Colonel Brighter Days stood in his officer of the town of Hope Garrison. The stallion was looking out the window as the rolling fields just past the garrison’s perimeter fence, normally the peaceful view relaxed him but for some reason now the view was anything but peaceful. The simple fact was everything felt wrong, his body, the view even the very air he breathed felt wrong. The body twisted and alien to the colonel, the view and air felt….tainted like the world beyond the town limits had gone rancid and mixed with the fact that after hours the rest of the country was still dark and the colonel was very uneasy.

The communications officers and engineers had torn communications apart to try and find what was wrong and the engineers had even taken the antenna apart to see if the problem was there. Everything came back as working perfectly fine. And yet they only had communications with the local Royal Guard, unable to make a connection to the communication satellites in orbit. It was almost like there was nothing up there to relay their signals.

Sighing the stallion turned from the window and looked over his officer as it relaxed him more than the view. Even with the alterations it was still his office. The room was rather Spartan with a small bookshelf with a small potted plant on top sitting against one wall. Beside that was a small cabinet with a few bottle of his favorite scotch and glasses as well as a bottle of Nightfall whiskey that had been a gift to him from a friend when he got his promotion. Two chairs before his desk, a painting of a field of flowers across from the bookshelf. The room before his desk was bare.

Behind his desk was slightly different, not only did it have a window and two small flags of Equestria and the EDF respectively but a solitary picture sat on the wall beside the window near the EDF flag. A picture of a younger Brighter Days and about forty other soldiers all standing in a desert and scattered about either on the two tanks behind them or the ground before them, all smiling for the picture. His old army unit taken the day they made land fall in Saddle Arabia, a bunch of young soldiers ready to aid the Saddle Arabian government against group of extremists who desired to rule the nation and impose their isolationist views on the people and kill any who disagreed with them.

It was going to be a cakewalk, a bunch of extremists hiding out in caves with weapons that were decades old versus modern weaponry.

Only three ponies and one changeling in that picture walked away from that conflict, some didn’t even get to go him in a box, their bodies never recovered, left out in that godsforsaken desert. Brighter Days was glad that out of everything that had changed in the garrison that one picture had remained unchanged. They were all still ponies and changelings in that picture, how they are supposed to be.

Looking away from the picture the Colene sat at his simple des and looked over the reports from around the garrison since whatever event had caused all this. The Colonel’s desk was much like the rest of his office, empty save for a few pens, some paper a computer and a single picture in a gold frame of a young unicorn with a green coat and red and gold mane, his daughter. He had no pictures of the insufferable bitch that was her mother as he had burned them all the day after he came home on leave and found her in bed with their neighbor. Still he did have to thank her for their daughter but her and the stallion in the bed with her were very lucky he had seen too much death in that desert or there would have been two bodies in the room and not just destroyed furniture.

Brighter Days had been trying to reach his daughter, Sunny Meadow since after dispatching the rifle team to Ponyville. She lived in Manehatten as an assistant to a book publishing house’s editor but no matter what he tried nothing got three. All long distance calls were just dead air, though he still had local calling ability and the phone in his pocket had no service. He had been tempted to try the radio but communications had their hooves…hands full trying to figure out why they couldn’t contact anyone else in the country for him to take their time to try for a personal call, no matter how much he wanted too.

As the Colonel read the reports a calm knock came at the door. “Come.” The garrison leader said not looking up from the reports as the door open and closed. He continued to read till whoever it was gently cleared their throat.

Looking up Brighter Days was met with the sight of a changeling in a black suit with no tight and his jacket undone. It wasn’t hard to recognize who was standing before him based on the thinner frame from the rest of the changeling in the garrison. “So then operative, what does the Military Intelligence Division want because as I’m sure you can guess I am quite busy trying to keep everyone in this base from panicking?” He said calmly.

The M.I.D Operative smiled. “Come now Colonel is that anyways to treat an old friend?” He said.

Brighter Days instantly recognized the voice of the leader of the four M.I.D Operatives assigned to Hope Garrison, Operative Yarnil. Every base and garrison in the country had at least four M.I.D Operatives assigned to it to watch for trouble within the nation or to be in places to go on mission should a possible threat show up. Needless to say everyone was nervous around the operatives as they are what the changeling infiltrators became when the hive was absorbed by the EDF and thus could pull off perfect impersonations with ease. Though any changeling could disguise themselves the infiltrators were the best at it and that combined with what they did made every nervous. It was a bit of a touch call of who made you more nervous, the M.I.D or the BCD, most soldiers couldn’t decide.

“I’m not sure when we became friends as I don’t recall us ever really talking since you showed up Yarnil.” Brighter Days said.

The changeling placed his hand on his chest as if he had been struck. “Oh you wound me Colonel. Here I thought we were good friend what with both of us only desiring what is best for Equestria.” The changeling said with a smile as he reached into his pocket and withdrew a small silver case. Opening it he looked at the colonel. “Mind if I smoke?”

Brighter Days waved his hand and the changeling with drew a cigarette and placed it between his lips, closing the case he flipped a switch on the side and a flame snapped to life on the top. Once the cigarette was lite the changeling took a deep drag, only speaking after he blew smoke from his nose, the cigarette shifted to the side of his mouth. “So I was wondering if you knew anything about what was going on out there.” The changeling asked.

The Colonel snorted. “I would have thought you’d know that already, don’t you at the MID know everything before everyone else?”

“That is a myth and you know it, we may be able to be anywhere at any time but that does not mean we are everywhere.” The changeling said with annoyance as he took another drag from his cigarette. “And right now we probably don’t know any more then you do.”

The Colonel looked at the changeling before him. “You’re scared, aren’t you?” He asked simply.

“Yes I’m fucking scared!” The operative yelled taking the cigarette from his mouth and pointing it at the stallion behind the desk. “We have absolutely no connection to our brothers anywhere on the planet much less the nation itself. It’s almost like the hive is simply gone. Do you have any idea what that’s like for us? We can’t even contact our Queen!” Yarnil shouted before taking a large drag from his cigarette. “We are all scared shitless just like you and everyone else in this damn town is.” He said a bit calmer.

“I’m sorry; I can’t imagine what you are going through.” Brighter Days said with sympathy, he honestly never could understand how the changeling hivemind worked but he knew it was very important to them and being linked to it, he had seen changeling who lost the ability to connect to the hivemind, it was not pretty and a few of them were locked up in Irongate.

“I don’t want you sympathy colonel what I want is to know what the fuck is going on and what this garrison is doing to fix all of this.” The operative demanded.

“Currently waiting for the rifle team I dispatched to Ponyville to report in, after that doing whatever we need to get this fixed.” Brighter Days said.

“And what if the situation is bad?” The Operative asked much calmer than before, the Colonel got the feeling he knew something brighter days didn’t.

The Colonel sat back in his chair and his eyes narrowed. “What do you know?” He said calmly.

The changeling took a drag from his cigarette as he looked at the colonel. “That it’s bad, like nothing we have ever seen before Colonel, and with the hive missing I fear what it may mean for all of us in this town.”

<<>>

In the Everfree Forest four being stood in bright yellow hazmat suits that made them hard to miss in any environment, but they didn’t see the point in hiding anyways as they were there to help people after all. Doctor Atreus watched as two of his fellow BCD doctors gathered samples from a manticor Dr. Vector and his team had to deal with on their way into town. The manticor’s body was covered in growths that had reached an impressive size in such a short amount of time before the subject finally died as its internal organs were crushed.

Atreus stood with one other doctor observing the sample taking to see exactly what the modified contagion had done to the subject. From where he stood he could see the glass imbedded in the subjects face still from where the vile had been smashed by Dr. Cupcake, it was a good place to administer the contagion as it was in a liquid state as the BCD had not figured out how to make it work as an airborne contagion yet as all other attempts had rendered the contagion either neutralized or far weaker than the normal strain.

As the doctors worked gathering their samples for later study Atreus observed the forest around them, paying special attention to his emotional sense to read for aggression, as Dr. Vector had said the place was more dangerous than normal. The animals within usually avoided the BCD but they were far more aggressive than normal as was the plant life. The BCD running theory was an unknown contagion was running rampant in the forests possible brought by the unknown subjects in Ponyville. They would soon know once they were done studying the subject they had collected though Atreus was planning to try and take a few of the animal life back with them to study as well.

As he stood watching his ear picked up a twig snapping and a spike of fear for a split second before it was lost to the natural aggressive emotions that permeated the forest around them. Looking around Dr. Atreus tried to determine where the spike of fear came from as the only time he ever sensed fear in this forest was when the BCD was walking through it though that was back when the forest was normal.

As he focused on his emotional sense the changeling doctor was able to sense another emotion besides the normal aggressive one, determinations with a thread of fear mixed with curiosity. That was no animal; the emotions were too refined and pronounced.

“We are not alone.” He said calmly to his fellow doctors. The two taking samples stopped immediately and stood up to join the other two doctors in watching the forest. The three pony doctors looked around calmly while Atreus searched with his emotional sense. From what he could tell their unseen observer was small and very afraid but determined as well. As he continued to search he realized the reason he was having trouble pinpointing the source was that there were three of them scattered around them all with varying degrees of determination but the same level of fear, whoever was watching them all three were terrified but keeping it under control.

Deciding to see if he can draw out whoever was watching them so he stepped away from the group and spoke up. “Whoever you are, we mean you no harm. We are from Doctors from the Equestrian Defense Force Biohazard Containment Division.” He said clearly, he felt another spike of fear as he started speaking but it was quickly reined in by the determination. “I assure you we mean you no harm.”

The changeling thought about maybe removing his gasmask so they could see his face but that thought was quickly discarded as insane when he was outside the safety of the lab. Instead he raised his hands to show he was unarmed and spoke again. “If you are lost we would be happy to help you, this forest is highly dangerous to be out in, more so than usual it seems.”

He waited for a while and felt indecision in the three observers and could tell they were moving around them, he thought he caught movement in one of the trees but it was gone so quick it could have been anything. After a while of standing there he saw movement in one of the pushed and a small face peered out of it. Dr. Atreus looked at it and raised his hands once more to show he was unarmed as he made observations. From what he could see the observer had yellow fur and a few strands of red mane fell over its face from behind what looked like used to be a red bow, now seeming to be used to tie the face’s owner mane back much like a bandanna.

“You with the Caribou?” The face asked. “Don’t try ta lie nether, ah’ll know if’n you do.” The face said with a southern accent.

Atreus looked back at his fellow doctors in confusion; he could tell they were just as confused. Looking back at the face he spoke up. “I can say with all honest I have no clue what a Caribou is, we are with the Equestrian army.” He said.

The face stared back at him from the push for a while before it nodded and spoke up louder than before. “He ain’t lying.” It said and stood up from the bush allowing the doctors to see who had been speaking to them. As he had observed before the subject had yellow fur and a red mane, and it was indeed a tatter old bow that had been undone and used to tie the mane back by wrapping it around the sides of the subjects head like a bandanna and wore what looked like the clothes a farm hand would wear though dirty and worn as if they hadn’t changed clothes in a long time. What caught the doctors most off guard was the stick with a sharpened rock tied to the end in a crude spear and the small hatchet in the subject’s belt.

As the subject stepped out from the bush another bush shifted another subject stood up. This one had dark orange fur and most of its dark purple mane was covered up by a battered helmet one would wear if they rode a bike or other such transport, unlike the yellow subject this one held two crude daggers made from sharpened rocks and had what looked like a set of tools on its belt and wore a t-shirt and jeans as well as what had once been sneakers if Atreus was correct.

Lastly a subject dropped from a tree and landed with a muted thud on ground before their legs buckled and it collapsed with a yelp of surprise. This subject had white fur with a purple and pink mane as well as having a horn on her head. The subject wore what used to be a simple dress, now in the same state ass the other two subjects clothing and Atreus noticed they had a crude spear as well though shorter and lighter as if meant to be thrown, the makeshift quiver filled with half a dozen more on the subject’s back made it clear they were.

As the doctors observed the three subject, the two rushing over to help the one who fell stand up they made two other observation, one was that they were underweight and two they were much shorter than the doctors leading them to believe the three were just children.

Dr. Atreus looked around the forest then back at the three subjects as they help the one to her feet, judging by their clothing, crude weapons and malnourished state he could only conclude they had been surviving out in this forest for a very long time.

Carefully so as not to spook the subjects Atreus approached them. “Excuse me, children but would you like something to eat?” He asked. While the BCD may fear possible contagion they did go out of their way to help the young over older subjects. “Once we finish gathering samples we will be returning to our lab and you are welcome to join us.”

Another one of the other spoke up. “Doctor, are you sure that is a good idea? The risk of contamination is extremely high if they have been surviving out in the forest.”

Dr. Atreus looked over his shoulder. “Yes but we will follow propter decon procedure and placing them in one of the observation rooms will deal with any possible chance of contamination till we are sure they are contagion free.” He said and the other doctor nodded.

With that dealt with he looked back at the three subjects who were staring at them, still with that fear and determination to cover it up and now also with curiosity. “Would that sound good? I’m sure you could use some food and could appreciate a clean bed to sleep in.” slowly the three nodded. “Right then. “He said and looked back over at the other doctors. “Gather the rest of the samples and we shall return to the lab with these three.” He said.

“Yes doctor.” The other three said in unison before going back to work.

Atreus looked back at the three young children. “I am Dr. Atreus of the Biohazard containment Division, who might you three, be?” He asked.

The three looked at each other before looking back at the doctor and the yellow one spoke up. “Ah’m Applebloom.” she said and pointed at the orange one. “This here is Scootaloo and that’s Sweetie Belle.” She said pointing at the third child before looking back at the doctor. “And we are the Cutie Mark Crusaders.”

<<>>

Octavia sat in the back of the strange vehicle the mare called a Humvee as it bounced along the open field. Vinyl held her close still though not as tightly as before they spoke to the mare who called herself Staff Sergeant Dusty Trails. The grey earth pony didn’t know what a staff sergeant was or what the Equestrian Defense Force was much less what the strange creature called a changeling that was part of this group was, all she knew is her and her sister were safe, for the first time in a long time she felt safe.

She had broken down completely once Ponyville was out of sight and she knew they had truly escaped the place she used to call home. She had cried most of the trip from there till the vehicles had come to a stop and the mare in charge had spoken to them. She had almost given up hope of ever escaping or things going back to normal despite Vinyl’s continued encouragement that when it became a reality all her emotions had just rushed out, the fear of what was happening, the loss of her once peaceful and wonderful home, the things they did to her and her sister all of it just came pouring out.

After the talk with the Staff Sergeant and her telling them where they were going was safe and they would be given food, medical attention and clothes once they arrived, she couldn’t help noticing the irony that the place they were heading was apparently called Hope.

A groan drew Octavia’s attention to the stallion who lay in the back of the Humvee with them another mare hunched over him keeping an eye on him. Octavia had nearly panicked when the she realized the injured soldier Dusty had said would be back there with them was a stallion but then the other mare had joined them and seemed to be taking care of the injured stallion. After speaking to the mare, who was something called a “medic”, she learned the stallion had been injured in the crash that had allowed Vinyl and herself to escape and was the one driving the Humvee as they made their escape despite being injured.

Octavia was still afraid but as she watched she realized there was another stallion in this vehicle and he didn’t seem like the ones back in Ponyville, he seem like how the stallions used to be before the Caribou and actually he seemed to take orders from Dusty and treat her with respect.

As she watched the injured stallion slowly opened his eyes and the Medic smiled. “Hey there Light, welcome back to the land of the living.” She joked.

The stallion, named Light apparently, groaned again. “What the hell happened?” he asked

The medic chuckled. “Oh just you being stubborn and not stopping so I could take a look at you till you passed out from blood loss and had no choice in the matter.” The medic said jokingly.

The stallion chuckled as well for a moment before he winced in pain. “Ow, don’t make me laugh, it huuuuurts.” He whined.

The medic rolled her eyes. “Oh quit your whining, you lost that right the day you graduated from Camp Mendez.” She said and the stallion actually stuck his tongue out her resulting in the medic lightly slapping him on the chest to get him to groan in pain.

Octavia and Vinyl watched this entire exchange, the unicorn with a glare when the stallion woke up that slowly shifted to confusion as the two talk while the earth pony at first with fear then disbelief. They were talking as if they were friends, the stallion wasn’t insulting her or trying…..other things…with the medic, it was like he hadn’t been effected by whatever drove the other stallions to side with the caribou, he was acting like how things used to be.

Octavia’s attention was drawn to the interior of the Humvee as she heard a blast of static and saw Dusty turning nobs on a box that rested just below the front window in between the two front seats. Once she was done turning nobs she grabbed a part of it and held it up to her mouth. “This is Staff Sergeant Dusty trails to Hope, come in Hope over.” She said and after a few moments she repeated herself.

Octavia was wondering what she was doing when the static slowly filtered out and another voice spoke from the back. “This is Hope, we are reading you Staff Sergeant loud and clear, didn’t expect you back this early over.’ The voice said.

Dusty sighed and held the piece up and spoke again. “Something has come up, we have an injured man as well as two civilians with us in need of medical attention, have the boys in the med-bay ready for when we get there, over.”

“Affirmative, doctors will be waiting for you when you arrive; I imagine the Colonel is going to want to hear what the hell happened.” The voice said.

“I’d imagine so, I’ll need to speak to him and I’m sure he will want to speak to the two civilians as well as they seem to know what’s going on.” Dusty said glancing back at them. “We will have a full report when we get there, E.T.A twenty minutes, over.”

“Roger that Trails, see you when you get here, Hope over and out.” The voice said and Dusty replaced the piece she had been speaking into before looking back at the two mares in the back of the Humvee.

“We are almost to Hope, you’ll be safe there.” She said. “We will have the doctors take a look at you and then I’m sure the colonel will want to speak to you about what the hell that was back in Ponyville.” The mare in charge said and Octavia nodded.

Octavia rode in silence still being held protectively by her sister, the only sound besides the animal like growls of the vehicles they were in, an occasional squeak when it hit a pump and the quiet talking of the medic with the injured stallion were the only sounds she heard.

After a while they came around some trees and she saw something she had not expected, an honest to Celestia town. When the mare in charge had said they were going to a place called Hope, Octavia had thought that it would be some ramshackle shelters made up of ponies who had managed to escape the Caribou but what she saw where actual buildings with roads between them as well as what looked like streetlamps along it. The building looked different then she was used to as they looked sturdier then what she was used to and some appeared to be older, that was the oddest part as she was sure there was no town out here this close to the Equestrian boarder.

As the vehicles neared Octavia could see ponies walking along the sides of the street seeming to go about their day without a care in the world, as they got closer she saw they were a bit nervous but not afraid as if it was something other than the Caribou that had them spooked.

Nearing the edge of the town Octavia saw a sigh sitting just outside of the town.

NOW ENTERING HOPE
POPULATION: 1539

The earth pony’s eyes widened, that sign couldn’t be correct, there was no way the Caribou would have missed a town this big or that you could have hidden such a large population, it just wasn’t possible!

As they passed the sign the bouncing suddenly stopped as tire met road and the vehicle glided into town, several of the ponies walking along the street looked over at them but seemed to not find anything alarming about the strange vehicles.

A minute alter Octavia saw why when they passed another vehicle that seem to seat two ponies and the back half of it was a larger version of what Octavia sat in right now, the other vehicle was going in the opposite direction as they were. The deeper into the town they got the more ponies and vehicles of different shapes and sizes, the most shocking were the gold colored ones topped with lights that said “Hope Royal Guard” on the side that were either driving or stopping to chat with other ponies. Octavia had to shutter as she saw the words Royal Guard do to what had happened.

When everything went to Tartarus her and her sister had been lucky to live at the edge of town. Octavia had been home alone practicing her cello, she had no clue where Vinyl had been as the unicorn had stayed out all night DJing some party or something in town. Octavia had nearly jumped out of her skin when the front door slammed open and a bleeding Vinyl had stumbled in. When Octavia had gone to get the first aid kit as she started to berate her older sister Vinyl had silenced her and told her to grab whatever she could carry, food water anything as fast as they could and pack it all into whatever they could carry as they needed to leave quickly.

Octavia had been confused and then noticed Vinyl was more injured then she normally was, she had a cut above her eyes and her shades were missing, that had been one of the oddest things as the DJ never went anywhere without them and she had a black eye rapidly forming along with her lip was swallow. Most concerning were the bruises around the unicorns wrists as if someone had griped them tightly.

When she had asked what was going on Vinyl just told her to hurry up and pack as she kept looking out the window back towards town in-between emptying the closed beside the door till she pulled one of her spare equipment bags meant to hold a few odds and ends for her DJ booth set up.

As Octavia started going through the kitchen wondering what was going on she heard vinyl swear from living room and when she came to investigate the unicorn was in the middle of pushing the couch against the door as her magic held one of the heavy rods meant to hold up one of her AMPs. Before the cellist could ask what was going on a loud pounding had sounded at the door and someone telling them to open up.

Vinyl grabbed Octavia and ran for the back door. Before they even reached the door the banging had grown loader, it sounded like someone was trying to break down the door. As they reached the door vinyl threw it open before being drawn up short by a stalling standing there with a sickening smirk on his face. As Octavia had tried to figure out what was going on Vinyl hand launched herself at the stallion swinging the heavy rod, it connected with a loud crack against the side of the stallions head and he went down.

And then Vinyl was dragging her across the back yard for the fence yelling at her to hurry up as they needed to run, Octavia had though her sister had done something incredibly stupid, it wouldn’t have been the first time, but then she heard the yells from behind them, the things the stallions had been saying, Octavia was no longer being dragged by Vinyl but was running alongside her as she realized why her sister said they needed to run.

It hadn’t been too hard to lose the stallions when they reached Whitetale Woods. They had gone deep into them and hid there for the rest of the day and night. The next day around noon was when everything went wrong as they spotted Royal guards walking through the woods, to say they were relived was an understatement and they hadn’t hesitated approaching the armored ponies.

That had been a mistake and Octavia learned why Vinyl had been afraid and injured, after that the guards had taken them back to Ponyville and delivered them to the Caribou who now ruled there and Vinyl had begun her planning for them to escape.

She was shaken from the dark memory by Vinyl nudging her and giving her a look that said “Stop thinking about it” Her sister had always been able to tell what she was thinking about. With a nod Octavia pushed the memory back down and focused on the now as the Humvee took a few turns and was then driving along a fence that was around a group of buildings that looked much different hen the rest of the town in that they were made out of some sort of solid stone, but not in a way that was individual stones all packed together, the buildings seemed to be made out of a single solid stone.

As they neared a gate the Humvees slowed and turned onto the small side street that lead up to it and stopped besides a small building that was just outside of the gate, a red and white piece of wood blocking their path. As the Humvees stop a mare stepped out of the shake, she was dressed in the same uniform as the ones in the Humvee and had the same type of weapon they had on her back, held in place by a strap over her shoulder.

She spoke to the mare behind the when and after a moment waved a hand and the wooden arm blocking there bath raised and the gate opened up. As the Humvees pulled through Octavia read the words above the gate.

TOWN OF HOPE EDF GARRISON

The Humvees pulled in and the mares in back could see two flags flying from the top of what she assumed was the main building, one bore the insignia of Equestria, the dark and light alicorns chasing the sun and the moon, while the other bore a golden kite shield with two crossed swords behind it and the letter EDF in the center in dark green.

Octavia wasn’t sure what to think or feel seeing the symbol of Equestria flying high above this structure but looking around at the ponies and the strange changeling patrolling the perimeter, all armed with the same weapons that the ones who rescued her and her sister wielded. She just knew they were safe here, there was no danger to either of them and that this place was safe. It was a strange feeling, safety, she hadn’t felt it in a long time and she had almost forgotten what it felt like, it felt good to feel safe again.

Author's Note

Well another Division ahs been tevleled.

and we get to see where the CMC has been during all of this and they have now been rescuded by the BCD.
not to sure who is more dangerouse the CMC or the BCD?

and SSgt Dusty Trails has safely returned to Hope with their two passanger in tow. who knowns how the EDF will react to the information they are about to recive.