Camp Dependable Part 1

Tom’s head felt like it was underwater and he held his head.

‘I hate hangovers.’ He thought, but soon became concerned that he didn’t remember drinking or his bed being so hard. Opening his eyes, he saw a metal truss ceiling twice the height of the stucco ceiling of his bed room and he wondered about that.

“What the hell?” he said to himself. Then, by hearing himself talk in that feminine and raspy voice, he started to remember the events of the last few days. He lost a bet with Jasmine and then had to wear a Rainbow Dash costume; but then that costume changed him now her into an anthro version of the character.

Lifting an arm, Tom saw that it was clinched in short, blue fur. His blue palms and the gripping surfaces of his fingers were the only surfaces on his arm that didn’t have coat of short, blue hair. It wasn’t a nightmare. It was real. All of it was real, including those unsociable, black clad guys.

She shot up and looked around. She was in a large room with rows of cots. Her cot was on one end of one of those rows, surrounded on three sides by other cots, with one side next to a barred window. On each cot is an anthro pony wearing bright yellow clothes. Looking down she saw that her own clothes, watch, and smart phone were gone. Replaced with the same bright yellow pants and shirt, while on her left breast was a serial number, R412803. Her face took on a puzzled expression, wondering what those numbers signified.

Her chest felt constricted and she dared lift her shirt. Underneath the yellow fabric was a harness. There was a wide, horizontal plastic band, similar to straps of hard leather, around her upper torso and under her breasts; a similar band ran above her breasts, just below her armpits. A vertical strap was attached to the lower band, ran between her breasts, attached to the upper band, and was attached to a collar around her neck.

Puzzled, she lifted the back of the shirt and found her back harness was a mirror image of the front, while pinning her wings to her back. It was like a bondage restraint harness Jasmine and then male Tom had laughed at a few months ago in a sexy lingerie shop.

Before she could think more on that she heard groaning and saw some of the others wake up. After pulling down her shirt, she walked to the cot next to her. On that cot, she saw an adult female with blue green fur and spiked dark orange and yellow hair.

“Hey, you okay?” She asked the girl. The girl groaned again before opening her oversized eyes.

“I feel like I have a monster hangover. The last thing I remember I was chilling in my backyard when some guys in black showed up. What happened?”

“I think we’ve been kidnapped, for something similar happened to me.”

“Aw man! And I just got some vacation time too. I get to be Lightning Dust and I’m kidnapped before I can try to fly.” Then Lightning Dust looked at her and said. “Ah, I’m so jealous you got to be Rainbow Dash, they didn’t have any of her outfits at the store I went to, and so I settled for the second fastest pony in Equestira.” She frowned at Lightning’s unashamed fangirling, but before she could reply she heard the building’s P.A. system crackle on.

“I see you all are finally awake. That’s good. Welcome to Camp Dependable. A recently reactivated military camp repurposed to house all of you who have been changed into these weird creatures. We have the basic amenities setup with more stuff coming in. You will be living here for the foreseeable future and our staff will be looking to cure you of this disease. Till then, be comfortable.”

The system crackle off and a righteous fury came over her. “How dare they! We are US citizens and they just lock us away because of this.” She gestured to her body.

“They’re afraid of this spreading.” Replied Lightning Dust.

“Well considering we’ve only been like this for a few hours they can’t have any real facts. I visited a doctor before being kidnapped and he didn’t see any health hazard. I think this only affects those that were wearing those costumes. I’m gonna get answers.” She headed out the door that was nearest to her and looked around. Outside, the buildings metal doors were rusty and the concrete walls stained with age; the paint was cracked and peeling where it was not tagged with many layers of colorful graffiti. The ground was covered with layers of broken asphalt, with a few patches of lifeless earth. It reminded him of pictures of the temporary camps created to give temporary housing for the Hurricane Katrina refugees he saw in his school history textbooks. The only things that looked new were the fences and gates that seemed to be separating various bunk houses from each other.

Seeing a group of guards gathered around a metal table covered with coffee dispensers and boxes of doughnuts, she stomped over to them. “How dare you do this to us! We have rights!” The guards seemed to steel themselves and she noticed they weren’t wearing army uniforms. Just the same black outfits with less armor on.

An older man who was wearing a fancier uniform spoke to her, “It was done for the protection of all ma’am.”

“Ah that’s bull. I wasn’t hurting anyone and I wasn’t being hunted by mobs carrying torches and pitchforks. Besides, you guys can’t take away our rights just like that. You have no cause. You ever hear about the Fourth Amendment? Also, a doctor let me and my girlfriend return home, so he didn’t think we were a health hazard, so why should you?”

“Look ma’am orders were to put you here and guard you and that’s exactly what we are doing. We are just following our written orders, no more and no less.”

“Those orders are illegal and you shouldn’t obey them. I’m just following orders excuse didn’t work out very good for the Nazis at the Nuremberg trials, did it?” Did Tom see a faint look of apprehension on the officer’s face? Confident that she scored her point, Tom continued with, “Could you at least let me use a phone, as I need to contact my family’s attorney?”

“No, I have orders that none of you creature feature people will have any contact with anyone outside this camp.”

“I’m not an animal that can be locked away for someone’s science project. What kind of soldiers are you?”

“I’m not in the military ma’am. This is an NSA job. Now I suggest you stop bothering me.” He shifted his gun a bit. Tom scowled in response.

“Well, when this is all over I’m gonna bankrupt the NSA with my sue, COUNT ON IT!” She stomped away and her wings tried to unfurl but the harness prevented that. That was freaking annoying.

* * * * *

Meanwhile in Discord’s home.

“Ah poo! I was hoping Rainbow Fake would start an actual fight with the guy. Still the fact that their government so quickly resorted to this ploy is very interesting. Oh! Now I wonder now how this will go?” Discord munched on some popcorn and watched the show.

* * * * *

Head down, Tom walked on the asphalt driveways between the buildings, looking at her blue hoofed feet. With his enhanced pony hearing become entranced by the clip-clop, clip-clop sound of her hooves on the ground. She frowned when she heard one of the nearby anthro pony stallions sing under his breath, “I’m a little pony clippity-clop, clippity-clop.” She was not thinking to where she was going till she noticed a fence in front of her. Looking up, she saw it was a divider between her area and another. On the other side, there seemed to be all unicorns and then she noticed a certain white one with purple hair.

“JASMINE!” The woman stopped, looked to where Tom was, and her eyes lit up in recognition. She ran over to the fence. “Are you alright?”

“I was wondering the same thing about you? When I woke up and you weren’t there I nearly had a panic attack. Who are these people with the guns and black uniforms?”

“They’re NSA. They are doing this for our ‘protection’.” She did the air quotes thing.

“How can they do this to us?”

“They can’t legally. Someone high up is scared about us, so out goes the law. I bet in their mind we are just animals.”

“What can we do?” Tom thought on it for a few minutes then said.

“Don’t cooperate with any tests and try to contact someone on the outside, preferably a lawyer.” She then looked deeply into Jasmine’s eyes. “Will you be okay Jaz?”

“I’m better now that you are here, even if this fence separates us. A couple of my bunkmates are nice people, even though one looks like Trixie and the other is Fleur Di Lis.”

“You do realize that I have no clue who those characters are.” Jasmine gave her signature smile and replied.

“You know, you just might be the most interesting person here. A non-brony who is now Rainbow Dash and surrounded by others that have been turned and are likely bronies.” Tom sighed at that. Though nearly clueless on the show her girlfriend watched, she did know the term ‘brony’. This was going to be a painful stay. She then looked up in the sky and saw the clouds. The whole sky was filled with clouds, but some to the left of them seemed darker. It may rain on them and she just had a gut feeling that her guess was correct.

“Jaz, I think that it may rain soon, so you should get inside. I’ll talk to you later okay.” She nodded and both went their separate ways.

* * * * *

Back in the bunk house, Tom sat on her bunk, watching a heavy downpour of rain through the window next to her bunk. The shower started a couple minutes ago and she noticed that all those who had been turned into pegasi humans had left the outside before it got started. Did they have the ability to detect weather? At least she got the satisfaction of seeing the guards get drenched before one of their own passed out rain ponchos.

Before that thought could get any further Lightning Dust landed on her bunk and Tom’s eyes widened when she noticed that except for the bra-like harness trapping her wings, the attractive girl was completely naked.

“Really Lightning?” Lightning looked over to her and asked.

“What?” Tom gestured to her state of undress. “Oh well, with fur and hooves we don’t really need clothes, I’m more adorable than I’ve ever been before, and I always had an interest in being a nudist, so why not.”

With a wide-eyed expression on her face, Tom wondered why those bronies were enjoying themselves far too much and worrying about themselves far too little. Tom imagined how many lonely bronies who hadn’t bought those magical costumes would love to be in her situation right now. Except for the fact that Jasmine and Tom needed each other, Tom would have exchanged places with one of those unchanged bronies in a heartbeat.

Lightning asked, “So, did you get any answers?”

“Yeah, an officer guard said this camp is a NSA operation and we were put in here for our own ‘protection’.” Tom just shook her head after saying that.

“Well at least you got to be your favorite pony right?”

“Um no, I’m not a brony, I barely know the show at all.”

Lightning looked at her bug eyed. “You’re not a brony?” Tom nodded and Lightning looked over her shoulder and said, “Hey Spits, you got to come over here and listen to this!”

“What Lightning?” Another woman asked. She was golden yellow furred with gold and orange hair and though still wearing something thankfully. From the way her clothing clung to her body, Tom could tell her muscles were toned beneath it. Heck, looking at all three of them they all had the tone fit look, bodybuilder physiques. Lighting pointed her thumb at her and said.

“Rainbow here is not a brony.” Tom saw Spits to blink a couple of times before responding.

“Wow, never expected that here. You are a rare treat. So, how did you end up in a Rainbow costume if you aren’t a brony?”

“Lost a bet with my girlfriend.”

“AAAWWWW, you’re already called for? Bummer.” Tom eyed her and asked.

“Why would you be interested or even think I bat that way?”

“Well I admit to being a fan of a minority of shipping Lightning Dust and Rainbow Dash.”

“Ship them to where?” Tom asked.

“Oh, shipping means making couples among the MLP fandom.” Tom signaled Lightning to continue. “The fandom is on the fence whether Rainbow is a lesbian due to her mane and the fact that there are so many mares in the show to guys and I do bat that way so maybe it was just hopeful dreaming and you did say you have a girlfriend so you must bat the same way?”

“Um, no I don’t. Before all of this, I was a guy named Tom. I honored my bet and wore this for my girlfriend’s sake and now here we are. A man turned into a girl.” Both Lightning and Spits were silent before Lightning said.

“Wow, that’s kind of messed up. You were one of the few decent guys out there going through that and you ended up a female character of a show you didn’t watch.”

Tom just nodded and replied. “I just want to be Tom again, a boyfriend to my girlfriend, and perhaps a future husband to my future wife. But, the doc I saw before I was kidnapped said there was nothing he could do.” Tom looked down, depressed at the loss till she felt someone next to her. Looking up she saw Spits with a comforting smile.

“Don’t give up hope yet, Tom. They might find a way to reverse it. Though if they did, I wouldn’t take it.”

“Why is that?” Tom asked and Spits smirked.

“Because, before I pony upped, I was a fat middle-age man. As Spitfire I’m young and fit as you can see. A gender change is an acceptable price for me.” Spitfire held out her hand and said. “My human name is Anthony Clemens, but I prefer Spitfire now, you?” Tom took her hand and shook it.

“The name’s Tom Davis.”

“And I was Jessica Quinn, but I want to be called Lightning Dust now. Can we call you Rainbow Dash?”

With an annoyed expression, Tom said, “No, for it’s not my name.”

“But you know that your old name longer suits you.” Lightning said sadly.

“I know, but I don’t really like Rainbow. That name reminds me too much of those Rainbow Brite cartoons that my childhood girlfriend liked so much.”

“Then how about just Dash?” inquired a smiling Spitfire. Tom thought about it. She had to admit that Tom just wasn’t a girl’s name in any form and Dash did sound much better then Rainbow. However she didn’t want to completely lose who she was.

“I’ll take Dash as a nickname, okay?” They both nodded with the air cleared among them.

“So, what about your girlfriend, is she all caught up in this?” Spitfire asked.

“Yeah, she’s my brony girlfriend and is here, but she’s a unicorn so we can’t be together in this place.”

“What does she look like?” asked Lightning.

“Well, she now has a coat of white fur, blue eyes, purple hair done in a stylized way, and has three blue diamonds on both her hips.” Tom or Dash saw her new friends look at her wide eyed, then at each other before bursting out in laughter. Tom/Dash frowned and then beckoning with her blue hand said, “OK girls, let me in on the joke. What’s so funny about my girlfriend?”

“Oh the irony!” Lightning manage to say before laughing more.

“The thing is Dash. In the show the character your girlfriend looks like was made to be convinced that a large rock was a diamond and in this delusional state she called it Tom. So, the fact your girlfriend is Rarity in looks and you her boyfriend was named Tom is ironically funny.” Spitfire explained. Tom/Dash facepalmed again to the laughter of her new friends.

* * * * * *

They spent the next couple of hours getting to know one another. Lightning was a waiter at Hooters before all of this, which kind of explained her a bit. She was also an only child with no real family. But she seemed happy and perky and apparently had good friends. Must admit I like her.

Spitfire or Spits was a bus driver and had plenty of nieces and nephews and except the weight issue, which was now solved, so she was content with her new life. How did she get a Spitfire costume? Well she was a big fan of My Little Pony and loved seeing the Wonderbolts which apparently were the show’s version of the Blue Angels and wish she could be like them. She bought the outfit for laughs for herself. Then like everyone else here, she found some reason to not take the costume off at bedtime, felt asleep, and woke up changed. As for me, well I worked at an office handling paper work and such. Was on good terms with my parents, no siblings, and of course had a beautiful girlfriend.

* * * * * *

The storm had passed as they talked and they were starting to get hungry when one of the doors to the outside opened. Dash, as she came to use her new nickname, noticed she hadn’t really got the layout of the bunk house yet. Something to do later. Dressed in an officer’s uniform, a Latino man cleared his throat and then said, “Alright ladies, supper time. I will show you where the mess hall is so you can find it on your own next time. Supper is between five and seven, breakfast between seven and ten and lunch twelve to two. We don’t have all day, so let’s hoof it.”

After a few annoyed remarks from Tom’s fellow detainees to that ‘hoof it’ remark, they are started to get up to follow when the guard spoke up again. “Hey you!” He pointed at Lightning. “Put your clothes back on!” Tom saw Lightning wilt. She reluctantly put them back on and they head off. All the trip was going past bunk house after bunk house though she did see a basket ball court.

She walked down the driveway and then through a gateway in the fence to a standalone building. Once she got inside, she saw that the interior appeared to resemble a large-scale school cafeteria. They were allowed to mingle with the other two types of pony-humans. Tom grabbed herself a dinner plate of food on a tray. All fruits and veggies, with a carton of whole milk. She sighed. She loved meat with a cold beer. She needed a beer, several beers in fact.

Her new friends followed and Tom looked around then she saw a familiar figure waving her hand. With a happy heart, Tom smiled and then said. “Follow me girls.” She headed over to Jasmine. Seeing her again and seeing her smile even with the new face brought happiness to Tom. The weirdest crap could be happening, but it was always better when she was with me. After sharing hug and few kisses, Tom said, “Jasmine meet my new friends, Anthony Clemens and Jessica Quinn, though they are going by their character names. Girls, this is my girlfriend Jasmine Slate.” They shook hands and everyone got seated.

“It’s nice to not have metal between us.”

“Agreed. I wish we were home. I was wondering if you have been figuring out your horn?”

“Not really, why?” Tom leaned in close to her.

“Wanting to hedge our bets. If necessary to bust out of here.”

“You think that is a good idea, Dash?” Spits asked.

“Dash?” Rarity asked. “Tom, did you go native?”

“Well unlike your name, mine doesn’t really fit this body. So, I’m accepting Dash as a nickname till we fix this.” She explained then looked at Spits. “We are being illegally held Spits. We don’t even get one phone call or talked to an attorney. While we might get someone to listen or someone outside raises enough stink I rather be sure we can get out on our own in the worse case. Since Jasmine’s horn is magical, she likely has the best chance in getting us out. I certainly don’t know what Pegasi are capable of besides flying.”

“I do,” interjected Jasmine. “I also agree with ‘Dash’.” Jasmine had that mischievous look again. She was going to have fun with that I’m sure. “The fact they just barged into our home and tranqed us is very disturbing. I will promise to try to figure out my magic without them seeing. As for what you can do Dash, as the Pegasus you should be able to walk, sit, or lay on clouds. You can also destroy them. Create tornadoes, resistant to lightning. In essence you can control or harness the weather. So, putting this in terms you can understand, you are now like Storm from the X-Men comics that you like to collect and read.”

Pointing at herself, she continued, “Unicorns like me should at basic be able to lift several things at one time with our magic. Other than that the unicorns in the show usually focus on magics geared towards their talent. Rarity has been shown to be able to take some fabric and turn it into a dress. She also has the ability to find gems, while unicorn guard ponies use their horns as flashlights. More may be possible.”

Pointing to another group of detainees, she said, “Earth Ponies, the ones without wings or horns have the strongest muscles and have the most stamina on average. However, dedicated athlete ponies such as you and your friends can match their strength. They are also good in farming crops and Maud Pie uses her front hooves to break apart big boulder into gravel and dust. Those are the basics.”

That smirked showed up again when Jasmine said, “My Precious Rock.” Tom was confused at first, and then she remembered how Spits and Lightning reacted to her real name and what her girlfriend looked like now. She groaned and then face planted on the table.

“Ow!” She exclaimed, as she isn't used to her heads new form and her snout stung a bit from that. That caused laughter from her friends and girlfriend. At least Jasmine and my new friends seem to get along well.

Author's Note

A mustache for the one who finds the reference in this chapter.