Chapter-specific warning: This chapter has some fucked up breeding horror stuff in it - think X-Files or (some) Lovecraft style. Might deserve a mild "horror" tag, though it's not too much for me and I'm pretty skittish about horror, so if so, it's the mildest one possible. All sex between intelligent characters remains consensual.

As a life choice, Redheart cultivated her composure, and it rose to all challenges and made her proud. As a nurse she'd learned to keep her head in a medical crisis, and her FBI training had only grown these skills. Before agreeing to take the job in the first place, she'd thought long and hard about just what seeking out magical weirdness would mean. She thought she could handle it.

By and large, she was. Her composure remained strong. She felt she and Sunset had both done well so far. Still, while she'd made the choice to accept the weird into her life with eyes open, she'd not expected it to respond so enthusiastically. Beginning with her fateful choice to offer herself to Luna, she'd faced a potent mix of magic and sex she'd never bargained for. Before her transformation, she'd thought of herself as relatively conservative sexually - a few boyfriends in college, nothing more. She wasn't sad this seemed to have changed, but it was testing her composure not to show how hard so much change, so quickly, was hitting her.

For all she mastered it during the day, it caught up to her that night. She'd showered thoroughly, clearing off the last of the slime, but still had trouble falling asleep. When she did, she woke frequently, head filled with images that left her both aroused and unsettled.

Then, in one of her innumerable bouts of wakefulness, her phone blared the ringtone indicating a call from Sunset.

Sunset had found herself barely sleeping.

Not in some kind of stressed way, like Redheart. She'd long since developed the kind of equanimity that can only come from leaving not only the world, but even the species you were born in. Rather, she'd found ever since her experience with Arwen, she'd just been not sleeping much. She'd grab a few hours when Sonata went to sleep, usually after tiring each other out. Then she'd wake up, filled with a wistfulness she couldn't begin to describe, and a desire to see the stars. Sometimes, like that first night, she'd sing to them under her breath, either making up rhymes on the spot, or speaking words she couldn't understand but that brought her nearly to tears with a sense of loss.

Then she'd sit on the couch, and think, and time would fade away, before she returned to bed to sleep, or at least spend the last few hours snuggled up to Sonata.

That night, though, she stirred early. Usually she returned to the bedroom at or shortly before dawn, but she could tell it was still a few hours yet. Nothing obvious had roused her, but she was worried. She rose and went to the bedroom. Feeling foolish, she cracked open the door, looking for the comfort of Sonata's prone form in the moonlight from the window.

The window was open, and a dark figure loomed over the bed.

Sunset stopped for a moment, but only a moment. She couldn't make out much of anything, either about the intruder or about Sonata's state, as the scene was backlit by the bright moon. But she knew her gun was in the holster sitting by the bed, so she let out a yell and sprang at the shadowy figure.

It leaped back in apparent alarm, though it remained silent, and Sunset landed on the bed on her knees. Something whipped back around the intruder - a dark cloak? Sonata moved next to her, and Sunset prepared herself to spring again. Before she could move, though, faster than she would have thought possible, the figure leaped backwards out the window, and vanished into the night.

Beside her Sonata sat up in confusion, and Sunset held her close while her lover confusedly murmured she was okay. Then Sunset realized that Sonata might not have been the target, and might not have been the only one. She grabbed for her phone. She held her breath for the three rings before Redheart picked up.

"Sunset? What in the--"

"Don't say anything," Sunset said, "there might already be someone in your house."

Redheart was grabbing for her gun before Sunset even finished telling her what had happened. She pulled on her bathrobe, and a hoodie over it, hiding her supernatural features. Sunset finished and hung up, promising she was on her way. Redheart slept on the second floor of her modest house, and no sound came from below. She tried to breathe quietly, looking from her window to her door. She slid out of bed on to the floor, trying to keep out of sight of the window, and slid to where she could see both it and the door.

A heavy splintering thud came from below, and she froze. Normally she enjoyed the privacy of her small house on the rural outskirts of Canterlot. She'd only purchased it after getting her FBI job and her wings, and appreciated that the lack of nearby neighbors let her avoid wearing a disguise around the house. Now, though, it was unlikely anyone would hear even so brazen an intrusion. And Sunset was likely at least half an hour away.

She cursed herself silently and double checked her magazine. She had to assume they'd know about the layout of her house, and would be heading for the bedroom. She opened the door as silently as she could, thinking about the best place to try to take them by surprise. The outlook wasn't great; it was a house, after all, not a fortress. Still, she thought there was a chance: there wasn't much cover before the foot of the stairs, and there was a banister on one side she could look around. If they thought she was still asleep, she might take them by surprise. It seemed the best chance, so she hurried, hoping the carpet would keep her bare feet silent, to her position. She heard a clattering noise as she did, from the kitchen below, making her think they'd come in the back door. She peered slightly around the banister, trusting the dark hoodie to hide her pale hair.

Two figures moved in the open space beneath the stairs. They looked strangely hulking; she wasn't confident they were human. They didn't seem to be making for upstairs, though; she was momentarily confused to see them heading towards the front door, away from the kitchen where she'd seen them before. She raised the gun, but as she was about pull the trigger, she smelled gas, and her eyes widened as she realized they must have been in the kitchen. Frantically she turned on the safety and holstered the gun. They clearly wanted to make what was coming look like an accident, so they weren't going to come for her - but they were probably moments away from setting the house ablaze.

Quickly she went over her options. The front door seemed out. The two hulking figures had her outnumbered and beaten on size, and using her gun as an equalizer was clearly a bad idea. They'd come in through the kitchen, so she couldn't trust that exit wasn't guarded, and was likely to be the place they started the blaze regardless. They had her well trapped.

So she had to hope they didn't realize what she'd learned in the barn: her wings (sort of) worked. Giving up on stealth, she threw off the hoodie and bathrobe, leaving only her bra and panties. Fortunately the summer night was warm. She ran for the small balcony above the kitchen. She heard a small commotion below her. Where before she'd cursed her lack of security-mindedness, she was now thankful she never bothered to latch the sliding door. She opened it, barely looking outside before spreading her wings and leaping off the balcony.

Even in the heat of terror, the feeling of the warm summer air filling her wings was exultant, and she nearly yelled for joy as she felt herself not falling but rising a bit in the small updraft created by the edge of the house, before beginning to glide leisurely down. Still, she stayed silent, and looked at the yard spread out below her.

The moonlight illuminated the broad lawn leading to the woods behind the house, but shadows clung around the eves and along the walls, and she couldn't see anything suspicious below. Then she saw two things, one right after the other. First, something emerged on to the balcony, directly into the moonlight, and she could see the hulking form was indeed not human, at all. It was a writhing mass of grass and soil in roughly human shape, like the contents of someone's very large planter box had woken up and been angry. It raised it's head-like mass, and while it had no face, she saw two pinpricks of glowing green light like eyes. Which seemed somehow to see her, because it jumped easily off the balcony and began shambling towards the ground beneath her at a disturbing speed.

Then, just as it landed, she saw a bloom of fire from the kitchen window, and saw a second, similar figure launched away from the window by the blast. A wave of sound and heat hit her, and the kitchen was up in flames - flames that rapidly rose towards her bedroom above it. To her distress, she saw the second figure stand up, apparently not disabled by the blast.

She was clear of the house, but obviously not out of danger. Sunset wouldn't arrive for at least fifteen minutes, and it wasn't clear what she could do anyway. Meanwhile two angry mountains of soil were running around below. She didn't want to think about what it would feel like to get hit by one - heck, she'd probably suffocate if it just fell on her and stopped moving. And while her wings were keeping her from falling from her now nearly three story height, she didn't think she could actually fly with the things. She thought about taking a shot at the figure now almost directly below her, but she wasn't steady enough in the air to fancy her chances against a strong breeze, let alone the recoil of her firearm, and it wasn't clear what a pistol bullet might do to a pile of undifferentiated soil.

She was pretty sure she could turn, though, and the updraft had left her a good fifteen feet above the roof of her house, and said roof wasn't yet on fire. While she was far from an aeronautical engineer, she'd done enough general science to know the growing blaze was generating a heck of an updraft. If she angled above it, she'd likely get enough lift to glide clear to town, or at least intercept Sunset. She wished she'd had time to grab her phone!

Of course, that updraft would also make the recoil she'd just be worrying about look trivial. And if she fell, she'd fall further, on to a literal house on fire.

It seemed like her only chance, though. Inexperienced as she was with the wings, it seemed like a better chance than fighting two massive monsters made out of soil. Still, she didn't relish the idea. Desperately, she looked around for any other options. Then she saw, barely visible under the trees on the edge of the wood, a small figure.

She almost missed it in the dark among the trees. Would have, except that its hands glowed with a green light, just like she'd seen in the eyes of the monster when it looked at her. She looked closer, and it looked distinctly like a woman. It was hard to tell from here, but in the flickering green light she thought its skin looked like bark, much like Sunset had described the woman in the woods.

"Hey," she called out, figuring she had nothing to lose, "help!" The figure didn't stir.

"You in the trees," she tried again, "help me!"

The woman did move, and looked at her. She grinned, silently. She moved one hand, and a lump of soil flew into the air, falling short of hitting Redheart.

That clinched it, then. She had two choices. The fire had nearly reached the roof - if she were going to try that plan, now was the time. But she suspected the woman was controlling the monsters. She was a ways away, and in cover, but the glow did make her an easier target, and it wasn't an impossible shot. Or, it might be just as easy to try to swoop as to survive that updraft, and less dangerous to get wrong...

With a sigh, Redheart committed herself. She angled her wings slightly, in a way she hoped would cause her to descend faster, and leaned towards the woman, who was again looking at her monsters. She began to speed up. Her heart pounded. She was not steady in the air. She brought out her gun, but as she gained speed, she only became more unstable. She reconsidered. She kept the safety on but clutched the gun close, just trying not to drop it, as she plummeted towards the woman, hoping to avoid the low-hanging branches.

She was nearly there, and moving nearly as fast as if she'd been true falling. She snapped out her wings, planning to slow herself at the last moment and plant her feet firmly on the woman with most of the force of her descent.

It would have been awesome, and a more experienced flyer could have pulled it off - soaring birds of prey do something similar regularly. But Redheart was no bird of prey, and this was her second flight. Her wings caught the air, but at the wrong angle, and she jerked back as well as up. Her kick turned into a flail, which did catch the woman full in the chest, but as she fell back her wings lost the air, and she landed heavily on her back on the soft soil, winded. She struggled to her feet, as well as with her breath and her gun.

The plant woman wasn't grinning now. She got to her feet just about the same time as Redheart. They'd twisted all around as the fell, and now the burning house lit her from behind with an angry light. The glow was gone from her hands, and there was no sign of the monsters, but she seemed angry, and ready to tear into Redheart with her own bare hands.

Out here, there was no gas, though, so Redheart raised the gun and shot her in the chest.

The bullet tore through and she let out an unearthly scream and a burst of something that smelled piney. It was a powerful sidearm, but even after her training Redheart was astonished at how far it threw the plant woman; she suspected she was much lighter than a human. She tumbled halfway across the lawn, to lie only a dozen or so feet from the blazing kitchen window. Unsteadily, Redheart moved closer, on the lookout for any movement, though the growing heat made her suspect she wouldn't be able to get all the way to where her foe lay.

Before she could, though, the woman stirred and rose to her feet. Redheart lined up the gun for another shot, only for a tree branch to lash out from above her and strike her hand, sending a jolt of pain up her arm and her gun away into the night. The woman moved to a crouch, and looked ready to spring. In the flickering light Redheart could see thorns sprouting from her once-smooth skin and sprouting from her fingers like claws.

Then both women turned as the sound of a motorcycle rose over the crackle of the fire, and Redheart heard Sunset calling her name faintly.

"Behind the house! I've got company!" Redheart yelled, keeping her eyes on the other woman.

Just as she spoke, her foe jumped at her. Redheart had been ready, and rolled frantically to the side. She had no idea how she'd beat the plant woman on her own, but if Sunset had her gun, she just had to last until then. But it seemed her enemy had come to the same conclusion. Rather than angle herself to try to collide with Redheart, she ran past, to the woods, where she ran directly into the trunk of a tree, vanishing into it as if it were a pool of water.

"Whoa," Sunset said, having just caught the unconventional exit. "Seems like we got off lucky," she gestured to Sonata, who was standing next to her, eyes wide.

"They wanted to make it look like an accident," Redheart gestured to the burning house. "They trapped me upstairs when they realized I was awake. I didn't think they knew I could glide."

"I didn't know that," Sonata said.

"I didn't really either," Redheart admitted. "But I did a bit in the barn, and it seemed like I'd better learn quick. I thought about trying to use the heat from the fire to get enough height to just glide away, but it seemed riskier than just fighting. Now that I saw what she turned into, I'm not so sure."

Sonata hugged her.

"Come on" Sunset said, the sound of sirens rising in the distance, "Sonata called 911 as soon as we saw the light. I brought a big hoodie, just in case. Didn't think to bring pants, sadly, but I think they'll understand."

The firefighters did indeed understand, and did an admirable job on the blaze. The house would need extensive repairs, or maybe even to be entirely rebuilt, of course, but Redheart didn't want to live in it until they'd figured out who attacked them regardless. And while the kitchen and her bedroom were a near-total loss, they'd saved most of the rest of the house, which contained her computer, photos, and other things that would be most difficult to replace. They got a hotel on their budget for the rest of the night, and Sunset left Rarity a text to come ASAP for a fashion emergency.

As a result, all three arrived at the office on time, tired (except Sunset), but determined to survey the situation - all thought it was likely that whoever attacked them would have tried to destroy their work at the office as well, though Sunset hadn't gotten any calls from the alarm company or police.

Instead, the situation they found there just confused them. In the parking lot, a length of chain was wrapped around one of the light poles, loose, as if it had been used to tie something to the post, but nothing was there but a scattering of strange, foul-smelling ash scattered around the base. In the lobby, there were clear signs of a struggle of some sort, but the entryway to the office was undisturbed, save a piece of paper stuck to the door. At first it looked like trash, and indeed was an obviously discarded, if unused, paper napkin. But it had been stuck to the door with several pieces of gum, and someone had written on it, crudely, in what looked like charcoal:

"I protect this place. Two more got away. Do not look for me."

"What the hell," Sunset sighed, "even our friends are problems. Who writes in charcoal on a napkin? And why do they think we wouldn't look for them? It's literally our job!"

"What does it mean, two more?" Sonata said.

"Yeah," Redheart nodded, "good point. I didn't see any. I guess they tried to tie someone up and they got away. Maybe some kind of disappearing powder, like Trixie's smoke but actually magical?"

"Maybe," Sunset said. "We need to examine that burr thing that lady tried to plant on me, probably should do the same with that dust. I'll go try to bag some."

"All right," Redheart sighed. "I'll try to figure out where we're going to live. Or at least where I am."

"Us too," Sunset said, "if we're going to be attacked, we should be somewhere safer."

It turned out there were a million things to do, which helped them stave off the full horror of being attacked in their homes, though Sunset was pretty sure they'd have to pay for it eventually. Redheart compiled a list of residential options for them to look over. Sunset got in touch with Twilight to come and show them how to use their new magic detecting gear, and look at the strange objects they had. Redheart went and got a new microscope, since the fire department wasn't done safely getting things out of her house yet. Sunset got in touch with a moving company to go and put her stuff in storage.

And then, the boss arrived.

As the junior partner, Sunset had never met Captain Shining Armor before. She knew he was in charge of Special Operations for the whole region, which encompassed not only Canterlot City and its metro region, but the entire state and four surrounding ones. He didn't even work or live in Canterlot, she thought. His name had seemed kind of familiar when she heard it, but she'd not been able to figure out why, so she'd pushed it out of her mind.

In fact, the whole office was so new, and it was seen as urgent enough to get started on it, that she'd gotten around to very little of the formal training in procedures and agency structures that new agents normally had. They weren't even sure which parts of the standard course should apply to her (and, privately, she thought they might not be comfortable with training her with normal humans at all), so while they figured it out, she was mostly content to let Redheart deal with their superiors and fellow agents.

So, when Redheart mentioned calling him as one of the many things she had to do, Sunset didn't think much of it. She continued not thinking much of it as she went on with the many important tasks that were allowing her to not think about the fact that she and Redheart, who until now had solved job-related problems with orgasms, had just been attacked in their homes. She also didn't think about the fact that both of them had agreed to work in the conference room, with all doors between them and Sonata open.

She continued not thinking about it until she heard Sonata say, "yes, sir, they're right in the conference room," from the entryway. Both women turned and rose as the Captain entered.

Shining Armor was a tall, solid man, surprisingly young. Sunset thought he wasn't more than ten years older than Redheart. His skin was as snowy as Redheart's, and his shock of dark blue hair had a light streak in it that resembled Twilight's. He wore his suit well, and Sunset noticed a wedding band on his hand.

"Captain Armor!" Redheart rose to her feet, and Sunset, upon realizing who this was, hurried to follow. "I hadn't expected you to come yourself, sir," Redheart finished.

"Agents Redheart, Shimmer," he nodded at both of them, "of course I did. We expected you might get into danger, but a concerted attack is more than I expected. Whoever did this is organized."

"Are you afraid we can't handle it, sir?" Redheart held his gaze.

"Of course," Captain Armor laughed. "You should be too. I'm worried I can't handle it every time I go in the field. But I trust you're the best we've got and doing the best you can. I'm not going to personally assume command, or anything." Sunset let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. "But you're both new agents, and this kind of thing rattles you, no matter how strong you think you are. I know first-hand. You need to take care of yourselves, first. Have you eaten anything today?"

Sunset and Redheart shared a guilty look.

"Thought not. Stress and fear keep you from realizing you're hungry. Come on. We're going out to lunch. My wife's along, and she's a great listener. She's an agency psychologist, in fact. I'm not saying you need sessions with her or anything, but you do need to relax, and you need to talk about it. I brought some of my people with me. They'll make sure this office is secure, and figure out how to keep you safe."

His tone was friendly, but Sunset got the distinct feeling argument wasn't a good idea. Besides, she realized she should be hungry.

"Oh," she said, "but Twilight's already on her way. When should I tell her we'll be back?"

A strange expression flickered on the Captain's face, then was gone before Sunset was even sure she'd seen it. "Twilight?"

"Twilight Sparkle, sir," Redheart said. There was a definite, if very brief, reaction. "She was in my report. She's doing some civilian contract work for us. She's one of Sunset's friends, in the portal group, and she makes technology that can detect magic."

"I'm a bit behind on reports," Captain Armor blushed slightly, "always so much paperwork, you know. But that sounds useful. Agent Shimmer, let her know my people will meet her here instead of you. She can explain how this technology can help them keep you secure, and we'll meet them here when we're done. Please assure her the agency will compensate her for the extra time."

"She'd jump at the chance to have a captive audience for her technobabble," Sunset grinned, "but I'm sure she'll appreciate it." She sent the text. They collected Sonata on their way out.

Sunset had expected that Captain Armor meant to take them to a restaurant, but instead he led them to a nearby hotel, where he and his wife had a room. She met them at the door, boxes of takeout Thai in hand. Sunset noticed and appreciated that it was all vegetarian. She also noticed the other woman was breathtakingly beautiful in an overwhelmingly pink way. It was like Pinkie Pie, except where Sunset sometimes suspected Pinkie was the work of a trickster god like Loki, this woman would be all Aphrodite.

"Ladies," Captain Armor said, "meet my lovely wife, who is far too good for me, Dr. Mi Am--"

"Oh be quiet you," her voice was rich, gentle, and warm. "He just does that to annoy me. Call me Cadance. My parents had far to much of a flair for the dramatic."

Sunset knew she didn't quite perfectly cover her own reaction, as she suddenly remembered where she'd heard Captain Armor's name before. She hoped Cadance would put it down to her recent trauma. Certainly the other woman didn't say anything, or even seem to notice.

"Nice to meet you," Redheart said. "You work for the department too?"

"Yes, as a counselor," she said, "but I'm not here in my official capacity, unless you'd like me to be. I'm just hear to listen to a couple of good people who have had a hard time of it. I am bound by confidentiality, and approved to hear whatever you need to tell me in the course of taking care of your metal health, so you can tell me whatever you think it'd be good to talk about."

Sunset felt calmer just hearing the gentle voice, and her stomach rumbled at the smell of the food. But she found herself second guessing it. Even as the knots of stress she hadn't know had been lurking in her began unraveling and she realized how much she wanted to talk about it, her memories raised a tiny flag. In Equestria she's an alicorn, she thought. Look what happened to Redheart when she slept with Luna and Celestia...

She tucked in to the food at first, using hunger as an excuse for her silence. Redheart and Sonata seemed similarly interested in it as a priority, and neither of the other two objected. As she ate, though, Sunset thought about her options, and realized she basically didn't have any. She could lie, of course, but now that she was aware of her own suppressed stress, she knew she did need to talk to someone, and trying to conceal it would just make it worse. Besides which, she had no way to signal her compatriots about her concerns, so they were likely to tell the whole story in any case.

And come to that, why shouldn't they? In Equestria, the alicorns were forces for good, even if her younger self hadn't realized that. And Celestia and Luna seemed to be here, too. There was something strange, no doubt - how did Captain Armor not know what was up with Twilight, who should be his sister? - but that didn't mean sinister. And he got Redheart's detailed reports, and was allowed and encouraged to talk about them with his wife. What could she possibly reveal that wasn't in those? Only her own feelings, which seemed least likely to do harm.

So, finally, she let herself relax, and they started talking.

Eventually, they covered it all. She'd planned to only talk about the changes since she'd started working for the FBI, but it seemed all linked, and eventually she'd relayed almost her whole story since coming to Earth, though admittedly in very abbreviated form. She couldn't remember exactly what Cadance said, though it was all supportive, and Captain Armor remained silent throughout, but at the end, she did feel a lot better.

As they were winding down, Captain Armor looked up from his phone.

"Good timing," he said, "looks like they finished up. Feeling better?"

Everyone said they were. Sunset touched Sonata's hand, and her empathic magic didn't detect any stress, not that it ever had. Even with her new magic, Sunset rarely understood how Sonata thought. But then, it was constantly hard for her to remember how long her lover had really been alive. On balance, she supposed it was surprising she could find common ground at all. She supposed if she made it thousands of years, she'd probably get pretty even-keeled herself.

In any case, Sunset was surprised to find how true her "yes" was. It didn't feel like magic; she still worried about the new powers she and Redheart had acquired, about their safety in the face of apparently organized opposition, about what they might find as they investigated. But the feeling of running away, of stress and fear lurking where her mind wouldn't look, like a shadowy form in deep water, was gone. She knew they faced trials, that they'd not be able to solve everything with a quick fuck and mysterious magic, even if it had a pretty good track record so far. But she'd always known that, and she'd faced trials before. Now she'd named the dark shape, and felt much better for it.

"Here," Cadance gave them each a card. They were simple and professional: Mi Amore Cadenza, Psy.D., followed by her contact info. "Give me a call whenever you like. The Special Operations division sees a lot of screwed up stuff, but you three stand out even so. I'm amazed how together you are after all this, and I know now it's because you're all old hands at it, even if most of you aren't old. But even so, sometimes it's easy to trip over from experienced to jaded to repressing without even noticing. I won't do you the disrespect of demanding anything, but I hope you'll let me help. If you want to set up a weekly or monthly phone meeting, or even an in-person one, think it over and give me a call."

"I will be!" Sonata said, to Sunset's surprise.

Cadance grinned. "I'll talk to you soon, then. But for now, it seems like your castle awaits."

Cadance's phrasing ended up prescient, in a way that didn't reassure Sunset that she wasn't more than she seemed.

"It turned out your building was pretty low occupancy anyway," Captain Armor told them on the drive back. "So we just bought it."

"That's way more space than we need, though," Redheart said.

"We're refurbishing some of it into apartments. You'll each get one."

"But I want to stay with Sunset," Sonata said.

"You can do whatever you like, of course," he said, "but just in case. Use it for storage if you want."

"That's still not the whole building, though," Redheart said.

"No," Captain Armor admitted. "But you're accumulating data, and even found a few items to analyze, right? So we're going to get some lab equipment in for you. And a few handy bits of gear. Various camo outfits, some basic surveillance equipment, things like that. I know none of you are specialists, but you never know when it could be handy. Annual budget requests are coming up too, and it's looking like you're going to be busier than we expected. I don't want to grow you too fast and mess things up, but I'll be putting in a request for more funding for you, which might include more staff - lab staff and so forth, if nothing else. Though I wouldn't be shocked if you found some more people who would be a good fit all on your own.

"So I think in the next few years we'll need a real facility if this keeps up. Besides, you've got at least one mystery right there, whoever left that note. And whatever happens with that, seems like that building is safer than others. It didn't say the protection was for you, but for the place. Might as well use it. Unless you object to living at your workplace, of course."

Redheart shrugged. "I lived close to the school when I worked there, in case of emergencies on a weekend event. I don't mind."

"Ponies usually live where they work," Sunset said.

"I've never had a job before," Sonata seemed to consider. "Or a home all to myself. So it's all good with me!"

Captain Armor shook his head. "You ladies sure stand out as special, even in Special Operations. But good. We'll put you up in the hotel for the next few days while we get the renovations done, I'll stick around with my people to make sure you stay safe. Then we'll let you have your space back. You've been doing well, you don't need the boss hovering over you. But do keep me up to date. We won't be using most of the building yet, but we'll put some cameras in for you, and make sure you have all the keys. Never know when you might find some giant magic statue you have to store or whatever."

They used the intervening time to get their briefing from Twilight, and do as much of the lab work as they could. While the construction transforming the nearby sections into new apartments for them was loud enough to be a bit distracting, it wasn't too much to let them work in their office.

Twilight ended up getting a good set of spending money, too - instead of installing her magic sensors just in the office and near the portal from Equestria, she ended up working with the construction crews to set them up all around the building. They even put them in the areas they intended not to use yet, figuring it was better security in any case, and that they'd rather do it all now, before Twilight left for school.

Twilight remained strangely guarded, and Sunset wondered if it were related to Captain Armor's strange reaction to her name - and apparent ignorance of the person that, based on everything Sunset knew about the link between the two worlds, was his sister. She'd mentioned it to Redheart and Sonata, but neither of them had any idea what it might mean, and Sunset herself couldn't come up with a good way to broach the topic. She promised herself she'd just ask straight-up before her friend left for college if it came to that, but she was hoping not to have to.

Their studies turned out inconclusive on both counts, though interesting on one. The dust was a dead end. It was magical, certainly, but only at a background level, and it faded even in the few hours between measurements. That seemed consistent with some kind of one-time magic, but of course it was consistent with other things, too.

What Sunset had been thinking of as a "burr", on the other hand, was significantly more interesting. Under the microscope, they could make out that the densely woven spines that made up the body of the object didn't surround a seed pod like in a burr, but rather some kind of organic crystal containing a mysterious liquid. Similarly, the spines weren't hooked, but rather hollow spines. Taken as a whole, they concluded it was an injection system. Had the woman managed to hit Sunset with it, it would have injected her with the contents of the crystal.

There, though, they hit a dead end. The contents were magical, and probably some kind of potion. It seemed reasonable to assume that it was the same thing that happened to Mac, and so would have turned her into a were-horse, though why anyone would want to do that was still unclear. And there seemed to be no way to be sure, short of actually injecting someone with it. Even Princess Twilight and Equestria-side Apple Bloom, both experienced alchemists, maintained that there was no good way to reverse engineer a potion. Even leaving aside the question of whether a potion made on Earth would follow the same principles as one made in Equestria. And while based on Mac's example they were reasonably confident Redheart could cure at least any man so afflicted, doing it to someone intentionally, even a volunteer, still seemed too much.

So they filed away the dust and the burr, and finished up their reports, both of the Sweet Apple Acres incidents, and of the attacks on their houses. They placed a large red pin in the woods near Sweet Apple Acres. They debated what to place for the attacks, and ultimately decided on nothing. Between the plant woman at Redheart's and the timing of the attacks, it seemed at least a safe working theory that the pin in the woods was at least related.

And then, they were done with work, and the work was done too, and Captain Armor and his people showed them around their new living spaces, and headed out with well wishes. Privately, Sunset breathed a sigh of relief. While he'd seemed as good a boss she could have hoped for, it was hard for her not to feel like a slacker. Intellectually she knew she was doing the work he wanted her to, but it was the same basic things she'd been doing recently outside of class time out of responsibility, or in the case of some of the sex, just for fun. And, she had to admit, she'd always been better with friends than with superiors. Something about having a boss still reminded her of her juvenile resentment of Celestia, in ways that made her feel both guilty and judged.

It was nearly the end of the day when they'd finished their tour, and they had no obvious work in any case. So Redheart promised to be right back, and hurried to her new home. She returned with a bottle of champagne.

"Come on," she said, "we need to welcome the place properly."

"We were gonna do that tonight, I didn't think you wanted in," Sonata said.

Redheart flushed. "Not that way. I'll show you. Come on."

She led the way to the emergency stairs, then up. Sunset had thought the third floor was the top, so was briefly confused, then realized she was taking them out to the roof.

It was, to be fair, a normal, flat roof. But the building's landscaping included plenty of trees, and they'd grown tall enough that their canopies filled most of the view, and the late summer air was warm with the anticipation of dusk, despite it being a few hours off, and playful breezes played over the large open roof. It was quiet, with no one else in the building and the trees and suburban location cutting off the sounds of downtown traffic. Sunset imagined she'd come up here more often, now she knew, to clear her head.

"Nice, isn't it?" Redheart spread her arms and wings, letting the breeze play over her and lift her restless tail. Sunset leaned back and closed her eyes and just took in the sensation, and agreed.

"Yeah," Sonata said. "Cool statue, too."

"Huh?" Redheart turned to follow her gaze. "Wow. That's a weird choice."

Sunset turned to look. On the edge of the roof behind them, seeming to survey the parking lot, though the trees and edge of the roof hid it well enough they'd never noticed it from the ground, was a statue of a monstrous humanoid, apparently life-sized. It looked something like Redheart, Sunset thought, in that it had wings, horns, and tail, but none of it looked all that human. The tail was thick and strong-looking, and the horns intimidating where Redheart's were, she thought, pretty cute. It squatted on the edge of the roof, but was large enough that were it depicted standing, Sunset thought it would be over seven feet tall. Intrigued, they walked over to examine it. Despite its fearsome appearance, it was posed peacefully, not lunging or in any kind of combat stance, and looked over the parking lot in a way Sunset thought looked contemplative or even loving.

"Huh," she said. "It is kind of weird. I like it, though. A monster statue for the Department of Monsters."

"We're not --" Redheart cut herself off, and self-consciously flexed her wings.

"We're the nice kind," Sonata said, then patted the statue. "But it seems like he is too."

Slowly Redheart smiled. "Yeah, you're right." She pulled out three champagne flutes, filled them, and handed one to each of them. "Cheers! To our own place. The Department of Monsters."

They clinked glasses and drank down. The bubbly made Sunset giggle, and feel a new beginning more strongly. She looked up at the statue. "I wonder what other surprises this place has in store."

"Good question," Redheart said. "I filed the floor plans away, along with a few notes from the previous owner. Let's check them out tomorrow."

Sunset nodded. They finished their champagne.

"Well," Redheart said, "I'm ready to cook my first dinner in my new place. Want me to make enough to share?"

"Don't worry," Sonata said, winking at her completely unnecessarily, "Sunny's gonna keep me full, and I've got plenty she can eat if she likes. You sure you don't want us to share?"

Redheart thought about it longer than Sunset expected, but that wasn't saying much.

"No thanks," she smiled at Sonata. "I know it's silly, and there's nothing wrong with how you sleep with all your friends for fun. But I'm...not there yet, if I ever will be. Even with what's happened recently. I'm happier being without the benefits for now. I hope you aren't hurt."

Sonata approached Redheart and opened her arms, offering the hug. Sunset was mildly impressed she hadn't hugged without considering it might be unwelcome. Redheart smiled, though, and accepted the hug.

"Don't be silly," Sunset said, "it's no problem."

Sonata nodded. "Yep, you're great anyway."

Redheart stepped back. "Thanks. Anyway, see you tomorrow then." She took Sunset's champagne flute back.

"Okay," Sonata said, and skipped back to take Sunset's hand. "'Night Redheart! C'mon Sunny, even if we wait until tomorrow to break my place in, there are like five rooms in yours. No time to waste!" She pulled Sunset behind her, waggling her ass in a way that was completely unnecessary, but that Sunset wasn't going to complain about.

After they left, Redheart lingered on the roof a moment, enjoying the breeze and the long light of the summer afternoon filtering through the trees. As she got ready to leave, she had a silly thought that somehow, after all that had happened, she couldn't help but indulge. She filled her flute again, and put it at the feet of the statue.

"There you go." She grinned and patted the statue's arm. "You're a member of the team now, you need a drink too." She blinked and shook her head as she walked back to the stairs. "Just one hug from Sonata and I'm already going off the rails. She must be contagious." She considered, and laughed, "I wonder how Sunset is even coherent, then."

On the roof, the shadows lengthened, and the champagne bubbled.

The next day, they started by checking all the magic sensor logs. Though they were programmed to send notifications to their cell phones in the case of detecting major magic, all of them were privately hoping they'd missed something that would give them a lead on their recent attackers other than returning to the woods.

Unfortunately, they were all devoid of any readings save their own. They thought about looking over the building plans, like they'd discussed, but Redheart couldn't escape the feeling that they were stalling. Their best lead on their attackers was the woman they'd met in the woods near Sweet Apple Acres, woods they'd nowhere near fully explored, even in the immediate area. While retreating to clean up and check out the burr had been sensible, it was hard for her to escape the conclusion that returning was probably the best shot they had.

"So," Sunset said, avoiding her gaze, "about the woods..."

"Yeah," Redheart sighed. "There's probably no avoiding going back. I wish we had some idea where to start."

"What about the computer pictures?" Sonata's voice echoed from the receptionist desk.

"Why do we even make her sit out there," Redheart muttered.

"In case someone actually comes in?"

Redheart sighed and nodded. "What do you mean, Sonata?"

"Like, when I want to figure out how to get to the taco place, and all the lines don't make sense, so I press the button that makes it show me the picture. I think it's the 'Earth' button. Never made much sense, it's Earth either way."

"Oh," Redheart thought it over a bit. "That's worth a try. If it's just a bunch of magical creatures wandering around in the woods, we won't find anything, but if they have a base of some sort, it might show up on satellite images. And we have access to better ones than Google Maps though the government database..."

"Wait, we do? It'll be so much easier to find the taco places around here!"

"You know you can just ask for walking directions, right? You don't have to use the map to figure it out," Sunset called back.

"Wait, really?"

Redheart barely stifled her giggle.

"Okay then, let's split up the map and look it over."

As it turned out, because the forest was a state park, the official trails, like the one they'd joined up with after leaving Sweet Apple Acres, were marked in their system, which was a tremendous help in locating the spot where they'd had their previous encounter. They figured it was unlikely any base was closer to the edge of the woods than they'd been, so they disregarded searching to the south. That left four other directions, and each took one to scan in. It wasn't massively scientific, but Redheart figured that if they didn't see anything that way, they could look into something more complicated.

It was slow, painstaking work. Even with the higher fidelity of the internal images, the canopy blended together, and if no marked trails were on the screen, it was difficult not to lose track; they had to constantly zoom in and out to keep themselves oriented. Compounding this was their lack of real idea what they were even looking for. Redheart had to force herself to focus on the near-indistinguishable treetops. And at least once on each scan she had to look again because some tree was just different enough she worried she was missing something. After all, it was unlikely that there would be some massive, highly visible abnormality. All in all it reminded her of her least favorite parts of school.

Then, what felt like an eternity in, she saw a wisp of cloud, just the size of a few treetops, on one of the images. She nearly passed over it, because it was so small, but paused. None of the other photos had visible clouds. And she didn't think that if one had caught a cloud, it would look that small. She called Sunset over.

"Does that look like smoke to you?"

Sunset considered. "Maybe. Zoom it out, are you near anything?"

Redheart zoomed out. The slight swell of one of the park's hillsides was on the eastern edge of the image, but nothing else disturbed the canopy.

"Hold up," Sunset pointed to the canopy near the smoke. "Look, something's weird. Look a this group of trees here," she gestured at a trio of light-colored crowns north of the smoke. "It looks identical to these three," she moved her hand west a few inches. Redheart saw it too. In fact...

"Yeah," she said, "you're right. The trees right near the smoke look identical to the section to the left. It's like someone used a clone brush. Wait, do you think someone doctored our internal images? Shit."

"Maybe," Sunset said, "but maybe not. Look, the light's a bit different on a few of the trees. If someone faked it, they went to the trouble of recoloring a few of the trees, but not of taking images of different individual ones and shuffling them around or anything like that. I think it's more likely it's a magical illusion. In Equestria, anyway, if you wanted to make an illusion, it was much easier to create and sustain if you just transposed an image than if you build up anything detailed. My guess is that someone did that."

"And we noticed because whatever's under there made a bit of smoke that drifted out from under the illusion."

"Exactly."

"Well," Redheart said, "I certainly prefer it to the idea that someone in the Bureau is fucking with our images. Let's hope that's it. Either way, we should check it out."

"If the illusion's still up, we'll be able to tell when we're there, too. It might be one-way, but the magic detector should find it even so."

Redheart took a deep breath. Even though she wanted to solve the mystery and track down the source of the attacks, this wasn't like their other missions. They were going into obviously hostile territory, unsure what they'd find. And just getting there was hours from civilization. They'd likely need to stay at least one night. She checked the weather. It was supposed to be clear for the next week.

She turned to Sunset. "You okay doing this? We could call Captain Armor for backup."

Sunset shook her head. "No, it should be us. But we should let him know where we're going and set a check-in schedule."

Redheart nodded. "Sunset, you'll text Sonata every six hours. I'll do the same to Captain Armor. Sonata, if you don't hear from Sunset on schedule, call him immediately." Sonata nodded, looking less cheerful than usual. Sunset gave her a squeeze.

"We'll use the new stuff," Redheart continued. "Camo, binoculars, camo hammocks. We'll go in along the hill to try for a good vantage point, if we can see through the illusion. The goal is to scout out what's there and determine the extent and nature of the threat. If it looks like it was a misunderstanding, we'll try to negotiate. If not...well, we'll play it by ear."

"Don't attack them," Sonata said, "please. You don't have to be alone. You have friends, and the Captain will send backup if you need it. I don't..." she paused, "if you fight, I want to be there."

Sunset hugged her. "We'll be careful. We don't know what we'll find, or what will find us, but I promise we'll get out and bring back help if we can." Redheart nodded.

Nothing else seemed to need staying. They gathered their supplies, loaded Prospero, and returned to Sweet Apple Acres.

A confused Applejack met them as they parked.

"Right odd y'all'd show up now," she said, "I was gonna come see you later this afternoon."

"Why?" Redheart took the lead.

"Well, we're right pleased you solved the case with the horses," she said, "but I don't reckon it's all solved. No more mares've been covered, but the ones that were disappeared last night."

"Disappeared?"

"Stolen, really. Someone let 'em all out last night and they ran off. We tracked 'em as far as we could, but we lost the trails when they went into that woods you checked out last time."

Redheart and Sunset shared a glance.

"We were just going to ask if you minded if we parked here for a while, maybe up to a week," Sunset said. "We think there's more going on in those woods, and your story seems to confirm it. We might find those mares, though I can't make any promises."

"Well of course," Applejack said, "plenty of room on the farm. But look, whoever took those mares, there must have been at least a few of 'em to spring them all in one night. You want me to come along?"

"It's a long way," Sunset said, "I don't want to take you away from the farm. It might take us two days just to hike out there. But we'll call you if we need anything. And call Sonata if anything seems odd, she knows where we're going and who to contact. And...thanks for offering." Sunset gave her a hug.

"All righty then," Applejack shook her head. "But take care of yourself out there, Sunset. Seems like this one's got you a bit shook up, and that gets me a bit shook up."

Sunset nodded. They got descriptions of the horses from Applejack, then unloaded their gear and were off.

They'd decided to avoid the path entirely, in case it was watched. They walked well beyond the path before leaving the fields and entering the woods, and followed the GPS to keep their way. As before, the woods outside the official park were clear and open, but now they felt exposed and vulnerable, and every minor sound made them freeze and look around before moving carefully on. Their green fatigues weren't unreasonably thick, but on the hot day they were making both women sweat. Redheart especially, who'd had to wear a second large jacket in order to fit her wings.

Fording the cool stream gave welcome relief from the heat, and again the canopy thickened and the vegetation deepened rapidly after they crossed it. Their path would take them well west of the grove they'd visited last time, but much as the dense undergrowth gave cover, it reminded them both uncomfortably of their last experience. Redheart dreaded seeing a grassy glade for what it would mean for their chances of detection, even as she couldn't help getting slightly wet remembering her experiences there. Thorns too plagued them. Unfamiliar as they were with the vegetation, they couldn't tell if a patch of undergrowth was ideal cover or a prickly trap until they were very close, and several times they misread the situation and had to wrest their way free of tendrils that had hooked to their clothes. Still, they dared not cut or break any branches if they could avoid it; they had no idea how well their foes patrolled the woods, and any sign could give them away.

Though they'd arrived at the farm not long after noon, progress off the trail was agonizingly slow. By the time the sun was sinking below the hills rising on both sides of them, they were still several miles from the base of the one they wanted to climb, and Redheart decided they should stop for the night. She was confident that if they got up at dawn - and outside with no tents, it seemed impossible to avoid, even had they wanted to - they could make the rest of the trip before noon the next day.

The hammocks were made to be stretched between trees, to stay clear of the forest floor and the attendant dangers. Neither woman was an expert climber, so they didn't hang them as high as they could have, but they were still a good ten feet from the forest floor, in the denser part of the canopy. They hoped the foliage and height would prevent them from being easily seen should a patrol happen on them, though their major hope was still that they were far enough away to avoid any, or that the obviously supernatural plant women would trust in their isolation, rather than risk being seen by wandering far from their homes. Before they retired, they texted Sonata and Captain Armor with the details of their camp site.

Neither slept well. Between going to bed early and the myriad of mysterious sounds of a forest at night, they were forever waking up. Redheart spent several tense, wakeful hours huddling silently, as still as possible, inside her hammock as some creature snuffled below her. It sounded large, but then, in the pitch black of the forest, inhabited by your enemies, any unknown creature would sound large. Eventually it departed, and even more eventually, she fell back to her fitful sleep. When morning found her, bleary-eyed but alert with adrenaline, there was no sign of the animal, though Sunset said she'd heard strange things as well.

They continued on, and soon the land began rising beneath them. Though the slope started so gradual that their eyes barely registered it, their legs, already tired after their day of walking, certainly noticed. Before long it was steep enough to see, and while their pace slowed, they were glad at the obvious progress. Finally they reached the first promising area they'd noted on their map. As the photo had suggested, there was a clearing here, and it looked like it might be close enough to give a view of the mysteriously covered area.

Unfortunately, even once they'd moved cautiously into the clearing, nothing was visible over the canopy or through the dense trees, and they moved on to the next likely spot, which was both higher up and a bit closer. Redheart thought this one was a loss too, until Sunset pulled her sleeve silently and pointed into the trees.

At first Redheart didn't see it, then she did, and had to hold in a gasp. Through a narrow gap in the trees, she saw a trunk that just...stopped. It looked like a totally normal tree, but what had to be at least thirty feet above the ground, it simply ceased to exist. She couldn't see what was beyond it, but it seemed they'd found their illusion.

Sunset pulled her sleeve again, and gestured to the hammock rolled on her back. At first Redheart was confused, but then she nodded. If the forest wouldn't provide a good vantage point, maybe they could make their own. They retreated back into the woods, and climbed to the highest point they could find on the ridge that still featured a dense canopy. Redheart climbed as high as she dared and suspended the hammock before signaling Sunset up to sit beside her. They looked down and could indeed see under the illusion through the trees, though at this distance it was hard to make anything out. Redheart pulled out the binoculars and leaned around to get as clear a line of sight as possible.

The zoom on the binoculars let her see only a bit of the clearing at once, and she'd probably have to shift around several times in the hammock to get views of all of it. The first thing she saw was a horse, grazing in a pasture. It fit the description of one of the escaped mares, and as she panned the binoculars, she saw several more fitting the descriptions of others. Then a fence came into view, and it was already obvious this wasn't a normal pasture. Each "post" of the fence was a small but stout tree, with thick branches regularly spaced and tied to the branches of the next tree in line with some kind of vine, forming the planks of the fence. She panned further, and saw a track running down the side of the pasture. She saw another horse walking along it, and was briefly confused by why it was outside the fence. Then it turned to walk towards her, and she nearly dropped the binoculars and had to cover her mouth to avoid letting out a gasp or scream. Where a horse would have had the long face and large dark eyes, this creature had a grotesquely human-like face beneath its thin fur, and large green eyes, identical to a human's save for size. While it had a four-legged gait like a horse, she noticed that instead of forehooves it had primitive hands. It wore nothing, and was undeniably male, but it's large member was not flared like a horse's, but instead much more human in shape. Wordlessly she handed the binoculars to Sunset.

"What the fuck," Sunset whispered.

Redheart nodded.

"Wait," Sunset said. "When Mac got turned into the were-stallion, he bred all those mares. But he didn't turn into a horse, he still looked kind of like a human..."

Redheart felt her stomach twist. "You think they were using him to breed those things? But what are they doing with them?"

"Maybe we can figure that out."

It took most of the day, and they had to move several times, but they got a good idea of the layout of the farm. Three buildings were clustered at the middle of the farm. Two looked like barns, the third some kind of granary - there was no sign of a farmhouse. All were constructed out of apparently living wood woven together with vines, like the fence, with walls made of thick mats of vines. On one side was the pasture field, on the other some kind of field of plants. The strange almost-horses seemed to be beasts of burden in that field. They dragged large carts full of some kind of mud or fertilizer, spreading it across the field before vanishing between the buildings with empty wagons. Redheart couldn't help but notice that they were all stallions, and when one entered the field, it was flaccid, but when it returned with the empty cart, its impressive member was invariably full mast.

Clearly something important was happening in the space between the buildings.

Finally, as the sun was getting low, they found the perfect vantage point to see the heart of the operation. It was even stranger than Redheart had expected.

The first thing Redheart saw, dominating the scene, was a long horizontal bar. Hitched to it were a dozen of the horse-like creatures, but these were just as undeniably mares. Ponderous breasts hung from their chests, where a human's would be, rather than where a horse's would. Six faced towards their hiding spot, six away. Their tails were pulled aside and their rears thrust up, clearly presenting, and their bellies were swollen as if pregnant, but thick streams of cum dripped from their wide pussies. As Redheart watched, one of the stallions returned with an empty wagon from working the field. One of the plant women, similar to the ones they'd seen before, unhitched the wagon and led the stallion to the bar, where he mounted a mare and began enthusiastically coupling with her. They showed no sign of human-like intelligence, rutting like horses. Before long he shuddered and his balls twitched, and cum spurted out on both sides of his cock, with a large rope dripping out as he withdrew. Redheart noticed there were large wooden bowls set beneath the mares, collecting whatever cum dripped out. After the stallion trotted off to a food trough, another plant woman picked up the bowl and dumped the thick liquid into a vat that another stirred. Not long after, they upended the vat into one of the waiting wagons, sending it out with another stallion.

"They're using the cum on the fields," Redheart whispered. Sunset, who had her own binoculars, nodded.

"I wonder what they're growing," Sunset breathed.

"It's almost dark," Redheart whispered, "maybe they'll leave and we can look around."

Indeed, the stallion they'd seen sent out looked to be the last of the day. The plant women started rounding up the others and herding them into the barn. The final stallion returned. Redheart wondered if he knew this was his last chance of the day - after frantically mating with one of the mares, he emerged still rock-hard, and mounted the next in the line immediately. She too seemed more spirited, bucking back at him enthusiastically as they mated. Once he was done, though, he shrunk down, and followed a plant woman docilely into the barn.

Once all the stallions were contained, they took the mares into the other barn, including the stolen, actual mares, and emptied the cum bowls into more vats, which they stored in the granary. Finally, as the sun was setting, they vanished into the trees.

Sunset and Redheart updated Sonata and the Captain on their new location, then had a brief conference in hushed voices. Though it looked like the farm was now deserted, they decided to watch it overnight to make sure there were no patrols or, if there were, that they knew the pattern. Then they could observe the farm for a whole day, and make sure they knew the routines when they tried to investigate tomorrow night.

In theory they took turns staying up and watching through the binoculars, though in fact neither slept much even when it wasn't their watch. There were no strange noises from below - perhaps other animals knew to avoid this part of the forest - but both were on edge, fearing the plant women would return to the farm or, even worse, had become aware of them and would spring a trap.

But the night passed uneventfully. Dawn broke over the hill behind them, and as the first rays hit the farm, they heard a chorus of neighing. Six of the plant women appeared out of the trees. They brought the actual horses out first, setting them to graze in the pasture, the the strange horse-like mares. Redheart noticed to her shock that they weren't, in fact, pregnant. Their bellies must have simply been overflowing with cum, because they emerged without any sign of the swelling from last night. Indeed, the plant women brought out more large wooden bowls, brimming with cum, that must have collected it overnight as it spilled out of the overflowing mares. They brought the vats out of the granary, and two began stirring it in.

The other four went to the other barn and began bringing out the stallions, two at a time. At first Redheart wasn't sure why only half of them were leading one of their beasts, but then she realized how much the stallions must be controlled by sexual conditioning. Far from the tame creatures they'd seemed being led into the barn the previous night, they came out of the barn rock-hard and willful, thrashing their heads and weird limbs in a struggle to escape. The first plant woman handled hers well, but the second seemed taken by surprise by the fury, and lost her grip. The stallion moved like a flash, and she'd been knocked to the ground and the tip of his member was almost inside her in the few moments it took the two backup women to grab the thrashing rope and pull him off.

Weirdly, Sunset realized, while the stallions were very vocal about their desires, the plant women were completely silent. Even the one nearly penetrated by the rampaging stallion remained silent despite her obvious panic followed by equally obvious relief.

The women led the two stallions to the post where the mares waited, presenting again. They let go the ropes, and with sight and presumably scent of the mares, the stallions didn't seem at all interested in the plant women. They enthusiastically mounted the mares, inseminating three or four each before falling, flaccid, to trot to the wagons.

So it went throughout the day. The plant women released the stallions two at a time until all twelve were in the rotation, and the mares were nearly continuously in use as the shifts rotated. Before long their bellies were again swollen with seed, with the massive overflow dripping into the pans for collection. It was all disturbingly industrial. The plant women showed no sign at all of reaction to the continual orgy surrounding them.

Still, at the end of the day, it seemed all the plant women departed, and Sunset and Redheart held another hushed conference.

"We should go tonight," Redheart said, "we don't want to wait any longer and risk discovery. We should be ready to leave as soon as we're done there, daylight be damned."

Sunset nodded. "What's our goal, though?"

Redheart thought.

"First, figure out anything we might have missed. What those plants are, primarily, they're clearly important. Second, free the horses if possible, the real ones. Can you ride?"

"I've done it a few times," Sunset said hesitantly.

"It might help us escape if we can, but we'll see what we can do. Just letting them go might be fine, they might go back to their stables. Anything else we'll figure out as we go. If it makes sense to try to destroy the plants or the farm we will, but I'd rather escape than do damage. Especially if it looks like they're just growing food or something. This place is creepy and they attacked us, but I don't want to try to outright kill them until we've at least tried to communicate."

Sunset nodded. "Sounds good."

They slipped down into the quiet farm. Having the illusion overhead was disconcerting. The half-trees looked like strange stalactites, but due to some quirk of the magic, maybe related to the needs of the crop, they didn't block sun or moonlight, leaving the farm uncannily brightly lit despite the apparent canopy overhead.

The whole place was quiet. Occasionally a horse noise filled the air, but no other sounds could be heard, in contrast with their night in the open forest. They crept into the field, on edge the whole way despite the silent stillness of the farm.

Finally they came to the first of the plants. It was large, larger than they'd expected, and Redheart realized the horse-creatures were also larger than she'd thought, and shuddered. Though it hadn't occurred to her before, if the stallions were somehow to get out, they'd likely view Redheart and Sunset much as they had the plant woman earlier...

This unfortunate train of thought was cut off as Sunset gasped at the plant in front of them, and Redheart turned to look. The bulk of the plant was a giant pod, like a pea pod, taller than Redheart or Sunset. It had a thick, opaque skin that made her think it was just a giant pea, but as she looked closer, she realized a distinctly humanoid shape was suggested by the bulges in it. Sunset was looking at the other side of it, eyes wide, and slowly, a bit fearful of what she might see, Redheart turned to look. The far side of the pod was translucent, and inside, suspended in some kind of green fluid, was one of the plant women, looking to be nearly full grown.

"They're growing themselves?" Redheart whispered.

"Maybe that's why she was so surprised when she got fertile," Sunset murmured, though Redheart didn't understand what she meant. Still, now wasn't the time.

"Well, I don't want to destroy the field now," Redheart said. "Even if these are the ones that attacked us. Come on, let's go free the horses."

They hurried off towards the barn, but as they turned the corner towards the side with the door, they nearly collided with a plant woman coming the other way. She fell back, green eyes wide. Redheart's hand went for her gun, but Sunset's stopped her.

As she took a quick and confused look, she saw this one looked different. Whereas the others had smooth brown skin unbroken by anything like pubic hair, this one's crotch was adorned by a riotous tangle of pink blossoms. Her belly was also slightly swollen. Her eyes met Sunset's, and she leaned forward and gave Redheart's partner a quick but passionate kiss on the lips. Then she pulled back and raised a finger to her lips. She pointed to a large hay pile next to the stable door, and Sunset dragged on Redheart's hand before jumping into it to take cover. Redheart followed.

From their hopeful concealment, they watched the strange plant woman walk towards the trees, where two of her unadorned cohort emerged. They each raised their left hands, and touched them together for a long moment. Then the two newcomers nodded, and all three disappeared again into the trees.

Redheart held her breath for a long time. Then, when it seemed they were truly gone, she let it out. "What was that?" She whispered to Sunset.

"I think she was the one I met last time," Sunset whispered back. "I uh, kinda knocked her up. I guess she appreciated it."

"I guess that's one way to keep yourself employed," Redheart whispered, "we'll never run out of weird creatures to catalog if you make a new hybrid with every one we meet."

Sunset punched her.

They freed the horses.

Since the actual horses were in the same barn as the creepy mares, they had to free them all, but while the full horses were happy to trot out of the barn into the moonlight, the others showed no sign of moving unless led. As they had no way to keep them hidden, and they seemed neither intelligent nor unhappy, they decided to just leave them.

Most of the horses broke for the woods, and Redheart hoped they'd make their way back to their proper owners. But one, who seemed like a riding horse, stuck around. Redheart approached cautiously, but she seemed well-tempered and willing to take riders. She'd been an avid rider as a kid and teenager, and was pretty sure she could still handle a bareback ride on a good horse like this one. And she was even more sure she didn't want to spend any longer in this wood than necessary.

"Okay," Redheart said, "she'll take us back, but it'll be easier if you ride behind me. Keep your hands around my waist."

Sunset looked nervous, but nodded. Redheart clambered on to the horse, then gave Sunset a hand up, and they rode off into the woods.

They emerged early the next day. The aid of the horse, plus their ability to take the more direct route since they didn't want to get on to the hill to observe the farm, got them out far faster, to Redheart's relief. Several of the other horses also followed them, either following a herd instinct, or just recognizing humans as something to follow. Still, while she was confident that returning the horses was the right thing to do, she was aware that they'd really only added more questions, and given the plant women more reason to attack them. Unless their one apparent ally was intending to do more, of course.

"Why did she help us?" She asked Sunset.

"No idea," Sunset said. "I didn't mean to be hiding that I'd knocked her up, I thought I put all the relevant info in my report. I just remembered we'd agreed not to make them uh, steamy. Knowing the potion's magic had made her fertile was all that let me get her off, but I just sorta subsumed it in the 'race to orgasm' thing. I wonder, though."

She lapsed into thought, so Redheart prompted her. "Wonder what?"

"Well," Sunset said, "it's just a thought, but it's possible they have to get fertilized to make those pods, I guess. But we've never seen a male one, and they were working cum from their weird horse hybrids into the stuff they put on them which, sure, it's probably high in nutrients, but there are way easier ways to get good fertilizer if you don't care about it being semen. And when she started seducing me, it was obviously just to get me off guard so she could tag me with the burr. She only started enjoying it when we realized she'd become fertile, and she seemed surprised. I didn't think much of it at the time since, well, turned fertile by a magic potion, who wouldn't be surprised, right? But maybe they just flat out don't normally reproduce like this. If I'd given her some idea of how she could avoid that whole pod rigamarole..."

Redheart nodded. "It's a stretch in some ways, though. Like, if that's really how they have to reproduce, how in the world did that happen? It's really convoluted. And why would they even have reproductive organs such that you could fertilize one, even with magic, if they never used them? You couldn't knock up a man, right?"

Sunset shook her head. "Not without more powerful magic."

"Right," Redheart said. "So if your theory's right, why do they have gender at all?"

"I dunno," Sunset said. "I said it was just a thought. But I gave her my card."

"What?"

"When she kissed me, I gave her my business card. Maybe she'll come tell us, if she can read."

"Are you sure that was smart?"

"Are you saying I shouldn't have?"

"No, no," Redheart sighed. The stress of the last few days was clearly weighing on them. "Sorry. I trust you. And you're right, she let us go, and if they did attack us, they know where we live anyway. I'm just tired."

"Yeah. It's okay."

They walked the rest of the way in silence.

They returned the horses who had followed them to their owners. Redheart knew they'd have to deal with the fact that in eleven-odd months they'd have a crop of fucked up foals, but that was a problem for tomorrow's Redheart. They texted their updates, drove back, slowly, due to the fatigue, and then took the rest of the day off.

Sunset hadn't expected to see Redheart again that day. She hadn't been tired, really; she'd barely slept less than usual. But the stress of sneaking around for several days was something she'd not noticed until it was gone. And she'd missed Sonata more than she'd expected. When her girlfriend replied to her "safe and on the way home" text with a host of heart emoji, she'd been shockingly happy.

So they'd spent the whole day together. Having some sex, of course, since it was them, but mostly just holding each other. it had been a balm for the stress she'd not realized she'd carried. And they'd napped as well; Sonata had barely slept more than they had with worry. Sunset slept clear through the nap herself, and conceded she might have been more tired than she thought.

So when Redheart came to their door that evening after dinner (they'd ordered Mexican), Sunset was refreshed, and glad to see her, despite her earlier irritation.

"Can I come in?"

Sunset raised an eyebrow at her. "Of course."

"Sorry," Redheart said, "I'm a bit nervous. I...I need to tell you something."

Sunset ushered her in. Sonata emerged, half-dressed, from their room.

"Should I go to my place?"

"Not unless you want to," Redheart said. Sonata sat.

"I...realized I wasn't telling you everything, either," Redheart said. "Not even Cadance. I think...maybe I'm not using my power to the fullest."

Taking a deep breath, she explained the feeling she'd had when the vines had filled her with sperm - the feeling of barely-contained power, of something that wanted to be channeled.

"And when I got rid of Mac's curse," she finished. "it wasn't that it just vanished. I felt like there was a different power in his sperm, and they cancelled out. And when those vines gave me their sperm, the same thing. I felt like I could have transformed, or created some vines like them. That time, I struggled not to, and ended up just growing a bunch of random plants, but it still did something." She hung her head. "I'm sorry, I should have told you."

Sunset was confused, and didn't bother to hid it on her face.

"Why? I can see why that's scary, and anyway, it doesn't seem very useful to know. I mean, it is if you happen to have sex with something and want to turn into a horse or grow some plants or something, I guess."

Redheart threw up her hands. "You're an endless source of cum whenever we want it! Because of my stupid...issues, I've been denying the team a valuable tool!"

Sunset sighed.

"I know it seems like sex and magic are all tangled up here," she said finally, "and I don't know why. But even though I like having sex with my friends, I don't think it works if it's about...utility. It'd be hard for me to even get off, knowing you don't want to be having sex with me, that you're doing it out of some obligation to the team. And you said just last night you weren't ready. It wouldn't be right."

Redheart looked away.

"I wasn't...it's not like that." She paused for a long time. Sonata reached a hand out and put it near Redheart's. The other woman squeezed it and managed a smile.

"I think I told you I hadn't had much sex before this summer," she said slowly, "just a few college boyfriends." Sunset nodded. "Well, really it was just two. And it...didn't work. I mean the sex did, I kind of liked the sex. But the relationships. They were fine guys, good guys even. I liked them just fine. And they were attractive. Like I said, the sex worked, mostly. But I dunno, there wasn't a spark, really. I dated them because it seemed like something I should do in college, and because they asked me. But I never thought about whether I cared about them all that much, let alone loved them."

"So now you want the same thing with me? Because it's useful?"

Redheart shook her head and reached out her hand. Sunset took it, and felt Redheart's feelings surge through her.

"Oh. Oh."

"Yeah," Redheart said. "That's the problem. I like you. Both of you. Not love like I'd heard it from the stories, or whatever, not the whole murder-rival-in-a-jealous-rage, or the whole will-pine-away-without-you. But you're my friends. And right now, if I spent the rest of my life doing this job with you, well, it'd be a good life. I haven't had a lot of friends at all, let alone friends like that. And I know it's ridiculous, but thinking about having sex with you, or you Sonata, or both of you, and how it'd feel, made me feel all guilty about my exes again. And I was already feeling guilty about not using this power. So I was kind of hoping the guilt would...cancel out."

Sunset laughed, and squeezed her hand.

"Well, I don't feel like guilt sex is going to be all that enjoyable, even if it's a mix of guilt. I hope talking to me got rid of the guilt, instead. For what it's worth, though, I don't think it's any more ridiculous than, say, fleeing your homeworld and trying to take over a high school in a fit of pique."

Redheart smiled. "I do feel better." She paused. "Does that mean you're going to have sex with me?"

"Not tonight," Sunset said. "I'm glad you told me all that. I think you're a great friend, too. And I hope we keep doing this forever. But you're raw now. We're still tired. Think it over. You said having sex with me or us would mean a lot to you, so make sure it means the right things. I'm not going anywhere. If you still want it tomorrow night, come back. If you want it in a week, come back. If you never want it, come back and watch a movie." They shared a long hug.

"You're right," Redheart said, "I'm going to go get some sleep. Thanks, Sunset."

As she turned to go, Sonata spoke up.

"Don't come back and say yes if you still think you need to do it for the team, silly," she said. "That's no way to enjoy sex with someone you care about for the first time. Trust me, I know." She kissed Sunset's cheek, and Sunset blushed. "Besides, how would that even work if you were really in trouble? You're hiding in a gunfight. Backed into a corner. Only one hope. Sunset chugs a potion and takes off her pants and...what? She just slots you on and points you at the enemy? Pump-action Redheart cannon?" Redheart and Sunset were both laughing now. "Two hands," she gestured obscenely, "every stroke she cums in you and you like, barf out a rainbow at them? Then she puts you down with a spiffy one-liner?"

"I should never have introduced you to action movies," Sunset choked out through the laughter.

"Ooh, good call," Sonata grinned, "hey Redheart, want to stay and watch Die Hard?"

As it turned out, she found she did.

The next day was Saturday, and Sonata and Sunset spent it in as well. They had plenty of groceries, and were marathoning some of Sonata's favorite action movies.

After dinner, they heard a knock again. Sunset knew Redheart might be coming by on business, or to watch a movie, or just to say hi. But she did hope she'd decided she did want to join them in the bedroom, after all. Since hearing the possibility, she'd been letting herself realize more and more just how hot her partner was.

Before Redheart even said anything, it seemed clear her hopes were going to be fulfilled. Redheart was wearing basically nothing - a diaphanous nightgown that concealed nothing, a black strapless bra, and a pair of black panties. Sonata whistled from further in the apartment.

"Before I went to bed last night," Redheart said, "I got myself off thinking of you. Then when I went to bed, I realized how silly it was to be falling asleep alone when I could still be cuddled up to my friends. Then when I woke up, I also thought that, but also thought that I still really wanted to have sex with you. Then all day, I kept thinking that. So I've been thinking it for basically twenty-four hours, which I think is enough. Can I come in?"

Sunset gestured her in, biting her lip.

"Sorry," Redheart said, "was that too strong? I should have just come up and asked dressed normally, right?"

Sunset shook her head. "I was thinking basically the same thing all day," she said. "It's fine."

Redheart let out a sigh. "Oh good. I spent forever thinking about how to come up."

Sunset hugged her. "We're your friends. That means you don't have to worry about that sort of thing. If you mess up, I'll tell you, and you can fix it."

Redheart shook her head. "I'm sorry. I'm so new at this. You're way ahead of me."

"It's not a race," Sonata said from the couch. "And if it is, I'm so far ahead."

Redheart laughed. "You're right. Look, I'm incredibly horny and have been all day. Can you just throw me on the bed and ravish me already?"

Sunset's cock was already filling out her casual lounging pants, and her cheeks were flushed with arousal. Before she could gather herself and reply, though, Sonata bounced to Redheart's side and whispered something in her ear. Redheart blushed, but nodded.

"Okay! Look Sunny," Sonata took Redheart's hand and led her to the bed. Her panties and nightgown hid nothing. Her cute tail twitched as always, and her ass, which Sunset had courteously avoided looking at much before, was tight and pert, muscular but still with a slight curve. The tail seemed to gesture towards it as if it were on display.

"I'm gonna unwrap her for you," Sonata said.

She reached around in front of Redheart where Sunset couldn't see well, then pulled off the now-open nightgown. Redheart's wing sprung free and snapped out. The sheer fabric slid down over Redheart's flesh in a way that made the now-exposed woman shiver, and would have made Sunset jealous if she hadn't known she was about to have the same opportunity.

Sonata turned her partner around to face Sunset. Redheart was flushing furiously, but her eyes met Sunset's and she grinned. Sonata unhooked Redheart's bra and let it fall to the ground. Her alabaster breasts were smaller than Rarity's but her stiff nipples slightly larger. She had a pink dimple, like her hair, on her left breast. It was adorable.

Sonata touched Redheart far more than necessary as she moved her hands down across the other woman's belly towards her black panties. Redheart shivered again, but her eyes remained locked on Sunset's. She licked her lips. Sonata's hands reached the band of Redheart's panties, and Sunset's eyes were drawn down. Slowly Sonata lowered the panties. The top of Redheart's pink pubic hair peeked out, well-trimmed. Finally Sonata let them drop. Before they even hit the floor, Sunset was in front of her, kissing her. Redheart's eyes widened, then she closed them and kissed back. Her affection and arousal washed over Sunset. As their tongues danced, Sunset ran her hands over Redheart's back and wings, shivering at the opportunity to touch her friend's unusual anatomy in an intimate circumstance, and at the reflected feeling of pleasure as she did so.

"Hey now," Sonata reached in and pushed her back. "I'm the M.C. here!"

Sunset sighed, but ruined it with a grin. She stepped back. Sonata pressed her back a few more steps. "I need to unwrap you for her, too!"

Sonata repeated the same process with Sunset, beginning with her top and bra. Redheart's hungry eyes followed Sonata's hands then snapped to Sunset's hard nipples as her full breasts tumbled free. Watching her obvious excitement made Sunset even hotter. Then Sonata pulled down her pants. She never bothered with underwear while lounging, so her cock sprang free; she'd turned it from pony to human in anticipation, and Redheart's jaw slackened.

"I want that inside me," she breathed.

Sonata spun Redheart around to face the bed, placing herself on it in front of her. The siren scooted her butt back, keeping a hold on Redheart's shoulders as she did so, pulling their friend down with her until she was bent over the bed, legs slightly spread. Her pert rear parted slightly in the way Sunset loved, her flicking tail only enhancing the appeal. Her pussy, pink as her hair, was spread and glistened with moisture.

Sonata pulled one of the sterile potions off the bedside table and balanced it in Redheart's back.

"Well come on," she said, "you heard her," and she began kissing Redheart.

That was enough for Sunset. She chugged the potion and took her cock in one hand and stepped forward, ready to guide it into Redheart's pussy. Before she could, though, her partner's tail snapped up and brushed insistently at her hand. She removed it, and the tail wrapped around the base of her cock. It was a delicious sensation, and it seemed intent on guiding her in as well.

She pressed forward, taking the implicit offer. Sure enough, the tip of her cock lined up perfectly with Redheart's inviting pussy. She pressed it in and paused, relishing the pleasure she felt washing over her from her new lover. Redheart broke her kiss with Sonata.

"Don't tease me," she panted, "I've been doing that to myself all day." The tail pulled insistently for emphasis.

Sunset relented, and hilted herself in one long thrust. She'd been doing the same, and wasn't upset at the request. At the last moment, the tail pulled away, allowing her to sink fully into Redheart, who moaned and shuddered, and fell limp to the bed. Sonata giggled and leaned back against the headboard, spreading her legs to reveal her own naked pussy, which she began to slowly stroke.

Sunset looked from Redheart's tight ass, heaving in pleasure, to Sonata stroking herself. She felt the surge of emotion from her prone lover, keener and sweeter because this was, in some sense, her first time: emotional sex with someone you cared about, after all, was barely the same beast as the purely physical act. Sunset knew she wouldn't last long, but she knew Redheart wouldn't either. And she'd be glad to take another potion if the situation seemed to warrant it. So she began fucking in earnest.

Below her, Redheart squeaked and bounced with every thrust, a wave of pleasure and joy washing out of her every time Sunset's full balls impacted her wet lips. Sonata was stroking hard now, and Sunset felt the wave of surprised additional arousal as Redheart noticed and drunk in the sight. Her partner was incredibly tight and warm around her. Then, as she was finding her rhythm and felt she was confident she could go until Redheart's growing pleasure broke, the tail slid up between her legs. It stroked twice across her neglected but dripping pussy from base to clit, then slid, just the heart-shaped tip, inside.

"Oh shiiiit," was all Sunset could manage as the unexpected sensation broke her, and her balls clenched and started unloading in Redheart, pump after long pump of warm seed.

Redheart groaned, then Sunset felt an emotion she couldn't identify.

"Sonata," Redheart groaned, "can I...vines..."

Sonata grinned. "Oh! Yes please!" She leaned back and spread her legs wide. Redheart stretched out her arms and wings again, and then, conjured from midair on all sides of Sonata, a host of green vines with phallic tips sprang into existence. They lifted the delighted Sonata from the bed and wrapped all around her, stripping her clothing and binding her tight as they pulled her into the air. Sonata squealed and squirmed, but no one could mistake it for an attempt to escape. The vines bent her over, spreading her ass and pussy towards the coupling Sunset and Redheart, before plunging into her ass, pussy, and mouth and beginning to fuck her enthusiastically.

The show seemed to be too much for Redheart. Sunset felt her orgasm break, and it only fed her own, pumping ball-emptying amounts of seed into her spasming lover. But even as her own orgasm faded, Redheart's didn't, and Sonata's was only beginning. So even as her magic cock vanished, it reappeared again, the waves of pleasure filling the room too much to let her come down.

"Potion," she gasped, feeling it come back, but Redheart either didn't hear her or ignored her, and Sonata was unable to move, bound as she was by the vines that were plunging in and out of her every oriface. Not wanting to impregnate her partner (well, except that little bit of her that found it unbelievably hot), she tried to pull out, but more vines sprang from nowhere, holding her in.

"Redheart, this one's fertile," she said, louder.

"It doesn't matter," Redheart moaned back. Sunset was confident it had already been the thirty seconds or so the magic would have taken to bring her partner to full fertility.

But, of course, that knowledge was a double-edged sword, and she didn't seem to be able to move anyway. So instead, she started pumping her sperm into Redheart's willing body again.

Despite the rate at which her partner was burning it, this load was massive. Slower than usual, but inevitably, Redheart's belly swelled, brimming with Sunset's fertile seed. Then, even as Sunset kept pumping it in, shivering and shuddering in orgasm, it began to recede. The tiny part of her not consumed in her mating frenzy was confused, until she saw the vines inside Sonata pulsing, and saw Sonata's own belly swell with seed as she quaked in orgasm in her impromptu bondage.

It was all far, far too much for poor Sunset. She unloaded everything, nearly passing out in the waves of pleasure: hers, Redheart's, and somehow Sonata's, which she could feel even without contact, rushing through the air. Finally she felt herself coming down, felt Redheart doing the same, and then, with a mighty clap of light that ruffled the sheets on the bed and knocked several books off the bookshelf, the tentacles vanished, leaving Sonata, too, to fall to the bed.

She giggled, and they all lay stunned for quite some time.

Finally, Sonata stirred.

"See," she said, "I knew Sunny wouldn't be able to manage a one-liner after something like that."

Author's Note

Whew! Welcome to the first plot chapter, folks. I know it's a long one - hopefully it's worth it.

Like the X-Files, Deep Space 9, or the like, I expect these plot chapters to be interwoven with the more standard monster/lover-of-the-week fare, so if that's more your style, don't worry, we'll still have plenty of that.