//------------------------------// // Steedivarius's // Story: A Tale of the Pinkie Pied Piper and the Pastel Pestilence // by Pacific Penguin //------------------------------// …Parasprites aren’t very systematic when it comes to eating. When they eat, they just eat wherever they fancy, moseying about and eating at random. That’s exactly the problem when it comes to eating buildings though – they leave holes and bits missing all over the place, severely reducing its stability. This leaves the potential for a full-on collapse, like what we experienced. After three days of eating, this left many buildings near the epicenter of the first parasprite infestation in very shoddy and unstable shape… “Everybody all right? Pinkie Pie? Prim Amber?” “Sir.” “…I gotta lay off the cupcakes…” Pinkie said with a groan. “That makes two of us. Phew…” He dusted off various bits of dirt from his armor. “Hey, I can see Record Foal’s from here! There’s some good news. And we had the excellent foresight to move the instruments a ways from the building before we helped you over, thankfully.” “My excellent foresight, sir.” “Oh, yes yes, that’s why I keep you around, Prim…” Forming a single file line in the middle of the street, they made their way up to Record Foal’s, taking their steps very carefully. The building the store was in didn’t look especially parasprite ravaged, but it had some damage. The storefront’s glass display windows were still intact, although the instruments they displayed had bites taken out of them. The sign had holes in about three different places, including a large bite taken out of the namesake record. The door was locked, but enough of the wooden door was eaten away to stick a hoof through, so it was a simple matter unlocking the door. The hardwood floors creaked as they walked inside, amazingly untouched… for the most part. As expected, the store mostly contained records. Stacks of records, shelves of records, records by the register. Records of all sorts. New releases, old releases… Octavia’s classic hits, DJ PON3’s latest bass dropper single… Some records even spun around as mobiles above them. Everything circular black disc was accounted for. As far as the eye could see, there were records, plenty of records. But no instruments. Guy was about to sigh in defeat, when Pinkie chimed in. “Hey, what’s in these back rooms?” she said, and disappeared. She popped her head out again a few seconds later. “There was a banjo back there! Perfect!” She was about to start prancing out the door, when Prim stopped her. “Pinkie, wait.” She stopped, and gave Prim a confused look. Prim Amber walked over, stopped, and carefully plucked out a parasprite that had been sleeping on the underside of the banjo. She levitated it away and set it down softly so as to not wake it. “That could have been bad. You should be more careful, hmm?” “Err… yeah… whoops. Ehehe,” Pinkie said with an innocent smile. From the store entrance, Guy spoke. “Right then, we’re burning daylight here. Let’s get the rest of those instruments, ladies.” With that, he walked outside. He stopped to think about where they should go to get to the next shop. “So… Steedivarius is probably the next closest store…” He glanced at the rubble of the collapsed building they had jumped over, which was relatively close. “I think… we’ll have to go through the city center to get there. I know the way, so if you’ll just follow me…” He finished, and began to trot. Within ten minutes, they had made it to the city center. They had intended to rest once they got there. It was a scenic area, decorated with a large white stone monument showcasing a statue of a pony in a rather heroic pose. It wore quite ornate barding of some sort. A fence encircled the statue’s dais, and assorted greenery encircled that. The monument showed miraculously few signs of parasprite damage. That didn’t mean they hadn’t tried, though; a few bites had been taken out of parts of it. A cobblestone road split around the monument. A scrawny-looking pony sat on the road as they approached. It was here that they decided to break. Pinkie, after somehow disentangling herself from her instruments in record time, was first to speak. “HI!” Then, as the pony was about to speak, “My name’s Pinkie Pie, so lovely to meet you! Whatsyourname?!” Somewhat bewildered, but still with his wits about him, the fairly aged pony responded. “Good to meet you too, miss,” He smiled, and paused to take out a harmonica. “Name’s Silver Spade. Dunno why you folk are heading further into the city what with the parasprites and all, but since you’re here, care to spare a few bits? I’ll play a tune for ya.” And with that, he began a cheery tune, not harsh on the ears. The party watched with interest, although Guy shifted his hooves a bit impatiently, hoping Pinkie wouldn’t have to stop and greet every pony they met. Prim, though, listened contentedly, and Pinkie of course, listened with incredible enthusiasm, at times nearly dancing to the tune. “Oh, that was just so sooo good! I think that deserves a few bits! You should be a performer! I bet you’d rack in all-the-bits-like-no-one’s-business!” Pinkie Pie cried, and swiftly shoved a few bits into his hoof. “I can feel a song coming on! My little-“ Things finally clicked and Guy sprung into action. “Hey, wait a minute… he has a harmonica! That’s one of the instruments you need, right Pinkie?!” She first looked at him blankly with mouth agape, but realization quickly hit her. “Oh wow, you’re right! Hey mister Silver Spade, would it be all right with you if we could borrow or have your harmonica for a short little musical parade? I promise it’s for the best! It would be the most awesome nicest bestest thing ever, probably for you too!” Silver Spade had been watching the back and forth with interest. He didn’t seem to mind the seemingly pointlessness of having a parade under the circumstances. “Let me think.” He looked down and scratched his chin in thought. “Well, I could give it to you, but what I could really use, are enough bits to get this sorry body out of this place. The only reason I’m here, to be frank, is that I couldn’t afford a ticket ta the train outta here.” “Frank? Why would you be Frank? I don’t think this Frank guy would like it too much. But if we’re being someone else… OH! Can I be Mare-do-well? Oh wait. I kind of already am. Look at that. Hee hee. But you didn’t hear that from me!” “Eh, excuse me Pinkie? Oh, mind her…” Guy shook his head. “Anyway, I’m sure that can be arranged,” Guy said. “The trains might be delayed, since there was a bit of an incident with parasprites earlier.” He shared a look with Pinkie at this point. “But, I’m sure they’ll have the train line cleared soon; and then with some luck, you should be able to hop on the next train out of here.” With a little rustling through his bags, Guy offered fifty bits to the pony, which he graciously accepted. “Well, thank ya kindly. I didn’t much expect to get out of here soon, to be honest. Deal’s a deal then.” He then he placed the harmonica in Guy’s hoof. Guy turned and tossed the harmonica to Pinkie Pie. She noticed just in time to see it and throw out a hoof to grab it, and in a jumble juggled it a couple times while she was trying to catch it. She almost had it in one hoof, when it suddenly slipped off, causing another round of juggling. Eventually, she caught it, but only after Pinkie had fallen to the ground, and even then, just barely. “Ehehe, well, thanks a lot, Silver Spade. Now, I think we should be going. Right guys? Right.” “But we only just got here, sir.” “…and I think I might need at least a few minutes after that…” Pinkie said dizzily. “Darnit Prim. Okay, we’ll rest for a few minutes, then we’ll continue to Steedivarius's.” He sighed. “I got ahead of myself.” They watched as Silver Spade quickly walked toward the train station. Hopefully, Guy thought, they would make it without running into another parasprite ambush. He shuddered to think they were now somehow capable of such things. He continued watching. He noticed that the buildings here were much more heavily damaged than those around Record Foal’s. They would have to be more careful around here, indeed. Probably walk in a spaced-out single file line to the store… Something struck him as odd, though. There didn’t seem to be many parasprites here at all. Maybe they had eaten all the good parts of the buildings and moved on already. He let a few minutes pass by before pushing the party forward. “All right, let’s head out. We’ll probably have to walk about two pony lengths between each other, because these buildings are even worse for wear, and the streets are narrower in this part of the city.” The street they needed to take lay directly under the statue’s gaze, and they took it. Prim was the last to go down the alley, as soon as Pinkie had progressed far enough down it. As she disappeared into it, she failed to notice the parasprite that was carefully watching them from cleverly placed bite in a sign. The sign had once had an image of a parasprite on it, and now a live parasprite had taken its place. …did I mention that hiveminds make parasprites smarter? Just repeating myself… yes. It would prove to give us difficulties. This is one of the things Pinkie Pie absentmindly – of course – forgot to mention. Or maybe she did mention it, but I failed to pick up on it. She might as well be speaking her own language sometimes. I forgive her, though… It didn’t take long to walk to Steedivarius’s. The store had been there as long as anypony could remember. It was a store created by Steedivarius himself, and was rumored to actually house one of the legendary instruments he created. It had an older house design, comprised of aged wood and brick. Its sign even had an aged depiction of a violin. Both the sign and building had seen much restoration efforts over the years. That made its current condition that much more disheartening. It hadn’t been completely ransacked, but the building wore signs of parasprite assault. Bite holes were strewn about the building, and the door had fallen out. There were signs of somepony’s efforts to defend the store: hoofprints all about, and a fallen broom missing most of its handle. Whoever had stayed to try to defend it had apparently been driven off, though. As the party arrived, Pinkie Pie was leading the gang, having gone into detective mode, sniffing the ground and following a trail that only she could see. Guy knew better than to ask what she was doing. She sniffed all the way up to the door, then stopped to look up. She looked around, and started walking in the doorway, but Guy stopped her. “Hold up,” he said. “Prim and I will look around first. This is a much older music shop than the last music shop we were in, so it might be unsafe. That, and I don’t want to risk a single sneaky parasprite getting a bite of any of those instruments, like the one Prim found on that banjo.” He walked in, Prim close behind. It looked safe enough. The areas toward the front of the store had some parasprite damage, but towards the back, it seemed essentially untouched. It was a smaller store, so it was somewhat cramped with all the instruments it sold on display. It had quite a selection of instruments, mostly focused on classical instruments, but it also stocked a smaller amount of eclectic instruments. Despite the store’s small size, it even sported a small stage towards the back for musicians to play. But right now the stage was being used to store numerous sheet music stands. Prim and Guy carefully explored the building, making their way to the second floor. No sounds could be heard except for that of hoof on hardwood and the occasional aura of magic when Prim stopped to look more closely at something. They did a last sweep of the building before meeting back down on the first floor. “Well, looks clear to me, Prim. What do you think?” She paused to tilt her head to the side, then looked towards him. “Looks clear to me, sir. Didn’t notice anything especially noteworthy.” “All right. Pinkie! You can go look for your instruments now. I’m pretty sure they have everything we need here. Just…” he sighed. “please try to be careful, okay?” Pinkie bounced in. “Hee hee, okay! Will do. I’ll be like a conductor in a train yard! Er, I mean, in a orchestra. Like a conductor in an orchestra! Or just a pony in a music store!” She waltzed around the place checking out various instruments while Prim and Guy simply watched her. She flitted around, sometimes impossibly quickly, until she eventually came across some tambourines. “Ooh! I think these are even better than my old ones!” She set her tambourine frames down and picked up the new ones. She held them up, then made a face. “Hey, Guy… shouldn’t we be leaving bits to pay for these things we take…?” “No, don’t worry. I’ve been authorized to do whatever needs to be done to control the sprites. I’ve kept track of what we’ve taken from where, they’ll be reimbursed sometime after this all gets sorted out.” She stared at him for a moment, then simply said “Okie dokie lokie!” closing her eyes as she did. She put the tambourines away and continued searching for an accordion. It didn’t take long for her to find one. Prim helped direct her upstairs, where she had seen parts for piano and accordion repair. Pinkie aptly found one there, giving it a quick test stretch and play. “Oh, this will do very nicely!” She smiled to Prim as they descended the stairs. “How do I look? One-pony band enough f- Ooof!” Pinkie flew down the stairs. After the dust cleared, it became apparent that she had tripped and fallen down the steps, hitting a cello and a few other instruments, and dropping her banjo, all miraculously without breaking anything. Guy immediately sprinted over. “Are you… all right? I told you to be careful! How did you even manage…?!” Somehow, Pinkie had fallen in such a way that she now had her head sticking through the cello. Shaking the dizziness from her head, she looked up and smiled. “Yes, I’m okay. I’m more than okay!” she gestured with her hoof. “See? I made her laugh!” Guy looked up the stairs. Sure enough, Prim was there, and she snorted and sat there barely able to stifle her giggles. Regaining her composure, she managed to speak. “You are so random, Pinkie, has anyone ever told you that? Ooh.”