So I’m a pony, everyone’s a pony, and ponies are fucked up. Either that or I’m fucked up, and I just hadn’t realized it for the last few decades of social isolation. Which somehow is not considered as fucked up as my current social life, which involves a lot of fucking.

I wish I could say I was upset by this, but mostly I’m just confused. Is it because I turned into a pony? Because I turned into a woman? How does fate conspire to have me giving moral support to a fellow earth pony mare having sex with a guy right in front of me, while my loins are still metaphorically sizzling from doing it with Nick, and a bat pony named Peter a few days prior?

That’s not even counting my official boyfriend or two.

Nevertheless, here we are, and the deed is done. Eleven of us ponies piled into a trailer, while a convoy of trucks rumbles down the empty roads, taking us to locations unknown. With any luck, these trucks will take us to a secret military base where they are in contact with Princess Celestia, gaining the secret knowledge needed to save our world and our humanity from an evil unicorn named Twilight Sparkle.

I just don’t understand how Twilight Sparkle could be so different from how she is in the show, while still being so much the same. She sounded the same, acted the same, looked the same, had the same... nervous bookish awkwardness to her, and then she goes all evil maniac on us and disappears. Does she have a split personality? Is she possessed? If she was a changeling, why would she pretend to be Twilight Sparkle a second time? We’d never suspect a thing if she changed into Sunset Shimmer, and said they were both from opposite-day-Equestria or something. Not that we were very difficult to deceive, but still. How could someone so... her be that much of a jerk?

I can’t blame Twilight for disappearing on us, considering she had just manipulated me and another couple hundred ponies into destroying humanity, but the hatred in which she left us just... doesn’t make sense to me at all. I suppose insanity isn’t supposed to make sense, and if we have to take Twilight Sparkle down like some sort of rabid dog, I hope I’m ready to do what needs to be done.

What I am doing that needs to be done is joining this secret project to defeat her. But that’s for the future. More immediately, I’m doing something unrelated to Twilight, that doesn’t really need to be done, and probably shouldn’t be done. Namely sitting idly by while a complete stranger gets impregnated in front of me, a stranger whom I’m now sitting idly by and slightly leaning against her for support. I can smell his semen still coming out of her.

Well none of us can change the fact that Blaze could be having Strider’s baby now. All we can do is try to get her to open up, and... not be a complete stranger anymore. As long as she might be getting pregnant, it’s the least any of us could do, since we just sort of... let it happen to her.

“How’d you come to Bronycon?” I ask the pensive orange mare, with the less orange hair, sitting on my haunches next to her, while she continues to sit on her belly, looking at me with striking blue eyes full of curiosity. “Do you have any family to go back to?” I ask her.

“I... um... yes,” she says shyly, “But I don’t know what kind of ponies they turned into.”

“None of us do, honestly,” I say with a heavy heart, “I’m lucky that anyone knows who I used to be. I wouldn’t even recognize my parents if I saw them.”

“They’re probably at Tennessee now,” Blaze says, ears drooping, “I wanna get changed back before they see me like this though. It’s weird being like this.”

“Can’t even imagine what my dad would think,” Candy says glumly, walking up to us, “If he isn’t a girl, too. God, what happened to us all?”

“Pony happened,” Lucy says definitively behind her. “I’m sure we can just tell each other who we are though. I mean, who would lie about that?”

I’m... tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt, aren’t I.

“A-a-anyway,” I say hastily, nudging Blaze, “So I came from Minnesota, with um... oh the other two people who I came with stayed back in town. We didn’t come to attend Bronycon, though, just to try and stop Twilight Sparkle. It was a long... ride.”

My insides shift in antsy satisfaction, remembering how Nick took me back then, and how earlier today... I probably smell like semen too, right now. Nick’s semen, or Peter’s? I wish I knew of a... not horrible way to talk about that. It’s so incredible and strange what’s happening inside me, and I can’t share it with anyone. I wish I could tell Sue at least, but I don’t think he wants to hear the story about how I was first mounted and impregnated by some other man, and then mounted and impregnated by some other man. Mares having instincts to share makes sense because there are a ton of us, but not stallions. Sue was okay with Dusty though, but... I just don’t know.

“Well I came from the east coast,” Candy says, trying to strike a pose on the trailer floor, while I stop wallowing in my own inabilities and listen, “Not quite up in Maine. It wasn’t too much of a trip to get to Bronycon in fact.”

“None of us come from the same place, but we were friends before Bronycon,” the purple, blue-haired pegasus filly says, indicating the other two foals with each of her wings, “So now we’re like the CMC!”

“Except one of us is a colt,” the colt points out.

“Exactly like the CMC!” the filly insists, nose up proudly.

As if emboldened by this, the blue unicorn filly speaks up, saying shyly to Blaze, “It really is okay if you wanted to do that just now. I’ve never been able to see anybody... doing that before.”

“I’m a grownup pony,” Blaze explains to the cluster of foals giving her various looks, in something of an imperious tone, “You feel all tingly and achy when you’re grownup, and I really wanted it. Then he slides in you and you really can’t stop wanting it.”

“Yeah, we saw,” the colt says, looking a little nonplussed at the mare’s attention.

Blushing redder, Blaze stammers, “S-so you can’t make fun of me. Grownups just have to s-stand there while it keeps putting babies in them, and it wasn’t anything strange or stupid.”

“It was kinda messy though,” the pegasus filly says teasingly with a cheeky smile, pointing a hoof over at where Blaze was standing when he came inside her.

“Oh,” Blaze says, face flushing under her orange fur as she looks at the messy wet spot from where Strider’s cum, and her own juices I suppose, leaked out between her legs. She stands up, heading over there looking at it helplessly, stammering, “I–I don’t know how to clean this up. It just came out I couldn’t stop it. I felt it—it was just too much. What do I—?”

“Here, I brought a towel,” Lucy says, as a plain towel glowing in a shimmering blue aura floats over from her side of the trailer, to crumple down over the puddle of Strider’s semen. “Let that soak it up, I guess,” she says uneasily.

“I just do it somewhere the dirt can soak it up,” Sue points out, as we all look up at the hefty earth pony stallion. He scrunches all too adorably for a stallion at our gaze, then says touchily, “Yeah I... I make a mess too.”

“Could you feel it?” Blaze asks the other stallion, Strider’s his name, a red stallion of a unicorn with dark, black hair, which actually bears a very slight purple sheen. “Could you feel it,” Blaze asks eagerly, “Coming out of your penis?”

“Yeah, I...” Strider looks around anxiously, stating, “Obviously I did.”

“Well I could feel it go into my... vagina,” Blaze says in a conspiratorial tone, nuzzling up against Strider affectionately. A little less affectionately, she looks at the mess between her legs, saying, “I wish it would stay in there.”

“We can clean up at the next rest stop,” Lucy says dismissively, “But that’s not gonna stop you from getting pregnant.”

“It’s okay,” Blaze says appeasingly to Lucy, “I did it on purpose, on accident.”

“I think that about sums up every act of sex in general,” Lucy says, with a roll of her eyes.

“I just... can’t believe that you’re all okay with this,” Candy says hesitantly, “I should be dead or in jail or... not that we did anything illegal, but... ponies are just so much... easier!”

“Wilder!” Lucy suggests playfully.

“More ferocious!” Holly growls in her best imitation of an imitation of a growl. It makes us all laugh, just as intended. ♥

Cuddling up against Strider with Blaze, Candy says, “Whatever it is, I’m just... glad we could share, and that you’d be so nice Blaze. Some ponies—people are just...”

“Assholes!” Holly pipes up, spurring another round of laughter.

Everyone in this trailer who’s giving birth seems to be all happy cuddly, but... the brown mare with blue hair has separated from our group, moving off to the other side of the trailer, looking despondent, and still smelling horny.

Before I can even say anything, she says, “No it’s okay I can ignore it,” as I too leave the group to approach her, “I don’t wanna... bother anyone.”

“Well those two started having sex, so if that didn’t bother us, then I don’t think anything can,” I say frankly.

“So what, I should just start humping a post?” she replies caustically, “Begging for some... pony to put a baby in me?”

“No, no! Just...” I say, backpedalling a step.

“And he already came in her!” the mare declares in frustration, half standing up, “So I’d just be making an idiot of myself for nothing!”

“Pony stallions are pretty... uh, vigorous,” I tell her nervously, “He’ll probably be able to do it again pretty soon.”

“O-oh,” she says, sitting her rump down again.

“We definitely should’ve had stallions all go in their own trailer,” I sigh fretfully, “Didn’t even occur to me that people would just... do that.”

“It’s okay,” she says in a strained tone, “I can hold out better anyway, because I already y’know... had a kid.”

...

“You had a kid? ” I blurt out in astonishment.

“Like before all this happened!” she protests, blushing, “I’m just saying I know how bad it gets, so it’s easier for me to hold out!”

“Oh, so...”

“So I don’t really want to do that again,” the brown mare says with a grimace. “I just... sit here being horny, and you uh... I mean it’s not as bad, now that Blaze... took care of him.”

“You had a baby? ” Blaze asks curiously, creeping up beside me to look at the other mare with wide eyes. “Like you’re really a mommy and you got a baby in your tummy and stuff?”

“Oh god, now you’re all gonna make me talk about it,” the brown mare groans, burying her snout under her forehooves, “I had a kid,” she declares down there, “It was a bad idea, and I don’t wanna do it again! End of story.”

“That’s... fine?” I say a little uncertainly, “You don’t have to tell us anything you’re not comfortable with.”

“Well, good,” the mare says grumpily.

“Well it’s just I have to do that now,” Blaze says, ears going down as she apprehensively lowers her tail against her own orange rump, “I just don’t know what it’s gonna be like. I know the baby goes in your belly though.”

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean...” the mare says, sitting up and looking at Blaze with earnest sympathy.

“It’s okay, I’ll just... you know,” Blaze says with a shaky, awkward smile that mare’s way, “Push them out or I dunno.”

“Well, I mean, you can ask me about it,” the other mare says, “And I’ll answer what I can. It was just a... hard time in my life.”

“What was it like having a baby?” Blaze asks the brown mare hopefully, “And what’s your name? Mine is Blaze. “ She puffs up her chest a bit at saying her name.

“You mentioned,” the brown furred, blue haired mare replies dryly, “My name’s Susan. And uh...” She glances around at us, before admitting to Blaze, “It wasn’t that bad giving birth. It’s just really hard, and it takes a long time. Like all day.”

“All day?” Blaze asks with an anxious quiver.

“O-only the end is really bad,” Susan assures her with a worried tail swish, “Most of the day it’s just... distracting, and scary. You can’t stop when it’s started, and it just keeps getting more and more... insistent. Like you can just do normal stuff but then you have to stop because your whole belly just...”

She looks around nervously at the rest of us again.

“Hey, I haven’t been pregnant,” Lucy says squeezing up beside me to speak to Susan, “I’d sure like to know what it’s gonna be like!”

“It’s just weird,” the brown and blue Susan says, grimacing uneasily, “I never told anyone about this before, I mean it’s not illegal or anything, but I was... sixteen.”

“Oh,” Lucy says faintly, shrinking back a teeny bit.

“Technically that’s like the most illegal thing ever,” one of the fillies points out, as the three of them head over here. “Considering what you had to do to...”

“I-it’s not illegal if nobody ever pressed charges,” Susan says with a fierce blush, “I just did something stupid, and I was a stupid kid, and... then I was stuck with it.”

“What about the father?” the other filly asks.

“He was stuck with it too, b-but he didn’t have it literally growing inside him,” Susan says, somewhat nonplussed, “It’s really okay if I just talk about this? No uh... Christians in here or anything?”

“C’mon, they just had sex! ” the colt among us says irritably waving a teeny hoof in the direction of Blaze, Candy and Strider, “You could tell us where you hid the bodies at this point, and we’d probably be okay with it!”

“They’re under the bridge behind the orphanage,” Lucy says seriously. For... about three seconds, before the unicorn mare busts out in laughter, turning away saying, “Hid the bodies, hah!” to herself as she does so.

“Well I’m Christian,” Holly says to my complete and utter shock, “But I believe in forgiveness. And you’re not saying it’s a good thing, so... why wouldn’t anyone want you to talk about it?”

“You’re Christian??” I squeak at the red and green bat pony in utter incredulity. “But you let me... you did to Lucy... don’t Christians practice monogamy?”

Blushing, Holly looks aside, admitting, “W-well I never said I was a good one.”

“Yeah, but, you just let me and Lucy be with Sue, and it’s wonderful!” I tell her in worried exasperation, “How are you—are you okay with this?”

Looking down, Holly says ruefully, “When I was Christian I didn’t exactly expect that we would turn into magical ponies, so I’m kind of not sure what I believe in anymore.”

“One thing’s for sure,” my Sue says with a disaffected sigh, “Whatever God intends, it clearly isn’t what we thought He intended.”

“But there’s nothing in the bible that says you should be monogamous,” Holly insists somewhat huffily in her defense, “It just says be faithful to your... husband.” Holly’s hesitation there is obvious, as the little bat pony mare gives an anxious look to her—to our big earth pony stallion lover.

“So... you two are together with...” Candy looks at me and Lucy, “You four are together?”

“Oh, right I’m H-Holly,” the red haired, green bat pony says, then gesturing a hoof at our red-haired, dusky brown stallion saying, “This is Sue, and we’re together with Lucy,” she points a wing at the purple haired peachy orange unicorn, “And Meadowsweet.”

Holly’s other wing points to the yellow furred, greenish haired mare, with these weird red eyes, who I cannot see in this trailer, since there isn’t a mirror in here.

“We’re all um... friends,” Holly concludes.

“Beeeeeeest frieeeeeeends,” Lucy says, rolling her eyes.

“I’m Dave,” the purple and blue pegasus filly says, fluffing her wings up, “And this is Chris and Stan,” she indicates with a wing the unicorn filly in shades of blue, and the green-haired, tan-furred colt.

“I’m already said I’m Candy,” says the green bat pony with the pink and purple locks of wavey hair, “And he’s Strider.”

“That’s a good name, isn’t it?” Strider asks hopefully, and the red and black unicorn stallion definitely has the right colors, so I guess he could pull it off if he could get some aviators and a turn table.

“Y’know it’s weird we’re all getting to know each other now,” Susan says, lifting a foreleg, “It was so awkward before uh...”

She glances at Blaze.

“I dunno why we didn’t just all introduce ourselves at the start,” Candy says, “I saw you around, but we never ran into each other before, until now.”

“Well I couldn’t, because I wanted...” Susan replies in anxious iritation, trailing off then looking to Strider. “I mean the cat’s out of the bag now, heh heh, right?”

“...you still haven’t been taken care of,” Candy observes solemnly.

“Well I don’t just have a... guy to randomly do me,” Susan says, rolling her eyes with a hopeless drawl.

“At least you’re not pregnant?” Candy says hopefully, then blushes and looks away adding, “N-not anymore I mean.”

“She’s the only one who isn’t,” I say with worry, “I don’t know how we’re all going to just... have babies now.”

“Trying not to think that far ahead,” Lucy says uneasily, “Lots of people are gonna die...”

“I’m still trying to figure out if there’s a good method for abortion,” I tell her glumly, “But I didn’t realize how hard it would be, with all the factories, and... and Internets shut down. I—I think high doses of vitamin C might do it, but I’m kind of not sure how to get that, and not sure how far along I am, so... it’s probably too late to try, for me.”

Susan gives me a sympathetic look, then says, hesitantly, “It... hurts the most when you... can’t get the kid out.”

Looking around at us all, she says, “The scariest is when your... belly just crushes down and nothing happens. I-it’s dilation or something, I forget exactly, but near the end it was just terrifying I felt like I was... a–a contraction started coming and I could feel it coming but I didn’t want to. I knew it would just hurt and wouldn’t do anything. But then when the baby slipped—uh.”

She stutters to a halt at that, blushing before saying, “Then the baby like, shifted inside me. And I got so excited then. Like holy crap, finally! I did mention it took a long t-time, right?”

She seems too shy to continue, but Blaze asks, “Did you see the baby coming out of your... vagina, then?”

“Oh, y-yeah, kind of,” Susan replies tentatively, “They covered everything up in a hospital blanket, but I could see around it a little. I couldn’t move much at that point other than pushing. The weirdest thing is your hips, they...”

The mare lifts a hind leg and looks at it, then puts it down again.

“I dunno for ponies,” Susan says, “But with humans, the... hips separate so the baby’s head can fit through, and I felt that happening to my hips, and... yeah you can’t even walk when they’re... coming out. I was basically a baby birthing machine at that point. It was wild.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to get pregnant?” I ask her.

Blushing, Susan says, “W-well I was just saying because you all are gonna, I mean maybe gonna have to do that. So just don’t get scared when the baby isn’t moving, and it’ll be... uh... cool when it does.”

“Ponies are quadrupeds anyway,” the unicorn filly says down there beside Susan, “That helps with birth. Bipedal, um... ness only evolved recently, so giving birth is still catching up.”

“Foals still have huge heads, if you’re any indication,” Susan says, looking down at the light blue unicorn filly in amusement.

“Oh,” the filly replies, looking down, “Well it just sounded like fun, even if I used to be a...”

The filly just falls silent at that.

“I dunno why we’re talking about this,” Strider says unhappily, “I’m not doing anything baby related with you, and you don’t want to get pregnant.”

“W-well I wouldn’t say I...” Susan full on blushes, saying, “I mean I do want to—I–I have wanted to get pregnant, even as a pony, e-even as a human, but I just use the memory of how much it hurt, so I wouldn’t do... what Blaze did in front of a stallion.”

“Yeah, I think I get what you’re saying,” he says, turning the other way with a sigh. “I’ll try not to... do that to you.”

“T-thanks...” Susan says, her voice heavy with disappointment and her ears going down.

“Hey, it’s not like you have to be pregnant, to be happy,” Candy says appeasingly, ambling up to Susan, “The danger’s passed, so let’s just not worry about it for now, and do something else instead.”

“Like what?” Susan asks, giving Candy a half-sided reserved look.

“Like, maybe how did you get to Bronycon, Susan?” Candy says with a nervous smile.

The brown and blue mare relaxes a little, replying “I was at Bronycon buying some plushies when it hit, and... yeah. I’m an administrative assistant, usually. Uh, earth pony heh heh. Any other... questions?”

“Where’s your kid?” Blaze asks curiously.

Susan’s ears go back at that. Like she’s getting angry? “I had to give them up for adoption,” she grumbles.

“Oh, sorry,” Blaze says, tail going low as she looks away.

“It’s alright, I mean it kind of sucked, but it was a learning experience,” Susan says with a weak smile, “Did you know they say you have to be their parent for like a whole year, before you can even put them up for adoption?”

“Really? Why’s that?” Candy asks innocently enough, though Susan hesitates before answering.

“I had to get the... baby on solid food first,” Susan replies testily, “So just y’know, nursing. But you still have to put them to bed, and deal with all the crying, and... I kind of had to retake my sophomore year of high school.” She rolls her eyes, saying, “The way some people acted about it, they made you think you could just drop them off at the orphanage as soon as they’re out.”

“Well I sure hadn’t even thought about that,” Blaze exclaims in astonishment, “You’re right, all they ever show on TV is the mother leaving the baby in a basket.”

“I sure didn’t leave him in a basket,” Susan says with a wince.

“Did you ever reunite with him?” I ask thoughtfully, “They didn’t try to keep you from finding him, did they?”

“No, they...” Susan gives me a look, “I mean, yes, they seal the records and stuff. I dunno I just... dropped him off, and that was that.”

“But you weren’t sad for... for being forced to leave your child behind?” I ask, scrunching in confusion, as none of what I’m saying seems to be striking a chord with her.

“It was my idea!” Susan protests, “I mean my parents helped, but... what’s wrong with putting your child up for adoption?”

Everyone’s kind of at a loss to answer that.

Shrinking back against the side of the trailer, Susan says, “Look, I know I–I know people get all upset about it, but I was sixteen and I knew I couldn’t handle it. I just... the kid just sort of came out of me! Doesn’t mean I have some God given right to, I mean I guess depending on your religion, but. I was sad yeah, but it’s better for him now that he’s got real parents, and I wasn’t that sad.”

“I didn’t think it was possible!” I declare in wonder, “I never saw anyone just... give up their child.”

“It sounds bad when you say it that way,” Susan says, flicking her tail irritably at me.

“No, no I mean it’s good,” I assure her, “Just surprising.”

“A better way to say it might be that you gave your child to someone,” Lucy suggests, “Because that’s a pretty huge thing to give. You didn’t just throw ‘em out, you gave them to someone.”

“I didn’t even think it would be an option,” I say frankly, “All I ever saw of adoption was in... movies, really. And every mother regretted it.”

“Everything you ever learned about people was in movies, Meadowsweet,” Lucy says with a wry ear tilt.

“Hey, what else was I supposed to learn from?” I ask her, pouting offendedly.

“Your friends?” she suggests.

“You mean... Nick?” I reply in mild confusion.

I don’t think she’s the only one giving me a look.

“He can’t have been the only friend you ever had,” Lucy says, tilting her head in wary confusion, “...right?”

“I um... yes?” I reply, still confused. “I wasn’t exactly popular in school?”

“You had no friends. At all.” she says flatly.

“I... knew... people?” I tell her, “Nick’s friends um... well they mostly moved away for college, and some kids I hung around at lunch, but I don’t think I knew anyone who really... liked me?”

Blushing, I add, “N-not that I’m unlikable or anything, it’s just I’m not very... interesting, I guess? I had a friend named Michael once, but uh, that was elementary school. Haven’t seen him since.”

“Meadowsweet, you’re one of the nicest people I’ve ever met,” Holly says in her sweeter voice than mine. “You sound like you were alone, all the time.”

“Well... Nick... I mean, I w-worked at a convenience store, but y’know. Nobody really... talks to you...” I say, shrinking back against Holly’s worry and concern.

Shaking her head slowly, my bat pony best friend says, “I just can’t believe you didn’t have a ton of friends, when you were still a—”

She almost says guy.

“...human.”

A bit defensively, I ask my red and green bat pony friend, “Did you have a ton of friends, Holly?”

“I had... friends,” Holly says, glancing aside. Sue’s looking at both of us with concern, I fear, and everyone in general is pretty quiet when me and Holly have to reveal things. I hope we’re not disturbing anyone. “My coworkers mostly, but some of them were friendly,” Holly continues, “We’d go out to lunch, and talk about... work and stuff.”

“What did you talk about?” I prompt curiously, “Stuff about... advising corporations, and investments and stuff?”

She laughs, saying, “Mostly about Sue, actually. All the guys wanted to know when I was going to pop the question.”

“You were gonna marry her?” I ask in astonishment.

“No!” Sue declares irritably, butting in, “No they just kept giving him a hard time about it.”

“It’s okay, they were all getting... married,” Holly says, with a shy blush, “We just didn’t really... want to... yet.”

“My fault really,” Sue says glumly, “I just... I mean it’s so weird. You’re in your twenties and everyone wants you to be pregnant, and all you’re thinking is ‘I’m just this girl!’ Like how could I just... do that?”

“Oh, you were a girl?” Blaze asks the brown stallion, sounding very surprised.

“I make a pretty good guy, huh,” Sue says with a sloppy grin, “But yeah, my parents didn’t name me Susan just to make fun of me.”

“My parents did,” Susan remarks, waving a foreleg. A beat and she grins saying, “Nah I’m just kidding. It’s a nice name.”

“I probably should pick a new one, eh,” Sue says, swishing his tail uncertainly, “Doesn’t seem as big of a deal to be a guy with a girl’s name though. It’s definitely been an experience turning into a guy, and uh...” he looks Lucy’s way, “Being a guy and stuff.”

“I stayed a guy, thankfully,” Strider says, sounding a bit weirded out even to say that, “I can’t even imagine just... switching like that.”

“It’s... weird,” I admit, “But it’s not that different really. You just start wanting different things, that feel good ...differently.”

“An innie instead of an outie,” Lucy offers teasingly.

“You can’t even imagine?” the other bat pony named Candy says, looking at Strider with offended concern.

“Oh, uh, sorry Candy yeah I mean... it’s just me I can’t imagine,” Strider says, blushing and taking a step back from the batpony, “You make an amazing uh, girl.”

“Yeah, well you’re the worst boyfriend ever,” Candy pouts grumpily, standing up from where she was laying together with Blaze, “I don’t even know why I’m going along with it. I should be furious!”

“Well, lucky for me?” Strider says, staring up at the ceiling in the important business of toeing the ground.

“Did you ever... do it in a girl?” Blaze asks excitedly, following Candy up to a standing position, to address the grumpy bat pony, “WheLike, wn you were a boy?”

“I... of course I did!” Candy says, a little off guard at Blaze’s interest. “I had normal relationships. A few, even! Just hadn’t... found the right...” she looks at Strider with insecurity.

“Did you ever... m-make your girlfriends... pregnant?” Blaze adds nervously. Candy turns to look back at her.

“No...” Candy says in cautious appraisal of the orange earth pony, “Well, yes in theory, but I knew she was on the pill.”

“Would you, even if she wasn’t?” Blaze asks, squinting at Candy a little... challengingly.

Surprisingly, Candy only looks apologetic at that, tail shrugging and saying, “When you’re... with a girl, you have to be really careful. Once a guy gets started, he’s gonna want to finish. Like, really bad.”

The jilted mare looks to Strider then, saying, “That’s how I knew how you felt, when you...” she gestures vaguely in Blaze’s vicinity. “It makes you want it, especially after you’re inside.”

“It’s still no excuse,” Strider says, pouting. “I don’t know what I was thinking. I just got so...”

“I know,” Candy says in frustration, “Being a girl doesn’t stop you from... really wanting people to get pregnant too. I’m sorry I...”

“It’s okay, it was my fault too,” Blaze says, stepping towards her.

“Honestly,” Candy says, “It’s not like you did anything different from me. I was just lucky enough to run into him... first.”

“How’d you meet?” Blaze asks curiously, “Just at the Bronycon?”

“How’d we meet, or how did we meet meet?” Candy replies warily.

The orange earth pony just looks at her in confusion.

“We...” Candy blushes, looking away in aggravation, “Met at the holding area, where the government moved us because they didn’t want a quarantine in the middle of Baltimore.”

“Oh, uh... yeah I didn’t...” Blaze says quietly, but she stops looking away, asking, “A-anyway, so you just... said hi?”

“I said hi,” Strider offers, standing beside the two, “Candy was a little busy freaking out at being a girl and stuff.”

Candy doesn’t protest that, but she doesn’t say anything to support it either.

“I told her it was no big deal,” Strider continues, “And how different it was that we were actually ponies. She shouldn’t care if she was a girl or not.”

“I... did care, obviously,” Candy says cautiously, “I mean I y’know, wanted him... like a girl. Um...”

“Took a while, but you were really wanting it by the time we got to the place where Twilight Sparkle took us,” Strider says, “And it was after I trained with Twilight one day, you just thought you were saying some bad jokes like if I really thought you were a girl I’d do something stupid like ask you out.”

“And you asked if I was interested in that stuff,” Candy says, fidgeting on her hooves, “Like you were all surprised. So I kind of told you how I’d been feeling it more and more, like...” She glances at the rest of us, then looks at Blaze and says shakily, “A-and then I just lifted my tail for him and... it happened.”

“I didn’t know any stallions once I got to the farm,” Blaze says bemusedly, “I don’t think there’s any way that could’ve ever happened for... me.”

“Well, it happened for you now,” Candy says with a warm smile. Her smile falters then, as she blinks, ears flopped. “A-and I’m glad!” she says in surprise, “He just... did you like that, because if he hadn’t, you would never even have had a chance. I just randomly got lucky and...”

“Now you don’t have to feel bad, because I didn’t had a chance?” Blaze suggests.

Candy nods faintly.

“What were you training with Twilight about?” the unicorn filly asks the stallion curiously, then scrunches and adds, “I mean I know you were mostly thinking about having sex and stuff, but besides that?”

“That day, it was just resonance,” Strider says, looking up at his own horn, “Sort of a thing where you pass the magic around, like a wave or something, just to try to get used to connecting with each other uhh magically. It’s... kind of hard to describe.”

“It beats what I was doing,” Candy says, rolling her eyes, “We were barely allowed to fly, back then!”

“Twilight said people would find us if we flew,” Holly says looking haunted, “I really did think the whole world was just gonna... kill us for being ponies.”

“After Twilight left, we got plenty of chances to fly,” Candy says pragmatically.

“Yeah,” Holly agrees with a smile, “Not to mention learn how to sit on clouds!”

“There’s a trick to it?” I ask curiously.

“Ye...no,” Holly replies cautiously, “It’s only a little treacherous if you fall asleep when the cloud is evaporating.”

“That makes sense,” I cautiously agree. “So bat ponies can sit on clouds too, just like the pegasi?”

“Bat ponies can sit on clouds, but pegasus wings are just amazing for shaping them,” Candy says with a note of deep respect, “They have this... thing that... did you know they can move all their feathers individually?”

“Yeah I have a um... pegasus friend,” I reply, thinking back about how Brian was moving her wings, while I just stood there being an envious horse. Then I blush and add, “N-not in that way, I mean. I’m just talking about Brian. I think she’s in one of the pickup trucks.”

“Even fillies can do it!” the pegasus filly says, extending her teeny little wing and wiggling it so that the line of feathers ripples like a wave, “It’s not like a hand at all though.”

“Really?” I ask curiously, squinting at her extended purple wing, which looks sorta like a hand?

“Yeah, it... see, these are just feathers,” she says, folding the uhm “fingers” of the wing back up against the top of it, “My actual hand is just... pointing all the time.”

“I... really can’t see it, sorry,” I say, peering at her wing in puzzlement, “It must be really weird.”

“Not any weirder than hooves,” she says seriously, looking up at me, “Or being a girl.”

“Or having a tail,” Susan points out, switching her own deep blue tail behind her.

On our journey, we have a little bit more of an opportunity to move around once we take a rest break. Apparently it’s going to take two days to get to wherever... this secret location is that we’re going. I could ask some of the military personnel where it is, but... I really don’t need to bother them, I can just go check on my friends and not talk to any of the... humans, or the serious looking ponies that totally aren’t connected with those guys who put me in that... place, but who cares, because I’m just talking to my friends, anyway!

“Brian!” I say trotting up to her once I spot the green pegasus mare with the blue mane. “How’re you doing so far?”

“How about yourself? Anything exciting happen in that trailer?” she asks teasingly.

“Uhhhhhhhhhhhh” I reply intelligently.

“Oh, I... I see,” she says, eyes widening as she sniffs at the scent I inadvertently dragged with me out of the trailer. “That’s right, you and Sue and... his other mare went in the same trailer.”

“Oh it wasn’t him, actually,” I tell her in surprise, “It was the other guy, and this... other mare, who... I–I guess it’s kind of private.”

“No, no you’re right, sorry,” Brian says, turning her nose down abashedly. She looks up though, and says wistfully, “I wish I had the guts to just do it in public. They just started...? No, no sorry,” she looks away again.

“Y-yeah basically,” I say, unsure of what I even should say in this sort of situation, “You know how we can uh, smell, so when she lifted her tail... he just... climbed right on.”

“And you’re all totally cool with this?” Brian asks cautiously.

“Well worked something out,” I reply testily, “But it was really... wild.”

“We’re just so used to being human, being able to conceal our ovulation,” Brian says, tail lowering. “It’s pretty obvious when I’m... receptive.”

“So... pregnant then?” I ask bleakly.

“Yeah,” she says, toeing the ground.

“Who with?” I ask worriedly.

Brian does nothing to assuage my worries, saying, “I don’t really wanna talk about it. We don’t have to talk about that stuff all the time.” She has a point though. Hmm...

“Oh, there is one other thing I wanted to talk to you about!” I say as it occurs to me, happy for at least a diversion. “A filly was trying to tell me about her wings; you might be able to help actually. She said they’re always pointing?”

A surprised laugh bursts out of Brian at that. “Heh...” she concludes, giving me a bemused look, “You know, I never thought of it that way!”

“What’d she mean?” I ask, sitting on my haunches and holding up a foreleg in a vague wing... feather shape. I would lose at charades. “I just don’t get how feathers aren’t like the... fingers of your hand?”

“They are and aren’t, I suppose,” she says enigmatically, “My feathers—the feathers rather, are the most mobile part of my wing. Just like fingers of a hand. I uh... have no idea how they’re the most mobile part but...” She spreads a graceful green wing, and stretches the big feathers out all like fingery things, “It’s a decent analogy,” she concludes uncertainly.

“Then why did that pegasus filly say they weren’t like fingers?” I ask.

“Because they aren’t,” Brian replies simply. Turning sideways and stretching her broad green feathery wing out in front of me, Brian says, “Here, feel the top edge of my wing.”

Uh.

“...with my mouth?” I ask leerily.

“Uh—yeah, I guess,” she blushes, partially folding her wing before extending it again, “R-right you have to do stuff with your... I mean we have to do stuff with our mouths now.”

“I could touch it with my hoof but you know,” I say reservedly, “Can’t feel things with it as much.”

“Yeah, it’s just weird,” Brian says, redfaced, “And it’s not sexual or anything just weird but go ahead.”

I cautiously nose at the top part of her wing, looking at her out of the side of my face as I take an experimental nibble. She’s not freaking out at least, and her wing is kind of... plump and fleshy on the top.

“Okay, now... you see at the very tip,” Brian instructs tensely, “Where it stops being fleshy, and puts out a pinion? Er, a big feather? It looks like it’s part of my arm, but it’s just the edge of a feather.”

I nose at the edge of her outermost feather, saying, “Oh, so your whole hand is just... half the top part?”

“Ever see a chicken wing?” she asks. Blushing a little at that, she clarifies, “Well stick a bunch of big feathers on that and you have a bird wing. Mine’s not exactly like that, but it’s still a sorta v-shaped arm with a... pointy hand, that’s always pointing. See how it sort of... points over my feathers? They fan out below it, like this.”

She stretches out her feathers again, then leaving her wing spread, she folds the outermost ones up under her wing... arms like the filly did. “Oh, your feathers are a folding and unfolding fan, underneath your chicken wing. That makes sense!” I declare in delight.

“The weird thing is I can do stuff like...” Brian lifts each feather in her wing like piano keys, “That or like...” Brian crosses her feathers over each other, “That or like...” She turns her entire wing upside down somehow, lifts a single feather in it, then... bends that feather down somehow, until it springs back straight.

“Plus I can feel stuff with my feathers,” she adds, “I should only be able to feel pressure with them, not temperature, or texture. Like uh... do your mouth thing on this big feather here, but don’t pull on it be careful.”

I uh, do so, and once I’m mouthing the tip of her feather, Brian says, “Your mouth feels warm and... not as wet as I’d expect. But I guess we stop salivating when we’re carrying something.”

“Plus I sort of bite on my lips to grab something,” I specify, upon releasing the primary feather, “So those aren’t exactly the inside of my mouth. Not sure if you’re supposed to do that.”

“Anyway the point is I should only be able to feel the pull of you tugging at my feather,” she explains, “There aren’t any blood vessels in my feather, and without blood vessels, there can’t be any nerve endings. But I can even feel when a cold breeze touches only my feathers, or the wetness of a cloud they brush. Magic is the only explanation I can come up with, which means I can’t come up with any explanation at all.”

“So... your fingers are always pointing like...” I hold my foreleg up to match with the top edge of her wing, pointing the hoof outward, “Like this, but your feathers have an extra special role, the way fingers do on a human hand?”

“That about sums it up,” Brian nods, folding her wing, “That and I have wings. Y’know:” she squats holding up her forelegs, saying, “Arms,” then touches her haunches with them saying, “Legs,” and finally spreads her wings, concluding, “Wings.”

“They are kind of an addition, instead of replacing your arms or legs,” I have to admit.

“They replace the arms in birds, and they kind of feel like arms to me,” Brian says, “But it’s like I woke up one day with four arms, two pairs of arms, except that one of the pairs I feel like walking on, like legs.”

“And I thought tails were confusing!” I say in astonishment, “How do you even wrap your head around that?”

“I can’t imagine only having four limbs at this point,” Brian says, shaking her head in disbelief, “That’s why I’m so... not sure any of our humanity is left. There’s no way this stuff would feel natural to a human.”

“A tail’s not that bad,” I say, curling mine up to look at it, “It’s outright normal compared to your wings.”

Brian perks up at that, saying, “Oh, really? ”

“Huh?” I reply intelligently as Brian stalks around slinkily, and takes the tip of my green curlish tail in her mouth.

“Are you... making a joke?” I say in confusion while my hair gets soaked in the icky saliva of a mare treating the strands as if they were a mouthful of succulent grass. It’s a very close resemblance.

Brian spits out my green tail then, saying, “Okay, I cheated a little by being extra messy with it, but my mouth sure was wet, wasn’t it?”

“Uh... yeah?” I say, curling my tail away from that mouth warily.

“You could... feel how wet my mouth was,” she prompts cautiously.

“My tail will dry out,” I tell her appeasingly, “I don’t mind, but why—”

“There are no nerve endings in your tail,” she asserts impatiently, “You’ve got your dock, and then just long hair. How can your tail feel wet, when the only part of it that got slobbered on is just hair?”

I take another look at my tail.

“And how are you curling it like that?” she adds, “There’s no muscle attached to that hair. You have to be just... moving it by magic.”

I flick the tip of my tail, feeling like going and finding some way to clean it off, even if Brian’s mouth is probably cleaner than anything else my tail’s gotten into lately. I nibble at my tail myself, and it’s just hair in my lips. I flick the tip again. It’s just... hair that I can move. And feel.

“That’s how my feathers feel,” Brian asserts definitively.

...

Well, at least once I escape Brian and get back inside the trailer, things are going well here and not causing severe existential anxiety. After our first rest stop, things are still really comfortable, even between me and the complete strangers who... made a baby right next to me. With everyone’s company, I relax a little bit, and stop feeling like my own tail is stalking me.

While we’re underway and headed down the road to an unknown destination, we tell each other stories about our lives before the transformation, and after it too. Apparently Blaze really didn’t have any friends back at the barn, so putting her in with Strider’s herd—uh—group is a godsend for her, not just for the sex aspect of it. She’s really sweet when she knows there are people who actually like her.

Someone tells an absolutely awful joke at one point, and we all laugh. Then Lucy starts, “...We’re Apples forever, Apples together~♫”

It’s an easy one, for bronies at least. Okay no it’s an easy one, for bronies, who happened to have turned into ponies who are stupidly good at singing. Each of us ends up having to think up our own verse, but it’s... so obvious. I know I couldn’t’ve thought of rhymes like that to save my life when I was human, but I can’t even imagine how I’d find something like this difficult. My verse is:

We have ups and downs, we have smiles we have frowns
But the one thing we plainly see
We’re closer than ever when we sing together
The bumps in the road bring you to me.

Everyone just naturally goes into harmony during the chorus. Pony magic, I guess. It just sort of happens that way, you sing the notes that... harmonize with everyone else. It’s just amazing to be part of that, to feel the song swell within you, and join with the others so wonderfully. It’s a powerful feeling, as pony feelings naturally are I suppose, but I can even see turning down a chance to have sex if we can sing like this. I’m almost absolutely sure I couldn’t have sung this at all before I had a pony brain, and Brian’s worries be damned, that is kind of cool!

Also somehow by the third chorus it becomes “Ponies to the Core.”

The entire convoy stops for the night. The reason given is pretty sensible. They’re visible enough with being the only vehicles on the road. Headlights at night would make them stick out like a sore thumb, which could attract unwanted attention. Any pony we don’t know could turn out to be an agent of Twilight Sparkle. Or human, for that matter. or woodland critter, for all I know.

So that’s why there are ponies keeping watch, and that’s why everybody panicks when there’s a loud clunk of hooves landing hard on the metal roof of one of the vehicles we’re sheltering in, then a second clunk, followed by the strident call of “Intruder! ”

...followed by the strident call of “I’m not an intruder! ”

Well, when I tumble out of the trailer, there are at least a half dozen ponies surrounding a shadowy figure in the center of them, some of the ponies hovering in the air, as if the not-intruder were likely to take flight at any moment. “I’m with you, I swear!” a mare cries out, “I didn’t mean to—”

Right then someone turns on the headlights of a nearby vehicle, making everyone wince as their eyes adjust to the unexpected brightness. There in the middle of a circle of a mixture of military ponies and my group is a bat pony looking panicked, going by the name of

“Mira?!” I shout, bounding forward.

The golden furred bat pony looks at me with tightly slitted blue eyes, yelping, “Oh thank goodness, Meadowsweet! Tell them I’m with you!”

“Wha? You don’t recognize me, Mira?” a blue and red filly in the crowd says in a hurt tone.

“Oh, Melissa!” Mira declares in surprise, turning to her, “No, I... I just was kind of...”

She stands up straight then, looking around saying, “I was gonna wait until the morning to show myself, when you all could see me, but...” Mira points a forehoof at a surprised looking blue pegasus, saying, “She knocked me right outta the sky!”

“I thought you were spying on us!” the blue pegasus says with worried brown eyes, “You were just flying right over us!”

“I was just flying... I like flying at night, okay?” Mira shouts back at her in frustration. At the pegasus mare’s alarm, Mira blushes and looks away saying more softly, “Jeez, this couldn’t possibly have gone worse.”

“It could still possibly go worse,” one of the human males says, stepping into the headlights with a rifle in his hands, pointed at the ground, “Does everybody know this um... person?”

A lot of affirmatives get called out at the brown haired human’s question, which is actually kind of obvious in hindsight, but it’s just really cool how well we’ve come to know each other in our little... group of ponies who group together.

“Then why didn’t you come with us when we were leaving Ainsworth?” the human asks in an aggravated tone, pulling a... thingy on his gun, and then slinging it over his back. I can’t help but notice he’s standing there in pajamas.

“I was just having some second thoughts,” Mira replies, toeing at the ground, “And I... managed to catch up with you. Sorry I scared everyone.”

Mira looks at me again, smiling and saying, “I just realized Meadowsweet was right, this is important, and I don’t have to be an invalid just because of some...” One of her wings nervously scratches against her belly, “...things.”

“What about Peter?” I ask, stepping into the light.

“He told me to go!” Mira says, smile broadening, “He knew it was important to me, and he said...” I think she’s looking at me in particular when she says, “He told me to go to you, and not to worry about him.”

“I...I’m touched, really,” I say, blushing at her look of gratitude for... basically nothing I did. “But what about the baby? Don’t you want him to be around when you give birth?”

Mira looks increasingly puzzled, as she stammers, “Uh—I—uh...” before lifting a forearm to her mouth, pressing her snout into it softly and remarking, “Oh boy. Hadn’t thought of that.”

“Mira!” I whine.

“It’s okay, it’s not like there’s much he can do to help with it or anything,” Mira says, waving that foreleg in appeasing dismissal, “It sorta happens all by itself, right?”

“Well, he could provide for you...” I offer uncertainly.

“I don’t wanna be provided for,” Mira grumbles under her breath. Then she protests more loudly, “But hey, he can’t be the only one who’d help me if I need it!”

Mira’s blue eyes light on the filly she called “Melissa,” and the red and blue filly’s eyes widen, before she says, “Yeah, I’ll help if you need... something, Mira. I’m not a big stallion though.”

“Who wouldn’t help you, Mira?” another of us says gladly, “You’re awesome!”

“It’s not like she’s the only pregnant pony here, without a male to uh...” a purple and blue unicorn pauses, flustered, before saying, “To provide for her.” Looking around, the mare asks, “Isn’t there anyone else here who got uh, pregnant, and is on her own?”

“Well I am, but I was on my own either way,” another of the mares says, “The guy ditched me to go back to Texas! I’m gonna be a fuckin’ single mom!’

More ponies are waking up and clustering close, and it’s... scary how many of them are pregnant, but have no one to provide for them. But it’s true, and Mira seems to think it’s okay. “Hey, we’ll help each other, right?” she says with a mid-air shrug, And I might be a little tired from getting pregnant and all, but I can still start the fire! I feel pretty good actually. And I dunno what Peter could do about it if I started feeling terrible. So yeah I really should have thought about it, but this was still a good idea.”

At her sage nod, one of the military ponies asks in a tired voice, “Are there any other stragglers we should watch out for?”

“I dunno, I was the only one I knew,” Mira says honestly. “So where’s the grub around here? I haven’t eaten all day!”

I’d honestly be more critical of her crashing the party like this, if Mira didn’t prove so scarily good at catching rabbits.

Author's Note

Hair magic is canon.