Ponyville was unaware of its new visitors, despite giving the illusion that they were regulars. Hailed in a pseudo light of appreciation, the two ponies that had emerged from the Everfree were, for the most part, liked and well-respected, especially the usually-bouncing but unusually stoic pink Earth pony to enter the town. The white unicorn accompanying her bore the same expression, looking strangely catatonic to the populace of Ponyville. However, these two ponies were the harbingers of a holy message, ready to disperse to the community, most likely by force.
Pinkie Pie and Rarity were slowly trotting down the streets of Ponyville, side by side, with cold, dead stares. Other ponies were greatly perturbed, while others couldn’t gather the courage to ask them of their state when they were branded with unsightly black, throbbing veins pulsating down their heads. At this point, they were curdling in the afternoon sun, letting a black ichor drip down the sides of their faces and coagulate at the bottom of their muzzles, further exacerbating the idea of fear in the populace.
“Pinkie Pie,” Rarity asked the pink mare at her side, still looking in the same direction as they were trotting while paying no attention to the townsponies in her monotone, stoic voice. “They do not welcome their saviors to their own hometown. Why is that?”
“I don’t know,” Pinkie replied, emulating Rarity’s voice. “But we need to spread the message to these doomed souls.”
“Pinkie,” Rarity addressed her, noticing the black ichor oozing from her head. “Maybe it’s our appearance that has these wretches fearing our existence.”
“It couldn’t be,” Pinkie answered. “We are the beloved Pinkie Pie and Rarity!”
Off in the distance, a pony was gagging from their sight. The two questionable ponies had trotted near the stallion, paying it no attention, and the stallion’s nostrils flared with a look of disgust washing over his face as he galloped to a nearby trashcan to vomit.
“Did you see that?” Rarity pointed out, surprisingly noticing the sickly stallion. “That pony retreated to expel his innards at our visage.”
The two pernicious ponies kept trotting, not noticing that they indeed had conjured an odor so foul that other ponies were cringing at, not only the sight, but the smell of these two perplexed ponies. The fact that they had their coat rapidly molting and falling off was a ghastly sight to behold, and their skin was curdling due to the average-feeling temperature outside. They, of course, couldn’t smell themselves, but the other townsponies were vomiting profusely from the stench they incurred.
The two mares then looked at themselves to see that about half of their coat had been shed, exposing their pale-green skin that had bore the scars of an unknown source. Their skin had accumulated numbers of festering blisters, glistening in the sun, curdling and producing foul odors that had then ruptured, expelling pus over the remainder of their bodies. The ooze had been corrupting not only their minds but also rendering their bodies into self-annihilation. They could feel all of this occur, but the hive minds implanted into their bodies had felt much worse in their times, so they merely shrugged off the pain.
“If you noticed, Pinkie,” Rarity started. “That we’re deteriorating.”
“Yes, we must incorporate and assimilate before we deteriorate,” Pinkie replied. “We must adorn some aesthetically-pleasing clothing and begin the process.
Having all of Rarity’s knowledge and thoughts proved to be quite beneficial to the hive drone occupying Rarity. It had known that Rarity owned Carousel Boutique, which was home to many clothes and make-up, the perfect disguise for their molting forms. Rarity and Pinkie Pie had then entered the boutique after a small bit of trotting and revolting of townsponies. When they had entered, they had encroached upon the presence of an unforeseen guest.
“Rarity!” a young filly’s voice rang through the boutique as the two mortifying ponies entered. “You’ve been gone forever! I just got off of school and-”
The filly revealed herself to be Sweetie Belle, whom had traversed down a flight of nearby stairs to finally see the two decaying ponies, in which she had let out a rather shrill shriek of terror.
“Rarity!” Sweetie Belle galloped to who she thought was her sister, proceeding to hug her where she still had her coat, nuzzling her. “What happened? Are you and Pinkie Pie alright?”
Rarity had known who this vile cretin was that had locked itself around her body, and she proceeded to act accordingly.
“Now, now, Sweetie Belle,” Rarity said, still in her monotone, stoic voice that spooked Sweetie from her nuzzling. “I’m just a bit sick. That’s all.”
“But, your hair!” Sweetie exclaimed, pointing to the current damage upon both of their bodies. “Even most of your mane is missing! And you both smell really bad, too!”
“Now’s not the time to insult your sister!” Rarity snapped, still not breaking her tone. “I’m just sick, and so is Pinkie here. We came so that we could wash up and grab a coat.”
“You can’t go out there like that, then!” Sweetie begged. “Stay indoors! I’ll take care of you!”
Rarity and Pinkie had then conjured a plan that had been deemed suitable to work. They had concluded that their Patient Number Zero for the Glorious Harvest could be Sweetie Belle, which she deemed to be small, defenseless, and nearby without the prying eyes of society to take notice.
“Actually, Sweetie,” Rarity asked, pulling up a rather plush and comfortable couch with magic, giving Pinkie a standard recliner for her to ‘relax’ on. “I am feeling under the weather. Could you take care of your big sister, please?”
“Sure thing, Rarity!” Sweetie yipped with glee, rushing to her sick sister to aid her. “Now, first we need to get you into a bath, because, to be honest: you smell really bad! So let’s just get you off of the sofa and-”
Rarity had drowned out the annoying babbling of the filly before her, instead taking notice of Sweetie Belle’s head being turned. When the filly was trying to wrench her dear sister’s hooves from the couch, straining to do so, Rarity had decided to take her moment of opportunity. She had grabbed her sister’s head and began to press her hooves firmly into her temples, with Sweetie proceeding with screams of pain.
Rarity’s hooves had seemed to melt into the filly’s head, stabbing into her prefrontal cortex and reaching her brain, similar to how Fluttershy had converted Rarity and Pinkie Pie. Instantly, it looked like the life was being drained from Sweetie Belle’s face, as her demeanor began to fluctuate from lively and scared to seemingly dead and vacant. Her eyes had rolled into the back of her head as Rarity had captured the filly’s essence of herself to incorporate into the Hive, again, similar to how Fluttershy did so.
Rarity had then released the filly, letting her drop to the ground like a bag of bricks. The pony then rose to her hooves, almost like a zombie, looking mindless and extremely ravenous.
“Go forth,” Pinkie started, signaling the blank Sweetie Belle. “And consume all you can see!”
Sweetie Belle had done so and began to smell the air for traces of food. For her, dead flesh and festering blisters weren’t her idea of a meal, so she scurried to the nearest source of food available: the kitchen. Immediately, she began to scarf down all the food she laid her eyes on, mindless consuming to fulfill the malicious intents of the Hive, much to Pinkie’s and Rarity’s pleasure.
“Anyways,” Rarity addressed Pinkie, lifting herself from the sofa with Pinkie following in tandem. “It’s time to assimilate Ponyville.”
* * *
They had proceeded to leave the boutique, leaving behind a ravenous and mindless Sweetie Belle, which had become engorged within minutes. The two ponies, which had deteriorated to a much worse state, wore thick, heavy coats, leg stockings, hats, and plenty of make-up to quell the public’s disdain of their vanity. Sweating profusely but not smudging the anti-sweat make-up Rarity had in stock, they then traversed the town, exchanging every pony’s looks of disgust with hilarity, as random ponies began snickering at the two silly looking ponies.
“At least they are not revolted,” Pinkie said, panting while sweating profusely. “But at least it gives us good cover.”
And so, the two disguised mares made their way to Sugarcube Corner, which was currently being operated by the two Cakes, frantic with a busy work load. The bakery was full of agitated ponies, waiting for their orders that did not come to fruition like they had intended to have. When the two ponies entered the establishment, the two beleaguered bakers were stricken with a feeling of joy as they saw another pony to relieve the load of work on their hooves.
“Pinkie!” Mrs. Cake shouted from across the bakery, occupied with a bowl of cake batter and balancing one of her foals in her arms. “We got slammed with so much work here and Pumpkin and Pound are getting uproarious! We need to put them down for a nap. Do you mind manning the stations here until we get back?”
Rarity and Pinkie Pie knew that they could spread the assimilation easily with an eatery like this. With all the ponies around, they could spread the Hive in indefinite amounts.
“Yes,” Pinkie replied, getting behind the counter and doing what Mrs. Cake had been doing. “Rarity, would you like to help?”
“I’m afraid she can’t, Pinkie,” Mr. Cake chimed in, sounding worried. “She’s not an employee. We can’t trust her behind the counter.”
“It’s okay,” Rarity replied, still monotone. “I’ll just sit at one of the tables for now.”
“Don’t worry, Mr. And Mrs. Cake,” Pinkie Pie addressed the Cakes, sounding as stoic as ever. “We- I mean, I know exactly what to do. Go and put the foals to sleep.”
The Cakes hesitantly complied and went into the apartment side of Sugarcube Corner to lay their foals to rest. As they left, the line of customers piling near the counter Pinkie was working behind began to get furious.
“Where are my shortbreads?” a voice from the crowd hollered, along with other voices drowning it out. “I’ve been waiting here for over ten minutes waiting for my order!”
Rarity immediately went behind the counter unnoticed and started to help Pinkie bake the pastries the Cakes were working on. The batter Mrs. Cake was working on was complete, but Rarity and Pinkie felt that they should introduce an ingredient of their own to the mix.
“How shall I extract the glorious seed to let sprout and grab hold of this blind community?” Rarity asked Pinkie confidently, concealing herself behind the counter.
“Expel it from the body,” Pinkie scoffed, working on the batter. “Do whatever you can to spread the Hive.”
Rarity ducked under the counter and was given the batter bowl under the counter where they were working, which incidentally had the ovens housing the customers’ orders. With the loud sounds coming from both the agitated line and the banter going on with other ponies, Rarity knew that she could complete her primary task incognito.
Rarity immediately began to vomit into the mix, ready to expel any of the ooze into the batter. She hacked furiously, causing her face to go red with pain. Pieces of skin began to crack from her face as they simply peeled off and cemented themselves into the mix, abandoned by their owner that tried to contaminate the cake batter. With a momentous heave, Rarity was able to conjure up what she wanted, in which she had expelled a large quantity of the ooze, taking form in the batter and consolidating itself within it. Rarity was able to obtain a dab of the ooze and spread it on the various pastries kept in the ovens, knowing that the ooze could withstand the heat of a mere oven.
With a nod of approval from Rarity, Pinkie took back the altered cake batter and was able to acquire the toasting treats, covered in the ooze that quickly hid itself within the pastries, and distributed them amongst their respectful customers. While she was doing that, Rarity kept infecting all of the other food stuffs in the kitchen, from raw ingredients, to pre-made goods, to finished products. She would do anything to proliferate the Hive.
* * *
With a part of the Hive in the baked goods now consumed by the townsponies, Pinkie and Rarity could feel themselves inside those ponies. They established a connection with them, feeding off of their thoughts and knowledge, calculating when their minds would crumble to the might of the Hive and capitulate to its divine presence. The Cakes had taken back their positions at Sugarcube Corner just in time for them to adequately disperse the glory of the Hive to the other ponies. With a warm exit, Pinkie was excused from her duties, with Rarity quietly creeping out of the scene of the action.
Both ponies’ looks terrifying by other ponies’ standards, if they had laid eyes on them without their excessive clothing on. They both had almost completely lost their coats, with their skin covered in the aforementioned blisters, with some popped and others fresh. Their skin had been peeling off, resembling a nasty sunburn, but with the skin being blackened from rot. Parts of their bones could be seen from under the decaying flesh as these fresh wounds began to grow the more the ooze stayed in their bodies. Their faces looked as if they were peeling off of their skulls, as most of the skin from their faces was either peeling off or quickly being eaten by the ooze. A side view of these ponies would reveal that they had an ostensible amount of flesh gone, as their inner mouths were visible through their cheeks, exposing a grim grin of teeth and fresh wounds to replace the normal skin that would cover up unsightly faults like this.
Pinkie and Rarity had made their way out for a small trot, soaking in the amount of connectivity going on in Ponyville. They could sense that those that had purchased the baked goods from Sugarcube Corner had shared them with their families and friends, not knowing of the bounty they were really consuming. They sensed that, after a few minutes, they could feel that those ponies were feeling sick, they were feeling weak. They had managed to permeate through their minds, quickly inserting themselves discreetly and infecting the rest of their bodies with the Hive simply because of the hyper connectivity of the ooze. The ooze clearly had its ways to communicate with the rest of its brethren.
Subliminally, Pinkie could communicate with every pony that had a bit of the ooze inside of them. With tiny disturbances in their thought processes, she could almost commandeer them completely, rendering their thoughts more with the thoughts of the Hive. She was able to see families stricken with the ooze, friends trifled with the Hive, and random, lonesome ponies clutching themselves in pain from their conversions. Slowly, but surely, they would be perfect and complete drones to the Hive, giving way for feeding the brood mother Fluttershy.
Rarity and Pinkie had waited almost half an hour before feeling their bond with their brethren increasing tenfold. The ooze the ponies consumed had fully made its way into them, completely taking over their minds to be able to dictate what they do. Pinkie, seizing the moment, sent out a universal message to them all via the telepathic connection she had with the other traces of the ooze…
* * *
Deep within her Everfree hideaway, Fluttershy, in her normal form, rested in the confines of what used to be Zecora’s home. She had drained the life out of virtually all the soil surrounding the small hut, as the area outside of said hut resembled a desiccated dirt path. From within, Fluttershy grew incredibly weak, drawing nutrients from the ground she clearly exhausted in a futile effort, waiting for further instructions on how to deal with her now immobile slave Zecora.
“When can I… get something to eat?” Fluttershy moaned, speaking audibly for the ooze in her to hear. “I’m… incredibly famished…”
“Right about now, Fluttershy,” the ooze said to her in a caring voice. “Your drone is ready to serve its mother: you. With a simple command, you can tell her to pay her debts of receiving the glory of the Hive by having her feed you, and in turn, becoming a permanent member of the Hive!”
Fluttershy then focused her efforts on the enormous zebra before her, bloated with hyper-metastasized fat that the zebra could barely move. She had become so heavy that her fetlock joints had snapped in half, revealing a bloody mess of snapped bone and cauterized blood. She had lain there, on the ground of her hut, having devoured everything her bloody, cut-up, toothless mouth could consume. She panted heavily, waiting for the grace of death to behold her miserable form, as she was still stuck in an endless quest to consume. The lack of hair due to unnatural shedding and the unsightly scabs that appeared on her exposed, flabby skin was a gruesome spectacle to behold, even for Fluttershy.
“Call her,” the ooze commanded Fluttershy. “And your bounty will deliver itself.”
Fluttershy had then communicated with Zecora telepathically; reaching out to the ooze in her that drove the zebra to obey her master. Fluttershy managed to get in the words ‘come here’ before noticing the crippled zebra worm its way to its master with a look of joy spread out over its face. She wheezed and grunted, not used to her enormous form and broken legs, but this didn’t stop her from approaching her master. She didn’t even seem the notice the pain of putting weight on her shattered hooves, for that she was instilled with the passion of serving her brood mother. Fluttershy naturally cringed at the twisted abomination crawling before her, but the ooze had reassured her that everything would work out in her favor. Eventually, the crippled zebra managed to get herself to Fluttershy, in which she immediately collapsed her head into her body, as if to nuzzle her. Fluttershy embraced the presence of the zebra with a bittersweet response, but she had acknowledged her presence, which was more than enough for the ooze to take action. Immediately, much to her horror, Fluttershy felt a bubbling feeling ripple across her body as the zebra touched her. She could feel her body begin to curdle, to undulate to the presence of Zecora. She immediately felt like she was eating food, becoming sated with something that she didn’t even know what was happening. She had looked down, much to her horror, to see Zecora melting into her.
“What’s g-g-g-going on?” Fluttershy stammered, terrified by the fact that the zebra was disappearing into her as the seconds rolled by. “What’s h-h-h-happening to her?”
“She is feeding her mother,” the ooze calmly replied. “Let it happen, and you will grow indefinitely to support more of your kin!”
“I didn’t know that this is how you described it!” Fluttershy then yelled, panicking. “What’s happening to her?”
“You will see,” the ooze menacingly replied, waiting for the feeding to end. “And you will enjoy it.”
It was to the point that Zecora’s body was literally being dragged into Fluttershy due to her amorphous abilities, so she had reverted to her bob form to take in her bounty. Zecora’s body was half-way into her, with Fluttershy’s appetite going from sated to gorged. She then felt a sharp pain shoot through her body, a pain she hadn’t experienced since she was a filly.
“Ah!” Fluttershy yelped, seeing her body quickly gain a larger form. “What’s going on?”
“You are taking in your food,” the ooze replied calmly. “It’s only natural that you grow from it. The larger you get from this, the more powerful you will become.”
“But…” Fluttershy whispered as Zecora’s back legs were the last to remain visible, slowly receding into Fluttershy’s now larger blob form. She couldn’t feel Zecora’s presence, but she could feel her body growing, largely metastasizing beyond her natural form. She resembled herself, but over twice as large after consuming most of Zecora. Then, it was over. Zecora’s body was fully devoured by Fluttershy, not to be seen beyond the giant blob that engulfed her.
She took a moment to drink in the details of her new form, almost relishing the fact that her hunger was quenched and her form not so fragile. She formed tentacle-like appendages from her sides to cradle what appeared to be her abdominal area, feeling if Zecora was there or not.
“Where is…” she trailed off, almost complacent to this kind of mind-warping exposure she was receiving. She felt herself, and she revealed to be still a soft blob, only now she was almost twice as large as an average alicorn.
“She is now a part of you,” the ooze gently spoke, making sure not to perturb Fluttershy in her moment of shock. “You have absorbed her, and now she is a part of our glorious family.”
“Well,” Fluttershy squeaked. “What happened to her exactly?”
“Well, the details are a bit gruesome for the likes of you,” the ooze began. “But, we shall indulge you. What happened to the zebra is that you essentially consumed her. Your body latched onto it like the roots of the earth and you began to drag her into you, your body subconsciously becoming acidic like the inside of a stomach. From there, her skin was dissolved and absorbed of nutrients, and her bones were disintegrated, adding to your form. Any fatty tissue in her, essentially all the blubber she had accrued, was added to your magnificent form. With her, we can spread the word of the Hive.”
“She’s still with us, right?” Fluttershy asked, frightened by the details the ooze had provided. “You said something about her being a ‘part of the Hive.’”
“She’s here,” the ooze proudly stated. “She is with all of us, forming the collective that is the Hive. Speaking of collective, your friends Rarity and Pinkie Pie should be communicating with you soon.”
Like so, Fluttershy started to hear the voices of Rarity and Pinkie Pie, both in their monotone, stoic versions and not their normal personalities.
“Are they… back to normal?” Fluttershy asked. “They sound-”
“Yes,” the ooze interrupted. “Of course they are ‘normal!’ Being a part of the Hive, you can’t get any more ‘normal’ than that!”
In reality, the two ponies in question were being brutalized within the confines of the Hive collective. Swimming in an empty void to have mental energy extracted from them, they were proof that being a part of the Hive was as bad as it could get.
“It’s strange, really,” the ooze said to itself. “We should be hearing from that one Applejack character right about now. She was given enough of the glorious Hive to be assimilated by now.”
Fluttershy had ignored this, for that she felt sluggish and heavy from the enormous zebra she had consumed. She felt tired, and began to close her eyes. The ooze, realizing this, had drawn upon the resources such members of the collective like Zecora, Pinkie, and Rarity had to offer to keep Fluttershy stimulated.
“We must wait for our comrade’s words!” the ooze commanded Fluttershy, keeping her awake. “Then, we can go back to Ponyville.”
Fluttershy had suddenly felt a jolt of awareness. She felt alert, focused, and awake, from a source which she did not know. She suddenly heard the voices of her assimilated friends again, but this time, it was accompanied by other voices. She began to recognize these voices to discover that they were random townsponies from Ponyville. She could then, somehow beyond her frame of comprehension, see what the other voices were seeing to discover that she could fully access their minds via telepathy between individual connections of the ooze, separated into other ponies.
She witnessed some ponies lurching forward, expelling the contents of their stomachs in writing pain as they saw a green puddle of bile appear before them. She could see, from their perspectives, their loved ones going to help them, only to suffer the same fate as the ones she viewed from, vomiting profusely, unable to help their loved one. Then, she could see that she was in complete control of their brain functions somehow.
“How can I see all of these ponies in pain?” Fluttershy whimpered. “And how can I hear them?”
“Your friends have done well,” the ooze responded. “They have successfully spread the glory of the Hive to other ponies. Now, they can be a part of your wondrous form.”
“But they look hurt!” Fluttershy squeaked, frightened by the horrifying visages being played back in her head. “Make it stop!”
“But it has!” the ooze replied, trying to calm down its terrified host. “Just tell them to stop.”
“W-w-w-what?” she stammered, confused as to what the ooze had to offer. “What do you mean ‘talk to them?’”
“You can talk to them, all at once,” the ooze said. “We are all one big family now. Family can communicate from any distance because of our great interconnectivity.”
With a reluctant gulp, she tried to address her new feeding drones.
“Attention,” Fluttershy whispered, sounding fearful. “Can I get your attention, please?”
The ponies were prepared for anything Fluttershy had to say, free of any free thought of their own, living the realization of mindless drones.
“Tell them to consume anything in sight,” the ooze commanded the scared pony. “They must eat anything they can get their hooves on.”
Fluttershy obeyed her invisible master, and she said what it had told her. Suddenly, she could see what the other ponies were doing, in which they were eating anything they deemed to be edible. They shambled like zombies to the destinations of wherever they were, rapidly and voraciously devouring anything in sight, adding to their forms. The ooze inside of them, just like with Zecora, helped speed up the fattening process, showing Fluttershy that, after only a few minutes of food consumption, they were growing excess fat to their forms.
“Now we march,” the ooze said, menacingly. “It’s time to reward these ponies for their obedience. It’s time to go to Ponyville.”
* * *
A white, pristine chariot arrived in Ponyville, commandeered by a divine, alicorn figure with her two unicorn and Earth pony compatriots. The chariot was driven by two strong stallions, clad in the crispest of gold trimming and reinforced steel that provided an excellent defense as well as a stunning visage to behold. These pure entities had disembarked from their journey from the higher-up Canterlot, ready to see the damage the Hive had done to the town of Ponyville. Much to their dismay, especially the alicorn’s, they had arrived far too late.