Twilight's head was quiet. Almost amazingly so. The sound of her heartbeat intruded like the beating of a bass drum. What is that? She shied instinctively from the thought, expecting reprisal. She carefully adjusted her mind to be empty again, calm, quiet.
"What… you stupid horn head, what did you do to me? What was that… ugh…" The griffon pulled out from under the collapsed pony, feeling horrible and barely able to think properly. "You… I am going to report this." He staggered away, forgetting even his spear. Something thick and horrible was in his belly and despite his efforts he couldn't regurgitate it.
Pushing her hooves under herself, Twilight got up and felt good, amazingly good. There was no poke to do anything, no tug at her "leash." Leaning down she began to munch on the grass at her feet, relaxed and calm. Where is the slithering? Again she chased the thought from her own head, freezing in place and feeling a horrid sensation in her belly, but it wasn't what the thing had done to her, it was just her own terrified reaction to what she expected to come. More thoughts, I need to stop!
"Twilight!" Rainbow Dash landed right beside her friend, hitting the ground with enough force to cause divots. "Are you alright Twi? Your horn is," Dash looked at the shredded velvet of Twilight's horn, "it's all messed up!"
Only one of Twilight's eyes turned up and inwards, the other stared dead ahead. She watched her friend and the purple, destroyed velvet both. "It's gone?" The part of her that had expected reprisal shuddered and Twilight dropped to her belly. "It's gone?"
"It's gone Twilight, the thing is gone, are you okay?" Rainbow leaned down and gave her friend a pat on the withers.
"It is gone." Twilight's good eye widened, the other kept staring straight ahead. "It really is, I can't hear it anymore, it isn't hurting me!" She shot up to her hooves. "It's gone! Dash!"
Rainbow Dash had just a moment as Twilight hugged her, before she was teleported with a loud POMF and, to her shock, she was back in Ponyville. "I found her!" Rainbow screamed it at the top of her lungs.
The odd feeling of her one eye being stuck looking ahead eased as Twilight got the hang of turning her whole head. "Not so loud!" She laughed though, her body still flinching back from every stray thought. She felt her head was clearer than it had been in her whole life, all the minutiae of life was kept back. I don't need to think about everything at once, anyway.
Six friends wrapped around the wrung-out unicorn and Twilight realized just how lucky she was. "I am so glad that is all over." She felt warmth all around, not an hour ago she was not able to feel any of this, she couldn't even contemplate getting a hug. Memories came back, associating thinking with chastisement, it reinforced her mind's focused state. "I really need to go and lie down."
"Well, darling, I will look after little Spikey-wikey, and Fluttershy can take care of Owlowiscious. You just relax, calm down, and I am absolutely sure you will feel better again in no time. Now, what have we learned?" Rarity looked to Fluttershy.
"Oh, um…" Shrinking a little, Fluttershy looked down at the ground. "No more snails for lunch?"
Twilight gave a nervous laugh and gave her friends her farewells. It is all gone, all over, no more- The fear and terror came back and Twilight started to shake. One hoof before the other, she marched back to the tree house. Once inside she wanted to curl up into a ball, to scream, to rail against how horrible it had been to have no control of herself. "Wait, I should research this, to make sure nopony ever has this happen to them again!"
The hunt was on and when it came to finding knowledge in books, Twilight was an expert predator. Book after book was opened, examined, and set aside. Finally, in a gardening book, she found what she needed. "Leucochloridium Paradoxum? That is a big name for…" Twilight's focus was on every word, reading what the parasite did to snails. Then she got to the last part.
Once an antennae—full of eggs—is removed, the parasite will remain in the host and seek out other antennae.
The walls of her library seemed to close in on Twilight, she stared at the page and reread it. Terror, dread, and shock were the order of the day. "It… it's… still in me?" She shook and fell down, landing on her side. Curling into a ball the three horrible emotions that the news imparted swelled up, taking her entire mind.
Movement, deep in Twilight's brain had her squeeze her eyes shut. "I did it, I put your eggs in a griffon! What more do you want from-" The feel of something in her head, much smaller than the huge discomfort that the first "ministrations" had been, pressed into a particular part of her brain. It pushed, squirmed, and then pulled back.
Panting hard, staring at the inky blackness of the inside of her eyes, Twilight felt the touch push the fear down. "Wha-" It came again, almost more gentle than she could believe, it pushed into part of her brain, squirmed a little, then pulled back. "I… why is it doing this? Why is it-" Again it came, and this time the squirming lasted a little bit longer, pushing the last of the fear from her head.
Twilight lay, staring ahead now. She wasn't looking at anything in particular, but her thoughts ran wild. Still in a state of shock, and dreading the feel of the thing in her skull even more now, she whimpered as its touch pressed again, a new place, squirming, then pulling back. Dread faded, then a third touch in another place again left her floating, her negative emotions stolen from her. It's training me, it is making me more… more accepting. Knowing what the parasite was doing, and being able to stop it, were two completely different things.
"I will go to the hospital! The doctors there will be able-" The squirming came, this time it was the big, broad touch that she knew was the "whip" the parasite used. She got no more warning than that before it pushed into her skull, shoving and squirming around, then pulling back. "I am not allowed to go to the doctor, then?" The feel of the thing in her head moving, poised and ready, was her only clue as to the answer.
Looking around herself, Twilight realized she had made a mess again and being a good mare she cleaned up. Without the fear, she had no way of rationalizing the idea that she needed the thing out of her head, she was just so… apathetic to it.
"Hungry." Twilight spoke the word aloud, the thing in her head was still and quiet. "So you know what I am thinking about now?" She went upstairs, to her kitchenette. "You knew when I wanted to go for help." The very thought of needing help caused a stirring in her head; Twilight quickly backed off from it.
Making up a simple sandwich, she was quite surprised by how her right eye acted. "Wait, you are used to things like snails, things that don't have too much you can mess up." She carried her sandwich with her and headed down through the library and into her basement. The aetheric scanner might work. She turned on the power to the machine, keeping one eye staring at the readouts while the other guided her magic at the controls; soon all was ready.
With the humming machine beside her, Twilight stood a little away from the detector, so her whole body would be in the shot. She waited until the light flashed green before she pressed the big red button with her magic.
Buzzing away, Twilight's special thaumic printing machine soon spat out a page. "Well this can't be right." Looking at the outline of a pony, her own representation, there was a green mess of goop in her midsection, in various places, pushing up in fine tendrils of green through her neck and. "M-M-My brain?" It was like a spider web in her head, green fibers spreading all through her skull. A thicker tendril seemed to end at the base of her horn.
"Okay, so is this going to happen when my velvet grows back each time?" Twilight examined the output again and sighed. "Okay Twilight, hypothesis. Every time my velvet grows back the parasite is going to push up into my horn and guide me to a griffon to… what does it do to griffons?" Twilight shook her head. "No, that is for later. I need to find a griffon to help me."
A scroll floated up and Twilight started taking notes. "I will need to look at what it does to actual birds, to get some idea. Oh, I could try to find that poor griffon I got." Her quill scribbled across the paper. Moving closer to the machine, Twilight pressed her head right against the detector plate and pressed the button again. This time she got a much clearer idea of what had happened.
"So it pushed up through my neck," Twilight couldn't help but gulp at that. "Then it went for my eye. It found my brain first, traced the nerve along and…" She could see the tangled mess of the parasite behind her eyeball. "Well that explains it. It didn't give up, it pushed further upwards and reached…" Her hoof tapped the picture of her head right where the big mess of green that had worked right at the base of her horn.
"It found my horn, thought it was an eye-stalk." A touch of nausea and worry came, then the gentle touch, thrusting into her brain, squirming just a little, and pulling back. There was no more nausea. "And the-" She didn't finish her words, the thrust coming again and banishing all her negative emotions again. Twilight inhaled deeply, but managed to keep hold of herself. "Okay… thanks, I guess. So it took over my horn, growing in there as per normal. And it pressed into my brain." There was no big tendril, no actual damage. There was however a web-work of green, like a web or net. But it didn't just wrap her brain, it was burrowed all through it. "That's amazing…"
~~~~~+++++~~~~~
Twilight spent days examining herself, she had tried to tell her friends—when they inevitably visited—that she was perfectly fine, that she just wanted to relax and let her horn recover, but finally they sent their big gun to find out what was really up. She hadn't told them, she hadn't told anypony; the longer she spent isolated, the longer the parasite had to train her, to make her act as it wished her to.
"Twilight!" Applejack was upstairs, looking for her friend. "Ah brought you some stew for dinner, Twi!" The open door to the basement was a give away as to where her friend was. "Twilight?"
Quickly hiding the printouts, Twilight moved to the door. "Just down here Applejack. What's up?" I should tell her, but then it will… it will punish me again. Is this… this IS training! It is training me to… to what? Be a good host? A gentle stroking came through her mind, neither rewarding nor punishing; Twilight gave a little sigh.
"There ya are." Applejack set the bowl of sweetened apples on a nearby bench. "Just makin' sure it is all gone?" It was hard to miss the huge, powered-up machine.
"Uh, yeah!" Twilight knew a lie would tip her friend off more surely than if she had just told her flat out. "All looks fine, no cause to panic!" Movement, warmer movement. Twilight felt the tendril move and poke into a new place. It thrust in and squirmed a touch, withdrawing and leaving Twilight's eyes a little wide. That felt good...
"You sure you alright, Twilight?" Applejack squinted at her friend. "Ah what am Ah sayin', o'course you aren't alright, you had some kind of freaky parasite in your head, takin' control o' ya."
It still has me, Applejack, it still has me and I won't tell you because it will punish me more if I do. The traitorous words filled Twilight's thoughts, but she didn't say them, she didn't dare. "I am sure I will be right as rain in a few days!" Except it will be the parasite making me "right as rain."
AJ's eyes landed on the pictures on the bench, she remembered what they were all about after Sweetie Belle had her incident. She almost sucked in a deep breath at the size of the "green" in the pony. "Ah better be goin'!"
Twilight's heart was beating fast as one of her best friends left. No sooner was Applejack outside her house than Twilight groaned. "Applejack the parasite is still in me, I need help." She didn't shout it, she barely said it any louder than a normal conversation volume. Twilight slumped to the ground on her belly. "I didn't tell her…" As Twilight said it, the gentle poke, squirm, retreat came again, then again. "I don't want a reward, I want to be free!" But she couldn't deny it, Twilight Sparkle was being trained.
Her focus on what the parasite was doing to her was interrupted, Twilight yawned widely. Well of course, all day I was walking and teleporting around. Then I did science... She couldn't stop herself yawning again the moment the first ended. "All right, all right. Going to bed." Marching upstairs, she found her room pristine and clean, as she had left it. Climbing up on her bed, Twilight pulled the covers up around herself. "If you relaxed and didn't push me so much, I really wouldn't mind-" Twilight's sleepy mind was interrupted by a gentle touch in her head, a soft thrust, a light squirm, and as the thing drew back it was the mare who squirmed next. Sleep fell in around her, she couldn't resist it in much the same way as she couldn't resist the parasite's conditioning.
The first dream came for Twilight, it was an old one, a happy one. She was having fun with her friends, their friendship growing as a result of… it was impossible to tell what exactly they were doing. Something tickled in the back of her head and the dream shifted.
Twilight was in a hospital, there were doctors all around. They knew she had something strange, something amazing inside of her. "No!" she shouted at the doctors, getting a warm pleasure in her head, "You can't have me, or them!" The pleasure increased and she giggled at the doctors. "You are all stupid and don't understand how good it is!" Another warming delight.
Again and again Twilight was put in situations where she was caught and the thing inside her was going to be removed. Again and again warmth came whenever she denied and pushed away from the invasive advances. But the last one was the hardest. How Twilight knew it was the last dream, she wasn't sure, but she knew it was. Celestia, Luna, each of her friends, even her brother and parents were there.
"Twilight?" Celestia's voice was so clear she thought could actually hear it.
"No, I don't want you to take it!" Twilight grinned in her dream, it wasn't like the thing in her was actually hurting, it was making her feel quite nice!
"You need to wake up now, Twilight Sparkle." The Luna in her dream stomped a hoof and, suddenly, Twilight felt the dream fall around her and she lifted her head. Or tried to.
"Twilight?" Celestia was standing over her student. "Twilight are you alright?" Concern for Twilight was thick in Celestia's voice.
"She is." Luna's sure and commanding voice came from beside Twilight, leaving the unicorn trying to turn her head to see, since she couldn't roll the eye on that side. "Your friends called us."
"Let me go, why are you doing this to me?" Twilight squirmed in the grip of some kind of restraints. Her dreams flashed back and she froze. It was conditioning me more, it… I can't even stop this.
"Your friends have appraised us of what happened yesterday. Applejack saw the scans you did. Twilight, we are here to help get it out of you." Celestia's voice was soft and calm, and immediately made Twilight panic.
The parasite pushed down on her panic, but not all the way. "It isn't hurting me, so I need some help from a griffon from time to time, it isn't like it is taking over me completely!" Twilight felt the gentle stroke, the pleasurable squirm, as her mind was rewarded for her support. "Just let me go, I don't want this!"
The scans were set down in front of Twilight, Celestia's magic wrapped around them. "Twilight, we are working on a way to free you."
A quick poke with her magic, so gentle she didn't even light her horn, told Twilight there was some kind of magical block on the room. Small things could be done, but teleportation wasn't "small." She fought against the restraints. "I am telling you, this isn't bad. It is inside me sure, but-" Twilight's eyes narrowed, "please get it out." The words were out in a rush, they came straight from her head without any wait.
The push came, the thick thing in her head shoving down and squirming. Twilight felt the horrible sensation radiate down from there, her whole body trembled and fought the restraints as she voided from every place. The thing in her head pulled back, paused, and came again. She tried to be ready for it, but nothing the mare could do could make the horrible sensation of having your brain violated any less. It squirmed inside, feeling like it was pushing all the contents of her skull out through her nose. Please stop.
It didn't care, it thrust again and squirmed, Twilight's empty-feeling head was full of its mass now, all her thoughts and ideas shoved free. She lay there in the tight bindings, the parasite shoving in and out of her head. I'll be good. Somehow the thought slipped free and, in that moment the shove stopped, the thing pulled back. Please stop, I won't do it again. Her head was empty, she had a few thoughts kicking around, but they were ones the parasite hadn't violently shoved from her. Thank you.
"She stopped." Luna moved around in front of Twilight, catching the bound unicorn's attention with her movement. "Twilight Sparkle, can you hear us?"
The taste of her vomit and bile had Twilight gag a little. "Just let me go, please? It only punished me because you want to get it out of me." The parasite was passive in her head again, she didn't want to get free. "I am sure I can find a griffon who will… let me plant its eggs in."
Luna lifted her head and gazed at Celestia with a significant look. The two alicorns left the room, left Twilight alone with her thoughts and her trainer.
This is just one of Princess Celestia's normal reduction fields, trying to cast a single spell too big won't work, but if I... A gentle touch, not pleasure, not discomfort, flowed through Twilight's head. It cleansed her mind of things she didn't need. Thanks. Twilight focused on the problem, taking her signature spell and redesigning it on the fly. She started working the little spells, each building up, working under the radar of the restrictive spell.
It was slow work, but Twilight cast each section of spell, letting them form and assemble a weak teleport. She was coming to the last part of it when the door opened. "Got it." She got a brush in her head, a gentle stroke of support.
"Twilight!" Celestia watched as her student blinked out of existence with a POMF and appeared again behind her. Celestia was just warming up a spell to grab the mare when Twilight activated a much more powerful version of her teleport.
POMF
Looking around, Twilight took stock of her location. She was on a hill below Canterlot. "They aren't going to take you out, don't worry." More gentle strokes, squirms, withdraws tickled Twilight's mind. "Now, we need to go further." Charging up a bigger spell, Twilight let it go and skipped like a stone. Bouncing in and out with repeated POMF sounds, Twilight skipped past Ponyville and directly into the Everfree forest.
"We are safe." Twilight panted as she looked around, realizing that the Everfree Forest might not really be all that safe. "Safeish, at least." A warmth flowed through her head as she was given positive stimulation again. Please stop doing this, I am fine with you being in me… But part of Twi wasn't, of course. She knew it, and she knew that the thing probably wouldn't stop with the training. "What am I going to do now, wait until my velvet regrows so you can take control of me again?" A little resentment rose in Twilight, quickly joined by a push in her head, a squirm, and a withdraw. "Stop that! I am allowed to feel bad!"
Twilight's legs folded as the first shove, heavy and overbearing, pushed into her skull, it worked and squirmed more than usual, scattering her thoughts out her ears. When the thing pulled back, she was quiet in her head.
Standing still for nearly an hour, the mare finally felt a thought bubble up. "Okay, going back to the library. I need to do more experiments on how we are going to live together." The touch was gentle, a reward for thinking "right."
POMF
Twilight landed in her basement, the room she knew so well. The only room she would know better than this was the library itself. "Okay, let me get a look at you." Twilight fired up the machine again, waited for it to warm up. "I need some high-detail pictures of all of you, so if you change later I can tell what has changed."
Again and again the big machine flashed, taking picture after picture of Twilight's insides, of the parasite. The last one she took was a close-up of her head, Twilight inspected it closely. "What… it is getting bigger around my-" She jerked as the pressure behind her right eye increased. "You need to lay more eggs?" A gentle, warm thrust confirmed her guess. "Buck..."
Author's Note
Note: Unlike my other stories, I cannot in good faith accept commissions to continue this. It is based off works that are not mine. However, there may be more in the future, I just don't know if I will ever be in the mood to do them, so leaving it "Completed."
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