We soon arrived at a small camp. I wasn't sure how many people were milling around while they ordered us off the van, but it didn't look like nearly enough to take the city. None of them wanted to get close to us except the scientist in the hazmat suit. He was shaping up to be a decent guy at least. He pointed and asked, rather than shoving. His name was Richard. "This is your new home." He directed towards a fenced in area where a few other ponies were penned in.

There was one pegasus in there, but her wings had been securely bound to her body, preventing flight. Two standard ponies had their hooves securely bound. Were they burrowers? The last was a unicorn stallion that was asleep, sprawled across the ground limply. We soon joined them.

Lone was set down, still in his carrier. He peeked out of the door of the carrier. "Can I come out now?"

"Afraid not," replied Richard. "You can fly, and you've been classified as high risk due to your, uh, disproportionately dense viral load."

Lone sank to the floor of his carrier morosely, his eyes locking in on me as if I could help, but I wasn't sure what I could do. Cindy spoke up for me, looking at Richard. "We'll guarantee his good behavior, please give him a chance. He's cramped in there."

Richard shook his head and pulled the fence shut, locking it. "Command would play soccer with my head if I let him out. How can you guarantee anything anyway? You're all contaminated with a verified mental agent. Sit tight, I'll have questions for you shortly."

One of the other soldiers standing guard pointed at me. "That one has wings. Shouldn't we restrict that?"

Richard peered at me. "They don't look large enough to fly." He sighed. "But now's not the time to assume. Come with me now." He pulled the fence open and gestured out. It felt just... wrong to leave my, what, herd was it? behind. Still, I wasn't going to help them in there, so I went with Richard.

"Stay strong, I'll be back," I said while still in earshot. I was led to a trailer. Inside was a dense maze of machinery and equipment. Cindy whistled softly as she looked around with obvious fascination.

Richard pointed to a bed. "Strip, sit. We'll get the exam out of the way first." I wriggled my still zip-tied hands and he noticed. "Right, stupid of me. Well, you've been lucid so far, so I'm going to extend an olive branch, and hope you don't feed it to me." He pulled out a knife and soon had the plastic band cut. "Are you human enough to understand the situation?"

"I think so?" I rubbed where the band had bitten into my wrists. "People are turning into ponies when exposed to them, then more ponies expose more people."

"That's the basic jist of the problem. There are several stages to the process we've managed to isolate, and you're not in any of them." He pointed to the bed. "Go on."

I started with my shirt, then shoes, socks, and pants. My boxers were a bit of a joke. A sheath doesn't fit in them properly, so he could see the furry tube attached to my belly coming out of the top of the boxers. He rolled a hand. "Go on." With a grunt, I lost them too, entirely naked. "Fascinating. You're a Class S. We've only confirmed two others, and we never captured either."

"Class S?" I sat down on the bed, which proved cold to the touch.

"S, for special. There's been one in Europe and another in the Middle East, at least confirmed sightings. We know almost nothing about them, except that they seem to be leading the others." I could barely see him raise a brow through his bubble of a helmet. "Are you leading them?"

"I... did once?" I confessed. "They were throwing themselves at the army, infecting them and getting killed in return. I made them back off."

Richard grabbed a keyboard and started typing quickly. "Now we're getting somewhere. How absolute is your control? You could save this city."

Cindy scowled. "Will we be 'saving' the ponies too, or are you going to throw them in the smallest cages you can find?"

Richard looked uncertain. "It's not my position to decide what to do with information, just gather it. There are still survivors in the city."

"Many of them on four legs." Cindy huffed. "They are alive too, you know. They are hurt and scared, and need help too."

I held up a hand towards Cindy. "Easy there. I'm sure they'll try to figure out a cure first?"

Richard sighed. "Of course, probably. Not my assignment there."

I thought to ask. "Where's the rest of the army? I mean, I haven't seen a single helicopter or jet since this started."

Richard twirled a finger. "Belly down." I laid down, head turned to face him as he approached and started examining my wings and poking other places. When his touch wandered over my ass I jumped. "Easy there, we're not dating. Your tail's showing signs of being ready to emerge." I was growing a tail? Great.

"That doesn't answer my question?" I'd rather talk about something besides my descent into freakishness.

"It's pretty ugly, everywhere. This city isn't the first, it's the latest." Richard poked a wing at the base, and it sprang open. "People are getting desperate, brass included."

"How did we not hear anything about this?"

Cindy rolled her eyes. "They didn't want you to hear."

"Got it in one." Richard gestured for me to roll over and I did carefully. Laying on my wings was a delicate act. "I answered your question, so now about mine? How fine is your control?"

I had no idea. "I haven't tested besides making them back off the attack. If this isn't the first, why weren't the soldiers wearing better protection?"

"Resources are getting tight. Many military bases are already compromised. Half the 'soldiers' you saw out there were volunteers rounded up at the last second." He examined my horn, which proved to be a lot more sensitive than I gave it credit for. Soft brushes and pokes were arousing me something awful, and blood rushed to my new horse cock, which stood in stiff salute to the scientist.

Cindy licked over her lips and gave him her best bedroom eyes. "I didn't know you were into this kind of thing..."

Richard jerked his hand away from my head. "Interesting..." He made a note, likely about the sensitivity. "Now t--"

The door to the trailer burst open to admit dour looking man. "I've been in--" He trailed off as he spotted me on the bed with my dick out in the breeze. "Richard, the taxpayers are not paying for you to jerk off the mutants. What have you found?"

Richard grabbed a needle and poked it into a bottle, filling it with fluid. "He's an S-class. I was going to administer a test to see if we can sever the connection."

Sever the connection? I didn't like the sound of that, and neither did Cindy, who hissed loudly enough to do a cat justice. Oddly, the new guy sided with me. "Hold up there, Richard. If this freak's an S-class, they're too valuable to load up with random drugs. Freak, sit up." Once I was upright, he continued, "Here's the straight deal, it's ugly out there, real ugly. People with the power have their fingers hovering over buttons that shouldn't ever be pressed. Better to survive a wasteland than to watch humanity be whittled away, they say. Now, you ask me personally, that's a load of shit. Population centers are lighting up across the globe. The best we could hope for is sharing an irradiated mudball with a bunch of horses. The average horse has the intelligence of a small child, but all the effective lethality of a trained killer. No one's been imm--"

The trailer suddenly lurched to the side, sending equipment flying haphazardly. The trailer sank back to its normal position before lurching the other way. I fell off the bed and landed painfully on what were probably very expensive sharp things. Richard and the new guy were holding firmly onto secured things, wobbling but not falling. "The hell is going on?" The new guy turned for the door as the trailer gave another lurch and a head burst free just in front of me on the floor.

"Free!" squeaked the mare before she vanished into the hole. The new guy drew out his pistol and threw open the door, shouting commands as he went.

Richard was surprisingly composed, and even lent me a hand up. "You're like a queen bee, and we're still in the hive. Can you get them to back off?"

Did I want them to back off? No, you don't. I could hear a new voice in my head, Cindy's voice.

~We could destroy this place, free our herd, and escape.~

~They're trying to save humanity. That isn't bad or evil.~

~They'll cut you apart to figure you out if they have to.~

"What's your name?"

The question brought me around and I gave my name quickly. "William, huh? Well, the next move's yours. If you don't do anything, a lot of violence is going to come down on us. You don't want that, do you?"

The door to the outside world opened and a soldier poked his head in. "Richard, brass wants you, now. Drop everything!"

Richard hesitated. "But?" He gestured at me.

The soldier raised his rifle. "I'll keep a watch, sir, get moving."

Richard quickly scooted to the door and was gone, leaving the soldier behind. The soldier hopped up inside and closed the door. "Moron." Where once a soldier stood, soon a human female, but she was covered in chitinous plates and had bright blue eyes with no iris. "We're leaving." I noticed she was naked, her clothing absorbed into her in the change.

While I was glad for the chance to get out, who was this woman, and what about the rest of my herd. I grabbed for my boxers and jumped into them quickly. "Who are you?"

"Your savior. You can thank me later." She licked her lips. "Personally. The council needs your ass before I get my turn, however, so get dressed faster."

Council? Cindy shook her head. "What about Sandra, and Lone Wing, and the others? They don't deserve to be trapped here."

"Less talking, more dressing, or we can go naked. I'm alright with that. Don't worry, the locals have been controlled. This place'll be empty soon enough."

We had freedom offered to us, but at what price?

Author's Notes:

The plot, it intensifies!

What's going on in here, besides typos?