I edited the previous chapter with a much improved Blossomdragon reveal sequence. Please give it a read.
If you only want to see the changed passage to avoid re-reading the whole chapter then please click here.

“It’s an honor to meet you, Princess. I admit, I was not prepared to meet you tonight but I come in peace and with the hope of friendship.”

The room was silent, and then it became awkwardly silent. Blossom was bowing her head, facing the floor. Celestia was still seated on her haunches and suppressed a sigh. “Rise, Blossomforth. Please.” Celestia wearily gazed at Blossomforth as she stood up. Blossomforth looked nervous, wide eyed, she seemed to be trying to process Celestia’s appearance, she had never seen Celestia up close. Celestia in turn was also looking at Blossomforth, Celestia couldn’t discern anything odd about her. The flow of magic that Celestia could detect seemed to be as normal as any other pony.

“Greetings, Blossomforth. I will admit that I too was not very prepared for this meeting, it has happened quite suddenly. However, I am glad to hear that you seek friendship and peace. These are beautiful qualities that I have worked my whole life to instill into our country.” Celestia paused for a few seconds. “So, Twilight has told me quite a story about you. Fantastical, and I am ashamed to admit it but as much as I trust Twilight, I am having trouble believing the story she told me. Perhaps there is something that I am not understanding.”

Twilight cut in. “Princess, I also did not believe Blossomforth but after what she has shown me… It does not seem to be an illusion. I do not blame you at all if you don’t believe me but I’m sure Blossom will be able to demonstrate exactly what she can do. Right, Blossom?”

Blossomforth squirmed and really wished she could have kept this a secret. “W-well, I was hoping to give a good first impression. Do you think we could perhaps wait a bit? My transformations aren’t exactly, eh, pleasant to look at. Maybe if I could do it in the bathroom so you don’t have to see it, that would be for the best.” Blossom didn’t really want to show off her monstrous abilities but she was also stalling, she didn’t want to risk freaking out Celestia before Anon was safely away from the house.

Other options had been racing through her mind. What if she just infected Celestia? It wouldn’t even be that difficult to do. All it would take is a mosquito bite, then her infection would eventually spread throughout the princess’s body and then she could just manipulate the princess into doing whatever she wanted. She wasn’t desperate to find a defense for magic, her alien instincts were sated and she had access to Twilight’s brain if she absolutely needed magical knowledge and skills. There was no emergency, she could afford to spread her influence slowly and insidiously without transforming into a monster.

Blossom was suddenly disgusted with her thoughts. Was this the alien instincts acting up again? Of course that would make her a monster, maybe not on the outside but she would be using ponies like her puppets. After the Twilight incident, Blossom wanted to make sure that she was never put into a position where she had to become a monster ever again. She wasn’t cornered, she was only tempted to take the easy way out. Because of the incident with Twilight, Blossomforth had started to make better use of her hivemind to multitask instead of lazily doing nothing with it and now she had many drones in the forest and dormant infections inside several ponies that she could use as vectors to escape and spread so she would never be cornered again. She checked up on her other body, it was ushering Anon into the forest. Good! They were almost in the forest and if all went to plan, Anon would also be hidden and they would never have true leverage over her.

She was better than this, there was no need to be a slimy manipulative monster. If she gave into temptation this time, what’s to say that she wouldn’t give in next time? If it continued then eventually there wouldn’t be any ponies left to say no to her. Is that an interesting world? No, it’s boring and disturbing. Blossom almost smiled and a feeling of relief washed over her. She didn’t have to be a monster, there was nothing that Celestia could do to her or Anon. She had been unconsciously dreading the prospect of being a manipulative shapeshifter and not having to deal with all of the deception and monstrous manipulative capabilities was a weight lifted off her conscience. Would she even have any real friends if everyone she knew had their mind chemically manipulated? Even something more benign like reading minds to gain a manipulative advantage seemed gross.

Celestia noticed Blossomforth’s posture relax just the slightest bit and a slight smile cracking on her face. She was curious what that had been about, Twilight had mentioned a hivemind, was Blossomforth communicating telepathically? Twilight also mentioned that Blossomforth would be easier to work with if she didn’t perceive a threat which made Celestia just a little bit more comfortable to see Blossom relax.

Celestia’s brow creased slightly as she studied Blossomforth. “You say that your transformations are unpleasant to look at. I have lived for many years, and have seen many things. My realm is peaceful and perhaps some say even stagnant. There aren’t many things that surprise me any more but you are a bit mysterious. I cannot sense changeling magic on you or Twilight. I would like to see your transformation despite how unpleasant or ugly you say it is. As a ruler and decision maker for Equestria, it is my responsibility to know about unpleasant things in my realm to make better decisions for all of Equestria and it is a responsibility that I take quite seriously. There is no need for you to hide in the bathroom. If you truly come in peace and are not a threat to my Equestria, I will be able to bear whatever you show me and I promise not to be bigoted if you are truly as altruistic as you say. Come now, show me in the open so that our bonds of trust and friendship can strengthen.”

Blossom was a bit moved by Celestia’s words. Now she knew she made the right decision by not infecting Celestia. Who was she to manipulate a person so dedicated to peace and prosperity for her country? Of course, Celestia could be lying but if what Anon had to say about the society on his Earth was true, then perhaps Equestria was a paradise in comparison and Celestia deserved respect and the benefit of the doubt. For now at least, she would avoid such underhanded tactics.

Blossomforth sighed. “Those are some inspiring words, Princess. Truthfully, I don’t want to show you my capabilities because I don’t want to be seen as a monster. It’s embarrassing and sometimes I wish I was normal again. My abilities, they are gory and frightening but they are also truly a gift. Maybe after my demonstration, you or your guards will secretly view me as a monster. Maybe I’m lazy, stagnant as you put it but a large part of me wanted to keep my abilities a secret forever just so that I could be normal. It’s selfish of me because I know I could do a lot of good with them but I suppose I just wanted to put it off for just a bit longer so I could be normal and not worry about these things.” Blossomforth focused her eyes and looked at Celestia’s deep violet eyes. “I just need to grow up, there is no going back now. You know now, and I need to take responsibility.” Blossom grimaced slightly and tightened her lips. “So, what is it you want to see? I can transform part or all of my body. I can make the transformation fast or slow, the faster it is the more energetic and gruesome it will look. If I keep it very slow it will have much less gore but still look weird. Slow and partial transformations aren’t too bad with the energy expenditure. I usually regain energy and mass by hunting animals. I can also do a fast transformation and I can turn into something alien. I would very much prefer to avoid doing both at once, I would seem truly monstrous. Please don’t ask me to do that.”

Blossom finished and she gazed back at Celestia. Celestia was motionless and regal, she seemed to be processing what she had just heard. The room was again silent for a few seconds but she finally smiled and closed her eyes for a moment before speaking. “My little pony, if what you say is true then it seems like a mighty responsibility has been placed on your shoulders. Whatever may come of this, I am hopeful and optimistic that we can come to an understanding and perhaps your gift may lead to a better world, especially if we work together. Twilight says that you are a kind person. If that is true then I believe we’ll be able to make that happen.”

Blossom smiled back at this response. “Thank you princess, those are kind words. I believe I will enjoy working with you and exploring new possibilities. Thank you for being so open minded. I hope my strange new nature isn’t too offputting. No matter what I may transform into, I promise you that my mind will stay the same.”

Celestia nodded. “Hmm, I will be sure to keep that in mind. Now, I am curious. You said you hunt animals? You say that animals help to replenish your energy and mass? This is not unheard of in Equestria but rather odd for one who looks like a pony. The griffins in particular have a non sapient meat trade.”

“Well yes, to be more specific I assimilate them which is different than digestion, much more efficient. If I were to try and replenish with oats every time I performed a major transformation I would need to eat hundreds of pounds with a rather disgusting and weird gastric process just to make it happen quickly. It’s just more convenient and quick to find and eat, well assimilate I should say, an animal.”

Celestia considered this for a moment. “We’ll talk about the environmental consequences later, I hope you have been a good steward to the ecosystem.”

Blossomforth quickly assured the princess. “Yes! I am careful to only take what I need and I do monitor the Everfree to make sure that my harvests don’t overly disturb the ecosystem. I know the importance of keeping the environment healthy and I use every part of the animal.”

Celestia’s lips twitched with an amused smile. “I am happy to hear that, but now let’s see a transformation of yours. Make me a believer, I’m still admittedly skeptical. Let’s see something alien as you mentioned earlier but perhaps you could make it a slow transformation. This will benefit me because I’ll be able to better see what’s happening, you will conserve your energy, and might be able to keep this a bit more pleasant. Is this a fair assessment?”

Blossomforth nodded. “Yes, that is correct.” Blossom started to shiver slightly with excitement and nervousness, she got goosebumps and some of her hair stood up. There would be no going back after this. She checked up on her other body. Ah yes, the dragon project! A pang of jealousy hit her. No, she would know all about what happened when she recombined with her other hivemind fragment. She made this barrier so that there would be less distractions. She scanned the situation briefly, Anon had agreed to have his body hidden underground, perfect! She had no more need to stall and it didn’t matter how Celestia reacted, there was nothing she could do to them.

“Well, that sounds like a good option then. I’m ready to see it.” Celestia said. Blossom looked up at Celestia and then glanced at Twilight.

Well, should I do it? I was thinking of transforming into a tentacle spider with my pony head perched on top. Do you think that Celestia will freak out?

Twilight flinched slightly, not expecting the telepathic message.

W-well Celestia isn’t particularly fond of spiders but she doesn’t kill them when she sees them because they- Ugh, that doesn’t matter. Look, Celestia likes to keep her emotions and cards close to the chest. She’s a hundred times more experienced than me and maybe that many times older! She’s kind of an enigma but I do know her a bit from being her student, I can’t say for sure but I think it will go fine, just take the transformation slow, I’ve seen you do it before, make sure you keep your head the same so she can always see your facial expression and know that you mean no harm. I think you’ll be fine.

Alright, thanks. I’m still a little annoyed that you told Celestia about me but I don’t really blame you. Thanks for still being supportive at least. You didn’t need to be after what I did to you.

Also… Blossomforth sent. I know this was last minute but I was wondering. I know that you know a lot about my capabilities, what do you think about hiding some of my more “world ending” abilities like the possibility of an endlessly expanding hivemind? I would rather not cause a panic. Do you think we could say that I’m limited to ten bodies at a time? …I’m not going to force you to keep your mouth shut, so I guess it’s up to you. It’s not going to be the end of the world if you tell the princess but it might cause me to take further measures. I would rather not start some kind of cold war. Just please give it some thought during my demonstration. That’s all I ask.

Twilight sent a groaning noise over the telepathic link but she reluctantly nodded and the conversation ended. The telepathic conversation took place very quickly, much quicker than if it had been said aloud.

“Alright, Princess, I guess I’ll get started.” Blossomforth hesitated. “I’m sorry, this is a little embarrassing for me. I suppose it’s like everyone is watching me use the restroom or something.” Blossomforth was a little flustered and her face began to turn red then she took a deep breath and calmed down.

Celestia was watching intently. “It’s fine, please take your time.”

“Well, I guess I’ll commentate my transformation while it happens. Maybe that will help.” Blossomforth lifted her right foreleg. “I’ll start with this leg.” Snapping and odd squishing noises started coming from her foreleg and odd slithering tentacles of flesh could be seen pushing beneath the skin. The skeletal structure was starting to smooth out and disappear, the hoof on the bottom of her leg retracted until her furry skin seemed to swallow it and it sealed up into a white furry tentacle tip.

“As you can see, the hard skeletal structure of my foreleg has begun to dissolve and deform. One of the most advanced pieces of biology that my adopted ancestors developed were highly efficient, flexible and strong muscles that don’t need a skeletal system to function properly, at least at the strength that gravity pulls us on this planet. Without needing such things as bones, tendons, hooves, or other structural organs or joints, these tentacles can replace almost any limb. They are incredibly flexible and strong, beyond anything that conventional nature on this planet has produced.”

Blossomforth’s foreleg still had her white fur but it lacked a hoof or any joints and was now just a furry tentacle. She wiggled and curled it around for effect, then she held it up to the side and had it stretch. The furry tentacle quickly doubled in length and became thinner to compensate. The tentacle became more pink-white as the fur also became thinner due to the increased surface area and more skin could be seen as it lengthened. She compressed it again and the fur turned pure white again. Then she set her tentacle down and the tip squished into the ground until it took a vaguely similar shape to a hoof, she retracted her hairs on the bottom and used the sticky nanostructures she usually did to grip the floor. “As you can see, my tentacle has no bones but it’s still structurally strong enough to support my weight. It is also incredibly flexible and can change shape quickly.” Blossomforth looked up at Celestia, it was difficult to detect any reaction but she thought she saw Celestia’s chest moving like she was breathing heavier. Her previously smiling face was now unreadable. Her guards, however, looked like they had seen a ghost. They gripped their spears a bit tighter but didn’t move.

Celestia’s face was a mask but she swallowed before she spoke. “To be frank with you, Blossomforth, what you have just demonstrated is profoundly strange and certainly alien as you have described. I am delighted that you have been so cooperative and I wish to continue building trust. Please, continue your demonstration, my curiosity has never been greater.”

Blossomforth closed her eyes and nodded. She hoped that closing her eyes would be seen as a sign that she trusted Celestia. She noticed it was a social instinct in many animals. “Thank you for being so calm, Princess. When I showed this to Anon he was a bit more emotional.”

Celestia nodded calmly but her heart was beating faster than normal. Her mind too was racing but her outward appearance was stoic and regal.

Blossomforth was a little nervous for the next part. “So, I showed you how I transformed one of my forelegs. For the next demonstration I’ll do the rest of my body but I’ll keep my head so that I can talk to you. It’s going to get a bit more weird, are you sure you want to see this?” Blossom looked at Celestia.

Celestia simply nodded back.

Blossomforth breathed in deeply and then breathed out. “Alright then, here we go.” A cacophony of clicking, snapping, cracking, slithering, squishing, squelching, slurping noises all sounded at once in the otherwise silent room. Blossom’s other legs began deforming their structural organs and their muscles morphed until they were all furry tentacles. The tentacles started to resemble insect-like joints with kneelike joints all facing outwards in four directions as they took the weight of Blossom’s now deforming torso.

The slow transformation allowed Blossom to completely contain everything inside her skin so that no outwards gore was shown. Her wings and tail retracted into the side of her skin, a slit of flesh swallowed them and resealed themselves. More and more Blossom’s torso looked kind of like a featureless blob contained by her skin. Movement and slithering flesh could be seen under the skin in her torso. All of Blossom’s organs began to dissolve including her bones as all of the biomass was converted into advanced flexible muscle. Her rib cage and spine deformed until her torso was a bag of strangely wriggling and slithering flesh. Her torso looked amorphous, shifting in strange and seemingly unnatural ways but it was still contained by her pony skin. Blossom’s neck began to stand more upright, now on top of this shifting bag of shapeshifting flesh.

Her skin flesh bag of a torso quieted down a bit, no longer snapping and churning as much but the slithering noises continued. The skin on her amorphous bag of flesh split apart and divided into four parts, one for each tentacle leg. Slithering biomass bolstered and lengthened the tentacles as her entire torso was transformed into more tentacle muscle. Her head was now perched on top with four huge tentacles consisting of the rest of her body mass making her very tall about three or four times taller than her previous pony body, her tentacles were standing like a quadropod. Then each of the four tentacle legs began to arch and stand on their tips until each of the four legs resembled arches, lowering her head and neck into the middle of the four legs. The four legs now resembled something like spider legs in their shape and even insect-like joints formed. Then starting at the outer tip, the four legs simultaneously started to split into two smaller tentacles making a total of eight. On the seams of the splits raw pink flesh could be seen but quickly turned white as Blossom grew more of her pony fur on the new bare skin patches. Blossomforth now had eight tentacles and she was standing double the height of her pony form. Her neck resembled a ninth tentacle albeit thicker and shorter and it shifted to hold her head towards the front of her eight legged tentacle spider form.

Then suddenly all the noise of transformation stopped. Blossomforth had eight tentacles and a head. Her tentacle legs all resembled spider legs but were more fleshy and completely covered in her white pony fur. The same fur covered her neck and head. Her face and head had all of her normal pony features, even her tentacle neck closely resembled a pony neck.

Blossom looked at Celestia and smiled, giddy, she didn’t realize it before but she enjoyed showing off. Her front right tentacle leg shed its leg structure and slithered through the air up to her brow and wiped it, also combing her hair to the side. She set the leg back down and it became rigid again, turning back into a load bearing leg. “Phew! Well, there you go! That’s a complete transformation!”

Celestia’s eyes were wider than before and it was now clear that she was breathing harder than normal. “Wow.” Celestia whispered. Then she took a deep breath and calmed herself. “I-I am baffled that you were able to do that without a trace of detectable changeling magic. No, this- this is beyond changing capabilities. I am assuming that your abilities are not magic based, correct?”

Blossom nodded. “Yes, as I alluded to before, the things that I do are all advanced biological functions from a different galaxy. The ancestors had no knowledge of magic.” Blossom then noticed how Celestia was showing more obvious signs of nervousness. Blossom tilted her head in concern. “Are you doing alright? I can transform back into a pony if you’re uncomfortable. I hope it wasn’t too much for you.”

Celestia shook her head. “No, no. I’m fine, just a little flustered as I hope you understand. It is quite rare that I get to witness something new and novel as an immortal. Please continue your demonstration, do you have more to show?”

Blossom noticed that Celestia was now standing. She looked over at Twilight. Twilight was chewing on her hoof nail, nervous and still seated on her haunches. She glanced back to Celestia. “Oh. I hope I don’t look too intimidating in this form.” Blossom noticed that she was now a bit taller than Celestia. Her legs were long and spindly. Blossom began to slowly scrunch her tentacles together more, making her legs shorter and thicker as well as lowering her height. She also lowered her neck so that she was a bit more at Celestia’s eye level, maybe looking up at her slightly. Blossom now resembled more of a compact and thicker spider like a tarantula rather than a more spindly one like a daddy long leg.

Celestia’s eyes slid down as she watched Blossom’s towering form shrink into a more compact one. “It- it’s fine. Please, continue.”

Blossom took another breath and one of her legs became flexible once again to scratch behind her neck and she averted her face slightly in shame. “I’m sorry about that.” She looked back up at the princess who was once again taller than her. Blossomforth cleared her throat a little awkwardly and continued. “As you can see, my tentacles are able to mimic a skeletal structure even though they are made mostly out of muscle.” Blossom grinned mischievously and giggled. She couldn’t help herself, plus she enjoyed the freedom her shapeshifting afforded her. She smiled widely at Celestia. “Want to see me crawl up a wall?”

Celestia could no longer hide her dumbfounded expression. “Y-yes, go ahead Blossom.” Celestia could only stare in disbelief as Blossomforth scurried like an insect to a wall and she quickly climbed the vertical surface until she was clinging upside down from the ceiling.

Blossom’s neck twisted to keep her head upright while the rest of her body was upside down. Her neck looked almost like a J shape, holding up her enthusiastic grin as her body hung from the ceiling. Her neck was just another tentacle, twisting and curling to compensate and have her head hang below her legs, upright. She also lifted a tentacle from the ceiling and stretched it towards Celestia, showing the pink skinned hairless tip. The guards flinched slightly, she retracted her tentacle slightly in response. “Sorry- see the tip of my tentacle? I need it to be free of hair in order for the microscopic gecko setae to work so that I can stick to the ceiling. Now watch what happens if I retract the nanofibers.” Blossomforth suddenly detached and began to drop from the ceiling. Her legs reacted, instantly shedding the spider leg structure and curled downwards, inverting the leg arch and reforming the leg structure opposite to the previous. Blossom’s flexible neck lifted her head so that it wouldn’t hit the ground and her eight legs absorbed the recoil as she landed on the floor. She lifted her front two legs straight up, shedding the spider leg structure and wiggled them with a cheer. “Ta-da!” Blossom giggled, she seemed to be enjoying herself.

Celestia had a hoof lifted up slightly and her two guards had lowered their spears a little to point more towards her. Blossom slowly lowered her tentacles and they curled together sheepishly under her head. Another one of her tentacle legs second from the front slithered up to scratch behind her head while the two front ones slithered together nervously. “Uh, I’m sorry about that. I think I got a bit too enthusiastic there. But yeah, I like to hunt in this form because the tentacles are super efficient and versatile.”

The guards lifted their spears slightly and Celesta lowered her hoof. “You are quite agile in that form, aren’t you Blossom?” Said Celestia.

Blossom blushed a little. “Well, yes. I mean it’s alien in nature and would not be possible without the advanced muscles from another galaxy. It allows me to be much more physically flexible, agile and adaptable than I would be normally as a pony.”

Celestia was flabbergasted, it showed a bit in her face despite her attempts to hide her feelings. “This is nothing short of astounding.” Celestia said. “I’m not really sure what to say. Hmm.” Celestia pondered for a moment, then she started again. “Twilight told me that you ‘infected’ her. What does that really mean? How did you do that? And why did you do that?”

Blossomforth’s face fell, she was no longer excited and giddy she became a bit more ashamed. “Oh.” The tips of Blossom’s front two legs began tapping their tips together nervously. “Well princess, the truth is that while I’m still Blossomforth, I have inherited some instincts from the alien that fused to me. Under certain circumstances it can make me do things that I later regret. You see, the Ancestors generally fear and attack things that they have no experience with. They are used to knowing about everything, having existed for billions of years and when they encounter something new their instinct is to attack until they have learned enough to be able to defend themselves. They fear a fair fight, they fear the unknown. Twilight was getting close to discovering me and magic is something that doesn’t exist in the alien’s original galaxy so I panicked as an extension to their instincts. I infected Twilight so that the unknown threat of magic could be pacified. So some of my cells exist inside of Twilight now. The cells are harmless to her but, I won’t be doing it again. My instincts have been sated as I have gained enough knowledge about magic that my instincts aren’t afraid anymore. I have no need to take any drastic measures. I have apologized to Twilight for this and I hope that you’ll be able to forgive me.” Blossomforth bowed her head.

Celestia’s mouth tightened at the explanation. She turned to Twilight. “Is this true, Twilight? Do you forgive Blossomforth for doing this to you?”

Twilight looked nervous and shifted from hoof to hoof in her seated position. Twilight looked at Blossom again briefly. Blossom shrank further in shame, compressing her tentacles into thicker appendages. Twilight did the breathing exercise Cadence taught her and spoke to Celestia. “Princess, while what Blossom did was frankly a bit disgusting, from what I can tell she has always respected my individuality and has granted me access to a great many resources that I never knew would be possible. I showed you my new athletic abilities and I have been opened to great stores of knowledge from Blossomforth’s ancestors. I have learned quite a lot.” She turned her gaze back to Blossom. “I trust you, Blossom. The cells you have inside of me could have done any number of things to me but you gave me enough privacy to allow me to write a message to Celestia. I know you didn’t agree with my actions but it says a lot that you haven’t tried to manipulate me. I think the next step we should take is to bring you back to one of the labs at Canterlot to really see what we can do together. I’m sure that myself and some other scientists will be very excited to get their hooves on you.”

Twilight turned back to the princess and frowned. “To answer your other questions, Princess, Blossomforth is able to infect others by performing an assimilation which is where her flesh turns into a more amorphous substance that can fuse to another organism’s flesh. From there she infects adjacent cells with a viral infection that quickly spreads throughout the target’s body. Once the body has been fully infected, she has the ability to shapeshift and modify the host’s body however she wants. I have faith that Blossomforth won’t use these abilities for evil, I can still control my body with my brain even when she could have done any number of things like cut off my brain from the rest of my body and left me powerless. Blossomforth does this through a hivemind architecture but this hivemind can only control so many bodies at the same time. She has trouble multitasking more than six bodies at the same time and can only infect up to 12 bodies at once. Any more than that and the hivemind can’t handle it.” You owe me, Blossom. Twilight sent an annoyed sounding message to Blossomforth. Blossomforth looked like she had shrunk another few inches when Twilight glanced at her. We’ll talk about this later but I want to be able to do my own full blown full body shapeshifting. Blossomforth looked like she was trying to hide a smile and nodded almost imperceptibly.

Celestia looked a bit uncomfortable. “Hmm, intriguing. This hivemind of yours, I believe that the changelings operate something similar but yours seems to be quite a bit more robust. Tell me, are you able to split your body into two smaller ones and control both?”

Blossomforth nodded. “Yes, this is something that I can do.” She paused. “Look, Princess. I wanted to apologize to you for what I did to Twilight. If she wants I will find a way to purge my cells from her body. It might not be the easiest thing but it’s something I believe I should be able to do with enough research into the ancestors’ archives.”

Celestia sighed. Her mask of regal indifference seemed to have fallen off. “I will be honest with you Blossomforth. Your abilities are troubling to me. The fact that you are able to control multiple bodies and infect ponies just by touching them, leading to a situation where you can essentially control their bodies isn’t something that makes me feel comfortable. It’s frankly disturbing. I am a bit overwhelmed with your abilities. What you have shown me so far seems to make yourself seem like a nice pony, and I really want this to work out. Please do me a favor and don’t infect ponies again without their express permission. If possible, I would want one of my representatives to be present every time you do this but I am going to give you a show of faith that you won’t abuse your abilities. There is evidence you are a good pony, Blossom. If you wanted to, you could have completely puppeted Twilight’s body and then she would have been incapable of doing anything you disagreed with, correct?”

Blossomforth was cringing at this point but she responded. “Yes, Princess, that is correct.”

“Well, Twilight disagreed with you and she was able to contact me. This makes me want to put a little faith in you.” For the first time, Celestia’s face turned serious and slightly frightening. Her eyes started to glow, her mane seemed to whip around in the wind and her voice was laced with magical power. “However, I must warn you, Blossom. If you test me, you have not seen the lengths that I will go to protect my ponies and I will not hold back in your case. You have perhaps an unfathomable amount of potential in your control. This is a very serious situation with far reaching consequences. I will not tolerate you manipulating my little ponies. We have the power to make the world a beautiful paradise or a hell and we will both be stuck here. Don’t screw it up, for your own sake.”

Blossomforth stared at Celestia. Blossom was suddenly embarrassed by her weird spider body but she stood up a bit straighter anyway and simply stated as sincerely as she could. “I won’t disappoint you, princess.” She meant it too, screwing with ponies brains wasn’t something she wanted to make a hobby out of. It was horrible and she was convinced that if she were to try and take control, nothing good would come of it. The world would be much duller if everyone agreed, she was sure of it.

Celestia’s eyes ceased their glow and her mane calmed down. Her face softened and she took a deep breath. “I’m happy to hear that Blossom. There is a huge responsibility you must now bear. I want this to work out, I really do. My student is very precious to me and if she trusts you then I will entrust her with you. Do not make me regret this or the full wrath of the sun will be set upon you.” Celestia turned her head to Twilight. “So, Twilight, is this what you want? Do you trust Blossomforth with your life or would you rather be purged of the infection?”

Twilight sighed. “Yes, Princess, it’s true I do trust Blossom. She has been very kind and generous to me and I do want to explore and experiment with these new possibilities that her biology will afford me. Furthermore, I have a scientific curiosity that I am dying to scratch. I believe that Blossom and I will be able to change the world for the better. Right Blossom?”

Blossomforth hesitated looking down but then looked up at Twilight. “Truthfully, I liked the status quo and didn’t want anything to change. That makes me lazy and irresponsible, but It’s time I stopped and took responsibility. I’ll help you in any way I can, Twilight.”

Celestia’s face softened, there was hope in her eyes. “I suppose that’s settled then. I’ll trust your judgment, Twilight. I trust that you would not be against meeting with some of my scientists in Canterlot as well as others in government, Blossom? I predict that there will be many ponies who will want to do experiments with you. There is also much I need to discuss with my advisors and others. Expect a swift response, this will be the top priority for quite a while I imagine. By tomorrow I will request your presence in canterlot and I will personally help you with teleportation. What do you think, Blossom, will you be willing to cooperate with our requests?”

The weight of these new responsibilities was starting to weigh on Blossom. She hoped this wasn’t going to be a bad experience. “I’ll help any way I can. I’ll gladly cooperate with you and your government.”

“Good, then I will see you tomorrow. I have a lot to get done. I’m not sure if I will even sleep tonight. Blossom. Twilight. Sleep well and may Luna’s night watch over you.” Celestia glanced at her guards, they closed ranks standing by her side. Celestia’s horn started to shine with a blinding light until suddenly, she and her three guards were gone. Then Twilight and Blossomforth were alone in Twilight’s library.

Once again leave your comments and criticisms. Was this chapter too dull or exposition heavy? Tell me! I want to know. I have been trying to make myself output chapters more quickly, maybe not waiting for the perfectly formed idea. I want to push the story forward. Let me know how I did. Thank you.