Invasion of the Ecosystem: Rebooted

by Cipher800

Crawling Creeps

"And I'm telling you, what just happened was no prank by Sandy. I saw the fear in her eyes." a yellow pegasus said to her friend, a light purple alicorn with a blue mane that possessed two purple and pink strips in it. That was Twilight Sparkle, the princess of Friendship, and now, the principal to the School of Friendship.

"Now that you've completely explained it, I believe you, but I have a problem, too." Twilight said as she rummaged through her library. "I've searched through the dark magic wing and I found no spell that matches their behavior. However, you may be able to knock some sense into them."

"Good idea, Twilight. I think." Fluttershy said as she was about to go out when another flash of light came from the other side of the school's window. Both ponies looked to see a hive anchored one of the trees.

<Fluttershy! There was a flash of bright white light just like this before we saw the ants.> Sandy said, pointing her tail towards the hive. The four beings went towards the window and looked out the window, and unfortunately, it was recess at the time, and the area was full of students. <Oh dear...> was all the snake can say.

"Oh dear is right. Hopefully, we won't have too much trouble." Fluttershy said. But that wasn't the case, as bees went out of the hive, but not just any bees. This was a colony of Apis mellifera africansis (I made the last part myself), known to the common folk as the dreaded Africanized honeybee. These stinging terrors were hybrids between the more docile European honeybee and aggressive the African bee, also known as the killer bee.

"So that is how the ants came here..." Fluttershy said before her eyes widened. "Oh no, then that means the bees are gonna be aggressive, too!" Fluttershy said as she saw a pony student attempt to communicate with the bees, only for them to attack the poor little foal, who tried to run away, only for the bees to assault the foals.

"ATTENTION, EVERYPONY! YOU ALL MUST GO INSIDE IMMEDIATELY!" Twilight shouted in the Royal Canterlot Voice as she immediately opened the window wide. The students, who had noticed this, all immediately fled the Africanized bees as fast as they can, which was to say, pretty fast, but not really that fast. Of course, the foal who touched the bag got the most stings, and Twilight looked at him the second he came in.

"I'm so, so sorry Ms. Twilight. What's wrong with the bees here?" the little colt asked.

"Me and Fluttershy were on a similar case with some ants in the Everfree. It was not pretty when the ants attacked her animals." the Princess of Friendship said. If she told them the whole truth, they'd be horrified. "But hopefully, we won't have any more trouble with insects-" Twilight said before the door opened to reveal a familiar farm pony.

"Twilight! Ah have problems with these weird ant-like varmits in mah family's farm, and they keep eatin' on our apple trees. Not just the apples, but the whole tree, too!" Applejack said, electing a shock from the various creatures within the room, especially those of Twilight and Fluttershy.

"A new species of insect? Things got interesting, and not in a good way." Twilight said.

"Then we have no time to waste." Fluttershy said, walking to the door. "As you said before, Twilight, I can communicate with animals. When we get there, I'll figure out what's wrong with them." Before she went out the door, she turned her attention to Twilight. "Why aren't you coming?" she asked.

"I have to take to the students. When those bees stung, they died, leaving their stingers behind, which is a good thing in a sense." Twilight said, pointing at the severed stingers from that were on the colt.

"What do you mean by that?" Fluttershy asked the Princess of Friendship, who was plucking the stingers with her magic and placing them in a jar.

"It means that with this, one, I can brew something that will help with the colt's condition, and two, I can find out the mystery to those mysterious new residents and why they are acting so crazy." Twilight said as she telekinetically strapped the colt with bandages. "So unfortunately, I won't have time. But, if you can, could you bring me some samples of these things, I really need to see them."

"Well, take care, Twilight. See you then." Fluttershy said as the two went out to Applejack's orchard, leaving Twilight with the students.

"Alright, we're gonna need some ingredients. Who know about brewing?" the princess asked.

Meanwhile, in Sweet Apple Acres, things are going somewhat tough.

Turns out that these ant-like creatures that Applejack talked about were Coptotermes formosanus, or the Formosan subterranean termite, an invasive species that was transported from its native area in Southern China and Taiwan to several different parts of the globe, and now, it was in Equestria.

Fluttershy was trying desperately with talking to them, begging for them to stop, but the termites didn't understand a word she was saying. Even though Twilight was a bit busy with her students, it was fortunate that Starlight was able to join in on the ride, and she did not have anything else to do, which was why she had joined the crew. The two ponies, the snake, and the rabbit watched as Fluttershy tried to talk to the termites.

When she used the Stare, however, even that failed. These creatures were just too... what's the word. Something about then seemed weird, even the other two took notice. "Nothing is working. What's wrong with them?" Fluttershy asked as her friends shrugged and/or sighed. The former bearer of Kindness was about to lose hope when she remembered something that Twilight told her before she left. "Twilight wanted some samples, she was a bit interested." the shy pegasus looked to her friend in a bit of defeat. "I'm sorry, Applejack."

The Element of Honesty just put her hoof on Fluttershy's shoulder. "It's nothin' to worry about. Ya tried your hardest, and ah sensed it. Shame about all the cider lost." the orange pony said.

"It's alright, but we still have a job to do." Starlight said as she used her magic to take some of the termites off of one of the trees and put them in a plastic bag before setting up some sort of barrier. "There, Twilight taught me that spell on one of my lessons. It would keep these strange ant-things, we should pick a better name for them." the lilac unicorn said.

---

Ponyville and the neighboring reigons weren't the only areas where this was happening. In the seas, what looked like horseshoe crabs waddled amongst the sea floor. Those were the extinct trilobites, which were a branch of arthropod related to the horseshoe crabs themselves. But something was also on the move. That was the apex predator of the early to mid Cambrian: the dreaded Anomalocaris, as it did millions of years ago on Earth, now did the same thing on Equis.

Author's Note:

Alright, so, second chapter's done. I fulfilled my (I don't know if I made it) promise of it not being dead on the first chapter. Put your suggestions on the comments, and I'll be sure to take some of your ideas.

Comments

[Cipher800]

Hey guys, back with the second chapter.

Enjoy.

[Mr cold ghost]

Oh good. Thanks for the update!

[Cipher800]

8989201
New chapter on the road, come and get it.

8992682
Thanks for the ideas.

[Mr cold ghost]

8992682
Your welcome. One last suggestion perhaps a few chapters as shown from the POV of applejack or maybe a pony sailor (as you have now transported that prehistoric predator to equestria’s sea) as they encounter and deal with the new animals. I kinda of want to hear applejacks thoughts of how the years harvest goes from normal to catastrophic.

[Cipher800]

8997519
So, any ideas from you? I wanted to grow bigger.

8997176
Thanks for the feedback, hope you can feed more.

[NobodieZ]

Very good so far.

[Eonflare]

Bees. Great. Doesn't Fluttershy have a honey badger around?
Speaking of...

[Glarnboudin]

Erm, one thing with Anomalocaris - it wouldn't survive at all in the modern day.

The waters of the Cambrian period had a much lower oxygen content than the oceans of the present day and presumably Equestria... and Anomalocaris' anatomy made it completely and utterly harmless to anything that isn't a crustacean. It just couldn't do anything to bite or claw somebody.