Vinyl grunted at the pressure on the door she was behind. Lyra looked at her friend, her own horn was lit as well. "Just a little longer, they are bringing something heavy to block it!"

"What has gotten into them?" Mrs. Cake had braced herself against the doors, trying to help the two unicorns keep it firmly held shut.

"Whatever it is it isn't getting into us." Starlight Glimmer had a group of filing cabinets floating along behind her. Setting one after another against the door she gave a nod to the other two mares. The doors of the city hall held against the mass of ponies outside trying to push them in. "Now, does anypony actually know what it is?"

The head of every nearly every pony in town with a seed in them shook, they were all scared and it showed.

Gel walked Applejack well away from the crowd and when he had pushed into her it seemed to quell most of her reluctance to leave them. Pushing out wings, he was about to leap into the air when he heard movement nearby.

"Like, Gel, we aren't infected." Tree Hugger, Zecora, and a cockatrice were half hiding behind a bush. "Any chance of getting us inside, squishy dude?"

Three ponies would be too much for him to lift. "Uh, I'll be back right after I get AJ inside, she is not doing well." Two nods were his answer and both the mares ducked back into the bush. Gel got Applejack up and into the castle, meeting Twilight on the balcony. "I need to go back down, Zecora and Tree Hugger are down there and want in."

"You mean down there with those ponies?" Twilight pointed a hoof down to just near where he had left the two mares. There was a half dozen stallions dashing about, clearly riled up about something. She spread her wings but Gel reached out one of his own to halt her.

"The nose protection didn't work, Applejack was still overcome." Gel leaped off the edge before his mate could reply. He was about to adjust his form to a female to draw the stallions away when he realized this would be bad, he got mildly affected by Cheerilee when he was simply a stallion shape.

Four ponies advanced on the bush, they had clearly identified where the mares were. A chicken head poked out and clucked at them. Gel managed to look away in time, the four stallions didn't. Still trying to march forward, the ponies were trapped by their steadily solidifying bodies.

"Don't be afraid of my little friend, take Tree first and ascend." Zecora's voice was most insistent, even with two more stallions coming for her. The cockatrice felt a gentle hoof on his head and gave a happy cluck. Gel was wrapping around Tree, trying to avoid getting too intimate with her as he lifted off. The castle soon had two more statues adorning its grounds.

"This is a most gnarly way to ride." Tree stretched her hooves out, clearly enjoying the moment. When she was plopped down on the balcony, she realized Fluttershy was with Twilight, both caring for Applejack.

"Going back for Zecora." Gel didn't wait for more words and was gone again. What he saw when he started back down shocked him. Zecora was a frozen statue, a stallion atop her, also frozen in stone. He flopped down on the ground beside them and looked to the worriedly clucking 'monster' that had probably saved the zebra from a much worse fate. "You can undo this?" The hybrid clucked a few more times, beak poking at Zecora. Then the stone started to fade from her, flowing back. Before Gel could try to intercede the mare shoved herself backwards, impaling her body on the stone shaft of the stallion.

"She's okay, just a little distracted, I think." Gel moved forward and started to flow. He began with her head and front half, sealing around her and only giving her a little air. Taking more and more of the panting mare he soon had enough of her that he forced her to walk forward, pulling her free of the stallion statue. "Come on, please, we need you." Gel finished wrapping Zecora up and, without hesitation, shoved into her.

Zecora's mind snapped from the need she was in, the stallion who had climbed on her wasn't quite big enough to satisfy her urges, but Gel apparently was. The world was still a hazy shade of pink lust, everything seemed like a good idea if it would get her more pleasure, but she shook a little at the size of what was in her. "I don't… I don't envy Twilight Sparkle her mate, but please get me safe before you alter my gait."

Gel snorted and spread his wings. A few heavy flaps had them lifting free of the ground, accompanied by a pair of reptilian wings, carrying Zecora's pet. Landing on the balcony, he flowed free of Zecora and watched as the zebra gave a slight shudder, her tail arched up high.

Looking back down, Zecora saw the ponies Beheld had saved her from. Her hoof reached out and the cockatrice moved quickly to get his head under it, clucking and pressing firmly against the touch.

"I thought Fluttershy was joking…" Twilight shook her head at the sight of the cockatrice being so friendly. A tremble ran through her at the memory of what one of the creatures had done to her. Gel leaning against her side broke her of the little fantasy that was playing out in her head. "Right, so we need to work out what we are dealing with and how to stop it. It seems to spread via sex."

Tree cut in. "Like, some kind of parasite or magical disease. Makes a pony seek out a compatible partner and then makes the partner want it too." Zecora blushed hotly at the last bit, giving a little nod.

"You need to find out what is in me?" Cheerilee finally spoke up and got a surprised cry from Gel before the stallion melted onto Twilight. She got to watch the process from the outside, and saw as the alicorn's expression was anything but worry or surprise. Twilight Sparkle showed every evidence of really enjoying having her mate cover her.

All the mares looked around at each other before Twilight finally nodded. "Okay, come on." She spread a black-covered wing over the teacher's back and led her downstairs to where Twilight did science.

Twilight didn't ask Gel to help her, the procedure was going to be awkward enough already. Using her magic, the alicorn carefully inspected Cheerilee and found the problem quite quickly. As soon as the mare's folds were parted and her passage opened a little, worms started leaking out. Working fast, she gathered them up in a dish and let her patient free. "These are the culprits."

Cheerilee blanched at the sight of the squirming mass of gray worms. "Those were inside me? Did you get them all?"

"These are what literally fell out. I don't know if I could clean you out completely." Twilight was holding back from the horrid things, quite thankful Gel was an added layer of protection. "If we need more-"

"Just ask." Cheerilee lifted a hoof up and rubbed Twilight's shoulder, knowing this was as hard for the princess as it was for her, in a way. "I feel lucky, at least I am not out there, doing Celestia-knows-what to other ponies."

Cadance had rushed off on an emergency meeting with the Yakyakistan officials so Shining decided to take Flurry out into the city to get some fresh air. With her filly balanced on her back, Shining trotted through the streets, getting waves and greetings from more than a few ponies.

"I need a special gift for my special somepony," Shining told one shop-keep, "what would you recommend?"

"There is not a mare on the continent that wouldn't desire these." The stallion running the shop gestured to an ornate set of crystal jewelry.

Shining beamed, noticing there were two sets of it. A thrill ran through her and she snapped her eyes away from the ornate jewelry to her coin purse. "How much for two of them?"

A price was negotiated and Shining was soon packing away the two items in the little pack she had brought with her when there was the sound of sobbing coming from between two nearby houses. Trotting over she found an odd sight. "What's wrong?" she had just asked the little changeling when two colts trotted down from the other end.

"Oh? This the pony you been feeding off? Scram, filly, we don't like changeling lovers around here." One of the crystal pony colts had quite the mouth on him.

"That's not nice." Shining stepped forward, putting herself between the two colts and the little drone. "I think you should both say you are sorry and leave."

"Or what? You'll tell our parents?" The second colt sounded quite derisive of that.

Shining didn't need to really think to bring up her shield, it was her talent, her one thing that she was better than everypony else at. She wrapped herself and the changeling with it. Ignoring the colts, she turned to the drone. "Are you okay?"

Love poured over Glint, she looked up at the mare that had come to her defense and smiled a little. Shining couldn't help but see the slight humor in her using her famed shield to defend a changeling.

"Let me take care of this." Shining looked up just in time to see a stallion trot down the alley toward the two colts and, reaching them, saw the two flinch back.

"What are you two ungrateful mules doing? Harassing innocent ponies?" The stallion brought a hoof around and clopped one of the colts on the side of the head.

"Da! She is protecting a changeling!" The struck foal reached to his sore head instinctively.

"Please look after Flurry for me a moment." Shining levitated her daughter down and to the changeling, instinctively trusting them.

Glint froze a moment. Things started to make sense for her. Mare with a powerful shield, foal named Flurry, urge to protect, powerful love. "Yes, ma'am." She was, however, only marginally bigger than the little foal but still, all she needed to do was keep her safe.

Shining beamed down and then turned back to the ugliness that was unfolding. The stallion was raising his hoof again and, when it came down, it rang solidly on a pink shield that wrapped the colt. "What in Tartarus are you doing? Butt out!"

"Parents don't hit their foals." Shining stepped forward and, unencumbered, kept her stance a little open. "I would suggest apologizing to him this second."

The stallion lifted his hoof and was bringing it quickly at the mare but where he expected resistance there was none. He had missed. His eyes widened when his legs were suddenly pushed out from under him and the world tilted sideways.

Shining looked down at the stallion and felt something odd, something dark. Her horn flared bright and a sudden pulse of energy burst around her as the power of the Crystal Heart sent a wave of magic through the city. As the wave hit the downed stallion, she saw his shadow knocked free and sent rolling across the ground.

"Damn you!" The creature of shadow hissed at Shining and was just as suddenly gone as it had appeared.

A second pulse of magic burst from the heart and radiated out but when it hit Shining she felt a lurch in the world around her.

"It's not a plant…" Tree looked at the few worms she had been meditating over.

"It's not magical." Twilight did likewise, she had spent many spells to be able to say such.

"It is a parasite most foul, the thought of it makes me scowl." Zecora had been experimenting too, adding the things one by one to various mixtures she had to hoof.

"So how do we stop it?" Gel had worked out a way to still be separate from another pony and be safe from the things. He had changed to look like his human counterpart.

"They die already, after just an hour outside of a host." Twilight poked the slowing worms in her little dish. "What if the ponies weren't ponies for a day?"

Several faces looked at her with confusion and worry, but in the silence one sound got everypony's attention. Beheld clucked.

Zecora caught on first and smiled. "Beheld, my friend, your help we seek, to end this scourge that upon ponies did wreak." The cockatrice clucked a few times, happy for the attention even if it didn't understand the words.

"We are going to need more." Fluttershy tried to think. "Even a cockatrice so well fed as Beheld could not trap every pony in town in one day.

"Will it hurt?" Cheerilee was shaking, from her books and experience, cockatrice were monsters most dire, the idea of setting a flock of them loose on Ponyville was absurd.

"It doesn't hurt." Twilight took a deep breath and smiled, trying to objectively remember her experience. "It will be a bit of a chill at first, as they are turned, but they won't remember a second of it."

"To remember their time stagnate, all a pony needs do is meditate." Zecora saw the twitches and quick focus of the alicorn switch to her, her guess was right, she wasn't the only mare who liked to be frozen.

Twilight shook her head, promising herself to come back to this after the crisis was over. "Okay, Fluttershy, can you try to find more cockatrices? Zecora, let's get your friend to neutralize as many ponies as they can." Various heads nodded but none realized what Cheerilee was doing until she was right beside Beheld.

"Please get these things out of me." She reached a hoof out and rubbed the creature's neck and head. The feeling of her hooves starting to harden had her panic a moment, but when the stone overtook her plot a cool relaxation flooded her, it was like an itch that she was subconsciously fighting was just gone. "Thank you." Her voice halted suddenly, as her snout turned to stone. Cheerilee's mind slowed further and further until it felt like sleep washed over her.

Author's Note

Yup, that will certainly deal with things. Just get everypony attacked by a flock of cockatrices. *slow claps*

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