A Conspiracy of Order

Applejack-Drone was still getting used to the feeling of being a host. There was less mental confusion, as the drone pony had been put to work quite well, and there had been several moments of utter submission to the parasite inside of her – and to the will of the Nest to be broken in properly – but there was still that vague sense of being…other. Something that wasn’t quite fitting, something that was still finding its purpose.

The purpose is the Nest.

Yes, that was the drone’s overall purpose, but what was its specific purpose? There was still that faint hint of what Applejack-Drone had been before being infested that lingered, ever genuine about its feelings, and…

And…

Well, it didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Applejack-Drone had orders, and the occasional moment of slightly melancholy of not knowing itself properly were not going to stop it from fulfilling those orders. When the moments finally stopped – as the drone believed they would, eventually, as they had already lessened compared to the confusion and frustration of the initial days – then the drone would be completely settled into its role as part of the Nest. That would be the start of a proper life for itself.

For now, Applejack-Drone did the same thing that the rest of its infested family did, and continued putting up posters for Dapper-Bit Twist for the upcoming election.

Elect Dapper-Drone.

Remove Mayor Mare.

Infest Mayor Mare.

Use influence to prop up Dapper-Drone.

Maintain control.

That was the overall plan for removing the mayor from power. The main Nest beneath the library tree had accepted that as a plan, and the hospital Nest had agreed with the idea that they needed to ‘cure’ the mayor of her freedom in order to ensure the safety of all drones. Removing her from power would be ideal, but even if Dapper-Drone didn’t win, it would force Mayor Mare to come out in the open again and campaign since she finally had a challenger for the role. And considering how many people in Ponyville knew Dapper-Drone for his previous trade-work among the pony populace, there were sufficient people that would vote for him as a change from the previous administration.

Even if he couldn’t win, it would force the Mayor into the open and make her show her face, which would lead to more openings for the Nest to infest her. Then, whoever won the election would still be a host, and still have power over the rest of the town.

And when that happened, the Nest could move openly to convert and infest the rest of them. Simple plan. Simple solution. No lose conditions.

Applejack-Drone moved mechanically from post to post along the edge of Sweet Apple Acres, sticking up one poster after another. Without anyone on the road during the height of the afternoon, the Nest-parasite inside of her kept her movements efficient, direct, never wasting motion. It would have been almost mechanical, less like a living being and more like something else, if anyone had been watching.

All the way down the line of the fence, other members of the Apple family were doing the same. They moved in sync with each other, each hammering hoof coming down at the same time, driving nails through the posters and then moving on.

Every.

Single.

Time.

The motion was only broken when the sound of a rolling wagon broke their rhythm. All members of the family stopped, moving further off, some hopping the fence to attend to apple-bucking while others wandered about, socializing on pre-assigned scripts from the Nest. Applejack-Drone put on a smile, ready to socialize with whatever was coming down the road –

Then she saw it was Twilight-Drone.

The purple-furred alicorn wore the same fake smile that she did. It was so convincing that it was almost enough to make her wonder if the brains of the group had been freed from the Nest, somehow, but the parasite within recognized the same stress and strain at the corner of the mouth as was on hers. There were no worries; they were just that good at faking being ‘free.’

Without a need to fake it, her smile dropped, and she moved robotically to meet the approaching alicorn and her wagon. Friends might have nodded, smiled, waved a hoof at each other, but nothing of the sort passed between the two hosts. They barely acknowledged each other with a glance before they met up.

“Exchange?” Applejack-Drone said.

“No need. Conversion soon.”

“Who?”

“Rainbow Dash.”

The parasite within was surprised. There had been thoughts and options bandied about regarding converting one of the last remaining users of the Elements of Harmony, but there hadn’t been any finalized plans the last time Applejack-Drone had synced with one of the nests. There was no more than a surprised blink.

“When?”

“Two hours.”

“Not long. Forced?”

“Drugged.”

“Already made?”

“No.”

That meant that they’d have to make the drugged drinks. Thankfully, the Apple family had plenty of members. They would be able to drug enough cider for that.

But they needed more information, and talking wasn’t going to cut it. Both drones seemed to become aware of that at the same time. Applejack-Drone helped Twilight-Drone out of the harness that held her to the cart, pulling her free before following her to the back of the wagon. The plan had been to bring a sapling out eventually, and so Applejack-Drone wasn’t entirely surprised to see one in the back. Then again, she wasn’t sure that she could feel much in the way of true surprise any longer.

They backed up to the potted plant, their eyes on the road. Anything coming from the other direction would be spotted by the other Apple family members and handled, while they would be able to see anything coming from the Ponyville directions. They lifted their tails, and the sapling did its work.

Squelch.

Squelch.

They were penetrated instantly, filled up and spread wide by the Nest plant. Applejack and Twilight both stomped one hoof, almost like a physical ‘click’ as the connection was made. For a moment, she felt nothing but pleasure, and Applejack-Drone savored the feeling as her holes clenched harder and harder around the tendril rammed inside of her tight little anus.

Clench.

Clench.

Clench.

The contrast between her body’s reaction and the mare’s own thoughts were…intense, and Applejack-Drone was still just barely aware enough to notice it. Her head, her thoughts, her needs, were all suppressed beneath the Nest’s commands, but the pleasure still struck her body enough to leave her dripping between her hind legs. Her sex oozed, pulsing, slicking up more and more with each passing bit of tingling zaps up her spine. Her body craved the intense stimulation, but her mind…

Her mind was…suppressed, buried, held down by something. She didn’t have to think, couldn’t think, and she didn’t really want to. It was easy, easier, easiest to just let the Nest do all the thinking and acting for her. They had the answers; all she had to do was be a good host and she would get the rewards that she craved.

Pulse.

Pulse.

Pulse.

She slipped further and further down into that obedient state. If she’d been ‘free,’ she was vaguely aware that her tongue would have been lolling out, her holes clenching like mad, her hips pushing back to take things further. She would have wanted something sliding over her sex, rather than just grinding against her other hole. There would have been so many things she would have done or said just to get that little bit more that she needed. Orgasm? That wasn’t something that mattered; only the continuing stimulation, the constant pleasure that came with linking with another pony.

That was all. That was everything.

In the background of that intense pleasure, however, Applejack-Drone was allowed to understand some of the plan. Rainbow Dash had heard of the campaigning that Dapper-Bit was doing, and the free mare was curious. Twilight-Drone had suggested that Rainbow Dash come down and see what was going on herself, to ask questions and join her in a visit to the Apple family farm. The isolation would be perfect for dragging the other mare into a party, and that, in turn, would be perfect for getting her nice and drunk on the fluids of the infested. From there –

Yes. Now that they had a Nest-sapling, they wouldn’t even need to take Rainbow Dash back to town; they could do it all right here, where nobody could see. Sweet Apple Acres could become a place outside town to take travelers or others that needed to be infested without going through town in the first place. Very well-planned.

Yes.

Yes, that would work. That would bring one more into the fold, and that would only leave Fluttershy outside it. They would have all the different members of that little group then. And from there…

Applejack-Drone would never have been able to come up with the plans that the Nest had, and she was amazed at its complexity and simplicity at the same time. Using all the different members of their little friend-group, the Nest would have cover to spread all across Equestria. Each member would be called to deal with different problems across the country, addressing different ‘friendship’ issues as they had done for years, and in so doing, they would have the chance to bring something with them.

More saplings.

More Nests.

More reach.

They detached from the sapling. Applejack-Drone nodded. She would gather up the family and they would get started.

Applejack-Drone, Big Mac-Drone, and many other members of the Apple family clopped their way over to a large drum. They stood on a raised walkway over it, looking down at it. Normally, it was nothing more than a collection bin for apples, meant to capture some of the juices as they were slowly crushed down to the bottles further down, but today, it would serve a greater purpose.

The mares turned as one, from Applejack-Drone to her sisters and aunts, all the way out to the various cousins that had been brought into the fold. The stallions stepped forward, resting their front hooves against the walkway railings, their cocks dropping under the commands of their parasites and slowly rolling out of their sheaths, rising upward.

Applejack-Drone half-expected to feel the same commanded pleasure that she usually felt when the parasite wanted to reward her, but there was something else happening this time. Pressure on her bladder grew, and grew. A normal pony would have groaned, but she was blank-faced, silent as the fluid-pressure grew stronger and stronger under her belly.

Sex-juices weren’t what were required this time. They needed something that was a little more…plentiful.

Applejack-Drone imagined that the rest of her infested family were feeling something similar. The constantly growing pressure felt like hours of compacted drinking were coming to fruition in minutes. The feeling of holding it grew more and more intense, the sensation of weight and sloshing fluid inside getting harder and harder to resist. She stared away, her body all but paralyzed by the power of the Nest.

There was no way that the Nest-parasites could have known when all the drones were ready, but somehow, it did. When the dam broke, all members of the family urinated at once, their release hitting them simultaneously. No soft groans of relief filled the air, no sudden huffs and moans. There was only the silent, regulated breathing of the family and the soft hiss-rush of their piss hitting the great drum beneath them.

There was no need to look behind; she could imagine the golden flows running from mare slits and stallion cocks. They would not pulse, not clench, just…run. More, and more, and more flowed through, and for once, it was completely scentless, odorless as it ran out of them and flooded down to the containers below.

There would be no warning for Rainbow Dash when she had her drinks. There’d be no knowledge that this was as much part of the fun as the cider she’d be drinking. Nothing would clue her in, and she’d be part of the Nest very, very soon.

The relief of the pressure inside was almost as good as the constant pleasure of the Nest, though it was a different sort of thing for the frozen mare. She could feel the constant flow squirting from her, running out endlessly, and the slow easing of the pressure in her middle was a lovely sensation. It was pleasure in its own way, and she was suddenly aware that she had another reward that she might be given by the parasite.

After all, if the Cakes and some other bakers might be kept on a seed-milking duty, might not some mares and others be kept on producing ‘cider’ like this? Perhaps; she would have to wait until the idea passed from her parasite to the Nest to find out.

The flow eventually tapered off. When the last dribble left her sex, she – and all the rest of the Apple clan – stomped a hind hoof before turning around. They looked down at the collected fluids at the bottom of the drum, their parasites measuring whether it would be enough.

It was decided that it would be.

The plan was already known to the entire clan. Applejack-Drone walked away with Big Mac-Drone while the rest of the family went to get more of the cider that they’d already made. They would need to mix it for the drinking later, and that would take time. For now, she would go and meet with Twilight-Drone again.

They had to figure out their script, after all.

It was a short task, thankfully; connecting to the sapling allowed the Nest to access both her memories and Twilight-Drone’s. From there, it was able to build up a list of potential believable interactions that they could follow while trying to trick Rainbow Dash into a drinking contest, and from there, how they would run it.

The final decision, of course, was made by the Nest, but the hosts had some input. Not much, but some. Applejack vetoed anything that had Twilight winning by magic; as playful as the alicorn could be, she would not cheat in a game, and that would raise Rainbow Dash’s suspicion. Likewise, the alicorn vetoed the idea that Applejack should get too tipsy and flirty; she was a friendly mare, but she didn’t get actively horny like that while drunk, so it wouldn’t work as a ‘story.’

They weren’t allowed to cancel ideas because they were embarrassing or because they were not comfortable with the idea. If they were, that would have ended half of the ideas that the Nest had for their ‘script.’ If anything, they weren’t even aware that they could be embarrassed any longer; certainly, Applejack-Drone didn’t feel that, even when she was supposed to ‘lose’ enough to become a kiss-ass for Rainbow Dash. Literally. Such a thought would have burned her down to her soul before, but in this case, it was only turned down because she didn’t really believe that she would have done that, and neither would their friend.

In the end, they found a workable ‘script,’ one where Twilight would be the mediator between the likely-irritated blue pegasus and the more passionate Applejack. They would play that up for a time, then go for drinks to calm down. Twilight would get very drunk and start ‘passing out,’ able to sneak in spells from time to time, while the earth pony would keep drinking with Rainbow Dash, playing up their rivalry.

It was a simple script, but one that fit them. It would work.

Twilight-Drone remained by the wagon and Applejack-Drone trotted over to the trees. It didn’t take long for the rumbling sound of the pegasus’s approach to fill her ears, and she turned her attention to the sky.

A half-second later, Rainbow Dash all but punched through the branches over her head. The blue mare landed with a soft thump a second later, the earth cracking from the impact. Not so hard as it used to when she sonic-rainboomed everywhere, but enough to be seen. Rainbow Dash shook her head as she jostled herself back to a comfortable position, furling her wings.

“What the hay have I been hearing about you putting up campaign posters?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“You talking about the Dapper-Bit stuff?”

“Yeah! Mayor Mare’s been a friend for a long time. Why the heck are you trying to get her outta office?”

“Well, maybe it’s time for a change,” Applejack said, shrugging. “The Apple family’s been on the edge of town for a long time, and Ponyville relied on us for a lot of work for a long, long time. Did we ever get anything for it?”

“You never asked!”

“We shouldn’t have to. We should get paid, same as the rest of y’all, but all we got were ‘thank you’ this and ‘thank you’ that. No bits, nothing. At least Dapper-Bit gets the fact that we need a little bit of that.”

Applejack-Drone didn’t actually think that, of course. Or at least, she hadn’t thought it until the Nest parasite gave her the words. Then she believed it wholeheartedly, enough to make the act completely convincing for her ‘friend.’ There was no interest from the Nest in who won or lost the election, of course; the point was to make sure that they had a winner regardless of who actually got the post. The point was only to rile up her friend to the point where she wasn’t making good decisions.

And Rainbow Dash was clearly getting more and more riled up. She lifted a front hoof and poked Applejack-Drone in the chest.

“Now you listen here, missy. I get you getting angry about not getting appreciated; I had to deal with the same thing. You think that I got all that fame overnight with the Wonderbolts? But you can’t just throw a friend under the bus. That’s wrong!”

“So’s the way that we’re getting treated. What if you went to all those races and were expected to just fly around without getting anything?”

“I said I get it! I had to –”

“You still get applause, don’t ya! And all that prize money? Why can’t we get a fair share compared to all the other ponies that get paid for their work?”

For all that the mare was shouting, the drone didn’t actually feel any of the emotions that they were pretending to be in the grip of. All they felt was the consistent pressure to keep performing, to stick to the script. Everything about their self-righteous anger and the way that they were completely throwing the current mayor away was getting to the blue pegasus, and she was all but shaking in anger.

Not much more. Just a little push and –

“That Mayor Mare is completely outta touch. She needs to be put out to pasture and –”

“That’s it!”

Rainbow Dash lunged for her. The first hoof-punch was just hard enough to knock Applejack-Drone down, rolling to the side. Just as the script had expected, they’d started a fight, and now, they had to deal with that.

Perfect.

The scuffle came to a halt when Twilight-Drone ‘found’ them, stumbling across the smoke cloud of their squabble. The alicorn’s magic was more than enough to pull them apart without any effort, and they were set down further apart from each other, well out of kicking range.

Applejack-Drone faked wanting to keep the fight going, straining against the magic that held her down, while Rainbow Dash did the same. The two mares growled and all but snarled at one another. Twilight-Drone cleared her throat.

“Girls, what is going on?”

“She’s just throwing Mayor Mare out like trash. Just because she’s older doesn’t mean she doesn’t still have what it takes!”

“Uh-huh. And who threw the first punch?”

“Well, um…” Rainbow Dash slowed her struggles. “Well, um…that would be me, but –”

“Uh-huh. But nothing. We’re supposed to be friends. And you’re going to start kicking your friend just because she disagrees with you on one little thing?”

“It’s not a little thing!”

“Rainbow Dash. You know that things have to change. Everything does, even Princesses Celestia and Luna.”

Applejack-Drone judged how much of a struggle to put out by watching the free-pony. When Rainbow Dash started to slump against the magical control, the host pony did the same. When Rainbow struggled, she renewed her thrashing against Twilight-Drone’s spell. It wasn’t comfortable to her, physically, but it could have been worse. Much worse.

Thankfully, the blue pegasus slumped against the spell more often than not. Rainbow Dash shook her head.

“I just…I don’t like change. She’s been there since we were kids, girls. I just…why does she have to go?”

“Sometimes, things have to change,” Twilight-Drone said, shaking her head. Applejack-Drone could see she was wearing a mask that the Nest had told her to wear, an expression of compassion that she didn’t really feel stretched across her face. “The world changes all the time. We can’t stop that. And Mayor Mare’s had a good run. But even if Applejack thinks that things have to change, that doesn’t mean that they will, just that they can. Mayor Mare might win the election, you know. Or are you so scared that you’re trying to beat up everyone that challenges her?”

“…When you put it like that…”

“Heh, that’s not so bad, is it?”

“Heh…Yeah.” Rainbow Dash scuffed the ground with one front hoof. “Sorry.”

“Don’t say sorry to me. Say sorry to Applejack.”

“…Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. Sorry, Applejack,” Rainbow Dash said, turning to face her properly. “I wasn’t thinking and…yeah. That was pretty bad.”

“…Apology accepted, sugar cube.”

“Now, why don’t we have a little cooling-down drink, huh? Applejack, it’s about time for the cider to be done, right?”

“Yeah, I reckon.”

“Think you can spare a few bottles for me and Rainbow Dash?”

“Heh, I think I can spare a whole lot more than that, hon.”

Twilight-Drone dropped after the first bottle of cider, while Applejack-Drone and Rainbow Dash kept drinking behind the barn. The ‘unconscious’ purple alicorn occasionally giggled in her ‘sleep,’ but it was only a sign that she was still there, still taking action now and then.

Like making sure that the roots on the ground came up and wrapped around Rainbow Dash’s hind legs when she wasn’t paying attention.

Like the fact that the rest of the family had been summoned without a word while they were drinking.

Like the way that Rainbow Dash had been surreptitiously teased by leaves on the ground, flicking across her increasingly puffy nethers while she kept drinking.

“Heh, you think…you think you can outdrink me, Apples?” Rainbow Dashed slurred as she worked down to the bottom of her fourth bottle. “Ain’t a mare in Ponyville or Cloudsdale that can keep up with me.”

“Yeah? Well, you put your money where your mouth is and keep on drinking, hic.”

It was just an affected hiccup, but it clearly kept Rainbow Dash convinced that she was winning. She thumped her bottle down on the stump between them and reached for her fifth bottle, popping it with a light blow of her hoof and slugging it down.

Applejack-Drone was mostly faking her own drunkenness, but if it hadn’t been for the parasite and the Nest’s support, the host would have been in trouble some time ago. Despite being watered down with their infected, drugged urine, the cider was still quite alcoholic, and it was hitting her body fairly hard. Without the parasite’s help, she would have been rather wobbly, and then some.

But Rainbow Dash was pushing it harder and harder, and probably didn’t even realize how far gone she was. The drugs in the drinks were making her more and more tipsy, her body wobbling one way and then the other, and the smell of mare pussy was getting stronger and stronger as she gave in to the pleasure that the drink gave her.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Twilight-Drone nod. They were right at the point where Rainbow Dash should be weak enough to play with. She pushed her bottle to the side, and Twilight-Drone righted herself, sitting up and flicking out her wings. The rest of the family pulled closer, the Apple family moving on silent hooves, quick and in sync with each other. Each step was somehow that much more menacing when you realized that it was being copied by a dozen other ponies at the same time without a hint of variation.

As soon as Rainbow Dash slammed her drink down, Applejack-Drone leaped across the stump. The tipsy pegasus slumped back, her legs pinned in place, looking like someone lying on her back with her legs bent. She couldn’t stop giggling from the impact. Her wings were splayed out at her sides as she looked up between Applejack-Drone’s hind legs. She didn’t even complain; she just giggled again.

“What? You want me to look at your – hic – your pussy? Since when did you get all lez on me, huh? Or were you – hic – flirting all that – mmph!”

The drone moved her hips forward, covering the pegasus’s mouth with her pussy. The feeling of someone else down there was pleasant, there was no doubt about that, but there was no reason to think about that. The only thing she had to do was release.

It came quickly; all the cider that she’d been drinking had gone right to her bladder, been concentrated further from the already-drugged state that it was in, and came out stronger than ever. Rainbow Dash had a split-second where her eyes went wide from the fact that her ‘friend’ was peeing on her, only to start rolling back again.

“Nnngh…guh…mmmph…”

Her legs were twitching, thrusting, her hips trying to buck off the ground as the hyper-intense drink started to take effect. The slow rushing fluid from Applejack-Drone was its own sort of pleasure, but to see how it affected the cocky little pegasus was something else. She went from a mild protest to a whimpering moan, and finally –

“NNNGH!”

Rainbow Dash thrust her hips in the air, cumming from nothing more than the drugs in Applejack-Drone’s urine. She kept thrusting her hips, squirting as her pussy clenched down on nothing, trying to get something more than what she was getting.

But no more was to be had.

The flow continued for nearly a minute, the pressure on the mare’s bladder finally diminishing as she felt it all go out. Her thighs, Rainbow Dash’s face, and the ground were all soaked with her release. There was nothing dry between them, and the mare beneath her squirmed, whimpering, her eyes already starting to glaze over.

Applejack-Drone moved on, and Big Mac-Drone took her place. The stallion squatted, lowering his hips over Rainbow Dash’s face. She barely managed to groan, perhaps a little whimper leaving her mouth before that cock slipped right between her lips. No thrusting, no fucking, just a slow…steady…release.

Applejack-Drone joined Twilight-Drone, the two mares watching the progression of the Apple family as the various ponies formed a line, waiting to take their turn in drugging the rambunctious, soon-to-be-converted mare. It wouldn’t take long before Rainbow Dash was so out of it that she didn’t even have the energy to stay conscious, and once that happened, they could take her to the sapling to convert her properly. She would become one of the Nest-Drones soon enough.

The mares didn’t look at each other. There was no point; they were aware of the plan, and neither of them felt anything approaching guilt. The fact that Rainbow Dash had been their friend until their infestation didn’t matter; they were devoted to the Nest, not each other, and that meant that any sacrifice was worth it. They would bring all beneath the Nest, and the world would change.

The world will change…

It almost felt like her parasite was taking that thought and keeping hold of it. Applejack-Drone didn’t know what that would mean in the future, but she realized that she didn’t really care. For her, she was getting exactly what she needed. All her food and housing and everything else was taken care of. Her family were all under the same umbrella with the Nest, and that meant that there was no more arguing.

And now, they would have a new sapling of the Nest of their own, something that would mark them as worthwhile. The hospital, the farm, and the first: the first trio of Nests, but far from the last.

Big Mac-Drone moved on, and his place was taken with another mare-drone. The line of the Apple family stretched off toward the trees, all of them waiting to give Rainbow Dash another welcoming dose of their drugged urine. Applejack-Drone and Twilight-Drone watched, ensuring that the pegasus wouldn’t cause any problems, and when Rainbow didn’t struggle under the fourth pony, they went for the cart.

No words.

No guilt.

No questions.

Applejack-Drone took the front of the wagon, sliding into the harness waiting there, while Twilight-Drone pushed it from behind. They walked it to the barn, taking it inside, and slowly unloaded the sapling. It would grow and merge into the barn, Applejack-Drone remembered from their linking with it earlier, and when it was done, it would be part of the greater structure. It would become something new, something different from the two trees that had formed elsewhere.

The Nest must always adapt, and each new generation knew that better than the one before. The new sapling would know it better than the first Nest, and the next one would know it better still.

They would grow, they would consume, and they would take control. Everyone would soon fall under the Nest, and be part of it.

All would be drones.