Another sunny day in Ponyville. The birds are singing, the townsfolk going about their daily routine, nothing could ruin the perfect day.

“Beware!”

Oh wait, something can. The Box Ghost was at it again, trying desperately to scare somepony. However, his attempts were for naught. The little fillies that were playing in the park looked more bored than scared.

“Beware!” The ghost shouted. “For I, The Box Ghost, am about to start my reign of cardboard terror!”

“You know, if you want to scare us with cardboard, make a bad school play.” All three ponies looked up to see Star Phantom floating above them, his thermos in hand.

The two fillies looked relieved, but the Box Ghost was another story. “Fool! You dare try to stop my terrifying reign?! I shall show you true fear!” With his ghostly abilities, the Box Ghost summoned a box. (Truly frightening and so unexpected, right?) He flung the empty box at the ghost colt, who easily avoided it by going intangible.

With an aggravated sigh, he opened the thermos and sucked the lame ghost inside. “I shall return and you will beware!” Was the last thing heard by the Box Ghost before the lid was closed.

Star sighed again, and saw the two fillies wave at him. He smiled and waved back before flying off. The two fillies started talking eagerly about “Inviso-Bill,” much to the annoyance of Twilight Sparkle, who came by as the scene was ending.

“That spirit better not mess up tomorrow.” She muttered. “Nothing must ruin the Princess’ visit.”

Yes, that was happening tomorrow. Princess Celestia decided to visit her Most Faithful Student, and, in typical fashion, Twilight and the town immediately got to work cleaning up Ponyville and preparing a glorious welcome for their princess.

Everypony in town was nervous, but Star was nervous for a different reason. Celestia put the new anti-spirit laws in place. She knew about his ghost half, no doubt from the Nightmare Moon fiasco and from Twilight's reports. As he threw the Box Ghost back into the Spirit Realm, he tried to calm his nerves.

“Take it easy, Star.” He said to himself. “She doesn't know your half ghost.”

“But she knows about my ghost and she no doubt wants me strapped to an examination table.”

“She does not.”

“She looked ready to blast me when I was helping Luna. I'll be barbecued if I'm lucky.” The panicking half ghost looked around before coming to a realization.

“I need to stop talking to myself.” Once he agreed with himself on that idea, he flew off back toward town. He had a lot of cooking to do.

Star Phantom in:

Para Bugs

Ew, bugs!

The day was going great. No more ghosts, the chores were done, and the town was prepared. Now all Star had to do was wait and hope Celestia doesn't find out about his Phantom form and take him away. Sweat poured down his forehead at the thought. Sweat that Big Mac easily noticed.

“You'll be fine, Star.” He said simply. His little brother looked at him unsurely. “Nothin’ gonna happen.” He added.

“Careful Mac, you know how Karma can be.” Star warned half playfully.

Mac sighed, “Eeyup.”

At that moment, Star's ghost sense went off. He looked at Big Mac with a knowing look. “See, told ya.” He transformed into Star Phantom, and flew off to where his sense was telling him to go.

At the same time, on the outskirts of Ponyville, Fluttershy was out picking flowers to decorate the town. She sang quietly to herself as she picked the most beautiful flowers. A soft purring frightened her greatly, causing the yellow pegasus to dive behind a rock. She looked around until her eyes landed on a small bug with big, green eyes.

Her attitude changed as her heart melted at the sight. “Oh, aren't you the cutest thing ever.” The bug floated over to her and nuzzled her cheek. She giggled at the sensation and noticed the little thing sniffing for something. The bug’s eyes landed on the basket of flowers and those eyes grew hungry.

In less than ten seconds, the little creature dove into the basket, devoured the flowers, and flew back over toward the stunned Fluttershy. “My goodness, you must be hungry.” Her eyes widened with realization. “Oh my, you poor thing. Come with me, we'll get you something to eat, and I'll introduce you to my friends.” The shy pegasus let the bug get comfortable in her mane before trotting back toward Ponyville, she never noticed the ghostly unicorn watching her from a distance.

Ghost Blood laughed as his plan began. “Have fun, little sapling.” He disappeared, knowing he'd see the results in tomorrow’s newspaper.

It took awhile for Fluttershy to get her new pets home, after giving one to Twilight. It was so strange, she remembered finding on in the field, so where did the two others come from? She pondered that question as she approached her humble hobbit hole house.

As the den came into view, the yellow pegasus saw a sight that shocked her. Star Phantom stood defiantly against a small pack of 4 timberwolves. An overview of the field they were in showed several sections of kicked up dirt, scorch marks, and piles of burned wood. The ghost colt looked cut up and bruised in several places, giving the impression of a long and painful fight.

“Come on.” The Phantom said confidently. “Come and get me, ya overgrown tree stumps.”

The timberwolves took exception to that, and charged with a roar. Star blasted one, knocking it's legs off, and kicked another below the jaw. The other two, he had to dodge. However, one got a lucky hit and dug several claws into his back.

Phantom screamed in pain as the claws sliced his back, leaving three distinct lines on his fur and skin. He gritted his teeth and fired at the wolf, getting a direct hit on its head as it turned. The head exploded, and body quickly collapsed into a large pile of twigs.

The final wolf growled at the loss of its pack. After all, an alpha must have a pack. The timberwolf got into a pouncing stance, waiting for its opponent to make the next move. Star did so, firing an ecto blast that the wolf dodged.

Star fired several more blasts, the alpha wolf dodged them each time. The half ghost fired another ecto blast, and, once again, the wolf jumped clear. A second blast was fired and struck the wolf mind jump, making it explode into a firework of burned twigs.

Once he knew the wolf was destroyed, Star sat on his rear and sighed. “Another day, another pack of timberwolves smashed to pieces.” His ghost sense went off again, so, with a groan, he got up and went after it.

His sense told him it was nearby, and that it wasn't the powerful. “I just hope this one is easier.” He felt the ghostly presence in a nearby bush, said bush seemed to have a severe case of the shakes, which greatly confused the earth pony ghost. He prepared an ecto blast, just in-case, and stepped over to the bush.
He moved the leaves and their branches aside to reveal Fluttershy, and a weird bug thing next to her. The yellow pegasus was curled up in a ball, her body shaking as tears seemed to flow from her eyes. Star stared at her for a moment before signing. He took another look at the bug, there it was. This bug was a ghost.

He laughed at the thought of having to fight this thing. “Okay then.” The half ghost pulled out the thermos and removed the lid. “In ya go, little one.” He pressed the button, but before he could capture the ghost bug, the device was slapped out of his hoof. There wasn't enough time to be surprised before his eyes met with turquoise ones. The stare they gave made him weak kneed, worse than when he was under the gaze of the townsfolk when they mobbed him after the Rarity Dragon incident.

“How dare you?!” The usually soft spoken Fluttershy shouted. “I mean, I know you're a scary ghost, but you would harm a tiny, cute, little bug?! Really?!” Star backed away in complete fear, however, the angry pegasus kept pace, never breaking eye contact.

“Why don't you go pick on somepony your own size, stop bullying the animals here, and act nice for a change?!”

Star was at a complete loss for words. He went invisible, and flew off as fast as he could to get away from those eyes, the eyes that would haunt him for the next several days.

It was late that evening at Sweet Apple Acres where Star explained to AJ, Big Mac, and AppleBloom what happened. They were surprised, Fluttershy only ever used her stare on animals, never before was it used on another pony. To hear Star so spooked was a testament to how effective “The Stare” was.

But Star shifted the focus to the real problem. “I can't catch that bug if Fluttershy is keeping it, I'll never have a chance to get close.”

AppleJack shrugged. “Guess all we can do is wait.” The others agreed and decided to get some sleep. It was anything but peaceful.

The next day rolled around and the town was still bustling with activity. Everypony in town was doing their best to make final preparations for the Royal Visit.

All except, Twilight, Rarity, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Pinkie. Pinkie was working on finding her instruments for… something, while the other mares were trying to keep the ever growing horde of bugs from getting too out of control. The four mares were all at Fluttershy’s place, realizing just how dire their situation was when AppleJack showed up.

“Okay, Flutters, ah’m here with the delivery! But why did ya need so many-” The mare ducked as a large swarm swooped in and completely devoured the cart of apples she was hauling. Oh great, more ghost bugs, Star’s gonna have a real fit now.

“AppleJack!” Twilight shouted. “If any pony could round up critters, it's her.” AJ looked ready to dump Twilight into a creek for volunteering her.

Yeah, if my family were here. She nodded. “Alright, but ah need all y’alls help tah fix this.” Her friends nodded vigorously, excited about finally getting rid of these things. “Rainbow, Fluttershy. Y'all take them from above, don't let a single varmint get away.” The two pegasi took off, rounding up the high flying bugs.

“Rarity, Twilight, you follow me, we’ll take ‘em from below.” The unicorns nodded and followed the mare as she started rounding up the ghost bugs.

Just hope Star can figure this out. I don't see this working too well.

Star flew through the Everfree forest, landing in front of Zecora’s hut. He knocked on the door, which Zecora immediately opened up to.

“Zecora, I need your help.”

Star quickly explained what was happening, once done Zecora brought out a book titled Spirits, Animals, and Everything in Between. She turned to a certain page, and presented it to Star. He quickly read it outloud.

“Parasprites. Spirits that take the form of cute bugs as a way of tricking ponies into letting them be. These spirits are dangerous, as they consume an endless amount of food. They use this food to reproduce, turning an infestation of less than a dozen to a plague of thousands. There is no real effective way to exterminate them as their cute appearance always lower the guard of any innocent ponies that look at them. As long as one Parasprite remains, the swarm will grow again.” Once done, he face hoofed.

“Oh great, there might be a whole plague in Ponyville by now!” At that moment, a huge ball of Parasprites rolled right on passed. Star and Zecora stared at it in awe before the half ghost gave chase with the thermos.

He quickly caught up to the ball, and opened the thermos. The suction quickly caught the swarm and once the last bug went inside, he slammed the lid tight. “Alright, swarm caught.” Star muttered. “Now let's get rid of them.” He flew over toward the portal, and prepared to launch the swarm into the Spirit Realm.

“Wait a minute.” He stopped, having a sudden realization. “Maybe I should dump them inside the realm. So they can't slip out.” With his decision made up, the earth pony flew into the portal, unaware of the huge swarm heading toward Ponyville.

Star expected a million things when he entered the spirit realm. He expected infinite torture, millions of spirits attacking him as soon as he appeared, or even an empty void where he would be forced to reflect on his past mistakes and be slowly driven to madness.

What he did not expect was the calmness of it all. Everywhere was green. Everything that wasn't empty space was either an island or a door. For every island, there were several doors. Star wanted to explore it all, to see what was on each of those islands, look behind each door of every shape and size. But that would have to be another day.

He could feel the Parasprites through the thermos, banging against the sides trying to escape. “I gotta put these things somewhere fast.” Star looked in every direction for somewhere to dump them and just to his right was the perfect spot. An entire island that was covered in Parasprites.

The little bugs could be seen eating plants that were constantly regrowing. At the same time, whenever another Parasprite was created, the previous one was swallowed by what looked like a ghostly Venus Fly Trap. n island dedicated to maintaining Parasprites.

“Perfect.” Star flew down to the island, and opened the thermos. The trapped ghost bugs wasted no time flying from the small device toward their new home. The half ghost made sure every last one was out before closing the lid and turning to head back toward the portal.

He stopped when he saw his path blocked by a large white stallion in a white suit and black fedora. The stallion was flanked by two ghost ponies in prison guard uniforms. Star stared in confusion as the stallion grabbed the thermos from his hooves.

“Hmm, Living World contraband in the Spirit Realm. That is against The Rules.”

“Uh, uh… sorry, I wasn't aware of that, sir.” Star managed to say.

“Negligence is no excuse, punk.” The ghost snapped. “However, since this is a first offence, I'll let ya off with a warning.” Star sighed in relief.

“However.” He continued. “If I catch you breaking The Rules again, you and I, will have a problem. Understood?”

“Yes, sir, uh…”

"The name’s Walker, punk, know it, fear it, obey it.” With that, Walker and his guards flew off, leaving Star alone to his thoughts.

“Okay, not what I expected today.” Star said before flying back through the portal. When he got back, the sight before him left him speechless.

Ponyville was almost completely destroyed, and a whole nother swarm of Parasprites was being lead out of town by Pinkie Pie carrying over a dozen instruments.

“I really need to set the bar low for surprises.” He said as the scene played out before him. In the distance, he could see the Solar Chariot flying away, which meant that he managed to avoid Princess Celestia. So the day wasn't all that bad. His main goal was completed.

“Now to just go home and have dinner with the family.”

“Oh come on!” Was the sound echoed across the acres, or what was left of it. The main building was completely destroyed, all of the family’s belonging were either half eaten or crushed by what was left of the foundation. Thankfully, the barn was still intact, so they had a roof over their heads, and the important things like their paperwork and heirlooms were safe in the untouched basement.

“And here I was hoping for a nice, home cooked meal.” He said to Big Mac, who nodded in solemn agreement.

“Yeah, some breakfast fur dinner.” AJ said hungrily, breakfast for dinner being her favorite. AppleBloom just sighed. How was she going to explain to Miss Cheerilee about her homework. Granny just scoffed. This wasn't the first time the main house was destroyed, which was why she kept the upstairs area of the barn clear of clutter.

“Come on now, we got work tah do in the mornin’, so get tah sleep.” She said before slowly trotting toward the barn. The siblings watched their granny before smiling. Sure, they may not have real beds for a few days, but they had each other, and could always rebuild.

Author's Note

Remember Her Name! Wait, wrong ghost. Let me know what you think about this chapter in the comments below. Please? Feedback is helpful. Don't make me beg!!!

Fine, I'll beg. But for now, enjoy and see ya soon!