Hunting Star Spiders! [Open to anyone!]

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Sometimes, you just had to break a promise, right? As the little unicorn filly sneaked along one of the only known paths through the Everfree Forest, She glanced around her nervously, before pulling her scarf closer around her face. The wagon she was pulling along behind her, full of empty boxes, rattled as it rolled over a small stone and she jumped for a clump of huge ferns on the side of the path. But a moment later, she laughed nervously as she returned to her wagon. She sat down next to it and pulled out a canteen of grape soda and took a couple steadying gulps, reflecting on just how much trouble she was already in. She couldn't count how many times she'd promised to never, ever to go into the Everfree forest. She'd promised Both her parents, Rarity, Fluttershy, Twilight, Applejack, Miss Cheerilee... Probably the only ponies who had never requested that promise from her was Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, and probably only because they'd never thought of it. And she knew that even if she wasn't breaking a promise to them specifically, she knew Scootaloo, Applebloom, and Rumble would find it hard to forgive her for going alone. But this was for a greater good! This was even more important than Cutie Mark Crusader business! It had been a cozy, snowy morning at Carousel boutique. After laying down a veritable mountain of newspapers, Sweetie Belle had been painting with watercolors while Rarity worked on the final alterations for a wedding dress that was going to be picked up that day. In order to be super-extra-safe, Rarity had even asked her to do her painting in another room, where not even the wildest flick of a brush could splatter paint on that dress. And Sweetie Belle had agreed, even though she really wanted to watch. It made sense. That dress was not only pure bridal white, it was ultra, glimmery, almost blindingly white-white! It was so white... Well, it was very white. Scary White. It made snow look dark in comparison, okay? And so Sweetie Belle had stayed in the other room, because even though she would have been so careful, Rarity had been worried about the paint and the dressmaker had enough to worry about. And all had been well, until she was done and cleaning up. She had been carrying the cup of water she'd been using to clean her brushes to the kitchen sink. That meant carrying it through the showroom. And that wouldn't have been a big deal. Rarity was upstairs, looking for some finishing diamonds or something. It'd be over and dumped with before she knew anything about it! ...If only Opal hadn't chosen that moment to get underfoot! The snobby persian cat had tripped up the filly and sent that cup of rinse-water splashing. And then the white dress, the blindingly ultra-white, snow-dark-by-comparison, white-white dress... wasn't so white anymore. in fact, a good portion of the flank and train... were a muddy brown-grey. Sweetie Belle groaned, thinking of it. Rarity was never going to be able to forgive her for that. But Sweetie Belle had a plan. Star Spider silk was very, very precious and rare. And Spiders worked fast. they could build a web in less than an hour. All she had to do was catch a hundred million star spiders and take them to Fluttershy. Fluttershy, she was sure, would help her by asking the spiders to use their silk and skill to re-make the wedding dress. Which she could then take to Rarity! Unfortunately, far from finding a million Star Spiders, she'd yet to come across even one. She had to hurry. Maybe they didn't like the path...? Picking up the handle of her wagon, Sweetie Belle took one last look around before plunging into the forest, dragging the wagon behind her! "Here Spiders, Spiders!"

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((Added note: He's not in his pony disguise))

Zyrkon's journey was about to begin... Thus, he had to prepare himself, carefully collecting leaves and flowers he knew and stocking them into a bag strapped to his back. Covering his form was only a cloak to keep him warm and, combined with the shadows of that place, he would be hardly recognized.

This place was still uncomfortable to him, and thus he would want to get outta there as soon as he had enough flowers and leaves for his "experiments"... But that seem like it wouldn't happen. The changeling just heard a voice that was quite familiar yet distant... Couldn't be sure of who was it, but a filly? Here?! this could not be good, could it?

Appearing from behind a tree, he watched Sweetie Belle for a second. "Where have I seen her... ? Isn't she-?!", he thought before he dared to call upon her. Had he ever heard her name? No... He must have... ... No use, he could not remember, so it was likely he had not learned. But he knew for sure of one thing...

"Rarity's sister, I suppose? What brings you to venture in such dangerous place?"

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It was a nice brisk day. The perfect time to go catalouge some of the Everfree inhabitants. With his truty book, pen, and quill in his possession, the young blank haunched pegasus flew into the foliage and stayed on the limbs of the trees. Th scholarly blue colt adjusted his glasses and almost immediatly spotted a small lizard on the tree branch. Slowly making his way closer, he looked into it's beady eyes. It then licked the eyeball. How Fascinating. It seemed that the licking was a way to clean it's eyes. Or it was just to moisturize them. So did that mean it couldn't blink? Something new to research when he got home. The lizard didn't seem to want to go anywhere, despite the cold. A nice deep white coloration of the scales definitly set it apart from other reptiles he knew of. The fact it was moving at all in winter was of interest. CJ was kind of used to cold tempuratures. Flying was cool...in more ways than one. Plus he always had his Aunt Sunny's Scarf with him. It kept him nice and roasty toasty. Which was beneficial for all season research. Suddenly, the lizard scurried off. It didn't take long before he realized what was up. Sweetie Belle had come through the brush with a wagon. The calling out for spiders was a little hard to miss. And to be honest he was a little surprised somepony was out here, but not all that surprised that it happened to be Sweetie Belle. He had seen plenty of crusades while attending school with the Crusaders. While Apple Bloom was the most enthusiastic of the three. No pony could match Sweetie's destructive capabilities. Then came an actual surprise. A Changeling came out from another area and approached Sweetie Belle. He didn't seem to know her name, but he seemed to at least know she was Rarity's sister. Last thing he heard about the bug ponies were that the Princess and Captain of the Guards had did a number on them at the Royal Wedding. There was little detail that came out from the scene to the foals, but he knew enough to know they were dangerous, Jumping down from the tree branch, he gave a few flaps to accelerate for a cool dramatic landing that was sure to intimdate anypony. But sure enough, "No Brakes" Skies just accelerated into a face first crash landing in between the filly and the drone.

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Sweetie Belle checked under a hawthorn bush. She looked inside a rotten log. She investigated a suspicious pile of grey rocks, and she even felt around in a hollow tree trunk. All she found were a pile of dead leaves, an earwig, more grey rocks, and a cache of worm-eaten acorns. Not a single star spider to be seen. And she was wasting time! "Oh, come on!" the little filly groaned. "If I wasn't looking for them, I probably wouldn't be able to move for spiders!" She was about to pull her wagon even further into the woods, when a dark figure stepped out from the shadows... directly into her path! It's green eyes gleamed with malicious intent and it smirked at her with a wicked leer! Its twisted up horn and chitinous frame, along with the holes in its limbs, however, proclaimed it's true monstrous nature. It was a changeling! "Rarity's sister, I suppose? What brings you to venture in such dangerous place?" it sneered at her! Sweetie Belle gave a squeak of fright and backed up against her wagon. It knew who she was! It was going to Kidnap her, suck all the love out of her, and then take her place! She knew that was what changelings did. Hadn't she been a flower-filly at Princess Cadence's very own royal wedding? The Unicorn Filly desperately tried to scream for help, even knowing as she did that there could not possibly be someone within earshot. But her choked up throat only made a faint croaking noise! "H-Help... Somepony!" She whispered. And then, like an answered prayer...! A pegasus colt streaked out of the sky and face planted on the ground between herself and the changeling. Sweetie Belle stared at her would-be hero in horror. That had to hurt! And she knew this colt, didn't she? He was... cloud... Cloudy... Cloudyjack! He was a classmate of hers! "Are you okay?!" Sweetie Belle blurted, her fear for herself temporarily forgotten in her concern for Cloudy!

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"Why are you calling for sompony's help if-", for a second he had forgotten that his kind is not much welcome around her... Zyrkon looked down and mumbled "I forgot the problem... Again.". Then, looking back to her, he tried to reassure his intents were far from that of what is expected of his kind... Well, more like "tried but couldn't even start". Somepony marvelously crash landed between them.

A colt... This made him feel a little sad, for he had to leave a colt behind. "For their sake...", he mumbled, with his head lowering again. Bringing his head back up, he approached this colt, going straight into a bombardment of questions and information: "Are you okay? Any aching? Don't make a move, in case you broke anything. Don't worry, I know a bit of medicine. If anything, I can escort both of you outside the forest and get you to the hospital ASAP. My name is Zyrkon, independant changeling, currently studying biology."

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The small squeek of "Help me" came just before impact. Which sort of loosened him up so there was no serious injury on impact. No. The only thing harmed was the ground from impact and his cranium penetrating the topsoil. The packed dirt filled in his ears muffling the questions being asked around him. It was a little too easy getting hsi head into the dirt. PLanting his hooves firmly on the ground, he started to pull back. Each pull was stretching his neck a little. Fortunatly his prized scarf was not caught in there or there would be other issues. After a few more pulls, he started flapping his wings to get airborn and eventually managed to get his head un stuck. His glasses stuck down in the dirt, but at the moment it didnt' stop him. Standing in place he saw the black mass in front of him and walked right up to it, Poking it in the chest looking quite mean. "Listen buck-o. I know what you are and I will not let you harm my classmate." While it looked really brave from hsi position, from another angle, one could see that he was threatening a fallen log with a branch sticking up like a horn and had two large green leaves about eye position. And to top everything off, he didn't notice the large star spider crawling down his mane. the webbing showing brightly agaisnt his blue on blue hair.

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Seeing that her would be-hero ostriching in the dirt, Sweetie Belle was alternately stuck by a desire to clap an embarrassed hoof over her face, and to laugh. This really wasn't the time to do either, however. They were both in serious trouble, about to be eaten by a changeling! She would be the dinner and Cloudyjack would be the dessert! ...Or wait. Maybe she should be the dessert, because she was "Sweet"ie Belle... What was she doing, wasting time thinking about something stupid at a time like this?! Sweetie Belle seized Cloudyjack's tail in her mouth, and helped him free himself despite the Changeling's snarling demands not to move. With an almost comical 'pop!' he came loose and shook some dirt out of his face. Apparently, not enough though, for he immediately swaggered up to a log and began to confront it. This time, Sweetie Belle could not resist the urge, and she face-hoofed for all she was worth! Picking her classmate's glasses out of the face-shaped hole in the ground, she cleaned them gently on his scarf a minute before slipping them onto his face. And that was when she spied the spider. "Wait a second! Don't move a muscle!" she exclaimed sharply, springing back to her wagon in a flash, and seizing one of the many empty boxes the cart was loaded with. She leapt on Cloudy, clapping the box and lid together over the spider, and taking more than a few strands of mane, too! "I've got one!" Sweetie Belle shouted in triumph! "I only need ninety-nine million, nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine more to go!"

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Comical indeed. Cloudyjack's small accident caused the changeling to freeze in place, mouth gaping in surprise for some seconds before he saw Cloudyjack talking big time... At a log. "Uh, colt... I'm over here.", Zyrkon said, wondering whether the colt hit his head too hard or... Oh, he was just without glasses. That caused the changeling to sigh in relief.

But when Sweetie Belle told them to not move a muscle, he froze again in place, only his eyes moving about. But as she had caught what she wanted, he loosened the tension around his muscles. But now he felt he had to inquiry... "May I ask you, Rarity's sister, the same question from before? What brings you to such a dangerous place? As a former biology teacher, I do worry about those young. Actually... I worry about everyone."

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It took a few moments after his glasses were back on for the changeling he was threatening to reshape to it's true form of a log. As such was the power of his prescription. The changeling even announced his position. But by this time, Sweetie Bell was on his back clamping a box down behind his head and yanking a feew blue mane hairs out. This caused him to flinch and look at her. "99,900,999 more what to go? What do you need 99,901,000 of? Hairs? Trying to make a blanket out of mane hair for your sister?" This worried CJ. What an unrounded number. Then the questions and the statement of being a teacher brough CJ back to his scences and flew over looking the bug straight in the eye. "Like I told the log Mister....or if Changelings even have a Gender...I'm not going to let you get another inch closer to her. And if you try to eat me first, I am going to give you so much indigestion."

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"Mane hair? Sweet Luna, no! Rarity wouldn't like that at all. Star Spiders! I just need a hundred million of them, so that they can weave a dress for Rarity out of their silk. To replace a dress I accidentally... well, never mind. I have to do this or Rarity will never forgive me. And star spider silk is supposed to be the very best material ever! See?" Sweetie Belle opened the shoe box to show the spider within as proof... who promptly took the opportunity to scramble out of the box and away, faster than one might have expected. "Ack! No! Wait, Stop! Come back, Star Spider!" the white filly cried in dismay, trying to clap the box over it again. The wily arachnid made for a bush and Sweetie Belle followed along behind in a series of near-missing pounces. She rustled around in the bush, her pink and purple tail sticking out as she searched leaves and branches for her escapee. "I've really got to hurry. I need a lot of them and I don't have a lot of time!" Sweetie Belle explained.

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Zyrkon smirked a bit, ruffling the colt's mane with his hoof. "Cute of you to want to stand up for her! But I'm more pony than changeling in mind! Besides, I made a promise to someone really important to us all and I can't go around breaking it, righto?". Hearing Sweetie Belle's story and witnessing the spider escape from her soon after made him sigh.

"You ruined a dress, right? So what? It was an accident, you made it ALREADY clear! So go to her and let in on the truth! The truth will certainly hurt, but concealing it behind a copy will hurt EVEN MORE...", his voice has slowly descent into sadness, "I know really well how a lie or copy can hurt when the truth comes out..."

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First Cloudyjack just stared at the changeling as he ruffled his mane and said it was cute of him. Was he TRYING to make the colt mad? Well in case this bug was hungry, CJ was prepared and preparing himself to feed this one a hoof sandwhich, with a side order of extra pain. Pulling his hoof back, Sweetie's words hit his ears and quickly assaulted his brain in a two prong assault of fear. First. What the hay?! There was a SPIDER on him and he didn't know? There goes sleep for a few days. And two. Did Sweetie just say she messed up one of Rabid Rarity's Renowned Regalia? Oooh nice alliteration. I will have to save that one for later. Without making another comment, CJ flew over to the wagon, grabbed a box and began scouring the tree tops and branches that were out of the Little Belle's reach. "You look on the ground for them, I'll look up here. I don't know if we will get a hundred thousand, but we will get as many as we can." He sort of missed the lessony part of Zyrkon's speech and he wasn't too concerned about him being a changling now. Somethign scarier was on the horizon and if they didn't get to work, all three of them would be hurting. He imagined that the rage of Rarity coupled with her being the Element of Generosity meant she would give a Generous Helping of beat down to anypony that messed up a dress she had worked on for as long as she normally did. Looking to Sweetie's tail in the bush. he started thinking of a plan B. "Hey Sweetie. What exactly happened to her dress?"

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"You ruined a dress, right? So what? It was an accident, you made it ALREADY clear! So go to her and let in on the truth! The truth will certainly hurt, but concealing it behind a copy will hurt EVEN MORE...I know really well how a lie or copy can hurt when the truth comes out..." Something in the way the changeling spoke made Sweetie Belle pause and turn to look at him from the bush. There was a story there, she was sure, but she didn't have time just now to investigate. "You don't understand," Sweetie Belle groaned, shaking her head and going back to her frantic searching, "This is not just any dress! This isn't one of Rarity's dresses that are on display until somepony buys them. This dress is a wedding dress, for a client, that is getting picked up today!" the now slightly off-white filly pushed her way a little deeper into the brush. That spider just had to be around here somewhere! "Rarity is never gonna forgive me for this anyway, but if I can get the dress replaced, at least she wont get into trouble! That's why I need so many spiders. Its a big dress and needs a lot of fabric." Sweetie Belle looked up as Cloudyjack's question floated down. She sighed. "It was an accident, of course," she began, looking to the unhelpful changeling as though he might argue that fact- "I was cleaning up after painting, and I tripped over Opal and my cup of dirty paint-water splashed all over the dress. Rarity even asked me to paint in another room so there wouldn't be a chance of anything like that happening. WHY CAN'T I DO ANYTHING RIGHT?!" She demanded of the world, loudly. "I cant even clean up without making a bigger mess." Sweetie Belle concluded, softly and sadly.

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Zyrkon sighed and began helping her look for those spiders. He had just seen one, so that photographic memory would perhaps be embeeded in him for long enough to aid in this search. "Accidents happens everyday, Rarity's sister... Everyday to anypony. But worse than letting it slip, it is to try to cover it up. ... I wish I could just be more helpful SOMEHOW, but I sadly can't provide much aid other than visual aid in searching."

He went searching, quite carefully. "Please, call me Zyrkon, if you need any name to go by. I would like to know yours and his name too, if that's okay with both of you. Calling you "Rarity's Sister" and him "colt" all the time just doesn't fly.".

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Cloudyjack was now zipping through the trees trying to flush out any Star Spiders. Fiding one, he used a wind gust to blow it into the waiting box and snap the trap. "Got One!" He flew down to the cart with teh box as far out in front of him as possible. Arachnophobia was his fifth biggest fear. Three down from Rariphobia, fear of the Angry Rarity. Looking at the amount of boxes she had in the cart, his head crunched a few numbers. "Umm...Sweetie...you don't have a hundred million boxes. How are you going to contain all those spiders?" Landing on the ground he looked back at Ponyville. He didn't like it. It was too quiet. Sweetie said she was trying to do this before Rarity noticed, but if it was to be picked up today, he doubted she would leave it alone too long. Maybe she was taking some beauty sleep. What ever reason it was quiet, it just felt like the calm before the storm. Living in a stormcloud, it was a natural feeling that it felt unnatural. "Sweetie Belle. Let me take the blame. I'll say that I was practicing stopping and flew through the window, through your artwork and into the dress."