So now I’ve gotten to “Swarm of the Century”. It seems, surprisingly, to be a M.A. Larson episode, and was originally called “Pied Piper Pinkie”, which was probably too on the nose.

This is one I remember, but don’t really remember, if you know what I mean. But that’s all right. I don’t think the season 9 writers really did either.

Let’s head on into it.

So, here’s Fluttershy, hanging out with squirrels and ferrets and gathering flowers for Princess Celesta when along comes a tribble. A winged tribble, anyways. (Okay, M.A. Larson actually based them on gremlins.)

Naturally, she’s going to take it in and care for it. It is the cutest thing ever, after all.

Ominous zoom in on the barrel of apples it just ate. Nothing bad could possibly come of this…

And over to Twilight, who is freaking out about an unofficial, casual visit from Celestia, and making Spike clean up the mess she made.

And, abandoning him, she heads out to check on things.

Quite a lot of background ponies around decorating, in fact, like Cherry Jubilee, and Minuette.

“Welcome Princess Celest”. I hope the ‘ia’ is just behind a fold.

Nope. Carrot Top and Berry Punch messed it up.

Bon Bon appears to be watering. No Lyra, for once.

The Cakes were baking a banquet, but Pinkie’s eating it, apparently. She’s their employee. You’d think they’d be better at dealing with this. Nice frosting beard, tho’.

Along comes Fluttershy, still shier than I’m used to.

And three cute flying things come out of her mane. You can already see problems coming.

Twilight apparently wants one as a companion for Spike so he’ll bother her less when she’s studying. Wonder why she didn’t follow up on this? Though I’m pretty sure the ‘bothering’ part is making sure she gets food and goes to sleep…

Pinkie, on the other hoof, knows that it’s a Parasprite, and leaves to find a trombone, since, you know, she can play a bunch of musical instruments, and should be better at learning any new ones because of it.

Rarity appears to be torturing Rainbow Dash. How did she even get Rainbow to agree to being dressed up?

Also, that’s not Rarity’s best work.

Twilight… had three parasprites. This could get exponential.

Pinkie is now looking for an accordion. Early signs that she and Cheese were made for each other.

Spike did a really good job cleaning up the library and is sleeping with his new parasprite pet.

“What’s there to worry about?” By morning, they are surrounded by them, and Spike has parasprites for eyeballs.

The parasprites start messing up the library with some great background music. Kinda “Sorcerer’s Apprentice”ish?

Rainbow Dash fighting with the parasprites in the clouds, and even ending up with a parasprite beard is hilarious.

Rarity was good with them until she found out they make other parasprites by kinda vomiting them up.

Pinkie Pie not only has a harmonica now, but it’s Applejack’s. Why don’t we ever see Applejack playing the harmonica?

And no one’s willing to help Pinkie because they think she’s being silly. Though I suppose she hasn’t told them why she’s gathering all these instruments yet. She now needs a banjo, though.

Rarity, Twilight, and Rainbow Dash meet up, and Rainbow still has a parasprite beard.

But they are going to Fluttershy for answers, and she… doesn’t have any.

“I tried everything I know. I tried begging, and pleading, and beseeching, and asking politely…”

Meanwhile, Twilight has a vivid fantasy about Princess Celestia being engulfed by parasprites and carried off!

Along comes Applejack to herd up all them parasprites into a great big rolling ball.

Pinkie stops by looking for maracas. And a tuba. And is getting pretty frustrated that none of her friends are helping her. Which, honestly, they should’ve taken a minute to at least ask her what’s going on by now.

They rolled the ball out of town, though.

But Fluttershy kept ‘just one’ so they are back to square one again. I’m not sure how Equestria hasn’t been devoured by parasprites yet.

“Time to take out the adorable trash.”

Rainbow Dash tries to take on all of them, but meets up with Pinkie’s cymbals. Of course, she said it was time for the weather patrol to deal with them, and I’m pretty sure Rainbow isn’t the whole weather patrol.

And they yell at Pinkie. “Me? Ruin? I'm not the ruiner, I'm the ruin-ee! Or is it ruiness? Ruinette?”

Parasprite are devouring Ponyville’s food. So Twilight makes them stop eating it… and they eat everything else in sight. Lucky they don’t eat ponies. Pinkie is tambourine hunting.

And they eat all of Rarity’s outfits as she sits on a stool shrieking! Pinkie bursts in and is going to save… a recorder. Useful.

Parasprite’s also eat Applejack’s barn. She doesn’t have much luck with those…

In the library, parasprites are eating the words out of the books! So Twilight goes to see Zecora, something they majorly got away from afterwards.

Zecora, naturally, is making herself comfortable standing on her head balanced on a pole. Until she gets knocked over when Twilight enters.

“Have you gone mad?” Zecora’s not rhyming.

She knows what parasprites are, of course, and gets her rhyme back.

She’s not very helpful, though.

Princess Celestia is arriving, and Twilight has snapped.

“Okay, here's the plan. Rainbow Dash, you distract them.” “YAAAA!” “Gooood. Everyone else, we need to build an exact copy of Ponyville right over there. We've got less than a minute. Zecora was right, we're doomed. Oh no, the princess's procession is here. It's all over!” Crazy Twilight is best Twilight.

And Pinkie marches through town with all the musical instruments playing them all at once as a one mare band, and doing a good job of polkaing. The parasprites all follow her.

Princess Celestia is only stopping to talk to them for a moment, though, as Fillydephia is also infested with parasprites, though at least she hasn’t put together that that’s going on in Ponyville too.

Twilight gives her friendship report in person:

I've learned that sometimes the solution to your problems can come from where you least expect it. It's a good idea to stop and listen to your friends' opinions and perspectives... Even when they don't always seem to make sense.

“You're a great friend, even if we don't always understand you.” “Thanks guys, you're all great friends too, even when I don't understand me.” Pinkie doesn’t understand herself? Interesting…

Well, still not the most memorable of episodes for me, but I do like it, though. And next week, it's time for the most un-unicorn friendly holiday around in "Winter Wrap Up". Good timing for it.

--Sweetie Belle

I have a theory that all the Preditors in the Everfree eat Parasprites. It explains why the large predators like the Manticores and Hydra don't leave the area. The easy food just buzzes by. The Parasprites eat plants of the Everfree keeping it from overgrowing. A nice little ecosystem.

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That works pretty well, I like it!

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This is one I remember, but don’t really remember, if you know what I mean. But that’s all right. I don’t think the season 9 writers really did either.

I know what you mean by the first bit, but I don't know what you mean by the last bit.

Pinkie, on the other hoof, knows that it’s a Parasprite, and leaves to find a trombone, since, you know, she can play a bunch of musical instruments, and should be better at learning any new ones because of it.

Her first encounter with them is still a mystery.

Meanwhile, Twilight has a vivid fantasy about Princess Celestia being engulfed by parasprites and carried off!

She really never gets to win, does she?

This was definitely an episode that puts the moral to one side for a pure action-fest - the TV-Y equivalent of a summer blockbuster. Nothing wrong with that, though. One strong point was the spread of participation here - all of the Manes had their moments, whether helping or hindering matters.

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Pinkie stops by looking for maracas. And a tuba. And is getting pretty frustrated that none of her friends are helping her. Which, honestly, they should’ve taken a minute to at least ask her what’s going on by now.

This entire episode is basically built around its moral "Poor communication kills." You've seen this story multiple times before in so many other works of fiction, and this one is painfully obvious about it. It probably wouldn't be as bad if not for the fact that Twilight is supposed to be the studious type, yet even she isn't asking obvious questions like: "What's a parasprite?" or trying to find more information on them.

The idea behind this episode was interesting: a new creature from the Everfree Forest that reproduces by way of retching that wreaks havoc on Ponyville by way of eating all things edible in its path. They only become a nuisance when they start destroying Ponyville.

Out of all the characters, I’m surprised Rainbow Dash would want one, but I’m not surprised that she finds dressing up boring. She seems to be the type of character who can’t stand being still for very long unless she’s napping. Twilight’s reaction to the Parasprites was interesting, as it’s the last reaction I would expect from a character like her. She blushes upon saying that the Parasprite that Fluttershy shows her is adorable.

Once again, Pinkie Pie is portrayed as being an idiot. Instead of telling her friends that she knows how to stop the Parasprites, she decides to be extremely vague. Why didn’t she just tell her friends that she needed the instruments as part of her plan to get rid of the Parasprites? That would have solved the communication problem. Then again, if the writers had that happen, then we probably wouldn’t have a moral for the episode.

The Mane Six do come up with some good ideas to get rid of the Parasprites. They actually succeeded in getting rid of them the first time around, but thanks to Fluttershy, who stupidly decided to keep one, they have another horde of Parasprites to deal with. Their second attempt would have worked also had it not been for Pinkie Pie, whose stupidity caused the tornado that Rainbow Dash was controlling to spin out of control, resulting in the bothersome little creatures being sailed to Ponyville.

I did like Twilight in this episode, though. It turns out her leadership skills existed as far back as season one, as she’s the one who’s making sure everything goes according to plan for Princess Celestia’s visit. But thankfully, the episode doesn’t center on her. Applejack is given a chance to shine as well, as she instructs the others on what to do during their first attempt at getting rid of the Parasprites. Twilight only messed up when she cast the spell to make the Parasprites to stop eating the food. Didn’t she read about what would happen if she cast it? What makes this worse is that she used this same spell again in “Bats.” If the spell didn’t work here, what made Twilight think that it would work there?

What makes this episode a chore to get through is the fact that the problem is so easy to solve, but for the sake of a plot, we have to watch the Mane Six act like morons until the end. Fluttershy shouldn’t have taken the Parasprite to begin with, nor should have Twilight taken one without doing some research on it. What were they thinking?

The thing that I don’t buy is the fact that Princess Celestia has no clue what these things are. Hasn’t she been around for over a thousand years, and wasn’t she the one who cautioned the ponies who founded Ponyville about the dangers of the Everfree Forest? Surely she would have known about these things and how bothersome they can be.

Regardless, this was an okay episode.