Rainbow Falls was bustling. It was a delightful afternoon and there was business all around the community as the trade town kept to its normal pace. Five months ago the Caribou had invaded, but the Caribou didn't let the invasion stop Equestria's advancement. On the contrary, where the old Rainbow Falls had been a lazy trading town that had a few annual events to put it on the map, the Caribou had in only five short months converted it into a roaring settlement of flowing economy; Rainbow Falls was somewhat centrally located, and it was an ideal staging post for the Caribou’s empire-building efforts. All sorts of ponies walked about the now packed square, including one brown-cloaked stranger who caught the eyes of many guards he passed.
He walked with singular compulsion to get right to the safest place in town: the local constabulary.
Inside a burly Caribou, clad in the leather-and-steel uniform common amongst their kind, sat at the front desk filing through basic paperwork; checking off this and signing that. Really, all very normal stuff. Since the Fall, other than the increased nudity in women, it almost seemed “more normal.” There was play in the streets and public displays of criminal punishment for the wicked but it was so regular, so well accepted. No beatings in the streets for just any mare. By this time most of the former princesses had come to embrace this new lifestyle. Groups of men had been chatting at a cafe the cloaked stranger passed, casually doting on the red collars at their sides.
And days had been brighter for his sect of the resistance. Some foolish moves earlier in the fractious rebellion had led to a lot of leaked information as well as a lot of personal loss. People had suffered; male and female alike. The Caribou's efficient take-over after the Fall had left all the victories of his cell... pyrrhic at best; saving a few mares from a train only to have some of their best agents taken and switched in the process. Stopping one shipment of Mare Kibble to try to cripple the steadily booming economy but losing good, strong mares to the Caribou menace just trying to get away.
The Caribou at the desk looked up at him. “My name is Proud Heart,” the pony said almost mournfully as he pulled back his hood, revealing a handsome, not quite masculine visage beneath; polished white coat with a mane of two complementary shades of deep red. A round-tipped horn extended from his forehead “And I would like to turn myself in as part of the Resistance.”
The office went into a scuffle quickly. However, as his hands were yanked behind his back he was at least allowed to speak. “I have valuable information of Resistance plans from my group and some neighboring groups!” he called out as they pushed him to the ground roughly. “I will not resi -ooof!-” He lost all the air in his lungs as a Caribou’s knee slammed into his chest as they restrained him roughly; pulling his behind his back and shoving his face to the floor while they tied his wrists. They slid two magic suppressing rings around his horn, then lifted him up and carried him into a small, cold room. He was placed into a chair across a table from another chair.
It had all happened in something of a blur. He hadn't, for whatever foolish reason, suspected they would be so instantly rough... but again... he’d done some bad things.
After all too long the door across the room opened again and a caribou stepped in, followed by a short, stocky unicorn. The Caribou had a patch over one eye. The stallion, charcoal coat with golden yellow mane, sat down, putting a briefcase on the table between them. For a long, silent moment, the only noise in the room was him managing his paperwork, shuffling around in his briefcase and laying a folder in front of him. He neatly closed up the briefcase and put it on the floor afterward, leaving some piles of paper and a full folder. “Your file.” The stallion said matter of factly, sliding it forward and gesturing to it.
The Caribou came across the small room and yanked at Proud Heart's arms, unclasping them. “Th-Thank you.” He said, taking his file and looking in it. The reports were... impressively comprehensive. Anything he’d been involved in and done directly to the caribou had been intricately documented. And of course, there were pictures of those his involvement had led to perdition.
“You did some pretty bad things to some pretty important ponies.” He said bluntly, not paying any attention to the white coated stallion in front of him, instead paging through a packet of paperwork he'd gotten from the briefcase, “This guy was working with his brother in that Oceaneigha Border fiasco your crew stirred up. He’s lucky he and his didn’t get pulled into worse than they did. And even that wasn’t so lucky was it?”
The unicorn stallion looked at the bull but the Caribou only growled in return, sending him a hateful stare with that single eye.
“I-I...” He hesitated. He wanted to say he never affected anyone directly but he knew better than that... he WAS responsible for these kind of things. He HAD led many to capture and much worse. Perhaps indirectly, a few... by association altogether… a few dozen? Probably hundreds... “I know...”
“So why did you turn yourself in?” The lawyer-type pony asked without seeming to care all that much for the answer.
“The Resistance...” He started, “Is Dirty.” he finished definitively. The lawyer and Caribou alike raised eyebrows at this. “How many people were killed in the Fall?” he asked idly, “Nobody.” he answered himself blandly, “Then the Resistance came in after the first protests and rallied against the Caribou. At first it seemed good... but I realized all too soon how full of hate it was.
“I was sitting in a bush outside of Dodge Junction some two months ago doing recon and saw a mare being beaten. The Pony in question was drunk and his... Slave, a red collar, had done something to displease him and so he was beating her senseless in plain sight. Purple and Red collared mares nearby had fled in fright and some black collars were weeping and cowering.” He was shaking, hands in fists, a tear rolling down his face. “For the first time in my life I wanted to really do something bad.”
“I imagine you're going --” The lawyer was interrupted.
“I'm not finished yet!” Proud Heart yelled, the Caribou leaning forward with a growl but receiving a signal from the stallion that it would be fine. “But as I pulled an arrow from my quiver I saw a passing caribou come and intervene. He took the whip from the stallion and threw it to the ground and proceeded to... chastise him strongly.
“'How do you like it when something stronger than you comes and hurts you just because it doesn't like what you look like?' He was saying, 'You Don't Needlessly Destroy Beautiful Things!'” He emphasized loudly. Strangely... The Caribou leaned back with the smallest ghost of a smile, “I realized... that it wasn't so horrible at that moment as it seemed round the campfires.” He explained. “The rail master... Kaboose and a few other Caribou had to be called to get the stallion and had him sent away. Told him he'd never be allowed in his town after such a senseless display of cruelty. Told him he needed to learn some compassion. The mare was confiscated and donated to a local shelter that gave her to a gentlebull in Manehattan who now dotes on her.”
“It seems we aren't the only ones who keep files.” The lawyer smirked wryly.
“I returned to the camp I was staying at to an argument. Some of my personal crew were arguing with the other crew we were hiding out with...” He told them in lament, “A... A fight broke out over it, talking about how Caribou were nothing but evil, Tartarus spawned monsters. Some wanted to surrender and plea for asylum but the majority reacted... violently to it... I realized...” He paused. The long silence stretched and the Lawyer and Caribou soldier stood, almost anxious seeming for the response. Certainly tense. “That we were fueled by hate and rage... That we were kicking and screaming through a losing battle.” He was shaking, “That we've betrayed our original Nation's ideals just because we don't feel it exists anymore.”
The Lawyer exchanged a glance with the Caribou. “Excuse us.” he said before they both stepped out.
After an hour of sitting he was roughly cuffed and removed from the small room and walked down a long hall to a larger room. At the center of the room was a big table with a few authoritarian looking caribou, stallions and even a zebra at the far end. A lone chair sat across from them which the guards firmly planted him in, uncuffing him and standing next to him.
A red-collared mare pranced into the room in the short silence after, holding a tray of hot hay fries and a large salad. “Enjoy your meal!” The brown earth mare in a skimpy mockery of a uniform, barely more than a few slips of silken fabric around her midriff, shoulders and thighs to better show off her form, chimed with a smile as she skipped back out the door.
For a moment the prisoner looked confused. “You must be hungry.” The central chair, a large Caribou spoke firmly, “Please eat.” he gestured.
The Unicorn narrowed his eyes. “I don't need to be coaxed to give my information by chemicals or magical food...” He assured.
“We wouldn't think of it...” A dark gray earth stallion with crimson mottling on the center of his face said blandly; forest green goatee and matching color, just-past shoulder length mane. He looked bored, “It is proper etiquette to feed one's guests.” his voice was deep velvet, almost entrancing even to the stallion's ears.
“I hardly feel a guest here.” he retorted
“Then should we treat you like the prisoner you are and get rough?” The brown pegasus stallion next to the earth stallion that had just spoken said with a thump of his first on the table. He didn't look pleased, “I'll have it known that I didn't even think we should have give you a chance, much less this.” He fumed, “One of my good friends isn’t gonna be patrolling anymore because of you idiots out there at the Crystal Supply Circuit. Do you know how many mares got loose and turned blue in the Frozen North waiting for us to get them because you had the bright idea to release them from their insulated cars during a blizzard?!?” He stood with a yell.
“They were supposed to be picked up!” Proud Heart responded loudly
“Well They Weren't!” The pegasus yelled back louder, “The crash set off a chain reaction on the mountainside, burying the slaves in snow before they could get a hundred yards away from the rails! We barely got them out in time.”
“ENOUGH!” The central Caribou roared, silencing everything. The brown pegasus sat back down with a grumble and the Gray Earth stallion, who seemed to share a relationship that wasn’t entirely professional, patted him on the back. The former General shook mirthlessly at the table as he straightened. A few sympathetic glances from the other Caribou, stallions and the zebra went his way in turn. “I Will Have Order.” The central bull asserted. “You have come before us offering information. You are expected to surrender it.”
“Let it be known.” The Zebra stallion on the far left said in a deep, heavily accented voice, “That if the guest stalls further he will be brought to a suitable holding cell again until he decides to willingly consent to relinquishing the aforementioned information.”
“Noted!” The stallion said quickly, tensing noticeably. He was already cursing himself for being so pointed with his words. “My personal crew is fifteen miles due west by northwest.” He said, “There is a clearing beside a small pond where they are hiding using illusion magic. A quick flyby with a unicorn or Caribou in chariot and the right application of a revealing spell would be good enough to expose them now that you know where to look.”
A mare he hadn't noticed before alerted him to her presence with tippy-tap-typing behind him. He knew it was a mare because now that he focused on the sound, he could hear her happily humming in dulcet tones.
“What is it you hope to gain by coming out in this?” A green stallion asked with an even but aged voice. “Do you hope to get some sort of appeal for your crimes against Equestria?”
That stung... it stung hard... But it wasn't without warrant. “Yes and no.” He started, “I... I know I've committed crimes... I don't hope to get out of the consequences entirely. I know I will get what's coming to me...” He said cautiously, hesitating. “I want to be made into a mare.” He said simply. “And I want to keep my name, memories and cutie mark intact.”
“What makes you think you have the right to ask for such privilege?” A caribou sitting next to the Zebra asked; huge rack of antlers towering above the heads of the others seated at the table.
“Because first you'll get me the paper from my cloak’s left lower pocket and before you take my horn I'll unfold it and cast the proper spell to reveal the plans hidden on it.” He said simply, “Another resistance group made a few of them and gave them to higher officers like myself in the other cells they were in contact with. It has all the plans for their group for the next three months, including a plan to steal a blanking machine being transported two weeks from today.”
“We are the monsters we feared being so controlled by.”
“Your name, Proud Heart.” The gray and crimson mottled earth stallion spoke blandly, “You're said to live up to it… Charismatic, active, apparently world wise. Why not try to take the Resistance into your own hands? What brought your pride so low?” He leveled a slant-eyed stare at the stallion.
Proud Heart finally, hesitantly, ate a handful of hay fries. They were delicious, still warm and most importantly didn’t taste of poison or other tampering. “At some point,” He spoke between mouthfuls, “Pride must be thrown away.” He straightened, picking up the fork to start on the salad. “The Resistance, though I might have thought it was right at some point... has too far gone. It's become a sick twisted group of things fed entirely by hate.” He lamented, pushing his greens around idly. “I can take pride in the fact that I can help bring a stop to that morbid, ignorant self-destruction.”
He spoke softly next, “I'm finally starting to see color...” he mumbled before forking a mouthful of salad.
There was a murmur through those at the table; exchanged glances. “If,” The Caribou began, “You have more then give it to us.”
The questions henceforth went on for hours. An hour into the inquiries that piece of paper was brought in and Proud Heart revealed the hidden plans for them. The Caribou could do what they like with them; He didn’t care anymore.
“I want to make it very clear.” He'd told them, “I want to wash my hands of this; guilt free. I'm doing everything I can now so that When I properly join Caribou society as a red collared mare I can live in easy service and forget all the horrible things I've done to my own people.”
There was never a direct answer to that statement, though. It was readily acknowledged but received no input before the questioning continued.
After so many grueling hours of questions, everyone across the table agreed that it would be time to adjourn and take up the next session in Canterlot. After so many new things about many sects of the Resistance were known, so many new locations revealed where they were hiding, the Caribou guards were much more gentle with him. He wasn't going to resist them at this point.
***
The train ride was longer than he thought it should be; though he knew it was just because he was awaiting yet another long, tiring questioning session. He sat in a private car, a great luxury despite the fact that this gilded cage was only “all yours” because the two adjacent cars were the Guard cars. He'd caused them a lot of irritation. His turning himself in would cause many parts of the already fractious Resistance a Lot of trouble very soon. They didn't want to take their chances.
A positively giddy stewardess mare flounced into the car he sat in; reclined back in a spartan armchair, appreciating the last bits of freedom to properly enjoy himself before that control was blissfully relinquished. “Would you like something to eat?” She squeaked, the nude lavender mare's breasts bouncing astonishingly, as though they were intent on defeating gravity.
“Yes please.” He spoke up, eye closed
“You know.” The mare said, “I think it's really noble of you to have turned yourself in. The Guards say that you chose to be switched and you're not afraid at all!” That wasn't true, of course. He was terrified... there was so much more they could do to make him suffer, if they wanted. “If you like,” She spoke up, a hand running between his legs, “I could give you one last run.”
He'd lost taste for it, though. He didn't want to hold onto this life anymore. He had a new one to live after a harsh line of questioning. “If you don't get back to your duties your master will punish you for it.” He warned her
As if she hadn't remembered the mare tensed and looked nervous, “Oh goddesses, you're right!” She squeaked, hurrying off.
It almost made him chuckle... Soon that would be him. Proud Heart was destined for a plush position serving a master in his private manor, though, not in a stuffy train. Sleep came comparably easy for him that night on the train but when he was woken the next day and brought to the room to be questioned in the Capital of Equestria he realized something in the air. The smell of sex was everywhere inside this part of the Palace. He could hear the moans and cries of others being questioned... Interrogated. As they walked him down the hall he stepped past a caribou entering a room and as the door opened he heard the sharp, shrill cry of a mare, “I'll Talk! I'll Talk, Just PLEASE Let Me Cum!!!!”
A shiver went up his spine. He hoped to goodness they didn't doubt he was being wholly forthcoming with them... he didn't want to have to be at the receiving end of such questioning.
The room they sat him in had a group twice as large as the first, two rows of judges. The table was longer. The seat for him was set farther back… And They might as well have pinned him to that table like a science experiment and dissected him.
Three days of questioning followed. Finally, finally they were satisfied. Sweating and confessing and straining... They were satisfied. Still... there had been no evidence of them confirming his requests the entire time; merely intense inquiries and trick questions. He'd given them everything he knew about the goings on of the Resistance. It wasn’t like the Resistance was any sort of unified and singular force, of course, but information was still his job. He had a lot of it to give.
When it was all said and done the central judge, the same Caribou from the beginning, spoke up, “For your extensive crimes against Equestria you have committed you might have been otherwise completely blanked.” his tone was grim. “However, as you have done so much to atone for your crimes as well as have come willingly for your sentence this council has deliberated heavily on a suitable degree of mercy.” He wrote something on a piece of paper before him and handed it to a tall, regal unicorn guard. “Hopefully the information you have given will lead to a swift, decisive close to the Resistance's presence and we can all live easier, happier, more proper lives.”
The central buck stood and stepped around the table. He was tense as he approached the stallion and hesitantly put a hand on the unicorn's shoulder. “I know it's hard to look past a thousand years of lies.” He praised him, “But you've made the right choice. We can help you move on.”
He sniffed for a moment, eyes welling up with tears momentarily as he nodded, “Thank you.” He forced out bravely, unsure of his future even still.
With one last pat on the shoulder the central caribou presiding over the questioning and the rest of the council left the room. The guards then led him out toward the room where he would strip down. As he stepped out they went to take him by the wrists but he raised his hands away from them. “I can manage.” He told them firmly, “This is what I want.” The Caribou guards shrugged to each other and let him walk down the halls.
The blanking room was dreary and bleak. He stepped into the ring and let them clamp his arms and legs into place. “I want to be tall and buxom and leggy.” He said with a small smile, “And with a Caribou master if possible, a nice one.” The Caribou started messing with the controls at the panel in from of him, “And... get rid of some of my memories of the Resistance... but not why I left... never want to forget that.”
There was a mirror he knew to be one way behind the console. There the council who had judged him was watching, listening, deliberating. “And please let it be somewhere pleasant that I go, with flowers and forests.” He closed his eyes half a moment, imagining a better life that wasn't so constantly stung with trouble and worry. “And can I have big hips too?” He asked idly as though this were some common practice... He had crossed the edge; best make the most of it. “If possible I think I'll probably want to give my new master a lot of children.” Could pony mares give their Caribou masters proper children, he wondered?
“And extremely sensitive nipples.” He half laughed out before the beam from the console rammed into his chest. He roared out, his cock going suddenly very rigid. A pulse through the beam brought a pain to his chest and a crack sounded in his ears from within; the echo of his ribs reforming, the growth of an entirely new one. His chest grew tight and he fought to breath as, gradually, his formerly masculine rod sank back in between his legs; trying hard to throb and engorge but to no effect.
He screamed as his bones elongated and reformed, making him a couple inches taller, changing his body proportions. His... Her voice was cracking into a new tone. As she felt her old cock shrink into a slick, sensitive nub she came, her new slit drenching her inner thighs with her own sexual fluids. For what seemed an eternity she moaned and screamed and came in both pleasure and pain intermingled. Finally, however, it stopped.
Strong Caribou hands caught her as the machine let her go. The memories of some of those less pleasant times were... gone. Miraculously and restoratively gone. She even knew it. She remembered why she was here. Everything was, so it seemed, exactly as asked in the agreement.... The Caribou, so far, were more than good to their word. They had followed her requests to the letter.
Exhausted and energized with orgasmic sensation she raised her head, still feeling the weight of the horn on her forehead. “G-Get this heavy thing off m-my f-face...” She moaned out weakly.
[End]
Author's Note
Finally done! Finally Done! Been all too long waiting for canonization and now I can finally say I've got something in the canon! All sorts of lewd, happy thoughts and all that jazz. Excited to finally be a part of this.
If it wasn't obvious, this story will be centering around Switching, as well as the obvious end to the Resistance as any sort of organized movement. (As if it was one before) It's about a newly switched Mare getting used to her new life under the Caribou Authority and challenging her mindset.
Hope you paid attention to some of the side characters! They have their own roles to play in due time as well. Hope everyone likes Proud Heart as well!
Thank you very much for reading!
