Sub Sole Nihil Novum Est

Sapience came agonizingly slowly, only a few disjointed thoughts floating in a void of existence. The invader was steadily developing an image of the world around its host, helped in no small part by the heat-sensing pits now concealed along its host's nostrils. With an independent source of visual input, the alien could glean information without harming the host's brain until needed, and that would make a world of difference. Even if the anterior super-colony was now thinking, it would only communicate with its posterior half via chemical signals in the blood. Already, the growing intelligence had a plan for the cache of stem cells found near the host's genitals.

Heat signatures revealed the host lived with another of its kind, a quadruped it seemed. Either the new being was female or the host was, it was tough to tell with unknown biology and even reading the host's genes revealed nothing of its species's gender system. However, it was obvious it belonged to a species of placental, warm-blooded creature. Further data would be required before a conclusion could be made, but consensus predicted its host could mate, and pass on primary spores to its offspring, which would lay dormant until it contained enough biomass to achieve sapience. This served as a means of studying the effects of breeding on the host.

If sex should prove fatal, fluid transfer was almost certain, and a few cells could latch onto its partner and infect he or she then, and just cut out the middle spawn. First, it had to find out what hormone controlled mating desires.

@#@#@#@#@#@#

“Know this, Twilight Sparkle: there is no going back once we begin scrying. Of you have any objections, now would be the time to air them.” Princess Luna waited patiently for the unicorn to answer.

“I'm ready; let's find out what happened to get blood in a meteor.” Twilight nodded to the diarch, and readied her magic to begin the ritual. Visceromancy was the art of reading blood, and it would reveal the final few hours of a subject's life and their innermost thoughts during that time. It only worked on the dead, and was forbidden for obvious reasons. That being said, this was a case where the rules did not apply.

“Then let us begin.”

@#@#A Long Time Ago, on a Planet Far, Far Away... @#@#

Why had this happened? Why were the earthen walls to constricting? Why had the sky opened up and revealed horrors they could not have known? It started off with black ovals in the air, suspended below the clouds by unseen magics. For the first week, there had been no change in position or disposition; they merely hovered in place and did nothing else. The villagers remained wary, but eventually stopped paying them much mind, dismissing the shapes as a sign from the wind god. Looking back, that had been a mistake, but there hadn't been much they could have done.

Eight days into the strange visit, seams appeared on the bottom of the foreign objects. Snow fell that day, blanketing the ground in blinding whiteness. A thin layer of grey fell above that cold powder, but had gone unnoticed at first. An hour after the hatches opened, the burning began. Flesh melted from bone, eyes and lungs boiled within their cavities. None on the surface at the time had been spared, and it was only after the bodies melted into sludge that teams left in environment suits to search for survivors. A single female was found in her home on the village's far side, slightly wounded, but alive nonetheless.

That night, terrible monsters attacked the bunker housing the group of survivors. Tentacled, clawed, winged beasts of the most horrible nightmares crawled from beneath the skeletal remains of their fallen kin. Patches of skin could be identified as the fallen's, but mangled and twisted into something awful and predatory. The subterranean resistance held out for three days of constant assault before buckling. Now, only a male laborer and the injured female remained, sealed away by stone. Neither of them had been harmed by the monsters, and had been so lucky.

All of that led to the current scene. The world was foggy, though the female's figure could still be seen. She came in close, her face smeared with cerulean, alien blood. Her eyes were strange now, glassy and resembling an octopus's. Little black dots surrounded the optic sensors, adding to the appearance. She smiled, revealing rows of razor-sharp fangs she had hidden for so long. She had been one of the monsters the entire time, and had tricked all of them. Now, all the survivor could do was lay down and die, having failed to defeat an enemy that hid in dust.

@#@#@#@#@#@#

“If its blood was preserved, you don't think one of the monsters could have ridden the meteor, right?” Twilight looked at the alicorn for a sign of mercy, but there was none to be had. A full-sized alien seemed farfetched, even for the town of Ponyville, but a microbe may have survived. If so, anypony could have been infected, of maybe everypony was going to liquify and make way for invading monsters.

“It is too soon to draw conclusions, but the town will be sealed under a dome until we can determine there is no threat.” Luna had thought changelings were bad, using magic and feeding on love. This... thing could conceal itself perfectly, biologically, and had only eat normally so survive. If it could spread, and it possibly had the ability, all of Equus was in danger. How long until it revealed itself, if it existed at all? “I shall oversee the shield personally, so there will be nothing to fear.”

“I... I understand, Luna, and I trust your judgment.” Twilight looked at the floor, pondering her next words carefully. The unicorn thought not of herself, but of her friends in town, and how they might be harmed if something like that were to come about. “I only have one thing to ask of you first.”

“Anything, you have but to name it.” Luna looked at the Element expectantly, fearing something world-changing would issue from the mare's mouth. She proved to be horribly correct in that regard.

“Promise me we won't end up like them.” Twilight had caught the diarch in a perilous predicament. If the princess promised, she would be held accountable for every drop of blood spilled, every ounce of torment suffered, if the worst case scenario came to pass.

“I can make no such promise,” she said, hoping to at least come back strong. “But I will promise that nothing will stop me from doing my best to protect this town and everypony here.”

@#@#@#@#@#@#

Finding the key hormone was simplicity itself, and the stress of reproduction was already evident. Increased pulse, diverted flow of blood, increased nervousness and muscle tension. It cut the chemical production as quickly as it began, though it would still be a few minutes before the host would realize it. In the mean time, a very interesting development had presented itself. The host was vocalizing something, or possibly chewing something. Either way, there were perceivable patterns as nerves forced the converted facial muscles to act as though they were the original article.

After a few moments, the invader realized its host was indeed speaking to another of its kind, though it was alone at the moment. This was odd, to be sure, and there was no instinctive response or method of dealing with the new individual who escaped visual detection. Until the alien delved into its host's auditory canals and tapped into the nerves there, it was essentially deaf. It already controlled the face, scalp, external ears, and neck, meaning there was little room for expansion within going in or down. Colored vision would be more valuable than auditory input, but until then, the invader had to settle for the rumble of its host's vocal cords as it spoke to the invisible other

It was odd, the strange weaknesses it found within it new home. The skeletal system, mainly comprised of carbonated hydroxylapatite and cartilage, was laughably flimsy. It was flexible, to be sure, but wouldn't hold up to the larger-grain crystalline matrix the alien was programmed to produce. In its still-growing mind, the parasite almost found humor in the quirks of natural life. On a deep level, the invader knew it wasn't meant to exist, that it was far beyond what its creators had originally intended for it; the fearsome bioweapon of mass destruction capable of completely decimating entire worlds over a matter of days. It also knew of the revisions constantly being made to its kin, a higher efficiency spliced with each new infestation.

Infestation, such an odd term to place with its own kind. It almost felt like it was some kind of predator that crawled from the depths of murky water to eat all in its way. If the parasite could understand the concepts of irony and comedy, it would have laughed in its little mind. It wouldn't be long before the posterior end was fully aware, and joined with the front. True intelligence could be gained then, along with a very real possibility of finally hijacking the host's body. A slight rush of chemicals sent a thrill through the opportunistic organism, and it very briefly believed the feelings to be its own.

No, it had merely been its host leaving its domicile, and briefly slamming against another of its species. So strange, for the parasite to be alone; a conclusion drawn form the calm behavior of the natives around it. If it had been dropped from the lower atmosphere, there wouldn't be so many apathetic specimens walking about, and there were none of the chemical signals of dissolved multi-hosts floating in the air. Barring some new, slow-moving tactic employed by its creators, the parasite was quite possibly the only member of its species on the planet.

Well, it wouldn't be long until it could learn about the world around it and its host.

@#@#@#@#@#@#

Nurse Redheart apologized for bumping into the stallion; leaving her apartment was always a tad difficult, with her neighbor erratic schedules. Her roommate, a fellow nurse by the name of Tendercare, had left some time earlier to start her shift. The pink-haired mare herself had no such obligations for the day, and vowed to make the most of her time. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and Pinkie Pie had yet to throw pastries at anypony. It was a good day to be alive and perfectly healthy.

The caregiver oomphed as she bumped into somepony, a very familiar somepony. Caramel, the amber stallion from the meteor shower accidents, had unintentionally collided with the off-white nurse.

“Well, hello again,” she said with a smile. It was a good day, and she was in a splendid mood, so why not be friendly? The kindness was returned, though amplified by gratitude “We really need to stop meeting like this?”

“You're telling me; I've bumped into at least three other ponies today.” The stallion chuckled at his own humor, though there was a hint of something else in his voice. That extra something must have been lost in translation somewhere across gender lines, but Redheart thought he looked a bit anxious. “So, I gotta take this chance to say thanks for patching me up.”

“Really, think nothing of it.” The healer smile at him, meaning to be kind rather than cold. She had unintentionally made it sound like a job, rather than something she enjoyed doing. In the most honest of truths, she loved working in the hospital, caring for others as ponies should. “I'm sure you'd do the same for me, were our places switched.”

“But I don't think I could work a stitching needle like you did, though.” Caramel tapped the still-sore area on his head. The gash had closed for the most part, though still remained red and inflamed. At what must have been a small rise in pain, the stallion paled a bit, and swallowed whatever negligible amount of saliva had built up during his little show. Body language allowed Nurse Redheart to determine his intentions of asking her something moments before he could speak the words. “Would mind grabbing some coffee with me, or maybe having lunch?”

“While unprofessional, I'd be delighted.” Worst case scenario, she reasoned, she would have a bad time and be no worse off than before. If things went well, she might be spending less time at home for a while. Still, as nervous as Caramel must have been to ask her, Redheart couldn't help but feel a slight flutter in her chest at the idea of the pseudo-date. “Shall we get going?”

“But of course.”

@#@#@#@#@#@#

Okay, what was going on? First the bump and slight nervousness, and now what must have been adrenaline flooded the host's system. The chemical brought on a similar response to the sex hormone flood from earlier in the day, though on a more controlled scale. Curiously, the host's immune response was taking a small dip in function, as was the digestive tract. Heart rate and respiration were elevated, but still within normal range. A single thought passed through the alien's primordial mind, and it was something it hadn't had to prepare for, or at least devoted minimal resources toward.

The host better not be mating.