"You!" Silk Weave shouted, as a crowd of mares followed her charge towards the one unfortunate blue mare standing in the middle of town. Colgate turned her head and went wide-eyed as the unbridled fury that Silk wore across her face made her blood run cold. Not knowing who this new mystery mare was, she did what any sensible mare in her position would do.

She ran.

"Oh, no, you don't!" Silk furiously cried out, redoubling the efforts in her hooves to run this mare down, hard. Colgate immediately vaulted over Roseluck's stands, uttering a quick apology to her friend before continuing on her retreat towards... well, anywhere was better than where she was at the moment.

Silk followed her, jumping across and nearly catching Roseluck's face with her hoof had the flowershop owner not decided to dive underneath her stand to cower in fear. The group of mares that followed the pursuit conversed loudly amongst themselves, all of them having heard of this strange new arrival in town.

"Is it really Silk Weave?"

"You mean the fashion designer from Canterlot? No way!"

"Yeah, but what's she doing here for?"

"Oh... oh, Celestia, she's after Colgate!"

"Do you think it might have something to do with the stallion during estrus period?"

"What?! You see how she's going after Colgate! What if we're next?!"

"No! I'm too pretty to die!"

"Hold on there, partners!" Applejack said, bringing her gallop to a skidding stop right in front of the panicking mares, and held out a hoof to calm them. "She ain't here to hurt you! She just wants some answers, and before you ask, yes, that is the Silk Weave."

"What does she want with Colgate?" Carrot Top asked her, walking to the fore of the group upon recognizing her farmer friend. "I've never seen a mare so angry before!"

"I'm going to get you, you bitch!" they heard Silk's voice call out in the distance. Surely, this pursuit was not going to end well for Colgate, and looks of fear and flattened ears from the other mares in the group did not do much to allay their concerns.

"Does this have something to do with... that stallion?" Carrot Top pressed further.

Applejack sighed. "Yes. Silk Weave... is Linen Spool's sister."

"What?! No! I'm... I'm too pretty to die!" a mare repeated from the back, fainting in a dramatic flourish as her friend caught her before she hit the ground.

The mares grew more jittery, looking at each other and whispering madly. They'd all known what they'd done to the poor stallion, and now Silk was coming to collect from each and every one of them. The whispers told things to Applejack, little tidbits that she could barely make out: most seemed to know that Colgate was the one who appeased the entire town with an appealing offering of stallion. Now it seemed that somepony had told Silk and she was going straight for the firestarter: Colgate herself.

"But... but what about us?!" another mare said. "What'll happen to us!"

As if on cue, Roseluck pulled herself out of her stupor and trotted forward to join the group, only for a bright green flash of magic sizzle past the back of her tail and smash directly into her stand, blowing it to bits. Sounds of Silk's exertion as she attempted to what seemed to be gunning down Colgate reached the ears of the entire group as silence befell them.

"Oh... Celestia..." Carrot Top said, looking into Applejack's eyes with horror.

"Carrot..." Applejack said, slowly shaking her head. "You... were there, too, weren't you?"

An equally slow and shaky nod from Carrot Top confirmed her fears. "We're... all going to die, aren't we?" she whispered.

"Nope... or at least I don't think so, sugarcube... the original plan was that we all gathered the mares in town hall and get everypony—actually, just every mare in town—to give Linen an apology." A ear-piercing shriek in the distance nearly made everypony present jump out of their skin. "But the minute she told me she was after Colgate... well, shoot, I don't think that even I can stop anypony with that kind of fury in their eyes."

"Sweet Celestia of Equestria, protect us!"

"Oh, my gosh! Did... did she actually get Colgate?!"

"No!" Roseluck cried out, starting to sob as the scuffle in the distance seemed to have died down. "My friend... I swear... we didn't mean to..."

"Mean to? What're you talkin' 'bout, Roseluck?" Applejack asked her.

The mare looked at her, then her expression grew regretful and she took to staring at the ground. "We... after Linen escaped town hall, Colgate found him wandering around the streets. She took him back to her house and just... rutted him for a good while. Then Daisy, Lilly, and I showed up and we saw that she had him, and we just couldn't... would she even accept our apology?"

"She'd better," Rainbow Dash said, descending from the skies and landing next to Applejack. "What in the hay is she doing?! This wasn't in the plan!"

"I... should we incapicitate her?" Rarity asked, arriving with Twilight and Fluttershy as Pinkie dragged her cannon along, ready for the worst-case scenario. The cannon was visibly stuffed with tightly-packed confetti in a prismatic cannonball, and a sure shot would easily knock out anypony it was directed at. "Twilight and I stand ready, as well as Pinkie. Fluttershy, though, may not be fit to handle this situation."

"Maybe we can talk her down," Applejack suggested. "Only problem is tryin' to keep up with her..."

"Leave that up to me," Dash said, leaving a ribbon of color trailing in her wake as she zoomed into the skies to locate Silk. That task in itself wasn't too difficult: wisps of smoke mixed in with the sound of magical bolts impacting the ground trailed off towards the distance, circling around the edge of town. Colgate must have been running for dear life as Silk's banshee shrieks continued to echo through the air.

She followed the trail down to where the chase was currently going down: Colgate, panicking in her attempts to escape Silk, hadn't been entirely focused on trying to carve herself a proper trail to lose Silk. She had simply been trying to put as much distance between her pursuer and herself, though that didn't help much against a mare whose motivation was pure rage.

"Stop trying to run from me, damnit!" Silk screamed, her face beet red as she panted like a madmare. Dash quickly descended, pulling up alongside her and waving her hooves to get her attention. "What?! What is it, Rainbow Dash?! Can't you see that I'm kind of busy here?!"

"Calm down, Silk! Didn't you say that you just wanted to talk to her?" Dash asked.

"I changed my mind! Now get out of the way!" she hissed, as Dash pulled up in front of her in an attempt to get her to slow down. "I mean it, Dash! Get! Out! Of! My! Way!"

"No way! This wasn't what we agreed on! And now you're trying to hurt her?! This was not part of the plan, Silk! Calm down before you end up regretting it! What do you think Linen would think if he was here to see all of this?!"

"He'd understand, because I've spent my entire life looking out for him like this! He wasn't able to protect himself, and the one time I let him out of my sight, he gets hurt, and this mare started it all!" Silk said, using her magic and gruffly throwing Dash aside. "Now move aside!"

"Wait, hold on—"

As Silk returned her attention to chasing Colgate down, she found that her new focus was not on trying to sear the two-toned tail of the mare into a fine burning stump, but rather the bark of a tree that had zero intention of clearing a path for her, star fashion designer from Canterlot lot or not. She felt her body tense up as she fought to hold her breath, slamming all her hooves into the ground as she attempted to futilely brake in the short distance she had.

Dash merely flinched as she witnessed Silk's impact straight into the tree, seeing the body of the mare flop to the ground after she was knocked unconscious.

"Oh, hay... she's going to feel that one in the morning..."

"...is she going to be okay?"

"Wow, her horn didn't break off... with the force she hit that tree with, I could hear it all the way from town hall."

"Is she still angry? Oh, Celestia, I hope she doesn't kill us when she wakes up..."

"Just calm down, everypony..."

Silk's head felt like someone had taken a hammer to it, and her vision was swirling as she attempted to open her eyes. The first thing she noticed was bright sun, blue skies... and a crowd of ponies surrounding her, as the familiar sight of a purple unicorn shuffled around to the right of her vision, growing in size until she was staring straight into a pair of eyes and a bright flash from her horn.

"Silk? Silk, are you okay? Can you hear what I'm saying?" Twilight asked.

"I... ugh... what happened?" Silk mumbled.

"You suffered a high-speed collision with a tree just down the street from Sugarcube Corner. I don't think I've ever seen a non-pegasus mare run that fast before! Your horn seems to be okay, but I'm more worried about the mental aspects of your injuries. Can you think straight?"

"Can't... see... straight..." Silk said, closing her eyes as the dizziness continued unabated.

"That would most likely be the aftereffects of your collision still in play. Just stay down and try not to move around too much. Nurse Redheart from the Ponyville Hospital is on her way here to treat you."

"Was... she involved with my brother, too?"

"Thankfully, no. She stayed at the hospital the whole time." Twilight brought her beam towards each of Silk's eyes as Silk could feel her own vision clearing. "Okay, doesn't seem like your eyes are out of order..."

"...where's Colgate?"

"Colgate is—"

"I'm right here." Twilight and Silk both turned their heads towards the group of ponies, as Colgate pushed her way to the front. "I... I'm right here. Listen, I... I know what I did and... and if you'd like to..." She gulped. "...to talk about it in private... we can do that. I won't object."

"Colgate..." Roseluck said, trotting up alongside her and giving her a hug.

"It's okay, Roseluck..." Colgate said, brushing off her friend's hug. "I know what I did, and... I want to end this. Peacefully, of course... I'm sure I don't want to... well, die."

Silk stared coldly at her, getting to her hooves and giving a sideways glance to Twilight. "Then we'll talk. Somewhere private, of course, with Twilight here to oversee our exchange. But I want to ask you something, to get it out of the way: are you aware of my brother's extreme reclusive nature?"

"I... reclusive?" Colgate asked. "Well, he did seem a little bit too... accepting of what we were doing to him... most stallions would have bucked us cold and made a run for it. I-I didn't think about it then, but now... I'm very sorry, Silk Weave. I didn't mean to hurt your brother."

Silk didn't say anything, merely contemplating the answer given by Colgate, leaving the group in silence as Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and the others gathered the mares along and directed them to the Ponyville town hall. "This answer will do for now. We'll talk about this in detail once we've reached Twilight's house."

Twilight exchanged a nod with her. "It's not far from here, so I'll lead you there."

"Alright, I'm here! Where's the—oh, hello, Twilight. You said there was an emergency...?" Redheart asked, stopping before them carrying a bag full of medical supplies in her mouth.

"I... guess it won't be necessary, Nurse Redheart," Twilight answered. "Looks like the concern for injury was unfounded, so you can head back to the hospital."

"Oh. My." Redheart dropped her bag as she gaped at Twilight's company. "Is that... Silk Weave?"

"Yes, it is," Silk deadpanned. "I've been through this about a dozen times since I've arrived here. I'm not here on fashion business, I'm here for my brother. And since you aren't involved, I'd kindly suggest you to stay out of it."

"...okay..." Redheart said, picking up bag and giving a polite nod to them. "I'll be on my way. Good day now." She stopped for a moment, giving Colgate a worrisome look and added, "And good luck."

"Sit," Silk ordered, waiting for Twilight to take the seat at the head of the table before sitting down on one side of it, next to her brother.

Colgate did the same, giving the occasional glance at Linen as she waited for the conversation to begin. Linen did not do the same, avoiding the gaze of all ponies at the table and merely staring down at the wooden tabletop instead.

"So..." Silk began. "I realize that in the course of my brother's arrival in Ponyville, you were the first during Ponyville's estrus period to notice him. What happened afterwards?"

"Well, I..." Colgate said, rubbing her forearm in nervousness as she recollected the events. "I... do you want what happened, or just... what I thought at the time?"

"Both, preferably. It would give me a better picture of what happened."

"Okay. I saw your brother just trotting along, stopping once in a while and looking at the houses. I... thought he was a very cute stallion, with his wavy mane always hanging over his eyes like that," she said, causing Linen to blush. "I... introduced myself, and asked him for his name. He... reacted so shyly, and... I... sort of... have a... thing... for stallions that are shy. And cute."

Linen blushed harder as his sister paid him no mind. "Your honesty is appreciated. Go on," Silk said.

"He... didn't like that I was trying to hit on him, and he decided to run. Then every mare out on the streets at the time caught wind of him, and it turned into this huge wild goose chase on who could get to him first. We almost got him when he suddenly disappeared in a flash of light."

"Teleportation?" Twilight asked. "Very impressive."

"It... was something I learned to help me escape..." Linen said. "When I realized that the mares were in heat, I realized that I had to escape, or at least get back to Canterlot somehow... but that didn't help when I teleported into the stallion's bathroom in the park only to find Miss Pinkie waiting for me..."

"Even when she's normal, she has some very weird habits. Like being able to appear out of nowhere," Twilight said. "No one has managed to figure out how she's doing that. And from there, I assume she knocked you out?"

Linen nodded. "With that... uh, cannon of hers."

"And that was how you ended up unconscious at town hall," Colgate continued. "From there, I ended up calling dibs on having him first, and then things just went from there. For what it's worth, I tried to be gentle with him... I wanted him to enjoy himself as much as I would..."

Silk raised an eyebrow at Linen. "Was she?"

Linen's eyes darted around the space of the room before locking on with his sister's. "...yes... or at least, she was... some of the other mares were a lot more.. forceful with me, but... she kept shouting at them when they did. I was lucky to escape without any bruises."

Silk nodded in thought for a moment, turning to look at the terrified Colgate and sizing her up with a quick pan of her eyes up and down her face and upper body. "Twiilght tells me that you are a trustworthy mare. Do you believe that this is true?"

"H-huh? But... why ask me? Why wouldn't I just say something that makes me look good?"

"I asked such a thing because I wanted to see how you responded. And you've given me a very interesting answer... continue," Silk said, as Spike entered the room.

"Whoa. Uh..." he looked at Twilight. "Should I go get some drinks?"

"That would be nice," Twiilght said. Spike nodded and disappeared into the kitchen and returned with four cups before they could continue. "That was very quick. Thanks, Spike. Do you think you could file together my notes on Magical Spells and Theorem, Volume 4? They should be on my desk upstairs."

"Sure," Spike said. Twilight merely smiled and nodded at her guests, having been satisfied with turning Spike away from the conversation. He would be busy filing those notes for the better part of the day; Volume 4 certainly wasted no time in diving into the longwinded subjects.

"Please continue," Twilight urged. "He won't be back for a while, and I'd rather not have him eavesdrop on the little conversation we're having here," she continued hushedly.

"Then, later that night, after... uh, you know about the whole thing Pinkie has for both mares and stallions, right?" Colgate said, running a shaky hoof through her mane.

"Yes, I have been informed of such an item by the mare herself," Silk said, straight-faced. "Am I to assume that you have ingested in this food prior to fornicating?"

"Yes, I did. Oh, Celestia, I think it was fortunate that I did... I mean, usually contraceptives would cost a ton of bits, but then there was Pinkie just dancing around the streets handing them out for free. In the form of cupcakes! Any mare would have been stupid to reject an offer like that, but I don't think any of us were expecting that it would work."

"Pinkie magic," Twilight pointed out.

"Yeah, no kidding," Colgate said. "Things could have gotten pretty messy otherwise... anyway, I found him later that night trying to get into his house. He was fumbling with his keys and I still had the fire in me, so I tried to get him to come along with me again, and he refused... and my mind being clouded by estrus, I just found him refusing to be just so... so hot. And he sort of agreed with my statement that he felt inadequate for mares like us, so I just brought him back to my own house after that."

This time, Silk's inquiries were directed at her brother. "Is this true?"

Linen opened his mouth to speak, but said nothing and hung his head in shame. "...yes."

Silk merely patted him on the shoulder several times in comfort before looking at Colgate. "You kept him out of the hooves of the other mares for a while, if it's any consolation to me. Continue."

Colgate continued, her voice no longer shaky as she began to recall the events with finality than being marked with anxiety. "I brought him back and we... did it again several more times that night. The next morning, he was caught trying to sneak out of my house by my friends Roseluck, Daisy, and Lily, and then we all ended up doing it with him."

Silk sighed. "...why does estrus have to be such a pain in the flank...?" she muttered to herself. "So how long did Linen stay with you that day?"

"Until nighttime. When we woke during the middle of the night, he was nowhere to be found, and we had absolutely no clue where he went," Colgate said. "I went to check his house later on, but I didn't find him there, so I just returned home and just... I don't know, waited it out with my friends, I guess. It's shocking how differently you think when the urges are satisfied."

Linen bit his lip. So his assumption that Colgate would have went straight to his house was true. Thank goodness that was quickly ruled out of his list of options at the time, then... though leaving the town wasn't that much better.

"And then Linen ended up running into Pinkie Pie again and this segues into the story that you and your friends have told me, Twilight," Silk said, nodding. She levitated the cup placed before her to her lips and took a sip. "Very well. Tell me, Colgate, how do you feel about my brother?"

"Huh? I—uh, I'm not sure what you mean?" Colgate asked.

"I believe you told your side of the story with complete sincerity, and a discernible regret. You clearly were concerned about my brother, even through the hazy goggles of estrus almost nearly completing overriding your sense and reason. So with that, I am glad to say that my plan did indeed work." Silk smiled devilishly at Twilight. "And I believe that ends this part of the plan. Now all that's left is to wait for the next part to succeed."

"Wait. You forgive me?" Colgate asked, shaking her head confusedly. "B-but what I did was wrong!"

"And I said that you were forgiven. Estrus is a hard time for many mares, and you are no different; don't mistake satisfying your urges as something wrong to do. I am a bit... discomforted by the fact that you used my brother to do it, but I don't believe you ever had any intention to hurt him, or in the worst case of the word possible, to use him. I can't say the same for other mares, though."

"But you... you were going to kill me!"

"And that's the beauty of actually having the motivation to do so, my dear," Silk said, smiling. "I wanted to make a show out of you, if not to scare the other mares into truly believing that their end was coming. And might I say, it worked out far better than I could have imagined. You immediately taking flight turned it from a distraction into a full show. But that's not to say that I still don't have such a contingency in plan..."

Colgate gulped. "I promise I won't do it again," she quickly said.

"Oh, I know you won't." Silk's smile grew. "If any of you mares ever step out of line again, and I hear about it... I will be returning to Ponyville, but only once... and that will be to finish the task."

Colgate gulped. "I... understand."

"Good!" Silk said cheerily, her joviality belying her frigid intent to kill. "Now, if you don't mind, I believe you still owe a certain someone an apology. Twilight, if you would please, let's go discuss things in another room."

"But there's no need to—"

Silk cleared her throat loudly and nodded as conspicuously as possible at her brother. "Discuss. Things. In. Another. Room."

"I... oh..." Twilight said, nodding as she realized what she was hinting at. "Okay! Actually, Silk, I'd like to talk to you about something that Rarity mentioned before. It was something about incorporating the use of special magical threads into the fabric of..." Her voice faded away as she and Twilight exited the room, heading up the stairs to give Linen and Colgate the breathing room they needed.

Linen looked at Colgate as the mare returned an awkward smile.

"...hi, Linen."

"...hello."

Colgate took a sip from her own cup, swirling the liquid around in her mouth before she swallowed it to alleviate her dry throat. It was a kind of tea, though she didn't know which. Perhaps she should ask Twilight sometime when she was finished, since it didn't taste too bad, and maybe next time she had guests over, she could—

"I... uh..." Linen began, but stopping himself as he put a hoof over his mouth. Colgate felt a small smile grow on her face: he really was adorable, wasn't he? She then shook her head violently to clear her thoughts. No distractions, and she didn't want to make things worse than they already were.

"Linen..." Colgate whispered. "...do you hate me? Please be honest with your answer."

Lack of an answer followed for the next several excruciating minutes. Linen's eyes seemed to have glazed over, staring endlessly towards the wall in front of him as Colgate shifted around on her floor cushion, eyes glued on Linen as she waited for his next words. Eventually, though, just as the clock struck another ten-minute mark, Linen spoke.

"I... don't hate you..." he said. "I mean, I sort of get why mares need to... to do that. Around Canterlot, it's not outright spoken of, but everypony knows about it. Sex, that is. When I was young, I was curious and started reading into it myself. It was... really shocking, because normally it's tied to so many factors in Canterlot. Most of those relating to status and public appearance. Everypony knew when estrus came around... they just didn't talk about it."

"So, you... knew about what was happening the whole time?"

Linen nodded, tapping his hooves together on the table. "I found out about that through a combination of my own research and the... the sex education class at school. At the time, I didn't really think much of it, but it's kind of terrifying when all that dormant information is suddenly what you're relying on to save your skin."

Colgate reached across the table and put her hoof on Linen's, causing him to gasp. "I'm really sorry, Linen. I wish I could just redo all of this. If I had my senses at the time, I would have just told you to get out of town as soon as possible and to not come back for a while."

"But you didn't have your senses..." Linen replied. "Or at least... not all of them. You still tried to look for me, didn't you? You... were gentle with me... so I'm happy that you were around at the time."

"Wha—?!" Colgate looked completely flabbergasted. "That wasn't—but you aren't—that's not supposed to make it okay!"

"I know that doesn't make it okay!" he returned, volume raised slightly as he turned red at the outburst and immediately reverted to his shier state. "I mean, it was really hard to hear over the sound of all the..." He coughed. "...moaning during that time, but I could hear you shouting at all the other mares to get in line and to... be gentle with me?" he meekly ended, as Colgate's intense glare towards him grew until she blinked, breaking away and looking out the window. "I've read about the horror stories of estrus before, and I'm really glad that I didn't end up like that..."

"You're... you're right. It was just... you know how there's always those stupid mushy romance novels?" she asked. Linen nodded. "Well, I always had that sort of fantasy of romance in my mind, and I guess... Linen... you're really cute. I can say, without a doubt, that the first moment I laid my eyes on you, I wanted you to be mine. Every mare thinks differently when they're under the effects of estrus, and mine is almost always thinking about what it's like to spend life with a special somepony."

"You... don't have a special somepony?" Linen asked. "That's strange, because you're... you're very pretty, Miss Colgate."

She giggled. "Not that pretty, unfortunately. I like it out here in Ponyville, but there's never enough stallions around here. But maybe I don't need other stallions anymore." Giving an exaggerated sigh, she wearily smiled at him. "I'm... glad that things ended up the way they did. But... what about the other mares?"

"I... I'll get to that when it comes to it..." Linen said. "My sister said she had something planned for them, but I don't know what. I suppose we'll find out soon enough..."

"And... you aren't as shy as I last remember you being," Colgate noted. "What happened?"

"I... guess I'm fine talking with you, Miss Colgate. I don't feel scared, or worried about what you might think when I talk around you, like Miss Twilight and her friends. After the longest time, I think I'm finally ready to break out of my shell... but I'm not going to do it here. I need to work on it... back home."

"...so... you're leaving?"

Linen levitated a suitcase onto the desk. "Yes. It won't be permanent, though, but I want to try to conquer my anxiety by using the crowd that's always given me the most trouble. As soon as this whole issue is resolved... I'll be heading back to Canterlot with my sister. Davenport knows about it and has given me permission for temporary leave."

"Oh..." Colgate said. "Well... I guess we better go find her now that we're... you know... finished?"

They both stood and headed up the stairs, only to find Twilight sitting by herself studying a book, the window behind her cracked open. She noticed them entering and gave them a hopeful smile. "I hope everything went well, you two?"

"It did," Colgate said. "We're looking for Silk Weave. Where did she go?"

"Rainbow Dash showed up," Twilight said. "She said that all the preparations were in order and that all she needed was for Silk to be there to finalize it all. They're at the town hall at the moment. And she told me that Linen should find her there when he was done talking to you, Colgate."

"Then we'd better go find her," Linen said, looking to Colgate as the mare put a hoof on his shoulder. "Only one more thing left to do..."

Author's Note

I'm surprised that I'm still writing this. In any case, this story *will* be finished.