The Swarm

Celestia rested her hooves on the carriage, admiring the view as the wind blew her mane around. She always did enjoy flying, whether it be her using her wings or being flown by the guards to her destination. Raven, on the other hoof, was holding onto the side of the carriage for dear life with her green face as Raven resisted the urge to vomit her breakfast up.

“Do not worry dear Raven. It is only merely a few more moments till we land,” Celestia reassured her and Raven gritted her teeth.

“Oh joy. A few more moments of hell,” Raven grumbled and Celestia giggled softly to herself. “Laugh it up, you.”

“I am.”

Raven rolled her eyes and braced herself against the wooden door of the carriage. Landing was always the worst part to her. No matter how many times she flew, she never got used to the damn landings. Her first one she vomited for a solid ten minutes.

“Ponyville seems different today,” Comet Chaser commented idly as she flapped wings and the other three guards nodded their agreement.

“Got that right,” Thunder agreed and flipped his mane as he gazed down at the town. “What do you think they’re running from?”

“Who knows? Got a feeling we will be finding out soon,” Comet grunted and waved a hoof in a circle motion above her head before pointing downwards.

Raven lurched forward as the four pegasi dove towards the ground and Raven glowed a light gold.

“Thanks,” Raven muttered as Celestia’s horn still glowed gold. “Oh lord have mercy.”

Comet and the others hooves slammed into dirt road, sending a large cloud of dust up into the sky as they dug their hooves into the dirt to slow down.

“Another fun landing,” Raven commented sarcastically and rolled her eyes.

“My apologies, ma’am,” Comet Chaser commented as she shrugged off her harness and adjusted her gold helmet as she folded her wings to sides. “Two of them are still pretty new.”

Comet opened the door and stepped back, saluting as Celestia stepped out.

“Easy,” Thunder Wing caught Ravens foreleg as she stumbled out. “Take a seat next to the tree.” Comet rolled her eyes and smirked as she turned to the two other guards under her command.

“Alright you two. Water break,” Comet ordered and tossed them some water bottles. “Rest up. It’s a long flight back to Canterlot.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“We’ll be awaiting your arrival, ma’am,” Comet saluted Celestia and Raven. “The carriage will be clean and ready for take off when you two return.”

“Thank you sergeant,” Celestia nodded her way. “We won’t be gone long.”

“This is bad. This is really bad,” Trixie danced nervously on her hooves as she and the four remaining elements watched in stunned silence at the parasprite cloud around them.

“Alright. Trixie, Roseluck, try to help the town folk move to a safer area in an orderly manner. Shoeshine, Derpy, try to corral as many parasprites as you can,” Silverspeed ordered and the four nodded. “I’m gonna get some clouds. We’re gonna trap the parasprites inside the cloud and take them as far away as we can.”

“You really think that’ll work? They made pretty damn short work of Ponyville,” Roseluck pointed out and winced as she looked around. “Won’t they just eat the cloud?”

“Not a chance,” Silverspeed shook her head confidently. “Only pegasus can make clouds into drinks, not random creatures from Tartarus itself. We will launch those damned things straight up into the atmosphere.”

They nodded and Silverspeed pushed herself off the dirt, the ground shaking slightly from her takeoff as she flew towards probably the biggest cloud she could find.

“Well, you’ll do,” Silverspeed shrugged and started flying in a circle around it in a blur of gold and silver, occasionally nudging the cloud with her hooves gently.

“Come with me. Nice and slow,” Roseluck pushed some wood from a house off a stallion. “Follow Trixie. She will get you and the others to a hill over Ponyville.”

“Follow the Caring and Kind Trixie. Right this way,” Trixie flared her cape out and Roseluck nudged some of the ponies to start walking. “Come on Rosie. We got everypony we could find over here.”

“But there’s the rest of the town we have to worry about,” Roseluck pointed out with a frown.

“And we will come back for them, I promise,” Trixie placed a hoof on her back. “I can’t watch all these ponies alone. We’re gonna come back and help them too.”

Roseluck glanced back at the town as Derpy and Shoeshine galloped towards the cloud of multi colored pest.

“Okay,” Roseluck relented and sighed. “Let’s go, everypony. I just hope Derpy and Shoeshine will be fine.”

“They will,” Trixie promised and removed her hoof.

“Do you care to tell me exactly what your plan for rounding them up is?” Derpy asked as she ran alongside Shoeshine.

“Well, I was just gonna get a big enough net or something. Grab them all in one go. It’ll be like those mass fishing boats they got up near the oceans,” Shoeshine explained as she used a light pole to fling herself around a corner. “Pinkie has one. You ever go fishing?”

“Nah, I’m not patient enough for that. Believe it or not, I’m really not a patient pony,” Derpy confessed and rubbed her head with a wing as Shoeshine spared her a quick glance. “It’s different with my kids. I don’t like sitting around doing nothing. Gets me anxious.”

“Relatable,” Shoeshine commented as she and Derpy stared with wide eyes at the wreckage that was Sugarcube Corner as the sign fell with a loud crash. “Holy shit.”

“Woah.”

“Alright, change of plans. Let’s just try to get them as close together as we can. Then Silverspeed and you can do your pegasi thing, shoving them in the cloud and getting them out of here.”

Sunset yawned and spit out some vomit before opening the blinds and hissing. Redheart might have been right about her being a vampony instead. Her eyes widened once they adjusted to the light as she observed Roseluck and Trixie helping some ponies leave Ponyville, Silverspeed flying a a cloud close to ground as Derpy and Shoeshine tried to corral some multi colored specks.

Sunset bit back a curse before she opened her door and trotted down the stairs.

“Of all the times things could go to shit, it’s when I’m sick and Celestia is visiting.”

Sunset reached her front door, shoving some sun glasses on and flung it open.

“This is really not going well!” Shoeshine called out as she nudged some of the parasprites into Derpy’s hooves. “The more we shove in, the more comes out.”

“Tell me something I don’t know. Westhoof really doesn’t teach us about these things in class,” Silverspeed retorted with a frown. “This cloud isn’t gonna last much longer- woah!”

The cloud dissipated with a loud pop, Silverspeed spinning head over hooves from the amount of parasprites emerging from what remained of the cloud.

“Ugh.”

“What the fuck is going on here?”

The three watched in silence as Sunset stepped forward, holding the parasprites in a teal glow as she winced, sweat dripping off her face as she swayed on her hooves.

“I can’t hold this much longer. If you’re gonna do something, do it damn it,” Sunset gritted her teeth as the burning sensation at the base of her horn grew. Using magic when sick was never a good idea. The last time she had hurt this bad was when she had a concussion.

“You shouldn’t be here,” Trixie commented as she and Roseluck galloped up. “We got everypony we could find out.”

“Good. Get Sunset back to her room and- what the hell?” Silverspeed and the others stared in confusion as Pinkie trotted past with various instruments, Trixie vaguely recognizing one as her own that had gone missing recently.

The parasprites started bouncing up and down, slamming against Sunset’s ball of magic she trapped them in as it disappeared and she collapsed into Trixie’s hooves.

“Get Sunset back to bed,” Derpy told her and Trixie nodded. “Somepony should find Celestia.”

Trixie started carrying Sunset away as they all watched the parasprites following Pinkie into the Everfree.

Never doubt Pinkie Pie, Derpy thought to herself as they all turned at hoofsteps behind them. A stunned Celestia and Raven stood behind them, looking around at the damage as a door fell off a house.

“What happened here?” Celestia asked finally as she licked her lips.

“That’s uhm a long story Princess,” Derpy told her as she and the others bowed.

“I see. Well, I have one more question first.”

“Uh what is it?” Roseluck asked as she and the others stood back up.

“Where is my daughter?”