A Conspiracy of Order

The sapling hadn’t grown much during its time in transit to the Crystal Empire, but once it was planted at the palace, it grew. Not swiftly, not powerfully, as it didn’t have the same rich soil as Ponyville did, but swiftly enough to be able to begin the infestation a week after it was shifted from pot to earth. It grew to three times Cadance-Drone’s height in that time, and the few ponies that questioned the strange plant were the first ones to be brought before it to be infested.

Cadance-Drone stood with her rump pressed flush against the protruding tendril that stuck from the middle of the tree trunk. It was differently made than the other Nests that she had seen, lacking the same powerful, multi-pronged structure that allowed it to interface with more ponies at once. Instead, it had a single prong, using all its other roots to remain in the soil. The effort it took for this Nest to grow and spread, requiring more time and focus, meant that it had to take ponies one at a time. It had already adapted to a different style than the ones back in Ponyville, and it was thriving.

Of course, that was only possible because Cadance-Drone was a Nexus-host. That was what was receiving the information in her as much as the parasite that controlled the host, and that…that was getting used regularly.

The pulses of information in and out of the Nexus in her womb was pleasurable, though not so intense as the feeling of direct stimulation that she occasionally received from her ass. The Nest was more in communication, downloading and uploading as it went.

As a Nexus-host, Cadance-Drone was given information and objectives, but not necessarily orders. The Nexus was trusted to make decisions on the part of the Nest, almost like a detached part of it, so orders were an impediment. It was to translate the objectives, then take those orders and programs out to the rest of the hosts, controlling them and passing it down.

It was a multi-tiered system, something that was more complicated but far more flexible than the Ponyville system. They could move and weave around with greater ease rather than requiring the hosts to come and sync up with a Nest every week.

Of course, a flexible chain could still be broken, but with all the higher-ups of the Crystal Empire already infested, that chain was as secure as it could be. From there, it was only a matter of time until the rest of the country was completely infested. Cadance-Drone was patient; she would take the time that it needed to ensure the country received everything that it needed to be one with the Nest.

She took the pleasurable pulsing of orders received and clarification requests. In, out, in, out, the pulses almost like sexual thrusts as they continued. She did not moan, did not make a sound, nor did she push her hips back the way that she had once done as a younger, free mare in sex. She just stared toward the far end of the private garden, as still as the crystals that lingered on the pillars around her.

The orders were clear: continue infestation, monitor for outside threats, find ways of building up for the Canterlot invasion. Those were the primary goals of the Nest, and they were…flexible, vague, things that she would find ways to fulfill in her own way.

Simple.

Easy.

The Nest saw through her eyes as Shining-Drone walked around one of the pillars. It retracted from her, pulling from her vagina and anus at the same time. The pleasure disappeared, but the Nexus-host barely noticed. Once it was gone, it was almost as if it had never been there in the first place.

“Updates?” she asked.

“Full day. Crimson-Host has more information.”

“Worth linking?”

“No.”

“Replace this host.”

Cadance-Drone stepped out of the way, and her host’s husband took her place. The sight of the male turning around, his tail lifted as submissively and efficiently as possible, might have been arousing to the Nexus-host at one point. It certainly would have been something interesting to see, considering Shining-Drone’s reputation.

Instead, it had become as dull as anything else was. There was no excitement save in the service of the Nest, and to see another pony with their tail raised and their holes exposed meant nothing if they were already infested. A ‘free’ pony’s holes were a different matter, considering the possibility of getting something inside of them, but even that was not the same as the excitement that had once coursed through her body.

Yet, for all that there was a lack, the Nexus-host didn’t miss it. She wasn’t sure that it was possible to miss something that you could no longer crave or feel.

She turned away from Shining-Drone, walking through the private garden only in use by the royals and their direct – and now, infested – servants. The walls were lined with amethyst crystal, the ground tilled and well-cultivated with grasses and soft flowers. Even they were grown of the same crystal that touched everything in this land, but that was a beauty that had long since ceased to matter for Cadance-Drone.

The room, only accessible through a single door and a hole in the roof – and said hole was so high off the ground that there was no way for any non-winged pony to reach it – was a quiet place. There was no better spot to keep the Nest-tree, and from here, it would eventually reach through much of the capital city, and from there, to the root lines of the Nest-trees that were planted at the telegraph nodes along the way.

The Nest is spreading, and it will take everything, Cadance-Drone thought as she walked out of the garden and into the stone-walled halls of the palace. The Nest will be the great ruler that we never had. The Nest will guide us. The Nest will understand true harmony and order.

That was what she had been promised.

That was what she had been guaranteed.

The Nest would keep its promises.

Outside of the garden, it was always important for a host – particularly her – to keep up an act of being ‘free.’ While the Crystal Ponies weren’t so sensitive to the changes of the Nest as they were to the changes that Sombra had brought about, they were a skittish bunch compared to more ‘normal’ ponies across the rest of Equestria. They were suspicious, scared, and the last thing that she needed to do was make them feel like they were right to be scared of her. The love that the once-free princess had given to the Crystal Heart had bought her a great deal of good will, but the victims of tyrants would ever be suspicious of people in power.

So, she put on her smile. A little bit too much, at first, and the parasite compared it to the past muscle memory and pulled it back a bit. Soft, gentle, a sort of regal thing that never had to grow that large in public. In private, with friends, it could be larger, more intense, but for the public, soft, a little quirk, nothing more. More memories, more adjustments: the soft lidding of the eyes, keeping them two-thirds open rather than wide-eyed, the adjustment to her gait to be slow and lingering rather than quick and efficient, and the way that Cadance was supposed to shift her head from side to side, taking in different sights as she walked about the palace were all behaviors that the drone needed to keep in mind.

It was a long, long list, but the Nexus-host was equipped to handle that. She would pass among the Crystal Ponies with ease, as she had already done for weeks.

She was stopped outside of the throne room by Crimson Ice, the butler that she and Shining-Drone had accepted from the Crystal Ponies upon their ascension to the throne. Smaller than her by about a third, the stallion bowed his head. Made of a red crystal that was as living as flesh and blood, the Crystal Pony ‘wore’ a pattern of black and white across his neck and along his back, almost like a little tuxedo.

He was also another host, brought into the circle as soon as Cadance-Drone had been able to manage it. The last thing that they needed was their actual staff stumbling onto the Nest and understanding what it was. That would start an uproar that would be very, very hard to quell.

“Your Majesty,” Crimson Ice said, rising from his bow. “It is good to see you emerge from the garden. Your subjects are waiting.”

Translation: The Nest is taking some time. There are others waiting, and they are not feeling patient.

“As much as I love the garden, Crimson, it’s a little stifling. I just couldn’t keep my subjects waiting.”

The Nest had orders; there were many things to learn. The subjects will have to keep waiting.

“Understandable, Majesty, but please, do think of them. My people are very happy to have someone that cares for them, but that only goes so far, you know?”

To keep the loyalty of the ponies, one must ensure that they do not feel ignored. Isolation hurts the illusion.

“We can only try, heh. Now, is there anything important?”

“Indeed, but not for public ears, Majesty. If you will follow me?”

We must sync.

Cadance-Drone nodded, and Crimson-Drone led her away from the great doors of the throne room down a side hallway. There were many such places in the palace; what had been made for great space and accommodation also worked well for the purposes of secrecy and privacy, as far as the Nest was concerned.

As soon as the door shut behind them, the two ponies – one much larger than the other – turned to face away from one another. They backed up, their rumps brushing against each other as Cadance-Drone lowered her hips, and the tendrils of the Nexus pushed out.

They touched together, several different tendrils pushing out of her sex. The Nexus was still mutating her, changing her, and eventually there would be tendrils that could extend from the other hole, but for now, it was solely from her sex. She pushed back, the two thickest tendrils rubbing around Crimson-Drone’s asshole for a moment before one of them managed to slide right into place.

Cadance-Drone pushed her hips back. The shorter, slightly stubby lengths of her tendrils meant that they had to stand rump to rump to make sure that it could go deep enough to make the connection, but when it did –

Zap.

The pair of them stood stock-still, both hosts locked in place as their muscles seized up and the electrical current of information transfer rippled through them. Pulse, pulse, pulse: the pleasure was enough to get Cadance-Drone wet and Crimson-Drone erect, the pair of them reacting as their bodies were forced into arousal by the intense stimulation dancing up and down their spines.

Pulse.

The petitioners in the throne room today included many different Crystal Ponies, most of them looking for a means of connecting to the old traditions that the population of the Crystal Empire used to have. They ranged far and wide, but the most useful – and pushy – of the bunch would be one called Diamond Swirl.

Pulse.

Diamond Swirl was a mare of shimmering white persuasion, coming from the more physical mares of the land. She was here to demand funding for something, probably something more violent than the other traditions that the rest of the ponies were interested in. She was an outsider, someone that the rest of the petitioners were not paying attention to.

Cadance-Drone stopped the information flow for a moment. The Nexus made a decision, and the flow of pulsing pleasure went the other way.

A small piece of the host’s mind noticed that their rumps were not soft, not giving as they pressed against each other, but rather tense instead. Tense, and hard, almost uncomfortable to be pushing back against considering just how firm they had become. There was none of the soft cushion of a relaxed rump, or the usual pleasure of being ass to ass with someone that she had shared a toy with in the past.

The realization faded away as Cadance-Drone dispensed orders from the Nexus. The stallion grinding back against her stiffened harder, the soft ‘chink chink’ of his crystal shaft tapping his crystal belly the only sound in the room.

Follow Diamond Swirl. Have her brought back to the palace after her petition and install her in a room. Attend to her. Drug her. Prepare her for infestation.

The outsider-nature of the mare would suit her as a possible victim. Someone that was ignored by the rest of the population wouldn’t be missed during the integration phase, and if she had a thing that she needed funded, that would leave her more willing to stay during the negotiation phase. Whatever it was that she wanted from the royal throne, she was here to beg for it, which meant that she was desperate.

Leverage: it was always useful.

The Nexus’s orders crept through the other pony’s spine and up to his mind. It was slower, less firm than the orders of the Nest, but no less ruthless and persistent. The Nexus-host continued to repeat the orders, driving them home again, and again, and again.

Follow. Install. Attend. Drug. Prepare.

Follow. Install. Attend. Drug. Prepare.

Follow. Install. Attend. Drug. Prepare.

The order echoed down their spines, and by the time Cadance-Drone had the confirmation that they’d been understood, her body was already requiring some attention. It was something that the parasite could ignore, however.

What else?

There was very little else, it seemed. The other ponies had been quite open about their petition plans, while Diamond Swirl had been keeping hers close to the chest. It would be a mystery until that one opened her mouth.

The others, it seemed, were more boring. Public farms for the mini-ewes, farming plans, and more were the usual talks, and it seemed those were back in force. There was nothing particularly of interest or use to the Nest in that, just a reminder of the work that had to be done to maintain their disguise among the public.

And that was not something that any host liked to be reminded of. It was merely something that they had to suffer to serve the Nest.

The slow, pulling feeling of the tendrils coming loose was always less pleasant than the feeling of coming undone from the Nest. When Cadance-Drone disconnected from the Nest-tree, there was always the feeling of something complete being left behind, some comfort of the orders that she had been given. When she disconnected as the Nexus-host, it always felt like there was something lost, some expansion of her own mind that had been taken from her. She missed it every time, and it left her uncomfortable.

Well, as uncomfortable as a host could feel, which was to say, not very.

“Continue your duties,” Cadance said. “And send someone to lick me clean.”

“Understood.”

Crimson-Drone pulled his servile expression back over his face as he left the meeting room. Cadance-Drone remained where she was, the tendrils slowly pulling back into her vagina and leaving her dripping.

Much as the audience chamber was waiting for her, it would be better to take the petitioners with a dry sex. Not that she would be tempted on the throne, but the throne room was less…aired out than other parts of the castle. She would eventually notice her own scent, and so would others.

Best not to leave them wondering.

Eventually, an older mare – one of the infested that had come with her from Canterlot – arrived. She had no expression as soon as she came through the door, and she set to her work with an efficient, but not particularly eager, tongue.

Orgasm was not the desire. Cleanliness was. Cadance-Drone remained still as the talented tongue worked around her outer lips, slowly moving further and further inward until it was clearing the inside of her sex. The soft laps were made in such a way that they didn’t particularly excite her any further, merely taking away the juices that clung to her.

The mare paused, the soft breath of another pony playing over Cadance-Drone’s sex, before a few more licks followed. Another pause, followed by one final lick, and it was done. Clean, scent-less, and proper for a Princess.

There was no need to thank a host, so she did not.

The petitions were just as dull as one could imagine. Some wanted a dispute mediated, others wanted money, and still others just wanted to deliver compliments to the Princess of Love that had done so much for the Crystal Empire. The latter could be pleasant in older times, but even before her infestation, Cadance-Drone had started to lose her appreciation for their compliments. It had never felt like much when she received so many of them.

In a way, there was a weak sense of gratitude for the parasite during the audience hours. For all that there was no feeling, no connection of any real emotion, it at least kept the boredom at bay. The parasite might feel that the requirements were dull and brought less to the Nest’s desires, but at the very least, it did not feel the boredom that Cadance-Drone had felt in the past being subject to such things.

The ponies would step forward, state their purpose, and then she would have to respond. A yes or a no to funds, a resolution to the problem requiring her mediation, and a gracious nod to the compliments were all that were required of her, but it was still so little, so dull.

It would have made her sigh if she did not need to keep up appearances. As it was, the Nexus-host counted the hours until the petitions would be over.

The only bright spot – and that spot was moving up the line far too slowly for her liking – was Diamond Swirl. She could just make out the white Crystal Pony in the line with the others, all but shining in the light of the throne room. That one glimmered from head to hoof, looking like she was almost on fire from the way that her diamond crystal flesh caught the light. It was…enticing, to say the least, and even the parasite within could find itself imagining what that sort of pony would look like as a host. Definitely more engaging than most of the others that they had brought in.

Finally, Diamond Swirl reached the front of the line. Cadance-Drone resisted the urge to sit up a little taller. She would treat it the same as she had treated all the others.

“What may we do for you today?” she asked with the same genteel tone that she had taken with all the others.

“I’m here to get the jousting started again.”

The rest of the ponies in line groaned, looking away. If anything, the room went from comfortable to reeking of second-hand embarrassment.

And for good reason. Cadance-Drone was meant to be the Princess of Love, and here was someone requesting them to shift to a focus on something war-like. Cadance-Drone chuckled, lifting an eyebrow as she looked down at the diamond mare.

“That is an…interesting suggestion. May I ask why jousting?”

“It’s always been a tradition of the Crystal Ponies –”

The rest of the throne room erupted with chuckles and coughs, and Diamond Swirl whipped around. Her smile dropped and she looked positively fierce, her anger lighting up her face as much as her crystal coat lit up the room.

“It was. We have history of that! Twilight Sparkle and the others showed us that as much as anything else that you’ve been begging for. We were jousters, as strong as any knight of Canterlot way back when. And I want to bring that back!”

“Why, perchance?”

Cadance-Drone’s question silenced the giggles and coughs around the room. All the other Crystal Ponies stared at her, curious and a little concerned. Diamond Swirl turned, the Crystal Mare looking her right in the eyes.

“Because…”

“Yes, dear?”

“Because I don’t want us to ever be helpless again.”

“There is no danger of Sombra coming back. My husband and I have banished him, completely.”

“I know, I know, but that’s not the only threat out there. There could be a hundred other bad guys waiting. Discord almost came back, and that would have been horrifying. The dragons could decide that they don’t like us and we’d need something.”

“We are not going to start a new military.”

“But that isn’t what I’m asking. I want…I want us to at least start this as a sport. A real sport. Something where we can study it and be better at it. Even if we never actually fight someone, think about how that would let us show off. We’re running…running under the sun, charging toward someone, showing everyone just how fast we are, how focused we can be. Think of that, think of how we’d glimmer running down the jousting field.”

It was enough to sway some of the others in court, Cadance-Drone thought. She could see a few considering expressions through the throne room as some mares and stallions very much did seem to be imagining it.

It was enough for her, as well. The Nexus had made its decision the moment that the proposal had been brought up; it just needed to justify it.

“I believe that there’s a chance that we can make that happen,” Cadance-Drone said, chuckling.

One could have heard a feather hit the floor. The entire throne room went silent as the Princess of Love announced that she was even considering something so warlike as jousting. Even Diamond Swirl, as hopeful as she had been, had her mouth wide open in shock. Her eyes were swirling slightly, her head slowly shaking.

“Yes, I believe that there’s the possibility that we could bring that back, though under strict supervision, of course.”

“But…but…”

“Majesty, please –”

“What if someone gets the wrong idea –”

“We could look like warmongers.”

“This is a horrible plan.”

“Hey!”

Diamond Swirl spun around on her hooves once more, facing down the entirety of the throne room. Petitioners and palace staff and other nobles alike cowered before her as she hunched her shoulders, glaring at each and every one of them.

“I’m not here to play politics. I came here because of one damn good reason, and the Princess said that she’s willing. It’s a sport. If you worry that much about what everyone else thinks, then maybe you should start thinking about moving there instead of living here. The Crystal Empire has always been the Crystal Empire; we do what we do. Maybe you should start remembering that instead of just trying to hide behind all the happy little rustic bits of history. Once upon a time, we did this.”

And more to the point, Canterlot still did that. Cadance-Drone remembered going to Canterlot and seeing Celestia and Luna host different jousting contests. They were never quite that talented before Shining-Drone started to take charge of their training, but even then, they weren’t that good. Without war, they never had to be, and they didn’t have any real competition outside of their own ranks.

But if she were to sponsor this…

The Nexus-host was already comparing the possibilities to the directives of the Nest. The need to convert and infest was the highest priority, and there were definitely possibilities to do that with a jousting team that was directly sponsored by the throne, but there was another priority order: preparing for the invasion of Canterlot.

Most wouldn’t have thought that a sports team would be something useful for the invasion, but the Nexus-host had more to her than just size. Cadance-Drone had been a skilled diplomat and politician in her previous life, and this was just the sort of thing that she could plan around.

Most embassies to a different capitol were limited in the number of people that they could bring. Themselves, a couple of bodyguards, maybe a guest or two, but that was about it; security demanded that they not strain the resources of the host much further. That meant that the host always had a greater number of people working for them, keeping things safe, than the visitors could bring. Ambush or not, it would be difficult to spring an uprising or an invasion with that sort of number differential.

But if they had a sports-team that they could bring along, a jousting team to put on a show against the best of Celestia’s soldiers, then that was a different story. Even if they could only bring their best, that was an additional squad of soldiers, up to twelve. That would at least double the embassy that she could bring with her to Canterlot, and anything that would start swinging the numbers around to her side was all for the best.

And if they could work out forfeits with Celestia, or privately between the jousters, that would mean that the infested jousters would be able to break the uninfested ones in Canterlot.

It was a wonderful cover, and something that nobody would be expecting. The Nexus-host could take advantage of this.

“Of course, we will have to work out how much we can give, and how much of a team we can make, but that is down to negotiations. Speak to my butler, Crimson Ice, and he’ll take you to a palace room so we can discuss this.”

“You…you’re serious?”

“Very, Diamond Swirl. Very.”

“Oh, Celestia…thank you, thank you!”

“You may thank me later, when we have a deal. But I look forward to making one with you.”

As Diamond Swirl bowed and left the throne room, Cadance-Drone knew that she had pushed her luck about as far as she could push it. The Princess of Love doing this would have been strange, almost too strange, but from a few glances around the throne room, she was pretty sure that she had just about managed to carry it off. It was going to be…difficult…to do anything else risky for a while, but that one wouldn’t be challenged too hard.

Unfortunately, it meant that she was back to the boring petitions after that, and the host braced herself to endure them.

It was moonrise when the petitioners were sent away from the palace. She got up from the throne with a soft – if affected – sigh, and she was met by one of the uninfested Crystal Ponies with a glass of water. She floated it to her lips and took a deep drink of it, the host taking the hydration and clearly feeling thankful for it.

“More, Majesty?” the mare asked.

“No, I’m fine, thank you. But do take care of yourself.”

The mare bowed, trotting away with her tray on her back. Cadance watched her go with a small smile of amusement, shaking her head before trotting out of the throne room herself. It was always a bit touch and go after sitting for so long, but at least it was good for getting the muscles stretched back out for later.

The list of things that still remained to do was long. She still had to talk to some of the ministers – some infested, some not – about the running of the kingdom proper. She had to deal with the residual investigations that she had started before heading to Ponyville to make sure that there were no unknown threats in the Empire and slowly start calling those off. She had to send off messages to Celestia, who was trying to get in touch with her and ask how things were going these days.

It was all a mess of duties and responsibilities, but each one was more required than ever. As one of just a few hosts that directly interacted with the Nest, she had to be as informed as possible whenever they had their sync-up moments. Lacking that, the Nest’s orders would be incomplete, lacking the data that it needed to form proper orders. She had to do her job as the Princess so that the Nest could do its job as the new ruler of the country. It was a hard balance to maintain, and harder still to endure at times.

Yet, at the same time, she knew that it was only a matter of time until that would stop. A few months to build up its forces, and the Nest would be ready to take a shot at Luna and Celestia. Taking Canterlot – and more importantly, taking them – would be the end of any resistance for the pony population of Equestria. There would be no great power that could savestop them after that. All the other species would slowly fall in line, and the ponies themselves would be helpless to resist as the infested infiltrated them, one by one, until there were no free ponies left on the continent.

It would be all under the Nest.

Under efficient order.

A host did not smile without reason, and that bit of satisfaction that came from such a future was not reason enough to smile. But it was satisfying, and that was enough.

The end of the day was upon her, and Cadance-Drone returned to the garden. Shining-Drone was just disconnecting from his time with the Nest-tree, and his eyes were glazed. The Nexus-host waited for his parasite to take its control again, and when it was aware, she spoke.

“Longer than usual.”

“Much instructions for the soldiers.”

“Greater infestation or greater threat?”

“Former.”

“Understood.”

“Anything important?”

“New jousters.”

“This host will learn.”

“It shall.”

Shining-Drone walked away without another word. Any further learning would occur the next day, and that was sufficient for him. The Nest itself needed to know what she had decided, and incorporate that and the possibilities that it generated into its plans. Others would need to take that information down to the telegraph offices and send it off to the other Nest stations, which would then find a way of getting the information to Ponyville. Anyone else that needed to know from there would have it sent on to them.

Time would pass, and the connection would grow stronger, but until the various Nests were able to touch each other directly and share their information during the sync-up time that they had with the various hosts, this was the workaround that they needed to use. It was slow, but it was workable, even if it meant that they would be waiting longer than they wanted to for the plans to be completely approved of.

But until then, the Nexus-drone would still be a key element, and that meant that she had to keep making decisions on behalf of the Nest. As Cadance-Drone backed her hips up to the small tree, feeling the tendrils already caressing her and opening her up, she hoped that the Nest would approve of the most recent ones. All the other decisions had been very small up until this point. This one…this one could be their greatest strategy, or it could be something that the Nest decided she had to backtrack on.

It was time to find out.