"We all know what is at stake. But we need to make a decision." Dustin looked across Kiera's bridge at Belay. She turned and smiled to Kiera's column. "All of us. If we do decide to come back, we need a ride."

"Oh, sure, I am just a spaceship to you now. Is that it?" Kiera had dealt with "softshells" long enough that she knew how to inject sarcastic tones into her words. "Well, you both have pieces of paper. What am I supposed to write on?"

"You can be the tiebreaker. If we both vote different things, you can be the decider." Belay whipped out a pencil and floated the paper before his eyes. "The easiest way is S to stay, R return." His eyes locked with Belay's and they both nodded.

"Hold on!" Kiera's voice held some discordant tones underpinning it. "It is my official duty to make note of this attempted mutiny and remind all actors that by partaking in this vote they are already at risk of violating contract to Exploration and Evaluation corps."

Silence reigned.

"Your always-on recording systems have been faulty since the last refit, haven't they Kiera?" Dust flicked her tail in amusement. "At least, they should be. I remember pulling the cab—"

Kiera cut in over Dust. "I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about, Dustin y Neil! Disconnecting such systems would be a gross… You're right, though." Laughing vocally, Kiera enjoyed poking fun at her brawns when she had the opportunity.

The joke Kiera had made did have one result apart from stirring mirth: it made both her brawns think about their duty. Dustin had to prop her paper on a hard surface, while Belay simply held hers in mid-air. Both folded their paper when they were done writing on it.

"Have you ever felt more at home, Dust?" Belay looked at his paper, staring at the physical result of his decision. "I just. If it were just me, and there was no consequence…" Unfolding his paper, Belay revealed an R.

After a few moments of silence, Kiera cleared her non-existent throat. "Dustin?"

Dustin, with less dexterity from her hooves than Belay had from his magic, unfolded her paper. "Return. They really drummed duty into us so much?"

"Guess they did. Think we could sue the corps for it?" Belay scrunched up his paper into a tiny ball.

"No chance. The only way to sue something as big as the FSP Navy is with a huge political group at your back. If we were part of a minority, SPRIM would have our back. But as it stands, even my family wouldn't stand up for us." Dustin scuffed her hoof on the floor. "We could poke them for a settlement, but I am fairly sure our contracts covered our training."

Belay laughed at that. "Well, we won't really care once we are back here anyway. So we go tell Princess Twilight that we are ready?"

Dust nodded. "Would be bad form to have had her work so much on a cure and then tell her we are staying, I guess." She stretched, and couldn't help but notice Belay's eyes latch on to her body. Dustin saw the kind of desire that many males get when they see a desirous female, and rather than cause a freak-out, she felt a little proud of it.

It was hard for Belay to look away. His time spent as a stallion had definitely taught him to appreciate the female body a lot more (others' female bodies, that is), and while he let himself undress Dustin with his eyes, he couldn't help comparing her form to Twilight Sparkle's.

"Maybe you should take a holo'. It would last longer." Dust straightened up and couldn't hold back a laugh at Belay's sudden blush. "Come on, lover-boy, your girlfriend awaits our news." Leaving Belay to stare, Dustin walked out of the bridge.

Most of Belay's embarrassment came from having used a similar line on Dustin when they had first met. He grunted and shook his head. "You do have a great ass, Dust."

With her bridge abandoned, Kiera sighed into the empty room. "If either of them had…" She flashed a single character on the main view-screen: an S.

Riding the elevator down, Dustin and Belay kept silent for the most part. Kiera had been fairly quiet, too, and it caused them to fall into a subdued lull. A beautiful sunset was just about to occur on the western horizon, and the pony responsible—along with her former student, and her sister—was waiting for the two former humans.

Celestia's look was neutral, but at the same time her gaze implied that she knew the outcome of the vote already. She looked at Belay and Dustin, one eye covered by her mane, and was prepared to wait all night for their answer.

On Twilight Sparkle's face was the excitement of a scientist who didn't realize her latest creation would impact her directly, yet. She almost bounced up and down, a dramatic counterpoint to Luna, who looked up at the prow of Kiera with a stoic look.

Dustin opened her mouth first, beating Belay to the punch. "We decided to return to FSP, but only to end our contract so we can come back."

"And we will be back, you can be certain of that." Belay nudged Dustin with his shoulder. "So, let's just get this reversal thing over with and we can be on our way. The quicker we leave, the quicker we can return."

There was just one other pony present for the little ceremony: Night Light. He only had eyes for Dustin, and what he saw in her was a resigned sense of duty. "Twily, I have all your things set up." Night had volunteered to be his daughter's assistant for the procedure. His words drew the attention of everypony to the table beside him, and the arch that stood beside it.

Standing only a little taller than Princess Celestia herself, the arch was wide enough for two ponies to stand. Adorning the outer edge of the arch was literally the most complex magic rune-work in existence. Finely wrought lines traced around the wizened wood structure, each leading back to a massive crystal on one side.

The crystal—pulsing slowly—was lit green from within. The ancient gem had been mined from the caverns below Canterlot, and held so much power potential only because a princess, a changeling queen, and a unicorn magic savant had all poured power into it at some point in its life. It was the largest of the crystals that had been used to imprison Princess Cadance by Queen Chrysalis, and it held such echoes of power as to rival even the Crystal Heart.

"Okay." Twilight Sparkle put on her bravest smile. It had finally sunk in that she would lose her new coltfriend, and she struggled with herself to continue despite that. "Please come over here and drink these potions."

Belay and Dustin stepped forwards, following the Princess' directions.

"You won't forget me if I look different?" Belay lit his horn to levitate his own potion over, when Twilight Sparkle booped his nose. The distraction cut off his magic.

"Don't use your magic to hold this, it will neutralize the effect." Twilight drew her hoof back from Belay's snout and blushed. "I like you for you, Belay. I hardly think what you look like matters."

From anyone else, Belay would have doubted the speaker's integrity, but Twilight Sparkle had an honesty to her that made the words believable. He quirked his mouth up at one corner. "Then as Dust said, let's get this over and get back here sooner." Reaching out a hoof, he noticed Dust had waited for him so they could down the potions together.

The potion didn't taste horrible. Dustin looked at her own vessel. "Who made this? It actually tastes good!"

"A friend, Zecora. She is the best at brewing potions." Twilight practically beamed in delight. "Now, stand in the archway and we can get started with the rest of this." While Dustin and Belay walked around to the arch, and under it, Twilight floated over her list.

Looking down the intricate list of events, Twilight nodded and crossed off "Drink Potion" with a quickly manifest quill. Reading her own words back from the list, Twilight Sparkle gave a firm nod. "I got this."

Dustin's eyes didn't leave Night Light's. She felt an odd disconnect with something inside herself, and just standing still made her feel slightly nauseous. Opening her mouth to say something, Dust suddenly felt like part of herself was being pulled away in every direction at once.

Magic, Belay's constant companion since he had first worked out how to use his horn, seemed impossible to hold onto. He had heard enough of the theory of the machine Twilight Sparkle was using to know it was going to drain every ounce of the magic within them, but he didn't have to enjoy it.

Twilight Sparkle adjusted the huge crystal once more, strengthening the field of magic that wrapped completely around the two ponies within the arch. "Hold still, this is the last part!" Tweaking the magic field just slightly, Twilight managed to start it spinning.

The theory was sound, and Belay knew that the potion would leech his magic out, while the crystal field would pull it away.

The magic of the past that had been used on the crystal had polarized the lattice within it. Like an iron rod in a magnetic field, highly structured crystal layouts tended to interact with the magic field the nearby star spun around, and with this particular crystal having been under the effects of three powerful beings it was almost as good at interacting with the magic field as an alicorn's horn—but there was a lot more of the crystal than the average alicorn horn.

Cotton candy, Belay thought. The whole contraption was akin to a big cotton candy machine. The ponies in the middle were like a cup of sugar, the potion the heat, and the spinning magic and crystal were the stick gathering up the woolly goodness.

More and more magic spun out of the two former humans, and as it did the pair started to change. What the presence of magic had wrought, the absence of it wouldn't have undone on its own, the magic had to be removed in a very specific way to reverse the changes—Princess Twilight Sparkle had figured out just such a way.

Writhing, Dustin braced her legs as it felt like her own flesh and bones came alive. Muscles squirmed like eels, and bones wriggled like earthworms. She tried to scream as her fur seemed to fall out, only to re-sprout elsewhere. Her back legs changed enough that rather than standing on hooves, she fell to her knees.

Belay was faring no better. He eventually lost his balance (when one leg turned to the consistency of a noodle) and flopped to his belly. Like a chain pulled roughly through a small hole, Belay's horn yanked back into his body, leaving him seeing stars.

Both Belay and Dustin were both squirming on the ground, their bodies having every drop of magic forcefully extracted. Fur gave way to pony skin, and soon that gave way to pink skin on Dustin, and a darker, coffee color on Belay. Their ears shrank, pulled down the sides of their heads, and the final touches applied themselves, restoring a male Dustin and a female Belay to their natural forms.

The moment the last of the magic was gone from their systems, Belay and Dustin both felt relief from the machine, though it was still operating.

Dust lifted his head first and looked around. A chill wind that he hadn't noticed (with fur on) ran over his skin and stole warmth. He didn't have to look down to realize he was naked, or Belay too for that matter. "It—it worked!"

"Ugh, not so loud." Belay propped herself up on one arm and squinted at the darkening world around her. She looked at Dustin and immediately regretted it. "You need pants, and I need something to stop this headache."

"Headache?" Dustin felt good, really good. "I don't have any aches at all, really. Kind odd considering what just happened."

"I just had a quarter of a meter of horn shove back into my head. Keep it down, please." Belay winced even at her own words.

"Okay everypon—everybody,"—Twilight Sparkle quickly corrected her speech to match the changed visitors—"I am about to drop the field. Dustin, Belay, you should make your way to the ship as quickly as possible."

Dusting heard the words, and reached out to Belay. He bit his lip as he wrapped one arm around her, but ignoring how good she felt, he hefted her to her feet. "Come on Bel, let's get ready to run for the nice Princess."

Ignoring the accidental groping, Belay nodded (and regretted doing so immediately). "Le's do——"

The magic shielding field collapsed, and both humans dug their feet into the soft soil and took off at a sprint. Both got five whole steps before they stumbled.

Belay stumbled forward and landed, spreading out her full length on the grass. She stared ahead, reaching one arm out towards the lift only a few meters away. As she stared, however, Belay watched her forearm turn into a foreleg again. "No!"

Managing to catch himself in his own stumble, Dustin reached back down to Belay to help her back up, but instead of an arm reaching out to her, an odd feather-covered limb stretched from somewhere on his back. "Come on! This was worki—" His voice choked off as his face ran like tallow, forming a snout out of the formerly flat structure. As his legs changed, Dustin flopped to his side and felt not unlike what he imagined a lump of clay would, were a sculptor who liked ponies working on him.

Belay fell to her side and stared at Dustin. She watched as a second wing grew from his back, as his legs seemed to bulge and pop one by one, and finally his head reformed and twisted. That the last thing to happen was him to grow fur actually stole a laugh from her until she discovered a horrible truth of the universe: horns hurt growing out as well as in.

"Well, that wasn't quite how it was meant to go." Princess Twilight Sparkle looked at the two ponies that had just been humans, and ponies before that, and humans even further back (things were getting complicated). "Hold on, uh…" She walked around Dustin and Belay. "Dustin was an earth pony mare before, and Belay a unicorn stallion?"

"That is correct, Twilight Sparkle." Luna stepped up beside Twilight, looking down at the two new ponies.

Dustin shook out his legs one by one, and lifted his head. White-blue hair tumbled down over half his face, and when he lifted a hoof up he saw light-blue (though darker than his mane) fur covering it. Then he felt something move on his shoulder again, and turned his head to see two wings sprouting from his back.

"You're a pegasus, Dust!" Belay knew she had a horn again, but apart from that one feature everything else felt different. She was smaller, her mane looked to be a bright pink, and as she gazed down at her snout, she saw it was pure white.

"How am I even meant to control six limbs?!" Squirming around, Dustin got to his hooves with a lot less effort than the first time. He tilted his head forwards and looked under himself. "Oh hey, a penis!"

Night Light jumped forwards and clamped his hooves over his daughter's ears. "You're too young to hear this!" He couldn't stop a giggle as he did it, though.

"Dad! I know what a penis is. Belay showed me his—err." Twilight Sparkle shook out of her father's grip and looked down at Belay a little more closely. "Well, 'hers,' now."

Author's Note

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

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