Now, listen. This chapter, I realized, Is violent, very, very violent, so, brief summary for anyone who might not be able to take it:
I mention the sleeper cells, and then I begin the invasion.

In between is bloody, bloody interrogation, and I am honestly ashamed. You should skip this.

And for those who didn't, don't complain to me. Frankly, I felt a bit sick to the stomach after writing this, and I felt that it's worthy of making this go from "Teen" to "Mature" I am truly sorry. [Although, It might not be as bad as I first thought.]

The Saddle Arabians had taken great caution in preparation, and had mobilized 1-in-10 of their [Remaining, after Equestrian Invasion] population. So had the Zebrakin, and the Dragons, while technically not being a sovereign nation, sure acted like one, and with dragons, I don't think anybody's gonna question that. The Changeling Collective, however..

Well, being the source of almost every sleeper cell and secret agent the Anti-Equestrian Alliance had to offer, they had to be careful, possibly more than the others.

And they were, but that was just the spies. The army was decidedly less secretive. And by decidedly, I mean that they didn't use a code, they didn't force levels of clearance for certain intelligence, and a day before the attack, they lined their army right up, nice and close to the the border.

When rogue Changeling patrols were discovered by the Equestrians, they were captured and taken in for interrogation, then summarily executed when they refused to give. The Changelings had the best anti-interrogation training for non-spies, and it showed. They gave name, rank, and serial, and at times not even that. They didn't even give to the interrogation charms that the Equestrians used, and were barely fazed when they attempted to search their mind. Not everyone passed anti-interrogation training, and these men were given cyanide pills. When taken prisoner, they just bit down until the capsule burst, and now they had a corpse, which wouldn't do them any good unless they were either necrophiliacs or had a "revival" spell that wasn't a necromancy spell, which didn't exist. These Changelings, whether executed or self-poisoned, were the first casualties of Operation Diarchy.

Needless to say, about eighty Changelings were captured, and were either executed or had cyanide pills, before the Changelings caught on and stopped all scouting patrols.

But before they did, one changeling by the name of "Zorky MacLin" was captured, and it turned out his pill was bought at the cheapo alchemist, 'cause it just caused him to throw up a bunch and pass out. When he woke up, he was in a room with a unicorn with a surgical mask on, and a bright light in his eyes. A quick look around showed that this was in a white, tiled room. He was on a hospital bedpan, and struggling only made the magical binding tighter.

"My name is PFC Zorky MacLin, serial number eighty-eight five four sixteen five-"

"We got all that from your Dogtags. We're here for what you know." The unicorn pulled gloves onto his hooves, and picked up a scalpel.

"That''s all I know. Now let me the fuck go."

The unicorn chuckled. "Our dream probes may have been unsuccessful, but it wasn't fruitless." He pointed his scalpel at Zorky. "We know that you know something."

"Watch where you fucking point that. What do you mean by "We know"?"

The unicorn smiled a sadistic, sick smile. "We, as in we two here, know that We, as in we here in information retrieval, know that They, as in High command, know that We know."

Zorky briefly struggled against the binds. "So They know We know They know We know?"

"Yes, We know They know They know We know."

"I see. So If They know that We know that We know that We know, and They know that They know, Do We know what They know?"

"No. And stop stalling." The unicorn stabbed Zorky in a wing with the scalpel. "I think we'll start here."

Despite being stabbed in a minor artery in a major body part, and blood spilling out and onto the floor, Zorky managed to keep from screaming until he started cutting. The unicorn turned up the light, and as his wing was cut open, Zorky stared into that light. He felt himself going mad from the pain, but he stayed sane until the Unicorn stopped and poured some salt into the wound. JESUS CHRIST, THIS MAN IS A PSYCHO! is what he would've thought, if he hadn't been going mad while in immense pain. Instead, he imagined that he was back home, in the hive, while he actually said "AAAGHGAHGHHAGHAH"

He remained this way until a healing spell was cast on his wing and a bucket of water roused him from his pleasant dream. Disoriented, he turned his head over the shoulder and saw that the wall opposite his wing, and even the ceiling, was splattered in a sizable amount of blood. And if he could see the floor, he would see that it too was covered in blood. An IV full of plasma was attached to him, and another IV full of blood was attached to his wing. The unicorn was looking at a spell scroll, but when he looked up, he seemed pleased to be pleased. "Back from Slumberland, Little Nemo?"

"Fuck."

"Now, now. No need for profanity. Now, what do you know?"

"I ain't telling you, you 'sumbitch."

"Come on, We both know that They know that YOU know. What do the numbers mean?"

"What?"

"Wrong answer." The scroll was activated, and a sizable electric shock was given to Zorky.

"GAAAAAAGH!" It was perfectly timed to prevent his heart from fibrillating, but just large enough to cause immense pain without killing him.

"Zorky, m'boy, you may just be the most co-operative Changeling we've found all day. Oh, I DOlove it when a special interrogation order comes down from Counter-Espionage. Now, tell me you killed twenty Innocent Equestrians."

"FUCK."

Another shock was given, and once again the twisted surgery began.

The disgruntled and oppressed civilians of Equestria, the Equestrian Griffons, the Mules, the Donkeys, the Diamond dogs, the similar, were all too happy when Anti-Equestrian Sleeper Cells contacted them and asked if they wished to overthrow Equestria from the inside. This was their chance to show that they deserved citizenship, and they would kill Ponies to have it. Other, less enraged or better off non-Equine Equestrians were against it but not so against it that they would report it. If these idiots wish to make life worse for themselves, they thought, Then let them. I'm too rich/friends with the local watch captain/not involved, so I should be fine. Then, because of species-ism, xenophobia, and the fact that the nobles are just arseholes, some Non-Equines, maybe they had criminal records, maybe they were suspected subversives or had a conflicting political stance with the local government, or maybe the local guard commander just didn't like them, started being re-located to the internment camps on the eastern coasts. This was NOT like the Japanese internment, as not everyone was carted off, but many were, and this only served to enrage the Non-Equines. Arms were snuck in and hidden in safe-houses, or buried in the backyard, or just stolen from the local garrison, and they planned. Or rather, the Sleeper cells got plans from High-Command, passed them to the insurgent groups, and high command planned. Some consistent themes in the plans? They would toss Manelotov cocktails into the town hall, they would round up the local garrison and police to use as hostages, and they would [Hopefully] hold out until the Invasion force arrived. This plan was xeroxed and sent to every single Sleeper cell and Partisan group in every major or notable Equestrian town or city. And the moment the invasion sirens started, they would strike.

It had been Twelve hours since Zorky was captured, and after the information retrieval torture, he was confessing to everything that he was told to.

"And say that you stole my yogurt from the break-room fridge."

"I STOLE IT FROM THE BREAKROOM FRIDGE!"

"Good, good. Now say that you didn't really, but you saw Larry take it."

"LARRY TOOK IT!"

"Now, now, what's this? First you say you, a Changeling SPY, did it, now you say that Larry, a good friend of mine, did it. Who do I trust?"

"I LIED, I LIED, I DID IT!"

"Now, now, do you need another slicing for that?" The unicorn jabbed a buzz-saw at Zorky.

"DEAR GOD NO! PLEASE!" Zorky had cried so much that he had run out of tears. All he had was yelling. Suddenly, another pony poked his head in. "Oi! William! You broken that Changer yet?"

"Yeah, Larry. I was just about to extract the info from him." The unicorn said.

"Well, Counter-Intel told me to tell you that that information isn't needed now. The invasion has already begun."

"GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!" William stabbed himself in a hoof with the scalpel. Blood spilled over the floor. He pushed a button that said PRISONER ESCAPE. "THE CONVICT HAS ATTACKED ME! TAKE HIM TO THE HOLDING CELL!"

Two guards rushed in, brutalized Zorky, and threw him into a holding cell, where he stayed without food or water for eight more hours, until the Changeling army finally got to the Info-Retrieval HQ, where he was immediately sent to a hospital within The Collective's borders, where he recovered and, after being awarded a medal for keeping calm under interrogation and getting medically discharged, wrote his account of his experiences in the army leading up to, and including, his horrific interrogation. This whole segment was adapted from it, and it's on assigned reading. It WILL be on the test.

Next episode: Horseshoe bay.

Author's Note

I would've named "Zorky" something bug related, but:

(A) I was too lazy, and (B) I couldn't find anything good on the first page of google resu