The Impact of Humans on Ponies

by the koopanater

The "Perfect" Swarm

"A little more to the left, gang. Almost perfect."

Things in Ponyville was a bit hectic today. It's been a little over a week since Zecora was accepted in Ponyville and things were calm until Twilight got a message from none other then Princess Celestia saying that she was going to pay a visit to the town. Twilight quickly told the entire town about the visit, and soon the entire town was franticly getting things together. Xavier was also helping by supervising the preparations by Twilight's request. He was observing the placing of some wall décor on town square as two pegasus were hanging a banner.

"Stop! Perfect!" Xavier said happily. "Good job you two, now go see if there is anywhere else you can help out." Waving the two bye, he went over to Sugar Cube Corner to check the banquet. He stopped however when a voice called him.

"Hey Xavier!" Turning around, he saw Twilight coming over.

"Oh, Twilight. Hey, what's up?"

"I'm looking everything over to make sure things are perfect for Princess Celestia's visit."

"Well don't worry about it then. I've been keeping tabs on everything and things are going smoothly." Xavier said proudly. "Just going over to Sugar Cube Corner to check on the banquet."

"Great, I knew putting you as supervisor was a good idea." Twilight said happily. "Can I join you to Sugar Cube Corner? I want to make sure it's done too." Xavier nodded and lead her to the bakery. When they got there, the two looked through the door's window seeing the owners of the bakery, a married couple named Carrot and Cup Cake, working hard. twilight then went up and leaned onto the window. "Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Cake. How's the banquet coming?"

Mrs. Cake turned to the two and looked a bit worried. " Uh...it would be coming a little better if..." She then pointed to the banquet table to reveal that the many pastries had large bites out of all of them. They then saw Pinkie take a massive bite out of a cream pie at the end of the table, pretty much eating the entire thing in one go, leaving a large amount of cream on her face. As Pinkie licked up all the cream on her face, Xavier and Twilight ran up to her.

"PINKIE!!" Xavier said in annoyance. "What are you doing?! Those aren't for you, they're for the princess!"

"I know. That's why I'm tasting them. Somepony needs to make sure that everything is tasty enough to touch the royal tongue." Pinkie said trying to reason with the two. "And I, Pinkie Pie, declare that these treats are fit for a king, or a queen, or a princess." As she was speaking, she was walking over to a big cake and was about to be yanked away by Xavier until somepony burst through the door. Looking over, the three saw that it was Fluttershy looking quite excited.

"Twilight, Pinkie, you won't believe... oh, I'm sorry. Uh, am I interrupting?"

"No, not at all. Come on in and make yourself at home." Pinkie then ate the cake in one bite, getting angry glares from Xavier and Twilight, smiling sheepishly before turning back to Fluttershy. "What's going on, Fluttershy?"

"You won't believe what I found at the edge of the Everfree Forest." The three became curious and came closer. "Come on out, little guy. It's okay." Coming out of her mane was a small bug-like creature. It had big eyes and four wings. Though after a second two more hopped out from behind it, Surprising Fluttershy. "Three?"

"They're amazing. What are they?" Twilight asked, clearly interested in the new creature.

"I'm not sure. I'm also not sure where these other two came from." Fluttershy explained, clearly confused as to why there were two more.

"I'll take one off your hooves. I've never seen anything so... adorable." Twilight began to nuzzle one of the creatures before realizing that the others were watching, backing away slightly in embarrassment. "Besides, it'll be nice to have a companion for Spike so he won't bother me so much while I'm studying."

"Pinkie, do you want the other one?" Fluttershy asked, though Pinkie wasn't having the same enthusiasm as the other two.

"Ugh! A parasprite? Are you kidding?" Pinkie said irritated as she began to walk out. This got a cunfused look out the two as they began to wonder.

"How could you not like..."

"Ugh. Now I gotta go find a trombone." Pinkie said before leaving. This threw the two for a bigger loop then the disliking of the creature.

"A what?"

"A trombone, you know." Pinkie then imitated a trombone before hopping away to search for said instrument.

"Um, anyway..." Fluttershy began to speak, breaking the awkward moment. "Would you like one... Xavier?" Turning around, the two noticed that Xavier was not by them anymore. Looking around a bit, they saw Xavier in a position they did not expect. Xavier was behind the banquet table, crouched down with only his eyes and the top of his head visible, his eyes very wide, and he was shaking. The two tried to come closer, but Xavier cut them off with loud yelling.

"Don't get any closer to me with those things! Keep them away from me!"

"Things? You mean the little cuties?" Twilight asked, clearly confused and concerned.

"Cute? Those things are NOT cute in any way! Creepy little bugs!"

"A-are you afraid of them?" Fluttershy asked concerned for him.

"Yes, I am, okay! I have entomophobia, so leave with those things, please." Xavier said in a less then calm tone and look. deciding that it wasn't a good idea to keep the new creatures around, the pair left with the creatures, leaving Xavier cowering in fear.

---

The Next Day

When the sun began to rise from the horizon, the entirety of Ponyville was waking up, all except for one. Xavier wasn't able to get much sleep because seeing the creatures gave him nightmares. So he stayed up for most of the night, looking over a new project he was working on. Right now he was drinking some coffee, trying to get his mind off of the terrible night.

"Mmmm, Good thing I'm used to all nighters, or else today would suck." Xavier muttered. "I just hope I can recover before Princess Celestia-"

*Knock Knock Knock*

Looking up from his coffee, Xavier's attention was diverted to the door as he walked over to it. Opening it, he was greeted by none other then Pinkie Pie looking very determined.

"Pinkie? What's up?"

"Do you know where I can find a snare drum?"

Having to take a double take, Xavier's morning went from tired to confused. "Wait, what? Why?"

"So I can deal with those parasprites that Fluttershy brought to town!"

As Pinkie was finishing her sentence, Xavier began to tense up an grew a fearful face. "W-what?! What are they going to do?!"

"No time! Do you know where I can find a snare drum!"

"No, but I'll help you out if you tell me about those, Gleag, things..." Xavier shuttered, fearing what he was going to get himself into.

"Yes, good! Somepony, or in this case, someone, who will listen to me! Come on, I'll tell you." The two began to walk around to look for a snare drum. "I was told about these things back when I lived on my family's rock farm."

"Wait, you lived on a rock farm?"

"Yes, but that's a different story for another time. For now, the focus is parasprites." Pinkie said as she grabbed Xavier's face and looked him in the eye. She then went back to walking. "Anyway, the little ball things Fluttershy had with her are called parasprites and they can be humongous pests! If we don't do anything, the will eat the entire town of food!"

"They will." Xavier said a lot more fearfully then usually, though the tone was lost to Pinkie.

"Yes, but I know of a way to get rid of them! If we can collect a bunch of instruments to make a band, I can lead them back to the Everfree Forest with the power of music!"

"I-I'm not even going to question it. If you say you can get rid of those, Bleh, Things, then I will help in any way."

"Good, now let's split up! We can cover more ground to find more instruments. Let's meet back up in thirty minutes and see what we've collected. Sound good?" Xavier nodded quickly as the two got to work.

---

"Meet up in thirty minutes, Why did trust Pinkie in keeping time..."

Xavier was currently walking around town looking for Pinkie, who seemed to disappear without a trace after their little talk. He managed to grab a bunch of instruments for Pinkie's plan, but without her he grabbed them for nothing. His searching was interrupted when he heard something in the sky. Looking up, his face paled and his body tensed as he saw hundreds of parasprites descending. It didn't take long before the swarm began to eat all the food in town. In most cases, Xavier would be the first to jump in to help defend the town, but his entomophobia kicked in and he ran into an ally, curling up into a fetal position.

"Oh god, oh god, oh god..." Xavier was whispering to himself as he was cowering, to afraid to do anything else. His quiet ramblings only stopped when a little chitter rang out near him, causing him to freeze and look over, seeing one of the parasprites next to him. To say he jumped would be an understatement as he backed away quickly, the parasprite flying close, "N-NO! S-STAY BACK!! Grabbing the first thing he could reach, he threw it at the parasprite, an apple. The parasprite eyed it hungrily and opened it's mouth wide to eat it, but stopped. Xavier was confused until he saw a familiar purple glow through town. When the glowing stopped, the parasprite looked at the apple and didn't eat it. Xavier, while still not wanting to be near it at all, looked at it confused as it looked up, causing him to freeze again. The parasprite then opened it's mouth wide in his direction and dashed forward, scaring Xavier even more as he jumped out of the way. When he looked up, his face went from scared to horrified as he saw that the little thing took a huge bite out of a steel trashcan in the ally. His reaction, or more precisely, his instinct, was to run out out immediately and make a run out of the town. When he did, he instantly regretted it as he saw the parasprites eating anything that wasn't actual food. Wood, cloths, even metal was being eaten like they were nothing. Xavier went from running to sprinting away, so scared that he was shaking. He stopped when he saw the one pony he was looking for.

"PINKIE!" The pony in question looked up, relieved to see each other.

"Xavier, there you are, did you get everything?"

"Y-yeah, here." Xavier handed Pinkie his bag of instruments shakily. "B-but I t-thought you said they o-only ate f-food!?"

"They did, until Twilight decided to use her magic to try to control them." Pinkie said annoyed as she was tinkering with all the instruments the two gathered.

"W-what?! But I-I thought t-they would h-help us!"

"Ugh, they didn't! They all think I don't know what I'm doing and that they can handle it, but look now!" Pinkie was uncomfortably upset for somepony who was usually so happy, so Xavier felt bad.

"I-I'm sorry to hear t-that Pinkie, I-"

"No need for comfort, Xavier, at least not while you are shaking more then one of my maracas." Pinkie then stood up with all the instruments on her, all connected to play all at once. "All right, let's get this show on the road!" Pinkie then began to play the instruments as she marched. As she was playing, the parasprites stopped what they were doing and looked at her with not hungry eyes, but excited eyes as they flew down and began hopping to the beat. Soon enough, the entire swarm of them were hopping behind Pinkie in a single file line. Xavier looked at her with awe and fear, awe in how she was able to control all of those bugs, and fear because of all the bugs, but he followed from a distance, still shaking. He then saw the others looking very confused at Pinkie.

"H-hey, girls." Xavier called out to them, getting their attention.

"Oh, there you are Xavier! Where were you?" Twilight asked.

"Helping P-Pinkie in a m-more successful e-end-deavor, a-as you c-can see."

"Wait, she knew what was going on?" Rainbow asked.

"Y-yes, and things c-could have gone m-more s-smoothly if y-you listened t-to her. N-now the town i-is in ruins." The girls looked guilty as Xavier proceeded to follow Pinkie, so they followed as well. As they were approaching the Everfree Forest, they say something in the sky. They realized that it was none other then Princess Celestia and ran up to greet her. The group bowed as Celestia landed.

"Twilight Sparkle, my prized pupil." Princess Celestia greeted. "So good to see you and your friends."

"Hello, Princess." Twilight greeted nervously before a crashing of cymbals interrupted her. Looking over, the group became worried and the Princess became confused. "So... how was the trip? Hit much traffic?" Twilight said, trying to be innocent and oblivious to the situation.

"What is this?" Celestia asked, clearly curious as a parasprite landed onto her wing. While most would look a bit worried, Celesta smiled at it. "These creatures are adorable."

"Not that adorable..." Rainbow grumbled.

"M-more like t-terrifying..." Xavier whispered.

"I'm terribly honored that you and the good citizens of Ponyville have organized a parade in honor of my visit." Celestia said quite honored.

"Parade?" Twilight was confused at first until she realized it could be the perfect cover. "Oh. Yes, the parade."

"Unfortunately, that visit is going to have to wait for another time." Celestia explained, causing everyone to become shocked. "I'm afraid an emergency has come up in Fillydelphia. Apparently there's been some sort of infestation." The group then began to sweat nervously.

"An... Infestation?"

"Yes, a swarm of incredibly bothersome creatures has invaded the poor town." Celestia said knowingly. "I'm sorry Twilight, to have to put you all through so much trouble."

"Trouble? What trouble?" Twilight said nervously, clearly wanting Celestia to not see the damages done to Ponyville.

"Before I have to go, would you care to give me your latest report on the magic of friendship in person?" Celestia asked as she got back into her chariot.

"My... report?" Twilight asked.

"Haven't you learned anything about friendship?" Twilight and the girls looked at Pinkie who was guiding the parasprites into the forest as Twilight realized something.

"Actually, I have.
I've learned that sometimes the solution to your problems can come from where you least expect it. It's a good idea to stop and listen to your friends' opinions and perspectives..."

*CRASH*

"Even when they don't always seem to make sense."

"I'm so proud of you, Twilight Sparkle, and I'm very impressed with your friends as well. It sounds like you're all learning so much from each other." Celestia said as she sat down as the chariot flew off, the group waving goodbye to her. Once Celestia was out of earshot, the group went over to Pinkie who finished guiding the parasprites into the forest, causing the music to end.

"Hey, what happened to the princess?" Pinkie asked.

"Emergency in Fillydelphia." Twilight responded.

"Some sort of infestation." Rainbow added.

"Oh no! Have they got parasprites too? Well, I have my tuba, so I will travel there." Pinkie said as she blew her tuba, but was interrupted by Twilight.

"I think the princess can handle it."

"So you knew what those critters were all along, huh Pinkie Pie?" Applejack said as she walked up.

"Well, duh! Why do you think I was so frantic to get my hooves on all these instruments? I tried to tell you. I was just lucky that Xavier listened, or else there would be bigger problems to deal with."

"We know, Pinkie Pie, and we're sorry we didn't listen." Twilight said as the rest voiced their apologies as well. "You're a great friend, even if we don't always understand you."

"Thanks guys, you're all great friends too, even when I don't understand me." Pinkie admitted.

"You saved my reputation with Princess Celestia, and more importantly, you saved Ponyville." Twilight said happily, at least until Xavier poked her shoulder.

"A-about that..." Xavier pointed to the town, which was in a big mess due to the parasprites. The girls looked quite upset at that as Xavier began to walk back. "I-I would love to h-help, but I m-may need to sit th-this one out. So many bugs..." Xavier shuddered.

"Wait, your not helping us?!" Rainbow yelled out.

"E-excuse you, but I just went through my greatest fear that was made worse because you all thought you could control those, Eugh, things! So if you will excuse me, I need to go find some comfort food in my house and sit at my desk for a few days to get over this traumatic event, see you girls in a few days." With that, Xavier left, leaving the girls confused, annoyed, guilty, and shocked at the same time as pinkie hopped away as well, holding a trombone and playing a familiar tune.

Author's Note:

Hey, check it, a new chapter within a week of the last, I'm on a roll
Anyway, looks like the guy who seems brave under the worst situations is afraid of bugs. P.S. entomophobia is the fear of insects. Also, relevant but not mention in the chapter, he also has arachnophobia, so anything with more then four legs (That is not a crustacean) Is on Xavier's NOPE list. Just don't tell him that there is a species of bug ponies that are his enemy, You'd probably give him a heart attack...

Comments

[TheLichEmperor]

Good chapter, was quite enjoyable and it was interesting to learn of Xavier's weakness and how he affected the parasite event.

[Luckyfanisaac]

Twilight then went up and leaned onto the window.

as he was cowering, too afraid to do anything else.

was to run out out immediately and make a run out of the town.