Octavia sat on the edge of a small bed beside a window. When the doctors had been done examining them a soldier had arrived to escort them to a room that had been prepared for them. The earth pony had been hesitant at first but Vinyl had calmed her with a small squeeze of her shoulder and a smile. Her initial fear was unfounded as both mares were giving a privet room. She had been surprised to see two beds in it but the soldier had simply said it was orders from “on high” that they get a room together.

Octavia had to admit having Vinyl in the same room did calm her a great deal. The room was nothing fancy and clearly meant to be used as a sort of guest type area. There were two beds, each with a small night stand and lamp. A small table with two chairs and a writing desk. The light in the room was provided by one of the strange long lights that were everywhere in the building. Octavia had asked what they were as they weren’t lanterns and was told they were called “florescent lights” and was controlled by a switch beside the door. Octavia didn’t care what it looked like, the fact she was told it was her and her sister’s room to do with as they please had sent a wave of emotion through the mare that once the soldier had left telling them that if they needed anything a guard was at the end of the hall, that she had broken down once more. Their own room, their own privacy, coupled with the clothing that was provided and everything the soldiers were doing was a lot for her to take after over a year of….living with their owner.

Across from the door was a window that let them see out over the grounds of the garrison and the town beyond.
It was that town that held Octavia’s attention now. She was still in some shock that such a town existed still under control of ponies and seeming existing without the caribou being aware of it somehow. She had spent a bit of time watching the town after the sun went down; she was amazed as the town lite up with street lamps and lights inside of the building as well as the strange self-propelled carriages having their own lights. Her and Vinyl had stayed up later watching the town as lights twinkled.

Now though the town was abuzz with activity, it was like kicking a beehive. She saw the soldiers of the garrison walking back and forth from building to building, it was clear they were doing something important as they moved with determination. The patrols along the fence line had been increased as well, the soldiers now wearing armor and there being twice as many of them.

The town was also full of activity as she saw the Royal Guard vehicles rushing back and forth with their lights flashing and ponies on the sidewalks moving about quickly, some actually running to complete their task. One of the strangest things was the flying machine in the air that seemed to be flying around the edge of town. She couldn’t make much detail about it except that it was gold colored and seemed to have writing on the tail.
This had all been going on when the two sisters woke up an hour ago.

A gentle knock came to the door and Octavia blinked and just stared at the door for a few seconds till the knock came again and she realized whoever it was waiting for permission to enter.

Pulling on the boots the soldiers had given her yesterday the mare walked over to the door and opened it a crack,
keeping her hand braced firmly against it as she saw Vinyl press herself against the wall behind the door.

Octavia blinked as she saw it was a changeling standing on the other side of the door in a white dress shirt that covered her surprisingly small breasts and she wore a knee length grey skirt and half inch heels. “Um…hello?”

Octavia said still a bit uncomfortable around the strange beings.
The changeling smiled gently and spoke in a calm voice. “Hello, I’m Dr. Hetio; I understand you wished to speak with someone from Psy-Ops?” She said.

Octavia stared at the doctor taking in more details; she had a small brief case in one hand as well as holding a grey jacket that probably went with the rest of her suit. She seemed more slender then the other Changelings the former cellist had seen. “Oh…um…I…”

“Wasn’t expecting a changeling, I’m not surprised, from what I have heard you have never seen one of us before nor heard of us till recently.” Dr. Hetio said with a soft laugh. “Don’t worry word spreads rather quickly for a changeling so we won’t take offence if you are startled by us or stare. We all know you are not used to us.” She said with the same soft smile. “If you’d like one of my colleges to come back I can go get them if it will make you more comfortable. It would just take a few minutes and won’t be any offense.”

Octavia blinked several times. “n-no….no it’s alright.” She said and opened the door the rest of the way to allow the doctor in.

The changeling nodded and stepped in looking around the room. “Boy they sure put a lot of thought to practicality and none to creativity in these rooms.” She said looking around the room.
“Oh it’s quiet alright it very….nice.” Octavia said looking around the room with a smile. It was nice to have a room against that was hers and she got to choose who entered and when so it could be just her and her sister if they wanted.

The doctored eyed the two mares before nodding. “Well still think they could put up a picture or something but it is your room so you get to choose what go into it.” She said. “May I take a seat?” She asked gesturing to the chair by the desk. Vinyl walked up beside Octavia and gave a nod. “Thank you.” Dr. Hetio said as she set her briefcase on the desk and turned the chair around to face the room before taking a seat.

“So….how does this therapy stuff work? The doctors in the clinic said it would help us heal other wounds but they didn’t elaborate.” Octavia said still unsure about all of this.

“Well basically what I do is listen to you as you talk, you basically talk about whatever you are conformable with and I try to determine the best way to help you.” Dr. Hetio said. “Basically I am a doctor who heals the mind of illness and trauma, much like the doctors in the infirmary just with words mostly.” She said with the same gentle smile. “I’ve already been informed about the…..situation you found yourself in till you arrived here but I want you to know we do not need to talk about that if you don’t want to.” She said. “This is just for us to get to know each other and you to be able to make an informed decision on if you want to continue.”

Octavia slowly nodded. “O-ok.’ She said as she sat on her bed, Vinyl sitting on her and eyeing the changeling suspiciously, she had been doing that to everyone since they had escaped but Octavia couldn’t blame her.

Dr. Hetio nodded. “I will warn you, if we do start to move forward with this after this meeting then it’s going to get worse before it gets better as we will talk about a lot of what happened to the both of you.” She said with a somewhat sad smile. “It’s darkest just before the dawn as they say.”
Slowly Octavia nodded once more. “O-ok Doctor.”

“Please call me Hetio if you like. We don’t need to be formal.” The Doctor said and Octavia nodded once more.

<<>>

The sun was shining high over the town of Ponyville, it was around mid-morning and ponies and their Caribou rulers were going about their day. The males went about their tasks with the arrogance afforded them by their society or what magic had done to twist their minds to think like the Caribou as they went about running errands or the like. While the mares and doe stayed close to their owners ether out of fear of not being at their beck and call or because they had long since been broke and now believed as the Caribou do, that they are mere objects.

A typical day for any town or city in Equestria and completely picturesque for any male that might be traveling the country or a sight to fill one with sadness if you were a mare who remember how things used to be.
At the edge of the nearby forest through something unusual and never before seen by Equestria emerged. There were two of them both completely black with a slight shine to them and were box shaped. The one in back was larger than the one it followed and if one were to look at them they would see both things sat on wheels much like a cart. However, no one was pulling them and a sort of growl could be heard as the two objects raced out of the forest and headed straight for the town of Ponyville.

As the two black self-propelled carriages raced for the town the sun shown off the only other color to break up the pure back carriages outer shells. That being a red circle with a back symbol resting in the middle of it. The symbol would look strange to any Equestrian as it appeared to be a small circle with what looked like three crescent moons over it. The three moon like symbols each faced away from each other with two of them bellow the third.

Both carriages raced into the small town causing ponies and caribou to have to dive out of the way as both carriages made their way to the marketplace. Once there both of them skidded to a stop and a small crowd formed slight keeping their distances from the strange growling objects not sure what to make of them. Some who had been out yesterday remember when a different pair of growling objects raced through the town just yesterday bit those were dark green and look complexly different then these two black vehicles.

The guards certainly hadn’t forgotten and the few that were already in the market readied their hammers as they glared at the growling vehicles as they sat there. Eventually a caribou male in the crowd spoke up as he read the words on the side of one of the black box vehicles. “What in Tartarus does Biohazard Containment Division mean?”

As if in answer to the male’s question doors in the back of both large boxes burst open and the crowd saw the family bright yellow suits of the creatures who had arrived in town yesterday afternoon, at least the ones who had seen the first four did, and those ones were already moving to bolt as this time there were ten of the beings.

Dr. Vector surveyed the crowd as he stepped out of the BCD van before speaking up to be heard by the other doctors. “Alright, round up one male and one female of both species!”

“Yes Doctor.” The other nice Chemical Troopers said in perfect unison as they walked towards the crowd. One of the guards stepped forward as he saw the clear signs of females in the group and wasted no time confronting one of them. “What are you doin—“

The guard was cut off as the female jammed a needle into his neck and depressed the plunger quickly.
The guard recoiled and tore the needle from his neck. “What the fuck…are….you……”The guard trailed off as his words slurred and he began to sway on his feet before collapsing two the ground.

“One male acquired!” The female doctor called out and two other descended on the downed guard carrying a stretcher with some sort of clear plastic tube around it. The two doctors set it down and opened it before lifting the guard into the tube and resealing it leaving his hammer behind.

As the two doctors stood with their quarry a panicked scream echoed across the market place and a moment later a dark pink earth pony with a pink mane collapsed as one of the BCD doctors withdrew another needle. “One Female acquired!” The doctor called out and like the guard two more doctors descended on the mare with the same contraption the guard was housed in who was currently being loaded into the back of the lager of the vans.

Dr. Vector watched as some of the crowd began to panic and try to flee as the doctors swept through them hunting for the missing subjects they still needing. Some of the guards attacked the doctors but they were easily subdued by the Chemical Troopers’ scalpels, normally they would just release a contagion into the air but they needed lives subjects to study. The guards seemed to be decently trained but the BCD Doctors were trained in hand to hand combat as well as having years of experience of being attacked by patience’s, sometimes in large mobs and so it was a simple thing for them to dodge the swings of the hammers and euthanize the unruly subjects.

As Dr. Vector watched his team work he thought back to what the three children back at the lab had told him of the situation in town. The children were currently under the watchful eyes of Dr. Atreus and Dr. Cupcake as they seemed to have attached themselves to the doctor who had found them and the first female they had seen. If what the children were correct then the situation was rather grim in the nation, though he questions why they were sure it had been over a year since the situation had happened when it was just the other day the lab had full contact with the rest of the nation and there was no hint of an invading force.
No matter that little fact was not important, what was more interesting was that all the males seem to have went mad and joined the invading army as they rounded up the females and enslaved them, something Dr. Vector and the rest of his team found beyond appalling.

From what the three had told him the only reason they had escaped when the nation went to hell was that they had been at their clubhouse in the nearby apple orchard. In all the chaos the pegaus’ adoptive sister had found them just ahead of the males and told them to run and hide while she stayed behind to hold off the approaching males. The children were unsure of what had happened to her but DR. Vector had an idea just based on how this contagion seemed to work on the males, while he knew this was not a virus or bacteria the fact was it behaved like a contagion so that was what the BCD had labeled it as for the time being till they knew exactly what it was.

After the children had fled the clubhouse they made their way to the earth pony’s home where they found it already under attack by the males from town. The three had tried to help but the earth pony’s sister had dragged them inside before barricading the door. She had quickly backed food for them and given the earth pony the small hatchet and told them to head for someone named Zecora, who apparently was a zebra who lived in the Everfree Forest and to wait for her there. The sister had lowered them out the kitchen window just as the front door had been blasted off its hinges by a unicorn.

The three had stayed with Zecora for a couple of days till the males came for the zebra in the night and once more the children were on the run as another person stayed behind to buy them time. They had been on their own ever since. Dr. Vector had to admit be was impress with the three for having been able to survive in the forest for so long on their own with only occasional nighttime raids into town to get supplies they needed and couldn’t acquire in the forest.

None of them had tried to find out what happened to their families once they found the town under the control of these caribou as it would be too dangerous. While the three tried to act brave it was clear to the BCD doctors the not knowing and knowing how the caribou treat females was having an effect on the three. Still they did a good job of keeping it under control and doing what they needed to survive.
Doctor.” One of the other called out drawing Chemical Trooper leader back to the situation at present.

Dr. Vector glanced over at the doctor who stood beside an abandoned market stall and easily recognized Dr. Xinil, honestly he wondered why everyone else said the BCD doctored all looked the same when in their suits when it was so obvious who was who. No matter it wasn’t important. “Yes?” Dr. Vector asked as he made his way over to the changeling doctor.

“I found two more children.” She said as she gestured to the stall beside her.

Dr. Vector looked over the stall and saw two fillies cowering behind it trying to make themselves as small as
possible as they clung to each other. They were both clearly of the earth pony variety with one of them being pink with a purple and white mane while the other was dark grey with two tone lighter grey mane. It was clear they were both terrified by what was going on in the market and that they had been subject to the same treatment as the other females as all they wore was a black collar. Dr. Vector desired nothing more than to release a contagion into the town and purge it of the virus that these caribou were.

Quickly getting his anger under control he looked back at Dr. Xinil who waited for order. “Sedate them and load them into the van, they are coming with us.” He said and the doctor nodded before producing two syringes from a pouch in her suit and quickly injected the two children. Both of them gave a yelp of surprise before the tranquilizer took effect and both her out cold.

Dr. Vector waved over a two other doctor who picked up the two children and gently placed them in a biohazard transport stretcher. One it was sealed they were loaded into the truck a moment before the last of the two missing subjects was loaded.

“Alright, we have what we came for.” Dr. Vector said as he headed for the van. “Let’s return to the lab and begin our research.” He said.

“Yes Doctor.” The other intoned in unison and followed his lead. Once everyone was in the BCD transports they started the vehicles and headed back towards their lab leaving behind the deserted market place and the bodies of over a dozen guards and a few other who made the mistake of attacking the doctors as they worked.

<<>>

Outside the town of Ponyville four caribou, three males and one female in a red collar, made their way along the road away from the town. As the four walked they glanced back as they heard a scream echo from the town. “Any idea what that is about?” One of them asked.
Another shrugged before speaking. “No idea, but it’s not our concern at the moment.” He said and the four started walking once more.

As they one side of the road soon found a fence running along it, beyond the fence sat rows upon rows of apple trees. Neither of the four so much as glanced at the trees nor the sign above the gate they came to and quickly passed through.

The four made their way towards the house that appeared to have been converted from a barn. The four paused here and glanced around at the property before one of them nodded his head and started walking towards the door.

Big Macintosh sat in the living room of the house enjoying a drink of hard cider, he had taken to having a bit of hard cider each day to keep himself calm and relaxed and to try and drown out the images of what the town had become. His ear swiveled as he heard a curse come from the kitchen and knew his sister was most likely on her third glass of hard cider. She had taken to drinking as well though not for the same reason as the stallion do to the situation she was in.

The large red stallion couldn’t blame his sister for her drinking and didn’t say a word unless someone was on the property as it could cause her to go off on the other males from the town and that caused problems. She had come very close to having the caribou deal with her attitude but he had barely talked them out of it and swore she wouldn’t do it again as he would take care of it.

Sighing the stallion pressed the cold glass to his forehead feeling a headache coming on thinking about what his life had become in the past year.

The stallion jumped slightly as a knock came at the front door and he heard another swear from the kitchen as well as the sound of a shuffling chair and clink of a bottle as his sister quickly put away the bottle of cider.

Once he was sure she had everything hidden the stallion stood and made his way to the door. Whoever was on the other side knocked a second time, this time a bit louder before the stallion opened the door. Standing on the porch were four caribou in jeans and t-shirts for the males and nothing but a red collar for the doe. Big Mac averted his gave from the exposed doe who stood there without a care in the world. “Can I help you?” He asked the three males.

“Yes I believe you can.’ One of them said. “We were interested in arranging deliveries of your apple to our employer. Might we come in?” he asked politely.

Big Mac stared at the group and he had a distinct feeling the caribou was lying through his teeth. Shifting the stalk of grass to the other side of his mouth the stallion stepped to the side to allow them in. If they were lying then the only way to know what they were after was to talk to them, plus something about the four made the stallion feel as though they weren’t here for anything bad, a strange sense from a caribou.

“Thank you kindly.” The one who spoke before said with a nod and walked in with the other following behind. The four waited till Big Mac closed the door and lead them to the living room where he found his sister sitting in the corner scowling with her knees pulled up to her chest in her best attempt to cover herself.

He gave her a hard look and she dropped her eyes and glared at the floor before the caribou entered and could see it and make a fuss. Retrieving his glass of hard cider from the coffee table the stallion eyed the three caribou males who looked around the room, one of them glancing at his sister for a long moment and the stallion had to restrain his tongue from saying something that would cause trouble. “What a nice looking bitch.” The caribou said looking at Big Mac.

The hackled on the stallion’s neck rose but he kept his voice even as he spoke. “Thank you kindly.’ He said before taking a sip of his drink.

“Isn’t it a bit early to be drinking?” The one male who had been speaking said.
Big Mac merely looked at them. “Enope.” He said before finishing the last of his drink. Something about these caribou was odd, he wasn’t sure what it was but something about them was off.

His swiveled towards the kitchen as he heard the back door open. “We’re back and done with the morning chorus.” He heard one of the other three who lived with him say. “We heard a lot screams coming from Ponyville and…” The mare trailed off as her and her three sisters walked in and saw the three caribou males.
Big Mac turned to tell them to go wait in the kitchen and a moment after his eyes left the male who he had been speaking he hears a strange clicking noise and the three mare’s eyes widened and Applejack looked up from her corner. Looking back the stallion found himself staring down some sort of black barrel that was attached to a strange black metal L held in the caribou male’s hand as he looked calming at the stallion.

“Seems you have several fine looking pieces of meat.” He said with a sickening smile that almost caused the stallion to glare but he held his neutral expression as he looked down the barrel of whatever it was the caribou was holding. The male’s smile dropped and he arched an eyebrow. “Interesting.”
“He’s not like the others.” The doe said as she eyed him with a calculating look to her eyes, this caused the ponies in the room to blink in confusion.

“Yes….this changes thing.” The male said as lifted whatever it was he was holding to point it at the ceiling and then stood there for a moment. “Well then it’s your lucky day pony you get to go on living.” He said with a smile as he tapped the side of his head with what he held.

“So can we get on with this? Walking around like this is not my idea of fun.” The doe said as she crossed her arms and tapped her foot with impatience.

“Relax Frinta; we are currently guests of the good stallion here.” The male said looking at her before turning back to look at the confused stallion.

“What in tarnation is going on here?” Applejack blurted and Big Mac winced.
“What was going on here was a plan to….remove the stallion here, get you lot to safety then use this farm as a listening post to observe the comings and goings in town.” The male said as he looked at her with a friendly smile.

“However seeing as my comment filled him with disgust and anger means plans have changed.” He said looking back at Big Mac. “So then pony, how would you like to help liberate Ponyville from a bunch of rapists?”
Big Mac blinked at the caribou, this had to be a trick but as far as he could tell the male was telling the truth.

“Who are you?” Applejack demanded standing up and glaring at the male.

“Oh just a few members of a group who has a problem with rapists and the like and have been instilled with the belief in doing what is right and to damn the consequences.” The male said and suddenly he was wrapped in green fire causing the ponies in the room to jump back with a cry of surprise and Big Mac readied himself for a fight. When the flames vanished and a…thing with solid blue eyes and fangs and whose skin was made of something black and shiny stood where the caribou had once stood wearing the same clothes.

“What….the buck are you?” Applejack asked as the three mares behind Big Mac eyed the thing with a bit of fear.

The thing smiled reveling a mouth full of sharp teeth. The other three were wrapped in the same green flames and were replaced by things that looked just like the one speaking, one of them pulling a long coat from a back he had and passing it to the former doe who promptly put it on. “My name is Henra and I am the leader of this team.” He said.

Big Mac eyed the thing wearily not sure what to think of this development as Henra just stood there smiling at him before tilting his head and thinking for a moment. “That still doesn’t answer what you are.” Big Mac said.

The changeling tilted his head to the side. “No suppose that doesn’t.” HE said with a chuckle and then looked at the stallion with the same smile. “We are what is known as changelings and we are part of the Equestrian Defense Force Military Intelligence Division and we’d like your help in liberating Ponyville and maybe the rest of this nation from the hands of the rapists known as the Caribou.”

Author's Note

Brought to you by my phone.

Well today was eventful.

Octavia and her sister are getting help from the Psy-Ops Division

Ponyville got attacked by the Ever free Chemical Troopers

And Big Mac just met some people he has never seen before and now has a decision to make.