"You should make a wish." Twilight leaned in against Gel, lifting her forehoof up to point at the shooting star.

"I can't." Gel lowered his head and tried for mock-shame. "I already have everything I could wish for."

"Oh you." Twilight nuzzled him and made sure Gel knew what she thought of sappy things.

"Master, Mistress, do you require cleaning?" Rainbow Dash's voice made both perk up a little. They had left the mare in Rarity's tender hooves for some of the day, which resulted in Rarity going to the spa and taking her maid with her.

Gel turned, eyeing the pegasus up and down. The dress she had brought back from the Crystal Empire was a little much, for one it limited his ability to cover her up and seal her away, but it was starting to grow on him. "Yes, yes indeed we do. We both need cleaning." Twilight surprised Gel with the words, but she delighted Dash with them.

Meadow Heart was out, picking flowers. Her little farm was renowned for them and she had to ship them back to Canterlot as quickly as possible to get the best price. With the pruning shears in her magic's grip, she clipped another dainty blue flower to add to her bundle. A slight shift in the air, a brief whiff of something acrid, had her lifting her head. "What is that?"

Carefully setting down her flower bundle, Meadow trotted in the direction where the odd smell was wafting from, the breeze carrying it right for her nose. Ducking through a windbreak of trees she saw what was smelling. Something had crashed in the middle of her next field! She broke into a canter to cover the ground quickly and soon she was looking down into a crater where, in the middle, a rock sat, about the size of her head.

"Very strange, did a chunk of the moon fall?" The mare gave a little giggle and reached out with her magic, trying to heft the rock. It was light, much lighter than a stone that size had any right to be. "Well, you naughty rock, you just cost me nearly fifty flower plants, you best be able to fetch a few bits at market!"

Trotting back to her house with the rock she retrieved the flowers she had cut and settled into an easy gait. Putting the flowers in some water, she cast the usual protection spell over them to keep them from dying off and set the rock on her bench. "Now, let's have a look at you." She poked, she prodded, but the rock seemed to be just a rock, if a very light rock. "Well, I should get back to work."

Meadow returned to her field for the rest of the day, spending part of it with a shovel to fill in the crater and try and settle as many plants as she could back into the ground.

By night time Meadow Heart had completely forgotten the rock but, with the slight chill of evening, and with the mare fast asleep, the stone cracked. A green, fuzzy tendril snaked out and pushed some of the rock aside, then another, and another. At last, with most of its prison cleared, the tiny creature drew itself up and out of the mess. It waved little sucker-like feelers in the air, tasting and sensing. It could tell there was a compatible host nearby.

Scuttling around on the floor, following the scent that lead it directly to the single occupied bedroom, the strange thing lifted itself along and up the soft bedding that draped down nearly to the floor. The scent was so close now the parasitic creature almost couldn't contain itself. Extending one tendril up, it pulled itself right beside where the lovely scent came from. A single probing stinger lifted from its body. A confusion of limbs and tendrils parted as the tiny, hair-thin needle on the end of the extension sank into the pony's plot. The creature didn't need to judge how much of this venom was enough, more was always better and just made things easier, so it used it all.

Meadow's dreams turned, the lovely day out picking flowers had her running into a cute stallion. His mane was dark as midnight, but his coat shone with a silvery glow. She wasn't sure why but she turned for him and lifted her tail.

The parasite started to push a tendril into the mare, then another. It found good purchase inside and pulled itself up, pressing its mass against her entrance. In Meadow's dream, that stallion mounted her, claiming her with all the tenderness a loving mare could wish. In reality it was the parasite entering her, working deeper and deeper, pulling its large form into the mare until it met a barrier deep inside her. Tendrils worked, massaging and working at that barrier and, without much work at all it slipped into Meadow's womb.

Its host was perfect. If the parasite could think, really think, it would be thanking all the luck in the universe that it found such a perfect vessel. Some probing located the correct nerves, heavy bundles of them, it attached itself with its suckers to the spot and gently worked the inner parts of them at the wall, taking the time to not do any real harm to the host, or cause it pain. It didn't take long for it to bond to those nerves, linking them to its own alien nervous system. A nervous system that had only instinct and could only truly find completion when it came to bond with a host with true intelligence.

Meadow woke up panting. Her sheets were damp and she felt like she had run a marathon. Something moved deep inside her and she looked down at her belly. "I… what… how can I…" Odd memories came to her, memories that the parasite within her carried. They told of a strange life-cycle, of her body now being more than just pony. She smiled. "This is awesome!" Her hoof reached down and rubbed her belly, feeling the new part of her shift inside. The idea that she now was part parasite on some level didn't hold any fear for her. The creature had made sure of it.

Rising from her bed and trotting out into her house, she had new purpose, new drive. She would show other ponies how wonderful it was to be more than a pony. The parasite inside her squirmed in shared delight, as Meadow gained the memories it brought, it gained the sentience of the pony. And it had plans. Tweaking and working at the memories it gave her, the parasite promised a future of happy, care-free pony-parasite hybrids. Meadow stopped a moment in her preparations for a trip to Canterlot, something seemed a little wrong with the suddenness of all this.

The pressure began, a slight growing of sensation just behind her eyeballs. It felt like she couldn't think, couldn't focus. The thing inside her was punishing her for not thinking what it wanted her to think. She didn't know how she knew… wait, yes she did. Those alien memories, showing a host doing bad things and being treated badly. Then another host, doing good things, things they were told to do, getting rewarded. The images flickered in her thoughts again and again. Bad equals punishment. Good equals reward.

Meadow had to fight the strange feeling of her memories and thoughts being clamped down, she struggled and opened her mouth. "I… I'll do what you tell me…" The pain was gone, all the sensations of having her brain locked down faded. Meadow panted and gasped, a hoof lifting to her belly.

Images of herself in Canterlot, in Manehatten, in every city in Equestria, frittered through Meadow's head. The command was quite clear, she 'remembered' just how it was she would infest other ponies with the parasite. She cried but nodded.

The weekend was over, everypony was getting back to their jobs. Rarity left the castle feeling in good spirits at having had such fun with Dashy. Rainbow Dash herself was back at work and beaming from ear to ear, already anticipating her next weekend.

None could compare to how good Cloud felt, or Spike. They had spent the better part of the weekend simply talking, being together. Nothing sexual had happened but the dragon had found out a whole lot more about himself and, to his delight, Cloud Chaser.

"Next time, Spike, would you like to be in your dragon shape?" Cloud was relaxing on his back, on a lovely hill. With RD back he didn't have to start until the afternoon.

Spike, well, the unicorn that Spike felt comfortable as with Cloud, looked over at the dark weather pony. "I… I don't know. When I am a dragon I am still… well, it is a much younger body. Dragons age oddly."

"Eating gems, right?" Cloud watched as a rainbow-flash of light pushed a gray cloud away and then replaced it with another soft white one. He felt more than saw Spike nod. "Well, why not go for it?"

"If a dragon eats gems, the dragon inside them gets more and more hungry for them. Oh, I don't think you were around that time… I tried it, I don't like it." There was a wing draped over Spike's belly, not hugging him, just laying there. "This gives me a chance to be an adult without all that. I can grow up, grow out, without losing myself in a haze of desire for more gemstones."

"I can't make this choice for you, Spike, it is yours to make. I think I have fallen pretty hard though, if you want to be a dragon or unicorn, I don't care." The wing slid up Spike's equine body as Cloud spoke, until it tickled his nose. "I just like being around you, talking to you. It's good fun and you are good fun."

"Even if I returned back to being a baby dragon?" Spike sounded incredulous, how could Cloud actually mean all that. "How can you mean that?" His voice matched his thoughts.

Cloud laughed. "Because I can't help it. It was my head that first noticed you, my heart and my groin followed, but it was my heart that lost itself to you… well, my groin too but that isn't for polite conversation."

Spike turned his head to the side, he wasn't sure why, but it felt just right. He was rewarded with Cloud's lips on his and his brain was bombarded with happy sensations as the pair slowly explored each other and themselves.

"You aren't going to give me back my swarm, you might as well kill me." Vicious spat the words at the two princesses. "Go on, get it over with, damn ponies and your damn mercy."

"Mercy? You would speak to us of mercy?" Luna's fire sprang up, she had spent time comforting Twisty after the poor mare explained that the drones had been mistreated almost as badly as Chrysalis had her own hive. A rage was building in Luna, the cold rage of the moon.

"Lulu, calm yourself. She didn't know better." Celestia leaned over and rest her cheek against Luna's, closing her eyes and just willing calm thoughts upon the angry alicorn.

"Let her go, let her kill me and get it over with." Vicious hated this, with the ring on her horn none of her magics would work and worse, it was blocking her from feeding.

"No, that is not how ponies work. We have a few deals for you." Celestia beamed at the changeling queen. The mare was about as impotent as could be, not that Celestia hadn't invited Muffins to Canterlot for the week, just in case. "You get to pick how we resolve this."

Luna had calmed a little, but grinned now in a most unsettling way. She liked some of the options on the list, she had added one herself.

"First, pod. You will get tucked into a pod for a year and a day. You will lose everything that made you, you. You would then be free to become a citizen of Equestria and you could live out the rest of your days in tranquility." Celestia gave this as the one she thought this queen least likely to take. "Then you have exile-"

Luna cut in. "To the moon." Her grin was wide. Some part of her longed to send problems there. It was not a terrible place, but she was quite sure that too long there would drive a pony crazy, of course she only had one subject so far, but as Twilight said, for science.

"Yes, exile to the moon. Not something I like hoofing out, but it serves a wonderful purpose." Celestia wasn't thrilled with that one. "Training. You put yourself in Twisty's care. She will train you in how to carry yourself, how to act. She is having good success with her new drones, I am sure she can train even a queen."

"Put myself in that usurper's care? NEVER!" Vicious was livid, these weren't options, they were death sentences. The first would kill her mind, the second her sanity… the last would kill her pride. "I want more options, what else do you have?"

Luna grinned. "Did we mention the pod idea? I do like that one, even Chrysalis liked that one."

The words stung Vicious, particularly when she finally worked out what the dark alicorn was lounging on. It wasn't a colored rock, as she had thought. It was a pod. A big pod. An active, big pod. The slightest movement within could be seen, the dark shape inside pressing a hoof to the wall at just the right angle to see the holes in it.

Vicious began to tremble. Her bravado shattered, her nerve broke, her tears flowed. "Please, don't kill me, not like that, not bit by bit, losing myself and loving it. I will do anything!"

"Even learn?" Celestia smiled, she loved it when a plan came together. Lulu really was the best at being bad-sister. She hated the idea of it, but her sis really seemed to enjoy it.

"Anything!"

Twisty looked the other changeling queen up and down. She had watched as a half-changeling had outwitted this mare, how her magics had been casually thrown off by a weak little thing. "We have rules in this city, rules every changeling must obey. The first is you do not take everything I say as pure law. There are times when you need to think and challenge."

Vicious snapped her head up, this wasn't how she imagined this talk would start.

Author's Note

Oh no, multi-word titles. THE END IS COMING!

Welcome to chapter 5, where things get really strange.

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