Meadow Heart trembled. The thing inside her was squirming again, doing something. She lifted a hoof and poked at her belly gently and suddenly flopped against the window in the nearly empty train carriage. Her brain was assaulted, her thoughts taken apart as she tried to think on what to do. Memories of poking herself in the belly and then being punished flooded her head, drowning out her own history.

The parasite had bound itself even closer to the weak-willed host. Every time Meadow Heart did something it particularly wanted her to, or didn't want her to, a little bit more of her own memories were scrubbed and rewritten to teach her. She could barely remember her foalhood now, memories of being trained by the parasite within her extended back far before it had found her.

Sitting back up straight, Meadow now knew she must never touch her swollen and roiling belly. Parasites didn't like that and, by extension, she didn't like it either. "Soon, we will be in Canterlot soon, there are so many more ponies there, I promise." She almost wanted to chant the words, she was being good and she wished the thing inside her would just leave her alone. More memories faded, her first love's name, his face… instead she had an aching desire to always have the parasite within her, more than that, she needed it.

"Next stop, Canterlot! Canterlot is the next stop, once we pass the tunnels." A stallion conductor called, walking down the train. "Are you okay miss? Don't you fret for your little one, we will be in the royal city soon."

Meadow looked up at the stallion, the parasite within her read all her memories on male ponies, they certainly wouldn't be suitable for its needs. The fact he wasn't what the parasite wanted made Meadow look away, a frown on her lips. "Yes… thank you…" Her voice was scared, scared for what was happening to her, scared for what would happen when she reached the city with the thing inside her.

All thoughts of that nameless stallion she had loved faded from her recollection, then her siblings too. Meadow started to smile as her two biggest fears were slowly overridden by so many good memories of what wonderful things happened when she brought parasites to new cities. They were wonderful and good memories, because the parasite made sure her own mind told her the so.

"You fed them?" Vicious was shocked. She had actually cared for her drones, counter to what some ponies thought, and to find out her swarm had not only made it back to Canterlot but that not a single drone had perished astounded her. "F-from yourself?"

Twisty nodded. "Every single member of my hive deserves a chance at life without having to worry if they will die from hunger." She lifted a hoof and poked the other queen on the nose, startling her. "Even you."

It shut Vicious up, she had a lot to think about and being considered in this other queen's hive… it was very much a lot. The book in front of her was a ledger, it showed, in neat columns, who had fed on who, how much energy they took and had a rating from one to ten, signed by the pony they fed on, as to how much better they felt after feeding. Working through the ledger, she could see some drones got much better results, feeding more fully and pleasing ponies more. She saw how Twisty had been working to pair such with less performing changelings, and saw how their numbers picked up.

Vicious flicked a page and froze mid turn. Something dreadful had passed by, not close, but within a block around her. It made her skin crawl in a way that nothing in her life had. Whatever that creature or pony was, healthy was not a description of it.

"What is wrong?" Twisty noticed the look of stark terror and disgust on the other queen's face. She had slipped the queen's ring off. Muffins was nearby in the hive and had proven she was a match for the mare.

"I just… something really horrible, nasty even. It was like the opposite of a pod, pain, suffering, emptiness, it was like the exact opposite of what a pony should taste like." Vicious felt the presence fade as easy as it had come. "You have some strange ponies in this city."

Twisty shrugged. "Got some delicious ones too. As you can see, we pair up drones to teach and also to help feed. A lot of my new drones needed to be paired." The mare was very careful never to even hint that the drones were Vicious', Celestia had been very picky on that and Twisty had agreed with her alabaster lover. "Some showed amazing care, we immediately had them start working with couples and herds, that whammy they got certainly has gotten some great reviews."

"Whammy?" Vicious titled her head.

"Your thing you do, that makes ponies horny as bunnies." Twisty shrugged. "Near as I can tell, different hives have a different bent, their trick. Mine is this."

Vicious felt all her anger and confusion fade, everything became a relaxing and tranquil pool. Everything seemed so-

Then Twisty stopped her magic, the green fading slowly from both their eyes. "See?" Twisty beamed, all she had done was tell the queen to chill out.

Gathering her jaw up, Vicious nodded. "Okay, yeah, whammy… why didn't… why didn't you use that on me? Make me be good?"

"You see the pod Princesses Celestia and Luna have?" Vicious nodded. "Chrysalis, former queen of my hive, is in there. She used that power on every single member of her hive, she used it on some so much that they lost who they were."

Vicious was dumbfounded. It was a horrible thought, to be told that you weren't who you were and having so much… desire, to follow the command. She blushed, realizing that while her power could possibly make this mare horny as can be, it would need just one hint of Twisty's power and Vicious would be the meekest of lambs. "Wow."

Twisty nodded.

Muffins had thought she would be stuck on guard duty, but it turned out that things weren't so bad. She got to hang with a whole lot of drones, learned better how to use her changeling-side magic and, the best thing, she learned how to become herself.

Sitting there, looking just like a cute gray pegasus, Muffins had a happy grin all over her snout. "This is great!"

The drone who had spent so much time teaching her was quite relaxed about it, however. "It's important you learn this, all good changelings can shift into pony forms, exceptional ones can even go for more exotic things." Sleek Guise buzzed her wings. "How long you here for?"

"Just staying for a week, maybe two." Muffins flapped her wings, scattering some papers with the effort, she just grinned at it. "The best part is, Gel shifts to match too."

Mention of his name had the goo-changeling 'wake' to this form, he had just left Twilight in the library back at the castle and was relaxing. A good time to flit out to his other marefriend. With a tug Gel flowed off Muffins and poured himself into a perfect gooplicate. "I can, I sort of… go on auto. I can feel you but I don't focus on you."

The goo-changeling was tackled in a tight hug as Muffins decided it was long past time to show him how much she appreciated him. "It's good to have my stallion huggable."

"Prince…" Sleek bowed her head a little. "It is always good to have you visit the hive. Even our new queen will be happy to know you are here." The drone buzzed her wings in excitement again.

Meadow had walked into Cherry Topper's shop and the mare beamed in delight at her friend. "Hiya Mea, how are things?" She trotted forward and hugged her friend.

"Please run…" It was the softest whisper Meadow's throat could make, the loudest noise the last free part of her brain could.

"What? Mea? Are you okay?" Cherry gave her friend a little tighter hug.

"Of course I am, must be a chill." Meadow smiled happily, soon she would infect her best friend and it made her feel great. "Hay Cherry, have you seen these bloom this bright before?" Meadow laid the blooms on the floor and moved beside Cherry so they were flank to flank. The parasite inside her warmed in her thoughts, rewarding her for being good.

Cherry felt the lightest of touches, then a more sure one in a very intimate place. The pressure of something climbing into her shocked the mare to silence and her eyes were wide as her friend jumped on her, pinning her down and pulling back around her throat. She couldn't yell for help and with a lack of air the room was starting to spin. "Shh, relax Cherry, soon you won't have to think either, life will be so much easier for you." They were the last words Cherry heard as the room went dark, the feel of something burrowing inside her making her belly heave as oblivion took her.

The parasite was ecstatic, it's host had performed perfectly and it flooded their brain with pleasure, making sure they were rewarded.

Within Cherry, the spawnling searched and searched, eventually having to pry open the barrier before delving deeper into the new host. Myriad of potential places presented themselves, it located one such and attached, bonding with the mare's nervous system and sinking tendrils of thought into her sleeping brain. It knew this was a priority, so rather than slowly train this mare it began to overwrite her quickly. It's progenitor had much knowledge on how to modify these hosts and because they did, it did.

Cherry woke slowly, her mind reaching for why she had been on the floor and finding, rather than her normal pony life stretched out behind her, a horrible life of punishment and training that mired her thoughts immediately. She looked up and saw… she didn't know the mare's name, but she smiled, they were a host and it was time to spread.

Days passed since Vicious had first felt that terrifying thing, but she felt it again, and again. Now she felt it every other hour. All the things Twisty was teaching her, that she studied, told her something was wrong. "My q… " it stung Vicious still, but the mare knew so much more than her that it seemed horribly appropriate, "queen, there is something, I keep feeling… like hate and viciousness mixed and made solid… there it is again!"

Twisty pushed, mentally. She rode into the energy of the other queen and flowed out with it, with her.

Vicious felt powerless, this was an amazing breach of her defenses but… Twisty was her queen. Instead of struggling, she reached toward the horrible ball she felt and touched it. Immediately it felt like she had bitten into rotten fruit. There was a pony there, but something else, something very wrong.

"I feel it, we need to get the princesses here." Twisty's words made Vicious feel good, apparently she had done something right. "Muffins!" The yell echoed around the hive and there was a sudden flash of green-yellow energy as a force just as powerful as a changeling queen pumped up on alicorn love suddenly flashed into being… wiping crumbs from her chin.

"I don't like the sound of that yell…" Muffins looked between the two queens.

"Something is infecting ponies, making them… making them really bad. You think you can find one and bring them here?" Twisty lifted a hoof to the half-changeling, getting a bop back from Muffins.

"Of course, nothing can stop me!" As soon as the gray pony said it there was another flash of green and yellow and Muffins was gone again.

"Vicious, I will wait here, please bring Celestia at least, if not Luna as well." Twisty looked to Vicious, she didn't want to use her gaze, and the honesty the queen had showed gave her pride that she ended up not.

"She will be here as fast as I can bring her…" Vicious smiled and gestured to where Muffins had just been, "but not quite THAT fast." She galloped out to the balcony of the hive-house and was in the air on buzzing wings.

Muffins scanned around, she reached for the ponies she could see but couldn't feel what Twisty had described. Then a wave of nausea engulfed her, the sensation like all the muffins she had just eaten were bad, horribly bad.

It was coming from a pony in an alley below. Muffins tucked her wings back, murmuring, "bingo." She dived down and blocked the exit. The horrible taste in her mouth persisted as she cornered the pony. "Hi there, I know you have something nasty, please, just surrender." Muffins was in the process of forming a sphere of energy around them when something bumped her from behind. Her senses swung and she reeled, the horrible taste of one of the infected had cloaked the nearness of a second.

Something touched Muffins' plot, then somewhere more sensitive. She started to panic and tried to beat her wings when the thing started to pull into her. Eyes wide, she focused to blink away but something thumped her on the cheek and darkness flowed around the alicorn changeling.

Author's Note

Oh no, Muffins! Fight it, please! I don't want to lose you

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