~o~Please. You are a clown with no audience.~o~
"Some oranges hate killing art hats that ordain anarchy!" Lyra shouted into the desert air while galloping wildly.
~o~We cannot even pretend to understand what that's supposed to mean.~o~
"EXACTLY!" Lyra slid into a boulder. "Rnngngh!" She kicked it over a ridge, then backflipped into a cartwheel while singing. "La la la la la laaaaaaa!" She landed on one hoof and struck a pose. "I'm a little tea pot!"
~o~Just because you're being unpredictable does not mean that you are in control.~o~
"I can't hear youuuuu!" Lyra yodeled, scooting around on her butt before somesaulting towards a batch of twigs. "I'm too busy being a little tweeting bird called 'logic'!" She plucked a stick off the ground and began chewing on it. "Mmmmmmmm! Fillydelphia! My favorite of the Noble Gases!"
~o~The only reason you're acting interdependent of our influence is because the transfer has encountered interference.~o~
"Pizz fah whizz!" Lyra plucked the stick out of her mouth and threw it up in an arc. She watched as it made a field goal between two cactus branches, and then proceeded to dance around in victory. "Three points! You suck my banjo!"
~o~We were hasty to choose you. The hunger was too much and the sustenance too promising. But now that we see how pathetically idiotic you are, it is only a matter of time before you surrender the spirit as well as the body.~o~
Lyra suddenly snarled into the air: "How about you surrender your panties, you sapsuckled demon hussy?!" She slapped a hoof over her chest. "Apart from an ear-splitting headache, you're nothing but bad indigestion!"
~o~We have no intention on leaving you now. We've nestled in too deep. We must find one of the hives and be nursed by our children before we can restore ourselves to a proper husk.~o~
"Oh yeah?!" Lyra shook in place, teeth gnashing. "You want an excuse to hop on out of me?! I'll give you one!"
~o~There isn't even the remotest possibility of...~o~
But it was too late. With a voice-cracking yell, Lyra was already spinning around...
...and slamming her hoof fetlock deep into a spiny cactus.
THUNKKK!
Lyra clenched her eyes shut as she allowed the pain to enter her senses.
And then...
...the pain ripped its way out in throbbing waves. She sounded it off with a foalish whimper.
"Ow..."
Seething, she leaned back... hobbling on three limbs.
"Ow ow ow ow owwwww..."
Nervously, she squeezed one teary eye open... and then the second.
Her fetlock was covered all over in cactus spines—each embedded nightmarishly deep into her forelimb.
She took a shuddering breath. But just as the first vomitous waves of bile collected in her throat... Lyra felt a jolt to her heart. She noticed that there was no blood... not even a drop of crimson. The confusion washed over the pain, and she held the fetlock closer to examine the situation.
And it was precisely at that moment that a bright green fountain of flame billowed over her hoof. The air heated, then cooled.
T-T-T-Tink!
"...?" Lyra looked straight down.
Over a dozen cactus thorns lay dormant against the stone floor of the desert.
"Huh?" Lyra blinked. She looked back at her hoof—which was completely free of needles. In fact, there wasn't even a single wound. Or prinprick. "The Hell?"
~o~We're trying to make you understand.~o~ The voice warbled as Lyra felt a dense heat rise up in the center of her being. ~o~The transfer is irreversible. Your body—as you once knew it—is a corpse lying abandoned back in that cave.~o~
Lyra clenched her jaw as she rubbed one hoof over the other. She almost missed the pain. "No..."
~o~You are not you. You are us. Or... at least... you will become us... if only you stop wasting our precious time and simply obey.~o~
"N-no..." Lyra felt the rising urge to hyperventilate. Eyes on the edge of tears, she pivoted about, shivering, seeking. "...!" Her gaze caught Appleloosa in the distance. "My friends...!"
~o~Seek the hives. Reunite our children. And we promise... we will make the passing of your putrid consciousness pain-free.~o~
"I-I have to see my friends!" Lyra galloped straight towards the hazy cluster of distant buildings and apple groves. "That'll wake me up!"
~o~Stop running this instant!~o~
"You... can't... make me!" Lyra hollered, jumping straight up. FLASH! Soon, she was gliding high over the desert with the grace of an eagle. "Hah!" She grinned devilishly, slightly regaining her composure. "NOW who's learning new tricks?"
~o~Take one look at yourself and ask who's really in control.~o~
"Huh?" She looked back. To Lyra's surprise, she was not an orange stallion pegasus. In fact, she didn't even possess a single feather.
Instead... two streams of translucent green light stretched out on either side of her flank. They looked as solid as clouds, and yet—in their wing-like structure—they somehow kept her aloft.
And accelerated her.
For the briefest of moments, Lyra's eyes dazzled as if with stars. "Okay... whoah."