A New Hero

by Alex The Lone Wolf

Swarm of the Century

Episode 10 – Swarm of the Century

I slipped under the covers and out the front door. It was a little early, but I wanted to go see Fluttershy. I assumed she would most likely be tending to her animals, so I wanted to see if I could help. The smell of sweets originated from the pastry shop in town. There were a few ponies out in the town, but the population was bound to increase later on during the day.

As I was walking through the park, I was surprised to see Fluttershy gathering flowers nearby instead. There were birds around her as she softly continued to grab the flowers delicately with her mouth and place them sweetly on her basket.

"La, la la, la la, la la, la la." She sang as she skipped over to the next area where she was going to pick more flowers. She grabbed one of them, but a squirrel ran over to her and offered her a dandelion. "Thank you little squirrel, but remember: these flowers are for Princess Celestia. Only the prettiest ones will do." A gentle breeze flowed by and blew the dandelion, removing all of its children. The squirrel looked embarrassed and fled. "La, la la, la la, la la, la la." She continued singing as she moved nearby to a basket of apples.

I walked up to her and greeted. "Hey, Fluttershy."

She noticed me and blushed for a bit. "Oh… hello, Alex."

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm gathering flowers for Princess Celestia! She's going to come visit Ponyville and everypony is getting ready for her visit."

"Oh, really?"

She nodded. "I'm almost done."

She was about to pick another flower, but something very close by chirped.

"Gah!" She hid behind the basket full of apples, frightened. Her basket of flowers was thrown off her back. I quickly retaliated by catching the basket on my back.

Fluttershy poked her head out, looking at where the sound came from. Behind a rock, came out some sort of fly. It had four wings, a small round blue body, two emerald eyes, and four tiny legs as it smiled. It chirped again.

Fluttershy slid over to it. "Hello little guy. I've never seen anything like you before."

The little creature flew over to an apple that dropped from the basket and began sniffing it.

"Oh, are you hungry?" Fluttershy asked. She crushed the apple with her hoof. "Here you go." She offered. Surprisingly, it sped toward the bucket instead and ate every single apple like a razor. Fluttershy gasped. "I guess you WERE hungry."

The creature flew over to Fluttershy's mane and nestled itself in it, chirping.

"You're the cutest thing EVER. I can't wait to show you to my friends." She looked over to me, noticing her basket of flowers was on my back. "Oh, thank you for catching my flowers, Alex!"

"You're welcome… where do you want me to put them?" I asked.

"Let's go drop them off at my house, and then we can show this cute little thing to our friends!" She exclaimed, looking at the creature.

We had walked over to her home and placed the bucket of flowers on the porch. We began walking towards town. As I walked by Fluttershy, I could not help but stare at the thing she had found. Sure, it may be "cute" but eating a whole bucket full of apples isn't exactly a good thing… well for everypony…

Arriving at town, we saw a bunch of decorations held up and planted as we walked through. There was a couple of ponies scratching out a banner and rewriting. It appeared as if they were writing "Welcome, Princess Celestia!" but they had trouble trying to fit it in.

We stopped by the cake shop and Fluttershy hopped in, excited. "Twilight, Pinkie, you won't believe..." She halted and looked over at Twilight and Pinkie Pie who looked as if they were having a discussion. "Oh, I'm sorry. Uh, am I interrupting?"

"No, not at all. Come on in and make yourself at home." Pinkie Pie grabbed the whole cake that was in front of her with her tongue and swallowed it all in one bite. "What's going on, Fluttershy?"

"You won't believe what Alex and I found at the edge of the Everfree Forest." Fluttershy sweetly called out to the creature. "Come on out, little guy. It's okay." Its head poked out, then came out. However… two more followed. They were yellow and brown instead. Fluttershy gasped. "Three?"

"They're AMAZING. What are they?" Twilight walked over and asked.

"I'm not sure. I'm also not sure where these other two came from." Fluttershy responded.

"I'll take one off your hooves." The yellow one landed on Twilight's hoof. "I've never seen anything so... ADORABLE." Twilight hugged the creature. She blushed when she realized she had done that in front of us. "Besides, it'll be nice to have a companion for Spike so he won't bother me so much while I'm studying."

"Pinkie, do you want the other one?" Fluttershy asked.

"UGH!" Pinkie Pie stuck her tongue out. "A parasprite? ARE YOU KIDDING?" Pinkie Pie walked off.

"Ugh?" Fluttershy questioned.

"A para-what?" Twilight asked.

"How could you not like..."

"Now I gotta go find a TROMBONE." Pinkie Pie interrupted Fluttershy.

"A what?" Twilight asked again.

"A trombone, you know…" She imitated the instrument and hopped off.

Twilight sighed. "Ahhh, typical Pinkie." The yellow parasprite flew up next to her and purred. "Well, I'm going to go show this little guy to Rarity! Bye!" She fled off in excitement.

"Don't you think it's a little weird that that … parasprite… had more with it? I thought you had only one." I questioned Fluttershy as we walked around town.

"A little…" Fluttershy responded, looking at her parasprite. "I thought so too… but maybe a few more sneaked inside my mane when I wasn't looking…"

"Hmm… well if that IS the case… then what about their appetite? That one ate a whole bucket of apples, who knows what else they eat… and how much of it they take in."

"Oh, Alex." Fluttershy giggled. "I'm sure we can train them to eat something specific, like a pet. Besides, there are only three of them, how much trouble can they be?"

I had no comment. "Well… let's just hope your right."

Fluttershy smiled. "I think I'll go teach it some new things right now. I'll see you later?"

"Sure, okay."

Fluttershy began walking off to her home. I continued looking at her depart as I thought. Twilight had a whole library of books… maybe I can go check them out to see if they have something on these creatures? Pinkie Pie seemed like if she's seen these guys before… maybe she knows a lot about them too? But I don't even know where she is, since she went looking for an instrument for some reason… when she left, she seemed angry when she heard about the parasprites… there must a con with them…

I shook my head and headed towards Twilight's house. I better go do the first thing on my list before I forget…

I knocked on Twilight's door. After a moment, she opened it. "Hey, Alex."

"Hey, Twilight… I was wondering if I could find out more about those… parasprites… in one of your books." I replied.

"Oh, gosh, Alex. I was curious about those too, I wanted to look myself, but Spike and I have been so busy with cleaning up the place, you know, stacking the books back on the shelves and dusting."

"I see…"

"It was strangest thing though… when I went to show Rarity, I had three of them with me too! I didn't know where they came from!"

My eyes opened in surprise. "You have two more of them?"

"Yes, I –

"TWILIGHT! Get your butt in here and help me!" Spike announced from inside the home. I could hear a crash of books and a groan.

"Sorry, Alex. I have to go before Spike blows a fuse." Twilight said and closed the door.

I turned around and placed a hoof on my chin. Twilight had three instead of one… just like Fluttershy… I suppose it is possible that another couple could have snuck in her mane… but… it's just very unlikely… what if they reproduced and multiplied? But wait… there was only ONE, and I think they would need two… man… this is making me insane… if only I could have found a book that Twilight has that has these bizarre things in them…

I sighed… there was a lot going on in my head. I guess the only thing I can do now is just to see what happens…

When the next day arrived, every pony was finishing up the necessities for Princess Celestia's arrival, which was in about a few hours. I decided to check up on Fluttershy to see how things were going with her new pet.

I knocked her door and waited for a moment. There was no answer… I knocked again and called her name. "Fluttershy?" There was still no answer. I started to worry. I placed my ear on the door and heard small faint squeaks. I opened the door and rushed in. "Fluttershy!" I called. However, I was greeted by many parasprites. There were literally hundreds all over the place, making a mess.

"Fluttershy!" I called again.

"I'm over here!" Fluttershy exclaimed.

She was trying to catch the parasprites that flew away from her.

"What happened?" I asked as I tried to help.

"I don't know! I just woke up this morning and there was a bunch of them!"

Chasing after them and trying to catch them seemed useless… it wasn't until a while after that Fluttershy's door opened once again, releasing an army of the parasprites outside. Rarity, Twilight, and Rainbow Dash rushed in, trying to get Fluttershy's help.

"Ugh, do something Fluttershy, can't you control them?" Twilight asked.

"I tried everything I know: I've tried begging, and pleading, and beseeching, and asking politely and..."

Rainbow Dash groaned. We had no choice but to race outside where the other many parasites were at.

"If we can't get them under control before the princess arrives, it'll be a total disaster!" Twilight exclaimed.

A yellow parasprite flew near Rarity and hacked something out. It looked like a mud ball at first, but then it instantly formed into a new brown parasprite.

"Ew!" Rarity cried. "If you ask me it's already a total disaster!"

"Here's all those apples you wanted, Fluttershy." Applejack announced while she was crossing the bridge. "But I still can't figure why y'need so many." The parasprites noticed the cart full of apples and instantly attacked them, leaving nothing behind and fleeing. "HEY!"

"What do we do?" Fluttershy asked, worriedly.

Twilight gasped. "I got it! No pony can herd like Applejack."

"Yeah! We can drive 'em back into the forest." Rainbow Dash encouraged.

"I'll rustle 'em up, but I need everypony's help to do it. Twilight, you and Rarity wait over there. I'll herd the little critters straight at ya like a funnel. Rainbow Dash, you and Fluttershy stay on top of 'em, don't let 'em fly away." Applejack ordered.

"Aye aye." Rainbow Dash understood.

"Alex, stay on the other side, so they don't escape." Applejack stated.

I nodded and ran to my position.

"Yeeeeeee-haw!" Applejack cheered.

Applejack, Twilight, Rarity, and I began making all the parasprites flee into the same area while Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy flew above them to lower them down. We all had the parasprites form into a sphere and began rolling them back to the forest.

"Alright y'all, here goes nothin'. Look out Rarity, that one's fixin' to get away. Keep a lean on 'em, Rainbow Dash. Hold on, we're almost there!"

However, Pinkie Pie suddenly appeared at the front of the pack, running along with Twilight.

"Pinkie!" Twilight cried out.

"Twilight, we don't have much time!" Pinkie Pie responded.

"You're telling ME? The princess could arrive at any moment."

"Exactly. That's why I need every pony to drop what they're doing and HELP ME find some MARACAS."

"Maracas? Pinkie, we've got much bigger problems than missing MARACAS!"

Pinkie Pie gasped. "You're right! Getting a tuba has to be our number one goal. Follow me!" Pinkie Pie ran ahead, but ran backwards when Twilight didn't follow her. "I SAID, follow me!"

"Pinkie Pie, you are so RANDOM." Rainbow Dash announced, flying closer to Twilight.

"And you are all so stubborn." She ran off.

"Forget her. Focus. Head 'em up and move 'em out." Applejack called out to every pony.

"I know she sounded ridiculous…" I told Applejack. "But I think she's on to something."

"On to something?" Applejack replied. "How can she get rid of these critters by playing the darn ol' tuba?"

I sighed. You never know…

We finally reached the Everfree forest and let them continue their flying in there.

"ALRIGHT!" Rainbow Dash slapped hooves with Fluttershy.

"Ouch…" Fluttershy responded.

"We did it. Nice work, Applejack." Twilight told Applejack.

"Couldn't a'done it without y'all." Applejack thanked.

"Now let's get back and clean the mess they made, before the princess arrives." Twilight offered.

We all walked back towards Fluttershy's home.

"Okay, everyone knows what to do, right? We gotta work extra hard to make up for lost time." Twilight announced. Fluttershy grabbed the handle with her teeth and opened it, only to reveal another army of parasprites fly out of the house. " Where did THEY come from?" Twilight cried.

"Uh, I may have kept just one. Heh." Fluttershy responded, showing the orange parasprite she had kept. Every pony looked at her annoyed and irritated. "I couldn't help myself. They're just so cute."

"We don't have time to keep rounding up these things. What do we do now?" Twilight exclaimed.

"We call in the weather patrol!" Rainbow Dash shouted. "Yeah!" She flew above and yelled. "YAAAAAA!" She spun around until she formed a tornado, collecting and sucking in all the parasprites.

"Way to go, Rainbow Dash!" Twilight congratulated.

"Looks like our problems are solved!" Applejack said.

"They will be with these cymbals." Pinkie Pie randomly appeared, clashing cymbals together. However, the tornado sucked in the cymbals as well. "Hey! Give me those back!"

The cymbals began causing problems for Rainbow Dash. "Whoa. Yaa! Yow! Woah! Wow! I can't hold it! She's breaking up!" Rainbow Dash flew straight towards a tree and crash landed. The tornado disappeared and released all the parasprites, freely. They all headed towards Ponyville.

"Pinkie Pie, what have you DONE?" Twilight exclaimed, furiously.

"I've lost a brand new pair of cymbals, that's what I've done!" Pinkie Pie responded.

"Will you forget about your silly instruments for one second? You're ruining our efforts to save Ponyville!"

"ME? Ruin? I'm not the ruiner, I'm the ruinee! Or is it ruiness? Ruinette?" Pinkie Pie thought.

"Come on, there's no reasoning with that one." Applejack announced. "She's a few apples short of a bushel."

They ran off, leaving Pinkie Pie. I stayed for a reason.

"Hey! I'm trying to tell you all that the ruining is on the other hoof. If you just slow down and LISTEN TO ME!" Pinkie Pie screamed.

"I'm here, Pinkie Pie. What's the plan?" I asked.

"You believe me…?" Pinkie Pie responded.

"Yeah… now what's the plan? You're gathering these instruments for some reason… is it to distract the parasprites?"

"Yeah! Sorta. You see, I have dealt with these nasty little –yet cute- critters before and I found out that these instrumentals get rid of them!"

"How?"

"When I play them, they get distracted with the music and follow it, so if I get every one of those parasprites to follow me, I can get them back to the Everfree forest!"

"Okay then! Let's get the rest of the instruments you need!"

We ran towards town.

The town was being raided by all the parasprites; they were eating all the food! Pinkie Pie managed to find tambourines and gather several different instruments in a bag. We spotted Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Twilight, and Rarity.

"Look, tamborines! If you can all just..." Pinkie Pie paused, noticing that the others were still not listening to her. She screamed and ran off while I tried to get the attention of them.

"Pinkie Pie has a PLAN to—

Twilight gasped, noticing a parasprite about to eat an apple, but sighed when it refused the food. The parasprite immediately ate the bucket and not the apple. We began seeing every parasprite eat anything that WASN'T food!

"Heh. Hey," Rainbow Dash looked over to Twilight. "It worked. They're not eating the FOOD anymore."

"Oh no... if they get inside my store... EVERY PONY FOR HERSELF!" Rarity exclaimed.

Twilight ran off to her home. Rainbow Dash began being chased by many parasprites. Everywhere was in complete chaos. Princess Celestia was going to be here in a few minutes and this is how she's going to see Ponyville?

Soon, I heard music being played. I saw Pinkie Pie leading a trail of parasprites while marching with the many instruments she gathered. Well… she was right…

Twilight walked over to us and shrugged in disbelief. We followed Pinkie Pie and her fan of parasprites. Twilight stopped at pointed. "Look!" Princess Celestia, escorted by her royal guards, arrived before us. We ran ahead of Pinkie Pie and bowed.

"Twilight Sparkle, my prized pupil!" Princess Celestia greeted.

"Hello, princess!" Twilight responded with a hint of nervousness in her voice.

"So lovely to see you again, as well as your friends."

A clash of the cymbals interrupted the conversation. To our side, we saw Pinkie Pie leading the parasprites, which left Twilight embarrassed and Princess Celestia surprised.

"So... how's the trip? Get much traffic?" Twilight asked, trying to change the subject.

"Ah, what is this?" The Princess responded, confused. One of the parasprites landed on her wing for a moment and flew away to the music. "Oh ho ho, these creatures are adorable."

"They're not THAT adorable…" Rainbow Dash muttered.

"I'm terribly honored that you and the good citizens of Ponyville have organized a parade in honor of my visit." Princess Celestia thanked.

"Parade?" Twilight asked, confused, but then realized her escape plan. "Oh. Yes, the parade!"

"Unfortunately, that visit is going to have to wait for another time. I'm afraid an emergency has come up in Fillydelphia. Apparently there's been some sort of infestation." Princess Celestia apologized.

"An... infestation?" Twilight asked, nervously.

"Yes, a swarm of incredibly bothersome creatures has invaded the poor town. I'm sorry Twilight, to have to put you all through so much trouble."

"Trouble? What trouble?"

"Before I have to go, would you care to give me your latest report on the magic of friendship in person?"

"My... report?"

"Haven't you learned anything about friendship?"

Twilight looked over at Pinkie Pie and smiled. "Actually, I have. 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…" Another crash of the cymbals roared. "…even when they don't always seem to make sense."

"I'm so proud of you, Twilight Sparkle, and I'm very impressed with your friends as well. It sounds like you're all learning so much from each other." Princess Celestia looked over all of us.

"Thank you, princess…" Twilight replied as the Princess began leaving.

We walked over to Pinkie Pie as she finished having the last of the parasprites leave.

"Hey, what happened to the princess?" Pinkie Pie asked, stopping her music.

"Emergency in Fillydelphia." Twilight responded.

"Some sort of infestation." Rainbow Dash added.

"Oh no! Have they got parasprites too? Well, have tuba, will travel." Pinkie Pie blew her tuba.

"I think the princess can handle it." Twilight replied.

"So you knew what those critters were all along, huh Pinkie Pie?" Applejack asked.

"Well DUH, why do you think I was so frantic to get my hooves on all these instruments? I TRIED to tell you." Pinkie Pie stated.

"We know Pinkie Pie, and we're sorry we didn't listen." Twilight apologized.

Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Applejack followed the same.

"You're a great friend, even if we don't always understand you." Twilight told Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie Pie grinned. "Thanks guys, you're all great friends too, even when I don't understand me."

"You saved my reputation with Princess Celestia, and more importantly, you saved Ponyville."

We arrived back at town to see the total mess that was left by the parasprites.

"Or not…" Twilight said, disappointed.

Everypony gathered around us inside the town after they noticed all the parasprites were gone. Soon, every pony was helping out to restore the town. Ponies used their magic to fix the buildings while others that could fly, picked up broken pieces and safely removed them. The rest of us did a little of both. With the help of every pony, we managed to restore the town again.

It was nightfall by the time we finished. Every pony left towards their home for their night's sleep.

I was about to go home myself, but Fluttershy called me.

"Hey, Alex…" Fluttershy said behind me.

I turned around to face her. She started moving her hooves along the dirt and looked around again.

"You're going to the Grand Galloping Gala… right…?" She asked.

"I guess so… why...?"

"…were you thinking of taking anypony…?

"What do you mean?" I asked, a little confused.

"You know…" She paused for a moment. "… as a date…"

"oh… well… not really… I don't think anypony wants to go with me anyway…"

Fluttershy smiled and blushed. "I'm sure there's some pony that does…"

"Huh…?"

She continued smiling. "Goodnight, Alex." She began to fly towards home.

I stood there a little confused. After a moment, I returned home.

As I lay in bed awake, I thought about what Fluttershy told me. In my mind, I did not know what she meant…but in my heart… I did…

Comments

[Hunter X]

Wow that's a lot of character tags.

[SonOfTheNorthe]

Tag overkill. I have no idea how that got past moderation. Sure, Mayor Mare might appear once or twice, but is the story ABOUT her? If not, remove her from the tags. Same for all the other tags. Which pretty much narrows it down to OC and Mane 6.

[benxlabs]

Ho-ho there, lover boy! You have a town's worth of tags there!

[DragonLS]

824135

The tags were overkill because this fic was made before the tag limit was put in place. Look at the date of the first chapter: It dates back all the way to January.

[wat]

CHARACTER TAG HAX

lol i bet you just kept this with a password for a long time

[Kalimdor]

824135
pinkie.ponychan.net/chan/files/src/133354236034.jpg

[GlitchyProductions]

824245

Funny enough this story is in the Newest Stories section, the author must have pulled back his story to edit it.

[nightelf37]

You know, my fic here, Shisno Chronicles: Friendship is Magic, works the same way, although my character is accompanying the main character. Regrettably, I think he's cooler than your character, although like with every character he has his flaws.

[Alex The Lone Wolf]

Haha funny story actually, This is the first time in posting this site. Sorry if I offended you with the "tag overkill". I'll take those off once I have the chance. And this is considered new because I had this up for a long time but I didn't know I had to submit until Yesterday. Stupid, I know.

[Alex The Lone Wolf]

>> nightelf37

Honestly, I think that comment is highly unnecessary... But I don't know the norms here so...

[NotsoAwesme]

You sir....I love you this is excellent and brilliant and any other word that means good in any language BECAUSE IT'S THAT GOOD!

[Alex The Lone Wolf]

825772
Haha, thanks. I'll post more chapters for you.

[The Slending Angel]

825772 To quote Nine: Fantastic!

[F14m3rz]

Aww! How heartwarming!

[Lord_01010000]

there must a con with them…

What?

[Magical plane]

6068477
Like pros and cons it's just worded akwardly

[Icy Creation]

I turned around and placed a hoof on my chin. Twilight had three instead of one… just like Fluttershy… I suppose it is possible that another couple could have snuck in her mane… but… it's just very unlikely… what if they reproduced and multiplied? But wait… there was only ONE, and I think they would need two… man… this is making me insane… if only I could have found a book that Twilight has that has these bizarre things in them…

My theory is that Parasprites are similar to amoeba. They consume, and then they split. A macro-amoeba.