//------------------------------// // Curiosity // Story: The Infestation of Equiss Prime // by Jest //------------------------------// A nameless zerg queen sat motionless at what would amount as a helm of her ship. All around her the flesh walls of her ship pulsed in shared anxiety, its relatively small size easily dwarfed by the leviathan that was nearby. The Queen of Blades had chosen this moment to test the nameless queen’s new capabilities and the zerg couldn't help but feel a strange sense of nervousness assault her mind. Organs the queen did not have names for had been grown within her body, granting her new abilities beyond those usually associated with queens. Her abilities to infest, to spread her parasites and dominate a population were now unparalleled by the other queens. Though she didn't understand why, she had also been given the ability to remain dormant, enabling her parasites to remain undetected within the population for an indefinite period. She could even force herself and those zerg in her proximity to enter a sort of suspended animation, though it was suggested she not use this ability to the potential damage that extended suspended animation posed on zerg physiology. The queen hadn’t truly understand the point of dormancy as aggressive expansion had been the zerg way for years. Her queen had been quick to show the confused underqueen the projections of such a virulent plague of infection which satiated the upstart. The queen of blade’s visions filled the nameless queen with pleasure, for she would be tasked with the infestation and domination of an entire planet of terrans. Their bodies and essence were weak, but with the ability to enable her infested to use terran technology, they would serve her well. With their service the glory of conquest would be all hers and with that victory, she would be elevated far beyond the ranks of a mere queen. No longer would she serve under the broodmothers, but become their equal or even their greater! Even with this promise of power and ascension, the nameless queen’s anxiety was still palpable. For her enhanced coordination and infestation were not the only gifts she had been given. Deep within her experimental miniature leviathan ship pounded something strange and powerful. The queen of blades had abandoned her use of wormholes to transport the many minor ships of the swarm, preferring to launch from the safety of the leviathans but she had not forgotten the useful ability. This great writhing mass of flesh and unknown liquid pulsed with a dark light, imitating a small part of the queen of blade’s vast power. When in range of their queen, it would be capable of tapping into a part of her immense psionic potential and could send the small ship across the vast reaches of the darkness of space in an instant. But, it was the first, and though tested, she was the first queen to ever ‘pilot’ such a craft. The first of what the queen of blade’s hoped was many and this ‘dark organ’, as it was called, was the first thing that had ever instilled true fear into the nameless queen. The raw power that the organ pulsed with dwarfed even the nameless queen’s and though it lacked sentience, it still exerted a pressure that pushed at the back of the queen’s mind. The queen glanced over her shoulder, her eyes scanning the hundreds of rows of parasites that sat nestled in their chrysalises. As her gaze ran over the many suspended creatures, a cruel facsimile of a smile crossed the queen’s face and the parasites writhed in shared pleasure. The queen of blades had confidence in her, had confidence in the dark organ, thus the nameless queen had confidence in those same things. With doubt gone and anxiety wiped from her mind, the zerg faced forward, waiting patiently for the order to engage and begin her infestation of the terran world of Korhal. Her patience was rewarded quicker than the nameless queen had dared hope as she felt the will of her queen flow through her very being, causing her to pulse with energy. Her mandibles clacked together excitedly and the zerg waited eagerly for direction. Commence preparations and ready the dark organ. For the swarm! the queen of blade’s psionic voice boomed within the lesser queen’s mind. For the swarm! she cried in triumph. Her ship pulsed around her, the joy she felt echoing through the zerg ship and the many parasites that hung at the ready. With a mental command the ship began to move, its relatively small, but not insignificant length twisting through the darkness of space, quickly reaching the desired speed. When the queen was sure that her vessel was ready she extended her mind deep into the dark organ. The pressure in her mind doubled and the organ initially resisted the queen’s order to move, its undirected will pressing back. However, it was quickly overwhelmed by the psychic might and will of the nameless queen, bending to her desire. With the dark organ once more willing to follow the queen’s demands, she pressed her will deeper, inputting the necessary commands to ensure they would arrive within the atmosphere of their target planet and under any radar that would detect them. It would be tricky, as something this precise had never been attempted before, but she trusted her queen’s orders and knew she would ensure success. The organ pulsed with baleful energy, as if it were angry that it had received orders. Reluctantly it allowed the nameless queen to input her orders and with a flare of sickly orange light it pulsed, beginning the first steps of its preparations. Great liquid filled sacks twisted and contorted, the deep organelles of the dark organ, filling with energy. The queen sat silent, her mind combing through the operations of her ship and the dark organ, double and triple checking that her orders were being followed. The queen of blades had been insistent, her orders absolute and the queen refused to fail in her mission. With the independence granted to her by her specialization, the queen relentlessly ran over every check she could think of. Orange light suddenly poured through the ship, seeping through the flesh bulkheads and casting the chrysalises in an eerie light. The organ pounded in the distance, its pressure growing by the second. Still the queen sat silent, her mandibles clacking nervously as she poured over the organ’s preparations. When everything was as the queen of blades had commanded, she opened the mental connection once more. We are ready, my queen! Good, now activate the organ! Infest the terran fools! the queen of blades commanded. For the swarm! the nameless queen cried back. The queen pushed her mind into the organ, activating the massive build of sickly energy that poured through the miniature leviathan. The organ pulsed one last time before the built up energy exploded outward in a massive wave of orange that engulfed the ship completely, obscuring it from view. The nameless queen felt her entire being and the bodies of her ship and parasites crushed to a single infinitesimally small point, only to bounce back an instant later. The queen’s senses spread through her ship and poured outwards, expecting to find the world of Korhal just beyond, only to find… nothing. No atmosphere, no cities, no vegetation, no planet, just nothing. Only the distant swirl of galaxies and stars met the queen’s enhanced senses of her and her ship. My queen, something is wrong! she called out, recalling the mental connection they had mere moments ago. Only to find that connection was gone, and with it, the guiding will of her queen and the constant voice of the greater swarm. The thousandfold voices of the nameless zerg that the unnamed queen had known since the moment of her birth were utterly silent. In her desire to see the planet she had not noticed the hive mind’s absence but now, now it was unbearable. She had been elevated to a position below the broodmothers and though she knew her new mental prowess could keep her brood in line, it was not something she had been truly prepared for. White hot panic surged through the queen’s body and her muscles twisted and contorted as her mind ran circles around itself. Her mind expanded outward, through the ship and her parasitic brood, searching for damage. As her mind brushed across the dark organ, she stopped, the organ felt distant, its pressure gone. As the queen’s will searched for its presence, she felt the shattered remnants of the organ. The pressure had been too great and its massive bloated sack of twisted orange energy had ruptured, destroying vast sections of the small ship. The queen tried to reign in their propulsion, hoping that she could stop her forward momentum. Only to find that part of her ship unresponsive, the damage too severe, rendering the entire organic propulsion system inoperable. The queen gripped her head tightly, shutting off the agony coming from the damaged ship. With a mental command the ship detached its sense of feeling from the damaged section, cutting itself off from the damaged propulsion system and a good third of the ship’s bulk. With no way to stop their forward momentum, the queen extended her senses outward once more, searching the stars and galaxies she felt through the ship’s exterior, looking for some hint of familiarity. As the queen’s search continued, so did her dread. The stars were like nothing the queen had seen, and the rudimentary course calculation that had been pressed into her mind could find no viable solutions or even somewhat familiar star clusters. Alone, the queen stared on for several minutes, desperately searching for anything that might signal the way back to her queen and the swarm. Her limbs fell slack, her jaw hanging open, for there was nothing. No psionic signatures, no familiar galaxies, nothing that could indicate the queen’s or the swarm’s location. Old instincts bubbled to the surface of the queen’s mind, forcing down the well of panic and the primal urge to return to a more feral state. She had her independence, she had her mission, perhaps she was merely further out than planned. Despite the impossibility of such an occurrence, the queen chose to believe it, chose to continue on, hoping against hope that Korhal would soon appear before her. It would take days, months, perhaps even years but she could not give up, not while there was still a chance. The queen found the dormancy protocols implanted with her mind and hesitantly ran a mental digit over the protocol. She would need to shut down everything, not only the ship, or the parasites, but her very mind, if they were going to have a chance of reaching her target before the ship was forced to consume itself. Not just the ship, not just the parasites, but every single biological function would need to cease utterly. Only then would the nameless queen even have a tiny glimmer of hope that they would survive long enough to reach their destination. Her instincts screamed at her to stop, to do anything other than damning her and her parasites to a slow, inevitable end but with no other options, she was forced to ignore those instincts. She knew the protocols would damage not only the ship, but the genetic makeup of her parasites and even herself. As they were never intended to be used for long and activating them indefinitely had risks that the queen had hoped she'd never have to consider, yet here she was, her digit placed over the mental button that would send the order. With a mental shift, the protocols activated and the ship began to still, its occupants falling silent as their mental voices were put into a deep, dreamless sleep. The queen sat on the now still mound, that connected her to the ship, her mandibles clacking nervously as she glanced around the now silent hull of her dormant ship. Behind her she could feel her parasites cease their anxious twitching, some of which she knew would never wake again. What had she done wrong? The question hung in the queen’s mind for what felt like hours, silently staring out into the darkness of her ship. Until finally she was forced to admit that she must join her children, and soon. The queen consoled herself with the knowledge that when significant gravity tugged at the ship once more, it would reactivate, and hopefully reawaken the queen, if she were still alive, that is. The protocols were reluctantly activated once more, and several of the queen’s new organs shifted inside her as they were forced into use for the very first time. Her senses dulled, her mind began to grow distant all the while the queen looked out over her children, what amounted to a frown pressed firmly against her face. Her world grew dimmer and dimmer until all that was left was one final thought. I will fulfill your mission, my queen, for the swarm… With that, the last of her mental energy was depleted and the queen fell still, her body falling into a heap, her now closed eyes still looking out over her payload of parasites. As the drifting energy dissipated, the queen of blades leaned forward in her flagship leviathan, gazing out through the empty expanse of space. Her powerful mind searched as her more mundane senses did as well, only to come to the same disappointing conclusion. She is gone, the queen of blades lamented. Not only from our position, but from the swarm entirely. Instantly the queen directed her will towards the one creature she knew that would have an inkling as to what had happened. Abathur, the swarm’s psionic presence extends to Korhal, correct? The zerg spinner twitched suddenly, nearly overwhelmed by the unexpected pressure of his queen’s emotions. Subject queen of blade’s influence spreads throughout the Korpulo sector, Korhal included. The queen rocked back on her heels. Did she defect? No, that is impossible. Then where is she? Her eyes gazed out into the endless cozmos, searching in vain for any sign of her wayward underqueen. “Where did you go?” Kerrigan whispered. Years, centuries, millennia, time beyond counting passed through the wayward zerg queen and her ship. There was no one left aboard to recount the endless pass of aeons as the dark void of the great beyond slipped past the craft until time itself seemed to forget the zerg ship’s existence. After endless years spent drifting by momentum alone, something changed. Gravity began to tug at the ship, and not the distant gravity of some stellar object or passing by debris, but the insistent tug of something large, and close. Instinct flared within the depths of the ship, slowly awakening to feel the tug of gravity pull harder upon it. It pushed its mind toward the queen’s, only to find it unresponsive. It was still whole, and sapient, having not been lost to the ravages of time or the insistent tug of an urge to become feral, but only walled off somehow. With no ability to move, or any direction from local queen, the ship was left to its more base instincts of survival and more importantly, mission success. In its rudimentary comprehension, it knew that the mission depended upon reaching a planet, releasing the parasites and landing somewhere safe, away from civilization so as to allow their queen to hide and guide the infestation. The tug of gravity became more insistent and the ship knew time was drawing short. Whatever this object was, it was directly in front of the craft. With no propulsion and no way of guiding their momentum, there was little it could do other than wait for the opportune moment to release the parasites and wait for further instructions. Gravity asserted its dominance, its slow acceleration now increasing at a drastic pace. The ship was barely able to measure the new speeds it had achieved due to the damage and it was only dimly aware of a smaller, less gravity dense object that whizzed past the ship. The ship had barely enough ability left to glance at the object, registering it as a small moon with craters in the shape of the head of a horse. A strange tug seemed to pull the ship, making it jerk upward and adjusting its course into one that wouldn't see the ship plow straight into the planet. The insignificant consciousness of the ship had barely managed to register this strange shift in gravity as within seconds it could feel its exterior begin to burn as it breached the atmosphere. Heat extended across the entirety of the ship, wreathing the entire thing in a bright red and orange flame. The ship was never grown for such a task, its entire reason for existence was to come in quickly and silently within an atmosphere after all and this brutal punishment was damaging its already crippled capabilities, reducing its resources even more. Despite the punishment, and the ravages of time, the bulkhead held out against the worst of the atmospheric burn, only barely managing to keep the ship in one piece as it hurtled towards the planet. Seconds flew by and soon enough they breached the lower atmosphere, the curvature of the vast world coming into view and the resistance of several atmospheres bled off. Green plant life, blue oceans, wide expanses of white tundra and orange dessert and a small patch of dark clouds spread out below the craft. Sensory organs flared deep within the ship, analyzing and finding the most suitable place for their landing while also extending the primitive rudders and tentacles that would have served as mooring and breaching points. Haphazard and desperate, the attempt was only mildly successful, with the rubbery extensions burning off in seconds and only barely managing to guide the craft into a more suitable trajectory and towards a mountain and a vast woodland beyond it that would hide the zerg well. As the last of the ship’s extensions burned off its exterior, it reached deep within itself and prepped the passages that would guide the parasites towards the planet below. Of the nearly five hundred drop pods a paltry nine were operational, the ship, if it was capable of feeling annoyance would have lamented the loss. With its instincts screaming at it, the ship released eight of the pods randomly across the surface, unable to tell where they landed unless it took away from its attempt to find a proper landing location. All at once its sensory organs began pulsating rapidly, warning the ship of something large looming ahead of it. The ship forced the last of the stuck drop pods through the opening just in time to drop the pod into the swirl of rain clouds and wrench itself to the right with the few limbs it had left, narrowly dodging a massive outcropping of rock that stuck randomly from the center of the landmass and almost directly in its way. The desperate maneuver was only a partial success however and a great chunk of the ship was forced to scrape across the exposed rock, shearing off great sections of the zerg ship and sending it careening away from the vast wooded area it had chosen and towards a massive wasteland that spread for hundreds of miles. The ship could do nothing but wait until mere seconds later it crashed into an enormous dune, bleeding off some of the massive kinetic energy it carried behind it. A second dune was right behind the first, its massive size blown asunder as the ship crashed through it, sending a second plume of sand hundreds of metres into the air. The next time the ship crashed into the earth it dug a deep furrow into the ground, nearly a kilometre long. With a good chunk of its energy now bled away thanks to the large sand dunes, the ship managed to survive, with enormous but not irreparable damage. Stillness overcame the ship and in the darkness a mind finally awoke, her senses spreading outwards with a single thought coming to the forefront of her thoughts. It's about damned time. Minutes ago, above the planet’s surface a single equine stood motionless on the moon’s surface. Its body was the size of an average horse, its fur a soft teal, its eyes were large and a horn grew from its head while a pair of wings extended from its back. The soft teal of its coat extended down its barrel and towards its hindquarters where it became muddied by a deeper blue that in turn had white crescent moon emblazoned on it. Its eyes narrowed, though they remained closed in deep concentration. The creature’s mind focused to a razor point, seeking out the strange sensation that had disturbed it. When it was finally able to reach the distant yet familiar feeling, she recoiled in shock, stumbling backward across the empty expanse of grey rock. What is that? she mouthed soundlessly, her eyes opening and staring upwards towards the infinite dark. The sensation was not unlike the dream world that she had been shut off from for centuries, and yet it was different. Whomever was dreaming was experiencing what felt like the most terrible nightmare that the equine had ever felt. Adding to the strangeness of it all was the fact that this dream was not from any creature the equine knew of. For it did not have the taste of any of the numerous races that dreamt upon Equestria’s surface, instead having a strange, almost slimy presence that made the equine wish for a bath. The dream was completely alien and filled utterly with such absolute panic and shame that the mare couldn't help but feel a sympathetic pang of the same emotions. As the dreaming entity drew closer, a dark speck that the equine had passed off as an asteroid began to grow in the night sky. Seconds turned into minutes and as the dream came more and more into focus, so did the speck. The equine’s eyes fluttered open once more, abandoning her attempts to gather more than the passing glimpse at the alien dream. Instantly she noticed that the speck was growing closer by the second as it barrelled toward the planet below with growing speed. It was larger than any asteroid that Luna had ever seen and its massive size lacked the oblong shape of any space rock she had studied. Whatever it was, it was coming in too fast and from its current angle it would impact Equestria with devastating consequences. Luna knew instantly that if this object was as dense as an asteroid, the destruction it would reek would be unparalleled. Suddenly a presence she had not felt in over nine hundred years suddenly bubbled to the surface, a solitary thought emerging from her mind. This world is mine! A dark cascade of rippling unlight coursed over the equine’s body, instantly changing it. The dark imitation of the former equine stood on shaky hooves, her already bright horn doubling in intensity. Her fur was darker, her pupils slitted and fangs jutted out from her tensed jaw. Magic surged up through the moon, as both the original equine and the darker creature, that now stood in her place, agreed upon something for the first time in nine centuries. The shape had grown massive in the night’s sky and with a tug, it shifted slightly, pulling it closer to the moon and guiding it on a less direct path with the planet below. The bright glow of magic flickered out and the creature tumbled to the grey ground, sending a small plume of dust upwards. She would have panted if there was air to breathe, she would have sought out the refreshing taste of water to quench her sudden thirst if only that were possible. Instead she lay there, the darkness bleeding away to reveal the smaller, blue equine that had first seen the object and felt the strange touch of the alien dream. What was that? she mouthed. Thousands of kilometres below a filly sat motionless, peering intently out her bedroom window. Beneath her, mere metres away was the tree house her brother and father had made for her, its oak boards currently being pounded relentlessly by the rain. The filly wanted to sit inside its walls and listen to the rain, but her mother had forbidden her, on fear of catching a cold only a few days before the big exam. The filly had reluctantly agreed, remembering the scourning she had received after she had tried to sneak out the first time. “Twilight Sparkle! You better not be doing what I think you are doing!” her mother had yelled, much to the filly’s dismay. She sighed, rolling onto her back and staring up at the grey clouds above and pushing the painful memory from her mind. “Pony feathers,” she cursed. Twilight continued to stare upward into the sky, for several minutes, wondering what she could do to salvage her evening before her mother inevitably tucked her in a matter of hours. She blinked, a flash of orange catching her attention. She watched in stunned silence as the orange shape blew through the cloud cover and careened right towards her. The filly leapt up, staring intently at the object. The orange light had faded, leaving only a dull purple cylindrical object that was barely visible against the backdrop of the storm, which rocketed toward her. Wait, not toward her, towards her backyard and her brand new- CRASH! The object flew right through the open window of her tree house and crashed into the interior of the small wooden structure. The filly blinked, wide eyed at the bizarre sight she had just witnessed. Instantly her curiosity took control of her and before she could think twice she had thrown open her window and leapt onto the branch that extended towards her bedroom. With a fearlessness that would make Daring Do green with envy, the filly leapt towards her tree house. Her tiny hooves gripped the windowsill of the tree fort as her back hooves scampered to find purchase. Leveraging what little strength the unicorn had, she pulled herself up and into the tree house proper, landing with a thud that made her wince. The filly’s eyes flitted this way and that, searching for the object that had fallen from the sky. Yet there didn't seem to be anything there, with only the cracked boards just under the window on the other side of the tree house as evidence that she hadn't been seeing things. The filly crept closer, edging her way towards the small divot in the center of the room. Remembering her lessons, she lit her horn, using the light spell her father had taught her. With the room now lit up, she looked down, into the divot and the bizarre sight it held. A small pile of dark green mucus and shards of what looked like purple glass lay in the center. Twilight reached out and brushed a hoof across one of the shards, only to pull her limb back and sniff the green goo that stuck to her. The smell reminded her of a hospital almost, like that funny gunk that nurses and doctors used on their hooves, but not quite. She watched in wonder as the mucus and glass seemed to bleed away, breaking down further and further until the wind simply blew them away. A sudden click was all the warning she got before something heavy landed on her head, knocking her to the ground. A scream instantly filled her throat, but instead of life-giving oxygen her lungs were filled with orange gas, killing the scream before it had a chance to be loosed. The filly struggled to stand, her head instantly swimming as her eyes rolled around in their sockets. With a heavy thump she fell back to the ground, completely unconscious in a matter of moments. The thing on her head shifted, its tiny, insectoid limbs carrying it over the filly’s cranium. Its feelers brushed against the hard keratin of the filly’s horn, causing it to stop. It wrapped several of its tiny feelers across the hard surface before retracting and ignoring the strange outgrowth. The long, spindly parasite crawled across the filly’s face before settling over her closed mouth. Two long, more dexterous feelers extended from the central mass of the creature, reaching forward and prying the filly’s lips apart. The many legs of the creature pushed its nearly foot long exterior forward, pressing its body into the filly’s mouth and down her throat. The journey was difficult and the parasite was forced to shift and adapt its body when it realized it may accidentally choke its host to death before it could even infest it. Inch after inch of the large parasite disappeared into the filly’s mouth, its bulk causing the filly’s neck to bulge as the creature descended into the filly’s stomach. After several minutes of painfully slow progress, the last few inches of the creature’s bulbous purple body disappeared into the filly’s mouth, gently closing her jaw behind her before descending completely into her gullet. Now secure in its new home, the parasite pressed itself into a tight ball, activating the process that would repair its damaged genetic material while further infesting its new host. The bulging, shifting weight within the filly’s stomach slowly settled, melding further and further with its new host until the bulge was gone and the creature had integrated almost completely into its host. Now, it waited, biding its time until its host took in additional nutrients, which it would use to further its infestation and eventually, its spread. Twilight Velvet banged her hoof on the door of her daughter’s room for the second time in as many minutes. “Twilight Sparkle, open the door this instant!” When no response came she reached for the handle. “I’m coming in!” Still no response. The mother pushed her way into the room. “Why didn't you answer… me?” She looked around the room to find hide nor hair of her daughter. Only the deafening crack of distant thunder greeted the aged mare. “Twilight?” The mare ran over to the closet and threw it open, half expecting her daughter to leap out and yell ‘gotcha!’ at the top of her lungs. But no filly emerged. The mare closed the closet door and looked out over to the windowsill that was now soaking wet, a small pool of water gathering on the bench in front of it and leaking down onto the floor. She trotted over to it, extending a hoof to close the slightly open window only to stop, a flash of lightning in the distance illuminating something inside the tree house that lay at the end of a branch that extended all the way to the window. “Oh no,” she muttered. In a flash the mare had leaped down the stairs and sprinted towards the backyard, ignoring the odd look her husband gave her. “What's going on! Honey?” he called after her. The mare ran on, bursting into the backyard and sprinting over to the tree house and leaping up the ladder. The thin wood strained under her weight but still managed to hold her, allowing her to slip inside the narrow opening into the tree house. There, lying in the center of the tiny room was her darling filly, lying in a small divot in the centre of the tree house. “Twilight!” The mare bent down, crawling over to her filly whose only movement was the slow rhythmic motion of her chest rising and falling. She extended her hooves, turning the filly over and searching for any signs of injury. Other than a thin matt of green and purple slime that stuck to the side of her body, Twilight Velvet couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. Brushing aside the strange slimy substance, the mare watched as it disintegrated almost instantly after being exposed to air. “Oh, my sweet little girl, what happened?” Twilight Velvet pressed the filly tight against her chest, tears streaming down her face. “Mom?” a small, weak voice asked. The elder mare stared down into the twin orbs of her daughter’s magenta eyes. “What happened? Are you hurt?” The filly blinked, a hoof going to her stomach. “My tummy is all rumbly.” The mare shook her head slowly, panic slowly draining from her limbs. “You scared me half to death, young filly! What in Equestria possessed you to come out here in the rain, you could have gotten sick!” The filly blinked owlishly, her eyes gazing off into the distance. “I don't know…”