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Chapter 14
Swarm of the Century – Part 2
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Sorry i took so long for this one, but the next few chapters are going to be big ones story wise, and I've been working on them along with his one. So, hopefully the next chapter will be out soon. But, the one following that one will probably take a little bit.
Anyway, enjoy!
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Pinkie frowned. It wasn’t like Alex to just ignore her, especially when she had put so much effort into telling him about the dangers of Parasprites.
As Pinkie had thought, the Parasprites had quickly multiplied. Generally, when they’re in the Everfree forest, they can’t find enough food to reproduce at this rate. But, when they find their way into towns, they have a tendency to eat all the food in town, giving them the ability to spawn almost infinitely.
She knew that the only way they could truly get rid of them all was to play all of those instruments and lead them away. So she couldn’t slack off!
So, she pressed on. So far, she had found a harmonica, and a tuba. She wasn’t finding much, but if she could scrounge together a few more instruments, she just might be able to do it.
“Pinkie!” A voice shouted from behind her.
Turning around, Pinkie could see Alex running toward her from an absolutely massive group of Paraspries.
“You might have to find them on your own!” Alex said quickly as he passed her, causing her to giggle. “But I’ll play them with you once you get them all!”
“Good luck!” Pinkie called to him, as he disappeared into town.
Turning away from him, Pinkie was pleasantly surprised to see an abandoned garbage wagon, with afew cymbals in it.
Pulling the metal disks out of the back of the wagon, Pinkie was even happier to see that they were only a bit rigid around the edges. So, they would work just fine.
Just one or two more, and she’d be set!
Turning around, Pinkie saw her friends walking away from the town. So, she decided to follow them, so she could once again ask them for their help in locating the instruments.
////
Alex ran as fast as he could away from the swarm.
He wasn’t sure where exactly he was going, but he was sure that he’d lose the bugs eventually.
He wished that he could be more help to Pinkie, but he just couldn’t do it with this swarm constantly on him.
How exactly were they going to play a bunch of instruments anyway? It’s not like he knew how to play a tuba, or bag pipes.
On the other hoof, how would he play an instrument without hands? However, after a second, he realized that the instruments were made so ponies could play them. Not humans…
This got Alex onto a completely other train of thought. How does a pony go about holding an instrument? Do they hold it up with their hoofs? Or is it held to their bodies by a strap? Or perhaps a tuba would wrap around their body to keep itself in place.
Now he wanted to see what Pinkie had in store more than ever! Was she going to give one instrument to each friend, and they would all play some kind of harmonizing notes, that’ll drive off the Parasprites? They could call themselves the Elements of Harmony! What a great band name.
Suddenly Alex stopped. He had been so lost in his random thoughts, that he hadn’t noticed the Parasprites had left him alone. He stood alone in the middle of a field on the outskirts of town, just outside the Everfree forest.
After a moment, Alex realized that the wind was particularly strong. It hadn’t been like this a few moments ago. Looking around, he noticed that grass and leaves were being pushed by the wind. No… Not pushed… they were being pulled. Everything around him was being pulled toward a central point.
So, not having any idea what it was, Alex decided to go investigate.
////
“You can do it, Rainbow!” Twilight cheered as she watched Dash fly around in circles fast enough to create a small tornado.
Rarity, Twilight, Fluttershy and Applejack, all watched in anticipation as Dash sucked up all of the Parasprites from around the town, and contained them within her vortex.
“Come on, girl!” Applejack encouraged, “give ‘em what for!”
“Oh look…” Fluttershy said as loudly as she could over the winds, “There’s Pinkie Pie…”
The girls all turned their attention to the pink pony with the large cymbals that hung from her neck.
Seeing that she had been noticed, Pinkie spoke up. “Hey Girls! Wanna help me—“
Unfortunately, before Pinkie could finish, the cymbals that hung from her neck started to pull away from her body, until the string keeping them around her neck broke, sending the two metal disks right into the tornado.
“Hey! Give those back!” Pinkie called angrily.
Dash watched as the cymbals flew toward her, and tried her best to dodge them, while keeping the tornado stable. However, it was impossible.
“It’s breaking up!” Dash called, causing everypony run away in opposite directions.
“Get back to town everypony!” Twilight called, running away, “We have to keep them from eating everything!”
Everypony followed her instruction, and followed behind her. Except for Pinkie, who stood, still angry at the loss of her instrument.
“You too Pinkie!” Twilight shouted angrily. “You have to help fix this!”
Pinkie scoffed, and walked off on her own.
Alex, however, was just coming over a hill behind them, and didn’t hear Twilight.
Seeing him below, Dash looked toward him and tried to tell him to stay back. But, as she was facing away from them, she was struck in the side of the head with a cymbal.
Following that, the entire tornado lost its integrity, as Dash and the Parasprites were sent flying away in all directions.
Alex gulped as he watched the Parasprites head toward him. Under normal circumstances, Alex would have pulled back up his shield. But, he could clearly see that Dash wasn’t in any condition to land safely. So, he had to choose. Protection from gross bugs, or protecting Dash.
Had he had more time to mull over the decision, he may have chosen differently, but, in the heat of the moment, he caught Dash with a quick levitation spell, and landed her on the ground safely, just in time for him to be hit by the Parasprites.
Now, Alex would go on to deny this, but he let out a very un-manly scream when those bugs hit him. So unmanly, that anypony would have assumed that it was Dash crying out in pain.
After shaking the bugs off of him, Alex saw that Dash hadn’t gotten up yet. So, he created a powerful shockwave, that he used to push the Parasprites far enough away, so that he could generate a barrier big enough to encompass himself and Dash.
“Colors!” Alex shouted, running over to her unmoving form on the ground. “Are you okay?”
Not hearing a response, Alex started to panic. Inspecting her body, he saw that the cymbal had hit her at an angle, causing it to cut deeply into the side of her head, and into her ear. And as a result, she was bleeding terribly. Forgetting about the barrier spell, Alex focused on what he could possibly do to help her.
Alex knew a small amount of healing magic, but as far as his studies had taught him, magic wasn’t very proficient at healing large injuries. It required too much energy, and it didn’t produce strong enough results. The best he could do was healing a bruise… But nothing like this.
Unfortunately, since his magic lessons had been put on hold because of Discord, he hadn’t learned to make any kind of refined teleport... So he couldn’t get her to a hospital
Looking around for Twilight, Alex realized that she had headed back into town. His heart started to race, what was he going to do?
“Alex…” Dash muttered, “My head hurts…”
“Just take it easy,” Alex instructed, happy to see her talking. “You hit your head.”
“Am I hurt bad?” Dash asked.
“You’re bleeding a little bit…” Alex lied, watching as the copious amount of red mixed with her blue coat, causing it to turn a dark purple.
“Can you fix it…?” Dash asked hopefully, trying to keep herself from dozing off to sleep.
“I…” Alex began, feeling his heart pound in his chest, “I don’t think there’s much I can do…”
“That sucks…” Dash said slowly, clearly starting to pass out.
“Colors!” Alex said loudly, “I need you to stay with me here!”
Dash didn’t answer.
Alex didn’t know what to do. This had all happened so fast. He was in shock.
Desperately, Alex lowered his horn to Dash, and started pouring as much magic as he could into his healing spell.
Unfortunately, almost nothing was happening.
“Colors!” Alex shouted; giving up on the spell as tears started to fill his eyes.
Suddenly, Alex felt a hand on his shoulder.
“Use this.” A voice that Alex recognized as Discords said, “I promise, nothing bad will happen.”
Suddenly Alex felt a rush of power within himself. But, it was different from anything that he had ever felt. His usual magic had never given him this kind of rush... This new power flowed through his veins, was just begging to be released. Turning around to confront Discord, Alex saw that he was gone.
Alex sighed. Whatever this power was, he was going to have to use it. He had no time to think it over. So, knowing full well that this would probably end badly, he pointed his horn toward her, and cast the same spell he had cast before.
But, this time, he allowed this new power to come out with it. His usual white magic aura was replaced with a black one, and, almost instantly, the wound on the back of her head healed.
As the spell finished, the remainder of the power drain out of his horn, and sunk into the ground, changing the grass into a solid stone with a checkerboard pattern.
“What the—“Alex said, watching in confusion as the ground morphed.
“Mmm…” Dash mumbled, “Alex?”
“Colors?” Alex said, forgetting all about the ground. “Are you okay?”
“Uh… Did you heal me?” Dash asked, seeing Alex nod. “I thought you said—“
Alex threw his arms around her, and hugged her tightly. “Don’t worry about it.”
That was good enough for Dash. So, she simply closed her eyes and sighed happily. However, their hug was cut short by a parasprite landing on her nose.
“Oh no!” Dash shouted, sitting up. “I forgot about the bugs!”
Alex sighed loudly. “Let’s just forget about them, let them do their thing.”
“Wha…?” Dash said, surprised by his serious tone, “You’re joking, right?”
“Uh…” Alex said, shaking his head quickly. “Of course! Let’s go help everypony out.”
“That’s what I want to hear!” Dash said smiling and standing up. “Let’s go!”
Dash turned and was about to fly toward town when she noticed the ground below them.
“Alex, what happened to the ground?” Dash asked, baffled.
“Magic stuff,” Alex lied, “Just forget about it.”
“Sure…” Dash said giving the checkerboard ground one more look, before taking off.
Alex couldn’t believe he had just tried to ignore the problem. The thing was he had really wanted to!
Deep down, he was afraid that his attitude was caused by that power Discord had given him. He obviously taken advantage of the situation Alex was in, and used it to make him use that strange magic.
Normally he would have stopped Discord from doing anything to him… But he had been so focused on Dash that he didn’t have any kind of defense up.
Either way, it was done. And he was going to have to live with the consequences. But, no matter how bad they turned out to be, he had saved Dash. So it would be worth it.
////
The Parasprites flew though the town, eating everything that they came across. All the hard work that everypony put into getting ready for Princess Celestia and Princes Luna had been ruined. So now, the main objective was saving the town.
Twilight was sure that she had the solution to everypony’s problems now though. She had discovered a spell that had the ability to remove appetite from any creature, causing them to have no interest in food.
“Are you sure this is gonna work?” Spike asked Twilight.
“It’s the only thing I can think of.” Twilight answered, remaining focused on the swarm in front of her.
“Okay,” Spike said, crossing his claws “Let’s do this!”
So, she was going to cast the spell, and the Parasprites would lose all of their appetite for any kind of food. It was simple. What could go wrong?
Twilight cast the spell, and a bright light erupted from her horn, and instantly engulfed the entire town, and the surrounding area.
When the bright light faded, Twilight looked at a parasprite that was hovering just above an apple just a short distance away from her, and held her breath.
The parasprite looked back and forth for a moment then turned back to the apple and opened its mouth. But after a moment, the parasprite decided that it didn’t want it, and simply flew away.
“Yes!” Twilight shouted, happy to see that her spell had succeeded.
Unfortunately, when that parasprite flew away from the apples, it moved toward a sign hanging over a door, and took a massive bite out of that instead.
“Wha--?” Twilight said slack jawed, “But… But… That’s just not fair!”
“They’re eating… everything else?” Spike said slowly.
Suddenly, something popped into Spike’s head.
“Oh no!” Spike shouted, “I have to go check on something!”
Twilight watched as Spike ran away, and as Alex and Dash walked toward her.
“What’s going on?!” Dash asked, alarmed at the amount of damage being done to the town.
“A spell backfired…” Twilight sighed. “They won’t eat food… They’ll just eat everything else…”
“What are we gonna do instead then?” Alex asked.
“I… I don’t know.” Twilight said hanging her head and admitting defeat.
“Twilight!” Rarity called, heading toward them from the edge of town. “What’s happened to all of the bugs?”
“A spell backfired,” Alex answered for her, “The parasprites are eating everything in town that ISN’T food.
“Well, there must be something you can do!” Rarity said as she watched the Parasprites tear apart the town.
Unfortunately, Twilight was completely out of ideas.
“Wait a moment…” Rarity said suddenly. “If they’re eating everything in town… That means… Oh no!”
Without another word, Rarity ran from the group, toward her house. If those pesky bugs got into her shop, they’d eat all of her dresses!
Quickly getting to the Carousel Boutique, Rarity ran through the front door, and was shocked to see Spike standing in front of her storage room.
“Get out of here!” Spike shouted, not having noticed Rarity. “She’s worked way too hard on these for you to eat them!”
Rarity felt her heart skip a beat.
Spike watched as the massive swarm of bugs all got together in front of him, and readied to charge him all at once. Starting to worry, Spike realized that they were going to get past him anyway… Even after all the effort he had put into protecting her stuff.
If only there was some way to get rid of them.
Then a light went off in his head.
It wasn’t the best option. But Rarity was the top of his priority list.
“I hope I don’t get in too much trouble for this…” Spike said aloud, as he inhaled deeply.
Rarity, still standing at the front door, watched in surprise as Spike blew a massive green flame, causing the large group of parasprites to fizzle out of sight.
Realizing that Spike had just gotten rid of the bugs, Rarity quickly closed the doors and windows, then nailed them closed with a few pieces of wood and a hammer. Nothing else was going to get in her store today.
“Ugh,” Spike said noticing Rarity, as he collapsed on the ground, coughing profusely. “Remind me not to do that again!”
Rarity finished reinforcing her house, then quickly went to his side. However, she wasn’t sure what to say. Spike had just rescued her. When all of Ponyville was in trouble, he had thought of her first.
“Spike… I…” Rarity started, still unsure of how to thank him. “Thank you so much…”
“It was nothing,” Spike laughed tiredly.
“But it wasn’t!” Rarity insisted. “It was everything!”
Spike blushed lightly.
“Why did you come here, instead of the library or someplace else?” Rarity asked.
“Well… I wanted to make sure you were okay…” Spike admitted starting to blush a little harder.
Now, this was normally the part where the damsel in distress would kiss the hero. But, unfortunately, Spike didn’t quite fit the profile.
Rarity sighed. It really wasn’t fair. Here was the most polite, chivalrous, and sweet gentlecolt that she had ever met. But he was a dragon.
A baby dragon.
Rarity knew that there was a lineup of colts that would literally fight for her affections. But, none of them came even close to Spike.
Deciding that he deserved SOMETHING, Rarity lifted him up with a spell and gave him a kiss on each cheek.
“Thank you Spike.” Rarity said smiling sweetly.
Spike felt his heart flutter. “You’re welcome.”
Suddenly, the moment was interrupted by a loud ‘thud’ of somepony running into the door.
“Hey!” They heard Pinkie call from outside the door. “Did you lock this door?”
“Just wait for her to leave…” Spike whispered to her.
Rarity nodded quickly, glancing toward the door.
“Hellooooo?” Pinkie said loudly.
The two remained silent, frozen in place, until they finally heard Pinkie start walking away, murmuring something to herself.
Turning back to Spike, Rarity realized that she was sill levitating him.
“Oh, forgive me!” Rarity said, placing him on the ground.
“So… How are we going to get out?” Spike said, realizing that they were now sealed inside.
“I’m not letting another one of those bugs in here.” Rarity said firmly. “You’ll just have to stay here with me until they’re gone.”
Spike smiled. He could manage that.
////
Pinkie walked happily through the town.
She had finally found the last instrument, and now was the time to get rid of the Parasprites.
Pinkie trotted through the town with a collection of instruments arranged on her back. Walking past Twilight, Alex, and Dash, She decided to ask see what was up.
“What’s everypony doing?” Pinkie asked. “Why are you all just sitting around?”
“There’s nothing we can do…” Twilight said. “I’d be in the library trying to find a way to stop them… But they ate all the words of out the books.”
Alex nodded. “I saw it happen. It was just as weird as you’re imagining it to be.”
“So?” Pinkie asked. “I have the solution to our problems right here!”
“Oh, you got all the instruments?” Alex asked excitedly.
“Yeah!” Pinkie said smiling, “Wanna help me get rid of the parasprites?”
“You know it!” Alex said standing up, and standing beside her.
“You guys in?” Pinkie asked hopefully.
The deadpan look that she received from the two was the only response she needed.
“Okay Alex, looks like it’s just us!” Pinkie said as she started walking toward the center of town. “Come on!”
Alex followed behind her happily, still trusting her.
“Alright, Alex,” Pinkie started, “See all these instruments here?”
Alex nodded.
“I’m going to play them.” Pinkie continued. “And they’ll follow the music! So we can lead them away from the town with it!”
“Ooooh.” Alex said finally understanding. His trust hadn’t been misplaced. Looking at the arrangement on her back, he had to admit that he was impressed. Pinkie was holding an amazing amount of instruments. There was an accordion, a tuba, a banjo, a harmonica, and even a small pair of cymbals on either of her front legs. How she had fit these all on was a mystery to him, that he wasn’t about to ask about.
“I wasn’t able to fit this last one on…” Pinkie said, “So do you wanna play it?
Pinkie reached behind her, and picked up the instruments with her mouth, and showed it to Alex.
“Oh yes.” Alex said confidently. “I can play that for you.”
////
Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash all stood at the arranged arrival place for the Princesses. Everything had fallen apart in such a short amount of time. And, as much as Twilight felt like she failed, she knew that Celestia or Luna would be able to fix this problem without any trouble at all. So, she was going to ask them to help as soon as they arrived, and hoped that something could be salvaged in terms of a visit to Ponyville.
“This has been a cruddy day…” Dash sighed.
“I wish I had never found that bug…” Fluttershy said sadly.
“Y’all can say that again.” Applejack agreed. “A big swarm of ‘em came up to the farm and ate the whole barn… Poor Granny Smith fainted at the sight of it!”
A Parasprite flew over and landed itself on Twilight’s head. She never thought that something so small could be so destructive.
“Do you guys hear that?” Dash said, looking toward the town.
“Music?” Fluttershy said.
“But… The Precession for their arrival should come from Canterlot… Not Ponyville.” Twilight said, completely confused.
“Uh…” Applejack said, spotting the source of the music. “Y’all are gonna want to see this.”
The girls all turned and looked, and were simply shocked.
Pinkie and Alex marched away from Ponyville, playing instruments.
But that wasn’t all. Behind them, were all of the Parasprites from town, bouncing in time to the music.
As the two marched closer, they saw that Pinkie was playing sever different instruments that were all on her back. While Alex, was simply hitting a triangle every few seconds in time with the music.
The four girls stood in awe as the two led every single parasprite from the town.
“Twilight Sparkle has thrown a parade in our honor, sister!” Luna’s voice bellowed from behind everypony.
Snapping around, Twilight had completely missed the arrival of the two princesses, each in their own carriage.
How did they show up so fast?
“What are these creatures?” Celestia asked, as the long line of parasprites bounced past her. “They’re simply adorable!”
“They’re not that adorable.” Dash grumbled, as she started walking over to Alex who now stood on the edge of the Everfree forest, as the parasprites bounced past him and Pinkie.
“I’m afraid I have some bad news…” Celestia began, “It appears that some kind of pest has appeared in Canterlot recently.”
“Um… Pest?” Twilight asked, her voice cracking a bit.
“Yes, reports say that a large swarm of bugs appeared in the throne room a only a few minutes ago, and have started terrorizing Canterlot.” Celestia said, “So, I’m afraid that we’ll have to reschedule our visit to Ponyville.”
Twilight though for a moment. How could a group of parasprites possible shown up in the throne room? That room was sealed. The only possible way for something to appear in there was for Spike to send it with his fire.
Oh.
“We must take our leave Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said loudly, “However, I do look forward to spending time with your friends again.”
Twilight smiled. “I look forward to it too.”
“Oh,” Celestia said, turning around. “Would you like to give me your latest lesson on friendship while I’m here?”
“Of course!” Twilight said, momentarily collecting her thoughts. “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’ different opinions, and perspectives… even when they’re absolutely crazy ones.”
“That is a very valuable lesson, Twilight.” Princess Celestia said, “However, we must be heading back now.”
“Of course, Princess.” Twilight said bowing.
“Oh,” Celestia said, just as her carriage stared to pull away. “Tell Spike that I’m sure he had his reasons.”
“I will!” Twilight laughed as he princesses headed away.
She then turned back to Alex and Pinkie, and watched as the last of the parasprites bounced away into the forest.
“I think I may have hit my head harder than I thought.” Dash said, as Pinkie and Alex stopped playing. “None of this makes sense.”
“We did it!” Alex said, holding up a hoof, as Pinkie gave him a high five.
“Listen… Pinkie…” Twilight said slowly, approaching the two.
“No need to apologize.” Pinkie said with a smile. “If I were you, I would have thought I was crazy too!”
“You guys should start a band!” Dash laughed.
“I don’t know…” Applejack chimed in, “It seems like Pinkie was doin’ most of the work there.”
“No!” Alex said, mock-defensively. “Without the soul I added with that triangle, the Parasprites never would have followed us!”
The girls laughed at his response.
“Hey, Pinkie.” Twilight said, “Why don’t you tell us about the whole ‘instrument thing’ over dinner? If there’s anything left to eat.”
“Sure!” Pinkie said, walking with Twilight in the front of the group, as everypony followed behind, listening to her story. Well, everypony except Alex.
Alex wasn’t sure if now was the best time to bring up that weird magic moment he had. So, he decided to remain silent for now. All of the magic had been expelled when he healed Dash. So, hopefully, it was all over with.
It wouldn’t come back, and that would be that.
But somehow he wasn’t so sure of that.