A Conspiracy of Order

Cadance knew that if she was caught, she would end up no different to her husband or Twilight Sparkle. Whatever this Nest was, it would take her, convert her, and break her. There would be no getting free. She had only one shot to change things, and only one hope to save her husband and her friend.

The alicorn Princess of Love flew low over Ponyville, all too aware that her wings could catch the light of the moon and show her off to those below. She had no way of knowing who was a host and who was a free pony, but until she got to the Nest and dealt with it, she’d have to treat all of them as potential enemies.

The thought of so many ponies being nothing but extensions of some alien creature was more horrifying than she could have ever imagined. It had been bad enough finding the one host and forcing it to expose itself and explain what had happened, but to see her sister-in-law, and worse, her husband…Cadance could still barely believe it, her head spinning and her eyes watering.

She was forced to land on the rooftop of one of the businesses near the center of town. The alicorn rubbed her forehead just below her horn with a forehoof, her breath coming quietly and with great pain. Here she was, barely holding herself together, when –

Shining…oh, Shining…

He had been ready to hurt her. He was no longer her husband, and she had to treat him now the way that she had treated him while he was under Chrysalis’s control. No more deep affection, no more fear. She had to ignore him and focus on the enemy that she could fight. Not him, but the one that would take him away from her.

She lifted her head to face the great tree that loomed over Ponyville. Twilight had been the caretaker of the great library tree for years, so she supposed it wasn’t that much of a surprise that she would have brought the Nest here. The host would have wanted something special to link it to, she imagined. Somewhere safe, somewhere that could easily be protected compared to the rest of the town. You could see things for miles from the top of the tree, and the whole town itself was in view.

If nothing else, the Nest would be able to see who was coming from miles away, including her. While she could hide from the individual hosts, she couldn’t hide from the tree itself.

I don’t even know if this will work…

But what other choice did she have? Her magic had, at the very least, caused the parasites to lose their total control on their hosts, and that was enough to give her hope that her love-magic could at least affect the Nest itself. It might not be able to kill it, but it might be enough to force it to give up and pull back a bit. Emotion was, after all, a powerful force, and the power of Love even more so.

She shuffled her hooves back and forth, trying to get her courage up for the last push. She had to do this. The only other Princesses that might have a chance were Luna and Celestia, and she didn’t have time to go and get them. If she left now –

If I left now…if I went for reinforcements…then Ponyville is lost.

And with them her husband, the Elements of Harmony, and so much that mattered in to Equestria. Without them, the power of Canterlot would be massively diminished, and there was no guarantee that the three princesses would be strong enough to break the Nest on their own. And without allies – and they didn’t have many – the Nest would spread further and further, getting stronger as it went.

She had to do this. Tonight. If she didn’t –

A sudden clatter startled her. Cadance looked over the edge of the building, watching as ponies were pulled from their homes. Her ears flicked to try and catch what the ponies alerting everyone were saying –

“Come on, come on. There’s a leak. Everyone needs to get out while Twilight takes care of things. The library’s got something wrong with it, and it’s spreading. Come on, come on.”

They were clearing the town. There was nothing wrong with the tree that she could see from outside, which meant –

The mayor’s in on this, too…

Which meant that the Nest’s power had spread further through town than she’d thought, and that, in turn, meant that she’d helped install one of its members as the new ruler of town. Cadance groaned, hanging her head. The Nest truly was working faster than she could have imagined.

With the thought that Chrysalis could have taken lessons from this strange creature, Cadance put the fleeing ponies out of her mind. If it came down to it, this was a good thing. There was less chance of her hurting someone by accident, or the Nest doing the same thing. She should be grateful that they were clearing –

Her only warning was a soft click from down below. Cadance flicked her wings out and flapped herself into the air, only just avoiding a clear stream of something from below. It lifted, chasing her, and she flapped her wings harder, throwing herself through the air just ahead of the stream of white foam.

It came from an open window in the building she’d been standing on, and she could just barely see a blue-furred pony in the window, keeping the hose trained on her, following her. Whatever it was, she didn’t dare let it touch her.

Cadance’s horn glowed brightly, and she directed a strong white light right at the blue pony in the window. She heard the scream that preceded the mare’s fall, knowing that the parasite inside of her was struggling to take control again, and she flew further off. Already, she could see silent movement in the houses around the library, different pony-hosts in different trees trying to keep their eyes on her in the dark.

Whatever that was…

Shaking her head, she put it out of her mind. It hadn’t hit her, but whatever it was, it would have been a problem. That much she could be sure of. And from here on, she’d have to make sure that she wasn’t hit by anything. Whatever the Nest could throw at her, it would, and whatever it used would be something that would make it easier for the Nest to infest her. That was all that she needed to know.

The alicorn flew higher and higher, looking around the tree top. She found several other hosts staring down at her, and as she flew over them, she let loose with one blast of magic after another. They never moved out of the way, and it wasn’t until the last one went down that she understood why.

One of the hosts fell over sideways, and Cadance finally saw the roots that were rammed up their assholes. The Nest pulled the last one back into the cover of the leaves and branches as Cadance landed on top of the tree, abandoning the spasming, shaking hosts. The alicorn shook her head as she looked down at the pegasi and earth ponies that had been stationed on top of the tree, and she could only imagine what the Nest had done to them to make simple love and kindness feel so painful.

Whatever it had done, it had involved violating them. All four watchers had their assholes gaped, their anuses stretched wide, and most of them were oozing something clear and slimy from inside. She could only imagine what their bodies had gone through under the ministrations of the Nest, and sighed.

It had a lot to answer for.

But now, at least, she had a clear area to work in. With the watchers dealt with, the Nest no longer had eyes in the sky. She was the best flyer in town, even better than Twilight, and there was no way that they would know what direction she was coming from.

They’ll have eyes on the front door. That means I’ll have to try something else.

Once, she might have tried fitting in through the windows down below, but her hips had grown, and so had she. She was a much bigger mare than she used to be, nearly Celestia’s size, and she would get stuck trying something so silly.

So, instead, she lowered her head to the tree top and started burning her way through. Pinpoint light strikes burned through leaves here and there, cutting through branches, and soon, she had a hole that was large enough for her to fall through. She could just barely see the bookshelves far below, and she wiggled her way through and dropped down.

As she flicked her wings out at the last second, she knew she’d made the right decision. Four hosts were staring at the door, each one armed with some sort of hose or thrower filled with some sort of liquid. Just like with the hose at the other building, she didn’t know what they’d do, but she knew that she didn’t want to get caught in it.

She moved quietly, each step careful and silent on the top of the bookshelves, until she was looking down at them. Cadance lowered her horn, and – after taking her time to build up her power in a more quiet, dim manner – let loose four quick bolts of light.

The hosts went down, wheezing and screaming. It was almost as bad as being seen, but as long as she could move –

“Nnngh…”

The first attempt at taking off almost sent her falling from the shelves. Cadance had to force her wings up and down harder, faster than usual, and it took far more energy to get airborne once more. The alicorn gritted her teeth, silencing the little grunts that came with the sheer effort. Her wings burned as she more threw herself through the air rather than flying, managing to make it a half-dozen rows before she had to come back down again.

Costing me there…costing me a lot…

Each time she cast her power, she had to focus a lot of her energy and love for others into the spell. The spell itself took that energy, as well as more of her stamina, and that cost her in terms of just how many times she could use it. Already, she could feel her energy draining, her ability to stay on her hooves fading little by little. Flight was already almost out of the question, and fighting all the hosts in the library meant that she’d have nothing left by the time that she got to the Nest at the center.

She’d have to take it slow and quiet. Anypony left at the end of the night would have to be dealt with individually; she’d just have to hope that taking down the Nest itself would free more of them than not.

Thus decided, Cadance hopped down, flaring her wings to glide down to the ground level. She immediately felt more vulnerable, as if she could be attacked from any direction without warning. The tall shelves, once so comforting in the past years, were just as much her enemy as any host that was using them to hide.

It’s at the middle. It has to be at the middle of the library.

She set off, her head down and her eyes peeled. The Nest had to know she was here, now. The hosts that were screaming at the front of the library had gone quiet, which meant that the other hosts in the building had already found them. They’d hunt her down soon enough, and if there were other eyes inside –

An earth pony lunged for her. He managed to grab one of her hind legs, his hips thrusting forward as he dragged her back. A quick kick caught him in the balls, but it didn’t knock him down. He kept pulling her back, his face as empty as Shining Armor’s had been, and it wasn’t until she slammed him against the nearest shelf that he stopped. His cock pulsed, throbbing, twitching, and she could feel it shooting slimy strings against her hind legs.

“Nngh!”

She brought her head down on his, a quick smack that knocked him out and left her ears ringing. She wasn’t so used to fighting with her body; without her magic, she was at a massive disadvantage.

And there was still so much more library to get through…

Cadance pushed forward. Every intersection was a potential ambush; every turn in the aisles had become a deadly choice. Half the time, there was nothing, but her heart was in her throat every time, waiting to see whether she would be doomed or if she would find something to save her.

She never did. It was either empty, giving her a few more moments respite, or there was at least one host waiting for her, trying to catch her off-guard. They had all kinds of tricks waiting, ranging from rutting thrusts to balloons filled with…something or other, and they were always trying to get something in her mouth. It was never quite accurate, and she was ready to dodge every time, but by the time that she reached the end of the stacks, she was completely soaked from head to tail, and all the way down to her hooves.

She heaved, panting, gasping, covered in heated goo and water. At least, she hoped it was water; she wasn’t sure what it was, but it didn’t have much of a scent compared to the slimy. That…that, she knew what it was, and it sent shivers down her spine.

As she stepped out of the stacks, her legs shaking, a purple light grew to greet her. She lifted her head to see Twilight standing between her and the basement door, and her old friend was completely blank-faced.

“How did you get here before me?” Cadance asked.

“This host is skilled with magic. She has the ability to teleport.”

“…You always were clever, Twilight. I wish that you could see what you have become.”

“She has seen. This host no longer cares.”

“Even after all the love I reminded you of?”

“There is no love that is greater than the pleasure of the Nest.”

She didn’t even know if Twilight meant that, if it was a statement of the Nest itself, or if there was some combination of the two going on. In the end, she supposed that it didn’t matter. She gritted her teeth, shuffling her hooves as she shook off some of the slime. She was so close now; she couldn’t be pushed away.

“Step aside.”

“No.”

“Get out of the way, or –”

“This host is precious to you, but she knows you well. She knows how much power you have, and she knows that she can’t quite stop you.”

“…”

“But she also knows that you do not have the power to take her down, and try and remove the Nest. You will have to make a choice.”

“…You…you…”

“What will it be?” Twilight asked, and for a split-second, Cadance saw the edge of what her old friend could have been: a lovely, thoughtful mare that had figured out a horrifying puzzle, pleased but quiet. “Will you save this host, or will you try and destroy the Nest?”

The worst part was, Twilight was right. She could feel just how tired she was. She had used up too much taking out some of the other hosts around the tree, and the brief confrontation at the front door had been stupid. She should have pushed deeper, not stuck around and secured a way out. Now –

It could be a lie.

There was no reason for the Nest to tell her the truth. It was fighting back now, trying to take her down, and so far, she had managed to resist all the different hosts that had been sent against her. Twilight was the only one with magic that had a chance, and the Nest was right about one thing: Twilight didn’t have the power to stop her if she tried to break through the other alicorn’s shields.

But if she did…

She looked at the tree trunk behind Twilight. Now that she had the chance, she could see the twisting, thorny roots of the Nest stabbing into the trunk of the library tree. It was a parasite, something that was already feeding off the larger plant around it. Left to its own devices, it would consume everything that came near it, slowly growing at the cost of everything around it.

A better metaphor for what the Nest did to the ponies, she could not imagine. It was only going to grow larger, more powerful, and leave others in the same state that Twilight herself was in. Cadance shook her head.

“You will leave this host in our grip?” Twilight asked.

“Even if I tried to save her now, I don’t know that I could. The most that I could do is what I did to the others. But this thing…”

Cadance narrowed her eyes, fixing her stare on the lines of black roots running up the white tree. She focused all the power that she had left into her horn, bringing it to a blazing light. All the other hosts would know where she was now, and she doubted that she’d get out of this unscathed. But she had to try.

She was the Princess of Love, and at that moment, she was filled with the love for her country, her subjects, and the future of every pony that lived in Equestria. Everything that she felt, everything that she had left, went into the white beam that shot from her horn.

It lanced forward. Twilight through up a bubble-spell, a shield of purple between her and the tree. The light paused for a moment, but only a moment, before penetrating the shell. Cadance screamed at the top of her lungs as she forced her heart, her will, and every ounce of her magic into that one spell, hoping against hope that it was enough.

The spell struck the black lines of the Nest, and the whole library shook. As if an earthquake had struck, the shelves buckled and the tree writhed about them. The floor lifted and fell, and the whole structure buckled around them. Pieces of the wall fell to the ground, and endless tomes hit the floor.

Something was shifting.

Something was happening.

The other hosts that were still standing tackled her, and one threw itself between her and the tree. The light beam fried the drone instantly, sending him to the floor unconscious, and Cadance kept the beam going…

And going…

And going…

Until she was no longer capable. The light faded, and she slumped to the ground, barely able to breathe as her heart thudded weakly in her chest. She groaned, trying to push the other ponies away, but they were too heavy against her. She couldn’t even kick any longer.

“Take her.”

It wasn’t…wasn’t…

“This host is aware that you did damage. But this host was strong enough to blunt your magic. It was not the spear that it needed to be. There was damage done, but we will recover. The Nest will return.”

“But not…not as strong…”

“Oh, no.”

Twilight leaned down, her dead face somehow smug and completely inexpressive at the same time.

“Stronger than ever. Now…taste our gift.”

A stallion thrust beneath her tail, holding himself deep. Cadance’s experience with all kinds of sex helped diminish the sting, but didn’t completely remove the feeling. She was too tired to fight, and barely had the energy to blush as she felt a rush of heat under her tail. It spread through her guts, going further and further, and she shivered as it started sending a tingle through her.

A very erotic, very warm tingle.

“The Nest will welcome you soon.”

Twilight used her own magic to roll Cadance onto her back. She couldn’t fight back, too exhausted to even flail her hooves. All she could do was stare up as Twilight straddled her face with her lower half. Cadance shook her head slowly, the tingling warmth spreading from her lower half up to her head. It was almost like getting drunk from the wrong direction, too powerful and intense to say no to, and then her head was caught between Twilight’s hind legs.

She felt her head be guided to the younger mare’s sex. It was already slick, already wet, and she couldn’t stop the herself from slowly licking. Something was affecting her, making her horny, making her…making her aroused.

And as Twilight opened the floodgates, dousing her in something warm, tasteless, and just as tingly as what was being pumped into her ass, she lost herself to the pleasure.

Cadance came back to awareness in the hospital. She was tied to a bed, legs toward the ground but not quite touching it, and her wings were tied to her back. No matter how she tried to flex them, she couldn’t break free.

She couldn’t entirely open her eyes, either. Something was keeping her tired, out of it, unable to focus enough to use her magic. The one time that she was able to open her eyes enough to see anything, she caught sight of something purple glimmering around her head. It had to be something that Twilight had done to keep her from using her magic properly against the other hosts.

Mmmph…

Her ass and her pussy felt well-used. She didn’t know what the other hosts had done in the library, but if the Nest was at all vengeful, she imagined that she had been used, hard. Probably hate-fucked.

The rickety roll-squeak of the wheels under her grew louder for a second, and then quieter. A turn, she guessed, taking her further down the hallway.

She kept hoping, praying that someone would see what was happening to her and speak up, but no matter how many flickers of light or open doors she saw out of the corner of her eye, nobody said anything.

The Nest…the Nest is damaged…how…

She didn’t understand. It was so hard…so hard to keep her eyes open.

The cart jolted, and she gasped as she was shaken back to wakefulness. How long did she pass out? Did she pass out?

“Nnngh…”

Something had changed, at the very least. She could smell something in the air, something sweet, something warm. Every breath kept her relaxed and comfortable, almost like someone stroking down her spine, except…except it was in her head somehow. Thick and heavy, like a fuzzy blanket keeping her from moving.

Cadance groaned again, trying to push against her restraints, but nothing wanted to work right. She felt drugged, completely helpless against the things happening around her. What…what was going on? Why couldn’t she –

Should have done…something…why can’t I…

“It is time for you to be infested.”

Cadance groaned, managing to open one eye. Twilight Sparkle stood in the door across from her, a purple blur against the green that covered the walls and – somehow – the floor. The other mare slowly clopped over. No shake of the head, no cocky smirk, no show of emotion at all: it was as if there was nothing that understood it left in that head of hers.

“There will always be another Nest. There will always be others that will carry on the work. You damaged one, but there was already another in Ponyville. Even if you had succeeded in destroying the other Nest, this one would have waited.”

“Nnngh…”

“The Nest cannot, and will not, be defeated. It will spread, infest, and control everything that lies before it. No pony in Equestria will be spared the release that comes from being infested and controlled by the Nest.”

Whatever resistance Cadance had left wasn’t enough to bring words to her mouth. All she could do was groan, shaking her head as if that was enough to deny Twilight’s words. She lowered her head back down to the wheeled bed, shaking her head against the small pillow under her chin.

“It is time for you to be part of the Nest. It is time for you to understand what it means to be a drone.”

She felt something against her hind legs, rubbing, coiling around the upper bits. They pulled tight, dragging her further back, closer and closer to something that dripped on her from on high. It felt almost like the time that she and Shining had indulged with some of the other creatures of the land, back when they were still experimenting and finding out how they felt about incorporating others into their relationships. She remembered those times fondly, but this was something else.

It was…inquisitive, at first, stiff but circling her rim as if outlining it, teasing it. She hissed against the pillow, trying to find the energy to fight back, but there was none left. The purple light pulsed around her horn every time that she tried to seize her magic, and every time that she attempted to squirm, it was as if the bindings around her legs grew even tighter.

The tip of the stiff thing behind her finally slid along her puffy anus, riding down to that little space where a little stretch had long since rested. She gritted her teeth as it pushed, then pulled back, then pushed again. The little burn that followed teased her, reminding her how it felt to be taken –

POP!

Then it was inside. She could already feel something from it, a tingle not dissimilar from the drunken feeling that she’d gotten from being pissed in, but this was something different. There was something…something behind it, almost like a voice that was getting louder and louder as the tendril got deeper and deeper.

It had to be the Nest, and that voice…

That sound…

So hard…

To think…

It pushed in just a few more inches, and Cadance gasped as a shock ran up her spine. It was the last free action that she ever made.

Unlike all the other hosts, though she would not know it until later, she was not immediately given a parasite. Instead, she had a connection to the Nest behind her, feeling it, hearing it. She was given the ‘privilege’ of talking to it directly, and hearing its words in return.

She felt the knowledge that it wanted her to have come down the tendril, running up her ass and spine in pictures and feelings. She saw the library tree, no longer white wrapped in black, but splattered and mottled, instead. The Nest was still there, but no longer wrapped around the tree. Instead, it had molded to it, hidden within it, and somehow, growing that much more powerful in the process.

We learn, the hospital Nest whispered in her head. We learn. We adapt. We grow. We take. And we learn again.

Cadance wanted to argue, but the next shock left her spasming, shaking. Her pussy squirted against the hospital bed, soaking the fabric against her sex and reminding her how helpless she was. Another shock, then another, convinced her to stay quiet, even as the pleasure drifted back down. It was more like a steady vibration against her clit, except the feeling was all over her body, pulsing through her spine, buzzing through her flesh as the Nest continued to whisper in her brain.

You taught us. We learn. Adapt. Take things more fully. We do not ‘love,’ but we can adapt. Grow. Integrate. From now on, we will be harder to find, more tightly clustered, more closely bound. There will be not removing us. There will be no turning back. You are ours. All ponies are ours.

There was nothing that she could say against that. Her mouth not only didn’t move, it couldn’t move. Her head would no longer turn. Her eyes wouldn’t even flick around. No muscle, no movement was under her control any longer. Her body, her everything, had already been bound to the Nest.

And then, she felt it. The worm pushed out of the tendril inside of her, and the little hairs on its body started embedding themselves inside her ass. As soon as it made contact, there was an instant of pain, followed by –

Spasm.

Spasm.

Spasm.

The sharp shocks that went up her spine from the parasite made the soft shocks of the Nest feel like nothing. There were slight shakes along her spine, a few little tension-shakes along her legs, but other than that, she remained paralyzed as –

Shock.

Shock.

Shock.

Each blast led to a spasm from her cunt, squirting onto her bed. Her mind felt like something was battering through it. The tendril had already opened her thoughts to the Nest, but the parasite was storming in and taking everything that it could find.

Shock.

Her first night with Shining Armor, her mouth open and her throat full of his cock. She was swallowing hard, the taste so strong. Not as big as some of the other lovers that she’d had, but the Princess of Love loved his cock, and showed it. She took it to the balls –

Shock.

Cadance walked at Celestia’s side as they discussed matters of state. She smiled at the older Princess, taking in the information that she had while also giving the other mare a few appreciative looks at her hindquarters. It was impossible not to stare at that, particularly as they were surrounded by others doing the same. She had much to learn, but –

Shock.

A final meeting with the Changelings to discuss their complete surrender. No more danger, no more fear. They were to be banished from the Crystal Empire, with other ponies among Equestria to keep an eye on them. They were not to be hunted, but they were not to leave their nests, either. They were isolated, and that was all for the –

Shock.

Shock.

Shock.

Secrets of state, half-buried impressions and ideas, and more were drawn from her mind, and as Cadance was pummeled with the pleasure of the parasite, she felt herself fading. More and more of her own essence, her sense of identity, was pulled from her with each passing second. Her head, her heart, her soul, was no longer her own. It belonged to the Nest, and so did she.

There were no moans, no shivers, nothing as the pulsing continued. Not even the muscle spasms remained as the parasite slowly took control of her, forcing her out of control. She felt like she was being detached from her own body, left in the back of her own skull, staring out eyes that were no longer hers. There was nothing but the sense of overstimulation, so intense that she was amazed that she was still conscious.

But of course she was. The parasite controlled her body now, not her, and that meant that it would stay conscious as long as the Nest desired her to stay conscious.

Drain.

It was the only word that made sense for what the Nest demanded. They wanted her completely emptied of anything useful, her sense of self taken away and replaced with nothing more than the desire to serve the Nest. Cadance would have whimpered if she still had the capacity, but instead –

Shock.

Shock.

Shock.

Her juices continued to pool between her hind legs as her body was wracked with pleasure and her mind pushed further and further down the road of utter subservience to the Nest.