Hivemind Control

"Are you certain about this?"

"Positive."

Twilight lowered her hoof to the back of a wiggleworm. For the first time, she'd been allowed to move around inside the hive with no escort at all. Cercus had, of course, left instructions at all entrances not to let her out, but she had expected that. She wasn't going to the exits, though. She had come down to see Fluttershy. "Don't you have anything smaller?"

"Of course I do," said Fluttershy. "A new clutch just hatched over here, but they've already been cleaned up, and that means there's no toxin in them at the moment. Then there are the adolescent ones, but they were all milked yesterday, and it'll be several days before any of them produce any more toxin. This is the only one that can produce as much as you need."

"But it's so big! How am I supposed to ingest this thing? I can't even open my mouth that wide, and I doubt my gag reflex would allow me to not bite down on it."

"You'd be surprised," smiled Fluttershy. "They're squishier than they look, and while those mandibles and cerci look sharp and dangerous, they're retractable."

"I still don't think I could swallow it. I'd choke for sure."

Fluttershy picked up the wiggleworm and gently stroked it. "I could try to siphon some of its toxin away, but the changelings that come to collect it are pretty mean-looking. If they didn't receive all that I had, they'd start to think I was doing something with it, and having a bottle unaccounted for is not going to make them happy."

"I understand," nodded Twilight.

"Why did you need it, anyway? It doesn't have the same effect on changelings as it has on ponies. Even if you were to dump the toxin into one of the changelings' mouths while they slept, you wouldn't suddenly be able to control them."

"It's not for that, no," admitted Twilight. "Honestly, I..." She waved Fluttershy in close and whispered, "I think I'd be able to do more to protect Equestria from outside the hive, and this is one of the best ways to leave it."

Fluttershy also dropped her voice to a whisper. "Doesn't it suck out your will and make you just another egg carrier for the hive?"

"There's a process. Cercus says that if we do it properly, I can keep part of myself intact. Enough so that I can continue to make my own decisions."

"Do you think he's telling the truth?"

"I don't know. But I do know that if I sit in here and wait for them to let me out, they'll devour all of Equestria. If I just submit entirely to them, they'll devour all of Equestria. If he's lying to me, then that's the same as submitting. But if he's telling the truth, then maybe, just maybe, I can provide some kind of buffer to slow the process down. It's not going to stop them; that would take a miracle at this point, but there's a chance that I can slow it down and give that miracle more time to happen.

Fluttershy nodded in agreement. "Well, if you're sure about this, then I believe in you." She hoisted up the worm and placed it in a box, which she then placed on Twilight's back. "If you're unable to swallow him, he can burrow in somewhere else. I know it'll be uncomfortable, but try to just let him do his thing. He knows what he's doing."

"Don't you need him back to keep up your quota?"

"Of course. But right now, Equestria needs you more than I need this wiggleworm."

With a hug for Fluttershy, Twilight returned to her bedroom with the wiggleworm on her back. It was actually more akin to a grub than any worm she'd ever seen, but she wasn't the one who had named it. This thing was massive, seven and a half centimetres wide and just over thirty long. Long, pointed barbs at one end served as mandibles, and a slightly smaller set at the other end made up the cerci.

Cercus returned to the room a few minutes after she did. "Did you pick up a bottle?" he asked, bringing his own box to the dresser.

"They took it all away yesterday," said Twilight. "There wasn't any down there."

Cercus turned around. "You know, that's just going up a few more flights at this point, right? It's being used to aid in the production of changeling eggs. It won't be leaving the hive at all until Luna is properly seated in Canterlot Castle."

Twilight blinked a few times. "I did not know that. I don't think Fluttershy knew that, either." She picked up the wiggleworm out of the box. "However, she did give me this. She said he emits the stuff we needed?"

"Well, that's certainly an option. Faster than drinking the stuff, but not as fast as injecting it right into your veins."

"I still don't think I can swallow him, though."

"That's okay." Cercus sat down next to her and took her hoof in his. "Once we start, there's no easy way to reverse this. If you find that you're scared and start bowing out halfway through, you'll end up exactly as the princesses are. Keeping your mind can be stopped. Changing your body cannot. If you want to just wait until Equestria is ours, you don't have to change, but this is your last chance to consider it. Once we start, it's permanent. Are you sure you want to go through with this?"

Twilight took a deep breath. "What I want is no longer an option. What I have as options are not ideal, but of all of them, being bound to you is very much the least bad. I'm going through with this."

Cercus nodded. "Then lean back and spread your legs."

Twilight did as she was told, and felt Cercus securing her down. She couldn't thank him for what he was about to do to her, but she knew it was for the best. It would all be worth it to see Spike again. First, he spread her lips apart to allow access. Slowly but surely, the wiggleworm crawled up inside of her, causing her to squirm and writhe as the big bug crawled up her vagina and into her womb. Here is where it would stay until her body was transformed. Once it was in a place where she couldn't remove it, there was nothing more to do but let her body absorb the chemicals. Alas, there were two more things that needed to be done daily to ensure that the binding took properly.