding it were full of activity, though. So much that the eggs burst out to release three creatures. New creatures.

They were insect-like, six legs extending horizontally from its underside with hardened spikes for feet. Standing at just over a meter and a half tall, most of their body was comprised of a thick armored shell, lined with spines and spikes. Said shell was also topped with two small, hooked appendages similar to those of a Zergling's (though much smaller by comparison). Its head was low to the ground, lacking a complete lower jaw. Instead, a thin, slimy membrane was stretched between two ball jointed lower mouthparts, perfect for allowing streams of acidic saliva to be forcefully ejected.

The newly hatched Roaches let out rapid, wet cries before beginning to head towards the eastern side of the base. Upon reaching the edge of the ring, they stepped onto the grass and began tearing at the ground, burrowing into the rich Equestrian soil and disappearing from view... If anypony was walking in the White Tail Woods and was paying attention, they might feel gentle vibrations beneath their hooves... Especially as more and more Roaches hatched.

... It hurts... it hurts so much... make it stop... Please... No... No! NO!

Luna's moon hung high in the Equestrian night sky and cast its soft light down upon all of its inhabitants, alien or not. And the aliens were certainly up to something. Their base in the White Tail Woods was coming along nicely, but, spontaneously, a portion of the Creep in the northern part of the base began to develop a bulge... A slight bulge at first, and one that many a Swarmling patrolled around. But to an observer, it would be obvious they were taking care not to step on it...

Twilight Sparkle and Spike made their way towards the Ponyville Town Hall, the latter perched upon the former's back and munching a muffin. Twilight, on the other hoof, was clenching her teeth so hard that she'd probably chip a tooth if she did so any more. She was nervous, to say the very least. Really, anypony whose job it was to inform an entire town of dangerous alien visitors that were extremely close to home would be nervous, too. She read over her meticulously written speech as she walked, despite having memorized it nearly perfectly from the long hours she had spent trying to perfect it.

She wanted to, at the very least, seem confident in her words.

She took a glance to the side and saw a large poster plastered on the side of a building, one meant to inform the citizens of Ponyville of the assembly. Already, she could hear the town crier running around to try to tell every pony he saw of it. His voice was perfect for it, too. Absurdly high pitched for a pony like him and juuuust irritating enough to be noticed.

"Important assembly at the Town Hall at 10:00 AM! Attendance is MANDATORY!" he repeated from behind several buildings. If anypony hadn't heard him at this point, she would be shocked. But judging by the number of ponies emerging from their homes, obviously listening to the stallion's yelling, it wouldn't be an issue.

"Twi'!"

A familiar, accented voice behind her got her attention, turning her head to see Applejack galloping towards her with her family following at varying distances. Granny Smith was far behind, being escorted by Big Macintosh while Applebloom followed much more closely. "What's this all about, Twilight?" the farmer mare quipped.

Twilight's expression became one of awkwardly and desperately searching for an excuse, looking away nervously as she felt Applejack's sister's eyes locked on her. How could anypony accurately describe the purpose of such an important assembly without details that might scare a little filly? "Um... Well... you see, it's... about that object from the other day..." Twilight gingerly replied, shooting her friend the best "please don't ask any more" look she could manage.

Thankfully for her, Applejack seemed to understand. "Gotcha."

"Tha's it?" Applebloom suddenly protested, a disappointed expression adorning her face. "Tha's what this's all about?"

Twilight then decided just a little more couldn't hurt. "Well, it's more than that, but... I really don't want to say it twice, so... just wait until the assembly." For better or worse, this answer pacified the young pony, though it clearly didn't satisfy her. Instead, she just walked off ahead as Big Mac galloped to keep up with her.

"... Wha's the matter, sugarcube?" AJ keenly observed and quipped, getting Twilight's attention before starting to walk again. Twilight matched her pace, though made it slow enough for Granny Smith to keep up. "Somethin's gotcha wound up real tight."

It was clear by her uncertain reaction that she was right, and the unicorn let out a soft sigh, nodding. "... I don't know how I'm going to do this... I wrote a speech and I've got lines prepared for some questions, but..." the bookworm began to try to think of the words to continue, but eventually just released an anxious sigh and posed a question of her own. "... How would you tell Applebloom that dangerous aliens are in Equestria and just a stone's throw away from Ponyville?"

The farmer raised an eyebrow the question, then shook her head at the unicorn. "Twilight, didn't Ah tell ya not to worry?" Applejack replied, earning a head shake from Twilight.

"If you did, I didn't hear you."

"Well, they ain't dangerous. We sa-"

That one seemed to hit a nerve that Twilight didn't know she had. "Yes they are!" she practically screamed, shutting her eyes tightly as she did so. Poor Spike narrowly avoided jumping out of his scales, but didn't avoid falling off of his caretaker's back. Twilight continued, albeit in a lower, more hushed tone. "... Rainbow Dash flew over there... They've killed ponies, Applejack... Four of them were guards!" Applejack grimaced. "Royal guardsponies! How am I supposed to explain that to everypony!?"

The Bearer of Honesty looked down and away, her stetson hiding one of her eyes from Twilight's view. "... A-Ah don't know, Twilight..." she answered in a subdued tone, gritting her teeth.

AJ's reaction brought another sigh from the stressed librarian, the latter bowing her head. "... I'm sorry, Applejack... I've been running on two or three hours of sleep for the last few days..." she attempted to apologize. "... I just... I... nghh... I'm really not looking forwards to this..."

Fluttershy finished spreading feed for her chickens and spread her wings, carrying her basket away to be placed inside a shed where she kept most of the food for her animals. The mare wiped her forehead with a forehoof, letting out a satisfied sigh as she finished her work. She'd just check in on Angel Bunny and be off.

And yet, the little rabbit was nowhere to be seen! "Angel? Where are you?" she called and called at the "top of her lungs," trying to get him to call back. After about five minutes of thoroughly searching her slightly-out-of-the-way cottage, she ventured back outside, and rather quickly found the little bunny. Angel was frantically scampering towards her, a panicked look on his face as he reached her.

"Oh my goodness! Angel, where have you been?" she let out, picking up the panting rabbit while he frantically gestured back the way he had come. "What is it?" Angel Bunny promptly leaped down and began miming his best impression of a giant monster, his back arched upwards and a very odd, rather comical "hiss" eking its way from his open maw. Fluttershy didn't laugh, though.

The rumbling under her hooves got her attention. Almost immediately, she tapped her front hooves on the ground three times, lowering her head to speak. "Um... Mr. and Mrs. Mole... Please dig deeper... You're s-scaring Angel Bunny..." The rabbit in question hit himself in the face with a paw, tossing a pawful of grass uselessly at his owner.

Again, Fluttershy found herself talking to the ground as the vibrations grew more intense. "Oh... Okay... You need to hear me better... right..." she uttered softly, more so to herself than any other. Seconds went by, and the vibrations continued to intensify, prompting Fluttershy to pick up Angel Bunny and get airborne. The rumbling was making the occupants of her chicken coop go wild in their homes. Birds flew away, sensing the newcomer and deciding it was for the benefit of their skeletal systems to flee.

Fluttershy watched as a few little pebbles began to jump around as the very BIG mole tunneled its way to the surface, and then subsequently gasped when something about as big as her emerged from the disturbed dirt. "Oh my!" she gasped, not noticing her pet hiding in her mane. Fluttershy took a moment to look it over and subsequently elected to fly a little bit higher. It definitely looked like a predator, and judging by the movements of its very strange head, it had clearly noticed her. The fact that it looked like some sort of... giant alien spider wasn't helping her opinion of it. At the same time, though, it was doing nothing. "... W-What are you...?"

The creature let out a sort of hiss in her direction, low in tone and volume. If it had hostile intent, it wasn't showing it... The kindly mare took a chance: she began to descend, much to Angel's horror. When her hooves touched the ground, the Roach approached her carefully, a low, guttural... coo sounded from its oddly shaped mouth.

"... Are you hungry...?" Fluttershy quipped hesitantly, not seeing any obvious reaction from the armored digger. Food was as good a place as any to start in befriending it, though... "W-Wait here..." she then instructed, flying to her shed and beginning to search for something to feed it... Whatever it was that Twilight had to say, she was sure it could wait...

Ponyville's population was now congregating in the large, open plaza surrounding the town hall, leaving most of the town empty. And so the plaza was a sea of ponies, all murmuring to each other about the purpose of this important assembly, or about other various, unrelated topics.

Twilight Sparkle emerged from the town hall and immediately felt the eyes of hundreds of ponies locking onto her as she approached the podium, donning the best smile she could manage as she set her speech down on the pedestal. She then attached an improved and well labeled diagram of the town to a stand that had been left for her, magically attaching it to said stand.

Then she turned and approached the podium again, stepping onto a short, raised platform behind it so that everypony present could see her over it. She cleared her throat and began focusing her magic into a voice amplification spell.

"Good morning, everypony..." she began, getting the attention of the town's populace and silencing their conversations. "I apologize for calling you all here on such short notice, but this is a matter that cannot be ignored... So let's cut to the chase.

"I'm sure a lot of you are aware of the object that crashed in the White Tail Woods two nights ago." There was a brief murmur of acknowledgement and agreement from the crowd. "It turns out that the object was carrying alien creatures... these creatures, known as the Zerg, have now made their home in the western half of the White Tail Woods and at the bottom of Ghastly Gorge..."

Whispers of suspicion and curiosity came from the crowd. The bookworm continued, her smile faltering slightly. "We don't know very much about these creatures, as we haven't had a substantial opportunity to study them yet... However, we know enough to say this:" Twilight paused as she said this, taking a deep breath as quietly as she could manage. "... The Zerg are dangerous."

As she predicted, the crowd began to stir uneasily. Twilight found herself pausing for several seconds, needing to muster up the courage to continue... this was about to get ugly. She raised her speech a little to hide part of her face. "... Earlier this morning, Princess Celestia dispatched a research team to the Zerg's home in the White Tail Woods, accompanied by four royal guards... They were meant to stop by the library and to take me with them to assist with their research.

"For whatever reason, they never came for me... After my friend Rainbow Dash spotted the aliens in Ghastly Gorge, I asked her to fly over and take a look at what the Zerg were doing and to check on the research team." Twilight Sparkle paused again, bracing herself. "... The research team was killed."

Again, as she predicted, everypony in the crowd gasped and began to express their worry, yelling questions and loudly conversing with their neighbors. Twilight did not try to continue this time, picking out her friends in the crowd. Rainbow Dash was staring at the ground at the front of the crowd. Applejack was glancing back and forth between Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle, her expression... surprisingly unreadable. Rarity looked ready to faint, and Pinkie Pie seemed like she was ready to go and make those Zerg pay.

The purple unicorn's eyes scanned the crowd for the last of her friends and came up with nothing. She turned her attention to Rainbow Dash and was about to try and ask her to get Fluttershy, but a sudden surge in the crowd's collective chatter's volume stopped her.

She raised her head and opened her mouth. "Everypony, please calm down!" she called, her amplification spell making her voice echo across the town plaza.

"Calm down?!"

"Those Zerg killed ponies!"

"What are we going to do?"

"We've got to do something!"

These were just some of the many angry, frightened, panicked cries that rose from the town's population, accompanied by the stamping of hooves and the occasional bout of loud weeping. Twilight grit her teeth and pumped more magic into the amp spell, and unwittingly found herself shouting anyways.

"EVERYPONY CALM DOWN!" Twilight Sparkle's voice briefly blasted, the spell enhancing her shout's volume to a level far beyond the "Royal Canterlot Voice." Even its source grimaced, the ringing in her ears breaking the spell. With a nervous expression, she recast the spell at a slightly below average level. "... I'm so sorry... But please, if everypony panics, then we won't have a chance..." At this point, Celestia's Faithful Student was no longer reading her speech, improvising what she didn't remember in favor of attempting to calm everypony down.

"... I've created an evacuation plan, in case the Zerg attack Ponyville... Please pay attention everypony..."

The streets of Ponyville were all but empty, with its usual inhabitants currently occupied with whatever the loud, annoying stallion had been calling them for. Even the guards had gotten in on it, taking care not to let a single pony miss the meeting. They found those that would rather skip it easily and handed out face masks to those that were sick. Nopony was allowed to miss it. Not even the guards.

The only exception to this was a single pony, making their way towards the town hall at a slow pace.

"... If some of you aren't sure what group your home is in, don't worry. Maps and instructions will be given to everypony in Ponyville just in case." Twilight Sparkle was feeling a lot more confident about what she was saying after going over the plan with the crowd. Granted, that still wasn't much... She could still feel tinges of disbelief and anxiety from the crowd, but at least she could handle it.

"Are there any questions?" she then asked, looking out over the crowd. A hoof raised in the very front of the mass of equines, belonging to Miss Cheerilee of all ponies.

"Can I get these materials now? I'd like to start making drills for my students," the mare called out, earning a nod and a genuine smile from Celestia's student.

"Oh! Of course! Come to the library after this and I'll get you what you need," Twilight happily replied, satisfying the teacher. Almost immediately after that, another hoof shot up somewhere in the middle, belonging to a pony that Twilight could swear she knew, but didn't have a name to go with his face.

"Shouldn't we be getting more guards!?" he yelled.

Twilight nodded in reply. "I'm very confident that Princess Celestia will be sending more to Ponyville very soon."

"How soon is 'very soon'?" he then pressed, the crowd murmuring softly.

"... I'm sorry, what's your name, sir?"

The noise level raised very slightly, as if in disbelief. The stallion's following tone suggested as much, too. "Rich... Filthy Rich, if you must."

Twilight's expression didn't change beyond a slight widening of the eyes, but she recognized that name now. "I don't know. I can find out."

"You had better!" Mr. Rich sounded especially irate during that last yell, though Twilight could imagine why... his home was on the west side of Ponyville, closer to the White Tail Woods than most.

"... Right... Anypony else?" she sighed, looking over the crowd. Several seconds passed and nopony said anything or put a hoof up. "... Alright then. You can all go now. Thank you very much for your time." That last word left her lips and she immediately felt worlds better, stepping down from the podium and leaving the map she had made on the stand so that ponies could study it themselves (which many did). Others, namely her friends, ran up to her and surrounded her.

"I had no idea things were so grim!" Rarity emitted, obviously unsettled. "Are you sure this plan of yours will work?"

Twilight sighed and bowed her head, gritting her teeth. "Please don't take this the wrong way, Rarity, but I'm so sick of that question..." the bookworm replied, shaking her head.

"Is there anythin' Ah can do, Twi?" Applejack queried, her tone neutral.

"... Actually, yes. I need you to run to Fluttershy's place and see if she's home. I haven't seen her yet and I-"

"Oh my!"

"Gross!"

"What in Celestia's name happened to you?"

"Is she alright?"

"Rarity, who's that?"

The collection of ponies and Sweetie Belle's voices became suddenly dominant as something happened in the western part of the town plaza. The Elements glanced in that direction with Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle immediately tensing up.

"Who?" Rarity replied, beginning to approach the reforming crowd surrounding something that seemed to be moving... Or rather, somepony... A female (probably) pony with dirty blue fur and a messy, ruined mane... But that wasn't the focus... Her head was adorned with a brownish orange growth that covered most of her left eye, never mind the protrusions from her sides. These dragged heavily on the ground, limp and useless with an unsettlingly placed spike at the ends of each. Her pace was slow and her gait was sloppy, giving the impression that she was exhausted or hurt.

But the fact that she ignored everypony's attempts to learn her identity and to help her set off alarm bells in Twilight's head. She found herself starting to walk towards the crowd, her friends following her carefully and curiously.

Then they stopped. The strange mare had stopped, and so had the crowd, which was now closing in on the mare. "Are you alright, miss?" a little voice quipped. Rainbow Dash's eyes immediately shot open.

"Scootaloo!" A rainbow colored blur shot across the plaza landing next to the little filly and nudging her back into the crowd while looking back at the dirty equine. "Don't get too close to... it... T-... Trixie?" The little pegasus stared quizzically up at her idol, the flier's confusion and fear rubbing off on her.

"... What's wrong, RD?" she quipped, sounding nervous, but still trying to be "cool".

"... G-Go hang out with Sweetie Belle. She's over there," Rainbow Dash ordered, gesturing towards Rarity's currently-clingy sister. Scootaloo opened her mouth to protest, but the weathermare quickly cut in with a sharp "Just do it!!" Frightened by the transformed Trixie and the harshness of her idol's words, she ran away and started chatting with the filly in question.

Rainbow Dash turned her gaze back to the crowd, getting airborne quickly and regarding the scene from above. She could see Miss Cheerilee attempting to coax Nurse Redheart into taking Trixie to the hospital, but the nurse was refusing... But all activity stopped when a mare named Bon Bon spoke four simple words. "What did you say?"

Just then, the crowd quieted, and they could hear a mumbled, mangled bit of speech.

"F-... -rm..."

"... What?" Bon Bon repeated, getting closer to the mare. "I can't understa-"

Trixie's head suddenly shot up, her uncovered eye heavily bloodshot and the covered one... missing. "FOR THE SWAAAAAAAAARM!" Bon Bon and Cheerilee didn't have time to run. The two mares screamed in agony as the blast sent them flying into the crowd, bowling over several of Ponyville's residents as Trixie's... pieces flew everywhere.

For just a second, the entire town was engulfed in a stunned, horrified silence. The very next resounded with hundreds of screams.

Author's Note

Why yes, they do have Tunneling Claws already. I'm not going to interrupt the story every five minutes to say they've researched or teched into something. That would be silly and bad for storytelling.

Leave a comment! I hope this is what you guys were waiting for!

The Reprieve

After the untimely, ghastly, deadly end of Trixie Lulamoon, the town of Ponyville instantly descended into chaos. Ponies ran all around, screaming and crying for their loved ones and yelling drowned orders to each other. Many made beelines for their homes. Many scooped up their young and tried in vain to comfort them. Many began to frantically scrape blood and bits of the former magician off of themselves. And those unlucky enough to be close to Trixie or in the path of her two victims limped or lay in the streets, groaning and screaming from various levels of pain.

But there were a few that had it far worse.

"Bon Boooooooon! Noooooo!!" Lyra Heartstrings cried as the lifeless body of her best friend/marefriend laid limp before her, hot tears streaming freely from her eyes. She stooped down to lay her head atop Bon Bon's rapidly cooling form, cradling her close and allowing her grieved, frightened, and helpless shrieks ring out amidst the deafening squalls.

"Miss Cheerilee!" the Cutie Mark Crusaders collectively called, breaking away from their siblings and idols to rush through the crowds to their teacher's side. Upon reaching her, they found their teacher on her side, but very much alive, her eyes open and her breaths staggered and heavy.

"Miss Cheerilee, are you okay?" Scootaloo cried. "Girls, help me get her up!" The fillies moved to the mare's back, trying to use their entire bodies (and a tiny, failed attempt at magic on Sweetie Belle's part) to lift the magenta earth pony.

"... Hah... Hah... Ngh.... I'm al-... I'm alright..." Cheerilee painfully managed, shutting her eyes as the three youngsters tried to lift her. She attempted to raise her head, but a sharp, spearing pain stopped her with an accompanying yelp.

"Cheerilee!" another voice piped in from nearby, courtesy of a very grim looking Pinkie Pie. The now "deflated" party pony ran over and forced the teacher onto her hooves, The magenta mare staggered a bit upon standing, the fillies and Pinkie Pie moving to get her stable. It was startlingly easy.

"Ooohgh... where's... urp... Nurse Redheart...?" the teacher asked weakly, trying to look around for the nurse. She wasn't difficult to find. The mare was hard at work already, coming to the aid of anypony that needed her, despite her own fears.

"She's over there!" Scootaloo declared, pointing in her direction just as Cheerilee began to sway. Pinkie Pie quickly sprang to stop the mare's fall, laying her back down and then running for help without missing a beat.

"Stay with her, girls!" she called in an unsettlingly neutral tone of voice, leaving the Cutie Mark Crusaders to watch over their injured teacher.

All the while, Twilight Sparkle stood stock still in the middle of the plaza with a repulsed and unconscious Rarity, a now-nauseous Rainbow Dash, and a... surprisingly stoic Applejack, trying to process the scene before her. She found herself suddenly very grateful for the fact that Fluttershy had been absent; Twilight didn't want to think about how it would affect her friend, but she had a very good idea.

Still... she needed to be here... "... A-... Applejack... Rainbow Dash... go get Fluttershy...." she uttered in an absent tone, catching both mares off guard and making them jump.

"... There really a point, Twi?" Applejack replied after a few seconds of silence (between them), her tone seeming... hopeless. "Ah wouldn' want her to see all this..."

Twilight turned to look at her friends, and they all looked back at her, sorrow and fright etched into their features. "... I don't know what to do..." she admitted, fighting back tears as the sounds of terror began to fade, ponies beginning to flee the town square. Some were following the procedure that Twilight had given them, others were/had made beelines for their homes, planning to hide from the attack they were sure was coming.

"... What do you eat, Mister Zerg?" Fluttershy uttered in an exasperated manner, hiding her frustration behind a meek, kind-hearted expression and demeanor. "Do you eat meat? Is that it?"

The Zerg Roach she had been attempting to entertain was proving to be a difficult guest. It didn't help that she was having difficulty understanding the creature, either. She compared it to attempting to understand a native Neighponese pony while having only a very basic grasp of the language. It also didn't help that she could faintly hear what sounded like a very high pitched birdsong in the distance... It sounded vaguely like screaming.

The Roach made a guttural noise in response, making the shy mare smile nervously as she looked around. She wasn't sure, but that sounded like a "yes".

"Well, I'm sorry, Mister Zerg, but I don't keep meat here... You'll have to go hunting..." she apologized, subconsciously tensing up at the thought of how this strange organism would hunt... Her exaggerating imagination made it into something very... gruesome.

Another throaty hiss sounded from the Roach's strange maw, but before it could do anything else, it tensed up randomly. It became stock still, making poor Fluttershy even more nervous. "... Um... Mister Zerg?" she quipped, taking a single step towards the static creature.

She immediately jumped back when she saw the Zerg creature starting to tear away at the ground, burrowing into it and then starting to tunnel away. "W-Wait!" she called into the hole uselessly. A deep sigh left her mouth and she turned away from the hole. "... Was it something I said...?"

With a slimy, gory spray, the Zerg's first Hatchery finished its rapid mutation into a Lair, now sporting a thicker and taller structure with larger "teeth" and, in some spots, a hardened carapace. Meanwhile, another cocoon was pulsing and wriggling at the edge of the Creep, their mineral gathering was as efficient as it would ever get, and beside the newly mutated Lair, a fresh egg burst open to unleash the White Tail Woods' newest resident.

This new one stood roughly four meters tall with a body like a centaur... but that would be where easy comparisons would end. It stood on six legs, each leg connected to the next by a membrane not unlike that of a Drone, and each leg tipped by a spike similar to a Roach's, but not as functional. Its back was covered in orange bulbs, and it ended in the back with an ovipositor and a pair of pincers. As for the more "human" part of its form, its torso was slender and feminine by human standards, and it sported two arms that ended in a pair of long talons. Its head was elongated, the top portion covered in a segmented and singularly spiked carapace while its tusk adorned visage was simple and not conspicuously armored. Long "hair" made of tendril-like nerve cords, perhaps a remnant of the old Queen of Blades' influence, grew from the back of its armored skull. From its humanoid back grew two long, bladed appendages, most similar to the trademark "wings" that the Queen of Blades sported.

The newly hatched Queen narrowed its glowing orange eyes as it examined its surroundings, reaching out with its psionic abilities to the nearby Overlords for information. Then it reached out again, and a moment later, it "skated" to the eastern edge of the Creep. It stood there for a brief moment, its head turning from side to side before a bulge began to form in its lower abdomen. This bulge then began to move down towards the opening in its "tail", the protrusion swelling up slightly during its journey before finally being unceremoniously deposited on the fleshy, dark purple Creep.

This lump of strange flesh was short, covered in orange mounds and short, toothy spikes. As soon as it appeared, it began to pulsate faintly, rooting itself to the Creep. Almost immediately, that fleshy purple mass began to expand slowly, immediately sapping a great oak tree that stood perilously at the edge of the Creep. The Creep Tumor's creator then skated to another edge of the Creep ring, preparing to create another Tumor.

Meanwhile, even more Overlords filled the airspace over the Zerg base while more and more Roaches and Swarmlings hatched from their eggs, beginning to patrol around the base before a number of them congregated in the northern portion of the base. A group of eight Roaches and twelve Zerglings stood waiting at the edge, waiting until a freshly hatched Zerg Drone hovered over.

Said group then began to move to the north, being tailed at a moderate distance by a single Overlord.

A few moments later, a group of five Roaches burst out of the ground near the Creep, skittering onto the growth and approaching their Lair. They stood at it quietly for a few seconds before stiffening up and beginning to tear away at the Creep below them to reach the rich soil below. Simultaneously, a newly hatched batch of Zerglings began to dash to the southeast towards their expansion in the Ghastly Gorge.

Twilight Sparkle sniffled quietly as she sat in the shower, her eyes shut and her mind in turmoil while hot water rushed over her form. The events of that morning now haunted her relentlessly, making her shiver and shake her head in a desperate attempt to ward off those terrible thoughts and to get her brain back on task. She still hadn't written a letter to the princess, after all.

But what would she say? How could she say it? How would Celestia react? ... Would she even have time to write a letter? The prospect of the Zerg returning in greater numbers had been considered many times and her imagination only made the images more terrifying. With no substantial grasp of what the aliens could really do, her brain was going all out on creating nightmare fuel for the poor unicorn.

All that aside, the bookworm had the idea that she needed to send a letter to Princess Celestia as soon as she possibly could. The Sun's raiser needed to be told about this... terror attack soon, and there was a good reason for this.

Not long after the panic in the town plaza, lots and lots of ponies had scrambled to the train station, buying tickets for the next train to Canterlot. Twilight had no doubt that these ponies would begin spreading word of the tragedy upon arrival, spreading panic as a result. Words from the Princesses could defuse that situation before it began.

With a sigh, the unicorn turned off the water and began to hastily dry herself off, trying to get herself into a "just get it done" sort of mindset as she dried her coat and groomed her mane and tail.

A minute later, she left the bathroom to see Spike sitting there and waiting with paper and quill in claw. The Magic Bearer smiled at him briefly before beginning to dictate a letter aloud.

"Dear Princess Celestia...

Discord let out a contented sigh as he rested atop a cloud, his odd eyes shut and his mismatched paw and claw crossed behind his head in a cozy cloud-made recliner. After that little... incident in Ponyville, the ensuing chaos had drawn him in immediately. In a way, the draconequus had enjoyed everypony's fear, and it had give him a great rush of nostalgia. The good old days when he ran the show.

But at the same time, he couldn't shake a nagging feeling of... well, guilt. Discord could never pass up the opportunity to revel in such delicious chaos and disorder, but... well, even the physical manifestation of chaos himself felt he was above such wanton violence. It was enough to get him out of his conjured seat and to assume a "The Thinker" sort of pose atop his perch.

He had pledged to use his powers for good ("mostly")...

"Maybe a little intervention is in order... But what kind...?"

Princess Celestia stood on the balcony of her bedroom, looking out over Ponyville and thinking hard about what she should do about the Zerg. Her student's initiative had impressed her, of course, but that also left her thinking of how to implement a similar system for the rest of Equestria...

Twilight Sparkle's plan involved leaving town and either boarding trains to Canterlot, Appleloosa or... basically anywhere except for Las Pegasus; the train tracks leading there cut directly through the White Tail Woods. And while it was a good solution for the safety of her little ponies, it was only a short term one. The flood of refugees would put a strain on resources and cause discontent among some citizens. The stories such refugees would tell would undoubtedly cause panic.

But, perhaps unforgivably, Appleloosa was only a bit further from the Ghastly Gorge than Ponyville. What Ponyville had, though, was the Everfree Forest. That dangerous forest was inhabited by many, many dangerous creatures; ones that were, perhaps, just as or even more dangerous than the Zerg.

She'd be sure to include that in her next message to her student, she concluded, turning from her balcony and standing just inside, thinking. It was as she did so that the familiar sight, sound, and scent of a dragonfire-sent message. Celestia gave the scroll a sidelong glance, her normally neutral, but pleasant expression souring as she saw not only an "Urgent" seal on the letter, but also a hastily scribbled "READ IMMEDIATELY." The Princess of the Sun quickly glanced at and read the letter... and promptly darted to an exquisitely built, hoof-crafted, strong-enough-to-withstand-an-attack-from-an-enraged-Ursa-Major strongbox perched upon a table. She unlocked it with her magic and removed an old looking key from it, sealing the box again.

With key and rolled up letter clutched in her magical grasp, Princess Celestia bolted out of her bedroom. The forceful swing of her door startled the guards stationed nearby, as well as a wandering servant who instantly ran away. A new servant, she idly mused; only a new servant would flee like that.

"Buckin' A... What's the matter, your Highness?" one guard quipped after gathering himself, snapping to attention.

Princess Celestia looked down the hall towards her sister's room, barely acknowledging her guard's presence but addressing him all the same. "Lieutenant Ginger, tell Commander Steadfast I need him in the war room immediately." Gone was her usual, soothing tone, tragically replaced by a concerned, serious, steeled, slightly guarded one. "I need representatives of all Equestrian settlements in the war room as well, and I want chariots prepared for them to return them to their respective cities. Cancel all of today's hearings, tell them that only truly urgent cases will be heard."

As she finished speaking, Lieutenant Ginger hesitated for a few seconds, unable to believe what he was hearing and already fearing the implications. But then, a surprisingly terrible glare from Celestia reminded him that he should have been gone the second she stopped talking. "Yes, your Highness!!" he yelled in a voice louder than intended, gesturing for another guard on the other side of the hall to follow and ordering her to carry out the second portion of the Princess' orders.

Celestia let out a deep sigh and started to gallop down the hall towards Luna's room, flinging its door open to find the Princess of the Night a few feet from said portal with a startled expression. It seemed that had heard the white alicorn's frigid voice and was already prepared, minus nearly having her horn taken off on her way out.

Regardless, Luna fell in next to Celestia and the two Princesses dashed down the halls, much to the surprise of many a servant and guard. Before long, they had reached a wing of the castle that housed a few of the less-used rooms of the castle, though that meant little. The only room that had fallen out of use was one that was placed at the end of a long, well guarded hallway. Its door was not as ornate and well crafted as the rest, but was instead brown and... normal (if massive). Celestia and Luna approached this door, the old key floating to the lock and turning within the keyhole to open the huge doors.

Inside, a long, chair-surrounded, moderately dusty table dominated the middle of the room, free of any papers or garbage. Disturbed dust particles reflected the colored light that shone through a set of three stained glass windows, each depicting one of the three ponies responsible for uniting the three races: Private Pansy, Smart Cookie, and Clover the Clever. The cool stone floor was littered with minuscule bits of debris (courtesy of the room's disuse and helped along by a certain invasion and a certain draconequus) while the walls were well covered with maps of Equestria. All of them were old and out of date, their paper already having begun to yellow. On further inspection, a few of said maps had already begun to fall apart and were resting uselessly upon the ground. There was a noticeable lack of luxury when compared to the rest of the castle.

Princess Celestia let out a deep, sorrowful sigh as she set the key on the table, looking around the room with a similar expression. "... It has been so long since I have entered this room..." she mused aloud as her younger sister asked a guard to summon a group of ponies to - at least - make the room presentable. "... And still, not nearly long enough... I had hoped this room would crumble to dust before I opened those doors."

"Sister, when will thou tell us the issue?" Luna emitted in her habitual Old Equish, having to remind herself to alter this for the sake of their soon-to-be guests. "We cannot help if we do not know." The dark furred alicorn then watched as Celestia turned to face and approach her, closing the gap with a neck nuzzle and a brief hug.

"... I don't want to repeat myself... I will tell you once everypony is present," came Celestia's rather alarmingly emotionless tone, the Sun Raiser breaking away from the hug and immediately addressing a servant that had arrived to clean up the place. "Please send somepony to the royal library and bring as many up-to-date maps as they can carry."

The servant in question nodded and galloped away to fulfill his orders, leaving the Princesses alone in the war room for very nearly a minute. Very quickly, the room began to fill with ponies, servants working on dusting and sweeping and generally making it look nice while the ponies that she had sent for started filing into the room. Several well dressed ponies of all different colors, race, and cutie marks gradually entered, each representing each of Equestria's various cities/towns/settlements/etc.

As they did so, seven armor clad equines also entered all at once, being led by a powerfully built blue pegasus in especially ornate armor. As soon as he entered, he stood before the two Princesses and his six other followers lined up on either side of him. They all saluted their leaders. "I apologize for the wait, your Highness. I erm.... I had to chew out my squad."

His greeting and apology was met with chuckles and head-shakes from the rest of the ponies with him. One mare in particular, an orange earth pony with a white mane and tail and a campfire cutie mark spoke out of line. "He got us lost!" she blurted out, not seeming to care that her commanding officer was giving her a death glare to end all death glares.

Commander Steadfast deeply sighed and nodded. "... Yes. I got lost," he admitted, drawing a soft chuckle out of Princess Celestia and a slight grin out of Luna before glaring at the mare who ratted him out. "You. 200 laps around the barracks. Now."

"That shan't be necessary, Commander. Thou must set an example for thy troops," Princess Luna interjected, shaking her head. "... We think 100 laps for both of thee will suffice." Both soldiers groaned, but with a hoof gesture from Celestia, they took places at the table.

Before long, the room was full and a good number of the chairs surrounding the table were taken, with the two at the far head of the table occupied by the sister diarchs. Princess Celestia made a few dismissing gestures and all the servants began to file to out of the significantly less dusty war room. Soon, it was only the Princesses and their summoned guests.

"Good afternoon, my little ponies," the sun goddess greeted in a mostly neutral tone, drawing friendly and inquisitive returns from those present. "I regret that this meeting needed to be called.I believe this room tells of our purpose here quite clearly..."

A low murmur of acknowledgement and a few deep, oddly weary sighs permeated the air, made slightly louder by one pony's rising from his seat. He was an elderly earth pony stallion, white-furred and grey maned with a cutie mark consisting of two gears linked together. "Has the Griffon Empire finally done it, Your Highness?" he posed, looking in the direction of the leading alicorns. "Have they finally attacked us?"

The sisters shook their heads, and the Princess of the Night spoke. "Nay... We fear it is much worse. We are under attack by a new enemy that has not only infiltrated our borders, but has already taken the lives of several ponies."

Nervousness radiated from some of the room's occupants, but they were hushed by the appearance of a rolled up letter, clutched tightly in Celestia's magical grasp. "... I received this letter less than a half hour ago from my student, Twilight Sparkle."

She cleared her throat and unrolled the scroll, beginning to read it aloud.

Dear Princess Celestia,

I write this to you during a time of ... well, terror. A few hours ago, after the assembly, a pony wandered into the town plaza. She had strange growths protruding from her body and she appeared to be hurt. My friend Rainbow Dash identified her as Trixie Lulamoon, whom I am positive I have mentioned in previous letters.

Upon entering town and accumulating a crowd of concerned ponies, Trixie-

Celestia paused briefly to allow herself a deep breath and a slight, sorrowful alternation to her tone.

... exploded. The blast claimed the life of Bon Bon as well as injuring several other ponies, one of whom is currently hospitalized.

I have no doubt that the Zerg are responsible for this attack; according to Rainbow Dash, Trixie was last seen being taken by the Zerg. While she did not see what was done to her (and I would never make Rainbow Dash go back to find out), the growths on Trixie's body before the explosion were, without a doubt, courtesy of the Zerg.

On a slightly more fortunate note, a lot of ponies have followed the plan that I outlined during the assembly. While many have confined themselves to their homes, a great many more have left the town, and many of them are attempting to board a train to Canterlot.

The reason I made this letter look so desperately urgent is that I wanted you to see this before the refugees arrive. As I'm certain you will have guessed, the stories that these ponies will tell will absolutely spread panic throughout Canterlot, if not all of Equestria. In my opinion, it's best to address this while the populace is still relatively calm.

Your Faithful Student,

-Twilight Sparkle

As she finished reading the letter and set it down upon the table, she scanned the other occupants, seeing looks of disbelief, fear, anger, and everything in between plastered upon everypony's faces. However, silence barely had a chance to settle in the room as the Commander spoke up. "... Your Highness," Steadfast began, his visage clearly angry and ready for revenge, but still in control. "On a similar subject... The squad I sent with those researchers... They haven't returned yet. Are they-?"

"Unfortunately so, Commander..." Celestia replied before he could continue any further. As soon as she said it, one of the ponies accompanying the decorated stallion lost his composure, turning his head to begin to hide his weeping. His response was to emit a simple "damn..." before bowing his head, remaining silent.

"So... now what?" another representative queried, a bright blue unicorn mare with a cutie mark consisting of a nesting cardinal. "What are we supposed to do against these... Zerg things?"

Celestia turned her attention to the line of representatives gathered at the war room table, only looking the Fillydelphia representative in the eye. "I want you all to create evacuation plans similar to that of Twilight Sparkle's. The reference she sent me is in the royal library, and you may view it as needed." Then she turned to the Commander, whom was making a concerted effort to ignore his grieving subordinate. "Commander Steadfast, I need you to begin a recruiting campaign. Use whatever resources are necessary, but our forces need to grow if we are to defend ourselves."

"Yes, your Highness."

Princess Celestia nodded at him and glanced towards the very end of the table as a young earth stallion from Appleloosa spoke up while her sister shut her eyes and bowed her head slightly, her expression contorting briefly into one of pain.

"What 'bout Appleloosa, your Highness?" he asked in a slightly-too-loud tone of voice, made comical by a drawl much worse than the Element of Honesty could ever muster. "We're right next ta that Gorge place! Don'cha think we should all scoot on outta there? Ah wouldn't wan' anypony ta get hurt."

"Yes, Appleloosa... I am still considering our options..." Celestia admitted.

"What 'bout Dodge Junction, then? Couldn't we all get onna train 'n move over there?"

"What?!" a middle aged mare piped up, a grey furred unicorn with a carrot-y cutie mark. "We can't possibly accommodate the population of an entire town! Ours is small enough as it is!"

"We can't jus' sit on our rear ends 'n jus' wait for them Zergs ta git us!" the southern pony insisted, gritting his teeth.

"We can't do it! We don't have the space or the resources to support another two hundred ponies!"

"So what? Ya'll'd let us die?!"

"That's not what I meant!!"

"Well then, what did ya mean, huh? What did ya mean, ya little bi-"

"Enough, both of you," Princess Celestia interjected, stopping the Appleloosa representative mid-insult and getting them both to turn their eyes towards the Princess of the Sun. "This bickering will only spell our doom."

"Indeeeeeed~!" The sudden interjection of a certain loud, playful, devious tone startled all but the alicorn sisters, making them all look frantically around the room. It didn't take long for the source to make himself visible, though. Discord suddenly appeared in the middle of the table, suspended off such by about an inch without so much as a puff of smoke or an accompanying "pop" to announce his presence. Ignoring the startled, reactions from most gathered, he continued. "Those nasty little things won't wait for you to get your acts together, after all~"

"Discord?!" Luna cried, the dark-furred alicorn taking a defensive stance and preparing to cast a spell. "What art thou doing here?!"

"Well, excuuuuse me, Princess!" the draconequus retorted in a very grating voice, chuckling briefly at the flinch it elicited from most of his audience. "I wasn't aware I wasn't invited! How thoughtless of you."

"Discord, do not test our patience," Luna stated in a cold tone, her horn's glow flaring up.

The chaotic creature feigned offence and then waggled a paw at the Night Princess. "Luna, Luna! I'm here to help!" he half taunted, half scolded, promptly clapping his claw and paw together and summoning a set of three small boxes onto the table. Discord spared a sidelong glance at Commander Steadfast, whom was no longer preparing to attack, but was instead watching warily. "After all the trouble I went through to get all of this, I would expect more from you."

The commander grabbed one of the boxes before either of the Princess could, opening it and seeing a cluster of dogtags contained within. "... Their tags... How did you-?"

"Discord, how did you obtain these photos?" Celestia asked, not betraying her surprise, but instead wearing a very slight smile as she peered through the other two boxes. Indeed, those two boxes contained several photographs of the Zerg's main base, all up to date. They could see the various types of creatures skittering around on, floating over, and flying above the Creep in great detail.

"Oh, it was easy~ I just walked in and started shooting!" he answered simply, chuckling. "As you can see, they didn't particularly like the flashes, but it's not like they could ever do anything to me~"

Indeed, a lot of the photos of the creatures depicted angry Zerg attempting to attack the immortal camera holder, showing lunging Swarmlings and spitting Roaches. "... Thank you, Discord. The gesture is appreciated," Princess Celestia emitted with a soft smile, regarding the mix-matched collection of creatures that was Discord...

Except he was gone. Discord was nowhere in sight, and after several long seconds of scanning the room for him, they assumed him to have left.

Princess Celestia shook her head and glanced around at the rest of the gathered ponies, some of whom still wore expressions of unbridled shock while others were now looking over the pictures and getting a real taste for the gravity of their situation. Even Commander Steadfast was deep in thought, trying to figure out what to do about these creatures... and what to do to them. One thing was for sure: the Zerg would not get away with their crimes.

The Princess of the Sun cleared her throat loudly and got everypony's attention, all eyes on her serious, sour expression. "... I believe it goes without saying... But as of this moment, we are at war."

Author's Note

I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. Mostly because of Discord. as I have a blast writing him. But I also got to put in a line or two that I REALLY wanted to use.

This chapter was meant to be a lot longer as I went over the reactions of most of the main 6, but after reading it back to myself, I realized that I was skipping over those reactions. I made myself read them and then realized they were making the chapter drag on a little longer than I'd like it to.

I've put up another blog post just before publishing this chapter! If you care to, please look at the blog and give me your thoughts on the question(s) I've posed there! Your feedback may decide the future of a future bonus chapter!

Comments are good things. They motivate me to write more. They help me find small errors in my writing, even though I don't have an editor (and usually don't need one). And they have definitely given me more than a few ideas for this story. Seriously, keep 'em coming. You guys are awesome.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go say my prayers to RNJesus and fire up FTL: Advanced Edition on Hard.

The Corrosion

Twilight Sparkle woke with a start and a shriek, panting heavily as she shot up. Eyes wide and pupils shrunken, she shifted onto her left side and directed her darkness-adjusted gaze downwards at her sheets. "... Sweet Celestia..." she managed, shaking her head and shivering.

She had to curse her imagination at this point. It was bad enough that she could come up with such asinine consequences for things like not writing a letter, but for her brain to cook up such visceral, gut wrenching, spine chilling, faith shaking visions... It disturbed her greatly, even more so when she - of course - continued to dwell on it.

Twilight eventually made herself glance at her clock and cursed herself, flopping back onto the mattress with a deep groan. Or, at least, she would have, if she hadn't noticed a set of green reptilian eyes watching from the other side of the room. Spike's quiet vigil got her to jump a little, her breathing quickening once more as she regarded the approaching dragon.

"Are you okay, Twilight?" he uttered in a tired, obviously-fake-brave tone while scanning the room. "There aren't any monsters in here, are there?"

The unicorn looked at him for a few seconds, trying to gain her composure, before she pulled him onto the bed and hugged him lightly. "... No... No, it's fine, Spike... It was just... j-just a dream..." she panted, looking around the room and unconsciously mouthing the words "I hope."

Spike took a moment before responding, not doing so until he was certain that the room was safe. "That didn't sound like "just a dream," though..." he stated, eyeing his caretaker intently. Twilight had to both praise his perceptiveness and curse it.

"... It's the Zerg..." she admitted, apparently to Spike's non-surprise. "I know that what they did to Trixie was horrible and disgusting and... so unbelievably wrong, but I can't help but feel that's just the tip of the iceberg..." With these words, the pony shuffled slightly towards the edge of the bed and stood up from it, beginning to stretch her limbs in place. "We don't know enough about them to appropriately defend ourselves. And even if we did, I don't even know if we could!" Spike opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off when Twilight continued. "I mean, I know I... might be worrying too much... but if I don't, who will?"

"Princess Celestia?" the baby dragon posed, shrugging slightly. Twilight glanced back at Spike after she lit a candle, sitting on her haunches. "She'll protect us, right?"

"Of course!" the unicorn affirmed without hesitation or volume control, internally scolding herself for shouting. "Princess Celestia would never let them hurt us! She must be planning right now..." Twilight turned her gaze to the floor, her eyes idly finding patterns in the wood grain.

Spike, meanwhile, had a lot he wanted to say, but was trying to hold his tongue. Most of what he would try to say basically boiled down to one simple question: why hadn't Princess Celestia done anything yet? Spike knew better, though. Baby or not, he was smart enough to not express doubt over Twilight's idol; it would go nowhere. "So... what about us, then?" he quipped, crossing his arms and sitting on the bed.

Twilight didn't stop watching the floor, barely moving beyond her breathing motions and the slow angling of her ears downwards.

"... We can't just sit here and wait for Princess Celestia to send a letter, can we?" he pressed, uncrossing his arms and letting them speak with him. "I don't know about you, but I don't want to wait for that."

The bookworm didn't respond immediately, looking around the room and avoiding the dragon's eyes as she searched for an answer. "... I... I guess not..." came her reluctant agreement, looking down at her hooves again with a deep sigh. "Any ideas?"

Spike raised a claw and opened his mouth, but said nothing, lowering his claw and putting it to his chin instead. "... Not... really..."

The two sat in relative silence for a long time after, the room gradually lighting up as Twilight's mentor raised the sun, deep in thought.

The early dawn's illumination did little for the Ghastly Gorge, the lowest points of which were still shrouded in near total darkness. Not that it mattered too much for the aliens it housed. Drones worked tirelessly to extract that precious gas from the... infested geyser. For better or worse, that was extent of activity. Everything else was relatively still and unchanged, apart from two new structures placed at both the north and southernmost edges of the Creep.

These new structures were roughly 4 meters high, nestled on a round, fleshy orange base and anchored to the ground with six armored "legs." Some ponies might compare its appearance to that of a multi-tiered cake, with spike-laden rings separating its three other levels and an odd opening at the very top. These structures remained rooted in place, mostly still save for a gentle swaying from side to side and what could be interpreted as a breathing motion.

Spore Crawlers aside, the Hatchery in the center of the Creep was oddly inactive. Larvae skittered around the base of such, but were not being made to morph into anything at the moment.

That is, until a group of five Roaches emerged from the rocky ground nearby, crawling onto the Creep with a pack of Swarmlings approaching behind them. The larva burst apart into eggs and began to mutate, rapidly changing within their confines.

Before long, a new trio of Roaches had hatched, with new larvae being immediately made to follow suit upon spawning...

Princess Luna closed the door to her chambers with a soft groan and a yawn, hearing her sisters hooffalls proceeding down the hallway as she prepared to take over for the morning. Utilizing her magic to draw her curtains closed, she moved to her bed and collapsed upon it with a sigh. Her eyes immediately drew shut, but she did not allow sleep to take her yet.

Pain wouldn't let her.

Luna was never one to allow a simple headache to bring her down. There was usually a fix for that in either the royal doctors or in simple healing magic. This pain, however, was one that Luna hadn't experienced before. It was about as bad as a migraine without any of the light sensitivity, and no amount of medicine or magic was helping. To say it irritated the Princess of the Moon would be a vast understatement.

"Confound this headache..." she muttered in a weary tone, lying there listlessly on the bed with her eyes tightly shut.

Twilight Sparkle sat in the main library with her head on the book she had been trying to read, but had given up on, now instead peering through a new copy of the The Unicorn's Guide to Combat - Volume 1. It wasn't a book that she was happy to read or that she had ever wanted to read, but suddenly, the prospect of learning to fight seemed important to her. It was all she thought about now: how could she fend off the Zerg when they came? Not "if" they came, "when."

As she read it, though, she began to consider the prospect of making a point of purchasing a weapon. Assuming that the shopkeepers hadn't jacked up the prices in response to the... incident... Perhaps it would be wise to try to convince her friends to do the same... For as much as the thought of teaching her friends - the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, no less - to fight didn't sit well with her, what would happen if they couldn't? Something told her that the answer would be very slow and painful...

She picked her head up from the now unused copy of The Gryphon Wars and stood up, taking the guide with her to a stash of bits she had tucked away in a cupboard in her kitchen. Removing the stash and counting through it, she nodded out of satisfaction and deposited them in a pouch before hanging it around her neck and leaving the library with a quick word to Spike about her destination.

Fluttershy watched with no small degree of confusion and anxiety as she saw random bits of clothing and small travel items flying around the living room as their manipulator floated in the center of such. The Bearer of Kindness had been getting used to Discord's odd antics after having the chaotic creature living with her, but to see him in... a floral Hawaiian shirt, straw hat red tinted sunglasses, and entirely too many leis was a new one. Never mind the fact that he seemed to be packing.

Finally, though, the being of pandemonium took notice of his observer, lowering his rosy shades and grinning a silent "welcome" at the mare. "Ahhh, Fluttershy! You caught me in the middle of packing!" he chimed warmly, watching and cringing as a flying basket narrowly missed the pegasus' noggin.

"Packing?" she replied, shaking her head out and approaching him. "I don't think Princess Celestia wants you to go anywhere..."

He waved a paw dismissively. "Oh, nonsense! Besides... I have to." Suddenly all the festive, tourist type objects he was manipulating ceased to exist, and his shirt and accessories had become a suit, tie, and hat. "I've got some business to take care of." He held a claw up to silence Fluttershy as she tried to say something. "Doooon't worry, Flutters~ I'll be back before you know it~!"

Fluttershy looked down at the ground, thinking about what he had said before nodding slightly. "... A-A-Alright... But please don't be gone long, okay?"

"Fluttershy, please~ When have I ever wronged you? Don't answer that. Bye!" And just like that, he was gone in a puff of smoke, leaving a slightly befuddled Fluttershy behind.

I didn't even get to ask him where he was going, she thought.

The town of Appleloosa was bustling with late morning activity. The few vendors brave enough to be out in the sun viciously tried to sell their goods. Construction ponies pounded away at the frame of what would become a small hotel. The orchards that supported the town were being tended carefully by many, many farmhands... or hooves, if you prefer. And the train station provided a temporary berth for a locomotive intended to carry both ponies and produce to Ponyville and beyond.

All in all, picturesque life in the little desert town.

Bronze Bar wiped his brow after driving another nail into lumber, looking down at the other ponies below him. "Toss me another bag o' nails, will ya?" he called, flying a little lower to make the catch a little easier. In response, a yellow furred, violet maned pegasus colt picked up a bag in his mouth and spread his wings, flapping hard. The colt rose several feet before making the throw, watching as Bronze Bar caught it and set it down on the beginnings of the second story. "Good throw, son!"

"Thanks, Dad!" the foal called back proudly, a big grin appearing on his face. "Anything else I can do?" Before the little one's father could answer, though, a string of cursing rang out from the other side of the build site.

"... Uh... just wait there a moment," he instructed, flying over to the source to find a red faced earth pony stomping around in what he perceived as a temper tantrum. "What's wrong, boss?"

The raging pony turned his attention on his pegasus employee, frowning. "Course you wouldn't know! It's these dang tremors! They keep shakin' the foundation! A stupid toolbox jus' fell on me an' broke my hard hat!" Sure enough, the dented remains of the protective headgear laid discarded at his hooves.

"Well... maybe it's Chief Thunderhooves stampeding again?" Bronze offered, seeming curious. His boss shook his head.

"Nope! We wouldn't feel that all the way over here!" his boss expressed once more before turning his angry gaze over the site. "... I hope for your sake that that boy of yours is staying outta trouble..." he then uttered meaningfully.

"What, Juni?" he replied, frowning at his boss. "He's been fantastic! He's having a great time helping out!"

"If you're coverin' for somethin' he did, ya'll better spill it now!"

"I'm no-!" Bronze began to yell before being stopped by a particularly long, powerful tremor. "... Whooooa... That's not good..." he then continued, looking up and backing away from the unfinished building.

"Daaaaad!" a young voice called, getting Bronze Bar's attention. Without hesitation, the pegasus spread his wings and took off, flying around the site to avoid anything that could potentially fall on him. Upon reaching his son, he saw the colt hovering a foot off the ground, staring intently at something.

"Juni! You alright?" his father quipped, making the child glance back, then point in the direction he had been looking.

"Look Dad! There's a big bug out there!"

"... Big bug...?" Bronze repeated, trying to find whatever his son had been staring at, and to no avail. "... You sure, kiddo? I don't see anything."

"Well, it came out of the ground and then went left," Juni explained, landing and folding his wings while smiling up at his dad. "I didn't follow it because you told me to stay here." The colt seemed oblivious to the surprised look on Bronze's face.

"... Ehehe... atta boy..." the father emitted, stepping forward and messing up the foal's already messy mane. "... Hey, wanna work up on the second floor with me?"

"Yeah! Cool!" Juni exclaimed, jumping once with glee before looking back at the "bug's" location. Then he gasped. "There! There!"

Bronze looked down the alley... and subsequently felt something hot and sticky hit his face. Juni chuckled a little, then started laughing uncontrollably. "Hahahahah! That's so gross!" he cheered, his laughing managing to drown out what had really happened for a single second.

His father was screaming. The liquid that had hit him was causing his father immense pain, making the appropriately bronze furred pegasus flail and wipe desperately at the goop. "D-Dad!" he yelled, rushing to his father's side as another glob of the strange, dangerous liquid hit Bronze in the front right leg.

"J-Juniiiii! Aghhhhh! B-B-Burning! BURNING! Help!" came his wails as the colt started trying to remove the acidic goo. No matter how hard he tried to wipe it off, though, it wouldn't come off. In fact, he couldn't really touch it; it hurt!

"I can't!" he cried with a distressed tone, looking back at where the goo had come from. The bug was there... and it had brought friends. "Dad! DAD!" came the colt's panicked cries, drawing a lot of attention from nearby ponies. Several of them came forward with chisels and scissors or other such tools to attempt to help Bronze Bar, but...

Well, the sight of a group of Roaches rapidly approaching with acidic saliva being propelled from their strange mouths does a lot to deter such attempts. Those brave enough to try and help him ended up with acid on their faces, falling to the ground along with Bronze as the corrosive liquid ate away at their flesh.

Seconds later, Roaches were in the town, streaming past their first victims and targeting other ponies seemingly at random.

Bronze Bar was still as the acid began to finish its work, his son now desperately trying to wake him up and avoiding looking at his ruined, exposed face. "Wake up, Dad! ... Dad!! DAD!!! W-Wake up!!" he cried, paying no attention to the rampaging Zerg behind him.

The Roaches attacked any pony they saw, though they did have a few that escaped their caustic loogies. The town's pegasi generally followed a procedure of sighting the aliens, screaming, and taking to the air as soon as they realized they were next. Much to their relief (and to some, amusement) this seemed to be a safe act; the Roaches occasionally hissed angrily at them, but did not spit.

Everypony else had to fend for themselves. Any that tried to fight back were cut down with a barrage of burning mucus, while those courageous enough to be trying to protect others or help them flee had their efforts greatly impeded by the sudden, hither-to unnoticed, and undeniably unwelcome arrival of a veritable conga line of Zerglings. These new arrivals immediately set about to indulging their ferocious instincts, attacking ponies left and right and killing them in quick, but gruesome fashions.

Juni suddenly found himself being wrenched away from his deceased father by another pegasus - one whom he was not familiar with - and carried skyward. "Nooo! NO! NO! Put me down!" he screamed, squirming and struggling and flapping his wings in an attempt to escape his savior's grasp. His gaze remained firmly fixated on Bronze Bar's body as he was carried further and further away, paying no attention to the dozens of escaping pegasi, the occasional fleeing earth or unicorn pony, or the Zerg.

The sounds of screaming and destruction lasted only 34 minutes thereafter, re-erupting again occasionally as the aliens rooted out survivors.

Author's Note

So I've been playing XCOM lately... The classic one, I mean. That fucking game is the reason this took longer than the rest. Besides family drama, anyways.

Also been playing a lot of its expansion, Terror From The Deep... So much that the Geoscape music has been stuck in my head for days on end.

I'm aware of how short this chapter is, but... well, yeah, I'm aware. :/

As always, leave comments and feedback! Feedback is motivating and... well, I could use the motivation right now.