Starting Small
Deep within the Amazon, life was teeming from every possible angle. No matter where you looked, you can see something alive moving with purpose here.
In this particular case, a wave of death moved with only one purpose in mind. Survival of the colony. The name of this wave of the death? Eciton burchelli or more commonly known as the Army Ant.
Only half an inch in length, they truly bring meaning to the phase, "There's strength in numbers" as colonies can number in the thousands. These fearsome killers have made their mark in the Amazon, dominating wherever they go. Many insects try to run but they are caught within minutes, cut apart by massive, powerful and sharp jaws and are brought back to the colony. The smart ones simply stay where they are, completely motionless as the ants passed them. Against these ants, staying where you are is the best, and often only, option left that won't get you killed.
Suddenly a bright flash occurs and just as quickly as it happens, it disappears. A quick look make seem like nothing was different but anyone with a good enough eye will see what was different. The complete lack of Army Ants swarming the jungle floor for one.
Everfree Outskirts
Sandy the snake enjoyed a nice simple life here on the outskirts of Everfree. The other animals were very friendly, aside from a certain rabbit, and the daily meals she gets from that yellow pony were nice. Sandy curled tighter around the branch she hung from, enjoying the sun.
Suddenly a flash of light blinded her, getting a startled hiss from her, and died down just quickly. Shaking her head, Sandy saw that several other animals had come out of their homes to see what happened. A quick look around showed that nothing had changed.
Then Sandy looked down and her jaw dropped at what greeted her.
The lush green grass were no longer visible, replaced by a moving floor of red and black...ants? Never in her life had she, or any other animal here for that matter, seen so many ants in one place. Rodney, a squirrel that knew some pretty good jokes, climbed down his tree to greet and, if needed, help them.
What happened next horrified every animal watching.
The ants simply spilled over him like a wave of death, hundreds upon hundreds of small sharp mandibles cut off bits of flesh with frightening ease. Rodney's screams of pain and terror only enhanced the horrible scene as he tried to run but his efforts were in vain. No matter where he ran, the ants where there and in minutes, he was brought down. They continued their barbatic actions still, mutilating his body for whatever reason.
It didn't stop there as thousands more spread out, countless small animals and insects caught and cut apart by these murderers. Their screams of mercy falling on deaf ears. Not even the birds were safe as the ants climbed the trees to get to their nests, forcing many families to flee or become victims. Throughtout all this Sandy watched with wide fearful eyes and her body frozen stiff like it would always do whenever something bad happened. Then she felt tiny feet across her body. Sandy waited for them to bite, to bring her death in the form of hundreds of tiny mouths ripping her apart.
But it never came.
Sandy, moving as slowly as possible, moved her head to look and saw that they were moving over her body ignoring her completely. It didn't make sense! Why would they butchered so many others but leave her alone? She didn't have the answers and Sandy doubted these- these killers were going to just give her one.
So Sandy kept perfectly still as the massarce went on below, countless dying as she watched with tears in her eyes. Friends she knew her whole life becoming little more than food for these things.
Hours Later
Fluttershy humm'ed a tone as she made her way to Everfree's outskirts where some of her animal friends stayed. Due to room issues, the timid pony had no choice but to move some of her friends to other places. Fortunately none of them put up too much trouble and eagerly picked out their new homes nearby. This one was the furthest so was often the last one on her trip but she always made sure her friends gotten their meals for the day.
Finally reaching her destination the yellow pony called out, "Time for lunch everyone." Her voice was gentle and small but her animal friends always managed to hear her and never missed a chance to eat the food she makes for them.
Except this time not even one came to greet her.
Worried, she tried again. "Hello? Rodney? Andy? Kyle? Salty? Anyone there?" Fluttershy flew around to look for them but nothing. At least until she spotted a familiar snake hanging from a branch.
"Sandy!" Fluttershy quickly flew to her and saw that the snake was coiled tightly around the branch, tears visible in her eyes. "Sandy? Whats wrong? Where are all of our friends?" The snake lifted her head and hiss'ed what happened back to Fluttershy in detail.
Fluttershy's eyes went wide as tears appeared in her eyes, body visibly shaking as Sandy told her what she was forced to witness. A wave of ants, numbering in the thousands, ruthlessly slaughtering all of their friends through thousands of bites. They didn't care who they killed whether they were old or young, newborns or elders. They just killed them without mercy and ate their bodies on the spot before finally moving on once everyone was dead.
Fluttershy took Sandy down and went back to her home to drop her off before heading to the library. Twilight must have a book to explain why ants, who were so cute with their little homes, would do something like this. Any creature that would do something like this couldn't be doing it willingly! It was simply unnatural even by Everfree's standards.
Meanwhile a colony of ants moved with purpose as a trio of fillies play not to far away.
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huh this
NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE
This is actually a pretty interesting concept. Before I read though, the title really bothers me. "Ecosystem" isn't a proper noun, thus the title should be "Invasion of the Ecosystem"
4364137
Thanks for that! I really need to get an editor/proofread soon.
4364116
Makes those annoying ants in your backyard seem like angels huh?
That´s why when people start ranting in HiE comments about how evil and brutal are humans in comparison with ponies, I love to point them what we had and have to face to become the master race of a world which is literally out there to get us.
Natural selection is mean and its offspring becomes strong cause of it, except when you escape its grasp, then you become fat and hairless. Nice story by the way, hope it gets featured.
So walking to my next class, I remember seeing tree sprouts growing between the cracks of newly placed brick sidewalks at the enclosed outside area... Persistance man...
Oh, and anyone hear of cordyceps? Spelled something like that? A fungus that takes over the minds of ants, and forces them to climb to high areas the fungus can thrive, where the ant starves to death? Fucked up shit...
Welp... Time to start reading...
4364233
Not just ants but it has a subspecies for nearly every insect in the world. Hell the game The Last of Us is based off the 'what if' that fungus adapted to affect humans.
Well, Equestria is screwed if this is merely the beginning.
(Seriously though, bring cordyceps! It's Equestria's last hope, and start of a brand new nightmare!)
I want to see stinging nettles come up
) let me know if you want to know more about it lol
I heard there is a species of stinging nettles in Australia which can kill you with the poison in it's nettles ( that is if you don't kill yourself from the Extreme pain
Oddly interesting, I just hope the ponies can figure out how to save themselves from our mother nature nonsense. We figured everything out pretty well (Burn ants, run from tornados, etc..) so it's not out realm of possibility that they can too.
Yeaaaaaaaah, uh.... I hate to say this, but Equestria's ecosystem is WAY scarier than anything on our planet.
...Nope... nope, nope, nope, nope!
RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! RUN INCREDIBLY FAST! WITH FIRE COMING OUT OF YOUR FEET!
*Hysterical noises*
Well then, let's show these ponies the creatures of Austrailia. See how they handle those animals.
4364955
Does Equestria have 1 inch tall frogs that can kill ten full grown adults? Or spiders that can spun webs 25 times stronger than high grade steel that are 80 feet in length? Do the trees shed hairs that is too fine to remove, the body can't break down, and are poisonous? Or places where the ground is not only trying to kill them, but even tempts them with gold beneath it's surface.
Let's face it, compare to Earth's ecosystem, Equestria's own is almost childish from what we've seen so far. On a completely unrelated note, do you plan to update 'For I have no Friends and Must Scream? Out of all your stories, that one is my favorite and I hate to see it go to waste.
Couple of nitpicky things because I have studied/am currently studying biology/biochemistry:
1. When you use binomial nomenclature (i.e. using the species name), you have to either underline it or put it in italics, so it would be Eciton burchellii or Eciton burchellii (missing the second "i" there, by the way).
2.
Snakes can't cry. They don't have tear ducts, and their eyes are covered by transparent scales to prevent them from drying out anyway. (Then again, Sandy is an Equestrian snake, so maybe I shouldn't nitpick so much.)
Asides from a few grammatical and spelling errors that I'm too lazy to point out, you have a very interesting premise. I'll be keeping an eye on this.
4365102
Many thanks for that! I'll be sure not to make the same mistakes in the future chapters.
4365058
Oh no, they only have apex+ predators that can eat anything, swim in molten lava, and breath 3000 k fire.
Or omnivorous flying tribbles that breed faster than bacteria.
Or creatures than can turn you to stone just by looking at you.
Or ones that are literally unkillable and made out of any deadwood available.
For STARTERS. Equestria is a death-world. An honest to god 40k grade Death World that the ponies have beat down kicking and screaming until it's turned into the relatively tamed version it is in the show. The enviroment is so heavily regulated because nearly everything on the planet is fairly obviously hostile to pony life and unrelentingly so.
4365941
I'll admit, Earth has nothing to counter that... except for a bunch of nasty smaller than life bacteria that will be probably clinging to all those gems they eat.
Frogs, toads, any animals or insect that eats other insects will consider those flying tribbles a buffet. Spiders will probably never have to worry about food again. Also I must point out that paraspites only become omnivorous AFTER Twilight casted a spell on them. Plus they're just colorful locusts
Remember those army ants? They're completely blind and being able to turn something slowly into stone won't work against oh say thousands of machete like jaws swarming all over your body. Army Ants are known to overwhelm horses.
Timberwolves are mobile food for termites, not to mention there is a species of termites with a gun for a face! Also unkillable? They choked on a rock, not to mention enough force will break them apart. Large animals, like hippos or elephants, won't even think of them as threats. And you want unkillable? Here you go. They may not be unkillable but considering some of their feats and abilities, they might as well be.
And our planet isn't much better. We just don't consider it a death world because we're so damn used to living on it while in reality, all of Mother Nature's creations are weapons that would have slaughtered us if we didn't evolve first.
Earth's fauna is killers is their very own way, from the humongous elephant to smallest jellyfish even though the latter pack more punch in a minute. Mother Nature is a bitch creating so many monster.Let see how these equeastrian going to make harmony out of these monstrosity called nature who care nothing than theirs own survival.
4364150
I'll edit.
4364178
Besides the fact that ants are more brutal than us. They've done evrything we've done, but on the scale of trillions. Cannibalism, rape, slavery, genocide, infanticide.
The major difference is, we actually make laws against it.
Next, though, you should do Honey Badgers.
4364955
Haha!
Oh, wait you're serious.
Their environment is weak compared to ours.
EDIT: I apologize for the comment spam.
It's a realy cool and interesting story. I realy want to see the next chapter
Love it, you have me thrill, i really want to see what othermonster you will pick from our world and sent to create evil and havock, rigth to my favorite, please cotinue the storie is really good
By he way i know it will be spoiling but what kind of animal or insect are you planing for next
This looks good!
4366146 You should add... hm..... How would the ponies react to bot-flys?
4366146 Proof that TCB stories are complete bullshit!
here, is when reality overcomes fiction ...
So many things can happen with are earth floral and fauna! it bout time I found a tbc dealing with earth beauty and wonders Many animals are gonna die.
Please start with cats please? Cute loving but very Territorial and there hunting and killing quirks like playing with prey to fighting I'm imagining how they would act to equastria cats.
Heh Angel bunny better watch out for the next stray cat flutter shy brings in cause a cat does what it likes. best yet cats domesticated them self's so the ponies won't know till it to late!
Army Ants? *searches the internet for information about them*
NO!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!
Hope to see this updated, it's an interesting concept.
4365116 no,leave it,these are equestrian snakes.
5797117
Time for an Air RAID!
4366146 There's more.
Much more.
Way more.
Let me put it to you this way; yes, Equestria has some scary beasts.
Mother nature looks at that and goes.... I do better. Oh so much better.
4365116 more
Eh. Could be realistic or bullshit. Remember we are looking at a magic infused ecosystem through the filter of a kid's television show. You have no idea what kind of natural defenses equestrian flora and fauna has developed against predators. There is also the fact people tend to forget one little thing. THE EVERFREE GIVES THE MIDDLE FINGER TO PONY ATTEMPTS TO CONTROL IT! Also the tree of freaking harmony has an active pressure on it. The forest operates more similar to world ants come from not pony controlled areas.
7064703
The main problem here is that while the army ants initially appeared within the Everfree Forest, whose creatures might have stood a chance of adapting to them, they also immediately left the Everfree Forest, marching across Fluttershy's lawn in the process. This places them a being currently East by Southeast of Ponyville, heading either towards the village proper or Sweet Apple Acres depending on whether they passed Fluttershy's cottage to the North or South.
Also: ARMY ANTS are the invading species!?
5713930
Actually, rabbits have been known to not only defend themselves from cats, they also sometimes defend other animals from cats.
Viva the Lapine Republic!
Pinkie...
Excuse me! This story has not expanded since Chapter 1, buddy. Anyways, how about giving extinct animals a go in this story as well, or maybe some genetically modified animals too. You keep making their appearances and behavior as accurate as possible, keep up the good work.
Excuze moi, but your little story is NOT updated. There, I said it, now, please do it, we are waiting.
7487153
Is anybody else waiting, 'cuz I have been for years by now.
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Come on, time is ticking...
I can't keep tracking this story I think is dead kind of a shame honestly...
8241833
8351240
Author has been offline since 2014 dudes, not even on the site in three years. Sorry, it's time to call it.
8387752
Dang it! But anyway, someone SHOULD try to remake this, maybe me?
8388012
I'd be happy to volunteer. I might need some help with the research tho.
8722109
We're good. Then notify me on my user page when you are done. And besides, I've been waiting for something like this since when.
4365102
It's dead.
I've rebooted the story. Click here to see it.