The Parasite

by aggedane

Crash site

Crash site

Dash tore after the blazing ball of destruction, her initial shock and anger about her house had cooled leaving only curiosity and concern in its place.

Her concern sprang from her sense of duty, as ponyvilles weather team manager it was her job to ensure the skies were kept clear and that the locals were kept safe from the adverse weather conditions that drifted in from the Everfree forest from time to time.

On the other hoof her curiosity came from a side she kept hidden from others, particularly Twilight. She would never hear the end of it if Twi out her recent reading material was more science based than her reputation should allow. After some late night flight training she had become fascinated by the night sky, she wondered how Luna kept everything in order and had decided to check out some books on the subject from the library to learn more about it. With Twilight back in Canterlot to begin her duties as the new princess Dash had found it a lot easier to make up an excuse as to why she really wanted them.

"Hmmm now what did the books call this again?" Dash wondered to herself as she continued her pursuit "was it a Comet or a Meteor? ugh where's Twi when you need her." So caught up in her thinking she barely missed a branch sticking up from a tree, "Woah where the hay did that come form?" she gasped before realising her pursuit had taken her over the Everfree forest.

The unknown object was getting closer and closer to impact by the second, it was already smashing through trees leaving nothing but devastation in its wake. Only then did Dash realise that being near the thing when it actually hit probably wasn't a good idea, however that revelation came a fraction to late.

With a blinding flash the night became day for a brief moment. the sudden intensity of it left Dash reeling and half blinded,to late did she register the large tree branch that had been thrown into the air by the impact. The branch smashed into her left wing causing her to plummet into the forest canopy, her wing hanging uselessly at an unnatural angle Branches snapped and scraped as she fell, each impact lessened her decent speed but only marginally. With a sickening crunch Dash impacted with the forest floor and her world went Black.

"Am I dead?" was the first thing that slowly drifted through her mind "I cant be, where's the summer lands?"

Pain was the next thing to go through her mind, her body was screaming in protest, pain seemed to encase her left wing in its cruel grip. Her eyes fluttered open slightly, blurry objects began to appear in her vision, slowly focusing on a large boulder.

"Ok Im guessing this means im alive at least" she thought as she tried to lift her head up.

A powerful wave of dizziness soon saw her stop in her attempt, lying there waiting for her world to stop spinning she felt something warm and sticky begin to trickle from her temple down to her left cheek. Lifting a hoof up to her cheek and bringing it down again revealed what she had feared, blood coated her hoof. "Oh this is bad" she groaned. Raising her head slowly she looked back at her wing, it was in bad shape, the joint was at a disturbingly unnatural angle and there were visible tears through the skin revealing the muscle beneath. Seeing the extent of the damage she gave a small cry of panic which she instantly regretted as pain lanced through her skull again and her world once more began to spin, forcing her to lay her head down. Focusing on the boulder again as her vision cleared she suddenly realised that whatever she was looking at wasn't a boulder.

Before her a large Oval shaped alcove made from what she thought looked like some kind of yellowish stone, lay on its side. Built into the middle was what seemed to be some kind of dome but it was deep red and was split into sections running out from the centre. As she watched the segments of the dome began to move, the whole dome slowly opened out like some grotesque flower, leaving a gaping hole in the centre. Clouds of mist leaked out of the hole followed by large fleshy looking tendril, at first glance it looked like a long elephant trunk but it was a sickly yellow colour and ended in three sharp looking pincers. It waved around in the air as if examining its surroundings before turning and focusing on Dash.

"Oh this cant end well" she cried as she tried to get up only to collapse again as another wave of dizziness hit her like a steam train.

The tendril sensing its prey may be trying to escape lashed forward grabbing her by the neck in its pincers. Dash desperately tried to wrestle the thing off her but her head was pounding and the pincer was making it hard to breath, she tried to grab hold of anything as she was slowly dragged toward the gapping hole.

"SOMEPONY! ANYPONY! HELP ME!" she screamed as she disappeared into the hole, the segments of the dome closed behind her cutting off her cries of terror.

Canterlot Infirmary 2 hours later

Luna paced back and forth in the Infirmary waiting room, waiting for news on Twilights condition. Sitting calmly on a bench nearby was her sister who seemed to be deep in thought and calm, it annoyed Luna that her sister could seem so calm in even the most dire of perils

Is she not worried that her once personal student and now a royal princess could be lying through there dying she thought to herself. "How can you be so calm at a time like this?" she asked "aren't you worried about her?"

Celestia slowly opened her eyes to regard her younger sister

"Of course I am, but I know Twilight is strong and wont let something like this keep her down for long" she replied "she will be fine Luna trust me"

Luna sighed in resignation and took a seat next to Celestia

"I know she will but I cant help but feel im the one who put her in here in the first place. I should have stopped the experiment the moment I noticed she was loosing control"

Tears began to flow down Luna's cheek,why do I keep messing up she cried to herself. Celestia used her wing to draw her into an embrace.

"Its not your fault, you are an excellent teacher and you wanted to give your pupil a chance to prove herself. I would have done the same, in fact in the past I have done just that"

"Yes but when you take the chance it always seems to work out in the end" replied Luna with a trace of anger in her voice

"Not always" replied Celestia sadly, thinking back to that fateful day "there is one chance iv always regretted taking and it nearly cost us one of the elements recently"

At this point the large double doors swung open and a grey maned unicorn walked through. Luna practically tackled him to the ground in her haste for any information.

"How is she, is she alright, is there any permanent damage?"

The doctor somewhat taken aback by the sudden appearance of a large midnight alicorn in his face, took a second to compose himself and readjust his glasses.

"she is fine you highness. she has just awoken and is requesting your presence"

The words had barley left his mouth before Luna was through the doors into the ward.

Celestia sighed with quite relief before getting up and following her sister, making sure to thank the doctor as she went.

Twilight was sat up in bed looking a little dazed but other wise seemed fine, at least she did before the princess of the night came rushing into her room and proceeded to crush in a large bear hug.

"Twilight im so glad your alright, im sorry I let this happen to you I should have stopped the experiment sooner"

Twilight for her part was beginning to turn a rather worrying shade of blue.

"Princess...cant...breath" she gasped

Luna released her bear hug allowing Twilight to gulp in mouthfuls of sweet air

" Apologies" she replied sheepishly as she sat down next to her bed.

Celestia entered the ward and also took a place next to Twilights bed

"It is good to see you awake and well Twilight, you had us worried for awhile. Do you remember what happened?"

Twilight put her hoof to her head as she thought back to the last memories she had before she woke up in the ward

"I remember starting the experiment" she replied " id just secured the comet in my magic grip and was guiding it over to where Luna wanted it when I felt something change."

Celestia raised an eyebrow " change how?"

"I don't know it felt suddenly like I was trying to keep a grip on wet soap, my magic was just sliding off it like water over grease". Twilight sighed " I tired to feed more Mana into the spell to keep a grip but I guess I lost control and next thing I remember im waking up in here"

Twilight suddenly perked up "no wait the last thing I remember was a voice inside my head. I cant remember what it said fully but it didn't sound like a language iv heard before"

Celestia and Luna exchanged looks

"We also heard the voice Twilight and you are correct in that this language is unknown to even us" Celestia replied with a trace of concern "we also have had reports coming in that something has recently fallen from the sky and crashed in the Everfree forest near ponyville"

"The comet crashed into the Everfree?" asked Twilight shocked " Princess im sorry I didn't mean to cause it to crash"

"Calm yourself Twilight you were not the cause of the crash" Luna said in a gentle tone " I saw with my own eyes that whatever this comet is it changed its course on its own after you lost consciousness, im not sure that this is a comet at all now"

Twilight suddenly got out of bed and bowed (if a little unsteadily)

"Princess.." she began

"Twilight need I remind you of a pervious discussion, you are a princess now and you need not bow or refer to us as princess" Celestia said with amusement

Twi stood upright again and scratched the back of her head

"sorry force of habit" she replied " very well I would like to lead a team to the crash site to investigate what it is we are truly dealing with here"

The sisters exchange looks of surprise

"Are you sure you are ready for this Twiight?" asked Celestia

" I am" she replied adamantly

Celestia smiled with pride " very well this will be your first official royal duty, but do not forget that we will always be here should you require help"

" Thank you Pri... Celestia, I wont let you down" Twi replied before wincing in pain as her head sent little reminders of what she had just been through.

" I think you should rest a little more before you leave" Luna said with a chuckle " when you have recovered we will talk in more detail, but until then try to sleep"

Luna and Celestia both bid their farewells and exited the ward leaving Twilight alone with her thoughts

If it isn't a comet then what could it be? she asked herself.

Inside Axos

The monotone voice of Axos echoed around the Holding chamber rousing Dash into consciousness. She felt herself floating, the amniotic fluid that filled the pod felt greasy and unnatural against her fur.

She slowly opened her eyes but found her vision obscured and blurry from the fluid, it was like trying to see through frosted glass. She tried to squint through the pods wall but could derive little of the outside.

Suddenly a thought stuck her, she was underwater how was she breathing. It was this revelation that brought her attention to what appeared to be a fleshy tube that was clamped over her mouth and nose. Her eyes widened in shock, she screamed and tried to remove it only to find her muscles wouldn't respond to her requests.

Panic began to build in her chest, what was happening? Where was she? Why was this happening to her? She tried to recall what happened after that freakish claw had grabbed hold of her, but only brief flashes of slime coated walls and a strange rhythmic thumping ran through her head.

"Analysis pattern reveals Locomotive Controls normal, Sensory preceptors acute, Species typical of earth Equines" came a eerie Monotone voice " Begin DNA and cerebral fluid sampling"

Dash felt a chill run through her, what did it mean DNA sampling? and what in Equestria was cerebral fluid?

The answers was soon in coming as she felt sharp spikes of agony run through her chest and head causing her to cry out and crease her eyes shut, After the pain had subsided somewhat she opened her eyes and choked in horror as she saw long thin tubes had penetrated her chest just under her ribcage and several similar tubes had implanted themselves into her head. A small stream of blood could be seen flowing through it from her chest into the floor where the tube seemed to grow from the pod wall, while from the ones in her head came a translucent liquid with a slight yellow tinge.

"Analysis pattern reveals specimen has advanced cerebral capabilities, speech capabilities and logic application far beyond earth Equines" came the voice again."This specimen is valuable to nutrition cycle plan. Analyse language, link neural web, Process and Eject.

Dash barely had time to register what it had said when a large tendril sprouted from the pod wall and implanted itself in the base of her skull. Her world exploded in agony, the implanted tendril began to sprout smaller nerve fronds from its tip which began to entwine themselves around her spinal cord. She began to convulse as nerve endings misfired causing muscles to spasm and contract as the invading fronds began to redirect neural control. With a final spasm she went limp, her vision began to darken at the edges, is this how it all ends? she thought sadly as she slowly lost consciousness.

"Link complete, Process and Eject" came the voice, it was the last thing she heard before her world finally went black.

Author's Note:

sorry about the long wait but work has been making it next to impossible for me to find the energy to actually sit down and write. Hopefully from now on I can start to get these out quicker, anyway I hope you enjoy and any feedback is accepted as it helps me learn how to structure and pace things better :)