Sweet Apple Acres.
Sunday, August 22, the next day. “Swarm of the Century”.
Ponyville was abuzz. Princess Celestia was coming to visit!
Everypony in town had a role to play to get everything perfect for the coming visit. Twilight Sparkle was nominally in charge of keeping everypony organized, but she was mostly ignored. Ponyville was a hotbed of rugged individualism, and if it didn’t involve dealing with a deadly monster, most ponies just did whatever they thought was best, and sorted out the consequences afterwards.
Bon-Bon was busy watering the wildflowers that were along the road Princess Celestia would use to ride into town. She did this instead of the Flower Sisters because they were busy prettying up the town itself.
A little way off Lyra was trying to coax a single limp sunflower to perk itself up, first with her voice, and then with her music. Bon-Bon rolled her eyes at her friend’s antics.
“That looks perfect!” Twilight praised Bon-Bon on her way back into town. “Keep up the good work.”
A few minutes later, Fluttershy came down the same path, and stopped to talk to the birds singing in the tree next to Bon-Bon’s flowers.
In response to the birds’ twittered question, Fluttershy lifted a wing slightly to reveal a large round insect. “I found this new creature,” she said, “and I want to introduce it to everypony.”
Bon-Bon’s eyes nearly bulged out of her skull. As an experienced monster hunter, she knew exactly what that creature was. “Fluttershy!” she screamed in a strangled whisper.
Fluttershy jerked her head in fear. “What?” she asked.
“Do you know what that is?” Bon-Bon asked.
“No,” said Fluttershy. “I’m taking it to our resident monster hunter to identify it.”
Bon-Bon opened her mouth to warn her, to insist that Fluttershy return that tiny monster to the Everfree before it doomed everypony.
But she had to stop herself, because she had no plausible way to identify the parasprite without giving herself away. It was not in any of the books that Twilight had shown her, because she had made the first recorded parasprite sighting twelve years ago, in the ruins of Rockville. She just had to trust that Princess Celestia had declassified her report, and that the studious Twilight Sparkle had read that report.
“Those creatures are amazing!” Twilight Sparkle exclaimed ten minutes later. “What are they?”
And thus, Ponyville was doomed.
By noon of the next day, Ponyville was infested.
Twilight and her friends had tried to get rid of the rapidly multiplying pests several times, but all to no avail. And now the pests were destroying Applejack’s entire apple crop, both in storage and on the trees.
“Twilight, you’ve got to help!” Applejack pleaded. “There’s got to be a spell that you can use to stop these pests!
“Well, I’ve got a spell,” Twilight said with uncertainty. “It should turn off the parasprites’ hunger completely. But I’m not 100% sure it will work without side effects.”
(“Look, tambourines!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, running onto the scene. “If you could all just…” Everypony ignored her. She screamed in frustration, shaking the instruments, before stalking off.)
Applejack looked around her desperately. “Twilight, this is your investment that’s being destroyed here! If you don’t do something right now, the farm’s going under. And…I don’t think I can remain your friend if you do that to me.”
Twilight’s mouth dropped open, along with those of the other ponies on the scene. (“Low blow, Applejack,” Rainbow Dash remarked, summarizing their views on the matter.)
“A…alright,” Twilight said, “I’ll try.”
“No, you’ll do,” Applejack insisted, pushing her with her head towards the devouring horde.
Twilight cast her spell on the parasprites.
Everypony held their breath.
A parasprite approached an overturned bucket with a lone apple in it. It sniffed the apple and turned up its tiny nose in a snub.
It then ate the entire bucket, spitting out the apple. And then divided in half.
The swarm descended on the barn, eating it to the ground in less than ten seconds flat.
“Wow,” Rainbow Dash observed. “That’s pretty fast.”
Applejack’s jaw hit the ground.
The parasprite swarm finished off Sweet Apple Acres, and then moved on to eat Ponyville, and probably the rest of Equestria after that.
“Wow, these are cute!” Lyra exclaimed on spotting the advance wave.
“No, they’re not,” Bon-Bon snapped. “We need to…”
“Need to what?” asked Lyra.
“I…I can’t tell you!” Bon-Bon exclaimed, running into her shop and locking the door. She’d hide here until all the food in town was eaten and Princess Celestia had to save the town. Without her help.
Her cutie mark faded even more.
Oh, and then the shop was eaten by the parasprites, which was something that Agent Sweetie Drops had not anticipated.
Back at the farm, Twilight bawled. “I’m sorry!” she cried. “I ruined everything!”
“No,” Applejack said simply, patting her on the withers. “That was on me. I pushed you too hard. I’ll take complete blame when the Princesses show up. Which should be any minute now.”
~ ~ ~
And yet, when it seemed that the day was totally lost, it was Pinkie Pie and her musical skills that saved the day…and got the parasprites devoured by their natural enemies in the Everfree, never to plague Equestria with their horrible curse ever again.
Applejack followed through on her vow, taking full responsibility for all of the consequences before the Clan. This included the taking out of a second mortgage to rebuild the farm. Twilight couldn’t afford to cover that loan, and the disastrous handling of the parasprite problem did nothing to help her with the reputable banks, so it was back to the 48% loan with the sharks.
And so on that day Applejack learned a regrettable lesson about herself: when it really came down to it, blood really was thicker than water.
She vowed to do better next time. If there ever was a “next time”.