Anon slowly traced his fingers along Twilight's spine, kneading muscles buried beneath the purple furry skin on Twilight's back. The nerdy and heroic alicorn lie with her stomach on Anon's lap. Peaceful, blissful unconsciousness and steady breathing graced the cute little pony's torso. As Anon gently massaged Twilight's wing joints, he briefly looked at Twilight's face propped up on a pillow on the couch's arm. She looked calm and pure as a slowly growing stain of drool leaked from her softly snoring mouth onto the pillow. Anon sighed almost imperceptibly as he felt her heartbeat and rhythmic breath. He envied her blissful ignorance. Soon she would be robbed of it.

Twilight was in a state of forced unconsciousness. At first, when Anon and Blossom approached her, Twilight was very tense and twitching from a nightmare of some sort. However, now that Twilight was snuggled against Anon's lap she melted, relaxing in his lap as he massaged her muscles and gently pet her, running his fingers through her fur and rubbing them gently into her scalp. She found comfort in his familiar hands.

Blossomforth stood in silent vigil in front of the couch. She reached her head forward with her neck and gently nuzzled Anon's hand and Twilight's wing. Unshed tears glimmered in Blossom's sapphire eyes as she struggled to stop them from spilling. Blossomforth looked ashamed and a bit awkward as she sat down in silence, watching Anon massage the pony she had raped. Anon turned his head to look at Blossom, Bloss gave a half hearted grin in response with a slightly rueful and tired expression, communicating her complex feelings with subtle body language. Blossom sighed. "You sure you can handle this, Anon?"

Anon looked back into Blossomforth's glittering eyes. "To be honest, Blossom, I'm not sure. This whole situation is pretty fucked, all things considered. However, with you watching over me I'll at least feel safe." He smiled sadly.

Blossomforth sniffed and a tear leaked from the corner of her eye. She wiped it away quickly with a hoof. "Yeah…” Blossomforth sighed. “I couldn't control it, Anon. I felt so scared, scared that Twilight would get the upper hoof over me because of her magic. It's the Ancestor's greatest fear, a new technology or science previously undiscovered that would defeat them. They programmed this primal fear into me. I think that sometimes the ancestors succeed in making me into the monster they want me to be." Blossom glumly hung her head.

Anon reached out and lifted her chin with his hand and grinned when she looked up at him. "Look, I'm just glad that you're able to resist the will of the Ancestors at all! I mean, Blossomforth, 23 year old flexible pegasus from the backwater town Ponyville vs multi billion year old eldritch abomination superpredator from another galaxy! Who would win? I think you've done a great job so far despite your flaws. I still think that Twilight will be able to help us. I mean, the Ancestors never developed a defense for magic, right?"

Blossomforth winced and then rubbed her eyes. "Ugh, thanks for reminding me. Didn’t I just tell you that I have a programmed fear of magic? But I suppose you’re right, Twilight’s smarts and magic might be able to do something about this."

Dark thoughts swirled about in Blossomforth’s mind about how she should invasively fuse her neural probes to Twilight’s brain, harvesting Twilight’s knowledge of magic and perhaps mutate her brain just slightly, causing Twilight to be a little more submissive. With a single thought she could easily be sure that Twilight would never pose a threat- Blossomforth’s mouth tightened in on itself very slightly in frustration and self disgust. Twilight’s body was already assimilated but her instincts wanted more, they wanted complete and utter control, no room for independent thought or action here. Everything must be consumed by the hivemind. Blossom wanted to cry at how these thoughts so haunted her mind. She was not the Ancestor’s tool, their “seed”. Fate had given her great control over a seemingly omnipotent biological system, she would not let their temptations get to her.

Anon looked down at her with worry. “Are you alright, Bloss? Are you ready for this?”

Blossomforth rubbed her eyes with both hooves and sighed. “Yeah, I’m ready.”

Anon suddenly reached out and grabbed Blossom’s hoof. “It’ll all be alright, alright Blossom?” Blossomforth looked up with a look of subtle hope. She smiled back.

"Thanks, Anon…” They shared their moment and Blossom felt so much better for it. “Alright, I'll be in the other room while you talk to Twilight. I'll be watching! Good luck."

She tapped at her temple with a hoof, gesturing to her telepathic powers. Then she walked out of the room and closed the door behind her with a click.

Anon sighed to clear his mind, preparing himself. Blossom was a very special pony but he worried about her and her great power. After a few moments, Bloss then used whatever telepathic magic she employed to release Twilight's brain from its induced unconsciousness. Twilight stirred slightly as she transitioned from a deep sleep into a REM sleep, her eyes moving slowly around beneath her eyelids. It was a good sign that she seemed to be dreaming about something normal rather than experiencing a nightmare. Anon stared deeply into Twilight's peaceful face, he gently wiped the barely visible tear stains from her cheeks and eyes.

Anon took a deep breath, time to wake her up. Anon reached out with his hand to Twilight's ear and began slowly scratching and rubbing behind her ear. Before he had moved out, Anon would regularly give Twilight massages as a thanks for housing him. It's what made him aware of his talent as a masseuse. Twilight would sometimes fall asleep while being massaged, she was a night owl and never seemed to get enough sleep. He found that the best way to wake her up was to scratch behind her ear.

Twilight's ear twitched and swiveled towards him. Her right hind leg twitched and kicked as he scratched. Twilight made some feminine groaning noises and stretched with her legs, reaching forward with her forelegs and extending her hind legs backwards, pointing her hoof tips to deepen her stretch. Her stomach weighed down on Anon's lap as her legs raised up in her active stretch. She yawned as she stretched and finally squinted open her eyes as she turned her head to look up to Anon.

"Mmmmhhm... Anon? Where am I?" Twilight blinked the sleep out of her eyes as awareness rapidly returned to her. "Oh no! Did I fall asleep again while you were massaging me?"

"Maybe..." Anon smiled at Twilight's embarrassed expression. He was at a loss of what to say, he didn't want to interrupt Twilight being adorable. Anon pet and gently scratched his fingernails into the skin under her fur in her withers at the base of her neck. Twilight shivered slightly, craning her neck in pleasure and as she stretched out under his hands. "You feeling alright, Twilight?"

"Mhhm, me? I'm feeling just great! That must have been a really good massage, my body feels like putty! Oh my, I must have slept really deeply, I don't even remember how I got here, I really need to get into the habit of going to bed earlier... You know that you don't have to keep massaging me once I'm asleep, you could have just left me on the massage table! You carry me around like I'm a cat or something. It's kind of embarrassing." She blushed and muttered averting her eyes, sighing with pleasure and resignation. "I have to admit though, you do your best work while I'm asleep. I don't think I've ever felt so refreshed and relaxed. Thanks." Twilight looked back up to Anon and smiled with gratitude.

Anon reached out and ruffled her mane, rubbing her scalp at the base of her horn with his fingers. "Not a problem, Twi. You're definitely worth the trouble! How are you feeling? Sleep well?"

Twilight yawned with a feminine sigh and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes wearily with her hooves. Then for some reason, Twilight sat very still for a very long three seconds. Twilight seemed to have ignored or forgotten what Anon had said. The room was silent save for the distant ticking of a clock in the kitchen. Twilight suddenly sat up on Anon's lap and looked around at Anon’s living/waiting room. She shivered and scooted closer to Anon, pressing her head on his shoulder and looked up at Anon’s face. Anon looked back into Twilight’s vast purple eyes. Twilight was beginning to tense up, Anon could feel her heart rate speeding up slightly as her torso was against his, she had a frightened look on her face.

“Anon? Can I ask you something?”

Anon was more than a little afraid, but he hid it with a calm demeanor. He knew what Twilight could do with a thought, but he trusted Blossomforth to stop Twilight from doing anything drastic. Anon nodded in affirmation, gesturing for her to continue.

"How did I get here?"

Anon almost grimaced but he held himself in check. He saw the gears turning in Twilight's mind. He knew that he could not fool her for long. Anon was not a good liar so Twilight immediately saw the subtle conflict in his eyes and face. Anon knew that Twilight would not be fooled.

"Well, that question has quite a complicated answer-"

"Was I drugged?" Twilight laughed quickly and nervously. "I mean, this one time Rainbow miiight have convinced me to take a sip of one of Zecora's more, erm, interesting potions but oh mane, I never experienced a trip like that one! That was really scary! It felt so real! I suppose I should have known that something was happening when I could only feel numb. It was so vivid and realistic! Oh, mare. I think we might need to get out of here, Anon! The pheromon-"

"Woah, woah! Hold your -erm- hooves there, Twilight! It’s fine. I think you know that the pheromone only affects equines so I'm completely free of mind altering drugs. Also, I'm pretty sure the source of this drug has been accounted for. So there's no need to worry-"

"What was the origin of the pheromone?" Twilight was staring at Anon with rapt attention. She was obviously very curious and a bit confused about what had happened. "All I remember is a strange ball of, uh, flesh I suppose." Twilight furrowed her brow. "That's when I started seeing strange and frankly terrifying things. I think the high concentration of the mystery pheromone was affecting my senses because things got much more strange and frightening after that."

"Alright, alright! Just slow down a second there, Twilight! Before that, tell me what you remember. I'm very curious as to what you remember." Twilight looked a little frustrated and opened her mouth to argue, but before she could Anon interrupted her. "Look, just think of it as a scientific experiment. You wouldn't want the subject of the experiment to be tainted with too much information, would you? In this case, you’re the subject."

Twilight opened and closed her mouth several times, struggling with conflicting desires to perform an experiment properly and quickly find out what happened. Anon smirked internally, it seemed Twilight's characteristic scientific side was playing to his advantage. It was quite cute to see her struggle with herself.

"Fine! I guess I'll humor you. You know, that drug fueled experience was very unpleasant! I felt like I was dying!" Twilight groaned with regret. "Rainbow always told me about the bad trips that could happen. I never knew it would be so vivid and real! I suppose you are right though. A newly discovered chemical like this has some very interesting properties and it is the smart thing to do to utilize the scientific method." Twilight smiled at Anon. "I'm proud of you! It seems you have learned something from me after all!

Anon smirked at the subtle banter, Twilight's eyes twinkled as she smiled slightly. "Well, let's see here." Twilight's smile faded and her brows furrowed. "Well it all started getting really weird and frightening after Blossomforth came into the room. I mean, the strange mutation of flesh I thought was was disturbing but it was nothing compared to what came next... Wait a minute, where's Blossom anyways?"

Anon thought quickly. "Er, she's resting in the other room. She definitely needs it after all this excitement."

Twilight frowned slightly with worry. "I hope she's doing alright, she must have had some very strange hallucinations as well. But anyways, my hallucination was very vivid and profoundly frightening. It felt so real, gritty and sharp. I felt like I was thinking so clearly. It started with a sharp stabbing pain in my barrel." Twilight shifted in her seat at the phantom pain, she reflexively lifted a hoof to the side of her barrel, there was no wound to be seen. "It didn't last very long, then I had the strange feeling of my insides shifting and moving but I was mostly numbed to whatever pain I thought I should have been feeling. Then I-I was paralyzed, I couldn't move as I felt the most disturbing of feelings within my belly. It felt like there were worms and things within me, wriggling and twisting. It wasn't painful but it was one of the most disturbing things I've ever felt. It all happened so quickly, Anon. It felt like something had attached itself to the side of my body and was invading. A-And then-"

Twilight shivered and reached around Anon's chest to hug him as tears started to fall from her eyes. She laid her head on Anon's chest. Twilight sniffed as mucus began to dribble in her nostrils. She smiled through her tears and closed her eyes as she felt Anon hug her back. Tears flooded from her closed eyes. She felt safe and secure, away from the horrifying nightmare. It wasn't real, she told herself.

"It's alright, Twilight. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but now-"

Twilight held up a hoof to Anon's mouth to interrupt, she resolutely looked up to him with teary eyes. She sniffed and cleared her throat. "No, no. I need to get this out of my system." Her eyes softened. "Are you sure you want to hear this, Anon? It's very unpleasant but I think sharing would help me out."

Anon gently grabbed her hoof and lowered it from his face. He held her hoof gently and squeezed it. "I'll be fine, Twilight. I'll help you through this as best I can."

More tears, this time of happiness leaked from Twilight's eyes. "Thank you so much, Anon." She placed her other hoof on top of his grasping hand and smiled once more. She took a deep breath and sighed, practicing the calming exercise that Cadence had taught her. She looked much more relaxed and calm now. With renewed confidence, she began her story.

"I tried to turn my head but there was something leaching to the side of my face and I couldn't even move as it was fused to me. It was then when I felt the worm invade my mouth. It-It slithered into my mouth, curling around my tongue and began strangling me as it started to slide down my throat. It entered through my cheek, whatever had fused itself to my face had eaten through my cheek! At this point I panicked, being unable to move, while being raped in the throat by a worm was just too much. I screamed reached out with my magic and grabbed whatever it was that was attached to my body and tore it off me with all my magical strength. It's a miracle I didn't injure myself, now that I think about it. I gagged repeatedly as the worm was extracted from my throat. I saw the worm trailing in front of my face, I looked up and I saw Blossomforth staring right at me, her tongue impossibly long as it stuck out of her mouth and into my own. Half of her face was mutilated, I saw part of my purple fur attached to her mutated cheek. Her torso was torn in half, her heart was exposed, twitching as it beated. Tendrils and organs hung from her mutilated torso, I could see parts of my fur and skin attached to her."

Twilight’s eyes were wide and haunted as she vividly remembered what had happened to her. "After I had fully extracted the tentacle from my mouth, I was able to turn my head and look back at my torso. It was just horrible, Anon. Half my skin and fat on the side of my body was just gone, torn clean off. I could see my organs spilling out my side! The worms, Anon. The worms! They were swimming and squirming inside me, I could see them. They seemed to be absorbing my leaking blood and somehow fusing themselves to my organs. I could see them below my skin, crawling their way up my neck!"

Twilight closed her eyes and shivered at the memory. She opened her eyes and looked down at her body. She felt her own body with her hooves. "Obviously, this didn't happen. But it felt like it did. I looked up at Blossomforth. Her flesh mutated and moved like a slime or liquid, repairing itself before my eyes. I thought that this thing that looked like Blossomforth was responsible for consuming my body. I think I must have lifted Blossomforth up. She looked so apologetic and ashamed. I yelled and screamed at her, she tried to calm me down. Obviously, reality was trying to break through to my hallucination. I tried to shake and squeeze her in my magic but thankfully it didn't respond for some reason. Oh, mare! Is she alright? Did I hurt her?" Twilight's eyebrows raised and her eyes widened in horror.

"No, no! She's fine! A little shaken up but fine."

Twilight's eyes and expression softened in relief. "Oh, thank goodness. I was worried that I had hallucinated Blossomforth as some sort of monster and hurt her by mistake."

Anon's mouth subtly tightened with a dry smugness. "We'll you didn't hurt her, that's for sure. Did anything else happen?"

Twilight thought for a few seconds. "I just seemed to fade away after that, then I woke up in your lap. Alright, I told you what I remember." Twilight sniffed and dried her tears with a fetlock. "It was quite traumatizing to say the least. Now, tell me what happened. You were the only one with a clear mind unaffected by the pheromone. What happened? Where did this mysterious chemical come from?"

Anon nervously shifted, his face betraying his discomfort. "Well, it's a long explanation. Let's just say the pheromone is of alien origin."

Twilight gasped and her eyes lit up. "Did you bring this with you from Earth? Is it like a cologne you humans use? Oh mare, I'll need to study it closely. We'll have to bring it to a level three hazmat facility. Why does it effect equines? Do you humans harvest-"

"No, we don't." Anon rubbed his eyes, trying to think of the best way to ease the revelation to Twilight in the least shocking way possible. It was starting to seem like an impossible task.

"Alright, I think the best way to begin my explanation is to talk about my cell phone. You've seen it before and you have taken it apart, right?" Twilight nodded, with a curious expression. "Before you met me, did you think such a thing was possible?"

Twilight thought for a moment, rubbing her hoof on her chin. "Well, perhaps something resembling it could be created using magical means but your phone seems to have so many functions built into such a small space. The matrices, power gems, and other magical connections required to program and power such a device would take up much more space, not to mention that it would not have nearly as many functions as your 'cell phone' does. It is still somewhat mysterious to me how you were able to fit so much into such a small space. I mean, you did teach me the basics of semiconductor physics but it is such an unexplored field in Equestria. I suppose the attitude is who needs science when you have magic?"

Anon smiled. "That's exactly the point I was trying to make! Different alien societies unable to share information only explore and discover what they can based on their circumstances. I mean, on Earth none of the humans or other species of animals are lucky enough to have evolved with magical conductors like your horn, directly connected to your brains. Your magic seems to have allowed your species abundance without the need to study and utilize other fields of science. In fact you all seem to be much more connected to nature than humans are, so it is no wonder that you focused on these aspects that are so intimately connected to your biology."

"To me, your magic, weather manipulation and so many other things seem fantastical, impossible simply because my mind has been closed to such possibilities due to me never experiencing something like that. When you take a look at my phone or the other pieces of human technology that I brought, and hear the stories about the human world like the Internet does it seem impossible or fantastical to you?"

Twilight furrowed her brow thoughtfully. "Well, yes. What you said about your world does seem a little far fetched, but I'm inclined to believe you because of how much your phone can do. What does this have to do with my hallucination?"

"Well, what if I were to tell you that Blossomforth and I found an alien species?"

----

Excitement erupted in Twilight's mind. A whole new species? She could barely contain herself.

"Oh my Celestia! Really? Is it a kind of changeling-like alien? You see, changelings can adapt to their surroundings and change into new forms by processing new DNA. Did this alien produce the mysterious pheromone? Is this why it was specifically adapted to effect equines?"

Twilight was grinning and bouncing in place. Her eyes wide and twinkling with excitement. Anon's eyes widened slightly and he smiled back. He stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"You know, you're a sharp mare, Twilight. You're closer to the truth than you think."

Twilight's smile widened, and she blushed at the praise slightly. "Well, I knew that it had to be something like that. It's the only thing that made sense after you said that. How did he or she or- whatever gender constructs this alien might have- how did the alien get here? Can I meet the alien? Did you make friends? I mean, I had so much fun studying you!"

Anon held his hands up. "Alright, alright. I know that this makes you excited but we need to take this slow. There are some complicated and serious things that I need to explain to you, some of it might be shocking to you."

Twilight calmed down a little at that but her giddiness could not be quenched. "I'm all ears, Anon!"

Well, here we go, Anon thought to himself. "Hmm, I suppose I should start at the beginning. Blossomforth was the one who first discovered the alien. Then she decided to share her discovery with me. She wanted us to keep it a secret because... Well, you'll find out why soon. Anyways, this alien, is really alien. I mean, I'm an alien too but I'm from a different dimension with quite similar properties to yours. I think you told me that dimensions close to our own can be pretty similar, even having similar parallel places like my Earth and this Equestira which is probably why we have similar carbon/DNA based biology and even similar languages despite being so different."

Anon took a second to look at Twilight. She sat still with wide eyes paying rapt attention. "Go, on! I'm dying of suspense over here!"

Anon hesitated. "Well this is the part I am hesitant to tell you about because it gets really… Strange. Are you ready for this?"

Twilight tilted her head to the side thoughtfully. "Well, I think so. You're friends with this alien, right?"

Anon hesitated. “That’s a complicated topic but the answer is ultimately yes.”

"Then you have nothing to worry about! I'm ready, Anon. Please tell me more!"

Anon could see in Twilight’s eyes a pure and excited gleam. A burning desire and passion to learn more about this new alien. Who knew what new secrets of the universe could be unlocked with this new discovery? Twilight certainly wanted to know! Anon stared further into Twilight’s huge eyes, she had no idea what she was getting herself into. Anon steeled himself, if he went further, there would be no going back.

He took the plunge.

“The first thing you should know about this new alien species is that it is a predator species like myself. However, this species is so much more advanced than my species. Blossomforth was the first to contact the alien because it landed right in front of her. It would be more accurate to say it crash landed. This alien was broken, barely alive. It had traveled through the extremes of space and time, weak and vulnerable.”

Anon gauged Twilight’s reaction, her eyes were wide with rapt attention. “The next thing you should know about the alien is that it is highly aggressive, quite similar to my species in how we expand and shape the environment around us to do our bidding with our technology. This alien, weak and disoriented desperately tried to save itself in the only way it knew how, it tried to consume Blossomforth.”

By now, Anon’s face was quite serious, Twilight’s mouth opened. “Before you say anything, Blossomforth is fine. The alien failed. Like you said before, the alien is a changeling-like entity. It adopts the forms of organisms it encounters by processing its DNA. However, the ravages of time and distance had caused the alien to lose some of itself permanently. It had to adapt or die so instead it filled the holes with Blossomforth herself.”

At this point, Twilight looked a little confused and concerned. Anon decided it was best to simply continue. “I’m now going to be brutally honest with you. This alien is not a nice entity. When it crashed, it was like a meteor impact. Blossomforth became severely injured and the alien tried to eat her. This alien is not like any living thing you have seen before. Blossomforth described it to me as a metallic goo. The last thing she remembered before she passed out was the gooish creature leaping at her.”

Anon saw the gears turning in Twilight’s mind. “Now, before you jump to conclusions, this is not over. This is only the beginning, bear with me! Remember that the alien is severely damaged. Most of its mind and neural system was either damaged beyond repair or simply missing, forcing the creature to depend simply on its base instincts. Its base instincts are to consume other organisms and incorporate them into itself. The metallic, gooish alien fused itself to Blossomforth on a biological-nanoscale level, mutating her cells as it did with incredibly complex and advanced alien enzymes. Soon it found what it was looking for, Blossomforth’s nervous system. The alien, desperate to find what it instinctively knew was missing took Blossomforth’s brain and adopted it into itself trying to fill the hole with what it could find. The alien, desperate and without a functioning mind or inhibitors to stop itself had instinctively given another organism, Blossomforth, control. Because without a functioning mind, it probably would have died.”

Twilight stared at Anon in amazement. “So you’re telling me that Blossomforth transformed into an alien changeling after it fused to her and tried to consume her?”

Anon stroked his chin and stared at her seriously. “Yeah, I’d say that’s about right.”

Anon allowed Twilight a few seconds to process the information. Amazingly, she seemed calm and collected, but underneath there was a giddy excitement. He could see her mind racing in her expression. Her breathing was starting to become quicker as the excitement built. It was simply fascinating to watch Twilight slowly become more and more excited. He was so distracted that he was not ready for the deluge of questions that followed.

“I have so many questions! First of all, how did the alien ‘fuse’ to Blossomforth? Is the alien even a carbon based life form? You said that it originally looked like a metallic goop. That does not sound like carbon based life to me. If so, how did it interface or ‘fuse’ with Blossomforth, a carbon based life form? How did Blossomforth -I know it had to be her- how did she create that pheromone and how did she hide herself from my spell? Why did it cause me to hallucinate? Can I do experiments? Is Blossomforth shy about this? Is this why you two kept it a secret? I never really got to know her too well. How much of her own biology did she keep? She certainly still looks like a pony but are her cells different than before? Where is she? Can I see her? What happened to the alien? Does it even exist anymore as an individual separate from Blossom or is it’s individuality simply lost?”

Twilight was almost bouncing up and down on Anon’s lap. Anon grabbed Twilight by the shoulders. “Calm down. I’ll answer all your questions in due time but this is a delicate subject and we need to-”

“You said that Blossomforth is in the other room, right? Mind if I go fetch her real quick? I feel that this would be sooo much more productive if she were here!”

Twilight giddily squirmed in Anon’s hands. Anon thought for a minute. This would be much easier with Blossomforth here and Twilight didn’t seem to realize yet that she had not hallucinated so she should logically not be afraid of Blossom. Also, Blossomforth should be able to help explain everything to Twilight, not to mention that she would be able to read Twilight’s mind and know what she is thinking. “I suppose that would be alrigh-”

“Great! I’ll go get her!”

“Wai-!”

Twilight’s horn glowed suddenly and Twilight vanished with a sparkle. The vacuum she left behind her closed with a sharp snapping noise making Anon mildly stunned for a moment as his hands were now grasping thin air that had snapped at him.

A second later, Twilight and Blossomforth appeared in front of him with a pop and a sparkle. Twilight stepped into the air, flaring her wings gracefully to land on the floor. Blossomforth stumbled to the floor, her wings awkwardly helping to balance herself to stop from falling. She seemed slightly disoriented from being suddenly teleported. Although she probably knew what Twilight was going to do just slightly before she did it, it did not seem to prepare her for the disorienting experience.

Twilight had a huge smile on her face and she turned immediately to face Blossomforth. “So you’re a space changeling now, and you were the one that produced that powerful mystery pheromone, right?”

Blossomforth’s shoulders were scrunched slightly into her neck and her face was red with embarrassment and timidity. She simply nodded at Twilight, shrinking into herself slightly. Twilight began pacing around Blossomforth who was seated.

“Wow! How do you feel? I’m sure it must have been a little traumatic to have an alien attack you and try to eat you!” Twilight noticed how timid Blossomforth was.

“Well, I’m feeling good now but this whole situation was quite scary at first. I-”

Twilight suddenly reached forward and pulled Blossomforth into a hug. “I’m sorry for being so insensitive to you. I didn’t even think about how this could be a difficult thing for you. I can’t imagine being forced into having my biology being altered.”

Blossomforth smiled and buried her face into Twilight’s shoulder while Twilight’s huge alicorn wings draped over her. Anon suddenly stood up and crouched down in front of them to wrap his arms around them both. They all sat in silence for a few short seconds, enjoying the hug. Anon finally let them both go and sat down on the floor indian style.

Blossomforth cracked a smile through her watery, glimmering eyes. “Thanks for the hug, Twilight. It really made me feel better.”

Twilight’s face tinged pink momentarily. “Aw, it’s nothing. Sometimes I just need to not let my interest in science overshadow what really matters.” Twilight folded her wings and used the calming breathing exercise with her foreleg Cadence had taught her to clear her mind. “We can take this as slow as you want, this is probably a very delicate subject. I have to admit that I am still very curious about everything but I can wait to do it at your pace. I don’t want you to feel like that I am treating you like a science experiment. I’ve done that before to somepony and I can shamefully say that my friends had to knock some sense into me, heh.”

Anon sighed in relief. “Well, I for one am glad that we are getting along at least for the moment. To be honest though, this is going to be a very important topic.” Anon glanced nervously in Blossomforth’s direction but then stared intently into Twilight’s eyes. “What we will discuss and decide here may have far reaching consequences for everyone in Equestria. Remember what I said about alien societies unable to share information? This is exactly what I was trying to lead up to. I only brought a few pieces of technology from my world, a small sample, but Blossomforth here has inherited a huge chunk of technology from her adopted ancestors. Their civilization is so much more ancient and powerful than either of ours. In fact, what Blossomforth has gained is so much more important and powerful than the technology in my phone to make it seem insignificant. Blossomforth and I have been wanting to talk to you about this but we could never decide when the best time to do so would be. I want you to realize how important our meeting is. We also need your help and advice, Twilight.”

Twilight sat still with a serious pondering expression. “Wow, I knew that a new alien species would be extremely important but you make it sound like everything is going to change! What is it exactly that you two have discovered? Please forgive me but I can’t help but think that you might be exaggerating just a little. Please help me to understand.”

Blossomforth and Anon both glanced to each other. “You want to try to explain or should I?” Said Anon.

“I think I can try to explain it to Twilight,” said Blossomforth. Blossomforth turned to Twilight, after their hug and talk following the jarring teleportation she was feeling quite a bit more confident. “You see, this alien came from a different galaxy, traveling across millions or perhaps a billion light years to get here. In their home galaxy, my adopted ancestors have managed to install themselves as the alpha predator of their galaxy. They do not specialize in technology in the traditional sense, they specialize in biological technology. They engineer their bodies to be as adaptable and resilient as possible in order to quickly multiply and harvest the information and energy that a planet contains.”

“Their cells and biology do not operate the same way that yours do. They have taken the best biological designs from all the worlds that they have conquered and incorporated them into themselves. This has been going on for at least a billion years. In this time my ancestors have improved their bodies to such an extent that their biology radically different than anything seen in equestria or on earth. Their nervous systems do not need to be physically linked to function. They have mastered nanoscopic quantum telepathic links that form a hivemind structure within their flesh. They have designed incredibly advanced enzymes that can quickly mutate cells into any desired form given the proper organic material. The cells can quickly coordinate telepathically to form into macrostructures so that the body can be mutated into the desired shape. They can even process organic designs from harvested DNA and incorporate it into itself.”

“Perhaps even more important is that the biology is specifically designed to spread like a virus. The enzymes can inject themselves into adjacent cells like a virus would and repurpose the cell’s resources into the hivemind and then replicate. The hivemind itself is designed to expand and multitask to manage a spreading infection that can telepathically communicate. All of this biological engineering is there to make them into the ultimate predator capable of spreading and consuming all life on any planet they go to.”

“It was only by pure luck and the fact that the alien was broken from the ravages of time and distance that I was able to stop this from happening. I have no desire to consume and dominate the world. However, I must admit that while I have inherited the biology of these aliens, I have also inherited their instincts and I sometimes have urges to eat new things or do certain things. These urges are usually fleeting and controllable though so it isn’t too serious.”

Blossomforth nervously sat still as she watched Twilight try to process what she had heard. Twilight was blinking rapidly, her brow creased in concentration. She seemed a little incredulous like she didn’t quite believe what she was hearing.

“So… You’re telling me that you can mutate your body at will and spread like a virus?”

There was an awkward silence. “Yes, that’s right,” said Blossomforth.

Twilight looked at Anon in disbelief. Anon responded, “Look Twilight, I know what she’s saying sounds unbelievable but what she’s saying is the truth. I’ve seen it for myself.”

Twilight’s brow was still furrowed. “I need to see this for myself. I am having a very hard time imagining that such a thing as you described can exist. I’m trying to be calm here but I can feel my heart beating faster. If what you said is true, we need to be very careful about how we approach this. This could be more important than anything I’ve done before but I need to be sure that this isn’t some elaborate prank. Let me just say that if this is a prank then I will be very angry. So this is your last chance to back out of your prank if that is what this is.”

Silence. Twilight took a deep breath, doing Cadence's breathing exercise once again. “Alright, Blossomforth. I want you to show me immediately what your body can do. You said that you can take DNA and mutate yourself to incorporate the designs into your body.” Twilight’s horn lit up and she yanked a loose hair from her head, floating it over to Blossomforth. Blossomforth held out a hoof and Twilight laid it down on her hoof. “I want to see you transform yourself into me.”

Blossomforth looked at Twilight with a pained expression. “I really don’t like doing this. My transformations are not as quick or pleasant as a changeling’s flashy disguise. My whole body will mutate, inside and out. Are you sure you want to see it? I can go hide in the bathroom while it happens if you want.”

Twilight shook her head. “No, I need to see it all for myself.”

Blossomforth sighed and made a show of eating Twilight’s hair. In reality, Twilight was already assimilated and Blossomforth had full access to her DNA and structural information. Without another word, Blossomforth’s fur retracted into her skin including her mane which slipped into her skull. Blossomforth was naked, pink skin exposed as her bones began creaking and changing shape. She felt her muscles tighten becoming less flexible to mimic Twilight’s body structure. Blossomforth’s legs grew longer, her wings became larger, bones creaking as they lengthened. A purple horn pierced through her skull, jutting out of her. Her face changed shape, her muzzle becoming slightly longer and her bones changing shape. Blood leaked from the base of her new horn but was soon absorbed through the skin as it quickly finished growing. Blossomforth’s eyes changed from blue to purple and her hair regrew, a deep purple with Twilight’s distinctive neon stripe. Standing in front of Twilight was her clone. They looked nearly identical, two alicorns of equal height and features. The only difference was that Blossomforth was slightly thinner. She didn’t have as much biomass as Twilight did so she needed to make herself thinner to be able to transform herself into Twilight’s larger frame.

Blossomforth spoke to Twilight, her voice sounding identical to Twilight’s. “As you can see, I look pretty much the same as you except that I’m slightly thinner. However…” Blossomforth’s stomach puffed up, squelching noises coming from within her. “If I need to I can create specialized muscles to make myself look a little more voluminous like you. Also.” Blossomforth coughed and cleared her throat. She mutated her vocal cords back to sounding like her old self. “It’s a little strange and creepy to use your voice, I think I’ll stick with mine, alright?”

Twilight was having a mild panic attack. Blossomforth felt Twilight’s heart beat faster and her breath quicken through their telepathic connection. Blossom needed to de-escalate.

“Calm down, Twilight. It’s still me in here. I’ll transform back into my old self, alright?” Blossomforth began transforming back into her old self as quickly as possible. Her bones snapped and cracked loudly and her hair quickly retracted and regrew. As her hair regrew, her double flower cutie mark regrew into place. Just as her eyes were turning back from purple to blue, Blossomforth’s eyes suddenly widened in fear and her face fell, she could see what Twilight was thinking.

Twilight’s mind was incredibly quick as dozens of logical conclusions were rapidly processed through her brain from the information she was given as quickly as a strobe light. Twilight suddenly believed everything Blossomforth had said. Twilight had watched Blossomforth transform into a perfect copy of herself. There was no faint glow or feel of magic, changeling or otherwise. The creature simply mutated. Twilight was incredibly sensitive to magic energies and she knew that what Blossomforth was doing was not magic. This was new, this was unknown, this was dangerous. Twilight’s mind rapidly shifted from a curious and skeptical scientific mode into a much more intimidating militaristic point of view. How did she know that this creature was actually Blossomforth? It demonstrated that it could transform into any form it wanted to. It could infect other organisms by touching them? It has a self expanding hivemind? It’s predatory and it regularly consumes worlds?

If there was the smallest possibility that what this creature said was true, which was seeming much more likely, then she needed to contain it now. Twilight was fairly confident that Blossomforth or whatever this creature was is probably telling the truth because of how open it was being. Perhaps it was worth trusting this entity, or was it? Blossomforth herself told Twilight that she was having urges to consume. What in the world did that mean? How did Blossomforth know that whatever broken alien mind that existed before would not re-emerge from this hivemind? Twilight wanted to trust Blossomforth but she wanted to protect her ponies more. It was not worth the risk. How could you trust a shapeshifter that can effortlessly take the shape of anyone? What she needed was quarantine. She needed to study and understand this new and dangerous alien before she let it run around her nation doing who knows what. She needed to develop ways to defend against this advanced predatory creature. She knew how dangerous, and manipulative creatures like changelings could be. Ponies like Twilight had an instinctual fear of predators, it was in their nature.

Blossomforth’s world was moving in slow motion. The almost predatory analysis coming from Twilight’s mind caused her mind to kick into overdrive, dramatically speeding up her thought rate and reaction time. Time slowed down from her perspective. Even with her much more efficient mind, she was having trouble keeping up with Twilight’s rapid fire thoughts. She watched as Twilight slowly grimaced, her face slowly changing shape into a sour and focused expression. She was about to do something that she was almost already regretting as she began to commit herself to the action. Blossomforth calmed herself. This battle was already won before it had began. Blossomforth thought so much more quickly than she was capable of moving. She saw Twilight’s horn begin to ever so slowly glow. She was completely incapable of stopping Twilight from her current course short of telepathically manipulating Twilight’s assimilated body herself. Blossomforth yet did not need to resort to that. She allowed herself to relax as she felt Twilight’s magic take hold of her body, physically immobilizing her and lifting her off her hooves to float helplessly in the air.

Blossomforth felt her tear ducts begin to squirt into her eyes. She felt empathy and pity at Twilight’s preemptive strike, she herself had preemptively assimilated Twilight not an hour before! She felt wretched hate and frustration directed at the Ancestors because they were right. She hated when they were right. She knew intimately the fear of not being in control, the ancient fear was directly encoded into her biology. Twilight was trying to place her under control, but Twilight was already under Blossomforth’s control. Blossomforth also felt fear, guilt, and dread. She knew the fear and helplessness that Twilight would feel when she knew that she had failed. Blossomforth feared becoming the monster in the eyes of Twilight, but she knew it was coming. Whether it be for just a moment or be it for a very long time, Twilight would look into her eyes and Blossomforth would see true fear within.

Blossomforth saw a look of guilt self disgust in Twilight’s eyes. Blossomforth saw herself in Twilight’s expression. Oh! How quickly their roles would be reversed!

As Blossomforth relaxed inside Twilight’s unyielding magical grip, her rate of thought slowed to normal levels. Raw emotion caused tears to escape from her eyes but she didn’t cry, she had a calm and sorrowful look on her face. She blinked rapidly, allowing the tears to trickle freely as she calmly gazed at Twilight.

Anon held his hands up. “Alright, why don’t we just calm down for a moment and talk this through!” As the flurry of emotion and action played out in front of him, he knew that something had to be done to de-escalate.

Twilight frowned with her sour but determined expression. “I’m sorry Anon, but I am going to place this alien into custody. As a princess of Equestria, it is my responsibility to protect my ponies. Blossomforth, or whoever you are, I want to trust you but I can’t. You are too much of an unknown. I am happy that you have been honest with me about yourself, this will mean a lot and help your case. I’m going to bring you to a level five magical hazmat facility where you will be taken good care of by the best Equestria has to offer. I’ll personally make sure that you are comfortable, as a first contact with an extraterrestrial species I want this to be very pleasant for you. Since you seem to have been honest to me, I’ll be honest back. Your demonstration has frightened me, but it is just a natural reaction to a dangerous unknown. Now, we’re going to do experiments and other such procedures but I promise you will be treated with the utmost respect like we would treat any other new intelligent species, like Anon here. Right, Anon?”

Anon then had flashbacks of being poked and prodded with experiments done by Twilight. He would regularly be held helplessly in Twilight’s magic as she performed endless annoying experiments. He wasn’t exactly mistreated, he was just repeatedly humiliated by how vulnerable he was to Twilight’s magical telekinesis. Sometimes he wondered if the aliens had captured him and were doing the infamous probe experiments on him before he would be deposited back on Earth. Anon simply stared at Twilight and narrowed his eyes at her with mild annoyance but he quickly refocused on the task at hand. He raised his hand to interrupt but Twilight just plowed on.

Twilight blushed. “Alright, alright! Maybe I went a tad overboard with you, but I was learning so much! I mean, yes my friends did have to stage an intervention-”

Anon and Blossomforth glanced to each other, uneasy expressions about how they should continue. Twilight rambled in the background, trying to defend her credibility in front of the new alien.

“-but in the end, Anon turned out to be a productive member of society!” Twilight looked at Anon and Blossom’s uneasy expressions. “Don’t worry! It will all be fine! Trust me!”

“Twilight, that’s not the issue,” Anon said. “I’m sure you would treat Blossomforth here with, er, a more gentle touch than you did me. There’s something important we haven’t told you yet. We were leading up to it until you decided to, uh, arrest Blossomforth.” Anon glanced over to Blossomforth with a pleading expression. He really did not want to be the one to tell Twilight. “You wanna take this one, Bloss?”

Fear appeared on Blossomforth’s face. “Yes, I suppose I should take responsibility for what I have done. I’m going to harshly rip off this band aid as quickly as I can so I can get it over with.” Blossomforth took a deep breath and looked at Twilight in the eye with shame. Twilight’s brow creased with confused concern. “With immense shame, I must admit that I have allowed the instinctual fears of self preservation from my adopted alien ancestors to drive my actions. The hallucination you thought you experienced was real. You have already been infected with my biology.”

Hey, if you're still here, just wanted to say thanks for reading. Please comment, compliment, and criticize! Feedback makes me feel good. Another cliffhanger, I know, but it motivates me to write. I kind of wanted to continue writing and make one huge chapter but I think that you will be seeing new chapters more often because of some interesting ideas I want to write. This latest gap in chapters had to do with a job transition, laziness, and writer's block. I also wanted to wait until I thought that I could do a good job with the story. I think that this chapter is great, I hope you do also.

I might also be starting a Thingpone thread today as a way to try and entice artists to make art and writers to make green. I might post a link below if you wish to join, or you can just watch /mlp/ for the thread. Have a great day and I hope you had a Merry Christmas!