Idly munching away on a salad, Twilight knew there was something up by the way Ada kept turning to glance at her. They were in her dorm room, with Twilight sitting beside her computer while Ada worked on a math paper that was due the next day.
Each time the tiny parasitic pony stole a glance at her, Twilight became more suspicious. Finally, when she noticed yet another glance, she put her fork down and stared back. Of course Ada snapped her head back to the screen to pretend she hadn't been watching Twilight. "What is it?"
"Humm?" Ada turned back to look up at Twilight, but couldn't help glancing at the girl's salad first. "What do you mean? I have been working hard and—"
"You keep sneaking glances at me, and I think it has something to do with my food." Twilight looked down into her meal, and pushed some of the salad around with her fork. "What did you do, Ada?"
Slumping in place (narrowly avoiding landing on the keyboard), Ada rolled to her back in surrender. "I just… I need to lay them."
"Is this the egg thing again? I told you, we need to run more tests." The moment Twilight Sparkle mentioned them, of course she spotted one, then another, and another. "Those aren't peas, are they?"
"I covered them with green food dye. I promise they won't hurt you!" Ada squirmed on her back, sliding along the table until her snout brushed the stunned girl's hand. "Please don't be mad…"
Twilight stared at the most adorable—and intelligent—parasite she knew; it was impossible to actually get angry at Ada. "You should have waited for the tests to complete. This might be fine for ponies, but humans have different…" She trailed off at the gentle nuzzles against her finger. "What?"
"There's some more in the bowl." Ada poked her tiny tongue out and licked Twilight's finger, then closed her mouth so her tongue was stuck out. She had waged such battles with Twilight before, and had discovered the power of her "blep face."
A battle had warred in Twilight in the past, often involving her sense of preservation and the adorable wiles of Ada. Ada had won every time so far, but Twilight held out hope that one day she could master her little friend's adorableness. Stirring the salad a little with her fork, she returned to eating it—trying to ignore the "peas" mixed through.
"Thank you!" Ada squirmed some more; now she was acting adorable as a reward. "I have a lot more. Do you know anyone else who would make a good friend to my little foals?" She nuzzled and rubbed her cheeks against one of Twilight's fingers when the digit strayed near.
Swallowing more self-consciously now, Twilight was mentally examining every mouthful, and being much more careful about chewing. Invariably, though, she accidentally bit one of the eggs and spilled the contents in her mouth. "Or mrrr garrr! Ir shro shrory!"
It took a few moments for Ada to work out what Twilight had done, but when she did she giggled. "Not all of them are going to hatch, silly. Do they taste good?" She had the distinct impression, by the way her host was not spitting them everywhere, that they weren't terrible.
Gulping down the mouthful as best she could, Twilight reflected briefly on her reduced gag reflex. Unable to keep the question back, she gathered a fork that was most of the remaining eggs. "They taste… really good actually. Almost like egg and—" She blinked at the glistening, slightly white coating on the eggs. "Did you pour mayonnaise on them?"
Ada's throat trilled as she recovered from the immense distraction that nuzzling Twilight's finger caused. "You love mayonnaise!"
"Well, yes. But I know you love it too. When are you going to be small enough to get back inside me?" The idea of Ada living in her belly didn't freak Twilight out anymore—it had become routine. "All this… external… feeding…" The thought of what she would have to do later made it much harder to eat the rest of the salad.
"When I can lay all these eggs. This wouldn't be so complicated if you just let me lay them all in you when I was in last. I can't describe how good it is to be in you except that it feels right." Ada shook her little head and stood up. "Maybe you could ask your friends to have a few?"
"What?!" Twilight blinked and stared at Ada. "You… you want me to trick my friends into eating your eggs?" The idea was abhorrent, horrible, and Twilight vowed not to go through with it no matter how much adorableness Ada applied. "Anyone who has your eggs… from now on… will be told in advance what will happen."
Ada turned and looked at Twilight, grinning widely. "Perfect! That was my plan too!" The moment she finished talking there was a knock on Twilight's dorm door. Parasite and host stared at each other for a moment.
"Who is it?" Twilight used her fork to scoop the last of the "peas" into her mouth, and despite herself she chewed on a few to get the oddly nice taste, but gulped down most of them. When no answer could be heard, Twilight reached to the computer and tapped a button on the keyboard. Up came Fluttershy's nervous face in the door cam's feed. "Oh, Fluttershy!"
Fluttershy tried to hold down her enthusiasm. She knocked on the door again, gently, only for Twilight to open it before she finished. "Oh, um. Hi Twilight." She couldn't stop fluttering her eyes in excitement. "I am here to see Ada…"
Suspicion flooded Twilight's mind and she turned from her friend—who was dressed in a beautiful light blue sun dress—and stared at Ada. "This better not be—"
"Oh!" Fluttershy, focused on the most amazing animal she had ever seen, had the nervous energy to cut in on Twilight Sparkle. Brushing past her friend she rushed over to the computer desk where Ada was working. "Hello Ada, are you well today? How is your pregnancy going? Do you need anything special to eat? I sometimes make special meals for the baby birds when their mommies can't feed them and maybe I could—"
"Fluttershy!" Twilight cut in on her friend, but continued in a more sober tone. "I have her dietary needs under control."
"Oh my gosh!" Fluttershy appeared to have barely noticed Twilight at all, and focused her attention on one of Ada's eggs that had been hiding in Twilight's bowl still. "Is this one of them? How many do you lay? Are they always this tasty?"
Officially giving up trying to stop her friend, Twilight walked to her mini-kitchenette and went right for the fridge. "Fluttershy…" Without thinking too much, Twilight levitated the bottle of iced tea onto the bench, lifting two cups down. "Look, the eggs didn't seem to have any adverse effects on the mice, but we just have no way of knowing if Ada's foals… babies… will have any complications in a human. You can't let anyone else try this." She managed to get the bottle half put away with levitation before Twilight realized what she was doing and froze.
The sound of the half-full plastic bottle hitting the floor and bouncing startled Fluttershy. She dove behind Twilight's bed and peeked over the top. Seemingly in response to the shock, she had ponied up too, and Fluttershy had her wings spread wide in surprise. "Twilight! What happened?"
"I just dropped the bottle. I'm still trying to get used to this magic stuff…" To prove her point, Twilight reached down with her magic to grab the bottle. This time, seemingly in reaction to Fluttershy ponying up, Twilight's hair grew long, and a pair of purple wings pushed through her back and spread out. Unfortunately, small kitchenettes were not a safe place to spread your wings. "Ahhhhh!"
Fluttershy hid down behind the bed again. The last thing she had seen was one of Twilight's wings poking the utensils hanging from a rack on one side of the kitchen area, while the other knocked all her glasses off a shelf on the other. The weight of an overly-heavy Ada landed on the back of Fluttershy's neck, but despite being surprised, Fluttershy didn't flinch as Ada snuggled in around her throat.
"I got it!" Twilight's efforts to catch all the glasses had resulted in her still holding the two with tea in them, while her magic clung to the other six. Carefully, she lifted them to the bench slowly and turned to sidle sideways out of her kitchen.
Finally, getting over her panic at all the noise, Fluttershy giggled at Twilight's predicament. "Do you need a hand with that?" She stood up from behind the bed and walked around it to take her own glass from Twilight. "How many can I safely have, do you think? How big will your foals be, Ada?"
"I don't know…" Ada nuzzled along Fluttershy's chin, her belly full of eggs pressed to the girl's neck while her tail wrapped around to hold on. "We aren't exactly big on communication as foals… That will change this time, though!"
"It will!" Fluttershy was excited at the prospect of having a lot of the adorable little parasites to care for. Practically floating, she made her way back to Twilight's desk. "What would be the easiest way to lay… or swallow… them?"
"I could lay the whole bowl full if you want?" Her voice excited and chirpy, Ada pointed a little hoof at the bowl Twilight had had her salad in. She uncoiled herself from Fluttershy's neck and waddled her way down the girl's arm to drop back on the desk.
Fluttershy's eyes widened, and a beatific smile creased her cheeks, but then everything went first purple, then dark. "T-T-Twilight!"
"You don't want to see this, trust me." Twilight gently guided her friend's face away from looking at the desk and whatever it was Ada was doing. "As for how many, I really don't know. All I can go off is how many siblings Ada knew when she was growing up, and that is from a time before she learned how to count…"
The urge to watch Ada at "work" was great, but Fluttershy took Twilight's word on the event. "How many eggs would her mother have laid, do you think?"
Twilight averted her eyes from what Ada was doing, but still caught a flash of yellow and green from the corner of her eyes as she reached for her notebook. Flipping pages, she read out what was written. "Of what Ada believes was the full clutch, she and maybe four others survived." She passed the book to Fluttershy.
"That's not so bad, I can afford to take care of one or two, and I could probably talk the girls into fostering one each." Fluttershy was not unaware of what her "looks" could do to her fellow classmates. She didn't like to use them unless lives hung in the balance. "I don't think it would be safe for you to have more than one."
"And for you it would?" Twilight's sense of pride in her science and engineering had been poked, and she couldn't help but poke back. Regardless, logic won out. "But I think we should see how many of the girls go in for this, and distribute the little… foals… to them first." When Fluttershy started to tear up, Twilight quickly added, "After yours of course."
The plan made sense, and Fluttershy opened her mouth to agree to it when a soft, utterly tired-sounding voice called out.
"I am done…" When Twilight and Fluttershy turned to face Ada, the little parasite was laying atop the salad bowl piled high with little, pea-shaped eggs.
Fluttershy's mind nearly exploded, and she widened her eyes in shock. "H-H-How did all those fit…?"
"This is why I told you not to watch. She lays her eggs as tiny orbs that puff up once exposed to air. It is almost fascinating in that 'makes your stomach clench just thinking about it' way." Twilight gave a few unconvincing laughs.
"Should I swallow them like this?" Fluttershy eyed the fork Twilight had been using. "I better get a spoon…" Getting up, she made her way to Twilight's kitchenette and walked in without thinking. Clanging implements sounded in her ears on one side, while Twilight's magic barely saved the glasses for a second time. "Oops…" Excited as she was, Fluttershy was still ponied up.