//------------------------------// // 10: Onwards... into one rather messed up head. // Story: An Exercise In Management // by Nameless Narrator //------------------------------// After some thorough cleaning, Eight returns far more presentable than before and smelling of lavender. Three is lying on the floor with a crayon stuck in his leg hole, drawing in his colouring book, clearly unbothered by green carrots, black ponies with bright blue eyes, and a dark blue bear he’s filling out. Hey, at least he got the sky, grass, and ground right. “So, Eight, did you think of a plan?” “Me? Isn’t that your job, King?” “I mean, how the hay am I supposed to think of something when I’ve been asleep since we arrived and you knocked Truncheon out?” “I apologize. I… it’s new to me...” Her surprised and unusually meek response must mean I’m still asleep. “What is?” “Being asked for my opinion when under someone’s command.” Sadly, now I understand completely. I never thought it would be the same for high-ranks, but it makes sense. The only one who mattered to Chrysalis was Chrysalis. “Eight, I’m not leading anyone. There’s no reason for you to stay around me, but you’re doing it anyway. I need you a lot more than you need me. This is the first time I’m outside the hive, I can’t even shapeshift for some reason, and I’m not strong enough to ambush a pony. So please, give me every opinion and idea you’ve got, because I’m drawing blanks here.” She stares. Now that I’ve shown weakness, I’m prey. “We go down to the cellar and start repopulating the hive. I volunteer as a broodmoth-” “Plans for interrogating the captured infiltrator.” “Awww...” Three raises a crayon before speaking up: “I can poke him with my stick until he talks.” “Three just had a better idea then you, Eight. THREE.” “What did you expect? He outranks me.” “...touche...” “What goes around...” “Plan, Eight, now!” “Alright, I did think of something in the shower while I… I did think of something, You get inside me-” “Chrysalisfuckingdammit!” Are my veins popping? They must be popping. Eight grins victoriously. “You get inside my head and use my senses. That way you’ll be able to communicate with me while I go down to the station and wake the infiltrator up. I will need to suck you dry and force hibernation, because I’ll be using your power to make the guy presentable. He’s… demolished. I promise to revive you as soon as I get a refill.” Paranoia strikes back. On the other hoof, if she wanted me dead I would be. No matter how much love she’s given me from what she stole over the day, I can see how much she has left and it’s enough to beat me to death with the couch I’m sitting on. “Wait, can I do that? Drones can’t do that, can we?” She leans in, pushing my chin upwards with her hoof. “You are not a drone anymore. Drones don’t have secondary armor plates. Drones don’t have manes. Drones don’t have normal eyes. Drones can’t drain and redistribute love. Drones don’t have underlings. Drones aren’t the targets of hive mind’s attention.” “Yeah, so why is all this happening? You know a lot, but you refuse to talk!” “I… am piecing things together, and what the infiltrator has to say is important. Anyway, why are you so set on not being in charge? Most changelings would love having servants to satisfy their every whim. That was one of the reasons for the invasion after all.” “We’re not in a good shape, Eight! I don’t have experience with… anything not related to carrying eggs from one place to another. We don’t have the luxury to make wrong decisions. If you obey me and I make a mistake you’ll die! It doesn’t matter if ponies catch you or if we waste what little love we have due to a bad plan. You will fail and it will be my fault.” She narrows her eyes even more, and the corners of her mouth curl upwards, revealing her unbroken fang. “Do you think Chrysalis would care?” Is that all it takes? Three, Eight… is someone not treating them like disposable tools so important to them? “No, I don’t think so. Alright, Eight, how do I do the mind sharing thing?” “If my idea isn’t too far off, you should just want it, and the instinct will answer. The hive mind changed your body on more levels than the outer layer. Just, I don’t know, imagine yourself inside me.” Of course the first damn image that goes through my head is me desperately trying not to fall off of her back while mounting her. It’s HER fault, not mine! Both for being too tall and too suggestive. “...you don’t want that...” “...oh yessss I do… hnnngh...” She sits down next to me, forcefully guiding my head into her lap, which really doesn’t help my concentration. However, she just sits there, stroking my mane with my muzzle pressed firmly against her abdomen. I close my eyes. When I open them again, everything looks much sharper, I can hear sounds I couldn’t hear before, I can smell goop from down in the cellar… and the ground is suddenly much further away. I try to look at my foreleg, but it moves at glacial pace. Something is resisting, but I WANT to move my leg. Then the fighting presence weakens, and a feeling of raw pleasure rushes through my whole body. “...yesss… oh heavens yess… this feels so good… so right… take control of me… break me… use me… remake me… make me a pet… a toy… a slave… anything you want… just break me harder… fuck my head up… make me think I’m a lowest rank drone… make me KNOW it… make me bow to you… breed me… make me into an egg sack… a bloated breeder… a mindless statue… fun for the whole hive… take away all my control and have drones mate  with me… warrior broken so hard… fallen so deep... feels… so gooooood...”   That’s… Eight’s shaky whispering. Experimentally, I try to force her to stretch her foreleg despite her mind’s quickly wavering resistance. “...aaaaaahhhhhh ...corrupt me… change me… own me...” I feel like I could easily take over her body now. She’s not resisting willingly, only on basic survival instinct, so I… stop. ”Eight? Eight? Can you hear me- feel me- something?” I- she suddenly quickly looks from side to side, taking a deep breath as if surfacing from deep water. “Huh? King? Great, it worked!” ”Yes, it did. Rather… differently than I thought, but it did.” “Excellent. I hope the connection will last long enough.” “Who are you talking to, miss Eight? The boss fell asleep.” She blinks, as if she completely forgot Three was there. “Oh, heheh, ehm, you’ve been d- drawing there all the time?” “Yes, you kept muttering and looked really weird, so I thought about tapping your leg or something, but then I told myself you knew what you were doing.” “T- thanks for not disturbing me. It- it took a lot of focus.” “No problem, miss. I’m glad you’re okay now.” ”No, she’s fucked up beyond your basic imagination.” I realize I ‘said’ it. “Y- you hear- ehm?! Three, the boss is in my head and Truncheon’s duty starts soon. Go check up on him while we sort things out here.” “The boss is still lying in your lap, miss.” “His corporeal body is, but through the shared mind- he needs a lot of energy to be able to talk to me when we’re at the station, so he’s resting.” ”Liar.” “Oh, I see. I’ll be right back then.” He trots off, leaving his crayons scattered around his drawing spot. “So you heard it...” ”I did.” “Not really a… warrior’s mentality.” ”Huh, I expected you to say I misheard or something.” “No. I’m… like that. It’s what I crave.” ”That makes no sense to me.” “Look, I don’t think it’s possible to explain. That’s who I-” ”No, what doesn’t make sense is the fact you weren’t rank one under Chrysalis. A perfect slave, one willing to be a THING if needed, and one able to demolish two lower numbers in a fight to the death on top of that? I’m honestly surprised she didn’t goo you up against the wall with only your backside sticking out for a day as a reward whenever you captured a pony.” “...hnnngh… yesss...” ”CONTROL YOURSELF, EIGHT!” I feel the shocking surge blasting through her at my words. “Yes, my King. I am yours to control. Order me anything. You can order me what I’m against, you can order me to tell you everything I know or suspect, you can- ” ”No. You’re YOURS to control.” “Huh?” ”I’m not Chrysalis. I actually value all you have to offer. You’re not just a warrior body for me to send into battle. You are allowed to be yourself.” “Then you know what my real self wants… needs.” ”Maybe… but I have no clue how to deal with it. We’re trying to survive here, Eight. I’m not asking you to just forget all you want, but for now I need a different part of you.” “...” ”Yes, I do realize I sound like Chrysalis right now - hey, tomorrow you’ll do all you want, tomorrow we’ll have all the food, today you will obey unquestioningly.” “...yes...” ”But you offered this. This was your plan.” “You’re right.” ”Please don’t sound so… dejected.” “I’m not. I’m just… thinking.” ”We can go on with this favor basis you like. I do something for you, you do something for me and vice versa.” “It’s a start. Anything goes…?” ”I’ll get some rubber gloves and a riding crop as soon as I can.” “Hee hee hee.” ”Did you just giggle?” “Definitely not-” “Miss Eight, Truncheon is still hanging down there, unconscious.” “Perfect.” With care for my limp body, she jumps down from the couch, touches my chest, and concentrates. In response, my body curls up and I stop its instinctual resistance only to see through her eyes all of my love absorbed by Eight. So she can drain me if I’m not resisting. What’s left on the couch is just an empty shell now. I have never felt so vulnerable. ‘My’ whole body tingles as Eight shapeshifts into the captured earthpony, and I’m taken along for a ride. If the love she sucked out of me was enough, we’ll soon know what happened with the invasion.