Swarm of the Century

Dear Princess Luna...

Alright, 10 more episodes, including this one. Hmm, I think I actually saw some of this on TV, as this weird bug thing looks familiar.

Anyway, Fluttershy is collecting flowers for Princess Celestia, she finds this bug thing and sees it eat a bunch of apples, then takes it to show to her friends, leaving all the flowers behind.

Celestia is going to visit Ponyville tomorrow, and Twilight is preparing. Spike tries to weasel out of his work and it backfires, as Twilight leaves him to do it all. The town is getting all gussied up, two ponies accidentally make a banner that says 'Celest' instead of 'Celestia' and Twilight chews them out. She then heads to the Cake's baker where the gluttonous Pinkie Pie is eating all the food they are making for Celestia's visit.

"I'm the royal taste tester! You know, just in case the Cakes are trying to kill Celestia!"

Pinkie spins some line about her making sure it all tastes good, then tries to eat a cake.. Fluttershy comes in, Pinkie swallows the cake whole, and Fluttershy shows off her bug, which is now three. I totally forgot about this episode, but yeah, I'm pretty sure I saw a good chunk of it, because I remember these tribble-like things end up being a huge nuisance.
 

Aww.

Pinkie seems to know what's up, calling the things 'parasprites' and saying now she needs to find a trombone. Twilight dismisses her as being 'typical Pinkie.'

At Rarity's, Rainbow is getting dressed up like a macaroni. She can't stand still and whines about needing to fly, Rarity steps on her tail. Twilight enters, Rainbow keeps whining about how boring it is, Twilight goes to show her parasprite, and she now has 3. They each take one, and Pinkie asks if they know where to an accordion.

Rainbow Dashie went to Canterlot, riding on a storm cloud, stuck a feather in her mane and called it macaroni.

Spike got the Library all cleaned up, and Twilight goes to sleep. The next morning, there are parasprites all over and they are trashing the joint.

Poor Spike, you know Twilight will force him to clean it all again.

Rainbow's likewise has reproduced, they drive her nuts by constantly trying to land on her. At Rarity's, she is actually liking the things, until one vomits, which is how they form more.

"I shall not tolerate such disgusting creatures in my boutique! Pinkie Pie is more than enough for me!"

Pinkie sees Rarity with saddlebags full of parasprites, and tries to convince Rarity to help her gather more instruments. Rarity dismisses her as just being on a scavenger hunt.

"So I sez to Mabel, I sez..."

Twilight meets up with Rarity and Rainbow and they decide Fluttershy should know what to do. They open her house's door and a huge swarm of parasprites burst out. Fluttershy says she doesn't know what to do. Twilight imagines Celestia arriving and being carried off by a swarm.

Celestia can fly, and has magic, and she still makes schmucks drag her around instead.

Applejack arrives with a cart of apples for Fluttershy, which get devoured instantly. They decide to get Applejack to herd them so they can move them back to the forest. They get them gathered into a big ball. Pinkie arrives and asks for help finding maracas and a tuba. They all dismiss her as being 'so random.' They roll the parasprites off into the woods and return to clean up for Celestia's arrival.

Rollin', rollin', rollin'. Keep them parasprites rollin', AJ! Don't try to understand 'em, just rope, roll, and brand 'em, soon you'll be living high and wide! All the things you're missin', good vittles, love, and kissin', are waiting at the end of your ride!

 Fluttershy opens her door and another giant swarm flies out, because she kept one since they are so cute.

"Fluttershy!" "You moron!" "Douchebag."

Twilight doesn't know what they can do, but Rainbow does.

"Don't worry. I got this!"

 Rainbow creates a tornado and sucks up all the parasprites into it. Pinkie shows up with some cymbals, which are ripped off and fly into the tornado. Rainbow is forced to dodge them and loses control of the tornado

+1 to Rainbow/pegasi, being able to make a god damn tornado on their own

Twilight blames Pinkier for ruining their efforts to save Ponyville. Pinkie retorts that she's the ruinee, or ruinette, not the ruiner, and Applejack pretty much calls her a moron as they leave. The parasprites descend onto Ponyville and start eating everything in sight. New use for magic: Twilight decides to cast a spell to make them stop eating all the food.

Ponyverse wars are horrible affairs were you can starve to death with all the food in the world within your grasp, just because your sides' unicorns couldn't dispel the others' Famine spell.

The parasprites stop eating the food, and eat anything else besides food instead, like baskets and signs.

"My plan was ruined by Pinkie Pie, what's your excuse, Twilight?"

The Apple family prepares to defend their crops. The parasprites just eat their buildings instead.

"No parlay! No quarter!"

Back at the Library, the parasprites are still rampaging, except now they are eating the words out of the books.

"Mmm, ancient unicorn history..."

Twilight brings one to Zecora's, hoping she knows what to do. Zecora says they are parasprites, and are infamous for destroying crops and harvests, and that Ponyville is doomed.

"Ponyville will soon be no more, if you will excuse me, I must pack for the shore!"

Twilight runs back to Ponyville, sees Celestia is on her way, and looking really stressed out, comes up with a plan for Rainbow to distract the parasprites, then for everyone else to make a replica of Ponyville in one minute.

That sounds crazy enough to...GET US ALL KILLED!

Pinkie comes down the street as a 'one pony band,' Twilight snaps at her.

You know, for as smart as Twilight is, she should have remembered that Pinkie was the only other person besides Zecora that knew what these were, so maybe, just maybe, she knows what she is doing.

The parasprites are following Pinkie and the music and she leads them out of town. The Princess touches down outside the village, and Twilight and all but Pinkie race to greet her. Celestia sees Pinkie going past, and a parasprite flies near her. She comments how adorable it is, and thanks Twilight for organizing a parade for her.

Celestia has lived for at least a thousand years, and has no idea what these things are? Not sure if trolling or just stupid.

I think she is just 'trolling' as she says her visit will have to be cut short, as there is an infestation of incredibly bothersome creatures in Fillydelphia. Before she goes, she asks Twilight if she learned anything about friendship. Twilight looks around and sees Pinkie, and says she learned solutions can come from where you least expect, and you should always stop and listen to your friend's opinions, even if they don't always make sense.

"So you knew all this time what was going on, and just left us here to lose our homes and businesses?"

 Celestia says she's very proud of Twilight, and impressed with her friends, and departs.

They go see Pinkie, who asks what happened to the Princess. They mention the infestation and Pinkie is alarmed, but says she 'has tuba, will travel.' Twilight says Celestia can handle it, and they all apologize to Pinkie and thank her for saving the town. Wait, what? I mean yeah she stopped further destruction, but quite a bit of damage was already done, including one of the Apple's buildings being stripped to its frame.

"Sorry, Pinkie, we should have known this was the one time where your insanity wasn't just you being yourself."

The episode ends with them in Ponyville,awestruck at the destruction. Pinkie plays a 'wah, wah, wah, wahhhh' on a trombone, and that's the end.

 

What I learned from this episode:

• Not only do evils in the Ponyverse come in easily identifiable forms like hydras and cockatrice, they can also be disguised as cutesy things.
•  I think I actually watched this episode in full before, which is odd because I didn't remember it at all, but once I saw it again it came back to me.
• Pegasi can single-hoofedly form a tornado, or Rainbow can anyway. I really wish this was a little 'grittier' series sometimes, can you imagine seeing pegasi sending tornadoes and hurricanes all over a battlefield, Unicorns busting out all kinds of crazy magic, and Earth ponies beating the living hell out of whatever is unfortunate enough to get in their way?