Hivemind Control

A few days passed in relative comfort. Aside from sending her surgeon a fruit bouquet with a thank-you card, Luna had been to see her own physician about the unexpected heat wave that had crashed over her. It had not returned after that night, but the suddenness of it, coupled with it being out of sync, had prompted her to ask Celestia if there had ever been an instance like this before. Celestia wondered if it might have something to do with the bite, but had no definitive answers. Chalking it up as a fluke, watching and waiting to see if it happened again, Luna had been going about her business as usual.

On Thursday, her duties took her out of town, and on the way back, she just happened to look out the window while scheduling the next few days. As it so happened, they were passing by the exact orchard that Cosmo had planted. This was unplanned, as it was just the shortest path back, and Luna had travelled this road a good many times and seen the orchard, but had never stopped to inspect it. Today was different. Today, Cosmo was in one of the trees with a large satchel over his shoulder.

"Stop the carriage," commanded Luna. "Find a place nearby and park."

"Is something wrong, princess?" asked her assistant, concerned. "Is it the folio from San Palomino?"

"No, nothing is wrong," answered Luna. "I've decided that now would be a good time to drop in on this orchard on our right. I was invited, you see."

The assistant nodded. "Do you need me with you for this?"

Luna shook her head. "Come along if you like, but don't feel obligated. If you want to finish some of this paperwork, you can enjoy the smooth ride of a stationary carriage. I won't be too terribly long."

With a nod from her aide, Luna disembarked the carriage and made her way over to the orchard, walking up to the tree Cosmo was climbing down from. As promised, he was wearing a similar shirt, with the sleeves permanently rolled up out of the way. "Good afternoon, Princess," he smiled, disembarking the ladder. "You'll have to excuse my mane and tail. I wasn't expecting company today."

"Don't worry about it," waved Luna. "This was an unscheduled, informal stop. We finished all but our paperwork for the day, and just happened to be passing by on our way back to Canterlot. If I'm being bothersome, I can come by some other time."

"No, not at all," smiled Cosmo. "I just have a few trees left to look over myself, and then I'll be done for the day. Would you care to join me? We can talk as I finish up."

"I would love to."

Cosmo grabbed the ladder and moved it over to the next tree, leaning it up against the trunk and dropping his bag to the ground. "So what sort of business were you conducting that made this your route back home?"

"Clerical stuff. Somepony wants a statue approved for repairs, so you have to bring in stonemasons and assure their quality, look over the old statue to figure out whether it would be worth repairing or if it would be better to just replace it with a new one, and of course there's somepony else that wants to just have the statue and its sisters cleared from the square for a completely new pavilion. And after all of that, the mayor is running for reelection, and feels that he doesn't want to risk upsetting the voters by making the wrong decision, so he goes a step up to the governor for the district, who goes up another step, and another, until it comes directly to my attention."

"So what are you going to do?"

"My decision was to hire a more skilled mason, take down all four statues, and put new ones in their place made of stronger stone, and depicting something nicer. The earth pony on display was cast in a negative light."

"How so?"

"They looked hurt. Insulted, even, to not have wings or a horn. I called for a new one that displays only three statues, all depicting the great achievements of the three most populous races. Unicorns with arcane magics, Pegasi with their wind magics, and earth ponies with their earth magics."

Cosmo looked down from his ladder. "Earth ponies have magics?"

"Most are gifted either great strength, or an affinity for plants and things. It's not just that they like to work with the earth more than others; the earth likes to work with them more. If you were a pegasus or a unicorn, for example, you would have had a harder time growing this many trees. It would still be possible, but it would feel like more work, as you'd be grinding your gears harder."

"Huh. I guess I never made the connection. I thought I just liked doing it."

"Why can't both be true?"

Cosmo chuckled. "Well, I guess you learn something new all the time. Would you grab my nut sack for me?"

"Of course." Luna reached up and cupped Cosmo's testicles. They were just as heavy as she'd imagined. Perhaps a bit heavier, actually. Either way, they were impressive.

"I, uh..." Cosmo shifted and pointed to the ground. "I meant that satchel next to the foot of ladder."

In sudden realization of what she'd done, Luna ripped her hoof away. She gingerly picked up his bag and offered it up to him, unable to form any words. Her face was incredibly hot, and it would not surprise her in the slightest if everything above her shoulders was a vibrant red. In tucking her tail between her legs, she'd realized that she was once again soaked. She'd been so engrossed in their conversation that she'd forgotten to keep track of her arousal.

"Thank you," smiled Cosmo uncomfortably, taking the bag and plucking a few walnuts from the tree. "Is that a common thing to be misunderstood?"

Luna shook her head vehemently.

"Then how about we forget that this just happened, and we can work our way towards trying again from the beginning? Would you like to have dinner with me tomorrow?"

Luna nodded sheepishly.

"Excellent." He turned around on the ladder and pointed to a white farmhouse at the corner of the orchard. The head of his penis was poking out of its sheathe, presumably in response to her touch. His testicles were obscured by his tail, which couldn't quite reach his dick. "Tomorrow, just after sunset, meet me in that farmhouse. That's where I like to spend a lot of my off time. Sound good?"

Luna nodded again, taking a few steps back and straining to keep her gaze on the ground. With everything decided, she backed away until he turned back to his tree, allowing her to sprint back to the carriage and take off with all due haste.