Luna nodded to each of her agents. "The report." With a flash of her horn, a folder appeared, floating aside her. "It says that a small town is plagued with... dancing."

Bright skewed his ears out. "Dancing? Dancing isn't... bad, is it? I mean... If they want to?"

"They do not." Luna leaned in. "They continue to dance until they pass out, then awaken, and resume dancing. We are to take care of this. This time, without causing issues."

Sweetie saluted sharply. "Of course. Any clues as to the source of this enduring disco dilemma?"

Rarity smirked at that. "I imagine if we did, they wouldn't ask for us, dear."

Luna sighed gently. "Rarity is not incorrect." She turned, wings extending. "Since I am here, and we are in a rush, I will teleport us to the affected town and begin our investigation. You will do nothing without my permission save use your senses."

Luna's horn flared as she wrapped the team in her transcendent night magic. Starlight and shadows swirled, the world blurring into streaks of inky black and purple.

Then all at once the kaleidoscopic vortex halted, depositing the group on a modest main street beneath the rays of the setting sun. A lopsided banner reading "Trottingham Days Dance Competition" hung above.

Shrill violin strains echoed from deeper in the village, accompanied by approaching hoofbeats. Luna gestured wordlessly as ponies conga-lined into view, locked in formation with exhausted yet fixated faces, compelled by the unrelenting rhythm.

More distant cries hinted the epidemic had spread further through town. "Sweetie, analyze crowd movement seeking patterns and musical undercurrent," instructed Luna. "Rarity, scan for magical signatures. Sweetie, fade into the background and see what you can find out from them, no actions."

Luna turned to Bright, considering the rabbit a moment. "Bright... stay with me."

Rarity pouted at that. "He's my familiar. He should be at my side."

Bright looked between Rarity and Luna as if both were equally compelling options. "Hm..."

"Darling!"

That got him to jump. "Sorry! Yeah, can't I be with Rares?"

Luna snorted softly. "No. We are a team, all of us. That means none of us can remain glued to any single other one of us. Bright, you're with me. I will hear no more arguments!"

Rarity huffed indignantly as she flitted away to scan the spelled serenaders on Luna's orders, leaving Bright alone with the Moon Princess. "Darling, be on your very best behavior for Her Highness while we're parted!" she called out over her shoulder.

Bright's rabbity ears drooped under Rarity's admonition. He glanced anxiously up at Luna's appraising gaze. "So uh, what now boss?" His foot thumped a nervous rhythm against the cobblestones.

Luna's keen eyes never leaving Bright, she addressed the invisible Sweetie's assigned reconnaissance. "Report anything substantial back swiftly, then we shall strategize next steps." Her focus remained assessing the fidgety creature who was now her ward's familiar and her responsibility alongside.

"As for us, we shall walk a bit, Bright." Luna tilted her head towards a less frenetic side avenue where overwrought violin strains softened subtly, though no less incessant. She led Bright gently along using the barest tug of magical light tethered to his bracelet.

"How fare thee since...thy unexpected transformation?" Luna began delicately. "It seems you bear no physical burdens - does the same hold true within?" She studied the emotions playing across Bright's animalistic yet still expressive face. There was much yet to understand between them. "I should imagine such a change could be quite... disorienting."

"I'm fine," dismissed Bright, perhaps too quickly. "There are plusses and minuses." He spread his bat-like wings wide. "I like the flying thing. I like the familiar thing. That's way more wins right there. So, what do we do next?"

Lune reached for Bright, petting him gently between the ears. "We wait. We, both of us, are far too jarring to the eyes. We would bring suspicion and concern if they saw either of us wandering the town."

Away from them, Rarity soared in over the night sky, the growing gloom doing well to make her harder to see by the moment. Below her, the dance party continued without pause. "Dear me... How long has this been going?"

The ponies she could see looked tired and thirsty. That they were going long past their endurance seemed clear. "Let's see what magic is about..." Her horn glowed dimly as she sent out a pulse.

She got back a thousand little things. There, a pony picking something up. There, a door closing. There, a pony brushing their mane. A thousand useless things.

Not a single one felt relevant. "Hm..."

Rarity huffed in vexation, furrowing her brow. Clearly there were no obvious curses or hexes overtly fueling this relentless revelry run amok. Which left infinitely more subtle influences potentially at play.

Gliding lower beneath the cloaking night, Rarity reached out with newly attuned vampiric senses, the heady thrum of life all around fading behind those hapless souls still trapped in unwavering rhythm. Seeking anything...there!

The faintest yet unmistakable magical residue seemed to cling to the dancers alone, its unique vibratory signature plucking at Rarity’s mystical instincts like a half-remembered melody. As if it echoed alluringly in the spaces between hearing and memory...

Touching down behind a convulsing conga line, Rarity focused wholly on that tenuous essence teasing her perception, magically analyzing the intricate aura’s contours. There was a subtle yet profound emotional dissonance underpinning the forced festivity and endless motion. An almost...aetheric anguish?

Rarity startled, nearly losing her scrying focus. Could somecreature be sustaining all this through deliberately harvesting suffering? But why?!

Shaken yet now certain of the sinister empathic undercurrent permeating each enthralled citizen, Rarity hastily retreated back skyward. This demanded immediate sharing lest the innocent continue being drained past survival...

She swiftly sailed back towards Luna and Bright’s waiting vantage, straining magically to convey her discovery over distance through their linked shards attuned to her unique energy. Whatever evil had woven this web of concealed cruelty, the night would expose its secrets and end its feast!

Elsewhere, Sweetie slid in beside a pony that was not dancing. The pony turned to Sweetie with a little smile, regarding them as a neighbor they'd had forever. "Hey. They're still dancing." The pony, a mare, turned back to the crowd. "I bring them drinks sometimes, but getting them to actually... drink is hard."

"I imagine." Sweetie crossed her arms. "What have you been doing, wrestling them?"

The mare gasped. "Oh, Celestia no! I got a funnel and poured it in. I can get some in that way if I try really hard."

Sweetie laughed tensely, imagining that awkward display. "Is it working?"

"They haven't fallen over... 'cept when they're too tired." The mare heaved a great sigh. "And, before you ask, don't turn the music off. You turn the music off, they all get upset."

Sweetie's brow furrowed thoughtfully as this new eyewitness context added fresh pieces to the puzzle. Removing the relentless music clearly distressed the enthralled ponies, implying some emotional dependency binding them. Yet the strains showed no sign of stopping...

"How long has this village tradition gone on?" Sweetie inquired. "Days of dancing seem quite the test of endurance. Have there been any changes to the event this year?"

The mare glanced over confused. "Tradition? Oh no, this just started this morning out of nowhere! We almost didn't have a music festival at all because the orchestra canceled last minute!"

She gestured to the ongoing impromptu concert of a lone scraggly fiddle player sawing tirelessly away. "Poor Lemon Lime there volunteered to fiddle solo so we wouldn't be left with dead silence. Then all the sudden everypony started dancing and couldn't stop! For half a day now without rest..."

The mare shook her head, distressed. "I should never have asked Lemon to play unaccompanied for so long...this is all my fault!" Sweetie followed the mare's gaze to the swaying earth pony sawing fiercely despite the lateness of the hour and obvious fatigue.

There at last was concrete connection - the inception of the music preceded the dancing! But had exhaustion freed something malicious through the bard's instrument? Sweetie needed to get closer.

But first, report. Fearing the lash of Luna should she get ahead of herself again, she dashed back to the others. "I have news."

"I have news first, dear." Rarity landed among them. "Did you find anything, Luna dear?"

"I did not." Luna pointed to Rarity and Sweetie. "We awaited you."

"Spill the deets." Bright bounced in place, powerful legs lending to big bounces for a small creature. "Tell us everything!"

Rarity cleared her throat self-importantly. "It seems some sinister emotional essence has infected the populace, leeching sustained anguish while masking the suffering beneath a facade of feverish merriment."

She vividly described the strange dissonant magical signature clinging only to the enthralled and how analyzing its vibrations had filled her with profound unease.

"It was akin to a siphoning of very life energy itself through pure distress..." She trailed off with a delicate shudder then looked to Sweetie expectantly. "But you discovered something pivotal about this accursed music onset yes? Pray tell!"

Sweetie quickly summarized the mare's eyewitness testimony on the timeline revealing this morning's last minute soloist as the anomaly coinciding with the unrelenting dances and depleted stamina since.

Luna tapped her chin thoughtfully through their reports then met their eyes gravely. "Then our course seems clear - we must investigate this fiddling Lemon Lime and whether her role proves benign performance or sinister occult influence..."

Bright raised a finger. "Hold up. Sweets, you said it was only yesterday?"

"That's what the mare said?"

Bright turned in an expansive wave over the dancers. "They look way more beat up than a single day."

Rarity hummed. "Darling, combine the physical move of dancing--" She shook herself in an imitation of the act. "With having their essence drawn... Of course they'll look a bit peckish, at best."

Luna nodded slowly. "Yes, this makes sense. But we must know for certain this time. Let's approach this Lemon and see what she knows, or perhaps, what she is doing. We are not arresting anypony yet. Do not act." She strode towards the town. "But stealth is done. Now we move in public."

"Woo!" Bright started after Luna, but hesitated. "Sorry." He hopped up on Rarity's back. "Got confused a moment, happy to have ya, Rares."

"And I am pleased to have you back." Rarity withdrew her wings and shortened her fangs, entering the town as just a normal unicorn, if a bit fabulous. "Now where is this Lemon pony?"

Sweetie was happy to lead the way. "She should be... there." She pointed as she crested a small hill. "Not in the center of this mess, strangely enough."

"Strange," agreed Luna with a considering tone. "That might mean something. We will approach and speak with her. Assume nothing. Do nothing." She advanced to the head of their formation with business in her eyes. "This mare may be the cause, or simply another cog caught in this nefarious scheme."

The group approached the lone fiddler swaying and sawing fiercely despite clear fatigue as an unwavering spell seemed to sustain the relentless solo performance. Nearby dancers mirrored the crazed commitment, stumbling occasionally yet never stopping.

Luna addressed the dazed musician gently. "Pardon the intrusion generous artist, but we come regarding a strange affliction overtaking your peers from whence the music first began. What might you share of its onset?"

Lemon Lime started, missing a sour note that made nearby ponies cringe briefly. "Wha- oh! Apologies, didn't see you folk approach. Been playing so long the hours rather blurred..." She nodded to the dancers. "Quite the mystery right? But the show must go on, as they say!"

Despite her cheery tone, Luna spotted her strained smile and the tremor of exhaustion in her limbs. Dark circles framed the bard's eyes. Yet still the music rallied without pause.

"We only wish to help," Rarity added kindly. "Might you enlighten us on just when and how the compulsion commenced? Any prior rituals perhaps?"

Lemon looked confused. "Rituals? No, nothing like that!" She laughed weakly. "I just started fiddling when the scheduled orchestra couldn't make it. Wanted to keep spirits up." Her breath hitched as the bow sawed on. "Though now they can't...can't seem to stop. I don't know why!"

Her voice rose frantically over the shrill strings before she composed herself with visible effort. "Apologies friends, the long hours left me frazzled. Happy to assist your aid!" The hollow cheer returned as the endless concert continued.

Author's Note

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