//------------------------------//
// Parasprites: For Definition, Please See Locusts Or Hungry Male Teenager 
// Story: Book 1: A New Element of Friendship 
// by Medley of MLP 
//------------------------------//


A New Element Of Friendship



Parasprites: For Definition, Please See Locusts Or Hungry Male Teenager


        For the love of LaurFastia, can I please have one or two more *weeks* of not being violently awakened or being startled into alert mode from my morning slumber? I was just about to yell that exact thing before I realized who woke me up this time: Fluttershy. Of all ponies to enter someone’s house and wake them up, I was slightly surprised that it was the most timid and quiet pony in Ponyville, if not Equestria. So instead of angrily talking to her, I decided to calm down a bit and try to remember *why* she woke me up.

        “Good morning Fluttershy. I do have to say, I wasn’t expecting you this early in the morning,” I greeted her calmly as I got out of bed and stretched a bit.

        “G-Good morning, Medley… Um, s-sorry if I woke you up, but… um… it’s already near noon and you d-did kind of promise to help me out picking flowers for Princess Celestia and getting the apples from Applejack…” Fluttershy stammered, almost mumbling.

        I instantly remembered that promise I made to her a few days back and instantly felt guilty about forgetting and for sleeping so late when normally I would be up bright and early.

        “Sorry Fluttershy… Let me just quickly grab a small breakfast and a shower and I’ll be right there to help you out, alright?” I smiled sheepishly as I walked down with her to the kitchen, where I was greeted with a few small animals looking up at me in curiosity, already making a meal. “...I take it you have a few animal helpers with you for flower picking, Fluttershy?”

        Fluttershy shyly nodded, replying with, “Um… I hope they won’t bother you too much… but they really wanted to come along and help me out today as well and I just couldn’t resist their adorable little begging faces.”

        I chuckled softly at how easy it was sometimes for Fluttershy to be suckered by the animals she takes care off and waved a hoof. “It’s alright Fluttershy, that just means more flowers for Celestia and that means less of a burden the animals have to carry.”

        She smiled a bit and nodded, patiently waiting for me to eat and shower before we made our way to the Apple Family’s acre, where a basket full of apples were waiting to be picked up. In the distance I could see Applejack and Big Mac apple-bucking a few trees, with a big amount of trees already bucked. We gave a friendly wave to them as I picked up the basket and placed it on my back, a few of Fluttershy’s animal friends helping me balance it.

We then made our way to a meadow that were filled with yellow and blue flowers. Thankfully the meadow was far and away from the Everfree, which meant no Poison Joke to accidentally pick up. I set the basket of apples down on a nearby rock, thanking the little animals for helping me with it, to which I got a lot of adorable little cheers. I chuckled softly again as I looked at them before I saw Fluttershy hide a little giggle. We then went to work at picking flowers, Fluttershy humming tunelessly as she looked around. It was then that one of her animal friends picked a dandelion and quickly brought it over to her, getting a smile from her.

        “Thank you little squirrel, but remember, these flowers are for Princess Celestia. Only the prettiest ones will do,” She smiled as a small breeze blew by, letting the dandelion pollinate.

        The squirrel chittered sheepishly as he hid the stem of the dandelion behind him before scurrying off again. I shook my head at the adorable little scene before placing the last few flowers into the basket. This time, Fluttershy placed the basket on her, though this one being much lighter made things easier, I suppose. But when we got close to the rock with the basket full of apples, we heard a strange noise coming from one of the bigger pebbles nearby. Fluttershy, to my non-surprise, jumped and quickly hid behind the basket of apples, the basket of flowers landing upside down, scattering them all around her. For my part though, I instinctively flinched and quickly turn to where I thought I heard the noise come from.

        The answer soon came into the form of a little blue bug that looked like a big, round fly with an adorable pair of green eyes, as it chirped quite cutely. Fluttershy’s reaction was, again to my non-surprise, immediately cuddle up with it. Though I was still wary of it, vague memories of what it was or what it did or even it’s name flashing in the back of my mind. Oddly, everything seemed to be much more organized than usual, though it was still quite vague.

        “Hello little guy,” Fluttershy got closer to it and spoke in soft tones, “I’ve never seen anything like *you* before.”

        As the bug sniffed an apple that had fallen out of the basket during the small panic, Fluttershy instantly went with, “Oh, are you hungry?” before crushing the apple into an easily digestible pile of mush.

        “Here you go,” Fluttershy pushed the apple mush over to the little bug, though it seemed to ignore it now as it looked at the basket full of apples.

        Then, before I could even blink, it immediately and quickly ate through an entire basket of apples, practically making chainsaw noises as it ate. Before I could react, the basket was soon empty of all apples as it fluttered around Fluttershy.

        “I guess you *were* hungry,” Fluttershy commented as the bug settled in her hair, nestling in quite comfortably.

        I instantly was on edge after that little display of eating. Nothing should’ve eaten that many apples that fast. Not even Pinkie on a hungry day could manage that, though it would be a close second. I decided to go with Fluttershy as she decided to go show off the new creature we had found along the way. Before we left though, I quickly gathered up as many flowers as I could and put them back in the basket, putting it on my back as I caught up to Fluttershy.

        We made our way through the town, checking in on the celebration along the way.It looked like the streamers were nicely placed, the flowers were getting perfectly watered, and the ponies were re-doing a banner that I think was missing a few letters from it being ‘Welcome Princess Celestia’. I smiled and shook my head, as it seemed the whole town was going into overdrive to prepare for the arrival of Celestia, who from the sound of things really wanted to just have a casual visit. However, I would do my part diligently as conductor of the band for the parade later on.

        I then saw Fluttershy see a glimpse of Twilight go into Sugarcube Corner, and she giddily bounded off towards the group, leaving me no choice but to give the basket of flowers quickly to Roseluck, who needed them for some floral arrangements, as I caught up to her.

        “Twilight! Pinkie! You’ll never believe what I…” She slowly stopped as she saw both Pinkie Pie and Twilight there, doing an impressive slide on the floor as she mumbled quietly, “Oh… I’m sorry… am I interrupting?”

        “No, not at all! Come on in and make yourself at home! Both of you” Pinkie smiled at her before I saw her tongue extending out and grew wider, quickly swallowing a whole entire cake. After getting a look from Twilight, Pinkie asked, “So, what’s going on Flutters and Med?”

        “Eh, not too much. Did some flower picking for Roseluck and got the apples we needed from Applejack for some of the food. Though there’s one problem though,” I answered as I stood beside Fluttershy.

        “Wait… where are the apples? I thought you said you picked them up!” Twilight looked like she was on the edge already.

        “Well, you see… This little guy right here just… sort of… ate them all… core and everything,” Fluttershy smiled as the little bug made himself known, hovering around Fluttershy. That was, until two more bugs popped out of her mane, one with yellow coloring and one with brown coloring, both with the same green eyes.

        “Wait a sec… there was only one of them out in the meadow. How the heck did you get two more?” I asked.

        Fluttershy shyly shrugged as Twilight spoke up with, “Well, they’re amazing! What are they though?”

        “Huh… I thought if anypony would know, you would. You do seem like the one with a good answer 95% of the time,” I answered as they fluttered around us.

        “And what would be this extra 5%, Medley?” Twilight raised an eyebrow, smirking slightly as I froze a bit.

        “W-Well… um… There’s always room for error…” I stumbled as the girls giggled at my expense, including Twilight.

        “It’s alright Medley, I know I don’t always have the answer. The Poison Joke was a case of that. Nevertheless, if you want me to Fluttershy, I can take care of one of them,” Twilight looked at the bug with what looked like ‘adorable meter alarms’ going off behind her eyes.

        “Thank you Twilight. What about you Pinkie?” Fluttershy asked Pinkie.

        What I saw was an expression of disgust on her face as she glared at the bug, coldly saying, “A Parasprite? Are you kidding?” before going off towards the door.

        It then suddenly clicked in my mind what those things were, and for them to be in Ponyville didn’t surprise me as much as irritate me like Tartarus. I soon joined Pinkie in leaving out the door, glaring at one of the bugs who strayed close to me.

        “What the- Pinkie, Medley, what’s wrong with you two? Also, a para-what?” Twilight looked shocked, probably at seeing us both not act like usual around new creatures or species.

        I turned to look at Twilight with a raised eyebrow. “Do remember you have a library at your disposal. I suggest looking them up before blindly taking one in. Now come on Pinkie, let’s go look for my saddlebags from when we had to confront that dragon. I think all my instruments are still in it.”

        She nodded as we made our way out of the shop and to my home, where the search was on. We checked all over for it, taking up most of the day to try and locate it, but it seemed that it was moved away from the house after a long and exhaustive search.

        “That’s odd… Usually it’s either by my bed or it’s in the living room,” I thought over as I collapsed near the sofa.

        “Yeah… That was a long search… Thankfully the rea-” Pinkie was soon interrupted by the sound of a nearby Parasprite, which she quickly leapt up and dealt with it.

        “The rea- what? Pinkie, you’re making less sense than usual. Esp̸ec͏ia̴lly ̕s͞ìnce ҉yo̵u͠'̶re ҉no͝t͠ ͟a̡l̢l̢ the͢r̀e͡,” I coughed a bit after I finished, Pinkie giving me an odd and hurt look.

        “Why did you say that Medley?” Pinkie asked.

        I gave a confused face as I responded, “I thought I was just making an observation, not trying to make fun of you. What makes you say that?”

        “Oh, nothing,” Pinkie hurriedly stammered out before she went into the nearby closet.

        As I checked the closet, I chuckled a little bit at her not being there in the slightest, probably appearing somewhere randomly back at Sugarcube Corner or somewhere near one of our friends. I went to sleep that night wondering what in Equestria had Pinkie worried that much besides the Parasprites.

        It was only the next morning being awoken by a Pinkie Pie shaking my sleeping body roughly to know that today was going to be a panic day. When I woke up and saw a small cloud of Parasprites outside my door… well… 

        “How did it get this bad?!” I panickedly asked as I became much more aware and hurrying out the door with Pinkie.

        “I have no idea! Come on, we gotta find that saddle bag!” Pinkie screamed as she dragged me along.

        “Quickly, to the school! It might be there!” I said as loud as I could as we quickly altered direction.

        It was only a small amount of time before we finally found my saddle bags full of instruments sitting in my office as we gave a sigh of relief. However, that was quickly ruined by a small hole in the ceiling that was steadily getting bigger.

        “What in LaurFastia could possibly be doing… this…” I slowly tapered off as we both saw something completely unbelievable.

        A huge swarm of Parasprites were slowly *eating* their way through the ceiling, intent of devouring the whole building with their ravenous appetites. However, last I checked, Parasprites only ate edible sources, like apples and cauliflower. So, using my deduction skills, I figured *somepony* decided to mess with magic and change the Parasprite’s diet. It didn’t take long before we both figured out who was responsible for the sudden change and quickly confront the source.

        “Twilight Sparkle, what did you do to them?” I glared slightly at her as we found her panicking.

        “Sorry! I was just trying to get them to stop eating the food! And where have you two been, gallivanting around Ponyville while we have a *crisis* on our hooves?!” Twilight yelled at me.

        “Look, we just needed some instruments in order to get rid of the Parasprites, Pinkie can vouch for- Pinkie?” As I turned to look at her I found her with a pale face and ashen look as she pulled out… nothing.

        “...WE GOTTA GO BACK TO YOUR CLASS FOR THE INSTRUMENTS!” Yep, Pinkie was now in full panic mode as she zoomed off towards the class and back, bringing all the instruments needed.

        “What in Celestia is it so important to get instruments? Can somepony please explain?!” Twilight screamed in frustration.

        “It gets rid of them, trust us!” I replied before I heard a small *pop* and I felt the enhancing voice spell just break down completely, leaving me in whispers.

        “...*eye twitching*...you… gotta… be… KIDDING ME?!” Pinkie roared as she plunked down an accordion.

        Twilight paused for a moment as she look stricken with guilt as I gave her a look. “Um… heh heh… I’ll fix it afterwards?”

        I facehoofed before grudgingly nodding, grabbing a few instruments and warming them up a bit, as did Pinkie.

        “1, 2, 3, 4!” I sang as Pinkie and I played to the beat of a random polka, not really bothering with words as we went through Ponyville, playing the part of a Pied Piper and getting the Parasprites to bounce along to the tune as they followed us into the Everfree. By the time we got back and all the Parasprites were all gone, we saw Celestia fly back up to Canterlot.

        It was an awkward silence that fell upon us as we helped repair Ponyville, Pinkie and I putting back the instruments where they were supposed to go. Once evening hit, Twilight looked apologetic as she cast the voice enhancing spell back on me, returning my ability to talk to a normal level.

        “Sorry for blowing up at both you and Pinkie… I was just really stressed out over Celestia coming to Ponyville and the Parasprites and Fluttershy accidentally keeping one to start the problem over again and not bothering to really sit and listen while you explained and…” Twilight nervously rambled on before she was stopped by a hug from me, a small smile on my face.

        “It’s alright Twilight. Pinkie and I should’ve stopped to explain it better and we should have warned you ahead of time what they were and what they could do. Plus, it was a rather panicky situation and tempers flare easily during such times,” I chuckled softly as I let go of the hug, though a tiny part of me wanted to keep the hug going.

        Twilight nodded and smiled a bit before bidding me goodnight and went off to her home, as did I. Once I got to bed, I couldn’t help but wonder why everything that could go haywire happened in Ponyville before chalking it up to just coincidence with a side of fate for somepony. I went to sleep with a small smile as I thought about a joke involving a Parasprite, an apple and a pony.


	End of Chapter 12