Inhuman

Chapter 8: Parasite

Humans....

It was a mob of humans who had descended upon Canterlot in all their fury, and had made their way towards the center to storm the castle in the dim moonlight.

A group of humans... who showed up to attack Canterlot... while Zach was missing.  With all the events occurring over the past day, Twilight was finding it harder to believe that all of it was unrelated.  Her mind was beginning to struggle to rationalize that her new friend... their new friend hadn't betrayed her.

Twilight gulped.  She could see the expressions on the human's monkey-like faces, even if they were so foreign to her.  They were almost mad in the way they moved.  It was like they were desperate, but what it was they were desperate over Twilight did not know.

She took shelter behind her mentor, her Element of Harmony adjusted on her head in case she would have to use it.  The wall of humans were entering the courtyard at this point, and she didn't know if they could end this peacefully.

Her eyes locked upon a human in the center of it all.  This one seemed to be using its strange hands to direct the flow of the humans, as if it were the leader.

Twilight compared the human's appearance to that of Zachary.  This one was taller, but also far leaner.  Compared to Zachary, its mane was far, far longer, and was blonde instead of brown.  Its face seemed softer and more feminine than Zachary's, and Twilight's eyes were drawn to two strange mounds that jutted out of the top half of the human's torso.

This one was quite different than Zachary was, and it occurred to Twilight that this one might be a female.

The robes she was wearing... Twilight couldn't help but feel that she had seen those before.

"Those are the same robes that the abductor of those unicorns wore..."

Her mind reeled; had they come for her?

"Princess!"

"Stay behind me, Twilight Sparkle.  Do not come out unless it's safe..." her mentor said, putting up a wing in order to protect her protege.

While Celestia tended to her student, Luna was not content merely standing idle.  Flapping her wings, she took to the sky like a navy-blue rocket, before crashing down and landing in the middle of the courtyard with a mighty thump that shook the earth around them and made many of the surrounding humans lose their balance.

Some of the humans around her screamed in terror as deep shadows fell over them, and Luna stared at them all with glowing white eyes.  To them, it was as if she was trying to steal their souls.

"BE STILL!!" she commanded to the humans.  The under-equipped humans scattered into chaos, little organization underneath their mob-like mentality.  A trained military force they were not.

"Do not follow her orders!"

And yet, there was still one person keeping them together.

"She is not to be feared..." she attempted to reassure the humans underneath her command.  Walking up to the Princess, they gave her a wide berth while muttering to themselves about the intimidating Princess of the Night.

"We are not to be feared?  I can assure you that after what you have wrought upon Canterlot, there will be plenty of reason to fear us!" she roared.  Lambda looked unimpressed.

Twilight looked over Celestia's wing to try and get a glimpse of what was happening, but the Sun Princess simply tightened her grip on her student.

"Luna!" she shouted at her sister.  Luna snarled at her sister and the impudent human in front of her, but her voice went away from the Royal Canterlot Speech.

"I have many concerns right now.  One of them I will make known now is how you..... humans... managed to dispel the barrier.  But all that can be addressed from A DUNGEON CELL!"

"Luna, stop!  Do not be so hasty!" she shouted to her sister, who was standing in the mix of a group of petrified humans.  The majority of them were still tussling with the Royal Guards, and were now feeling just how woefully unprepared for this they were.

"This may be something we can resolve peacefully, little sister," Celestia pointed out.  Her warm gaze turned into ice as she regarded the apparent leader of the force.

"You!  You are the one who are leading this attack.  Although I hope to resolve this peacefully without any lives being lose, I must ascertain your purpose first.  Why have you invaded our fair city?" she asked, her stare cold and her voice unfriendly.

Lambda frowned at her, Celestia's icy gaze apparently being met by her own angry gaze.

"First of all, it's not "you"!  I don't exactly have a true name anymore, but you can call me Lambda!  Do NOT call me "you", especially when you're just some fucking horse!" she snarled at Celestia.  Celestia's gaze seemed to have gotten even icier, but she managed to control herself.  Inside though, she was beginning to feel that a peaceful solution to this could not be accomplished.

"HOW DARE YOU?!!" Luna spat at Lambda, her voice rank with anger.  A few of the Elements of Harmony shared in her sentiment.  "Horse" was not a nice term to call a pony.  Rainbow Dash in particular bristled with anger at the statement, and she almost lunged to attack Lambda.

"And shouldn't it be pretty obvious what's going on at this point in time?  We're invading, which means we want to storm the castle and overthrow your rule!  Don't even talk to me about these "peaceful solutions"," Lambda snarled.

"YOU INSOLENT HUMAN!" Luna bellowed.  She raised a hoof and slammed it against the ground once again, intimidating the humans and guards around her, while Lambda remained steadfast.

She had said those things, but she could feel the power radiating from both Princesses as they spoke.  She had pretty much already lost.

Suddenly, she felt a slight tingling sensation run throughout her body, before fizzling out completely.  She raised a confused eyebrow, before she looked forward and saw Luna trying to use her magic on her.  Apparently she thought she could incapacitate her by levitating her in place with simple telekinesis.  How wrong she was.

As Luna exerted her magic, the Princess seemed to lose control over it, and as she tried to levitate Lambda, her horn eventually died out, and the magical energy exerted on Lambda disappeared.

Luna looked like someone had kicked her.

"What did thou do?" she asked quietly, not using the Royal Canterlot Voice.  Lambda brushed off her robe, before she surprised Luna by kicking the ground and moving forward at speeds that resembled a pegasus.

Lambda was much stronger than an average human due to her special status, and when she reached the surprised Princess her foot snapped out and connected with the side of her head.

Luna grunted in surprise and pain, but her alicorn durability made it so she wasn't injured.  That didn't change the fact that her pride was wounded and she flung back several feet and forced to take to the sky.

There were several hushed gasps that drew Lambda's attention.  She took her eyes off of her opponent for a moment, and regarded the group of ponies huddling behind the protection of Princess Celestia.

The purple one in the middle was beginning to bug her.  The unicorn winced when Lambda leveled her with a heavy stare, and the human girl knew that this was Alpha's target.  Which meant that those six mares were the Element of Harmony, judging by the necklaces they were wearing.

The situation got even worse; if they decided it was necessary to use the Elements of Harmony...

She didn't even wince when the knocked out body of a human almost fell on her, apparently pushed her way by a royal guard that had gotten the best of him.  Without even thinking, her fist shot out and connected with the royal guard's chin, shattering his helmet in two as he crumpled to the ground.

"I hope you don't think you act however you feel like and not expect me to take action..." Celestia pointed out, a flare of anger settling in her stomach as her guard went down.  He wasn't the only one; there was fighting going on throughout the courtyard.

Lambda's eyes widened when the sky became overcast, and several of the humans underneath her command paused to look up in fear at the alicorn goddess resting on a cloud overhead.

Her eyes were glowing once again, and she raised her hooves over her head as a crack of thunder and lightning startled the force of human.  Lambda didn't flinch.

She winced when she heard the humans scream once again, this time it appearing as if they were in a massive amount of pain.  Just from being around that, they were being affected.  They were just lucky it was the Royal Guard engaging them, as she noticed that the Royal Guard had taken the opportunity to cut down more members of the Arcane Ascension.

"Dammit, I just need to..." she muttered, before her eyes snapped open.  Running into the battlefield, ignoring the cries of her mentor, was Twilight Sparkle.

Her horn was ablaze with magic.

"NO!  NO!!  Nononononono!" Lambda screamed in her mind.

"I must say, this is truly barbaric.  Who are these brutes who would dare invade the pristine city of Canterlot?"

Rarity's words were indeed prissy, but that seemed to be what was on all the Element Bearers' minds.

Twilight was at a loss for words.  She was used to her fair share of danger, from hunting down Nightmare Moon and Discord, to the changeling invasion.  This incident was probably closest to the changeling invasion, but even then, there were some striking differences.

When the changelings invaded, the Royal Guard had been relatively inactive.  She and her friends were the ones who fought the changelings, and it was her brother and Princess Cadence who had banished the vile creatures with their love.

But even then, the most they did was hooffight with them, and all the power of love did was knock them out of the kingdom.

With this though, she had never seen anything like it.  This display was far more brutal, and she didn't know if some of the downed combatants were even alive anymore.  The blood that was being spilled was enough to blur the line on that.

She looked up at her mentor; Princess Celestia was furious at seeing what was happening to her guards.  But she was focused on protecting the six of them that she didn't dare move from her spot.  Princess Luna was the one who had taken the more active role.

"Hey!  Is he...... dead?" a voice from across from her exclaimed.  Twilight frantically looked over to her polychromatic friend looking very much not like her boastful self.  In fact, all of the energy had been sucked from Rainbow.

It was easy to see why.  Unlike the changeling invasion, this was a fully armed conflict.  The Royal Guard was going at them with their standard assigned weapons such as their personal spears, and the rogue group of humans were responding with their own, though they seemed ludicrously under-equipped compared to the much more official Royal Guard.

Rainbow Dash was pointing in particular to a human male who had been impaled by a guard's spear mercilessly.  Twilight gulped as she saw the look of pure terror enter his face, as a fountain of blood gushed from his wound.  The guard retracted his spear from the body without so much as blinking, letting the human flop to the ground.

Applejack folded her hat across her eyes, a solemn look on her face.

"T'ain't right.  Looks ta' me that the robed fellers are outmatched by our stallions in uniform.  If they'd on'y give up and mosey on home, we coulda avoided all o' this!" she lamented.

"Savage beasts!" Rarity spat in venom at the invading humans.  She had always had an appreciation for the Royal Guard, and the way these creature simply thought they could take Canterlot set her on edge.

"Mmmm...." Pinkie Pie muttered pitifully.  Her mane had been deflated completely when she saw the carnage before her.  Her mind ran on making friends and throwing parties, and she thought those two things could solve everything.  What she saw before her did not jive with her live philosophy.  The Royal Guard and these funny things should be throwing a party for each other!  Not.... this.

Fluttershy was cowering behind her own mane in fear and sadness, tears flowing down her cheeks.

Meanwhile, Luna had spooked many of the humans into submission, but the human female was apparently not scared, Twilight noted.

Then, something occurred that bewildered Twilight.  Luna had attempted to use magic on the human female called Lambda, but had failed.  An alicorn Princess failing to do a simple spell was unheard of.

"Y'know what I think is weird.  That Zach feller is nowhere ta be seen, and all of a sudden a bunch of humans like him begin attackin' Canterlot.  Don't that strike ya as mighty suspicious?" Applejack pointed out.  Twilight gulped.  Her mentor was listening to them speak silently, like a stony statue that only served to protect them.  She was upset.

"Heck yeah!  That guys a traitor!  He's been lying to us all!"

Twilight had a hard time denying that.  He had escaped from his cell, so it was likely he was somehow connected with the group that was invading.  It stung.

Luna was making lightning rain down now, and it was spooking the humans.  Lambda was responding as fearlessly as ever though.  She didn't know how much more she could take, and she didn't know how the Elements of Harmony could help here.

A lone tear rolled down her cheek as she heard more screams, and she folded her ears together to block out the noise.  However, a sharp, shrill crack resounded in the air, and it spooked every single pony in the vicinity, including the Princesses.

The Element Bearers could only watch in horror as a female human wielded a black bar like weapon, which neither Twilight nor anyone in the group knew anything about.  She had seen those in the hands of some of the humans, but there were very few of them, and they didn't seem to be any use in combat.

Until she saw that one of the guards the female human had been fighting crumpled to the ground.  There was a small hole in the chest of his armor, with blood leaking directly out of it.  The girls stared in confusion and horror as the once proud guard's face melted into a pool of pain and agony.

Twilight couldn't take it any more.  Her mind was reeling from the sounds of the battle, one that the humans were very clearly losing.  Pushing aside her mentor's wing, she jumped down the steps into the courtyard, unmindful of both Celestia's and her friends shouting.

She only had one thing on her mind, and that was stopping the fighting before more ponies died.

"STOP IT!!!" she shrieked above the crowd, even as the Royal Guard and the humans fought, and Lambda kept Princess Luna at bay.

Lambda seemed to see her, and her face lit up with fear.  Twilight didn't stop, her horn glowing magenta.  She was determined to stop them, and if she had to burn through all of her magic, then so be it.

Her magic burst forth, going with the spell she knew best.  But she had to pour everything she had into it, and put all of it onto exact targets.

The humans numbered around one-hundred and fifty now, their forces halved since the beginning.  And when Twilight cast her mass telekinetic spell, that number went down to one.

The silence reigned in the battlefield, as the Royal Guard and even Princess Luna paused in what they were doing to watch as a magenta glow surrounded every single human that was battling.  Every human, except Lambda.

One by one, looks of pure fear entered their faces as they felt themselves being lifted upwards, but it wasn't because they were being levitated.  It was because they knew what was going to happen next.

The Royal Guard stood stunned in awe of the Element of Magic's abilities, as she used her magic to telekinetically grasp one-hundred and fifty humans and hold them all aloft.

She smiled despite the exertion of effort, and she looked at the humans floating in the air like little pods, each of them held in a cocoon of magic.

"Now..." she began.  It looked like she was going to do what she did best: lecture them!  Through her words, they would come to realize the error of their ways when invading Canterlot, and they would be able to come to a peaceful resolution.

Something made her halt directly in the middle of it, though.  The humans were acting strangely.  Though they were heavily restrained by the telekinesis, it looked like they wanted to move so badly, if only so they could grasp their necks.

A man near the front was the first to crack.  He gave out a bone-chilling scream that shocked the surrounding ponies to the core.

The horror did not stop there.  Twilight was mesmerized at the horrific display, or simply what he magic was causing.

First, the man in front of him twisted as enormous bloody blisters formed on all areas of his body.  They swelled to hideous proportions, before bursting into a splatter of blood and creating open sores everything.

Rarity and Fluttershy screamed, and the others looked like they were about lose their lunch.  It was not just limited to the man; all of the humans were suffering from the same effects.

Panicking with fear, Twilight released her magic immediately, allowing the humans to thump on the ground unceremoniously.  But it was too late.  They had been exposed to magic.

Even the Royal Guards were watching on in horror.  Their skin was a bright burned red, like it had been dipped into acid.  And some of the humans looked at them with such desperation and fear that they felt their skin crawl.

And then, their eyes melted.

Straight out of their sockets, and Twilight screamed.  Her voice stopped entirely after a few seconds of screaming, and she stood there with her mouth hung open in horror.  Luna saw what was happening as her mind shattered, and she swooped down into the fray to collect Twilight in one wing, taking her back to her mentor.

The rest of the Elements did not look in great shape either, but they were not in the thick of the action.  Princess Celestia ducked over to her student and wrapped a wing around her, shielding her eyes from the grisly display in front of her.  It was with a heavy heart that the Princess herself watched.

One by one, the humans dropped like flies, their blisters and burns becoming far too much for their bodies to handle.  It hadn't taken any more than two minutes for their affliction to take its course, and one by one they stopped moving and stopped screaming.  All of them.

Except for one.

Lambda was left without a single scratch, but her eyes were stony.  She regarded the loss of her troops with a heavy heart and a scowl, but she would be lying if she told herself she didn't expect this.

"Magical poisoning, huh?  These guys are magically resistant, so I hoped it would be enough.  But direct contact with Twilight Sparkle's magic initiating magical poisoning on all of them.  But the only true magically immune humans are "enhanced" ones such as myself.  There aren't very many..." she muttered to herself, so low no one could hear it.

Fortunately, they still had their mole.  The plan wasn't a complete failure.

Celestia hated to take advantage of such a tragic event like this, but sometimes she had to take responsibility as a ruler.

"Miss Lambda, your forces have been soundly defeated.  It would be best for all parties if you were to surrender immediately and allow the guards to accompany you to the dungeons willingly..." she stated, no faltering in her voice.

Lambda sneered.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?  You don't even know anything.  Nothing at all!  I came into this knowing full well who would win, so I guess it's time to make my escape!" she cried, a smile bursting onto her face before she ran away with those some pegasine speeds.

"After her!" Luna ordered, to which the Royal Guards wasted no time in running out of the castle.

"What a mess..." Celestia sighed.  "You five..." she pointed to Twilight's friends, and then looked down at Twilight herself.  Her precious student had gone into a state of shock at what she had witnessed, what she had caused apparently.  Her friends needed to be there for her.

"Follow me to the throne room immediately.  There are things that need to be taken care of..." she ordered to the depressed ponies.

Word of the invasion spread quickly throughout Equestria.  Canterlot of course was on complete lockdown, and in the morning rumors would surely be buzzing around the city as to the events that happened.

One thing was clear: Equestria had triumphed, and that was enough to put the citizens of Canterlot at ease as they slept.  Yet, in the palace, there were more concerning things to address.

On the castle grounds, the Royal Guard was responsible for the grisly disposal of human bodies, but there was no sign that they knew this battle to be over.

Lambda had evaded the Royal Guard and escaped down the mountain.  Zachary's whereabouts were still unknown, but they couldn't rule out the possibility that he hadn't left the castle.

In the middle of the throne room, the two Princesses were concerned as to what would happen from this point on.  They regarded the six ponies in front of them.  Twilight Sparkle was still shaken tremendously, but she had gotten over her shock, and after thirty minutes of bawling into Celestia's mane, she managed to compose herself just enough to listen to what her mentor had to say.

"Today was a day of tragedy...  The newly discovered creatures known as "humans" have apparently decided to focus their hostilities on our fair Equestria.  The battle was short, and we may have triumphed over our enemies, but this does not mean we should celebrate..." she trailed off.

"You six had bore witness to some of the most truly horrific experiences in a few short hours.  Particularly you, Twilight Sparkle, who had to bear witness to something that I cannot even begin to describe.  I thought you and the Elements of Harmony would be helpful in this battle, but all I ended up doing is causing you great turmoil.  And for that, I am truly sorry..." she said mournfully.

"...It's alright, Princess.  I don't blame you..." Twilight squeaked in barely a whisper, as tears threatened to spill forward once again, and Pinkie PIe wrapped her hooves around her friend, her mane still deflated.

No one felt like talking, but Princess Celestia continued at behest of her sister.

"It pains me that we have to talk about such things immediately after such a traumatic experience, but this conflict is not over.  I hope you understand that we have overlooked a key portion of this event..."

Realization dawned over Twilight's face, but no one else's.

"It is about the human known as Zachary Cricket.  After talking with our sister, we believe he is the one responsible for dispelling the barrier, and is in some way connected with the organization that just attacked us..."

Before the battle, there likely would have been outrage, but this time, no one, not even Pinkie, had the energy to protest.  And deep down, everyone knew that the Princess was probably right.

"I know, Princess..." Twilight Sparkle said.  "He played us for fools..." she spat, a hint of anger tinged in there along with sadness.  "I thought we were friends, but then he caused this!"

"That no-good, rotten, lyin'...." Applejack muttered to herself off to the side. Being the Element of Honesty, she was affected strongly as well.

"I told you he couldn't be trusted!" Rainbow Dash piped up.

"I must say, he sounds like a true monster to use our dear Twilight like this...  He must know that he will receive his just desserts before long..." Rarity commented.

"Yeah!  What a super-duper, meanie-pants!  When I see him, I'm going to have a few choice words!" Pinkie screamed.

Fluttershy said nothing, but she too couldn't keep the hurt off of her face.

"His betrayal is not the main problem here..." Luna picked up, where Celestia left off.  "He is the final loose end to the incident.  We still do not know his location... He escaped a dungeon cell while leaving no remnants of escape.  It will be difficult to track him..."

"We must be up for the challenge, but be warned, none of you are safe.  For all we know, he could still be in the castle somewhere.  As we speak, Luna's night guards are searching for his trail.  They are experts in the field of espionage and tracking, but it won't be easy still."

"Right now, your safety is our number one priority.  Under no circumstances are you to leave the castle until we declare it safe.  Return to your rooms.  We will have guards stationed outside every room.  Try to remain in a group, and do not go wandering off on your own.  Do I make myself clear?" Celestia ordered.  Her tone brooked no room for argument.

Twilight sniffled, but all six friends nodded their heads solemnly.  For now, they would have to retire back to their rooms, but they did not know if they would be able to get any sleep.

The castle was on lockdown.

Day and night guards were roaming the castle halls, searching for the one who had apparently tripped the barrier. Night guards were hiding in all rooms, waiting for see if their elusive foe would reveal himself.

"Yeah, right..." Alpha thought, watching two more guards pass by him.   He had been hiding out in the castle the entire time, being completely out of sight while Lambda waged war.  Like he predicted, she failed miserably to take the castle.

That meant the castle was on lockdown, and Celestia had obviously figured out who was the one who tripped the barrier.  They were looking for him again now that the invasion was over.

Guards were posted outside of every single room, but he already knew which room was Twilight's.  And he couldn't hope to sneak in there in his current state.

He was currently perched atop of the ceiling in the corner of one of the castle's hallways, and the pitch black atmosphere was perfect for his black exoskeleton.  He had eavesdropped on everything that Celestia told them after the invasion was over, but the Element Bearers all went to bed an hour or two ago.

"Welp, time to change the tides a little bit..." Alpha thought as he used his many limbs to get down on the ground.  The humanoid insect cracked his claws, before he focused himself.

He glowed a deep green color of magic, and his body began to crack.  Unbelievably, he wasn't changing his body structure anymore, but rather was activating his true body.  Instead of changing, his body was being reduced.

He was getting smaller.

The insect hybrid got smaller and smaller and smaller within the dark corridors of Canterlot Castle.  He watched the surrounding features get larger and larger in front of his very eyes.

He did not even flinch during the whole ordeal, as he continued to get smaller.  The world was enormous to him now, and he did not stop getting smaller.

When he finally was finished, he was the size of a true insect, and was a beetle-like creature barely larger than an ant..  Less than even an eighth of an inch was his size.

He looked over his body, the structures were the same as his normal sized insect form, but he was vastly reduced in size down to a real insect.  This was probably his greatest ability yet; it allowed him to perform his job, and he was effectively undetectable.  This was how he had escaped from the dungeon cell, and how he had avoided being detected up to this point.

When he was done shifting, he stood up and surveyed his surroundings.  The once normal-sized castle was like a world of giants to him now.  The tapestries looked like they hung in the heavens miles above him, and he could squeeze underneath the cracks in the door easily.

Putting all three pairs of limbs against the ground, he moved at a super-high speed for one as small as him, darting across the massive red carpet plain.  Twilight's room was to the right, but before he could move, a massive gold-covered monolith crashed down in front of him, making a loud thudding noise.

It was the clad hoof of a royal guard.

"Whoa there..." Alpha said to himself, his voice a high-pitched insect-like noise that the guard couldn't even hope to hear.  Looking around in a stern fashion, the guard grunted and took off down the hall, continuing the search.

"Fucking idiots.  They think they're so macho and competent.  They don't even realize I'm right underneath their nose..." Alpha said, before he scurried down the hall.

He passed a couple more guards on the way, before he came to the room that he knew as Twilight's.  There were two guards perched outside the door, and Alpha easily scurried in between their legs and slid underneath the crack in the door, easily avoiding detection.

The plush carpet was like a forest to him, but he managed to get on top of it easily and was walking along the "canopy".  The room was like a landscape to him, with the window in the distance like the horizon.  In the room, there were six massive ponies that were easily much bigger than him.

Celestia had ordered the Element Bearers to stay together, and stay together they did.  They were all once again huddled in Twilight's room.  The purple unicorn had taken the bed, and the other five were huddled together on the floor to keep their friend company.

Currently, all of them were asleep, the five other ponies sleeping either in sleeping bags or mattresses on the floor.  He didn't have any need for them, so he crept past the gigantic ponies along the carpet and made his way to the foot of the bed.

Their loud snoring was starting to get on his nerves.  At his size, he could hear it fairly easily.  Even Fluttershy snored like a hobo.

Far above him, Twilight seemed to be sleeping soundly, despite the trials she went through earlier that night.  She didn't know about magical poisoning on humans; that was going to haunt her for quite a while.

With his prehensile pincers, he latched onto the wooden leg of the bed, and began the long haul up onto the mattress.  This job really sucked, but someone had to do it.

Alpha pulled his tiny body onto the thick mattress, losing his balance slightly because of the indent from Twilight's large body.  Now that he was so close, he couldn't really deny how enormous she was.

A total behemoth of a pony, even though she was actually so small earlier.  She was as tall as a skyscraper to him, but she still wasn't any match.

A five-pointed star the size of a tennis court was in front of him; not where he needed to be.  Scurrying along the mattress, he want upwards towards the front of the bed, warily eying the massive purple hoof that could move.

She was breathing rather heavily, and her chest moved back and forth in a rhythmic motion.  He continued to scurry up, and when he saw her face, he stopped.

"Time to begin..."

This was the reason he was Alpha, the reason he was so important to the Arcane Ascension.  Without his abilities, they could not function.

He looked at Twilight's head, and stepped forward.

Her mane was hanging off on the mattress, and with no hesitation he grabbed onto a purple strand of hair hanging off.  To him, it had the same consistency as a length of rope.

He shimmied himself up Twilight's mane like an agile bug, his eyes trained on her face.  Her enormous eyes were still closed, though he nervously kept his attention on them.  If they snapped open...

Nothing of the sort happened though, and he reached his destination safely.  He had shimmied up Twilight's mane completely, and was ready to begin.

The massive flap that was Twilight's ear loomed directly in front of him.  He walked up to the edge of it, the cartilage shading him from any light.

He stopped in place on the fleshy ledge on the outside of her ear, looking inside.  Twilight's body was covered in fur, but this place was relatively hairless, save for some purple hairs that lined the inside of the ear canal.

Twilight's ear canal reminded him of a massive cave; it was of similar size to one and aesthetically it looked somewhat similar to it, besides the fact that it was an organic tunnel.

The canal loomed ahead of him intimidatingly, but he was used to it.  This step was always necessary, though he had to admit he was not fond of it.

Going through the pony's ear canal was necessary to complete his real mission: take over Twilight Sparkle's brain.  Despite her intelligence and magical ability, if he had her brain, she was helpless.

Getting there was almost like a surgical procedure, and he had the tools necessary to perform it.  It was simple, go through her ear, perform the correct procedure, and reach the brain.  That was the modus operandi.

With Twilight still knocked out and with no way of knowing what was about to happen, Alpha walked directly into Twilight's ear.