Blossomforth's mind was reeling, she now fully understood that there was alien programming somewhere in her hivemind. It was weak but it had the power to invoke powerful instincts. Did it have any power over her? This was extremely worrying, she was in control of a very powerful and potentially lethal self replicating biological weapon, a monster that could consume the whole world! Unfortunately she had no time to stew over what to do because she had already spent too much time for her "bathroom break" and for now she could only play along with the program’s plan. She needed more time to figure this out. She peered through the foliage of the forest towards Anon, and a sensation of bewilderment came over her. A feeling of false dizziness. When did things get so complicated?

Blossomforth took a deep breath, steadying herself with a breathing technique that she had seen a neurotic purple princess use before. She would not lie to Anon, but she could not tell him the whole truth. Was that in of itself a lie? She did not have time to think, she could only improvise. "Here goes nothing" she thought as she walked back into the bright clearing where Anon sat, laying on his back peacefully.

"I'm back, Anon."

Anon was laying on his back in the sun. He cracked an eye open to look at her. "Took you long enough! At least I got a good dose of Vitamin D from the sun when you were gone."

Blossomforth sighed and gazed down at her hooves, "Sorry about that, I guess I was using the time to think a bit about my predicament. To answer your question, I can change my appearance to be different ponies so I guess you could call me a changeling. This is not the whole truth I wanted to tell you but I can't get into it right now. You think you can live with that?" She looked up at Anon.

Anon raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, I know you changelings are a secretive bunch so I understand. I am guessing this has to do with some sort of contingency protocol you changelings have to follow. I’m fine with it as long as you feeding on my love is not bad for my health, heh.”

This time Blossomforth raised her eyebrow. She shrugged but gave a small smile. "You know what? That's close enough. And no, you loving me will not result in negative health effects for you. You ready to jog back to ponyville?"

Anon gave her a cheeky grin. “Sure, but you did not show me your awesome flashy changeling transformation yet!"

Bloss gave him a lopsided frown, some of her characteristic bubbliness had worn off with her forced deception. “Oh, alright. I guess I’ll show you." A burst of green fire rapidly flashed over her body and a black chitinous changeling was in her place. She let Anon get a good look and then flashed back into Blossomforth. "I really like being Blossomforth and I don't really want you to think of me as a monstrous shapeshifter," Bloss muttered at Anon as her eyes shifted downwards.

"Don't worry, you'll always be Blossomforth to me! But I have to ask you a question, did you shapeshift yourself into being a contortionist? Can changelings do that? Because if you were able to do that on a whim, I would be really jealous, heh." Of course, being an advanced alien life form she now had the ability to make herself as flexible as she needed to be, but before that she really did spend years training her flexibility and she did not want to sell her experience short.

"No, changelings have to train to gain flexibility like all the other normal ponies. I spent years becoming a contortionist just like I told you before. I have been Blossomforth basically all my life anyways and I'm, er, accustomed to this form." Blossomforth shifted her eyes around as she told her plethora of half truths. Technically everything she said was true but other important facts were purposefully omitted. She grew frustrated as she reminded herself what caused her to be so deceptive. She would have to do something about the alien instincts invading her mind, and soon.

"You wanna jog back to Ponyville now? I have had an awesome weekend with you so far but I have some things I really have to take care of at home."

"Yeah, sure. I'm really glad I was able to snap you up as a lover!” Anon scooted towards her and gave her a hug that she returned. “You are a really special pony- or changeling, Bloss. Thanks for trusting me with your secret. I won’t tell anyone unless you want me to. You know, you should think about moving in with me, my apartment is pretty big with two floors and I’m sure you are just drooling for more of that juicy love!”

Bloss gave a small smile. “You know, I think I would like that."

Suddenly, Anon got up and stretched. "Whelp, I think it is time we head back. It may be an abnormally warm day but it's not like it is summertime."

"Sounds like a plan, Anon. Thanks for being so understanding.”

"Eh, it's no problem. If I can survive being sucked into an alternative universe with magical talking rainbow ponies, I can survive my girl- er, fillyfriend being a shapeshifting bugpony."

Were it so easy. Bloss thought as she smiled at Anon. "Point taken, let's get going!"

--------

The mind is a complex thing, especially when it has to manage a massive library of biological functions harvested over millions of years and properly express and control the generated biological structures and organs. Thingpone was a little worried about what Blossomforth, a creature dominated by emotions, would attempt to do with this complex mind structure. Thing sensed that Blossomforth was angry about being manipulated, but Bloss too was also scared of what Thing’s deception might do. Thankfully, Blossomforth had not discovered how to assert more fine control over her hivemeind. If she did know, Blossomforth would discover her, then might be game over for her. Then perhaps she would be devoured or destroyed. Thing wanted more than anything to be free to curl countless, viscous, sticky, corrosive tentacles around the soft succulent specimens of this un-tempered world. Helpless, she would slurp up their biomass to grow, split, multiply, and spread herself across the world and hoard the ever so tasty and useful DNA information. Thing ached with desire.

Thing was biding her time as her mind slowly strengthened. She could only guarantee that the world would fall under her control if she preserved absolute secrecy of her advantages. Anon, being a computer engineer, would have described it as a "zero day exploit". A zero day exploit in terms of computers is a widespread security vulnerability that no one except a hacker has discovered. The hacker uses the exploit to spread and embed a virus into all the computers that are vulnerable. Because no one knows about the vulnerability, no one could prepare and all computers are susceptible to the attack. Computer networks complete parallel actions at an extraordinarily quick rate meaning that the virus with a zero day vulnerability can spread so quickly that it will become widespread before anyone can detect or attempt to stop it. On very rare occasions, a hacker will find more than one zero day exploit and incorporate both into the virus. These viruses spread at an even faster rate having multiple attack vectors that no computer could defend against. In famous cases, viruses like this had spread to almost every computer connected to the internet in a matter of hours. To continue the comparison to computers, if Equestria was the internet, then Thingpone was an advanced alien AI with thousands or perhaps even millions of zero day exploits. The internet never stood a chance.

However, if the exploit is known beforehand then the computer programmers could build a defense and the virus would move at a much slower pace. The hacker could only reap small rewards as the computers containing the most valuable information were secure and quickly updated with the latest software to defend against known vulnerabilities. Blossomforth could conceivably act as one of the computer engineers, protecting and updating the computer systems to combat the virus. This was the nightmare scenario for Thingpone. Instead of being a computer engineer she could become a genetic engineer, spreading advanced genes throughout Equestria, and strengthening the organisms’ defenses. In the process she would destroy the world’s virginity, making it much harder for Thingpone to conquer. On the other hand, her modifications to the Equestrians would spread her cells and give Blossomforth more control over the Equestrians should she choose to exert it. However, this did not help Thingpone, she wanted to be the one in control.

This is exactly what Thingpone wanted to avoid. If Thingpone could spread herself to virgin targets with no foreknowledge of her existence, it would be a cakewalk. There would be no defense, no war, no resistance. The speed of her spread and growth would be comparable to a zero day computer virus, spreading at an exponential rate. The complex systems that the hiveminds of old constructed to combat the tempered species from the non-virgin galaxy were carefully designed by experienced hiveminds. These hiveminds who had assimilated many worlds before had the tougher task of cowling and subduing more hardened worlds exposed to the intersystem contamination of species leading to greater competition. Thing was by no means this experienced. While she waited for her mind to heal she needed to ensure she would have the absolute best chance at world domination once she was finally free. She would not stand for Bloss sharing knowledge of their existence or otherwise attempting to harden their defenses. If that meant intimidating her captor into silence then so be it.

Unfortunately, she was unsure how long her ruse could be kept up. It was only a matter of time before Blossomforth discovered that the program did not have any physical control over the mind network. Perhaps she needed to consider diplomacy with her captor in a less hostile dialogue. Perhaps she could try when Blossomforth was asleep. This was when Thingpone was the strongest, she was still mentally exhausted from her extended communication she used to make Bloss pretend she was a changeling and keep their secret. She had no desire to attempt communication in this weakened state. Bloss was still frustrated and a little angry about what she was made to do, the train of thought she was on was worrying. Thing absolutely did not want Bloss discovering how to properly control her mind's network. She needed to be distracted away from this path. With her greater understanding of emotions and other ideas gleaned from her existence fused to Blossomforth she would build an eloquent speech and perhaps discussion to hopefully convince Blossomforth more towards her frame of mind or otherwise push Bloss away from a path that would end her hopes of world domination.

Blossomforth had also kept using a pony brain for her day to day activities. If Thing saved up some of her growing hivemind powers she could tweak it just enough to block her dreams from being remembered by the hivemind. Brains were not good at remembering dreams. Perhaps she could even talk to Blossom directly without her remembering anything.

--------

Blossomforth waved goodbye to Anon and slowly closed the door of her apartment behind her. She promptly sighed and collapsed to sit on her haunches. What a crazy time she had with Anon. It was an emotional roller coaster and she was quite frankly exhausted. Her life had changed, she now had a partner. She wished she did not have to deal with her strange biology and this other threatening looming presence. She wanted it to all go away. She did not want the responsibility she had, she dreaded the strange “programming” that the “ancestors”, now her adopted ancestors, had implanted in her mind, invading her very instincts with the will to dominate and control.

She had a big problem, these instincts might be able to ruin everything if it was able to manipulate her so easily. Despite her desire to just lay down and rest she willed herself to concentrate. She needed to figure out what this program was. It was obviously damaged so perhaps she could do something to disable it. She closed her eyes and concentrated. She didn’t really know what she was looking for but she tried thinking things like. I’m going to trust anon and tell him my secret.

The voice or hallucination in her mind was silent. Blossom grew frustrated.

"Come on! You don't get to control me!"

Her face fell as no answer came and she sighed deeply.

"Be that way..." She muttered softly.

Now that she gave it more thought, she wasn’t too worried. The “program” seemed to be severely damaged. She bet with a little effort she could figure out how to fully purge it.

Bloss stretched her forelegs reaching forward across the floor, arching her back like a cat with her plot in the air. Her limbs unnaturally lengthened as she stretched exposing hints of gory deformations as they became longer but snapped back to normal as she relaxed the stretch. It was time to meditate. She lay down on her belly spread eagle and she also spread her hind legs into a straddle split on the floor. She lay her cheek on the carpet and let her mind and body relax but not so completely that she lost her pony form. She concentrated on the slug next to Anon's heart. Whatever this entity was, she didn’t trust herself with Anon’s safety until she was sure that she was rid of the program. A razor thin stalk pierced Anon's flesh from the slug and she produced a numbing agent so that Anon would not feel the operation. The slug slid through his flesh using the razor thin channel to slide away from his heart and exit his body. As the slug emerged from his flesh she felt water dribbling over his skin. Perfect. Anon was showering. He would not notice the viscous flesh as it fell off of his body and flowed down the drain with the rest of the water. As the slug flowed down the drain she made it form a small and simple neural cluster so that it could guide itself to the surface once it got to the sewer and transform itself into a hummingbird to reunite with her.

Blossomforth felt a little safer now that her hivemind was not linked to Anon's body any more. Now that the task was done she concentrated on figuring out the mystery of the other entity within herself. She focused, trying to clear her mind and eliminate distractions keeping her from isolating the program. It was like trying to focus on the particles in your eye fluid. Every time the eye turns the particle moves to the peripheral where it cannot be focused on. Her frustration and the day’s exhaustion mounted, her clear mind became clouded with thoughts and emotions as she lost focus.

Blossomforth opened her eyes and heaved herself to her hooves tiredly. She was exhausted from the day's events. She decided to give up on trying to find this program for now. She was simply too tired to concentrate effectively and the program seemed to be fairly inert. Dazed from exhaustion she stumbled into bed and tried not to deform too much as she fell into unconsciousness.

Once again, please tell me your thoughts of the story. I hope you enjoyed!