Gate of Friendship

A week had passed after the Zecora thing. Nothing happened except for Twilight getting a letter from the Princess, saying she would be visiting tomorrow. After Twilight heard the news she informed all of Ponyville and told them to sweep up for the Princess's arrival, of course the residents of Ponyville were excited and happy to oblige to this request. I, on the other hand, was not. Mostly because I knew I wouldn't get any information I wanted from her. So while the rest of Ponyville was sweeping up the town, me, Twilight, and Spike were at home making sure everything was arranged properly.

"Oh. Hurry up Spike, this place isn't going to clean itself," Twilight said as she was sweeping the walls.

"It also didn't mess itself up," Spike grumbled as he was picking up books from the ground.

"Princess Celestia will be here tomorrow."

"I thought this was just an unofficial, causual vist."

"There's nothing casual about a visit from royalty!" Twilight said in a nervous tone.

"Oh you'd be surprised," I said as I was organizing the books Spike handed me.

"I want this place to be spotless, and you've barely made a dent in the clutter," Twilight told Spike.

Spike got a big stack of books and started using the ladder to organize them himself. I would have offered help. But then I thought.

To each his own I suppose.

"Maybe you should start reading them one at a time."

Spike lost his grip and fell down with the books toppling him. Twilight went over to him and used the duster she had to brush the books off of Spike.

"Everything's got to be perfect. No time for fooling around."

"You know, this would be an awful lot easier if there weren't three of us getting under each other's feet."

I believe you mean getting under each other's skin. And I haven't been crawling under anyone's skin... As of late anyway.

"Great idea. You clean, and I'll see how everyone else's preparations are coming."

Twilight gave the duster to Spike and walked out towards Ponyville.

"Maybe I should--"

Twilight closed the door and Spike let out a low growl of annoyance.

"Just the two of us now I suppose," I said, picking up the books Spike dropped.

Spike didn't respond. He just started grumbling and handed me books he picked up from the ground.

Someone's in a bad mood today.

I checked each book I held to see where it would go. The order I had to place the books in was alphabetical, which made it a lot easier. There were tons of books for magic, creatures, history, songs of olden time written in this world’s version. But a book that caught my eye was one titled, "Legendary."

There's no way this is about the video game.

I set the other books aside and opened up the book. It had information on different mythical and legendary creatures, locations, artifacts, you name it.

"Come on Trevor. Help me out here," Spike said in an annoyed tone.

"Sorry. Curiosity got the better me."

I closed the book, picked up the others, and set them in their places. When there was about 10 books left, Spike got about eight of them and handed them to me one at a time. I set them where they were suppose to go and then Spike handed me the other two. When I looked at the titles I noticed that they were both about the Halo story. One was named "Reach," and the other was named "The Halo Rings."

Apparently you found my story more interesting than you admitted Twilight. But you could have done better in naming the second one.

I put them in their place and got out the legendary book, searched through the pages with locations, and saw the first one was called Ancelot.

Ancelot? Interesting name.

"Ancelot: There have been very few ponies who have claimed to have seen this old town, all saying that it contains a mystical creature that brings pain and destruction to whoever trespasses on the town. The town itself is described as only an old village of stone in the middle of a clearing of a forest, and a podium that stands in front of a giant filled arch with a crack in the middle of it. The witnesses have also reported that no matter what they did they could not part the two pieces that were in the arch, and have no knowledge of what the podiums are for or what they do."

And an even more interesting history.

I decided to read more later if I had the time and set it back where it belonged. No sooner when I did, Twilight walked in.

"So how are the preparations coming along?" I asked.

"There are a few hiccups," Twilight said.

"Like?"

"Pinkie Pie's eating all the goods, and the sign was wrong too."

"I'm sure things will go as planned."

"But what if they don't?" Twilight asked nervously.

"Trust me, the entire town is excited about the Princess, and I sincerely doubt they try to mess it up.”

She seemed to accept my answer, but was still on edge about the whole thing. Then I saw a little yellow ball in her hair.

"What's that?" I asked.

It popped out and revealed itself to be a parasprite.

"A parasprite. At least that's what Pinkie called it."

It looks a lot like some anime chibi version of a fly.

I looked around to see if I could find an object big enough to kill the fly. Unfortunately, no such object was available. I went up to it to get a closer look. It rubbed itself against my right cheek, like a cat wanting attention. I held it with my pointer finger and thumb and put it back next to Twilight.

"Interesting little thing,” I said.

"And cute,” Twilight commented.

Sure, sure. Let's go with that.

Twilight got out two dusters and handed one to me.

"Time to start dusting."

Should have seen that one coming.

When we were done dusting the entire house, it was about night time. I don’t know how since we had three dusters, but at that moment I was too tired and annoyed to answer those kind of questions.

"I'm going to bed," I breathlessly said.

"Alright. See you in the morning," Twilight replied.

I went upstairs and saw Spike sleeping with his new parasprite buddy. They got along quite well during cleaning, until he collapsed from exhaustion.

Lucky dragon, not having enough stamina to stay up too late.

I got into my bed and slept. It was actually quite nice since I didn’t have any dreams to keep me semi-awake, but when I was waking up I heard an orchestra of snoring.

I feel sorry for whoever is going to face my tired wrath.

When I sat up and looked around, seeing nothing short of a battalion of parasprite of all colors.

Someone is going to die today.

Twilight woke up as well to the same terrible sight.

"Spike," Twilight said to wake him up.

She waved the parasprites off her bed and managed to fall on the floor in the process.

"How are we gonna get rid of these things?” I asked myself.

Spike was still asleep with six parasprites on him, snoring. Twilight walked over to him.

"Wake up! What happened!?" Twilight asked loudly.

Spike got up and stretched his arms and back. But once he realized he couldn't open his eyes since there were parasprites on them, he screamed for about a second and then took them off.

"What's going on?" Spike asked.

“I think we should be asking, ‘what happened?’ Because I’m pretty sure that there was only one parasprite when I went to sleep last night.”

"Right, so how did they multiply?" Twilight asked.

"Well, the little guy got hungry in the night, so I gave him a snack. I have no idea where these others came from," Spike said.

Our attention was turned towards a loud crash that came from downstairs. The parasprite were knocking books off their shelves.

"They're messing up all our hard work," Spike said.

"The Princess will be here in a few hours," Twilight said.

Twilight ran off and Spike tried to pounce on one of the parasprites holding a scroll. The parasprite just flew passed him and Spike fell on the floor. Twilight got out two dusters, one for me and one for her.

"Trevor, help me round up these little guys."

"On it," I replied.

I went down stairs and smacked every parasprite I saw with the hilt of the duster. They would fall to the ground and I would pick them up and put them in a basket. Surprisingly, they actually stayed there.

"Responsive little things aren't they?" I asked myself.

Twilight got out her saddle pack and opened both of the bags.

"Put them in here. I'll see if Zecora knows what to do with them."

"Got it."

I picked up the basket that held the parasprites and put them all in both packs.

"Try to round up the rest of them."

"Can do."

Twilight ran off with two bags full of parasprites while I just kept on smacking the things until most of them stayed in a general area.

This is as good as I'm gonna get it.

"How'd you get them like that?" Spike asked.

"Through creative persuading."

I went over to the group of parasprites. They were just standing there, looking at me.

"Now, are you gonna behave like a good group?" I asked.

They didn't respond. They just stayed in their area and blinked at me.

"I'll take that as a yes."

I looked outside the window and saw a bunch of colorful dots heading towards town.

"Well that can't be good."

The parasprites that were in the pile suddenly crashed through the door to join their brethren. Once they all left I closed the door and sat near the window.

Let them be someone else’s problem.

I was very tempted to just stay there for the rest of the pandemic, but my conscience overtook me yet again.

Blast it! I'm an evil psychopath. My conscience should be dead by now.

I walked out the door and towards downtown. Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash were in the buyers’ market, watching the massive parasprite brigade eat the town's rations.

"What do we do? They're eating all the food in town," Fluttershy said.

Thanks for the update Fluttershy.

"My apples!" Applejack said.

She ran towards her apple cart, which the contents were being devoured.

"We've gotta do something," Twilight said.

She looked at a brown parasprite holding a green apple cupcake.

"I got it! I'll cast a spell to make them stop eating all the food."

"Wait! Don't--" I started to say.

Too late. Twilight's horn began to glow and started hitting the parasprites. It worked, they stopped eating the food. I went over to Twilight.

"Twilight, what spell did you cast on them?" I asked.

"A no eating food spell. Why?"

"Wait for it."

The parasprites just stood still. Menacingly.

"Look, tambourines, If you could all just..." Pinkie Pie said.

She let out a growl which shook the tambourines in her saddle pack.

"What am I suppose to be waiting for Trevor?"

I pointed to a wooden bucket with one red apple in it, which a yellow parasprite went over to eat. The parasprite sniffed the apple and flew away from it a bit with a disappointed face. However, the parasprite opened its mouth really wide and ate the bucket itself, then spit out the apple.

"That," I said.

The parasprites began eating different things across town, such as signs, lamp posts, and entire carts.

"Hey, it worked. They're not eating the food anymore," Rainbow Dash said with a semi-spiteful tone.

Twilight responded to her with a sheepish smile.

"Oh no. If they get inside my store... Every pony for herself!" Rarity yelled.

She ran towards her store in hopes of it not being in shambles when she got there. Applejack suddenly ran off without saying a word to anyone.

"We should get back to the house," Twilight said.

"Aye," I said.

When we got to the house there were more parasprites. Spike was hiding underneath a basket.

Coward.

Some of the books were open and the parasprites went over to them and started licking them. One even got a fork and knife, twirled the words on the fork like pasta, and started eating it.

"They're eating the words!"

"I've seen a lot of crazy things in my day. But this almost beats all."

Twilight grabbed one of the parasprites by the wing and ran outside. Spike finally showed himself from under the table and looked to me.

"Help," he begged.

I sighed and got one of the books on the ground. I went towards the first parasprite I saw and smacked it over the head, sending it towards the ground.

Should I really go through all the trouble of whooping these things again?

An evil smile appeared on my face.

Yes... I shall.

I started smacking every parasprite I could see, sending them towards the floor, wall, ceiling, and I even smacked a few out the door. The parasprites started retreating soon after my rampage.

"Will that do?" I asked.

Spike came out of his hiding place.

"How did you do that?"

"Persuasive negotiations, my friend. Persuasive negotiations."

The sound of trumpets came from outside.

What's this?

When I started to leave to the location of the noise Spike protested, but I just ignored him. Twilight was standing in the middle of the street, watching Pinkie Pie going down the street with an accordion, tuba, harmonica, and a banjo. All I could do was stand next to Twilight, confused and curious to see what would happen next.

"Pinkie, we're in the middle of a crisis here. This is no time for your--" Twilight began to say.

She looked in the sky to see that the parasprites were dancing along the music.

"Nonsense?" Twilight finished.

The parasprites began to follow the music as if it were their salvation.

Well I'll be cursed. I guess music really does soothe the savage beast. Wee beasties in this case.

The rest of the girls came and saw Pinkie Pie and the line of parasprites. They looked at each other with a dumbfounded face, but then shrugged, knowing they couldn't, and wouldn't, find an answer to this craziness. We all followed the line of parasprites out of Ponyville.

"Look," Twilight said, extending a hoof into the sky.

It was the Celestia's chariot, coming in for a landing in the middle of the street and in the path of the parasprite line. All of us, excluding Pinkie Pie, ran in front of the Princess's chariot. The girls bowed down to Celestia as she got out of the chariot, while I just stood there chuckling on the inside.

"Twilight Sparkle, my prized pupil. And Trevor, my dear friend," Celestia greeted.

Dear friend? Where did that come from?

"Hello Princess," Twilight greeted.

“Good afternoon, Princess,” I replied.

"It's so lovely to see you two again, as well as your friends."

The rest of the introductions were interrupted by Pinkie Pie and the parasprite conga line.

"So, how was the trip? Hit much traffic?" Twilight asked, trying to ignore the metaphorical elephant in the street.

The Princess didn't respond, she just kept looking at the giant line of parasprites.

"What is this?"

Well, it’s a line of evil food eating, now materiel eating, color flies being led by a 4th wall breaking pony with multiple instruments. Just a regular day in my mind.

A yellow parasprite jumped on her wings and continued in the line. Celestia giggled at the act.

"These creatures are adorable."

“Appearances can be deceiving,” I warned.

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

If you call this parade then you should see what I can do. I'll need 30 red balloons, a black marker, and about 30 pounds of explosives.

"Parade? Oh, yes, a parade," Twilight said.

"Unfortunately that visit is going to have to wait for another time. I'm afraid an emergency has come up in Fillydelphia. Apparently there's been some sort of infestation."

"Infestation? An infestation of what?” I asked.

"A swarm of incredibly bothersome creatures has invaded the poor town. I'm sorry Twilight to put you all through so much trouble."

"Trouble? What trouble?" Twilight asked with a smile.

"Before I have to go, would you care to give me your latest report on the magic of friendship in person?"

"My report?"

"Haven't you learned anything on friendship?"

She always seems to.

"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 --"

Twilight was interrupted by a crash from one of Pinkie Pie's instruments.

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

"I'm so proud of you Twilight Sparkle. And I'm very impressed by your friends as well. It sounds like you're learning so much from each other."

I couldn't help but to give an evil smile.

Oh yes, so much indeed. Heh heh heh.

"Thank you Princess."

The Princess got in her chariot and the guards started to take off towards Fillydelphia.

I will get all my answers from you, Princess. I swear it.

We all went over towards Pinkie Pie, who was playing the final notes in her tune.

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

"Emergency in Filldelphia."

"Turns out we weren't the only ones facing this plague," I said.

"Oh no. They got parasprites too? Well, have tuba, will travel," Pinkie Pie determined.

She then proceeded to start playing her tuba.

"I think the Princess can handle it," Twilight said.

"So you knew what those critters were all along. Huh, Pinkie Pie?" Applejack asked.

"Well duh. Why do you think I was so frantic on getting my hooves on all these instruments? I tried to tell you."

"We know Pinkie Pie. And we're sorry we didn't listen," Twilight said.

The rest of the girls started apologizing.

"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."

"You saved my reputation with Princess Celestia."

"And the entire town, or at least what's left of it," I added.

Twilight gasped.

"The town!”

When we got back into town we saw that it was almost completely wrecked.

"Perhaps I spoke too soon.”

Pinkie Pie got out her trumpet and played the "wah, wah, wah," song.

Another happy ending I suppose.

The energy was suddenly sucked out of my entire body, causing me to drop to the ground. My vision started to fade and all I could hear was mere static.

What!? What’s happening!?

When my vision slowly came back to me, I was in a flat world that was entirely gray. There was black silhouette of a man who had two different horns on his head standing before me.

"So, this is the one the voice told me about in person,” He thought aloud.

It was him, the one who was with me in the rock trap and the one who spoke to me at Fluttershy's house. I tried to stand up, but my body was still too weak.

"What's it to you?" I asked bitterly.

I violently coughed up some blood.

"He told me you had promise, but I didn't think you would be this pitiful. Don't worry; I'll only need you in your final hours."

"WAKE UP!" Multiple voices screamed at me.

Flames began to emerge all around me. I had regained my energy and stood up.

"You shall not harm this soul! Be gone, foolish traitor!” I shouted.

It wasn't me who had spoke, but something else. Long claws came out of my knuckles without any pain and the flames grew more intense. The silhouette smiled, showing no teeth but inside of his mouth was pure white. Within the blink of an eye, I found myself in a cold sweat in a green room, lying in a bed.

What happened? Was it all just one crazy dream? Had I been in a coma? If so, how long was I out?