The Cutie Mark Crusaders had made it out before the sun was just above their heads. How could they explain what they saw? Each of them looked at each other, not having a clue what to do first.
Without noticing, they realized they were right in the plaza of Ponyville, directly in front of Town Hall, when Sweetie Belle was the first to speak up.
“How are we going to explain this to somepony?” Sweetie Belle said, still shaken by the unknown species she and her colleagues had just recently encountered.
“I dunno abaht you girls, but ahm goin to tell Applejack.” Applebloom replied with a sense of eagerness.
They all agreed to tell whoever they could and all split up in separate directions.
The day had passed by as each of the trio had attempted to convince ponies they knew to go, which narrowed it down to Twilight, Spike, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy. Many others denied as many others were too busy working, with friends, or just sleeping.
They had gotten to the outskirts of the Everfree Forest before questions had started to break out.
“I don’t understand. So, what are these ‘things’ again?” Twilight said with a raised eyebrow.
“I don’t know, but what I do know is that they looked... Unreal!” Scootaloo said with a bright smile, she seemed unfazed by the looks of the Zerg.
“From the way you described them on the way here... They’re nothing like any animal I’ve treated or seen before. Are they... Dangerous?” Fluttershy said as she started to fill her mind with fear.
“Lahk we said, we don’ know. We din’t get a good look aht them the first tahm, nor did we come in contact with them. Enough talkin’, let’s just git ovah to where thah critters are!” Applebloom expressed with a sigh, the look on her face clearly looked like she was getting annoyed by the questions they couldn’t answer, due to the fact that they only got a quick glimpse of the creatures.
“I can’t believe I stopped working on a dress for this...” Rarity, sharing the same emotion with Applebloom, but for a different reason replied as they headed into the dark shroud of the Everfree Forest.
--- --- ---
“No, it was over here!” Scootaloo replied angrily as they headed into another part of the Everfree Forest.
“Bah, horseapples. Ah sure you three know whar it is?” Applejack replied with an arched eyebrow.
“We’re really close, we just got a little.... Lost.” Sweetie Belle sighed.
“Little? We must be on the other side of the Everfree Forest by now!” Rarity had pouted, as she did throughout the entire trip.
They continued to travel until they had reached Zecora’s hut - for the third time, when they stopped to hear a joyful greeting by Zecora.
“Hello friends! What brings you here, on a day that has almost come to an end?” She spoke in a cheerful tone.
“Hello Zecora! these three said they had found... something in the forest, but I don’t think it’s here anymore.” Twilight said with a pleasurable greeting.
“We aren’t lying, we swear we saw them!” Scootaloo said as she hung her head in defeat.
“Oh? And what exactly are you looking for?” Zecora said in response.
After the Crusaders had told the attributes of what they saw; the structure, the organisms, and whatever else they remembered, Zecora’s eyes widened at least triple the size of what they normally are.
“We need to find them. Now.” Zecora was now clearly nervous and wanted to find the area of the species as fast as she could.
“Beg your pardon?” Applejack said with a puzzled look, but before she could even get the first word out of her mouth, Zecora was already in a full on sprint into the darkened Forest that had seemed to swallow her.
The others followed suit, having no clue why Zecora was acting unusual, like the world was in grave danger. Why did Zecora want to search for these unidentified “animals”? Was the civilization going to do harm to the ponies in Ponyville? Or maybe even Equestria?
The Everfree Forest looked a lot more threatening after nightfall; the leaves and branches blotted out the sky, making it a pitch black, the noises of the forest’s nightlife sounded violent, like a swarm of insects just waiting to crawl up your entire body, leaving chills up a pony’s spine. The constant encounters of animals scurrying across the dark carpet of grass on the ground, or the bats and moths floating in the air would make a pony pass out if they were alone; the Everfree Forest had it’s own way of saying ‘Do not come here at night’.
They had finally arrived to the first clearing of trees before the clearing of the Zerg, Zecora now scouting the base slightly above a row of bushes.
After a small argument of the trio that had once found said clearing, everypony was crowding Zecora, eager to hear answers to their millions of questions.
“Will everypony be quiet for a short second!” Zecora said in a hushed, but loud enough to talk over all ponies surrounding her voice. “So it is true, the Zerg have started invading once again.”
She hung her head in shame, like she had let down everypony in the world.
Everypony had finally seen the Zerg after fully adjusting the darkness, there was a mix of reactions.
Rarity was looking at them with a nasty look, like she would when she wasn’t satisfied with one of her dresses.
Applejack had an unreadable face, almost like she was still trying to process what she was seeing.
Fluttershy was looking in impenetrable fear. To her, these creatures looked like demon spawn from Tartaurus which almost made her pass out; she didn’t care how they acted towards the environment, she only based what she was comprehending on their looks.
Spike had a look of excitement, being a complete contrast to Fluttershy. He looked at them with amazement, as if he and them would get along greatly.
Twilight was studying them, she looked at the aspect of the Zerg species; their texture, structure, how they acted towards the environment, and what they were doing once they have corrupted the environment. “I don’t understand, what do you mean by once again? Have they invaded before?”
Zecora looked at Twilight, her face more serious than she had ever been in Ponyville,”It is too long to explain, we need to get rid of this infestation-”
Before she could finish her sentence, the workers had finally spotted the group and had started to burrow into the thick, corrupted ground below, all but one.
The worker had transformed into yet another cyst, but much more smaller than the structure before.
The object had been created in great speed, forming a tentacle with a sharp tip. It was frightening to the ponies and one baby dragon, as they had never seen something this unusual in the lands of Equestria. The tentacle had attached itself to the corrupted ground, like a magnet would with metal.
Before the group could think, the tentacle stretched out to attack Applebloom, who was immediately pushed back by Zecora. After a set of screams, Zecora responded quickly,
“There’s no way we can stand against that thing without protection, we need to flee!”
And with that, everypony had sprinted towards Zecora’s hut, all of them were frightened that this new species that had come to Equestria was here to assault and possibly take over the continent.
--- --- ---
“What was that thing?” Spike said, trying to take a breath.
“I don’ know, buht whatever it was, ah don’t think it’s here to give a happy greeting.”, Even Applejack was having trouble catching her breath.
“I-I don’t see why we should go there anymore.” Fluttershy was on the verge of passing out.
Zecora glanced at Applebloom, noticing that she was in complete shock at the events that had just occurred. With a sigh, she had looked out at the full moon that was in the violet, starry sky. “You all should get some rest, I will tell you what you will need to know for tomorrow. If we can contain this threat, then we can prevent the apocalypse of this planet from happening.”
apocalypse
Something about that word just didn’t seem right. It was a word that strikes fear into ones mind, like staring into a void leading only to darkness, giving one shivers down their spine.
“But will you be fine here alone?” Twilight responded,”What about those... Zerg?”
A warm smile came from Zecora,”Don’t you worry, I will be fine. If anything, I will fall back to your town, which should be very unlikely.”
Twilight had nodded and headed off with the crowd.
All of them took Zecora’s advice and headed back to the safe haven of Ponyville to rest, for tomorrow they would be prepared for anything.
The workers had come back to the surface, still observing the environment around them. The tentacle had returned to an idle state, not having any hostility towards the workers.
After realizing that the animals had left, the workers had returned to their normal routine; depleting the world of it's natural resources. The clearing had been much greater than it had been the first day of the Zerg's arrival, at least twice the size as it had been.
More workers had been hatched from their larvae state and had continuously destroyed the world around them. At the rate at which the Zerg was being produced, they would need more than the forest to supply their units.
One of the workers had travelled to one of the edges of the clearing and had transformed into another bubble, this time a structure almost as large as the first structure. As usual, the parasite was swarming inside of it, attaching things together, like a mindless drone.
After some time, the Earth blister had exploded, forming an object that had looked similar to a bath filled with acid.
It was a pool that was bubbling abnormally fast, like there were a thousand jets blowing through the base of it.
It was forming something, but what?