For The Swarm

by VanishingAct

Chapter 4: Edumacation, Part 1

I woke up, opened my eyes and let my body be overwhelmed by the warm rays of Celestia's sun. From my still open window, I could see that there wasn't a cloud in the sky today, and from the curtains deign that there was a faint breeze.

All in all, it was a perfect day in Trottingham.

Today begins the first day of the rest of my new life! I told myself cheerily. I was still riled by my realisation yesterday. I can do things to help! And I bloody well shall!

I still missed Earth though. If only there were some way to tell dad I was here or something.

Still, never wanting to dampen my mood, I looked over at the three Parasprites. Or what should have been three Parasprites.

'Bloody Jesus...' I thought to myself.

'Hey old man, I'm up here.'

I looked up toward the headboard to find my red son, seated atop the thing, staring at me with his yellow eyes.

'Old man my arse, you're like 5 hours younger than me!'

'5 hours is a long time, y'know!'

'Yeah, for someone who's only lived 12!'

Jesus flew down and pointed to a region on the bed.

'Those chuckleheads left some notes for you, chump.'

I ignored Jesus' impersonation of a certain mercenary from Boston and looked at the two pieces of paper. Mmm, scented. As he had said, the Princes had each left notes for me. I would have pulled them to me, had I any means to do so, and since I hadn't figured out how to fly yet, I was left unable to take the letters.

'It's fun, watching you struggle.'

'Shut up, Jesus. Joseph, Brian, gives us a ha-leg.'

The blue and yellow Parasprites both woke to hear their names and flew over to my side.

'I'll help you!' 'Kay, so Joseph is the happy-go-lucky one...

'Wait, what's going on?' and Brian is the spaced out one.

Both Parasprites took a letter in their mouths and flew over to me.

'Hey, don't eat those things, yeah?'

They carefully placed the two letters they brought over to me. Brian sat by my side as did Joseph while Jesus flew around me. I looked over the closest one to attempt to read it, but quickly found out something that really shouldn't have been surprising. Equestria had its own language, a strange myriad of curves and squiggles, accented with horns and hooves.

'Bollocks.' How the hell was I meant to read this?!

Not sooner had I said that but the letters rearranged themselves in my head. They changed and coalesced until they became...English.

'I guess that's how...'

'So what's it say, anyway?' Brian asked.

'I don't know...' I replied, 'Let's find out...'

---

To my dear friend Aniseed,
If you are reading this then it means that my gift works flawlessly. Impressive, eh?

I take that you have settled in nicely at our humble abode. I don't have much time to write, but I have been sent to investigate a few happenings concerning a black powder explosion at the edge of town, so regrettably I will not be able to have breakfast or lunch with you.

You have the entirety of Trottingham Palace at your disposal, so feel free to look around. I suggest that you go to the library, you may find a tome or two that may explain your strange powers, otherwise you can go to the training grounds, where I have a junior ready to teach you how to fly.

Have you met Agapé yet? I suggest you try to find him in the afternoon. He's normally at the West Spire then.

After that, all I can say is to make yourself at home!

Yours sincerely with the greatest of regards,
Prince Filio Cadenza

---

'So?'

'It basically says that Filio can't be around till dinner and that we can go around the entire castle if we wish.'

I checked the mindmap and found Filio far to the east of the castle, in the black space that hadn't been filled in. He was mostly stationary, moving every now and then, and not by much. Most likely he was at the crime scene.

I also saw the red and blue heart arrangement that was Storgia's mark flitting wildly between places. So he was out too, and who knew what kind of shenanigans he was getting up to? I was yet again reminded of a certain pink pony and shuddered. I looked to Storgia's note (it was obviously his, now I knew he was out) and read.

---

Hey Ani!! Storgia here, just letting you know that I'm on my daily run through town, meeting new ponies and such, cos that's what I do every day!! Now I probably realise you're a bit sad that you weren't able to see me, but fear not!! I shall be back by lunch, so we can talk about everything then!

Is my map working properly? I think you should go to the library and look at a few maps, see if my little trick worked! Anyhow, look at the time, I must be leaving! Byeeee!

---

'That... was interesting...'

I now had some sort of a plan of what to do today. There were a few details missing, but I still had the general idea.

'So what are we waiting for, let's get going!!' shouted Joseph.

'I'm fine going on without him.' Bloody Jesus.

'Where are we going?' And of course, last but not least Brian.

'Not yet you guys! I still need to work a few things out!' Yeah, like how to get out of this damn bed!

Suddenly without warning, I felt a large, papery thing well up in my throat, desperately trying to get out. I obliged, and out of my mouth fell a third note.

'Welp, that's something you don't see everyday.'

'No shit Jesus.' Unless you watch back to back episodes of MLP that is.

I waited for the taste of paper to get out of my mouth (Spike I feel for you bro) and then looked at the third note.

---

For Aniseed Vortexmouth,
If you are reading this, then my experiment concerning the mental link between Master and Piece has worked. We should now be able to send letters and other objects between ourselves.

I shall now be engaging in High Court, I need to resolve some bothersome case concerning a string of petty thefts, joy of joys. I should be finished shortly after lunch, so I beseech you come up to the West Spire then, I have yet to give you my gift.

My brothers have probably omitted a few details. There should be a servant coming round who shall help you around the castle until you learn to fly and shall comply with most of your requests to the best of her degree. Breakfast shall be served when you wish and lunch will be at 12:30pm.

One last note: If you see an ominous looking Earth pony mare with a white coat and purple mane, do not be alarmed. She is a close friend of Filio's and can often be seen around the castle, although I do not think she will take it so well if you started talking to her.

And one last note, welcome to Equestria, here's to making a difference!

Your friendly neighbourhood Prince, Agapé Cadenza

---

'K, how the flying fuck did he reference Spider- that doesn't even- what the f- arghhhh!'

While my brain was melting, more words were written, no, burned onto the note.

---

P.S. Internet.

---

'....what?'

That took a while to sink in. How does he know about the internet? One more thing to ask him.

After all that, as if on cue, three sharp knocks hit the door of the guestroom, and then..

'I was given orders by Royal Decree to enter without permission, so I hope you're decent in there!'. The voice was that of a mare, Trottingham accent, refined but with a slight bit of grit.

The doorknob turned and in walked a slim red unicorn with an unkempt mane tied in a ragged... ponytail.

This pony has a ponytail.

Suffice to say I lawled. Hard. I mean come on!

'Who's there?'. And she hadn't seen me, or any of the three Parasprites. The room was pretty big but even so, we stick out like a sore thumb against all this blue.

'Yo, miss, over here!' I said most eloquently, not sure whether my telepathy was tooled to peripheral hearing.

She turned to the bed, meaning that it definitely was, but was unsure of whether to walk over to the bed.

'I'm not sure where you're going with this, mister...'

Did she just... for real? I wasn't even implying that at all!

'Seriously miss, your employer sent you up here 'cos I can't move, literally.' I managed without having my brain implode.

She still looked anxious to move. Dammit, lady, I want out of this bed!

'That's the honest truth, take it or leave it.'

With a sigh she nervously trotted over to the bedside, looked over and-

'Ohai.'

'ARRGHHHH!!!!!'

I shouldn't have done that. I'm terrible. Still, it was worth it.

After she got over the initial shock of the bugs in the bed (heh, guess I'm a bedbug), she straightened herself up and asked if I was the guest she was looking for, to which I responded yes. I learned that her name was Blazing Ruby, known to most of her friends as just Ruby, and we made a bit of small talk, which was kinda awkward for her, considering the fact that I was a bedridden Parasprite. Eventually, I got bored and hungry, and asked her to lift me onto her back, which was taken as yet another sexual advance, until I explained that it was the only way that I was going to get anywhere. Seriously though, I don't even have any...

Wait...

I. Have. No. Genitals.

'Well this sucks nonexistant balls.'

---

'Holditinholditinholditinholditinholditin!'

This was me, schooling my fledgling swarm on how to not reproduce. This was happening in the dining room, after the four of us had eaten an obscene amount of Prench toast and Spaneighsh omelettes (seriously, Enzo is best chef pony). Ruby was desperately trying to hold on to her breakfast as my Parasprites attempted to do the same.

'So who are you anyway?' she said with a sickly shade of green upon her face.

'An alien, summoned by the Princes to get rid of prejudice.' I deadpanned. 'Keep holding, all four of you.'

'...You're joking.'

'I'm being dead serious. That's the honest truth, take it or leave it.' I figured on settling on a philosophy that said if they don't ask, don't tell, but if they do, I'll let them know. It'd just complicate matters if I didn't, right?

'...I don't believe-'

'Look, why would the Princes have a Parasprite guest? One who can speak? Capable of displaying emotion in a pony-ish way? Who arrived without entrance at 7:00pm? They do do entrances for guests right?'

'Well, yeah..'

'Then why wasn't I given one?!', being logical is so much fun...

'Because they wanted to keep this undercover?', until it gets shot, that is.

'I, uhh...' I struggled to find anything to say, and eventually caved in. 'Just believe me, okay?'.

'Whatever.'

It was at that point that the Parasprites failed to hold it, and spat out three new ones, before Ruby keeled over and lost the battle with her stomach.

With a sigh, I pointed to the new ones. 'Alvin, Simon and Theodore. Got that?'

They nodded the affirmative and then I motioned to Ruby, who was still on the floor.

'I'll just wait for you to sort yourself out there.'

Ruby groaned.

---

'So you get your wings and... flap 'em?'

Such was the extent of my excellent flying tuition, although I guess that teaching someone a skill that comes natural to all flyers can be kinda hard. Still, I guess I had to listen to the blue pegasus in front of me.

And getting your wings and flapping them? Hard as balls.

Seriously, in human terms, it was like someone got four arms and attached two to each shoulder blade and told you to learn to use them. Without knowing how.

So I had to take a few minutes of attempting to use my wings before they actually started working. And boy, oh boy did they work. That rapid flapping of the wings bugs have? That is definitely not an acquired skill.

So up into the air I flew, higher and higher, faster and faster, feeling the air thinning out and the sun beat down harder and harder.

And then I realised I didn't know how to stop.

And my genius peers, down on the ground, save for my my flying instructor, do you know what they said?

'Aniseed, stop!'

'Don't you think I'm bloody well trying?!'

So I rose up into the air, all the while thinking I just wanna stop!.

And then it happened.

I stopped rising.

An adverse effect of this was that I started falling.

'MOTHERLOVINGSUGARTITTYSPRINKLESALTYBALLCONGLOMERATESHITTINGBALLSACKHELLONASCHNITZELSTICKINTERSPECIALBUTTBASHI-'

And then I hit the ground.

---

'I could've at least left a crater..'

'Well you did make some sort of a dent in the ground.'

'Yeah, but that really isn't crater material, y'know?'

'You do realise that you don't nearly weigh enough to cause a crater.'

'Heh, I guess you're less dense than you look!'

'Shut up Jesus.'

'That wasn't even that funny.'

Wait what? 'You heard that?!'

Ruby gave me a sideways glance. 'Umm... Yes?'

But Parasprites can't speak, right? 'Jesus, explain.'

'So yeah, turns out that telepathy you got brushed off onto the rest of us.'

Joseph piped up; 'It sure did!'

'And you guys didn't bother to tell me why?'

I was met with six shrugging Parasprites, which looks really strange by the way.

With a sigh, I carried on flying down the corridors of Trottingham Palace. My flyng lesson had just finished after 2 more hours of learning how to control and maneuver. Thankfully enough, flying seems to be Parasprite instinct, meaning that after my lesson, I was flying as well as any other Parasprite. We now had about an hour until lunch, giving us enough time to head to the library and look at a few maps and maybe a newspaper. It was a strange sight to see for the caretakers of Trottingham castle, seven Parasprites flying in a V formation above their friend and coworker, Blazing Ruby. She smiled nervously as everyone looked at us all in strange wonder, knowing that Ruby had undertaken an important task, the nature of which was unknown until now. Nearly everypony was paying us some sort of notice whenever we walked past them, all except one, walking out of the library and heading in the opposite direction.

An Earth pony mare, white, or as every fanfiction writer ever would have it, alabaster coat and a mane and tail of deep purple, looking slightly dishevelled but still flattering her figure. She was wearing purple sunglasses, obscuring her eyes from view and around her neck was a black choker, all of which raised my suspicions as to whether she really was just a friend to Filio.

The cutie mark confirmed it. This thing couldn't be called a cutie mark. This was a tramp stamp. I mean seriously, a lipstick kiss mark with four fangs!

I stopped myself from continuing the thought when I realised what I was doing. This is prejudice. This is the mentality, the sickness that I have sworn to cleave from this land, only with a less fanciful vocabulary. What I was doing was wrong and I should strive to remove all thoughts of it from my brain. I couldn't believe myself. I'm an idiot, the biggest on-

'I'd hit that.' said Jesus, just loud enough for her to hear.

Excuse me, I meant the second biggest idiot. 'Fly, you fools!'

The Parasprites heeded my call and ducked into the library. Ruby however, was left outside, facing the icy glare of the pony.

'Erm, uhh...'

---

It took about ten minutes for Ruby to come into the library, during which time we had failed in our quest to gain maps or newspapers of any kind thanks to a very unhelpful librarian, who kept raving about worms refusing to eat the books while rocking back and forth upon seeing us.

I turned to greet Ruby but before I could she blurted out.

'3 minutes to explain that I'm not a filly fooler, 2 minutes to explain that it was you,' she pointed at Jesus, 'And 5 minutes of listening to her detail the many ways to kill you.'.

'Oh come on! She should feel honoured that I'd like to do her!'

'Indeed, one should feel flattered by being lusted after by an insect with no sexual organs.' I replied sarcastically. 'Anyway, Ruby, can you help us with this librarian? She's stark raving and won't listen to us.'

Ruby quickly dealt with the librarian as though she had done it before, comforting her and pulling her out of her mental stupor before getting the newspapers and maps requested.

Item 1: Map of Equestria.

This basically had all of the major towns and cities of Equestria. I looked at a few names that I recognised; Baltimare, Manehattan, Canterlot. I also saw Ponyville and Fillydelphia, and remembering the two cities' history with Parasprites, decided to skip going to them until I had a plan worked out.

Flutterhugs will have to wait.

Anyway, I decided to test Storgia's theory. I focussed on the map long and hard and then closed my eyes. Instead of the dense black void I was used to seeing, I saw a large green expanse littered with letters. A perfect copy of the map lay before me, and I was able to see the three marks denoting Filio, Storgia and myself.

Inside my head, I heard a distant voice.

'YEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!! Storgia: 1, Agapé, erm,... yeah, go Storgia!'

I chuckled at Storgia's antics and put the first map to the side.

Item 2: Map of the known lands of Equis.

Pretty much the map of Equestria, just less detailed and including the lands surrounding it, including Gem Fido (D-Dog territory, most probably), the Great Southern Rainforest (probably like the Everfree but more jungly), the Changeling Wasteland (was not expecting that) and the Zebra Isles. I noticed the map ending at the Northern Wastes at the top and an unknown region at the bottom. The map was unfinished, which I realised when I put it down onto the mindmap, there still being black spaces when zoomed out. Will have to investigate in the future.

Item 3: Map of Trottingham.

'Nuff said. I got it into my head and saw Storgia flying towards the castle. Crap, almost time for lunch. Got time for one more thing though.

Item 4: Trottingham Post, latest issue.

A broadsheet newspaper (I was dissapointed to find that they have tabloids in Equestria, getting rid of judgemental people is gonna be hard). I was able to get a quick read about Griffin and his pirate organisation conducting the concert today and the events of the GGG. I also managed to catch something of a WTF article.

'ROC SET ON FIRE'.

Seriously, that was the article name.

I read on.

'Amid the chaos of the Grand Galloping Gala, a roc managed to break free of Canterlot Zoo, terrorising ponies across the streets of Canterlot and causing thousands of bits worth of damage to property. The roc was eventually apprehended and killed by a mysterious non-equine, who set the beast on fire. We here at Trottingham Post applaud this brave act of heroism, and wish the person safe travels wherever he may go'.

I looked at the picture accompanying the article. What I saw was a well and truly toasting roc, screeching amid the flames on his body, and off to the side was a sort of black Diamond Dog? No, it was a black wolf, with neon green markings, but the tail and ears were feline. I had no idea what this thing was. And that only meant one thing.

'Another one...'

'What do you mean?' Ruby asked.

'With the Princes' permission, I'll explain everything, but for now, we need to have lunch.'

We all exited the library and set off for the dining hall. I still had my thoughts on the end of the article.

There was hope for acceptance of all species as equals. I just need to find a way.

'Til then, I've still got learning to do.

---

First of all, references. The black powder explosion was caused by Shade in Doctor D's Quest of a Nobody. The wolfy guy was Jack Daniel from Reaper1543's Travels of a Hunter.

Second of all, shoutouts to Fordregha, author of Through Feline Eyes, who favourited me a few days back.

Lastly, I split this into two parts otherwise it would have been like 8000 words long. Don't worry, not all days in Ani's life will be this long!

Thanks for reading,

-TheAirHideous

Comments

[Morphile]

So we will have moar in a few hours?... I need a happy parasprite pic...

sig \/th05.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2012/262/5/7/snuggle_time_by_erinkarsath-d5favl2.png I made a statement, so I have to do this. BABALITY
And if you want a link to brony music, click this<sig

[Morphile]

And now for my pony reactions.
"I get to throw a party for PARASPRITES?!?!I hope they like cake!"

"They gave a parasprite maps of the world, telepathy, unruly "kids" and want it to fight prejudice."

"I hope he gets the others under control."

"Why is he leaving already? He needs to get his swarm under control firstat least I get a chance to study parasprites."

"He has to deal with an endlessly growing number of others? AND get ponies to stop hating others? Good luck, he needs it."

"Why did they not get Cadence to help them? Or try to get something OTHER than a parasprite?"

[VanishingAct]

1319638
As much as I would like to give you moar, I can't cos it ain't written yet. Soz man

[Morphile]

1319992,I will make you pay for this.

WITH FEELS!

[Knighthawker]

A lot of the spoken text from Ruby needs to be in quotation marks.

[Forevermore]

Again, the whole "mind map" thing is incredibly well done, actually kind of reminds me of Fable 3 with the 3D map table that lets you zoom in on individual areas and buildings with the spyglass and learn more about them.

[Mimic]

After Jesus said 'I'd hit that.' I just couldn't stop laughing, well done, great story.

[Judoon_Warrior]

When's the next part coming out

[Doctor D]

... Kudos to you.