Carrot Top trotted out of the Ponyville schoolhouse with a distinct spring in her step. Humming happily, she walked to the front of the line of foals, where Cheerilee was waiting. The school teacher’s saddlebags were bulging, crammed full of healthy snacks in preparation for what would (hopefully) be the successful nature walk.
“Ready?”
“Ready!” Cheerilee responded, turning towards her students. She began to explain the itinerary to the foals. Carrot Top looked out over Ponyville, her mind wandering over how peaceful everything looked in the warm morning light.
Right down to the blurs of yellow and orange that were beginning to bounce through the streets.
“No.” She gaped, her eyes growing wide.
“Help! Help! Help! Help! Help!”
“No what?” Cheerilee asked, oblivious to the doom that was approaching them.
It was like watching a swarm of ants wash over a picnic as her copies flooded Ponyville. They hopped onto roofs, bowled ponies over on the street, hauled them back up only for them to be knocked over again, smashed into windows and sent other ponies running in a blind panic.
And a large group of copies were heading right for them.
“Help! Help! Help! Help! Help!” They shouted in their disjointed chorus.
Cheerilee twisted towards the onrush of voices, her own eyes nearly doubling in size at the incoming avalanche of ponies. A cry of panic rose from her students, the foals stumbling back from the horde, a few tripping over each other.
“Back inside!” She shouted, quickly ushering her charges into the relative safety of indoors, “Ursa drill! Get under your desks and cover your heads!” As they did what she asked, Cheerilee looked back towards her friend. “Carrot Top?!”
Carrot Top was standing stock still in the middle of the road, her eyes locked right on the advancing horde. The carrot farmer couldn’t force herself to move, the weight of what she was seeing crashing down on her. And a moment later, they crashed down on her as well.
She felt herself swept away, suddenly carried upon the backs of dozens of her copies, Cheerilee shouting after her.
- - - -
“Help! Help! Help! Help! Help!”
“Down to just the one word I see.” Trixie growled, “Think they’ve stretched themselves just a little too thin?”
Focusing, she conjured a scintillating sphere forged from the colors of the rainbow. With a flick of her head, she pitched it in a curved arc, slinging it right past the eyes of a few that were leaping towards the windows of Sugarcube Corner.
“Oooooo!” They cooed, distracted by the shimmering ball of light. With another glow of magic from her horn, Trixie sent the bouncing ball flying down the street, the clones chasing after it with a bust of happy giggles; but more were still coming.
“Yesh” Ditz responded, mumbling through a mouth full of broom handle (hastily provided by Mister Cake before he locked the door).
She swung the broom, at another one that was coming in from the opposite direction, but it hopped neatly over the strike and landed next to one of the first floor windows.
“Help!” It beamed, reaching for said window.
Raindrops dropped from the sky, landing on the copy with all four hooves. Exploding with a wet pop, the weather pony found herself drenched head to hocks. Snorting, she lazily shook the water from her form, glancing down at her friends.
“You alright?” She questioned, anger evident in her voice.
“So far, yeah.” Trixie nodded. Raising an eyebrow, she spared a glance at her friend, “You look upset.”
“Weather schedule for the next week got destroyed when one bounced in to ‘help’.” She growled, pouncing on another one, “There’s another group of these things coming out of the Everfree by the way.”
“This is completely nuts.” Ditzy sighed, spitting the broom out of her mouth to talk, “I thought that we were done with clones!”
“Obviously, we missed one.” Raindrops growled, decking another, “There were timberwolves. And then...I dunno...it made more or something.”
“Why?”
“I have no idea! But considering we’re up to our eyeballs in Carrot Tops here, I’m not sure what else could have happened!”
“Where’s our Carrot Top?” Trixie inquired, whipping another explosion of light and color into the faces of a different clone group.
“No idea. They all look the same from the air.” She answered with a shrug, “We’re going to have to work this one out on the ground.”
“Oh.” Trixie frowned, scanning the street around them, “...Which way do you want to start?”
Thinking for a moment, Raindrops pointed down a street. “Towards Bon Bon’s. At the very least we can pick up Lyra while we’re there.”
- - - -
“Get...OUT!”
Bon Bon’s hooves connected squarely with the mindless Carrot Top’s side. The impact of the strike catapulted it back through the smashed window of the Confectionarium that it had entered via moments before. Hind legs neatly hitting the floor, she flicked her mane with an annoyed huff.
All in all, Lyra thought, the form of that buck had been excellent.
“Dear…” Bon Bon smiled, a little too widely, “You need to have a conversation with Carrot Top.”
“I’m sure she wouldn’t have summoned more on purpose!”
“That doesn’t change what’s out there!”
“Help?” A clone questioned, peeking it’s head through the smashed window. Bon Bon turned and decked it on the snout, sending it toppling away with a yelp. She turned back to Lyra with an exasperated sigh, another clone hopping past and the sound of some other window in the street shattering punctuating the scene.
“Right.” Lyra rubbed the sides of her head, “Solutions, before we have to go begging to Canterlot for money again.”
“Maybe they can be tricked?” Bon Bon suggested, glancing out the broken window. Three copies of Carrot Top ran past, carrying hammers in their mouths. A moment later Windowpane charged after, yelling at them to give him his tools back, “They don’t seem to be acting very smart right now.”
Lyra frowned, tapping her chin with a hoof. “We got one to lock up when we tricked it into kind of a logical paradox. Course, then it snapped out of it the minute we mentioned help…”
“HELP!?” A copy shouted with a manic grin, poking her head into the room.
Bon Bon face hoofed, a teeth grinding grimace crossing her muzzle. “This is going to become a thing, isn’t it?”
“Fraid so.” Lyra frowned.
As her significant other turned to deal with the new clone, Lyra called her instrument to her side. She needed something to help her think.
Maybe some kind of big event we could lure them to? Something that would just confuse them? She thought, idly strumming her lyre with a hoof. No, that’ll take far too long to set up. And going from clone to clone will take too long…
Her absent minded strumming moved into the tune that she had played the other day at the pool. She focused on the melody, blocking out the sounds of the chaos outside the shop, and letting the melody organize her thoughts.
They respond when you ask for help, and they have some kind of hive mind. Maybe if we asked them to do something really big that would require more than one pony to accomplish…
“Lyra!”
Snapping out of her deep thoughts, Lyra looked up to see that her friends had arrived. Most of them at least.
“Still looking for our Carrot Top?” She asked, trotting outside.
As she crossed the threshold and stepped out onto the street, an avalanche of flowers rained down upon the heads of her and her friends. Happy giggles rang in their ears as a trio of clones hopped past on the roofs above, tossing the complete stock of Daisy, Lily and Rose’s flower shop onto the streets below.
“Fraid so.” Raindrops snorted, shaking a bunch of roses off her head, “Still haven’t been able to pick her out of this mess.”
Lyra nodded, motioning for them to follow her, running down the street. “Well, I have an idea! We need to get to Town Hall.”
“Why?” Trixie asked, joining her friends in chasing after the musician.
“I’ll explain on the way!”
- - - -
A pained grunt escaped Carrot Top’s lips as she collapsed to the ground, the clones supporting her having scattered like a disturbed school of fish. Groaning, she pushed herself back upright, shaking the stars from her eyes.
She almost wished that she hadn’t.
Carried along to the same street that the Day Spa was set on, she was now awash in a middle of clones engaged in acts of “helpful” destruction. One was attacking the the spa’s roof with a mallet, shingles being tossed left and right from the flurry of strikes. Another was being chased by Blossomforth, spritzing every pony she passed with a collection of the latter’s fragrances.
Setting her jaw, she charged towards one of the many other nearby copies. This one was currently involved in painting the side of a building green.
“Hey! Stop that!” She shouted, yanking the paint away.
“Help?” It asked, frowning in confusion.
“No! Stop helping! You’re hurting ponies!”
“Help!” It grinned, returning to the paint.
“For Luna’s-”
A pile of envelopes dropped from above, mostly bouncing off her body, though a few remained stuck in her mane. Squeezing her eyes shut, Carrot Top mentally counted to ten to bite down the desire to start screaming.
This is all my fault. She thought. Ponyville’s going to get completely wrecked again and it’s all my fault.
She could even hear the ponies passing in the street muttering behind her back. They obviously thought she was a clone too, but weren’t sure why she was just standing there. She took a few more deep breaths, trying to work out what to try next.
“Carrot Top?”
She felt a friendly hoof rest on her withers, Cheerilee’s concerned voice reaching her ears.
Opening her eyes, she twisted to look at her friend. The school teacher was biting her lip, her eyes full of concern.
“Are you okay?”
“I’ve been better.” She answered with a sad smile, “How’d you know it was me?”
“You were the only one not running around frantically, trying to “help” ponies.” Cheerilee responded, pulling her friend into a hug, “They didn’t hurt you at all, did they?”
“Maybe a bruise when they dropped me to the ground.” Carrot Top sighed, pulling herself out of the hug, “I’m more worried about what they’re doing. Ponyville’s going to get wrecked at this rate.”
“Hey, we can still fix this.”
Carrot Top was about to ask how, when the actions of another clone interrupted her. A cake- presumably liberated from Sugarcube Corner, but who could really tell to be sure- lazily arched through the air, and splattered face down, atop her head.
“HELP!” Shouted the clone, bouncing off and throwing more cakes and pastries at anypony it passed on the street.
Carrot Top felt her right eye twitch.
“Carrot Top…” Cheerilee blinked, “Clam down.”
With a smile that bordered on manic crossing her muzzle, Carrot Top spun around to face the copies. “Hey! I need the help of alllll of you! Every last one!” She shouted, frustration reaching a peak, “I need every last pony to help me count to a million!”
Almost at once, the chaos stopped. Each clone froze in the middle of whatever activities they were engaged in, more than a few falling to the ground with heavy thuds if they were in midair at the time.
And then they began to count.
“One.” They said in a perfectly creepy unison, “Two…”
Carrot Top and Cheerilee blinked, exchanging confused glances with each other.
“Huh...I wasn’t actually expecting that to work.” She admitted with an embarrassed smile.
“Forty five.” The clones echoed.
“Wait…” Cheerilee blinked, “Weren’t they just at ten?”
“Five hundred thirty five!”
“Wha?”
“Thirty two.”
“...Great.” She sighed, “They forgot the order of numbers.”
“Well…” Carrot Top grinned nervously, “They do have a one in a million chance of landing on the number.”
“Which could happen at any moment.”
Carrot Top groaned. “Let’s go find the others.”
- - - -
By the time they caught up with their friends, the townsfolk had began to drag the frozen, still counting copies to the town square, in light of any other ideas. Large piles of orange and yellow were stacked up around the plaza, with more being dragged in every moment.
“One thousand, three hundred and fifty six!”
“This is going to get annoying really fast.” Carrot Top sighed.
“Carrot Top!”
She looked over as Trixie and the rest came rushing to her side, Lyra carrying her namesake instrument along with her.
“Are you okay?” Ditzy asked, tilting her head, “I wasn’t sure we were going to be able to find you in that mess.”
“Me either.” She responded with a shrug, “Wasn’t expecting them to actually start counting to a million either, so I guess we lucked out there. For now at least.” She quickly added at the end.
“Oh, so that was you?” Trixie raised an eyebrow, “I was wondering why they had started randomly shouting out numbers.”
“I was frustrated.” Carrot Top answered with a nervous shrug.
“So you had them count?”
“...It was all I could think of. Please tell me that you have some kind of plan?”
“We do.” Lyra nodded, motioning to the town hall, “We’re going to throw a parade.”
“....What?”
- - - -
The explanation of the plan had been quickly passed around as townsfolk continued to drag copies into the square. The piles of copies continued to grow, even more so when the farmers began to haul carts of them into town.
Carrot Top felt her stomach do a flip, her expression growing ashen. “Just how many of these things are there?” She grumbled to Lyra, watching Applejack dump a cart of hers off.
“Looks like it’s over a hundred so far.” Cheerilee commented, doing a quick estimation, “I’m guessing a clone had to escape during the chaos and just made copies all night.”
“I did ask for a small army.” Carrot Top sighed, her head drooping.
“Stop it.” Cheerilee chided, her voice becoming stern for a moment, “You can’t keep blaming yourself.”
“Earth pony messing around with ancient unicorn magic.”
“Did you know it was unicorn magic at the time?”
“Cheerilee…” She sighed, “I didn’t know what it was! I didn’t even stop and think about how long the one copy would be around!”
“And we’ll fix it. We dealt with timberwolves just last night. We can handle this.”
“Doesn’t make me feel any less stupid for starting it off in the first place.” Carrot Top sighed again, “I just wanted to help…”
“Alright!” Lyra called out, grabbing everypony in the square’s attention. Which, at the moment, was most of the group that had assisted the night before. She stood at the top of town hall’s stairs, in that odd two legged stance that only she could pull off. “I’m going to start-”
“Seven hundred and thirty five!”
“...Playing at the signal, and lead them back to the pool. Anypony who wants to help-”
“Two hundred and twenty two!”
“...Follow alongside the group. If any of them try to run off on their own, turn them around.”
“Nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine!”
“Land sakes!” Applejack shouted, “Let’s get this underway before this countin’ drives everypony insane.”
Lyra looked to Carrot Top and nodded. Nodding back, the farmer trotted over to the nearest pile of clones; it didn’t really matter which one.
“I need everypony to help with a parade.”
They stopped counting immediately, springing back to their hooves. Lyra launched into action, quickly strumming out a fast and jaunty tune. “Everypony follow me!” She shouted, galloping towards the Everfree forest.
With a unified squeal of glee that would have knocked Pinkie Pie over, the clones rushed after her. The volunteer group took off next, following close behind until they could clear the town limits.
- - - -
The procession into the Everfree rumbled along, the mass impact of hooves on the ground shaking the leaves from the trees in a bizarre reflection of the Running of the Leaves. Lyra continued to lead the way, her horn glowing to amplify the sound of her lyre over the low roar of the hooves hitting dirt and the clone’s continued cries of “Help!”
Carrot Top cantered alongside the line, keeping her eyes peeled for any clones trying to slip loose. Thankfully, they seemed quite focused on Lyra and the music, at least at the moment.
“Hey, Carrot Top!”
She blinked as Applejack and Green Grape fell into step on either side of her. Both farmers kept glancing at the ground, then back to Carrot Top and occasionally at each other, but neither one seemed all that willing to speak first.
“Umm. Can I...help you?” She asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I wanted to say I’m sorry!” Green Grape shouted.
“We got ta talkin’ back down the line there.” Applejack elaborated, “Found out that this whole mess probably got started when we both wanted yer help on the same mornin’.”
Carrot Top just nodded in response.
“Look. I shouldn’t have implied some kind of “us vs them” thing about helping Applejack.” Green elaborated, her head drooping slightly, “I thought that setting the traps was a waste of time. I mean...we’ve not had a timberwolf attack in my memory.”
Applejack nodded slightly at that comment.
“Of course, that stance feels kind of foolish now.” Grape muttered, “But I am sorry that I had a hoof in pushing you towards this.”
“It’s okay Green Grape.” Carrot Top sighed, with a shake of her head, “I should have had some common sense-”
“Ahh. But ya can’t blame yerself too much.” Applejack interrupted, “Ah mean...wanting to do too much. It can cause problems.” She finished with a nod.
Carrot Top blinked, tilting her head slightly as she looked right into Applejack’s eyes. She didn’t say anything else, but Carrot Top felt like a sense of understanding passed between the two ponies at that moment.
“Yeah. It can.”
“Hey, Applejack.” Green Grape piped up, “How about next season we get all the farmers working together on timberwolf duty? We’re all on the outskirts of town, so we’d have to deal with them first anyway….”
“Ah reckon that makes sense.”
Carrot Top smirked slightly as the two farmers began to talk over the possibilities of a timberwolf defense militia. Nudging a copy that was beginning to stray from the line back into place, a thought popped into her mind.
“You know, we should probably block up the pathway somehow.” She nodded towards the pair, interrupting their conversation, “You know. So that no other pony goes down there and we’re right back in this situation again.”
“Good point.” Green Grape nodded, “I’ll see if I can grab a few ponies from the line and we’ll go find a rock or something.”
“A rock?”
“It’ll be a big rock.” She grinned, letting herself drop back.
Carrot Top smiled to herself, holding her head a little higher as she continued to canter along. Perhaps there would be some good fallout from this after all.
A deep and chilling howl pushed that thought from her mind. Half panicked mutters washed down the line, the “parade” skidding to a halt, everypony searching the forest around them for where the howl came from.
Carrot Top caught a blur of movement out of the corner of her eye, a large form constructed of wood and plant matter stalking through the trees.
“We got company!”
A few of the trees groaned in creeking protest as the unified timberwolf from the night before pushed its way into view on the right side of the precession. It’s wooden body was still marked by the ashy burns of the alcohol fueled firestorm. Throwing its head back again in another howl, it took another bounding leap towards the line of ponies.
And then it froze, its glowing eyes finally noticing just how many ponies were there.
“HELP!” The whole gaggle of Carrot Tops shouted back at the monster.
It took a nervous step backwards, tilting it’s head at the small army before it. Carrot Top didn’t have much insight into what went through the minds of those woody predators, but she could only describe the timberwolf’s actions as confused.
“Hey!” Cheerilee grinned, seizing upon an idea, pointing a hoof at the timberwolf, “Does everypony think that poor gentleman needs help?”
“HEEEEELP!” Came the cry from the line of orange and yellow, the clones almost leering at the timberwolf lord.
It took another shuffling step backwards, the clones taking a step forward. The wolf took another step back as they closed in all around it.
“Everypony!” Carrot Top shouted, “Help me break that stick pile! Everypony take one!”
The timberwolf king turned to run, taking a few loping strides before the wave of clones slammed into its back legs. Toppling forward with a crash, it was engulfed by the copy swarm, crunches and snaps filling the air while they joyously tore sticks and branches away from its form.
After a minute of cracks, pops and snaps, the copies hopped back into the line, each one clutching a separate broken stick that had been part of the timberwolf in their mouths.
“Helph?”
Lyra very quickly began to play again.
- - - -
“How are you holding up?”
Lyra glanced back at the line of Carrot Tops, nodding to herself.
“I think so. Still got magic to spare.”
“Good.” Trixie nodded, pointing to the old stream bed that lead to the pool, “We’re almost there.”
“Okay. What do I do when I get them in there?”
Silence from the illusionist.
“Trixie?! Leading them back here was your idea!”
“I’m thinking!” Trixie winced, “It’s not easy dealing with this ancient magic on the fly. Okay, okay…they’re basically the water from the pool shaped into a pony. If I were pulling a pool like that together, I’d set up the enchantment to fall apart upon touching the water again.”
“That’s kind of a big assumption.” Lyra winced, the entrance to the mirror pool looming in the distance.
“I know! But it’s all I got!”
“Fine.” Lyra frowned, putting on a burst of speed, “Then let’s do this!”
“Wait!”
Lyra rushed down the stairs into the subterranean chamber. The water level of the pool was very low, down from a few feet to a few inches. Plunging ahead, she splashed through what was left of the water, pressing up against the back of the pool’s wall, continuing to play.
I hope this works. Or Bonnie is going to kill Trixie.
The clones were right behind her, rushing, almost tumbling down the stairs as they followed the music. Lyra winced, bracing for a possible impact when the hooves of the first one hit the edge of the remaining liquid.
The body melted away into liquid with a mighty splash, the pool’s level creeping higher on Lyra’s legs. And then the rest came tumbling in, crashing into each other, sliding down the stairs and splashing into the pool in an almost constant waterfall of yellow and orange. The water level surged, splashing higher and higher up her body, as the pool returned to it’s full volume.
“Yes!” Lyra crowed, treading water as the pool became deep enough that she couldn’t touch the bottom anymore.
The tumble of ponies suddenly stopped, as the last copy skidded to a halt at the bottom of the stairs. Lyra frowned, noticing the increased mental acuity that flickered in the copies eyes.
“Hi friend! Do you need help!”
Lyra grinned nervously, dropping her lyre into the pool.
“Could you help me get my lyre?”
SPLASH!
- - - -
Lyra trotted back out of the underground chamber, shaking the water from her coat.
“Did we get them all?”
Trixie nodded, a happy grin on her muzzle. “Watched very last one of them run down the stairs. So, if you handled things on our end…”
“They’re all water again.”
Trixie nodded, waving a hoof towards the opening. At the signal, Applejack, Green Grape, Cheerilee and Carrot Top began pushing a large boulder towards the head of the stairs, throwing all of their weight into moving the stone.
Lyra trotted out of the way as they shoved the rock into place, it slamming down on the entrance, sealing it up with its weight. Carrot Top sighed, wiping her forehead with the back of a hoof.
“Well...I guess that’s that. For real this time.”
“Suppose so.” Trixie nodded, “Guess we should head back to town then. Start cleaning up the mess they left behind.”
Nodding in agreement, the assembled ponies turned and began their walk back to Ponyville, leaving the pool thoroughly buried and the Everfree quiet. A few moments later, once the ponies were thoroughly gone, the underbrush rustled. A lone figure stepped out, and approached the rock.
Zecora glanced up at the rock, a thoughtful expression playing across her features.
- - - -
Carrot Top ripped another group of weeds from the ground, tossing them into her wheelbarrow with a flick of her head. It was another clear fall day, a slight chill snapping through the air as she worked.
It had been a few days since they had repaired the damage done by her pool spawned copies. All things considered, Ponyville had seen worse damage, which was comforting in its own way. The town had once again proven its resilience and things had returned to normal.
“Hey Carrot Top.”
She glanced up, nodding to Green Grape at the edge of the field. The farmer nodded back as Carrot Top trotted over to her.
“What’s going on Green Grape?”
“Well, I’m a little bit behind in my vines after cleaning things up in town. I was wondering if I could impose on you for some help?”
“When?”
“Well...now, maybe?”
Carrot Top almost said yes, her knee jerk reaction trying to burst forth. But she paused, thinking for a moment. Eventually, she shook her head. “Sorry, Green. I still have plenty of work I need to do myself. I’ll try to help out next time though.”
Green Grape frowned slightly, but nodded her head. “Fair enough. Next time.”
Watching her fellow member of the farmer union trot back down the road, she nodded to herself, not regretting the decision.
She couldn't do everything, after all.