Magnificent

by ferret

Rating: mature
Tags: Non-consensual, Violence, Sex, Twilight Sparkle, Profanity, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Human, Thriller, Original Character, Comedy
Length: 315616

How bad could Twilight Sparkle possibly be, and why do I have the urge to whinny?

When I brought Twilight Sparkle in from the cold, I never thought things would turn out this way. Now I'm stuck in a stranger situation than I could ever have imagined, and despite my best efforts to lose her once and for all, I find myself pursuing that accursed mare to the ends of the earth.

I try to right my wrongs, and save the world, but not all is as it seems, and if I don't find out what all is, then it seems like everything is going to be lost! We need heroes to save the world from dire peril, but all we are is a bunch of half crazed bastards, trying not to fail to make things right.

We fail. A lot.

Tags: transformation, gender-bending, human on pony, canon abuse, >opinions, lewd

Published 2018-03-24 05:10:05 UTC
Last updated 2020-01-02 06:55:54 UTC

In For a Penny

It’s not easy to live life one day at a time in Minnesota. I can speak for everyone I think when I say there is nothing less friendly than a Minnesota winter. Living in this Minnesota winter, I do have a job and a place to call my own, but that’s all I can say for myself. The old oak beams of this house like to creak in the wind, and no fire in that big fireplace that would ever warm the chill of a lonely life. People like to joke that my parents were the ones who moved out, but really that’s just what they did. Miranda, my sister, moved out first on her own, but when my parents decided to jump ship to New Hampshire, they left the house to me to take care of, because I was the only one left willing to live here.

Working a pointless job in a pointless city, waiting for something... for someone who would never come. I never understood how other guys found their girlfriends, soon to be their wives. From the stories they told me, it was always something like they just accidentally fell together by circumstance, and hit it off well, without anything going terribly wrong or anybody else getting in the way. Why did that never happen to me? I guessed it was just a matter of time until the right girl came along, so I waited, and waited... and waited.

It’s my own fault, I suppose. With most of my paycheck going to paying for the house, it was hard enough to feed myself from day to day, I didn’t really have time or energy for much of a social life, and really I think it was just that I was stuck in a rut. More like I was born in a rut. From a boring childhood to a mediocre education, to a career path that was like the impossible staircase: always sloping down. People don’t usually work at convenience stores for any reason other than to move on to something better, but I just didn’t have anything better to do.

It was into this dead end of a life that she came. Perhaps I was destined to meet the girl of my dreams after all. Accidentally falling together by circumstance, after all this time I finally found her, and she was everything I could have possibly wanted in a girl. I just never anticipated that she would not be human.

It was inevitable, in hindsight. My Little Pony had come into its own, with its fourth cartoon series a heartwarming animation that never failed to captivate me, even in its childish morals. Watching the adventures of Twilight and her friends was exquisite torture, with the cold flurries blowing outside, nothing to look forward to tomorrow but drive to work, work, drive home. My TV was like a window to a beautiful, colorful world, full of friendship and joy. It was as if I was held prisoner, watching the ponies outside from the tiny window of my cold little cell.

I don’t much like prison cells.

It was intoxicating to imagine that the ponies would be real, but I knew they were not. I knew so many things back then, facts and figures, equations and science. My whole life was easily, dreadfully predictable. Just keep doing the same thing over and over again, until something fails, and you die. Do this, I told myself, because anything else you try to do will only make things worse.

Perhaps I could have risen out of that. Perhaps I could have gone sky diving or some other sort of inane activity that accomplishes little and only leaves me older and less wise. Perhaps I could have stopped feeling this way on my own, lived a good life, and still died yearning. But instead, a pony came into my life.

When I feel like walking... a Minnesota winter isn’t the best place to go walking, actually. Sometimes the wanderlust gets to be too much though, sitting inside day after day, and so one day, with no customers to deal with for the rest of the weekend and nothing to look forward to besides 2 more days of loneliness, I walk into a snowstorm.

I’m well prepared for the cold. I bundle up in my sweater and thick socks, and thin socks, underclothes, pants, snow pants, thick mittens, a cap underneath my hood, and a woolen scarf that almost completely covers my face. I hardly look human stomping around in that harsh wind, with a million unique, special snowflakes shattering and clumping all over my body, stinging my cheeks. And yet... it doesn’t hurt as much to walk outside alone, as it does to sit alone in that house of mine.

It was a nice house for what we paid to keep it, with a big fireplace, good insulation... did I mention the Minnesota winter? I always had a dim attitude towards the cold. It’s what I grew up in, but I felt like it would have been nice if I could have a break now and again. Nobody talks about a Minnesota summer because you hardly notice it, before the chill northern winds have returned. Why can’t I have a life where the sun shines on my face in the morning?

The house I live in is off in a cul-de-sac community, with untamed wilderness right outside our backyard. It was nice to have that. You could wander through those winding deer trails when the snow stopped falling. It was less nice to have that, when thorny blackberry vines try to eat your lawn every. Single. Summer. But one day, in the frigid wind of a snowstorm that has been cut into howling ribbons by the specters of a forest of sleeping trees, I walk.

In the cartoon show, the unicorns had arcane powers, but the pegasi were the ones with control over the weather. Pegasi being the incorrect latin plural for Pegasus, which itself is a single pony’s proper name, and not the name of that type of winged pony overall. But pegasi they were, and as I tromped through that snowstorm, I found myself wishing for them to be here, to tame this wild weather, and give us some sunny days once and a while. I don’t expect to meet anyone, much less anyone I share anything in common with, but it so happens that I’m not the only one in this storm today, wishing for precisely the same thing.

If she hadn’t fallen, I would have never approached her. My stride freezes, at a crashing crunching ahead of me, something fighting its way through the snow, wind, and ice streaked underbrush. A dark shadow emerges from the storm far in front of me, what I thought was a deer. I don’t think it sees me, but I’m afraid to move, to scare it off, as it stands there so quietly and serenely, before collapsing, toppling over to land in the powdery snow with a thump. It has to be dead, a thousand times dead, I tell myself. If an animal were caught out in this storm, driven from their thickets by hunger and fear, they would never get up again, once they had fallen.

Yet I still approach, hesitantly, carefully, curiously. I just want to confirm that it is a deer, nothing more than that. I just want to know what kind of a frozen corpse I was going to find out on the trail tomorrow morning. It’s a good way to get bitten, kicked, and bruised, for your efforts to approach a dying animal, but I suppose I’ve never been able to put Fluttershy out of my mind. A kind, caring soul, the “friend to the animals” of the show, Fluttershy would have wanted to see what it was, to take the poor thing back to her cottage and nurse it back to health. In a crazy, undying hope, I do what she would do, as if that would bring my fantasy to life.

What I find is no deer. I approach closer, then closer still. Her body lies still, slowly being buried in drifting snow. If I hadn’t seen her fall... but I did. I do. And all the dull certainty in my life has just become null and void. What I see fallen in the snow is not a deer at all. I see a strange creature lying there, whose dense purple fur could have kept her warm in many places, but not here, not now.

Her large eyes have slipped closed, as her hold on life fades away and she falls into the final sleep. A deep purple mane cascades forgotten down her neck, with its characteristic pink stripes, parting around the fluted horn in her forehead. Almost invisible under the rapidly accumulating snow over her thighs are five white stars surrounding a larger one in pink. I don’t even have to see the mark to recognize her though. I know exactly who this is. This is Twilight Sparkle.

Final sleeps be damned, I defile her fresh corpse in the eyes of some, but in the eyes of others I save her life. Reaching my hands down, I lift her limp body from the snow. I have to carefully hook my hands underneath the unicorn to get a grip on her, as encumbered as I am by winter wear. She feels so light in my arms, smaller than I expected. Her legs are awkward and tipped in stiff hooves, but I manage to sling her over my shoulder. I can’t get a response from her, can’t even tell if she’s still breathing, but I know one thing I can do.

I run.

The wind hits me like a wall as I leave the tree line, and make my way down the abruptly suburban sidewalk invisible under the snow, save for the evidence of snow plows on the street earlier. Pressing forward with a frightened determination, I make my way to my house and open the door, releasing a blast of heat. The fireplace still has embers in it, and the heat pump is clearly working in spades, but I let the money pour out my front door today, because the last thing I want to do is kill her from warming up too fast.

Thanks to a Minnesota health class, I knew that if you warm up too fast, your blood vessels all dilate at once, your blood pressure tanks, and your heart stops. Warming too fast can be more deadly than the cold itself, and just when you thought you had saved them, they die in your foolish arms. Even the thought of doing that to an incredible, impossible creature like this, my favorite pony Twilight Sparkle, fills me with fear.

Sitting there in the doorway, while the storm rages in front of me, I look down at this miracle cradled in my arms. My snow jacket looks ridiculously puffy against her slim form, those delicate, hooved arms now curled and unconsciously limp against my chest. It would be unimaginably cruel if she wasn’t... her chest rises and falls, almost imperceptibly. She’s... alive. Twilight Sparkle is alive!

I can’t comprehend the magnitude of my own relief, as I cradle this living, breathing pony, waiting for the temperature to equalize. Once I finally decide it’s safe to do so, my heavy wooden front door shuts out the storm. Warmth fills in around us, as the sound of the storm dies to a whisper of a rushing wind beyond the walls, and a creaking in the oaken beams. I feel... not just joy, but worry. What does this mean? Is my entire life a lie? Why is my entire life a lie? Why is Twilight Sparkle wandering around behind my house? And what do I do for her?

As gently as I can, I lay the unicorn mare to the floor, and stand up, tearing off my mittens and using my thick, but capable fingers to unbutton my coat. She’s not shivering, a very bad sign, but can I risk taking her to a hospital? Would they even be able to do anything for her? No, they would never save her, only experiment on her and deliver her to the autopsy table for further defilement.

What I do instead is take off my coat, shaking it mightily to get the snow off it, and then lay it on top of her. That coat alone is capable of covering all but the tips of Twilight Sparkle’s hooves and tail. Leaving her lying there cold and alone on the floor, I hurry into the bathroom, where I start drawing a bath of lukewarm water, just enough to feel on my hand. I don’t know if that’s the right temperature, but it’s all I have. I don’t know CPR or have any idea how to do CPR to a... a magical pony.

Am I hallucinating? Did I just carry a frozen deer inside, thinking it was bright purple in color? Nothing I can do about it now, but.... With the water still running, I return to the front door, where my coat still lies forlorn on the ground. With some trepidation, I pull it aside, and underneath it is a slim, purple unicorn. Oh thank goodness. It’s not a deer after all. Either that or I’m still completely insane.

It’s easier to carry Twilight with my hands free of mittens. It feels strange, holding this icon of virtue in simple, human hands. She’s... smoothly fuzzy, like holding a giant, gangly rabbit. Not very warm at all though. I lower her into the water carefully, watching her face for any sign of pain. She’s starting to shiver at least, so I think that’s a good sign. I have never actually brought someone back from hypothermic collapse before, or ever brought someone into my house who wasn’t my sister, or my friend Nick... or ever placed someone into my bathtub... naked.

No, no, no she’s not human I am not going to think of her in that way. I am a scholar and a gentleman and I’m not even going to take a peek, even though it’s right freaking there with Twilight laying on her back in the water, legs splayed limply apart. Yes, I’m just going to be adjusting her hips to angle more downward now. Okay crisis averted.

I don’t know how Twilight’s here, or what she’s doing, but... I shut off the water with her immersed in it up to her neck, supporting her head while the little unicorn comes back to life. I must have forgotten the explosives strapped to my chest, because when she murmurs and opens vivid, glimmering violet eyes like amethyst gems, it feels like my heart is exploding. Those beautiful eyes crack open, just enough to see me.

Her silence speaks volumes.

“You’re safe now, it’s okay,” I tell her, not knowing if she’ll understand me, but speaking in soothing tones nonetheless. I release her chin and sit up straight, now that she’s awake and conscious. My back is sore and kinked from staying in that odd position for however many minutes it was.

“You saved me...” her quiet voice whispers out, as if she were amazed that such a thing would ever occur.

“I don’t know what humans you’ve encountered in the past,” I tell her gravely, “But I will never do anything to hurt you.”

“All... alright,” she says looking disoriented. “Where...?” she asks, looking around.

“I took you to my house,” I tell her, “You were freezing out there in the storm. Do you know... you’re in a different world, now?”

“Oh is that... what happened?” she asks, her lithe form shifting slightly as sensation returns beneath the tub’s lukewarm waters, “Need to find way back to... my friends...” she says sleepily.

“We should get you dry first,” I tell her, “You were getting really cold out there. I’ll go warm up the fire.”

After I’ve wrapped her in a warm blanket so she can sit shivering in front of a roaring fire, Twilight says softly but gracefully, “Thank you so much for taking me into your home. I don’t know what happened. One minute I was testing out an experimental teleportation spell, the next minute... snowstorm.”

“You must’ve teleported into my world!” I tell her, folding my own long legs to sit next to her, “Maybe if you cast the same spell again, you can go home!”

Twilight shakes her purple maned head at that, saying sadly, “It’s a lot more complicated than just throwing it in reverse. I just don’t know what went wrong exactly. I have to find out, experiment on a smaller scale, try to collect information about your world that may help, and try to contact my friends.”

“That sounds like a checklist to me!” I point out brightly.

“It does indeed!” Twilight says equally cheerfully, not otherwise moving her weary form, “And if there’s one thing I love, it’s checklists!”

Twilight doesn’t exactly look like she’s ripped straight out of the show. Her fur has texture, and she’s not two dimensional. In particular, her mane falls to the left of her neck, even when facing her right side. Though I suppose she could just flip it from one side of her neck to the other. She still has the striking pink stripe in her very dark purple mane, and her cutie mark is that unmistakable star. Her tail isn’t a flat blade, more of the shape of a long, flat paintbrush, and her mane is rough and dissheveled, rather than a perfectly combed bowl cut. Sensible, considering she was just out in a snowstorm.

I think the biggest difference is her voice. Twilight sounds... sort of like Tara Strong, but her voice is higher, a little sweeter, and she has an odd accent at times... she pronounces ‘s’ more like ‘z’ for instance. I can’t really put my finger on exactly what it is. Twilight’s Russian voice actor?

Twilight is still exhausted from her ordeal in the snow. She speaks with me for a while, but it isn’t long before her ears are drooping and her shoulders sagging. “Sorry, I’m... I’m still a bit tired...” she says bashfully, leaning against me with uncharacteristic weariness.

“No problem, Twilight!” I reply to her, catching her before she falls over, “Just um...” but she’s already asleep. Even sitting down, she barely comes up to my shoulder. Twilight does not have her wings yet it seems, but in a way, that makes her all the more adorable, and vulnerable. Just a vulnerable little purple unicorn, asleep in my arms.

As I hold Twilight Sparkle to my chest, I gaze into the dying fire in the fireplace, trying to divine its mysteries. What mysteries would have put an ordinary guy like me right here, right now, leaning together with a little purple unicorn, who sleeps the night away? My back starts to ache, but I endure it, because I just can’t bear to wake her. Eventually I start to drift off too, and when I wake up, slumped against the couch, a blanket has been placed over me, and Twilight is gone.

That’s when I hear her hoofsteps clopping on the wooden floor in the other room. Rising and following after, I’m treated to an amazing scene. She seems almost guilty when I come into the room and see her levitating things with her magic. “I–I–I’m sorry if I startled you!” she stutters, dropping the pen and paper and sliding the books back on the shelves.

“Sorry, it’s just... the first time seeing your magic!” I say in astonishment, “Can you cast real spells, and even teleport?”

“How d’you think I got here?” she asks with a smirk.

I stutter at that, “O-oh right, teleportation accident.”

“It’s n-no big deal, unicorns do this all the time,” Twilight says with an awkward smile, levitating a book as if to demonstrate. “I just couldn’t help but notice that you had some books in this room and wanted to check them out. This wouldn’t count as one of your world’s libraries, would it?”

I laugh at that, caught off guard, and say, “No, this is just my personal collection. You’re free to look through any of it if you like.”

“Thank you very much!” she says with a bright smile, “I don’t suppose I could visit one of your human libraries? I bet they have lots more books in there!”

Any doubt that it’s Twilight Sparkle is washed away when the first thing she asks of me is if she could visit the local library. Not even asking for food, but for books. I feel terrible telling her, “I’m afraid not. People aren’t exactly used to seeing ponies around here.”

“Oh, right hehe,” she replies with a blush, “You’ll have to excuse me being a little clueless about your world.”

“No problem,” I say agreeably, “Ask me anything and I’ll be happy to clarify.”

Perhaps that was a mistake.

I try to answer her barrage of questions, but they quickly go into mathematical stuff I have no clue about. “I can probably get a book on that,” I tell her regarding eigen...somethings, “But you’ll have to wait, unless you want to try the Internet.”

“What’s the Internet?” she asks with a look of innocent worry on her face.

“Oh, you are in for a treat,” I gush proudly, “Come on, let me show you what a computer is!”

She starts to follow, but then Twilight’s stomach growls loudly. Then my stomach growls loudly.

“Maybe we should eat something first, eheh...” she says with a cute little raised hoof.

“What do you want for breakfast?” I ask once we’re in the kitchen, going through my cabinet, “Not meat, I assume?”

“Oh, cereal is fine,” the little unicorn tells me, rubbing tiredly at her eye with the crook of her fuzzy arm, “Do you have any Hay Me Ohs?”

“I don’t have any hay, but will oatmeal work?” I ask her, getting a smile and a nod in response.

Opening the fridge, I wince at the sight of some beef stroganoff I got from the Italian place downtown. That and the salami, some chicken wings and what’s left of the ham stand out pretty starkly in my most certainly not vegetarian refrigerator. The milk will probably be safe though, so I grab the bottle out of the fridge, and pour Twilight Sparkle a bowl of toasted oats and milk.

She levitates a spoon to eat. Her magic is just like on the show. It surrounds her horn, and the spoon in sparkling, purple light before lifting the spoon up into the air, and depositing another spoonful of cereal in her mouth. Twilight eats ravenously, devouring what’s in the bowl, and floating it up to drink the milk inside. Setting it down with a clunk, the purple unicorn blushes and says, “Heh... could I have some more, please?”

I’m all too happy to oblige. “You sure eat a lot for a little pony,” I remark as she nears her second bowl of cereal.

“Oh, this is highly uncharacteristic,” she replies through a mouthful of cereal, “That storm really took a lot out of me.”

“I’ll say,” I tell her, “I was worried I’d have to take you to the hospital!”

Swallowing, Twilight gives me a wary look across the table, saying, “You didn’t take me to the hospital, did you?” With an abashed smile, she adds, “I’d hate to raise a fuss.”

“No I didn’t, don’t worry,” I tell her, “A pony like you appearing in our world is beyond incredible! People might... humans might fear you, or even try to hurt you! Not everyone is a nice guy like me. You probably don’t wanna be seen by too many people, or the government might try to capture you and experiment on you.”

“Oh no!” Twilight said in distress, “Are your kind really all that bad?”

“No, it’s just I’d like if you could let me deal with any humans you want to interact with,” I tell her with an appeasing smile, “Once we let the cat out of the bag, well, have you ever tried to put a cat into a bag?”

“Say no more,” Twilight says with a sympathetic smile, “I’m just sorry to have put such a burden on you, dropping in on you like this.”

“Oh, it’s no problem at all,” I tell her earnestly, “It’s an honor to be able to help you, or even meet you!”

“Really?” Twilight asks in surprise, “What’s so special about meeting me?”

“Twilight, I think there’s something I need to show you,” I calmly tell the purple unicorn, leaving her with the mystery of it until I’ve led Twilight Sparkle back to the room where my computer is.

“So... what’s this?” she asks, staring at the screen as it boots up and tilting her head, “Some sort of picture box?”

“It’s a computer,” I tell her, swiping the mouse to awaken it, “It can perform simple tasks, like decoding electrical signals, or doing mathematical calculations. One of the things it can do is show pictures, on this ‘picture box.’ The actual computer is down here, with various things connected so that we can control and configure it.”

“Fascinating!” she says, looking at the monitor, “So, what does it do now?”

“Well, let me show youuuu...” I say, trailing off as I remember that my desktop background is one of Twilight Sparkle posing... in a very sultry manner. I hastily open the file manager, covering that image up and stammer, “T-t-the computer is divided into files and... each file can be a picture or a movie...

“You know what a movie is, right?” I ask hopefully, pulling up the “ponies” folder.

“A moving picture?” she prompts uncertainly, as I immediately panic on seeing the subfolder labeled ‘porn’. Twilight continues to speak, staring fascinated at the screen as she says, “Technically a sequence of still images that produces the illusion of moving by cycling through them too rapidly for the eye to see?”

“Yes, that’s exactly it,” I reply tensely, right-clicking the ‘porn’ folder and renaming it to some random letters.

“What’s that?” Twilight asks curiously, at last looking at the folder. Just for good measure, I go to the folder options and select “hidden.”

“Oh, just some old stuff I was meaning to delete,” I say as the folder vanishes from sight. Trying to distract her, I say, “These files are organized into ‘folders’ that are collections of files.”

“Fascinating!” Twilight says, “Can some of these files be folders, too?”

“Yes indeed!” I tell her brightly, “And so folders can contain folders. But the files are what’s most important.”

“What are these... ‘files’? Twilight says, watching me select folders going to the one marked episodes then season 1. “They have different pictures, unlike the folders,” she observes.

I think I can show Twilight the show. I probably don’t want to show her season 3 and beyond because she’s not yet a princess, and it might be dangerous to see into her future. Season 1 should be safe, maybe even season 2.

“Each file is a sequence of data,” I explain, “That can be decoded into pictures, movies, even cartoons. Do you have cartoon movies in your world?”

“Cartoon?” Twilight asks curiously, “It doesn’t ring a bell.”

“When the pictures in the sequence of pictures are drawn images,” I tell her, “Instead of a sequence of photographs, they call that a cartoon”

“Sequences of drawings?” she replies in confusion, “How would a random sequence of drawings provide the illusion of movement?”

“They’re not random,” I explain, “They’re drawn as if they were a sequence of photographs, but since they’re drawings, you aren’t limited to movies of things you can photograph.”

“That’s... interesting,” she says skeptically, “Seems like a lot of work. You do realize how many frames per second is needed for smooth animation, right?”

“It is a lot of work,” I nod sadly, “But there are some things for which we have no other choice. Now, what I’m going to show you may be shocking, but I can promise you that these were just drawings, one frame after another drawn by hand purely from the artist’s imagination. An artist who had never seen you before, and never known you at all. Everything depicted here is fictional, just a story someone made up out of the blue. That’s why your presence in our world is so incredible, because of this cartoon. Check it out.” I hit play.

Twilight Sparkle perches her forehooves on my computer desk watches silently through the story of the two sisters. Predictably, when Twilight’s story begins, the Twilight in my world exclaims, “Is that me? “ She looks at me in worried confusion, saying, “I thought you said these were fictional!”

“They were!” I crow excitedly, “Nobody’s ever seen or heard of you in the entire world. They just wanted to do a story about ponies, and made up a random character, who was a little purple unicorn living in Canterlot.”

“Lilac,” Twilight mutters.

“What?”

She shakes her head, waving a hoof, “Nothing, just keep playing this. I want to see how much it matches up with my reality in Equestria.”

“Well alright,” I say wryly, “But considering who you are, I think you’re in for a trip down memory lane.”

“Even if I have seen it before,” Twilight says totally missing the joke, “It’s fascinating to see a new perspective on it. Literally, in my case! Wait, was that Lyra?”

We spend over half a day watching the entirety of season 1, pausing only to stop for a quick meal of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. “That was incredible!” Twilight says in excitement, getting right up to the computer screen. “Just like I remembered it!” She smiles at me with genuine gratitude, saying, “Thank you so much. Could I have a copy of these once I figure out a way to return home?”

“I suppose something could be arranged,” I tell her noncomittally, “But you might have trouble reading the magnetic disks. Plus I don’t want to endanger your world with our technology or anything.”

“Yes, taking things from other universes is usually a bad idea...” Twilight grumbles unhappily. But she respects my wishes and obeys, reluctantly, like she does with so many new things in her life.

The days I spend with Twilight Sparkle are some of the best days of my life. It’s just so heartwarming seeing her learn about the world all over again. She’s such a smart pony, but she knows so little. She needs me to show her how to use the television set, and grills me excitedly on how it works. The use of a ball point to deliver ink on paper is something world changing for her, while to me it’s just a fact of life.

It’s pure bliss seeing her dance around in the snow outside, a new mare from the frozen, exhausted animal that I found lost in the snowstorm. With my winter coat and hat on, and hands in my pockets, I walk through the woods we here in as she prances around without a care in the world, needing only an old scarf of mine to keep herself warm.

“Ponies are very well adapted to the cold,” she tells me in that cute intellectual voice of hers, “We’re something of a phenomenon back home. Even gryphons wonder how we survive so well without winter wear. Let me tell you I have trouble explaining that! To me it’s just natural. I can’t even imagine what it must be like to need clothing, such that you freeze to death if you have no clothing to protect you. Well, I suppose my last accident was sort of precisely that, but I still hadn’t even thought of clothes at the time, whereas you would had mere minutes to survive without any clothing in subzero...”

She chatters on like that, and I listen with amusement, accepting her for who she is. It’s definitely something the show got right. Twilight Sparkle loves her lectures. Twilight uses her magic too, for many things. Levitating silverware and ball point pens, reorganizing my books all at once, a snowball fight that I lost badly. Magic is just natural to her. At one point she says, “Is it alright if I use a spell on you really quick?”

“What spell is it?” I ask skeptically, “Not Want it Need it?”

“No that—” Twilight huffs, scrunching up her muzzle, “That can only be cast on inanimate objects, and I learned my lesson there, twice! I’m just talking about a simple scanning—er—spell.” She blushes, looking up at me with admiration, “I’m just so fascinated by how you—I mean—how your species works. How you get enough air in your lungs when running around, how your heart pumps all that blood so high. You are a...” she lifts a hoof, looking away and stammering, “Y-your species is a fascinating one, like nothing else on your planet. Even ponies are similar to donkeys or zebras in my world, but your closest relatives don’t even walk on two legs!”

“It’s alright, it’s alright Twilight,” I laugh, hands upraised in surrender. “As long as it doesn’t do anything weird, I’m fine with it.”

It tingles when she casts it, sweeping a pink magical beam back and forth across my body, but that’s about it. I suppose it could have given me tumors or something, but something tells me that cute little unicorn couldn’t cast something harmful even if she tried. She comes from a world where the worst that anypony did to hurt each other was throwing pies. She doesn’t understand how cruel the real world can be, but I’m happy to be there to protect her from it, try to preserve her innocence as long as I can.

Twilight is worried when I have to leave her, but I assure her that everything will be fine. “I’m just going to work,” I tell the anxious purple unicorn, “It’s something humans do every day, to survive.”

“How long will it take?” she asks nervously, “I want to know when you’ll be coming back.”

“9 or 10 hours,” I tell her, “Usually around 9.”

“That’s practically all day!” she whines, “What’s so important that it takes all day?”

“Well, I watch a... store,” I tell her, “I sell things to people who come by, and make sure the store’s shelves are stocked.”

“Oh, so... kind of like Rarity’s boutique?” Twilight asks innocently.

“Yes, just like that,” I tell her sadly, “I have to go every weekday, or I’ll lose the house and be living on the streets.”

“Oh, that’s so sad...” she says sympathetically, “I can’t believe you humans spend so much time working!”

“Well, that’s why we humans achieve so much,” I say a bit smugly, “While ponies stay stuck in past. Now let’s go over the checklist before I have to leave.”

“Oh, alright,” Twilight says, brightening, “So... first, I can get myself anything I need to eat for the day, second, I should never answer the door, and only you will have the key, and third, you’ll be gone for about 9 hours, maybe more. Anything else to add to the checklist?”

“I think that’s good,” I say shouldering my bag, “I’ll see you when I get back!”

“Thank you so much!” Twilight says, blushing and holding up a hoof, “...for everything.”

“It’s no problem, purple smart,” I tell her with a wink.

“Purple what?” she asks, but I’m already outside and locking the door.

My best friend Nick still likes to have lunch with me. Why he never moved out of this town, I have no clue. He’s a pretty amazing guy though, one of the few people I genuinely like to be around. He’s probably the best thing that ever happened to this town.

Nicholas Spears. I met him back in college; we hit it off really well from our shared dislike of our statics instructor. But he soon became one of my best, and longest friendships. He has a wry sense of humor, and a sort of happy-go-lucky attitude, in a self deprecating sort of way. Somehow he kept his soul from getting crushed by this nowhere city, and even thrived in it. He’s just always been there for me, and... and Twilight Sparkle might be the first time I ever had to keep a secret from him.

“Oh, let’s just say I’ve had my eyes opened about some things,” I tell him mysteriously over a chicken nugget platter.

“Not gonna tell me what?” he asks predictably. From the darkest heart of Africa about... six generations back, he’s as much of a mongrel as anyone in the continental U.S. with short cut curly black hair and auburn skin. I think he also has German ancestry. I don’t exactly know the details. What I do know is his appearance. Six feet, tall, we meet eye to eye. Wrapped in a thick coat with one of those furry caps with the ear flaps on the side, he’s still more comfortable about the cold than I am, despite any superficial hints that he would be more comfortable at southerly latitudes.

“If I told you, then I wouldn’t be not going to tell you, now would I?” I tell him with a wink.

“I don’t even wanna try to parse that sentence,” he says with a roll of his eyes, “So I’m supposed to refit the old train bridge, but I think my calculations are a bit screwy. Mind taking a look?”

He’s so nice to me that way. I didn’t make it through college like he did, but we did study the same area, so I help where I can. I just don’t have the head for numbers, though. My dream was building... stuff. It wasn’t a very well thought out dream. Mostly because stuff has already been built, all the stuff I could possibly imagine to design. One builder cannot compete with a factory full of slaves in Taiwan. And really, I was... okay with that. Leave it to others to run the world. I just live here. Me and my purple unicorn mare, Twilight Sparkle.

I return to her every night, and every night she is happy to see me. To learn from me how my world works. To help me live in that world, become a better person. The first night is the hardest. She even cries a little. She didn’t know if I was ever coming back. I have to protect her innocence from this uncaring world of mine. Making a firm decision, I go into my refrigerator, and throw away the salami, and the leftover ham, and the chicken wings, and now I have no meat in my fridge to traumatize her with. It’s about time I started making some changes in my life anyway, to be the more responsible man. I have someone else to live for now, after all.

I teach her my special recipe for tossed tomato salad, and she loves it. I teach her about pizza delivery, and all the conveniences of a modern household. Even when things go wrong, it’s a blessing to be able to take care of this amazing mare. Like once she asks me to show her vegetable cutting techniques that make use of my hands (an endless source of fascination for the hands-free purple unicorn). She’s too excited to try it in her magic to compare, and in tugging the knife away from my hands, she ends up slicing me.

It’s just a little cut, but I strongly chastize her for acting so brashly, without my approval. I know how this world works, so Twilight Sparkle should listen to me, instead of ignoring me and arguing with me. In that, she’s like a little angel. She gets so worried for me, caring for me and using a paper towel in her magic to compress my finger until the bleeding stops, then carefully applying a band-aid to me. Twilight never picks a fight with me, and she is always the first to back down, so that I can explain things to her, and nurture her into the beautiful mare that I see her as.

Not to say that I’m always the one supporting her. We support each other. The day I introduced her to Netflix, she naively chooses a film called Titanic. I try to warn her that it’s a terribly sad film, but Twilight just blinks innocently at me and says, “Because the ship sinks? It can’t be that bad, can it?”

I can’t say no to that look, and she does genuinely enjoy the historical significance of the film up until the end. Twilight can’t enjoy the end of the movie because it always reduces me to helpless sobbing tears.

“They almost... and the lifeboats... and the grandmothers and the babies...” I try to express, while Twilight worriedly daubs at my cheeks with a levitating handkerchief.

“Oh no, Aaron, I’m so sorry, I didn’t think...” she murmurs, forgetting the movie entirely out of worry for me. It’s the most anyone’s ever been worried for me in my entire life, and it just came naturally to her. She’s just that kind of person, or, pony, to care so deeply for someone that she only just met a week ago. I can’t count how many times I feel blessed that she came into my life.

We’re laying together on the couch, wrapped in a blanket and watching season 2, that weekend. I decide to allow her to watch that season, because Twilight says that she fought changelings at a wedding once, so I think it’s safe to show her season 2 at least. With me laying back relaxed, and her snuggled into my side, resting her cute little pony nose on my chest, it doesn’t really matter to me what we’re watching, only that we’re together. I give her a little hug as the wedding finale comes to a close, and she sighs dreamily, saying,

“I hope one day I can have a wedding like that, singing, kissing my true love, riding into the sunset... my brother truly is the luckiest stallion in the world.”

“No, I’m the luckiest one,” I tell her in a contented rumble, “Because I have you here with me.”

Twilight blushes furiously at that, fiddling her hooves together and saying shyly, “G-goodness you don’t t-think that. I’m just an ordinary mare.”

“Oh you’re much more than an ordinary mare,” I gently correct her.

She looks at me, softly saying, “Aaron...” Her purple pony snout is so cute, and her limpid, scintillating eyes capture my attention. She’s so close...

My cell phone goes off again.

“What is that beeping noise, anyway?” Twilight asks, turning to follow her ear to my bag.

“Sorry, I really should get that,” I tell her, “I was supposed to... oh damn, Nick!”

She blinks at me wide-eyed, so I explain, “I totally forgot with you here. I was going to go out with Nick this Saturday.”

“Oh, is he a friend of yours?” Twilight asks curiously.

Nodding, I say, “Yeah and I bet he’s trying to get a hold of me. Oh I am such an idiot. Hold on one sec.”

I don’t make it before the phone stops ringing, but sure enough there are three missed calls, not from solicitors, but from Nick.

“Nick?” I say calling him back.

“Aaron, what’s up?” he replies in his friendly tenor, “You weren’t answering your phone today. New project got your attention?”

“No, it’s...” should I tell him? Would he be able to help at all? What would Twilight think of it? “Nothing’s up I was just watching some shows,” I tell him, seeing the fear in my unicorn’s violet eyes.

My eyes join her in fear when he says over the phone, “I’m right outside! Can I come in?”

“He’s here?!” Twilight blurts out.

Her pupils then narrow with her mouth hanging open as Nick replies, “Is there a girl with you? Seriously?”

“No, it’s the uh,” I try to think up an answer while Twilight grimaces angrily and exclaims much more quietly,

“Sh... oot!” with a little hoof stomp.

“The TV’s still on,” I tell him, trying to sound confident, “You must’ve heard something from there.”

“Oh, good,” Nick replies in relief, “It’d be a cold day in hell before I’d expect to see you bring home a lady friend.”

“Hey!” I assert to him, “I’ll find the right girl someday. I’m just patient!”

“You’re a patient sorceror,” he drawls, less than convinced.

I hear a snort that sounds like a chuckle from Twilight, but she actually looks really worried, whispering tightly, “You can use magic?!”

“Ssh!” I tell her, covering up the phone briefly. Then I say lazily into it, “At least I made it past 30 without a bad breakup.”

“Touchè,” he replies solemnly, “So are you gonna let me in or what?”

“Sure I uh,” I say loudly, then covering up the phone again I hiss at her, “Can you turn invisible?”

She shakes her head worriedly.

“Hide somewhere?” I ask.

“I’ll find somewhere,” Twilight says, galloping off with a clip-clop of her little swift hooves.

“Alright, I’m coming to the front door,” I announce to Nick.

“’kay,” he replies easy enough.

When I hang up and let him in, Nick smiles at me and says, “So, where’s she hiding? Laundry hamper?”

“What? Where’s who hiding?” I ask nervously.

“Your car’s the only one that fits in the garage,” he says, taking off his coat, “And you wouldn’t turn a lady out into the cold. So who’s this mysterious lady? A girlfriend, perhaps?”

“S-she’s not my girlfriend!” I protest, blushing hard, “I just met her last week!”

“Still reeling her in, huh?” he asks, waggling his eyebrows, “I can see wedding bells in the future~”

“I-it’s not like that!” I stammer, blushing red.

“So it’s not like that,” Nick speculates, “But it is like something?”

“No uh... yes uh...” I say warily.

Twilight shouts from the other room then, saying, “Well, no point in hiding it now! Aaron, could I have a word?”

Now Nick is really amazed, for all the wrong reasons.

She’s hiding in my bedroom, while Nick takes off his coat and boots, fully expecting me to have a word with an ordinary human girl. Leaving him to that, I hurry back there, where I find Twilight is waiting, standing beside the bed. The lower edges of the bedsheets are disturbed... was she hiding under the bed?

“I’ve already deduced that Nick is a discerning individual who is going to incredulously interrogate you,” the purple unicorn says irritably, “And your attempts to deceive him would just result in more inquiry, putting both of us in danger before he ultimately uncovered the truth. As a good friend of mine once said, honesty is the best policy, and frankly I don’t think you have a deceitful bone in the body.”

Oh, if only she knew the secrets I have to keep from her, about how dangerous the human world is, full of haters and wars, and degenerate pornographers that totally don’t have a folder dedicated to their art on my computer.

“So who’s this ‘Nick?’” Twilight asks innocently, “Does he like the show, too?”

“Like it? He introduced me to it!” I declare, “I was having a... hard time with getting shot down, by a... a girl...” I lose a bit of my enthusiasm as I recall the exact event, “And he was just... he was the only one who cared. Everyone else thought it was nothing, like I had any other girl I could be with, but he... well, he sat me down in front of what I thought was a ‘lame, little girl’s show’ and by the time I’d watched a few episodes I felt... better, you know? I mean...”

I have to blush heavily now as I realize I’m technically talking to a girl right now. Smooth move, Casanova. “You don’t know, but guys in my... world have it kind of hard with romantic... stuff.”

“It sounds like she really hurt you,” Twilight says quietly, “I’m sorry to hear you had to go through something like that. I’m just glad the show helped you feel better.”

“Yeah, it wasn’t to be,” I try to laugh, rubbing the back of my head, “But he does things like that. I mean, he always knows how to cheer me up.”

“Sounds like somepony I know,” Twilight says with a more genuine chuckle in return.

“I think you already know who his favorite pony is,” I reply with a raised eyebrow.

“I just don’t know if we should tell everypony,” she says, fidgeting with her mane, “What if Nick goes to the authorities? Or the scientists? Or the press?”

“I know it’s not safe to tell anyone,” I tell her, “I really am thinking of your safety. But he’s not gonna let you down, he’s... special. Maybe him, maybe my sister, but I think you can trust Nick not to tell anyone about this.”

“Well, okay, if you think it is wise, then I trust you,” she says, looking up at me worried, but accepting of my judgement.

“Okay Nick,” I tell my friend still patiently waiting out front, “You can come back now.”

“Alright, who died?” he asks, crossing his arms, and putting a damper on that smile of his.

“I am serious,” I tell him, “I want you to prepare to have your mind blown!”

“I’ll believe that when I see it,” he drawls, “Alright let’s see this thing.”

“It’s less of a thing,” I say, “And more of a her.”

“I know it’s a her,” he says chidingly, “You’ve been talking with her for the last five minutes!” At my blush, he adds, “Don’t worry I couldn’t hear what you were talking about.”

“Look I’ll just...” I walk stiffly into the other room, “Just come with me, okay?”

“You need to relax, Aaron,” Nick replies chidingly, following along with me, “I was just kidding with you,”

“I know, but this isn’t something I can joke about,” I tell him, “You wouldn’t believe it if you didn’t see it.”

“Fine, what’s this amazing...” he says coming into the bedroom. A little purple unicorn is still there, on the bed now with her legs neatly folded under her, reading through a book she found. She looks up when we walk in, and uses her magic to close the book, just a random auto manual.

“Hello there!” she says with a pleasant smile, “You must be Nick!”

“Nope,” Nick says, turning around and walking stiffly the other way, “Nope.”

“Nick, wait—” I say turning to look after him, but he just shouts behind himself, “Nope!”

By the time I get to the front he’s already jammed his boots on and vanished out the door. I hear his truck’s engine start, and then pull out of my driveway. The crackle of snow tires diminishes as he drives away.

“Well that was interesting,” Twilight remarks, leaving the bedroom and striding up to stand beside me, as I stand there looking out the open front door to my house in shock.

I close the door, turning to look at her fearfully. “I did not know he would react that bad,” I tell her, sweating bullets, “So what is he gonna do now? Go to the police? You might have to hide out! I don’t want them to catch you, or you might never get home!”

“He’s coming back,” Twilight states, flicking an ear. What?

Then I start to hear a truck driving back down the street, pulling up in my driveway again. Boots clomping to the door, Nick opens it himself.

“Sorry!” Nick shouts into the house with a shit-eating grin, “I’ve always wanted to do that!”

Ugggh. “And that is how Nick would react,” I grumble, rubbing at my forehead with the palm of my hand.

...

“You know when I said you had a girl, I didn’t mean a mare,” Nick tells me chidingly he walks lazily back into the room we’re in.

“I’m as surprised as you are,” I tell him, looking at Twilight fondly, “It’s just been such an amazing adventure, ever since the day that a little purple unicorn came into my life.”

“Lilac,” Twilight grumbles.

“What?” I ask, not quite hearing her.

“I was just going to say how glad I am that I came into your life,” Twilight tells me with a grateful smile, “You and your friend both, I am ever so grateful to you for saving me!”

“What’d Aaron save you from?” Nick asks curiously.

“The snowstorm last month,” I reply for Twilight, “Twilight had a teleportation accident, and wound up stuck in the middle of it!”

“You seriously found Twilight Sparkle?” Nick asks, then turning from me to peer at the unicorn mare. “You are seriously Twilight Sparkle?” he asks her.

“In the flesh,” she says puffing her chest proudly, “I hear you humans have heard a lot about me!”

“Boy have they, but I thought it was fake!” he exclaims, openly staring at the unicorn standing in front of him, “Are the others real too?”

“Others?” Twilight says uncertainly.

“You know, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttersh—”

“Oh,” Twilight realizes hastily, “Yes, they’re real too. We got separated during a freak teleportation incident and well... here I am.”

“Amazing!” Nick says, “You have to tell me all about it.”

“Oh, there’s not much to tell,” Twilight says, blushing and turning her head, “You have seen the show after all.”

Author's Note

Well, here it is, the story that’s been eating my brain lately. I just want to let everyone know beforehand, that Twilight Sparkle is my hero, and I think she’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. Just in case you start to wonder. Because you probably will. However, I cannot call this a self insert, as I am sadly not nearly as dumb as our beloved protagonist. I just like first person stories. They’re silly. :derpytongue2:

This story is upsetting, and thrilling, and dumb, and edgy, and triggering, and outright pornographic, because I’m allowed to write whatever outrageous stuff comes into my head, and not held to some arbitrary standards of decency or modesty. As someone who’s gotten kind of... left behind while society marches on, I simply haven’t got anything to lose. So don’t say I didn’t warn you.

In For a Pound

Twilight Sparkle and Nicholas Spears get along just fine, though he’s desperately curious to know everything there is to know about Equestria. I think it’s kind of embarassing her to talk with such an ardent fan, as flustered as she gets with his questions, so I hurry out to the kitchen and throw together some sandwiches. Just to help break the ice. Of course since I’ve removed all meat from my life, they’re just cheese sandwiches, but I do my best to make sure they’re full of tasty veggies!

We all end up getting along really well as the day wears on, both of us laughing at Nick’s jokes, even as he playfully insists he’s being totally serious. She shows him her magic, remarking that he appears to be blood type A, as her hornlight dances over him. He says he honestly never checked before, since it’s not the sort of thing you have to say when you donate blood.

The three of us play Stepmania, but Twilight kicks both our butts, considering she has four feet and all. She takes her victory modestly and gracefully though, and even after Nick takes a fall, she’s all over him with concern. I show her how you put alcohol on scrapes to sterilize the wound, and Nick to his credit barely winces at all as Twilight gingerly daubs his knee with the cotton ball held in her magic.

“In my world we have potions to prevent infection,” she says incredulously, “But I never would have thought of using alcohol! How does it work?”

Ho boy.

Nick is amazing, as always. He keeps Twilight’s secret, and helps out however he can in her search. I continue to use the Internet to search for her, when I’m not busy at my job that is. Twilight’s presence makes me start thinking of the future, and my role in it. Working at a convenience store pays the bills, but it does not pay enough to feed two.

Twilight insists that she can subsist on cheap hay, but I am determined to make her stay in this world as pleasant as I can, so I start reading through classified ads, trying to find better work. It’s not easy for someone without a college degree, but for the first time in my life, I’m ready to do it, for her.

She’s a pony, an animal. I should not be having these feelings for her. I mean, yes I am a liberated progressive, so I can accept those of us who do have some of the stranger tastes in erotic material. I don’t hold it against anyone if they feel that way; a strong, emotional connection with anything can make you yearn for more. But I knew that any feelings I had for Twilight Sparkle would be forbidden by the world. Nick knew I got into some of that stuff, but thus far I have had to keep it a secret from everyone else.

I don’t know how much of a secret I can keep my desires from a beautiful being living every day by my side. She may be a person, a genuinely sapient being, but she is completely naive about a human’s need to cover their shame. What is paradise to me, to her is merely a body part. Clothing is a tool to her, not an obligation, and she makes very little use of this tool when inside my heated house. Seeing her forbidden womanhood flash before me at the subtlest of times, it’s not doing well for my restraint or modesty.

“As a matter of fact, it’s considered what you humans might see as indecent to wear clothing,” Twilight tells me on one such occasion, “In particular, there are ponies who bring socks into play, and one particularly suggestive thing is any clothing that covers up your cutie mark.”

Twilight shows me her cutie mark then, in the least modest way possible, with her tail flipped up and everything. The tail naturally curls upwards somewhat, but... suffice to say I’m not spending a lot of time looking at Twilight Sparkle’s cutie mark. It’s purely scientific interest, I try to tell myself. I see her cutie mark all the time, but reproductive organs were apparently censored in the show. Seeing how Twilight’s fit so softly but neatly between her legs is... fascinating. In a scientific sense.

“Thus, there’s a reason ponies rarely wear pants,” Twilight said practically, “Some see it as concealing one’s nature, in order to... remove any inhibitions between partners.” Her tail gives a little quiver at that, barely noticeable, but it’s there.

“So, Rarity’s dresses...” I say, in shock.

Twilight nods, facing me with a blush. “Your show didn’t reveal the real reason for our reluctance to... trust her creative inspiration in Dressed for Success. Many of us were reluctant to cover our flanks, for fear that a stallion might think we wanted him to... uncover them.” Okay, definite tail shiver there.

“But your idea for a dress covered your flank, too,” I tell her critically, trying not to look at that smooth, round rump of which we are conversing.

Twilight blushes even more at that, saying, “Yeah... I kind of got caught up in the idea of designing a dress. It had to cover my flank for all the constellations to acceptably fit. And Fluttershy was... trying to go with both her, and Rarity’s ideas. The other three kept their flanks safely bared.”

“Safely bared,” I say skeptically, “As if a stallion couldn’t just climb on and...”

“Well, why would he?” Twilight asks innocently, tilting her head.

“Uh, n-never mind,” I say nervously, “So, you wore her dresses?”

“Only once she showed us that the designs exemplified our cutie marks, so weren’t attracting any stallions of ill repute...” Twilight explains, giving a nervous little laugh and adding, “Well, let’s just say that Rarity’s gala dresses were the forerunners of a very risquè fashion trend.”

I swear that Twilight is trying to bring up these lewd topics of conversation, without just coming out and saying she likes me. I think she’s just so shy, that a brilliant mare like her has to talk around the issue in order to approach it. But I do believe she’s becoming attracted to me. The question is, can I reciprocate, when Twilight Sparkle isn’t a human, or an anthro? It’s so wrong, but this beautiful little unicorn is opening up to me, and revealing herself to me, and...

We’re cuddling on the couch when it happens. I think I said something like, “How was the movie?” and her response was to look me, eye to violet, luminescent eye and say,

“Aaron, I...”

Then she kisses me. Soft hesitance turns to thrilling passion, as she leans into me, and surprised, I shakily wrap my arms around her small frame. Her kiss feels wonderful, not in any way as horrifying as I feared. I could swear her lips taste of grapes, before they part from mine.

She breaks from the kiss, to light up her horn, then rushes in to kiss me again, and it’s all I can do to avoid drowning in her embrace. She’s so tiny, how can she appear so powerful? She just pushes me down, and climbs on top of me, defying her diminutive size with a fiery, intense passion. I feel her arcane sorcery... tugging down the zipper of my pants.

Is this really happening? I can’t believe that Twilight, my little Twilie wants me to be a man for her. “Oh, Aaron, what is this feeling, ,” she growls in a lust I’ve never thought that voice capable of, “I don’t know why, but I can’t stop it. I can’t hold back anymore. I need this so much.”

Her tail strokes the very thing that makes he a man, my... my stiffening member, and an indulgent smile fills her face, as Twilight says, “You’re getting ready for me, I can feel it...”

“I-it’s just a physical reaction,” I say nervously, “Humans do that all the time. D-do you know where a penis is supposed to go?”

“It goes somewhere?” she gasps, rubbing her body against me as I lay back onto the couch. Her magic’s got my pants around my knees, and with a shock, I realize that her warm purple hips have come to rest firmly against my stiff erection. “I want to press it into me, here...” she says passionately, “I need it, need to rub my fillyhood, and... and do what a mare does, for you, Aaron.”

We’re so close! Just a little bit, and we’d be making babies! Baby ponies? Her hips leave a trail of wetness along my rod. It’s all I can do not to just jam it into her. “We shouldn’t, Twilie,” I tell her in concern, my very male instincts surging in me as she gyrates on the very tip of my cock, “What would people think?”

How could I want to deflower such a perfect mare? I’ve never felt more like a man in how much I want to drive into those purple furry hips, and make Twilight Sparkle a mother. How could Twilight be so taken by passion, ready to make me a man, without any hesitation? She’s angling my manhood up so her wide, but small hips can line up with it, no words, just simple desire. How could she be so incredible? No girl’s ever done this to me before!

“I–I don’t know if I could hold back, if you put it in,” I pant, my dick outright throbbing as she straddles it. “You could get hurt!”

“Don’t care, I want it anyway,” she says petulantly, sinking on—gah, she’s like an oven in there! “F.. oh... uh...” she murmurs, sinking her hips onto my pole. At the hot, gooey wonder my penis discovers within her, I grab those hips. My hands wrap right around her twin cutie marks, as she slams them home with a surprisingly loud squeal, her whole passage wrapped slickly around me, her stretched labia grinding up against my pelvis.

It’s like an explosion, what just happened to us. Like a hurricane, and in the aftermath, my penis is embedded in the birth canal of Twilight Sparkle. Right. Now. We pant heavily, looking at each other, wide, purple eyes meeting soft brown.

“T-twilight, I’m inside you!” I say in anxious amazement. “I didn’t think it would be this hot!” Twilight’s flesh presses against me, all around my throbbing shaft, every inch feeling her secret passage, hot and slick, and squeezing around me. “I can feel your v-vagina!” I whisper urgently, because I can. I can feel it with my penis, because this adorable purple unicorn has taken my penis so deeply, there’s no distance between us. Her flushed vulva grind wetly against my pelvis

“It’s incredible...” Twilight Sparkle breathes, staring forward in wonder, “So big. ”

“You... you feel so hot, and wet,” I tell her, “I can’t believe how good it feels! I can only imagine what it’s like for you! All you can s-say is I’m big, but I think I’m average siIIIZED–!” She’s lifting her hips, sliding out, and sliding around me. This is incredible!

With me falling speechless from the feeling of fucking a girl taking over my mind, Twilight Sparkle moans, “Oh, yes!” as again and again, the petite mare sinks her hips down onto my shaft. I don’t even have time to bless the ground she walks on and the air she breathes, because I’m making love to this unicorn. She starts sliding me in and out, and at the incredible tingling friction her slippery cunt raises in me, I can’t help but take her.

We don’t even have time to turn off the television. To think that I finally know what it’s like to make love to a girl, and it was a pony who showed it to me. Twilight kisses me again, and I have to hunch over to kiss her, wrapping my thick arms around her as she gyrates on my naked penis. Her slick tunnel feels like electricity on the sensitive, velvety skin of my shaft. I want to be inside her. I need to be inside her. And I am. Her hips are devouring me ravenously.

“Aaron, it’s been so long,” Twilight Sparkle moans, those surprisingly spacious purple hips gyrating on top of mine with an ancient, primal rhythm, short shallow strokes that keep me deep inside her. Not even willing to pull out of me more than an inch, her wetness starts smearing all over my groin as she grinds against me. “I want everything you have to give me,” she says senselessly, “Make me a mare, please. Here. Now.”

Soon we’re both earnestly thrusting, though it’s hard for me to thrust much without lifting her whole body up. I can’t believe how good it feels. How good she feels! How much I want it. There’s not a lot of talking now, for quite a while. Twilight’s riding me like I was the pony. I don’t think I could stop if I tried. All I can think about is it happening inside her. I am going to climax, and it’s going to be as deep inside her as possible, yet still I mate with her. Resistance flickers in my lust drunk brain, but before I know it, Twilight gives another high squeal and sinks, quivering onto my shaft, as her birth canal comes alive around me.

I’m too shocked to move. A moaning Twilight Sparkle is having an orgasm, and I’m in the middle of it. I can feel her... her spasms. I am going to cum inside that pony. I roll the insensate unicorn on her back to the couch, and hunch over her, desperate to stay in her beautiful body and cum.

When I press her down, Twilight’s eyes flutter open, and her high yell of surprise as I start pistoning in her orgasming cunt is music to my ears. She’s panting, staring up at me lovingly with her hooves curled above her chest, hind legs braced against me, but not stopping me from entering her again and again. I surround her with my body, burying that unicorn in the couch cushions, bucking my hips like an animal. It’s amazing, more wonderful than I could have imagined, and I can only think about filling the unicorn with my seed. Come on....

With a “Oh... oh... oh fffffuck yeah...!” I fall over the precipice, my climax rushing through me like a runaway freight train. Staring down at the beautiful unicorn in shock, I cum, completely embedded in her hot, wet, tight birth canal. All I’m doing is holding her little hips against mine and orgasming, and despite my worries, my penis just keeps ejaculating into her. Yes that’s how it works, but to experience it is just... incredible. It just keeps happening!

Once, twice, three times, I feel a terrible significance as my seed vanishes into her mysterious depths, and my penis quiets in its compulsive spurts. Did I just impregnate her? Did I just cum inside Twilight Sparkle? Where the heck did I just put my penis?! What would the kids be like??

In the end, Twilight Sparkle is a cooing, panting wreck beneath me, and I feel like it’s me who should be in that position, even if my heavy, rough breaths could never pass as cooing. I don’t even know how that just happened, how we just happened, but we did. What did I just do to her? Is this dissheveled unicorn going to bear a foal, now? Or, a baby? How could she not, after an experience like that!

All I know is my penis is surrounded by her birth canal, embedded so deeply in her hips. She’s freaking impaled on my dick! I just climaxed, and I didn’t even think. It just happened to me. To us. I think about my seed, pooling inside her even more deeply than where my shaft is held right now. It’s all I can think about. I just did that! It’s still inside her, and I can’t stop it from... from impregnating her!

“I... I didn’t...” I tell her at a loss for words. What do you say to someone who you just did this with?

“That was incredible!” Twilight replies, looking up at me with a happy sigh, “I didn’t think it would feel this good!”

My breath catches in my throat. “You mean to say this is your first time?” I ask her incredulously.

“What? N-no!” she scrunches her snout, which would be a lot more innocent if I weren’t kneeling there atop her, with my softening shaft still buried in her furry purple hips. “I’ve done this lots of times! With stallions!” she says, looking the other way, “W-why would you think I didn’t?”

“Don’t lie to me, Twilie,” I tell her chidingly. I jerk back, when for a moment, just a moment, she spears me with a fierce, burning glare, just out of nowhere. Then she blushes, and rubs at her face, groaning creakily,

“Is it that obvious?”

“It’s okay if you’re inexperienced,” I tell her gently, “But are you angry with me? I meant no harm in what I said.”

“No, I’m... I’m fine,” Twilight says, returning her hooves to her chest, with a grateful, honest smile that is like a ray of sunshine, “Better than fine, even! I didn’t know it would go so far, so quickly!”

She teleports away before I can answer, reappearing beside the couch and dropping to stand on her hooves. Hunched over thin air, my penis is suddenly cold, and drops to tap against the couch cushion.

“Doesn’t seem to have damaged anything...” Twilight says distractedly, walking in a circle and innocently checking herself out, looking at her own deflowered fillyhood like she would look at a shopping list, or a tax report.

Actually... with Twilight Sparkle, I wouldn’t put it past her to be into both those things.

“I didn’t know it’d go so far either,” I tell her feeling a little shaken by it honestly, “It was just... a moment of passion!”

“Yes, we kissed, and then... I... wanted more,” Twilight says, fidgeting on her hooves and afraid to look at me. “D-did I do it right? I’ve never been with a stallion oh Celestia did we just do that? I don’t know how to be a special somepony. Are we special someponies now? Did I really make you feel... that way about me?”

“That’s a lot of questions, Twilie,” I point out, “But yes, you did it right. I sure enjoyed it at least. Yes, we just did that. We don’t have to be special someponies if you’re not ready for that yet. And yes, you do make me feel that way.

“You’re an incredible mare, Twilight Sparkle,” I tell her, sitting normally on the couch and cinching up my pants. I probably should clean my penis, but they’re her juices on my shaft, and I kind of want her to be close to me right now. So I just kind of... pull up my pants, and let God sort things out. “You are smart and brilliant, and full of love for your friends. In these past months, I’ve had nothing but respect for you, not as an object, but as a strong, independent woman.”

Shaking my head, I say somewhat regretfully, “When you’re a male, a human male at least, during puberty a certain part of you grows larger, and more sensitive. More powerful. You start wanting to use it to penetrate people. You just kind of feel that way, no matter what.

Crossing my arms before Twilight, I say seriously, “That’s not enough, though. Girls think that’s all it takes, but there’s so much more to it. Every time I’ve seen your marehood, it’s made me want to have sex, but I also need to respect you as a person before I’m comfortable going all the way. Being a male forces me to want to have sex with you, because you’re female, but that’s just a physiological reaction. I can just ignore it, if it’s a bad idea. No amount of male urges will ever make me do it to someone who didn’t ask me first.”

Smiling, I bend forward and lay a kiss on Twilight’s purple forehead, right next to her horn, “And you really asked for it. I feel physical attraction to you, but you also have an amazing personality, and the moment was just right, there on that couch, so it just happened, like magic.” Laying back against the couch, I hold my hands behind my head, saying, “There’s just one thing that I’m worried about.”

“What’s that?” Twilight asks, climbing on the couch to sit beside me again, sitting like Lyra.

“Can a human and a pony have a child?”

A snort of laughter just bursts out of her, and now Twilight’s struggling to contain her chortles to giggles. “Aaron, we’re not even the same species!” she chirps at me chidingly, “How would that even work? Do humans even have spermatogenesis?”

“For the same reason you have trains, and door-knobs,” I gently correct her, “And clothing, and you speak English. For the same reason you and I can make love, despite our different sizes. There are undeniable connections between our worlds, and your world is magical. Your womb is magical. The fact that you’re here with me now is impossible. Is it so hard to imagine that an impossible child might form?”

“I–I can’t be pregnant!” Twilight protests with her expressive pony face full of worried anxiety, “My womb isn’t... isn’t that magical!”

“It seems pretty magical to me,” I say with a chuckle, laying a large hand upon her soft round belly, “In here, you have egg cells. Your body makes them, to turn them into a foal. You have a womb inside you that the foal will grow in. Everything about your very female body is prepared to undergo an amazing transformation. Twilie, I can provide the sperm, but you alone can create a foal. You can create a person. A little seed, and everything in your body will work together to create a foal, grow them large in your belly, until you’ve got a real, honest-to-gosh person inside you ready to be born.”

Looking at my pants between my legs, where my man tool is now safely concealed, I fold my arms and say, “And I’ve got what, five or six inches? No, you have the true magic, Twilight Sparkle, because your body can create life. Your body can create a soul! Creating life that is a hybrid of a human and a pony isn’t much of a stretch beyond that.”

“Wow...” Twilight says, looking up at me with wide sparkling eyes from where she sits on her haunches on the floor beside the couch, “I never thought of it that way.” She really is the Twilie that I know and love. My sweet, innocent little Twilie.

“We’ll just have to take things as they come,” I tell her. “If you are pregnant... I want to be there for you.”

“Really?” she says full of hope, “You’ll be the father to my foal?”

“I’d like to be,” I tell her, “But let’s take things slowly for now. You might not even be pregnant.”

“Oh, y-yeah,” she says, fiddling with her forehooves.

“We can always try again later,” I point out with a smirk. I think she’s going to die of blushing, hiding her face in her forearms.

We do try again later, in fact, and it’s even more amazing than the first time. I’m just standing there dusting the cabinet when Twilight comes to me. “Mmm,” she says coiling around my legs like a cat, “I was thinking about children, Aaron, and it made me want you, want you to put them into me.”

Hopping up on the couch, Twilight presents for me, and honest to gosh she winks at me! “It’s like you said,” she says quietly, “My body is made to bear foals, and I want to do that more and more each day. Aaron, will you help me? Will you put a child into my womb?”

I know it’s not the best idea to impregnate Twilight Sparkle, but with a display like that, I can’t get my pants off fast enough. I stand beside the couch, and just pull her onto my dick. The both of us are soon grunting and humping, and quiet whinnies on her part. She’s rocking back against me, wetter than you could believe. Twilight orgasms quickly again, and cries out in higher and higher pitch, “Oh yes... yes... yes!” before going silent, shuddering as her body fills her with ecstasy. It’s into that mare that I ejaculate, and I worry about it afterwards, but when I am fucking Twilight Sparkle, I feel not one trace of regret when once again I fire my seed into her birth canal.

The weeks that follow are a bit... exhausting. I never thought Twilight would be such an insatiable minx once I had awakened her desires, and taught her the secrets of sex. More than once, I find her crawling up under my blanket, hungry to lick me to beautiful, glorious turgidity, before riding me like my dick was the horse and she was the human. I put off everything to be with her. Even hanging out with Nick, he can wait because my special somepony needs me. It’s like a drug to me. All I can think of is recovering my libido, making more seed within me, to do potentially amazing things to Twilight Sparkle.

Time passes, wonderful, wonderful time. I’m lying there exhausted on a Friday evening, both from work, and a surprisingly urgent coitus, ending in her kissing my phallus to orgasm as she still quivers from hers, until what little seed I have left paints her muzzle in white. She lies with me then, on the bed we’ve been sharing since we decided to become intimate.

“I really am gonna miss this,” she says quietly.

“When you return to Equestria?” I ask her, snugging her warm, purple body close.

“Yeah let’s go with that,” she mutters.

A little odd for her to say that, I ask, “So, you’re not planning on returning home? Or you don’t think you can return home?”

“You know what I’m in the mood for?” Twilight asks contrarily, swinging her forehooves in an arc above her, “Chocolate chip cookies!”

“O-oh, well I’d have to get some ingredients from the store,” I tell her.

“Could you?” Twilight asks sweetly, “I just have such a craving for them today!”

Nodding, I get up, get my wallet and bag, which Nick insists on calling a man-purse. I put on my boots, then my coat and hat. Then I run feet thumping back into the bedroom, shouting,

“Craving?!”

“It’s probably nothing,” the purple unicorn says, with a roll of her eyes. Laying there on her side, it lets her stroke her belly with a stray forehoof, “Of course if it isn’t nothing, I might be staying with you for quite a while,” she says with a coy smile.

“Right, cookies, getting the—uh—yes ma’am,” I stutter at her, not sure what to think that I may be looking at the mother of my child right now.

Believe it or not, I run into my sister at the supermarket. It’s a small town, so it happens more often than you’d think.

“Aaron!” I hear her exclaim, jogging over to my side. Mira is a brunette like myself, but with long, curly hair that scatters about behind her shoulders. As my little sister, she takes full advantage of the fact that an older brother must be a protector and supporter, bugging me without any worries or inhibitions. I told Twilight once that I was envious of her. Mira always lived her own life, while I felt more pressed to conform to certain expectations. Expectations that I failed at, I might add.

“Whatcha making?” she asks, looking into my shopping basket to see the chocolate chips, “Cookies?”

“Yeah, I just had a ‘craving’ for them,” I tell her smoothly.

“I might stop by, then!” she says to my absolute and utter terror. “I always have a craving for chocolate chip cookies.”

Forget Nick, if my sister learns out I impregnated a magical horse from another dimension, there’ll be no end to her wrath!

“Oh, I’m not making them today,” I tell her hastily, “Just some time next week. I’ll let you know.”

“Okay,” she says, pouting, “Maybe I could come over anyway, and make them for you!”

“I’m really kind of busy today, with...” Crap crap crap “...vacuuming, and washing the walls.”

“Oh,” she says a touch more sadly, “You really take good care of that old house, y’know?”

“You could move back in,” I tell her, before wishing that my foot was jammed firmly in my mouth.

“Thanks, but I’m gonna stay right where I am!” she replies, “The nice thing about apartments is that you don’t have to take care of some old house. You remember the last time I tried living at your house?”

Shuddering, I say, “Yeah, I remember. So many candy wrappers...”

“I’ve gotten better, I swear,” she says earnestly, pausing to put a finger on her lips and add, “Buuut, I’m still not at the point I’d wanna maintain a whole house. So you’re on your own, bubba.” Stretching way up to pat me on the head (I have to lean down a bit) my sister says, “Don’t worry though. You’re the best butler that house ever had!”

“The house never had a butler,” I point out, flat-faced.

“See? I’m always right!” she teases. “Anyway, good luck with your uh... household chores. You know where to reach me if y’need me. Oh, actually I’m going out with some friends this weekend, so just a head’s up.”

“That’s fine,” I say amiably, “Because of the snowmelt?”

“Yeah we’re going camping in Iowa,” she says, “They’ve actually got flowers blooming down there!”

“Well, enjoy,” I tell her somberly, “I should go camping sometime...”

“Aw, don’t worry you’ll get a chance,” she says with a sympathetic, then unsympathetic smile, “But not this week. This camping trip is strictly girls only!”

“You just enjoy yourself,” I tell her with a smile, “And bring back photos.”

“Can do~“

Returning home, I kick off my boots and winter clothes, and Twilight’s there in the hallway, with a devilish grin, asking indulgently, “So, Aaron... you got the stuff?”

“Right here,” I tell her with a smirk, holding up the shopping bag. It immediately levitates out of my hands in her sparkling magic, and she says,

“Great! Wow, your chips come in bags? Ours come in boxes!”

“Huh, neat,” I tell her vaguely, looking at the floating sparkling bag as she examines it fixedly. “I’m gonna need that if I am going to make the cookies though.”

“Oh, I-I was thinking...” Twilight says, fidgeting shyly as she continues to hold the bag of chocolate chips in her sparkling purple magic, “That maybe I could make the cookies? If you show me how to do it, I mean. I just... want to do something special for you.”

“How could I say no to that?” I reply with a grateful grin.

“I know something else you can’t say no to,” Twilight says with a sultry wiggle of her hips. Laughing, I follow her to the bedroom, and we don’t even make it to the bed. She magicks my pants off, and I stroke myself to thick and erect. Her nether petals are so soft and inviting, and she’s outright dripping by the time I’m ready to mount her. Twilight gives a grateful cry as my penis sinks into her. Wrapping my hand around the base of her tail, I fuck Twilight Sparkle with everything I can muster.

Her glistening passage contracts around me as she gasps her way into one of her frequent orgasms. She yanks me out of her then, and staggers to the bed, falling back against its side before I’m on her again, seeking and then succeeding to pump my shaft in her birth canal. We want it so bad, I can’t even let her get onto the bed. Only the sparkling tingle of her magic lifting us both ends with Twilight pressed into the soft mattress as I stroke myself to orgasm without hesitation, and eagerly ejaculate into that mare’s vagina.

As my seed enters into Twilight Sparkle, I again wonder what our foals will be like. Will they be satyrs, like in the fanart? Creatures with a human upper body, and a pony lower body? How will we raise them? What will the world think, that a human and a pony chose to raise a family together? All I know is we are together, our love is true, and nothing about this relationship could possibly go wrong.

We sleep through the night, and on till morning. I awaken with Twilight Sparkle nestled in my arms, but she quickly rouses herself once I’m awake. She heads to the bathroom in the back of the house to freshen up her well-used marehood, still sticky with my seed. I take the time to work up a lovely vegetarian breakfast of toast and butter, with sliced apples from the barrel I keep out in the frozen garage. She supremely appreciates it, and shows her appreciation by drawing her tail under my nose, then sauntering away. And I know what that means.

I don’t care how freshened up she was. I dutifully wreck that pussy, cumming hard, wishing I could cum more than just a little squirt. But I’ve been running on empty lately, and if Twilight is already pregnant with our child... I guess it was good enough!

We keep... busy until well in the afternoon, when I lay there with a sore penis, and a sore whole pelvis in fact. Laying next to me, arms akimbo, the beautiful purple unicorn turns to me with the most pensively forlorn look in her eyes. But then she smiles and say, “You know what would make this day absolutely perfect?”

Thinking a moment, I don’t think she’s talking about sex. You can’t ironically refer to sex, when you just had sex. So her ironic tone must mean... oh. “Cookies?” I suggest with a silly smile.

Her eyes actually widen in surprise at that, but she says, “Exactly! Good guess! C’mon, let’s go make some sweet, chocolatey history.”

I follow along patiently, but tiredly, while Twilight eagerly canters into the kitchen, the little purple unicorn hell-bent on making those chocolate chip cookies she was craving last night.

The hour we spend making cookies that afternoon is one of the best hours of my life. I don’t know what the future is gonna hold, for me, for our worlds, and for her child, but just being there with her and watching her fall over her own horn trying to mix everything correctly... Twilight Sparkle really isn’t a good cook. But I guide her through it, including explaining why the butter must be chilled, not soft, and it isn’t long before the cookies are baking, with a pleasant smell filling the house.

“So,” I tell her while we wait, “Any luck finding your way back to Equestria?”

“Uh unh,” she says with a shake of her head, “I may need to employ the use of your world’s high energy physics labs, possibly a particle accelerator. Anyway it’s still a bit out there, but I’m getting there.”

“Have you thought of any...”

I don’t know if I dare say it,

“Have you thought of any names?”

Twilight looks at me with wide purple eyes, then her surprise turns to a smile. “Actually yes,” she says sweetly, “How does Meadowsweet sound?”

I smile back, saying, “That sounds wonderful.”

It isn’t long before it’s all over, and the cookies are cooling on sheets. Twilight insists on waiting for them to cool, so while she dotes over them, I entertain myself with some posting on the Internet, reading through various forums, and trying to think of a witty reply. Yes, I think this cat picture will make a good reaction to—

“Does anypony want some cookies?”

“I do!” I cheer happily, pushing back my chair and hurrying over to the living room. The lights are dim, except for the television. It seems she was watching a little television while she baked, some weird art show it looks like, probably public television. As for me, I only have eyes for the cookies. Twilight’s put out a plate of cookies, and is already munching on one. “Hey no fair,” I tease her, “You got started early.”

“The rest are all yours, big boy,” she says rolling her eyes. I’m certainly not going to eat all of them. But a few definitely go down the hatch.

“Mmf... tho good,” I say on the third cookie. Swallowing, I tell my Twilie, “You’ve really outdone yourself!”

“With any luck, I have,” Twilight says quietly, eyeing me thoughtfully, as she goes to stand over by the TV. “Did I make them right?”

“Oh you sure did,” I tell her confidently, “Chocolate chip cookies are pretty much good no matter how you make them.”

She twitches at that, but puts on a smile, saying, “You know, I think there might be a fourth cookie with your name on it.”

Levitating it in her magic, she waves it in the air in front of me, making ‘woo’ noises while I track its progress in amusement. “I suppose I could have one more,” I tell her, letting Twilight deposit her cookie in my hand. My... hand... I...

Anyway, so I’m just fine, eating that cookie. Nothing’s wrong. Everything’s perfect. But as soon as I take a bite, I have to jerk back as the whole world seems to distort for a moment, as though through a giant lens.

“What was that?” I ask in shock, feeling... strange.

“It looks like four milliliters was sufficient exposure,” Twilight remarks, just talking to herself, “Not ideal, but it’ll suffice for now.”

“Exposure?” I ask, standing up, “What—” and then a wave of dizziness sends me toppling back against the chair, sliding down it to the floor in a boneless heap.

“Ah, there we go,” Twilight says, with a pleased smile. Why isn’t she helping me?! It’s not that I can’t move, but I can’t control my movements, if they even count as movements! My arms are twisting around, and my back is arching weirdly, and there are all these weird cracks and pops, like I’m crumpling paper! I try to stand, but I can barely put weight on my forearm, before it just collapses, like it was made of rubber! What’s going on?!

At last, Twilight’s glow envelops me, but it isn’t doing anything! She’s tracking her horn light all over my form, in a broad, flat beam, like some sort of pink sparkly scanner, as my insides continue to feel like they’re liquifying. Is she doing this? Is her magic doing this? Help! I need to cry for help, but I can’t find my mouth!

“Well, Meadowsweet, I’d love to stay and chat,” Twilight tells me, while I lay on my side in utter confusion as everything rises up around me and grows huge, “But it looks like you’re progressing just fine, and I’ve got places to be. Thanks for the save, by the way. I appreciate it, truly. But oh-ho-ho-boy are you screwed now!”

She leans up close to me, and her head seems much larger than it ever was before. Am I shrinking? Her thin smile, more of a smirk really, greets my weirdly tingling eyes, and she says teasingly, “I advise you find someplace to hide. Wouldn’t want the government to get their hands on you now, would they Meadowsweet?”

Would they what? Who?

“Meadowsweet,” Twilight repeats and then it hits me like... I don’t know. Something hits me like a gigantic silent kaboom when she says that. While I lie there helplessly, I see Twilight already has saddlebags on. Where did she get saddlebags? It looks like... did she dismantle my own bag to make those?

She slides the plate of cookies into her bag, one of which is already bulging with papers and clinking vials. Twilight Sparkle then lights up her horn, in a brilliant purple, brighter than I’ve ever seen. “It’s been fun cutie,” she says with a wink, “See you soon.” Then with a bright flash, she winks out.

I stare forward in shock, half expecting Twilight to reappear and laugh at the funny joke she just performed. But she doesn’t. And the changes continue.

It’s not until Twilight’s gone and I am enveloped in the silence of this house, that I notice a tingle all over my body that’s making my skin crawl, literally. I’m not in any pain, but I can’t move very well at all. I lift an unnaturally pale, bizarrely distorted hand, only to feel a surge in the tingling, as bright yellow... stuff erupts all over my hand and arm, and... the rest of me, I guess. What did she do to me? Did she do this?

It finally seems to slow down, or... something. My legs feel weird and twisted, and something... else. It feels like someone’s shoving something into my pelvis down there, like stretching and spreading, and I don’t get it. Still changing, I manage to crawl enough to drag myself across the floor, to where Twilight was. My shirt’s the only thing staying on my body, and even that only barely hangs around my shoulders. What happened to me? What am I?

My confused mind finds solace at last, as with no sign of the unicorn anywhere to be seen, I drag myself a little further into my bedroom. There on the back of my door is a mirror from floor to ceiling. In the bottom of that mirror, I can see myself lying on the floor. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I wasn’t expecting to see a frightened, confused, dissheveled looking little pony in the mirror. Fur the color of a soft lemon meringue, the hair falling around my conical ears a verdant green, and huge oval eyes with soft eyelashes whose narrowing irises are the color of a fine red wine.

“Help,” I croak out, at last finding my voice again, except I don’t even sound like myself anymore! I sound like I inhaled helium or... or something, as I croak out “help,” because something starts shoving way up deep inside my belly, no below it. A quiet plea in an empty house, that goes unheard. I’m completely alone. “Help!” I repeat, sounding more shrill this time. Wait, shrill? “Is that my voice?” I ask in a sweet syrruppy tone, and then whatever my face is, it falls in horror.

“Oh, no no no no,” I chant, clumsily scraping the last of my shirt off with my uncoordinated hand-things, even as the neck gets caught on my wide hips, that it has to stretch around. Wide hips, that don’t just look like pony hips. They look like mare hips! My hand—finger—hoof? My limb feels down between my legs in vain, finding no balls, no cock, nothing but smooth round pelvis, with a soft divide in it, a cleft that I’m intimately familiar with thanks to Twilight, but not like this!

“Why,” I sob in a high pitched woman’s voice, just dropping limply to the floor, feeling what’s left of my reproductive system ballooning outward within me as I lay there. Again, I receive no answer. This wasn’t supposed to happen! This can’t be happening! I’ve been had! Twilight played me for a sucker the whole time! Or did she? I don’t know what’s going on! And now she did... this to me because... because I don’t know! Some sort of aesop about learning to walk in her horseshoes? Revenge for not treating her like a mare? I’m a...

I’m a mare!!

I don’t know what to do about this. I need help. Why did Twilight do this to me? What did I do? I don’t even remember what she said to me! I manage to reach the stuff that was once in my bag, which has been unceremoniously dumped on the ground when Twilight cannibalized my bag for her own purposes. My phone is there. I need to call some... someone. I need to call Nick! He knows the secret. He knows about ponies he’ll... he’ll see me like this. I can’t let him see me like this! But I need help! But I can’t...

...

I can’t get my phone to unlock.

“Fuck!” I shriek cutely, kicking... no, punching the phone away. I only have one huge clunky stiff hoof on each hand, and it’s too big to type anything on a tiny smart phone! What am I going to do?!

Crying like a little bitch is not what I’d call a favorable option, but it’s all I have left. I don’t know anything about anything or anyone. I’m just laying here a complete mess, an emotional and physical wreck, and there’s nothing I can do besides curl into the fetal position and sob.

Eventually, my cries sink to appropriately girly sounding whimpers. I just... lay there, staring dully forward. Am I really a pony? I have to keep looking down to see my own arms and belly covered smoothly in pale yellow fur, just to remind myself that I am a pony. It seems so impossible! Yet... Twilight Sparkle wasn’t impossible. Did she... did...

Did she really betray me?

Eventually my whimpers just... die out. I don’t even know anymore. I just lie there wondering... trying to wrap my head around this and failing. I lie there undecided and burnt out, until I start to realize that I’m getting bored.

“I’m a—” I say, before my own voice stops me short. I am not used to sounding like this. “I’m a girl,” I say, sounding like... well, like Lily, I guess.

Nick could help me. He’s my only hope at this point. But if I can’t even contact him, I have no idea how he’s going to know anything happened. No one could possibly know that something happened here, except... except me and... Twilight who doesn’t even care about me anymore. She’s gone. I don’t think she’s ever coming back. What did I do to drive her away?

“Girl, girl, girl,” I repeat, trying to figure out how to even comprehend this. Am I supposed to have foals or something? Does this make me my own daughter? What just happened back there?

My tears come again, and they just don’t want to stop. A quiet squeal of a whine escapes me, in a voice I should never have had. I feel terrible. I feel abandoned... cheated... and I can’t even stand up! I lay in my own misery, unable to deal with anything without my Twilie. I just want to lay here forever, until she comes back to me, until I’m a man once more, and everything makes sense again.

With my cheek pressed into the carpet, I look dismally at one of my hooves. Because I actually have those now, apparantly. Staring at it in dazed disbelief for a while, I try flexing the hoof. It feels like bending my finger, when the tip bends, but what used to be my wrist is now my elbow? It feels like a wrist as I lift the lower half of my foreleg up and down. I don’t know what to do, so I just lay here, feeling betrayed and lost, working out my hoofy arm.

Then I realize I’m getting thirsty.

“Oh for Pete’s sake,” I chirp grouchily, and it sounds like I’m talking about whether to buy a dress with flowers or with hearts, rather than talking about the end to my life and reality as we know it. Shouldn’t someone be happening upon my sad sack of pony and tears, to experiment on me, or save me from whatever... this is? How am I even supposed to even feed myself, if I can’t even stand up?!

Well I mean, technically I haven’t tried standing up yet.

I would be so mortified if someone burst in on me right now. So very mortified. The house is empty. Beyond the walls of my house, the wind rushes through the naked branches of the trees. Nobody’s coming to visit any time soon that I know of, not my sister, not my only friend, not Twilight Sparkle...

...

Nobody? No takers? Just gonna let me pick myself up here? Nobody gonna throw me a curve ball? Throw me an anything? I’m so alone.

If I ignore it, it’ll no doubt happen at the absolute worst time. That’s how those stories work, right? That’s how those stories work, because there is no way that this is real. This is... real. O-okay something really weird happened to me, but it’s not like I can’t... go back the way I was. This is just temporary, right? I just have to avoid g-getting impregnated myself, a-and that’s a thing that can happen now? My tail curls between my legs at the thought, of what I am down there.

Wait, my tail?

It’s a strange green brush between my legs. Not even green, it’s... strange green. Kind of... blueish, I guess? My arms awkwardly wrap around it and I’m trying to analyze the color of my own tail and—okay, don’t panic.

“I have a tail,” I tell myself. “I am a pony. I’m... I am a mare.”

I don’t know if it helps to say it out loud, but I need something to calm me down. I clop my hands together and they actually clop. Then I place them on the floor in front of me. I um... okay how do I do the back feet?

It takes a lot of false starts, and uncharacteristic swearing, even more uncharacteristic now that every time I go down with a frustrated, “Shit!” it sound like a protesting chipmunk whose nuts just got stolen. The good news is all this twisting around and rolling on the floor is giving me a very good feel for what my body is now. Of course I couldn’t be wearing clothing. It’s all too big! I could cover myself with a shirt, like a dress, with a neck that slips down past my shoulders. But at this point I’ve much more important worries than modesty, so the feeling of naked pony skin rubbing against carpet becomes a familiar sensation to me.

Finally, I’m standing, shakily. It gets easier once I figure to move my back feet into position first. Then it’s as simple as walking my arms forward, pulling my butt upright from behind. I look in the mirror I’ve been writhing next to, and... it’s pretty sad. I look like a wobbly kneed newborn horse, probably because I am newborn, but I’m at least as tall as Twilight Sparkle, so I have to be adult age, whatever that is for ponies. Am I really a pony, or just a human squished like clay into a pony shape? Or is it all just an illusion? Is everything an illusion?

I don’t know. All I know is I see a pony in the mirror, and it just feels like I’m standing normally on my four feet. On my four feet.

Walking is... easier than I expect, but my expectations are pretty low at this point. I’m vaguely stumbling forward with shaking hooves, and afraid that if I fall over it’ll take me another huge amount of time and trouble to get my hooves under me again. I look back at my tail. Such a pretty green swoosh. How do you move tails?

Trying every muscle I can think of, it’s confusing, but arching my back makes my tail lift up, and um... standing like a scared cat makes it go down. Also fear and loathing seem to make it go down. I don’t have a lot of control of my tail, but enough that I can turn my back to the mirror, and uncoordinatedly lift my tail out of the way, in a cheery arc just like Twilight’s tail, which leaves my underside completely exposed.

...

It looks like Twilight’s pussy. Just... yellow in color. And mine. A compact little anus, between my two separate buttcheeks, below which a soft envelope conforms somewhat to the curve of my belly, all covered in a dusting of yellow fur. It looks... inviting. Is that really between my legs? Just the sort of thing I would be making love to, given half a chance. Wait, am I getting turned on by myself?

...yeah it’d make sense, considering I’m a guy looking at a girl pony. Is that going to change, too? My... preferences? How do you even know what your sexual preferences are? D-did Twilight make me this way so I’d leave her alone, and start chasing after stallions, instead? Would stallions look... sexy to me, now?

No answers, no help, no imminent danger of discovery, successfully standing... like a pony, and with some rudimentary movement of my tail. Not too shabby for a mare who was reduced to a quivering wreck not two hours ago. Oh I am so doomed why am I a mare help me I can’t be here it can’t be real what do I do help—

I guess as I totally panic, the experience of observing in the mirror the twin rubies that are my irises shrinking is worth a little panicking. I need to know as much about my body as I can, at this point, of course. But flooding with fear, trying to run away from my own scared reflection, immediately falling over, then rolling around on the floor, squealing in terror, trying desperately to get my flailing hooves under me, to somehow force all this to make sense? Not my proudest moment.

“What do I do?” I moan in despair at last, laying on my back and kicking my four legs and zero hands above me in frustration as I do. Flopping on my side, I stare dully at the edge of my fallen reflection, but no answers come to mind. I don’t know anything anymore, and what to do, I just... need a drink, because I’m thirsty, and beyond that... I’m lost. Do I reveal myself to the authorities? To the world? To my best friend? Or do I... hide...

If I knew what Twilight was doing, I probably would have burst out of my house, and blindly galloped down the street to give myself up at the nearest police station. As-is, I just figure out a way to get a drink, and then see about contacting Nick.

Author's Note

Well that escalated quickly.

Add Insult to Injury

The bathroom sink sits serene and still, until a pony’s yellow forehooves pop up, hooking over it. A yellow furry nose crests over its edge, followed by a shock of green hair, as she pulls herself up with her forehooves clinging to the bowl. She gazes with deep red eyes into the mirror at her weird, grassy looking self. Then she turns her nose further down to look at the faucet. Licking her lips dryly. That’s me.

Of course I couldn’t be a unicorn. No that would be too easy. I have to be punished with the form of a weak little earth pony mare, no wings, no horn, no way to manipulate stuff except my... uggh. Stretching my neck forward, I close my mouth around the spigot, and try to turn it on. It tastes like sour sweat, but a sweet stream of water begins to flow out of the faucet, from pipes deep beneath the earth. It tastes more like chlorine than it usually does, but I drink it greedily nonetheless, getting my little pony snout soaking wet trying to drink from the falling stream of water.

My thirst taken care of, I decide to tackle my next problem, how to get down from being half reared up on the sink. Uh. Okay this would be easy if the bathroom tiles weren’t smooth enough that my rear hooves are having trouble getting purchase. Can hooves even get purchase? I end up cracking my chin on the sink falling down to the floor again, and that starts another wave of miserable sobbing. It doesn’t last as long this time, I swear, but I just want to kick something! How could things have gone wrong so fast?

The more I get better at... walking around as a pony, the more reluctant I am to seek help. I just... just want to get a little more surefooted. I’ll just practice a little longer. Wouldn’t want to be a pony mare who couldn’t even stand on wobbly legs, after all.

Everything around me in this house is so strange now. I can’t see over the kitchen counter standing up, so the kitchen appears to have walls made entirely of cabinets. My bedroom smells really strongly, of what must be the activities Twilight and I were engaging in. My own scent is... strong, spicy and manly. I spend a lot of time beside my bed, just inhaling the smell of myself in between sobs, with my pillow clutched in my forelegs. I want to remember that smell forever, because I’ll never be able to smell like it again, because Twilight left me, and she won’t turn me back, and I’m stuck as a pony forever!

My bed is that of a giant’s. I can’t lay on it, because I can’t figure out how to climb. There’s no edge to hook my hooves on like my sink, just slippery, soft blankets. I can rear up on the side of the bed, but what do I do from there? I have to just rear up, then clop down, then rear up, then clop down, staring up at my bed tearfully, but uselessly.

All the windows in my house show nothing but cloudy sky and tree branches, since I’m looking through them from a much lower perspective. I’m here walking around the place I’ve lived in my whole life, and yet it’s... so alien now. My hooves clop when they come down on wooden floorboards. I can’t even open the door to the garage, since it’s a knob. Why don’t we make our doors have levers? Or push bars, even? Knobs aren’t even convenient for human hands!

In the end, I’m just hungry, not sure how to eat stuff, and tired, while the night grows long. I just want to sleep this off, and wake up as myself again, with Twilight by my side. It’s ironic because I never really cared about myself. But now that I’ve been thrown for such a loop totally out of the blue, I... I just wish I could climb into my bed. That’s all I want, is just enough of my old self to sleep in my own bed.

What I do instead is pull the blankets off of it, by biting them in my teeth and walking all four of my legs backwards. The blankets swiftly tumble down then, and I fall on my butt. My mare butt, I might add. It feels... really weird when stuff touches between my legs, weirder than the rest of my body. Except maybe my ears. My ears feel weirder than anything, because they keep moving!

Building a pile of rumpled blankets and sheets, I curl up in it, and manage to get to sleep. I can’t turn the heat up for the night, or even turn off the lights because I’m afraid to walk up the wall that high without falling over, so I just bury myself in blankets and... and let the exhaustion of this past afternoon and evening catch up to me.

Waking up in a strange bed is never fun, and moreso waking up in a strange body. It’s only a moment that I wonder why I’m sleeping on the floor, with only my nose sticking out of the blankets. Then I realize I can feel my... fur sliding against these blankets, and my ears are kind of squished down. And I have no fingers. I also have no morning wood.

“My little pony ~ my little pony,” I sing creakily, lifting my head and looking dully around. The song sounds kind of... breathy coming out of my mouth. I definitely don’t have the powerful voice of the show’s opening theme. It’s not even as sweet as when Fluttershy sings it. Am I just a... an annoying sounding mare? I think I sound... female, but maybe I sound like one of those female who can’t talk without annoying everyone else?

Clumsily clearing out the blankets from around me, I manage to pull myself out of the blanket... nest. It’s a nest, because I’m a mother hen because I don’t have a dic—okay, don’t panic. It’s just a blanket pile. Not a nest. I manage to pull myself up to standing, a bit of sheets twisting around my hind leg until I lightly kick them off.

I’m really at a loss of what to do at this point. No Twilight to take up all my time in... doing stuff she wanted to do. With no better ideas, I just go back to the sink and get another drink. At least I don’t smack my face on the edge, coming back down. My face...er... muzzle is soaked and dripping, because I just can’t get a good angle to drink with just a faucet. My cups are glass though, and I don’t even want to think about touching glassware. My hooves are hard, but... soft in the middle. I don’t know how they work. I don’t even know how Twilight’s hooves worked. I probably should have asked her...

“But instead, I just spend all day having sex with her,” I chirp bitterly, as a churning grumble goes through my stomach. “Okay,” a little mare says, “Okay I can just... eat what Twilight eats. She... hay. I should try hay.”

I run my tongue along my teeth... they don’t feel especially weird. From kissing Twilight, I found that her teeth actually fell along pretty similar lines as my own human teeth, even if I was... too busy to really pay attention to it at the time. I suppose if I’m as much a pony as she is, I should be able to digest hay... for... reasons.

The hay bale I got for Twilight has hardly been touched, in the three months since she got here. Not because she didn’t take from it, but she really was pretty little, for a little pony. She ate from that bale of alfalfa, usually retreating to chew it privately as though embarassed. Well, good, because I don’t think it’s possible for me to get more embarassed. My ass is as bare as bare asses can get! So I try taking a bite of the dry grass. It tastes like dry grass. A bit heartier than I expected, but very... underwhelming.

“Was thish why Twiligh’ did thish to me?” I ask nobody in particular, my voice heavy with regret, “I thought hay woul’ tashte good!” Finishing my mouthful, the hay goes down easily at least. I sigh, and go for another bite. I end up having to return to the sink frequently, to wash down the dry mash, but... it’s not impossible to eat hay. I know I’d really rather have a nice hearty breakfast, pancakes fried in oil, covered in butter and maple syrup, with sausages and eggs on the side... it has me drooling next to the haystack at the thought.

But no, I’m a pony now, so I’ll have to give up such pleasures as meat. Exchanging bloody death for hay, I can’t somehow divorce myself of the notion that it’s not a fair trade for me at all. I try some cereal, and it tastes... okay I guess. I wish I had some milk, but then I’d have to figure out how to pour milk. I think the best thing I find as I rummage around in the refrigerator is when I manage to extract a bag of carrots. Most vegetables are a flavor explosion now, making carrots spicy and sweet, not just a fibrous, watery crunch.

My meal out of the way, I have to see about contacting Nick. I was supposed to spend the weekend with Twilight, but you can see how well that worked out. I couldn’t figure how to use my phone, but I think I could use my laptop, if I could get it off my desk, where I was last showing Twilight... showing her more about how human technology works. I end up standing entirely on the desk to access the laptop. Twilight stood on a chair, but... I just don’t feel very stable right now. A pencil held in my mouth lets me push the keys one at a time with the eraser. Thus, I compose a letter to Nick very... slowly.

need help. please come over. twilight left me.

I stare at that email, pencil still clenched in my teeth. I hover the mouse cursor over Send. Why am I not sending it? So it looks like I have no writing skills or self esteem, so what? It’s perfectly sensible for a little pony mare to not even be able to use the shift key. I need help, and I can’t waste time prettying it up, especially with how slow I am... now. Why am I feeling ashamed then? It’s not my fault. It’s all her fault! I didn’t... even notice that there was anything wrong, and now she... I... I don’t want him to see me like this.

I left click.

Panic flares up in me as the Sending dialog appears with a Cancel button on it, just a few more seconds to seal my fate. It’s sent then, and gone, and... and Twilight is gone and it’s all my fault. The relief sends me spiraling back into that pit of failure and resentment that I’ve been living in most of my adult life, until Twilight came into it.

I thought she was the one. She had all the signs, didn’t she? Chance meeting, you fall in love as soon as you see each other. Thrust together by fate and circumstance, you love and support her recovering from a low point in her life, and over time she opens up to you, and... people never go into the details at that point, but before you know it you’re married, having lots of sex, starting a family, and planning a whole new life together.

Then we run across someone like me, and confidently tell me that there is someone out there for me. I just have to find her. And that’s what I did. For decades, I tried to find the one true love among so many women who were second rate, who didn’t love me. All the loving couples I’ve met said that’s how they came together. You’ll find someone who just clicks with you, and you pursue her romantically, and then you’ll be totally devoted to one another alone.

Twilight Sparkle was supposed to be that. She was supposed to be good! She wasn’t supposed to pretend to—pretend to love me. Ponies like that don’t win! They’re supposed to get... blasted away by the holy matrimony powers of true love. Twilight was supposed to expose the evil changeling queen, who tried to ruin the wedding and trick the groom into swearing eternal devotion to the wrong mare. She wasn’t supposed to be that... oh no. No no no not even thinking about that. I was in love with Twilight Sparkle and that is the end of that. No reason to jump to conclusions just because she changed me into a pony.

Besides, wouldn’t the changeling queen change me into a changeling, if she was gonna change me into anything?

I’ve climbed down from my precarious purchase on the computer desk, long before Nick arrives. Landing gracefully on my face, I massage my sore nose...snout, and plod to the living room to wait for him. And wait... and wait.

He had to have gotten my message. The email went into the Sent folder, and he’s never not gotten them before! Waddling back to the computer, it’s a lot of trouble to climb back up there to where I can check, and Nick has sent a return email!

Damn, sorry to hear that buddy. I’ll be over as soon as I can, but I’ve gotta get the shopping done first. Just hold it together and I should be there in an hour or two.

Well... shit. Sent half an hour ago. I guess I could wait longer... no real choice about it I suppose. I sure can’t go outside like this! Getting thirsty again, I have a moment of brilliant insight, and emerge from the kitchen cabinet with the handle of a soup pot firmly secured in my mouth. I can’t climb onto the counter like this, but I can balance my front legs on the edge, and use the pot to kick on the faucet. I make a huge, splashing mess getting the pot back down, but it’s soon on the floor, and still half full of water.

Wishing Nick was here, I drink some water. Just... dip my snout in and suck. There’s probably a better way to do it. Once my thirst is fully slaked, I refill my precious pot of water, taking it by the handle in my mouth with me, over to the living room. As an afterthought, I drag along a bag of chips from the cabinet. And... still no Nick. I guess I could try watching some TV. Wait, could I... watch the show?

...

Maybe an episode without Twilight in it.

That’s what Nick comes into. I’m just sitting there munching on chips, the pale yellow fur on my cheeks streaked with tears, watching Rarity blowing up at Sweetie Belle again, when I hear a knock at the door. I stay silent at first. I can’t exactly answer it like this, and if it’s not Nick, then calling out might alert the wrong people. There’s a second knock, followed by Nick’s familiar voice, calling out, “Hey buddy! You okay in there?”

“Door’s open!” I holler at Nick, sighing and hunching lower. I don’t even care anymore. Nick opens the door and finds me a little grass colored pony hugging a giant bag of chips to my belly, looking up at him, from watching my little pony, and crying.

“Do I even wanna know?” he asks leerily.

“Nick!” I squeak indignantly, then blushing that I squeak. “Sorry I...” I push aside the bag, and it topples over, spilling chips onto the floor, “Shoot! I...” Caught sitting there on the couch, I look up at Nick again with my heart in my throat, my arms braced on hooves to hold me upright barely, and he can see me like this!

“I was waiting for you,” a little pony on the couch says, in a little voice that I can’t stop speaking with, “And I just...” Trying to smile, I shift so I can lift my arm, then gesture a hoof weakly at the still playing television, saying, “Got... bored?”

He seems to be speechless.

I kind of fall off the couch, in attempting to climb off of it, but that’s okay. I can crawl to my hoof-toes, a chip crunching under one as I plant it to bear my weight. I can’t stand on two legs, so I quiver there on four, looking up at Nick as he stares down at me like a hulking mountain of a man. Why are ponies so darned small?!

“Nick, I...” I say, my voice catching in my throat at the sound of... a girl me. “I need help,” I beg to him creakily. “Twilight left, and she... she did something to me.”

“You’re Aaron, right?” Nick asks, peering at me curiously.

“No, I’m Meadowsweet,” I tell him in testy anguish, “Your friend!”

“I don’t know any Meadow Sweets,” he replies, raising an eyebrow.

Swallowing a lump in my throat, I say shakily, “S-s-stop joking around, Nick. This is serious! We’ve known each other forever!”

“Honestly not sure right now,” Nick says, piercing me with his gaze. “Are you a pony from the show?”

“From the...” I fishmouth at him. “Nick, I’m your friend!” I repeat shrilly, “Twilight turned me into a pony!”

He comes around the couch to look at me with concern. “And she gave you a pony name, too?”

“No, she didn’t. Thank goodness,” I tell him in a little relief, “My name’s still Meadowsweet. But she changed everything else!”

“...not Aaron?” he prompts again.

“Who’s Aaron?” I ask, stomping in aggravation, “I’m the only one who lives in this house!”

“As a male human, until today,” Nick prompts.

“Yes, what’s the big problem here?” I whine, “We’ve got bigger problems, such as why did Twilight leave me?”

“A male human,” Nick persists, “Named Meadowsweet?”

“...yes?” I attempt. What’s he getting at here?

“Meadowsweet isn’t exactly the most common name for a male human,” Nick says in a critical tone. “I think Twilight might’ve stolen your name, too.”

“She... but... but I’m still called Meadowsweet! What could she have stolen?” I ask in confusion.

“Your name wasn’t Meadowsweet last time I saw you,” he replies, “It was Aaron.”

“T-that’s...” trembling, I can recall Twilight saying my name for some reason. The whole day has been a blur to me, but I remember that at least, “That can’t be right. Why would she do that?”

“Aaron,” Nick says that name again, squatting down to my level. He hasn’t even taken off his shoes yet. “There was something not right with Twilight.”

“What do you mean?” I ask, wobbling on my hooves, “You think she was possessed?!”

“No I...” he just sits his rear on the floor then, running his fingers through his short brown curls, “Damn I didn’t think it would be this bad. She turned you into a pony before she left you?”

“She made... cookies...” I murmur uncertainly, “And she said it was a good thing when I... when it happened to me. I couldn’t even move, and started changing. She smiled and... and said goodbye and thanks for the...” I have to sit my own rear on the floor in order to free up my forlegs enough to rub at my head beneath an increasingly unruly green mane, “Thanks for the save,” I groan, “I can’t even remember! It all happened so fast, and I’m sure she said something more but...”

“Hey, it’s okay Aaron,” he says, making my ears flatten back because it’s not my name and he said it should be my name, “You’re doing great for someone who just got... changed into a pony.”

“Could you not call me that, please?” I say in a frustrated huff, glaring at him plaintively.

“Aaron, you mean?” he replies, frowning, “Come on, buddy, Twilight changed your name, you gotta fight it. Your name’s not Meadowbrook!”

“Meadowsweet,” I correct him grumpily, “And I’m sorry, but I just can’t take any more weirdness. Please just stick with Meadowsweet. It’s what you always call me, as far as I know.”

“But Twilight—”

“I don’t care if you think Twilight changed it,” I snap at him, “Or changed me I just want...” Covering my head in my weird arms, I lay there muttering, “I just want one thing to stay the same. Can’t I at least keep my own name?”

Lifting my head, just my head, I tell him, “I’m not even human anymore! She took everything else away, so can’t I at least keep my name?”

“I’m trying to help you do that!” Nick replies stressfully, “Your name she’s trying to take away from you, is Aaron. That’s what your parents named you!”

With a fretful sigh, I say to him, “Seriously? Why would my parents ever name a filly ‘Aaron?’”

He just kind of stares back, with worry. What did I say?

“Aaron, you were a human when your parents named you,” he says, “And male.”

“O-oh... right...” I say, blushing beet red.

“How are your memories doing?” he asks worriedly.

“Okay-ish, I guess?” I mumble, staring distantly at my fuzzy yellow body. “I don’t think I’m forgetting anything,” I tell him, looking up again, “But if I was, how would I know?”

“Good point,” he replies with a frown, “So what is your mother’s maiden name?”

“Uhm... Patricia Rutherford,” I reply after a moment to think on it.

Nick stares back at me another moment before breaking his gaze with a laugh and admitting, “Actually I don’t know your mother’s maiden name.”

“Well, I know your name is Nicholas Spears,” I reply, “That didn’t change, did it?”

“No, that’s still my name,” he replies. “How about where did we go to college?”

His questions are met with solid answers, and I certainly have no trouble answering. I even remember the bridge stress problem that was such a stumper for our final exam... twelve years ago.

“If anything, I’d say your memory has improved!” Nick muses in surprise, sitting on the couch next to me on the floor. Since getting up on the couch is a bit too challenging for me still. “Everything except your name...”

“It might be something separate,” I say uncertainly, “Twilight was saying my name kind of... weirdly at the end. Meadowsweet, I mean. It hit me like... something.”

“What else about you is different?” Nick says, appraising me thoughtfully.

“Could we please not focus on me right now, and focus on what’s important?” I ask him in exasperation, “I’m a horse, or something. Fine. It’s really embarassing. But why did Twilight leave me? What did I do to make her hate me?”

Nodding understandingly, he says, “Okay, Aa—sorry, what was your name now?”

Facehooving, I say “Meadowsweet” again. “I can’t believe that’s just her... thing she did to me, but it is what it is.”

“Okay, Meadowsweet,” he says warily, “I’ve been kind of worried about Twilight for a... while now.”

“What are you worried about?” I ask him cluelessly, “She seemed fine to me! What did she ever do that was worrying?”

“It’s nothing I could pin down,” Nick replies, “But didn’t she warm up to you awfully quickly? You went from meeting, to... passionate romance in less than a month. Less than half a month, even.”

“Love just works that way,” I say frankly, “You meet the girl of your dreams, and everything just starts working out from there.”

He raises an eyebrow at that, and I whine fussily, “I’m serious!”

“Well, there were other things too,” Nick continues cautiously. “She kept... you away from me, I think. Every time I tried to hang out with you, you always had a... thing that came up, and that meant her.”

“Sounds like you were jealous of her,” I grumble cutely, “You don’t think that was all in your head maybe?”

“I don’t know, maybe?” he replies in an aggravated tone, “That’s why I didn’t say anything! And when she... lived in your house, and ate your food, and you told me yourself of her mysterious phone conversations.”

“It was an online friend she made,” I shoot back, “She couldn’t meet in person, so they had to talk only on the phone!”

“Was that what she was doing?” Nick says, “Or was she using the phone for some other reason?”

“Nick, this is Twilight we’re talking about,” I tell him with a pained grimace, “She’s possibly the most innocent, naive soul on this planet! I had to teach her how to use the phone at all!”

“Did you?” he counters, “Seems like she’d be smart enough to figure that out by herself.”

“Well yeah, and she...” I trail off, trying to figure out how to phrase it. “She chose to let me teach her instead, because she liked learning from me,” I settle on.

“And what about all the glares and weird reactions?” Nick asks.

“What glares and weird reactions?” I retaliate anxiously.

“She... she would look at you funny when you said something stupid,” Nick says, “Not just disapproving, but like... contemptuous. Like she couldn’t stand you, but refused to say anything.”

“N-no she didn’t,” I whimper, trying not to remember, trying not to remember seeing it. “Why on earth would she stay with me if she couldn’t stand me?” I ask, boggled by his logic failure, and nothing more. Nothing more.

“So I confronted her about it,” Nick says, and my ears flip up at that. Wait, seriously? How do these stupid pony ears work?

Ignoring my ears, I exclaim to Nick shrilly, “You—what? You confronted her?”

“I wasn’t gonna tell you,” he says, “I told her that you were really... lonely and kind of in a fragile state. That if she makes a mistake, you could get really hurt. I asked her who she was calling on your phone, and she... she gave me this smirk like I don’t even know. ‘Don’t worry, I`ll take good care of him,’ Twilight said, just like in uh, Lesson Zero.”

“So all you have is stuff that makes you feel like she’s evil,” I tell him, “But nothing she actually did.”

“One thing she did was turn you into a pony,” Nick points out.

“Touchè,” I reply morosely, my tail doing... swishy things back and forth beyond my girly butt, which is still firmly pressed to the floor. Which kind of tickles... no, not even thinking about that. I’m a guy, not a girl... pony.

“She just... she was just giving me a bad vibe,” he says, while I stand up, not wanting to feel my feminine folds pressing against the floor, “Some things just didn’t add up. She kept dodging questions, and you didn’t even seem to notice!”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I tell him, with a frustrated snort that comes out far too pony for my liking. Wait, do humans even snort? I don’t think they do!

“I didn’t think it would be this bad. I thought she’d just let you down, not... change you into a pony! Aa—Meadowsweet, you were happy!” he says with a sympathetically earnest gleam in his tiny human eyes. “You’ve gone so long without a smile. It was the happiest I’ve seen you in a long time. I guess I was just hoping that it’d work out between you two... somehow. I just... I just wanted you to be happy for a little bit. ”

“Well, I was happy...” I admit grudgingly, trailing a forehoof on the ground.

“She took your virginity away,” Nick says hopefully, “That’s gotta count for something, right? How long have you been trying to get laid?”

“F-f-fifteen years, actively,” I stutter nervously, so terribly aware of one cognizant fact about my what’s beneath my tail right now. Two facts actually: two firm, round conspicuous absences that should have been hanging between my legs, and they would have been between my legs, if they weren’t currently up deep inside my abdomen over by my... my womb.

“I know you’re shy about that sort of thing,” Nick says, “But you gotta admit, you got a chance to do what bronies dream about. You know, Purple...”

“...Pony...” I murmur weakly.

“...Pussy,” he concludes with a cheeky grin. “C’mon, tell me you didn’t enjoy that?”

I did, god did I, but I’m standing here remembering ravishing a writhing, sighing unicorn, pounding my dick into her horse pussy right between her legs, and I’m not getting a boner. All I can think of is that big, hard, stiff dick that I used to have, and it could... fuck me like it fucked Twilight. I’m standing here remembering honest to gosh sex, and instead of popping a boner, all I can feel back there is an occasional... shifty feeling. Am I winking?

Don’t ask me how I know what that word means.

“It wasn’t like that,” I grumble, blushing fiercely as I stare at the ground next to him, “We were in love.”

“One of you was in love, at least,” Nick says skeptically.

“It’s weird,” I whine at him uncertainly, “I don’t know if my sexual orientation changed or not I just... I can’t get a boner anymore, Nick. That... thing that I put into... with Twilight, I can’t do that anymore.”

“What, don’t tell me she cursed you with a show accurate crotch?” Nick asks in alarm, looking to my rear, under my tail. I resist the urge to shy away from him, and just stand there miserably, trying not to make it a big deal that he’s looking at me down there.

“Holy shit, Aaron, you’re a mare!” Nick exclaims in wide-eyed surprise.

“N-no I...” how do I get my tail to go down?! “No I’m... I mean t-technically I am but it’s temporary and... and I’m a pony so it doesn’t c-count.”

At last turning my butt further away and looking up at him tensely, I ask in exasperation, “Didn’t you notice the eyelashes?”

“Not all mares have eyelashes,” he replies defensively, crossing his arms, “Maybe some stallions do.”

“The voice?” I ask him, stunned, “At least my voice sounds totally different, right?”

“It does, just... some of the stallions were voiced by women,” he counters weakly, “Well, some of the colts at least.”

“Do I sound like a guy?!” I ask him shrilly, “I don’t sound like a guy, do I? Because I’m not!!”

Oh, there goes my tail. Right down between my legs. “I-I’m not a guy,” I tell him shakily, as my greenish tail sinks to cover my rear end. “I’m just t-trying not to think about it.”

“Why not?” Nick asks incredulously, “This is an incredible opportunity! You can experience things from both sides!”

Blushing heavily, I say, “I—I can’t say I haven’t considered it, b-but I’d never be able to find a s-stallion and...”

“Who says it has to be a stallion?” he asks, waggling his eyebrows.

I’m trying not to stare at his crotch, thinking what he could do to me now, but I’m like half Nick’s height now. It’s sort of the default level to stare at! “I’m... I’m still trying to deal with this,” I tell him. “Now that I have a... marehood, I really would like to show you what I... what I felt with Twilight. But I just... I don’t want to get pregnant. How could I change back if I was... carrying your child?”

He gapes at me in disbelief, then just starts laughing. “Nick?” I ask, concerned, but he falls back against the wall holding his sides and chortling. “Nick I’m serious!” I whine at him, lifting a hoof, wishing I could be taller right now.

“Sorry, haha, sorry...” he says finishing his... thing. “Whoo.”

He looks at me again.

“You seriously think that, don’t you?” he concludes flatly.

“Think what?” I ask, with an offended glower. Or... a tightness in my snout somehow, however that looks.

“Look, I don’t know what Twilight did to you, but she’s a pony,” Nick says, “She’s an alien pony. There’s no way in heck you impregnated her.”

“How do you know?” I reply, shrinking back nervously. “It could be magic. Or... I don’t know.”

“Okay, so Twilight did this to you,” Nick argues cagily, “And how many times did she let you finish inside?”

I... couldn’t count, honestly.

“If she was gonna do this to you, and then disappear, do you think she’d allow you to impregnate her?” Nick says persistently. “Can you imagine a pregnant mother turning the father of her child into a girl, then leaving him?”

“Well, maybe she didn’t know that sex has consequences,” I mumble lowly.

“Didn’t you ever talk with her about it?” Nick asks, “Was she surprised, or horrified?”

“No, she even came up with a name for the foal,” I tell him. Then it occurs to me what name she came up with, and my ears go flat.

“What name?” Nick asks curiously. Of course he does.

“Meadowsweet,” I grumble under my breath.

“What was that?” Nick asks, hand on his ear.

“She asked me what I thought about the name ‘Meadowsweet’,” I tell him, stumbling off in a huff... somewhere. God, walking on hooves is absolutely nothing like crawling on hands and knees. My body’s... sideways!

“I didn’t think anything odd about it at the time,” I say halfway back out from the hallway, still pacing like a drunken mule, “I thought she was talking about our foal, because apparently it hasn’t been my name up until earlier today. I still can’t believe all those memories of it could be just... wrong.”

“Whatever you want to be called, I guess it’s nice that she at least asked,” Nick points out, “But I don’t think it’s even remotely possible for humans to fertilize ponies.”

“I suppose,” I admit reluctantly, staring down at my raised forehoof. “It’s just... crazy to think that I could be the one who was... like Twilight was.” Looking up at him in wide-eyed concern, I ask, “Am I really cute enough to... have sex with?”

“I never said you were cute,” he says, blushing defensively and refusing to meet my eyes.

“I can see myself in the mirror,” I grumble in response, one of my ears going flat again.

“Being cute doesn’t really matter so much as... being willing,” Nick explains with difficulty, “You just get kind of a... chemistry between two people, and if it works it’s awesome. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t matter how cute she is. That’s how attraction really works. I guess what I’m saying is you turned into a cute little mare, but my best friend is a cute little mare, and that makes all the difference.”

“Jeez,” I say, trying not to blush up a storm, “Why weren’t you trying to ask me out as a guy, then?”

“Well some of it’s physical,” Nick says, rolling his eyes, “I’m just saying I’d do it even if you looked like that Hooffield mare, with the eyebrows. If you’re willing to let me, and she’s willing to kick me in the jaw, there’s just no contest.”

I can’t find words to answer, and he interprets my flusterment as reluctance saying, “C’mon, don’t you want to experiment a little bit. For science!”

“I’ll think about it,” I blurt out at last. Trying not to hide my face behind my hoof, I say, “I’ve never even been able to consider anything like that with you, so it’s kind of overwhelming.”

“Yeah, maybe it’s too much at once,” he admits, “But I honestly think you’re overthinking it. Don’t worry I’m not gonna jump you or anything. I was just thinking it’d be awesome to try.”

“Oh, I’m not worried about that,” I tell him, noticing my tail bobbing up as I take a few steps around the room. “I was a guy just yesterday, so I know you have to do that stuff on purpose. I just... need to think about it. I barely even know how to walk.”

“Not gonna do much walking with that activity,” he says with a teasing smirk.

I don’t dignify that with a response.

I’m walking... somewhat better after breakfast.

“Are my hips swaying? I feel like my hips are swaying.”

“No, that’s just how you move. You’re doing great.”

Somewhat better. Walking like a pony is weird. Weird that it feels so natural. It’s not like crawling, more like... four legged ballet? I don’t know! All I know is my hooves press down naturally and comfortably, and my arms/legs move smoothly in tandem. And it still feels weird, because my body’s sideways, my butt is behind me, and I get this ghostly shock every time I feel something collide with my tail, which I should not have.

Nick and I find something extremely odd and worrisome that day, aside from well... me. It’s in the study, behind the bathroom. Nick is poking around back there toward the middle of the day, and then I hear him shout in surprise for me to come quick.

I come... slowly.

“Were you doing any sort of chemistry experiment?” Nick asks warily, staring at what looks like a complex scientific apparatus, with beakers, flasks, pipes, bunsen burners, petri dishes... and a very expensive looking microscope.

“I don’t know where any of this stuff came from,” I say with worry, looking at the wall where a few pins are still stuck, including one with just a scrap of paper left on it. “Did Twilight get it? How would she get this stuff?”

“And why would she get this stuff?” Nick asks, “Was she experimenting on you? Or... on something? Is this how she’s trying to get home?”

“I don’t know,” I whimper, touching the edge of the table it’s assembled on, a table I don’t recall ever being in this house. “We probably shouldn’t be in here though, to save it for e-evidence...”

Nick sighs as we seal off the study, by closing the door. I try to reassure him, saying, “I don’t know what’s going on, but it might not be bad. She might have a g-good reason for doing what she did.”

“After she changed you into a pony against your will?” Nick says, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah but it’s... not... so bad?” I attempt, lifting a hoof and looking up at him. He’s not buying it. “Okay so it’s a huge problem,” I sigh, “And I guess Twilight caused it. Plus she turned me into an earth pony, so I’d be helpless to do anything to stop her. That’s pretty evil. It’s so frustrating being so... useless!” I huff, stomping that hoof down. “She could’ve given me wings or a horn, but instead I get to be the useless earth pony, who can’t do anything.”

“Well, I know one thing you can do now that you’re a pony, that you couldn’t do before,” Nick says. I look up at him in surprise, but he just winks, clicks his tongue, and makes finger guns at me.

“Oh god that,” I groan, burying my blush beneath my forearms. “You seriously want to... stick your... thing in there?”

“Well I sure wouldn’t mind,” Nick says unrepentantly, crossing his arms, “Have you looked at yourself in the mirror? You’ve got some amazing hips!”

“I know. It’s just weird being the one who—” I shrink back, looking at my lemon yellow butt self consciously, “Who has them.”

“Don’t feel like you have to have sex, but don’t you want to?” Nick asks curiously. I look at him, at h-his pants that hold a thing that could go inside me and... and...

“It’s not like we fell in love,” I tell him fretfully, “You’re my best friend! We’re just friends, and I don’t want to ruin that! I’m not even a real girl! So why do I want you so—” I cut off, but the damage is done. “Want you so much,” I admit glumly, staring guiltily at the floor, and away from Nick’s pants.

“You’re overthinking it,” Nick repeats with an expression I can’t see due to looking away from his boyish ...face. “You just want to try something new and that’s fine. I want it too. You just say the word and I’ll do everything I can to your little mare back there. If it doesn’t work out, fine. But Aaron, we’ve been friends since college. Do you really think it could get ruined just by having sex?”

“I can’t imagine how, but... that’s what they say happens,” I tell his feet, “We have a messy breakup or I’m... cheating on you or something, and then we hate each other.”

“You really have to stop watching chick flicks,” he groans, squatting down and catching my chin in his finger and lifting my head up to look at his brown, honest eyes. “Even if you fit the target audience now. This is the real world, not some fake Hollywood production. I’m not a male love interest. I’m your friend, Nick. You changed into a little pony and we’re still friends. And I promise you that even if I make you a mare, especially if I make you a mare, we will still be friends.”

I look at him soulfully, fear flaring in my breast at how much I want him to make me a mare, and softly tell Nick,

“...maybe later.”

He releases my chin and stands up, laughing and saying, “Good enough for me. Seriously, no pressure Aar—Meadowsweet. I just think it’d be fun. Make you feel a little better about getting stuck like this. Anyway, I’m gonna go to the store. Try not to fantasize about me too much while I’m gone, okay?”

“Augh,” I state calmly, once again covering my blush with my forelegs.

Later, everything is fine, except for one little insignificant detail. I manage to ignore that detail for some hours, but eventually that detail rises its way up into my conscious awareness as the need for awareness becomes more and more urgent. At the time, we’re poring over the odd video Twilight recorded, full of blue and pink kaleidoscopey patterns. It doesn’t look like she recorded it from a television channel. Never goes to a commercial break or anything. My train of thought gets interrupted then, by a seriously powerful urge that cannot be denied.

“Oh no...” I moan, amid laying there with Nick on the couch, as we try to figure out the meaning behind this odd video. “Nick, I...” I look at him, whimpering quietly, “I need to use the restroom.”

“You looking for permission?” he asks, raising an eyebrow.

“No, I’m just... those parts are really different,” I say blushing red, “F-for peeing at least. So I t-think I can do it, but I just... yeah I don’t need permission. Sorry.”

“At least you still shit the same, right?” he asks, without missing a beat.

“I am not looking forward to that,” I groan, sinking my head and shuffling off to the bathroom. Everything is huge in here. The bathtub is the only thing I can see over. The bathroom counter is above me, and the toilet is a little below eye level. So, just like before, pretty much. I take a discerning at the toilet, try to rear up a bit, clop back down, and then... utterly fail to use the bathroom.

Exiting the bathroom unfulfilled (or very fulfilled... of pee), I drag a footstool back in there with me, blushing to death the whole way. If Nick sees, he doesn’t comment on it. Using that for support, I can get up to the level of the toilet. After some impressive gymnastics for a man very recently turned into a little pony mare, I’m kind of perched on the edge of the seat, with my hind legs curled to grip around the sides of the bowl, my butt hovering over water, and my tail pulled very far back and held in my teeth.

It’s an odd position to contort, but I don’t have any trouble releasing my straining bladder. It feels weird. The gently closed vulval lips sort of flood with emerging urine. I didn’t think they would do that. Isn’t that unsanitary? It starts dripping out of them at first, before resolving into something resembling a stream. At least I don’t make much of a mess anywhere other than my pussy. Apparently my pee is still yellow, not some weird purple color or something. Of course I was too polite to examine the color of Twilight’s urine. Shifting around my... stuff down between my legs seems to get most of the drips out, but it’s still kind of... damp, so I climb down from the toilet using the footstool, and reach for some toilet paper.

Oh no.

“Nick?” I shout nervously. Trying not to drip as I clop across the slippery bathroom tiles, I stick my head out the unlatched door, saying, “Nick? A little help here!”

I at least manage to flush before he comes in, but I’m still standing there with my shame, and somehow it’s more embarassing than all the other times I’ve been naked around him. “I need you to...” I say reluctantly, “T-to, uh... I can’t exactly...”

Reaching out a hoof, I paw at the roll of toilet paper helplessly.

“I can help, but do you want me to touch you there?” he asks warily.

“Not like you have much choice,” I respond flatly, “Just... I just need a little help, sorry. I don’t know how ponies do it. Earth ponies, at least...”

Of course Twilight had to transform me into a weak little earth pony. Couldn’t let me have a horn, because then I might transform myself back! I’m really frustrated with Twilight Sparkle, thinking that she meant to do this, to make me into a pony who can’t even wipe herself, so I wouldn’t be able to oppose her... uh... plans... or something?

I tense up as Nick strokes the soft paper tissue along my new girl parts. It doesn’t feel bad, is the thing. It feels really really nice to have someone touch me back there. It’s way different than when I touch myself.

N-not that I touch myself.

“You okay?” he asks cautiously.

“Yes, just... keep going, it just surprised me how nice it felt,” I remark to him, blushing again.

He cleans me with the toilet paper, in an immensely relaxing fashion, then moving the paper into his other hand, he... continues touching me there, with his bare fingers.

“What are you doing?” I squeak, without moving away from him mind you.

“Just thinking I could warm you up to it,” Nick says, stroking his finders along that very strange, soft place between my legs... my tender nether lips. “You can’t make a rational decision if you’re afraid of your marehood being touched,” Nick points out.

“Y-you have a point,” I say leaning back against his hand a little—

“Also I totally want to fuck you,” he adds casually.

“Y-y-yeah that—” I say, shying away from his warm hand, “I–I don’t know if—”

“Relax,” Nick chides me, his other hand holding me still, “Just because I want to doesn’t mean I will. If this makes you want to have sex, then we can have sex. If not, then no pressure. At least it showed you that you don’t have to be scared to touch this thing.”

“T-that...” I gulp, as I feel him do things to me, things that should be impossible for me to feel. Deep things. I feel him dip his finger inside, and it’s even more sensitive at the wet flesh beneath my outer lips. “It’s making me really want to have sex,” I whimper to him, tail quivering as I think about what his finger is doing to me.

“Well, good!” he says pleasantly, not taking his hand off my tingling labia, “Then I guess we can have sex.”

“I just don’t wanna get...” I trail off, curling down to stretch my butt up at his fingers hungrily, “P-pregnant...”

“You won’t get pregnant,” he assures me, “You’re just exploring your new body, and what it can do.”

“It’s just... Nick, it’s too—much...!” I say, as my insides flex weirdly on their own as his fingers touch them, “I feel like I’m going to orgasm just like this alone!”

“Go ahead,” he says. “Aren’t you curious what it feels like to orgasm as a girl?” he asks, one hand wrapping around my underside to tease at the sensitive spots on my belly down there, “There’s nothing wrong with being curious.”

“I... rushing tingling just like...” I tell him, trying to focus on what my rear end is doing to me. “Just like a guy, but I can’t get a boner!” I explain fervently, quivering there and feeling like I’ve got butterflies in my stomach. All he’s doing is touching me with his fingers, and I’m shivering and burning up! Between my increasingly ragged pants, I tell him, “I should be so hard right now, but I’m just soft and wet and deep... m-melting it’s like I’m... Nick I can’t stop it ah... ahhh...aah!”

His strokes are like liquid fire as I orgasm. The weird spasms earlier just erupt into regular rippling contractions. It’s rushing through me like... like I don’t even know, and it won’t let go! “Nick, I—” I manage to shriek, shaking in the grips of this thing, “Won’t—stop!”

I have to just stand there then, staring forward, trying to breathe, until at last my inner contractions settle smooth, and my stiff legs sag with relaxation. “Ohh man, that was...” I say dizzily, still oddly feeling that orgasmic tingle flooding through me. “Wow...” A chill settles over me, as I notice that somehow I got worked enough to be covered in a slight sheen of sweat.

I’m half panicking here. I tried to describe the feeling to him, as if that would make it okay, but then it just... that just happened to me! He’s not going to impregnate me with his fingers, so it’s good, right? It feels... incredible. I’m shaking by the end of it. It just takes me, for way too long. All he’s using is his fingers, on my... thing, so why am I quivering from the aftershocks?

Nick leaves me alone to stand there in silence, just trying to get my bearings again, “So how was it?” he asks at last, “Better than a guy?”

“Ye–um...” I manage to focus on him, hesitating to answer yes or no. “It was... longer?” I attempt, looking back at my own rump uncertain of how to explain that. “It wouldn’t let me go,” I settle on at last, “Like when you first start climaxing, but it just keeps going because I can’t... ejaculate I guess. Not as satisfying. I still um...” shifting my hind legs together, I tell him, “I didn’t feel like I finished. So it’s a lot stronger, and more powerful, but I dunno about better.”

Shaking my head, I tell Nick, “Sorta like a coupe versus a big truck... some people like small cars better.”

“That’s as good of an analogy as I could expect,” he says, “So you don’t feel finished huh?”

“I... yeah I...” I murmur, shifting on my hooves, “Guess I’m... feeling a f-female’s urge to mate. I dunno, it just feels... it’s not like I have to, just... I guess it’d be... nice?”

“It’d be nice to get fucked,” he replies dryly.

“Y-yeah,” I say with a nervous half smile, “...nice.”

“Well it’s a good thing I’m such a nice guy,” Nick declares loudly, wrapping his arms around my chest and belly and oh help he’s going to—but I’m standing sideways to him! How could he possibly fuck me sideways? With his arms hooked under my chest and belly, Nick heaves me up into the air, my legs dangling below where his arms carry me like a forklift.

“Wow, you’re heavier than you look,” he says, chin tucked over my back.

“So I look skinny?” I ask him, turning over my shoulder to gaze uncertainly at his face.

“No you look... perfect,” he says looking back at me oddly, “Now let’s get to the bed. Just like you and Twilight.”

“Just like me and Twilight,” I murmur thoughtfully. I really should protest this more. Nick’s chest is so warm...

He lays me down on the bed, and I sit down, with my rear facing the edge. “She’d sit like this,” I explain, “And it was really easy to get inside. Uh... yeah. Honestly she preferred the couch.”

“Try the couch then?” he asks.

Shaking my head, I say, “No, this is... fine. Try this, for now.”

Nick takes off his pants and briefs, and I have to admit to being captivated by the sight of his equipment. Is that what girls feel? His penis hangs from his hips, with two frightening and potent testicles nestled to either side of it, emerging from a tastefully well groomed bush of scraggly, oily hair.

“You uh... shave?” I ask not sure of what to say to... him down there, ready to do me. Will that thing even fit? Why am I imagining the mechanical stresses of a penis on a vagina? What is my life??

“I keep it trimmed,” Nick states conservatively, “Just in case I get a new girlfriend... the ladies seem to like it.”

Blinking owlishly at him, I ask, “...am I your girlfriend?”

“I don’t think I’d inflict that on you,” he laughs, “No, you’re just my friend, none of that girlfriend/boyfriend stuff. Now lift your tail so I can fuck you.

Nick helps lift my tail for me, then starts palpating my nethers again, and once again I take in a breath. Orgasming didn’t make them less sensitive at all. Maybe even more sensitive! Now my tail flips over my back practically on its own, and I feel the urge to pike my hips up in the air. “S’making me want it,” I mumble into the bedcovers, which I clutch in my forehooves, “Wanna open to you and be better than... Twilight...”

“You’re already way better than Twilight,” Nick states, stepping up to wrap his large hands around either of my soft yellow furred thighs. “She never even kissed me!”

“Yeah b-but...” I say trying to formulate a coherent response, and then I feel Nick’s penis prodding my hindquarters. I close my eyes, awaiting the inevitable. Wait I won’t even be able to see it happen like this.

“Wait!” I exclaim anxiously. He pulls away, saying,

“Damn you’re getting cold feet now?”

“No i-it...” I roll over, until my belly is up in the air, my hind legs dangling to either side of me now that they stay permanently bent like pony legs do. “I just wanted to see it go in,” I offer to him shyly.

“Good point,” Nick says, moving up to me again, “If you need more warming up, I can lick you for a—”

“No!” I yelp, not even wanting to think about seeing Nick’s face in between those fuzzy yellow horse legs. “No just... go ahead,” I tell him, “I already orgasmed just from your fingers, so that means I’m totally wet enough.”

“You can feel your own wetness?” he asks curiously.

“...kind of?” I hesitantly admit, “It just feels like I’m sort of... melty down there, a-and I assume that’s wetness.”

“Works for me,” he replies. Then he starts stroking his shaft, so stiff and hard, and huge. Can a little thing like me take that? No, I mean literally. I’m freaking tiny. Twilight took mine though, and she loved it... I hope. As Nick lays his GIGANTIC penis on my belly, and slides it down towards my vulva, it looks like I’m about to find out.

“Well ‘Twilight’,” he says to me, as I both watch and feel the bulbous head of his shaft nestle into that soft parting in my hips, “Looks like I finally get to see what Aaron likes so much about ponies.” He starts to push it against my labia, and I wonder if it’s just going to slide in, or what? “Seriously though, I was so jealous,” Nick says in a surprisingly emotional voice, “Thank you so much for letting me do this.”

Then with a surprised grunt, I feel his shaft slide into a... something between my legs. My vagina? It’s immediately straining around him. I can’t stop staring at it, at that smooth tan shaft that I can feel embedding itself into my hips  As I watch him slide inch after inch to vanish within me, I can feel the smooth, sliding, stretching growing deeper within me. “It’s... spreading me apart!” I realize, whimpering and leaning my head back. “Nick you’re... opening me up!”

“Jesus Christ you’re tight,” he grunts, his pelvis smacking against mine, and just... impaling me with dick. Oh god, his... pelvis is pressed against mine and his penis is gone because it’s in me. I am tight, because it feels like he’s splitting me apart! How do I... stretch more?

“I am tight,” I cry tensely, “Feels like you’re splitting me apart! How do I stretch more?”

(I don’t mince words.)

“Does it hurt?” he asks with concern.

“Uh huh...” I murmur nervously, trying to shift my legs to make more room somehow. There’s a... a giant penis in my hips. I’m just stretched wide, all around it!

“Why didn’t you say anything?” he says in aggravation, “I didn’t want to hurt you!”

“Wait no—!” I squeak as he puts his hands on my raised thighs and starts shoving me off of being impaled on him.

Nick pauses, and I say hastily looking at my grossly distorted labia around that dick just jammed into me, “It’s fine. It just hurts and is... amazing! I can feel your whole... penis inside me! It’s like...” Whimpering, I rub at my strained vulva, “Like... stretching out. I need to stretch, Nick. You don’t even know.”

“Y-yeah, I don’t even know, but I’m happy to do it for you,” he says, pushing himself deep again. If only his dick were a little smaller! And more shapely, like... fitting inside me perfectly. “I’ll go slow though,” he says, starting to gently rock his hips against mine, “Until you’re used to it.”

Nodding nervously, I can’t really do much thrusting like this. Nick pretty much has to grab my hooves and do all the work. But I can focus on... stretching, and making it a perfect place for him to fuck. Isn’t the vagina supposed to be a muscle? If I have one, I could use that to... to pleasure him in return.

At least my body is, well, responsive. Nick manages to start fucking me, and I can’t believe what we’re doing. I can’t believe it’s actually working! . I’m laying belly up on this bed, a pony, with Nick’s giant penis sliding slipperily into my straining thighs.

The further Nick goes, the more I feel like a girl, the more I feel like how Twilight felt. The only problem is it’s really hard to... fit. Actually it’s kind of painful! And... and yanky. Like it’s gonna pull out my colon, even though Nick is in a place that’s very much not my colon. Is this why Twilight left me?

Ugh... why does it sting every time he pushes into me?

Having sex as a girl sucks!

Author's Note

Beeeeeeest frieeeeeeends

Five Finger Discount

Having sex is actually not much fun at first. The stretching feeling is godly but it’s also quite painful, and not all that pleasurable. Oh, did I mention I’m currently having sex with my best friend? I never knew Nick thought about me that way! Though in my defense, he didn’t, because a week ago I was taken by another. Also I didn’t have a bright yellow horse pussy.

Nick is certainly teaching me the full extent of this thing. I’m pushed up on my back, on my bed, horsey hind legs splayed to either side, while between them, is a man. From his coily haired groin juts a long, thick rod of flesh, a penetrating organ designed to get that little hole in its tip as deep inside someone’s vagina as possible. And it’s happening. To me.

Nick’s... I h-have to brace against him, because he keeps pushing his hips forward, and every time he does, that man pole of his slides deep into those yellow furred hips of mine, deep into that cleft his penis opens between my legs, so deep I can feel it strike actual resistance. I swear I can feel how far up my belly his penis is going in, touching my belly with a disbelieving forehoof right where I can feel his stiff straining. I think he’s all the way up to my belly button!

I whimper trying not to wince at the head of his penis smacking against something really sore in there. I wish I didn’t have to just put up with it. I wish I could be like Twilight, gasping with joy instead of pain. Is this why she left me? She was too ashamed to tell me I was hurting her?

But then my thoughts on Twilight, what she did to me, and how those goddamned cookies worked start getting interrupted by dizzying surges of pleasure with every pumping thrust. I guess I’m getting used to it, because I start wanting it more and more, and Nick fits in me better and better as he... ravages me.

I guess I am stretching more as time goes on, because Nick’s penis stops spreading me impossibly wide, and soon I’m struggling to stand, to shove back against him, pony to pony. He half climbs up on the bed, hands on my flanks, fucking me like a... like a pony!

“This is so much better,” I moan, the pain fading entirely with nothing left but a pleasure that was already teetering on the edge of orgasm before I even had low enough pain to feel it. Nick doesn’t answer, just fucks me harder, and his dick is so deep inside me, that stiff thrusting pole.

I’m all around him. Somehow he can just be... be in that incredible thing between my hips. I think I... might be heading towards orgasm? I don’t know what it feels like to orgasm like this! I don’t have a penis, just an inside that’s hungry for Nick’s and and something. I want him deep. I want him to be me. I want to be Twilight, and he’s me, fucking her for the very first time. “Nick!” Twilight belts out, except it’s me. I need to be Twilight for him, and... and then he stops?

“Wha...” Nick manages to say before his hulking hunched forward penetrating form collapses on top of me—holy crap!

“Nick!” I squeal again for an entirely different reason as his dead weight crushes me into the bed. As I struggle out from under him, my... his penis slides right out of my insides, and it feels weird, and he feels weird when I push against him! Like he was a... a Nick shaped bag of jello.

“What’s wrong, Nick?!” I ask laying on my side beside him, and he just lies there face down. Did I kill him?! Frantic, I grab him in my forelegs to pull him over, but it’s like dragging a bag of sand not a human being, and when Nick flops on his back, I see it. I see a very shapely looking penis. Quite easy to stare at. Considering what it is. Which is what it shouldn’t be. My breath catching in my throat, I look at the grey belly fur radiating out from his mottled horsecock and shriek,

“Oh no, it’s contagious!”

Miranda Brown was in a good mood. I wouldn’t know this, but it’s a pretty safe assumption. Her van just got off the highway, went to the car park, and she bid a fond farewell to all her friends, the girls she went out camping with. With them, she saw some flowers blooming down south, and she saw the snow melting, then she returned up to Minnesota where everything was still frozen.

Perhaps she took her car to the auto place to get her oil checked. She waited there, using her phone to play stupid flash games, and didn’t suspect a thing. Maybe she took her car to her apartment, where her roommate enthusiastically greeted her. Actually I don’t know who her roommate is so let’s say her roommate just waved an apathetic hand upon her return, manicured in black nail polish.

Mira put her things away, then made sure to check her messages. Sure enough, her boss called to leave her a message that she’s working a double shift tomorrow because “things are really tight now” as they always are. She then fantasized about working on a farm, living off of the land, and punching that fat bastard in the face. Admittedly, he’s only being the fall guy for his higher-ups who are the ones making sure everyone works as hard as possible for them, for as little pay as possible, but responsible morons like her manager, who cover for those bastards, deserve to get punched in the face, at least on a daily basis.

Wait wouldn’t that be kicked in the face now?

Well the very human Miranda resolved not to tell her overprotective brother of the cruel exploitive practices at her workplace, and instead made herself a TV dinner. Perhaps chuck wagon chicken, with at least 50% actual chicken. That’s why it took her so long to call her brother and let him know she was back. Chuck Wagon Chicken. Truly what roused her interest is that after her chicken was consumed, she recalled the prospect of fresh baked chocolate chip cookies that her brother promised to deliver halfway through the week.

On getting the voice mail to my phone, because nopony in my house was willing and able to answer the phone, Miranda left a message. “Hey, it’s me. Back from Utah, those flowers were gorgeous! Anyway give me a call when you get in. Is that offer for cookies still on the table?”

The next morning, she received no response, but how could this possibly be related to the fact that hooves can’t type a phone number? It certainly couldn’t have been our fear and shame at being discovered. Surely it was pure coincidence that I didn’t respond, or perhaps she reasoned that I was out partying on the town, as a seasoned socialite such as myself does. Calling again, my sister left a message, saying, “Hey it’s your sister. Are you around? Call me when you get this.”

Unfortunately, she then had to travel to her job at a nearby call center, and spend her days assisting customers in spending more money on her company. She resolved to quit, but didn’t exactly know what else to do with her life, now that “marry a rich dude” was off the table. Dealing with her asshole coworkers, you know the drill. Finally she got off work, returning to her apartment, somewhat dismayed that I haven’t called yet.

Figuring to surprise me, she showed up at my job—no, no, my mistake. Her boss won’t allow her to show up at my job, because we both work during the day, and she gets no vacation days for the first year. It’s her third “first year” in fact, because they always find a way to lay you off, and then hire you anew, with no legally required benefits needed. Any legitimate business is driven bankrupt by these totally legal low cost policies, and the world slips a little further into the chains of slavery.

Truly there is no greater evil than a call center.

So, instead Mira called my boss during a free moment, and seeing as I don’t work at a call center, he’d be quite worried and want to know what happened to me, since I haven’t shown up to work all week for some mysterious reason. Miranda then wanted to check if I’m at my house for some reason, which wasn’t her first thought, because why would I ever be at my house? She may have wondered if I was hurt, or worse, but instead she went back to her job.

Working there all day, though less than she did on Monday, she was distracted by the worries for her family, or former family as it were. Her chains of debt were tight though, so she devoted her day toward helping make life easier for people bent on screwing us all. Angry customers your company cheated, who are legitimately claiming you broke the law? Don’t worry the call center girls will handle them.

God I hate call centers.

It was for that reason, and that reason alone no doubt, that Miranda took until Tuesday afternoon to check on us. She found the front door to the house unlocked, unlatched, and propped open, because fuck doorknobs. Sneaking in and taking off her shoes, this polite gesture enabled her to surreptitiously travel through the house, at last sighting the living room couch.

On the couch in question, the only indication that she’d been detected were the slight twitching of our ears, as we slept there peacefully. Two little ponies cuddled together, with one pale yellow foreleg laying on the stallion’s soft, grey, furry side, one purple maned head resting on my smooth yellow furry shoulders, and one green tail with a grey stripe dangling down over the couch cushions.

Have you ever had a premonition that your sister is going to be a bat pony?

What awakens me is a continuous high pitched squeeing sound, of a little girl who’s not such a little girl anymore, but never really grew into her maturity. I lift my head, shoving up under Nick’s head, blinking muzzily at the thought that maybe the smoke detector went off? Then I turn to the right and see the source of the squealing, a woman in an overcoat with frizzy brown hair descending past her shoulders, and an irrepressable, ear splitting grin on her face.

Naturally, I get so startled that I toss Nick away like he was a giant teddy bear, then flip over the back of the couch scrambling in a panic to just get away, finally landing painfully on the floor behind it.

“Miranda!” I shout shrilly from back there, trying to overcome her surprisingly long lasting squee, “What are you doing here?!”

“Eeeee you know my name?!” Miranda exclaims climbing up to lean over the couch like a perching vulture, peering at me like Pinkie Pie peers at somepony who has never had a party. “Who are you? Are you from the show? Did you meet the main cast? Who’s your favorite pony??”

Okay... that explains a lot. She knows of the show, too.

“It’s me, Mira,” I tell her groggily, rubbing at my head to peer at the human woman perched on the couch, “I’m actually Meadowsweet.”

“Well, pleased to meet you ‘Actually Meadowsweet’,” Mira says around her earsplitting grin, “My name is Miranda Brown and I guess... welcome to Earth?”

She holds out a hand for me to shake, with fingers I don’t have, and I stare at it in confusion. “No, I’m not supposed to be a pony,” I tell Mira with a worried look, “It’s me. Meadowsweet! Your brother!”

She retracts her hand, blinking at me in confusion. And then I remember.

“Oh good grief,” I say sinking my head, “Sorry, Mira. Twi—somepony changed my name, I guess. I forgot you didn’t... do you remember somebody named... Aaron?”

“Aaron?” she asks, wide-eyed, “Is that... you?”

“Yeah,” I whimper miserably, “Sorry it’s just... something went really wrong and—”

She leaps over the couch at me like a lion, squealing again and grappling me before I can escape. “You’re so cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute!” she shouts shrilly while my ears flatten back on their own, her squeezing me and spinning around with me in her arms while I struggle to escape.

“Mira, please—” I squawk like an abused goose, “Mira!” But there’s no dissuading her with words. At last, I get enough purchase on her to pry her arms apart and we go flying in different directions as I shove her away from me hard.

“Stay away!” I shout, holding up a hoof to stop her, “Don’t touch me, or you’ll catch it too!”

“The pony is contagious?” she asks incredulously.

“Yes,” I tell her, looking around the room, “Nick? Where are yo—”

And then she’s glomping me again saying, “Eeeeeeee I’m gonna be a pony!!”

“Am I the only one who’s not okay with this?” I moan to no one in particular, hanging limply in her arms as Nick skulks up behind us.

“So, when does it hit?” Mira asks, sitting crosslegged in a circle in the living room with me and... what’s left of Nick.

“I dunno,” I mumble to Mira, giving Nick a guilty look, as he gives me a guilty one back.

The greyish unicorn remains as much of a stallion as he was when I... infected him with it. A lush purple tail lays alongside his squarer hips, and a mane of matching color falls messily over his head. His luminous, bright green eyes meet my own eyes: the color of red wine. I’m still a pale yellow mare, with a weird blue/green mane, and I’m still smaller than Nick, especially when we stand on all fours, and it feels weird.

It makes a cruel sort of sense now, that Twilight Sparkle is trying to ponify the world, by spreading it like an infectious disease. I fell for it, hook, line and sinker, and now Nick has to pay the price. He just... turned into a little pony, right before my eyes, and unlike me, he remained a stallion. A stallion I could’ve been... experimenting with, if I wasn’t so worried about getting pregnant.

“This really isn’t a good idea, Mira,” Nick says uneasily. Oddly, his voice is different now, even though he’s still male. He’s a smooth tenor, instead of a kind of nasal baritone. I’d call it an improvement, if it wasn’t so disturbing. He stayed a stallion, so shouldn’t his voice have stayed the same?

“Yeah, I know,” Mira sighs glumly, but then faces us with a pleading expression, saying, “But come onnn you’re ponies! That’s something that changes everything!”

“We need your help Mira, not to make you a pony,” I say in frustration, “We can’t use a touch screen, so our phones are worthless. We can’t go out in public because we’re not human. Nick was gonna do all the human stuff for me, and he can’t anymore! How are we supposed to fix this, if none of us is going to stay human? I don’t even have fingers anymore!”

“Technically you have four fingers,” Nick points out unhelpfully, lifting a hoof, “One for each leg.”

“You know what I mean,” I grumble between gritted teeth.

“And what am I supposed to do as a human?” Mira asks in a swanky whine, “Do your laundry? Cook your meals? Go to the office and sit on the phone while you two get to go on an adventure? You can do a lot more than you think, I think. This is genuine magic! You’re a pony, Aaron!”

I wince at that... name, but it’s what she knows and I don’t want to shock her any more than I already have. “I’m not magic though,” I tell her, “I’m just a... colorful horse.”

“Who can talk,” Nick points out unhelpfully.

“Your eyes are really colorful,” Mira says, peering at me. “I mean, they really stand out against that green and yellow. Do pony eyes even come in that shade of red?”

“I—I don’t suppose they do,” I say, looking away nervously, “I do have red eyes though, don’t I. I can’t see my own eyes, except in the mirror, so it’s easy to forget sometimes.”

“Well I think they’re beautiful eyes,” Mira says with a warm smile, “Any pony would be lucky to have the colors that you do.”

“Yeah well...” I have to hide my face behind my hoof even more now, since it’s not just my eyes that are deep red anymore. “I-it’s okay I guess.”

As time goes by, the afternoon carries on with me, a pony, trying to deal with the sudden presence of my mousy brown haired sister. I wonder if her hair would be that frizzy as a pony. I know Nick’s changed, no longer curly, but straight and wavy. His tail’s a lot shorter than mine, too. I wonder if that’s the sort of thing he’d have to trim....

A still very human Mira is relaxing on the floor against the back of the couch, the three of us sitting together back there, pretty much where I fell. The couch is between us and the fireplace, but I’m not cold at least, because I have yellow fur, I guess. The wind whistles faintly outside. And Miranda wants to turn into a little pony.

“Nick has a horn. I bet he can use magic,” Mira insists, “And you’re already doing impossible stuff. I say you just haven’t had enough practice at being a pony!”

“It really isn’t obvious how to use this,” Nick says, cautiously prodding a hoof against his blunt, pointed horn, “It feels funny, at least, but I can’t even get it to light up.”

“Okay, a lot of practice then,” Mira grants, “I’ll practice a lot, and heck maybe I’ll be a pegasus. Flying’s gotta be easier than magic, right? Rainbow Dash is a moron, and she’s great at flying!”

“Did you just call Rainbow Dash a moron?” I say in surprise, somewhat peeved at my sister’s opinions about the show, opinions which I might have been aware of, if I ever had the courage to tell Miranda I watched it. Nick’s the only one I confided into about that, but now the pony’s out of the bag, I suppose.

“It was a compliment,” Mira says with an unrepentant smile. “C’mon, I’d make a great pegasus! It’d round us out with all three tribes, and you’re gonna need a flyer with you on your adventure.”

“Still a bad idea,” Nick says flatly, “We’re not on any sort of adventure. Heck we’ve been trapped in this stupid house all week. I can’t get my horn to work, go figure, and we’re in the middle of Minnesota. There are no adventures in Minnesota.”

“If I don’t change into a pony now, I might miss my chance!” Mira whines, “Next thing you know, you two are in Equestria, and I’m...” it’s subtle, but a bit of the fire in Miranda’s eyes dies, as she says, “I’m at a call center.”

“And what if you change into a stallion, huh?” Nick counters, trying to puff up to look imposing, even though like me, he’s several heads shorter than Mira, on the floor, and several times lighter. It’s adorable.

“In that case, I think Aaron here would be in trouble,” Mira says looking at me in amusement, “Think you could handle two stallions, cutie?”

I blush saying flatly, “My name’s not Cutie.” Or Aaron, for that matter....

“Huh, so you could handle two stallions?” Mira says with a nod of impressment.

“I’m supposed to be a stallion!” I protest impotently, “... a man, whatever.”

“You seriously think she could only handle two stallions?” Nick asks Mira chidingly, “When a girl has three holes?”

“Good point!” Mira savagely replies, while I bury my face in my hooves, trying not to think about how I was just filling one of those holes earlier last weekend, before Nick transformed. Specifically, it was the one holes in my body, which I am not supposed to have, the weird feeling hole that I might theoretically be able to give birth through.

“We need one more human to become a stallion then,” Mira says practically, “Any preferences, Aaron?”

“How about myself?” I groan.

Mira replies sagely, “You are not a human.”

“And that is precisely the problem here!” I squeal, sitting up and tossing my forehooves over my head in disgust.

“Are you really that dead set on being human again?” Nick asks me with a critical look, “Frankly, you didn’t seem all that happy as one.”

“Of course I am...” I uneasily tell him, “I mean it’s... I don’t mind being a pony, or a... mare, but there are consequences to these things! What if I got pregnant? What if the government captured us? How could I possibly go to work like this? What if Twilight used some strange mind control that only affected ponies?”

Nick stares a moment, then says, “Okay, that last one was a little out there, even for you.”

“If I was a pegasus, I’d go to work and tell them to stuff it!” Mira says with a gleeful smile. “I’d get a job making the freaking weather so we could get flowers in February!”

“And what if you changed into an earth pony?” I ask her acidly.

Mira just shrugs at that, but Nick gives me a sympathetic look, saying to me softly, “I know you’d rather be a unicorn...”

“I just—” I can’t look him in the eye, staring at my pale yellow forelegs, “I just hate being so helpless,” I say to them, “I didn’t get a horn or wings. Twilight just made me this way so I’d be... helpless...”

“Well, I could give you a horn,” Nick offers kindly.

I look up at him surprised, and Nick is... waggling his eyebrows at me. “Oh for Pete’s sake,” I groan, hiding my face under my hooves again, “That was one time!”

“What’re you two talking about?” Mira asks curiously. “He did something with his horn?”

“You could say that,” Nick offers cagily. I wish he’d tell her, because I can’t bring myself to answer. I can hardly admit to myself what happened, so I’m certainly reluctant to tell my sister that her big brother might be a pregnant mare, after some very intimate exposure infected Nick with horse.

“So, how do I get in on this pony thing?” Mira queries, leaning towards us again, “How did you change Nick into a pony? Do I need to do some sort of ritual?”

Nick snorts at that, but before he can say anything, I protest to Mira,

“We’re in huge trouble because we’re ponies. You really don’t want to have to deal with this.”

“Why not?” she whines, “I don’t have anything holding me down. Heck, Nick is an engineer! How’s he supposed to do that anymore?”

“If I can figure out how to use this...” Nick says, crossing his eyes to look at his own grey, spiraled horn.

“See?” Mira replies cheekily, “So there’s no problem. You’re both worried about it too much!” She looks between us silently, then leans forward with a gleeful smile, asking eagerly, “So how did you do it?”

“We don’t exactly know how, since we haven’t been testing if it works on anyone else,” Nick says carefully, noncommitally, “We’ve been sort of quarantining ourselves the past week, in case it was transmitted by air or something.”

“Did you call the CDC?” Mira asks curiously.

“Oh, that might’ve been a good idea,” he drawls, “If we wanted to live in prison the rest of our lives.”

“Also if we could use a phone,” I mumble.

“I was thinking about it,” Nick admits leerily, “But then you sort of... burst in.”

“How fast does it take effect?” Mira asks, looking at her pale arm, “Maybe I already got it?”

“It’s really fast, actually,” I say thoughtfully, “You get sort of... dizzy, then you just kind of... fall into a heap for about... five minutes, I guess?”

“It’s definitely not air transmitted,” Nick says, giving me a look, “Mira’s been here for hours without it happening.”

“Not transmitted by casual c-contact, either,” I say returning Nick’s look with my own, “So that leaves only...”

“Yeah...” he says very wanly.

“What?” Mira asks, “Leaves what? Yeah what? Don’t leave me hanging here!”

“Do you really want to turn into a pony?” I ask Mira, looking her in the eyes and projecting as much feminine ‘my vagina is sore’ empathy as I can muster. “I mean, what are you willing to do, to be one?”

“Apparantly tie down my new kid sister and torture her with a feather until she spills the beans,” Mira replies with a roll of her eyes, “But basically anything, short of killing someone...” she grins toothily, “Unless they really deserve it.”

“N-nothing like that,” I tell her, looking to Nick who shakes his head helplessly. Facing Mira, I swallow, and tell her very uneasily, “If you want to be a pony, you might have to have... sssseex with Nick.”

Mira blinks slowly.

“Sex. With Nick,” she says.

I nod unfortunately.

“You realize he’s a pony, right?” she responds, pointing to the guilty looking stallion.

“Thaat... seems to be a requirement,” I reply, looking at Nick pensively.

“It’s... sexually transmitted?” Mira asks faintly.

“Seems that way,” I mumble, fighting a blush in my cheeks.

“So that means you and Nick...” she looks between us.

“For the record, it was my idea,” Nick says, ears going down cutel—guiltily. Not cutely. “I figured it was a good time to e-experiment, and it’s not like I could’ve got her... pregnant.”

“Not when you were a human,” I fuss at him, “But you might now, as a pony! Why else do you think I haven’t been—” my gaze snaps back to Mira, “Uhm... doing... more... experimenting,” I say, hiding under my hooves again.

“Wow, I mean... wow. You really did it with him?” Mira asks, “But you’re like... bros!”

“You know what bros don’t have?” Nick says with an unimpressed roll of his eyes, “Pussies.”

Mira suppresses a laugh at that. “You sound so dapper Nick, then you go and say that,” she says in amusement.

“He’s right though,” I tell Mira honestly, “I have a... something that Nick really enjoys, so why shouldn’t I share it? You’d do the same thing if you woke up with a—oh right you already have one.”

Flopping on my belly, I groan, “I suck at being a girl.”

“Don’t worry Aaron, I’m not 12,” Mira says in amusement, “Quite honestly, you haven’t said anything a girl wouldn’t say, if she wasn’t full of shit. I think you’d make a great girl! I’m probably not the best judge of these things, though.”

“I found her feminine enough!” Nick nickers smugly.

“I am not feminine and girls do not act like this!” I protest furiously from where I lay on the floor, lashing my tail... somehow. I can’t repeat the movement. “Girls don’t just... share their—share their... thing that they’ve got!” I tell my sister imperiously.

“I’m just saying, you were pretty unsuccessful at being a guy,” Mira replies with very little sympathy, “Maybe being a girl is an improvement!”

“How would I be any better of a girl?” I counter whinily, from my place laying despondent on the floor, “I don’t know anything about raising kids. I could get pregnant like this! I have a... a thing in me that’s just waiting to get fertilized. I can’t even cover it up, it’s open all the time.”

“And other girls don’t worry about that?” Mira says skeptically, “Face it, Aaron, you’re even girlier than I am, and I was born with that thing you’re scared of. You sure you’re not trans or something?”

“I can’t believe I’m having this conversation with my sister,” I groan from the floor there, where I lay slain by Mira’s insistence on relying on the truth, instead of telling me sweet lies. Sweet lies like how it’s perfectly normal to wait at that age, or that the right girl will come along for you someday. Well, the right girl did come along for me, and she screwed me over!

“It would explain a lot though,” Mira says, tapping her cheek with an enviably dextrous finger, “You’re what, 32, and you never even got laid? Maybe you had to change into a little girl pony before you could lose your virginity! You and Nick, I mean,” she squints one confused eye at the two of us, “It kind of makes sense, I guess? Did you really lose your virginity to Nick?”

“I didn’t lose my virginity to Nick, ” I growl at her self consciously, finally pushing myself up to a doggie-ish sitting position again, “For your information, for the past two months, I’ve been in a relationship with...oh right. I never told you.”

“When were you in a relationship?” Mira asks me in confusion, “You never told me?”

“Since a few months ago,” I tell her, with a frown, “A genuine male—uh—heterosexual relationship, and yes I was a guy, and yes it did get physical.”

“A few months?” Mira exclaims in surprise, “Aaron, you dog! Or, pony. Why didn’t you tell me? Who’s the lucky lady?”

“She wasn’t... lucky,” I tell Mira, unable to meet her eyes, “She d-dumped me last week.”

“Oh Aaron, I’m so sorry...” Mira says with eyes flooding with sympathy.

I resist the urge to grumble ‘Meadowsweet.’

“Is it because you changed into a pony?” Miranda asks.

“N—” I start to answer, and then pause. That isn’t... totally wrong. “No,” I finally tell Mira with some confidence, “I changed into a pony because she dumped me.”

Mira sits back from where she’s lounging at the dinner table. I myself would be lounging, but my long, lanky form has caught a case of the little pony, so I’m just sitting here on my haunches like a dog... on the floor... like a dog.

“That’s an... odd reaction to getting dumped,” Mira admits, “Not gonna lie.”

“It was a pretty odd situation,” I agree a little guiltily, “I can’t believe it all happened over two months... she um... seduced me pretty easily I guess. I thought she loved me...”

“Who is this lady?” Mira says with a genuine scowl that makes me shrink back, “She did what to you?!”

“I... it was...”

“He had a quick little fling with Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship,” Nick says impatiently, waving a casual hoof for emphasis from where he’s laying there on his belly, “She stole his name, and changed him into a little girl pony, then vanished laughing into thin air.”

Mira snickers. “That’s great Nick,” she says, “But I’d like to hear a story that isn’t total bullshit from Aaron here.”

“Meadowsweet,” I grumble.

“What about it?” Mira asks, tilting her head as she looks down at me.

“That’s my name,” I tell Mira irritably, “I only remember you ever calling me Meadowsweet before now. This Aaron thing is just incredibly creepy.”

“I don’t think I ever called you Meadowsweet before,” Mira says frankly.

I nod at that, ears tilting as I say, “Twilight Sparkle m-messed with my memories, I guess. I don’t remember anyone ever calling me Aaron before. It’s weirdly specific.”

Mira stares silently, then blurts out, “Wait, Nick was being serious?!”

I have to laugh at that, but it’s kind of a choked laugh. Okay it’s kind of a horsey snort, but details, details.

“He sure was,” I say in what would have been amusement if I wasn’t the little pony here. “It all started when I found Twilight Sparkle out there in the blizzard we had last December. I couldn’t believe it either. But she recovered, and we got closer, and...”

“Aaron lost his V-card to Purple Pony Pussy,” Nick helpfully concluded. “She’s been all over him since then... until she disappeared, at any rate.”

“That’s... one way to put it,” I say warily. “Anyway, so...”

“So that’s how you turned into a pony,” Mira says in disbelief, “Goddamn fucking Twilight Sparkle.”

“Not exactly,” I say, “I didn’t turn into a pony because we were... making love. Twilight made these cookies, see... and she said that four was a sufficient dosage.”

“Cookies?” Mira asks with interest.

“Twilight took them with her, so don’t get your hopes up,” I retort flatly, “But then I just... started changing into um... this.” I gesture at my lemon furred butt with a wave of a hoof.

“So... you didn’t get ponified from having sex,” Mira suggests warily.

“Y-yeah that’s right. I didn’t get ponified from having sex,” I say pretty confidently.

Nick cuts in then saying cheekily, “But I did!”

Rolling my eyes at the unrepentant dork, I tell Mira, “Yes, Nick was having sex... with... m-me and he started turning into a pony. I think the cookies just started it off, making me patient zero.”

“Oh god, so Nick would have been human when—” Mira stared at the grey stallion in horror.

“It wasn’t that bad,” Nick said with a half smile, “Aaron had a lot of practice with Twilight.”

“You... how could you do that though?” Mira asks, looking between us in horror, “Didn’t you think you were going to break her or something?” Mira gestures at me, “She’s so tiny!”

“Actually I’m pretty stretchy for my...” I say, before realizing what I said, “...size...”

Miranda presses her hands against her face, rubbing at her temples with her index fingers. “I can’t believe this happening,” she moans into them, “This shit has got to be illegal.”

“Oh I hadn’t even thought about that...” I mumur worriedly, “But... since Nick and I are both ponies now, it won’t apply to us, right?”

“So you mean if I want to be a pretty little pony,” Mira says, angrily hurling her arm to point in Nick’s direction, “I have to take that to bed with me?”

“Oh thanks,” Nick says flushing with entirely undeserved shame, “Glad I’m a that, not a he.”

“It’s really not that bad,” I tell her innocently. Then my ears sink, and I say disgusted, in a girl’s voice, “I really should stop speaking out loud.”

“Oh no, do go on with the explicit details of your horse sex,” Mira says acidly, “I so want to hear all about that.”

“If I knew another way, I’d let you know!” I squawk at her irritably, “It doesn’t help that we haven’t done it at all since then!”

“What, you want to do it again?” Nick asks me in surprise, “You wouldn’t even talk about it!”

“B-because I don’t want to do it again,” I tell him infirmly, “If we talk, then I’ll... y-y’know, start warming up to it. Then it’ll be easier to get me to do more. I don’t want to get pregnant, Nick!”

“He didn’t cum uh... finish inside you?” Mira asks, giving Nick a thoughtful look.

“Oh don’t look at me like I was even thinking at that point,” Nick says crossly, “I started turning into a pony and my whole body just collapsed like a sack full of jello. It was weird, and I was crushing her!”

“I-it wasn’t all that bad,” I cut in, red-faced, “I just... I got out from under him, and it’s just his... thing changed first. B-because he caught the pony from me. From my... sex organs.”

“And now that he’s a pony, you can’t have sex with him,” Mira says disapprovingly. Wait disapprovingly?!

“Hey, I’ve offered,” Nick says, “There are plenty of things we could do that isn’t going to get any uh... pony pregnant.”

“It was hard enough to learn to walk,” I tell Nick shyly, trying not to remember how his human penis felt sliding inside me. “I–I’m just not ready for... for more, even if it’s just oral.”

“You turned down cunnilingus?!” Mira declares at me, “You really are a girl!”

“No I’m not!” I protest, “I just... I’m just not ready yet!”

“Total girl,” Mira asserts insistently, “Next you’ll be saying you’re gonna wait for the right man to come around, because you only open your legs for the best.”

“Girls are not all like that!” I attest furiously, “I’m just not ready for him to... to lick me down there!”

She snickers, and I look to Nick, asking in exasperation, “Nick, back me up here!”

Nick just slowly peeks his tongue out of his pony mouth.

With Mira here, it looks like there’s going to be one more person for dinner today. That sort of sobers Mira up, when she finds that our house is already getting low on food. Her optimism is unquenchable though, and she insists that I at least try to prepare something besides raw vegetables, bread and hay.

I have to bargain with her to do something so simple as get a frozen pizza from the store so that we can stop going insane from eating nothing but raw vegetables, bread and hay. Oh no, clearly we can’t just eat pre-prepared food. As far as she’s concerned, we can only eat food we have to prepare ourselves, good home-cooked meals, because clearly we have hands with which to prepare the food, so why would we eat it pre-prepared?

And why would we indulge ourselves now, when there’s clearly no danger that we’ll shortly end up homeless in the woods, subsisting off of nuts and berries, or... subsisting off of nothing and nothing, if we stay in Minnesota. No, we have to use our magical pony powers that don’t exist, to prepare a sumptuous feast. A frozen pizza? Heaven forbid! Miranda knows we ponies are too good for such things!

So she caves to my whining eventually, and leaves to pick up the pizza, but I have to fulfill my half of the bargain. So I find myself standing on a chair, pulled up to the counter, prepared to engage my magical pony powers. My yellow forehooves are braced up on the kitchen counter, and Nick is below, bracing the chair with his own weight, saying, “How’s it going up there?”

“F-fine,” I say, trying desperately to find a way out of Mira’s very reasonable request, but alas all I find before me is a deadly looking sharp cutting knife, a block of parmesan cheese, and a deadly, flesh shredding cheese grater. “Alright,” I gulp dryly, “I’m gonna give this a... a shot. Just do whatever, right? Just um... fake it until you make it.”

“If you’re too nervous, we can skip on the parmesan, and find something... else to do,” Nick says worriedly.

Shaking my head, I say, “No I got this. Just give me a second.”

Closing my eyes and trying to let my mind go blank, I slowly inhale and exhale. Then I open my eyes and grab the cheese. The block seems a lot bigger, with my smaller size, and I just hook my hoof over it and slide it close. Then I grab the knife and—and try not to think of how my hoof’s wrapping around its handle like a giant weird finger. Shakily, I drag the knife up to lay its edge on the cheese.

If I were human, I’d just hold the knife in both hands and push evenly down, and... I can do that with hooves since it’d just be pushing down, not gripping anything with opposable thumbs, I guess, but this is stiff, dense, hard cheese. With my tiny little mare body, there’s no way I can put enough pressure to slice through it. But... I said I’d try, so determined to relay to Mira my failure, I push down as hard as I can, and sure enough, I slice right through it.

Wait what?

I’m startled by the sharp sound of the knife hitting the cutting board. It went through the cheese like it was ricotta! “Okay um...” I say, staring at the knife warily before laying it flat. “Time to grate the cheese...”

Clumsily squeezing my hoof around the hunk of cheese, that only gives me one single forehoof with which to move the cheese grater. My tongue slips out the side of my mouth in concentration, trying to bump the grater on over to where I can lean on it. I release the hunk of cheese and just balance it on my hoof while fighting to rotate the grater the right way, but finally I have my left arm pressed securely over the top of a simple box grater.

Then I look at my right hoof, and... huh. Actually the hunk of cheese is just sitting there, still on my upraised hoof. Is it...? No, it slides right off, and I have to wrap my hoof around it again to lift it. How do you do the magic hoofsies thing? I’m screwed, aren’t I.

With no way to get the cheese to stick to my hoof, I just brace it against the surface of the grater, sandwiched between that and my hoof, and put a smooth, downward pressure on the cheese with the edge of my hoof’s nail. With a clatter, the cheese clunks on the counter and bounces away, but that’s more because of my surprise than anything. The cheese just... sliced effortlessly to ribbons where it touched the grater. Repeating the process, I don’t drop the hunk of cheese a second time, and in smooth, quickening strokes, I wear it down to nothing.

“You’re getting awfully quiet up there,” Nick says cautiously.

“I—I grated cheese,” I tell him. “I grated cheese. With hooves.”

“Congratulations!” Nick says delightedly, “Did you figure out magic hoofsies?”

“No, I just... I just improvised,” I tell him, briefly lifting the grater in my mouth, and tapping it as all the cheese cascades out of its box into a pile on the counter. “It’s easier than I thought it would be. Do we... could you go get a piece of cardboard from the box recycling over by the toaster?”

Now taking some cheap plastic container, I turn it upside down and lay it on top of the pile of grated cheese. Then I slide the cardboard under the pile with the edge of a hoof. By kicking the cardboard up, I can flip the container, with the cheese in it, either making a horrible mess, or ending with the container right side up and mostly full of cheese. The latter... happens. “Holy mackerel, I didn’t spill the cheese, Nick!” I say excitedly. “Now I can use the spatula to...” hmm...

I do manage to get my right hoof to wrap securely around the spatula, but I have to brace the spatula against my snout at first, trying to get my hoof in position. Then biting the spatula’s handle, I twist my tongue around it, so that my hoof can... uhh...

Returning my hoof to the floor, I stand there, realizing it’s easier to just hold the spatula in my mouth.

“I’m am aelium,” I say in a bemused daze, slurring around the handle of the spatula while I cleanly scoop up the remaining bits of spilled cheese. Instead of stubbornly scattering in front of my spatula, the cheese flakes just slide right on top of it, because I... moved my spatula correctly? With clean, decisive strokes. Then tilting the spatula to dump the remaining cheese into its container, instead of the cheese falling off the side of the spatula in an ever increasing radius until it spills beyond the edges of the container, the cheese just... funnels off the corner of the spatula. It’s easy. Why didn’t I use a spatula like this before?

Somehow the counter is clean, and we have a cheap plastic container full of freshly grated parmesan cheese. “I didn’t do anything magical, Nick,” I tell him confusedly once I’ve returned to the ground, squatting there staring at my forehooves. “I just...” Flexing the “finger” of one hoof, I can almost curl it forward to touch itself, “Did that, and... just found solutions for all the problems. Did you know there’s a way to dump cheese off a spatula that concentrates it at the corner like a funnel?”

“I don’t think that’s physically possible,” he replies, “But if you insist. Great job! I wonder what else you think you can’t do, that you actually can.”

“Yeah, if only it didn’t take so long...” I sigh, looking up at the counter high above us, as we two ponies sit on our haunches on the kitchen floor. Linoleum is cold against girlbits by the way. Not a lesson I ever thought I would learn.

“It only took a couple of minutes, I think?” he replies, “Except dragging the chair over and all.”

“Huh, seemed longer,” I say feeling a trifle unsettled by all this.

“So... earth pony master race?” Nick tries weakly. I sigh at him. “Super... parmesan grating powers?” he suggests insistently, and I can’t suppress a giggle at that one. “You were grating awfully fast,” he insists, “Anyway, that’s just a little bit of dinner.”

“A little bit of dinner, but I dunno,” I say, looking pensively at my slim yellow hoof again, “I’m not so sure having hooves is a bad thing anymore.”

“How’s my favorite little sister doing?”

Yep, Mira is definitely back from the store. Why can’t she go pick on somepony else, who didn’t wake up every morning the past three weeks with a vagina? Somepony other than the pony who has had to ignore said stupidly achey, tingly girl parts all the time in order to not fill them up with a little baby pony.

“I’m doing just fine,” Mira’s little sister, who is also a pony, grumbles. Because it’s me. Maybe not age-wise, but size-wise, I’m really... really little. I still can’t see out any of the windows without climbing up there, and the doorknobs are... above me, instead of in front of me. Realistically, I have to be bigger than I feel, since so much of me has to stand sideways now, but it still feels like I’m tiny.

“You need me to take care of the parmesan from—oh, you grated it?” Mira says, spotting the tub of grated cheese that I managed to get onto the table. “Wow,” Mira says, “I’m honestly impressed.”

Mira has returned with tons of food and supplies, and one frozen pizza as promised. It smells godly in the oven. I hope she brought enough to last us the winter, or... until whenever we’re going to figure out how to be ponies. But I don’t care if it’s vegetarian, this pizza has got to be the best thing I’ve eaten since becoming a pony. It’s horrible and messy and so delicious Nick keeps making jokes about how he wishes he could pleasure me as good as the pizza does.

But then, the conversation turns back towards how to get Mira transformed into a pony.

“I can’t believe that I can’t be a pony unless I...” Mira takes another look at the purple grey unicorn stallion that Nick had become.

“You’re not seriously considering...” I say concernedly, “Sex with Nick?”

“And what if I am?” Mira replies self consciously.

“We have to be careful about this!” Nick declares, giving Mira an anxious look, “We don’t want this to spread!”

“Bullshit!” Mira laughs. Genuinely laughs.

Both of us look at her incredulously.

“If this is a virus, it’s literally the worst one ever,” Mira explains, “Doesn’t spread through contact, only through sex, but like 99% of the world doesn’t want to have sex with a pony! How would they ever contract it?”

“From someone who contracted it from a pony?” I suggest.

“And how long before that person’s a pony?” Mira asks flatly. “About five minutes, right? This thing isn’t a virus, it’s surgery. Only the people who want to be ponies are ever going to go through with it. Heck even I feel kind of... yuck about a human and a pony doing it. How did you even... do it?”

“Well it’s not really... it’s sort of private...” I say, trying not to remember being on the bed and feeling him... inside me. Trying not to want it again. “Twilight kind of... showed me some... things.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Mira says, waving a hand dismissively, “The point is that this can’t spread, or if it can spread, it’d only spread to people who are you know... already having sex with animals.”

Nick starts to get up, and Mira holds up her palms shouting, “Okay okay I’m not judging you just—”

“We’re ponies,” he says angrily, “Not animals. You think I’d ever do it with something that isn’t sapient?”

“Does it look like I care?” Mira says in agitation, “Fuck horses all you want, but I don’t want a horse to fuck me, but... there’s gotta be another way. What other way could there be?”

Nick and I don’t have any ready answers.

Author's Note

Now of course, the only question on everyone’s mind is... is Mira gonna do it?

Jumping on the Bandwagon

Sleeping is still a novel experience for both of us, but I think Nick and I are starting to get used to crashing on the nest of blankets next to the bed for the last month or so, with his little pony limbs curled in front of him every single night, that I can’t hug or I’ll start having sex with him. I think the strangest thing was falling asleep on my feet once. But that was stranger for Nick, since from my perspective, all I remember is standing there getting drowsy from watching TV, and then zoning out for a bit, before lifting my head and realizing I nodded off.

I didn’t even realize what happened, until Nick showed me the photos.

“I just... stood there for three hours?” I declare in amazement, half amazed at the sight of a pretty lemon colored pony with a soft whitish stripe through her cheerful green hair, standing there by the T.V. with her head slightly bowed, and her softly lashed eyes, closed.

“You seemed comfortable enough,” he said, “I didn’t have the heart to wake you. You’ve been worrying so much lately, I’d think you were Lily.”

“I even sound like her, don’t I,” I ask him in a defeated tone.

“What? No you sound a lot um... singier than her,” Nick replies, surprised.

“Singier?” I ask curiously.

“Yeah it comes with our new voices, I’m surprised we don’t both break into song,” he says, as a friendly tune comes to mind.

The song sticks in my head as we just... stare at each other. Then I tear myself out of it, saying, “I’m—not in the mood for singing, right now.”

He bites his lip at that, saying, “...but you were going to sing just now, weren’t you?”

“I... I don’t know,” I say, lifting up a hoof like... I don’t even know. “Do ponies really spontaneously break into song?”

“Well, humans do,” Nick points out, sauntering up towards me, to... do something to me, probably innocent. I still can’t help but shy away from him. He hesitates, hoof outstretched, then takes it back to himself. “They just...” he says bashfully, “Don’t usually do it in syncrony.”

I make an effort to stop jamming my tail up against my butt, looking back at Nick sympathetically. This is all so... weird, but I think I feel a little less weirded out by all of this, with him here to be weirded out with me. “Maybe I will sing later,” I say with a half smile, “Just to see how it sounds.”

He gives me back an easy smile saying, “You might not sound like a man anymore, but I really like your new voice.”

“A-as do I, yours,” I tell him shyly. Oh Celestia do I want to make love to him again. If only I didn’t have to worry about pregnancy, I could... could feel that happen.

Should I even want to have sex with him? What happened to my love of pussy? All I feel is just... achy and squirmy back there and I want it. Want him. Every time I wake up with hooves and a tail and... girl, I wonder how much of me is still me. But I haven’t gotten... worse, at least. I’m just feeling a little...horny lately, with no idea of what to do about it, aside from doing... Nick.

Twilight Sparkle continues to assault our little home long after she’s departed. The first thing I notice is the envelopes arriving in the mail. Well, Nick notices. After hear the postman walking away, we creep out from hiding, so that the postman doesn’t see us in any windows. Nick noses at the growing pile of letters beneath our mail slot curiously, then exclaims,

“Meadowsweet?” in an all too alarmed tone, “You should take a look at these.”

I amble over, lowering my head smoothly to peer at them with him. “I get tons of credit card ads,” I tell him a little sheepishly, “I never buy anything, but since I always pay off my bill on time, they just really want me on their plans.”

“I don’t think this is an ad though,” Nick says, looking at the envelope, “It’s marked urgent, and open now, and bill contained.”

“That’s silly,” I reply chidingly, coming to peer at them beside him, “I pay all my bills online!”

“We should look at some of these,” Nick says, after a few second pass.

“Yup,” I reply.

We stand there looking at the envelopes some more.

“Right, well...” I say, feeling my curiously motile ears drooping down, “When Mira gets back, she can open the envelopes, and we’ll figure out what this is about.”

“Hey, at least you have one more reason to make her stay human,” Nick says dryly.

I roll my eyes and gripe chidingly, “You only want to change her into a pony so you can get laid.”

Nick gives me a look, then says nervously, “Y-you know I could probably figure out condoms, and—”

“No, it’s way too risky,” I say tensely, feeling... squirmy at the thought of him... figuring out condoms with me, “I don’t want any more experimenting if... if I can get pregnant now.”

“You really want it too, huh?” Nick says, surprising me with the gentle sympathy in his voice.

“I...” I half turn away from him, lifting a hoof and admitting, “Yes, but it’s just b-biology. I get this sort of tingly empty softness back there now, not a... erection or anything. It makes me want to—”

Gulping, I dug my grave, so I may as well sleep in it. “It makes me want to not change back into a guy,” I tell him anxiously, “The more I feel it, the more I want things that a guy can’t... have. I don’t even care if it makes me a... a girl or anything, just... I want to do things like l-lift my tail, and have y—have someone inside me.”

I have to fight to keep my tail from bobbing up at those words. I can’t believe I’m trying to manage my own tail, to avoid being hypocritical about my new girl parts, but here we are. Settling to my belly in a huff, I moan, “Why does pregnancy have to be a thing? If I couldn’t get pregnant I’d let you mount me like a... like a pony, and I wouldn’t even hesitate!”

Nick takes a step back. We’re both surprised by my outburst, but well... we shouldn’t be! Because I’m horny, and I can’t get any, so of course I’m gonna outburst! “But just one drop in there, and—and I could be stuck for a whole year! Just having trouble, and getting bigger, and all that stuff girls have to do,” I tell him bitterly, “A-and then I mean... I felt like I was being torn apart when you put just your s-self in there, when you were h-human. Birth takes all day and I’d be unable to escape it all day with nothing but pain to look forward to.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way,” Nick replies, “But that’s kind of hot.”

“How is—?!” I exclaim, struggling to my hooves in frightened outrage, as he holds up a hoof saying,

“Woah, woah. I mean in a badass Amazon sort of way. I mean I think you could do it,” he says, “It’s pretty tough, but you’re not as weak as you let on. You’d just... power through it, like you did when the university kicked you out. You just never gave up, you kept going. Plus it’s not all day. In most cases, only the last few hours are very painful, if that.”

“Are you trying to warm me up to giving birth?!” I shout at him shrilly, “I’m not a girl! I’m a guy! And... and there’s no way I could handle that! And... wait, how do you know anything about giving birth?”

When my voice dies down to honest confusion, the grey purple unicorn smiles and says, “I have had girlfriends before, you know. You get to wanting to know more about a woman when you’re sorta, but not really putting a baby in her. There’s plenty of accounts online.”

“W-well maybe we should... look at those sometime,” I tell him, relatively mollified, “Not that I’m trying to convince myself to have sex with you. There’s other reasons we shouldn’t do it. If it gives me a child—a pony child at that—then even if birth doesn’t hurt, if we end up on the run, I might not be able to... get enough food to make milk for it. You don’t want to see me wasting away, or a foal wasting away because I was too starved to make m-milk,”

Shuddering, I add, “It’s so creepy just imagining myself standing like this, while a foal sticks their nose in my crotch and just... having to stand there while they’re... nursing.”

“What do you mean your crotch?” Nick asks in confusion, “You mean between your front legs?”

“...no?” I tell him, lifting a hind leg, “Right in here, where my nipples are.”

“Your nipples moved?!” he blurts in astonishment, staring between my legs.

Blushing crimson, putting my hoof down, I say, “It’s the normal place for any quadruped! How did you not notice your nipples moved?”

“How did you notice?” Nick queries, flustering me a little as I think of the answer.

“W-well I saw them in the mirror,” I tell him shamefully, “They were... really obvious, actually. Uh... just... check between your legs, and you’ll see them.”

“You think I didn’t check myself out down there?” Nick says in confusion, “I don’t think I have any nipples, anymore. They just kind of... went away.”

“That can’t be right!” I protest, “You can’t have just missed them. Lift up your hind leg!”

“Ooh la la?” Nick suggests coyly, lifting his hind leg, revealing a wrinkled soft little package between his legs, under which is suspended a darker sac of some rather pendulous looking balls, that I’d like to...

“Look, just because I want to freaking... lick you doesn’t mean I’m going to do it,” I grumble, tearing my eyes away from his manhood, looking instead at his slim, tapering belly, which doesn’t even have even the tiniest nipples anywhere I can see.

“H-huh, I guess you don’t have nipples...” I say, searching around his smooth, grey, unbroken fur, with fascination.

“Maybe only females do?” he suggests.

“They’re not even breasts,” I breathe fretfully, “They’re just nipples. I didn’t think they were only there because I’m a girl,”

“It’s not like I needed mine,” Nick says testily, “Yours could actually make milk now!”

“I can’t even imagine that...” I say distantly, gazing between his legs, “That’d just... nipples’d be something so... female...”

After a pause, Nick says hopefully, slyly, “You know... you can’t get impregnated in your mouth,” as his manhood stirs—nope!

I hurriedly back up from him, when I’d rather rather be backing up to him, saying, “Y-you say that now, but I’m already...” oh boy, am I really? I do feel that goosebumps feeling inside, now that I think on it, like I’m—and then a teeny little trickle of moisture runs down my sensitive vulva.

“My body’s already responding, just from looking at you,” I tell Nick’s hunched form, anxiously crossing one of my hind legs, “Making me... ready for you. If we try to have o-oral sex, it’ll make me want it so much, I’ll just... just turn around and shove you into me!”

“You seem to have a pretty good sense of self control now,” he says intensely, hunched over as his penis starts... c-coming out, “Because I can’t stop thinking of... pounding that, and if you turned your back to me, I think I just might try it.”

“I–I don’t!” I protest, forcing myself not to look at his mottled grey phallus, but into his beautifully violet eyes instead. “I don’t have good self control,” I tell him cautiously, “I’m just avoiding stimulation, so that it’s not too hard to... resist.”

“C’mon, we could only do it a little...” he says with a pleading grimace, “You need it more than I do!”

“That is the opposite of avoiding stimulation,” I assert to him, backing further away with disappointment rising in me as I do so. That’s just my body, giving me negative emotions for not impregnating myself. “I’m going to go take another shower,” I say, my face hot with an unstoppable blush.

“Suit yourself,” Nick says, doing things that he should really not be doing, flipping his... his thick shaft to smack fleshily against his belly. He’s doing it on purpose, I know, because... because he wants to make me want him to cum inside. He wants me to see him doing it right in front of me.

“Sorry, I—” (slap) “I’ll just be g-going,”

“And I’ll be waiting here, thinking about sticking it inside you and creaming as hard as I can,” he says lustfully, as I scamper off skittishly.

Nick’s too far gone it seems. He’ll apologize later, after he’s... finished. For now, it looks like Nick’s going to... do the thing that rough hooves don’t seem to do for me. I think I would move heaven and earth at this point, if it would help me to orgasm. Why couldn’t I just let Nick just even lick me, just a little bit?

Instead, I get the consolation prize of standing under the steady stream of a cold shower. It... calms me down at least, a lot better than when I was human, and male. I’m also not as shocked by a cold shower... must be the fur. Washing those vulval lips in my rear end chills me right down, and soon I’m breathing evenly again, and even thinking of turning on the hot water some.

I emerge from a steamy shower, finding Nick in the middle of desperately trying to clean up... stuff that he splattered all over the floor that would... make me pregnant, even if I only got a little bit in there.

“Sorry, Meadows!” he says regretfully, “I forgot it sort of goes all over and... you don’t have any carpet cleaner, do you?”

“Broom closet by the laundry room,” I say distantly, approaching, then avoiding the smears of creamy white.

One reason I do want to be a man again, is so that when I hang out with Nick, I don’t have to be all worn out from not being able to satisfy that ache in my loins. Now that it’s a possibility, I can’t even have one conversation with him, without sex crossing my mind. Every time I feel that subtle little tingle, it makes me a little less reluctant, a little more comfortable with myself as a girl, and I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.

It just doesn’t seem like such a big deal anymore. That’s how much becoming this mare has changed me. I’m not scared of using my vagina, or having it, or what it’d feel like, or if I’m ready. I’m only scared of the consequences. I’ve always been so sexually reserved, but now I think if I didn’t have to worry about becoming a mother, then I’d... do it. I’d even ask him, and I’d just be the sweet little horny mare I’ve become.

And having warmed up to the idea, now I have to say no every time, because I know how guys think. You just want to put it in a little bit, until you’re in, and then it’s like moving mountains to force yourself to pull out. I couldn’t even let him go inside me a little bit, because... because I just can’t do that to a foal.

Being born now? From me? They’d starve! They’d get experimented on, and they’d... they’d have a mother who wasn’t even supposed to be female. What am I supposed to do if I ever get changed back, tell my children, “Oh I used to be your mother?”

To say nothing of childbirth. I can’t even... imagine. I remember how much it hurt to get a... a human dick shoved into me last month. If I had a huge baby pony head, stuck... in there and... yeah. I am not having sex with another pony, even if it’s Nick.

So it’s disappointing and... frustrating, but I don’t feel any sort of the horror I would suppose to feel about this. That makes me feel less male, less human, less like myself. It doesn’t get any easier with Mira around, because she really wants to be a little pony. I try to reason with her, to tell her that we need a human to take care of human business, and to go out in public while we hide. Nick was supposed to be that human, but now Mira’s our only hope.

Yet she still stubbornly persists, insisting, “We can move south, and eat grass,” and “We don’t need to hide. People would love us!” and “You can use your phone with your tongue,” and silly things like that.

Nick is... of two minds regarding the whole thing. He knows as well as I do that having her turn into a pony would be bad, without any other humans we can trust. But his other mind, the one between his legs, is giving him as much trouble as mine, I think.

At least he can masturbate. Hands free. Life isn’t fair!

A while after Nick’s... accident that required carpet cleaner, Mira returns home, or... returns to the house that she was de-facto taking responsibility for, despite her apartment contract. With a jingle of keys and the turn of a lock, Mira swings open the front door and walks in. Immediately Nick and I are all over her, chattering at her, and asking what supplies she got, and snuffling at her... okay I only snuffle at her bags a little bit, before realizing what I am doing. And backing off with a blush.

My nose is just... something else. Mira got bread, rice, celery, more cheddar, corn—wait, no—eggs, and milk, and I didn’t have to look inside her bag to know that. Nick has a smell. Mira has a smell, kind of soapy but definitely her. It’s like a whole world opened up to me, and I don’t even notice it, until I try to smell something. It’s not unpleasant, just really overwhelming.

Anyway, one thing I do when Mira gets home, after we’ve unpacked the supplies, is urgently push the letters into Mira’s lap, saying, “Could you open these? We didn’t want to damage them, in case they really were bills.”

Looking at my hooves sympathetically, Mira opens the first letter, and reads it over. Her eyes get real big then, and she snatches up the second, staring intensely at it, and the third, and...

“What is it?” I squeal at her in fright, “What’s wrong? These aren’t even my credit cards!”

“No, they are,” Mira said faintly, “They’re all your credit cards.”

“I only have two credit cards,” I tell her, “One for online purchases, and one for... emergencies. Not... not seven!”

“I think I know somepony who might have seven credit cards,” Nick says frankly.

“These aren’t all credit card bills,” Mira says faintly, “This one is the payment notice for your loan.”

“My what?!” I squeak, utterly flabbergasted.

“Twilight,” Nick breathed.

“Oh no...” I look at him in horror, “But she didn’t—she didn’t even know what a credit card was! She... she thought we used gold bits and... oh god no.”

It is honestly impressive how much money Twilight managed to borrow in my name... of course none of that money was anywhere any of us could reach. She made the down payment on four vehicles, presumably... presumably to sell them for cash. And I’m poring over all these bills and records and... stuff that’s been falling forgotten through our mail slot for the past month, and then I realize...

“Meadowsweet...” I whisper in shock.

“What?” Nick says in confusion.

“She named me Meadowsweet,” I tell him. “I’ve never been named Aaron, as far as I know.”

“These are all made out to Aaron Brown,” Mira says uneasily, “She... changed your name, to protect you?”

“S-she just abandoned me, and... and look at this!” I say sweeping my cute little lemon yellow hooves across the spread papers, “My life is ruined! They—they’ll come after me, and then I’ll be in debt for my entire life! Also I’m a little pony!”

“Not if they can’t find you, Meadowsweet,” Nick says, “If we just take everything and jump ship, and go south, we can...”

“No no no, they’ll figure it out, they always figure it out,” I moan in despair, “They track you from birth to death, constant surveillance, and soon as you refuse the mark of the beast, you’re forced into poverty and homelessness.”

“Wait, the mark of the—” Nick starts, but I cut him off insisting urgently,

“There is no way to live without a birth certificate here, because they make sure everyone is afraid of immigrants!”

“There’s gotta be some way we can take advantage of this...” Nick says, running a hoof through his hair, “There’s gotta be something we’re not seeing.”

“We could skip the country,” Mira suggests blithely.

“I’d rather not die of sepsis from all the bullet holes I got running away from organized crime,” I reply flatly, “The USA has the best land, and they make sure anywhere else sucks, so... no va.”

“Va?” Nick asks.

“The Chevy Nova,” I explain, “Sales of that truck utterly bombed in Mexico, because ‘no va’ is Spanish for ‘doesn’t go.’ It’s the only phrase in Spanish I know, and therefore, I’d be screwed south of the border.”

“Right, so once again my sister has weirdly specific knowledge of random facts, and we’re not crossing the border,” Mira concludes.

We all have ideas on what to do about the bills and notices, none of them good ones. I don’t even know how to begin to report an identity theft, when even my body and my name got stolen. Not that I mind this body so much. All my aches and pains are gone. I can do a lot of the things I could do while human... sort of. My hearing is better, my tinnitus is gone, and my sense of smell is just spectacular. I feel like I could just go running for miles on these hooves, and it’s terribly frustrating to be cooped inside all the time, really. Nick doesn’t mind as much, but I’m practically going stir crazy!

I’m of two minds regarding my name. On one hand, I’m upset with it being stolen and all. On the other hand, if I tried to change it back, I’d have to call myself Adrian! What were my parents thinking, picking a stupid name like that? I guess I’ll never know, because all I can remember them ever calling me is Meadowsweet! And I guess it was weird that I didn’t have a last name like my sister Mira and my parents, but it just never occurred to me, until Nick started bringing up this whole Adrian business.

Or, until Twilight Sparkle rewrote my memory. That’s probably the point when I started finding everyone else remembering my name wrong.

At any rate, we’re all totally boned and unclear on what to do, until one afternoon I’m just messing around on my computer and then go to empty my Trash folder. Then I think to myself, nah... that couldn’t possibly...

“I found something!” I shout, sending them running and trotting over respectively. What I find is a bunch of deleted stuff, that I hadn’t deleted. Or saved. Or ever seen. Most of it isn’t anything in particular. Temporary files, stuff auto-generated by various programs. But then there’s ticket.pdf. Now I’m no computer whiz or anything, but I know a few tricks. So I drag the PDF file out of the trash and take a look. It’s a printout of an airline pass, paid and purchased, destination... Baltimore, Maryland.

“She’s catching a plane to Baltimore?” Nick says curiously, “How? Why?”

“Maybe she can camoflage herself,” Mira suggests, “Oh, oh and if she turned Meadowsweet here into a pony, I bet she could turn herself into a human!”

“That still doesn’t answer why, though,” Nick says, as we all stare at the enigmatic ticket unsure of what to do, or what it means.

Twilight kept a journal. I should know, because I bought it for her, and taught her how to use a ballpoint pen. I figure it’d be gone, but actually I find it discarded in the reading room that Twilight was mostly living in... with all its written pages torn out. I manage to bite down on the journal, trying to lift it up without getting any of my uh... slobber on it.

Her journal is not what blows my mind today, though. Sliding it across the floor, I smell... something. It’s faint, but enticing, like barbecue chips except not. Putting down the journal, I poke around a bit, and the smell actually gets stronger over by Twilight’s um... okay yes I got her a doggie bed, and yes maybe she kind of slept in it gladly at first. Her bed still faintly smells of her, but that’s not what I’m smelling.

I use my rump to slide her bed out of the way, nosing around in the space that was underneath it. I know I’m smelling some kind of food. Mushrooms perhaps? Under the floor? Poking at the floorboards with a hoof, I’m surprised to find that they shift loosely to my touch.

It doesn’t smell sweet, so this can’t be Twilight’s secret chocolate stash. Is it cheese? It doesn’t quite smell like cheese. What it does smell is amazing. When I lift up the loose floorboard and stick my nose down there, I frikkin’ want whatever it is that she stashed down here. I grab the plastic bag in my mouth, and pull it out, dropping it at my hooves to look at what—

“Oh hey Meadows, did you find something?” Mira asks, passing by the reading room to look in on me.

“No!” I squeak, smiling at her and frantically pushing the bag aside with my hindleg. “I d-didn’t see anything!” The bag tumbles into the hole in the floor. I wish I could.

“Oh you didn’t, huh?” she says with a smirk that indicates she is naively innocent of my current mental state, and isn’t just screwing with me like some cruel criminal mastermind. She walks in the room saying, “Whoa, Twilight did this? Pulled out the floor boards?”

“Y-yeah she must have,” I tell Mira, degrading from shock to shame to tearful worry, as I say, “T-there was a bag of—a bag that was open, so I sort of smelled it and... I followed the smell, and it smelled good! What do I do, Mira?”

She stares at me in confusion, before saying, “...you lost me.”

“Just... look at the bag,” I say, hanging my head. What does this mean? Was Twilight... why did she put this here? I didn’t, so only she could’ve! Why does it smell good, not awful?

Mira pulls the bag out and looks at it a moment. “This is beef jerky,” she says quietly.

“It’s meat!” I tell her in distress.

“I know it’s meat!” she shouts back shrilly.

“Why was Twilight hiding meat?” I ask in fear, pointing a hoof at it, “Those are cows!”

“I don’t know, okay?” Mira says, glaring at the bag suspiciously, “Maybe she was feeding um... something?”

“Mira, why does it smell good?” I moan.

Mira looks at me incredulously, “You’re wondering that?” she asks, “It’s beef jerky! Of course it’s gonna smell good!”

“But I’m a pony, not a human!” I retort, “I was eating hay the other day!”

“Well it’s just a—a smell,” Mira says in confusion, “Maybe it smells good, but you’re not—you didn’t eat any, did you?”

“No, but I really really want to,” I beg anxiously, trying not to outright jump up and just snatch that bag from her hand.

“I’ll go put this away,” she says uneasily, “Wouldn’t want to make you sick.”

“I... yeah, please do,” I say, giving in miserably. It’s been two months since I ate so much as a hot dog, and I didn’t even realize how much I was missing meat. She puts the jerky away, and the smell goes away, but not the craving. I try to satisfy it with carrots.

Actually, it kind of works.

Evidence of Twilight’s presence remain few and far between. The sheets don’t smell like her anymore. She took all her notes. The journal I got for her is still here, but the pages she wrote on are torn out of it. We don’t want to even touch that experimental... apparatus she left back there. It’s obviously too bulky for her to just carry with her. How did I not notice it was back here? How did she get it here? Just had it delivered, when I was out at... work?

I’m starting to think I don’t know Twilight Sparkle as well as I thought.

It’s frightening, looking at my credit card payment history. Frightening, but very informative. Purchases from chemical companies, that I could certainly get in trouble if caught purchasing. How she managed it, I’ll never figure out. But additionally there are some textbooks that “Aaron” apparantly purchased, one on genetics, one on microbiology and cellular mechanics. And, you know...

Scampering over to my bookshelf, I scan it fervently, before my eyes alight on the very textbooks listed in her receipt of purchases. On the top shelf, go figure. I rear up and... and I’m going to have to climb to reach it. Great.

“What do you think she was reading about?” Mira asks as I climb up the bookshelf like a ladder, hooking my teeth on the edge of the spine, and sliding the book out of its place, losing my balance and falling back with it.

“Maybe she left notes in it?” Nick suggests hopefully, jerking around as me and the book tumble back to the ground. “Woah! You okay?”

“Never better,” I grumble, crawling to my hooves and dragging the book along with me. Slapping the book down flat in front of Mira and walking over it, I say, “Now I saw this in a movie the other day, so no promises if it works or not, but...” Cradling the book up in my forehooves and squinting at the binding, I say, “See how the binding looks bent here? The pages spread apart more? Use those fingers of yours to open the book to that page. She probably opened it to there before.”

“Wow, that’s... really smart!” Mira says looking at me in honest surprise.

“What’s that look supposed to mean?” I ask her defensively, “I’m smart!

“...I am!”

She laughs lightly, but at least opens the book. It opens to a section on... uh oh.

“The incubation of influenza and other adaptive viral pathogens...” Mira reads, “You don’t seriously think...”

“That she’s trying to make people sick?” I ask. “Why would she do that though?”

“Why would she change you into a pony?” Mira asks in reply.

Nick adds in a much more worried tone, “Why would she change you into a contagious pony?”

“Wh–but it’s not air transmitted!” I reply uneasily. “I’m not sick, either! It was those cookies!”

“Maybe she wanted to make sure it wasn’t air transmitted?” Mira asks hopefully, “So that only people who wanted it would change?”

“Maybe she hadn’t figured out how to make it air transmitted,” Nick says gloomily. “You were just a... first draft.”

“If only we knew more about what Twilight wanted,” Mira fumes.

“Not me, that’s for sure,” I reply, ears drooping.

Searching my computer further, we don’t find much, outside of my online bank account: completely empty, but then Nick says, “What about your e-mail’s trash folder?”

“Oh, yeah that’s different from my computer’s trash folder, isn’t it!” I realize, watching as Mira skillfully navigates the keyboard leading to my online email account. I’m still logged in, thankfully, because otherwise we’d have to ask the company to look up my phone number, or my address, and I don’t know how much they record about me. Would they trust it if it was Nick’s voice? I certainly can’t use my own voice, having come down with a terminal case of girl.

None of that happens though, and my email pops up just fine. In the trash is a deleted thread that... looks very interesting. It’s a conversation between my account, in the name of Twilight Sparkle, and the ...police commissioner. Un-deleting it, the three of us crowd around the little laptop to look at what was written therein.

Commissioner: Attached you’ll find the floor plan for the Baltimore Convention Center. I’ve highlighted the route you’ll be taking. There’s a service entrance on the east side, that our agents can ensure is left unlocked for you. From there, there should be no interference for you to reach the Ventilation system.

Twilight: Excellent work, my good sir! It seems that preparations are almost complete, and so far the human suspects nothing. I will be ready to enact the plan within the fortnight. Can I count on you to take care of “Meadowsweet” so she doesn’t interfere with my plans?

Commissioner: I can deal with her. We’ll just stage a raid, citing tax evasion as a probable cause for the warrant. It’ll be a gag order, and she’ll never see it coming.

Twilight: She had better not. I suspect she’s more clever than she seems. If you succeed, you and your family will be greatly rewarded for making short work of Aaron and his friends. If not... I think you know the consequences of failure.

Commissioner: Yes, my Queen. It shall be done, I swear it.

Twilight: Continue dosing your officers’ donuts with the control serum. We must not fail in this.

Commissioner: As if we could ever fail. The serum is working perfectly, and the police force is fully under your control. By the time the convention ends, the corrupt, wealthy elites will have no choice but to bow before Her Celestial Rule.

Twilight: Celestia Inviticus Sol

Commissioner: Celestia Inviticus Sol

Staring quietly for quite some time, Nick murmurs, “You were tapping that?”

“Starting to understand why she turned you into a pony,” Mira says frankly.

“I can’t believe it, but it all makes sense somehow...” I say, quietly, “I can’t believe I fell in love with the Changeling Queen!”

“Changelings are masters of deception,” Nick replies with a sympathetic wince, “She no doubt only looked like Twilight, in order to get close to you.”

“I really thought I was saving her though,” I sigh heavily, which comes out lightly because my little lungs can’t sigh heavily. “She looked so... hopeless.”

“You did save her, in a way,” Nick said wryly, “She just wasn’t the pony you thought you were saving. Heck, your bank account more than saved her!”

“Why is this happening,” I moan, flopping on my belly.

“What was it like?” Mira asked curiously, drawing my ear to turn her way, “Did she feel any different when you were touching her?”

“She just felt like a... she felt like me,” I tell her, looking at my yellow furred hoof stuck out in front of me, “Fleshy and furry, and squishy, not any sort of carapace.”

“At least now we know changeling magic isn’t just a visual illusion,” Nick points out.

“What about inside?” Mira persists, “Did she feel any different on the inside?”

Flush faced, I shout at Mira, “T-that’s private! Anyway how am I supposed to know?”

“You did stick it in, right,” Mira says flatly.

“Y-y-y—well the thing is, I did but...” I stammer self consciously, “I don’t exactly have anything t-to compare to.”

“Oh man, now I really wish I had tapped that,” Nick said, hanging his stupidly attractive horsey head, “I totally could’ve figured it out!”

“What is a bug supposed to feel like, inside her—” I am not comfortable with this conversation. I am not comfortable with this conversation! “Oh no, s-s-she was a bug I had m-my penis in a—”

“Aaron, chill!” Mira responds sharply as my awareness snaps back to her, “She’s not a bug, she’s just a... weird looking pony. And she was transformed so you weren’t anywhere near any kind of bug.”

“Also you don’t have your penis anymore,” Nick points out helpfully, “So it doesn’t matter where you put it.”

“Y-yeah, no problem,” I say, curling up on my side, “No humans here. No freaky bug sex. Just me, sweet little penisless Meadowsweet. This is me now. This is... what if I can’t change back?”

“What if I can’t change back?” I whimper, into a silence that answers me better than words ever could.

Nothing to be done about it, I recover eventually, still a pony and a girl, but... standing up, at least. Responding, trying to smile. Still feeling helpless, standing there in our old house with no hands, no arms, only legs. Fortunately, we soon find a piece of information that galvanizes us into action.

“Okay...” I murmur, “This is a trick I saw in a movie once.”

With exaggerated care, I pick up the wooden pencil in my mouth, and lay my head against the table, moving the pencil like a cigar to press the side of its tip against the first untorn page of Twilight Sparkle’s journal. Steady, light strokes of graphite spread across the page as I slowly pull my head back, dragging the pencil across the paper. I’m careful not to press too hard, so my pencil skips over any indentations in the paper, such as those left from whoever was writing on the page previous to this one. Twilight tore out that page, but these indentations will have the same letters, hopefully.

When done, I lift my head up, and Nick whistles behind me. “What?” I ask, looking at the paper with dread, “Did we uncover someth...”

ready to m___ onto the testing phase. If ___ virus is successful in pat_ent zero, can finally end ____ farce and begin w__ld takeover plans. Initial popu_____ should suspect no_hing, due to being lo_onies. Will l_kely att___bute ch__nges to w_sh fulfil_ment. Once th_ virus has _ foothold __ should spread uncon__llably. Agents insta_ling a v_rus delivery device in the Balt_more Convent_on Center, v_ntilation s_stem. I w_ll provide my m_gic to catalyz_ the v_rus, and w_ can f_nally g_t this sh_w on the ro_d. May 28th at 1pm sh_uld be ideal time. Since transform__s will be compe__ed to subm_t to Celestia’s d_vine will, once _ntire world _s ponies, they w_ll be simple to conquer. Th_y think w_ are cute an_ cuddly, but wait unt_l they face unicorn bat_allions d_sabling the_r technology throu_h the use of ___ spells known as M__lign Mas_ Mach_ne M_nipulat_on. Th_y will stand no chanc_ against the_r own p_ople transfo_med _nto loyal sl_ves. Cel__tia Inv_ct_s S__!

The message is white against the darkness of the graphite. Where Twilight pressed the pen down, it left an indentation on the page below it, that now can be seen. It’s not entirely legible, but it’s legible enough!

“We’re compelled to submit to Celestia’s divine will?” I whimper, staring off into space for fear of my own mind. “But I don’t feel compelled!”

“Fuck Celestia,” Nick says.

When I look at him, he shrugs and adds, “If I were an evil megalomaniac I’d program my ponies to be unable to say anything bad about me. So, Princess Celestia’s a fat, cake-gobbling bitch. I can say that, so... why would I be mind controlled in other less offensive ways?”

“He’s got a point, Meadowsweet,” Mira says deliberately, “Can you say anything bad about Celestia, or Twilight, or the Changeling Queen?”

“Chrysalis was an idiot, who deserved to lose,” I say experimentally, and I feel no problems yet, aside from the problem of their being some girl who makes up a bunch of theoriese about the show. (That girl is me, by the way.) “Celestia is a tyrant, who molests little fillies in their sleep,” I try, then, “Nightmare Moon is a whiny loser who should be ignored,” and then, “Twilight is...”

They look at me worriedly, and I raise a hoof, saying, “No, no I can do this. I just... can’t believe Twilight was an impostor all along. I want to say she’s evil, but I just... I don’t want her to be evil.”

“Well I can say it,” Nick says, “Twilight Sparkle is pure dag nasty evil. That pony you took in lied to you, stole from you, and she’s literally plotting to conquer the world! If that’s not evil, I don’t know what is!”

“But that’s just an impostor, I say in a contrary grumble, “The real Twilight wouldn’t do any of this stuff. She’s an amazing pony.”

“You don’t know what Twilight’s like at all,” Nick points out, “She could be totally different from the cartoon.

“Why would she be purple, then?” I counter with a stomp, “And why would she be named Twilight Sparkle? She has to be at least somewhat from the show, since so much of it reflects in her character. Changeling spies excepted.”

“Maybe she wasn’t even from the show!” Mira says excitedly, “Maybe she was a weird tentacled alien who disguised itself as Twilight because it knew you liked the show!”

“Specifically tentacled?” Nick asks warily.

Mira nods with confidence.

“The only problem with that theory is... us,” I say, turning to Mira and settling on my furry little haunches. “I’m not a weird, tentacled alien. She changed us into ponies. Why would she change us into ponies, if she wasn’t a pony?”

“Because she’s... a fan of the show?” Mira attempted, “...okay maybe it is a bit of a stretch.”

“Why would she change us into ponies at all?” Nick asks in frustration, “If she’s a changeling, working for the Changeling Queen, then why aren’t we changelings? Are we changelings, and we just haven’t noticed, yet?”

“Well, it’s obvious why she’d change everyone into ponies,” Mira says with a roll of her eyes, “Changelings feed on ponies. She’s basically making our planet a giant changeling smorgasboard.”

“Couldn’t changelings feed on humans?” I ask, throwing Mira a seriously confused look, “They don’t drain only ponies of their love, in the comic.”

“The comics aren’t canon,” Mira states abruptly.

“We don’t... we don’t know why she’s doing it, but Twilight’s changing everyone into ponies, and she’s doing it for a very bad reason,” Nick concludes cautiously.

“What are we gonna do about it?” I ask, “We can’t just sit here, with the evidence we’ve collected. Should we tell the police? This could be really bad!”

“We can’t tell them!” Nick protests, “Twilight has been using some kind of changeling mind control on them! Who would we be able to trust?”

“Anonymously, then?” I shoot back.

“What are we going to tell them?” Nick complains, “That Twilight Sparkle came from Equestria to turn you into a pony?”

“Well I am a pony,” I say thoughtfully, “So they’d have to take that part seriously at least.”

“Not anonymously!” Nick says, throwing up his hands.

“And then what?” Mira asks uneasily, “They send you to some government lab? We can’t use you as evidence, because you could get hurt, and I as your official big sister cannot allow that!”

“I’m a year older than you,” I grumble at her. Nick cracks up.

...oh.

“I do not sound like Fluttershy!” I whine at the laughing pony, “I do not!”

“Yeah, you’re way too whiney to be Fluttershy, little sis,” Mira says indulgently. Before I can protest again, she says, “Just let me have this, okay? You’re a year older than me, but you are definitely littler than me.”

“I... fine,” I fume, looking down and trying not to blush any harder. I can’t be her little sister! She just doesn’t understand how things work. This is a bad thing, and it’s not supposed to happen, and... and I guess I sort of technically am her little sister, for now.

Nick knows Mira shouldn’t be a pony, but alas, he’s a guy. He’s a guy who I’ve been refusing the past month, who now has a girl practically begging to have sex with him. They’re both warming up to the idea worryingly quickly, and it isn’t long before I take a drink of milk, and Nick says,

“Okay, I’ll fuck you, Mira.”

I spray milk all over him in my panicked haste to say, “Are you insane?!”

He stands there, dripping, with a grin on his face.

“And you were joking,” I groan in relief, turning away from the two of them to calm my heart.

“Actually I was just waiting for you to take a drink,” Nick said, “But I really mean it. It’s stupid that Mira doesn’t get to be a pony too.”

“We need a human to take care of us,” I whine at him, but then Mira accosts me angrily, saying,

“We don’t need a human, Meadowsweet, we’re—you’re ponies!” she clenches her teeth in frustration, saying, “Being human is holding us back! I went to work yesterday! I couldn’t even look at anyone. It was horrible going back to that place. I... we need to get out of here, and if I’m a pony it’ll be easier, simple as that.”

“We need someone to drive, though!” I assert to her, “Or open c-cans, or... or other things that I haven’t figured out how to do.”

“It might not even work,” Mira says looking at me with pleadingly plain brown eyes, “I just want a chance, before we jump into this.”

“And how are you going to hide us from... other humans, if you’re not human!” I protest fussily, my tail lashing in a way that I really wish didn’t feel so... natural.

“You really think I can hide two ponies, if anyone starts coming to look for us?” Mira says testily. “I’d be able to hide better as a pony. And if I was a pegasus, they’d never be able to catch me!”

“Well, it looks like you’re outvoted,” Nick says to me, cheeky as all hell.

“Are you concerned for your little sister?” Mira asks, fluttering her eyes, “I’m a big girl. I can take a little ponifying.”

“You don’t understand what it’s like,” I tell her desperately, “It’s so different being a pony. We just... we just need to be careful, okay?”

“I’m done being careful,” Mira gripes triumphantly, “I’m gonna change into a pony, and we’re gonna go to Baltimore, and we’re gonna kick Twilight’s ass!”

“But... but...”

“C’mon, let’s go, Nick,” Mira says, standing up from the table and heading for her... her bedroom.

“Sorry, Meadows, but y’know... a lady’s in need, and she deserves this as much as we do,” Nick says, no doubt smugly.

“You’re just doing it so you can fuck her!” I yell at him jealously. Wait.

“That’s all you think of me, huh,” Nick says too calmly, “Well you just wait here in your romance novel, while Mira and I are turning her into a pony in the real world.”

“I–I didn’t mean you’re only doing... gah I don’t know. It’s just... go ahead.” I’m surprised to feel fear flare in my chest, not fear for him and Mira, but fear for some sort of divine retaliation if I give in to this proposal of theirs. Nevertheless, I give in, telling Nick, “Go ahead, I won’t stop you.”

And so, Nick and Mira go onward to destiny.

Flopping disgustedly on my belly, I don’t know what’s wrong with them. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I can’t be jealous about Nick! He hasn’t even had sex with me yet! Oh wait, technically he did, but he wasn’t that gorgeous unicorn stallion at the time. Wait, gorgeous? It’s just something in the... cut of his jaw, I guess. The way his rump rounds out to a tight sort of... firmness.

Good for thrusting into a mare like me, no doubt. I can’t believe I’m feeling urges to have sex with Nick, but the smooth, blunt spear of his elegant horn that I could just shove in—suffice to say I’m feeling... urges.

Am I feeling jealousy though? Here I lie, fantasizing about Nick’s horns, instead of worrying how my sister’s having sex with him. I try thinking about Mira turning into a pony while Nick rails her, and it doesn’t make me feel angry or threatened, just... worried for them. I think about him ravishing Mira with that big, dark horse cock he has just vanishing into Mira’s hips, impregnating her into a pony, and...

Uh oh.

My nethers are already getting ready to go. I can feel tingling and... and a trickle of moisture escapes me. Already?! I wish I could just blame it on pee, but I peed recently, and this relaxing goose-bumpy feeling inside me isn’t pee. It’s the thing that’s been happening to me every time I think about or see Nick’s cock. Thickening, slapping, hungering for me, spurting. The one time I actually saw him ejaculate, I had to retreat to the other room because I wanted to just shove my butt against him and just go. I’ve basically been edging for days, because I don’t know how to masturbate without a penis. I don’t know how a girl’s... stuff works, and I should have asked Mira but maybe... maybe I’m just an idiot.

I hear a moan come through the door. They’re really... they’re really doing it. I want to go in and... and see them. What’s wrong with me? I should be horrified at this! I slide my forehoof between my legs, desperate for some kind of stimulation. I hardly even notice what I’m doing. I just... rub down there, wishing it was him, or... or someone at any rate.

How am I supposed to do this? I have no idea what I’m doing! I can sort of slide the underside of my... hoof against my um... slickness. Just like stroking a cock, right? Just on my surface, at least. Actually it feels a lot like stroking my balls as a male, but that’s still... nice?

I don’t want nice. As the sounds escalate in the room, I can actually hear them moving together, a wet slapping sound. Is he riding her, pony style? Is she on top of him, riding cowgirl? Is she as wet as me now?

“This’s so wrong,” I moan, stepping hungrily towards the tumultuous sounds coming from that room, where Nick is... where even now he’s... but that’s my sister!!

That spicy scent of... Nick comes to my nose, as I approach. I... I can smell him even through the door. I should stop rubbing myself needily. I shouldn’t follow my nose to the edge of the door, where inhaling his scent drifting from there just makes me want to moan in need. It smells so freaking good, and it makes me want him.

I can feel my... myself leaking wetly all over my hoof and I just can’t... I can’t do this. It’s just too much. I feel too female. I can’t be this! I back away from the door, frightened at the strange urges in my nether regions, urges to do exactly what Twilight did for me. I should be upset, or disgusted, or horrified that Nick’s basically turning my sister into a pony, but here I stand outside their room on four shaky hooves, one of which is slickly wet from my... vagina.

“Oh fuck yes!” I hear Nick shout, before dropping to intense grunting again. Something’s thumping against the wall in there, because he’s fucking her. He’s crying out because he feels his fucking dick pounding into her. It’s thumping to the rhythm that they’re thrusting. Oh god I want it too much. I can’t just relax and jerk it; I have nothing to jerk! I feel weird down there, and up here, and everywhere. Something’s... something’s wrong, and instead of getting aroused, I just end up getting more and more anxious, until I retreat all the way to the couch, on the other side of the living room.

As time passes by, any anxiety at my utter failure to be a girl fades away from sheer exhaustion, to dull curiosity. Boy they sure are getting into it. Wish I was in there, but I’m glad I’m not. I’m having enough self-identity problems, without another person literally inside me. Or... pony person, or whatever. Do fetuses count as people? Suffice to say, if I were not just one living being anymore, I... I can’t even imagine how that would feel.

Quite a long time later, the noises die down at last, but I don’t really notice. I’ve already lay there on the couch so long, I’ve actually managed to doze off. At the sound of the bedroom door opening, I snuffle awake from a troubled sleep, lifting my head as Mira walks out of that room... on two feet.

“Well... that didn’t work,” Mira groans, leaning against the wall in weary disorientation. My sister’s... not precisely naked, but she doesn’t have any pants on. Her pelvis is exposed, and of course that feminine mound between her legs positively reeks of sex. Her uh... legs look sticky, because I guess it’s sort of drooling out of her, all that stallion’s potent cum.

Or purportedly potent. “Mira, why aren’t you a pony?” I ask in distress, struggling off the couch, and walking over to her. “Didn’t he finish in... uh... you?”

“Trust me, I am abundantly sure that his jizz isn’t turning me into a pony,” Mira says, looking back disgustedly at the room she came out of.

“Nick’s staying in there?” I ask, but more like state in the form of a questiion.

“He sure is,” Mira says with a half smile on her very human face, “Sleeping like a baby!”

“Are... are you okay?” I ask, edging up to her side with worry. God, why do I have to be right at eye level to her groin? “You don’t seem very upset that you didn’t go... you know...pony?”

“Oh I’m upset,” Mira says, crossing her arms and scowling. But then that smile slips on her face again, and she says, “But Nick was pretty amazing. I don’t think I’m gonna walk straight for a week!”

“O-oh, that... oh,” I say, blushing heavily and trying not to look at Mira’s fucked, fertilized, hairy groin. I’m fucking covered in fur from head to toe, so what’s so special about her having hair!

“So it was good... huh?” I mumble.

Mira looks at me with sympathy, saying, “This must be really upsetting to you. What’s it like not to even... be able to get an erection anymore?”

“Um... just like you?” I venture, risking a peek out from under my forearm.

“Yeah but I don’t know what I’m missing,” Mira says frankly, heading for the bathroom and hopefully the shower. “You’re still a guy inside.”

“Well, I mean... it’s not so bad,” I tell her uncertainly, climbing off the couch and following her down the hall. “The hardest part is I can’t figure out how to uhm...”

Mira stops, looking down at me. “Uhm?” she says, and here comes my blush again.

“You know... feel good, as a... girl?” I say trying not to hide behind my hoof as much. “Like I used to be able to do with my... hand?”

Mira’s silent for one more second, before she gazes off and says in an awestruck voice, “My god. My little sister needs a vibrator.”

Kill me now. “May—maybe later,” I stammer, my tail sinking to cover my all too moist groin.

“Seriously, sis,” Mira says brightly, “You try one of those things and you’ll never want to go back to being a guy again.”

“Ask me when I’m pregnant and giving birth and see if I change my mind,” I tell her in tense frustration.

“Fair enough,” she sighs, “But wouldn’t it be neat to give birth to a little pony?”

“With those huge heads?!” I squawk up at her in astonishment.

“Ponies are stretchy!” she retorts hotly.

Author's Note

Truly a question for the philosophers of our time.

Desperate Times

“Okay, you lovebirds, are you ready for this?” Mira’s voice comes, jerking me awake. Huh? What’s...? Okay, I’m still a pony. Why am I in a car and...? oh.

Oh.

“We’re not lovebirds!” I squeal anxiously, scrambling up from where I am currently laying on Nick’s warm, furry side, remembering the potential pregnancy that might now be lurking in my treacherous groin, remembering what he did to me. “We just had a...”

Had a what? Had a sexual mare and stallion th-thing? I look in Mira’s general direction through the blanket and state, “It was just an accident!”

“Two accidents,” Mira points out in amusement.

The blanket sinks as I hang my head.

With an inappropriate giggle, Mira replies, “He is really putting your new vagina through the ropes, isn’t he.”

My droopy ears sure love to do the talking for me.

“Well enough of that already,” Mira says blithely, “Let’s get you in this cart and head on into the hotel.”

“It took you a while Mira,” Nick says unrepentently, his awoken form shifting against mine under the blanket here. “We had to do something with our time!”

“I’m warning you Nick, if she’s pregnant,” Mira says dangerously, “So help me, I’m going to laugh.”

“Mira you don’t have to protect... wait, laugh?” I ask in outrage, “What’s so funny about me getting pregnant?”

“That you quote couldn’t stop it, unquote?” Mira says, sounding confused with herself, “I dunno, maybe I’m just weird, but all this crazy stuff is just hitting us so fast it’s hard not to laugh. What’s next, we get sucked into Equestria?”

“Wouldn’t that be a trick,” I remark wryly.

Our blanket ruffles as Mira grabs it, but then she asks in an uncertain tone, “So are you two... decent under there?”

“Sorry Mira,” Nick speaks up regretfully, “We’re both naked under here. I think somepony stole our horse clothes.”

“We’re decent,” I say, shooting him a look. “We were just sleeping after uh... y’know. After. A while after.”

“Okay then,” Mira says amiably. Her hands pull the blanket off of us with dramatic flair, and she immediately wrinkles her flat nose.

“Whew, you weren’t kidding about the scent!” Mira declares dramatically, backing out of the car door and waving the blanket at it.

“Hey!” I declare self-consciously, sitting up on my plush yellow haunches, curling that green tail around me, as if it could mask the... the smell of me. “It might smell bad to you, but it’s an aphrodesi...ac or something to us,” I tell her in muted shyness.

She just laughs joyfully.

Realizing I stuck my head up where I can see out the window, I feel a little uneasy. “Are we still the only ones in here?” I ask, looking around the garage in paranoia.

“No, so keep your head down,” Mira says, and before I duck my head down out of view of the window, I see she’s standing next to an honest to gosh laundry cart. I suppose that won’t attract too much attention? Certainly not more than two little ponies. Mira is also dressed in scrubs, like you’d see someone wearing who had to go clean out a hotel room, all that disposable flimsy blue elastic band stuff.

“Wow,” I say, sticking my neck sideways out the car door below the level of the window, to look at her and her cart, “Did you get that outfit from a janitor, too?”

“It’s a long story,” Mira says, rolling her eyes. “Anyway, hurry up and get in the laundry hamper before anyone sees you.”

Oddly enough, I get inside the hamper first. I just look up at the edge of it, then jump up there, then bound down into it. Then I notice Nick pulling himself over the edge. And I just... balanced on the edge with no problem at all. “How did I do that?” I ask in confusion.

“I dunno–oop!” he says, tumbling down beside me. “But... hopefully you’ll figure it out so you can show me how to do it,” he concludes, using a forehoof to push a towel off his head.

“I bet you’ll be using your horn soon,” I tell him hopefully, “Maybe you can just levitate yourself instead of jumping.”

Nick has long enough to say, “That seems... impractical,” down there in the hamper, before more towels rain down on top of us.

Mira is incredible, that’s all I can say. I don’t know how she got a laundry hamper, or how she got it down the street, all the way to the convention center. The sounds of car traffic resound around us. I’m afraid to look out the top, afraid to even peep. Nick’s body moves next to me, as the both of us are entirely concealed (I hope) by rumpled white hotel towels. At least the towels aren’t trapping our scents as much as that blanket was. I have had enough of Nick’s cock. If third time’s the charm, then I’ll eat my hat!

I don’t actually have a hat.

I’m still kind of freaking out about that of course. Am I going to be able to change back if I get pregnant? Do I want to change back if I get pregnant? Can I even get pregnant? Why in all that’s holy is menstruation a thing? Why did Twilight name me Meadowsweet? Am I literally my own daughter? What—oh we’re here.

The laundry cart jerks to a stop. There’s the sound of a rusty, swinging door, and then the noise cuts out, the cart becoming enveloped in darkness.

“Okay, we’re here,” Mira whispers, “Come on out of there, I think this place is safe.”

I pop my head out of the towels, to see pipes and wires overhead, and grey, unremarkable walls that indicate some kind of maintenance corridor. Sunlight shines brightly through the crack in the door where Mira rolled us in, and otherwise there are dim, overhead lights to keep anyone from wandering through here blind. Auto traffic blares in from outside. There’s a hiss every now and again, the steady whoosh of rushing air in the ventilation ducts, and the occasional gurgle of water in the pipes. As I swivel my ears away from the cars though, I hear muffled sounds of conversation drifting through the walls from far away, a bunch of people talking together. I can’t really make out any of the words.

Nick and I abandon the hamper, and I’m feeling a little bit extra naked about this, because for the first time, he and I are in a place where we could be seen. It doesn’t look like anyone’s here, but... well, my tail goes down, and maybe just a bit, I back against the poorly painted wall. Nick seems... marginally more confident, looking cautiously around. I wonder if he knows his nostrils are flaring. I wonder if my nostrils are flaring. I try smelling, but only get the harsh tang of metal, the sooty smell of unsealed fittings and motor oil, and a hint of moldy dust. Oh and Nick, and Mira, and... myself, I suppose. It’s hard to smell yourself, but I think I may smell like towel cleaning detergent.

“Alright, let’s see if we can find the Ventilation System,” Mira says, pulling the map out of her pocket. It’s a printout of the attachment to that damning email instructing Twilight Sparkle where to go in here. It’s a PDF document showing the secret floor layout of the convention center, including all the maintenance corridors that they don’t want people to know about. A bold, red line follows along those corridors, going to a stairwell, to a second sheet of paper, to another stairwell, to something marked “VENTILATION CONTROL.”

The way is obvious. Nick and my hooves make soft reports as we tip-toe along behind Mira, who being able to hold the map, is leading the way. It’s really spooky in here, and my twitchy ears keep picking up the sounds of a bunch of people talking and moving around beyond the walls. I wonder what they’re doing here? Nothing that would deserve being changed into a bunch of little ponies, surely. Twilight probably just picked a time when the convention center was really full, to infect as many people as possible.

“Alright, she doesn’t know I’m a pony,” Nick whispers, “So let’s try to catch her off guard.”

“She doesn’t know either of you accompanied me,” I quietly murmur, “I’ll make her think I came alone, then you and Mira can catch her by surprise.”

We reach the first stairwell uncontested, but have to hurry up its twisty metal spiral and hide, when I hear footsteps coming this way. Nick stumbles on the stairs, but Mira grabs him before he can fall. We actually make it all the way up to the second floor before the footsteps start dying away. Then we end up waiting there for a while, but silence descends again as the footsteps don’t come anywhere near us.

Laughing quietly and flicking an ear, I say apologetically to them, “Sorry about that. Guess these ears are a bit too good.”

“I don’t care if our ears are too good. Keep them trained,” Nick replies equally quietly, “We cannot afford to get caught now.”

I can’t help but notice that in aftermath of the panic from before, Mira is still cradling a little pony Nick in her arm, as they stare down the stairwell, his ears trained (natch) at the diminishing footsteps. The moment ends however, and Nick is swiftly returned to his hooves. We continue on down the next corridor, this time with me in the lead for some reason.

We don’t get caught, somehow. Twilight’s agents were right. This part of the building really is mostly unattended. Climbing the second stairwell, there’s a short walkway, and then an iron door swinging slightly ajar. From beyond it comes a steady thrum, that matches with the whooshes of air in the ducts, and through the crack, I can see a tiny patch of purple, in contrast to the grey machinery.

Backing away from the door, I retreat everyone back down the stairs.

“She’s here!” I whisper earnestly to Mira and Nick. “I saw her!”

“Okay, we can do this,” Nick says soothingly, “There’s nobody else who can. Don’t worry, Mira and I won’t let Twilight do a thing to hurt you.”

“If she... if something happens, just do what you have to to save all those people,” I say glumly, “But I don’t think Twilight would kill me. We just have to... stop her.”

“Hello, yes, I would like to report a terrorist bombing,” Mira says quietly over her cell phone. “There’s someone planning on releasing a deadly agent into the Baltimore Convention Center. Yes, yes I’m serious. They’re in the Ventillation Control, where they broke in from the outside. I need you to send your—oh, you’ll send them right away? What? Yes, yes I understand. No, we won’t try to stop them. Yes, we’ll let the police take care of this.”

She hangs up the phone, and I ask anxiously, “Why didn’t you tell them it was Twilight?”

“What was I supposed to say,” Mira hissed back, “A changeling queen from My Little Pony impersonating Twilight Sparkle is going to change everyone into ponies? We need her as evidence, or they’ll never believe us!”

“We can’t tell them, because some of them are drugged by her,” Nick adds, “We need to catch her red handed, or the possessed cops will mess up the few who are on our side.”

“So we just wait for the cops to come?” I ask, worried. “They don’t know how serious it is, and we can’t even tell them!”

“It’s too close to 1pm,” Nick worried, craning his neck up to look at Mira’s phone in her dangling hand. “She’s already in there. She could release the virus any second now!”

“The police don’t know what they’re dealing with,” I declare soberly, “They’ll be surprised she’s a purple unicorn, and then the possessed ones will attack the unpossessed ones. We have to capture Twilight, so they can’t risk doing that. Then once we get her, we’ll have hard evidence of her crime, that the corrupted cops won’t be able to sweep under the rug. I don’t care what the police said. I—I need to go in there.”

The two look at me in the dim light, before Mira says, “You just take care of yourself. We’ll be right behind you.”

“You stay out of the room while Nick sneaks in,” I tell Mira, “That way if Twilight uses some sort of freaky mind control that only works on ponies, you can rush in and save the day.”

“Yeah, it’s a good plan,” Mira says excitedly, “I’ll be your backup!”

Standing before the iron door, there’s nothing left for me to do. I’m gonna have to confront her, this mare who turned my life upside down, the first girl who ever allowed me to make love to her, who’s now planning in ponifying the entire world.

I take two calming breaths, then firm up my muzzle and lift my forehoof, pushing the iron door open wide. “Twilight Sparkle!” I shout angrily. Without my strong baritone voice, it comes out a lot more... whiney than I would have hoped.

“You!” Twilight shouts, spinning around from facing a complex looking machine, to stare at me in astonishment. “What are you doing here?”

The machine looks like some kind of a pump attached to a metal bell jar, with brassy levers and knobs, and an array of crystals all glowing with Twilight’s purple power. Several pipes from it are bolted to the powerful fans that dominate this room: great grey rectangles that hum with moving air and power. Around the fans, tiny skylights let shining beams of sunlight down into the dark, dusty room.

“What are you doing here?” I reply angrily, squaring off against her, “And what have you done with the real Twilight Sparkle?”

A flash of shock goes through the purple unicorn’s face, and then her beautiful snout draws up into an uncharacteristic smirk. “Figured me out, did you?” she says smugly. “You were so easy to manipulate. All I had to do was disguise myself as your favorite pony, and you fell for it hook, line and sinker.”

Lighting up her horn, Twilight’s purple magic raises a ripped off, bent metal pipe beside her, that she twirls in the air, then holds threateningly before me. “This’ll only hurt a second,” Twilight says, swinging the pipe at me!

I dive out of the way just in time, when the pipe whiffs past my ear. “Hold still!” she shouts, as I scramble frantically to my hooves, trying to look out for Nick. The pipe clangs loudly on the thicker metal pipes embedded in the wall beside me, as I see that Nick made it into the room. I don’t think Twilight has noticed him yet!

“Is that the best you can do?” I shout, trying to distract her from Nick. Twilight Sparkle swings the pipe at me again, with blinding speed. “Stop!” I shout desperately, leaping out of the way as the pipe again clanks against the side of the wall where I was just a second ago.

“I thought you wanted me to show you my best,” Twilight says in a teasing smirk to my sprawled form.

“Look, I—whoever you are, you can’t do this,” I tell her urgently, trying to get my hooves under me again, “Your Queen or... or whoever she is, can’t we learn to work together, in peace?”

Twilight blinks at me in surprise, and I think I might be getting to her! Even Nick’s staring at me in surprise. I hope that’s surprise. “It doesn’t matter to me if you’re a beautiful unicorn, or a beautiful c-changeling,” I say, stepping a hoof towards Twilight, “I–I think we can make this work. If not us, then... there’s gotta be somepony out there for you, who can give you what I... can’t. We can get help for you. You don’t have to do this. We don’t have to be enemies!”

“Enough prattle!” Twilight declares angrily—and then my stomach flips as my hooves slip right off the ground and I find myself falling sideways, only realizing that her magic has thrown me across the room after I smack painfully into the wall. Not the pipes, but the flat stone wall, that she pins me against so hard it knocks the air from my lungs.

I can’t... move, as Twilight Sparkle struts towards me, horn blazing, growling, “You think you’re so smart. You think you know me so well. It’s mere foal’s play to deal with you.” Nick’s silently creeping up behind her, and Twilight only has eyes for me. He’s gonna... is he gonna get to her?

Then Nick slams his shoulder into Twilight’s side, and I drop like a stone while Twilight hooks his forehoof, tumbling sideways as Nick keeps going past above her, slamming on his belly, and Twilight lands on his back with his foreleg held twisted painfully against her chest. I scramble to my feet, free of Twilight’s magic, because instead of me, her magic has wrapped around the jagged, torn off end of the pipe, jutting in Nick’s face as Twilight howls, “Who the hell are you?!”

“Nick!!” I shriek, charging forward as Twilight looks up to me in alarm. I can’t let her hurt him! I have no idea what to do! I just run into Twilight Sparkle, trying to push her off of him, but I travel along with her as we both go down into a tumble of limbs.

“Don’t hurt him!” I shout, trying to grab her arm in my... hoof or... something? Twilight just breaks away from me, hopping lightly away from the fans, back to the center of the room.

“That’s Nick?!” Twilight blurts out, staring openmouthed at the purple haired stallion who was having a harder time getting to his hooves, “Why is he... you... you weren’t supposed to know he was a pony!” she declares, glaring at me angrily, “My agents should have captured him by now!”

“How could they have captured him before I knew?” I demand back at her, “It was the virus you infected me with that did this to him!”

“It was supposed to have a delayed effect!” Twilight retorts, as she stares at Nick in horror.

“We know all about your scheme,” Nick says, heavily favoring a leg, but standing, horn tilted forward like he was ready to charge her. He was probably ready to charge her. “And we know your virus is sexually transmitted. We’ll never let you turn on this machine, and we’re not gonna let you hurt anyone else.”

“Sexually tran—wait,” Twilight Sparkle looks from Nick to me, back to Nick again, and back to me. “Did you seriously...” she says to me, in honest incredulity.

“No,” I tell her defensively, tightening my snout insecurely or... something. “We did not. I—it was an accident. We were just... we were just experiment—”

“You did!” Twilight exclaims at me in astonishment, the corners of her mouth twitching. “You–hoo,” she says, stopping and crossing her eyes, then repeating, “You–hoo hoo ha ha AH HA HA” and then the purple unicorn has just burst out laughing. Not like, cackling, well sort of like cackling, but like, falling over with gut shaking laughter. Laying on her side and clutching her forehooves around her heaving chest, she doesn’t even seem to acknowledge our presence anymore as we walk up to her.

“Did we get her?” Nick asks in confusion.

“You !” Twilight gasps between helpless laughter, swinging a hoof at me, “You fucked!... Nick! Into a—!”

Ignoring Twilight, I reply to Nick, saying uncertainly “I think we did?” Somehow, I can’t help but feel terribly insulted by this. Twilight seems to find our predicament far too amusing.

“What the heck is so funny about what you said to her?” Nick asks, looking down at Twilight in amazement.

“Just do the horn thing,” I grumble at Nick, “I’ll go get Mira.”

Soon both me and Nick are on either side of Twilight Sparkle, ready to smack her horn with a hoof if she tries any magic, but actually Twilight has just been passively sitting there between us for the last ten minutes. Not answering questions, not dropping her Twilight Sparkle disguise. Well, it’s not really our job to question her. The cops’ll be able to loosen her up, especially after we have evidence she’s manipulating them.

While we wait for the police, Mira’s looking over the dangerous machine, trying to figure out how the controls work, or how you could shut it off. Powered by Twilight’s magic, I don’t know how it could shut off, persay. Just wait for it to run out? It wasn’t activated though, or something, so while it remains lit up, it isn’t releasing any sort of a virus into the ducts it’s bolted to.

Thanks to Mira’s phone call, the police arrive in force, hurrying quickly up the maintenance corridor in the loud pounding of boots on metal. Mira turns away from the machine, to look over her shoulder at the iron door leading into this room, along with the rest of us, saying, “Oh good the cops are—”

Then Mira snaps back to face the machine, as its pumps whir to life.

“What—?” Mira squawks, as beside me, I hear Twilight Sparkle say softly,

“Bye bye, cutie.”

Her horn—!

Twilight Sparkle vanishes in a bright flash of purple light, just as the cops burst into the room, while Mira tries to get the machine to shut off.

“Hold it right there!” an officer shouts in a deadly frightening manner, him and three other officers all pointing pistols at Mira.

“You don’t understand!” Mira shouts in panic, not even noticing the cops have their weapons trained on her. “We have to stop this or—”

A glowing pink, purple and blue dust floods into the room.

“Mira, no! They have guns!” I shout, getting Mira’s attention as she freezes, turning to look at the police officers in stiff fear.

“Don’t breathe the dust!” Nick shouts, “Get out of here, before it infects you!”

“What the hell is this?” the speaking officer shouts, looking at Nick in alarm. “Is that a—a talking dog?!”

“It’s a virus!” I squeal at them urgently, “Get everyone out of the convention center, before it spreads to them! Go!”

Surprisingly, it works, though the glowing dusty fog floating in the air is probably a powerful motivator. The police scramble over each other to get out of the room, and... hopefully the convention center. There’s an eerie silence after that, only the humming whir of the machine announcing it’s presence.

“That could’ve gone better,” Nick says distantly.

“...Well don’t just stand there,” Mira says shakily. She stalks over and grabs the broken pipe, “We’ve gotta stop this thing!” She has a few good swings of it against the ducts bolted to the vents in the room. Nick’s on top of the machine, trying to find a place to jam his horn, when Mira says queasily, “Oh jeez, this feels weirder than I thought.” Then she slumps to the floor, and... continues to slump even more.

Oh. Oh.

“It feels kind of like you’re falling apart,” I tell Mira sympathetically, as she vaguely looks in my direction, but can’t really move anymore. It’s kind of... disturbing to watch actually. Mira doesn’t look like a half-pony, she just looks like a pile of um... stuff, poorly clothed in cleaning attire. I don’t have time to stare at her though. I have to break this stupid pump!

To our horror, screams of surprise and fright start drifting through the walls around us. Eventually, Nick and I have managed to break off one of the vents out of the machine, and jammed the pipe into it to stop the fan that was pumping its contents into the ventilation. Did I mention it’s really hard to dismantle a machine with hooves? Maybe I should try bucking it.

I have no idea if I can buck.

“Back off, I’m going to try something!” I say, shifting to turn my back to the humming machine. Nick hops back, and I guess I just... um... it’s like doing a handstand, right? Or... hoofstand I guess it would be. Well, jumping up trying to do a hoofstand on my forelegs puts my body in the perfect bucking position, and I... land, without bucking Then I hop up again a few times, before finally I just scrunch my eyes shut and kick back. My legs release like coiled springs. I feel my rear hooves slam solidly into the device, knocking me forward right over my front hooves, to topple into an uncontrolled somersault, tumbling across the room, and flopping out on my back on the floor.

“Did I get it?” I ask hopefully from down there.

The humming of the machine seems to answer me rather succinctly, but Nick says, “No, but the pump’s jammed anyway, so I guess the danger is... passed?”

“Mira, are you okay?” I ask, rolling to my belly and standing up again. (As much as a pony can stand up, that is.) On all fours, I walk over to Mira’s fallen form, saying, “How’s it... huh. You’re furry, at least. Your fur is really um... orange.” Her skin is swiftly bushing out with dense, dark orange fur. Not red-orange, but more of an orangey golden color.

“Oh, here comes her tail,” Nick says, craning his head down to pull aside Mira’s pants, letting out a bright pink and blue tail sprouting over her butt. The hairs thicken and clump into solid blue and pink stripes, as they bush out from the lengthening fleshy core of the tail itself. On her head, Mira’s old hair... melted, but the new hair is rushing out too, in more pink and blue stripes.

Together, Nick and I finish sliding Mira’s pants and panties off with our uh... teeth. Suffice to say, Mira really smells like Mira down there. Her legs flop limply open as they come free of the increasingly baggy fabric. It’s then that I find myself fascinated by her groin. No not in a lesbian way, but it’s fascinating how that part of her changes, to match... me. There’s a brief moment of terror as I worry whether I’ll have to deal with two stallions trying to impregnate me, but Mira’s slit remains a slit. It just... plumps up, the slit thins, and the whole thing droops out a bit, becoming more of a slot than a slit, still a handy entrance into that special part of her body.

While that changes, her legs bend and shift, curling in the shape of a pony’s legs, the shape that Mira’s going to be. Her arms flop up and then curl in front of her like a squirrel sort of, her fingers melting into the forming hoof. Her uh... it’s hard to tell if her neck is getting longer and thicker, or if the rest of her is just getting smaller. Ponies are actually kind of tiny, compared to humans.

“Well, she’s not a unicorn,” Nick concludes. Though Mira’s face is starting to resemble the snout of a pony, there’s no horn growing from her head. I’m still amazed that Nick is one. I’d think Twilight’d turn us all into earth ponies. I guess the transformation’s just random? Mira stares vaguely up at the two of us as the brown of her irises melts into blue, while Nick snuffles around under her shirt.

“Oh wow!” Nick declares, grabbing my attention. “Help me get her shirt off!” he urges, “You gotta see this!”

Mira actually kind of... moves a little to help. When we bite the edges of her shirt and pull it over her increasingly pony shaped head, she lifts her upper torso a little so that we can slide it out from under her. As she does, I can see what Nick wanted to show me. Tiny little bent limbs covered in orange fuzz are sticking out from Mira’s sides.

When Mira drops back to the floor on her side, they stretch out; the top one stretches out, at least. It extends from her like a little hand, then it jerks wide, growing before our eyes. Mira actually sort of winces in surprise at that so I guess she can feel it? With each involuntary jerk her wing arm spreads bigger and bigger, and further out from her. Between each finger of the growing bony digits, I can see an orange membrane of skin stretching and thickening.

“Mira,” I declare in mild astonishment, “You’re a bat pony!”

“Rrrglrr?” Mira actually manages to speak, trying to sit up, or... some analogue. We get her on her back, while she blinks with cool blue dilated eyes, staring with fascination at her own golden wings, then giving satisfied wordless grunts as they stretch with bursts of growth, surging out to their full length to either side of her.

“That’s pretty much it,” I tell Mira, and... Nick, too, I suppose. He observed himself changing, but I’m the only one of us who has witnessed such a transformation from an outside perspective so far, when Nick changed as a result of the virus in my um... womanhood. So I’m the only one who knows when to say it’s done. “You should be able to stand soon, Mira,” I tell my sister, “And uh... talk, and stuff. Just gotta...” her hips give a satisfying sounding pop, as her legs finish rotating into place on either side of her newly pony snatch. “...that stuff.”

Mira does speak then, saying,

“This’sh so...

Freaking...

Cool!”

...huh.

“Is that me?” Mira asks and her voice has lost any roughness to it, becoming more sweet and melodic, not unlike mine, and... Nick’s. Seriously he’s got this smooth tenor that just makes you want to melt. Or makes me want to melt. Or makes me literally melt, when he fucks me in the back seat of a car. “I shound adorable!” Mira declares in delight.

“Oh my gosh, I have hooves!” she declares, stretching out her fuzzy orange limbs into the fluorescent light, to look at it with a childlike fascination. “And I have wings!” she says, twisting around to look at the twitchy orange wings on either side of her body. “Am I gonna have to sleep during the day? Am I gonna hafta eat bugs?”

With a shudder, I say, “If you do, I’m sure they’ll start looking a lot more appetizing. Are you... are you okay, Mira?”

“I’m fine,” Mira says, then clears her throat and says, “It’s so weird even my voice sounds different, because I’m still a girl! I’m gonna stay a girl, right?”

“I uh... didn’t notice exactly when my transformation made me a girl,” I tell her leerily, “And Nick’s obviously... didn’t. Eheh.”

Mira manages to sit up fully then, reaching her arms forward and wrapping them around her lush tail, pulling it up to her chest, saying, “My tail is so adorable! Oh I can even feel it!”

There’s something that just... melts in my heart as Mira manages to find such joy in what happened to her. Maybe this wasn’t so bad. Maybe Twilight isn’t... no, whoever that was, it wasn’t even Twilight. Whatever changeling was behind that Twilight illusion, they were horribly, unrepentantly evil, that much has to be true. But they also seemed... sad, somehow. I don’t know why she got so angry at what I said, and it just seems... sad in hindsight. Whatever the case may be, Mira’s hugging of her own tail makes me feel better about myself. I feel sympathetic, but not for pain. For joy. I have to resist the urge to hug Mira right on the spot.

Wait, no I don’t!

“Alright, ladies,” Nick says after I impulsively crush my little sister’s new pony form in a tight, grateful hug. “Let’s uh... we need to help anyone who got caught in this. We’re the only ones who know what’s going on, and anyone who got changed into a pony is going to be awfully confused about what they are.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Mira says, rolling her large, expressive, bright blue eyes. “But yeah, we should help um, ponies. Gah, why is my voice so cute?”

“Can you stand?” I ask her, releasing Mira from the hug to sit there in a pile of limbs. She looks back at me in confusion with vaguely dilated, cat shaped pupils.

“I dunno, can I?” she asks, completely unaware of her eyes.

“It’s about all you can do at this point,” Nick says flatly. “Listen, I’ll stay with you and get you um... situated. Meadowsw—”

Nick cuts off from addressing me, and snaps to stare at Mira again. “Wait, what’s your name?”

Mira blinks, looking at Nick cluelessly. “Miranda?” she says uncertainly.

“Oh good, that was only a ‘Meadowsweet’ thing,” Nick says in relief.

Mira’s eyes also widen, as she says, “Oh damn I hadn’t thought of that. Thanks for saving my uh... name. Miranda. Right. Miranda Brown. Mi—”

She looks at her arm, then asks, “Should I start calling myself Miranda Orange?”

“Hey, don’t joke about that,” I grumble under my breath, “Next thing you know everyone’s gonna be calling you Adrian too!”

With Nick taking care of Miranda’s... thing, it’s up to me to go... search for survivors. I don’t even try to hide anymore, just trotting out into the hall, climbing down the stairs, and trying to find a way out of this maintenance area. The glowy viral fog is everywhere, always glowing in eerie pink and blue patterns. I can’t help but wonder if they don’t have some significance, but at least they don’t seem to be affecting pony me.

I don’t have to hide, because as long as I’m in this fog, that means I’m not going to meet anyone who isn’t a pony. Glowing where it clusters on the ceiling above with weird magic the dust isn’t affecting me, but I can’t say the same for the people still crying out in alarm out off in the distance beyond the walls.

I follow my ears, down to the first floor, to wherever people sound more loudly. At last, I come upon a door that leads to a concession stand. There’s a pony slumped on the floor there, totally unconscious next to a rather heavily dented cheap tin shelf, tongue sort of hanging out. She seems to be breathing, at least. Uneasily, I nose one of her splayed forelegs onto her chest, then pat it with a hoof. She’ll uh... she’ll be fine.

From there, I move forward, out of the private area into what must be the main lobby. The registration desk is empty, or possibly occupied by somepony too small to be seen above it. Oh no! There are like a ton of people in the lobby down here!

They’re all ponies, every single one of them. Fur of all sorts of bright colors, some with wings, some with horns, most seem to have neither wings nor a horn. Glass windows and doors shine bright sunlight in to illuminate what looks like a couple hundred people, all changed into ponies! And they’re all lying down!

“Oh no! Are you o—” I start to exclaim, trotting over to one fallen body after another. “Are you okay?” I ask in concern, “Why’re you all lying down? It didn’t hurt, you? I—

“I need you all to remain conscious!” I shout to the room in general, “You’ve been affected by an... agent, of some kind, and you’re all going to be fine, but you have to resist any urges to declare your fealty to an almighty changeling queen!”

“Oh my god a roleplayer,” someone moans in the crowd, or pile as such.

“How is she walking?” a younger voice pipes up.

“Oh uh,” I say, turning to face the pony who shouted, a little blue and purple filly swaddled in utterly gigantic brown pants and a giant white button up shirt, relative to her size. Then I look around at all the others just...lying there, no longer moaning, all calmly staring at me. Oh right.

“Don’t worry!” I call out to them, “You can probably start trying to stand up now. The transformation doesn’t take more than a few minutes!”

“How do we stand up?” a stallion exclaims, while another stallion shouts, “Why the fuck am I a stallion?!” in a nasal tenor and a chocolatey baritone, respectively.

I start counting stallions. There are... not very many of them, that’s all I can tell. I get to ten stallions, before I realize there’s like five mares I’m passing up, every time I count another stallion. Oh dear.

“Are we ponies?!” one of the mares squeals.

“Why am I a tiny pony?” a tiny young lavender and green toddler pony shouts in a shrill squeak. Oh dear.

“I can explain!” I shout, stepping back at the array of ponies lying around the lobby. “You’ve all been transformed into a pony, from a cartoon called My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic! I know it seems strange, but it’s true! There’s a new My Little Pony cartoon that came out, about magical horses, unicorns and winged ponies called—”

“Holy shit, lady!” another mare shouts out, braced up on her sandy brown forelegs, “Who do you think we are?”

“Who you are?” I call back in befuddlement, “I–I don’t know! I’m Meadowsweet, and I know that sounds weird, but it is my actual name. I just want you to know that you are not from a cartoon just for little girls. There are actually a lot of adult fans who—”

“Could you please just look over your head?” one of the stallions shouts, that chocolatey baritone who’s um... dark olive, with red hair.

“What do you mean?” I say looking up at the ceiling. I mean it’s a very pretty ceiling for sure, but—

“At the banner, lady,” the sandy brown mare shouts, directing my attention to a banner up against the bannister that says,

“Bronycon.”

The ‘r’ looks like a pony’s mane, the tail of the ‘y’ looks like a pony’s tail and oh my fucking dear.

“Stop giving her a hard time!” somepony calls out, “She probably can’t even read our human language!”

I look down at them again, blood rushing to my face, while the brown and... yellow mare says angrily, “Maybe she should have thought of that before changing us all into ponies!”

“Are you really from Equestria?” a grey pegasus filly asks, with wide purple eyes.

“There’s... there’s been a miscommunication!” I call out, stepping back from... them, “I’m a human! Just not a very bright one.”

Ponies get right into protesting, one mare shouting, “Then how are you walking? You move like you were born that way!”

“I’ve only been like this for two months!” I shout at her fussily. “It’s not that hard to figure out. You just have to—”

“And your name’s Meadowsweet?” the brown mare asks skeptically, “What kinda human parent names their child Meadowsweet?”

“Is that your pony name?” someone else asks.

“It’s not that weird of a name,” I protest a little irritably, “But I swear I’m just a transformed human, and it only took about a day of practice before I could walk... sorta. I–I’ve never even seen Equestria!”

“A likely story!”

This is not going as I’d hoped.

The good news is I don’t have to break down crying to get people to listen to me, and also I find a microphone, so I can be heard by all. And I’m not crying into the microphone. They’re all understandably shaken up by this, though perhaps not as much as people unfamiliar with the show. “Please I just want to help you figure out what’s going on,” I entreat them.

“Well, what’s going on?” somepony in the crowd replies.

“There’s a changeling queen turning people into ponies, so that her queen can control them.”

Uh...

“Okay, I know that sounds a little—” I start to say as someone interrupts, saying,

“A changeling queen has a queen?”

“I don’t know if she’s a changeling queen exactly, but she’s very dangerous,” I say warningly.

“If she wanted to control us, why not turn us into changelings? Why are we ponies?”

“I don’t know exactly,” I tell the blue mare who spoke, “But Twilight said that it would um... open the way for her queen or something. Into our minds.”

“Twilight Sparkle?” that tenor stallion asks in bafflement.

“Yes, sorry the changeling was disguising herself as Twilight Sparkle,” I make sure to clairify. “That’s how she got me. She earned my um... trust, and then fed me some infected cookies.”

“How do we know you’re not the changeling?”

“Because I’m... not... evil?” I say, blanking on just how to answer that one.

“She’s clearly not a changeling,” a sandy haired, pink pony more along my age says, looking at me unapprovingly, “A changeling wouldn’t be this bad at covering for themselves.”

“That’s just what she wants you to think!” a mature looking blue and pink mare declares. “She’s only acting stupid to get our guard down!”

“For chrissake, Richard,” a little purple and blue filly groans at the mare, “This is not one of your roleplaying campaigns.”

“If it was, my sanity would be around 25!” the mare fusses in a harried confusion, “Everyone’s a pony, and I sound like a woman!”

There’s a cough.

“What?” she continues, looking around in confusion. “No stallion in the show would have this voice!” she protests.

“Anyway!” I all–too-loudly interrupt her train of thought, “Everyone needs to stay here, and avoid contact with humans. I mean—uninfected humans.”

“That weird glowy dust is gone though,” the blue and pink mare says testily, “That was what changed us into ponies!”

“That dust was a virus,” I explain urgently, “One that can spread through the whole world if it gets out! We’re all—I mean—you all have to consider yourselves contagious now, until we figure out how it spreads! It’s really important that nobody leave the building!”

“Why’re you worried about that?” a stallion asks in a displeased growl, “You’re the only one who can walk!”

“Oh, right, I uh...” I smile hopefully saying, “I could maybe teach you how to walk. Or at least help get you standing.”

“Standing would be good!” somepony calls out from behind the registration desk.

This is definitely some serious trouble. While I’m trying to get everyone back on their feet—er—hooves, more ponies come trickling in, speaking of a purple haired grey unicorn stallion, who taught them how to escape their booths, or use the elevator. There’s people in the service area in the back, who are now all ponies. People keep getting surprised just because I’m able to walk pretty well, over and over again. It’s overwhelming!

And worst of all, Twilight’s virus pays absolutely no respect to gender boundaries. So many mares are freaking out upon discovering they have a vagina. Internally, I’m screaming at them “How would you like to be pregnant, huh?!” while I try to calm them down, and reassure them that they can handle this. And just as I start to get a handle on that, there’s a dark brown stallion in my face, demanding to know what she’s supposed to do about being a guy.

“I don’t know!” I squeak in fear at the angry brown and red stallion getting far too close for comfort. Why does he have to be he so freaking big compared to me? “Nothing? You don’t have to worry about getting pregnant or anything!”

“But what if I want to get pregnant?” he asks tearfully, “I want to start a family someday! What’s my boyfriend going to think?”

“Your um... boyfriend is here, isn’t he?” I ask very uncertainly.

“Yeah he’s...” the stallion looks over his shoulder to a mare of red hair and bright green fur, wobbling in place with her head craned down, trying to get into the pockets of a fallen backpack with her teeth. As she bends forward, her uh... tail’s all hiked up into the air and stuff. Definitely a mare.

“What am I supposed to do?” the stallion asks, drawing my attention again.

“Just... help... him... her, I guess?” I tell the poor stallion/lady. “I don’t know. I’m her! I’m trying to deal with this too!”

“Well, what would you want, then?” the stallion says irritably, “What would you want, if you had a girlfriend like... like ugh my voice is so low, this is terrible...”

“I um... really like your voice,” I tell him honestly, “So she’d... he’d probably like it too. It’s just biology, I mean.”

“If you had a girlfriend, who changed into a boy pony,” the stallion insists, “What would you want her to do?”

Visions of Dusk Shine fanfics dancing in my head, I tell the stallion, “I’d be scared and um... vulnerable. Nobody could ever just come up and... impregnate me before this happened. It’s really unsettling to know you have a... thing going into you, that’s made for making love to a man, and you have these... urges to use it. So just... make sure she knows she’s safe, not gonna get... violated or anything, and that you still like her even though you... switched. Oh and whatever you do, do not hide under the same blanket as her, unless you want something to happen.”

As the stallion sways on his feet, making the ardurous 10 foot trek to his marefriend, who used to be “her” “boyfriend”, I hope I said that right. The mare he approaches doesn’t even look anxious like I was, but they share a couple of words, and the green and red mare does reflexively cover her muzzle with a forehoof blush shining through her green tinted fur. I think that’s a good sign. At least they’re talking again. Honestly, I’m just amazed there was a girl attending Bronycon in the first place!

This year, people of a wide range of ages are attending the convention. They didn’t start out a wide range of ages, though. I’m counting my blessings, and Twilight’s lack of despicable cruelty, that there aren’t any elderly or obviously aging ponies here. The oldest one there looks maybe Twilight Velvet level at best, that ageless age where you look at Twilight’s mom and say, “Wait, is that Twilight’s mom, or her sister?” Anywhere from little fillies and colts, emphasis: fillies, to adult mares and stallions, emphasis: mares. So many more females than males, it’s no wonder I got...

...

It’s all so complex, is the thing. Twilight Sparkle couldn’t have picked out each and every one of their individual fates. So that means every guy who turned into a mare did so not because of her, but totally randomly, or if not randomly, then because of something about... himself. What does that say about me? I don’t get to ponder that question long, because that’s about the point when a dozen soldiers in hazard suits barrel into the convention center, and surround me with a forest of assault rifles, all pointed at my face.

Author's Note

A question to ponder for the—wait what?!

Desperate Measures

Okay, let’s take stock. I’m a pony, check. A My Little Pony, check. A mare... check. Pregnant? Half check. I’ve been segregated at gunpoint, and I think my heart stopped the moment I started tracking the bullets that would leave those gun muzzles, where they would tear huge bloody holes in me if someone just slightly depressed the trigger. I–I–I could d-d-d-die.

It is in this paralysis, that my captors, or... police captors, or soldier... people find me very frustrating. I just kind of freeze staring at those gun barrels, and I don’t even notice when they move, or when people shout orders at me, or when someone prods me with said gun barrel, until they do it hard enough that I stumble, gasping for breath as I cringe in terror away from those horrible black things.

“I didn’t do it! I’m sorry! Please don’t hurt me!” I tell them, half sprawled on the floor, while the entire lobby stares at me.

“Just... come with us, ma’am,” a rather weary sounding man’s voice comes through the electronic speaker, weary as if he’d been trying to explain the situation to a frozen plank of wood for the last two minutes. “We just need to ask you some questions.”

Of course I trust them. Of course. “I’ll do anything you say, just... oh god I’m going to die,” I say, breathing faster as I see the g-guns again.

“What’s the problem? She was just helping us learn how to walk!” a voice shouts from the crowd. The military looking people don’t even respond to it.

“Just come with us,” the leader of the group says, stepping forward to hold out a gloved hand for me to take, “If you cooperate, then no harm will befall you.”

No harm, my butt.

“I will!” I say stridently, “I will! Just please um...” I try putting my forehoof in his hand, and his thick gloved fingers wrap around it in a way that seems weirdly alien, considering that I used to have two hands like that. He pulls me up, and I gather my hooves underneath me. Then he says,

“Walk this way, please.”

He walks away, and I follow eagerly, trying not to do anything at all to alarm the men with their deadly black weapons that could end me in a single shot. They lead me to a trailer outside, a police trailer I guess, where I’m pushed into its black confines, and told to sit there and wait. Someone stands beside me, in his hazard suit, with a g-gun. What if a bullet punctures those suits? These guys are paramilitary, aren’t they. They’re pony haters who grabbed me to sell me to slavers in Guatemala. I was dead the moment I walked into this van. How could I be so stupid? How could—

A monitor in front of me comes on. Soon there’s a picture of a very serious looking man in it, with a snappy looking uniform. “I just have one question for you,” he says. “Who are you working for?”

...what? I honestly blank on that for a moment, before telling him in confusion, “I work at a Short Stop in Hibbing, but what does that have to do with turning into a pony?”

The guy holding the gun next to me shifts in place.

“A-actually,” I stutter anxiously, “I probably don’t work there anymore, because I haven’t shown up to work in the last um... two months, since I got turned into a pony and all. I–I mean the kind of um, being that I am, which is from a cartoon show that—”

“I don’t think you realize the seriousness of the situation,” the man asserts to me as I fall into faint silence. “You have committed an act of Terrorism against the United States Government. Hundreds of people have been infected with your pathogen. You have put all of humanity on the brink of extinction, overnight. Now you’re going to tell me who you work for, or there will be consequences you will not appreciate.”

“Twilight Sparkle!” I declare in sudden shock, “I wasn’t working for her. I was trying to stop her! She was the one who put that machine thingy in there, and—we didn’t do that! It was Twilight Sparkle, or a changeling disguised as her. You have to stop her, she teleported away before you could see her. You have to check your officers, she’s compromised the police! The commissioner is her minion! He’s been putting mind control drugs into the donuts! You have to find out which officers are being controlled, and stop them, and I know she got away, but that machine is evidence, isn’t it? Your officers are being mind controlled!”

Thank heaven the one next to me isn’t being mind controlled, because he doesn’t shoot me, just lets me blurt all that out rapidfire, as I shout in shrill urgency at the man on the TV.

The TV guy is gaping at me, like he can’t believe what he was hearing. Well good, it’s time someone shook things up around here, so—

“Could you repeat all of that?” the man asks, “More slowly?”

“A changeling came from Equestria,” I tell him more slowly, “Disguised as Twilight Sparkle. The commissioner is in cahoots with it, injecting mind control drugs into your officer’s donuts.”

“Our officer’s donuts,” he says humorlessly.

“Yes, and that machine was put there by a shapeshifting being who was impersonating Twilight Sparkle,” I continue, “You didn’t see her because she teleported away, but she was the one masterminding the whole—”

“Enough games!” he shouts angrily, “I speak on behalf of all humanity when I demand you tell us who you’re working for, and how to stop this before it’s too late?”

“A c-c-changeling I think, d-disguised as Twilight Spark—” I stutter in terror as he interrupts again, bellowing,

“There are no mind control drugs in our donuts!”

I–I–I don’t know what to say! “Let her cool her heels for a while,” the TV man says calmly, “She needs some time to decide whether or not she wants to be helpful to us.”

“I want to be helpful!” I protest fearfully, “I—”

“If the next words out of your mouth are not a confession, you are going to regret it,” he says darkly. He moves a dial, and the screen shuts off.

Silence.

“S-s-should I stay here or—” I start to say, as the man with the gun finally speaks up, telling me,

“Keep talking, if you want me to shoot you where you stand.”

I’m I’m I’m silent. Frozen stiff. Utterly still. No talking from me.

“You make me sick,” he concludes after a lengthy silence. And then he—! He spits on me! His spit lands on me! I–I can’t wipe it off my back without moving. I can’t stop it from oozing slimily down, soaking into m-my fur I just have to sit there and he spit on me. I can’t even clean off the s-spit because he hates me and I don’t know how to make this better. I’m going to die because I can’t stop whimpering. I don’t die, as I collapse on my belly in whimpering sobs, that I just can’t hold in because I’m in a horrible black van with guns, and he spit on me, and he should spit on me because they think I did this to everyone.

It doesn’t help my mood when underneath me, the van starts to move. I feel like they’re leading me to my execution, and I just curl up and cover my face with my hooves, trying to hold in the sobs, trying shut out the terrible reality that’s going to kill me. Like, right now.

It’s kind of a blur how they hustle me into an isolation cell. I don’t see anyone else in this complex besides the hazard suited um... military dudes. They might have cleared out this whole building just for me, because they think I’m going to spread the pony to them. I’m treated with utmost care and disgust, barely cognizant enough to walk, as with rough shoves they hustle me wordlessly along. This is so unfair. I don’t even come up to their waists, and they’re still shoving me along with the butts of their rifles so they don’t have to touch me. Then they push me into a white room, and close the door, and it has a really heavy sounding lock, and...

Silence descends.

I... oddly don’t feel like crying anymore. All I hear are diminishing footsteps. I sink to my belly, just staring at the door, just not even... comprehending what just happened. The first salient thought that comes to mind is how noisy my racing heart sounds, beating in my ears. I listen to my heart for a while just kind of... curiously, and slowly it calms down.

“Okay...” I say sounding loud in the quiet. “Okay, that was... scary.” Brilliant deduction, Holmes! What’re you going to deduce next, that you’re a little mare? “That was also kind of... excessive,” I add to myself, “...kind of. They think I did this, so it’s a reasonable reaction. What to do about it, though?”

I take a moment to look over myself. Sitting on my belly like this, my soft green tail got kinked a little uncomfortably, so I lift a haunch and swish it out to lay behind me. That tail’s the only real strange part about me. The rest is just... analagous to my human body, I guess. Nick’s the same way, sort of, but Mira’s got two new limbs to deal with. What would that even feel like? Staring at the small of my back, the lemon yellow fur reveals no insights in that regard. I’m not a pegasus, or a bat pony, or a unicorn, just... a pony.

I can see my bangs if I look up, the same odd green as my tail. My hair’s kind of... shaggy, actually. I dunno, it just kind of hangs around my head and neck. I haven’t had to cut it yet, but it’s only been two months, so I can’t really say how often it needs to get cut. Am I in prison now? I am, aren’t I? How do you get your hair cut in prison? How does a... a mare get her mane cut in prison? Am I in one of those female only penitentiaries? Where are the other prisoners though? It’s just silent outside, and the only window in the room is a small slit through the metal door out into a featureless hall.

There’s nothing in here. There’s a sink and a tiny little toilet, but there isn’t even a bed in here. I stand and pace the boundary of this well lit, white walled cell, and I start to feel an uneasy paranoia rise up in me. There’s nowhere to hide in here. Nothing to lie on, or get under. No corners to get behind. Just white walls, white floors, like I’m in a fluorescent lit white cube. I start to feel really present in here, like the room is drawing attention to me, the only incongruity in its simple geometry.

I try turning on the water, to maybe get a drink, and... the spigot turns, but no water comes out of the faucet. The toilet itself is bone dry. I have a bad feeling about this.

An hour, or... something later, I have a really bad feeling about this. I’m thirsty, tired, bored, and scared. I just sit there kind of... rolling from one side to another, because there’s just nothing to do in here. I can think of just the right music to play now, all melancholy and lonely as I lay here despondent in my cell.

“Nick, Mira, I hope you’re okay,” I whisper softly, laying on my side, as the music starts to play. “Where did I go wrong?” I sing.

Then the music stops.

Wide-eyed, I sit back up to my haunches, and the music starts again. I’m not hearing any music. I’m just... thinking about what would be good music, and how it would go, and what I would... sing. I... I can feel it trying to come out. And all I have to do, is just... sing?

“Where did I go wrong?” I sing, in that clear, bell-like voice I’m speaking with, and it’s... it’s obvious. “Whatever do I say?” is what I sing, “Alone and locked away... from my friends.”

I feel terrible, but it’s... it’s just heartwarming to sing like this. Just staring wistfully at the door out of here, I sing, “Waiting for so long,” with a clarity that I never felt before. My voice is bright and sweet in the silence. I can just... just fall into it, and let myself sing.

Where did I go wrong?
Whatever do I say?
Alone and locked away
From my friends.

Waiting for so long
Waiting for the day
That Twilight came
Into my life.

She showed me beauty
Beyond compare.
I tried to repay her
Then she wasn’t there...

Where did I go wrong?
Who should I have told
When I lost ahold
Of humanity.

Should I save the day?
Should I save the world
When everything unfurled
Oh so wrong.

In like a glove
The pony I adore
I gave her love
But she wanted more.

I tried to stop her.
All I ate was dirt
I tried to help
She could only hurt

Where did I go wrong?
Should I have turned away?
Should I have let her lay
Till her end?

What is going on?
Until I know her plans
How can I understand
If I did something wrong?

Have I done nothing wrong?

The walls resonate with my fading voice as I fall silent again. I can’t believe ponies can just... do that. I needed to sing, and I sang, and... there was nothing wrong with that. That’s why the end of my song grew confused, because I’ve never been able to express myself like this before. I lost my hands, but... in that strange moment, hated by the world, in that isolated cell, I feel like I gained something far more valuable in return, though I can’t quite pin it down. Twilight Sparkle...

Twilight Sparkle gave this to me. She made me this. She let me cum inside her, an experience too powerful to put into words. I remember... I remember ejaculating, and how it just vanished into her. She took my penis, and my humanity, and my life’s savings, but to be fair it’s not like I was doing anything with that stuff, not without her. I can’t blame her for my pregnancy, unless I find she spiked my DNA with horniness or something. And besides that, Twilight gave me this amazing place between my legs that could feel so good. Without her, Nick would have never... Nick would have never done that to me. I... I...

I never in a million years thought I’d ever be able to go to Bronycon.

Twilight’s horrible! She’s cruel and manipulative. She’s not even a pony, but an evil creature that survives by impersonating ponies and draining you of your love. That’s what she did to me, and it’s utterly unforgivable. I trusted her and she... she put me $30,000 in debt. That’s terrible and all, but it’s just numbers on paper. I probably would’ve given it to her, if she really needed it! It’s wrong what Twilight did, so very wrong, and yet I’ve been doing things in the last few months that I’d never even dreamed of. I just can’t figure out what Twilight Sparkle did that’s... unconditionally... evil.

She certainly didn’t point a gun at me, then lock me in a solitary cell that doesn’t even have a bed. How long are they going to leave me in here? How long is it going to take me to go insane? Have I gone insane already? I’ve got to be insane, because I’m thinking of Twilight and not hating her guts, but just wishing I could... see her again.

I don’t know how long I lay there, thinking about... things. There’s a dark sort of satisfaction I feel, when I remember that Nick’s seed’s still inside me. They can’t see it. They don’t know about it. I’m totally exposed on the outside, but my body has secrets within. Is it going to make me pregnant? Is it making me pregnant right now? Mira said it’d take at least a week before I could tell, but when does it... happen?

That’s around when I first start to feel a need to go pee. Walking over to the toilet, it’s not so tiny compared to me, so I still have to climb my butt up onto the thing, and balance on the edge of the bowl. And no water in it, great. Well it’s their loss if everything smells like pee. I still remember when I first had to go pee, after Nick came to find me a pony. My hooves clattered and slipped on the bowl, so I gave up and just hopped in the shower. “OK just... push like normal,” I told myself, bearing down on my bladder, and then a surprised squeak hit me as pee just exploded out from me. I don’t know why, but with girls, it’s just super easy. Instead of going through the... plumbing of my penis, it just went directly from my bladder to peeing.

So it surprised me from how suddenly it came out, but then it seemed to be coming out steadily, so at least that was familiar, but why wasn’t it hitting the shower drain behind me? I looked back, and I was quite comfortably peeing into my own tail, soaking the whole thing with urine. I didn’t even try to stop at that point. I just let it get soaked. Then I turned on the shower with my teeth, and drenched myself in cold water, because I couldn’t leave the tub with a tail dripping in piss.

The second time was easier, and somewhat more informative. I lifted my tail this time, and bearing down I was again startled as the pee just started spraying out of me right away. And then I watched it spraying out of me in a steady stream, forceful enough to hit the side of the tub. And that’s how I pee now. I found over the months ahead how I could stop it from spraying like that by sort of... pulling my vulva in, which caused it to just sort of pour out of me instead. Doing it that way got it immediately running down my ass and legs though, which being furry also had the potential to be soaked in urine.

I did manage to use the bowl, but it was really awkward at first and as I sprayed my pee into the water below, I couldn’t help but think it would be easy for me to slip and fall into that. Nevertheless I was not going to shit in the shower stall, and it was below zero outside, so I had to learn the bowl, or nothing. At least shitting was mostly the same.

The toilet I use now is smaller, so easier to clamber upon, but with no water to flush, I’m certainly not going to be shitting in it any time soon. I hope they don’t keep me in here too long. It sounds really loud, when my spray of pee hits the dry bowl, but when I look up guiltily at the door, I realize it’s not likely anyone’s going to come in just now. So I hunch there noisily peeing, and... the toilet smells like pee now, but that’s their problem not mine.

My stomach is starting to growl noisily, with how empty it is. I uncomfortably remember I haven’t eaten anything since this morning, or whenever that was. What I really need is water though. I’m so freaking thirsty. Trapped in this cell with nothing to do, it’s hard to think about anything else than my fears and aches, and hungers.

Eventually, just... with nothing else to do, I flop my back against the wall, belly up, and just start messing with my groin. There’s nothing more crazy I could do to it than fuck Nick after all. I guess peeing reminded me that I’m actually female down there. The slot dividing the smooth curve of my belly feels... soft. Is that really what was stretching so much? I really just... open up in there, when a stallion puts his dick in me?

I rub my belly with a forehoof, thinking about the seed inside it. I really wish I could do that again. The urge just took me, and... and it took Nick too, and he was inside me. What would I do with a foal? What would giving birth through this thing feel like? I mean, of course it would hurt, but what would it feel like? The fur is thin and fuzzy around those teats. My... pony breasts I suppose. They make me tingle and squirm as I rub the side of my hoof along them. I um... I look around, and it’s still a featureless white room, with no one around.

Anxiously, I slide my hoof between my legs and just start... rubbing my marehood on it. My nether lips part easily around the side of my arm, and I wonder if I could figure out masturbation. Maybe in here, I’ll have time to do so. But maybe they have hidden cameras watching me. Why would I care what they think though? An indulgent moan mmmfs out of me as a trickle of fluid soaks into my fur, and... oh no.

I stop cold, and my eyes snap open. The sink... there’s no water in here. If I... I’m a mare. I’ll get all lubricated in my vagina for some stallion. I can’t afford to... to lose water like that. With a hot huff of frustration, I tear my forehoof from between my legs, and just squeeze them together, laying on my side, hoping that someone will come for me soon.

Well, being female, maybe I can’t masturbate, but at least Nick’s seed is still inside me, impregnating me even as I just lay there. Wait, that’s a bad thing, isn’t it.

I’m so thirsty... they haven’t even given me any water. I’d even drink out of a dog bowl if they’d give it to me. Isn’t this illegal? Animal abuse or... or something? I don’t know what time it is. I’ve been here a while. I... slept. I had to sleep with the lights on, but I got exhausted enough eventually where I could just drift off. So is that a day? Two days?

My hooves clop as I pace around the cell. Then I sit on my belly again to conserve... energy or something. Another song isn’t coming to mind, but I try singing anyway. Just to pass the time. I get through that “Doe a Deer” song, wherever it came from, and then “Somewhere over the Rainbow.” I start singing that eurotrash pop song from The Reanimator and wow do I not have the voice for that. Imagine Dolly Parton trying to sing the lyrics “Move your dead bones.”

I love those old recordings of Dolly’s songs. Her actual singing songs, I mean. She had such a sweet and tender voice, I guess kind of like the voice I have now. Everyone knew her for her over the top bimboized country/western junk, but I never even saw her fabled brassiere. I just liked the moments when she got to sing, without fake, manufactured folk culture twanging out on electric guitars. How long has it been since I listened to her stuff? I wish I had a music player with me. Oh god I’m going crazy, aren’t I.

Worse still, my throat starts to hurt, from being thirsty, so I have to stop singing. I just sit there for what feels like hours and hours, wishing I could have a stronger will, wishing I could get out of here, wishing they would turn off those goddamned lights. I roll around on the floor, and... smack into the sink.

Then I get mad and start kicking the shit out of the sink. The metal bowl crumples when I buck it, and the pipes twist and distort after, until with repeated kicks I just knock it away from the wall entirely. I’ve torn off the pipes from their fittings, but there isn’t any water being supplied to them.

Then I realize I’ve just torn a sink off the wall with my bare hooves. I inspect them, but my soft round thighs reveal little of their secret power, and my hooves seem entirely undamaged, though the left one is achy. Could I... could I buck the door right off its hinges? Oh god I’m in enough trouble already. They’re not going to like how I demolished their sink. I—I can’t undo that. It won’t go back up where it was.

Somewhere around fitful sleeping, I get the brilliant idea to make up a little game with that sink, avoiding the jagged metal parts, but sliding it around the cell like a ball. Just to keep sane, of course. I try to think of what rules might be involved if the ball is a hunk of metal, not a ball. If it... if it fits into the corner without a gap, I get an extra 20 points. Yeah, something like that.

I start getting falling-over-exhausted at some point during that game. I’m so thirsty. I slide the sink over to the wall, trying to lean it so that it looks... sort of like I didn’t kick it off the wall. Wouldn’t notice it flying by on a galloping horse. It’s all I can do before just flopping on the floor and passing out again.

Shitting is... not fun. I wake up with the urge though, that uncomfortable squeeze in your gut. I sit there trying to hold it in, but it surges right up into my colon then and I know it means business. So I just clamber onto the toilet, and... hope that it won’t get too full. With regular squeezes that seem to pull me open, like the opposite of my vagina, my sphincter bulges, and my shit drops in soft plaps onto the toilet bowl below me.

Then of course I have to pee immediately after.

I look at it afterwards. It’s already starting to stink really bad. I wonder if I could... throw some dirt on it, or something. Unfortunately I’m in a stone cell, that’s lacking in dirt, but I try throwing what crumbles and dust I can gather on top of it. It doesn’t really help.

So time passes, slowly or quickly, I can’t tell? The toilet still stinks. Though not as bad anymore. I guess it’s getting... decomposed? Dried out? I’m feeling dried out. I lay on my back, and then after a time, I roll to my belly, and look dully over the still broken sink. It barely looks like it hasn’t been torn off the wall. Still bent and crumpled, with the pipes not even aligning. I wonder if I could...

I spend a good long while messing with the sink. First I step on the bowl, lifting with a forehoof to bend it back into a smooth cubical shape. That gets most of the dents out, and by tilting it up, I can smack my hard hooves into the sides to smooth out any of the other wrinkles. With the shape of the sink itself mostly restored, I carefully align the broken pipes with each other.

I don’t have a welder, but maybe I could get the jagged teeth of the torn metal to catch together, like putting a sword into a sheath, or actually a better analogy might be a penis into a vagina. Tapping the broken pipe until it’s slightly bent inward, I slide it into the other side of the broken pipe, then the same for the other one. Some strong smacks of my hooves against the join gets it uh... stuck in place, and then it’s a simple matter of bending the sink back into an upright position, then striking each of the pipes with a ringing report to put the uh... stiffness back into them. I dunno, but it works, and they don’t bend and crumple with the weight of the sink.

Soon as anyone turns on the water, that’s going to turn into a flying broken sink and two geysers of hot and cold, but it actually doesn’t look half bad anymore. As the only salient feature of the room besides the toilet, I guess I’m glad it at least appears to be restored. Now I won’t get in trouble for it! Or... hopefully not, at any rate.

I stare at that sink. Then I fiddle with it. I am so bored. Tilting it this way and that. Every now and again I just mess with it more, trying to get it just right. It’ll loo good, but... then I’ll notice something else about it that I could fix. There’s nothing else in this room to notice.

Feeling somewhat accomplished from my escapades with the sink that aren’t ending in total disaster, I don’t have anything to do, go figure, so I lay on my side, and... curl up like a cat. Seriously, I don’t know what ponies are, but it really is comfortable to sleep like this. Plus I can lay my head back, upside-down this way, with my eyes underneath, away from the overhead lights, and cover my eyes with my forehooves to boot. Shut up it’s comfortable.

“Aww...”

My ear flicks at the sound of a guy’s voice slightly muffled, and I snort awake. Lifting my head and looking over at him, there’s a moment of uncomprehension as I see that there’s a guy in another one of those hazard suits, standing at the open cell door and looking at me. Then I suck in an explosive breath and leap to my hooves, my butt hitting the wall as I scramble away from him, staring in fear.

“Woah, hold on!” he says, holding up his hands, neither of which are wrapped around a firearm. “I’m not here to hurt you. You’re one of the ponies who released that pony virus, right?”

My heart is racing from the shock of being awoken by that spinning through my head dizzily. Should I nod? What’s he asking? All I can do is stare at him like a moron, saying scratchily in my soft, high voice, “Uhm... I...”

“Don’t worry about it,” he says warmly, his suit crinkling as he squats down to the floor, more on my level. “How’re you doing? They said you got sent in a while ago.”

I blink at him in confusion. Why’s he being so nice to me? “It’s okay, take your time,” he says.

“I’m um... w-while?” I ask faintly, butt against the wall, “They don’t turn off the lights here. How long has it been?”

His eyes widen, and on an unrelated note, I remember water. Gah. Why am I not asking him for water? My throat’s already starting to burn, it’s so dry. Oh I hope he has water.

“They’re not turning the lights off?” the man says in surprise, “That’s terrible! You’ve been here for so long, and they never turned the lights off?”

“N-no could I please have some water?” I reply, unable to be sophisticated about it. “I’m so thirsty.”

“Well, they fed you, right?” he asks. I shake my head. I haven’t even thought about hunger. Right now all I want is soft, cold, clear fluid pouring down my throat. “What about the sink?” he asks gesturing to it in aggravation.

“The water’s turned off,” I tell him cautiously.

“Wait here,” he says earnestly, “I’ll be right back.”

Then he runs out the door and... and for a moment I hope he’s going to leave it open, but it closes again, and clicks solidly shut. I hear his boots running down the hall, and then uh... stopping in the hall. He just stands there a while, I guess? Then, he runs back up the hall.

The door in front of me, it opens and he comes through again. “I hope you can drink from a bottle,” he says, procuring a water bottle or two held in his arms, “I grabbed the first thing I could find from the break room.”

“Yes, please!” I say, walking towards him on... on four hooves, because he’s looking at a little pony right now. Because I don’t care I just want little pony water already. “Please I’m really thirsty!”

He uncaps one of the bottles, and holds it before himself uncertainly, and I have no idea how to do it as a pony either, so I do what I usually do: improvise. I bite the threading of the water bottle, and close my lips around it, pulling it right out of his hand. Then I can tilt my head back and... it is so good. I have never tasted water as good as this. It hurts to swallow though, making me choke, then splutter, dropping the water bottle and then scrambling to try to stop the precious water from spilling out even as I’m racked with a coughing fit.

“Woah, woah, here’s another one,” he says, holding up a second bottle.

“Thanks,” I say, clearing my throat as the coughing subsides. “Just drank a little... too fast.”

I take the end of the second bottle in my mouth, and twist off the cap with my tongue, squeezing it out around the bottle to clatter on the floor. Then I very cautiously tip it back, just enough to get a little splash of water, then tipping it forward so I can swallow. And um... just stand there, draining the bottle bit-by-bit. I hope he doesn’t want me to talk to him.

Once I’ve drained the bottle dry, he says in an impressed tone, “You’re really good with your mouth.”

Dropping the empty bottle with a clatter, I sigh and say, “I’ve had a lot of practice over the last few months. I still can’t talk to you and drink at the same time, though.”

“I don’t think many people can talk and drink at the same time,” he says frankly, “C’mon, let’s get you out of this cell and get you some more water, and maybe something to eat.”

“Oh... oh thank you so much,” I exclaim, practically leaning against his leg as he leads me on. I daren’t touch him though, because I might be a carrier, or... something. Why else would they be only talking to me in environment suits? And technically I did infect Nick, so... maybe my fluids could do it?

He takes me into a cafeteria of sorts. There’s no one in sight, but my ears keep faintly picking up footsteps running around behind the walls and down the hallway. I guess they’re just avoiding me because I could be contagious. My tail droops a bit at the thought of that, and of course that makes me self conscious about having a tail unlike any real human being.

At least I get fed and treated kindly for once. We have the most bizarre conversation, a little yellow and green pony, and a human in an environment suit. He gives me two whole more bottles of water until it feels like my stomach is wobbling. I’m wolfing down cookies he got from a vending machine, as he asks, “So how’d you get in this much trouble? Did you do something bad?”

“No it ffith—” I have to pause to swallow. “No it’s terrible!” I tell him, “I got framed, by the real culprit, Twilight Sparkle! And now everyone thinks that I did it!”

“How’d she frame you?” he asked in surprise. “I heard that you were caught red-handed, or hooved I suppose, activating the bioweapon.”

“The bio...the thing stuck to the fan?” I ask, discovering a new love for peanut butter crackers that surpassed the bond between Samson and Delilah, “It activated itself, after Twilight used her magic on it!”

“Her magic,” he said flatly.

“Yeah, we were trying to watch her, but me and Nick took our eyes off her for one second, and she cast a spell to turn on the machine, then teleported away right when the police ran in!”

“Teleported,” he said even more flatly.

“I know, it’s terrible,” I say through a mouth of the apple I’m cradling in my hooves, “She has all sorts of terrible magic at her disposal, and how are we supposed to stop her? I even have evidence that she is using mind control, on the police! Your commissioner is like an evil agent for her um... her queen, who’s a changeling.”

“It’s just a little bit hard to believe,” he said with a confused shrug, “Are you sure she wasn’t somewhere else when you activated the machine?”

“I suppose she could’ve used a spell to project an image of herself—wait no,” I say, shaking my head, “We fought her! We totally kicked her butt, and if we’d watched her better... but she had to have been there. Unicorns can’t make a physical illusion!”

“How did you come to learn that?” he asked curiously.

“The show,” I say with a shrug, “They could change things into other things, but um... I can’t remember if they ever projected themselves. Oh, Trixie once made a floating neon... stick figure of herself?”

Thoughtfully nibbling the edges of the apple core, I say, “Huh, actually since they can make magical shields, maybe they could make a shield in the shape of a pony, and that would be a solid illusion.”

“Back to the machine,” he said in a bit of a strained voice, “What do you know about it? How does the virus transmit itself?”

Oh uh... “I-it’s kind of personal,” I tell him with a blush, “I swear we didn’t... do anything illegal, I think. We were just... trying something out. I um... I only know one way it could be transmitted.”

“What’s that?” he asked, “Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble or anything. We’re all friends here.”

“Yeah, it’s just embarassing...” I tell him, not sure I want him to know the potential state of my womb. Potential womb. I am totally gonna give birth, aren’t I.

“Well, you don’t have to say if you don’t want to,” he says with a sympathetic grimace behind his faceplate, “But a lot of people could get hurt by this. I hope you understand how important this is?”

“Hey, I got turned into this too!” I fuss at him, “Just because I can walk around doesn’t mean I’m okay with it!”

“I understand,” he says soothingly, “It’s okay, you can take your time. It’s just really important to know this stuff.”

“That’s what I was going to say!” I declare, “It is important, and it’s important people know all the facts. I um... I don’t know if it’s air transmitted, but what I do know is um...”

He waits patiently.

“It is... kind of... sssexually transmitted,” I tell him, trying not to imitate Fluttershy too much.

He just stares at me.

“S-so um, nobody should have sex or intimate uh, penetration,” I tell him cautiously. “That’s how Nick got turned into a pony. Because he penetrated... m-me.”

He sighed slowly, and put his fist up on his faceplate, where it would’ve gone on his forehead.

“We didn’t know it would happen!” I protest self-consciously.

“I think it would have a slightly more virulent transmission than sexual contact,” he says disbelievingly, “It is a biological weapon after all.”

“I think so too, but I don’t know what it is,” I tell him with a helpless shrug. “Twilight took all her notes with her. Maybe I’m not as virulent since I was the uh... first attempt at doing it to a human.”

Another awkward silence, and I ask, “Do you think we could find any more of those cookies? I—”

“I will give you a million of those cookies,” he groaned in exasperation, “If you’ll just tell me how a virus is supposed to transform people into ponies?”

“I really don’t know, sorry,” I tell him sincerely, “Maybe by sneezing on someone?”

“No, I mean that what happened in that convention center is impossible as far as I know, with our current technology,” he corrects himself. “Is it some sort of alien technology? Is there a secret laboratory? Is it a corporation? A terrorist organization? Tell me this, and I’ll do everything I can to make sure you’re well treated: how does a human being transform on the spot into a cartoon pony?”

My ears go down, and I don’t know what he’s asking, exactly, or the details. What does he want me to tell him? “Um... magic?” I offer with a nervous smile.

He gives me another look, then slaps his gloves on the table, standing up from it, saying loudly, “I think we’re done here.”

“What? What’d I say?” I ask. In response a bunch of guys in suits with guns come rushing in. “I–I swear it’s magic!” I squeal, scrambling back from the table, “She’s from Equestria! She... please don’t...” I curl up against the wall, trying to make myself as small a target as possible.

“Jeez,” comes a rough, unfamiliar voice, “You think she’d freak out more if we actually had our guns pointed at her?”

Someone kicks me lightly, saying, “Get up. Get moving.”

I uncurl and stand shakily, saying, “I’m up! I’m up! What do you want me to—”

“This way,” he says gruffly, pushing me towards the door with the b-barrel of his gun.

“I’m walking! I won’t do anything funny,” I tell them, walking stiff legged with them down the hall. “What did I do wrong? Did I do something wrong? I’ll help you with anything I can! I just don’t know very much! We were just trying to help. I-is this legal? Do ponies even have legal rights? You’re not holding them all—”

I come face to face with that awful cell.

No... no! They push me in but I plant my hooves, scrambling back, saying, “No, please not that! I don’t want to go in there again!” Their gloved hands wrap around parts of my body, shoving with an incredible strength, like three or four of them, but I’m absolutely panicked at this point, scrabbling forward, grabbing the edges of the door, leap-frogging over that one guy only to be dragged back by my tail. At last, it’s the black barrel of a gun in my face, that freezes me in my tracks. With the gun still trained on my head, they slide me stiffly into the cell. Then they close the door, while I run back up to it shouting, “Please there’s no water in here! Can I have something to read? When am I gonna get out?”

Without answering, the boots start to walk away. Through the tiny slit in the door I shout, “Please, at least turn off the lights!!”

No answer. Oh god. I’m in here again. I scamper from edge to edge of the cell, panicked, confused, trying to find a way out. No answer, nothing. With the clatter of my hooves stilling, utter silence descends. I sink to my belly, in this cell again, and just start crying. It just all hits me so hard, and I fall to my side, curling up moaning and weeping, confused and frustrated, terrified and outraged.

I have... plenty of time to cry it out. I think I cry even longer, because it’s just something to do. But at last I’m just too worn out, and just lay there on my side, my round yellow-furred barrel rising and falling with my breath.

I try humming a tune to pass the time, and end up singing every song I ever sang in choir back in middle school. It’s funny, because I have to improvise the precise tune, since I learned the baritone part, not the soprano part, except for 6th grade. At least I can hum. I drank so much water...

Holy crap, I recall, halfway through “Fifty Nifty United States.” I remember choir back then. My voice dropped a full octave in just one year! That was a freaky year, sounding different every day, never able to perceive it changing, yet next thing I know I’m a booming baritone, in a young teen’s body. Puberty certainly hadn’t been kind to me. Twilight’s transformation was a million times kinder, because I just sound like a girl, and I don’t have to transform anymore!

Then it occurs to me, laying on the floor staring upward, that Twilight’s transformation should have been a million times less kind, since five minutes is a lot less than a whole year. After calculating that a year has between 432000 and 556000 minutes in it, I figure it has to be at least 100000 times as traumatizing to change into a mare, yet it doesn’t feel that way. I’m... so different, but I changed all at once. Like tearing off a bandaid, I guess? If my voice had changed over like 10 years then I never would have noticed though! So which counts as more traumatizing? Twilight’s spell, or puberty?

I think I... sleep at some point. I don’t know anymore. I didn’t realize just how bored you could get until now. There’s a point where all your restless energy drains away, and you just lay there exhausted from doing nothing, which just makes you more exhausted. The light overhead makes it hard to sleep, but I close my eyes, and hide my eyes and sleep.

I wake up desperately thirsty again. Am I going to die here? They wouldn’t leave me here to die, would they? Just trapped until I get thirsty, and weaker, and they find my dessicated body weeks later, wondering how long I suffered before the end? Oh god no, I have to pee again.

I refuse to pee. I’m not going to let that water out of me. I don’t pee and it hurts and I’d just... rather die that way than die of thirst. At least it’s a pain I can cry about.

I spend some time begging through the little slot for someone to come just give me a little water. Of course they don’t come then. They leave me to sob into the slot that I hate them and I don’t wanna die and I wish someone would come and save me, but nobody’s ever going to come, because that only happens in stories.

Finally, they come while I’m trying to teach myself to tap dance on four legs. And I stop tapping my hooves to a rhythm, looking up with astonished hope when the door unlocks, and creaks open again.

“Oh, thank you,” I start to say, rushing forward only to freeze at a gun barrel pointed my way. The hazard suited guard seems unalarmed though, and once I stop advancing, he lowers the gun and turns, saying “c’mon.”

“Oh thank you so much,” I outright gush at him as he leads me through something that isn’t a white brightly lit room, even my tail perking up as I trot along beside him, “I was going crazy in there! I don’t have to go back, do I? I think this qualifies as torture, doesn’t it? Not that I’m suggesting you’re doing that on purpose, but if you can’t turn on the sink, oh wait no don’t do that, but could I at least have some sort of water bottle now and then? And I really need the lights out because I keep passing out and I can’t really sleep, and I promise I’ll do anything you say if I could just get some water.”

He... oddly tolerates me in this, maybe because with my throat so dry, my voice is really faint. But he leads me down the hallway, and to the room I was talking with that guy in again. I have to tell him, because I have to tell someone or they’ll put me in there again!

“Wait here,” the guard says, “Don’t move.”

He leaves then, and c-c-closes the door and I’m shut in a room again, but it’s not the same room, so maybe... I’m so tired. I think I’m nodding off when the door opens, but I snort awake, then follow my ears to face it. It’s... another guy in a suit.

It’s really hard to tell these guys apart. He’s different from the other guys though, because gripped in his right hand is a glass of water.

“Oh tha—-” I manage to say, rushing forward, before an ear shattering explosion at my feet makes me leap back with a squeak, falling in a tangle of limbs. “What was that?!” I shout in shrill alarm, looking around wildly, and I can barely hear myself speak because my ears are ringing!

“Don’t move,” he repeats, and I can barely hear him, but I know that voice. It’s not the voice of the guard who freed me. It’s the nice guy from before. The water glass is still there held in his right hand. And there’s a gun in his left hand, pointed right at me. “You’ll get your water,” he says with a gentle smile, “All you have to do is tell us who you work for.” My eyes dart from the gun to the water, to the gun, to the water. It’s not over. I can’t have any water. I can’t help them no matter how hard I try. This isn’t going to end. This is never going to end.

I try to hold it in, but a shrill whine turns into outright sobs and I crumple down and cover my head in my arms, trying to hide from him, from everything. He looms up beside me and I cringe away from him, and he... sets the cup of water down beside me. I lunge for it desperately, and spill the water all over my hooves.

...

I think the guy says something else, but I can’t really hear anything other than myself, kind of echoey still. Why do I have to be such a crybaby? And that makes me cry more! At some point, someone wraps his broad, crinkling gloves under my chest and lifts me up, and I try to stand, trying to apologize while I’m trying to stand. I’m not very good at trying things, but somehow I end up barely standing with my sea green tail between my legs, trembling, sniffling, my eyes red with tears I can’t afford to cry.

There’s like three or four guys in the room now, all looking at me with varying expressions on the faces behind their faceplates between concern and disgust.

“She doesn’t know anything,” the guy who was going to give me water says in disgust, “I can’t believe we wasted our time on this idiot. Just take her back to her cell.”

“No!” I manage to yelp desperately, staring up at the hulking, suited men, “I need water, please! I’ll die without water!”

“You’ll get your water,” the guy in charge sneers. I don’t believe him.

They use their guns to push me stumbling back down the hall, and my cursed four legs just make it impossible to fall over. I don’t have it in me to resist. I just slump back into my... my cell, and lay down on my belly, staring at the back wall, waiting to die. A plastic water bottle bounces off my ass.

I swivel around looking behind me in shock, but the door is already closing. It thunks and clangs closed, while I look at the water, still wide-eyed. Sitting up to my haunches, I clumsily cradle it between my hooves, looking at the plastic cap apprehensively. I guess I’m not going to die? I don’t think I’ve ever been so afraid of a water bottle before.

That apprehension doesn’t hold out long. Biting on the cap, I unscrew it with my teeth and lift the cap off with my tongue. With the cap clattering to the floor, I hug the bottle to me like a life preserver, never taking it out of my mouth. Rolling back onto my back, I drink long and deep, satisfied beyond compare.

I drink until it’s half empty. It’s just a dinky little bottle, says half a liter on the side, but ponies are not very large, so I think it’s enough for me... for now. Carefully placing the water bottle to the side, I lean down and lip up the cap, then descend upon the water bottle again, flipping the lid onto it with my tongue, and twisting it tight.

I don’t know if they’re going to give me any more water, or if this is a one time thing. I don’t know anything about rationing water, outside of what I saw in a movie once. Some castaway, I forget exactly. Twilight used to watch movies with me.

Flopping on my back next to the water bottle, I splay my arms out sideways and groan. I met Twilight three months ago. Three months. That’s not even half a year, and I’ve lived for over thirty of them! Why does it feel like so much longer? Twilight did incredible things, she was an incredible mare, an incredible woman who just swept me up, and fulfilled me, and used me, and... dumped me.

“Why am I still crushing on her?” I growl too cutely, laying a yellow furred arm over my eyes. “I’m with Nick now! I guess? I h-have Nick’s foal.” Sitting up, I hunch forward and look at myself. My nondescript, innocent looking, lemon yellow furred belly. It’s... it’s getting pregnant right now, while I stare at it. Nick’s seed is still inside my belly, hunting around for my egg, or worse, I have a zygote in there, preparing to implant into my... my womb.

Why did we do that? We were trying not to, and then we just... did. He felt so good inside me. My nethers feel so soft, like I’d just... expand from between my legs. Was this really what took control of me? It seems so innocent, like I wasn’t just shoving my ass in Nick’s face, desperate to fill this place up with seed. I... I’m trickling out around my hoof.

I spare a glance at the water bottle, and... I don’t stop this time.

There, laying on my back, with my forehoof between my legs, I find myself being taken control of by my marehood again. I really want to orgasm. Wasn’t even thinking about it, and now I do, simple as that. Simple like fire: all it does is burn.

It’d be wrong for me to masturbate here. The light is shining overhead, and I’m sure they have cameras. Why else would they keep me here, if not to watch me? I’d be destroying any thought in their heads that ponies were innocent, pure creatures... ponies like me. After all I’ve been through, I think I want them to see... see what Twilight did to me. Just what sort of creature I’ve become.

Why should I care? They can... they can watch if they want. Sure I might look stupid, or lewd, or... or freaking out, shouting for a stallion to come fuck me. But I’d be doing that in front of people I couldn’t care less about. So they’re offended, so what? What are they going to do, throw me in jail?

I feel... excited, alert. Like the tingling in my pelvis is filling me with that adventurous spirit. I slide my hoof in my slick groove, and a quiet moan escapes me, just at the relief of my inhibitions washing away. I start thinking about men, about stallions, about Nick without any anxiety. It’s just my vagina, right? Which is a thing I have? I could f-fill it, and get pregnant this way. I want to do it, even though I’m afraid of the days that follow that beautiful explosion of cum inside me.

Restless, I stand, and my hind legs immediately stiffen, as braced on my left forehoof, my right one strokes my groin. Even just light touches seem to be setting me off, a stroke at a time. I feel like I’m gonna—and then I do. My groin just... flexes out and in against my hoof. I really don’t know what’s up with that, but I like it. It smears my... my juicy insides all over my hoof.

I can explore myself this way. I can touch all the things I’m afraid to touch. My nipples, no, my teats. Something Nick doesn’t even have. Something uniquely feminine in ponies. They feel so soft, like the softest pillow, even though they don’t stick out from my belly. The fur is thinner and downier around there, and those tingles I increasingly hunger for, they flow out of my nethers. I’m not even touching my marehood anymore, it’s even from just trying to tease forth the milk I cannot produce... yet. I wink.

That throbby nethers thing even hits me just sliding the side of my hoof along my nipples. That’s got to be winking! Is that winking? Am I winking?

I... I don’t even have to touch my nethers directly, to start winking. Boldly, I brace my hind legs, and face my rear to the door, lifting my tail as if challenging them to send a stallion running through there. Stroking my nipples, and... and flexing that oh so female place between my legs, right in front of him. He’d mount me and fill me and...

My eyes dart to the water bottle.

It’s with whimpering urgency that I straddle the water bottle, and sink my hips down on it. Oh yes this was a wonderful idea. The tapering neck broadens until I can’t fit any more in, but I can penetrate myself this way. I can feel it in there! I start... lifting my hips up and down to make that bottle slide in and out of me. Stroking my nipples is lovely, but bracing with one forehoof I only have one arm free to stimulate myself.

Squeezing my thighs together, I fall to my side, moaning at the feel of my vagina squeezing on the bottle. It’s not anywhere near as good as Nick’s penis, but it’s something, and I really like something more than just being empty. When I land on my side, the bottle risks slipping out of my tense flower, but I hurriedly lift the base of my tail up to brace on it, and... and it’s a desperate move, but it actually works. Squirming my hind legs at how good it feels, I can use my tail to push this water bottle into me.

So... that’s what I do. And I have all the time in the world to do it. I shift my upper leg occasionally, and now and again a soft grunt escapes me, but all I can think about is making those tingles rise higher in me, bit by bit. I’m a little pony mare and I’m freaking... masturbating, and it feels incredible.

I flop to my back again, and I lose the bottle, as it slips out of me and clatters on the floor, before my tail scoops it up. I don’t care though, because I’ve got both forehooves free, and one mashes into my dripping vulva, while the other strokes at those perky milk producers. Since stallions don’t have them, I guess these exist only to produce milk. My body feels streamlined, fine tuned for the task of foaling. Just a drop of seed, and everything about me is poised to create life. I’m a blood pumping, tingling, throbbing engine of foal creation. Why do I want to do this so much? Because I can do this so much!

I can spread my legs as lewdly as I want here. The thought of embarassment only occurs to me in that it is awesome that I’m not embrassed. I want this. I keep panting, and squirming around the bottle with my vagina, and clumsily rubbing the side of my foreleg against my vulva and teats, just glorying in the bubbly melty confidence of a mare who loves the idea of a male impregnating her now. Sexual arousal just makes me feel so free and confident. I’m so glad Nick came inside me. I want him to do it again and again. I rock my hips against my tail pushing on the bottle, imagining how I’d thrust like this, how he’d thrust, turning into that stallion who looks at me, says “I’m going to cum in that,” and cums.

I awaken thirsty, muzzy headed, on my back with my hind legs splayed out. Why am I...? I try to sit up and there’s a... a giant stiff cylinder rigid within my pelvis, stretching open my vagina. Did I fall asleep?! Was I sticking the water bottle in there? How did I do that? It’s huge!

...how am I going to get it out?

Author's Note

As we all know, the average pony mare’s vaginal canal terminates approximately somewhere in-between her ears.

Under the Weather

The water bottle crisis is thankfully not long lived. But long enough. After fiddling with it with my forehooves, and trying to twist my pelvis this way and that, I conclude that not only did I ruin the only water source I had to drink, now I’m also gonna die because I can’t get it surgically removed. It doesn’t feel... bad though, so once I get done panicking and sobbing and wasting my precious voice, I slump there, defeated. Then, I twist to my belly, and it’s hard with my whole lower torso held stiff by that water bottle. Then I stand up, and I have... a water bottle in me. Fucking hell...

My saving grace is that solitary confinement gives me a lot of time to practice just about anything. I’m pacing my cell, turning with difficulty, trying to figure out what to do about this, when I notice how my strained vagina keeps twinging around it, and I get an idea. Can’t some girls control their vaginal muscles? Just like giving birth, right? Not even that, since the water bottle’s stretching my vagina out and not my uterus. I’m uh... pretty sure at least.

So I stand there, then lift a leg, then lay down, then get frustrated and give up, hate myself, and shout that they should just shoot me for being an idiot. Nobody answers. Then I pace a while, lay down, sleep a... while, and then rock in the corner, feeling like there are monsters scrabbling on the walls just beyond this brightly lit cell. You know, the usual. And eventually I just... stand up again, and look back, twinging my butt cheeks, trying to figure out how to flex my vagina.

Of course it goes in before it goes out. In one of my... periods of not being frustrated with it, suddenly there’s this crushing pressure against the back of my vagina, as I successfully contract around the bottle. “No, no, no!” I rasp as it slides up deeper in me and tries to batter its way further than I can tolerate. How do I stop squeezing? How do I—oh it stopped. Heaving a shaky sigh as the pressure leaves my aching... deepest part. Is that bottle all the way into my uterus? I mean, I guess that would be fine, since my uterus is designed to give birth too. This is not the way I wanted to learn to do that though.

I hold of for a while, but then I just don’t feel like avoiding pain, since at least it’s something to do. So I stand there. It’s a little easier to do when I’m standing, I think. Then I flex, and... nothing happens. But I don’t have anything better to do so I keep squirming and twinging, and... then I squeeze my vagina in one of those rippling contractions that seems to have a mind of its own, but this time I manage to make it move outward, the effect on the bottle quite dramatic. Not visually, but it pulls away from even contacting my ...uterus I guess, which is even more relieving. More so because I got it to move in the right direction!

I try again, and it... well, it pushes up against me in there the wrong way again. But then I get it to slip outward again. Before long I can just... pull it into myself to the point of pain, or push it smoothly outward. Or just... squeeze it without it moving. I don’t even push it out then, just fascinated at how I can just do this and that to move it within me. At last, I give it a shot at salvation, and the second push happens more strongly than the first, until I’m crouched forward at the intense feeling of squeezing in a sort of rhythm that seems to happen on its own. The bottle pushes against my tail, it’s coming out of me! I keep at it, and it actually feels really good, in a deeply satisfying way, until the tip pulls free of my outermost labia and I hear solid plastic clattering to the floor.

I turn, and there it is. I feel so empty back there, like my hips are made of jello or something. I wobble over to it, and it smells really sort of tangy and spicy in a... way that I suppose my penis once did, sort of. But also like... Twilight, sort of. “Heh... so this is my scent,” I say, wondering if it’d have an effect on a male, like Twilight’s had an effect on me. I pick it up in my forelegs. It’s still half full of water. Clutching that bottle to my chest, I start to cry again. Laying there on my side, curling around it, I’m so happy....

The bottle’s a quarter full, when I push it inside me again, just for safekeeping. My throat feels like I want seven full water bottles, but it’s not... parched death at least. This time I just back up and sit on the water bottle. The lid slips into me easily, and then I hunch down squatting so that it slides up my—oh my gosh that thing is huge. It’s actually comparable in diameter to Nick, I guess, but big enough it’s uncomfortable to stretch myself open that wide, and stiff instead of yielding. I still do it, and groan in satisfaction, as my vagina hurts from being stretched again. I don’t stop until my vulva are smeared on the floor, and the entire water bottle is gone. Then I pull it even further inside me.

I lay on my side, fascinated at the sensations, as the water bottle occasionally sneaks out of me, then my tail eagerly pushes it back in. It’s the most interesting thing I’ve done since coming here. I touch my belly with a forehoof, and I can actually feel the stiff water bottle in there through myself! I can actually feel it move, when I move. My hoof’s pushing on the lid, and then I flex, and my hoof’s pushing on the side, as it slides up underneath it.

How good can I get at... this? Is this going to make me good at doing things to stallions? It’s not just pulsing on command anymore. I feel like my vagina’s getting... better somehow. More a part of me. My hind leg hanging in the air twitches as I try flexing parts of myself, piecewise, on different parts of the bottle. I can even tell where the tip is, by flexing there, and feeling how my vagina presses against it at more of a tapering angle when I do.

I get tired of it eventually, though I do it every now and again, when I’m feeling hopeless and helpless, as a kind of sort of pacifier I guess. Laying there sucking on my hoof, pulling a bottle into me with my vagina. It really doesn’t help though, against the feeling like these white walls are attacking me, seeing things out of the corner of my eye, that are just the sink or the toilet, but I could swear... and though I can push the water bottle into me, it’s sadly empty of every drop of water I could drink.

I tried to take a drink from the water bottle every now and again, to make it last. But they’re never gonna let me out of here, so it’s only a matter of time. I wish I could insert the bottle into my stomach, to feed the yawning chasm in my belly, but I’m scared of choking on it, or not being able to get it out again. My vagina is made to insert things into it, but my throat is only made to do so after chewing it to a mush first.

What I wouldn’t give for some more cookies, or... or anything. Can I eat hay? I want hay so bad. I never got to try hay. I never got to do anything, and now I’m going to die here...

My pregnancy is less eventful than I thought. I guess I’m not the only one who’s going to die, but I try to make it as easy for my growing foal as possible. There’s no way I could make it... 9 months without dying, but I have to try. I fantasize about the baby just bursting out of me, and I’m dead, but at least they’re okay. I’m not sure if I should lay on my belly, when I’m with foal. Would that hurt the baby? Do little ponies have to worry about hurting their foals, when lying on their belly? Why am I a little pony? Why is anyone a little pony?

Of course then I’m urgently pushing the empty bottle into me, grunting at my belly, “You’re... still small so... make room I need to...” and my foal happily accomodates my whims. That’d probably hurt them way more than lying on my belly, but I just need some... something to make me feel better. So they’ll be okay, right? I like... pretending that the bottle is my foal, and I’m giving birth to them.

I find myself pacing around the cell, around and around until I collapse from exhaustion. It doesn’t take long, because I’m so hungry. Sleep just takes me whenever, and I don’t even have any warning anymore, until I’m out like a light, on the floor, and waking up like I hadn’t slept an hour.

I don’t think I’ve ever been this hungry. It’s actually making me dizzy, how much my belly aches for food. I’m listless and bitter, feeling like I’m eating myself from the inside out. Considering it’s been days since I had food... probably days since I had food, that might not be an unreasonable assumption.

I’ve never been hungry enough that my body starts cannibalizing itself before. It’s a hunger that’s so absolute, it’s not a matter of whether to eat or not, but how. I moan out loud, that I’d eat fried eggplant, moldy hay, instant ramen, anything but of course no one answers me. I’m just sitting here in this cell, with no end in sight to the outright pain that leeches through every inch of my body begging for sustenance.

A few little hunger pangs still don’t stop me from making a game, at one point, with the water bottle and my tail. I am really bored in here. I’m not worried about breaking the bottle, because I... I ran out a while ago, despite trying so hard to make it last. It’s so empty, and I’m so thirsty again, but the empty bottle is the only thing to play with in the room, barring the sink, which I don’t wanna mess with after already having broken it.

The game is supremely unimportant, but consists of smacking the bottle with a hoof, then trying to catch it with my tail before it tumbles too for me to reach. I am really bored. Though it is a really good chance to get better at using my tail. I haven’t exactly been avoiding the least human thing about me these past months, but it’s not like I can’t move it, in a way that isn’t like any of my other limbs, yet is just easy and natural to do. But now that I actually pay attention, my tail is really peculiar. It’s really... responsive, letting me not just swish it, but twitch the tip, or arch it up into a tight arc and clench in a way that holds stiffly even when I tap my tail against the sink.

Laying on my side, I can swish my tail to smack the water bottle to and fro. I didn’t think the hairs would be that sensitive. I can really feel the round curvature of the bottle where the bright green hairs of my tail lay against it, pressing lightly against the little decorative bumps on the bottle’s side, as well as the rough ridge of the twistable cap. Way more than even when I feel it with my vagina. I can tell when that bottle is snagged in my tail, enough that when the bottle rolls into it, I can catch that bottle with my eyes closed!

I sleep. I wake up. I pace. I play the games I’ve invented obsessively. I’m so hungry. My throat is burning and dry. They’ve forgotten about me. That’s what they did. They don’t hate me, they just don’t care anymore, and just forgot I was here. They found out I couldn’t help them, and now they’re leaving me here to die because they don’t even think about me. Well, I don’t want to die! But how do I do anything at this point? I need food, not a stupid unchanging horrible death cell!

I think at one point I start screaming. Well, shouting that turns to screaming. Because scared little girls can’t shout like the men they’re supposed to be. Nobody bothers me about it so I can shout myself hoarse, swearing at them, just saying incoherent things. I think my cell is haunting me. It’s a big white ghost, and I’m trapped inside it.

After... some amount of time, I stop pacing inside the ghost, to flop on my back, staring upwards. I find myself thinking about things like my childhood, my own mother, and my slow disaster of a life that would have ended in nothing but loneliness, sadness and failure, had Twilight Sparkle not come into it. My life is still ending in failure, mind you, and I’m dreadfully lonely and sad in here, but...

But I can’t believe my friend Nick was just willing to help me out like that. I can’t believe my sister just dropped everything to chase after windmills with us. Even though it turns out we were probably stupid to have tried this, I get the impression that she’d do it all over again.

Mira’s been... excited about me, and worried about me in a different way now that I’m a pony. When I was human, the only emotion she had left for me was empty smiles and pity. All anyone felt around me was that uneasiness you feel, when something’s going wrong with someone’s life, and you can’t figure out why, so you ask yourself why nothing went wrong for you, and why you aren’t just as much of a failure as they are?

It’s that feeling where there’s something wrong with the world, someone or something who doesn’t quite fit, and that makes you feel insecure about your own place. If there’s a puzzle piece that doesn’t fit after all, that means the pieces that do fit are suspected of being in the wrong place. I was always that outlier, that... oddity who doesn’t fit. And now that I’m a pony, I should fit even less. Yet it’s like an answer to a question I didn’t even know I was asking. I feel like I’ve found something, where before I was beyond help, and so lost. Now I’m a pony, and that overhead light is really annoying.

In a brightly lit, solitary cell, down a long, empty hallway behind a locked door with only a little slit in it, I sit up to my haunches, glaring at the light overhead. I’m a little pony sitting on her haunches, green haired and yellow furred, with eyes the color of I don’t remember. I’m just just a stupid little pony who doesn’t even get to sleep because they won’t turn out the lights. Reaching up to it, I’m way too short to reach the ceiling, and I broke the sink, so surely I can’t use that to climb up there?

It turns out my patch job on the sink is actually pretty sturdy with the pipes jammed inside each other like that. It creaks a little, but holds my weight. Either I fixed it good, or more likely, I’m really small and light. With a hind leg hooked on the sink bowl, I stretch out for the ceiling, and... success! Sort of.

There’s a sealed metal grating keeping people from messing with the light. It’s got a hinge though, so they can unlock it when they need to change the bulb. Typical fluorescent tube, just the kind to subliminally annoy you with the super-fast flickering. I can’t reach it through the grating, but I have four very stiff hooves now, one of which I smack against the hinges until they pop loose. Then it’s as simple as peeling back the grating, to reveal my prize: the accursed light fixture.

And after all that, I can’t figure out how to wiggle out the fluorescent tube with just a hoof!

With a strangled shriek of frustration, I drop to the floor and sit there panting and crying. Even that little thing has me exhausted. I’m so hungry I could eat anything. A human could’ve pulled that bulb out. I just want some darkness, so I can sleep! So I can stop thinking! I’m gonna pass out again, and when I wake up it’ll be bright again, and—and I can’t get my butt up there, so my tail can’t snake around the bulb. Because I have a tail, a freaky green tail that I can actually move.

When I regain consciousness, moaning weakly at the light shining in through my eyelids, I don’t feel like I’ve slept a wink. I don’t even remember falling asleep. I don’t know how long it’s been. I crawl to my haunches, staring balefully up at that light.

Maybe I’m going about this the wrong way. I’m clearly not a human, but how am I different, besides clumsy hooves? I have itchy, frizzy fur that really could use a brushing, but I can’t see how that’d get the light out. I have a dissheveled tail, but even doing an impression of a cat in heat doesn’t get it high enough, and I fall over when I try to do a head stand.

I’m just an earth pony! There’s nothing special about me, that I could take advantage of! I’m just a human, except without any thumbs, and a tail. And a girl, I guess, but I certainly can’t use my vagina to grab that light fixture. Never more have I wanted ponies to have an octopusoir for genitals. Could I use my ears? My eyelashes? My mane?

Actually, didn’t Pinkie—wait, no that’s Pinkie Pie, so it doesn’t count.

I sleep for like... an hour, I think, and all I am is more thirsty for it. Nobody’s coming, the light’s still shining down, and of course I woke up with my tongue comically hanging out of my mouth again, wasting water to drool it on the floor.

Wait a sec... I stick out my tongue again, and... oh my.

Some... exploration later, and I’m once again climbing the sink, really wondering about how sturdy it feels. Stretching my arm out and hooking the edge of the light fixture with a forehoof, I’m going to get electrocuted, aren’t I? Well, I... I don’t care.

I lick the fluorescent bulb, and it tastes like dust and it’s actually really hot. I probably should have thought of that before trying this. Not too hot though, so I kind of squirm my tongue around behind it, and pop it out of the fixture. The light level falls, and I’m... holding a fluorescent bulb with my tongue.

What are ponies?

The second bulb comes as easy as the first and darkness descends. It’s even darker than I imagined. It makes it difficult to clamber down, and... place the bulb next to the other one against the wall. The only light now is coming through the slit in the door from the hallway. I’ve...

I’ve never been so relieved to be enveloped in darkness.

I sleep then, like really, really sleep. Just flop on my side on the floor and sigh happily in relief. Then I drift off to pleasant dreams of galloping through fields of green, with the bright, warm sun shining down on me from overhead. I don’t really remember much from them, but I do awaken feeling happy and content. Then I remember that I’m dying in a prison cell.

Standing up, my breath rasping in my throat, I feel my hooves press on the rough tiled floor, and even in total darkness it’s obvious I’m a little pony. I rear up and peek out the slit, see no one and hear no one approaching. It’s quiet. If I hold perfectly still, it’s possible to even imagine that I’m not a pony. I can hear my heart beating, but maybe I’m just a heart, with no hooves, no weird ears, and no tail that is most certainly not telling me how it’s curled around me, up against my side.

I splay my tail out beside me, and that’s a little better. If by better, I mean not feeling like a pony. It feels weird being a pony, though! I just want to sit here, being a... a featureless incubation chamber, just a big furry tribble with nothing to worry about besides eating and budding. I sleep a while longer, I think. When I’m not facing the slit, it’s hard to tell if my eyes are open.

I can’t tell how long it’s been. I begin to wonder how wise this course of action with the light was, when I start feeling like someone’s watching me. Butt against the wall in the darkness, every little sound sounds loud in my ears. Nobody should be able to see me back here. I’m perfectly hidden. In a cell where they already know where I am, without any cover to protect myself with. I feel like someone, no something’s out there, just observing me, biding its time.

I’m afraid at first, but then I start to wonder. What could be watching me in the darkness here? Can it not find me? Why is it watching, then? What is it watching? I can barely see myself, even by the dim light shining in through the slit. It wouldn’t be able to see how I’m laying, or what I’m doing. It wouldn’t be able to see my little hooves, or my pony ears, or snout. Wouldn’t be able to see me covered in fur, without any clothing whatsoever. Is it trying to help me? Hurt me? Why is it just watching me?

I kick into the darkness at some point, trying to provoke a reaction, any reaction, but all I hit is a sturdy, concrete wall. So I just turn in confused circles and sit on my belly again, wondering why I’m here, wondering why I’m here.

I awaken from vivid dreams of a doomed ocean liner, when my eyes snap wide, because the door clanks again, and ponderously unlocks. The hall light is shining through the slit in the closed door more brightly than usual, so I should have known that blindingly bright light would flood through the widening gap door as it opens.

I swear I feel my pupils shrinking, as I stare worriedly into the light shining in from outside. It hurts to look at but I can’t look away. I’m so scared. Are there guns there? There’s a suited man out there wrapped in a halo of hall lights, saying in a shaken voice, “Holy shit! Y-you try anything, and I won’t hesitate to shoot! There’s no way out of this hallway that isn’t locked, too!”

“What’s wrong?” I ask in that high, sweet voice that I’ve been given, not moving a muscle in fear that he’ll just pepper the cell with bullets trying to find me.

“What happened to the lights?!” he demands, not coming one step into the shadows.

“They’re not working,” I tell him simply, cautious to admit my culpability in this. At least, I admit to him, “I told you I wanted them shut off.”

“Just... no sudden moves,” he says, throwing another water bottle into my shadows. Of course I start to skitter to my hooves at that, which makes him jump back in alarm, pointing his gun at me again, until I just slide back down to my belly again, still and quiet.

“I’m just a little pony,” I tell him in confusion, “What harm could I possibly do to you?”

He responds by slamming closed the heavy steel door, which locks again with a clunk. Once again, the only light in the room is coming from the slit. Then he clomps away, down the hallway, muttering, “The commander is going to have to hear about this.” Now that I’m awake, I can hear the distant door unlock, open and close, then lock again as he leaves the limits of my world once more.

My world is not as limited as you might think. I can just sit here, cradling the precious water bottle in my hooves, the soothing fluid making my throat cry out in ecstasy. I’m so hungry, but this water bottle keeps me together with the security that at least I can have something to drink now and again. I fade in and out, thinking about things, and my thoughts seem clearer, somehow. I remember Nick turning into that purple haired, grey unicorn, how he walked around so delicately and lithely, without even thinking of it. He was more careful in his movements as a pony, more precise.

“I don’t suppose you could use your magic to get me out of here?” I ask him.

“Sorry,” Nick replies sadly, “I haven’t figured out how to use my horn yet.”

“It’s okay,” I tell him soothingly, “How are you doing?”

“Ugh, they caught me too,” he says, head sinking low between his shoulders, “They put me in a room where the lights won’t go out, and there’s no water in the sink. I think they’re trying to wear me down.”

“Me too!” I declare in surprise, standing up and walking over to him, “But I managed to put out the lights. How do we convince them that we didn’t do this?”

“Twilight got us good,” Nick groaned, “They don’t even care that turning into a pony is impossible. Teleportation is just extra impossible!”

“Oh, is that why they wouldn’t believe me?” I declare worriedly, “What do I tell them, though? I don’t know how I’d make up a believable story!”

“Don’t even try,” Nick says wearily, “We’re not trained in that, and it’d just make them more suspicious.”

“Oh, Nick...” I say sadly. I want to lay beside him, and give him a hug, but my hoof strikes the stone wall between us. I stand there watching him instead, as he sits there on his side, just out of reach. “I’m sorry I got us into this mess,” I tell Nick sincerely, “If I hadn’t trusted Twilight... then distrusted Twilight, then none of this would have happened.”

“It’s Twilight’s fault, not yours,” Nick insists, looking at me with shining, green eyes.

“She used me so easily, though,” I plea with him, “I don’t even know what she’s trying to do!”

“Turn everyone into ponies?” he counters, “Seems straightforward to me.”

“But why ponies, not changelings?” I retort, “And why did she turn you into a unicorn? You might be able to change us back, then!”

“I don’t know anything, anymore,” Nick says, shaking his head, “She was using us the whole time. She knew we’d follow her and... and why should we believe anything she said? She left that evidence on purpose! She probably said that the police weren’t trustworthy, so that we wouldn’t go to them!”

“Well, it certainly worked,” I remark wryly. Nick fails to laugh.

“Hey, you two!” Mira says, trotting up to us. “Why so serious?”

“Mira!” I exclaim, looking at her hopefully. She’s... adorably gorgeous. Her mane in thick locks of bright blue and purple, bounces pleasantly around her ears. The orange of her fur is so bright, it seems to shine in the darkness like a beacon. Her little bat wings are tightly folded at her sides, and her blue and purple tail descends behind her.

“What happened to you?” Mira asks us worriedly, “They were taking you away!”

“The military picked us up, Mira,” I tell her heatedly, “They think we did it! They caught us with the machine, and they won’t believe that Twilight can teleport.”

“They didn’t get you, too?” Nick asks, looking to the bat pony in concern.

“Oh!” Mira says, her look of surprise falling into a cringing wince, “No, they didn’t even look twice at me. You... probably should pretend like you didn’t see what kind of pony I turned into,” she says tetchily.

Oh. Oh wow that would’ve been bad.

“I will, Mira,” I assure her eagerly, “And I promise I’ll make things better, somehow.” Mira can’t hear me anymore though, because she’s an orange. Sighing, I turn away from her, and... huh, turning makes all the colors swirl around. I turn in place excitedly until I’m dizzy, and with a bemused sigh, sit down on my haunches and look at the... slit. Light trickles in through it, and all around me is darkness.

Where did everybody go? Why did everybody go? It felt like I could really hear them, and see them, and almost touch them. Was I sleeping? I didn’t feel like I woke up. Even now there are whispers swimming in the darkness.

“Oh, no...” I croak fretfully, and my voice sounds so loud compared to before, because before, I wasn’t really speaking. I fumble with the light tube, but there’s just no way. I can’t see the fixture, or the sink very well, and even if I could get it up there, wiggling a tube out is a lot easier than wiggling one in.

The next... time period spent in my cell is not exactly what I’d call pleasant. I keep seeing things and hearing things, and going off on these flights of fantasy that really fly, if you know what I mean. I’m out on the wing of a plane. I’m in my secret tunnel, miles below the earth, fleeing as it floods with lava. I’m hungry, and tired, and not only do I run out of water, I lose the empty bottle to the cruel, salty seas.

Eventually, I think to try staring fixedly at the slit, the only source of light in the room. It should stop me from going crazy, I think. Or is that just more crazy? It’s not as narrow a slit as you’d think. I can almost fit a hoof through it, just as-is. It looks small from where I’m sitting far away, but I bet it’d be bigger up close.

The oncoming ocean is rushing at me as the tide returns with a vengeance, and I swim through the air away from the waves, to peer closely at the slit. There’s actually a lot of room inside it. You wouldn’t think a thin little slit would have so much room. I could fit my hoof through it, and maybe if I got close enough, I could fit my whole body through it.

A shock goes through me as I realize that there’s a way out. A way they forgot to protect. Should I go through it? I’m not supposed to go through it. I could get in big trouble. But this cell is like a monster, hunting me in the darkness, trapping me in these small confines, giving me nothing to do until I’ve gone completely mad. How many days has it been? How many years? I waver uncertainly, hanging on the edge of the slit. Then, I hear a low growl behind me.

I slam up against the door, desperately scrabbling my way into the one place I have left to run. As I squirm desperately through the extra space, something is rushing at me from beyond the darkness, something that can see me because I’m the only thing on which the light falls. With my upper torso through, I hook my hind legs on the lip of the slit, and shove my ass through, then press my forelegs against the door on the outside to yank my hind legs free. I scoot back away from the door on my butt, squealing in fright when something slams into the door inside my cell. Then... all is silent.

I find myself in a dimly lit hallway, one that I’ve walked down before, but never had a chance to get a good look at, alone. My breathing evens out, and my heart rate slows until, frazzled and dissheveled, still staring at the cell door, I exclaim,

“What the fuck was that??”

There’s no one to answer me.

“What did I...” I gasp out, just to hear a voice, even if it is the croak of a scared, thirsty, dying girl. “Am I out of the cell?” I rush up to the door and feel at its smooth metal surface with my forehooves, just unable to think that I might be on the other side of it. It’s impossible, and I can hardly believe it, but I’m staring at the outside of my cell door. I stand up on all fours and look at myself. I’m still just as green and yellow as the day I was transformed, though my tail is a little scorched from where the lava almost got me. My... uh... what?

Pressing my forehead against the cool metal of the cell door, it’s abundantly clear that no horn grew there overnight. “The lava was real?” I ask in confusion, looking again at the burnt hairs in my tail, “How? That was just a dream! Wasn’t it?”

I back up from the door, and rear up to the slit again, but it’s just a slit again. Within is impenetrable darkness. All that gaping, yawning otherness of the slit is I dunno... folded away? Did I really pull myself through that little thing?

I pace up and down the hallway, looking around fearfully and muttering to myself, “This can’t be real. This has got to be a hallucination. Next, I wake up in the d-darkness of my cell, and everything’s gonna be normal again.” I don’t, and it’s not.

I am so hungry. How long has it been since I last ate? I lost the second water bottle to the ocean somewhere back in the stormy sea, but it was mostly empty by then. What I really need now is pizza. Oh heck yes, pizza with tomato sauce, cheese and beets. Wait, no that was just something someone said from the show, to handwave away any thoughts of ponies eating pepperoni. Oh I would kill for some pepperoni. I don’t care if I’m a pony, I’ll eat just about anything at this point. Pepperoni, beef jerky, filet of salmon, pork chops, ribs drenched in barbecue sauce...

I try to do whatever it is I... did before, but the door at the end of the hallway has no slit. It’s a lot flimsier than my cell door, but I’m afraid to try and buck it down. I’m absolutely terrified of going back into my cell, so that’s not an option. The hallway becomes my new prison, then. I’m not going to try to break the lights in here, not after what happened back there in my cell, whatever that was. I’m not desperate enough to do that again, not... yet. I still expect to be waking up any moment now, trapped in a cell, with only the darkness as a blanket.

Thankfully my despair is short-lived, because after one... sleep period, I hear something: furtive movement beyond the door. I’m hungry, and thirsty, and tired, and all I can think is if I catch them off guard, maybe I can get some food. They’re gonna shoot me and I don’t care, because I’m so hungry I’m gonna die anyway. I’ll just run past them, a-and get some cookies or anything I can get my mouth on before they catch up to me. It’ll be hilarious and harmless japery, chasing me around like a goose, until I return to my cell fat and happy with all the pepperoni I could possibly want.

I back up silently from the door, and crouch, staring forward intently, feeling like my whole body is one big, coiled spring. The door softly unlocks, and swings open, and it’s a... pony? A pony!! I spring at the purple haired green furred stallion, and end up leaping forward with enough force that I can knock the surprised unicorn head over heels, and slam him to the floor, exclaiming urgently to his face,

“Food!”

He seems paralyzed in fear.

“I need food do you have any food?” I ask him frantically, “I am so hungry, I—I’m sorry!” then I jump past them, and go galloping headlong through the corridor, trying to reach the cafeteria and engage in my fantasy involving lots of food and Yakety Sax.

That’s when I run into the second pony, who manages to knock me prone and hiss into my face, “Be quiet! We’re trying to get you out of here!”

“Oh, so...” I say, trying to stumble to my hooves before the brown furred mare with a mane in thick, curly, purple bangs, “I—I’m not doing very well. You have food, right? And water? And...”

“What the hell?” the stallion down the hallway says in alarm. He comes running up to us, saying, “Her cell door is still locked! How did she get out?”

Oh. Oh no.

“That’s... huh,” the mare says, looking at me with new eyes. “How did you get in the hallway, anyway? We were gonna tell you we were coming once we got to your cell.”

“I... really can’t explain it,” I say with a wince, “But I think I... squeezed through the slit in the door?”

She blinks at me a second, before shaking her head violently, and saying, “Never mind that for now. We are breaking you out of here, and we’re not gonna even look back.”

“What if they catch us?” I ask fretfully.

“They won’t catch us,” she replies dismissively, “If we can stay quiet.” Swinging her tail in the direction of the unicorn stallion, she adds, “John there disabled the guards, for now, but only the ones in our way. We need to get moving. Can you walk?”

“I... yes?” I say, wobbling on my hooves, “I’m a little worn out, because I don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve eaten,” I tell her, and... him, I guess. The two ponies are both standing with me in the hallway, looking at me with worry. It’s... hard to focus on them.

“Okay, that’s what I’m here for,” the mare whispers, walking up to me. “Get on, and we’re gonna get you out of here.”

While the stallion trots past us, the brown furred mare clumsily turns her side my way, before looking over her shoulder and saying, “Get on my back. I’m not kidding.”

“No I—I wouldn’t think you are. I’m just a little surprised!” I squeak in embarassment. Lifting a hoof alongside her, I... I don’t know if I should put my front hooves over first, or...

“Your front right leg over my shoulder,” she says curtly, “I did this three times already, and that’s how it works.” I... do that, awkwardly hugging the mare as she says, “Now your right rear leg,” and I have a little trouble scrambling over, but something pushes my rump and I slip up heavily onto her own posterior.

I’m actually kind of small compared to her. My hooves don’t quite touch the ground. She grunts a bit at my weight, but turns her head aside, whispering back to me, “They really haven’t been feeding you! You’re like a bundle of twigs!”

“I feel... fine?” I tell her in confusion. “How many days’s it been?”

“Talk later,” the purple and green stallion says, “Once we’re in the van.”

The mare answers in motion, and I can actually feel her body flex underneath me. That’s indescribably awesome in some way I don’t quite comprehend, just feeling how warm, strong and alive is the being beneath me. I end up having to wrap my arms around her barrel to stay on, but she bounds along underneath me, as the two ponies make their way through a confusing set of corridors and offices, more than one with a slumped over figure at a desk or behind a window. I wish I could say more about it, but it’s hard to tell exactly what I’m looking at, riding by on a galloping horse.

“I knew they were keeping ponies here!” I hear John whisper to... whoever this mare is. Are these human ponies? Or is his name like “Long John” or something? I don’t know. I don’t even have the energy to thank them. Heck, I barely have enough energy to hang on.

“Thank goodness for lax security protocols,” she mutters back to him.

“Wait!” I ...try to whisper, but it comes out more like a rasp, “Nick’s still in there! He’s a pony too you need to... save him!”

“Let me know if you see him, when we get there,” the mare tells me, “There are two more teams going after other prisoners.”

The cool night washes over me, as the ponies run out of the building we’re in. It’s a... place I can’t really say I recognize in the dark, nor do I have much time to, because we head straightaway to where there’s a tall, stone wall, topped with razor wire, with a huge mound of dirt right next to it.

“Okay, um,” the mare says stopping at the dirt, “Can you make it through this tunnel on your own?”

Oh, I see. It’s a huge tunnel dug under the fence. By... diamond dogs?

“I think so,” I say, sliding off of my savior. It’s pitch black inside the tunnel though. I... “I don’t want to get stuck down there,” I say fretfully, “Is there enough room?”

“Look, if I could fit, then you’ll have no trouble,” the mare says, “Just get in there, and I’ll slide you the rest of the way.”

“O-okay,” I say nervously, trying to climb into the hole. It’s not all that hard to squeeze through, but the tunnel is longer than I thought. Crumbly dirt surrounds me, below, alongside, and above. I hesitate before creeping forward another step, and then the mare’s forehead mashes up against my butt. With a squeak, I’m sliding forward, in an upward scooping motion as the tunnel slips by me, and I get pushed out into the cool night again.

“That was... unexpectedly terrifying,” I say shakily, as the other two pull themselves out of the hole. “Maybe next time... bring a light?”

The mare just walks up alongside me again, saying, “Almost there. Get on again.”

I do so, and she and the stallion both trot forwards, across a long, clear area, and then through a stand of trees bordering a road. I really can’t see very much in the dark, and it all happens so fast, but they approach a big, hulking van parked on the side of the road, and light floods out briefly, as they open the rear doors and dump me right in.

There’s a blue haired, orange filly in here, looking totally exhausted, worn out, and... thin, there’s a green pegasus mare with soft azure hair in much the same state, who has a bandage wrapped several times around her whole barrel, over her folded wings. Then among a few others, there’s... Nick. Nick!

The grey furred, purple haired unicorn’s seen better days, it looks like. “Nick, I–I think we’re saved!” I tell him, scooting up to him.

“Oh please, not again,” he groans, lifting his head, and turning to look at me. His eyes widen. “Meadows?” he asks in confusion, “That’s really you?”

“Of course it is!” I tell him, hesitating a bit, then adding, “I mean, I’m pretty sure I know who I am.”

He pulls me into a hug.

“Oh man, they really hated you,” he soon says, pulling me to arm’s length. “How much did they feed you?”

“Um... two packages of uh... cookies,” I say, looking around the van, “Say you wouldn’t have any more cookies or anything at all, maybe?”

A brick red mare with blue hair speaks up then, lifting a package on her hoof and telling me, “Here, we brought crackers and water. More food for you back at the—” I snatch the package of crackers out of her offered hoof. Then I realize I’ve just done so with my mouth.

“Wow, you’re really hungry,” she says, wide-eyed, pulling back her hoof, “Try not to eat too much. You need salt and sugars right now, so... crackers. We have some water bottles, too.”

All too few crackers later, my stomach is protesting being awoken from its death bed, so I have to quit. Everypony else who wasn’t getting fed seems to be in the same situation. “I hope no pony is too far gone,” I say fretfully. “I feel just awful, and they actually fed me!”

“I got three meals,” Nick says frankly, “Mostly from refusing to talk without getting food. They... they think we destroyed humanity. I can understand if they’re mad.”

“Can you?” I tell him, laying flat on the floor of this thankfully well lit interior of the van, “They wouldn’t even listen to us, and so what if we destroyed humanity?”

“...seriously?” the blue haired, orange filly says, with a skeptical look in her tired looking deep red eyes, “Nothing wrong with destroying humanity?”

“Well no, it is wrong,” I tell the sad looking little filly, “But what good is starving us going to do?”

“I don’t know,” she says miserably, “I don’t know how I ended up in that closet, or how my keys got stolen, but they didn’t care. They thought I was in on it. They didn’t care...”

She shudders and curls up in the fetal position, turning her back to the rest of us, and with her wings quivering, it looks like she’s just a little bit too worn out to cry.

I don’t know what to say to her, but Nick does. “Hey, don’t turn away from us,” he says gently, laying a hoof on her shoulder, “It’s okay to act funny. We’re all acting funny. You don’t need to be alone.”

Maybe it’s the right thing to say, because the filly looks around at him, and grudgingly turns to clumsily squat on her haunches, staring at the floor of the van, but facing us.

It gets kind of confusing then, because the final three ponies being held at that facility get dumped in the van next. I can’t help but notice Mira’s not one of them, but she wasn’t caught in the first place. She told me herself. In a ...hallucination. Shit.

Then six more ponies pile into the van, who unlike the rest of us are a lot less tormented, and a lot better fed. “That’s all of them,” one of the colorful rescuers shouts to the front, “Let’s get out of here!”

“Wait, are you sure there aren’t any more ponies in there?” I ask, worried about Mira.

“This should be all the ponies that were listed at this facility,” the brick red mare tells me, “I dunno about if they took any more elsewhere.”

“I just hope Mira’s okay...” I say woefully.

“If she was with the lot of us, she’s probably fine,” that mare replies to my worries, “They had us all in a compound, and we kind of broke out, en-masse. So that’s where we’re headed, to the place every pony holed up after escaping.”

The van picks up, and unimaginably, inconceivably, I’ve just been broken out of prison. I’d like to think that this is a terrible thing, that they’re just going to catch us again, and that we were wrong for evading justice, but I’m just so relieved to be out of there that I can’t convince myself that this is a bad thing. Not in the slightest.

The van twists, and turns, gets on a freeway at some point, if the acceleration is any indication. Ponies are small, but it’s still pretty packed in the van back here, and I’m not the worst smelling prisoner of the bunch. Gag inducing odors aside, we’ve gone through all the crackers they had. I don’t think they expected to find this many ponies, this hungry.

Everyone’s in a little more high spirits, though that was even more of an ordeal than I thought. I end up sitting with Nick for most of the trip, both because there’s no room in here, and because he’s the one I’d prefer to be squashed up against. Curling in his warm, and admittedly slim embrace, I drift off to sleep, probably the healthiest sleep I’ve gotten since leaving the convention center.

And oddly, or perhaps not so oddly, I don’t feel a driving urge to get him to fuck me.

I think most of us were having a hard time getting any sleep in that complex. I can’t believe that they’d do that to innocent people. I can’t believe Twilight would set us up like that. Did she know that they were going to be... to be starving little fillies?

Well, little fillies physically, at least.

Nick’s asleep with his head laid along my side, though I just woke up a little while ago, just in time to have some... girl talk, I guess. Squashed up against my thigh is that orange and blue filly, and the blue and green mare, with the bound wings has a leg on my chest, and her long, blue tail curled around my head. It’s... kind of crowded in here.

“So your name’s Meadowsweet for real?” the filly asks me curiously once I stir vaguely awake.

“Maybe not for real real,” I say unsurely, in a creaky, tired sounding voice of a girl who really needs her morning coffee. I don’t actually drink coffee. “Some um... pony did something to me, that might have changed my name, in... all of my memories,” I tell the filly with a bit of a wince, “It’s kind of really bad, but it sounds worse than it is, but... yes, my name really is Meadowsweet. It’s weird to think of my own name as a pony name, but I guess it’s not bad?”

“Sounds good to me,” she says, with a little head tilt, “What do you think mine would be?”

“I dunno, depends on what kind of um, person you are,” I say, looking her over, “I guess um... Sunchaser?”

“I’m not really a chaser,” she murmurs with a frown, “I do like the sun, though...”

“So Sunny...” I say, then I suggest “Freckles,” right as she declares, “Biscuits!”

“Sunny Biscuits, that’s a good one,” I say, relieved. My relief dampens though, when I add, “But just to be sure... tell me your human name. When I transformed, my pony... name replaced my human one. I don’t think it was related, but just in case.”

“Susan Thomas,” she says worriedly, “So your name’s not really Meadowsweet?”

I wince at that, saying, “No, my name really is Meadowsweet. But people keep telling me that my name used to be Andrew.”

“You used to be a guy?” another pony speaks up. It’s one of the prisoners, that pegasus mare from before, with the soft blue hair. She struggles to sit up, but with a hiss of pain, settles to merely leaning on her elbow, lifting her head to look our way.

“I uh... yeah,” I tell her, trying not to think of all the many ways that I have been a not-guy so far. “Why do you ask?”

“Well I was a...” her blush shines through her green fur as she says, “A guy.”

“So you want a pony name that sounds good on a girl?” I ask uncertainly.

A confused smile breaks on her face at that. “Yeah, I don’t want to hide it or anything. It’s just that the name John doesn’t really fit with my new...” she says nervously, glancing down at her own green belly.

“...equipment?” I venture cautiously.

A giggle bursts out of the filly at that, but the pegasus mare just gives me a haggard look. “Y-yeah,” she says, head sagging wearily.

“I dunno, you’re blue and green, so... sorta like the Earth? Terra... Firma?”

“Not gonna name myself dirt,” she mumbles, laying her head back down, “I really can’t think right now.”

“You’re not the only one,” I sigh, “Maybe I’ll have actual suggestions later...”

Then I kind of lay my head down and stare forward, because I’m already tired from talking with her, and we both need... food and water. And then I’m out like a light, again.

Any weary depression that may have overcome me is soothed upon awakening, by the realization that I’m out of that place. I’m going to be okay, and... and somepony came and saved me. I don’t even know who these ponies are, or what they’re doing, but they can’t be worse than that... that cell.

The van rumbles along, and some of the other ponies talk, but every one of the escapees is pretty run down and worn out, and our rescuers don’t seem to know what to do with us. They can’t really do much until we get wherever we’re going, where there’ll be food and water, and... and not that cell. I’m really not picky at this point.

I sleep again at some point, just drowsing mostly. It’s been quite a while on the road, I imagine, but my sense of time is so distorted, I feel like I’m just gonna wake up in that awful cell again any minute now. At last, the van slows to a stop, and the driver gets out. The ponies in back with us rouse quickly, and the purple and green unicorn... lights his horn up with a pale aura, which then unlatches the latch on the back door, and swings it wide open, I wish I could say that bright sunlight poured in through the open door, but what we’re greeted with is still the blackness of night.

“We’re safe here,” one of the mare rescuers says, once she’s climbed out of the van. She turns back to us, and says, “Everyone okay? C’mon out, we’ll get you some food and... stuff.”

Though languid, ponies are quick to rise and stumble out at the mention of food, and it’s a testament to my months of walking practice, that I only appear to be as uncoordinated as most of them, instead of totally collapsed and feeble as I should be.

I still kind of... fall out of the van, and the chilly night air immediately starts eating at me fiercely. I land on dirt though, and... dirt means grass, and grass means food, doesn’t it? My eyes are adjusting quickly to the starlight, seeing shapes of ponies moving around and groaning.

From a distance, some ponies are making their way over to us in a clumsy trot. “You’re back!” one says in a high pitched voice, “Did you run into any trouble?”

“Easy as pie,” the mare who spoke from before said, “These unicorn horns really work well. Those guards were sleeping like babies!”

“The ponies they were keeping prisoner there were not doing well,” another mare says urgently, “We need to get them some food and water, and medical attention if... possible.”

“I don’t know if any of us are doctors,” the one replies. (I can’t really tell exactly who’s talking in the darkness.) “Someone may know first aid, but surgery...”

“There’s a pony with broken bones...” the other says, “But they’re er... they didn’t protest when we loaded everyone up. I tried to splint her... immobilize her wing. They only broke one of them.”

It was that blue pegasus from before, it had to be. I... I didn’t even realize her wing was broken. That must have been why she was having such a hard time... sitting up.

“Alright, let’s get everyone into the barn, and we can tell them what’s what,” the voice of the approaching pony said, then she clumsily turns, and starts walking away.

“C’mon,” I hear a familiar voice, and turn to the larger mare who er... carried me before. The brown one with the curly purple hair, though her colors are kind of hard to see in this nightlit dimness. “We’re gonna get you all fixed up,” she says, “So hop on, or whatever.”

“What about the p-pony with a broken wing?” I ask hoarsely, looking back at the van. “Does she need to be carried?”

“She’s already on a pony’s back,” the purple haired mare replies soothingly, “I just don’t want you to be walking like that. It’s kinda disturbing.”

“Uhb, I—” I try to swallow, feeling already thirsty even after the water they gave me. “I can still walk, but s-sure, I guess,” I say, taking the few steps over to her. I really do feel very unsteady on my hooves, lifting them like they’ve got cement blocks tied to ‘em. About... half of the ponies needed to be carried out, though I certainly was among the worst off. I can’t help but think that my... experience in the dark contributed to that. They were giving me water, at least.

The mare’s warm, brown body moves underneath me, steady strides taking me into a barn out on the edge of a field. I squint in the light as the barn is illuminated in various lamps, with extension cords snaking around the walls. There are some... beds here, like fold-out cots I think, and there are tables that have all sorts of stuff on them. I see bandages and bottles of disinfectant, which is good, and some open books with various sorts of informations on them, good, and some paper plates with some sandwich makings and chips—!

“Hey!” the mare I’m riding exclaims, as I squirm my body right off of her and slide to the floor, but I can’t spare her any thoughts, for I have a date with destiny.

Author's Note

Destiny is a metaphor for chips.

Close to the Chest

I wriggle my butt right off the brown furred back of the mare who’s carrying me, and go stumbling my hungry pony self up to the... the table in the barn with the lights with the food. There’s a pony there, a green mare with red hair, who looks at me like she’s seen a ghost, exclaiming, “Jesus Christ, are you one of the rescues?”

“Sorry, I just... can I have some chips maybe?” I ask, looking hungrily at the open plastic bag. “They... they said I could have salty t-things and—”

“N-no, they said you need soup, so we’ve got a pot—”

“I will love you forever if you get me a bowl of soup.”

“Sure, it’s right over here,” she says, turning clumsily around.

As she does so, I exclaim, “Oh! You’re a bat pony!” Indeed, I can see that leathery wings of slightly darker green are tightly folded at her sides.

At my words, her blush deepens, and she stutters, shifting her wings nervously, “I-it’s just kinda random. I’m not really a bat pony... type. My OC’s a pegasus, so it’s not that different, I guess.”

“There’s a bat pony type?” I ask, tilting my head in confusion.

“Y’know, all goth and broody and n-nocturnal?” she says, lifting a hoof, a soft blush pink beneath her grassy green cheek fur.

“Maybe those are only the grey and purple ones,” I reply diplomatically, giving her a sympathetic wince.

“Actually none of us are that color,” she remarks in reply, gazing away from me across the barn, “It’s weird. There are only a few dozen of us, but still. C’mon let’s get you some water first.”

The mare gives me water before any soup, as any intelligent being who wasn’t an inhuman monster would do given my situation. She trots over with a soup pot, handle held firmly in her mouth. When she holds it out for me, I can see it’s filled with clear water. There’s a moment for my pupils to widen, before I just dunk my face into it, drinking greedily.

She pulls the pot away with her mouth still on the handle then, saying, “Woah, woah, eeshy vere!”

Oh... oh right, I’m not supposed to eat or drink fast. The water starts to hurt, going down. I must’ve swallowed too big a mouthful. I just cringe, mumbling an apology, and settling on my haunches and then brace on forelegs, hunching there waiting for the knot in my chest to ease.

Other ponies are coming over this way, though the sickly ones are having to be carried. They look... more like horses than they ought to. Do I look... like that? I lift my own foreleg, to look at it, and it... has definition, that it really shouldn’t have. I can’t really tell without seeing a mirror, but I don’t know if I want to at this point.

“How long were we in there?” I quietly ask of my foreleg.

“It’s been over a month since the convention,” the pot holding bat pony answers for me. She’s not holding the water pot anymore, but it’s pretty clear she’s the same pony. She’s got the same green fur and red... sorta red hair? I really should learn more colors, if we’re going to be interacting with a lot of ponies now. Wait, what?!

“A month ?” I ask, dumbfounded. “I thought it was like a... a week, at most!”

“Yours was one of the last places we knew about,” she says with a blush, “I don’t... I’m not good at any of that cloak and dagger stuff, so I don’t know the details. One more rescue team is still out, but I think they’re the last, and there is no way in Heck that they won’t rescue every pony there without a hitch.”

She says that with a... rather oddly confident emphasis.

“Anyway, here you go,” she says, using a batty wing to lower... a dog bowl filled with soup to the dusty floor of the barn beside me. I go at the soup as hungrily as ponily possible. I don’t even care if they call me an animal eating with my face, and in fact I probably would have burned my nose something fierce if they weren’t serving us soup that was deliberately lukewarm.

It’s celery, carrots, beets and cabbage stewed in a delicious beef broth, and I can tell this because my nose is now amazing, I suppose. The celery, carrots, beets and cabbage have been strained out though, leaving only their flavor and hopefully their nutrients. I don’t think I’ve ever tasted better soup in my life. Because actually, I really don’t like soup all that much. But now I end up pursing my lips on the surface and just hoovering it up, swallowing as much as I can. In the end I’m even licking the bottom of the pot, to get every last drop.

“Hey there, you want more soup?” I hear the green batpony, and approaching me again, she’s managed to walk on three legs, with one hoof crooked around a pitcher of... soup, I guess.

“Yeth pleathe,” I say, offering her my empty bowl just as she leaps back away from me, shrieking,

“Holy giblets!!”

Her pitcher of soup spills everywhere, as she falls back onto her butt and stares at me, while I stand there blinking for a moment in confusion and dismay. Then, I’m sure my whatever-colored eyes dawn in realization, as blushing horribly, I drop the bowl, then...

...pull my tongue back into my mouth.

“Did you know your tongue is huge?” she blurts out, still staring at me.

“W-well how long is yours?” I ask her tetchily, my hooves slightly spreading as I cringe back defensively.

“It’s not... I’m not gonna show you my tongue!” she says, blushing hotly, “There’s no way it’s that long!”

“Go ahead and check somewhere private, then!” I hiss to her quietly but anxiously, “I don’t know if it’s only an earth pony thing, or only a ‘me’ thing or anything!”

While she heads off for somewhere out of sight, I lower my head down to the fallen pitcher. There’s actually a little bit of soup left in it, so I start licking it up, following my nose into the hollow plastic cylinder. The stuff in the back is really tricky to suck up, but I lift it up on my nose, and bite the lip to let the last of it pour down my hungry maw.

“Hey!” the green batpony from earlier addresses me, walking back up.

Letting the container slide off my nose, falling to the floor, I give her a nervous look.

“Hi,” she repeats, coming to a stop and toeing the earth.

“So, am I the only one with a tongue like that?” I ask, kind of afraid of the answer either way.

She just blushes and looks downward though, mumbling, “Why’re ponies so weird...”

My time in that barn is one of healing, and personal discovery, for all of about ten minutes, before I start flipping out again. “No! Get out!” I shriek unapologetically, “You have to go. Now!”

It’d probably have had an actual effect, if I wasn’t clearly delirious and dissheveled, half starved, with maybe a cup of soup and, after one awkward discussion on tongues, a flat soda in my stomach to sustain me. They’re trying to feed me calories as fast as they can, but it’s been like ten minutes, and now... this!!

“Are you okay, lady?” the subject of my wrath asks in a bemused tone. I want to shove him outside, to grab him and run, but I’m one of them too!

“Please, you have to leave!” I beg of a fully clothed, fully human um... human. He towers over me of course, looking down as I stand bow-legged in front of him, “Before you catch it, too!”

“Catch what?” the human man asks.

“Catch—catch what?!” I splutter in outrage, “Haven’t you noticed you’re talking to a my little pony? Don’t you know it’s contagious! You have to get out of here, or you’ll catch the pony!”

At that point, one of the healthier ponies drags me aside, and the mare, blue haired and golden furred, looks me in the eye, saying, “Calm down! You need to relax. Nobody’s infecting anybody today.”

“But... but there’s a human, right over there!” I whisper at her tightly, “Why wouldn’t he get infected?!”

“Oh, right,” the mare says, looking at me in realization. “Actually, this pony thing isn’t contagious.”

I stare at her in disbelief.

“No, seriously,” she says. “Everyone thought it was at first, for... some reason. Someone was yelling about it at any rate. But once we escaped, we ended up hiding out with some um... still human humans, and they never got ponified.”

“But Twilight said it was contagious!” I whine weakly in protest.

With a laugh, the mare says, “Twilight Sparkle?”

“No, a... a changeling disguised as Twilight Sparkle,” I make sure to clarify, standing on my own without too much trouble. “She set me a-and my friends up, to take the blame for this... pony virus. It’s... It’s not even contagious?!” My weak stomp still staggers me.

“Woah, you should rest,” the mare tells me. “We’ll get you a little more back to health before you have to deal with any of this stuff. I didn’t know there were changelings impersonating ponies. That’d explain a lot, actually...”

“Yah, it... yeah I’m... I am kind of ...worn out,” I admit, wishing already that I was ready for more soup. “Maybe I’ll just... sleep for a little longer.”

“Be sure to eat some soup before you do,” the blue and gold mare advises me.

“You don’t have to tell me twice!” I reply emphatically.

The first thing I do after eating is find a mirror, just to see if it’s... as bad as it feels. It’s worse. In the mirror, I see a starving filly with shrunken, knobby limbs, whose fur is clumping and filthy, and whose soft green hair looks more like a rat’s nest than a mane. I see that my eyes are a striking, ruby red, something I hope to commit to memory this time, but they’ve a... hollow look to them, with weary dark rings around them, even though I feel... fine...ish.

It looks almost... eerie, to see myself with those eyes, as skinny legged and saggy as I am. I don’t have a belly, it’s just kind of... like Fleur de Lis, just... more curvy uppy. I really want to have a belly again. You can even see my cheek bones! It’s kind of freaky. I don’t feel... right, looking like that. Even less right than usual, I mean. I can’t believe I weigh 20 pounds. I don’t even know how much I’m supposed to weigh. I know that Twilight was surprisingly heavy for her size, but I never even thought to weigh myself as a pony on the scale here.

I don’t really have much energy to do anything that night, but I do manage to look at the pony in the mirror, and take note of my weight... the one doctor here actually insists on that, though they’re terribly busy with all the other sickly escapees, so they’ve not much time to spend gawking at me.

The final team returns, triumphant, but by then, I’m too sleepy to care. I sleep peacefully all through the night, on a mattress with seven other ponies, and oddly not Nick. The light piercing through my eyelids wakes me, and I’m so warm and close, and there are breathing bodies all around me. I open my eyes, and there before me the sun breaks over the horizon. I struggle out of the... pile of others, and I can’t see the sun well from the window, so I stagger for the doorway.

I should still be in that cell. I should be lonely and scared, and eating myself from the inside. But as I awaken that morning, with the cool air tickling my nose, I look outside the barn across a weed choked field to distant trees on the horizon. Watching that beautiful dawn with my eyes brimming with tears, I didn’t think I was ever going to get to see it again.

I’m standing on three legs, because one’s braced on the door frame. I’m a magical...ish pony, a girl with a name that never suited me as a guy. My best friend is a magical unicorn, and my sister has bat wings. I’m standing there in a barn, somewhere hidden in the country far away from home, feeling the sunlight shine on my naked shoulders, which are sideways.

There’s no way anything about this could possibly be real, but I laugh nonetheless, a sweet, girly, surprised laugh that bubbles up within me. I didn’t wake up in a cold cell enveloped in darkness. I woke up here, after a good night’s sleep. The world doesn’t make sense, but somehow I feel like it doesn’t matter. I’m here, I’m safe, and I’m not going back into that nightmare any time soon. I’m safe. I’m...

I’m kind of hungry, actually.

A pony I don’t recognize explains how the other task force has returned with all the ponies they intended to rescue, seeming very pleased with this while I’m just trying to get some food.

When the leader of the task force comes to announce their success that morning, I’m busy trying to keep down a small meal of crackers, that my stomach stubbornly protests. I’m going to make it though. I escaped. I’m free. I’m not going to let myself die. I soak another cracker in my mouth, sucking up a small drink of water to wash the salt down my throat, and my stomach’s just gonna have to deal with it.

That’s when I hear her.

Striding in from somewhere outside the barn, she announces to everyone, “Good morning, and congratulations, everypony! I’m happy to state that the rescue effort has been, for the most part a success!”

My head shoots straight up and I snap around to stare, wide-eyed in the direction of the mare who spoke.

“The next phase of our strategy is to recover our strength, and nurse the ponies we’ve rescued back to health,” the bright voiced pony declares, as I stumble away from the table, and go creeping over there, to where the ponies are assembling around her in an attentive group.

“We want to prepare as much as possible so that the third phase can go off without a hitch,” she continues as I stare, unable to believe what I’m looking at, with no idea how she could possibly be here, “Train your magic, and your bodies, make friends with each other and work together, and within the next moon, I promise you that you’ll all be safe and out of reach of any government your planet has to offer, because we’re going to Equestria!”

Everypony listens as this unicorn mare speaks, and all I can do is stare. I don’t know what to do. What do I say? What is going on here? Looking from pony to pony in our group, she says, “We have about...”

And then Twilight Sparkle is staring directly at me, capturing me in her hauntingly purple gaze. Her eyes light on me only for a moment before moving to look at the other ponies next to me, and onward through the crowd. “We have... about...” she says haltingly, as if distracted by something, and it really is her! Isn’t it? This isn’t the evil changeling, is it?

Oh no, what if it is the evil changeling?

“We have about a month before reaching the optimum solar activity to potentiate the ionosphere,” Twilight Sparkle says confidently, “And we’ll be ready for it, each and every one of you. There’s no denying that what Sunset’s done to you is unforgivable, and I will do everything in my power to restore you to your old selves again. But it won’t do us any good either way, if you get captured by your government while you’re still like this. Once we’re in Equestria I’ll have a lot more resources at my disposal, and between me and the princess, I’m sure we can restore your human form, and return you to your normal lives.”

Princess? As in, singular? This Twilight isn’t pre-Nightmare Moon, is she?

“Plus I mean,” Twilight says with an awkward smile, “Who here doesn’t want to visit Equestria?”

A ragged cheer rises up among the group at that. I don’t join in because I’m too flummoxed at the sight of Twilight Sparkle after all this time. It’s been months! Or is the the very first time I’ve ever met her?

“I’ll be happy to give some of you a tour of Ponyville,” Twilight Sparkle says, to the sound of more cheers, “or even Canterlot. You’ll get the royal treatment, so to speak, while Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and I figure out how to undo Sunset’s magic, and return you to normal.”

Okay, so post-Nightmare Moon, but there’s still so much I don’t know. So confused beyond belief, I sneak up to Twilight, after her... speech thing, and... I just don’t understand. Twilight Sparkle is just standing there. She turns to me with a pleasant smile, after talking with some others, saying, “Hello! Aren’t you one of the ponies we rescued?”

“I... yeah but—” I say, struggling to find the words to describe my conflicted emotions right now. “Twilight?”

“Is everything okay?” Twilight asks, looking at me with worry, and she’s huge! It was easy to deny how small I had become, by just... not looking at the humans as humans. On some level, I could pretend that the humans I’ve seen were some sort of inhuman giants. But I remember Twilight, from when I was human. How I could lift her in my arms like a baby lamb. And she’s still sleek, graceful and purple, but now she’s the same size as me! Far from prancing around at my feet, Twilight is looking me eye-to eye, as if she were as big as a person. Because I’m not as big as a person. I’m just a... little pony.

I don’t think I’ve ever felt smaller.

“I—I don’t exactly know,” I stammer desperately, “Something... happened to me back... you don’t happen to know a human named Meadowsweet, do you?”

A surprised laugh escapes her, and the bright eyed purple unicorn declares in amusement, “I didn’t know there were any humans with that name. That sounds like a pony’s name! Is this some kind of trick question?”

“No, it... no, I mean... you didn’t do anything to a human called... Andrew, did you?” I ask her. Twilight looks at me blankly. “A human you stayed with, after a big snowstorm,” I continue in a quiet private tone, “And... and became close with, and then you turned him into a... a pony?”

“Oh, I think I know what this is about,” Twilight says, with a sad smile. “You must have gone through so much because of her. I promise you, Andrew, that you’ve done nothing wrong. The pony you’re facing is a... a genius of her own right. But consumed by ambition. You can’t blame yourself for falling to her charms.”

Some of the other ponies listen in as Twilight states seriously, “I want you to know she’s a wanted criminal in Equestria, for manipulating and bullying others, causing untold amounts of pain and destruction. That’s why I need to return to Equestria again as soon as possible, to warn everypony that Sunset’s here, and have her finally brought to justice, before she causes more harm to your land.”

“Sunset Shimmer?” I ask, mouth dropping open in shock.

“The very same,” Twilight says, shaking her head regretfully. “She’s a powerful enchantress, who escaped to the human world. I don’t know why she changed you into a pony, or any of the ponies here, but it’s sure to be part of her scheme to take revenge on Princess Celestia. She said as much, before jumping through the portal.”

“Wait... wait no, she was a changeling,” I protest, “Wasn’t she? She was talking about her queen, and mind control and... stuff.”

“Thankfully, Sunset is not a changeling,” Twilight replies with a nervous laugh and a quiet shudder, “Otherwise we’d... never be able to catch her! But yes, she is well trained in the magical arts, and she could make a very convincing illusion. You might not even be able to tell if you touched her.”

I still don’t know if this is the real Twilight or not, but I can’t but help feel an immense relief that I was fucking Sunset Shimmer, and not a changeling. Just thinking of those sharp carapaces riddled with holes, those weird icky cold bug guts, those soulless compound eyes, I can’t believe anyone would ever actually be into that sort of thing. A disguised pony, I could deal with. A changeling... not so much.

“Yeah, she... she got me good,” I say sheepishly, “I really did think she was you.”

“Did you see her?” Twilight asked curiously, “Most of the ponies who were... apprehended by the government didn’t even get a good look at her, even though she implicated them in her crimes.”

“See her?” I laugh, “I kicked her butt!”

“Really?” Twilight asks, looking at me in a new light, “She was a highly trained combat unicorn. I would have thought she could have wiped the floor with you.”

“Nope,” I say, puffing up a bit proudly, “She tried to go after Nick, but I knocked her down, and showed her a thing or two about what we humans can do.”

“Did you really?” Twilight says, swaying up to me with a playfully skeptical smile.

“Yeah, she was actually quite weak, when it came down to close quarters combat,” I reply cheerfully.

“I... I see,” Twilight says, lifting her hoof a bit at my enthusiasm. Well, good! Because I’m proud of how well we did!

“I guess she wasn’t as highly trained in combat as you think, because she just gave up then, and didn’t try to stop us at all when we took her prisoner,” I explain smugly, “She went right down once we overcame her magic. It was easy to keep her from using it. ”

“Oh?” Twilight says faintly, with a slight eye twitch.

“Yeah, Nick was just waiting there to smack her horn, if she tried to light it up,” I say, thinking fondly of that sleek grey unicorn stallion. “If only we’d been more attentive, but we got distracted at the worst time. She managed to activate the machine, and teleported away before we could stop her. We were basically humanity’s best hope, even if we uh...” I look around a little nervously, squeaking out, “...failed.”

“You probably shouldn’t talk about that in public,” Twilight says wryly as other ponies turn to look at me, “A lot of humans are upset at becoming ponies, and they might have a bad reaction if they find out how badly you failed.”

My ears lower at that, and I say, “Right, that’s probably a good idea...” The ponies listening to me have these stiff stares which I don’t like one bit.

“You’re basically the reason every human ended up like this, just saying,” Twilight says, chiding me with a roll of her eyes, “People might not appreciate that.”

“Yeah, sorry, I didn’t mean...” I say, looking at the ground. Somepony’s stiff hoof cups my chin, and lifts my gaze to meet her own, and it’s Twilight.

“You did an amazing thing, going up against Sunset,” Twilight Sparkle says with a gentle smile, taking her hoof back to herself, “There aren’t many ponies who could oppose her. What you did was a commendable act of bravery. You just didn’t have the training you needed to stop her from taking advantage of you.”

Laughing nervously, I say, “Y-y-yeah I kind of had only been a pony for two months before that.”

“Don’t worry, Meadowsweet,” she says with a sadly sympathetic smile, “I won’t let her take advantage of you or anypony like that ever again. The next time we face Sunset Shimmer, we’re going to be prepared. All of us.”

There were smiles all around for that. Twilight excuses herself, and I separate from the crowd too, to see about if I can get some more food, and to ask Nick what he thinks about all this. I still don’t know what to think about her. She didn’t even seem to recognize me, but maybe she was just pretending?

“Nick!” I whisper urgently, coming up to the skinny stallion resting on a hay bale, “Did you see that? It was Twilight Sparkle!”

“Maybe Twilight Sparkle,” he specifies, staring suspiciously where the purple unicorn went, “Why is she leading this group?”

“Because she’s trying to stop Sunset Shimmer from turning everyone into ponies,” I say holding a hoof against my chest, “She wants to regroup in Equestria, where she can report Sunset Shimmer’s wrongdoing, and get the help she needs to stop her.”

“How do you know that?” he asks, looking at me in confusion.

We stare at each other blankly for a moment, before I cautiously venture, “I... talked to her?”

“You talked to her?” Nick squawks, shining green irises narrowing as he stares at me like I’m an idiot. “Now she knows we’re here! If that’s the evil Twilight, we could’ve hid from her, and found out her true motives!”

“Oh, yeah,” I whimper with a guilty wince, “Damn, that would have been a good idea.”

Nick conceals a surprised snicker at that, and I ask curiously, “What’s funny?”

“Just the things you say,” he replies in amusement, “Kind of funny to hear you say damn like that in a girl’s voice.”

“I...” I really don’t know what to say to that, but a blush does come to my face, so that is communication enough, right? ...right. “I can’t stop talking like this, you know,” I say in the voice of a flustered squirrel, firming my jaw and staring at him defiantly.

He laughs, saying, “And then you go and scrunchy face like that. It’s adorable!”

“I’m not—” I say furiously, cutting off and... and what am I even doing with my face?

“It’s called pursing your lips!” I decide on vehemently at Nick. He seems unimpressed though.

“You were totally scrunching,” he chuckles irritatingly.

I’m—I’m not gonna do that again with my... face.

Very deliberately relaxing my facial muscles, I chide him, “Okay, so I’m a pony. Ponies can scrunch. There’s nothing odd about that.”

Nick looks at me calculatingly, then leers and says, “It’s really because you’re a girl now.”

“It is not!” I insist, stomping. He doesn’t answer, just stands there trying not to laugh. Why is he—!

“You just said that to make me scrunch again!” I rage at Nick, while he falls over laughing because I sound about about as intimidating as Fluttershy doesn’t, and because oh my god is it hard not to scrunchy face, when you’re confused and extremely irritated at your best friend.

Nick and I observe Twilight as subtly as we can, but the story she gave me is the only one that makes any sense. Why would she turn people into ponies, get them incarcerated and tortured, then be here, helping ponies escape horrible places like that... that cell? She feels guilty over what she’s done, but still pretends not to recognize me for some reason? She’s completely insane, and sees nothing wrong with helping people out, after ruining their lives?

Or was I making love to Sunset Shimmer, who disguised herself as Twilight Sparkle because she was afraid of being rightfully judged as a villain?

It’s obvious, really. I knew that pony wasn’t really Twilight Sparkle, the moment I read what she’d been saying to that commissioner. She was some kind of deceitful creature who’d merely disguised themselves as Twilight Sparkle. And why wouldn’t the real Twilight Sparkle be hot on her tail? If I were Sunset Shimmer, I’d have pretended to be Twilight Sparkle, just to try and get us to distrust the real one!

It makes so much more sense than to think that the pony who dumped me was Twilight Sparkle herself. She would never do something like that! This Twilight Sparkle has to be the real one. She’s not like the evil one anymore, at all!

In days to come, I would fall in love with Twilight Sparkle all over again, though this time from afar. Gone is the scary, cruel, vicious Twilight that I had the misfortune to know. Twilight’s eyes are bright, and her smile sure seems genuine. She speaks of things in such complicated ways, but then stumbles over her words trying to make herself understood, because she cares about making herself understood to others.

I’m afraid to approach her, not just because I think she’d hurt me, but I’m afraid to dismiss the illusion, and watch the wonderful pony I see be destroyed once more. Though when I’m not inhaling soup and hay, I’m thinking about her, and asking about her. And everypony seems to agree she’s not just their friend. She’s their savior!

Twilight saved everypony from those awful cells, and in the original group she joined, she secretly taught them pony magicks until they could work out an escape plan. This can’t be the fake Twilight, because she’s helping us so much, and the fake one has no reason to do so at all. She’s putting herself at risk, her whole mission at risk, just because she felt responsible for what happened to us, and wanted to make up for it in any way that she can.

She is even studying how to change us back! Twilight can’t just whip something out though. That might make me suspicious, but her explanation really makes a lot of sense, even to someone like me!

“Sunset Shimmer was studying humans for years before she decided to use you as her guinea pig,” Twilight explains to me at one point, “Changing a pony’s morphic resonance is supposed to be close to impossible, and I need to know a lot more about humans before I could even think of risking turning one of you back into a human again. Sunset’s completely wiped out any traces of your old signature, so I might not even be able to restore you to the humans that you were, but I promise that I can restore your humanity. I’m sure you would all appreciate having fingers again.”

I’m too embarassed to tell her, but I’m actually not having much trouble at all getting around without fingers. Anything that I can’t stomp into place, I can use my mouth to do detail work, and unlike when I was a human being, I’m not alone anymore. Like I’m once working on hammering together some boards at one point, to make another wooden training dummy for ponies to practice on, imagining it were Sunset. Officially, they’re just for kicking practice, since we don’t want to damage any nearby buildings, or ponies, or trees when learning to use our hooves, but I think I know what’s on everyone’s mind when they slam their hind legs into this thing.

I like to imagine it was Sunset, at any rate.

The practice dummy isn’t anything like a pony, or a human for that matter, but it supports two large bags of sand that you can then kick to your heart’s content. Only trouble is kicking them tends to destroy the structure, if not the sand. I can hammer the nails in easily just like in the show, with the hammer held in my mouth. It was tempting to just stomp the nails in, but Twilight says that you do not want to crack a hoof, so it’d be best to stick with the hammer.

What I’m really having trouble with is placing the nails before hammering them. I can’t really see what I’m doing, with the hammer sticking out the side of my mouth, and I basically have to balance a nail in place, then hit it neatly into the wood before it falls over. Another bent nail, and I groan, cursing around the hammer handle I’m chewing on.

“Need some help?” Nick asks lightly, clip-clomping his way over to me.

“I’m fine after the nails start going in,” I say, staring at the boards in frustration, “But getting them in the right place at the right angle is just impossible without fingers.”

“Oh, that’s perfect actually,” Nick says happily, “Watch this.” With a twinkly sounding burst, a sparkling green light begins to flow around his horn. Concentrating fiercely, he stares at a nail, until his green aura ensrouds it, and he lifts the nail shakily up into the air. “Al...most...” he says tensely, then the tip of the nail comes down to rest on the boards I was trying to nail together.

“Thif if perfect! ” I say in delight around the hammer handle, “I ca’ hammer it in now!”

“Just tell me where to put it,” Nick says, swiveling the flat head of the nail around in his magic. I do so, then pick up the hammer, and give that nail a good decent, precise whack.

“Succshess!” I chirp, at the smooth passage of the nail into the wood. My enthusiasm dampens a bit then, and I drop the hammer even though Nick picked up a second nail.

“Though I guess you could do stuff all by yourself, with your magic and all,” I say, staring at the fallen hammer, uncomfortably self-conscious of my lack of a horn or wings.

“Nah, I can barely levitate these little nails,” he replies dismissively, “You can just hammer them in, just like that! I think it’s part of your earth pony magic.”

“But I’m just... hammering them in,” I say in confusion. “I don’t have any magic.”

“Whatever you say boss,” Nick replies with a roll of his bright green eyes. “Now where do you want the next nail?”

More evidence that this is not the Twilight Sparkle that I once knew, she is teaching the unicorns among us to use magic, just like she can. Even Nick, she accepts without hesitation, patiently instructing him in things I can only vaguely imagine, not having a horn with which to feel them. And it works! He’s lighting up his horn, along with the rest of the unicorns, and learning the magic of levitation, transmutation, even combat spells like a knockout spell that’s proven highly effective on humans.

Nick’s unicorn magic is especially nice, because he can’t stub his magic. My hoof, I could stub. A bruised hoof is not what I’d call a pleasant thing to imagine. But I can wail at nails as hard as I like, with Nick’s magic there to hold them, without any chance of any part of us getting in the way of my swinging hammer. I end up working like four times as fast, and getting all my work done before it’s expected of me. Just whack, whack, whack one hit per nail, swinging as hard as I can without worry I’ll hit whatever’s holding them there.

Most importantly of all, Twilight is teaching Nick and the others the magic of teleportation. Not something one could master in a day, or even a year, but Twilight isn’t trying to teach us how to teleport. She’s trying to teach us how to open a gateway to a whole nother world. Equestria. That’s something I wouldn’t think one could learn in a lifetime, but Twilight did it once before, in pursuit of Sunset, and she thinks that with all the unicorns working together, she’ll have enough magical “oomph” to make a portal stable enough for all of us to escape through.

I can’t say I’m not scared at the prospect. But also terribly excited. What will Equestria be like? Where would I visit? What ponies could I meet? It could turn out that Equestria’s some kind of terrible place, but I have to think of my current situation. Our current situation. Running low on food, unable to be seen in public, trapped in an old hay barn of all places, we really need to do something, and changing us all back to human is... not something Twilight came prepared to do.

“I’m really sorry, but I just haven’t studied that kind of magic much,” Twilight tells me with sympathy in her voice at this downtrodden earth pony that I am. “My specialty is in teleportation, and extradimensional travel. Sunset is the master of transformation. She used one of my spells to escape to here, but I don’t have that luxury. I know how to open a portal back to Equestria, but teratomancy? Even if I did know everything that there is to know about the magic of shaping biological organisms, I hardly know anything about humanity. It’s not as simple as just waving my horn and turning you into a human. I have to know the particulars of what a human is, how you’re different from ponies, or apes, not just in appearance, but on a genetic level.”

Twilight sighs, and turns a page in her book, only vaguely reading the floating codex. Written in the strange writing of Equestria, it’s the only thing she could take with her from home: her own personal journal and spellbook. “Sunset Shimmer could do it,” the somber purple unicorn says glumly, “She’s had years to study humanity. If only I knew what she was doing, when she disappeared all those years ago... but the fact remains that she’s got a huge advantage against me, when it comes to altering your human biology. For all I know, she may even have left a trap in your pony form, and if I blundered into it, trying to alterate you blindly... well, neither one of us would like the outcome.”

“It’s okay, Twilight,” I tell her with a little smile, “Actually, this pony thing is kind of fun, and I know you’re trying your hardest to help us. In Equestria, there are more experienced terasolo...”

“Teratomancers,” she offers.

“Yes, that,” I say with a brighter smile. “They can help us, turn us back human, and... stuff. I’m just trying to say, you don’t have to do everything on your own.”

She looks up at me thoughtfully, while I tell her, “There are ponies who can help you, and guide you when you’re lost, and you can always count on your friends to help you out. Nick helped... me a lot, when I turned into this, and he helped me deal with Sunset Shimmer... breaking up with me. I dunno where I’d be without him. The only reason Mira’s not here throwing herself into helping others is that we haven’t been able to find her yet. Your friends... and your colleagues I suppose, and the princesses, if they can help us, all you have to do is bring us together, and I’m sure everything will work out great.”

Blushing, I have to add, “A-and that’s what you do, is bring ponies together. Through teleportation.”

A surprised laugh bursts out of Twilight at that last statement. With a twinkle of amusement in her large, purple eyes, she says, “You sure are something else, Meadowsweet.”

“Besides a pony?” I ask curiously, tilting my head.

“Be—that’s—” Twilight says, flustered, “I mean that you’re something special. People might say you’re stupid, but you’ve got a good heart. Nick is lucky to have a friend like you.”

“People say I’m stupid?” I pout, ears going down.

Twilight stares at me again, speechless. “It—just—ugh!” she finally exclaims, throwing her head back in consternation.

I’m the one who lets a little laugh escape this time, and I tell her, “It’s okay. I think I understand what you meant.”

Twilight looks like she’s going to object, but then all she can do is slightly shake her head silently at me, with a warm smile.

Twilight might not have exactly known how much I understood, but in the end I don’t think it mattered. When she smiled warmly at me, I think she realized that I’m not worried about being a pony, or even a mare. What matters to me is that she is here, and we don’t have to be enemies anymore, despite Sunset Shimmer’s attempt to poison the well.

Most of my diet is soup at first, then hay and... soup. Did I mention we were getting low on supplies? Dried fruit is available at least, and there’s always a big pot of soup going now, and some canned chili for when I can stomach it. I feel fuller and healthier now that I’m free, but as time goes by... I’m not menstruating. I can’t believe it’s been a month since the convention, but the fact remains that nowhere during that month did... weird red bloody stuff start coming out of me. So, with increasing worry, I go looking around behind the barn one day, until I find Nick, sharpening an axe.

“Hey, Nick,” I say shyly, sounding far too much in my opinion like that foolish girl who became pregnant, and had to tell her boyfriend that she’s having his unwedded child. I can’t believe it’s me who’s saying this. I don’t even know if it’s a boy or a girl. A... a colt, or a filly, who could be inside my belly right now.

“Hey, Meadows, what’s up?” he says, continuing to delicately levitate the axe against the grinder.

“Could you pause for a minute?” I ask, eyeing that blade nervously. “I have something serious I need to talk about.”

With a flick of his horn, he powers down the grinder, and sets the axe beside it. “What did you want to talk about?” he asks, with worry in his warm, green eyes.

“Nick, I’m—” I say, gulping, because it’s harder to say than I thought it would be. It’s harder to say it out loud, because that makes it feel like this is actually real.

“Nick, I think I’m pregnant,” I manage to tell him, a full-on blush hitting me, like I should be guilty about any of this. I try to tell myself that this isn’t my fault. I’m pretty bad at it.

“How do you know?” he asks faintly.

“I... I haven’t been menstruating,” I say, thinking of my rear and how I’m gonna have to have a baby in there, how I’ve got a tiny one in there right now, “...I think.”

“It’d be pretty obvious if you were,” he replies, head drooping in shame.

“Mira said if I didn’t start menstruating...” I tell him, wishing I didn’t have to make him feel bad too. But he needs to know! Right?

“I’m sorry, Meadowsweet,” he says, his voice heavy with sympathy, “I don’t know what came over me back then, but it really does only take one time. I wish I didn’t... have to do that to you. Meadows, what’re you gonna do?”

“I-if I can survive the birth I guess... I’ll have to give the child up for adoption,” I say unhappily, “There have to be orphanages in Equestria. It’ll work out fine. I–I just have to s-survive the birth...”

“Man, you’re pregnant?” he says in utter bemusement, “How are you feeling?”

“Well I haven’t... gotten sick, yet,” I tell him, “But maybe I missed that, when I was being held prisoner in... you know.”

“Yeah,” he says apprehensively. “But I mean how are you feeling, like emotionally?”

“I feel... trapped, I guess,” I say haltingly, struggling to express just how I feel, “Like I could just...”

With a small leap over to the side to demonstrate, I say, “I could just leap like that and get away from it, but now I’m just a pregnant mare over here instead of over there. The baby comes with me, no matter where I go. She’s still here in my...” I look back at my flank, “In there, and it’s still gonna grow bigger no matter what and...”

Sighing, and shaking my head, I close my eyes, admitting to Nick, “I just don’t wanna hurt when I’m giving birth. Otherwise it’d be... kinda... neat.”

“Kinda neat?” he asks skeptically.

“I’ve never been able to do that before!” I tell him more enthusiastically, “I’ve never had those muscles, those... womb... muscles or whatever. And I get to feel them giving birth. I get to... I get to give birth, Nick! I never thought I’d be able to feel that before! It just... I’m just scared of the pain, really.”

“Yeah, plus you’d be making cute little baby ponies,” he adds with a sloppy grin, “Who could say no to more baby ponies?”

I think my blush is answer enough.

It’s really cool that I can just... make a cute little baby pony back there. And I guess it won’t be so bad pushing it out. Sure it hurt when even Nick’s human penis was in me, but females... loosen up back there before birth, don’t they? I try to imagine the overstretched sting of Nick’s penis being a whole foal, and it just... seems impossible to comprehend.

My health improves quickly with a steady diet and exercise, and the beautiful early spring sunlight shining down on us. I look in the mirror now and then and inspect the... pudge in my hooves? What do you call that plush softness that fills out your legs as you eat like a ravenous wolf, until the boney gangliness has been replaced with luxurious smooth curves? Hay is... weird to eat, but after I take a bite of the bale and chew it into a mush, I can sit there all day, just... munching down calories. When I’m not running around the barn on all fours, just feeling so wonderful for being free.

As my health improves I start feeling something else though. Just kind of casually adjusting on a fence, and then rubbing myself, I start... feeling liquid trail down the inside of my thigh. The realization that I’m getting sexually aroused fills me with the images of all the sheathed stallion penises I’ve seen around here. Nick’s felt so good and he and I (mostly I) have been busy working on getting better from our ordeal, but I kind of... want to feel that turgid penis pushing up into me again. I don’t know why, since being pregnant I shouldn’t be getting horny, right? But I kind of approach Nick one day, and quietly ask him, “Hey, can you... come over here for a few secs?”

I lead him to a relatively concealed copse of trees behind the dilapidated farm that this barn we’re living in once was a part of. And I don’t know how to tell him how much I wanna... feel the... slideys in me again. I try to think of what I would have wanted to hear, when I was still male, and I tell Nick, shyly, “It felt really... good when you um... put the baby in me.”

If I heard that as a guy, I would have been proud as heck. Nick startles me by scowling though, saying, “I know I know I fucked up. I don’t know how to... a-apologize to you. You don’t deserve to be pregnant just because of me.”

“It was because of me too, you know,” I tell him, “And I still don’t deserve it. And you don’t either. It was just our bodies making us want it. L-like right now I—”

“Lots of guys want it,” Nick interrupts bitterly, “Every time I’ve had sex with a girl I’ve wanted it. But I never... just... I—I don’t know how to apologize. Maybe I just can’t, because I know you won’t forgive me—”

“Nick, what are you talking about?” I ask him, bewildered at his sinkingly sorrowful ears, “I know it sucks that I’m pregnant. But it actually doesn’t mean I don’t have to... not have sex.”

“What are you talking about?” Nick counters, “This doesn’t have anything to do with making you pregnant or not. Meadows, you... you tried to resist!”

“And failed,” I might add.

“Because of me!” Nick protests hunching low before me, as if he wants to look up at me in pleading shame, “I–I just grabbed you and just started... having sex with you!”

“Yeah, it was incredible...” I say fondly.

“Incredible?” he asks, “You weren’t saying that at the time! You were telling me to stop!”

“And we should have stopped,” I tell him firmly, “It was wrong to impregnate myself, when I can’t even take care of myself, much less a foal. It’s not fair to them! But I still lifted my tail and—”

“And told me no,” Nick says, “I’ve been thinking about it over and over again, and you just... you tried to resist, and I did nothing. I just... did you.”

Giving him a cautious look, I say, “Well I... did try to resist, but I wanted it too much.”

“Then why did you keep saying no?” he asks in exasperation.

“Because it was wrong!” I reply, “I wanted something that was wrong, and now I’m... going to make a baby inside me. A-and I can’t escape it, but it was my fault for—”

“For getting—?!” Nick’s voice catches in his throat as he looks at me in bugeyed disbelief.

“For getting...?” I prompt unsurely.

Nick looks at me solemnly, then loses his gaze, looking at his forehooves, and mumbles, “...raped.”

“Raped?!” I squeak in alarm.

“Meadowsweet, I raped you,” Nick says, meeting my eyes with his own sad ones, “I wish I could take it back, but I can’t. But I understand if you hate me, and I’m so, so sorry.”

“I don’t hate you!” I protest in outrage, “You never raped me! I wanted it too!”

“It doesn’t matter if you want it or not,” Nick retorts, “You told me no, tried to stop me from having sex with you, but I didn’t listen. And that’s rape, no matter how much you enjoyed it.”

“How is it rape, if I say it’s not rape?” I reply, feeling seriously wrong about how this encounter was supposed to go.

“Doesn’t matter what either of us says,” Nick replies, “I couldn’t read your mind, so if you didn’t tell me yes I want to have sex with you, then I raped you. Plain and simple.”

“You could read my smell though!” I protest weakly.

“You can’t control your smell!” he shoots back, and... and is he right? But I wanted it!

“I just... impregnated the hell out of you,” Nick tells me regretfully, “You tried to escape. I was inside you, and you couldn’t say no with feeling a dick inside you, but you did. Somehow you... were the better man. And you pulled away from me, and told me no. Then Mira took off the blanket, but I didn’t want to... stop being horny. I wasn’t thinking straight. Then I just started raping you until you were pregnant. You never once said I could.”

“I–I yes, but...” I stammer in confusion. He did rape me, didn’t he! But it wasn’t bad! “I-it was amazing when you... just mounted me and started fucking me,” I tell the stallion, “And yes I would have said no, if you asked, but you didn’t, so you... put a baby in me, just like I wanted.”

“Why would you say no, then?” Nick asks in exasperation.

“Because I was scared!” I protest, “I don’t want to be pregnant. But I did, but I don’t want to... make some kid live like this. So yes, getting me pregnant was a... bad idea, even though I wanted it so bad.”

“So what, I can just mount you now, whenever I like, and cum inside you?” Nick says, “Because I wanna. And it doesn’t matter if you don’t want it or not.”

“I–I’m sorry,” I tell him, quivering at the thought of him inside me again, “I shouldn’t have said no. Any time you want, you can—”

“No, don’t say yes,” Nick says heatedly, “If you think it’s not so bad, just turn around and I’ll... I’ll take you, and put a baby in you for sure this time.”

I turn and lift my tail, and Nick’s on me. Even as... ugly as I look right now, I’m well fed, rested, and freaking horny. So we just struggle together to get him into me, and then he’s penetrating me again. I start panting, and he starts panting, and we’re just having sex, just over here by the woodpile. I don’t care about anything else. I only need him to thrust, thrust, thrust.

Sweat trails down my brow as I realize that’s his penis, and that’s my vagina I’m feeling him sliding inside. I moan and grip tight around his penis, because I have to. His thrusting shudder and slows, but then speeds right back up. Then he starts... swelling in me again. Oh it feels so satisfying, but I feel like I’m going to orgasm, and he doesn’t have many thrusts left!

He slows his thrusting and leans close, murmuring in my ear, “I–I’m gonna put a baby in you whether you like it nor not, a-a-and you’re okay with that?”

“No?” I say breathlessly, “I mean, yes? I mean...”

Oh.

“No,” I tell him slyly, and without any conviction, “Pull that out of—nhh me. You’re not allowed to... to cum in there, where you’re... shoving it! I... I’m totally not... unnh enjoying... oh it feels so good...!”

“I love... I can’t stop... I love you. it... unh every time I...thrust feel you hot and deep gonna... make you give birth unh... nnnh!”

We’re not much more than whinnies and grunts and panting then at that hungry in-out that Nick feels compelled to do to me. His penis is so fleshy, and big. Like it’s growing inside me, pressing me out around him. My vagina loves feeling stretched open with a penis shoved deep. Little high girly coos escape me, when I feel Nick’s seed hitting my inner walls. He holds me against him, and in me, and just pulse, pulse, pulse in there!

I’m... just purring with my inner womanhood being full of Nick’s semen as he relaxes against my rear. And he’s all adorably distressed, saying, “Oh great, I did it again. Are you o...kay?”

“I might regret it later,” I tell the stallion penetrating my fertile rear, “But right now I feel wonderful, ”

I do regret it later of course, laying glumly on top of Nick, draped over him, saying, “Ugh... that was so stupid. I didn’t mean to make you rape me again.”

“You... really don’t mind if I don’t ask,” Nick muses in disbelief, “I just... impregnated you and you don’t mind.”

“I like being impregnated,” I tell him testily, “Just not the consequences after. Nick you were putting your seed into me. I loved that! And I’ve been... I’m already pregnant, so why can’t we do stuff like this?”

Climbing free of Nick, I tell him with an encouraging smile, “You don’t have to ask. And I will say yes, when I’m not feeling... weird about it. You can’t make me any more pregnant at all.”

“So some stranger can just mount you without asking,” Nick grumbles not making eye contact.

“You’re not a stranger,” I assure him, “You’re my best friend! We trust each other. So what’s a little... implied consent between friends? I don’t want to say yes, I just want to get... filled. And you can do it to me any time you like. If I can do that for you while I’m pregnant, then that’s amazing!”

“You’re amazing, that’s what, Meadowsweet,” Nick says with a bemused look and a nuzzle at my cheek, “I might just... take you up on your offer then. It seems too good to be true.”

“It’s not all good,” I reply crossly, “But... there is a lot of good in this. Until I change back, I... have a vagina to share with you. Simple as that. A place that makes you feel so good, just right in my hips there, and a place that makes me feel so good, when I feel you just slide up in there and... make me a mother.”

I wish it were that simple, of course. One time, Nick’s fucking me, and a pony just walks around the corner, takes one look at us, bristles and goes stumbling back around the corner. And I guess I really am the type of girl who doesn’t orgasm, because Nick’s penis feels wonderful, but I don’t have any... rhythmic vaginal contractions. Twilight Sparkle had those, and I know from the Internet those mean a girl is climaxing. But even if I can’t climax, the warm satisfaction at Nick pushing deep and feeling his semen start pumping into me is wonderful.

The real complication in all this is... John.

Oh ponies look at us. I know they do, in varying forms of judgement. But I can’t take it back, and I’d rather make Nick happy than them, so I still feel pretty good about it. At least I’m making use of that vagina of mine, unlike some ponies.

But shortly after Nick and my... sexual reunion, one day I feel so good that I can just trot up to him now and rub my face under Nick’s chin, with a blissful smile of joy on my face. That’s when I notice a pony watching us. It’s different from the others glancing our way curiously, or disapprovingly, or approvingly I guess. No this mare is standing there flat-footed, staring at us with a heartbreakingly crestfallen look on her face.

“Nick, who’s that?” I ask, indicating with my nose over there, “The blue and green pegasus.”

“Where?” Nick asks, and when I look, she’s gone. She was pretty upset I guess. Did I just...?

I lean against Nick, feeling a lot less blissful about our relationship now. It’s so wonderful when Nick fucks me. But her?

“Oh, that’s John,” Nick says cluelessly, once I spot her again for him, a few days later, “He used to be a guy,” Nick informs me, “He was one of the ones we were rescued with. His um... wing healed well.”

“Oh right! That’s where I saw... um... him,” I say cautiously, as we look again John’s way.

“Why, you jealous?” Nick asks, smirking at me.

“No!” I say, blushing hotly, “I’m not j-jealous! I’m not really a girl, remember?”

Blinking, Nick looks at me and says, “Oh yeah...” He forgot?!

I guess I can forgive Nick for forgetting, considering how much I’ve been using my vagina. But I can’t get that look John gave us out of my head. I didn’t wanna steal Nick from her. Uh, him? I’m going with her for now, until I learn John’s preference. That’s problematic though, because I think John’s avoiding me. She flies away whenever I draw near, and did I mention most of the pegasi living here can already fly? I want to ask John about that too, just out of curiosity, but I never manage to get close enough.

“He’s avoiding me too, dunno why,” Nick says, “We were talking a lot after the rescue operation, but I guess he...” Nick gives me an uneasy look. “...saw you with me, and didn’t want you to think me and him were... not that we were I mean. John’s a guy. He wasn’t interested.”

That is just intolerably wrong. I need the real story here. What I end up having to sneak up on John, which is of course a mistake. It happens when I’m um... trying to tempt Nick into heading off to this private grove of trees with me, by sliding my tail under his nose, remarking casually about my own particular scent at the time, when a burst of movement catches my eye.

I don’t see her anymore, but John was right there. She didn’t clumsily fly away, but she did hurry off just now. So... “Hold on, Nick, I... have to check on something,” I tell the stallion guiltily. Nick isn’t so incensed he has to mount me in the middle of the old corral where we’re standing around other ponies, but I do feel bad for teasing him when I run off. I’ll have to make it up to him later.

The teasing turns out to be important too though, not for me and Nick though. Because I hurry after John, and since she doesn’t take off into the air, it’s relatively easy. I just don’t want her to know I’m following her, or she will fly away again. So I pretend I’m doing other things, instead of following her, and just happen to be going wherever she’s going. It’s probably not very convincing, but she’s not paying attention to anything but her goal.

Eventually way out on the edge of the abandoned farm, John crouches down amid some bushes leafing out, and I think for a second that I’ve lost her. But as I cautiously approach the bushes, I can hear her muttering under her breath, “Oh Nick, please fuck me. My tail wants to... to touch you. Please just... climb on me and fuck me. I’m a... I’m a girl now. I wanna feel what it’s like. Oh Nick please, please, I–I need you...”

I carefully back away from the bushes, blushing red at the thought of what she’s doing back there. I can’t believe she feels like that. I can’t believe she wants him. She used to be a guy!!

...I used to be a guy.

Author's Note

Nick is such a nice guy.

Can’t Judge a Book By Its Cover

So, let’s recap. I’m working at a convenience store in Minnesota, keeping up my parent’s old house, when Twilight Sparkle comes in from the cold. But she’s actually not Twilight Sparkle at all, but Sunset Shimmer in disguise. She uses me, dumps me, and changes me into a pony, and a girl. My best friend Nick gets turned into a pony through having sex with me, but it doesn’t work when pony Nick has sex with Mira.

I should mention that Nick was also my only friend, so there wasn’t a very high bar to qualify as the best one. I swear he’s great though.

We uncover Sunset Shimmer’s evil plot to spread a virus that turns every human being on the planet into a pony, so that her queen can control them. Nick and I end up having more sex. A lot of sex. We chase that pony all the way to Baltimore, but she turns the tables on us, and now we’re getting accused of doing it! Then, not only am I pregnant, but I’m starving and dehydrated, not given enough food or water, and being interrogated by angry men in hazmat suits.

Things get kind of hazy at that point, but after somehow escaping the thing in my cell, I’m rescued by a group of ponies from the convention, led by none other than Twilight Sparkle herself. The real Twilight Sparkle. Hiding from the law, we desperately train our magic so that we can become powerful enough to open a gateway to escape to Equestria, help Twilight return home, and get the help of the ponies there. And I’m not the only male gone mare here, nor the only one who’s having some very female feelings about my best friend Nick.

I try to get it out of my head, how John must feel. That unfortunately named green and blue haired pegasus mare must feel awful, watching me just following Nick around like a puppy. Of course she wanted him, and then the moment I feel healthy enough to have sex with him, I take away her only chance! It’s so wonderful that Nick’s with me, and that we can just have sex without consequences, now that I’m too pregnant for there to be consequences.

But if I wasn’t there, maybe John could feel this way. I know it’s wrong, but even in the middle of having sex, I’m panting there full of Nick, with the stallion mounted on my rump, in my rump, I can’t help but think of how that other mare could have been doing this. How much she yearned to, all alone in the bushes. It’s good she doesn’t, because that’d make... two mares pregnant. But...

...I think I may be a really horrible person.

I notice John watching me and Nick one day, and it’s just too much. “Hey, Nick...” I say coyly, sliding alongside him, and trailing my tail under his nose, “I was thinking maybe we could go... y’know.”

Flagging my tail for him does it. John goes running off in the corner of my eye, just like last time I was practically humping Nick’s leg. This is what John wants to do, these lovely sexy suggestive strokes of my body against my stallion. These sensuous touches, telling him that he can cum inside me later. Nick takes a hopeful step towards me, not that I’m going to let him outright mount me in public. I lower my tail then, saying, “Uh oh. Did you see John?”

“Just now? No,” Nick says, looking at me in puzzlement.

Biting my lower lip, I say, “W-well you knew John pretty well, before you and I started... dating basically, right?”

“I suppose,” the grey unicorn says, casting his eyes down.

“It’s just there’s been something bothering her lately. I’m not sure what,” I lie, “But she ran off again just now. I think she was pretty upset. She won’t say anything if I’m there, but maybe you could talk to her on your own? Tell her I’m totally okay if she just... hangs out with us, and I’m not offended by her or anything?”

“This being a girl thing must be doing a number on you both,” Nick says with a sigh, “Even she—I mean—he sees you as just another girl, instead of trying to find out what’s really going on. If he met you, he’d know you weren’t like other girls.”

“Exactly, and if you can talk to her alone, then maybe we can get over all this silliness,” I say with a nervous giggle. It’s obvious Nick knows exactly what’s going on. I shouldn’t do this. I should just tell her I know what she’s doing. But it would be so precious if he found her... doing it!

“I know she usually goes off in those bushes on the south end of the field when she wants to be alone,” I offer hopefully, “But I don’t know her, so it hasn’t been my place to talk to her. I don’t suppose you could check over there, see if she’s you know, okay?”

“Right now?” he asks, one ear slumping.

“Well I think that’s where she went when she ran off just now,” I tell him, nuzzling under his chin, “D-don’t worry about me. I can find something to do while you work things out.”

Nick heads off, making me practically melt at the thought that this might actually work. I wait a while, then follow after, trying to make my hooves stop clomping on the dirt so much. I skirt the tree line on the edge of the field, watching furtively as my grey and purple stallion makes a beeline for those bushes. Ohh I hope she’s there! I hope she’s—John’s head shoots up from where she was lying behind the bushes. She totally was!!

I peer around the tree, unable to risk getting closer, but I can tell she looks embarassed as all heck, and Nick’s blushing heavily too. I bet she was calling out his name, even! They’re talking now, and John keeps looking away under her left wing all shyly, but eventually Nick just reaches out a hoof and guides her chin back to look him in the eyes. This is so romantic. Right out of a movie! Except with ponies instead of humans. They’re looking at each other, and... getting closer, and I think they’re going to kiss!

Nick closes his eyes as he joins lips with the green pegasus mare, and I really shouldn’t be sliding my hoof against myself for this, but her tail bobs up at the kiss, and I know she feels the same way too. Nick never even...

...huh, actually Nick’s never kissed me before.

Well that kiss shivers her into a decision, and parting from it she turns her rump to his, raising her tail. She’s gonna get pregnant that way! And Nick, that total asshole, he mounts up on her right away. I love him so much.

John spreads her wings then, right in Nick’s face, and leaps into the air, right out from under him. What?? John can’t fly yet, but she jumps forward and folds her wings when she lands, then just trots hastily away from Nick. I can hear her shouting out, “I’m sorry! It’s just not...!” but that’s about it. She just gallops off then, leaving Nick looking like the crestfallen one, and I feel absolutely horrible. What am I doing? It’s not my right to set them up together. She’s probably even more upset now! She was... she was touching herself, and calling out for Nick so quietly, before.

I can’t just leave things be though. It’s my fault, and Nick deserves to know how... awful I am.

“What is it, Meadows?” he asks with worry, after I lead him around behind the barn.

“It’s about John...” I say guiltily.

Nick stiffens at that, asking a bit too casually, “Wwwhat about John?”

“I knew she was... touching herself,” I say, tail drooping, “A-and that she was calling out your name.”

“W-what?” Nick asks giving me a look like I’ve gone insane. Well I have.

“I know I should be...” I force myself to look him in the eye, “...faithful to you. I’m a terrible g-girlfriend, and you’re the only one I’m supposed to... she just seemed so sad!”

Nick listens, bless his heart, while I pleadingly confess, “Didn’t you see her? Looking at us? You were... she thought you were going to be hers! So when I just... took you, it wasn’t fair!”

“Hey, I get to say whose I am,” Nick says crossly, “Are you defending her? I—”

“She wanted you,” I insist sorrowfully, “And I just screwed it up like usual. If I’d just... s-so that’s why I... asked you to check on her right then.”

“Because you were worried about her?” Nick asks in confusion.

“Because I knew that’s... I caught her there before,” I say, “Touching herself and... wishing she could be with you o-out loud. So I thought if you found her while she was doing that, then it’d be...

...adorable,” I conclude, not even sure how I felt about that.

“Meadowsweet, I’m sorry too,” Nick says sympathetically, then blinks and adds, “No wait I’m not sorry. You set me up!”

“For her!” I protest, “She... she kissed you!”

Nick’s face goes blank as I admit, “I was um... w-watching a little, to make sure it went okay. And it did, but... she ran away. I should never have... meddled.”

“Meadowsweet, you have every right to be angry with her, and... and fight with her over me,” Nick says in exasperation, “But you can’t try to set me up with another girl! We’re supposed to be together!”

“Yes, and it was wrong of me,” I tell the purple haired stallion, “I should have been more considerate. I need to apologize to her too. Can we... I swear she’s not—you know—doing that right now, but can you ask her to meet you? And... I’ll... kind of be there already, so we’re all there at once? She’s super avoiding me now, after you...”

I trail off nervously, and Nick doesn’t want me to finish that sentence, so I ask him, “...were you really gonna put a baby in her, too?”

“I—no, I... she just needed a little relief, that’s all,” Nick says, looking away.

“Because you did almost, you were about to—” I start to say, as Nick cuts me off, saying,

“I’ll talk to her. Meet us in the grove out west, alright? You know the... private one out of view of the barn.”

Well, I’m standing there in that circle of trees, hoping we can talk this out somehow. There are hoofprints all over, and scrape marks through the dusty ground, where I slid forward because... Nick was penetrating me. And there’s where I got my footing, pushing back, trying to get him even deeper in. Yes, this... place is out of sight of the barn, but as I recall what Nick and I have been doing here, it occurs to me that maybe it’s not the best place for this sort of discussion.

I’m busy wincing, and trying to use some dirt to clean a uh... discolored spot where I was rubbing on the tree the other day and kind of started peeing, not that I admitted it to Nick at the time. I’m quite busy vainly trying to clean up all the stuff that smells of me, when Nick and John come trotting into the grove.

The green pegasus mare takes one look at me, and turns to run, and I shout, “Wait! I’m not mad at you!”

She doesn’t run at least. Good enough. “I’m sorry, John,” I tell her sincerely as she faces away from me, “I followed you to where you were... doing things. I heard you saying you wished Nick would have sex with you. I knew you wanted Nick. And I told him to... find you, when you were out in the bushes. He... he almost impregnated you a-and you were smart enough to stop. I wasn’t smart enough, but you—”

John does turn then, looking at me with disbelieving blue eyes, asking me, “Are you seriously apologizing to me? Even after you heard what I was... was saying?”

“Well, it’s understandable,” I tell her practically, “I turned into a girl too, you know. And I... h-had sex with Nick. A lot. And I’m pregnant because of it. And I’m not complaining about that, but I... felt it too. I would have rubbed myself, begging someone to do me too, just to get some relief. I didn’t have the right to... trick him into stumbling on you.”

“So, even if I want it,” John asks, in strident disbelief, “Even if I want him you’re o-okay with that?”

“W-well you just—” I start to say appeasingly and she declares heately,

“I want him to... fuck me! I want him to put a baby in me! Not you, me! I’m a fucking girl and I can’t get any relief and it keeps making me want to be a girl, and a pony girl.”

“If you feel that way, there’s nothing wrong with it!” I protest, “The transformation just must’ve—!”

“I felt him,” she says lowly stalking towards me, “Slap my... tits. My horse tits with his dick. You were fucking riding that dick with your vagina, and I felt it slap against me, and he was gonna fuck me, and that’s... okay???”

With John angrily pressing her snout right to mine, I can’t really look away from eye contact, saying very uneasily, “...yes?”

Jerking away from me and pacing around, she half spreads her wings, then lifts her tail high right in Nick’s direction saying, “I’ll do him right now. Right here in front of you. You’re just gonna stand there and let me?”

“S-shouldn’t you be asking Nick if you want to have sex with him?” I ask fearfully, feeling like it’s all going wrong, and it’s my fault somehow.

John gives Nick a crazy look that swiftly turns desperate, as Nick crooks a foreleg and says, “Oh, I dunno. I think I’ve got a headache coming on. You’ll have to sleep on the couch today, hon—”

“This is not a joke!” I shout angrily at Nick, “Can’t you smell her?! She’s... her thingy is moving! That only happens to me when I’m dying for you to go in.”

“Well I am,” she says acidly in my direction, “I wanna be so fucking pregnant. I–I don’t even know what it’s like! And you just... fuck him whenever you want.”

“Well maybe if you paid attention to him, then he’d be fucking you by now!” I shoot back.

We both give Nick a look, and he lifts a hoof, saying, “No, it’s clearly you two who should be fucking. I’ll go get the body lotion.”

“I can see your boner from here, Nick,” I growl at him, “Just put it in her already! ”

“Look fine I–I can’t resist, but this’s John’s first... l-lift your tail, John.” She does without any hesitation. “She needs it so bad,” he tells me emotionally, “It’s so beautiful! I’m going to cum in there, Meadowsweet. And she wants to feel it!”

“I... I do!” John says in frantic lust, her pert little slot winking at the thought, “Oh god I’m gonna get pregnant! I need to s...show you my pussy so you’ll please...”

Nick mounts her hard. John’s eyes go wide as he climbs up and grabs her flanks. John’s wings spread out—she’s gonna jump away again!

Desperate, I wrap my arms around her chest and pull her out of the air, hanging on her neck with both forelegs.

“What are you doing?” Nick asks in exasperation.

“I’m just holding her down so she can’t escape!” I tell him in equal exasperation, “Now just get it inside her!”

“...that’s fucked up,” Nick says, but he must be progressing in getting this stupid mare some relief already, because still panting frantically, John struggles against me saying,

“I feel him! He’s gonna—ahh!” She gazes off declaring, “It’s stretching me—sliding! Oh god I feel him! I need it deep unnnnh...”

I release the panting pegasus mare, stepping back from her as John stands mounted, flush-faced, looking at me anxiously.

“That’s your vagina,” I tell her helpfully, standing before the mare, feeling kind of guilty for uh... holding her down while Nick mounted her...

“He’s... in me!” she replies in shock, “I–I can’t believe... is he gonna put a baby in me?”

“Why don’t you ask him?” I query.

She looks back at Nick mounted on her, with a hungry expression on his pony face, “Nick, o-oh god I never dreamed you would... you’re supposed to be Meadowsweet’s b-boyfriend!”

“She can share,” Nick says, gently sliding his dick out and back into John’s pussy.

“Oh, it feels so...” she says distantly, as Nick pushes in and holds again. How he doesn’t hammer that pussy to no tomorrow I have no idea, because this is so hot.

Looking back in disbelief at her lover, John declares, “That’s... that’s you in there!”

“Yup,” Nick says smugly, slightly grimacing as moves within her, “That’s me.”

“Oh god Nick, I... I touched myself,” she moans, facing forward. Nick starts slowly thrusting again as she says, “Wanted it so bad, when my pussy started going into me. Don’t wanna be a guy he’s sliding in and out unh unh.”

John’s looking at me now, eyes half lidded as Nick hunches over her, breathing hard as he hungers to impregnate her. Humping thickly back, she tells me huskily, “He’s gonna put a baby in me...”

I don’t know how to force John not to have a baby, so I just sit there watching the two earnestly make another little pony baby. “Y-you look like me,” I tell John anxiously. I don’t even care if she hears, but I tell her, “I don’t get to know what I look like when Nick’s doing that to me. You look beautiful.”

She doesn’t swiftly respond to that, but her eyes grow more full, and she slowly gives a look of aching pleasure to the distant horizon, declaring tightly, “It feels... so good!”

I suppose I should... touch myself or something. But it’s wonderful enough in its own way, seeing John filled with so much love and satisfaction. I don’t think they mind me just watching with approval. It would be bad for me to try and do more right?

I’m not supposed to be approving of this. It’s so beautiful though! I didn’t know Nick’s thrusts were so smooth and organic, or that his head bobs just a little with every thrust. And I guess that was Nick’s flare earlier, because he pushes deep into John and holds there. “Well that’s it. You’re becoming a mom now,” I tell her.

She does look at me then, with unfocused, half-lidded eyes, saying “Wait no, I need to pull out—” her eyes snap wide then, and whole body tenses. John arches back, and her wings extend, but it only ensconces Nick’s ejaculating penis deper inside her. Damn, it’s just shattering her world, feeling Nick spurting inside her.

Focusing on me hard, John declares with narrow pupils in a quavering voice, “It’s—it’s—!”

“Yeah, that’s what it feels like to get pregnant,” I tell her sympathetically, “You’re gonna be a mommy now.”

My attempt to pat her on the shoulder ends, when she lifts a forehoof and hooks it with mine, telling me intensely, “It... mmm, mmm, filling me mmm...”

Her intense look fades as Nick finishes impregnating her. She releases my hoof, breathing shakily into the air before her, “I’m having a... oh fuck Nick, you’re... I feel so good...”

John’s eyes grow liquid with intense gratitude then. Her husky panting turns to soft coos, her wings fold, and the mare relaxes. This whole thing was weird, but it’s kind of surreal seeing the green pegasus mare just sort of standing there, accepting Nick’s seed into her body, and... changing.

“Wow, that really does change you,” I say worriedly, wondering if I had that same reaction to Nick cumming inside me, “I guess you’re not... upset about having a baby?”

“I’d love to have a baby,” she says in a calm that seems to surprise even her. Looking back at Nick still mounted, John asks, “Is—is it alright if I talk, with you... in me?”

Nick blushes and hesitates to answer, so I catch John’s attention again, telling her, “Yeah Nick likes to stay inside me too, until he goes soft. Holding in the semen I guess.”

“Y–y-you felt this,” John says, looking my way with trembling eyes, looking at me as she starts crying. What?!

“You felt this good!” John says shakily, “This thing happened to you! Meadowsweet, I... I...”

I don’t know what to do, so I hug John, with a foreleg and everything, and she grabs me back and leans into my neck, sobbing something like a breathless, “Thank you! Thank you! I feel like this. Thank you!” Though she’s unintelligible to the point that it sounds more like “High phallic discs.” But I think I get the message. False alarm. These are happy tears.

John’s crying falls silent as the minutes go by, but she still holds her own forearm around the back of my neck, and presses herself against me.

I’m squatted down before John there. Nick gives me a look, so I shrug with my free foreleg.

“I’m... pretty much out of you, uhm,” Nick says, looking to John, “So I’m gonna get off, okay?”

Nick’s mostly standing on his hind legs anyway, just using John’s rump to keep his balance, so it’s no big deal. John’s answer is just an, “Mmm...” into the fur of my neck as she cuddles against me.

Nick pulls the last bit out and climbs off then, and there’s not much of a delay before John stiffens and pushes me away with a hoof. I release her to stand on her own, as John looks back at her own green rump, going, “Woah,”

“Yeah it really leaks out of you at first,” I tell her sheepishly. “It’s okay we’ll clean up before we go back to the barn. Your pregnancy is... still gonna happen though.”

“Uh huh,” John says distractedly looking underneath herself as Nick’s white seed oozes out down her pelvis and drips from her fur to the ground, “Wow, look at me go...”

I really don’t get John’s cavalier attitude towards pregnancy. She doesn’t even mood swing into a mild panic attack after her arousal cools, though I think that’s just me. And of course now she wants to be there watching, the next time... Nick does me. I never even knew Nick was into this sort of polygamy, but he doesn’t mind at all. Of course he likes the attention, when John’s so lovestruck she’s following him around like a puppy. I mean seriously, who does that?

As for me, it’s kind of... embarassing how much I lose control when I get aroused. I uh... I whinny a lot more than John does. Just being stuck there, unable to hide, or even move really, it’s harder to focus on the thrusts filling me, with John there telling me excitedly about how she can feel Nick in my belly, by her hoof pressed against it.

It’s adorable how happy it’s making her though, and it really would be difficult for me to feel myself, to find out how far Nick goes inside when he penetrates. When I’m having sex I want to just plant all four hooves and stand there stiffly using my full strength to push back against the stallion’s thrusts. And it’s nice to have somepony to... keep an eye out for those little things that I can’t think about when all I want to do anymore is breed.

I suppose in the end I have to think of how John feels. I can’t even imagine how grateful I’d be if... a guy I liked got taken by another girl, and then that girl came to me and made sure that I got together with them. It still bothers me how other mares look with longing at Nick and I, and John when she’s not too shy to show her affection in public. But the fact that I could do something so amazing for even just one person like John... that really makes it worth it to me.

It’s also kind of nice to have a friend to get... pregnant with I suppose. I wish I could ask a real girl about this stuff, specifically Mira. She’s not here at the barn anywhere though. Twilight Sparkle assures me that nopony has been found... dead, but she’s as frustrated as I am.

“There are over a dozen still unaccounted for,” Twilight tells me gently, “I have access to your military’s internal records, so I know they don’t know where they are. Maybe she... got away?”

I’m somewhat less worried for Mira because if the military doesn’t have her, then she’s not in one of those rooms. But that means I have no real girl to talk to about pregnancy. My pregnancy is... fine, I suppose. I haven’t been feeling morning sickness, though John and I both wake up one day with a flushed face, and a pretty big headache. And then John says something interesting about Twilight.

“Well, I’m sorry you don’t know where your sister is,” John says thoughtfully, “But Twilight Sparkle’s a real girl too. I bet she knows all about pony biology too!”

“You’re right!” I declare to her, then we both wince. “...you’re right,” I tell her more quietly, “Let’s go ask her if this is... normal.”

John and I find Twilight sitting on her belly in the back of the barn, messing with some floating purple... magic thing.

“Twilight, can we... ask you something?” I ask the purple mare hopefully.

“Sure, Meadowsweet, what can I help you with?” Twilight asks, looking away from the floaty magic ...thing she’s working on.

“It’s just John and I have been... something’s been... happening to us,” I tell her, while John shamefully looks away.

“What do you mean?” Twilight asks with worry, folding one foreleg over the other as she looks our way, “Sunset’s spell isn’t transforming you any further, is it?”

“No, no it’s just...” I also cross one hind leg over the other, blushing shyly saying, “We’ve been... doing... female things.”

“Well yes, you are female,” Twilight replies, lifting an eyebrow.

“We weren’t always, though!” I say, “There’s just things me and... John aren’t... sure how to deal with.”

“Things, like what?” Twilight asks cluelessly.

“Like... foals,” I manage to admit, blushing to silence.

“Ohh,” Twilight says, her eyes widening in understanding as she stands in place, putting a hoof on my shoulder, “That’s right,” she says putting a reassuring hoof to my shoulder, “You aren’t used to feeling about foals that way. Don’t worry, it’s perfectly natural. Every mare feels a sort of maternal instinct to care for them. Just remind yourself that they’re really adults, transformed by Sunset’s magic. It’s perfectly harmless if...” taking her hoof back, Twilight covers a giggle as she shyly admits, “They make you feel like... becoming a mother yourself, seeing them running around like that”

“They’re—they’re cute, I suppose?” I say in confusion, “I wasn’t talking about them. I was talking about... becoming a mother.”

“Oh, you’ve been having... feelings for somestallion?” Twilight asks, eyes widening in surprise, “Even though neither of you were born female?”

“More than feelings,” John grumbles.

“We just wanna know how to deal with... being mothers,” I say uneasily, “Since we have to... be mothers now.”

“Don’t worry, Meadowsweet,” Twilight tells me warmly, “It’s not like any stallion has asked for your hoof in marriage, right?”

Blinking, I say, “O-okay? But what if we weren’t uhm... married?”

A bright laugh escapes Twilight Sparkle, and then she struts past the two of saying in amusement, “Don’t you two know how foals are made?”

“We’re pretty familiar,” John remarks with a roll of her eyes.

“Obviously not, if you didn’t know about marriage,” Twilight says smugly, “Believe it or not I have studied the matter before, and the books clearly state that when a mare and stallion love each other very much, then they make a promise to be together, forever! It’s called marriage, and it’s wonderful. As a wife, you’ll begin feeling new special feelings, telling you to perform a...”

Twilight’s starry eyed blush turns into a nervous titter, as she says, “A sort of... special hug. It might seem strange to you now, but husbands and wives start feeling mysterious urges to do that, and when you do, then deep within you, a beautiful foal will appear!

“It’s called pregancy,” Twilight says smartly, “Your belly will grow with the foal in it, day by day, until one day, you become a mother!”

John and I are kind of speechless, so Twilight smiles our way saying, “You two aren’t even married, so you don’t need to be worried about motherhood. Just don’t marry a stallion until you’ve become human again, and you’ll be fine!”

“Well if... somepony had... done that special hug, without being married, and were... pregnant with somepony’s foal,” John says very nervously, “What would... happen?”

“Why would anypony do that?” Twilight asks, looking at John in horror, “No stallion would be that evil! What would happen to the poor foal? I–I–I can’t believe you’d even suggest that!”

“I–I don’t know,” John says, sinking miserably, looking away, “I don’t know...”

“If there were some stallion evil enough to do that to a mare without being married, that’s just... awful,” Twilight says digusted, “If you ever see anypony like that, I want you to come straight to me. I’ll make sure he never does that to anypony ever again.”

“H-how?” John squeaks.

“I don’t know, I never thought of something so awful before,” Twilight says, staring forward, “If there was such a monster, maybe the Elements of Harmony could... but they’re not here. All I know is I’d want to make him regret ever touching some poor mare. I’d tell everyone, hold him guilty for trial and then... there has to be a way to make a monster like that just disappear forever.”

Uh...

“N-no problem we’re just fine!” John says with a desperate smile, “No stallions doing that o-or anything.”

“Well of course not,” Twilight said with a roll of her eyes, “The books clearly state that a mare will feel the urge to foal after she is married. Now, what has been happening to you two, lately?”

“Headache!” I yelp tensely, “J-just been feeling a little uhh under the weather lately, no big deal just a little head b-belly...”

...foal.

Twilight feel at my forehead with her hoof, but her look of worry turns to a smile as she says, “You two probably just have an Equestrian cold. It’s nothing to be worried about. I must have brought it with me when I came from Equestria. Yes, that makes sense.”

“So we can get Equestrian diseases,” I say uneasily.

Nodding, Twilight explains, “Sunset Shimmer is obsessed with the idea that ponies are somehow superior to all other creatures. She’s been conducting illegal and cruel experiments for years, changing creatures into ponies. No doubt when she escaped to your world, she saw a golden opportunity.” With a worried frown, Twilight adds, “I don’t know exactly what she did to you, but I know how she thinks. I’ve been investigating her for a long time, you see, and Sunset... thinks she’s giving you a gift. She doesn’t realize of precious your humanity is. She feels like she’s saving the world by changing every talking creature into a pony.”

With a sympathetic smile, Twilight says, “She’d do everything in her power to transform you into a pony through and through, just like me and her. That was what once proved her downfall in fact, when ponies—creatures she transformed into ponies turned against her. I strongly believe that if she turned you into a pony, you would be just as much of a pony as I am.” Twilight’s smile turns to a wince, as she concludes, “Eeeeven if that means you might be vulnerable to a few Equestrian viruses.”

“Oh, wow,” I say, lifting a hoof and looking down at it. I’m a real pony? I mean not really but... if I was born a pony, I’d be just like this?

“Sorry we... bothered you,” John says with an uneasy hoof lift.

“Don’t worry, John,” Twilight assures her, “You two are really male on the inside, so you won’t feel any urges to marry a stallion. If any stallion ever tries to force you, what you need to do is kick him as hard as you can right between his legs. That’s a notorious weak point in stallions. Then you come running to me, and I promise, we’ll make him pay.”

With my own hind legs squeezing together in pained sympathy, I say, “Y-yeah, nopony out there like that.”

“We—we just have a headache,” John says, her own tail pressed right down on her hindquarters.

“Alright, but let me know if it gets any worse,” Twilight says worriedly, feeling at my forehead, “Try to stay hydrated, and just... bear with it. These things usually clear up in a week or two.”

“Will do,” I add glumly.

“Don’t worry, Meadowsweet,” Twilight assures me, “We’re all friends here, and no friend is going to force anypony to bear foals. Your virtue is safe and sound!”

“Yeah, it’s... great...” John says with very little enthusiasm.

“What’s great is how you’re getting so comfortable with your pony forms. I see that you’ve been getting lots of exercise, for instance!” Twilight says with a smile.

“E-exercise?” John squeaks, as we remember just what that exercise was.

“Oh, don’t think I can’t tell,” Twilight rolls her eyes, “Ponies who have exercised together and become very tired have a very distinctive smell I’ve found. Surely you noticed, too? Many smells are important social cues for ponies like us. You both smell like every other pony who’s content from a good, hard workout.”

“A-any specific kind of workout?” I ask, with a leery hoof to my chest.

“I dunno, kicking perhaps?” she suggests with calm, unsuspecting purple gems for eyes, “My friend Rarity smells like that after she’s been dancing privately with a romantic stallion. Whenever Pinkie Pie smells like this, she always tells me she’s been wrestling, which is a bit of an odd hobby, but if she and Fluttershy like that sort of thing, it’s really not for me to judge.”

Twilight pats me on the head, which is a little awkward since we’re basically the same height, saying, “It’s okay if you wanted to dance together, or practice your kicking, or even try to beat each other at wrestling if you like that. I’ve been so worried that you’ll be traumatized by your unfortunate transformation into a pony, it’s just such a relief to know you’ve been having fun. But er...”

She winks knowingly, saying, “Ponies are gonna be able to tell a lot about you from how you smell. We don’t keep secrets from each other the way humans do, so don’t be surprised if you become better friends from what you learn about each other through smell.”

“Right...” I say, staring at her in disbelief, “Ponies don’t keep secrets... and all Rarity does is dance with those stallions.”

“Yup,” Twilight says with a cheerful smile, bowing aside to pass along by us. “Well, I need to go check on the provisioners,” Twilight states apologetically, “If you need to tell me anything, you’re free to do so. I want your stay as a my little pony to be as pleasant as possible!”

In retrospect I should have known that extramarital sex would upset Twilight terribly. No pony in the show ever had a single parent, or divorced parents. Every couple with children were happily married, even Shining Armor and Princess Cadence, the rulers of the Crystal Empire. I guess I didn’t realize how being sheltered like that could make you see the slightest little thing as a horrifying crime.

Not that Nick is the slightest little thing, when he’s cumming inside me. But... our forbidden union will have to stay a secret if we’re going to Equestria. I hope nopony finds out how twisted we are, because John was so shaken up over it, and how did we deal with that? Not by any sensible method, that’s for sure! The first thing we did was go find Nick, and we didn’t stop until John was rearing up and crying out his name, and Nick’s semen was dripping out of her snatch as fast as he could ejaculate up inside her.

I wish I could find John a nice stallion, so she could get married the right way in Equestria, and not have to... worry. Me and her can conceal our pregnancies for now, but once we start showing, it’s... not going to be pretty. But there are so few stallions in our group, and it seems like every one of them is hanging out with a ton of mares! Especially the ones who used to be girls.

It sucks how I keep wanting to touch myself all the time. I’ve never looked at a penis and just wanted it before, like to the point I wanna roll on the ground and jam my hoof into myself, then want a penis to slide in there, even more. It feels good, so no problem, right? But when I’m sounding like a girl, and presenting my ass like a girl, and fucking like a girl, and dreaming of boys like a girl...

Twilight is right. I should still be attracted to girls. And honestly, sometimes when I touch myself, I think of John with Nick and her expression of bliss as she shamelessly arches back is just sexy as hell. I look at Twilight sometimes, and I wish I could cum inside her, like I did when she was Sunset Shimmer, but I don’t have a penis.

I just feel like I want to be whatever my body is. I want to be whatever other people like. But as for what I like? I just like... being with people, and... getting cummed inside is nice, but when I was a guy I could... orgasm. Supposedly girls can orgasm, but it’s just not obvious how. I don’t have a penis to cum with, or stroke to climax, so... what am I supposed to do with just a hoof?

As time goes by, I almost wish for the false Twilight that Sunset Shimmer may have beguiled me with. She was so... expressive. It didn’t feel like she was out of control, but it was just nice how she could relax around me, and I could relax around her. This Twilight is more mature, yet more sheltered. And I have a terrible secret to keep from her, a secret that’s growing in my belly every time we speak. And it is adorable how embarassed she gets at the slightest amount of lewdness, but if you keep pushing her, she starts to get angry, and it just feels... wrong to do that to her.

I mean obviously, she’s coming from a kingdom like Equestria, suddenly being exposed to human society is going to give her some serious culture shock. But I just wish she could open up to us more, and not worry about what’s proper, or what Princess Celestia would think of her behavior. I guess it’s just part of who Twilight is as a pony, but it feels like there’s something more to her besides just being polite and friendly.

What it is, I don’t know.

I’m just glad that Twilight Sparkle is real after all. We’re all ponies here, but she’s something special. She can use her magic to levitate whole bales of hay, and she can do so much with it. She’s tirelessly teaching others to use their magic, and I know Nick gets a little better at making his horn light up in the bright green of his real magic. John and I... deal with our pregnancy, as uncomfortable as it is becoming. After that talk with Twilight, I end up with uncomfortable cramping all the next day, making it hard to walk from my insides twisting up and... getting more pregnant I suppose.

The next day, I’m absolutely ravenous for some of that soup. My headache goes away, the cramps stop cramping up, and I actually feel pretty good. Me and John both have finally adjusted to being pregnant, and I am up and raring to go. Not that I’m an incredible example of physical prowess.

There are two reasons my physical strength would be flagging behind the others. Now that I’m pregnant, first off, my energy level’s going to be lower since my body has to devote so much to that all important growing pony within my pelvis. But secondly, I spent a whole month er... indisposed, so all the other ponies who haven’t been ponies as long as I have, they’ve had some time to catch up.

Twilight has me spend my time on mostly... I guess a sort of meditation? Twilight doesn’t really explain it, or as she says, she can’t explain it, but it’s important for an earth pony to go into any tense situation relaxed, and closing your eyes and stilling to calm your mind does that. Well, it feels nice at any rate. Feels like I’m... grounded, go figure. Connected with everything around me, the earth, the wind, the trees, the other ponies... it’s all sensation coming into my body, and that sensation is a sort of connection, if that makes any sense?

Honestly I think Twilight’s just finding something for us earth ponies to do. But I don’t really mind being the useless one, when the others can be so wonderful and powerful. Twilight has been able to help the pegasi and the bat ponies, despite having no wings. She’s just an ordinary unicorn as if season 3 never happened, but she has studied flight, and she knows the exercises and ways to move, that the pegasi can do. Maybe there isn’t much training for whatever earth ponies are good for, but that frees up a lot of my time, so I can go watch John learning to fly.

Over the past weeks, Twilight’s been having them jumping, and spreading their wings. She’s been having them pull at each other’s wings, which she says gives them a feeling for the new limbs they have. And one by one they begin to fly. Eventually it’s John’s turn. That day, as always, Twilight tells them to jump, and they jump, then John just flaps her wings mid-jump, and it makes her go higher. Then she flaps again and again, sounding surprised when she twists there in the air, going, “W-woah!”

“Just like the others. Fold your wings!” Twilight calls out to John. She complies and thumps back to the ground. She’s not the first winged pony who surprised themselves into flight. But from the smile on her face, as she beams at me from the crowd, I think I know who’s getting Nick tonight.

“No! Not John... not John...”

Yes, John. She keeps gasping that as our boyfriend absolutely rails her though. Nick passionately humps his penis into her clutching birth canal, while I... feel like I want to be part of that. But I can’t be jealous now: this is a celebration of John’s accomplishment. Even if she’s having a hard time with being called John.

“What do I call you then?” Nick says, shuddering as he pushes deep, “What do I—call—cum! Gonna—”

“Unhh,” John responds blissfully, slightly rocking her own hips with every pump of his semen inside her, “Call me mommy...”

Unfortunately, we can’t call her that in public. But she does occasionally come up giggling to sit with me, whispering into my ear, “Hey, mommy.”

“Hey mommy,” I reply fondly to the green mare, and she giggles and wiggles her hind legs in delight. I... I wanna fuck her. She’s so cute, and I just want to get right up to that entrance into her green, furry, pregnant belly and... wish that I still had a penis. I guess.

I’m lucky Sunset Shimmer changed my name. It’s so awkward to call a mare Bruce, or a stallion, Gladys. Everyone didn’t just switch sexes, fortunately. That’d be a special kind of spiteful I think, if everyone who changed into a pony ended up as the opposite sex. The reality is more like three quarters of the guys became mares, a quarter of the girls became stallions, and everyone else stayed the same sex.

But... y’know... nobody remembers the statistics. Everyone remembers the hunk of a stallion named Gladys, who’s so nervous about showing off his package, because... well yeah.

It’s really impressive what some of these ponies can achieve. We can jump no less than six feet straight up, which is freaking huge. That’s like twice my height! Pegasi and bat ponies both quickly outshine us though. I have to stare in absolute amazement at one point at a flock of the bat ponies and pegasi among us, just hanging out together... in the air. Anything from hovering to soaring seems to be in their capability, and I don’t really understand how wing beats come into it, but none of them are doing anything besides just flapping them. Twilight’s been so good at teaching them, that the sky’s the limit!

Well, actually they’re not supposed to fly too high, in case the government picks them up on radar. But a lot higher than the 6 feet I can jump. Well, unless you count getting startled up onto a rafter 12 feet overhead by rebounding off the wall. That is something that just sort of happened to me, but it’s not quite as effortless as winged flight. Nor as reproducible, for that matter. I swear the spider was like the size of a baseball, though! I can, however, climb most any walls with ease. It’d have to be a... really high wall, to keep a determined earth pony behind it.

Twilight personally gives me a crash course in magic hoofsies, which is just amazing. “Hey Meadowsweet! Catch,” she says at one point, throwing a golf ball at me. When I catch it, she yelps out, “Okay! Now wait, hold it, just try to think about what your forehoof is doing right now.”

I don’t want to say I have... vacuum hooves, but when I look at that little ball, and feel it... I feel myself pulling the ball into my own hoof, I can’t really understand what’s going on, but it’s a little stronger than just the force of sheer belief.

That’s really the key to climbing walls. With a running start you can actually latch onto the wall itself to pull you up higher. It’s not exactly walking vertically, but if I can keep my upward momentum going... I don’t know what my limits would be. I’m sensibly afraid to try climbing the outside of the barn to stand on the roof. If I had wings, sure. But as-is, I’ll stick to jumping fences, and climbing trees.

Oh, climbing trees is a lot of fun. Getting back down isn’t though, as I discover for about a half hour one afternoon, until somepony comes along and hears me calling for help.

One evening towards the end of the month, Twilight gathers a bunch of ponies, including me and Nick.

“Alright, now,” Twilight says carefully, “We may have a bit of a crisis on our hooves, but I have found some of the missing ponies. Our contact with the police has reported a... situation. Three ponies who escaped from the convention center have been spotted hiding in the house of a friend.”

Twilight paces before us in soft clops on the dirty wood floor, saying, “The authorities are still trying to decide what to do, but... it’s more along the lines of deciding whether to capture them, or... something more permanent than capture. Sunset’s attempt to ruin your lives has thankfully not spread to other humans outside the initial exposure, but I meant it when I said I would get everypony to safety.”

Facing us with as grim an expression as her cute pony face can adopt, Twilight says, “We need to gather a group, and extract these ponies before the authorities make their move, and unfortunately the exact timetable is outside of our awareness. I-it might not be entirely safe. We need to be prepared for a run-in with the police, so that we can settle things in a clean, nonviolent manner if it occurs. We’ll probably get the ponies out, long before any cops show up, but I don’t know what kind of surveillance they have on the residence.”

Twilight looks between me and Nick, saying, “What we’re going to do is get in, and get out. We’ll need the help of Nick and Meadowsweet here especially for that, because...” she smiles hopefully, “One of the ponies spotted has been a golden furred bat pony, with a mane and tail of orchid pink and greenish cerulean. You two may have said something about a...”

“Mira!” I declare in shock, “That’s what she changed into, is an orange batpony with a pink and—”

“Yes, so that’s why we need your help,” Twilight replies hastily, “If Mira recognizes you, it should help us get them to relative safety as quickly as possible.”

Nick and I aren’t the... first choices for people to do that sort of thing, but we get some help from the people who are working on that stuff. For my part, I’m pretty much healthy again, and eating like a—well, a horse. Hay isn’t as bad as you’d think. It definitely isn’t very filling compared to prepared food, but between that and the soup and the occasional cookie, I’m plumping up nicely.

Nick’s got his magic working well enough, and that alone makes him pretty close to ideal for a rescue mission. “Ideal” is kind of the wrong word, when it comes to our group. The bar is so low because we’re all completely clueless at being ponies. None of us are truly prepared for highly skilled, specialized things like rescue missions. But that’s what we have to work with.

There’s very little rhyme or reason to the people who became ponies, outside of they were all at a My Little Pony convention for one reason or another. Some have search and rescue experience, others... have cooking experience, and not much else. Some were in security or other sort of fighty stuff, and a few were awarded soldiers. One actually is a soldier, just attending the convention on leave. But most of us are just... ponies, so it only takes a little pizazz for Nick to stand above the crowd.

It was actually not Twilight, but a pink and white bat pony going by the name of Curlique, who found this farm. She escaped the compound during the night thanks to... well, wings, and sought the help of someone in a nearby town. They knew a human who knew a human, who led everyone to this relatively remote location. Or so the story goes. I probably should be hanging around the actual humans more. I know one of their names is Dave, at least. I don’t really know them though, and there aren’t very many of them... and I’m just so excited about all things pony that I have to learn.

Now, three ponies including Mira are holed up in a house somewhere, sitting ducks for Sunset Shimmer or the cops to descend upon them. They need our help, and we’re not the help they need. Twilight helps us prepare though. She helps me with magic hoofsies, and shows Nick a rather kickass stunning spell (or nerve damper as Twilight puts it). Other ponies learn other things too, and the next evening, a bunch of us crowd into the van, and one of the humans (the one who owns the farm) drives us off.

Our van is unmarked, painted a plain blue this time, thanks to Twilight’s color changing spell. The license plates are completely blank, but Twilight casts an illusion over them that makes it look like they have normal license plate numbers. Anyone who sees it won’t be alarmed, but any cameras that take a picture of it... okay I really don’t know how illusions work, but apparently cameras photograph the illusion, but when the illusion fades... it does in the photos too. I don’t know all the details about how we’re concealing ourselves, but some of this stuff is pretty freaking amazing.

We again travel for hours down the road, singing to help pass the time. It’s... strange how easy it is to sing along with a song. It just comes naturally to me now. Someone starts singing a song about never giving up, and I just... sing what needs to be sung. Harmony is strong in the back of our van, and we collapse into giddy laughter more than once, because it just feels so good to work together like this. Being a pony is turning out to be kind of... scarily awesome.

Author's Note

I’d write about what they sung, but using copyrighted song lyrics is forbidden, on a website where people publish stories infringing on Hasbro’s trademarks.

...

I GET KNOCKED—

The Benefit of the Doubt

Heading down the road in an unmarked van to save our friends and fellows, a bunch of ponies sing copyrighted song lyrics, and boy is it fun. I never sung in a choir or anything before, but I can just... follow with what the others are singing, sort of like Fluttershy and the Pony Tones, except I’m definitely a soprano, not a hearty bass.

We quiet down on reaching our destination. I’m starting to get anxious again. How do we know Twilight’s not just lying about the police, and she is instead taking us in this unmarked van to do something even more nefarious to us than turn us into ponies? This whole thing could just be a setup in order to get me and Nick to convince Mira to let Twilight kidnap her. I never found who Twilight’s contact was in the police, which would be good to protect his safety, but it could also just be a huge ruse.

But... Twilight’s been so nice, and she’s done so much good for us so far. Nick knows how to use his horn now, and even I received some training, at least in how to move around as a pony. And the other hundreds of pony people back at the barn would definitely notice if we went missing, especially John. But maybe we’re the kidnapped ones? I just don’t have enough information to make a judgement call here. Maybe Twilight’s setting us up and kidnapping Mira, or maybe she’s trying to help us against the real villain, and saving Mira. I guess I’ll just have to ask Mira what she wants to do. I hope I’ll get the chance.

It’s dark when we all pile out of the van, very dark. Yet I can still see everyone, or at least their outlines. We’re stumbling a little bit, but for the most part the street lights, even in this darkened woody little park that we came out in, are enough to dully illuminate all the shadows.

“Twilight,” I whisper to the unicorn while everypony’s getting... geared up might be too generous a statement. Getting belts on with various... tools, that I don’t really pay a lot of attention to, because I’m trying to talk to Twilight.

“About your contact with the police,” I whisper to Twilight Sparkle, “How did you... come into contact with them?”

Twilight blinks at me, large eyes luminous in the dark of the night, then she winces. “Yeah, this all probably looks pretty bad from your point of view,” Twilight admits quietly, “Long story short, they’re a fan, and I took a risk, but they haven’t spilled any beans yet. But what I asked them to do is a little more reliable than only trusting them at their word. I’ll tell you all about it once we’re out of here. Right now we just have to focus on remaining unseen, getting in, retrieving the ponies, and getting back to the farm refuge. I’m so sorry that Sunset used my form to get to you. It must be hard to trust me...”

“No, I can trust you,” I whisper back to the droopy eared unicorn, “I just don’t want Mira to get hurt. We’re...

“What we’re doing is good, right?” I ask.

Twilight looks at me earnestly, pleadingly, and says, “Meadowsweet, I promise you that I have no intention to doing anything to hurt your sister. I don’t want to hurt any of you, and I won’t let anyone else hurt you either. The farm is... it’s just a better situation than Mira is in now. If I suddenly start...”

She huffs in frustration.

“...turning on you, then at least you’ll be together, and in the unlikely event that I’m secretly still Sunset Shimmer in disguise or something, it’s a better chance than if these three ponies stay isolated here where they are. She could...” Twilight looks a little haunted, as she says, “Sunset could easily prey on them when they’re all alone like this, if the police don’t get to them first. I just... I just need you to trust me. Just this once.”

“...can you Pinkie Promise you won’t hurt Mira?” Nick says in his crafty tenor, walking up to the right of me.

“I Pinkie Promise that nothing I’m doing has anything to do with hurting Mira, or any of you,” Twilight says gladly, “If you do get attacked, it won’t be my doing, and in fact I shall be doing my best to protect you. Er... cross my heart and hope to fly. Stick a cupcake in my eye.”

She even makes the motions; it’s kind of adorable, for a pony who’s clad in a dark suit in the middle of a moonless night.

“But you didn’t promise not to hurt Mira,” Nick says with a firm set to his stubborn jaw. Well good, because that’s actually a good point.

“Pinkie Promises...” Twilight says softly, “Are special. I can’t promise I won’t hurt your friend, because I don’t know the future, and I don’t always have control of what I do. If I promised that, and I accidentally hurt her, even a little, that’d be breaking my promise, and...” she shudders. “I’m probably safe from Pinkie Pie in an entirely alternate dimension,” Twilight admits, “But I really don’t wanna take that chance. I’d have to tell her when we got back and... and breaking your promise is the fastest way to lose a friend forever. I’m not trying to hurt any of you.”

Nick still isn’t smiling, so Twilight sighs and says, “I Pinkie Promise that I’m not trying to hurt any of you, nor do I intend for any of you to get hurt. Including Mira. Possibly excluding Sunset Shimmer. Cross my heart and hope to fly. Stick a cupcake in my eye.”

One more time, and she pulls her hoof away from her eye, looking at us both hopefully, and asking, “We good?”

I look to Nick, and he nods. Sighing, I nod too, facing Twilight Sparkle and declaring, “Let’s do this.”

It’s very difficult to sneak around unseen in a suburban neighborhood. I’m sure someone at least has to notice us taking out the streetlights, but if we didn’t do that, there’d be no cover out on the street. You can’t shortcut through backyards without climbing 6 foot tall security fences, avoiding the ubiquitous motion sensing backyard lights, and occasional viciously trained guard dogs. The modern American neighborhood is the very picture of paranoia, I have to say. We manage though.

It helps that we can smell whether someone’s backyard has a dog in it or not.

In our trek, we cross meticulously groomed lawns, flat pavement, skinny trees. There’s no moon in the sky, only the stars overhead glimmering between the clouds as we creep forth in the cool night air. If you told me a year ago that I would be sneaking through a suburban neighborhood at night totally naked, I’d have been more likely to believe a story about me turning into a pony. Fur’s great and all, but it’s still skin, not clothes, and I can feel with my skin!

Twilight takes us up to the backyard of a modest, two story house, one among many, all the same, far to the left and right of us. We gather everypony together behind the backyard fence hiding us from view, its opaque planks towering above us. From there, Nick, me and a green haired blue pegasus now calling herself Patricia are supposed to sneak into the house, to scout out if our friends are still in there, and sound the alarm if the police have set us a trap.

A sliding glass door is no match for unicorn telekinesis, so with a soft click, the lock opens, and a pegasus, an earth pony and a unicorn quietly ease into the dark house. I’m the earth pony, if that’s not clear. The rest of the team awaits us three, behind the other side of the backyard fence, out of sight, and out of the light, ready to approach only if we come back with good news.

I really hope this isn’t a trap.

We cluster together in the kitchen on the first floor, and Nick manages to find the light switch. Blinking in the sudden brightness, we find ourselves in a depressingly ordinary kitchen, were the level of the countertops not above our heads. Plastic countertops bearing a mounted knife set, some jars of what I can’t see, and a few dirty pots piled in the sink. The rest of our world is cabinets, because that’s pretty much all you can see from a pony’s level, is the ground level cabinets all around. In this giant’s kitchen, I swallow my fears, and cautiously call out, “M...mira?”

“Mira?” I call out more loudly, then “Mira, it’s me Meadowsweet!”

No answer. “You try, Nick,” I whisper to him. Patricia has a friend here, supposedly, but her friend won’t exactly recognize her voice, since the last they saw each other was at the convention, when she was still a guy.

“Mir—” he starts to shout, dropping silent at a sudden thumping of rapid hooves on carpet. Emerging from the darkness of a hallway, a brightly colored bat pony dives at me, and tumbles me over backwards when I reflexively rear up to catch her.

“Meadowsweet!” Mira says, weighing me down, snout-to-snout with the brightest smile. “How did you find me?”

“Uh, hey Mira,” Nick says, a vast contrast between his smooth voice and awkward introduction. Mira looks up from me and then her rear hooves jam into my chest as she uses me as a springboard to tackle Nick, shouting,

“Nick! You both found me? Where have you been? Can you get us out of here? Oh I really hope you can get us out of here, we’ve been stuck here for weeks, and we’re in a real pickle now!”

“Calm down, Mira!” I whisper to her urgently, when behind the tangle of her and Nick, another pony emerges from the darkness, and then another. They’re much more hesitant to approach, a young little red furred filly with a swath of blue hair on her head, and butt I assume, and a young-ish looking mare with hair almost the same color, and green fur like Lyra, sorta. The green one has ordinary pegasus wings folded to her sides. Both of them look really... worn out.

“Are you here to get us out of here?” the filly asks in a squirrelly little voice, “Oh please tell me you can.”

A light in the adjacent room flicks on, and a human walks into the picture. She’s kind of portly, with brown hair, and um... human looking skin. I honestly can’t tell if it’s caucasian or not. “Oh dear lord, more of them?” she says in rough voiced horror, looking from us to the front window and back. “L-listen pony uh...people, you can’t stay here,” she says with a desperate urgency in her weirdly tiny eyes, “They’ve had us staked out for days now. I don’t know how you got here, but you better go back right now.”

“We intend to!” Patricia says firmly, standing up straighter, “Is any pony here injured? We can carry them if needed.”

“Wait, seriously?” Mira says, climbing up from a suspiciously long time in getting untangled from Nick, “You’re here to rescue us?”

“Yes, but,” I uneasily clarify, “There’s sort of a—”

“Oh that is so amazing,” Mira gushes, practically dancing on her hooves. “We have been cooped up in here for just about forever and we think the cops suspect something, so we can’t even be in front of the windows!”

“Y-you do?” I ask, taken aback at her enthusiasm, though in hindsight it makes a lot of sense.

“The police haven’t found us yet, but Mrs. Hoffman has seen some police cars parked around the neighborhood,” the green furred pegasus says, stepping towards us, “Uh, there aren’t usually, I mean. And some strange people watching the house. I don’t... nobody really knows what they would do to us. It’s not like they’re asking us or a-anything.”

Mira gives the pegasus a strained, uneasy look at that.

“We’re going to get you three out of here, tonight,” I assure them. “We need to do it now, though. Are you ready to go? Our er... escape van can’t stay for long without anyone noticing it, plus they’ll send someone to look at the busted street lights.”

“Wow, you... really went all out to get here,” Mira says in wide-eyed astonishment, her catlike pupils narrow in the kitchen light, “I’d just have hidden in the back of a pickup or something. Which is how I got here.”

“A strange van pulling into your driveway is not exactly the kind of recognition we’re looking for,” Nick says with a wince, “And we’re not sure if they could recognize the van or not. It’s unlikely, but... you know, with the orbital satellite cameras and all.”

“This place where we’re going,” the filly pipes up down at the level of our shoulders, “Where... I mean is it... safe? Can we go outside?”

“We can go outside a little,” I tell her happily, “It’s a pretty remote location,”

“What are we waiting for then?” the filly blurts out in astonishment, “I haven’t been able to take one step outside, for a month! It’s driving us all crazy!”

“Yeah I... really sympathize,” I tell her honestly, “But there’s one problem I need to tell you. Tell Mira, really.”

“Tell me what?” the golden furred batpony asks, blinking in surprise.

“The thing is...”

...

She’s so hopeful, I don’t want to scare her, so I have to be careful here. Earnestly, I tell Mira with great encouragement, “Now, I want you to know this group saved me. Me and Nick were in a... horrible place, and they rescued us. T-they saved my life. They nursed me back to health when I was almost dead. I think they’re all pretty incredible, for a bunch of convention goers.”

“...but?” Mira asks cautiously.

“But um...” I wince and leerily admit to my sister, “The pony who’s m-making them incredible, leading them, and helping them save all these ponies is... Twilight Sparkle.”

Mira’s mouth drops open.

“Someone’s calling themselves Twilight Sparkle?” a filly whines disapprovingly.

The filly in question is an adorable little red furred earth pony, with blue hair like... not quite sky blue but more like blue blue. Yes, blue blue. She’s not looking so happy, her hair limp around her ears, and her tail drooping, which makes sense if she’s been holed up in someone’s house for the last month, together with a third pony whom I don’t know, a green pegasus mare who’s not quite a filly, and my sister Mira, now a golden furred batpony with pink and blue hair. And probably not genetically related to me anymore.

While Mira collects her thoughts at approximately light speed, I tell the red-furred filly, “No, it really is Twilight Sparkle.” because somehow in a complete absence of logic or sanity, Twilight Sparkle saved me from hell, and here in this cozy kitchen on the ground floor of yet another house in suburbia, I’m working with Twilight Sparkle again, to save my friends from an equally terrible fate.

“I mean, she says she is Twilight Sparkle, but she can prove it!” I tell the filly cautiously, in my sweet, melodic mare’s voice, which I more than deserve, after what me and Nick did to assert my status as a female. Which is to say I’ve got his baby inside me right now, as far as I know. Because that’s a thing that can happen to me now, thanks to Sunset Shimmer’s sorcery. “She knows so much about ponies,” I say excitedly, “It couldn’t possibly be anypony else. She even knew how to teach Nick to use his magic!”

“The farm is only a temporary solution,” the grey furred, purple unicorn called Nick says, in his smooth tenor, “There are a lot of ponies there, and we’re crowded, and low on supplies.”

“Twilight says that Sunset Shimmer disguised herself as Twilight Sparkle so that I’d let my guard down, and wouldn’t suspect her of wrongdoing!” I relay to Mira, “Which worked really well. Twilight... the real Twilight is here to investigate, and now she needs to get back to Equestria, to regroup and get support for stopping Sunset Shimmer once and for all.”

“So that wasn’t a changeling?” Mira says in some confusion, looking between us.

Shaking my head, I say, “I don’t know. I really don’t know anything. After somepony can disguise themselves as somepony else, you’re never really sure of anything, or anyone. Even I could be Sunset Shimmer in disguise, trying to fool you. Is Twilight? I don’t think Twilight is trying to fool us, but...”

Ears lowering, I look away and whimper, “My track record hasn’t been so good in that regard.”

“So yeah,” Nick cuts in, “A mare calling herself Twilight Sparkle thinks she can open a portal to Equestria, and with our help, she can open it big enough to get us all there. We only have her word on that, but...” He lights up his horn, “She showed me how to do magic! How would she have figured that out in three months? She has to be from Equestria!”

“I dunno what your guy’s’s beef with Twilight is,” the third of our recovery team says testily, looking between us, a green haired, blue pegasus going as Patricia, “But we gotta get outta here. The rest of the team is probably worried sick.”

“Nothing to tell, really,” I remark to Patricia, “Someone managed to look perfectly like Twilight Sparkle, and fooled me for a good two months... and whoever that really is, she’s the one who changed us all into ponies.”

“So you think...” Patricia says, face twisting up in confusion, “But why would she—but—huh?”

“Doesn’t make sense to me, either,” I agree, “So that’s why I’m giving this Twilight the benefit of the doubt. I just wanted to make sure everyone understood what they’re walking into.”

“I still don’t feel good about this,” Nick grumbles. “Twilight promised, she even Pinkie Promised that she wasn’t trying to hurt any of us. But she didn’t promise that we wouldn’t get hurt. What’s to stop her from just setting us up to die?”

“Well, she also promised she wasn’t intending on us getting hurt,” I reply, “So setting us up to die would count as intending to hurt us.”

“I suppose...” Nick says unhappily. “She didn’t promise we wouldn’t get hurt though, and she didn’t say she wouldn’t do anything that could get us hurt.”

“Nick, seriously?” Mira tells him flatly. We both turn to look at the golden furred bat pony. Mira says, “You want her to promise that you won’t get hurt, or that she won’t do anything that could get you hurt, and you just snuck commando style through the neighborhood in the middle of the night, and now you’re gonna rescue us from the police.”

“So...?” Nick replies cluelessly.

“So what if you stubbed your toe on the sidewalk!” Mira gripes at him. “Hoof, whatever! What if the cops catch you? She’s putting you in harm’s way right now, and you want her to promise not to do that? You think this is evil? You guys are fucking awesome! You’re here to save us! And... I can’t believe I’m defending her. I haven’t even met her yet. Is this Twilight going all creepy on you like the last one?”

“Well, no,” Nick admits, scraping his hoof idly on the linoleum, “Not one smirk, or creepy glare to be seen.”

“Either we’re rescuing her, or kidnapping her, but does it really matter?” I ask Nick, “What we have can’t be worse than sitting in here all day, and you know what happens if the police get their hands on her. Twilight’s going through way too much effort to just kidnap us, anyway. She’s a little more... abrasive than the Twilight from the show, but I do think she’s the real deal.”

“That’s... really thoughtful, Meadowsweet,” Nick says approvingly, “When did you start looking into things so much?”

“When not doing so got me turned into a pony, then half starved to death?” I reply hopeful that I’m on the right track here. “It only makes sense, right?”

“Well, either way, I’m glad you guys’re here,” Mira declares in relief, “Kidnapping us for some nefarious deeds, or saving us from being cooped up in here for a month, not to mention some sorta sting operation from the cops, whatever Twilight’s going to do to us can’t be worse than this. Let’s just get out of here. We can figure out who to trust later.”

“I’m more than convinced,” the as-yet-unnamed blue-haired red filly says fussily, “I just wanna get out of this house already.”

“Can you all walk okay?” Nick asks, eyeing the three of them thoughtfully, “How about climb fences?” Three sets of eyes glance away from him. He looks appraisingly at Mira asking, “Are you flying, yet?”

“Am I flying?” Mira blurts out, staring at Nick in outrage, “What part of cooped up in the house for a month don’t you understand??”

“We can fly?” the other mare, the green pegasus asks in wonder, “We can really fly?”

“Yes... you can really fly,” I tell her a little grumpily, “It takes practice, but it’s... natural, for ponies like you and Mira.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you,” the mare says worriedly, “I’m sure earth ponies have some sort of powers, too.”

“Nice of you to say that,” I tell her with a sigh, “I’m just trying to do what I can, even if I don’t get any special powers. Honestly doesn’t seem likely at this point that I have any. I’m just a... smart pony, with green hair.” Smart being a relative term.

“Alright, I got a ladder set up,” Patricia announces, sticking her head in the back door again. My ear flicks towards her in surprise, and I turn my head, seeing that the green haired pegasus pony must have gone outside to set up our escape while we were talking. Which is probably kind of smart, considering the cops could burst in here at any moment. Not the best time for a conversation.... “You gotta get over your security fence,” Patricia explains, waving us over with a forehoof, “And the way is mostly clear from there.”

“We’ll do our best,” Mira says smartly, standing before the other two and puffing up her chest.

The one human harboring them named Denise Hoffman is more than happy to send them off. She looks really worried about the police finding her harboring magical aliens in her house. Mira and the others don’t have much trouble with the ladder, as they’ve been dealing with stairs for the last month or so. Mira actually flutters a bit on her way from jumping down off the fence, and immediately starts asking,

“Did I just fly? That was flying wasn’t it? My wings totally wanted to move and it just sort of worked!”

“More like falling, with style,” Nick drawls unhelpfully.

We meet with the team, and Twilight Sparkle’s slim muzzle relaxes in a profound relief on seeing us. “The police weren’t already storming the place, were they?” the purple unicorn asks hopefully.

“Nope,” I tell her with a little smile, “We snuck ‘em out right under their noses!”

“Hmm,” Twilight says dissatisfied, eyeing the three new ponies. It’s funny, Mira even salutes for her. “Well we can’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” Twilight says with an easy smile, “Let’s get them to the van.”

We make our way relatively quickly back with the three new ponies. The filly needs to be carried at one point, but Mira and the other mare manage walking fast enough. We’re definitely not trotting! Which is a good thing, because I still trip over my own hooves when they try to switch into a trot.

Twilight speaks softly with the driver, a human named Jake I believe, while the rest of us help those three back into the van. All 10 of us total cluster together back there, where Mira excitedly whispers to me, “I can’t believe that worked! I can’t believe you’re here! I can’t believe... I thought it was over! I thought you were—” She cuts off, looking away from me, saying less enthusiastically, “I didn’t know what to do. They got you, and they would’ve got me too, i-if they knew who I was.”

Her ears go down as she continues shakily, “T-they just took Nick away a-and I just let them, because I didn’t want them to know who I was. I wanted to s-save you or something, but they were rounding everybody up, and Brian said she...” Mira outright blushes, a cherry red flush beneath her golden cheekfur. She looks at me sympathetically, saying, “Brian’s like you. He... she used to be a guy. She didn’t get a new name though.”

“I’m the only one who got a new name that I know of,” I tell Mira honestly, “I think it was just Sunset Shimmer being... cruel. Ish.”

“Ish?” she asks, confused.

“Cruelish,” I clarify.

“Right...” she says skeptically.

“So, you wanna know about where we’re going, or do you just want it to be a surprise?” I ask her in amusement.

Her pupils shrink right up to slits at that and she says loudly, “Uh, yeah, I really want to hear about the place that we are going to.”

“Mira, is something wrong?” I ask her worriedly. She bites her lip and shakes her head.

Twilight bumps between us then saying brightly, “That’s an excellent idea! You should both know that the farm we’re going to is pretty much safe from any ponies being discovered. We won’t be there much longer, but I’m sure you’ll be well protected in such a remote area. There’s plenty of grazing land, and lots of ponies who were all once originally human, until Sunset Shimmer went and did her little... magic trick on you all. Oh, that reminds me. I was curious what your human lives were like. Meadowsweet? What were you doing as a human, that got you interested in ponies in the first place?”

“Well, there is a show... like a movie in your world, but a whole series of movies, broadcast into the homes of everyone all across the country...” I tell her, explaining about the show, and how much it’s inspired people. About the regrets of being associated with a toy company, but the persistent feeling that they’re a helpful part of something pony-related that’s greater than us all. People are starting to look bored with my waxing poetic, so I kind of blush to silence, but Twilight’s happy to start us on another round of songs. It turns into a kind of medley, that turns into a kind of round. We’ll be coming ‘round the mountain, when we remember the red river valley, to the New York islands.

Twilight’s really curious about our pasts, on the way back. Not just me, but everyone. She’s fascinated by human culture apparently, and wants to find out what our experiences have been, before the whole... pony thing. She starts a sort of round robin question thing going. Patricia’s from New Hampshire, apparently. Like many convention goers, she came from far and wide. The green furred, blue-haired pegasus mare we picked up is named Brian, and she—er—he was going to school in Chicago, studying biology. Brian starts to talk about the things she’s noticed about her transformation into a pony, but Twilight really wants to hear more about human colleges. She’s especially delighted with how me and Nick went to school together. That’s how we met, in fact.

“Oh, that’s so romantic,” Twilight says with a happy sigh at the two of us, and...

Wait, I’m a—and me and Nick, we—

Oh god, I’m going to die of blushing. It’d be a picture perfect romance, if we’d been sexually attracted to each other, and this past month we’ve been sexually attracted to each other. We became lovers, despite our best efforts otherwise! It’s like... like all those years of back and forth friendship between two guys weren’t real, since now he and I fit into the mold of a stereotypical couple. We even met in college, and... augh!

Why am I such a girl! Even before my transformation, all you’d have to do is slap on some female organs, and I’d be the perfect little... housewife. I had a house, he had a career, he’d stick with me through and through. If I was born a girl, we’d probably have kids by now, and... and my lonely life before doesn’t feel masculine at all. It just feels... empty.

Am I supposed to be a mare? Because I was like the least masculine of guys I know! I wear a gosh darned apron and do housework, and haven’t got a single ambitious bone in my body! Well... maybe a little ambition, but that one happy sentiment from Twilight Sparkle makes me think, and the more I think the more I feel like I was just a big... pushover.

My death by embarassment is short-lived, as we finally arrive at the farm. Twilight jumps up eagerly as the truck shudders to a stop, saying, “We’re here! Oh you are just gonna love this place. C’mon, let me show you around.”

She hustles Mira, Brian and... dammit I still don’t know that filly’s name. But Twilight hustles the three of them out the back, and goes crashing off into the bushes with them. The rest of us climb out of the back of the van more slowly, and

uh

This isn’t the farm...

We come out of the van beside what is technically a barn, but it’s not the one we’ve been staying at. Everyone clusters about the van, confused, not sure where to go under the pitch black night sky. There’s a totally overgrown moonlit field, some dense woods, and no sign of Twilight Sparkle at all.

“Did... did Twilight trick us?” Nick asks in the quiet.

“Oh no,” one of the other ponies declares, “Everypony scatter! We have to hide!”

“Wait!” shouts a stallion’s voice, except... Nick’s the only stallion here. It’s not Nick’s voice, so who’s calling us?

“Twilight is not trying to trick you,” the—oh. It’s the driver, who’s human. Carl or something. All I know is he’s a different human than Dave, and that I’ve apparently started thinking of humans as just “humans” somewhere along the line. They all look alike! “Everybody just stay close to the van,” Carl says, “And she’ll come back once the coast is clear.”

“Why should we trust you?” Patricia sneers suspiciously, ears flat against her head, “You’re just trying to keep us from hiding!”

“Okay, okay go ahead and hide, but—” Carl raises his hands helplessly, “But come check on the van when you think it’s safe. I’m almost a hundred percent sure this isn’t a trick, so just... don’t hide too far away!”

I go straight for the barn along with like three others: Nick, Patricia and... Firefly, who’s a pink and blue pegasus mare who is not really creative with pony names. The barn is unmaintained, and frankly kind of falling apart. Not really all that safe to hide in, but beggars will not be choosers. Firefly and Patricia hide up in the loft, while Nick slides the door almost closed, and peers out it warily. For my part, I push aside some rotten smelling straw, trying to make a convincing place to hide behind.

Twilight Sparkle walks in through the back door behind us, saying, “And here’s where we keep our stockpile of incendiary devices. I’m going to need you to guard this location, while I—”

She spots us then, and her horn lights up. I try to demand what the hell she’s doing, but suddenly find myself completely unable to speak. My vocal chords just won’t engage! Nick looks at me in fear, and the moving of his mouth indicates he’s in the same bag.

“Gather the others,” Twilight continues as if we were never here. “We’re all going to be making a move soon, so it’s important that we get all these explosives well hidden. Let me show you the secret passage.”

Twilight doesn’t go anywhere, just walks in place for a while, and a voice next to her... it’s Mira. Poking her head into the barn, Mira says loudly, “Oh wow, this is insane! Where did you get all this stuff?”

Except they’re just standing in the doorway of the barn, looking at nothing. I flump to my haunches, utterly confused.

“Alright, now if any stranger gets here, I need you to close the hatch, and wait for further orders inside,” Twilight says seriously.

“If they start to get in, can I set off the bombs?” Mira asks eagerly.

“Y-you realize that’ll kill you, right?” Twilight asks, looking at Mira incredulously.

“It’d be worth it to take out those bastards!” she declares enthusiastically and... wat

“It’s good to know you’re so loyal to The Cause,” Twilight says with a pleased smile.

Twilight then lifts a bit of hay with her magic, places it back down, and then they silently creep out of the barn. Annnd I still can’t speak. Maybe if I try clearing my throat?

Twilight’s magic grabs me and Nick from behind by the scruff, and drags us out the sliding-open front door of the barn. A magenta bubble encases us, and she pulls us right up to her face, hissing angrily, “Could you possibly find a worse place to be??” Holy heck are her eyes big! “Well??” she continues to hiss.

I push back from her enough to point at my throat and look at her pleadingly.

“Oh, right,” Twilight facehoofs, then looking at us more evenly, she whispers, “Don’t hide in the barn, and don’t follow me right now. I still have one device to plant. What you say may be being recorded, so please, please don’t say anything stupid. Just pretend like everything is normal.”

She cancels the bubble then, and gallops off across the field, where the silouette of a pegasus is standing, wings half spread.

“Oh, I get it,” Nick says quietly, so clearing my throat, I... oh, hey, our vocal cords are back! Nick trots back in the barn, calling out, “Okay if there’s anypony sleeping in the lofts, come on out, we’re all having a really important meeting.”

“What’s going on?” I hear Patricia’s voice calling out from the darkness.

“Just meet us in the field right outside the barn,” he says, “It’ll all be explained there.”

Then he trots past me, with a grin and a wink, and I... have perfectly working vocal chords, I’m pretty sure, but that becomes hard to verify because I trot along after him, at my wit’s end, utterly. Speechless.

Nick just stands there in a plain, empty field, and coming up to him, I say, “What on earth is going on?”

Nick lights up his horn, squinting at me. W-w-what? Then he freaking beams his green horn light at me, sweeping it all over my body, just like... j-just like Twilight did when she... left me. Then as I crumple fearfully to my belly, he closes his eyes, and lifts his head, grunting once as his horn flashes, and freaky... bright sparks flash all over his body, and he even jerks in place.

“Oh man that did not feel good,” he groans, his head sagging. Looking at me, he says, “Meadows, we’re—”

Then he cuts off as descending from the dark sky are Patricia and Firefly. Nick um... repeats the beam treatment on the two of them, who look at me incredulously as he does, and all I can do is sit on my haunches and shrug helplessly.

“Okay, so I don’t know exactly what’s going on,” Nick says clearly, with a grim look in the angle of his... ears. “But Twilight thinks we’ve been bugged. Now she did show me a spell that’s supposed to spot anything metallic, so I hope that’s good enough, assuming I did it right. Otherwise, until we hear back from her whether all the recording devices are gone, I think we should pretend that we really are at the farm.”

“That’s...” I say unsure of how I feel about this.

Patricia and Firefly seem to agree, as they both finish my sentence with “Brilliant!” and “Fucking stupid!” respectively.

“How’s it stupid?” Patricia asks Firefly, looking offended. “She’s gonna lead them to the wrong farm entirely! That’s genius!”

“Why didn’t she just write something down, if she couldn’t speak out loud?” Firefly gripes, “Now half of us think that we have to hide because we’re about to get vanned, and stalling might get us vanned anyway!”

“Okay, so we’re going back to the van, and we’ll write something down,” Nick says cautiously, “And show it to everyone... who’s... hiding, dammit.”

“How about light it up?” I ask, “You know a light-ish spell, right Nick?”

One trip back to the van and hunt for paper again, and the phrase, “We may be bugged. Twilight’s not betraying us.” is glowing and floating above the van in brightly illuminated permanent marker. It’s not floating in magic, since Nick can only manage one spell at once, but it is floating in the grip of a green and blue pegasus known as Patricia. “Hey everyone!” I shout, waving my hoof up at the hovering pegasus, “Come look at this! You gotta see this!”

One by one, ponies creep back toward the van, like little shadows in the night. “We’re being bugged?” one of the ponies I’m not familiar with exclaims.

“Sssssh!” I hiss to her, blocking her mouth with a... uh...hoof. “Don’t say we’re being bugged if you think we’re being bugged!”

“But you’re saying it,” the confused unicorn mare replies.

“We’re being bugged?!” someone else loudly shouts in outrage from behind the van. Something tells me this wasn’t the best idea after all.

It gets everyone back around to the van again, at least, with only a few more people stupid enough to announce that they know they’re being recorded, while potentially being recorded. We eventually settle down enough that someone starts (this may not be surprising) singing. We get as far as the “nest” verse of Green Grass, when Twilight finally comes back, with Mira, Brian and the blue and red filly.

“Okay everypony,” Twilight says looking around with a smile. “I’ve—what. Is that?” she concludes angrily, shooting her hoof up at the glowing paper.

Patricia swoops down with it while I hastily explain, “You couldn’t tell everyone we were being recorded out loud, but only hidden microphones can pick up stuff from any direction, not hidden cameras! So we wrote it down in a place that ponies could see, but not from inside the van, and then they wouldn’t think you...” My haste trails off into uncomfortable silence as a blush creeps onto my face. “Were...” I say trying to think of a diplomatic way to say it, “Setting... us up.”

“I was trying to protect your friends!” Twilight snaps back, just glaring at me. “And how do you know there weren’t visional cameras?!”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t think you were setting us up!” I protest, cringing away, “It’s just every pony ran and hid, because we thought the police might be coming because this was a... a trap.”

“Why would I—” Twilight’s angry grimace cuts off mid-sentence, and she looks around at the ponies surrounding her saying, “Seriously?!”

She sighs then, and hangs her head.

“Please trust me,” the little purple unicorn declares, looking around, this time not in anger, but in desperation. “The authorities may be zeroing in on this location as we speak. We need to get in the van and get out of here. With the tracking devices no longer moving, I fear they are going to come here in force, thinking this is where we’ve been hiding. I’ll tell you everything when we’re moving, but please trust me, and trust these ponies we’ve rescued because I promise you that they’re not working with the military.”

A pause and she adds, “Please don’t make me Pinkie Promise. There’s no time. We have to go, now!”

Ponies are still frozen looking at each other uneasily, so I just... get things started, by hurrying over to Mira and just um... bumping her to stumble in the direction of the van. “Come on, let’s go! We can all talk about this later!” I call back to the others. That’s enough to break the ice, and all the ponies hurry over to the van, climbing in, lifting up the filly by the scruff and tossing her in, and helping Brian up as well. The 11 of us little ponies are clustered in a vague circle back there as the van turns on, then with the sound of tires crunching on gravel, we get moving.

At that, Twilight sags and her head drops, sighing in relief. “Thank you, everypony,” she says quietly, “I’m sorry if I almost bungled this. I’m really not trained to lead other ponies. I’m just... the one who has to.”

She straightens up to look at the group, saying solemnly, “I should have told you all from the start. I was afraid you’d think the ponies we rescued were your enemy, that they were collaborating with the authorities. When we picked them up, these three ponies were tagged, so to speak, with some sort of unknown recording equipment. They said nothing about this to you all, and it may have looked like they were trying to conceal it, in order to help locate the ponies who escaped.”

The three are looking at Twilight fearfully, and she sidles up next to Mira, saying, “But this pony revealed to me, covertly, what was hidden under her mane. I had to assume she couldn’t tell us about it, because she thought she was being recorded.”

Twilight looks at Mira, and Mira says guiltily, “Y-yeah that’s right. I didn’t want to scare anyone, but I wasn’t gonna follow you with that thing strapped to my head. I figured...” She looks at the purple unicorn next to her, saying, “I wasn’t sure if I could trust you, but the way Nick and Meadows put it, either way you’d want to help me with it, right? It wasn’t right to try to sneak those in, and I’d never be able to live with myself if I got you all captured or...” she glances at me, “Whatever they’ve been doing to you.”

I’m... not as skinny as I was, at least. I guess it’s still apparent....

“I figured some information would leak out before we could deal with them,” Twilight continues, “But why not take advantage of that? Let them think they’ve found us, and mobilize their forces, and when they get there, it’ll be the completely wrong location!”

Mira laughed sheepishly at that, saying, “Yeah, once I picked up on it I got kinda creative about talking about all the weapons we were stockpiling and stuff. So, that’s why I was talking about um...” blushing at me, she mumbles, “Bombs and stuff.”

“I didn’t think it’d alarm you all,” Twilight admits, lowering her ears, “I forgot that you’ve been put through so much, and have a hard time trusting anyone. I forgot that I have no way to convince you to trust me, after a pony who looked just like me was responsible for you all... being this way.”

Smiling and pulling me into a surprisingly strong one-armed hug, Twilight says, “And Meadowsweet here knew exactly what to do about it. I was trying not to alarm you, so we could get out of there without fighting over whether to trust the ponies we rescued, but I made it look like I was just abandoning you, in a strange place. She gathered you together again, and...” Twilight releases me, and I look at her in shock and amazement. That’s the first time Twilight Sparkle has actually touched me since I became a pony. She’s so... big. I’m still not used to her being the same size as me.

Her hug felt so warm...

“I apologize for blowing up at you, Meadowsweet,” Twilight says with a sheepish grimace at me, “I thought everypony was going to panic, and I didn’t realize how you were stopping them from panicking.”

“I... uh...” she’s apologizing to me? “I didn’t do anything,” I protest to her, “The sign was Nick’s idea.”

“Hey, I was just going with Firefly’s idea,” Nick says, raising his forehooves in a pacifying gesture.

“I had an idea?” Firefly asks, confused.

“Well, thank all three of you, then,” Twilight says, “Your quick thinking and...” she throws me a puzzled look, “...diplomacy have saved the day. We got out of there safe and sound, and the location of the farm is safe for now.”

“So the police did get to you first?” Patricia asks, looking to the three of them in concern.

“They were really convincing, too,” Mira replies, rubbing an arm on the back of her head, “They think you’re some kind of cult, and you’re brainwashing everyone into committing crimes, or terrorism or something.”

“It’s all they know really,” the red and blue filly says, rolling her eyes, “We’re something nobody’s ever had to deal with before, so they’re just trying to put us in a category.”

“It was obvious you weren’t brainwashed or anything,” Mira says with a laugh, “Even Meadowsweet was suspicious of Twilight.”

“I was?” “She was?”

(Twilight and I ask at the same time.)

“Meadowsweet was being really uh, thoughtful,” Mira clarifies giving Twilight Sparkle a wary look, “And she didn’t sugar coat it at all. None of us really knows the truth, but if she were brainwashed, I’d think she’d be more... adamant about you being the perfect innocent little angel.”

Twilight snorts, and I blush at that, muttering, “I only called her that once.”

“So... yeah,” the filly concludes, “We hid those headband clip things, and none of us want anything to do with ‘em anymore!”

“You’re safe now,” Twilight says with a smile, “Safe as I can make it, at least. I really hope we can get to Equestria soon, though.” Her ears droop a bit as she admits, “I would like to be somewhere that couldn’t be spotted on one of your orbital cameras.”

“You know about satellite cameras?” I ask, then blush and say, “Oh, yeah of course you do.”

“Your technology is a lot more advanced than our own,” Twilight replies, “But thankfully I’m a quick learner.” She blushes a little, adding, “I have to admit it would’ve been nice to have a human introduce me to all this stuff from the safety of his home. If I’d have been the one in that snowstorm instead of Sunset Shimmer, I probably could’ve been prepared enough to stop the convention incident entirely.”

Now I have to blush at that, saying, “I-if you had shown up in that snowstorm instead of Sunset Shimmer, then I wouldn’t even be here right now. She’s... still totally evil, but dealing with what happened isn’t too bad. Before I met her, I certainly never had an opportunity to save my friends from being trapped in suburbia!”

I think Twilight’s clear laugh at that is the most genuine one I’ve heard from her yet!

“So how did you get separated from the rest of the ponies, Mira?” I ask curiously, “Most of them got taken off to some kind of holding facility, which Twilight helped them bust out of. I dunno any who were just at a house, though!”

“Well,” Mira says, pointing a leathery wing at the green and blue pegasus they came in with. “Brian knew a... friend who was still in the hotel, when... the virus thing happened, and she—wait.”

Mira’s slitted, sky blue eyes pop wide open, then she focuses on me and lifts a hoof to my shoulder, whispering urgently, “The virus isn’t contagious! We were worried, but... but nobody changed outside the convention center. Well, maybe a few outside of it. But we got it all wrong! I don’t know what... I don’t even know why she might have done it, but Twilight lied to us!”

I glance over at Twilight, but she’s talking with some others, Brian and that filly, and not even looking our way. Looking at Mira again, I give her a puzzled, “Um... yeah?”

My battified sister blinks then removes her hoof from my shoulder... chest thing. Then she looks at me sheepishly, saying, “I guess that kind of goes without saying. But I guess you’ve already seen it by now. Brian’s friend and her mom, neither of them changed. W-why would she do that if it wasn’t contagious? Why are we all ponies?”

“I dunno,” I say, slumping more onto my belly, “But it might’ve saved my life, a little.”

“What do you mean?” Mira asks, justifiably incredulously.

“They were afraid to touch us, when they... took us in for questioning,” I say, shuddering at the memory of that horrible room. “I-it was awful, but they had to wear these bulky suits, and I felt like they wanted to... do more than what they did. They couldn’t do anything really physical, because of the suits.

“All they had to do was not feed us,” I relay bitterly, “And I just fell apart. I didn’t think spending just weeks in a room would... mess me up so much. But it could have been... worse.”

“Meadowsweet, I’m so sorry,” Mira says, pushing against me, just side-to-side. Like many ponies I’ve met, she feels warm, soft, full of life, and scared. “I should’ve done something. I didn’t know what to do,” she mumbles, “I never felt so h-helpless before.”

“This pony thing isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, huh,” I remark, trying not to sound smug about it. Mira looks at me resentfully, and... she doesn’t argue. Staring forward at her hooves, she just lays her chin to the floor of the rumbling van.

Author's Note

Oops.

Out of the Blue

Author's Note

In which Twilight works through some personal problems.

Out of the Blue

Well, we made it. I think. Pretty sure. Twilight seems a lot more relaxed, at least. The van rumbles steadily along beneath us, as outside these steel walled confines, the highway cuts straight and true across the countryside. We began the journey with seven ponies, and one human driver, and we now fill the van the van with ten ponies, and still one human.

Among the three we rescued, I’ve finally managed to find Mira. For the first time, me, Nick and Mira... the first three ponies in the world, are together again. Together with Nick and I, Twilight Sparkle has spent the night saving Mira and the others from effective house arrest, then saving Mira and the others from... some sort of radio tracking thing the police forced them to wear. Mira hasn’t been starved, but she has been trapped in a house and terrorized by the police, and so for the first time in a month, Mira is safe. But...

I’ve never seen my sister look quite this low before. She doesn’t even protest with a snarky reply, when I joke that this whole pony thing isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. My golden furred batpony of a sister just lays her pink and blue maned head down, and... accepts what I’ve said, as if she was starting to feel like it is the truth.

“Mira, I’m... sorry,” I tell the droopy pony, laying a soft yellow hoof on her less yellow furred back.

“You didn’t say anything to offend me,” Mira grumbles flatly, not un-drooping in the slightest. Even her wide, conical ears are droopy.

“No, I’m not talking about right now. I mean... I’m sorry about the whole ‘pony’ thing,” I reply, sitting up straighter and collecting my legs nervously close to my sides. “I was such a... sad sack about it. I thought I was helpless, and powerless, and... maybe I still am, but I’ve been surprised all month a-at what I can do.”

The others are sort of looking at me, but I have to say this, because I dug my grave and heck if I’m gonna let Mira get buried in it. “Some really strange things have happened to me,” I tell her, “I don’t even know how I... carry things with my tail. It just sort of... works. I don’t have any hands, but it’s hardly been a problem. There’s just always another way.”

With memories of a well lit room with stone walls, and a slit in the door, my ears fold when I tell her, “I was... pretty weak after getting out of that um... prison, but now I can run, and jump like... six feet straight up. And that’s nothing compared to a pegasus, or... you, but it’s a lot for me.”

Waving a vague hoof at Mira’s side, I think she gets that I’m talking about her wings.

“I can’t wait to fly,” Mira says with a little blush, turning onto her side to face me. “That’s one thing that I was... really hoping for, until I got stuck in that house.”

“Well, you can fly,” I tell her with a smile, “Every pony with wings has managed to get up in the air so far. Nobody’s gone far enough to reach the clouds yet, though. But my point is that even though I can’t fly up... that high, I can still jump higher than I’ve ever done in my life. I’ve done so much that I never would have done, if I hadn’t been forced to by this whole pony thing.”

With excitement, I tell her in something of a giddy squeak, “And I haven’t failed at it! I don’t know how to explain it, but I’m succeeding at things I try to do. I don’t feel more capable, and there’s lots I am incapable of, but I guess I just don’t need to do anything I’m incapable of anymore. There’s always another way!”

“So... you like being a pony?” Mira asks skeptically.

I rub my forehead with a hoof, and I’m not sure I want to go that far yet. “What I’m trying to say is,” I tell this pretty bat pony sister of mine, who looks too cute to be a pony who’s not supposed to be a pony. “I’m sorry I acted like turning into a pony was a... a curse. When I saw you turn into a pony, you were so happy about it. A-and you were right, is what I’m trying to say.”

As I look around at the ponies listening to my... thing, or whatever, in particular is the look of surprise and almost... relief from Twilight Sparkle. She’s holding back a smile, but at the same time it looks like she’s on the edge of crying. I... I don’t really understand. Looking around at the others, there’s two more new ponies in our group besides Mira. A green and blue pegasus mare I’ve never seen before today named Brian, and a younger looking earth pony filly who’s red and blue named um... I dunno.

“It’s because you’ve all been cooped up in that house all this time, that you think ponies are lame,” I tell those two, then turning back to Mira say purposefully to the thankfully less glum bat pony, “You’re thinking you were wrong to be happy, and that reality en...sues or however that goes. But I think if you get a real chance to be whatever... kind of pony you’ve become, you’ll be right, and I’ll be wrong.”

Mira lifts her head, and looks at me thoughtfully, while I admit sheepishly, “Being a pony actually is kinda awesome, even just an earth pony. It’s way better than I thought it was.”

A thought, and I add, “...I still miss having hands.”

Mira holds back a snort of laughter at that, and I blush, protesting, “I know it’s obvious, but it’s just one of those things that’s hard do get used to.”

“At least you got to have hands,” says the filly we rescued, looking at Mira with an amused twinkle in her eye.

“Thank goodness for small favors,” Mira drawls, rolling her catlike eyes, lifting and spreading one of her fuzzy bat wings.

“Can you use your wings like hands?” I ask curiously, “Do they feel like hands?”

“Um... sorta, and no, very no,” Mira answers, sitting to her haunches and lifting up her forehoof. “This still feels like my hand. My wings are just... wings. I dunno how to explain it. But they do have fingers, and,” She spreads one again, and without looking at it, folds the bony extensions, in what might be the vague approximation of a curled fist.

“I can sort of use them like hands,” Mira says uneasily, “There’s skin between the uh—” blushing, Mira cups her wing close self-consciously, before spreading it again and saying, “Yeah, s-skin between the fingers, so I can’t do stuff like cross my wing...fingers. Also they’re um... not so coordinated, and it’s really only the little finger claw thing that I can hook stuff with.”

Mira noses under the arm of her raised wing, remarking distractedly, “They’re weirder than I imagined, but not anywhere near as weird as pegasus wings!”

The pegasus named Brian holds back a snort at that.

To the great lowering of my stress levels, it turns out we do make it to the farm after all. There’s no more terrifying cloak and dagger moments. No more confusion and subterfuge. Well, okay a little subterfuge. We have to stop one more time after about 20 miles for Twilight to change up the appearance of the van, but other than that, we reach the farm without incident.

We’re all sleeping by then, just kind of lying together on the floor of the van, except for Twilight, who... it breaks my heart to see it, but about when Patricia yawns and stretches against my side, I notice Twilight’s standing there beside us, and lifting a hoof over us. I don’t think she sees me. Then, she turns and moves to the opposite side of the van, curling up facing away from us... by herself.

I dunno why she does it. I dunno why we do this. It’s just all that singing, and working together, and saving people, and I’m kinda tired, so I don’t mind when someone lies against me, and then someone else, and then Mira who flops down half on top of me. I feel like I should mind. I’m risking myself and my all too friendly fillyhood again, even though being pregnant, that particular organ isn’t something I need to worry about. But still, I’m naked here! One slip and somepony could be elbow deep in me!

We haven’t really had any chance to wear clothes since this pony thing started, and I get that ponies don’t normally wear clothes, but it’s just hard to get used to. I’m not freaking out, but I do keep seeing people’s genitals just kind of hanging out back there. I’ve seen more testicles in the past month than a man should ever see. I have fur, but nights still get pretty cold, so I guess this is the first time I realize how accustomed I’ve gotten to sleeping together with other ponies.

Because it’s the first time I realize how Twilight hasn’t.

I worry about Twilight Sparkle as everything on the farm returns to normal. Or whatever counts as normal anymore. We continue learning to become better at being ponies, and neither cops no soldiers come barrelling into our secret little location. The spring is well on its way, the snow has melted, and this makes sense because our farm is not located in Minnesota.

The spring thaw is why Twilight calls us around, and steps on the soapbox she scooted over in her magic, announcing, “Attention, everyhuman! Some of you have expressed concern at whether or not you can digest certain foods. I just wanted to say that it is quite acceptable, healthy, and tasty to graze. Grass is your friend, and you should find it tastes good.”

“How do we eat it, though?” a mare in our group whines, “Just bite it?”

“Oh! Yes,” Twilight says happily, “You do not have to pull it up or bite it off all the way to the ground. Just bite off what you feel comfortable with from a grass tuft. And there are still plenty of beans and barley, so if you don’t feel comfortable with grass... there are options!”

We separate and among others, I find myself standing among the blades of freshly grown green grass, on yellow hooves, with a green tail that actually looks like a really different green than the grass. I bend down, which is to say I crane my head down, taking a bite of grass, and chewing experimentally.

It doesn’t taste anywhere near as good as I imagined, but when I imagined eating grass, I was starving to death, so I was imagining it tasting as good as the best thing I could ever eat. As-is, it’s juicy, and crisp, and fresh tasting, so much more than the stocked grains we’ve been eating. Grains, and... beans, lots of soup, and... hay. Not much else. Not like there’s a cupcake supplier way out there on our shoestring budget.

The joke is our shoes wouldn’t have strings.

So I eat my grass and worry about Twilight, and... she told us how to graze, but again, she’s not out here with us. So I go poking through the barn, my hooves clumping softly on the mussy, straw strewn wood, looking around for the purple unicorn. I find her off in her special little corner that we’re not supposed to go into because all her spells are set up there. It’s not out of sight or anything, just kind of... full of a lot of glowing lines and diagrams, that you could mess up if you walked into. Or... some ponies could, if they did. I’m not entirely sure how it works.

She’s muttering something incomprehensible, horn alight, moving floating pictures around of some kind of an office complex. Looking my way as I approach, the purple unicorn says quietly, “Oh, hello Meadowsweet. Why aren’t you out with the others?”

“Just curious what you were, um... doing,” I say, having no real other reason to come here I can think of, since it’s not exactly copacetic to tell Twilight I feel bad for her, when I don’t even know if what she’s going through is something I should feel bad for. Plus I am curious what she’s doing, except for the um...

“Except for the horny details,” I make sure to add, “They’d just go right over my head.”

After giving me a look, Twilight says curtly, “I’m trying to figure out how the police knew we were going to perform an extraction,” her magic pulling up a number of floating images of places, and desks, and... offices. And oh, the floating pictures are moving pictures, as I see some bald dude walk down a hall in one.

Twilight continues, “My contacts were able to install some surveillance spells, so I should be able to get some idea how much they know about us.”

“Do you think it was a pony?” I ask worriedly. Twilight glances at me, and I add, “I mean, could one of the human ponies here be giving them information?”

“Not likely,” she says, turning back to her surveillance spells, “They wouldn’t need to try to sneak locational devices to our farm, if that were the case. If a pony here were to betray us, then we wouldn’t be here. We’d either be captured again, or...”

She lets the sentence hang unfinished, and I don’t really want to finish it for her either.

“The grass is a real hit,” I say eventually, “Way better than all the... food we’ve been eating so far.”

“I just can’t wait until you get to see Equestria,” Twilight says with a fond smile, looking past her floating pictures and diagrams, “We can get you all some real food then, and you won’t even remember the taste of grass.”

“Well, I’d still appreciate grass at least,” I say, scooting a hoof shyly along the floor, “If I was human, I’d just get sick if I tried to eat grass. Ponies can eat so much more without any trouble. About the only thing I miss is mea...” Okay maybe I shouldn’t finish that sentence.

“How could you miss yourself?” Twilight asks idly, still distracted by her work, “And what does that have to do with the food you eat?”

“Never mind,” I say, blushing, “I just wanted to tell you that um... I really have been enjoying being a pony, even if Sunset Shimmer... forced me to be this way.”

Twilight pauses her work, and looks at me.

“You... would not believe how little I hear of that,” she says softly, “Most of you humans don’t go much further than getting upset at being ponies, and asking how long until you can change back.”

“W-well of course I value my humanity,” I reply, lifting that hoof nervously, “I just think being a pony has been pretty nice... too.”

Twilight smiles at that, like genuinely smiles, saying, “It’s so nice to hear of that. I wish more of your people could... settle down about the whole ‘pony’ thing. It breaks my heart every day to see peoples suffering over a little... over such a terrible life change. But I’m sure Princess Celestia will know what to do. She might even be able to change you back herself!”

“What’s Princess Celestia like?” I ask, “Is she... as nice as she is in the show?”

“She’s the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen,” Twilight says with a dreamy-eyed smile, looking off into the distance, “The morning rays of sunrise, bringing light to the darkness, and warmth to everypony in Equestria. She’s the hope of a new beginning, when you wake up, and you know everything’s gonna be okay, because the night is over, and a new day has begun.”

Uh...

“Okay, just to be clear, I was asking about the pony, not the actual sun...” I tell Twilight cautiously, getting an irritated glare for my efforts. “T-t-that is to say, it sounded like you were talking about the pony,” I stammer hastily in my stupidly sweet voice, that probably sounds totally insincere, “Because all that stuff is just normal for the sun, but if it’s true for the pony, she sounds really special.”

Twilight’s glare softens, and she smiles soothingly, telling me, “It’s true for the pony. She really is that amazing. At least I think so.”

Twilight can’t be my enemy. It just doesn’t make any sense. There’s a wonderful, beautiful pony inside her, if she’d just relax and let it out sometimes. I can’t imagine an evil pony could ever be so moved by... by the memory of the princess raising the sun. Twilight’s passion, and her dedication, and the love that she hides away, this pony is not a... a jerk just pretending to be nice. I try to be suspicious of her, to be wary, but I just can’t. I can’t stop feeling like she needs us to trust her, as much as we need her to trust us.

She can’t be my enemy but I am starting to think that there is something wrong with her. She’s very determined to hide it, but the more I try to help her, the more I live with her, I can’t help but see it. It doesn’t feel like she’s evil, just... terribly hurt, in a way that she bottles up inside and can’t share with us. I try to include Twilight, and not just let her sit by herself, ignored, and she... resists gently at first, but she just doesn’t even want to talk about it.

“Twilight,” I tell her, “C’mon, everyone’s singing by the fire.”

“Sorry, I’m...” she says with an amused look at me, “Really not interested in singing right now. Between you and me, I’m bushed. I’m just gonna turn in for the night.”

“Hey, Twilight,” I chirp cheerfully, trotting up to her, “It’s another cloudy day. Wanna come out, some of us are trying to get some kind of kickball game together.”

“Using what ball?” she counters.

Blushing, I reply, “Well it’s more like a sack, but still.”

“I’ll pass, thanks,” she says, rolling her eyes and trotting in the other direction.

“You wanna come sit over with us, Twilight?” I ask her at our impromptu crate shaped dinner tables. “Nick’s uh, friend Brian is a real fan, and you seem kind of lonely sitting over here by yourself.”

“I’m fine,” she grumbles, looking up at me from her rice and beans. “Sorry, I would just really prefer to eat alone,” she says mildly, turning back to her food.

“Twilight?” I whine, poking my head around the corner.

“Can I help you?” she asks, giving me a testy look.

“Well, you were just here by yourself—” I start, but she cuts in saying in a weary tone,

“Meadowsweet, I cannot be around ponies all the time. I was instructing pegasi on what I know of wing care just this morning. Some of us are perfectly happy being by ourselves, which is what I am. Perfectly happy.”

“Well, okay then!”

She’s not perfectly happy though. I’ve seen the longing ache in her gaze when we’re hugging each other, or nuzzling, or doing whatever ponies do. Fed up with dodging around the issue, I finally just stand myself in the way as she’s headed out of the shower area. She gives me a challenging look, but before she can say anything, I say,

“Twilight, we need to talk.”

“...what?” the purple unicorn says sweetly, looking at me like I’m an idiot, “Did I do something wrong?”

“It’s what you’re not doing, that’s the problem!” I protest, stomping my hoof in the scattered hay. “You... I... I’ve been really enjoying being close to ponies since this happened, and I think you would too. You’re a pony too, aren’t you?”

I’m not moving, so Twilight turns back into the room we’ve been using for hosing down dirty ponies. She snaps her tail at me, but takes a slow breath in and out. “Ponies don’t have to be close,” she replies neutrally, “To a degree, it’s more a matter of circumstance. You are all isolated in a foreign environment, in which you don’t feel safe, or free to roam, so you’re going to naturally grow closer together. It’s perfectly natural for a pony to seek solace from her peers. Now if you’ll excuse me—”

“How does any of that not apply to you?” I say, following her into the room, before she can run away again. She knows I’m mad, because my ears are going back, even though I don’t want them to! “You’re not avoiding us because you like it. You’re avoiding us, because something’s wrong, and you’re making yourself miserable because of it!”

“I’m not miserable!” Twilight protests, her own purple ears dipping back as she turns sideways to face me, a cute scowl on her face, “There’s nothing wrong, and there never has been, because I like being alone, thank you very much!”

“No you don’t!” I fuss at her, two little girl ponies standing at odds to each other here in the barn, “I’ve seen how you look at us. You want to be closer to us, but you’re not letting yourself. Like it or not, you have a problem, Twilight. Something is wrong, and you’re not gonna feel any better if you don’t talk with someone about it!”

“Oh, you want me to confide in you some dark secret, because you still don’t believe I’m not Sunset Shimmer?” Twilight snaps at me, with a bitter glare.

“No, I do believe,” I say to her unbelievable disbelief, “I just think there’s something you the real Twilight Sparkle needs to talk about with someone. Sunset Shimmer was just pure evil, but that doesn’t mean the good guys never have problems!”

“And I suppose you are the special snowflake that I’m to confide in,” Twilight says grouchily, deliberately looking away from me, “Even if I did have problems, which I don’t.”

“Don’t confide in me, then,” I practically beg this troubled unicorn girl, “I don’t care about me, but you have to talk to someone about this. I don’t know if the problem is blaming yourself for what Sunset’s doing, or trying to teach a bunch of humans how to be ponies, or if you just miss your friends.”

Twilight snorts a laugh at that, remarking, “Yes, because I just love cuddling with my friends all the time, which is why I always have them sleep in different beds, any episode that they sleep over.”

Sighing, I tell her, “I don’t know, I just... can’t stand seeing you hurting like this!”

Twilight Sparkle stiffens at that, lifting her head high in something that... isn’t pride. She abruptly turns to face me then with a... smile on her face that doesn’t quite reach her eyes. With a slight, very slight tremble in her voice, she says in an amused tone,

“You think you know my problems so well. It’s adorable, honestly.”

She struts away from me with a flip of her tail, saying mockingly, “You think you can just say something nice to me, and fix everything?”

“No, I...” I manage to get out, before she’s angrily in my face again and holy crap her eyes are huge.

“Well you can’t!” she shouts in my face, making my ears go back for two reasons rather than just one. Why is her face so big, and angry?! “You think you’re so great, but you can’t do anything, and do you know why?”

Before I can frantically shake my head, Twilight Sparkle shrieks, ”Because you are not her!!”

...

I begin to hear some cries of alarm as ponies and possibly humans start to head over this way, but that’s all that breaks the silence that Twilight stares at me. She looks not so much hateful, but also fearful, like... like she wants to take back what she said. Like she wants to restore my trust in her, but she feels like she just failed at it.

“Twilight, I—” I manage to say, before a pony’s in the room, exclaiming,

“What’s going on? Why were you scream—-”

Twilight holds steady for one more second before the tears brimming in her eyes threaten to overwhelm her. “Ohh!” she exclaims, galloping past me, all the way out of the barn, leaving the rest of us standing there in varying degrees of confusion.

“What happened?” the mare (who happens to be Brian) asks, her soft blue tail switching almost unconsciously, as she looks after the fleeing unicorn.

“I’m not... her?” I reply in a puzzled worry, “Who’s she talking about? One of her friends?”

“Maybe Applejack,” Brian says, rolling her eyes.

“Why Applejack?” I ask curiously, coming alongside her as we head out the door I guess to search for Twilight.

“Because you are nothing like Applejack,” Brian says emphatically.

Brian takes to the sky, while I field questions from some other worried ponies heading this way, but I really don’t have any answers at this point. Twilight does, though. She just needs some time alone right now, I guess.

I should never have interfered.

“I’m sorry for alarming everypony,” Twilight Sparkle says in a calm tone the next day, with those of us concerned gathered around. “You all know what wonderful friends I have back in Equestria, but I had to come here all alone. I suppose I didn’t realize how much it was getting to me, how much I miss...” she trails off and looks down, then looks back up with a pleasant smile, saying, “I really do miss my friends, but that doesn’t mean I’ll leave any of you hanging. My friends will be there when we get there, and I know they’ll understand when they find I’ve got a lot of ponies—er—people to save.”

Looking at me specifically, Twilight says, “I apologize for unloading on you, Meadowsweet. I should have told you what was bothering me, instead of letting it build up inside. You had no idea I was getting upset.”

“It was an upsetting thing to talk about,” I reply warily, an ear tilting in unsureity, “I just wanna make sure you’re gonna be okay.”

“Yes, Meadowsweet, I’ll be fine,” Twilight says with a gentle smile, “And you as well, take care of yourself. And... let me know if I start...” she blushes, and concludes sheepishly, “...doing it again.”

“No problem, will do,” I tell her easily. And that is the end of that.

So Operation “Grow some balls and ask Twilight why she’s avoiding everypony” meets with limited success. Twilight’s actually making... some effort to be with us. So I’m glad about that.

I’m also glad because now that Mira’s with us, I get to know my sister all over again! Actually, Mira’s mostly been hanging out with the two she was rescued with, the green mare named Brian and the red and blue filly. Can’t blame her, really. Stuck together for a month, mutual adversity, of course you’ll form fast friendships.

Nick’s been... practicing his magic a lot, which I don’t know a lot about, but he spends a lot of time with me too. That time usually includes horny rutting at some point, though he has yet to finish in me again, even though I’m already safe due to being pregnant.

“Nick...” I say, supremely conflicted, quivering there with my heated hindquarters drippy and empty under my tail, as he stands there ejaculating. Ropes of fertile semen leap out of his jerking penis and landing on the dirt. That was just inside my melty, stretchy girl place, and now it’s ejaculating everything outside! That’s... fine. It’s not like I want to get bred like some kind of girl. It just... feels kind of bad when he doesn’t, because I like the feeling of it doing that in there.

Laying back and looking at my belly, it’s hard to believe I’m pregnant. I’m certainly not showing yet, even a month into it. Aside from the soft, slightly darker nipples that rest between my spread thighs, which people tell me are called teats on horses, my belly is slim and smooth, light pink with a generous dusting of my wispy, yellow fur.

That slim belly is supposedly what is transforming into an incubator, a great, round, swollen belly growing a little pony inside. It’s weird because I can’t imagine a little pony just being in there, but I can sort of imagine growing a little pony in there, as if I could do it on command. I guess being technically female, I can sort of just naturally... feel how to do it. But it’s still a miraculous yet terrifying sort of thing to think about. I’m changing in there... albeit very, very slowly.

The sheer amount of time pregnancy takes is pretty staggering. It turns out I was wrong about 9 months, and 11 months is actually how long pregnancy lasts. I don’t know where I got 9 months from. I know so little about female biology it’s kind of humiliating. I never had to know, before, because I didn’t have this all too responsive vagina following me around wherever I go. Or anyone else’s vagina to deal with, either.

I don’t particularly feel pregnant, only a month or so into it, but how do I know what feeling pregnant feels like, and how do I know I’m not mistaking it for something else? I’ve changed so much, it’s hard to tell where the female stops and the pony starts. I’m walking on—no, galloping on hooves. I’m doing... weird things with my tail, and my freaky long tongue. And it all feels so natural to me. Part of the transformation, I guess. I can’t even really remember what it felt like to have five fingers on each hand.

I’m lucky really, in that the tail’s the only truly inhuman biology I acquired. It’d be amazing to be able to fly, or to cast magic, but... watching pegasi trying to preen, and breaking down into tears because they can’t figure out how to get their feathers to go right, that’s something I don’t have to do. Even the bat ponies with their membranous wings are... well, using them as hands, and... as cloaks I guess, and with their freaky batlike eyes and wings... suffice to say a great majority of them had pretty pegasus OCs, not bat pony ones. To see that when you look at yourself in the mirror... it’s just not something I have to deal with.

And don’t even get me started on unicorns. I thought it was just like... a magic horn, but the more I watch them practicing with Twilight, the freakier it gets. Their brains are different. Like... they can do multiple things at once, like on the show.

But that’s not natural for humans, so that change alone has sent a few into sort of... short little seizures. And they’re so scared when they come out of it, even Nick, like... not feeling quite... themselves anymore. That horn goes both ways, it seems, and even if I was cool with being able to read, walk, levitate a cup, hold a conversation, and fiddle with a rubik’s cube at the same time, I wouldn’t be so comfortable about having what basically amounts to a lightning rod stuck straight into my brain.

I certainly wouldn’t want to lose that kind of thinking when I changed back to being human. It’d feel like I was going retarded! But as an earth pony I don’t have to worry about any of that. Instead, I get to just wander around the farm, doing my exercises, calming myself, grazing, and just being a pony. It’s um... easier, if not nearly as exciting. You wouldn’t think it’d be easier to be utterly helpless, and yet here we are.

Alas, my paralyzed idyll is not to last, for Twilight gathers us all together one morning with a grim look on her cute little purple snout.

“I wanted more time to train you all, but I’m afraid some ponies have forced our hoof,” she says somberly, “You may have been approached by the sienna orange haired, turquoise pegasus pony known as Donald, and I forgive you for not coming forward sooner, but I’m afraid she has put us all in grave danger.”

There was some muttering at that, and I, for one, never even got a chance to talk to Donald. She was the... oh no.

“Apparently, she was an active member of your nation’s military,” Twilight states irritably, “And she considered it her duty to get us all locked up again. If I had just known... but that’s beside the point. Donald and four other ponies left the farm at approximately midnight last night, and are headed approximately due west, about 20 miles from here by now.”

Murmurs got worryingly quiet as everyone looked at Twilight with varying amounts of confusion and fear. “Now I never wanted you to think that you are prisoners here,” Twilight states, holding up a placating purple hoof, “You’re all free to leave at any time. I just don’t think you really have anywhere to go, and wanted to give you sanctuary in Equestria, while the princess and I deal with the situation.”

“So we can’t go to Equestria?” a filly shouts in distress.

“No, no we can go to Equestria,” Twilight says with a pleading smile, “It’s a little rushed, but I really do think we’re ready to open a large portal, if we all work together. If... too many of you leave us and try to make it on your own in this world, I might have to go back to Equestria on my own, and just hope that your government deals with the rest of you equitably and doesn’t torture any more of you. But as it stands, if you’re with me, I think we’re all capable of going to Equestria... tonight!”

“Tonight?” is among the murmurs of response at that.

“The er... deserters shouldn’t encounter civilization for at least another day, in the direction they’re going,” Twilight adds in a hopeful tone, “And by the time they mobilize an attack on our location, I think we can all be long gone!”

Magicking up a three dimensional hologram of some sketchy ponies around a slowly opening portal under a bunch of twinkly purple stars, Twilight says, “I’ve been working out the ritual, and it’s best to open a large gate like that outside of direct contact with sunlight. Contact between our companion suns can... well... it’d make traversal unsafe, and possibly make the superstructure of the gate explode violently, so it’s really best if we do it under the cover of night.”

She laughs nervously, lifting a hoof and saying, “Besides, the light show’ll be more impressive in the dark, right? Eh heh...”

“What do we have to do?” another pony in the crowd asks, and Twilight’s ears sag in relief, as she says smartly,

“First, I want pegasi and bat ponies to abandon our policy of flying below the radar, and practice clearing clouds. The more starlight we can get, the better. So any of you with wings, I need you to fly high as you can, and... see if you can keep the skies clear above us. Don’t wear yourself out, but just see what you can do, so that we’ll be ready for tonight.

“Second,” she says, looking at... me, actually, “I need help in preparing the materials. Any earth ponies can definitely assist with that. Mostly it’s a matter of mixing powders, and various reagents that align your world with my own. I could do it myself, but... well our timetable just got a lot shorter, so I’d really appreciate the help.

“Unicorns, you should already know what to do,” she continues, “Practice your dimensional translocation exercises, no actual teleporting of course, and see if you all can get to the point where you can combine your magic together without any sparking.

“So, without further ado, are we ready to do this?” Twilight asks. There’s a vague muttering agreement, but she says, “C’mon I wanna hear some enthusiasm! Are we ready to do this?”

“Yeah!” everypony vaguely cheers.

“Are you ready to go to Equestria? ” Twilight asks eagerly.

“Yeah!” is a solid cheer this time. It feels kind of like—

“Then let’s do this!” Twilight shouts, rearing up and leaping off the stage.

They come at all sides
They won’t let us get out
They’re coming for us
But there’s no need to pout

The way has been tough
The way has been rough
But we won’t let them stop us
‘Cause we’ve had enough!

We’re ready to go.
We’re ready to say
Equestria,
It’s a brand new day!

It doesn’t exactly feel like a song, I mean we’re not literally singing. It just seems like there’s something in progress around us, as we work together to mix various powder, liquids, gels and... stuff. Some of it’s really volatile, actually, and there’s more than one time that somepony gets a faceful of coughing smoke. But we manage. As earth ponies do, I imagine.

Also I kind of feel like I know the words.

Flying so high,
There’s no reason to fret
Not coming down
Till our freedom is set!

We can’t take them down
But we can clear the way
To the world that we found
We ain’t got time to stay.

We’re ready to go.
We’re ready to say
Equestria,
It’s a brand new day!

The pegasi soar like eagles, yet cut through the air like sparrows. No apparent advantage whether your wings are fleshy or feathered, I can hardly see them at the apex of their ascent, just tiny dots of color against the grey, until cavernous holes the size of houses burst open in the clouds overhead, revealing the bright blue beyond. Mira tells me excitedly about it later, that there were gale force winds blowing them around up there like paper planes. The forces involved in removing or even altering those giant fluffy things are pretty crazy, it turns out.

Now we know what to do
Now we know what to know
Equestria
Is where we’ll go.

We’ll take on the task
We’ll light up the night
Not gonna give in
We’re going to fight

We’re ready to go
We’re ready to say
Equestria,
It’s a brand new day!

The unicorns are glowing bright. Twilight personally attends to them, making sure they’re getting all the weird light-shapes in the air correct. When it comes to ponies, Twilight Sparkle knows unicorns like the back of her uh... horn. She knows exactly what to do and what to say that will get them ready for the task at hand. Unlike pegasi, or earth ponies, Twilight knows her own tribe up and down, inside and out.

With the evening falling
We will bring a brand new day
Equestria is calling
Together we’ll find our way.

The stakes are set
The lines are drawn
At the end of the day
We’re gonna bring back the dawn!

Night falls and a great flat expanse out behind the barn has been carefully dug by hoof, trenches according to Twilight’s precise instructions, that she fills with the strange, sparkly interdimensional powders she prepared, a giant spell circle, the first in history perhaps that actually stood a chance at working.

I didn’t think Twilight was gonna do it. I didn’t think we were actually going to Equestria. But she’s stuck with us all this time, and now it’s finally happening. No more dinners of beans and hay, with terrible consequences at the other end of the digestive tract. No more fear that the military is going to find us, and effortlessly eradicate any hope of freedom we had. We’re gonna be in Equestria, where the human government wouldn’t dare invade, even if they could.

We’re ready to go
We’re ready to say
Equestria,
It’s a brand new day!

Even us earth ponies play a part in the spell, interestingly enough. Mostly just sitting in various locations, and thinking calm thoughts, to avoid disrupting the spell casters. Of course it had to be earth pony hooves scraping out these trenches. I’m sitting on my belly on the rough dirt in my spot of the circle, as the horn of my friend, and every unicorn on the farm lights up in sparkling light of all colors of the rainbow. Their magic flows from them, arcing down to contact with critical points on the spell circle, making all the powder filled trenches glow with a beautiful pink and blue light.

Now the time has come to go
Let newfound light between us grow.
We passed the point of fear or doubt
We’re ready all to scream and shout.

We’re ready to go
We’re ready to say
Equestria,
It’s a brand new day!

My idle humming to a... tune finishes up, as things really start to get in gear. It’s an adrenalin rush to even see this. The hairs on my coat are standing on end, and I have this weirdly weightless feeling, even though I am very solidly, undoubtedly connected to the earth. The skies above us are clear, and the stars are shining, a beautiful canvas unfortunately faded and slightly orange tinged from the city lights from further down in the valley, but still present and eerily twinkling down on our little group of ponies here. I wonder what the stars look like in Equestria.

“Okay, everypony. You’re doing great!” calls out Twilight Sparkle, the master caster here, but also looking from pony to pony and calling out commands. “I need more hornlight, David! Stella, remember the hyperdimensional matrices! Dial it back Andrew, you don’t want to push now, you want to feel a resonance here.”

This is... the greatest thing I’ve ever had a chance to participate in, even if I’m pretty much just staying out of the way. I’m awestruck with how a cascading pillar of light buds out from the center of the circle, and grows taller and taller, like a pink, purple and blue flame.

“We’ve almost got it!” Twilight shouts over the deep bass rumble that resonates over the whistling of the whipping wind. “Just a little higher, and the antenna should be able to pick up Equestria’s frequency!” It’s great, until the wind starts to howl, buffetting the purple unicorn as she cries out in surprise. The flaming antenna wavers and gutters, looking more like a vortex than a flame.

“Okay, there’s just a little interdimensional turbulence!” Twilight shouts out, her horn blazing bright pink to trace pink runes of light in the air before her, “I think I can compensate for this, but it might get tense for a little moment. Darryl, I need you to send your magic through these runes.”

“Got it!” shouts a filly unicorn in the crowd.

“Andrew, Mark, Grace, David, Joe, you five need to trace this pattern here.”

“Right!” they call out, as Twilight’s horn light cuts trenches through the earth with an envious speed that once again makes you wonder why there are earth ponies at all.

“Mark, change your pulse frequency from 5 to 7,” Twilight continues to call out, “Joe, you need to turn 44 degrees clockwise! Every earth pony!”

My ears perk up in surprise.

“Think about ponies!” Twilight shouts, “Imagine finding everypony you ever wanted to find in Equestria! Try to call out them, reinforce their images in your mind’s eye!”

Okay... wow, really? I think about Applejack, and Pinkie Pie, and about how cool it was that Mira got to be a bat pony, and how I wonder what Rarity and Fluttershy talk about in the Ponyville day spa. Just fashion, or do they share something in common besides girliness? Fluttershy was supposed to be freaky good at sewing, apparently. The images flood through my mind so easily, it’s like I really am in Ponyville, no it’s like I’m Pinkie Pie who just knows every possible pony who ever lived.

“Alright now let me just...” Twilight’s horn light flickers and flashes, “Recalibrate the alternations, reverse the polarities...” I can’t hear further what she says as she falls to mumbles. But then Twilight’s eyes brighten and a complex diagram of pure magic expands from her horn, and hovers over the circle, tingling as it touches each of us. “There!” she shouts eagerly, “Everypony pour everything you have into it! We want to get this portal open as wide as possible!”

The horn light intensifies, and the thrill of powerful magic is flowing all around me in a way that I can almost feel. It’s so intense there are pink and blue trails of light all around us in strange, kaleidoscopic patterns that look kind of weirdly familiar. It’s hard not to think about ponies now, like it’s pulling everything I ever thought about a pony to the front of my mind, and... beyond? Like I’m obsessing over every little detail of every pony I’ve ever seen or experienced, except it’s the magic spell pulling it out of me.

Everything brightens, and the swirling oval of flaming light is buoyed over a bed of increasingly pure white. There’s a tension in the air that just increases and increases, as the swirling fire takes on a sort of teardrop shape. Is that the gate? Is it going to open? It abruptly rockets up into the air with a silent thoom, and a sudden release of tension that kills every unicorn’s hornlight, and knocks everypony standing off their hooves in a silent blast wave.

The humming and the wind fall to silence in the confusion, as everypony tries to reorient themselves. If I wasn’t sitting down... well, even I feel drained, and dizzy. Struggling up onto my hooves, I look around at the mess, and in the darkness left behind from our failed spell, ponies are already complaining, or whining in disappointment, as they too crawl to their hooves again. The one I’m really worried about though, is Twilight. She was so sure this would work.

“Well, that almost worked,” I tell her, the unicorn mare almost unseen in the darkness. Adding a gentle giggle, I say, “Maybe we should try for a smaller portal, then only go through one at a time?”

Twilight doesn’t answer. She’s still just standing there, looking upwards. I um... curiously, I look upwards too, but all I can see is that magic teardrop thingy, shining like its own star as it diminishes into the distance above us. It finally sort of... bursts into a ripple of light, that... sort of looks like it’s growing brighter?

The blue, pink and purple light spirals outwards above us in the sky, growing into long curtains of light at first, that spread into beautiful patterns. They glow with a soft serenity, brightening the whole world beneath them as they spread to cover the sky in shifting kaleidoscopic patterns of light. It’s one of the prettiest things I’ve ever seen. A bunch of ponies are oohing and aahing at the phenomenon, and asking what is it.

“This’s amazing, Twilight!” I tell her encouragingly, “Even if we didn’t succeed, it’s like the aurora borealis!”

The only thing Twilight murmurs in response though is, “It worked...”

“It did?” I ask, but she just repeats as if to herself,

“It worked...”

Then she says, “It worked. It worked. It worked!” and then still looking overhead, she’s jumping and dancing and laughing in delight, shrieking, “It worked! Hahaha it worked! Yes! Yes! Yes! It’s working!”

“Wh—” I respond as Twilight lights up her horn, vanishing from where she is and appearing about ten feet from the rest of us, announcing to all of us confused ponies with the biggest grin,

“I can’t believe it worked, you complete and total morons! You did it! You actually did it!”

With her horn alight, fearsomely illuminating her features, Twilight Sparkle looks absolutely frantic with excitement. “You have no idea what you’ve done!” she crows, “Of course you don’t! I made sure of that! I made sure of everything! You are sooooo...” she chuckles, and the chuckles turn to laughs, and the laughs don’t quite turn into shrieks before she shouts in utter glee, “You are all so screwed! You have no idea!

“You have no idea, and you fell for it the whole time!” Twilight declares with another giddy giggle, spitting out bitterly, “You and your stupid world can go die in a pit for all I care. It’s over, I don’t have to put up with your bullshit any longer. I don’t have to deal with your whining, and your flailing and,” she starts prancing back and forth, tossing her mane dramatically and loudly whining, “Oh look at me I’m a pony how terrible! How will I ever live with myself for not being a big dumb ugly human? I can’t be a perverted ponyfucker if I am the pony! Oh no, I don’t have hands, I can’t wipe my own ass without those!”

Staring at us with a grimace of unimaginable fury and disgust, she snaps humorlessly, “You monkeys can have your tedious, boring lives. I’m gonna find her, and ditch this stupid backwards world and there’s nothing you can do about it. So long, you stupid, simpering, whining weaklings, and thanks for breaking it for me!”

Then Twilight Sparkle vanishes in a brilliant flash of her horn’s purple light.

Even though it’s a new moon, we can see each other crowding together in confusion, in the glowing pink, purple and blue light of... whatever it is we’ve done overhead. Nobody says anything, no sounds other than the now calmly whispering wind in the leaves of the trees, and the occasional shift of pony bodies. Someone coughs.

“What the fuck?” exclaims a little filly in the crowd.

Back to the Drawing Board

Okay, let’s recap.

“What the fuck?”

What the fuck?

What the fuck!

I don’t even know... what is going on?! Twilight fooled us into... something? She was evil? What? How. Where? We’re... all of us human ponies are gathered in a confused cluster out in a field in the middle of the night, with the acrid char of a burned out spell circle wafting around. But but but

But what did she fool us into??

The aurora overhead shows no sign of diminishing, and I just know that’s gotta be what Twilight Sparkle is talking about. The whole night sky is glowing in coruscating, sorta kaleidoscopey sheets of pink, purple and blue light, twisting around itself in surprisingly complex patterns. From horizon to horizon, it seems like there’s no end to it. But... it’s not doing anything! It’s just sitting up there. It’s pretty but...

“Okay, everybody!” shouts um... Patricia, an eerie glow illuminating her fur in the soft light from far overhead. “Everybody meet me in the barn, we need to figure out what the fudge just happened!”

There’s light in the barn. Well, lanterns at least. A warm, yellow glow, a lot cheerier than the cool serenity of the aurora we inadvertently created, which is bad somehow. The lanterns’ light fills a small area inside the dark barn, as if it could drive back whatever it is that we’d done. We all huddle together in that light, surrounded by darkness, just laying against each other and worrying.

The rest of the barn is forbidding and dark, but it feels warm and safe in the light with these ponies, inside these walls, and... many of us really need to feel like that right now, especially the foals. Many of the younger ponies have abandoned any semblance of bravado, clinging fearfully to whoever happened to be close enough to embrace.

My foal is a blue haired, red-furred filly, the one I remember rescuing from the house that Mira was holed up in. “What is even going on,” she moans, hugging close to my belly as I sit on my side, just... being there for the filly. Her um... her rear hoof keeps poking my nipple.

“I have no idea, but I think... Twilight is gone,” I reluctantly say, wishing there was something useful I could say.

“Great observation, Captain Obvious,” Nick says bitterly, the lantern’s warm light illuminating his features in edges of shadow. “What’re we gonna do about it though?”

“We need to call the police,” a green-haired brown mare who I don’t know says.

“We caused this!” a blue haired green unicorn filly says who I... also don’t know. “They’d blame us, and they’d be right! Twilight screwed us all!”

“I can’t believe she did that,” a... I should stop pointing out just how bad I am at getting to know other people, or ponies. Another pony whom I don’t know says, “I can’t believe she did that. Why did she even help us if she was going to screw us over?”

“She must have needed us to cast that... spell thing,” Nick says, shaking his purple topped head.

“Why not keep leading us on, then?” Nick’s foal says tearfully, a tannish looking colt, “We would’ve kept helping her. We were her friends!”

The colt buries his head in Nick’s grey furry side, mumbling in a muffled tone something about “why are we these things?”

We don’t have any answers, and nobody sleeps very well. Or nopony, I should say. A day passes, and you can even kind of see the glowing sky pattern faintly against the blue of the sky. Still no sign of the truck, that brought supplies to us from wherever the humans were carting it. We’re not in need of supplies yet, but some ponies are already thinking, or, wishing at least, to form some kind of garden. Planting the seeds from what food we have left, at least.

None of us have any idea what to do, how to contact the outside world, or whether to contact the outside world. We’re definitely not prepared to leave this hideaway, so we all sort of pitch in with the planting effort over the next few days. Someone finds blackberries, so there’s that.

The phenomenon in the sky overhead fades day by day, until we’re once again greeted with ordinary nights, dark as nights can be. Less dark perhaps because of our huge eyes, because seriously, it never gets pitch black anymore, just sort of pitch... blue.

But I don’t care how amazing pony eyes are, we’re not gonna grow food in a few days, not even in the beginning of summer. Got some seedlings from the apple cores we planted, but that’s about it. There was, at least, grass to eat, though all but a few ponies found it very unsatisfying alone. I certainly did. And the ones who aren’t complaining about feeling ill don’t want to... talk about it.

It’s in those circumstances that Donald returns to us. The golden orange maned, blue pegasus mare named Donald was the pariah so to speak that catalyzed this whole operation. She left the day before... this happened. And now she’s returned, but without the entourage she left with. I don’t know what happened to them, or why Donald is returning alone, but her wings might play a factor in her decision. She doesn’t come diving in like the minions of Hell are on her tail, but she does swoop down from high up in the sky, all alone, to land before a couple of ponies across the field from me at the moment.

I look up at the commotion, and stop trying to chew the boring grass, while ponies congregate in that direction, calling out, “Donald! It’s Donald! He came back! She came back!”

Donald is speaking quickly, frantically, but I don’t hear all but the tail end of her desperate entreaty, once I come trotting up to the rest of the group around her. Donald stands amid a growing circle of us saying, “I promise I—I come in peace. I’ve got something really important to tell you. Where’s Twilight?”

Everyone’s speechless for a moment, but then we all try to answer at once, leaving Donald crouching and spreading her wings, going, “Okay, okay, jeez I can’t—everybody quiet!”

Once we’re quiet, of course she has to turn to me, and ask, “Okay, you. Just you. What happened to Twilight?”

...

“She be–” is all I manage to get out before choking up. I can’t believe she would betray us like that... I can’t believe she’d be so evil!

“She betrayed us!” a squirrely voiced pony says in my stead, while I try not to cry, more, again.

“She used us to cast a spell,” a stallion (not Nick) declares vehemently.

“A big spell!” shouts a filly.

“W-whatever you were going to tell her, you better not,” I say, swallowing and refusing to let this get me crying again, stepping forward to address Donald. “She was lying to us, and... and she disappeared a few days ago, as soon as you left. She said she was going to find someone, but... when she said it, she said it really mean!”

“She called us perverted ponyfuckers,” a mare behind me says flatly, “And told us that we couldn’t wipe our own asses, even though most of us can.”

“Twilight’s gone, and I hope she doesn’t come back,” the filly who just spoke says, with a stomp, “So whatever you were going to tell her, you gotta tell us instead.”

“I... I came to negotiate...” Donald says tremulously, sinking to her belly and staring forward in dread, “T-to find out what it would take for her to... change everybody back.”

“If Twilight was gonna change us back, she would have done so after she used us to cast her spell,” I tell Donald uncertainly, “Even if she could change a whole convention center full of people back into people—”

“No you don’t understand,” Donald replies, struggling to her hooves in agitation and looking at me worriedly, “Everyone is a pony now.”

“We know she changed us into ponies,” some pony says irritably, “What does that have to do with—”

“No!” Donald shouts, spinning to stare wildly at that mare instead, “You don’t understand! Everyone. Is a pony now.”

“Everyone?” I ask in dawning horror, “You mean—”

“Everyone,” she says in the dolor of a hopeless finality.

“The atmospheric phenomenon,” Donald continues as solemnly as a slim blue pegasus mare with bright orange hair can be, out in the middle of an abandoned farm, surrounded by other colorful, childlike ponies, with birds chirping in the distance. “Everything that happened in that convention center started happening to everyone. It... the scientists were trying to study it but they’re... they’re all ponies! That’s all I know really. All I know is it originated from this farm, and I only know that because I saw it happen! It had to be the spell Twilight was talking about. I... I left the farm because I was just trying to get some ponies out of there, in case... when Twilight did something bad, but I never expected...”

She shook her head, saying, “We reached a town, but it was just utter chaos. Everyone everywhere was freaking out from turning into ponies. They... I found a phone, and tried my commander, but the whole chain of command has gone black. I don’t... I f-found someone eventually, but it took me all day to... find someone who could answer their phone. The um... Lieutenant Colonel’s uh, secretary said that I needed to find out what Twilight’s demands were, as if this was a...”

She stomps angrily, saying, “As if this was just a hostage situation! As if this was just another everyday... I don’t know if the whole world is ponies! Humanity might’ve just gone extinct in... in two hours!

“And Twilight’s not even here?!” she practically shrieks, “She just disappeared and didn’t have any reason for doing this at all?!” okay, definitely shrieking. Ow.

“Donald, calm down!” I try to tell her, since I’m the closest to her, and I have a nasty habit of trying. “You won’t figure this out by panicking! You want to send us all panicking and running away in all directions? We’re all scared enough as is!”

“I... just don’t know what to do,” Donald says, sinking to her belly again, “People are gonna start dying, and I don’t know what to do. I’m a cartoon character, without any hands. I have wings, that I never felt before, and I’m a girl and probably pregnant and I just don’t know what went—” and that’s about as much as I can understand from her, before the orange and blue pegasus descends into helpless sobs.

So, we’re all just kind of laying together with Donald, a bunch of us at least. She doesn’t seem to mind being the center of it. Her crying dies down, and her body slowly relaxes against mine. And it’s tragic and traumatic and all, but the most I can feel at this point is that I’m hungry. We all need to go grazing again or something, because we have to eat so gosh darn often. Grass doesn’t have much in terms of calories in it, I suppose. So I graze, and... and we graze, and just... stay with Donald until the night falls, and we’re sleeping together in an emotionally exhausted heap.

Morning dawns, and with it dawns Donald, the fiery haired blue pegasus, who just... squirms out of the pony pile, then walks to the edge of our camp and sits there, watching the sun slowly creep over the horizon. Until we had no electric lights, I never realized just how incredibly long it takes the sun to rise. It moves too slowly to see, and even after dawn breaks, you can fall asleep from the boredom of waiting for the sun to fully crest above the horizon.

It’s... seriously weird living without electricity, since the generator we were using has been deemed emergencies only, since we no longer have any humans delivering fuel for it. The reason for their mysterious disappearance came clear with the arrival of this pegasus, and I think the full impact still has yet to hit me. The world? The whole world? Even overcrowded African nations? Did they turn into zebras, or is that too racist? What about people who never even saw a television, much less had the show translated into their native language? What about the war torn countries, or the cruel ones, who’d probably kill someone for the crime of getting turned into a pony? But what happens when everyone gets turned into a pony?

I dunno. I don’t even know the name of the town that Donald found. I don’t know how far it is to my house, but I’m certainly not prepared to walk there. What kind of ponies did my parents turn into? Or my grandmother. Is she a... is she happier as a pony? She’s the... only grandparent I have left. Kind of loopy all the time from the pain medication they have her on. It’s that time in life when we don’t have much to do other than wait for her to die. Was the transformation too much for her? What about other people who are... even older, or sicker?

What I do know is this pegasus who I gaze at, she doesn’t look like she slept well at all. Donald looks like death warmed over, really. Just... devastated. So of course I have to stick my big fat butt in the way. I should give her some space, but I just... can’t stand to see someone like this. I walk up as gently as I can, and sit next to her in the grey of the predawn light.

“Pretty...” I say with a hesitant wince, “Pretty terrible, huh?”

“Huh?” she says a little dazedly, looking at me with scared, amber eyes.

“What happened, I mean,” I clarify cautiously, “With the spell and the... world turning into ponies.”

“I just feel so terrible...” she says in despair, staring forward, as her eyes tear up again, “All those people who’re gonna get... hurt and dying.”

“There were a lot, huh?” I say with a sympathetic whuff, my tail flopping against hers as it swishes, “People getting hurt... I guess you saw a lot of car accidents?”

“Oh, I... no, it’s a mess, but I didn’t see any car accidents,” Donald admits, glancing my way, “The transformation wasn’t as... quick as with us, so everyone I saw got their cars stopped in time. I–I’m sure it’s much worse elsewhere. Everyone in town was just... really, really confused.”

“Well, at least that part of the world’s okay?” I say with what I hope is not a patronizing smile.

“Y-yeah,” Donald half smiles back, “I guess it is.” Her smile dies though, as she goes on, saying, “But the rest of the world... I just dunno what to do.”

“There might not be anything you can do,” I caution her. “You just... find everything you can do, and if you can’t find anything, then there might be nothing to do about it.”

“But how do we help those people?” she asks tensely.

“We don’t?” I suggest, trying not to sound too terrible in saying that. “If you can help people, then yes, please do help people,” I add hastily, raising a forehoof vaguely in her direction, “But there’s gonna be a lot of people you can’t help. So... get used to it, I guess?”

“So what,” she says bitterly, “I should just let people die and do nothing to help them?”

“No...!” I fuss defensively, “If there isn’t anything you can do to help them, then how can you help them?”

“That’s the problem,” she says with a shudder, “Seems like whatever I do, I can’t save people from...” Donald lifts a blue furred hooved foreleg and stares at it, “...this.”

“Is that a problem?” I ask, putting my own pony foreleg on her own, “Why can’t other people save them?”

“Because it’s my fault!” she shouts, pushing my arm...leg away.

Donald stares at me defiantly a moment, before casting her gaze down and mumbling, “If I could’ve gotten the courage to leave earlier, if we could’ve... prepared some kind of resistance...”

I have to tell her something. This just isn’t healthy, blaming herself like that. “Don, she got us to do the spell as soon as you left,” I assure the distraught pegasus, “She said you were bringing back the army on us! If you went earlier, she would’ve just done it earlier. We all screwed up, and... and that’s fine, because it’s her fault, not yours. So just... you won’t trust her next time. If you’re doing everything you can to fix her disaster, and someone halfway across the world dies because of it? It just... it happens. We can’t be everywhere.”

She gives me a long look, then asks, “Did you just call me Dawn?”

Blinking, I blurt out, “Yea? Your name’s Donald, right?”

“No I meant like Dawn like when the sun rises,” she says, shaking her head.

“Oh,” I say, eyes widening, “Oh, no I meant Don, just short for Donald.”

“No, no, it’s fine,” she says with a bemused smile, “Actually I kind of like it.”

“Oh,” I say, smiling a little myself, glad I can at least help her with her feelings about that, “Okay... Dawn.”

She looks off toward the horizon, and... did I mention the sun takes a while to rise? It’d have been really poetic if it rose right then. Oh well. But we sit there for a while, at least she doesn’t object further to my presence, until at last she says out of the blue,

“Hey... thanks.”

I turn to her in puzzlement, and Dawn looks at me and adds, “For... I don’t know. I just feel kind of better now. I don’t know what to do, and... you’re okay with that, so I guess I can be... okay with that.”

A warm blush tints the smile that grows on my face, as the sunlight finally peeks over the horizon, illuminating us in its light.

I guess I helped somehow, but Dawn seriously doesn’t know what to do at this point. When she came here, she was going to negotiate for... humanity with Twilight, but obviously that’s not gonna happen. She just... leaves then, because she has to report to her commanding officers that Twilight is AWOL again. Seeing Dawn soar off into the distance fills me with both curiosity and dread. Somewhere miles away from here, there’s an entire world going through an unimaginable upheaval, while here, this collection of people who’ve been ponies for months just continues on, going about what we were doing, mainly because nobody can think of anything better to do.

The group is holding together for now... even though people say the government’ll hold us accountable for what Twilight made us do. More people stay than leave, at least. Maybe it’s because nowhere else seems any safer right now. Maybe it’s just comforting, this sort of solidarity we’ve formed just from having to live together. Maybe it’s because everyone’s friends and family are a thousand miles away, and those of us left know little about how to survive a journey like that, much less cross an ocean.

Maybe it’s because Dawn swore up and down that the military wouldn’t hold it against us, and just wants a solution to this mess. Some people think that the military can’t hold it against us, because they’ll be falling apart just like any organization who suddenly lost access to all of the hand-focused technology. Who could pull the trigger on a gun with these hooves?

“What if they do come after us?” a grey pegasus stallion named Luke says at one point, but Patricia’s quick to counter his fears, saying,

“If they’re going to come after us, at least we’ll be together. I’d rather fall here, than get picked off one-by-one if we just try to walk home.”

What really helps keep us from panicking and scattering is that Dawn keeps coming back. Week after week, she flies in again and again, with news from outside, that communication is still cut off, and electricity is still out, that cops are forming militias or something like that. Some of the other pegasi go with her, but of course us earth ponies don’t have super fast flying powers, so I get to just sit around on the farm, out of the loop, and... do whatever it is earth ponies do.

Pretty much, we earth ponies go about our days, just... taking care of the things around here, with me checking the fruit trees, vegetables, earth pony stuff I guess. It seems easy enough. You just plant seeds from stuff you ate, plant ‘em in a sunny location, and water them now and again. Pegasi actually can control the weather with a scary amount of accuracy, so we’re never stuck without free rainwater. Good thing too, because most of this farm doesn’t even have working irrigation, the fields left fallow and wild until now.

There’s some trees around here producing a... a something like an apple, but crisper with a thicker skin. The pony managing it has no idea either, she says, “I just looked around for fruit trees until I found these. They’re not exactly Zap Apples, but...” So we have that, at least, in addition to grass, but not much else.

It’s in those slow, quiet days, and long whispery nights that I find myself, all of us living, on this abandoned farm for the interminable future. Most of us have nowhere to go. Nowhere you could get by walking, at least! Even the everpresent rush of cars from the distant city has died to silence, and it’s scary, because I never even realized that sound was there, until it was gone.

I wish I could be entirely sad, but... I mean, yes. I am a powerless little earth pony female, but I am a pony! I walk on four strong hooves, I have a thick, powerful neck that curls back naturally in a graceful, swanlike curve. Or ducklike I guess, if you’re short like I am. Still, it looks pretty in the mirror. I may have to sleep on straw, but I wake up without a scratch on my deceptively soft, supple skin, covered in a dense layer of pale yellow fur. I can run, and... I can really run like super fast. Not as fast as a pegasus could fly, but... faster than anything I ever could do before.

I wish I could be sad for the people who got caught entirely by surprise, transforming into ponies like this, but it’s just such a fascinating experience, to wake up and be this. It’s so exciting the times we’re living in, where one mare can stop our armies, and commuters and shipping fleets in their tracks. And it doesn’t sound like things are going to be going back to normal any time soon. It’s terrible, but... I’m so glad to be alive right now. If this sort of disaster was unavoidable, at least I got to... live to see it.

That’s as best as I can understand how I’m feeling, when I get Mira to completely blow up at me. Everyone else’s retreated for the warmth of the straw, but I’m hanging out in the dark, moping as I idly poke at the embers of the campfire with a hoof. The underside of a pony’s hoof is a sensitive place, but the thick nail itself that protects my inner hoof? You can even kick embers around, without feeling like you just got burned. It’s the same pale yellow color as my fur, but it’s definitely a stiff nail.

“Still up, huh?” Mira says, fluttering out of the darkness to land lightly beside me. The brightly fruity colored bat pony still has those bat eyes that make her even better at seeing in the dark than the rest of us. I can see shapes, and details, and everything just looks all blue to me, but I don’t think I could fly safely in the night. But she just flies up, casually says, “Still up, huh?” and doesn’t crash into anything at all.

“Yeah just...” I say in a girl’s voice, because there ain’t no guys around this campfire. “Thinking about Twilight.”

“She really played us,” Mira groans, slumping to her haunches next to me, “It just pisses me off so much that people like her even exist.”

“Oh, she’s not so bad,” I say unthinkingly.

Mira gives me the most incredulous look, her catlike pupils wide in the darkness. I try to explain.

“I don’t know if she doesn’t deserve to exist,” I explain, “What she did is pretty terrible, and it was terrible that she was so...” I can still see that manic look in her eyes, that fateful night, “...happy about it. But I mean... we’re still doing okay. She didn’t kill anyone, and a lot of the stuff she taught us is actually very useful. Besides, being a pony’s not that bad.”

“Not that bad?!” Mira retorts hotly, staring at me like I’m a few cards short of a full deck. And I don’t get it at all. What’s her problem?

“You wanted to be a pony!” I whine, “You were so happy when you finally transformed!”

“And what about everyone else?” she says, scraping the ground for some reason.

“Well, they were bronies...” I offer uneasily.

“What about everyone else?” Mira shouts, “What about all the people who are f-ing dying because the whole world’s falling apart? You think she’s not so bad just because she didn’t kill anyone? What about them? She was laughing at us! Twice! You think there’s anything good about somepony—about someone who laughs at people because she ruined their lives?”

Mira just breathes hard, staring me nose to nose with the intensity of a cornered wolf. Then she abruptly turns away.

“I love being a pony, thank you very much,” Mira grumbles, striding away from me in graceful agitation, “But I don’t appreciate having to hide out in the middle of nowhere, because every government in the world is screaming for our blood, because they think we did this, again.”

“I really do wish Twilight hadn’t done anything bad,” I tell Mira, “And it was... terrible that she just left us like this. She was so...

“...

“...sad,” I conclude in confusion. Twilight was laughing, so how could she seem so sad?

Mira herself sounds like she’s about to cry, when staring away from me, she quietly says, “You can’t say anything bad about her. You’re—enchanted, or you just have a fucking crush on her. Even now.” But she’s spitting fire when she turns back to me and gets in my face and shouts, “She’s not so bad?! Twilight Sparkle is the worst pony who ever lived!”

No, I mean literally spitting fire. With an unladylike squeal, I leap back like ten feet, when for the briefest moment, a bright orange flame bursts from Mira’s mouth with a rush of heat in my face. She looks at me in bewilderment, and then a dawning horror, as my sister stands there, wings half spread and stammers, “I... I didn’t... I didn’t mean to...”

She slumps down on her haunches then, staring forward, then covering her face with her forehooves and moaning, “Blguh... I didn’t... I’m just it’s just everything weird and and ugly and monster...”

Mira’s not getting shrill or crying. If anything, she’s getting quieter, as she collapses within herself. I’ve never ever seen her do this before. Without any thought to spouting flames in my head, I rush forward with worry. Butting my head urgently against her chest, I kind of... push up against her so Mira has to hug me in her forehooves.

And she does. Mira hugs me, and shudders against me. She’s just shaking like a leaf. Her forelegs wrap like soft, warm, thick hooks around my sides. She lays her head against the fluffy fur on my chest, silent and utterly inscrutable in that darkness, just holding me close to her warmth. Her wings spread, and she wraps them around me. It’s like being swathed in a warm, living blanket that smells and feels of Mira, but I don’t think she’s doing it for my comfort.

“I freaked out at my own reflection, the other day,” Mira says quietly, after her shaking has stilled, and the warm bat pony is just quietly holding me. “These eyes are so freaky. They just s-started dilating like a cat and I just... I couldn’t stand being so freaky and scary and ugly.”

“You’re anything but ugly, Mira,” I murmur into what’s probably her shoulder. I don’t really understand our anatomy nowadays.

“You don’t have to sugarcoat it,” she mumbles, “I know what it looks like. I got... fucking bat wings, and these eyes are like some kinda monster pony. I–I just wanted to be a pegasus, not this... this bat thing.”

“Your wings are beautiful,” I fuss at her distressedly, and all I get in response is her tensing against me, and saying,

“You’re lying. I try to tell myself they’re fine, but everyone knows they’re not. They’re just big bony s-skeleton hands wrapped in skin.”

“I don’t know what other people think, and your wings are kinda bony,” I murmur honestly, “But we’re all skeletons wrapped in skin. Your wings just have to be thin to... to fly better.”

“And the spitting fire?” she replies in tail swishy agitation, stammering, “I–it just keeps happening to me, and I don’t know why, like I’m some kinda demon. I don’t try to do it, it just started... coming out.”

“I don’t know why you’d be spitting fire,” I say with a sigh, as the bat pony sinks more heavily against me. “You were getting kind of angry, but...”

Mira separates from me, and pushes my chest to brace her hoof on it at arm’s length. “It’s been happening when I get too excited,” she says tensely curling her hooves back against herself, looking down at them, “Just... just bursts outta me, and then nobody notices anything happened.”

“Nobody notices?” I squeak, “But it’s fire!”

Mira’s chest shakes with a laugh at that. “Never happened to me at night, not when anyone was around who could see it, until now,” she says, tilting her head up to look at me, “Kind of hard to see the... the flames during the day.”

“Well, I sure saw it,” I emphasize firmly.

“It was fire, wasn’t it?” Mira asks suddenly hopefully, peering at me with open curiosity. “I think it’s fire, but I can’t tell since it’s coming out of me. ”

“...it must feel pretty crazy,” I reply quietly, looking at the pony’s soft features in the darkness.

“I can kind of feel it,” Mira says softly, in a haunted tone, “Feel something, n’any rate. There’s this spinny... thing coming up my... throat or the back of my neck, or... and... then I just... have to open my mouth. It’s like yawning but really fast. I’m laughing or yelling, or opening my mouth then... fwoosh.”

“It’s probably an instinct, to keep from burning yourself,” I postulate desperately, “That makes sense, right?”

“None of this makes sense!” she hisses harshly, “Everything about me is so weird and everything about ponies is so weird.”

“Haven’t you told anyone about this?” I ask, full of worry for my beleagured and apparently fire spitting sister.

“I didn’t even know if it was a thing,” she says irritably, “And I can’t figure out how to just do it, so nobody believes me! I asked Twilight, and she just...”

With an angry sigh, Mira grumbles, “She just made it sound like I was making it up, and I couldn’t prove it to her because I don’t know how to just do it. A-and I didn’t have any evidence, and...”

“What else did Twilight lie to us about?” I whine in frustration, “And why? Why lie about something like that?”

The cool night gives no answers, but for Mira, who sighs and says,

“Your guess is as good as mine. What she told me is it’s alright to be confused. That I might not be thinking straight that the... the transformation might be messing with my head. And she said that she’d do everything she could to undo what Sunset did, and restore my h-humanity.”

Eyeing her, I ask, “Did you tell her you wanted to be a pony?”

“No,” Mira states grimly, “No I... I’m glad I didn’t tell her. She doesn’t deserve to know anyone actually likes being a pony. But I just wasn’t sure that I wanted to be one anymore, back then. It’s just too... weird.”

“Hey, if you think spitting fire when you get mad is weird,” I tell her with a giggle that gets a surprised look from her. “Then you should try escaping solitary confinement using some sorta cartoon physics.”

“Cartoon physics, really?” Mira says, blinking in the dim night. “I thought they just carried you out.”

“They... I don’t... understand how, and it’s actually... kind of hard to think about,” I say with some difficulty, “But somehow I ended up outside my cell. When they came to rescue me, I was just in the hall, trying to figure out what to do.”

Sighing at the troubling experience, I add, “Pinkie Pie makes it look so easy.”

Mira doesn’t know whether to laugh or to cry.

So... strange things are happening. I’m starting to get the impression that Twilight wasn’t entirely forthcoming about what a pony is. There’s the thing with Mira that I don’t even know. More cartoon physics I guess? There’s the sex. If that Twilight was the same Twilight I knew, then I know for a fact that she’s not prudishly opposed to the notion of ponies having sex. So why was she?

I mean... it could’ve been a second impostor, but what are the chances that you run across a pony disguised as Twilight Sparkle who loves to betray her friends, twice? So on the assumption that this... was the same pony, all that getting shocked and offended because some ponies were having sex must’ve been an act too!

I try to understand why on earth Twilight would need to keep secrets like that, and mislead us so cruelly, but the only thing I can come up with is that she’s... evil. I want to deny it, and it feels so bad to just condemn someone like that, but maybe that’s her fault too. She probably did enchant me to be unable to hate her, because whenever I try to get upset over what she did to us, all I can remember is the pain in her eyes, when she freaked out at me just because of how much she missed her friends.

That was probably a lie too, though.

I’d like to say that she needs help, compassion, and loving care, that she’s doing all this because she was somehow hurt inside, and not just because she’s a total bitch, who delights in the suffering of others, but the evidence is just too damning even for me to deny.

Twilight Sparkle... is just pure dag nasty evil.

“Okay, uh...” Patricia says as we all assemble before a cold fire pit, more because we want to get warm, rather than any sort of duty or discipline. The sun’s going down, and we want a little more warmth and light than it could provide. Since there’s no electricity, batteries have to be conserved, so I guess we’re caveponies now.

“So...” Patricia continues to hemm and haw, pacing back and forth before the unlit pile of branches, “So everyone knows how Zeke was using that static shocker spell to get the fire going, right?”

A few murmurs of assent, but mostly of “What’s the holdup already?”

“And you know how it takes like five minutes?” Patricia says louder, spreading her blue, feathery wings, “Or however long until he can get the sparks to catch the tinder long enough to get kindling to start burning?”

“When she wasn’t shocking someone with it!” shouts a voice from the crowd.

“Yeah, so... not ideal right?” Patricia replies, folding her wings, and rubbing a forehoof on her other front leg, “What I’m trying to say is we might have a—” Descending from the sky, Mira lands behind Patricia, facing the fire, and fa-whoomp, the campfire’s started.

“...better way,” Patricia says, almost as shocked as everyone else, looking over her shoulder at Mira, who just dances there on her hooves before everyone, shouting,

“Haha, yeah! I told you it wasn’t just my imagination!”

“Tail!” Patricia shouts in alarm.

Mira looks back and, “Hoshit!” jerks her tail out of the way of the growing fire, and frantically stomps the tip until it stops smouldering.

Yeah, that’s... um... Mira.

Our campfires are certainly taken care of after that. It isn’t even Mira who does it all the time either. Other ponies can do... the fire thing I guess. I don’t really pay attention to it honestly. Long as there’s a fire, I don’t care whose weird, freaky magic got it lit. I’m too busy these days spending most of my time trying to figure out what to eat around here. Foraging is a lot harder than it looks, and there’s really not a lot to forage around here. At least we have grass.

All this and more flees out of my head when Nick’s driving phallus slides into me again and again. Oh, I can’t say I’m exactly eager to be a mare. Being female has tons of problems to it, which... I guess is true for males too, but at least males don’t have to worry about being pregnant. So there’s a lot of reasons for me to want to be male, and I still remember the intense rush as I started spurting into Twilight Sparkle, thinking I could make her pregnant.

But as a female, sex is just so... sublime. It makes me feel fuzzy and content, and also excited and electric. It’s less of an achievement than when I was male, and more of an... experience. I can feel him sliding inside me! Just sweating and rocking and panting, and getting pumped like an engine. I just ...it feels good, alright? I can’t stop my body from feeling good, if it got changed to do so!

About the only thing I really don’t like about it is when Nick pulls out. He’ll be just warming up, and getting in gear, and... oh I dunno then I just end up on the edge of climax, when his steady pistoning is gone, and once again I’m standing there watching Nick take care of himself outside of me. I don’t know why he likes this, but I feel both excited, revolted and intrigued at the thick ropy jets of white that erupt from his penis. That could’ve been in me.

I don’t have enough presence of mind to do much of anything at that point, besides rub myself. I’m so glad I can at least do that, but... Nick just enjoys the show, I guess? With my tail up, and my hind legs stiff, I have to lean on one foreleg to um... stroke myself with the other. It helps, but I feel a little embarassed. Shouldn’t I be orgasming? He’s just looking at me, and... I don’t wanna.

“You okay, Meadows?” Nick asks afterward, when I just kind of groan and flop over on my side, so tired of that stupid quivery passage in my belly running my life, just begging for a cock in it.

“Just a little... horny, still,” I say distantly, looking the other way at nothing in particular.

“You want me to—” he says, sidling closer to me.

I turn to look, waving a hoof at him and saying, “No! No it’s... the moment’s passed. That’s not really what’s bothering me, anyway.”

“So, something is bothering you?” he asks cagily.

“Well it’s just...” Groaning and gathering my hooves under me, I stand from where I’m laying on my side in the dirt because we just went and started fucking out back in the moonlight behind the barn, because that’s a thing I do now, I guess. Staring at Nick owlishly, I don’t want him to think I actually want it but...

“I just don’t get why you never finish in me anymore,” I finally bite out bitterly.

He looks at me like... that look, which I get a lot. “I’m serious!” I whine, “If I’m okay with you in there, then your s-stuff is just a bonus! Don’t try to tell me you don’t like finishing inside.”

“Well yeah, but you know...” he says tentatively, wincing at me in sympathy.

“No I don’t know,” I tell him with a blush creeping up my face, “Is it because I was a... because I’m a guy? I don’t know how to act like a girl! Or a girl... pony or whatever. I’m just some stupid masculine... chick I guess. Tom girl? I don’t even know what you call it!”

“Meadowsweet, you’re upset that I’m not cumming inside your vagina,” Nick says flatly, “That’s about as girly as you can possibly get. Most girls aren’t even that girly.”

“Well... you... ugh,” I say with a snap of my tail, “You know what I mean!”

“Yeah, but it’s not because you’re a guy,” Nick says appeasingly, “Because you’re really not. I mean no offense it’s just... wow. You’re like a... supergirl.”

“I... I don’t know whether to be insulted by that or not,” I tell him at a bit of a stumbling loss there. “I just don’t understand why you keep pulling out before you cum inside. It can’t be for your sake, or my sake, so... what is it?”

“Well, you know, the whole... pregnant thing?” Nick says with a grimace that might pass for a worried smile.

“Yes I know, and that’s what doesn’t make sense,” I tell him with a huffy stomp, “I’m pregnant so no amount of... of cumming inside is gonna make me more pregnant. I have to g-give birth and nurse and—and do all the stupid things girls, no, mothers do. It’s all h-happening already, so I...”

Casting my gaze off to the side, I tell Nick sadly, “I’m not gonna deny it. It feels really good when you cum inside. And I don’t even care what you do down there, since the foal’s gonna do a whole lot worse, coming out.”

Looking at him again with tears in my eyes, I say, “So now that I have to be pregnant, why’re you taking away the one thing that I like about it, and just letting me just stand there, wishing you would?!”

To my tirade, Nick replies in equal frustration, “I’m trying not to get you pregnant!!”

...

“N-no you’re not,” I tell him quietly, lifting a hoof to look up at the incomprehensible stallion, “You made... both me and John pregnant. You said you wanted to! A-a lot!”

“Well that was before Twilight skipped out on us!” Nick replies angrily, “I was only getting you pregnant, because I thought she was going to change us back!”

...

“S-she’s not going to,” I say softly, “I never realized...”

“You did... I’m sorry, I should have uh, broken it to you more... gently?” Nick tries, with an uneasy smile.

“No, no it’s... it’s just a lot to take in,” I say, falling to my haunches, “I thought you were...”

“You thought I was... what?” Nick asks, hovering over me hesitantly.

“Nick, you’re a... you’re a wonderful boyfriend,” I tell him, standing up and nuzzling his um... snout, comfortingly, “I never realized how incredible you are.”

“W-what?” Nick asks, backing up a step, “How does me being a good boyfriend have anything to do with Twilight changing us back??”

I have to blush at that, and look away.

“Meadowsweet...” Nick says with a concern I definitely do not deserve.

“I’m an idiot,” I tell him, staring down at his pale grey hooves scuffed with dirt, “I never considered that Twilight was going to change us back.”

“She literally said she was going to—” Nick starts, but I look up at him saying fussily,

“I know! I just... didn’t connect that with me and... John being pregnant. I thought you were... I thought you just didn’t care if you impregnated her.”

That came out wrong, so I stomp a hoof and say, “I mean, I thought that you had to cum inside her. When she... when you were inside her, and she wasn’t pregnant, you just... I thought you just pushed it in and did it anyway, knowing it would make her pregnant.”

“Well, I... did, but...” Nick says a little confused, sitting to his haunches to try to make sense of me.

I sit with him too, saying, “I thought you knew she’d have to be a pony for all eleven months, getting pregnant, getting sick and growing your child inside her. I thought she was going to have to give birth, j-just like me. I didn’t realize you didn’t know. I thought you wanted it so bad, you just impregnated m-me knowing that I’d have to give birth. Knowing that I’d have a foal sucking on my... my pony breasts, and what am I going to do with them? They could start talking, and I’d have to tell them they were made because I couldn’t control myself. And if I couldn’t feed them it’d be m-my fault, and they might die because of me,” meeting his eyes, I conclude urgently, “And because of you too! I thought you wanted that to happen. Not that you wanted it, but I thought you’d rather cum inside me, even if my... foal doesn’t have a good life.”

Nick looks at me flabbergasted. “Why did you keep letting me do it, then?” he asks, “Why are you my friend at all? I’d hate me, if I did that to um, me.”

“Because I don’t blame you,” I tell him supportively, “I know how it feels, thanks to um... Sunset Shimmer. And even before that, when I... climaxed as a man, I would have just... kept it inside the woman and impregnated her. It’s such a powerful urge to do so!”

Nick blushes at that and glances down, but I insist to him, “And that’s great! I love you being... taken by your urges like that. Not caring about anything other than... just filling me up with cum. Just the thought that I feel so good in there, that you’d even make me have a foal if you could cum inside... it makes me feel... less awful about myself.”

“Well... I do,” he admits, “I want to cum inside you and John e-every time. I just... I just can’t do that to you. Even if your—our foal has a great life, that means you have to be a mom. You should be yourself, instead! I–I just wanted to let you... not have to be a mom.”

“That’s why I suck,” I tell him regretfully, hanging my head, “I’m not as s-strong as you. Once you’re inside me, I don’t care about my foal, or my future. I just want it so bad. I even want to give birth. Just the thought of it...” risking a look up at him, I say, “W-well my female body just... feels good at the idea that I’d have a... foal inside me that I had to push out. It’s just neat that I’d just... change so much, that my body would become some kind of foal birthing creature, who I’m... not, right now.”

Nick listens patiently, while I confess, “I did let you cum inside me, every time, even if my foal w-would starve. I want it now. I–I’d let you cum inside me now. I want it all the time. I don’t know how other girls hold out. Getting pregnant is the only way I have to get any relief.”

“Well, that and orgasm,” Nick says wryly.

Blinking at Nick, I say, “What do you mean? I can’t orgasm!”

Nick stares at me in shock.

“Y-you knew, right?” I say, blushing like I want to hide behind a hoof, “I’m just one of those girls who doesn’t o-orgasm, I guess.”

“But what about when you were clenching around me?” he asks, giving me a desperate look, “You never orgasmed at all?”

“I like clenching, okay?” I say, frustrated that I do, “It feels good to... to flex my vagina like that. With you inside. But it’s not orgasm!”

“H-has John orgasmed?” Nick asks faintly.

“...I don’t know,” I say, looking down again, “If she has, she h-hasn’t said.”

“Jesus Christ,” Nick says shaking his head slowly, “We gotta do something about that. You just... always wanted me to jump right on and get going.”

“I still do!” I assure him, “I want you to... cum inside me. That’s what my body wants. N-not orgasm, so much.”

“Well, I can’t do that,” Nick says flatly, “If there’s any chance that you’re not pregnant, I’m not gonna take that risk.”

“O-oh...”

We sit there silently, as I collect my words, finally telling Nick seriously, “Nick, I haven’t been menstruating. Not even once. I’ve been pregnant from the start, so it’s okay if you cum inside me. If I wasn’t pregnant, I would have... bled by now. It’s been months.”

We sit there silently another moment as Nick tries to comprehend the magnitude of my undeniable pregnancy, at which point he says,

“Meadowsweet, ponies don’t have periods.”

Blink.

“You didn’t know that either?” my unicorn friend says in disbelief, “Everyone’s been talking about it, how they might not be pregnant now.”

“Not with me,” I say in confusion, “Why would they tell you, and not me?”

A thought, and Nick facehooves. “Oh,” he says bluntly, “They probably were just mentioning it, to get me to have sex with them. Ugh, why do ponies have to be so horny?”

“Ponies... what? Ponies do have periods,” I insist in utter confusion, “You told me about them! You said—”

“I was dead wrong, apparently,” Nick cuts me off, “Only apes have a... menstrual cycle I guess. Animals that aren’t apes go into heat, once a year.”

...

“And.... then I start bleeding out of my...?”

“No, no bleeding, no red stuff,” Nick says emphatically, “Ask Brian about the details, or someone else who knows something about horses.”

“But then...” I say uncomfortably, “Where does the uterus lining go? Don’t tell me ponies don’t have those, either?”

“For all I know, we lay eggs!” Nick declares throwing his hooves up in exasperation.

“Are you saying I might not be pregnant?” I ask in my own form of disbelief, “How???”

“I don’t know,” Nick says, “You’d have to ask Brian about the specifics of it. But it’s been three months, so if you were pregnant, you’d definitely be... well eating more I guess I dunno.”

“I don’t know why everyone keeps asking me that!”

I’m now speaking rather unproductively with a green pegasus mare with a soft blue mane and tail. “Nick told me you were good with this stuff,” I tell her, “You are Brian, right? I had to ask two other blue and green pegasi—”

“Yes, I’m Brian,” she says with a sigh, staring forward irritably, “We’re a convention hall full of bronies. How is it that I’m the only vet tech??” Less passionately, she adds, “...in training...”

Brian and I are walking together with her along the edge of the farm. It’s a beautiful day. Some colorful winged ponies are dragging clouds around overhead through the clear, blue sky. And I might not be pregnant.

“Ponies could lay eggs, for all I know about their biology,” the green and blue pegasus grumbles cynically, “But yes, horses, and... ungulates in general I’m pretty sure, do not have any sort of menstruation. There’s a yearly heat cycle, and... the uterine lining gets absorbed, if you think that happening inside you is a comforting thought. It doesn’t get shed and get expelled like with humans, so... no bleeding.”

“I just can’t believe I thought literally every pony was pregnant,” I groan in embarassment, “After Nick and Mira told me about periods, I just... I never knew humans had such a...” glancing down at my plodding hooves...

“I never knew humans,” I say in bitter resignation, “Had such a weird thing about their mating... sexual...”

“Behaviors?” Brian prompts.

“Stuff,” I clarify.

We walk a while further, before Brian says softly, “So you really... went all the way girl, huh?”

“You mean mentally?” I ask in confusion, “I never thought it was what I’d call a good thing to be a girl, but...”

“No, no I mean... you thought every pony had been having... sex, but actually most... um...” Brian gives a dissatisfied snort, “Okay, so I still don’t know how often people are having sex. It’s kind of hard to measure something that... personal.”

Laughing I say, “Yeah, it sure had me fooled. I thought everyone was doing it. Maybe we should be more open about this stuff. It’d clear up a lot of confusion.”

Blushing, Brian stutters an answer. “B-but you definitely are one of the former guys who... you know... went full girl and had sssex, right?” making me stumble in my tracks a little.

“Y-yeah I guess,” I say in resignation, trotting a bit to catch up from where I fell behind there, “It was sort of... overwhelming I mean. I didn’t exactly choose to do it. I just sort of... didn’t know how to deal with it, and Nick—I mean, a stallion was close to me all the time, and it just...”

Head dipping, I reluctantly say, “I guess it’s true after all that some girls are exempt from wanting to have sex when you’re horny.”

“I have been pretty... horny,” Brian says leerily tilting an ear, “And it has gotten pretty um... compelling at times. Must be nice... I–I mean to find out what it feels like.”

“Yeah, that’s how it gets you though,” I tell her in a secretive murmur, “You just start feeling curious... about... stuff you’d never be curious about as a guy, and it all seems so innocent and not... part of being a girl or anything. But it is. You don’t feel like you’re doing anything girly, but one thing leads to another, and soon you’re being the girliest girl who ever... girled.”

Brian can’t help but laugh at that. “I don’t think girl is a verb,” she says in an equally secretive whisper, out here with no one around us completely alone.

“Yea well... so... well,” I say, unable to just keep walking along at the thought of the things I’ve been doing, that I could be doing. Brian stops too, and glances back at me. It’s embarassing, but it’s also... fascinating, being this way. “So I uh,” I say with an unusual surge of self-confidence, “Have done the whole... girl thing, yes. It um... feels as good as girls make it look.”

Brian’s turns to look at me head-on, while I sigh and confess, “But then you had sex and his stuff’s i-inside you, and you don’t know why you love that so much, but... it means you’re pregnant... back there.”

I almost say “down there,” but alas both my and Brian’s asses are well and truly behind us.

Glancing downward, I mumble, “So the sex thing is... really good, and I don’t miss having a... dick or anything, but then you realize what you just did, and... and it’s t-terrifying to think that I might have to give birth out of that thing.”

“Seriously,” Brian groans in agreement, “You don’t even realize how weird a vagina is, until you get one and... it just seems even more impossible that you could push a baby’s head through it.”

We start walking again, and the old barn is up ahead, slowly approaching as we walk down the beaten path. “I know I’m still pregnant, even without the whole... no period thing,” I say with an unconvincing laugh, looking the blue/green pegasus’s way, “I mean of course it doesn’t work every time, but he really um... there was a... a lot.”

“Didn’t you get sent to some prison or something?” Brian asks curiously.

Nodding in surprise, I say, “Yes, that’s pretty much true. They just wanted to know where Twilight Sparkle was, but things got... really bad after that.”

“Yeah I know...” Brian agrees with a cute little sigh, “Starving ponies, broken w-wings.”

Just in the slight shifting of Brian’s wing, I can tell how unnerving the thought of that is to her. John’s wing is doing great though, thank goodness, and she says it isn’t even stiff anymomre. It’s weird how strongly pegasi and... bat ponies come to feel about their wings. I mean I can understand in the sense that losing a limb would be pretty terrifying for me, but... Brian lived her whole life without wings. And now she cares about them in a way that I can’t even really comprehend.

It makes me feel guiltily relieved beside Brian here. I may be upset with how normal it feels to be walking on all fours, but I don’t have wings. I don’t have these mental changes, making me... care about wings, as though I couldn’t live without them. It’s nice to be the boring, ordinary, normal one sometimes, at least relatively. I wonder if Twilight knew that, when she transformed me into just... an earth pony. That I’d actually start feeling kind of okay with it.

No, no I know her true colors now, and if Twilight Sparkle knew I’d be feeling relieved at this, she’d no doubt have made me an alicorn princess, just to make me as uncomfortable as possible.

So as an ordinary pony, I suppose it’s up to me to help Brian understand my captors, without thoughts of what they might have done to her wings clouding her judgement. “People were just really upset,” I say with a shrug, “It was wrong of them, but I can understand why they’d be... not very pleasant people at the time.” Shuddering, I add, “I don’t even wanna imagine how they’re reacting now that everyone’s a...”

We walk in silence for a few seconds.

“So you were one of the ones who got starved, right?” Brian asks in a deliberately casual tone.

“In a sense, yeah,” I say noncommitally, swishing my tail uncertainly, “They just kind of forgot about me. I think that’s what happened, at least. I was pretty darn skinny when I got rescued... I look a lot better now.”

“Did they... hurt you, like... with the wings, or hitting you in the head, or cutting into your uh... hoof—” Brian blushes, anxiously adding, “Okay I heard some horror stories, but I’m just trying to get an idea what you went through.”

“I dunno why they didn’t do a lot to me,” I confess, a little shaken at the thought that they’d been messing with ponies’ hooves. “I kind of felt like they gave up on me, I mean... I was pretty pathetic, I guess. All they did really was shoot at me a little, just to scare me. A-and boy, it worked. But other than that, just... stuck in a little room all day with... water if I’m lucky.” Snorting, I say, “It doesn’t sound bad, but it was seriously the worst thing I’ve ever experienced in my life. I’m just sheltered, I guess.”

“Well I’m not judging,” Brian chirps with a conflicted expression on her muzzle, “I was just asking because I think it’s possible you might’ve had a miscarriage.”

Stuttering to a halt, I say, “W-what? No, please. Don’t—don’t even joke about that.”

“Why not?” she asks unrepentantly, stopping under the shade of a tree and turning to look at me, haunches down, “You’re a female, you have miscarriages. It’s just a fact of life.”

“I... I guess I could have,” I say faintly, sitting on my rump, “But I definitely made up for it after that. So I just... so my foal just d-died in there...”

“You most likely would expel the fetus, or it simply wouldn’t implant at all,” Brian says helpfully, “It would’ve just been a small collection of cells by then, so it’s a lot better than forcing you to risk your life when you’re starving to death.”

“Yeah, but it’s still a... it still could have been a foal,” I tell her, “Y–y’know, with a name and—”

“My most recent foal’s name is... Coconut,” Brian says after a moment’s thought. “Unfortunately they were never fertilized, so I’m afraid they perished while they were just a f-ing female egg. Because that’s what our bodies produce, is eggs that could become foals, whether we like it or not. You could name it, or whatever, but it’s not a living thinking being, not any more than a slime mold.”

“But it could be,” I contest.

Sighing, Brian says, “I suppose it is sad when someone has a miscarriage, if they actually wanted the child. But it’s better than the child dying later on, or after the birth. You have to decide for yourself where the value of life is worth the risk, but when the life is just a cluster of cells, and the risk is starving to death, I’m afraid your body is going to decide for you.”

“I... never thought of it that way,” I have to admit.

“It’s natural, nothing to be upset over, and easy to fix,” Brian says grumpily, “Which you... did, I suppose. And that’s why you think you’re pregnant again.”

“I haven’t starved or anything since then,” I tell her, “It’s pretty much certain, given the amount of times me and Nick... um. W-we thought we were gonna get changed back, you see. But now he doesn’t want to, because... I don’t actually know if I’m pregnant.”

“I only interned with a stable for like a month,” Brian says unhappily, “I never even saw any births, just read about them. Once. I’d have to look it up again, and... not much reading material out here. But the only ways to tell are... later on in the pregnancy. Like six months into the pregnancy. So unless you’ve been pregnant for half a year... I don’t know what to tell you. Or anyone for that matter. You wouldn’t believe how many people have been asking me.”

“Sorry for bothering you,” I try, but she shakes her head, saying,

“No it’s fine. Just complaining. I don’t mind helping with what I can.”

“It’s been... three months, maybe?” I say thoughtfully, “Though... l-like five months if you count having sex with a human.”

Brian tilts her head, raising an eyebrow, saying, “Seriously? Come on, I’ve seen how huge humans are now. How would he even... fit?”

“It did hurt, I guess,” I tell Brian tentatively, “B-but it did fit.”

“Yeah still it’s pretty hard to believe,” Brian says, giving me an intrigued look, “So this giant human just... crouched way down, and...?”

“I l-laid on the bed, and he stood beside it...” Face growing hot at the memory of the experience, and at having to admit it, I manage to squeak, “...then just started going in.”

Brian stares off dazedly at that, murmuring “I guess that would work, just...”

“It worked with Twilight,” I mumble, blushing heavily, “So I figured it would work with me.”

“Nick had sex with Twilight Sparkle?!” Brian exclaims, staring at me in shock with her soft purple/pink eyes.

I stare at her for a moment as we walk along, before replying irritably, “No, Nick didn’t. I did.”

Brian stops at that, and I turn to look back seeing the pegasus appraise me thoughtfully.

“Oh,” she says, “So when they said Twilight seduced you into...”

Oh. Yeah. Anxiously, I admit, “S-she did sorta literally seduce me. I mean c’mon, it was Twilight Sparkle! Who could say no to that?”

“She didn’t even give you the time of day once you got to the farm,” Brian says disaffectedly to my nervous smile, lowering her ears and trotting forward again, to join me in our walk toward the barn.

“Oh, no Twilight was... different than before. She was friendly enough, but... yeah I dunno,” I say shaking my head, “I figured the real Twilight wasn’t into um, sex, and the Twilight that I had sex with was an impostor.”

“Well, at least according to Occam’s Razor she wasn’t,” Brian says wryly.

“Oh, I heard of that thing, but I don’t really get it,” I tell her curiously.

“Occam’s Razor?” Brian asks with a curious head tilt.

“Yeah, it means... go with the simplest explanation I guess?” I say, trying to recall what little I know about it.

“It’s just the idea that assumptions are bad,” Brian says easily, “Because any assumption could be wrong, and there’s no way to check. So if you have two possible explanations for things, go with the one with less assumptions.”

“So, assuming the first Twilight’s an impostor...” I suggest carefully.

“That’s the bad explanation,” Brian says with a half smile, “Doesn’t mean it’s not true, but without any more evidence, it’s just another assumption.”

“So the other explanation is that Twilight is...”

“...not an impostor,” Brian concludes for me.

“What is she though?” I ask.

With a discontented nicker, Brian replies, “I don’t think anybody knows.”

Author's Note

And now, 10 chapters of nothing but world building, character development, exposition and smut, as our heroes slowly learn the full extent of what they’ve done. By the time they figure out what the fuck to do, and the plot actually the fuck resumes, I’m optimistic I’ll have driven away all three of the readers I have left.

Icing on the Cake

So, um...

Yeah

um

I’m hugging a pony, no no no. I’m a pony hugging a pony, because a certain somepony decided to pull out the mother of all evil plans and transform literally everyone into a pony. I’ve learned how to walk in predictable ways, and engaged in fine manipulation in very bizarre, unpredictable ways.

I’m not human, and I’m not male. I’ve got a freaking vagina back there underneath my tail, that I’ve eagerly stuffed with dick, because somewhere along the line I just got too horny to care. The sun is warm on my naked back, because despite the creamy yellow fur covering my whole body, it’s still my skin. The hair on my head is a gorgeous, tangled, unnatural green, along with my lush, responsive tail. My fingers feel like toes, and all four of my toes feel thick and sturdy, carrying my weight with stability and confidence.

I’m not standing on my hooves now, but instead squatting down on my haunches where what used to be the bottoms of my right and left feet press into the riverbank and the creek bed beneath the water, respectively. The fur on my left thigh is chilled and soaked, right where my cutie mark would be, if I had one.

This would all be quite odd and... strangely satisfying, but what really makes it bizarre is the other pony who’s desperately cuddled right up in my embrace. My forearms bend awkwardly around to hold her close, and console her: a pretty little purple unicorn mare with bright pink hair, whose muzzle smells vaguely of squirrel blood. And she’s a pony and I’m a pony and that means she—I—does it really mean that... she seriously just did that?

“No pony would do this,” Janice says bitterly into my chest, while I try to get my brain working again, “I’m acting like a—like a cat, or something. It just keeps happening to me. It’s so easy to just... Meadowsweet, what... am I? What the hell are we?”

There’s a thousand things I could shakily stutter, but I don’t know what I should say. She just outright confessed she’d been catching things and eating them, and I’m pretty sure you don’t have to catch plants! The only thing she really needs now is someone to not be horrified of her, but she expects me to do the exact opposite. Not to console her, but to fear her, and push her away with an empty smile and false words of consolation. She expects me to fear her, yet to be afraid to tell her I’m afraid of her.

Am I afraid of her?

“We’re ponies,” I tell her bluntly.

Her ear slides along my chest as both of them go flat, so I hastily add,

“I—I’m really not sure what a pony is though.”

It doesn’t really help.

And so two little ponies leerily approach what they both know to be a freshly dead squirrel. I’m not chasing Janice all over the place this time, so it’s a relatively quick trip back for the both of us. I get a little lost, but... Janice takes the lead then, helping me find where I want to go. Soon we’re both standing over the corpse of a dead squirrel.

“So why did we come back to—to this?” she asks hopelessly, waving a hoof vaguely in the squirrel’s direction.

“I really should be more grossed out,” I reply, not even bothering to make eye contact with her, as I peer down at the squirrel. I lower my head down to it and take a cautious sniff. It’s not warm anymore, but still really... fresh smelling.

This is absolutely insane. This can’t possibly be true. We’ve been taught from... from birth not to do this, and our biology can’t be that much different. We have hooves, not— claws. I don’t have any—

Against everything I’ve ever been known to be a good idea, whether human or pony, I reach out my tongue and take a cautious lick. The bite of iron fills my mouth, as if I’d bitten my tongue really badly, but clearly I haven’t. Not just iron, but a salty enticing sort of flavor that makes me... yearn for a little package of beef jerky. Or a nice roast chicken. Looking longingly down at the gamey, ratty-furred squirrel with actual meat on its bones, I exclaim in mortified resignation,

“Oh my god we’re carnivores.”

“You knew?!”

“Hey! Hey!” Nick says, backing up nervously at my utterance of outrage and frustration, “I didn’t know know. I thought you knew!”

“I knew that ponies are hunting small game with their teeth?!” I reply, eyes practically bugging out from the sheer implications of this.

“What the—seriously?” he replies, with a near identical expression, “Since when?! With their—teeth? You’re joking!”

“It’s not like any pony can chase after something with a spear,” I say, a little off guard from his surprise, “But how did you know that ponies were eating... meat?”

Nick stares at me a moment, before saying more calmly, “I meant the soup. Meadowsweet, we’d been eating meat for the whole time Twilight Sparkle was here. What do you think was in the soup?”

“Carrots?” I reply in exasperation, “Celery? I didn’t notice any meat!”

“It was a meat broth, I’m pretty sure,” Nick says frankly, “And you—”

“Oh my god,” I groan, strutting in a tight circle, “All this time, it’s so obvious! Twilight even... she even—!”

I think there are tears in my eyes when I look at Nick and exclaim shrilly, “That’s why she had that beef jerky. She was eating it because... because she had to!”

“I think she ate it because she wanted to,” Nick says in aggravation, “Because she just liked killing cows—”

“No, I... I have to talk to Brian. She’s the... she’ll know what’s going on,” I say in a confused sort of frustration, or a frustrated sort of confusion. Frustrifusion.

“Well, whatever’s going on, don’t leave me out of the loop,” Nick urges in similar frustration, “How could people possibly be getting beef jerky way out here? I bet they’re hoarding it all to themselves, I swear— ”

He cuts off, noticing my alarm as his anger grows to genuine shouting. “I would kill for some beef jerky right about now,” he adds in a haggard tone, the grey unicorn drooping his head wearily.

“Look, I don’t know, I just... please don’t tell anyone about this yet,” I say, my tail swishing indecisively as I insistently bump Nick’s side with my own, “I think there’s something... going on, but I’m not a doctor or a... biologist or anything. I’ll tell you more after I talk to Brian, but in the meantime, don’t hunt any squirrels, okay?”

“I’ll... keep that in mind,” he says a little too hesitantly for my liking. So I just dart off trying to find Brian, or maybe that doctor whatshername.

Well, I find Brian at least. The blue haired, green pegasus mare, who is ostensibly a veterinary tech... in training is just lounging around beside a tree, looking bored, nibbling at her wings. Hurriedly cantering up to her, I say urgently, “Brian! Brian, I have something really important to ask you. A big biological... thing.”

“Sure, what do you want to know?” she replies easily, the green winged mare turning her head, and spearing me with a lazy, or a tired gaze.

“Can ponies eat meat?”

“Um... yes,” she replies tentatively, lifting a forehoof to rub at her temple, gazing forward as she speaks to me. “Any animal can eat a small amount of meat, even herbivores,” Brian explains, “Ponies don’t typically eat meat though. They’re only opportunistic carnivores, generally when they’re deficient in...”

She falls silent, then turns staring at me speechless a moment, before blinking and saying, “Wait, seriously?!” with her vivid purple eyes open wide.

“Seriously what? ” I ask, half stepping back with my hoof up, still all fidgety from how to say this to Brian in a way that’ll actually make sense, without making me and Janice look like some kind of crazed psychos. Heck I’m not convinced me and Janice aren’t crazed psychos! That was... I mean...

It just tasted so interesting that... and... I was so hungry for it, even though I’d already eaten... hay. Before I even think to talk with Nick, or Brian, I stand over that dead squirrel with Janice, having licked its blood, wanting it more than sex, when I meet the worried greenish gaze of the purple unicorn next to me, and ask, “So... how do you eat it?”

She blinks at me owlishly.

“I mean... c-can I try some?” I clarify, hoof raised. Her eyes widen as I say, “Please, it just looks so good,”

“Y-you’re shitting me,” she stammers, still openly staring, “You too?!”

“I don’t know. Just... I just want to try it,” I say, stomping in frustration. “How do you eat it?”

“I just bite it,” she says in a small voice, “I–I mean, start by licking it, and just... work the skin off with your... your teeth.”

I think in any other situation, I would have backed out of this. But I want it, I can smell the freshness, and Janice needs to feel good about herself. N-not like the squirrel’s gonna mind.

Craning down, I lick it again, tentatively. God, I never thought I’d like the taste of blood. There’s a whole... story in this flavor. “Then you—” she says anxiously and I’ve already bitten the darn thing, so the squirrel comes with me when I lift my head a bit. It’s all... chewy and slippery!

“H-hold it down with a hoof, and you can pull p-pieces of meat off,” she says, her anxiety dwindling to an open fascination. And she’s... kind of right I guess. It’s weird and gross, and you have to chew it like some kind of demented rubber, but it tastes like freaking pork chops I swear it even has this musky... smoky taste.

I feel really... worried about Janice, just standing there, while I eat her squirrel. Licking my lips because damn I needed that, I try to give her a casual smile, asking, “Y-you want some?”

She closes that mouth that was just kind of hanging open, and blinks. “Me?” she asks dazedly.

“It’s your squirrel,” I say with a shrug of my tail as I back away from it. (No really, there’s this tail flip that just feels exactly like a shrug.)

“I can’t believe it,” she says, with more wonder in her eyes than I’ve seen since I first met her some time ago. “You just ate that!”

“Well, I figured if you were eating it, it’d be okay,” I say, toeing the ground with a forehoof as she approaches her squirrel again.

“And I can just... just eat a fucking squirrel, right in front of you,” she declares crouching down to it, “T-this is really okay, if I do this?” she asks looking up to me anxiously, before lowering her head and chomping on the squirrel, just enough to roll it more to the side. She starts worrying at the skin, sort of... pulling it back. I guess that’s what she meant by... working the skin off.

Then she looks up at me again, and... I’m just sitting there on my haunches watching her, not feeling nauseous, not horrified or terrified or anything. I’m still kind of hungry, actually, and that just... takes the edge off of any weirdness.

I don’t have to say anything, because whatever confirmation she needed, Janice just goes to eating the squirrel in earnest. Crouched over it like before, eyes half closed as she focuses on it, pulling at the tough meat with her teeth.

At one point, she gets a big... strip off, and lifts her head, with the tip of it still held in her teeth, “Want thome?” she asks brightly, and I have to smile at that because yeah, this is what I’ve been missing. Chicken and pig and steak and... squirrel. “Go ‘heh,” she says, when I stand and cautiously move my head towards it.

I bite the other end, and for a moment we’re nose to nose, bound by a piece of rubbery squirrel meat. Her blush deepens at that, though it’s hard to see under her purple fur, and she lets go of the meat, turning away from me, where I’m left with nothing to do but chomp the meat and kind of... lift my head to toss it up so it lands in my mouth, masticating the stubborn thing. Everything tastes and smells like iron, and I feel great.

It takes her a while to finish the squirrel, occasionally giving me little pieces in what feels like the most twisted form of a kiss ever. The squirrel’s all skin and bones now, and a kind of unsettlingly normal head, staring off at nothing.

“Yeah, it’s...” Janice says with a giggle, pawing at the ground with her forehooves, “It’s easy to hide the evidence, you just dig a little hole like this, and...” Once she gets deep enough, into the grave goes that head, skin and bones. She kicks the dirt back over the squirrel’s corpse, and stomps on the dirt for good measure. “P-pretty cool huh?” she asks, strutting a circle on her impromptu squirrel grave, with no indication it was ever there. A bit of her nervousness returns as she searches my face for approval.

Then her expression falls into a mask of horror, and she says,

“Oh my god. Your fur.”

“What about my fur?” I ask, leering back, a little alarmed.

“How are you gonna wash it off?” Janice asks in despair, “Oh no, my fur’s already... practically already blood colored! Yours is yellow! ”

Oh. Oh no. I look at the hoof I’d been holding the squirrel down with, the nail smeared with dull red streaks that are certainly not the soft yellow of the keratin of my hoof.

“Quick, let’s get to the... the creek,” she says, pushing her rear against mine to knock me into motion.

“R-right, if we hurry we can...” I say, as we both go trotting off, absolutely paranoid that somepony will see us like this. Yes I know, my reaction was... strangely unhorrified, but I don’t know if others would be the same, if it’s a pony thing in general. Maybe it’s just me trying to please Janice, or maybe we’re both crazed psychos or something. Thankfully, my creamy yellow fur washes off quite nicely, leaving only a dull stain that could be just about anything.

In fact, Janice makes it “anything,” by lifting up a blob of mud in her blueish green magic, and smearing it all over my snout. I only protest minimally. So then, my face is totally filthy, just like every other part of me, but it’s perfectly innocent, not-blood-related filth.

We haven’t really had shower facilities back here, uh... ever, and the water pump for the spray hose is electric, so outside of cleaning off in the creek, we’re a bunch of dirty, dusty, smelly ponies. Who eat squirrels, I guess. I’m honestly astonished that we manage to be so colorful. I’d have thought we’d all be dirt colored by now, but somehow, even a soft yellow like mine seems to shine through.

Cleaned off, I reassure Janice again that I don’t mind if she eats squirrels, and we part ways when we get back to the barn, because I really really really need to talk to someone about this. Not because I need to know, but because I think we all might need to know this, and fast.

“You think the nutritional deficit is because we aren’t eating meat?” Brian presses incredulously, turning her full body to face me, pacing forward for every step I retreat, “We’re eating hay! Hay and grass! Ponies are not obligate carnivores, or even omnivores! Nothing but an herbivore could digest this...”

Her excitement drains as she gazes out over the green, grassy field beyond the shade of the tree, before concluding in disgust, “...shit.”

“I really don’t know a lot about biology,” I tell Brian plaintively, attracting her attention again, “I majored in mechanical engineering, and only took introductory Biology... many years ago. But... I mean...

“Ponies aren’t... ponies.”

She blinks uncomprehendingly, and I look away, waving my hoof at her saying, “No, that was terrible. What I mean is....” Meeting Brian’s purple gaze again, I say, “Okay, so when Twilight lived at my... house, she kept a lot of secrets.”

“Go figure,” Brian says, rolling her eyes, “You were just the first person she duped.”

I persist in my train of thought though, saying, “But one of those secrets was um... meat.”

Brian’s looking at me sideways now, as I tell her, “Twilight hid some... beef jerky under some floorboards. I don’t know why she didn’t tell me about it. She never ate meat in front of me. Otherwise she just ate whatever I ate. And... also hay. But she hid some beef jerky, and I think... I think she might have needed some meat in her diet.”

“But ponies are eating... hay,” Brian insists weakly.

“That’s not all ponies have been eating,” I tell her solemnly.

“What do you mean?” she asks in a quavering tone.

“I... I sorta caught somepony on accident yesterday,” I tell her, “Eating a... a squirrel.”

Brian’s mouth drops open, and I add hastily, “I don’t want to say who it is, because I promised I wouldn’t get them in trouble, but they were, a-and... I think we’re supposed to.”

“Supposed to... what?” she asks cagily.

“She... didn’t even mean to,” I plead, wavering with my tail drooping low, “It just sort of happened. I think some ponies might have some kind of hunting... instinct. Because she could use her magic to... to incapacitate squirrels. Because we’re supposed to eat meat.”

When Brian stares silently at that, I add, “I—I tried some meat. Just... it should’ve been totally gross, but I tried some of the squirrel just to be sure, and... I never tasted anything like it, and it was kind of... good.”

“I... I guess that could explain our dentition,” Brian says, crossing her eyes to look at her own nose.

“What’s wrong with our dentition?” I ask in confusion, “We don’t even have fangs!”

“Um, we kinda do,” Brian says cautiously, “There’s supposed to be a gap in the mouths of normal ponies, between the molars and the incisors, where the canines are small and out of the way, if there at all.”

“A gap,” I repeat numbly.

“Yeah, like between hea and hea,” Brain says, opening her mouth and trying to demonstrate which teeth with her tongue. “But inth...” She stops demonstrating with her tongue, “Instead, there’s little pointy teeth on either side of the incisors.”

I feel at the rows of teeth inside my mouth with my own tongue, and... I guess those teeth could be considered kind of pointy, and a little longer than the teeth on either side. “Wow,” I say, twisting up my muzzle, and smacking my lips and... I have little fangs, I guess.

“I just chalked it up to aesthetics, since Twilight changed us however she wanted to,” Brian says frankly, pacing past the thick trunk of this tree shading us overhead, “Or maybe she randomly left us with more humanlike mouths. I thought it was just a characteristic of transformed ponies.”

“That wouldn’t explain Twilight, though,” I point out, “She’s the one who started out as a pony, and she was eating meat.”

“Yeah, but who could possibly know anything about Twilight Sparkle’s dentition?” Brian laughs, “We haven’t even seen her for weeks!”

Oh. Oh god.

“I um... know about Twilight’s dentition,” I say with a heavy blush flooding my cheeks, “Twilight Sparkle didn’t have a gap in her teeth. In hindsight, I’m p-pretty sure she had little... fangs.”

“How did you find that out?” Brian asks curiously.

“We... we kissed,” I admit leerily, “Twilight and me, we were in a... relationship, you know.”

“Oh that...” she says, eyes growing distant, “So you know her... dentition I suppose.”

“Honestly we didn’t kiss a lot,” I recall sheepishly, “Twilight just liked to lift her tail, and you know... tell me to penetrate her. F-from behind, I mean. And we’re not exactly in a good kissing position then.”

“Yeah, I’m sure she absolutely loved it,” Brian says caustically, “What with how your huge monkey dick barely fit inside her.”

“It was a tight fit, but it... worked?” I say with a guilty smile and a helpless shrug, “It was actually good that I was only average sized—”

Maybe not guilty enough, or helpless enough, because Brian just rolls her eyes and turns away from me with an “Ugh!” shouted to the air.

“I’m just trying to say her dentition didn’t have any—” I try to reassure Brian, following after her, but she just flattens her ears and snaps at me irritably,

“I know what you are trying to say. I just wish you wouldn’t be such a jerk about it!”

“A jerk?” I reply in honest confusion. “What?”

Her ears slowly go up then, as Brian frowns at me looking... conflicted. Or ill. Hard to say. “I’m sorry, it’s not your fault,” she says wearily, casting her gaze away, “ I’m just... you aren’t a jerk. It’s just every time I get reminded, you got such a freaking amazing...”

Looking at me soulfully, a green furred, blue haired, winged biologist named Brian says, “Meadowsweet, I was a dude.”

“So what?” I reply, leering back with a miffed little snort, “I was a dude, too!”

“I know! I know!” she says, pacing in a circle of uncertainty and frustration, “And everyone’s all sorry for you, when you got to have sex with Twilight fucking Sparkle.”

“Why does—” I start to say, but she cuts in again, looking at me tearfully and saying,

“You got to do it as a human, too! You were a... a dude, and you just got to g-grab that pussy and just... just stuff your dick inside!”

“Y-yeah?” I say very tentatively, lifting a shy hoof, “So what? I mean, it was wonderful, but... she’s not a good pony. I s-shouldn’t have—”

“It’s not that. It’s...” the lime colored pegasus insists, pausing, torn. Then she blurts out, “I can’t feel that anymore!”

This suddenly emotional mare opens her heart to me, saying, “I don’t get to have that! I’ll never feel...” she blushes, but then frets out, “W-what it’s like to be inside a woman. A-all I can do is lift my tail and just wait for someone else to feel it.”

“Brian, I’m sorry...” I say, holding out a hoof to her, and she doesn’t protest me pressing it to her shoulder/chest, but she’s really tense.

“The m-most I could—the most any of us could do is find some...” she mumbles, her eyes cast down angrily, not at me, just at the ground. And everything. “Some brony,” she grumbles, “And let him feel what it’s like to... to cum inside. Because we’re mares, now.”

“It won’t last forever,” I tell her weakly, taking my hoof back to stand on, “We’ll get changed back... soon as this is all over.”

“Oh, will we?” Brian replies in an acrid tone, looking up at me, “Every time we try, it only gets more people turned into ponies. What if we can’t change back? What if there’s nothing left of us, to change back into? You’re saying you found a pony—a person hunting and eating small animals.”

“Y-yeah, it’s like her pony... instincts or something,” I whimper.

“Meadows, I feel different,” Brian says urgently, sitting down on her haunches and staring at her forelegs, ears low, “I think we all do. I’m doing things I’d never do, and... and I bet I could even dive bomb one of those cute little animals that run around down there. Maybe I’m not... me anymore.

“I want to eat meat, but I love grass, and it doesn’t make sense,” she says hopelessly, “I have wings and they feel totally normal. There’s no reason I’d ever have liked grass before, and hunting wasn’t exactly an urge I thought I’d have to ignore!

“I’m not a human at all,” she concludes in a fatalistic whimper, “I’m just a pony who thinks she was a human, who thinks she was a man. How could I ever go back, when I’ve gone so far, and...”

Standing, and spreading her sleek green wings, Brian says with a hint of wonder in her anguished tone, “I can fly! How are they gonna... how are they gonna take that away from me? Because I couldn’t fly as a human being!”

Sighing, she folds her wings, and adds bashfully, “I—I mean it’s just that it’s a more complex change to my brain structure than just plugging wings into it. It’s not that I don’t want to be human again, it’s just... I feel like it’d be even weirder. I’m... not...

...pregnant.”

Brian falls quiet after she says those three words, turning aside so much, she looks like she wants to hide under her own wing.

“Oh. ...good?” I reply, looking curiously at the suddenly quiet pegasus.

“I mean I went...” Brian says with difficulty, blushing fully now, “I went full girl.”

“Oh,” I say, eyes widening, “Ohh. You hadn’t...”

“I was just talking with... Jack,” she says, looking at the ground, “He used to be called Gladys, I mean, and he said he wanted to know how you’re... supposed to deal with being male. And I knew he was leading me on, but I still kept going be...because I just wanted it, and...”

“And he came inside?” I ask softly.

Brian nods slightly.

“How long ago?” I ask, walking up to the suddenly anxious mare.

“It was two w-weeks ago,” she says, looking at me as I come alongside her, “I haven’t been showing any... symptoms, so I think I dodged the bullet, but... I really enjoyed it.”

Her worry is plainly apparent, as Brian stares at me beseechingly, saying, “I felt like a girl, so much like a girl, and I didn’t even want to be a guy. It was just so amazing just taking him back there, and...”

She starts to look away, saying, “It felt... better than I thought it could. The... the moving in and out. The thrusting.” She returns to meeting my gaze though, saying urgently, “And I wanted it. I wanted babies. I couldn’t stop thinking about... about getting round and heavy, and... and he was putting it in the same place that...”

“That you’d give birth through, yeah,” I say with a sympathetic wince, “It really does sort of... make you want the whole shebang. It goes away after you’re not actually... having sex though.”

“Oh, so...” Brian says, slightly leaning against me, “S-so yeah that’s... normal, to f-freak out about it a little after it’s too late.”

“I dunno what’s normal,” I say with a sigh, turning aside to let her just... lean against me for some reason. Her wing feels so soft. “I was freaking out during, my first time. But I still lifted my tail and... did whatever I could to get... pregnant.”

I sink to my belly, and Brian sits with me, in the shade of this big tree. Pulling her wing out from between us, she lays it across my back in an oddly tender gesture, the responsive, green feathers sort of snugging around me back there.

“So, we’re mares,” Brian says in a forced casual tone, “Even in our... our heads. I have wings, and you um... have a tail. I mean we both have tails but—”

“Yeah,” I confirm, swishing my own behind me, “Tails are weird.”

“And now we’re gonna what...” despite herself, a smile breaks out of her face as Brian holds back a giggle saying, “Hunt small game, to feed our young?”

“Something like that,” I agree, distantly. “I just wanna make sure that it’s okay to y’know... that it’s not crazy to do that. That it’s natural, I mean.”

“It’s as natural as anything else about us,” Brian offers with a wry tilt of her head, “I just wanna know if there’s anything human left in us, to get changed back.”

“Well, there’s our memories,” I point out, “And um... our personalities aren’t that different.”

“...except we’re hunting and eating squirrels,” she counters.

“It’s not as big a difference as you’d think,” I respond, tilting my head thoughtfully. “Janice is still a sweet person, and her friends still like her, and I think she’s nice too. And she was really worried about what other people would think of her. It’s not like she wasn’t herself anymore. She’s just herself, and really... hungry, and just feeling like uh... hunting something.”

“Janice, really?” Brian asks, looking at me incredulously, “I didn’t think she could hurt a fly!”

“Oh shoot,” I wince, facehoofing, “I was trying not to say her name. She seriously is worried about it though, and the meat really is what she needs. She’s not doing it for fun, or twisted pleasure or anything.”

“Wasn’t implying that,” Brian says, continuing to give me an odd look, “I was just surprised. Miranda, I could understand, but Janice?”

“She ate a lot of meat in her diet,” I reply with a slight shrug that Brian can hopefully feel in her wing, “It was just supermarket meat until now.” Giving Brian a worried look, I add, “And I don’t think she’s the only one.”

“Okay! Uh,” the practical pegasus known as Patricia says, before the light of a campfire. The rest of us are all filling the open area in front of the barn, gathered around this crackling bonfire as she speaks, most of us knowing what’s going on, but not many with all the details.

“This is just a head’s up, for anyone who’s not sure, or doesn’t know about this already,” Patricia continues loudly, declaring, “Ponies are not horses! We’re a lot different from regular ponies, and that includes our diet! I know you’ve all been eating hay, but uh... the soup we were eating when Twilight was with us had meat in it, and several ponies have found... ways to keep meat in their diet. We can’t call it a scientific study or anything, but it’s pretty obvious that ponies can eat meat!”

The startled and nervous murmur that goes through everyone seems more like guilt than surprise, as Patricia continues, “So this might seem disturbing, but you might find yourself catching things, and even eating them, especially now that we’re out of store-bought sources of protein. If you do, there’s nothing wrong with you! We’re all feeling this sort of thing. It’s not human, but... there are a lot of not human things about us now! So it’s okay if you... end up doing that sort of thing, and there’s nothing wrong with you if you stop feeling... revolted about it! That’s what you really need to know, but um... Terra here has had some experience with hunting and trapping, so he—she is going to talk now, and hopefully we can get past this new... part of ourselves without being totally stupid about it. So Terra, what advice have you got for any pony who ends up doing a little... hunting?”

Terra steps forward into the light, a young earth pony filly whose colors I can’t quite tell in the orange flickering firelight. Authoritatively, she squeaks, “First off, hunting is dangerous, and you probably shouldn’t do it! Not because it makes you evil or anything, but animals bite back! We do not have access to any medical facilities, so if you get bitten by a squirrel, or a rabbit, or a turtle or anything, or gored by a deer... there’s a good chance you’re gonna die! That said, some of us are gonna end up hunting anyway. So I wanna teach you how to not get hurt, and especially how to deal with an animal you’ve killed. We’re not dumb animals, and I think... we can find ways to butcher, clean, and cook our meat. We don’t have the proper tools, or the... hands to do so, but I think what I know can be adjusted to fit with our really weird situation!”

She frowns then, and somehow manages to make her adorable face with those puffy cheeks look scary, as she says, “So anyone who’s squeamish about this stuff, or has any sort of phobias about blood had better leave now. The rest of you, this is sort of important for you to hear.”

Maybe a third of our group retreats to the barn to sleep, and not... learn about nasty bloody hunting stuff. The filly calling herself Terra then goes to describe in not so pleasant terms how to go from a dangerous living animal, to tasty, and safe meat. It’s all stuff that I never heard of at all, though it’s definitely stuff a deer hunter would know about, whether or not he resembled the pony version of a twelve year old girl. I certainly didn’t know that you have to drain all the blood out of your meat, not because of religious tradition, but because blood spoils extremely fast, and is only really edible in freshly killed meat, even for carnivorous animals.

Stuff like that we’re taught, like how letting an animal run is always a better idea than trying to stop it from running by attacking before you’re ready. Some sort of metaphor with wolves, how they let their prey think it got away, but keep hunting it or something. And prey, at least here on Earth, will be dumb enough it might forget it was being hunted at all, very quickly.

I think that filly teaches me more about hunting in one night than I ever wanted to learn my whole life. About all the unicorns are staying up to listen in on this, and afterward they’re talking excitedly in a little blessing, before one breaks away and trots over to me. It’s Janice.

“Meadowsweet, thanks,” she says in relief as she approaches, prompting me to turn her way in surprise. “I should’ve known you’d listen in on that speech,” she says appreciatively, smiling at me in the firelight, “You’re really tough, in a wimpy sort of way!”

“Thanks, I think,” I say warily, “But shouldn’t you be thanking Terra over there? I’m just here to learn about this stuff as much as you are.”

“Not about the hunting, about...” she pauses, shifting on her hooves a moment, unsure. “About hunting me down,” she says at last, “And not... giving up on me. I was so scared I was some kinda monster, and you were just... so totally okay with it. And it turns out that other unicorns were doing the same thing!”

“Other unicorns, specifically?” I ask skeptically.

She just honestly nods at that. “I can’t imagine earth ponies haven’t tried,” she replies with a sympathetic wince, “But you just can’t beat one of these things.”

Pointing a forehoof up at her own horn, Janice smiles, saying, “It’s just so super perfect at disabling whatever critter, and making it... safer. It’s like unicorns are all just earth ponies who come with built-in forehead guns.”

Blinking, she turns slightly and adds, “Okay, that came out a little weird. But you get my point.”

Nick also breaks free and heads over our way, as I venture to Janice, “Maybe it’s just that Twilight taught you stuff that’d be good for... hunting?”

She shakes her head though. “Twilight taught us some scanning and basic self defense stuff, but nothing really hunty.”

“I don’t think she was at all interested in teaching anypony anything that might be able to stand up against her,” Nick puts in, drawing Janice and my attention with his smooth tenor.

We both look at him, waiting for him to continue.

“Hey don’t mind me,” he says, with a blush, “You were saying?”

“O-oh, right,” Janice says, shaking her head slightly, and continuing, “All the unicorns who were hunting, everyone was just being... creative with what they knew, like how I used the stun spell, and Robin was using the levitation thing to spook things towards him.”

“I’d probably use the anti-bug spell,” Nick postulates, “It’d shock anything for long enough to... um...” he looks at me uncomfortably.

“...tear its throat out?” I offer, amiably.

“And, okay! Not pulling any punches around Meadowsweet,” Nick exclaims at me with some alarm, “You have the sweetest voice, you know?”

He looks at Janice and says, “N-no offense.”

She just rolls her eyes, saying wryly, “None taken.”

“What about my voice?” I ask in honest dismay. Mike’s voice is way sweeter than mine! “I can’t exactly stop sounding like this!” I fuss.

“Well, it’s just when you say... never mind,” Nick says with a sigh, “Anyway, I was thinking more like cleanly breaking their neck, so they don’t suffer. If you could even find the spine.”

“It’s pretty easy once you bite down,” Janice says, still looking palpably relieved that she can talk about this freely, “It’s kind of... this hard stick in the back of the neck, that you just bend until it snaps. Kind of weird um...” she blushes, perhaps not feeling totally free about what she says. “It’s weird how you can feel stuff inside a critter while you’re biting them. That’s normal for ponies though, isn’t it?”

“Maybe it’s your special talent?” I suggest thoughtfully.

Janice seems horrified at that though, for some reason, rearing up briefly and exclaiming, “Oh holy crap I do not want a dead squirrel for a cutie mark!” Oh that’s the reason.

“T-twilight had a cutie mark,” I fuss as Janice turns in worried circles looking at her own blank purple ass, “But nobody here’s gotten one yet. You don’t feel... cutie marky, do you?”

“Who knows, maybe in the real Equestria they have a different way to get cutie marks,” Janice says, relaxing now that she sees her purple hindquarters are not sparkling, shining, or otherwise changing in appearance from being smoothly blank.

“Seems like the more we learn about this, the more questions it raises,” Nick postulates with glumly drooping ears.

“At least it explains why Applejack kept pigs,” I say, flumping fully flat to the grass and mumbling my nose into it, “Truffles, my butt.”

Our life changes again, after all that. Squirrel tastes... better cooked than you’d imagine, but still pretty um... musky. It’s weird, because ponies are so little, so even a squirrel is like... they look like they’re as big as a large cat to me, or even a dog. Mice are the size of baseballs, not golf balls.

I um... don’t hunt at all, to be very clear. I sure wouldn’t know how to catch anything, much less safely! For the most part our hunting... parties tend to be unicorns. Pegasi can sort of dive bomb stuff like a hawk, but...

Okay I’m not saying ponies are evil or anything, but I never had to dress a corpse before, certainly not with my mouth, and it’s not as... disgusting as it should be. I mean I’m happy to help out where I can, if I can’t actually be out hunting things, but I just don’t feel like I could’ve done this as a human.

Was Brian right? How different am I from before I met Twilight? I guess maybe I’m socializing more, but I don’t exactly have a store manager breathing down my neck any time I try to talk with my “coworkers” here, so I can’t tell whether that’s a pony thing, or whether it’s because we’re thrown together by circumstance.

Unfortunately the only one of us who knows how to do this meat dressing stuff (squirrel, not stallion) they only had a year working in a meat processing plant, like a decade ago, but fortunately, it’s not all that hard to figure out. You have to get rid of all the blood, because the meat lasts longer that way, and... other than that, it’s just taking a knife or a hook we had lying around the farm and... cutting open the... I mean the skin pretty much slides off once you get all the ligaments and...

Suffice to say when washing the blood off my face, from dressing the corpse of a deer we had hanging in a shed, finding the fur on my muzzle stained red again isn’t what I would call... not-evil.

Thankfully I’m not hooves deep in butchery when everything changes, and Dawn returns to us for the last time. Oh, it wasn’t a surprise. We knew this was coming. Maybe we suspected it from the very start. But it wasn’t exactly the sort of thing one would look forward to.

Me, Patricia, Mira, and an orange and blue unicorn stallion named Robin end up drawing the short straws, so to speak. It’s not like I didn’t volunteer myself, just... it’s not the most pleasant feeling, leaving the settlement, and heading far afield to meet something you never thought you’d meet. Someone who might attack you, try to capture you, and put you in a little white room until you dies.

But I still go, because what choice do I have? There’s nobody else to trust, and the government could just pardon us all, no matter what terrible crime we committed in casting that spell. So me, Mira, Patricia and Robin all line up on what should have been a well trafficked road. Standing there resolutely, ready to bolt at the first sign of trouble, the four of us await the arrival of Dawn’s convoy.

About a week earlier, Dawn flies in with some big news. Like, really big news. “Are you serious?!” the mare next to me squeals incredulously.

“Dead serious!” exclaims the blue pegasus with her pretty mane of golden orange, currently... cut short down to a slight orange mohawk. There’s something weirdly disturbing about that, in the way that a dead squirrel isn’t. “I haven’t seen them myself, but my CO has!”

A few of us are standing out by the barn when Dawn rushes in, immediately huddling together with us to tell us the big news. Well, specifically to tell Patricia. Dawn seems to think she’s the leader or something. There are five of us who hear the news, Nick and Mira, me, a male bat pony by the name of Peter (one of the lucky ones) and a female pegasus pony named Patricia (not one of the lucky ones... she just decided to change it.)

“Why would the President want to speak to us?” asks Peter in that soft, deep voice of his.

“Because we’re awesome!” Mira declares, swooping into the air with a beat of her wings. Like Mira, Peter’s a bat pony, though instead of her orange fur, with hair in sworls of pink and blue, he’s got a bright purple coat of fur with hair that’s orange, but kinda red, a captivatingly predatory look in his cool blue eyes.

“More like we’re screwed!” Peter retorts, not leaping gleefully into the air at all. “This is our fault! They’re gonna blame us for—”

“No, no you got it all wrong,” Dawn cuts in, urgently leaning forward. “Mira’s right. We... you all had training from Twilight Sparkle! You know more about... about being a pony than a hundred other people combined! That’s what the President needs to speak with you about. That and the... uh...”

“Apologize?” Nick cuts in crossly, “Promise to be a good boy? Dawn, these people hurt us. Peter could have died if his...” he glanced at an uneasy looking bat pony, “If his wing had set wrong,” Nick concludes soberly.

“People are going to freak out if they see a military convoy headed this way,” I tell Dawn, tail low as I try not to remember. “The last time the military got ahold of us it was...”

“They were desperate, and... and didn’t know what else to do—” Dawn starts out, and I’m not exactly shrieking when I interrupt, replying headily,

“They locked us in solitary cells for weeks, until we were saved from them! It’s only thanks to Twilight that—”

Okay... where did that come from? “That... nobody died,” I say uneasily. “I just... I know she’s evil and she totally screwed us over, but they were worse!”

“Maybe not statistically, but definitely personally,” Nick agrees, walking up to my side as I feel a warm sense of relief that I’m not alone in this. But he doesn’t get close enough to touch me, instead looking at me evenly and saying, “Do you think she would’ve hesitated to kill ponies, if that got her whatever it is she wanted?”

“I... I swear I’m not crushing on her,” I insist, blushing into the crook of my forehoof, before pulling my nose out and facing him, “W-whoever Twilight was, she was bad. People are gonna die because of what she did. I’m just...” shrinking back now, “Kind of scared, okay?”

“That’s why we need your help,” Dawn insists, stepping towards my demureity, “Think of how many lives are in danger because people don’t know how to be ponies. I swear it’s not... not gonna be anything like...” she huffs and adds angrily, “Look, my commanding officers are ponies too now. Nobody thinks you did this, and they really need your help.”

As compelling as her argument is, another pony steps up beside me, saying challengingly, “And how are we supposed to trust you, Dawn? Your commanding officers captured us, and tortured us!”

“Look, the fact that I’m still here means they’re not doing that anymore, doesn’t it?” Dawn says, hopping up in the air with a flustered wingbeat. “There’s no way that was done with any sort of approval. It was definitely illegal and— and I just...”

She lands, saying with difficulty, “People need your help. If you could just... talk to us.”

“We have to ask the others,” I urgently say, “None of us here can say if everyone in our group would be okay with this.”

“How do we do that without panicking everyone?” Peter asks, tail tight against himself in worry, “We’ve already lost so many. People’re gonna flip if they hear that the government’s headed this way!”

“We’ve lost so many?” I say, blinking back at the stallion.

He nods, clarifying, “Yeah, people... ponies are just taking their chances. People have lives outside just us, y’know. People they care about, and how are they gonna check on them? By leaving!”

“I honestly hadn’t been counting,” I say with a nervous grin, “I mean, Brian’s still here, and... um...”

“The only reason people are still here is that none of us are used to walking hundreds of miles,” Nick says grouchily, “We can’t just get in our cars, and drive cross country. Or what, we’d take the bus?”

“A-actually, bus service has been resumed, in... some of the major cities,” Dawn says with an apologetic wince, “Certainly not anywhere near here though.”

“Well, I don’t want to tell anyone if it’s going to scare them enough to ditch us and go out on their own,” I muse in frustration, slowly shaking my head, “People leaving to find loved ones is fine, but if we tell them about this, they might leave out of fear, and get in trouble!”

“I don’t really think there’s any avoiding it,” Patricia, the other pegasus says, holding a hoof up like she’s shrugging, “Somebody else in our group might have an idea what to do about this, and it’s not really right to keep something like that from everyone. I think they’re all listening around behind the building anyway.”

A chorus of ‘awwws’ comes from just around the corner of the barn we’re standing next to.

“If they’ve known where we are,” squeaks a voice from the much larger assembled crowd of ponies that Dawn now has to face, “Then why haven’t they come and taken us by force, yet?”

Okay, now Dawn’s talking to everyone, and nobody’s listening behind the barn that I know of. She stands before our big group, out in the early morning sun beside the barn we’ve been all living in.

“They don’t know where we are!” Dawn protests to our entire group, “I haven’t told them anything about where we are!”

“Then how did they know that we caused it?” some other pony asks.

“I... told them what I had to,” Dawn says, the orange and bluish pegasus fidgeting as she admits that, “But they don’t want to kidnap you any more than I do. They didn’t even ask where you are. They need your help not your... containment!”

“She has a point,” says a somewhat sonorous stallion’s voice, “Kind of impossible to contain this any more.”

“If they know what city Dawn was in, then they know where we are,” sighs sadly a morose filly among us, “They could just use their drones to canvas the area, or pick us up on satellite.”

“Except anyone who knows how to do that is probably a pony,” the mare next to her points out, “Doubt they’ve got any of that stuff working, with just hooves.”

“Oh. Oh, yeah!” the filly perks up with a happy smile.

“Why don’t we meet them halfway?” a sea blue furred, orange-haired unicorn stallion I’d come to know as Robin says, “Send out some of us to meet them like, in a safe location?”

“That’s a good idea!” Mira declares, fluttering up to the stallion excitedly, “But who’d go? What do we do if they don’t come back?”

“Well, I’d go...” Robin says reluctantly, “But I wasn’t uh... I was in the original containment camp, where they actually fed us, so maybe I’m biased.”

“Why would you be biased?” I ask critically of the stallion, “Someone who got starved would be biased!”

“Well, maybe I don’t know how bad they are,” he counters, “Not like there’s anyone we saved who would go meet the government.”

“Hey, I’d go,” I snip back, “I bet there’s lotsa people who would. We could meet the President!”

Less than enthusiastic murmurs surround us.

Dawn is with the entourage, flying ahead of them at a slow clip to lead them to the rendezvous point. It had to be alongside a road, but with plenty of foliage around to hide in, and a creek to cover our tracks, if it comes to that. While the orange and blue pegasus soars down, descending to the ground before us with a worried but pensive look on her face, several heavily armored vehicles rumble up behind her.

Of course I don’t question how ponies could’ve driven a car, because... they didn’t. The vehicles grind to a halt on an asphalt road that had thus far been only occupied by little ponies. The moment the door opens, we all scatter into the bushes before the troops can come pouring out.

Wait... shit, there are no troops pouring out. Instead, what steps out of that van is something I might have found familiar, if I hadn’t been living with ponies the last two months. I stare at him, we stare at him, peering out from the bushes alongside the road, hardly believing what we’re seeing. Not even sure what to believe at this point. It’s a single, toweringly tall, bipedal being...

A human.

Author's Note

Horses actually do have fangs.

Fool Me Twice

Okay, so rewind a bit. Dawn comes to us one day, just bursting with joy. “Oh, you are not gonna believe what I found out,” the orange headed pegasus gushes, not even folding her wings as she lands. “Oh this is so incredible. I need every pony together, so I can tell you all!”

I hear this, because lifting my head from the turnip patch I was weeding, my radar-like ears turn right in her direction, their conical, slightly curved shape perfect for delivering even distant sounds directly to my brain. I bound over the strawberry patch and land on the packed, untilled dirt beyond it with two, then four hooves. My hind legs follow my forelegs, hurrying after the other ponies. My head bobs with the rhythm those four legs pump strongly, propelling me forward, because what she’s saying seems really urgent.

Also because I’m a pony.

I may look a little dirty, but for the most part I’m covered in weirdly tart looking yellow fur, with a green mane descending down my head and neck, and a tail cascading out over my yellow furred butt, both a weird green that I don’t really have a name for. A little earth pony, I hastily trot up to the growing crowd around Dawn.

Dawn’s an orange haired, blue furred pegasus who’s been sort of our liason with the outside world, and technically the military. She’s been in close contact with them, since she was an enlisted soldier or something, at the time that Twilight changed us into ponies. We probably would be more worried about this, if the whole world weren’t dealing with a crisis in which every single human being on the planet turned into a pony. As-is, Dawn has been totally cool with us, at least... so far.

“It turns out humanity’s not out of the picture just yet!” Dawn crows, leaping to hover up before our campfire, wings spread, “There are at least dozens, if not hundreds of people who never saw the lights at all!

“It was insidious,” she declared grimly, as grim as a flying waifish blue mare can sound, “Nobody could escape it. Nobody knew to escape it. People came out of their houses to look up at the sky. All around the world, as soon as night fell, human beings looked up at the lights, and next thing they know, they’re changing into ponies.”

Landing with a skittering clop, Dawn walks past our huddled fire circle, looking sideways at us and saying, “You couldn’t hide from it. Anyone who stayed inside, it just projected itself from the ceilings of whatever buildings they were in. People turning to ponies in their houses, in their beds, in their cars. Much more slowly than we did, but before an hour had passed, not a trace of humanity was left!”

“How could anyone escape that?” a filly asks, voice full of fear.

“They must be working for Twilight!” a dramatic sounding young mare declares, “She gave only them the secret to staying human!”

“What? No!” Dawn blurts out, staring anxiously.

Then she blushes and looks away from the mare, adding, “I mean... maybe? If there are any humans like that I haven’t heard of them.”

“How did they not turn into a pony, then?” a goofy voice asks in the crowd.

“Were they just inside the whole time?” a sweet mare’s voice I recognize as Mike asks.

Shaking her head, Dawn says, “No if it were that easy there’d be tons of humans left. I never saw it happen, but like I said, the um... pattern projected itself from any ceiling. Roofs just didn’t even slow it down. At least not that I heard of.”

She looks at all of us then, saying, earnestly, “What I did hear is scientists were saying the lights were actually a combination of microwave band radio waves, and shouldn’t have been visible at all! Whatever we saw was... some strange property of the spell or something. Hard to study it, when you’re turning into a pony. It was some sort of complex pattern in the microwave spectrum, that none of us should have even been able to see. They can’t explain it, but...”

With an eager grin, she crouches and declares, “But it was something in the low end of microwave frequencies. And that means roofs couldn’t stop it, but the light didn’t get through everything.”

The campfire pops a burst of embers, as if agreeing with her, as Dawn says, “There were people in underground locations, sleeping in bunkers, behind heavy shielding. And those people, Twilight Sparkle missed entirely!”

“So people were hiding in caves?” I ask incredulously.

Dawn blinks at me, then blushes, saying, “I actually I uh... don’t know about that. Maybe? What I’m talking about is places that are mostly buried underground and shielded.

“Oh, so... so like bomb shelters,” I venture, raising an uncertain forehoof.

“More like the whole basement floor of the Pentagon,” Dawn says, fluffing her chest smugly. She deflates a bit then, lifting an uncertain hoof and clarifying,

“Well, admittedly most of them came up to the surface to look at the lights.”

Dawn and I have just a moment to realize we’re both standing here with one hoof lifted up, before we blush, and plant our hooves. Then Dawn turns to address the rest of the crowd again. “But people who stayed down there, out of sight, never transformed!” she says excitedly, “When the... rest of the world started transforming, some people rushed up to help those in distress, and also transformed. But not everyone did. So some of us are still actual real humans!”

There’s a chorus of oooohs from those of us gathered around her.

“Have you seen any humans?” a greyish blue unicorn stallion with orangish brown hair asks Dawn, tilting his head and adding, “I mean, people who are still human?”

“I haven’t, no,” Dawn says, sagging a bit. “It’s all very hush-hush about them now. They’ve all gone into hiding, and only a few people even know where they are.”

“But didn’t they stop changing into ponies when the light went away?” asks the unicorn stallion. I can’t help but notice that he has darker, but sort of matching colors to Dawn. I don’t really have words for the difference though. Oh, except darker. That works.

“Um... yes,” Dawn says to him, tilting her head. “They’re not trapped underground or anything.”

“Why are they in hiding then?” squeaks an orange filly, whose given name I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure her taken name is Firebrand, after the orange and reddish-orange colors of her fur and mane.

“Uh, isn’t it obvious that Twilight Sparkle wants to destroy humanity?” a mare I don’t know says disapprovingly to the filly, whose orange ears go down at that. “If she ever learns where they are, she’ll just teleport there and finish the job!”

“Why does she hate humanity so much?” Firebrand asks the mare, voice shaking in frustration, “What did we ever do to her?”

“And how many humans did Twilight Sparkle get so far?” Sue asks Dawn bleakly, “Like, of the ones that are left?”

“Actually... none recorded, as far as I know,” Dawn says in a bemused lilt, blinking at the stalion’s question, “In fact, there haven’t even been any reported sightings of Twilight Sparkle at all. It’s like she vanished into thin air!”

”She did vanish into thin air!” Firebrand suddenly shouts shrilly, with an angry stomp.

“Yeah, but it’s like she never un- vanished anywhere!” Dawn counters, looking caught off guard by the filly’s misdirected fury. “Nobody can find hide nor hair of her!”

“Oh, oh you meant...” Firebrand says, her anger breaking in surprise. With her ears tilting down, she slinks backwards into the crowd then, mumbling, “Oh, right, nevermind.”

“How do you know all this?” Mira asks, eagerly fluttering up to Dawn.

“I’m just relaying what I’ve been told,” Dawn admits, shying back from the bat pony a little, while Mira shies away herself, then lands, looking the other way. “For all I know there could be no humans left after all,” Dawn says frankly, “But if there aren’t, it means our species stands a chance!”

“Don’t you mean their species?” the blue/green pegasus known as Brian calls out, quite irritably.

“W-we’re still humans inside,” Dawn replies, a bit nonplussed as she takes another step back.

Brian gives a horsey snort, but doesn’t further contest the matter.

“I don’t know exactly how many are left, but I just had to tell you the news,” Dawn says, with a sad look to the green pegasus, and an enigmatic whip of her tail. Addressing the crowd, she calls out,

“You... we screwed up so badly, I just had to tell you all that there’s still hope. Even if we can’t...” she looks away and cringes, but continues with determination, “Even if we can’t change back, we might be able to save humanity.”

“Are they gonna start any captive breeding programs?” another eager little filly asks, with a gap-toothed grin.

Okay, so... save humanity. Is a thing. We can do, apparently. It shouldn’t be a thing we have to do, but here we are. I have no idea how to save humanity when I can’t even save myself. My relationship with Mike and Sue is... happening. I’m probably most certainly pregnant. I seem to vary between freaking out over it, feeling curiously detached about it, and getting so horny, that well...

For instance, I feel Sue’s erection sliding into me, stretching me, filling me, every thrust making me think about that innocent little hole on the flat tip of his shaft, aimed right at my womb. I don’t want to say I wouldn’t notice him fucking me, if he wasn’t wrapping his forelegs around my sensitive flanks and bearing heavily down on me. But the penis in me feels like a thick, shapeless... thing, filling that aching emptiness in a strangely subtle way.

The satisfying, stretchy, slidey sensation is definitely making me orgasm, which is awesome. But the really crazy part is to know what’s gonna come out of that penis if he continues to thrust. What’s going to happen to me. What is happening to me. I should tell him to pull out, but with the warm flesh of his penis sliding along my deepest places, filling my head with rushing tingles beneath where his hooves plant firmly on my flank, a thrill goes through me again at the thought of what if I didn’t?

I know what his slowing, erratic thrusts mean. He’s climaxing right now. He’s trying to hold back, but he can’t stop it anymore. I try to tell him to pull out, but what if I just... let it happen? It feels so good to feel his flared shaft so deep up inside me. He’s not thrusting at all now. It’s gonna happen. I should tell him to pull out, but as he strains against me in that final moment, I just bite my lip and squeeze around him in there, my tail...

My tail curls around his rear, and I gently cup his testicles in its tip, urging the soft, warm orbs to impregnate me with their potent sperm. And so with urgent gasps and grunts on both our parts, I feel his penis jerk, pumping hot semen as deep as I can imagine. I stand there gasping, bracing against him, stretched wide, feeling cum fill me deep. I feel so hungry for it, I just let him cum and cum. I want his seed deep in me as possible.

He’s the first to come to his senses of course, saying, “Oh god, s-sorry Meadowsweet.”

“I can feel your seed, Sue,” I purr to him, grinding against his pelvis, “You just flooded me with it.”

“Look I didn’t mean to–I was gonna pull out this time—” he stammers, as I realize what’s going on.

“Oh, oh no. You’re a male, Sue,” I groan, arching my back and thrusting backwards as best as I can manage. “Your horniness just stops, but mine doesn’t. I can’t even think. I’d let a... a dozen stallions in there now, your seed’s gonna... gonna fill me with a foal...f’n thick cock so good...”

To my eloquent explanation descending into mumbles, he says nervously, “W-what do I do? You want me to...”

“Just...” head hanging low, I feel so stuffed in that special place in my hips. It’s hard to think about anything else. “Just lemme... just stay there I wanna...”

I wanna keep thrusting, but thanks to Twilight Sparkle’s vagina, I know how a guy feels when a girl tries to make him keep going. So I just calm my breathing, and with his softening cock still nestled in my passage, my whole body relaxes in glorious satisfaction. I imagine his seed in there, imagining the relief he felt in spurting it into me. That relief is in me now, and I feel absolutely wonderful.

“Okay...” I say breathlessly, “Okay you can... pull out now.”

With a tingly stretchy sliding, he pulls out, leaving seeded emptiness behind. My insides slide closed with his departure, and I... I feel something dribble down my leg. His seed, probably. We... kind of fucked up, didn’t we.

“Okay, mental note,” I say, still feeling flushed all over, sinking to my belly. Sue lets me go. “Mental note, don’t make love without being really really sure... you’ll pull out.”

“Yeah, I... should have,” he says remorsefully.

“I should’ve too,” I reply, laying on my side and hugging myself a little, “I just wanted it so bad. Your... your penis makes me want it. Didn’t even care if I was... was impregnated.”

“Yeah that’s... normal for girls, or anyone I think,” he says, sitting down some distance away from me, “Just maybe... more for ponies. A-and I assume it’s normal for guys to just... I knew I wasn’t gonna pull out. I feel so terrible now. I just wanted to... be in you, and do it to you.”

Avoiding the outright fetal position, I uncurl and scoot my butt over towards his silently guilty form. “Hey, it’s okay...” I assure him, laying a hoof over his shoulders.

He turns his head away though, saying, “That’s just what Mike says. You’re just not thinking straight.”

“No, I... I’m probably not thinking straight yes,” I say, cuddling up to Sue side-by-side, “But I meant it’s... normal for guys to want that. You just have to... I mean it’s okay to feel like that. It’s natural. You wanna... impregnate me, or whoever. That doesn’t mean you have to. You can wanna...” I giggle a bit giddily, as I say, “Push deep and... and flood my womb with your seed or whatever. Thinking about me... getting pregnant, and giving birth to your child, that’s gonna totally make you horny. It did when I was a guy. I—I mean it still does sorta. Didn’t you feel that way, when you were a girl?”

“Yeah but...” he says, not meeting my eyes, “Then I was just doing it to myself... not wanting to hurt someone else.”

“You didn’t hurt me,” I protest, but he frowns, growling out,

“You’re gonna hurt when you give birth y’know.”

“Y...yeah,” I fuss, trying not to panic long enough to help this poor girl gone guy. “But I mean, it doesn’t hurt me for you to want to do it. So next time just want it all you want, and it’s still okay as long as you don’t do it.”

With a look of puzzlement, his dark blue eyes meet my own, so I say, “So, you wanna imagine me or... Mike giving birth.”

“Or Lucy,” Sue adds morosely.

“Lucy?” I add, blinking. She’s a peachy furred unicorn with purple hair, I know that much at least. Not the skinniest one among us, though we’re all pretty skinny honestly.

“Yeah, I was f-fucking Lucy, sorry,” he says, looking away again. Ohh, okay, so a peachy furred, sorta curvy unicorn with purple hair, gasping with pleasure underneath Sue while his climaxing phallus fills her dripping depths with his cum. Got it. “I know you might hate it, just...” he mumbles shyly, “We were just experimenting, before Mike did his whole... thing.”

“Why would I hate it?” I ask in confusion, “I just want you to tell me these things. Because I’m practically um... fucking her too, if you’re going between me and her.”

“No, no,” Sue says, facehoofing, rolling to his side, where his wrinkled sheath and fuzzy brown balls now tuck conservatively against his belly. “No I only had um... sex with her, when I first transformed. Then I... felt bad about Mike, so I stopped. Then I kind of started doing Mike. Then you.”

It really is nice to just... lay on our sides and chat like this, legs slightly tangled together. Probably wouldn’t be possible for normal horses to sit like this, but... we’re really little horses. And I should be focusing on who Sue’s been sleeping with, not distracted by our friendly way of sitting together. He really is a great guy.

“I just didn’t know you’d been intimate with her,” I tell him neutrally, “A-anyone else?”

Sue blinks, before sighing in relief, saying, “No one else, no. But please don’t tell Mike about Lucy. I don’t want him to think I’ve been cheating on him.”

“I thought you said you stopped seeing Lucy,” I reply frankly.

“I–I did, but I was Mike’s girlfriend before. We went to Bronycon together,” Sue says, whuffing in frustration. “When we transformed, me and Mike never did it at first. I just didn’t want to... hurt him, when I was a stallion and wanting... things. Then Lucy was... curious about how my uh... body worked. So we were trying some things, and I wanted to... mount her. So I kind of ended up doing that, and...”

He gets kind of dreamy eyes at that, and I remark softly, “Your first time is kind of amazing, huh.”

“Y-yeah,” he replies, focusing on me again. “I didn’t realize we... I mean girls were so hot on the inside. Mike wasn’t exaggerating at how I was like an oven.” His brow darkens at that, and he grumbles, “Used to be like an oven.”

“Have you tried anal?” I ask innocently.

He blinks at that, saying, “I’m sorry, what?”

“You still have a... y’know...” I say twirling an uneasy forehoof, “Guys and girls are the... same there. And I bet you’re just as hot on the inside. You just don’t have a... girly way in there anymore.”

He blushes fully at that, and groans, “Oh my god, Meadowsweet I haven’t been fucking guys.”

“Yeah, there aren’t very many,” I remark critically, “You’re kind of in high demand.”

“Right, something like that...” he says, giving me an odd look.

“I’m just saying your—” his expression understandably hardens when I say “just saying,” but I persevere, saying, “Your penis is pretty amazing too, and you’re still just as hot on the inside. You’re just as good as when you were a girl, maybe even better.” Blushing, I look at my fucking impregnated rear, and say, “I—I might be biased though.”

Snickering in his rich baritone, Sue draws my gaze again, saying, “You’re really something else, Meadowsweet.”

Sighing, I admit, “So I’ve been told.”

“So—” Sue starts, looking conflicted again. “I might tell Mike. He deserves to know. I just don’t know how he—she—he’d react.”

Humming, I say, “Well I’m okay with it, but I really shouldn’t be. I mean... you, just mounted that unicorn, and stuck it in? I don’t know her, but seems like if that doesn’t make me feel bad, then Mike would be okay with it too. Why are you even telling me, if you’re worried about telling Mike?”

“Hey, it’s not like I won’t ever tell him,” Sue says, whipping his dusty, red tail, “I only told you because with you I don’t have to... I mean, it’s not that I don’t care what you think, just you won’t...”

“No, it’s fine. Mike’s your real boyfr—significant other,” I tell him soberly, “I’m just kind of a... latecomer. You’re supposed to care more about her, I think.”

“You’re not a latecomer,” he whines with a plaintive frown.

“We only met like a few weeks ago,” I insist sheepishly, “You’ve known Mike for years.”

“Yeah, it’s weird because I only just met you,” Sue says with a silly smile, “But I feel like I could tell you anything.”

“Thanks...” I say, honestly taken aback, looking at my butt again. “Though I’m pretty sure you’re feeling extra good about me right now, since you just came inside.”

“Fair enough,” he sighs, “It’s just... you’re just really chill I dunno. I could tell you that Lucy—”

Looking at Sue, I doubt his veracity for one moment, as he blushes and glances away, but before I can say anything, Sue firms his lip and says, “Lucy was fucking hot.” Facing me stubbornly, he says, “She asked if... if it did anything for me to look under her tail, and it was like, impossible to not get an erection. I never felt that way about a pony, or another girl before and... man, I didn’t know it would feel like that.”

“Pretty good, huh,” I remark, wide-eyed.

He nods, saying, “It’s weird but... it feels like a giant clit, y’know?”

At my blinking, he adds, “The p-penis, I mean. But erection really... aches sometimes. But the stimulation feels like a clit...”

“Oh, right I get what you’re saying,” I reply, eyes widening, “But I don’t think it’s exactly the same. I mean, unless it’s different for ponies, it’s like getting freaking... zapped to touch your uh... my clitoris.”

“It’s like a...” he says thoughtfully, “Really spread out clitoris. Especially when it gets erect. Just all stretched out, and tingling all over, but never painfully.”

Nodding, I can see that, so I say, “I can see that.”

I am not a complex pony.

“So I...” he pauses, blushing, but goes on with an excited smile, “So she was asking if I wanted to mount her like a stallion. And nuzzling my dick, and... teasing it with her tail. She said I was ready to impregnate a mare, and all I had to do was climb on her and... put it inside. I tried to do oral, but I wanted her so bad. I just climbed on her and I could feel my fucking dick swinging under me. I squeezed the thing in there to lift it, a-and push it inside her. I could feel it touching her... her cunt. And I just pushed it in there. I loved Mike so much right then.”

“You loved Mike?” I ask in surprise, “Because you went in Lucy?”

“Because she was hot and wet, and it was just like what he felt, when he was fucking me,” Sue relates, “I started looking off and humping her just like he did. I felt my penis just getting ready to cum inside her. I was holding her and I told her that I–I wanted to make her give birth, that I was in her hole, and I was gonna put babies inside her. And she totally orgasmed at that, because she wanted it so bad. Just shouting how I was a real male now and then bam, just going nuts all around me. It was the most amazing... it felt even better than when I was the one doing it. Because I was feeling it happen to her. I don’t even know.”

“So you came inside her?” I ask tightly, rubbing at my overly eager and very impregnated cunt with a hoof.

Nodding, Sue says, “It felt like an orgasm coming, and I wanted to stay in her forever. I wanted to push it deep, and... and make my penis impregnate her. I didn’t know what to do—I hadn’t actually orgasmed as a guy, so I didn’t know you could feel it ejaculating.”

“It’s like how I get kinda... tight and squeezy around you when I orgasm,” I whimper, “Just that the squeezes start pumping semen out instead, if you’re a guy.”

“Y-yeah but just...” biting his lip, Sue says, “It just started... pumping on its own. I was orgasming and wondering what’d happen if I didn’t pull out, and then it just... started that pumping. A-and then I was the one ejaculating. I tried to do it then, to cum as much as I could, all inside her. Feeling it rushing out of me, and I knew what it was, and what I was doing to her. It felt awesome.”

“I think ponies have the advantage there,” I tell him candidly, “When I came as a guy, there was a lot less cum. I could still feel it rushing out though.”

“Oh, yeah there’s that,” he admits, rubbing his chin with a foreleg. “Lucy was like, so totally into it. I told her I didn’t know what it was gonna be like, and that I was gonna cum inside her, and she just told me to tell her what it was like.”

Thinking a moment, I ask, “What did you say?”

“I just...” Sue blushes, and looks down at her forehooves, “I just said something about shooting... rushing. And um... how I couldn’t stop changing her. And it was ejaculating down there inside her, and she just... got even tighter then, and had this huge orgasm. I um... I had to keep pumping into her though. It was freaking pouring down my balls and I kept doing it. Not that she did pull away, but I still held her against me so she couldn’t pull away. I just had to get all that fucking... cum into her pussy.”

“W-wow...” I say, with a flush in my face among other places, feeling kind of like I could really use a stallion now, again. He just came though, I can’t just force him to get erect again. I feel my soft labia, with his cum still drooling out of them, and... Sue felt that good when he was inside me. I made him feel that way, too, with this pussy of mine.

Looking at me a little nervously, Sue says, “Yeah so I just... totally impregnated Lucy. And I was a girl, y’know? I know how serious it is to get pregnant, and then I went and did it to her, soon as I could get in there. I was even imagining her giving birth as a pony. How would that work? I dunno.”

“All I know is it’s probably not very pleasant,” I say with a wince at my own hindquarters, “Given how big ponies’ heads are.”

Though admittedly my hips are pretty wide, I suppose.

“So, yeah, I um... sorta freaked out then,” he says in an adorably embarassed way, “And the really freaky thing is that later I was doing it again, even though it was freaky right after the second time too. Every time I got horny again, I just... I knew I freaked out the last time, but she just waved her ass at me, and uh... winked. I knew I didn’t wanna impregnate her, but my dick came out again, and god, I wanted to. All I had to do was mount her to feel that again. I needed that dick inside... her when I came. So I pushed her down, and fucked her until I started impregnating that stupid... gorgeous girl pony. I always feel great until I cum, and then I feel terrible about it.”

“Intro-something, I think they call it,” I suggest, probably not very helpfully, “Guys just have this built-in... off switch that gets hit soon as they cum. I never even realized that was happening, until I became um...” Looking down at my pale yellow forehooves, “A pony... girl.”

He chuckles at that, saying, “Yeah I guess it is like an off switch. Just hit the switch and power me down like a robot, right?”

“It’s what I studied,” I reply, rolling my eyes, “Sometimes I think I see everything like a robot.”

“You studied robotics?” he asks curiously.

Blushing, I admit, “No, I never... got that far. Just mechanical engineering. Nothing really... robotic. Bridge designs, and machines and... stuff.”

“And sex,” he adds sagely.

“Not having an off switch is kind of... freaky too,” I admit to him, “When I orgasm, but I still want it, and I could be wiped out from the orgasm but still just desperate to get you to... cum inside.”

“I think girls do have like a... idle... thing, if you actually stop,” Sue says, thoughtfully, “Your arousal gives out soon as you stop y’know... building it up. Just like I felt after I came, I felt like that if I stopped, as a girl. It’s kind of stupid actually, one wrong move and you’re... feeling like a guy who just came.”

“Oh, so it’s like a capacitor!” I declare in surprise, “That makes a lot of sense!”

Sue outright laughs at that.

“Well it’s true,” I grumble with an exasperated scrunch.

“So, yeah I’m kind of...” Sue mumbles, blushing glancing at me, “Glad Lucy let me do that with her, even though I almost made her pregnant. It’s just... so incredible to cum inside a mare, as a guy. Outside of her, it’s just... well.”

“I definitely remember how great it is to cum inside,” I offer cautiously, “And it’s okay to want it, but you still have to... y’know, not do it.”

“So what, I wanna cum inside her, and I just...” he says skeptically.

“You just say holy crap, I want to cum inside you so bad!” I demonstrate loudly, waving a foreleg in a broad arc in front of me, “I wanna make you fat and pregnant by filling you with cum from my dick! “

I drop my hoof then, concluding, “Then you pull out of her, and cum all over her...” right, not human. Uh... “...bottom tits.”

“Just like that, huh,” he says warily.

“Yeah, just do it,” I say excitedly, “That’s how it’ll work. You know you’re gonna thank yourself later. We don’t have any choice over what we want, but we do have a choice over what we do. You don’t have to do what you want to do, even if you really want it.”

“I... oh fuck, I do really want it,” Sue says, squirming his hind legs. “That stupid penis is coming... out again just thinking about it.”

Oh heck it is, just sliding right out between his legs. I-I’m not even horny anymore! Not even Twilight wanted to do it this much! But we don’t... have to. “C’mon, Meadows just a little...” Sue says, pawing at my flank, but I squirm away, saying,

“No, no we don’t have to do it. You have another ...girlfriend.”

Sue bites his lip looking away at that, as all stuffed full of his semen, I tell him passionately, “I wanna see you mounting Mike, and cumming in her.”

“You mean cumming all over her tits,” Sue prompts.

Blushing, I say “Y-yeah. Let’s uh... let’s go find her.”

It doesn’t take long once we get Mike alone. “I don’t know,” she says reluctantly to the proposal, but I assure her,

“Don’t worry he’s your real boyfriend, right? I’ll just... lick you a bit, to get you warmed up.”

Considering it, she says quietly, “...okay.” And looking at Sue with hopeful anxiety as she sometimes does, Mike lifts her red tail for me to get to her furry green hindquarters underneath it. Any reluctance she has to participate washes away as she relaxes into my attentions, palpating her soft, hot, female entrance, preparing her for Sue to enter her. Once she’s drooling all over my nose, panting and staring unabashedly at Sue’s erection hanging between his legs, I know she’s ready.

“Okay, Sue, she’s ready for you,” I tell Sue hopefully, maybe a little guiltily, “Get your... get your penis inside her.”

Mike shows no resistance whatsoever to Sue’s mounting. I walk around as he climbs up on her rump, and the bat pony mare is so adorable, panting there with her auburn eyes full of confused longing. “I can’t believe you used to be a guy, Mike,” I tell her fondly, “Sue’s gonna put his penis in you now, you know.”

“Oh, Sue, you... you’re so heavy. Your penis’s so touching me I–I wanna be a girl,” Mike declares disjointedly, looking back at the redhaired stallion mounting her. “I wanna be a girl, wanna feel it pushing... in. ”

“You’re such a good girl,” I emphasize for her, squirming my legs together while I watch Mike change. Her brown eyes grow distant, and she gives breathless gasps at the feeling of Sue penetrating her and hilting in her. “You’re beautiful!” I tell her, “A-and Sue’s a beautiful stallion. He’s... he’s breeding you.”

“Wanna breed her,” Sue grunts intensely, as he humps in short deep thrusts, “Can feel her vagina s-squirming all around my dick. You’re making me do it Mike. T-that’s you you’re... I’m gonna... cum every drop in you, fill your cunt with every spurt of... baby...”

Sue usually lasts longer the second time, giving Mike’s tense need a chance to fade into a relaxed and driven urgency. Soon she stares past me, so determined to mate with this stallion, who’s hunched over her, staring at her, and penetrating her in powerful, delicious thrusts. “S-sue came in me earlier,” I tell Mike, presenting for her, lifting my tail for her, “See? He put it all in there. It’s in there, making me pregnant right now.”

“I want... I wannit,” Mike says between harsh breaths, the bat pony’s green wings half spread with Sue hooking his brown forelegs around her hips behind them. She stares at me with wide eyes as I turn to face her, saying, “I want him to squirt inside. Wanna give birth. I want to feel a baby going into me like a girl!”

“C-cum inside her,” I beg him, rubbing myself as Sue prepares to impregnate Mike just like he impregnated me, “I want you to push it deep and... and cum every drop in her. I wanna see you turn Mike into a mommy. I shouldn’t but I... I can’t help it. Sue, please, please cum inside her...”

As I rub against my slick hoof, the couple continue panting, dull-eyed and mating away. “I’m... I’m flaring,” Sue explains urgently, deep shallow thrusts sealing him inside Mike’s vagina. “I was gonna cum... outside,” the aroused stallion tells Mike more than me, “But now... I’m not. Mike, I’m gonna... impregnate you. Not gonna pull out. Gonna push it deep and...”

Mike’s soft urgent gasps peak then, and she’s staring forward for a frozen electric moment, before she starts that characteristic twitching and jerking that indicates her vagina is taking her for a ride. Mike shivers there in helpless need, as the red and brown stallion mounting her murmurs, “Can’t stop... you’re making me... gonna...” Sue’s hard short thrusts barely pull out at all and I know what that means.

“P-please...” the red-haired, green batpony mare moans breathlessly, “Do it... deep...” rocking back against him in rhythmic jerks. Then Mike throws her head back and a loud, grateful squeal belts out of her, as her stallion starts ejaculating into her orgasming pussy. Her peeing then looks like an accident, though Mike tells me after sheepishly that she did it deliberately, as a weird way of trying to make room for more semen. But when her hot piss comes streaming out to splatter on the ground below her, from where she’s stretched around him, while inside her Sue’s filling my friend and his girlfriend with sperm, Mike’s face is the purest expression of bliss.

I think that’s why I don’t feel disappointed that Mike got to have him instead of me. He’s definitely enough for both of us, and she’s just so adorable when her desire takes her and she gives in to her longing for semen, despite her impregnation. Sue’s like a sexy god among horses, and I can’t see that when I’m the one being mounted. But seeing him do it to Mike, seeing her pure bliss at being impregnated, seeing the love they share for each other, and for me, it’s almost enough to keep me from sliding underneath the two of them, to caress their joining genitals with my tongue to ensure that Mike has the best time possible. Almost.

It’s hard to believe I’ve only been a pony for a few months, because I just feel so different now. Brian’s right. We have changed, day by day, just having these bodies that respond so differently. But honestly, even with all this weirdness, and perversion, thinking back to my fail of a life as a human, I can’t help but feel like it was a change for the better.

I mean, seriously. I used to think my name was Arnold?

Dawn takes quite a while before her negotiations with the humans come to a head for our little community. Plenty of time for mares such as myself to get good and pregnant, I suppose. I’m being pretty good about it, I mean. Aside from a few... slipups, me and Mike are mostly free of... semen. I should just give up and admit to being pregnant, but some part of me just can’t give up trying to save myself, not until I start getting morning sickness and my... my belly starts swelling.

I’m not getting morning sickness, I mean. It’d just be the first sign of my doom, which may or may not one day appear. Hypothetical morning sickness. I have a few worrisome mornings, but my stomach always feels better after eating some relaxing grass, and it’s p-probably just nerves. So ha ha ha, no morning sickness for me, nope! And I’m not eating especially more food than usual, the way some of the mares around here are.

I think that’s the best... indicator any of us really knows. It’s physically impossible have a baby without using up a lot of energy. The first one I learn about who we’re pretty sure is genuinely pregnant is a mare named Alex. She uh, isn’t one of the lucky ones. A blue/green unicorn with straw yellow hair, she starts coming to me to get some extra... meat.

She isn’t even in the hunting party at first, but she joins, because I think... she has to. I meet her after her first hunt though, when she comes to me while I’m wrinkling my nose at the friggin trench that has to be dug out to get all the blood away from where we’re hanging rabbits, squirrels, and the one small deer who’s still larger than two of me combined. I would’ve liked to see that hunt.

“Hey uh... Meadowsweet?” the unicorn mare known as Alex asks, attracting my attention. She has this scared look in her eyes, the look of a pony who’s not used to killing rabbits.

“Huh, you’re the one who just started hunting. Alex, right?” I ask, amiably, glad for a moment to get away from this stupid meat hanging stuff. I must look absolutely terrible, but she’s got blood on her face too. “How uh... was it?”

“Well, I just... bit it, you know?” she says with a nervous laugh, “I just... had to, and everyone was saying I was really... ruthless and stuff.”

“You don’t seem ruthless to me,” I reply a little warily. She looks more anxious and hurt than cold blooded killer, far as I can tell.

“Yeah I just... really got into it, once we were going. I ate... a lot of it,” she says, blushing and looking away. “It was my first time so I didn’t know I’d just... want it so much.”

I can think of at least three acts that statement would qualify for, but I’m pretty sure she’s still talking about hunting. “It’s okay,” I tell her with a smile, “You brought plenty back today, and I know it tastes best um...” blushing myself, I admit, “...fresh.”

“Yeah, I just...” she toes the ground, angling herself tentatively sideways to me, “I was just wondering i-if I could get a little more?”

“More?” says I, “Even though you already ate a lot?”

“I’ve just been getting really... hungry lately,” she says sounding oddly ashamed in admitting it, “That’s why I... started hunting, because I didn’t want to... I wanted to get enough meat, for a little... extra.”

“Y’know there’s only so much wild game around here,” I tell her critically, “We don’t need more hunters if we run outta rabbits.”

“Y-yeah, just...” toeing the ground, she says, “I think I’m pregnant.”

I have time to blink, before she shoots up to me dangerously close to slicing me with her horn, exclaiming in anxious excitement, “I’ve been getting sick, like really sick in the mornings, like sometimes I don’t even want to get up, b-but then it started going away. And I was just eating and eating grass, and I keep getting hungry for weird stuff like meat and salt and those weird fruits. I’m a guy! I’m not supposed to be this—I don’t really get it, but I think somehow I got...”

“...pregnant,” she concludes more reservedly, stepping back from me.

I blink a second time, before asking with worry, “Are you okay?”

She fidgets at that, tail swishing as she says, “Yeah, I... I feel fine. I’m just a little... scared that I won’t be able to do it.”

“Oh, so you want to do it?” I reply, even though that’s probably too much to hope for.

Except it’s not! “Yeah I...” she says, looking surprised at herself, then down at her hoof in thought. “I’d like to,” she concludes, looking my way with pale red orbs, “I-if it’s possible. I just didn’t think it’d ever be possible.”

“Even if you have to be the child’s mother?” I ask skeptically. “Not her father?”

Alex again hesitates, but says, “No, especially because of that. It’s just really exciting, i-if it’s possible. Do you really think a baby pony could grow inside me?”

“I don’t see why not, if you want that sort of thing,” I reply, a little creeped out even at the thought.

“It’s just so amazing!” she declares, starry eyed, “I can make life inside me! A–a real pony! A person, even! My...” blushing she stammers out, “M-my child, I g-guess, but... I-I mean do you think they’d let me stay a pony?”

“Who?” I ask, quite confused at this point.

“You know, when they figure out how to turn everybody back,” she replies. “If I’m pregnant, then I could stay this way, and I could have a... a daughter I guess, who’s always been a pony! Someone who never transformed. Someone who didn’t even exist until...”

Smiling, Alex says contentedly, “Until Jack made love to me, even though I was a guy, and his seed found my egg.” Blinking a little less serenely, she says in excitement, “I could really have an egg in there! My egg! And it’s a pony now. Or... it could be a pony. I could have eggs in me that turn into... ponies.”

“Yeah, we both could...” I say a little wistfully. She really is excited about this. I wish I could be nearly as keen on my own egg turning into a foal in there.

“Sorry, just...” the dirty straw haired unicorn looks away, mumbling, “I’m not trying to brag. I’m just really... I mean is it okay for me to just... do this?”

“I’m certainly not trying to stop you!” I declare, relatively confidently.

“It’s just I might need to eat more, a-and I want to help out,” she says, conflicted, “I really want to... to do it, if I can. But I might need to eat a little... more.”

Well, she’s happy as a clam to gnaw on some fresh rabbit legs from today. Um... yeah ponies can kind of break bones if they worry at it carefully enough. “Mmm, than’ you,” she says, chewing the... the bones sideways in her teeth with a blissful expression on her face. Once she’s finished um... sucking on them, I show her where we’re putting the leftovers, which is quite a ways away actually for safety reasons. While I load my... back up with discarded intestines and stuff, she floats the remains of her rabbit’s legs in her magic alongside her while we walk together.

“I haven’t told anybody,” Alex says solemnly, “I only told you because, w-well you kind of had access to the meat and...” again laughing nervously, she continues, “But I think I can tell people that I... want to try this, if I can.”

“You do know that you’ll have to give birth,” I caution her, “You’ve heard how much that hurts, right?”

“Yeah but, just... imagining it is k-kind of incredible,” Alex sort of agrees, “I know it would hurt but man. I never even had this thing in me before. I could just be laying there, and a... a baby pony comes out of it! My baby pony!”

Blushing at that, I stammer, “We-well yeah that sounds... weird, but fun. I mean imagining how hard you’d be pushing...”

“It’d hurt, but I’d be ready for it,” she replies dreamily, “I’m a girl now. My whole body’s designed to give birth. I’d feel just perfect, just... doing what I need to do.”

“You do make it sound pretty good,” I sigh with my head sank low from blushing shyness, “It’ll happen to all of us, whether we like it or not, so...” Giving her an uneasy smile, I conclude, “I should make the most of it, I guess?”

Alex’s ears go down at that, though, not up. “I wish I could have your foals,” she says sympathetically, then blinks, then blurts out, “Wait no, that sounded a lot less weird in my head.”

While I stubbornly force my ears up again and look her way curiously, she says, “I feel so bad wanting this, because there’s so many of us who don’t. And they’ll be forced to have kids, and I just wish... I wish only the ones who are stupidly in love with the idea like me, would be the only ones who have to do it.

“I never made love, as a man,” she adds, looking forward, lost in thought. “I just... couldn’t bear to do that to a girl. But now that it could happen to me, I’m just... totally okay with it. Is it because I got turned into a girl?”

“Can’t be,” I tell her confidently, “Because if that was all it took, then every girl pony here would feel like you do.”

A more few paces to the midden heap, and she asks shyly, “You don’t?”

I have to think on the reply, because I do feel a lot... a lot different from how I felt about childbirth before, but if anything, the opposite is true for me.

“When I was a man,” I say, “It felt like the greatest thing in the world would be if a woman carried my... child, and let me start... I dunno, living a normal life, as a father, like my father.”

Screwing up my muzzle in confusion, I have to add, “Though my father didn’t really lead a normal life, but you know what I mean.”

“I... think so,” she says hesitantly, “I felt the same way, just didn’t feel like I could do that, if I wasn’t the one... making the baby.”

“Well, now when I think about it, it seems silly,” I say, a blush creeping onto my face, “The... woman I loved was just... all in my head. I know how girls really feel now, since I kinda have had to be one for the last few months, and they’re... we’re not these... perfect beings who deign to allow the mere mortal males to fertilize their wombs.”

She giggles at my ironic tone.

“I just... never got it through my head that girls were people,” I tell her with a shake of my head, “I thought they just... had no trouble with pregnancy, just took it so gracefully. I respected them so much, but I didn’t think about how they’d... get horny just like me, and get scared just like me. And actually like um...

“...guys,” I squeak.

“So now that you do...” Alex prompts hopefully.

“Now, I know I’d never do that to a girl, because being pregnant is terrifying,” I say, letting my head sink again.

“Oh,” she says softly, looking at me silently, as I try not to look all that glum about it.

“Yes, it’s terrible, but... what can you do,” I say with resignation, “I’ll just have to... to try to make it hurt as little as possible. I p-probably won’t find any way to abort until I get really pregnant and it’s too late.”

Resentment and sorrow fill me as I stare groundwards, not even sure how I feel about being forced to give birth. About discovering that girls are forced to give birth, and sometimes it’s not something they want. I just thought they always... chose to keep the baby, because they loved it. But I don’t know if I could ever do that!

After a speechless pause, Alex says in wide-eyed shock, “You’d do that to your baby?”

Giving Alex a bewildered look, I exclaim worriedly, “Do what?”

“You’d... terminate your pregnancy?” she asks timidly, looking warily towards me as we continue to walk alongside each other.

“I... yeah, I thought I’d feel bad about it as a girl,” I reply, looking forward again, “But it’s making me want to abort even more! When I was a guy, I didn’t have to deal with... with actually having this t-thing growing in me. Now it’s my belly getting pregnant and I don’t... wanna.”

“Well it’s just many p-people think it’s like... killing the baby,” Alex says mutedly, casting her eyes down.

“Alex...” I say, sparing her a testy glance, “You’re carrying half of a dead rabbit in your magic. We’re covered in blood right now.”

Technically I’m more covered in blood as I was just hanging them. She’s just got blood on her hooves and snout.

Blinking at the rabbit legs floating beside her almost as if in surprise, Alex blushes and sort of... floats them behind her neck, as if to hide them from my sight, saying, “Well it’s... different because ponies are sentient, and can think like humans.”

“They don’t start out sentient,” I reply, shrugging my tail, “If my pregnancy got that far, then I’d have to figure out how to... give birth.”

She blinks at me blankly, so I add, “You know, when their brain grows enough that they start moving around and kicking and stuff? Brian said that only happens way at the end of pregnancy.”

“Oh,” she replies in understanding, if not agreement, “So... before that you don’t think they’re...”

“...smarter than rabbits?” I say with another shruggy tail flip. “It is a shame to have to abort, but... I’m just not ready to be a parent.”

“So why don’t you just stop...” she looks at me.

I look at her.

She snorts a laugh, saying, “Sorry, stupid question.”

We dump the carcass, and the giblets I was carrying on my back, that smear on me so unpleasantly as they fall into the midden heap. We’re just gonna bury this whole thing once it gets full, big pit full of nasty stuff even ponies won’t eat. At least it’s all 100% organic!

“You could put your foal up for adoption?” Alex suggests cautiously, as we walk away from all that awful shit. I lift my ears again, looking over at my new and worried friend, complete with potential foal inside.

“But if I didn’t, then you’d be able to have another baby instead, Alex,” I reply with an amused nicker. “Didn’t you just say you wanted to have all my babies?”

“That’s not... hmph...” she says, blushing furiously and facing forward.

And what do you know, a scrunchy face is pretty adorable!

So joining our pregnant, meat hunting, fruit growing ...group of ponies, Dawn once again descends from the sky. She comes to us with news from the highest echelons in the world. Dawn had told us stories thus far, of towns gone silent, and highways hopelessly choked with wrecked and abandoned cars. Of people lost and afraid, not even realizing what happened to them, until they saw another former human being, and knew what they had become.

The vast majority of the world had, of course, not even heard of the television show until now. But we’re obviously equine in appearance, so when you find yourself transformed into this toe-footed, colorful furred, winged or horned beast, sometimes you have to see another such beast to realize just what animal it is that you resemble.

But tonight, Dawn brought us no tales of confusion and woe. She brought us news of a visit from the President!

“Why would the President want to speak to us?” a soft, deep voiced stallion asks.

After everypony and their pony mother hears of Dawn’s new revelation, we’re soon gathered around Dawn, in the light of our nightly campfire (or batfire as Mira likes to call it) as Dawn explains and answers our questions.

“The president has a bunch of humans still working for him,” Dawn explains, “He got caught by the light, but... actually I don’t know what kind of pony he turned into.”

“How about sex?” calls out a voice in the crowd.

“That’s what she said!” calls out another voice mirthfully.

“I haven’t... met the president myself,” Dawn says, flustered as a pretty orange haired green/blue pegasus mare can be. “But my commanding officer has spoken with him, and I’ve talked with some secret service agents, who said that the president wants to arrange a meeting.”

“Why?” whines some filly in the crowd.

“To learn from us!” Dawn says excitedly, “We’re the only people in the world right now who got any training at being a pony. Even if Twilight sold us short, she had to teach us something.

“She taught us magic,” Patricia announces, from off to the side.

“Yes, magic!” Dawn says in relief, “The stuff we learned, other people are barely even aware of! Nobody even knows about cloud manipulation, but we needed to know that, to clear the clouds for her er... spell.”

Dawn’s ears tilt down a bit, as she says, “So we could use those skills, to help people.”

“What, open a portal to Equestria?” a colt in the crowd squeals crabbily.

“No, to change the weather, and... and unicorns!” she states anxiously, “We’re the only ones who know magic. If we could teach even a little bit, then we could help get people back on their feet.”

“They’d rather break our wings!” an angry mare calls out.

“No, I swear he... we aren’t going to do that any more!” Dawn protests desperately,

“We don’t even have feet anymore!” a stallion protests in frustration.

Dawn’s speech kind of dissolves into ponies grumbling at each other all around in soft argumentative mutters, while Dawn backs off, tail drooping, ending the impromptu speech.

“Okay, okay!” Patricia calls out, strutting forward to take Dawn’s place before the fire, “So how are we gonna do this, safely, and carefully, in a way that everyone’s okay with? Any ideas?”

Several ponies raise their forelegs.

Dawn’s convoy rolls to a stop, with Dawn alighting on the roof behind the cab of the frontmost vehicle towering high above us. We were going to greet them face-to-face with a few of our number, but at the first sign of movement within the trucks we all just panicked and scattered, hiding behind what cover we could find in this forested area, peering warily out from the bushes.

From out of the vehicle in that convoy of vehicles on that lonely asphalt road, steps a human being. This must be one of the humans that Dawn was talking about. His booted foot hits the earth, followed by a second one, and no more besides those two. He doesn’t say a word at how all us little ponies are staring at him from the bushes alongside the road, but walks to the back of the vehicle, where he opens the doors with a clunk, letting a pony cautiously clamber their way out the back.

The rest of us are cautiously edging back onto the road, generally blushing with embarassment for having thought that there were going to be a ton of humans. Several ponies are coming out of the second car behind the armored truck, to flank the first pony heading our way: a peachy orange furred earth pony, with soft purple tresses, and really pink eyes. She looks... tired.

“I’m sorry this couldn’t be under better circumstances,” she says in a melodious voice, with a sad smile, “It was unforgivable what those men did to you, in our country’s name, and I would like to offer my deepest apologies.”

Author's Note

Okay... another chapter with no comments at all. And this one’s gotta be the most boring chapter yet. I wonder if I can beat my record, with three chapters in a row without any comments. That’d add up to 8 out of the 18 chapters so far!

Home is Where the Heart Is

So... the president got turned into a pony. Great. Not big surprise. She’s clearly not happy with it, but that’s no surprise either, especially considering who our current president is. The amazing thing is a few members of her entourage... didn’t get turned into ponies.

Thus I find myself once again walking—trotting past honest to gosh full blown human beings. Dressed nicely, head to toe, compared to the ponies of the president’s group, who are universally naked, except for the president herself, who managed to fashion a sort of... formal decorative collar.

It looks really familiar. I wonder if she watches the show.

In the past two or three months, I’ve been a pony, a girl, a captive, an enemy of the state, and now a hero of it, I guess. Or whatever you call someone who got a president to apologize to them. I walk on four hooves as if I was born that way, just a cute little pony before these towering, beady-eyed human beings.

I’ve been eating well since we discovered grazing, and then—after Twilight screwed us over—meat. I’m still pretty skinny, but roasted squirrel isn’t exactly cream pie and orange soda. I’m more active than I’ve ever been, and I have more friends in our shared adversity than I’ve ever had. I don’t have a horn, or wings... or opposable thumbs. But I can still do some incredible things, relative to the total failure I used to be.

And now we stand, a small group of us ponies, out on an asphalt roadway in front of the president and her entourage. Most of our members are hiding in silent observation, while a few of us played bait for the president’s entourage, in case they were organized and deadly. Fortunately, said entourage is clumsy and uncoordinated, and apparently at the end of their rope. They’re pretty much entirely in our power, though I’m not sure they realize that. But they do let us check through their vehicles to make sure there’s no nasty secrets waiting for us if we bring them to the farm. It turns out they had hoped for us to do just that.

The armored vehicles don’t seem to have anything “weapony” within them, though one of the handful (ha) of humans has a handgun in a holster. No, instead the vehicles are full not of armory or troops, but what look like packed supplies. As in actual food! Beyond that, there are only about a half dozen ponies besides those humans, so Patricia flies up into the air and gives the all-clear: wherein the unicorn stallion I now know as Robin fires a light globey thing from his horn up to Patricia, and Patricia backhooves it, making a bright flash in the air, and a distinctive ringing sound.

Maybe there is something to be said for what Twilight taught us, after all.

We had a system here where if something happened to the four of us, and also the ones hiding nearby, a few would linger far away, who could run to warn the others. But nothing bad happened, so the ponies watching from the trees let the more distant ponies know, and pretty soon a whole group of ponies is crowding up onto the asphalt road. Wait, would that be a herd of ponies? Do we really come in herds? Is this really a thing now?

...I’m going with group.

The whole entire group isn’t here, but the ones who weren’t too afraid to risk coming forward are, as are the ones who were sure it was going to go badly, but wanted to see for themselves. Our hooves sound strange on the asphalt, a multitude of solid thumps, where I had been used to only clomping on dirt and grass before. Most of us are pretty filthy, with patches of dust marring our coats, and tails scattered with twigs and other debris. It’s definitely not the most sophisticated front we could put on for the president, but it’s all we’ve got.

Turning into a pony certainly hasn’t hurt the president’s ability to give speeches. “Friends, thank you for coming!” she says in a powerfully projecting voice, “I want to say again that I truly regret what you’ve been put through, and I would like to make things right. But our nation is in a crisis. Justice will be served for the pony who wronged you, but we have to deal with the here and now, first, and here and now, we need your help.”

To the assembled ponies surrounding her, she declares, “People around the world are struggling to deal with this strange transformation. Things are changing, whole world views have been undone. And to top it all off nobody even knows how to walk like this!”

We probably should nervously laugh at that, but she’s really right. You pick up walking quickly, but it takes weeks to figure out all the different gaits, and stop falling over your hooves at the slightest bump and... stuff that’s kind of painful to remember.

“I want you to know that none of you are to be held accountable for Twilight Sparkle’s actions,” the president goes on, “I’m issuing a full pardon to all of you. You are not to be arrested or detained, and you may freely return to your families.”

That does get a murmur going, but she cuts over it saying, “But you have all learned to walk, to fly, to use your natural abilities in what is nothing less than magic! I need your help, the people need your help, to share what you’ve learned, and help people get back on their feet.” Lifting a hind leg and glancing back at it, she adds, “Er... metaphorically.”

Okay yeah, that gets a chuckle.

“I want you all to know you are not being detained,” she repeats, “You are free to go wherever you like, provided you obey the law of the land. I’m not ordering you, or forcing you, but begging you to help. We need to get our critical infrastructure back online, and we need people to know how best to make use of their new situation. I’d like to invite you all to the city of Ainsworth. They have more supplies, better food, and they need your help. The activity of Twilight Sparkle has been highly classified, so you shouldn’t find anyone there holding a grudge.

“Make no mistake,” she addresses the crowd, “Something needs to be done, to bring that evil unicorn to justice. Your country needs your help, and your expertise in the magic that she taught you, but not today. We need to make our plans, and lick our wounds. You’ll see some high ranked officers returning to you, once we’re ready to call on your help, but for now just try to help the Ainsworth community, and live day by day.”

Shuddering, she declares solemnly, “It’s not my or anyone’s authority on this earth to tell you where you must go. You need to decide amongst yourselves what you’re going to do. It’s not my command, but my earnest request that you help your nation in her hour of need. Thank you for your consideration, and if you remain in Ainsworth, we’ll send word once we’re ready to make our move.”

Well, if the president’s words don’t convince us, the actual gasoline powered vehicles packed with actual supplies are an uncontestable argument. For better or worse, we’re opening negotiations, and coming out of hiding. They didn’t bring just food, but blankets. Like actual blankets. I never thought I’d feel so glad to see a blanket, than when I had to sleep under straw for the past two months. You know potato chips? They have actual potato chips, and they’re so salty it’s amazing. Another thing I didn’t ever think I’d be having, a mouth orgasm from eating potato chips, but here we are.

It’s... not enough supplies to last any amount of time, for all of us back here at this forgotten farm. Combined with our er... food acquisition techniques, we might have stretched it out. But people are tired of stretching things out. They want to see their families again. They don’t want to be public enemy #1 anymore. And that’s truly the greatest gift the president brings. People can go home now. I could um...

...

So Ainsworth is a dirty little farming town, with a tiny commercial sector, and the merest smattering of suburbia. With the fliers among us confident that it’s a place where we could be welcome, we all start making preparations to head over there. There’s not a lot of preparations we have to make, but y’know... no opposable thumbs and all. We have to figure out how to get ponies like me carrying what fresh rainwater we’ve collected in bottles.

It’s somewhere around a 30 mile journey, I’m told, and with the slowest of us being small children in the form of ponies, that takes quite a while to traverse. But before long, I’m a mobile watering station, without any trouble to hold my weight under the mildly heavy bottles. We uh... finish the meat we’d been saving. I don’t even remember what it’s like to be this full. We have to get rid of everything that isn’t dried, and well... I feel about as content as I could be, with musky meat settling pleasantly in my pony gullet. Which for some reason likes that sort of thing.

Then it’s up down the highway for us. The president’s entourage has since left for raising support in other places, and also to keep their few humans a moving target. The days of preparation and cleanup are complete. The fire pit’s nothing but ashes, heavily stomped and rained upon. And with a frightening thrill in my chest, we leave the farm, and go trundling down the road. We’re a... a herd of ponies, I guess. I don’t feel particularly herdy, but I do trot along with the rest of them, and I hope deep in my heart that we can stay together, and that these friendships we’ve formed over the past months will not be in vain.

I also notice a lot of the farms we’re passing are totally empty and untended. The emptiness is nothing new, as big commercial factory farms take very little human maintenance, as long as you’ve got the petroleum to power the farm equipment and the factories. But these crops look way more weed choked than usual. As much as could grow in two months, I suppose. I wonder if we’ll ever get those... farm machines working again. Unicorns could, probably. Or bat ponies with their hand-wings.

Heck who am I kidding myself, it’s really only earth ponies who’d be unable to operate this stuff. I’ve seen what pegasi can do with their feathers. It’s pretty crazy, though not as crazy as what I can do with my... tongue. Wait.

Puzzled, I gaze at the farms again, imagining those tractor combines, and my tongue... are there any of us ponies, who couldn’t operate them? Well if nothing else, none of us are nearly big enough to see over the dashboard and reach the gas pedals.

The farms grow more numerous, until we’re walking past hundreds and hundreds of acres of nothing but farms. There’s no ponies out in these farms, since everyone’s been living closer to the city, or so I’m told by the pegasi of our group. Lucky them, they know exactly what we’re walking into, while I’ve just been back at the farm like a dumb earth pony. Then we pass... uh... wow... holy crap...

We pass some cattle.

I know we’re just a ragged bunch of colorful little horses, trotting along down the road, and I know I mean little, as in little. As in barely waist height to a human, if that. But when we go pony-jogging past these cows who chose to come right up to the side of the road, they’re not just cows. They’re cow mountains. They’re huge, hairy beasts the size of a small building. Acres of meat and muscle that could eclipse the sun. And Applejack jumped on top of one of those things?

I mean granted, I’ve leaped that high before, but I dunno if I’d wanna land on something that big. And Applejack was taller than the rest of us when she did it, since ponies in real life seem to be even more little than the ones on the show. So that makes the cows here seem even more big.

Their droning lowws are bizarrely quiet, because I’d think that something this big would be as loud as a foghorn, and I feel like they should shake the ground every time they plant a foot down, but it’s just the thump and crunch of grass. But it’s not that bizarre really. The whole scenario seems really eerily normal, in fact! Just a few cows grazing on the side of a quiet farm road. It’s just that we’re a bunch of tiny, colorful horses trotting hastily down the road, not a few of us pausing to gawk at the cattle, but ultimately running along and praying on some primal, instinctive level, that the cows don’t notice us.

Okay, maybe a little bizarre.

A few of the cows are frighteningly close, but most of the cows stay nice and far away, in the seemingly endless pastures we run along. The only indication that the lands aren’t wild are the miles and miles of barbed wire fence, claiming an unimaginably large area as owned by one man alone. And also keeping the cows from wandering off into someone else’s unimaginably large territory.

I feel really out of my element here. I didn’t know things could be so... big! Not just the cows, but the whole land. It just keeps going on and on. It’s hard to even comprehend just how big the earth is, until journeys like this over a tiny portion of it drive home just how insignificant you are. Driving the distance in a car can’t do it, but with my hooves beating the earth one after another, it almost feels like I’m trotting in place, for how little the world changes around me.

I’m just really glad all the rest of us are here, clustered together, vaguely bumping into each other. It’s... nice to have a place to hide from all this space. I don’t know if I could take all this openness alone, but with my comrades of necessity jogging alongside me, I feel a warm affection in my breast, that drives away any cold fear of the expansive unknown. One of them has one of the younger foals riding on her back. Just a bunch of cute little ponies bustling along through this huge world full of fields, fences, and giant cows. And that’s okay.

At last, I see ponies on the horizon. The city buildings can be seen from quite a distance, but they rapidly approach as we all sort of collectivly break into a gallop. It’s not a herd, it’s just... making sure you’re running the same speed as everyone else, but all I can think is that those ponies in the distance are real people, who need our help, and who can help us. People we desperately need, or at least, people whose land, water and resources we desperately need. But I don’t like to get pessimistic.

One thing I notice is nopony’s pushing around clouds. There are occasional colorful swatches fluttering around above the horizon, but so much fewer than with our group, and they seem somehow aimless, and uncoordinated. Twilight was a unicorn, but she needed the pegasi to clear the clouds for her spell. She had to teach the pegasi how to do that, didn’t she? How would she even know how to do that?

As we approach, I start to see other individual ponies instead of just bright dots in the distance, and other ponies start to see us. It’s surreal walking up to this town in the whispery quiet, such that the sound of a pony’s galloping hooves is the only thing you can hear. No leaf blowers, no air conditioners, no highway traffic, just... our hoofsteps and birdsong. When the ponies in the distance see us, and go hurrying off back towards the buildings on the horizon, I can even hear their hoofbeats. Even they sound loud in the silence, way over there.

I’d like to say I wander into town, and take in all the strange sights of people whose lives have gone pony, but our group doesn’t even make it into the city limits. “Alright, everypony!” Patricia shouts at the head of our group, with an impressive clarity to her voice. “See that barn on the left, there? Right where Dawn is uh, hovering! That’s where we have permission to set up! Barn 2.0!”

There are a few grumbles of dissent, but we all know how lucky we are to have this. We’re actually a sizeable group, and we can’t just go camp out on someone’s lawn. But most of the real land owners are out of state, and quite unavailable due to being ponies. All the lease holders would be able to do is shrug helplessly and point us on to the next city. It’s something I never had to deal with until the end of humanity, but it really is limiting, and kind of scary. It’s not hard to land a cheap, terrible job that basically ruins your day for the rest of your life, like say for instance at a call center. So it’s not hard to get the money to pay for an apartment, or even a mortgage, or property tax. But if for whatever reason you don’t, it’s not even legal for you to sleep, pretty much... anywhere.

Given extenuating circumstances, such as the police all being ponies, we could probably take over someone’s house and nobody’d be able to stop us. I don’t even want to contemplate how upset someone would be if we went and took over their house, mini-mall, or auto dealership. Maybe we’d have to do that if the people in this town had devolved into roving press gangs waging war on one another, like in that one movie. But as far as I can tell, people are just... trying to make do with what they have as usual, and nobody in my group wants to ruin that by forcing ourselves on someone.

Still, if we’re not going to illegally camp on that distant abandoned farm whose property owner is nowhere to be found, then we’re going to have to find a place closer to civilization to live. And that’s why this gift is so valuable. Dawn and some others found a local property owner who was happy to let us use an old barn in exchange for teaching them how to walk right. Since the property owner’s local, they can give their permission, and since we’re mostly here to help people, they have every reason to give permission, at least on a temporary basis. Barn 2.0, this one once used initially as extra storage for feed, then for holding livestock, then us. So I guess it’s still holding livestock, as it were.

It occurs to me that first night as I settle down in our new home cuddled up with Mike, Sue, and Nick ...John, and Mira, that we just walked 30 miles. It didn’t even feel like a mile or two, when we were walking. Yet now as I lay, my muscles are twinging and warm, and I did spend a good part of the afternoon grazing on the wildly growing grass in the poorly tended fields, just to get my energy up. So as I drift off to sleep, I wonder at the journey we made. It took a greater part of the afternoon, but it still seemed... not as far as it had seemed. Maybe the world isn’t that big of a place after all?

The first thing our group does is set up the garden area again. We’re not the only ponies who thought of growing vegetables thank goodness, but it’s certainly a priority to get anything-but-grass back on the menu. And it’s like night and day, trying to do this in the outskirts of a town. There are seeds here. There are crops already growing, planted last spring, and so they’re a bit weedy, but we can eat the weeds!

Ponies can eat... practically anything, I suppose.

So I start waking up every day in a new barn, feeling much better about myself, and about things in general. The principal difference between this barn and our old one is that we have blankets now, and close proximity to a real town. Not much else is different, so soon after arrival, but with what I’ve been seeing wandering through town, taking in all the strange sights of people whose lives have gone pony, I can imagine that our lives are gonna change a lot, and so much for the better. I’m really glad we finally chose to move out here.

On that note, the pony who taught me butchery practically begs for my help, because well... we’re pretty much obsolete, and she’s scared of being treated as useless.

“I can’t do this alone,” Tess pleads, in an anxious tone, “There are actual real butchers here who really know their stuff, and just... I’m just a pony! ”

Specifically, Tess is a slim green unicorn mare, who once used to be a man, whose mane and tail have colors that seem to shift between pink and orange depending on the angle you look. Her eyes are warmly brown: so normal, they’re a stark contrast to the ruby red irises that I’ve been given. She worked in some sort of butchery, though only as an assistant. Still, she’s the only one of us who had, so up until now, she’s been the lynchpin of our meat preparations, even though everyone thinks it’s me, since I’ve been helping her out so much.

“It’ll be fine,” I assure her, while I stick the poles for the drying racks in the earth. Sort of like a clothesline for meat. “Just teach them what you know, and they’ll teach you what they know. You know a lot of things they don’t, about how to do things as a pony, so tell them that, and let them teach you about meat and stuff.”

“Yeah, it’s just... I never had to teach a class before,” she says glumly, lighting up her horn to levitate ropes across the line of poles.

I have to giggle at that, rearing up on the poles to check at how firmly I’ve gotten them in place. They um... may as well be cemented into the ground. Okay that’s kind of weird.

“Don’t think of it like teaching a class,” I chide her lightly, pushing off the poles to stand on all fours, “Think of it like having a discussion. You’re there to answer each other’s questions, not stand up and lecture about what hooves are.”

She giggles weakly in return.

Eyeing the ropes she’s stretching across between the poles, I think Tess must have gotten them from town already since we got here a day ago, because they look a lot more thin and wirey than the bloody clothesline that we kind of... extremely had to urgently change as soon as possible. Because bloody. Clothesline.

Thankfully, I don’t have a problem stepping on the new material to pull it taut, while she uses her magic to tie it off at tension. I can’t imagine how I’d get rope burn on hooves, but I still consider myself pretty lucky for not having it.

“You know, we probably won’t be doing much with meat at all after this,” Tess says thoughtfully, “Once the professionals get the hang of it and all.”

“It’s for the best, I think,” I muse to her seriously, “I don’t even want to imagine having to butcher one of those cows.”

Gulping, Tess says, “Y-yeah those things are frikking ginormous. If other people can do that, well... it’ll be nice not to have to get all... um...”

“Covered in blood?” I suggest curiously.

Rolling her eyes, Tess says, “Yeah a little bloody. But thanks so much for your help. I just hope my uh, meat drying attempts don’t make them roll their eyes too much.”

“With the size of our eyes, that’d probably cause an earthquake!” I retort in obvious shock.

She really likes that.

With all the cows around, you’d think our days of meat crisis are over. But how the heck would anyone possibly slaughter one of those cows? We have a whole town to feed now, though, so how could we not slaughter them? My little group could get by with wild stuff caught in the underbrush, but the whole town?

To make matters worse, of all the hundreds and hundreds of privately owned cattle, there’s only one ranch owner who actually lives in town. The rest are... caretakers I guess, or renters, and... well, the feedlot cows that make a vast majority of their population are all owned by ranch companies that nobody in town has even heard of. Even if we could slaughter a cow, they are all earmarked for stores in Omaha and other places that are way too far away to travel on hoof. Can we really just... take them to feed ourselves?

I guess life and death have to take precedence over private property rights, but somehow I don’t think the police would agree.

To make our meat matters even worse, it’s been a few months since Twilight’s atmospheric spell thingy, and well... you can’t keep refrigeration up without electricity. Not many in town knew about how to make the meat last that wasn’t alive and walking around. Some started salting and drying some of the meat in the freezers, but... the vast majority of it’s past rotten by now. Ponies in town are really hurting for some protein in their diet by the time we get there. So our choice now is either hunt small game to sustain a whole town, or people have to go without their treasured animal flesh.

I suppose it’s not as bad as it could be, because I may have mentioned ponies are very little, compared to humans. We don’t need a lot of meat in our diet, and we were going meatless for quite a while back there, before we all started going nuts for a hamburger. So the townspeople aren’t desperate for meat when we get there, just kind of foul tempered. There are some cooler cellars that a few people have graciously donated to store some of the perishable stuff, getting the first cut of it of course, prolonging the meat decay.

So nopony’s suffering especially from a lack of meat. I’m kind of jealous actually, because these townspeople never even heard of Friendship is Magic. They just sort of continued on eating meat, rather than that little vegan crisis that my group ended up having.

Speaking of meat in a more abstract sense, it’s surprisingly hard to find places to have sex around here. There’s a few... discreet locations in the barn where we’re staying, but there are a lot of people passing through it, and a lot of chances that we’ll get caught. I manage to put it off for a day, then two days, but after a week, I’m practically crossing my legs wanting to be touched down there. The scrublike wilderness we frolicked in earlier, which technically was private land I suppose, isn’t an option here. Everything is most explicitly private property, with barbed wire fences, and locked doors, and buildings with public access deliberately designed so that there’s no place out of sight, where anybody could have sex discretely.

Seriously have you ever tried to find a hiding place in a public park? It’s diabolically difficult!

Mike figures it out, thankfully, or unthankfully considering the consequences. “Meadows!” the red and green bat pony calls out in tense excitement, descending from the sky and landing before me, then blushing. Just... blushing.

“So we’ve been doing... good, so far,” she says in a little voice.

At my curious look, she adds, “A-at not making... baby ponies, you know.”

“Oh, y-yeah we’ve been... pretty good,” I reply unhappily, uncomfortably aware of the urge rising in me to just fuck it all and lift my tail in public. I... kind of do sometimes, not towards anyone, but just when... no one’s looking my way. It just... it makes me feel like I’m going to get... laid, even though I’m not.

“But if we were,” Mike says, swaying indecisively as she takes a few steps on her bright green hooves, “I mean i-if we wanted to, we um...”

“T-there’s not exactly any place to just...” I say, trying to ignore the impulse to bob up my tail.

“But there is!” she declares excitedly, then shrinks back, mumbling, “Um... I mean we shouldn’t... we should stay away from the c-corn fields. Because if we were... if we were there...”

“Then no one could see us!” I say, staring at her, wide-eyed.

Mike smiles anxiously at that and laughs out, “S-so do you wanna... I mean, j-just us girls, just... go there some time and...” Her hind legs shiver, and her lush, red tail clutches close to her butt. “...help?” she squeaks.

“...you really need it, huh,” I tell her looking at Mike with sympathy, and empathy, I suppose. I need it bad, too. It’s just so much easier to say she needs it, than have to admit how much I need it. But I think Mike knows we’re both hungry for it.

“Yeah, I...” she sniffles, wiping at her eyes, “Sorry I just... it’s been over a week and... and I’m just really f-feeling it. You know...”

If she’s feeling what I’m feeling, then boy do I know. I’m getting wet just thinking about being with her. She could... we could freaking orgasm.

“No, no it’s no problem,” I say, sidling comfortingly up alongside her, managing to admit, “I’m... feeling it too.”

Mike leans her soft body against me, a wing shifting between us as she says, “S-so if you want, I could show you, unless it’s a bad time to do that sort of thing, but I really can’t think of a-anything else anymore. Like ever. It’s just... I need it.”

“Yeah it’s...” I was gonna explore the town, and try to meet with Tess about... “N-no I’m not doing anything,” I say, thoughts of everything but Mike just fading away, “Let’s just...” a blush grows on my face, as I say, “Let’s just go.”

The corn field isn’t the best place to have sex, but it is discreet. There aren’t a lot of insects in there, and even this early in the season, the corn is higher than both of our heads. There’s a barbed wire fence blocking off that farm’s property, which I leap over without even touching it. And Mike, well... wings.

“I can’t believe how much I want it!” I whisper to her with a guilty smile as we duck among the fronds, pushing through the tall stalks.

“Me too!” Mike whispers excitedly back, “Let’s... let’s get in and I wanna. Want you to put your tongue in there.”

“Y-you too,” I tell her, tail twitching, “Want to o-orgasm so hard that I just squeeze down on it and... bam!”

“We can’t even hold out a week, ” she says sorrowfully, yet indulgently. There’s something powerful about being so... taken with desire like this. All I can think about is how I’m winking and... and it’s finally gonna happen to me. And her!

“I... I want... I want it,” Mike whimpers, staggering to a halt. I hope we’re deep enough in, because she lifts her red tail to reveal her glistening marehood, “I wanna be a girl,” she says in a voice aching with need. I don’t even have to hesitate, before my tongue is feeling Mike’s soft, round, accepting pelvis, and tasting the tang of her sweat and arousal as I lick up her nether lips and slide my tongue inside.

Mike doesn’t say much more, beyond gasping my name, or how much she wants this, or how much she loves having me inside her. But mostly just stands there, and the only way she communicates with me most of the time, is how she quivers and flexes her inner passage as I curl my tongue around in there. She outright shoves her pelvis into my mouth, when the soft of my forehoof comes to press against one of her nipples. I know how that feels.

I don’t say much either, having my tongue curled inside another mare’s vagina, but I do tease open her... her inside inside place, and squeeze through just a little bit. She clamps down on me, then releases, then squeals loud in the silence as my tongue abruptly slides into her womb, then she clamps down again and.... yeah, I’m not getting out of this for a while.

It’s so wonderful, feeling Mike’s rhythmic pulses as she goes into orgasm, hearing those grateful and stuttering moans, I can almost ignore my own need, just experiencing her feeling like this. Mike’s voice is high, so it sounds more like doves than ponies. At last the rippling muscular vagina within my friend stops trying to crush my tongue, and only the very deepest part of her is slowly flexing around it... what I assume has to be Mike’s womb.

Her deepest flesh shifts around me so serenely, as I imagine that movement in there becoming the powerful contractions of childbirth. Relaxing totally, Mike sinks to her chest, her forelegs going limp. Her hindquarters sink to the ground, making my tongue naturally slide out of her, as the bat pony relaxes before me, cooing, chin sinking to the earth, and quivering still in her hindquarters.

I pull my tongue the rest of the way out, patting my friend’s entrance comfortingly before taking it back to myself. She lifts her head at that, shifting to sit more normally on her belly. A blissful smile spreads across her blunt snout, as she says to me, “That was perfect, Meadowsweet. Thank you so much.”

“It’s no problem, really, Mike,” I tell her embarassedly, and a little disappointedly, as I wanna be the pony lying there feeling that good.

“No, I’m not...” she shakes her head, struggling up to her hooves. Her catlike pupils are dilating as she says passionately, “I’m not Mike. I can’t be Mike, Not around you. I need a... a pony name. A girl name, like yours.”

“L-like mine, right...” I reply, trying not to wince in front of her joy. She’s right. I do have a pony name, and Twilight must have forced me to have it, because there’s no way any parents would ever name a boy Meadowsweet. So it doesn’t feel like a pony name, but it still is one. And now Mike actually wants one.

I think I’d want one too, if I didn’t already have one. I didn’t have to change my name at all, as far as I know. But if I was born with the name Albert, I can’t imagine I wouldn’t change it to Meadowsweet, because seriously. Meadowsweet just fits me so perfectly, it might as well have been the name I was born with.

We stand there together for a while, gazing at each other amid the softly swaying corn stalks, until Mike sighs, and looks down, saying, “I got nothing.”

“Hm?” I reply, looking with worry at the red and green bat pony.

“Names, I never thought about it,” she says, “Like... a girl name, or maybe a pony name, but... I can’t imagine calling myself Green... Bat... something.”

“Just think about it a while,” I tell her, briefly snugging her tail in my own, “I’ll let you know if I think of anything with my weird... pony name memories. Maybe I can come up with something.”

“I’m sure you’d pick the perfect name,” she says with a warm nuzzle to my cheek.

A moment to think and I say teasingly, “Pineapple Sausage. Still think I’d pick the perfect name, Pineapple?”

It doesn’t take long for Mike to swat my rump sharply with her tail and go bounding out of the corn field, with me soon following after. She’s lightheartedly laughing though, her voice like sweet birdsong, and between the both of us, I think we’ll be able to figure something out together.

“Hey! I didn’t get a turn!”

“Oh... sorry.”

We spend a lot of time in that corn field. ♥

“Soo... Lucy?” I ask one day, inching up to somepony who I am fairly sure is named Lucy. Our new barn in our new town is going well, and I finally have an opportunity to approach the orangey pink furred, purple haired unicorn mare. She’s kind of tall and slender, in the way that I’m short and curvy. She doesn’t have Fleur de Lis proportions, but she’s just a little more... swanlike, and I’m a little more... ducklike. Lucy does look really pretty. I can definitely see Sue fucking her, if she can hold up his weight at least.

I only hope she’s as nice a person as he says she is. Sharing your vagina with a male has a way of... endearing you to them, so maybe Sue’s just talking about Lucy through rose colored glasses. But outside of how good it feels to fuck her, Sue’s description of Lucy was appealing enough for me to at least try to get to know her. Because I feel like he still cares about her, and... misses the mare who taught him how to be a man.

Lucy looks up from weaving straws in her magic as I approach, continuing to weave what looks like a pot as she smiles and says, “Hey, you’re Meadowsweet, right? The one who beat up Twilight Sparkle herself?”

I kind of forgot we did that! Blinking in surprise for a moment, I blurt out, “Y-yeah that’s me and Nick, and Mira. But it’s no big deal really, considering we... failed.”

“Aw, well you’re not the only one,” she says with a sympathetic grimace, “So what can I do for you?”

“Oh, nothing...” I say, swaying casually on my hooves, “Just trying to get to ...know people more.”

“Well okay then,” she says giving me a look. “Pleased to meet you!”

“P-pleased to meet you too,” I venture shyly, “You know, I did think you’d know me but not because of Twilight. I thought you’d know me from when I was doing the meat preparation and stuff.”

“Oh right, that was you,” she says, eyeing me more selectively, still weaving the pot behind herself. “You look a lot less um... red than I remember.”

“Y-yeah that stuff does kind of stain,” I admit sheepishly, looking back at my pale yellow furry rump, and lush green tail, “But it was mostly just on my legs and... snout. And I guess my tail got kind of...”

“Well, it was just the tip,” she says demurely.

“A-anyway, so um... weaving a pot, huh?” I ask, looking at her hovering crafts project there.

Levitating it over between us causes her to pause the weaving, but it starts up again as she looks at it. “Yeah,” she says, sliding straws within straws, “There was a book in the library on basket weaving. You don’t even have to use long straws, just slide them together like this and stuff.”

“Must be nice to have a horn,” I say glumly, watching her enviable dexterity.

“Oh sorr—” she says, looking up from her work. “Sorry, I...” then she glances back down at her work, and her weaving stops. Glancing up again, she smiles guiltily and says, “Guess you can’t really do that fine manipulation stuff.”

“I could probably make a pot out of clay, or just get a bucket,” I say with a shrug, “It’s not so bad, I’m just... kind of envious.”

“Well, sorry for showing off in front of you,” she says, wincing and starting to set the basket down, so I lift a forehoof, going,

“No, no! Go ahead and make it. I don’t mind. I want you to do it, actually.”

“Why’s that?” Lucy replies skeptically.

“Because it sucks that I can’t, but that doesn’t make it suck that you can,” I explain, pointing at the half completed basket, “So it’s actually kind of fascinating how you can do that. I’m just... complaining about myself. But that doesn’t make me like you doing it any less!”

“Well... okay then,” she says with an uncertain smile, looking down at her floating partial pot, and her magic once again lights on the pot and several strands of hay, slotting them together into the growing weave.

“Must be kind of weird, honestly,” I say as she glances up my way. “Remember when you were... I mean unicorns were passing out, and stuff?”

Her weaving actually stutters at that, but keeps going as she winces.

“Y-yeah I remember,” she says demurely, “It just... comes naturally to think like this now. Like uh...”

A blue magic limned straw lifts up in the air, and as she says, “I could announce to you straw! aim! poke! swivel! tighten! squeeze!” the straw weaves into her basket by her command.

“Or I could just do that and talk to you,” she concludes, once the straw is woven, as another straw swiftly follows it, “And not call out every little thing I’m doing like some kinda anime.”

Lifting four straws then, Lucy gets a strangely confused look on her face, and everything pauses. Then she levitates all the individual straws in front of her face, looking at them cross-eyed as she adds, “Though now that I think on it, I don’t know how I’d call it out, if I was doing more than one straw at a time.”

“Maybe if you had four mouths?” I suggest.

She laughs, looking up at me again, saying, “Yeah, exactly! I got like four brains or something.” Her pot weaving resumes. “I suppose five if you count the one I’m using to talk to you,” she offers uncertainly.

“How many can you do at once?” I ask curiously, “Sorry, my unicorn um... friend isn’t really big on talking about this stuff.”

“Eh, I think... five is about my limit,” she says dismissively, “It just feels like um... like juggling but more complex. This’s my sweet spot, and if I get more, I start to run out of um... brain, I guess.”

Leaning forward, while still weaving, Lucy says excitedly, “But man, Robin? He can levitate like a dozen things at once! He’s got some fancy binary subdivision thing too, that he says helps. I probably could do more if I didn’t just grab ‘em.”

“Huh, I didn’t know that,” I muse thoughtfully, “So he just... divides his straws into two big tasks, then divides those in half, and those in half, until he’s down to one straw per... thing?”

She stares at me.

“S-sorry, I really don’t mean to—” I start to say, lifting an embarassed hoof, but she cuts me off, saying

“No, wait wait!”

Her pot just drops out of the air then, hitting the straw she’s squatting next to with a thump. She then takes a bunch of straw, floats it in front of her and stares at it intensely. Then she separates the clump into two, and sort of waves them around a little. Then her blue eyes widen in shock, and she says, “Holy crap, Meadowsweet! So I just...?” Her clumps split, and then those split, and then those split again, then again.

Soon she has sixteen... clumps of hay floating around her. Her eyes dart around as one of them spins in midair like a pinwheel, then another next to it spins, then half the clumps on her left side. Then she focuses on me, saying, “I think I finally get it! He meant like sub division!” A smile breaks on her face as she moves the clumps around her evenly spaced, then sets them slowly orbiting her. “Check it out, Meadowsweet! This’s freaking amazing!” she declares.

“You’re lifting sixteen!” I exclaim staring in excitement, “You just figured that out now?”

She nods eagerly, then says, “Hold on!” Closing her eyes, Lucy’s clumps split one more time, until a storm of thirty-two strands are whirling around her. She opens her eyes, staring forward dully as she says, “See, it—uh... just—...” She blinks then, and half of them fall out of the air.

“I guess five is my limit,” she says sheepishly, focusing on my face again, “Still, I can work twice as fast like this. Thanks!”

“Sure, I guess...” I reply cautiously, “I have no idea what it’s like to even... divide your head like that, but I’m glad it helped.”

“Yeah it’s...” her smile grows strained, “Weird...”

Another silent moment staring at each other, then Lucy just drops everything, the cool blue light of her horn shrinking to nothingness, as straw falls around her. “You know what?” she declares assertively, climbing to her hooves. “How about let’s go do something less weird.”

“Oh, um... you wanna take a walk?” I ask, flicking my tail in the direction of the door outside.

Her smile’s genuine at that and she says, “Sure, I’d love that.”

Lucy turns out to be... really nice, actually. She was a girl at Bronycon, working on the convention staff, like people who check your tickets and keep an eye on any activities to make sure nobody’s getting too rowdy. She loves the show, and though her unicorn nature really creeps her out sometimes, she’s open and inquisitive about it, in ways that Twilight Sparkle never was.

Oh, and she’s between relationships right now.

I don’t spend all my time thinking about sex. Sometimes I’m thinking about Lucy, or I’m thinking about telling Sue about the cornfield, so he can start rutting me and Mike again. But there’s so much else to do around here, it’s overwhelming! I sort of find out why nobody’s out in the farmland fields for instance, when wandering through town, I take a look at what people have been growing inside the city limits.

Wandering through the town, I can see that a lot of people are tending to gardens. Once the supermarkets stopped getting restocked, many people turned their front lawns into vegetable gardens. Not sure who had the idea first, but it spread quickly. There are already some healthy looking vines, which people inform me are beans and squash, with some small summer squash on the latter. Tomato plants laden with budding green fruits. Then I see someone’s lawn entirely covered with rows of corn stalks.

But unlike the corn Mike and I have been fucking in, this stuff can’t be more than 2 months old! I know corn grows really fast, and I know I’m pretty small, but it’s already taller than I am! Alone in that empty front yard, staring up at this serene, unattended patch of corn, I remark to myself, “That’s some really tall corn...”

“I know, right?” a squat earth pony says, scaring me half to death, poking her pink furred head out from between the green rows to smile brightly at me. Her curly yellow hair’s pushed back by a white kerchief, that I think might be an actual handkerchief. “It’s my first time growing it, too!” she says excitedly, “It just keeps growing bigger! I can’t wait to have some actual corn to eat!”

My surprise turning to confusion, I ask her, “What about the corn in the fields out of town?”

“Well, that’s private property first off,” she says flatly.

“O-oh right, so this is your lawn, so the corn’s okay to grow here,” I say in realization.

“Eah, until the bank comes down on me,” she says with a shrug, stepping out from between the rows of corn entirely, standing with me in the summer sun, with her ears sagging against the kerchief, “Can’t exactly pay my mortgage like this.”

“I think these are slightly extenuating circumstances,” I say with a wince.

She just shakes her head at that. “Extenuating whatevers aren’t going to make money appear out of thin air. Takes work to make money.”

To emphasize this, she starts digging at the soil with her forehoof to try to uproot a dandelion it looks like.

“Well, you seem to be working pretty hard to get that corn growing,” I say, looking above her at the growing ears on the bright green plants.

“Takes work that makes actual money,” she says, grumpily, scuffing at the soil again, “Anyway, all that corn outta town is completely inedible.”

Giving her a look, I say, “...seriously?”

“It was a shock to me, too!” she replies earnestly, “Some actual farmers around here said it’s only good for stuff like corn syrup, and only after heavy chemical processing. After I uh... found out that it basically tastes like sand. N-not that I stole any, or anything.”

“Well there’s gotta be more than one kind of corn growing out there,” I tell her insistently, “Those fields go on for miles!”

Looking my way uncertainly, the pink mare says, “I think they only grow one kinda corn. Believe me, I looked. I had to get this sweet corn from the supermarket!”

“Well that’s... strange,” I reply, looking at her corn stalks in a new light. “So these will grow sweet corn?”

“Heck if I know,” she replies with a sloppy grin, “But they sure are growing like gangbusters! And they got ears growing on them all over. They’re just kind of small still.”

“Hopefully they’ll be tasty,” I say, finding her smile infectious. “Anything that can grow higher than me in two months earns my respect,” I add jovially.

She laughs at that, a very musical laugh, and then says, “It’s a lot easier than I thought. Long as I can get water, right? Then those pegasus...es came from outta town, and now they can make it rain just on my front yard in the morning!”

“Oh, I was wondering about that,” I reply curiously, “How did you get water until the pegasi started pulling clouds together... however that works?”

She gives me a puzzled look. “You get a bucket, and go to the creek,” she says, “Thought that was obvious?”

“I... oh, so that’s... oh,” I say, reduced to mumbles for a moment there.

She starts idly digging at another unwanted plant, cursing under her breath as the weed flattens down, the tough fibers of the stalk just sliding under her hoof, stubbornly clinging to the roots in the earth.

“Hey uh, why don’t you just loosen the soil a bit?” I ask, my tail dipping down shyly as I add, “Uh, n-not to criticize your gardening or anything.”

“It’s no problem, like I said I’m new at this,” she says looking down at the scraped weed with a sigh. “At everything...”

Positioning myself over the stubborn weed which appears to be another stalky looking dandelion, I tell the other mare, “Well, I’m new at this too, but one thing some people in my um... group were doing is... you just sort of...” a hard stomp of my forehoof breaks up the dry soil around the dandelion with a little puff of dust. Then I crane my neck down and bite the stem, pulling the plant out of the crumbling soil.

With the dirty thing held delicately in my teeth I give a hopeful smile, as she exclaims, wide-eyed, “You can do that?”

Dropping the dandelion nervously, I stammer, “Y-yeah, it’s because hooves are harder than feet so you can really... stomp with them.”

“I was just sort of digging them out,” she says, gazing at the fallen weed I pulled, with its two foot long taproot sticking forlornly in the air.

“Digging, you pull at the soil,” I explain, “With loosening it, you have to really push into the soil.”

She gives it a try, but her hoof just compacts the soil further when it strikes dirt, so I come up beside her and say, “No, not push down the soil, push into the soil, like this.”

While I stomp to loosen up another area of soil, she watches with fascination, saying, “Oh, so it’s sort of like a vibration.”

“Yeah, like...” when stomping again to demonstrate, my hoof actually ends up sinking into the loose soil I produce under it, making me stumble a bit. “Like— that.”

She tries again, and it takes her a few tries, but soon she’s gleefully stomping around her corn rows, kicking off thistles and briars and all that sort of stuff that grows if you don’t have a lawn anymore to choke out the weeds. We’re kind of attracting a crowd actually. A bunch of people from nearby houses in this frankly suburban neighborhood.

“Can you show me how to do that?”

“Does it work on blackberries?”

“Are you pulling out dandelions with your mouth?”

The rest of my afternoon is spent on that block, just helping people out with their um... stomping technique? It never occurred to me how useful a trick this was. We never had much of a weed problem in our garden back at the old farm because there were like ten ponies working on it, so someone was gonna figure out how to get the weeds. I thought it was just kind of convenient, but people here really do have a problem with weeds, and with compacted soil.

I find myself troubled, when asking around back at farm 2.0 about the soil loosening trick. I find my answer from an earth pony stallion named Rachel. He was doing most of the gardening back at our old place, and he and I got to chatting about it on occasion. He was the one who taught me this soil trick, so I figured he’d be the pony to ask.

Rachel’s doing well, when I meet him. He’s a blue haired, dusty orange earth pony stallion, very tall and... strong, but in less of a forceful way than Sue. Still spends most of his time in our new garden, using those skills he taught me. And the reason he taught them to me was just because I was curious about how he did it. He’s just a really nice guy that way.

“Oh, loosening the soil?” Rachel replies among the sprouting plants in our new garden, casually leaning on a hoof, letting the other cross over his chest, “I learned that from Twilight Sparkle!”

Blinking, I say, “Really? But you’re an earth pony!”

“You don’t need a horn to stomp on dirt,” he says with a jolly laugh.

“Well... she could do it too, then?” I ask, ear tilting in confusion.

He shakes his head, but pauses uncertainly, saying, “No, she could, but... well, she said that I’d be better at it. I think it’s an earth pony thing?”

“I don’t think it counts as an earth pony thing if a unicorn could do it,” I say sadly, drooping my tail, “Even if she was bad at it. I’m not just bad at magic. I can’t cast it at all! And I’m certainly not even slightly capable of flying.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he says with an encouraging smile, “We got plenty of ponies who can fly and use magic. All we have to do is stomp some dirt, and grow some veggies.”

“Yeah I... I guess...” I say shyly, blushing at his kind words. I guess I could argue with him, that I want to do something other ponies can’t do, to really help out instead of just being an optional accessory. It sounds dumb when I say it out loud though, and honestly he’s right. I should get used to being... what I am, even if I’m not more powerful than ponies with wings or a horn.

I’m also starting to want to fuck him.

Author's Note

And there they are! Forgiven, redeemed, and in a new town, on the long road to making amends. With so much to learn about their new friends, and new location! Or just forget about all that, and have lots of sex. :duck:

Stranger Things Have Happened

My newfound sexuality is just totally out of control. Once again, I’ve rationally and logically come to understand that doing crazy, weird sexual stuff is not in my best interests. And once again, I’m just going to do it anyway. It’s terrifying, but somehow exhilirating. I want this. I actually want this. Him.

Him, being Rachel, an orange and blue earth pony stallion, who I’ve had the misfortune to become friends with. Since I seem to want to fuck every stallion that I get to know.

It all makes total sense to me, except I can’t trust what makes sense to me, since I’m in an altered state of mind, namely horny. I would surely be able to see how senseless it is, if I wasn’t squirming at the thought of him mounting me, if my stupid, tingly vagina wasn’t getting all wet and winky, and making me want it so much. I’m not winking winking, but thinking about fucking him, I feel like I... could be getting aroused, pretty soon, and fast.

I’m trying to be faithful to Sue, as faithful as one can be to a stallion who’s fucking two mares, but I just... find the other stallions so nice, and a-attractive, I guess. I don’t know what I’m supposed to be attracted to in male horses. There’s just something about them, great and small, winged or otherwise. Maybe it’s just the penis. Maybe it’s the abstract potential to get mounted and plowed. It’s just that the more I get to know a stallion, the more it feels... safer when I’ve got his penis inside me. Just more of those instincts to impregnate myself, I suppose.

Well, it’s probably a good idea to avoid stallions altogether when I’m feeling... frisky, but most of the time it’s perfectly safe. There aren’t many stallions, and there are a lot of mares, so most of the stallions I’m with are all tapped out, even if I try to get them to have their way with me. Nick’s not really fucking me anymore, so he doesn’t count. I only have one accident with Rachel, well okay two accidents.

...three accidents and counting.

It’s just so amazing that I can ask Rachel, “So... you wanna take a walk sometime?” and before you know it, we’re off somewhere fucking like rabbits. It’s so wonderfully spontaneous, and makes me feel so secure. But how do I explain that to Sue? I want more mistakes to happen. What is wrong with me?

I mean, it’s not like I’m feeling pressured into it. Rachel’s not quite as enthusiastic to be a stallion as Sue, so there isn’t a lot of pressure for me to raise my tail, and it’s not like I’m just shoving my butt into Rachel’s face. It just sort of happens naturally. The first time we ever have sex, Rachel and I are alone, chatting as we walk along the outskirts of town. I’m busy thinking about how intriguing it is to see his muscles move beneath his coat, as his powerful legs propel him alongside me, when he says,

“Well, you got quiet. Whatcha thinking about?”

And of course I’m practically staring at his flank when he asks. Blushing horribly and tearing my eyes away, I stare forward, stammering, “Uh... I... that is... nothing much just... things.”

Since I haven’t actually had sex with him, at this point. Just to be clear.

Rachel doesn’t reply, and I’m afraid he saw me looking, and knows how melty I’m feeling back between my hind legs. I’m frightened how aware I feel, of the lack of a penis on my part, and the presence of his. I feel like a girl next to this stallion, a girl he could be fucking. If he finds out I’m feeling this way, I don’t know what he’ll think of me! If he finds out how much I want his tool, how much I think about him fucking me every time we walk together...

“Y’know it’s okay if you were thinking about me,” he says in an amused tone, and I turn to look at him in surprise.

“You’re not upset?” I say without thinking, then blushing again, I turn away saying, “Uh, because I was, y’know... thinking. About you.”

“I think it’s kinda cute, actually,” he says, still smiling as he catches my gaze with those rose red eyes. They’re warm and loving, and... they match.

“Our eyes match!” I say in surprise, trying not to blush when I say, “That’s what I was... what I’m thinking about.”

His eyebrow raises, and he says, “I don’t think you were looking at my eyes.”

Absolutely abashfully, I mumble, “It’s just a female thing, just... I mean everyone has muscles, I just like... thinking about... yours.”

Smooth as silk.

“I bet you get a lot of girls thinking that about you,” I groan guiltily, hanging my head. “S-sorry...”

“Hey, it’s okay,” he says, in a warm tone that perks my ears up. “I mean, I’m just a little surprised.” As I risk looking his way again, Rachel continues, “It’s really impressive you could say that. You’re a lot braver than I was. Y’know... as a girl.”

“Still hard to believe that half of the girls at Bronycon turned into stallions,” I grumble, maybe a little resentfully, “So unfair.”

“It’s fine, really,” he assures me, “And I don’t have any problem if you used to be a guy.”

“You don’t?” I ask in surprise, looking solidly his way, “Lots of people don’t... really like it. I mean, it’s wrong that a guy can just... be like this. Guys can’t be expected to do the right thing as a girl. I can’t just do whatever I want with a girl’s body, even if it’s my own body. ”

“You didn’t ask for this any more than I did,” he says persistently, keeping pace with me, and not even showing a hint of resentment in his eyes, that I got to have the vagina he lost. “It’s totally fine if you wanna act like a girl,” he says, “And if you wanna act like a guy, because I’m too clueless to be one myself, then go ahead. Ask me out, or whatever.”

Smiling and relaxing, I say, “It’s nice to know you’re okay with it, Rachel. It really is hard to get used to being on the other side sometimes I think, for the both of us.”

He nods at that, regarding me silently for a while, before saying with a small grin, “So, you were checking me out, huh?”

Blushing and unrelaxing, I say, “Well, yes, but it was just um... mare... instincts or whatever. N-nothing serious, I mean, just naturally um... thinking about... it.”

“You wanna do it?” he replies slyly.

Holy heck yes. I should tell him I have a boyfriend. I really should. I shouldn’t get this stallion up inside me and cumming. He might even think that the foal I give birth to is his, and that’d be... terrible. I’m not really a girl, and I shouldn’t lift my tail for every stallion who so much as smiles at me! Girls don’t do that!

“Well I wouldn’t...” I cautiously say, “Say... no. I-if you wanted to.”

I am a horrible person.

Rachel looks around furtively, then pauses, tossing his nose off in a certain direction and saying, “C’mon, let’s go in that lot over there. Nobody’s gonna be there shopping for cars I don’t think.”

“We—we shouldn’t,” I hastily tell the handsome bluehead, and I’m so eager to use my baby-making equipment, it’s hard to even say those words. Why is this making me so turned on?!

“Look, Meadowsweet, I... want it,” Rachel says, giving me a soulful look. Or horny. Horny and soulful are very similar looks. “And I don’t know if you have a guy to... do it with. I mean if you do, it’s fine.”

“Y-you realize what you’re wanting, right?” I tell him desperately, fidgeting on my hooves, “You want it, but what about... what about me? You really want to be a father? H-how many mares are you making a mother?”

I’m not chiding him. It makes me want him more.

Rachel blushes at that, and says quietly, “I know it’s wrong. I’ve... I do want to impregnate you, and it’s stupid, but it’s true. I’ve impregnated... f-four girls so far.” At my look of alarm, he says, “Not impregnated impregnated! Just... rolled the dice. I didn’t know being a guy would make me not even... care if you got pregnant, as long as I got to put this thing inside.”

He sways sideways, and oh he’s out. He’s... He’s sort of splotchy like Sue, but in the color of his fur, a warm, sandy orange, that quickly transitions to the pink of his tip. Just like I’m pink, in-between my legs.

“It feels so good!” he says entreatingly, giving me a strained look, giving me something to gaze at besides his bobbing shaft, and those smooth, round, shapely balls dangling behind it.

“Girls are so hot and wet in there,” Rachel confesses, “I–I can’t even describe how wonderful it feels. It takes me over, turns me into a man. I think about your... belly getting bigger, and about you being all achy and tired, and h-having a child who’s a pony, who thinks I’m his... dad. I can make you a mom with this thing, and I still wanna do it. I even think about you going into labor, and I still just... want to pull you close, and cum inside. It’s hard to care about anything else.”

“I... kind of know how you feel,” I tell him honestly, “It’s hard to care if I get pregnant too. I just wanna lift my tail and... get you inside me, and that’s all I can think about. I don’t want to give birth, but I’d just let it happen if I could... feel that. W-what if I said I had a b-boyfriend already?”

Rachel looks at me warily a moment. “He... wouldn’t have to... god, now I’m trying to get girls to cheat!” he groans, looking away.

“It’s okay, I... don’t have a boyfriend,” I lie with a weak smile, “Even if I did, it wouldn’t be cheating, s-since I didn’t sign a... a contract or anything. I just... maybe... want... you instead, f-for now.”

Looking at me, Rachel says sorrowfully, “You should go to him. Let him put a baby in you. I can find other girls. I don’t know why I wanted to... do you more.”

He walks off and my heart’s aching for him, so I follow, and Rachel looks back at me then.

“If you... follow me,” he says with an unreadable expression on his face, “Then I’ll get up on your back, and fuck you until I cum. S-so don’t, unless you’re ready for that.”

“Y-yeah it’d be a bad idea,” I agree, standing there mid-stride, “So go ahead and go. I can go find... the guy I’m supposed to be fucking.”

He walks off then, and I... continue to follow him. Looking back, his eyes widen, and I give a nervous laugh, lifting a yellow furred forearm to my chest/shoulders. “G-guess we’re doing it anyway,” I tell him jokingly.

Rachel looks my way for a moment, but doesn’t answer in words. He just continues walking, and I follow behind, ultimately coming up beside him, as we go to do something totally wrong and forbidden. It seems so nonchalant just... walking next to this big, orange stallion, like he’s not gonna be fucking me into the ground.

He casually mentions as we walk, “I like how my hooves hook around a mare’s hips. That way I can hold you against me, and cum inside even if you’re trying to get away.”

“That’s... terrible,” I tell him, blushing heavily, “I... like that too. If you just hold me close and just pump it all into me.“

“I feel like such a jerk,” he groans, staring fixedly at the rear I’ve brought into his view by trotting ahead, “I’m so horny though, and you don’t care how badly I n-need to be in a vagina. You’re just gonna let me...”

“Go inside my vagina,” I offer, feeling wonderful and terrible for winking at him and murmuring boldly, “Ejaculate,” At his intake of breath, I add, “I’m so horny I’m gonna stand there, and let you hold my hips, and just keep cumming inside.”

“You’re really beautiful, Meadowsweet,” Rachel tells me, looking at me adoringly as I fall back alongside him, “I never felt this way about girls when I was one. This penis really makes me want it though. You’re just so cute and... smooth, and round. You’re gonna get fat and pregnant, and I really wanna see you like that.”

“My female instincts make me like you, too,” I tell him hungrily, “You’re larger, and you’re really nice, and... the fact that you want it makes it kind of... really sexy. When I’m horny, I start thinking about giving birth, just pushing a foal out of my vagina. And you wanna do that to me. I just wanna spread my legs and give birth, and you’re totally cool with that.”

I look his way with worried hope. Rachel says, “Yeah, maybe not giving birth, but... wanting to give birth is just totally sexy. I wanna put a foal in you, and you wanna give birth to it. That’s just...”

“I–I’m dripping at the thought of it,” I admit honestly, because damn it’s going down the inside of my hind leg, “Of giving birth for you. I can’t even think straight. Can’t think of anything when I’m like this, but your penis, and your cum, and giving birth.”

“T-the hornier you get, the more beautiful you are,” he says tensely, “You’re not even scared anymore, you’re just this... female, who wants my baby. I wanna rut you right here like this, but we’re almost there.”

“Let’s hurry,” I whine, rubbing against him, “I wanna be this horny when you have sex with me. When you cum inside in me, and make me pregnant, I wanna want it so bad. My... m-my horse pussy is even winking, and I love needing it so bad.”

“Just hold tight, soon as we get some cover, I’ll totally cum inside,” he replies.

Rachel hurriedly leads us into a used car lot, guilty, but at the same time eager. It’s an out of the way spot, just out on the asphalt shaded by a tall fence.

I’m almost dancing on my hooves there, saying, “So, so you’re gonna...” I hardly have to turn my overeager rear his way, before Rachel is mounting up on me. My tail fights its way to the side, exposing me to him. He’s gonna!

Staring forward at the intense... passion of being weighed down like this, I hear Rachel say, “Yeah, I’m... I’m ready.”

He slaps my belly with it, and I whine, “Nnh... get your penis inside me!”

“You’re gonna have my baby,” he says, pulling back to press it right into my sweet spot, parting my folds with the tip of his shaft, “Gonna cum inside you so hard.”

“This is so wrong...” I moan, stomping a hind hoof anxiously as between my legs, my nethers spread and stretch, and he pushes deeper and deeper.

“Oh god my penis... have—have to get it in you,” he says urgently, humping to shove into me as far as possible, “Gonna... gonna fuck you’re so wet.”

“I’mma female,” I moan, arching my back at the feel of a stallion’s penis up deep in my piked hips, “I’m getting wet making babies for you. Making you cum in me!”

He just starts fucking me then, and I could care less for niceties at this point, but not much less. Sweat trickles down my sides as we stand there in the bright summer heat, just mindlessly mating. His thrusts slide within me, rocking me forward, and that’s all I care about. That passage in my rear, that he’s gonna cum inside.

We don’t do anything creative, just thrust together however Rachel thinks’ll make him cum the fastest. You’d think I would get tired of this repetitive thrusting, but I can’t get enough of it. Rachel does have a different... pace than Sue, and he’s much thicker, stretching me all around, especially when he flares.

He shoves deep eventually and refuses to thrust. I can feel his penis smushing up against my deepest, most inward parts, right where he’s gonna cum in me. Teeth clenched, I groan furiously, “You’re gonna cum. ” His penis kicks, spurting a strong shot of semen up deep within me. “Oh god Rachel, cum as hard as you can!” I gasp, “It’s filling meee~!”

He doesn’t reply in words, just grips me close, and cums as deep in me as he can get. I’m standing on four hooves, turning my tail aside, hunching low with my thick neck, so eager to get pregnant I might as well have been born a girl. Rachel’s inside me, and he’s impregnating me. He’s a father, and I’m a mommy. I’m gonna make his baby!

...

I pose before Rachel coyly, after he’s pulled out of me, his copious seed flowing out between my legs. “That was wrong,” I coo at him, drunk with the feeling of what we did, still quivering from an orgasm singing from my loins. “I’monna have your baby now,” I say, facing this wonderful stallion feeling like I just won the lottery.

Touching a hoof to my cheek, he says, “Oh man, that was... you’re fucking gorgeous, Meadowsweet.”

“I’m gonna fuck my boyfriend,” I tell him dizzily, “And he won’t know... that your seed’s in there, making me pregnant with your foal.”

Rachel leans forward and kisses me. I’m a girl, I’m a pony, my womb is full of his cum, and everything is wonderful.

“I am such an idiot,” I moan.

“You’re not an idiot,” the orange furred, blue-haired father of my children maybe says, in an appeasing tone. “You were just... vulnerable, and I just... took advantage of you.”

“I don’t have any right to be a woman. My kids are gonna have the worst mom ever!”

“You’d...” Rachel winces, “Probably make a good mom? Y-you know how it feels, since you used to be a guy. I just... anyone looks really motherly when you’re about to make them one!”

“See, even you agree!” I gripe at him, kicking my legs up from where I’m laying and/or having a temper tantrum, next to the bucket of water we’ve been trying to use to clean our groins. Of course mine keeps on leaking. How are you supposed to cheat on someone, if you can’t even clean up the evidence? Oh god did I just cheat on Sue? Oh god did I just cheat on Nick? Oh god I’ve been cheating on Twilight this whole time! I’ve been fucking stallions and she never broke up with me! Or... I suppose she did, implicitly, when she broke up with... all of us. But still! What kind of a monster am I?!

Rachel waits for me to finish with my Rarity impression, then says, “It’s gonna be fine. We just have to clean you off, and never speak of this again.”

“You know what happens to people who cheat?” I whine furiously to Rachel, “STDs, that’s what!”

“Listen, I am absolutely positively sure I didn’t give you an STD,” Rachel says tiredly, “Unless children count as an STD. Did you give me an STD?”

“N-no, I didn’t,” I tell him insecurely, “But what about the next woman?”

“I dunno about the next woman,” Rachel says, staring at his forehooves. “I’ve just been sort of... asking women, because I could... you know how we can smell, when you’re uh...”

“...yeah, but couldn’t you just go back to the ones you’ve already made love with?” I ask, squeezing the water from a sponge off over my groin. It’s cool against my nethers, but it’s summer, so it’s not bad. His semen’s inside me...

“Like you?” he asks.

Shaking my head, I say, “N-no like people who don’t already have... someone. I mean... I do have a boyfriend, but please don’t spread it around. I’m kind of ...shy about it.”

“So you can cheat more?” he asks resentfully.

“No, no it’s just...” Pee. “Complicated. You knew I had a boyfriend, I mean, didn’t you? I’m pretty bad at keeping it a secret.”

“Y-yeah, but by then I was too horny to care,” he glumly replies.

If it seems unlikely that in our dearth of pony males, I’d be getting fucked by Sue and Rachel, and Nick, I would heartily agree. If it seems unlikely one day when Rachel and I retreat from the used car lot, dissheveled, unsteady, laughing together, that staring us in the face would be a gigantic cow, I would have to disagree, because cows are starting to get everywhere.

As tasty as they smell, it’s kind of intimidating to see one of those giant behemoths devouring someone’s vegetable garden. Because what do you do, lead them away from the food they want to eat? One cow’s head is practically the size of an entire pony!

So that’s why I’m kind of surprised one day, when Janice trots up to me, saying, “Hey Meadowsweet. Wanna go round up some cows?”

I look up from my important task of nibbling out junk from my tail, asking warily,

“...how?”

“...with a rope?” she suggests. Tapping with a forehoof the deep purple horn atop her pink-maned head, Janice says, “I’ve got this, but you’re gonna want to use a rope.”

“Okay, seriously, is this a joke?” I ask her, standing fully, or as fully as a quadrupedal animal can. “Those things are gigantic! It’d just drag me around like a little dolly!”

Janice asks thoughtfully, “Huh, have you seen us rounding up cows yet?”

Some time later, I’m staring in astonishment, as an earth pony, just an earth pony, tosses a loop of rope into the air with a swing of their head, and it descends right around the neck of a cow. Too busy destroying some tomatoes, the cow doesn’t even notice this, until the little yellow earth pony bites down on the end of the rope, and starts walking away with it. The cow lowws then, and its head twists in the direction of the pony with her hooves planted in the ground. It tries to turn back, but she uh... holds on harder to the spot she’s standing at, and twists her own neck, to yank the cow along.

Then it turns its whole body in the other direction, in an unconcerned manner. The mare stays planted, but slides backwards through the dirt towards the cow. Then she pulls the cow’s head in her direction again, stepping forward with tense determination, as the cow rears up a little and crashes in her direction. Somehow, impossibly, the little mare fights on equal footing with this cow, trying to yank the cow in the direction she wants it to go, and not entirely failing to do so!

“Liwl helf hewe!” she shouts, and a few unicorns go trotting up to either side of the cow. Then one’s horn glows, and then a bright spark incandesces from the cow’s giant butt, to the ground. The cow rolls its eyes and lowws again, trying to turn around, but the earth pony is adamant, and one more snapping spark, and the cow steps forward, having very few options at that point.

Seeing the cow is just docilely following along behind the tiny little earth mare is like a kitten leading an elephant. That’s not the insane thing about all this though. The insane thing is I think I can see how she did all that! It wasn’t that she was stronger than the cow, it was... this... obvious thing that I don’t have words for. The mare was just more connected with the ground, as if the cow were floating a foot in the air, even though I know both cow and mare had all four hooves planted.

So I ask her about it.

“Here, try pretending I’m a cow!” the earth pony mare named Brisket tells me afterwards, throwing me a rope. “See if you can get that loop around my neck.”

I’m... pretty bad at lassoing at first, but after an afternoon of practice, I figure it out. It’s not as hard as I thought, and I can do it pretty reliably. It’s really just a sine wave, the energy transmitting down the rope. So by figuring out the waveform that’ll get the loop at the end to snap up into the air and go soaring around the other mare’s neck, it’s pretty straightforward.

So I take the... morning shift there, doing patrols around the town’s edge, to drive off any cows coming near, or to respond to distressed ponies, going into the town to lead a cow to the outskirts. I do pretty good, I have to say. There’s only one time I get trampled, when they zap the cow at just the wrong time, and next thing I know a giant hoof is crushing my ribcage to the dirt as the cow just lumbers over me and beyond.

“Are you okay???” Janice says, running up to me in fright.

“Never better,” I groan, never better for a pony whose face was shoved in the dirt at least.

I climb to my hooves carefully, and thankfully I relaxed when the cow walked over me, so there are a few really sore spots, but no broken skin or bones or anything. Nevertheless, I am not repeating that little stunt, keeping my attention solidly focused on the cow I’m leading from then on. But other than that brush with disaster, all I have to do is just... bear down and pull. For all their size, cows aren’t nearly as strong as I thought they were, and all I have to do is dig my hooves into the packed soil in order to practically drag the big bovine around.

That’s all kind of mind blowing, but if it seems unlikely that my mind is on cows, rather than getting rutted, I would definitely have to agree. I try my best, but... Rachel, Rachel, Rachel.

“Oh my fucking god, Meadowsweet, your tongue is h-holy crap,” Rachel says, during mistake number 3, as I stroke his thick, throbbing member the safe way. I want it inside me so bad. I lip all along the side, dragging my tongue all around the musky, wonderful, male shaft. I’m dripping between my legs, squirming at the aching emptiness. I need his cum inside me. I take it into my mouth, he shoves it deeper,

I fall on my haunches as he rears over me, planting on the wall, shoving needily deep into my mouth. I bet my mouth feels amazing to him, and all I feel is this penis shoving into my throat, I need more! I-I can’t, I’m gonna get pregnant! I need to use only my mouth, as is safe, jamming my hoof between my legs. Oh god I could just stand up, and sit on this penis, and get pregnant.

My forehooves pull myself up his barrel chest, his dick that I need between my legs sliding out of my mouth. It’s gonna happen, I’m gonna do it. I can’t let him waste it by cumming outside me! I wanna feel good too! “Meadowsweet we shouldn’t,” he says, as I rub my tingling labia along his shaft, determined to get this stallion inside me.

“I’m gonna get pregnant,” I groan. He’s sliding into me, yessss! No! He rears up away from the wall, sliding out. I need him! I push his chest as he’s balanced on two legs, and he falls to his haunches, then continues to fall to thump onto his back away from the wall. I fall with him, climbing up on his beautiful, orange chest, sliding my stupid needy slimy vulva along his shaft again.

“Gonna just push it in,” I gush indulgently, standing up, using a yellow furred forehoof to tilt the fleshy shaft above his chest, aligning his semen hole with my foal cunt, then sinking down on it, filling my need, “Just... like... this.” And just like that, he’s balls deep in me, the urge to fuck him overwhelming.

I flex my legs to slide him gloriously out, then relax to push him into me. He can hardly thrust on his back like this, but I might as well have been born a man, for how eagerly I slide his pole in and out. “You’re gonna cum every drop’n me,” I tell him with a giddy grin like a kid in a candy shop, pushing him down, sliding up and down around his penis, enticing him to cum in me. “Gonna give birth to your foal.”

“I’m gonna empty my balls into you,” he growls in response, his forehooves clamped to my heaving hips.

With those fertile orbs ready to pump sperm into me, I cum like a lost puppy, trying in vain to keep humping him even as the orgasm takes me. “I have to keep... moving...” I whine, trembling as my clenching hips sink against his, “I have to nnnhhh!” a burst of cum floods into me. “Oh god,” I whisper in relief, hunched over him as his penis steadily pulses inside my orgasming cunt. “I love your cum...” I purr, filling up with his children.

We lay together, quiet and still. I’m straddled on top of him, his penis still there filling my vagina. I feel like his semen’s making me pregnant right now. With a tinge of regret in my voice, I murmur to Rachel, “I don’t think oral’s gonna work, either.”

In mock surprise, he replies, “You think?”

It’s fine. Everything’s fine. So I’m fucking him and Sue and everypony’s cumming inside me. Not their fault I’m so horny for it. It’s Twilight Sparkle’s fault. Life goes on, and I’m not sure if it’s Rachel, Nick, or... probably Sue. Either way, it kind of sort of happens. You know... it.

One morning I wake up feeling really nauseous. You’d think getting pregnant, you’d want to eat more, not less. But even beef it’s just... bleh. My stomach just feels weird, like there’s something... spreading out from somewhere deep in my abdomen. My womb’s taking me over I guess, activated by that particular little speck we like to call a zygote.

It’s... not as bad as it could be, I suppose. Of course I’m totally terrified and depressed and actually not wanting sex and all sorts of weird stuff like that. After a week though it sort of... eases off a little, and I’m feeling... normal, just my belly feels strangely special somehow. I know exactly how though, because of what I’ve been doing with stallions the past months. My appetite comes back with a vengeance, and I just can’t deny what’s happening to me. It might not be pregnancy, but it just... is. I just know it somehow.

Rachel and I kind of get in an argument then, because he thinks Sue’s gonna dump me once he finds out, that Sue’s just using me as a spare, and I know that’s not true! Is it? Plus (I tell Rachel) this foal could be his as much as Sue’s, so why’s he not dropping me like Vinyl and her bass? And then he says he feels like he’s the spare, and that I don’t even care if he gets offended, so that’s why I told him, not Sue. But it’s not! So he stomps off in a huff, and I stomp off in a huff, and then I feel... terrible that night.

“I’m pregnant, and Sue’s just using me, and Rachel’s an idiot,” I sob miserably to myself into the dog bed that I’ve scavenged for sleeping in. Because it’s all true, and I don’t care how insulted Twilight Sparkle was at sleeping in it: these things are f-ing comfortable. Especially when your belly’s sore, because you couldn’t stop being stupid, and you want to fuck your friend, but you don’t even know what you’re going to do about having three boyfriends.

Without any answers, I fall restlessly asleep. And the next day, I wake up with the charlie horse of the century, hardly even able to straighten out from my curled up position. Massaging my legs, and... then my abdomen, I moan, “Pregnancy suuuuuucks,” quietly to myself. The cramps ease off after a while, into some sort of undulating flutters that... feel weird, but don’t really hinder me much as I walk around for the day.

But I’m sure it’ll hinder me a lot, when I start showing. I don’t know what to do about it, and eleven months is a long time, but I’m on a countdown now! It’s just gonna keep growing in me! If I can’t figure out how to abort, I guess I’m just gonna give birth, and then everything I care about now won’t matter, because I’ll only live for my child. It feels like the last year of my life.

Not to say I spend that whole year moping about how my life’s basically over. It’s hard to be upset after a lunch of a carrot, steamed peas, a really salty beef strip, and the green grass that Mike and I are lying on, after we grazed to our heart’s content.

I know I’m supposed to be a predator and all, but I think this is the least amount of meat that’s ever been in my diet. It’s like I want a ham sandwich, but I want two thirds of it to be lettuce and cucumbers, with grass instead of bread. Why are ponies so vicious, if we’re eating even less meat than a human being? I’ve never heard of a vegan going nuts and hunting squirrels with their teeth. At least... not one who wasn’t a crazy psycho.

I actually don’t know what vegans do for protein. Tofu, or something like that? Would ponies stop hunting squirrels if we had tofu to eat? What the heck is tofu made out of, anyway? Whatever it is, it’s some seriously scientifically processed space food, so we’re not gonna be getting any growing in our gardens.

“Have you thought of any good names?” I ask Mike hopefully, as we lie there with full bellies in the sun, trying not to think about that compartment below our bellies that’s undoubtedly filling up too.

Snorting awake, the red haired bat pony says, “Oh! Uhm,” looking at me with warm, brown eyes, pupils tightly slit in the sunlight. “Names?”

“You know, instead of ‘Mike,’” I remind her.

“Ohh,” Mike says, looking down at the green furred forelegs folded beneath her. “I have thought of it, a little. How about Megan?”

Snorting, I say, “I think Megan’s taken.”

“Well yeah, lots of girls are named Megan,” she says insecurely, “But it just sounds kind of like Mike.”

“Have you thought of any pony names?” I ask hopefully.

“How about Rose?” Mike asks, batting a hoof at her mane. “I kinda look like a red rose.”

“How about combine them somehow?” I suggest, “Like oh, I dunno... Megarose?”

A laugh bursts out of her at that, as she says mirthfully, “That’s the silliest name I ever heard.”

“It is kinda silly,” I admit, rolling to my side to face her, “But um... I’m still gonna call you that, if you go with Megan I mean, or Rose.”

“Why?” she asks, giving me a look.

“Because I’m your friend, so I get to give you silly nicknames!” I tell her with a grin.

Mike laughs at that, rolling back to her back and saying, “Fair enough!”

“Thought of any others?” I wonder, peering at her from where I sit on my side.

“Um... Michelle?” she says, still staring pensively upward at the sky, “That’s kind of like Megan, though.”

“That’s... the female form of Micheal, right?” I ask.

“Yeah, pretty much,” she nods, glancing my way.

Thinking a moment, I reply at last. “All that comes to mind is that one joke about an egg and a telephone.”

“What’s that?” Mike asks curiously.

“Michelle Ma Bell.”

Mike just looks at me in confusion.

“A-anyway, Michelle is fine,” I say blushing briefly, “But as long as you’re changing your name, you don’t have to use the one your parents gave you. Which do you like best?”

“I haven’t decided,” she says pensively, switching her tail, “It’s okay if people give you names though. Just not Megarose.”

“Well, what should I call you, then?” I ask, shifting to lean on my wrist, which is my elbow, instead of my elbow, which is my shoulder. Because ponies.

“I dunno,” she replies, “What names do you think would be good for me?”

Looking at the red and green batpony thoughtfully, as much as I can manage thought at least, eventually I say, “All I can think of is Christmas.”

Blushing, Mike says, “I do look kind of... festive, huh. You don’t think it’d be too... silly?”

I roll back to curl my forearms before me, staring up at the fluffy clouds overhead. “I do think it’s silly, and that’s why I can’t think of anything,” I admit guiltily, “What kind of name is Christmas anyway?”

“I suppose for a girl would be... Christina?” she suggests.

Sitting up again to look at Mike, I say, “Wow, I think that actually is a name.”

Nodding, Mike looks back to me and says, “A lot of people like to name their kids after Jesus Christ.”

“Well... I mean...” I say looking at my friend’s sinewy, leathery bat wings, and brown, catlike, slit-pupiled eyes, “You don’t look like the religious type.”

She laughs sweetly at that, saying, “Signs point to no! But I don’t think God would care if I look rather... devilish. Satan used to be an angel, after all.”

“He did?” I ask in confusion.

“I take it you’re not the religious type?” she asks dryly.

“That’s an understatement,” I have to admit, “I thought Christmas was about the coming of Santa Claus until I was 12!”

“Maybe not Christina though,” she says, “Naming myself after God just doesn’t seem... right.”

“So maybe something less religious about the um... winter holidays?” I suggest.

“Well, this is ‘cause I’m red and green, right?” Mike grumbles self-consciously, “So what’s red and green? Mistletoe?”

Shaking my head, I say, “No, mistletoe is white and green.”

Mike gives me a disbelieving look.

“What’s that stuff that people kiss under, then?” she says, tilting her head in confusion.

“...mistletoe?” I try, tilting my head the other way.

“No, the red and green stuff,” she asserts, as we both right our heads, “With the red berries.”

“Holly?” I ask.

“Yes! That one!” Mike declares with a smile, “I thought that was mistletoe!”

“I don’t think people kiss under the holly,” I cautiously speculate, “I might be wrong though.”

“Well... how about Holly?” Mike asks. “Is that a good name?”

My ears slowly perk up.

“You know, I don’t think anyone’s come up with that one yet,” I declare, appraising the red and green batpony, “But it does sound like a really good pony name! I think it really fits you!”

“You think so?” she asks, tail swishing excitedly between her legs. “So you think I should go with Holly?”

“I sure don’t have any other ideas,” I say with a one-armed shrug, since my tail’s sideways at the moment, “Why not? We can both have plant names! I bet you could even eat holly berries, considering what else ponies have been able to eat!”

“And you could eat meadowsweet?” she asks with a wry grin.

“I... guess so?” I say, pausing to think. What is meadowsweet again?

...

Do I even know? How could I not know? I had to have looked it up at some point, didn’t I? It’s my own name!

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen meadowsweet before,” I say, staring forward in a puzzled manner, “I know it’s a plant, but...” I give her a helpless wince.

“It’s a... white flower,” Mike, or Holly, or “Megarose” tells me, “It looks all wispy though, like... clouds kind of. I guess it’s kind of yellowish white...” She trails off then, looking thoughtfully my way. “And you’re kind of yellowish white...”

“You think I’m... meadowsweet colored?” I ask her in surprise.

Shaking her head, Holly says, “No you’re much more yellow, just... I mean, it is a light yellow and green flower. So, if I’m gonna be red and green like holly, why not say you’re green and yellow, like meadowsweet?”

“I don’t see the harm in that,” I reply in wonder, “It’s just so weird. All my life I hadn’t had any real reason to be called Meadowsweet. It was just the name my parents gave me! But now that I’m a pony, there’s an actual reason to call me Meadowsweet?”

“I... don’t know what your name was as a human, actually,” Holly says with a red tint to her green furred cheeks.

“...you mean Meadowsweet?” I ask, skeptically.

“No, I mean before you picked a pony name,” she says.

“But I didn’t pick a pony name!” I tell her, “I just went with my old name.”

“...your parents named a male human Meadowsweet?” Holly says, very skeptically.

Oh. Ohh. Oh boy.

“Wow, I... totally forgot,” I say, sitting on my haunches on the bright green lawn, looking at my forehooves planted in front of me, shaking my head slowly. “I never told you?” I ask, looking up at Holly. “Twilight Sparkle named me Meadowsweet! She used some weird magic to change my memories, to make sure it stuck.”

“She did?” Holly asks, gaping at me.

“I-it’s not so bad,” I say, lifting a forehoof and blushing, “All my memories are exactly the same, just I remember everyone calling me Meadowsweet, because it was just my name. I–I know it doesn’t make sense that I’d have that name back then, but it didn’t seem odd at the time.”

“She changed your name?” Holly continues to stare, her pupils widening in worried sympathy, “You don’t even remember your old name anymore?”

“No, I...” holding my forehoof to my chest, I say, “I do remember! I mean, my friends told me my old name. I just don’t remember ever being called uh... ...Arnold?”

“...Arnold?” Holly asks with a surprised curl of her lip.

“Yeah, Arnold,” I say, losing her gaze, as my ears fold.

Holly looks at me for a while, before concluding, “...huh. Maybe Twilight Sparkle did you a favor.”

A quick laugh bursts out of me. “I know,” I groan, shaking my head abashedly, “It’s crazy! Who would name their foal Arnold?”

“I know I sure wouldn’t!” Holly laughs, and then... laughs nervously. “I mean... I sure won’t,” she quietly corrects herself.

Oh... right.

“I’m quite happy with Meadowsweet,” I say tensely, “Since I guess Twilight picked the name and my colors at the same time, I guess. Maybe she just likes meadowsweets.”

“Yeah...” Holly says scuffing at the grass distractedly.

...

“Have you thought of any good names?” I ask sympathetically, thinking about that stupidly female rump of mine, plopped down against the grass at the moment, the compressed blades pressing against the very place that I’m gonna have to push a baby pony out of.

“No hurry,” Holly says, glancing off to the side, “We’ve still got... like ten months left, depending on when Sue um...”

“...impregnated us,” I conclude for her cautiously. “Have you been... feeling anything?”

“Nothing yet,” she says, looking distantly forward. “Only a matter of time though. J-just gonna happen to me now, I guess.”

“Were you getting any cramping?” I ask tentatively, “You know... down there?”

“Y-yeah, sometimes,” Holly says, giving me a lost look, “My stupid... womb getting ready to have a baby, I guess.”

“I don’t know why it does that,” I say glumly. “I had a crazy womb um... cramp, and I could barely stand straight, until I rubbed it out.”

“Ugh, yeah,” she groans, “Like when you wake up and your calf is cramping up?”

Look back at my hind leg in confusion, I ask, “Do we even have calves anymore?”

“I think they’re called foals for ponies, not calves,” Holly postulates, drawing my attention to her again, “But yeah, I think some cramping is normal. Some of the other mares having... sex said they were getting those cramps too. Pony PMS perhaps?”

“PMS?” I ask vaguely, “That’s a girl... thing, right? I think I heard about it in a... movie,” I conclude, blushing in disgust. Just how much of my social interaction was stupid movies, before Twilight dragged me to this group?

“PMS is um... getting... upset because of cramping,” the red and green batpony mare suggests unsurely, “Because of y’know, menstruation?”

“Ponies don’t menstruate though,” I point out, “So it can’t be menstruation.”

“Well whatever it is, it’s not that bad,” Holly admits, “But still kind of a pain. I just have to rub it until it loosens up, but...”

“You... want me to give you a belly rub some time?” I suggest with a hopeful look, “Maybe I could help!”

Blushing, Holly says, “Sure. Just... tell me if you’re sore and I’ll give you a belly rub, too.”

“Or we could ask Sue to do it,” I suggest.

“I don’t think Sue’s interested in the outside of our bellies,” Holly groans with flat ears.

“Hey, I like the inside of your belly too,” I say with a smile her way. Holly looks at me skeptically, and I admit, “And I really like the inside of my belly, too. Putting stuff in it feels awesome, and I couldn’t feel that if I wasn’t a girl.”

“Yeah,” she replies, unconvinced, “If only we could do it without consequences.”

“Amen to that,” I say ardently, “Um, sister.”

Giving me an amused look, Holly asks, “I thought you said you weren’t religious?”

Snorting, I say, “I thought The Passion of the Christ was real as Blade Runner.”

Blinking, she asks, “Did you think Blade Runner was real?”

...

“N-no,” I reply nervously, “I did not.”

Sue doesn’t seem as enthusiastic about changing names, though I don’t really bring it up. Holly’s really shy about telling even him, but Sue certainly doesn’t mind her new name, once I assure her it’s okay to tell him. And once she tells him.

Holly turns from thanking Sue for being totally cool with her new name, and asks me then, “Hey Meadowsweet, could you...”

The pretty bat pony scrunches her face in confusion, hunting for the words. “Could you tell other people I want to be called Holly now?” she asks finally.

“But aren’t you supposed to tell people?” I say in surprise, “I don’t know if I should.”

“Why shouldn’t you?” she asks in a frustrated whine, “It’s so easy to talk about someone else, instead of yourself. I—I don’t know if I could do it. I’d just... fluttershy out.”

Tilting my head at her, I say, “Huh, you’re right! That’s weird! Why don’t we say stuff for people who’re too shy to say it themselves?”

“With permission of course,” Sue points out.

Me and Holly look his way.

He pauses, then says, “I—I mean you don’t need my permission. What do you think?”

“Oh!” I blink, “O-of course we don’t! I just thought you were... gonna say something?”

“Heck if I know,” he replies, looking as confused as I am, “So you’re gonna spread the word? I mean I could help too.”

“Sure, I’m totally for it,” I assure him, “It just surprised me, that’s all.”

“I think I could do it, if someone else called me Holly,” Holly says with a little smile. “It’s weird, b-but it’s weirder calling myself... Mike.”

The streets of Ainsworth are surprisingly lively, for a bedroom community. And learning of the townsfolk, I’m starting to see why. Everyone uh... transformed into a pony during the night, apparently. That’s how the spell worked, I guess. So in theory some people might’ve had some hours’ warning. But since the spell was cast at midnight, in the central midwest... the entire continental USA pretty much changed all at once.

And that means all the commuters, living in the thousands of houses around here, they were all at home when this happened! Now they’re pretty much stuck here! A thousand people is not a lot, as far as population goes. But it’s more people I’ve seen out and on the streets than ever before.

It might have something to do with the fact that this is not Minnesota. The weather is peaceful and brightly sunny. There’s nothing to do, so everyone’s either playing around outside, or working on something. Nobody’s bothered to get electricity back up for a dinky little out-of-the-way town like this, so there’s no T.V., no video games, only battery powered radios, and... books.

As I go trotting down the sidewalk, I see people all around town talking with each other. Everyone’s a colorful pony of course, walking around on all fours. Lots more mares than stallions. I take a running count actually, and just from the ones I see, it’s 120 mares for 41 stallions, if you count the gang of colts and fillies I attempted to count running around in the park. (22 fillies and 7 colts).

A lot of people turned their lawns into gardens when the outside world got so rt of cut off on a semi-permanent basis. I see many pony people tending their gardens, since there really isn’t all that much else to do around here. Water is the biggest issue. There’s a reservoir north of town, but it’s kind of... contaminated by the copious amounts of feces produced by the cows in the feedlot north of town. The creek upstream of the feedlot is pretty clean though, so that’s what they’d been drinking, until we got a good rainwater schedule set up.

I take a hike north of town, to take a look at that feedlot I heard about. Just a bunch of empty fences, and cow manure, pretty much. All the cows are gone of course. There was no way for any pony to feed them, and the lots themselves were nothing but dead, trampled grass, so given the choice between hundreds of dead cows the size of mountains to deal with, and living cows staring you in the face, some of the ponies managed to get a lot of the cows out of there, and into neighboring fields.

Then the rest of the cows just broke down the fence once they ran out of food.

So to be perfectly frank, there are cows everywhere now. They’re a real hazard actually, since nobody really knows how you would herd them as a pony, and cows are stupid enough to be unpredictable. Someone’s house fell down by the time we got there, just because a bunch of cows panicked next to it, and... kablam.

Still, people seem to be in high spirits. Matter of fact, with the cows radiating away from the feedlot, people in town say that the air’s never been fresher. Kind of scary, since the air still smells like cow poop.

Nevertheless I’m bopping around the edge of town with a smile on my face, and a song in my heart, watching the pon people talking and working with each other. It’s a beautiful day, with the sun peeking around puffy clouds that are uncharacteristic for the season, but not with pegasi around.

Then, I come upon a large building, in the southeast part of town. Looking up at it I pause, a little pony standing in the asphalt roundabout in front of it. My ears go down as it seems I’ve discovered the Brown County Hospital.

My extensive and lengthy guilty rumination about hospitals and the part I played in this global pony crisis is interrupted by a stallion, saying behind me,

“Ain’t that a sight?”

Turning, I see a large, green-furred stallion with a swash of purple for his mane, still looking up at the hospital from behind me.

“I been helping around town,” he says in a rich voice, “Going places, going outside, feeling like I have a second chance. Never thought I’d be seeing this place, and feelin like I’m not going back there anytime soon. You know what I’m saying, Doreen?”

“Doreen?” I ask, continuing to look at him in puzzlement.

“Oh! Oh I’m sorry, youn—um... miss,” the stallion says, a blush tinting his face as he lowers his gaze to meet mine. “Wow, this is... I’m sorry miss, I mistook you for someone else. Didn’t think I’d be seeing any other yella and green... ponies hanging around here.”

“It’s no problem, really!” I say, squatting back on my haunches and holding my hooves up um... not-harmingly. “Easy mistake to make. T-there’s only so many colors, after all.”

“Shoulda known though,” he says, tilting his nose in my direction, “Your hair’s all curlycue, while Doreen’s ended up more uh...” He squats back on his hooves and traces a sort of hourglass figure in front of him, “Wavey-like, on the edges.”

Looking at my uh... “less curly than my mane” tail, I say, “I haven’t really thought much of my hair honestly. Weird how hard it is to get it tangled, even though it...” I poke at a bouncy forelock hanging above my eyes, with a sheepish grin.

“Our hair works in mysterious ways,” the green and purple stallion replies, shaking his head bemusedly.

“It’s um...” I say, continuing to tug nervously on one of the bouncy curls, “It’s straighter sometimes, like right after I have uh...”

I really should think before opening my mouth.

“So Doreen has the same colors as me, huh?” I loudly diverge, “She uh... works at the hospital?”

“Works? No, she’s one of the regular patients. Met her in outpatient care now and again,” he replies.

“Oh, so...” wincing, I say, “So she’s... got an ailment, I guess?”

Instead of getting sad though, he laughs, heartily. “Maybe at one point in time!” he crows. “She and I walked out of that hospital together!”

“Oh, you were a patient?” I ask, looking at the rather strapping, strong looking male. Square jawed, straight-snouted, significantly larger than me. Yeah he’s... kind of hot. I would never have known he was sick!

“Yeah, I had a... condition,” he replies shyly, rubbing with a hoof the short, purple mane behind his head. “Wasn’t getting any better. Sent me out here to retire, I guess. It was cheap, hospital nearby. Had a few close calls... I wasn’t gonna last though, that was pretty clear.”

“S-should you be out and walking around then?” I ask worriedly, hoping he’s not just about to collapse on me or something, “How are you feeling?”

“Now?” he asks with a chuckle, “I feel great! Better than I’ve felt in a long time! It’s like I’m a new uh, well, man, I suppose. Being a horse is pretty grand!”

Mouth dropping open, I say, “You mean turning into a pony cured you?”

“Where’ve you been?” he asks, tilting his head at me in amazement, “Turning into a pony cured everybody!”

Best Laid Plans

To quickly recap, blinking, all I can think to say is, “What?”

“Hospital’s empty!” the stallion declares, as I plant my forehooves and just stare, trying to understand, I’m facing off against a strong looking earth pony stallion whose mane is a light purple, with dusty green fur. Both of us are standing in front of the hospital located in the town of Ainsworth. He claims he was a frequent visitor to this hospital because of some deteriorating condition, but now he looks healthy as a horse!

“Well not empty, persay,” he continues in a rich, deep voice, “There’s the people getting injured on account of being a pony and all. But you name it, osteoperosis, muscular dystrophy, one poor guy with the Parkinsons, it all just got wiped clean! It’s been hard for everyone, but for me this pony thing is a miracle!”

“But why?” I ask, ears flopped in total confusion, “Why would she do that?”

“Why would who do what?” he asks nonplussed, squinting at me.

“Why would...? Do you know Twilight Sparkle?” I ask, flipping my ears up and looking at him warily.

“Sounds familiar,” he says, looking worried at me, “She one of those people changing their names?”

“No, she was a pony originally,” I tell him, frowning, “She’s... the one who turned us all into ponies, and she’s evil!”

“Well, I sure wouldn’t begrudge anyone to be upset about that,” he says with a reserved expression, “Just ‘cause it worked out for me. But she seems okay in my books. What else’s she done that’s evil?”

“She... she hates us and... and I don’t know,” I say, shaking my head slightly, “I guess it was just... an accident that she saved you, I guess. Nobody really knows why she decided to turn the whole world into ponies. All I know are just... secrets and lies.”

“So, it’s true this pony thing went all over the world?” he replies soberly, head sinking in a sort of resigned surprise. “That’s a lot more serious than just this town. Some nasty folks out there might not take to well to people being turned into this.”

“You really hadn’t heard what happened?” I ask him, tilting my head in disbelief.

“It’s a small town,” he replies, effecting a sort of shrug, “Plus with the power out, we can’t exactly tune into the ten o’clock news. Anyway I never been concerned much about world affairs, but... it just doesn’t seem like good news.”

“Well it’s...” my tail switching back and forth behind me, I finally settle on, “It really isn’t important, I guess. It’s just I thought what happened to everyone was just... bad and evil, but it hasn’t been so bad for me, and... and then I hear about hospitals. Why didn’t she just leave you sick, if she hated us so much?”

My gaze yearns for some sort of closure that I have no way of knowing would ever come. He looks back sadly, saying, “I really don’t know. Sounds like she means a lot to you, though.”

“She...” ugh, why am I blushing? “I don’t know why she does anymore but,” I say shyly, shamefully, “She... really does.”

And it’s funny, but for all I learned his friend’s name was Doreen, I never did get that stallion’s name.

Well, Nick’s happy to get it through my thick skull at least.

“Why didn’t Twilight only change the people in the hospitals then?” he asks, when I mention the worries that mysterious stallion brought into my life.

“She could’ve done so much good, and instead she decided to just screw with us,” Nick groans, while I help him with the meal preparations we’ve been doing at one of the local churches, making a vegetable, potato and beef stew in a big cauldron sized pot they have in their soup kitchen. He levitates the vegetables over to me, and I chop them up with a knife sort of held by the handle in the crook of my hoof, just enough to lift it up to chop with.

“She changed the whole convention center,” he explains, passing me two beets and a squash, “She could have done that to a hospital, or even sold that as a service for the terminally ill. But she didn’t. She could’ve had oh I dunno... conversion centers, where people could go and find that sparkly dust of hers in a nice little sealed room, because they wanted to be ponies.

“I was there, Meadowsweet,” he tells me solemnly, “I heard what she said to us. Twilight just doesn’t care about us at all. Our whole world is just... collateral to her. And that’s why she’s evil, even if she accidentally helped a few hospital patients.”

“You don’t think it was intentional?” I ask unhappily, scraping the chopped beets and pepper into the pot.

“Something on that scale,” Nick says frankly, “She probably didn’t even think about the hospitals. That spell just... changed everyone into a pony, and to heck with the consequences.”

Speaking of to heck with the consequences, we both get a bowl of stew, and a lot of other ponies do as well, and I’m feeling kind of wiggly as Nick and I head out of the church, so “Say, Nick it’s been a while since we... you know. Are you um... busy?” I ask the purple haired unicorn hopefully.

He opens his mouth, then closes it again. Then he asks in a low voice, “You’re... pregnant, aren’t you? This time?”

“Y-yeah I’m pretty sure,” I reply glumly, “I wouldn’t be asking otherwise.”

“Aren’t you with Sue?” he persists. And I am, so this is a bad idea, but...

“Yes, but... I miss you,” I murmur with ears low, and I do, but... but...

“...lemme show you where I’ve been doing your sister,” Nick says, trotting a few steps ahead then looking back with a challenging grin, “It’s nice and private.”

“O-oh, I didn’t know she was with you,” I tell him in shock, trying not to think of him doing Mira, and trying not to want to see that. “Nice uh... catch?”

“You’re the one throwing yourself into my arms,” he replies in amusement, “You’re totally okay that I’m doing your sister?”

I also try not to scrunch, telling him, “So what if I’m okay with it? I-it’s good that you’re making her feel that way. I just... like... feeling that way too.”

I fail.

“Well, it’s not like you’re gonna give me an STD,” Nick says, rolling his eyes, then calls out, “C’mon,” and trots off.

With a relieved sigh, I run after him in eager pursuit.

I didn’t talk to Nick just to fuck him, of course. He helped me understand how what Twilight did is unforgiveable, so of course I’m gonna want to get him to fuck me. Or... something. It was just nice of him to talk with me, and I’m really horny, okay?

He had some important things to say about this stuff, and so does my sister, Mira, although we certainly don’t end our conversation in fucking. Come to think on it, after Mira, my next conversation with Nick doesn’t end in fucking either. Unless you count fucking Sue. I guess I’m not fucking Nick at every opportunity, since he has Mira, and Spearmint. Just... occasionally. And if Mira wasn’t my sister, I’d... totally tell her.

Mira has a different opinion on Twilight than Nick, though. I’m not sure if I agree with it. I hope I’m not just thinking with my ovaries. When Mira disagrees with Nick, do I take the stallion’s side just because he’s making love to me?

Nick’s just fun to be around, and really clever, and I think that every time we have sex, I feel that affection for him a little bit more. It’s bringing us closer together as friends, like a test of trust. I raise my tail, he cums inside, and neither of us hurt each other over it. I can’t do that with Mira, so I can’t feel... quite as close to her. I never needed her as much as I needed a horny stallion, and that’s perfectly fine, just... I hope I’m trusting the right people, for the right reasons.

“Wouldn’t you be tempted?” Mira asks while we lay there out on the lawn just looking up at the stars. Mira’s on her side looking at me, but I just kind of... paused mid-roll on my back. “If you had the power to turn every human being into a pony, wouldn’t you be tempted to just... see if you can do it? Twilight did something none of us could ever do in a million years, and I don’t even know if even she could do it again. I mean, there’s no more humans... practically no more humans. What’s she gonna do, turn us into Care Bears next?”

“At least we’d have hands then,” I grumble, looking at the faint outline of my hooves curled above me.

“Heh heh, speak for yourself!” Mira says cheerfully, spreading one of her leathery wings above us.

“Walked into that one,” I say, rolling my eyes.

Mira just smiles and folds her wing back to her side.

“I don’t know if I’m just... being a stupid girl,” I tell her with a sigh, “But in the end I have to admit that Nick’s right. Even if I was given the power to do this, I’d never turn everyone into a pony. I’d transform people who wanted to, or needed to, but not everyone all at once.”

“Sounds kinda boring,” Mira replies indifferently, looking up at the stars again, “And everyone’d be forced to stay human anyway, by other humans.”

“I guess you do have a point...” I reluctantly admit.

I don’t... hate Twilight as much, or feel quite as guilty, knowing that the people on life support didn’t just die in their beds, thanks to her. If her transformation did actual good, then it’s not as evil as I thought it was. And I understand how tempting it might be to do something like what she did.

But it’s just not right for her to turn everyone in the world into a pony, even if it does help some of us. Even if there were diseases and injuries that turning into a pony couldn’t fix, the fact that she fixed some of them is something I can admire. But that’s still no reason to do it to the entire world.

No matter who you’re looking for.

“Oh, hey, Meadowsweet.”

Looking up from my book, I gush excitedly, “Oh thank god you’re here,” with a huge sigh of relief, sitting there on my haunches with a big book spread out before me on the carpeted floor of the Ainsworth public library.

The mare who walked up to me continues to go by the name Brian as far as I know. She’s a green pegasus with blue hair and lavender eyes, and ostensibly a grad student in biology or something the like. More importantly, I know her better than the doctors in town, who... see patients, and that’s all I know about them. I like to think of her as a friend, and I really could use her help.

“I could really use your help,” I tell her as she hurries over to my side, “I just don’t get how the mRNA could possibly link up each amino acid. There’s no mechanism I can figure out that binds the amino acids to each other. All RNA does is attach to amino acids!”

Brian looks down at the biology textbook on the floor, then up to me, saying, “Well, that’s what ribosomes are for, I thought?”

Blushing, I faceplant in the textbook, turning pages rapidly as I blurt out, “Oh jeez, I... I forget where it talked about ribosomes, hold on...”

Well according to this biology textbook a ribosome is a “magic protein make more protein by magic,” but I guess I can’t expect anything specific in an introductory textbook. Cellular machinery is a lot more complicated than stuff like levers and pullies, and what amounts to a tiny mRNA scanner and protein zipper might be hard to explain the specifics of. Brian gives it a shot, but I’m still not clear on how electron orbitals could combine in a molecule. Still it seems like you just have to... do the thing, to get the thing... and if I can’t even put it to words, then clearly I have no idea what I’m talking about.

There’s a reason for my sudden interest in genetics of course. And it’s not whether my offspring will have horns or wings. Brian’s been helping me the most with it since I started spending my ridiculous amounts of free time studying this stuff, and she’s just really good at getting me thinking about... biological things.

One day, some days in the past, I’m not in the library yet, but outside helping someone with their garden. Well, to be specific resting in the shade after the town pony’s garden was fertilized and weed free.

No I didn’t fertilize it like that.

“Wow, Meadowsweet,” Brian says in amusement as I lay there, after the pegasus flutters up to stand before me again. Folding her wings, she quips, “Smells like you’ve been busy today.”

“Yeah, who knew shit smelled?” I say, ears flat as I look at my own gleaming yellow coat, which could probably soak a towel if I rolled on one.

“Oh uh... heh,” she says a little more hesitantly than I’d expect. I look at her curiously as Brian says, “I more meant that you kind of smell like... stallion a little.”

Oh... foo. Blushing, I lie, “Yeah it was... I was just with... someone,” since Rachel’s cum has been oozing out of my vagina off and on for the last hour, but I’m really not supposed to be fucking Rachel.

Still blushing, Brian admits, “Sorry, I guess... yeah I guess that was in really poor taste. But it really is easy to smell... that.”

“Hey, it’s not like it’s a big secret or anything,” I say in a nervous warble, “I mean you smell like that t-too.”

“Yeah, like a guy, and... detergent,” she remarks mutedly.

“Detergent?” I ask curiously.

“Yeah the sort of bitter uh ne–never mind,” Brian says nervously, “It’s just amazing how our whole genetics changed.”

“Well, we are ponies,” I say skeptically, “How could they not?”

“No, we have a copy of our genes in every single cell,” Brian says, staring off away from the shade of the tree I refuge under, “All those billions of cells, every gene had to change. It’s not like we just got warped into a pony shape. Our genes changed! We’re sexually viable!”

“That does sound pretty difficult,” I admit, “How do you know, that we’re not just... morphed into ponies?”

“The smells,” Brian declares with confidence, “Molecules like scents are something that only your genes can produce. If we didn’t have female genetics, we couldn’t smell like females. Not just in our... female parts, but in our hair, in our fur, in our... everything.”

“Oh, really?” I ask in anxious curiosity, “I don’t know much about genetics. I majored in Mechanical Engineering, unfortunately.”

“Well, proteins are kind of like little machines,” Brian says with a reassuring enthusiasm, “They’re the workhorses of your genes, that... build volatile oils, and stuff.”

“The genes aren’t little machines?” I ask in confusion, because I thought they were!

“It’s a quirk of evolution,” Brian replies shaking her head bemusedly, “When life started out, genes did all the work directly. But the genes would get broken doing so, and then what do you do? So creatures that used proteins instead survived better, since a protein could get broken without messing up the gene that created it.”

“Oh that makes sense,” I say, looking over my own body, to the bright green tail dodging out over my nondescript yellow rear end, “So my... proteins are girl proteins, too?”

“Yeah, hormones and all,” says the blue haired, green pegasus with a sigh, “If we had a Y chromosome, instead of that extra X chromosome, we’d smell male, and that’s true of every single cell in our bodies.”

“Huh,” I say, glancing at her as an odd thought occurs to me, “Where did Twilight get all those extra X chromosomes, then?”

“Same place she got pony chromosomes,” Brian replies easily, “Magic. What I wanna know is why did she make so many of us female?”

“Probably just to fuck with us,” I grumble, sinking my head in disgust.

“Y’know if you’re interested, the library probably has some information...” Brian suggests, rocking on her hooves.

So I’m partaking in some reading now, with occasional help from my biology educated friend, and I think these books help me get the gist of it. Ainsworth is a dinky little town, but their public library has got some old biology textbooks that really make for some fascinating reading material. They’re just introductory textbooks that don’t say much about it, but I didn’t know that proteins could do so much!

I thought they were just... goop. But no, there are proteins that can break up molecules and stitch them together, like some sort of magnetic tinker toys. They’re veritable nanomachines! They even convey stuff around the cell, so a protein’s gonna make my volatile oils, and another’s gonna transport them out through my skin. And both proteins have to be made by my genes.

I mean, you wouldn’t think of testosterone as anything other than a bad attitude, but it’s more like the key to a masculinization machine, giving you that male scent, growing hair, and height and... penises. And estrogen activates the stuff that makes the skin soft, grows breasts, and smells female. As in... my fur is silky smooth, my teats are a thing that exist, and I smell female.

I wish estrogen would explain why I keep getting horny. My first pregnancy lasted like a month before I lost the foal, but without it I’ve been with both Rachel and Sue, as eagerly as... something that’s really fucking horny, because I keep getting really fucking horny. Does that mean I’m not pregnant again yet, or is there a delayed effect? At least between the both of them, I’ve managed to resist following Nick around like a lost puppy.

Nevertheless, Brian’s right. If I smell like pony estrogen... that means every cell in my body has to be female and pony. I don’t know whether to be relieved or not, that it’s not just a fake pony suit, but more like a total transformation of everything that I am. I think I understand why she might not think we’re ever gonna get changed back... anyone who knows about this stuff could see that there’s nothing left about us that’s human.

It’s not totally bad though, because I’m still me! Everyone’s still everyone! It’s scary looking in the mirror and seeing this adorable pony... animal, with soft, red eyes that I always forget have that color. But it happened to me, I got through it, and now I get to be this strange, yellow, grey and green... thing. She’s not someone else. She’s just... me. Knowing my genetics changed makes it feel less like I’m pretending to be a pony, and more like I’m just being what I am.

Though I probably won’t appreciate being what I am in 11 months or so, when I have to give birth to Sue’s foal. Or Rachel’s. Or Nick’s. What the hell is wrong with me.

As we engage with the town of Ainsworth, and all these new ponies, strange new abilities and creative applications of technology are springing up everywhere around here. On a more important note, the time comes that I need to talk with Holly, just to see if she’s open to being with Lucy. But it won’t be a chance meeting between Holly and Lucy, if Holly knows about it, so I have to be careful how I approach this. Heading up to the petite red and green batpony, I ask, “Holly? Can we talk?”

Like me, she’s returned from helping around town to our sort of communal barn, and is currently working on making her way through a small bunch of grapes. Looking up at me, she sucks the grape into her mouth and chomps down on it, saying relatively legibly as she chews, “Sure Meadows, what’s up?”

“Holly...” I trail off, trying to figure out how to put this, “How... do you feel about other mares?”

She blinks at me, then replies uncertainly, “You mean like, since I used to be a guy? Or is this some sort of... lesbian thing?”

Swishing my tail uncertainly, I say, “Yeah just... I mean... could you ever have romantic feelings for them?”

“Meadowsweet...” the bat pony groans disapprovingly, giving me a testy look, “You think I’m faking it? I don’t care if you’re a girl. You’re wonderful! I can’t believe you and Sue both like me so much. It’s...” she blushes, mumbling, “You don’t need a penis... t-to make me feel... wonderful.”

I only stare blankly for a moment, before my eyes widen, and I squeak, “Wait, no. Not me! I already know you really like me, I mean, I–I think you do, a-and we’ve done stuff without... without Sue even being there!”

“So... you want to, right now?” Holly says, glancing down at her grapes, “I mean... if you need... some help, I’d love to um... experiment more. Maybe um...”

Before she can blush herself into silence, I whisper to the bat pony, “No, I mean other girls.” She looks at me with dawning realization as I stammer out, “I mean, uh, j-just like... I guess I mean if you think that I’m a-attractive, I guess you could theoretically find another girl um... attractive. I just... wanted to know how you felt about it.”

“I—um—f-fine, I guess?” she replies, staring at me like a bat in headlights, “Did you have some...one in mind?”

“Me, oh no,” I lie, looking away, “No I was just talking about in theory you know, if I ever f–found someone.”

“It might be confusing,” she says evenly, “How would you have time for three people?”

“Well, if we all do stuff together, then...” now I’m blushing to silence. This is stupid. “I just think,” I force out, scrunching my eyes shut, “That way Sue wouldn’t be as—”

I didn’t mean to bring that up, but it’s not like I should be hiding this stuff from my... second partner. “I just find Sue kind of... much, sometimes,” I tell her, my ears wilting, “I–I know it’s stupid and my fault for letting him, but I just... don’t wanna get... pregnant. So much.”

Before she can chide me for something I already know, I state hastily, “I know it doesn’t matter and I’m probably already pregnant again. But I just think it’d be n-nice if we could have someone for... when only some of us are in the mood.”

“You’re ‘in the mood’ an awful lot, Meadows,” Holly cautions me solemnly.

Slumping my head down to my forehooves, I reply, “I know I know, I just... don’t know how this whole... girl thing works,” feeling like I should be the last one talking about this, “I don’t know how the girl pony thing works. Even Sue only was a human female, so she doesn’t know how to be a mare any more than I do. So I just feel like maybe if someone else was w-with us, then I might not feel in the ...mood as often.”

“I’m in the same bag as you,” Holly says, looking away, “I don’t know if it’d be bad per se, I just... don’t want to ruin anything. We’ve got a good thing here... with Sue.”

“It’s okay, I’m just y’know... speculating,” I assure her, “I mean if it was a unicorn, then she could...”

Holly meets my gaze again with her eyes the color of redwoods that look at me with sympathy, as blushing, I say, “She could... do... unicorn stuff that we can’t do.”

Holly raises an eyebrow and holy crap that sounded wrong. “I mean I... um...” I say, burying my head in my arms and promptly expiring of too much blood to the cheeks.

Walking up to me, Holly lays a hoof on my back and says, “It’s really sweet of you to be thinking of... others like that. I can’t say if I could feel the same way you do about someone, but it’s just nice that you’re really putting a lot of... effort into this. I kind of feel like...”

Pulling away her hoof and looking away, Holly murmurs uneasily, “Sue and I never really... thought about it much. She was just someone at... at work who liked ponies. And when she turned into a guy, all I thought about was... it was just sort of... having sex by default.”

I look up at her, and Holly smiles back. With more confidence, relaxing, she says, “I dunno what it is, but I feel like Sue and I care about each other more, ever since you kind of... dropped in on us. I guess I’m saying I really appreciate how you’re willing to... think about this relationship stuff, when I’d just sort of... do it.”

With a longing uncertainty as I return her gaze, I say, “Thanks. that really means a lot to me.” Frowning, I add, “Which I guess is more of that thinking about relationship stuff you’re talking about.”

She hoofs me lightly in the shoulder, saying, “C’mon, Meadowsweet. It’s no big deal. I just appreciate it, so... keep up the good work, okay?”

I think a little smile sneaks on my face when I tell her gratefully, “Yeah, okay.”

Climbing to my hooves, and crouching before her a little playfully, I add, “So what’s the most awesome thing about being a bat pony?”

“Flying at night,” she says without hesitation. Then with a smile herself, she uses a wing to toss the last of the grapes in her mouth, and trots alongside me, heading giggling out of the barn, just happy to be there for each other.

Aaand then we go around behind the fence and dive into each other’s muffs.

What? I swear she tastes like candy!

Okay, so maybe creative applications of technology are a little important, relationship status nonwithstanding. We manage to get a sort of grinding mill going, for what it’s worth. It’s pretty simple in theory: just put a stone against another stone and turn it, but getting the stones perfectly smoothly conforming to each other is difficult, to say the least. Nevertheless, what comes out of the cement molds has the right angles for my calculations, and the hardest part is mounting the two things together.

I went with a sort of tapering cylinder shape, with a conical indention in its matching pair. Thankfully the stones aren’t very heavy, but it is awkward trying to move them around with hooves. But once we set the one inside the other, then I engage a little winch I put together (mostly with my mouth) levering the one stone suspended above the other, with just enough of a gap to drop stuff in there. The angles are slightly off so that the gap narrows to almost nothing at the bottom, which hopefully will result in flour falling through.

See, trouble is we’re kind of running out of flour, and I don’t suspect a podunk town like this is a high priority for restoring supply lines. So we’re on our own for now, and as barely adequate as grass is, there are certain things not even ponies can chew.

My impromptu mill isn’t very big, but taking apart an old bicycle (with a wrench in my mouth) yields a chain and two gears. That’s gonna let me use the work-energy principle that means a few turns of a large one with more force can yield many turns of the smaller one, with less force. So with those gears crudely welded into place, (No really, I had to balance the welding torch in the crook of my hoof, since I needed to hide my face behind the blast shield) with one big long wooden pole tied into the gear on our second rotating axle, and with a leather loop, we’re good to go.

Rachel’s actually the one who tries it out first. He insists on account of how delicate and dainty I am. Considering the scorch marks on my forelegs from trying to use a blow torch as a pony, not to mention all the grease staining my fur from where I tried to make sure this chain assembly was properly lubricated, I can’t really understand where he got that idea. I think he may be rusing me. But he ducks his head under the harness, and starts walking forward, making the pony sized stone in front of me start turning rather quickly. I use my forelegs to forklift a woven basket full of dry corn kernels into the hopper, letting them slowly, then quickly spill into the crevass between the stones.

“You okay, Rachel?” I call out to the pony marching around me.

“You started putting them in?” he calls back, still plodding around in a steady circle, like a miniature uh... workhorse.

“They’re almost all in!” I shout.

“Then yeah, I hardly even noticed them!” he shouts back.

“Woah, that’s grinding them up like nothing!” one of the townsponies exclaims, from underneath the second stone’s wooden mount. I’m out of corn up top, so I join her down there. She’s a cute little purple filly I might add! She and I watch the corn flour pouring into the bucket below, smaller grains trickling through the imperfections in the grinding stones where the larger ones stay wedged up higher, getting ground away.

“And now we can have corn bread,” I tell her smugly, “I knew we could make use of that awful corn in the fields out there!”

“I just hope it tastes good,” the filly says grumpily,

“Heh, yeah,” Rachel says, looking down to me with a smile.

...

“So, wanna go get some more corn?” I ask.

We hurry to the corn fields, sneaking glances at each other and laughing together. We toss our empty baskets aside, and he hops the fence with me, trotting into the wavy, dry stalks. I turn aside my tail and he just mounts on top of me, and we fuck like rabbits. It’s so intense I just lose myself with that penis sliding in and out of my vagina, grunting and fucking and trying to get him to cum inside right away. An actual whinny escapes me, when his penis starts pumping out semen deep within me. He holds me, and impregnates me, and I... change, and everything is wonderful.

We don’t even talk after that. I just sidle up against him while we’re picking corn with our mouths, and his seed is just in my hips, and that’s all the communication we need. He looks so good, everything looks so good I could swear it was glowing. We pick stuff slow as we can, just so we can be with each other, standing together, while his softening dick slides up into his pelvis, and I let his seed just dribble from my slit over time onto the dirt behind me. By the time we’re walking back to town, baskets in-mouth, it’s impossible to tell that my pussy was impregnated at all.

Corn bread actually isn’t very... good. But it’s better than what we’ve been eating. Plus it’s a chance for us to get together, and set up a little assembly line, mixing flour, baking soda, sugar, water, salt, eggs and milk. Don’t ask how ponies have been milking cows. Someone knows something about “dutch oven cooking” which apparently involves putting a cast iron pot into a campfire, and... not burning everything inside.

We do have to kind of... scoop out the bread with a spatula, but everyone agrees it’s the best thing they’ve tasted since squash stew. I’m certainly happy for the dry, gritty stuff, if only because it means with all the corn growing around, we’re not gonna run out of food any time soon.

But I’m still fucking Rachel in that corn field every chance I get, and something must be done.

“Sue, how... do you feel about other stallions?” I ask. I’m sitting here out on the park lawn, with my boyfriend and friend, a brown furred, red haired earth pony stallion named Sue. I ask Sue that question with trepidation, hoping that he’ll be less angry, since he’s currently relaxed from a really nice climax, that’s um... oozing out my vagina at the moment, as we sit on our sides together.

It’s not just Sue I’m worried about. Rachel’s getting upset too, and he’s right, we both agree this is wrong, and that I can’t sneak around Sue like this. Even as I’m talking to Sue, I know I’m gonna lift my tail and fuck other stallions again. It’s wonderful, and it’s wrong, and we keep doing it anyway. Rachel feels amazing, but Sue also feels amazing, and I hunger for both of them in their own ways, but it’s just not to be. I’m gonna have to let Sue dump me. He’s gonna hate me, and Holly’s gonna be devastated, but at least I won’t be... being unfaithful anymore.

“What do you mean how do I feel about other stallions?” Sue asks, tilting his head at me.

“I mean, sexually,” I tell him, “Does it make you... u-upset to think about other stallions having sex with... people?”

“Uhm...” he says, frowning as much as his square pony snout can, “I haven’t had a... chance, since they’re always with other people, like mares. I don’t really feel like stallions are all that hot though. You females got the magic there. When it comes to sex I’ve always just... well not literally followed my nose, but now I literally follow my nose, and now it leads me to... ponies who smell good.” Necking over and nuzzling at my ears, he says, “Cute little mares like you.”

Blushing, my heart’s torn between soaring and falling, but I’ve been putting this off for way too long. “I didn’t mean you having sex with stallions,” I tell him, “I mean what do you think about mares having sex with... other stallions? It doesn’t make you angry does it, just to think about?”

“I don’t see why it would,” he says gruffly, “It’s their business what they want to do together.”

“Y-yeah, plus you and... Lucy, you told me about her,” I say shyly, “How you still... want her, and also want me, and I’m okay with that. Are you okay with... I mean, if I...”

“You wanna fuck another stallion?” he asks, raising an eyebrow at me.

“No!” I protest, backing up, “I mean, yes! I mean... yes I... may be attracted to other s-stallions. It’s just biological. It’s like you said, females have the magic for you, and it also... applies for me, and... males.”

“Well, yeah, it’s just biological,” he blushes, “You uh... want to tell me about some stallion you thought was hot?”

“It’s more about what he can... do with me, that I’m thinking about,” I admit, “Stallions are just pretty hot in general. I think we’re all really good looking, for ponies I guess. I haven’t seen a stallion who’s ugly or mutated or something.”

Sue shudders. “Yeah that’d be something else.”

“So, I like... stallions,” I tell him, toeing at the earth, “And I like... doing things with stallions. Like... yesterday.”

Sue doesn’t say anything.

“Like I was doing things,” I blush, “Yesterday. With a stallion.”

At Sue’s wide-eyed stare, I stammer desperately, “I made him do it. It wasn’t his choice, I just told him it was still sort of okay and it’s all my fault, I swear. So all you have to do is dump me and leave him alone and—”

“You can’t dump me!” Sue says in a panicked tone, struggling to his hooves, “Holly would be devastated! She loves you, Meadowsweet!”

“I love both of you, but it’s wrong for me to keep doing this,” I reply angrily, “Since I can’t stop fucking this guy at every opportunity, I don’t deserve to be with you!”

“I guess you don’t deserve it!” he says, stomping, “If you’re just gonna dump me and Holly, to fuck some other guy.”

Blinking, I correct him, “No, you’re the one who’s gonna dump me.”

“Why the hell would I do that?” Sue demands.

“...because I’m having sex with another man?” I squeak.

“Meadowsweet...” Sue sighs tiredly, giving me a look, “I’m not gonna break up with you.”

Looking frightened at Sue, I whimper, “I just don’t want you to hurt any stallions, because I can’t keep it in my pants. It’s just so easy to do it for mares, I swear he’s not making me I just get all girly and make him do it, so it’s my fault. So please break up with me. It’s not gonna solve anything if you go and attack him!”

“You’re acting like I’m gonna go beat him up, just because I’m a guy,” Sue whines, looking at me accusingly.

“A stallion,” I specify, worriedly, “Brian was saying—”

“That we’re ordinary horses?” Sue interrupts, with a scowl, “Who can’t talk or do magic, and shit where we’re walking? Or maybe she was saying she doesn’t know, because nobody knows what we really are?”

“Yeah, but... there are similarities!” I protest, “And I heard about jealous... human boyfriends doing horrible, horrible things to other guys.”

“In a movie?” Sue asks dryly.

Shaking my head, I say, “No, it was on the... news I think. Some story about a jealous murderer, who trapped the guy in a—”

“Okay, no the news is even worse than movies,” Sue groans, sinking his head, “At least movies don’t pretend like it’s true.”

I honestly don’t know what to say to that.

“If I ask my... stallion gut instincts,” Sue tells me frankly, “I feel like... well, I just came in you, and it was awesome. I know I shouldn’t feel good about you having my kid in you. But it feels... weirdly good that you do, and so what if other guys are still... doing things with you? Feels like I’m hot stuff because they can’t stop my genes, I guess, but I also feel like dirt for making you get pregnant. Hot dirt?”

“So you aren’t gonna go attack them, or... defend your mares from other stallions?” I ask worriedly, afraid to even suggest to Sue that I may have started fucking Rachel early enough that either one of them could be the father.

Sue busts out laughing at that. Like seriously, a deep belly laugh. “What?” I whine, blushing self-consciously despite not knowing why.

“Seriously, Meadowsweet?” he laughs, wiping at tears with a forelock, “Defending my mares from other stallions?”

“...yeah?” I say, still not getting the joke.

“It’s just the stupidest...” he says unsurely, “You and Holly aren’t my slaves. I’m not some kind of... stupid animal, and neither are you. I’d have to be the worst boyfriend ever, if I’d go beat up anyone you like, just so you can’t leave me. You really think I’d do that?”

Shuddering, I say, “No, no I know you wouldn’t, it’s just so scary sometimes. All those awful stories, a-and there are statistics, I think.”

“Well I’m not a statistic,” he says, “I know you wouldn’t wanna be with another guy, unless it was worth it, Meadowsweet. It’s not like you’re gonna give me a STD or anything, so it’s none of my business, far as I’m concerned.”

Sue walks around me as I reply uncertainly, “I’m not, I mean i-it’s just kind of weird and I don’t—” and then he noses under my tail.

“So this’s what he saw, huh,” Sue says quietly, “Just lifted your tail for some dude and he did this.”

I can’t answer because Sue’s tongue slides up along my slot back there then, and soon I’m just flushed and panting, tail stiffly jerked aside, rocking in place waiting for him to mount me. He’s very patient. I feel the tingle rising higher and higher, as that powerful potential builds in my pelvis, Sue taking care of me until the very moment I feel myself teetering on the edge of husky orgasm.

“N-now, Sue!” I tell him urgently, my hips preparing to erupt into bursts of beautiful pleasure, “I can’t hold it—!”

He leaves from licking me, and climbs up on my rump, as I whimper, “Hurry, hurry get it in, I wanna cum so bad. Put your cum in... yes, yes, unngh push it iiin.”

Sue slides deep into my tingling vagina, as I stretch around him—I wink around him, panting heavily. He slides out, and slides in, as the surging tingle just fills me up and I tell him, “Sue, I’m... gonna orgasm.”

“I know,” he says, to my ear, humping, penetrating, “Just let it happen.”

In out, in out, “Unnh... I wanna...” I growl as my passage fills with electric pleasure. In out in out, then with a clenchclenchclench and a jerking gasp, I cum as hard as I can. Sue forces himself deep then, and I just stand there gasping, my vagina going nuts around his phallus, as he murmurs to me,

“I’m gonna cum in there, Meadowsweet. Put a foal in you, make you give birth. That’s it, just do what you need to do.”

I need his foal, as I just stand there grunting urgently and pulsing around his stiff, thick phallus. Right in there. My clenches barely slow before he’s fucking me, and Sue doesn’t even slow down until he flares. I thank all that is good and holy when he does, because I don’t have a penis. I just have a blank, smooth, round, needy ass that needs his penis. Nothing to impregnate anyone with, only the hunger for that penis to impregnate me.

“Yess...” I moan as cum starts erupting into me from his jerking penis. I firmly shove back against him, standing there braced against him, loving the rush after rush of hot, impregnating semen spurting up into me.

And in the pleasant afterglow as we tell each other silly, affectionate things, I’ve completely forgotten what we came here to talk about. At least Sue’s not breaking up with me,

As the weeks go by, I kind of arrange to volunteer, so that I can join Lucy in her chore of washing the dishes. She’s the one rinsing them off, and I can slip this scrub brush on my hoof and get them really soapy in the warm water. Warm because we boil it, but otherwise just water from the creek. In our twin tubs go pots and bowls and dog dishes and... all the stuff that aid ponies in eating with their faces. Nary a fork to be seen.

It’s with a casual grin that I ask Lucy hopefully, “Do you know many bat ponies?” though probably not in the way she thinks I hope.

“Well, I mean, two of the staffers went batty,” the peachy colored unicorn says, most of the soap skimming off in her bluish magical aura, before she dips each hovering plate into the um... less soapy water. “But we haven’t really... I mean we’re not close.”

She huffs, frustrated at that, adding, “I suppose mostly I’ve just been hanging out with other unicorns... to teach the town ones how to use magic and stuff. It’s weird and exhausting, and...” shaking her head, Lucy concludes definitively, “No I’m not friends with any bat ponies. You are though, aren’t you?”

Oh, she knows? “Me?” I ask nervously, “Well I don’t know maybe? Guess it depends what you mean by... friends.”

“Like that bat pony colored like Bon Bon except oranger,” Lucy clarifies, waving around a dog bowl vaguely, “I think you two are related or something?”

“Ohh, yeah that’s Mira,” I say with a relieved smile, passing her another clean pot, which she catches in the air with hardly a thought, “She’s my sister. Or was.”

“Was?” Lucy queries, giving me a curious look.

“I was reading about how genetics show who we’re related to, and we pretty much have different genetics now,” I say frankly, “There’s no reason to assume she and I have the same genes anymore.”

“Huh, I wonder if any of us became related then,” Lucy says thoughtfully, rubbing her chin with an enviably dry foreleg.

“Well regardless, I do know bat ponies,” I say, plunging a metal bowl into the soapy water. Scrubbing out the grass stains, I report distractedly, “A-and did you know they grab things with their little wing claws, but usually not with their whole wing?”

“Why would they grab stuff with their whole wing?” Lucy asks skeptically.

“Because it’s like a hand?” I return, trying to imagine what it must be like to have hands. It’s surprisingly difficult.

“Oh,” Lucy says, going back to rinsing and drying, “Huh...”

“Yeah, I dunno why they don’t. Must be something about their wings,” I tell her chattily, “I just think it’s kind of cool.”

“Not nearly as cool as the fire spitting!” she retorts with a smile my way.

“Oh yeah!” I perk up brightly, adding slyly, “I wonder if it ever burns them.”

“Doesn’t seem to,” she shrugs, dipping the plates I tossed her into the water in short order, without even looking at them.

“I think only they could say for sure,” I emphasize, hopefully mysteriously.

“So you just... ask them about that stuff?” Lucy prompts cautiously, “I mean, aren’t they embarassed about that fire stuff?”

“Yeah, but I dunno...” I shake my head, “You know how a lot of them are sort of sensitive about their eyes?”

“Well... yeah,” she admits, glancing at me in concern and... oh, I forgot to keep scrubbing! Jeez, 37 people sure make a mountain of dishes to clean up.

“It’s weird though,” I tell her, resuming my efforts on the dirty dishes, “Because all our eyes changed. Mine are bright red! But I don’t feel... sensitive about it.”

“Bat ponies have like... predatory eyes,” Lucy offers, “Like the eyes of a bat.”

“Aren’t we all predators though?” I return, and as a unicorn she should be the last one to not think of that! “We have fangs!” I protest, “...little ones.”

Lucy rinses silently for a while, before saying glumly, “I don’t get it either.”

“Well,” I tell her confidently, “If I ever saw a bat pony, I’d tell them how all our eyes changed, and theirs aren’t any weirder than mine.”

She glances at me again, asking, “Aren’t you friends with a bat pony?”

“Oh... yeah,” I blush, “Guess I’ll tell her, next time I see her.”

I don’t go into very much more about bat ponies or the mythology behind Metal Gear, but that’s the sort of thing I bring up with Lucy. Not all at once, just here and there. And Holly, I tell her lots of things about unicorns that would be fun to ask, as well as a few of the particulars around how fly fishing works. Not telling her I heard about it from Lucy, of course. Just dropping hints, and all.

So Holly’s okay, Lucy’s okay, Sue’s amazing, everything seems just about perfect. I think it’s time to execute my coup de grace.

Hurriedly, one fateful day, I canter up to my bat pony friend and lover, saying, “Oh gosh Holly, I don’t suppose you could help. I made a huge scheduling mistake!”

“What’s wrong?” Holly asks, looking at me with worry, and I’m pretty sure she isn’t busy at the moment, but not 100% sure, but I can’t just go back on this now. Lucy’s counting on me!

“I said I’d help some people in town with their um earth pony stuff,” I tell her, “But I forgot today’s the day that I’m supposed to do the dishes in the afternoon!”

“Oh, you need me to help with the dishes?” she asks, “I haven’t um...”

“It’s easy, you just slide your hoof in the scrubber handle and scrub all the plates with soap,” I tell her hastily, “Luc—whoever else is there can show you I’m sure. Can you do that for me just today?”

“Well, sure, I mean... as long as this doesn’t get to be a regular thing,” Holly says cautiously.

“Great. Thanks!” I tell her, scooting her in the direction of the room with the twin washtubs. “I really appreciate this!”

“Wh—” she has time to say, before I blurt out,

“Well, gotta go! It’s a bit of a walk across town. Let me know how it goes, okay?”

Then I hurry out of our group’s area, and start galloping down the asphalt, giggling madly to myself, thanking my heavenly stars that it’s a cool day today. Asphalt is really fun to gallop on, when the temperature’s not too high. It’s almost pliable beneath my hooves, yet very smooth and even, just firm enough. Sidewalks are actually a real pain to walk down, with your hooves clacking jarringly against the smooth concrete, while asphalt roads thump more than clack.

Except the gravelly ones. The gravelly ones suck.

I really wish I had a watch. Would be pretty hard to find one with a band small enough for my dainty little yellow hoof, though. Plus, I can’t exactly afford anything, so it’d be like... well, stealing is kind of necessary these days, but I’d like to avoid it if I can.

Anyway I’m pretty sure I have a good sense for how much time has passed since I looked at a clock, and I don’t feel like I’m all that late. Hurrying in through the doors to a local school gymnasium, the cavernous ceiling high above me shines its lights down so brightly on all below. Thankfully I’m not the last one here. But I still call out,

“Sorry I’m a little late! Thanks for coming!” Once I get closer to the colorful group of ponies, I say a little breathlessly, “Had to work out some scheduling errors at the last minute.”

“We got a few minutes left still, it’s no problem,” one of the stallions says, pointing a hoof at a clock on the wall of the gym. Battery powered, of course.

“Oh good,” I say, ears relaxing in relief, “So, until everyone’s here, I suppose... wanna figure out how to stretch out as ponies?”

That is surprisingly hard to do, because where ponies aren’t rigid and unyielding, we’re flexible as hell. Some ponies pull on each other to try and get a good stretch, but when you can rest the base of your tail on top of your head, with your hind legs sticking up in the air, stretching becomes more about... muscle tone than flexibility.

Once the last three show up (well three of four, but the fourth wasn’t really all that interested, so they probably won’t show up) I stand up and say, “Okay pony people! Who wants to learn how to dance?”

My fourth dance class goes pretty good. I’m not exactly a professional instructor, but I’m pretty nimble on my hooves, even for one of the early transformed. And the professional dance instructors have no idea how to deal with pony physiology, even if this town had any dance instructors. But heck if I’m gonna try to help show ponies how to move while playing football. So I get to figure out dancing, while they get to figure out dancing, and it’s actually kind of hard to dance and sing at the same time, but I think we’re starting to get the hang of it.

I return to the barn sweating, but happy. Happy to be outta that gym at least. This late in the summer, that gymnasium at the school gets hot as heck, without electricity to turn on the air conditioning. The evening is already cooling off, though, as I approach the barn we’re all living in. I don’t rush in, of course, because of what could be happening inside. Carefully poking my nose in the barn and looking around, I spot my friend Holly off to the side, the little red and green bat pony chatting quietly with a certain particular unicorn of colors purple and pink.

Yanking my head back out, I hurriedly trot around the side of the barn before sitting back against the wall and pumping my forehooves, whispering,

“Yesss!”

It worked! My strategy worked, and Lucy and Holly are friends now! And if my calculations are correct... soon to be more than friends! This is amazing! As I leave them chatting with each other, to collapse giggling giddily against the outside wall of the barn, I try to think out my next move, around my fantasies of Holly and Lucy kissing together with Sue.

Biggest problem is I can’t be seen with both of them, now, until the one becomes intimate with the other. Otherwise they’ll figure it out, and stop being friends with each other, before they even learned what wonderful people they are. So I figure I’ll just wait until they’re kissing, and then I’ll... figure something out, I guess. But for now, I just carefully avoid Holly and Lucy over the rest of the evening, waiting to catch Holly when she’s alone. At last, I see Holly standing there in a room off to the side that we sort of built in the barn, for dining in a little bit of privacy. Lucy’s nowhere to be seen in there. Popping up beside her, I ask Holly, “Sooo...?”

And of course I must have walked right up in her blind spot or something, because Holly leaps up in the air at that with a startled squeal.

“Oh jeezus there you are, Meadowsweet!” she squeaks in relief, descending in a few flaps and folding her darker green bat wings against her sides as she lands.

“Yup, here I am,” I reply sheepishly, “So how’d it go?”

She gives me a cautious look. “Washing the dishes?” she asks.

“...yea?” I say, my ears going down just a little. She doesn’t suspect anything, does she?

“Well,” she replies solemnly, “I met someone named Lucy.”

“Yeah, and?” I say, leaning forward on baited breath.

“And she was really nice,” Holly replies evenly, “We got along really well.”

“Oh that’s great!” I say, relaxing.

“And she asked if I knew someone named Meadowsweet,” Holly adds.

“Oh?” I reply, unrelaxing.

“I said she’s my friend,” Holly tells me, with a worryingly neutral expression on her face, “And that I think she’s trying to get us to be friends, for some reason.”

Author's Note

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

No Bad Deed Goes Unrewarded

“What?” I squeak, voice choked with panic. I finally found Holly alone, without Lucy, and everything is going horribly wrong! I’m at a table in the back section of the barn with Holly, the red and green bat pony, and nobody else around. My friend is looking at me with a disapproving, yet resigned expression in her warm, brown, slitted eyes. Because she knows. Because I did the thing with Holly and Lucy, and she did and— and Holly did, and I—and Holly and—and I’m a pony, and everyone’s a pony and now it’s all falling apart!

“Lucy said you were telling her all about this thing called Metal Gear,” Holly continues seriously, leaning on her furry little elbows forward on the table, while my terrified brain tries to recover my ability to make words, “But you didn’t exactly tell her I was the one who told you it was an all terrain nuclear deployment mecha.”

“Yeah I—I mean I—” I stutter ineffectually.

“Meadowsweet, were you trying to get us to be friends with each other?” Holly asks dangerously.

“No I... yes I...”

I don’t know how to fix this! My ears just... drop the rest of the way and I tell her, “I messed up. Oh no, I ruined everything...”

“You sure did mess up,” Holly says in a hurt tone of voice, her own ears going back, “What were you thinking?”

“You can still be friends,” I urge, surging at Holly desperately, “You’re not mad at her, are you?”

“Mad at her?” Holly squeaks in outrage, “I’m mad at you!”

“Mad at me?” I reply, pulling back in tearful confusion, “Why?”

“Because you set me up!” Holly shouts angrily.

“For friendship!” I retort!

“You lied to me!” she insistently protests.

“I had to,” I tell her urgently, “Otherwise it wouldn’t work!”

“You... you...” Holly tilts her head at me, “Wait, otherwise what wouldn’t work?”

“I was trying to... to help you make friends with each other,” I explain as Holly gives me a wary look, “First you needed to have a chance meeting, a-and that’s why I couldn’t tell you. Because then it wouldn’t be a chance meeting!”

“What does that have to do with anything?” she asks in incredulous outrage.

“It’s how it works!” I insist, “You have a chance meeting, and you hit it off right away, w-which I tried to do by helping give you stuff to talk about.”

“How what works?” she ask in exasperation.

“Making friends!” I reply. “And... and more than friends.”

“More than friends?” Holly asks, eyes widening.

“I was trying to get it so you could slowly grow closer together, and then you could be...” Scrunching my eyes shut, I admit hastily, “Then you’d fall in love with each other one fateful night, and then you’d know she was the one for you.”

After a pause I crack open an eye and add, “The one, or three I suppose.”

“Meadows, I don’t think it works that way,” Holly says wearily, “Why didn’t you just tell me?”

“What do you mean?” I ask in confusion.

“You know, being honest?” Holly says in a strained voice, “Telling the truth to the people you care about?”

“If I did that, then you would feel like you were obligated to be friends with her, for my sake,” I reply in my own hurt tone, “She wouldn’t be your friend. She’d just be... Meadowsweet’s friend.”

“Well that’s not... I mean that might happen, but it could get better... I think?” Holly retorts uncertainly.

“I wanted you to... to really love Lucy,” I insist, “To touch her heart like you can touch mine, a-and touch other things.”

Staring at me in blushing horror, Holly stretches forward and whispers into my ear, “She’s the mare you’ve been thinking about having sex with us?”

Looking at her in puzzlement, I say, “Yeah, I just think she’s really nice, and pretty, and Sue likes her.” Sighing, I sink my head, “But I screwed it up. I was trying so hard to trick you, and I just... failed. I wanted to make sure you loved her, before we tried to do anything... intimate with her.”

“Honestly, I... think that maybe we shouldn’t just talk about this...” Holly says, glancing down. “I–it’s kind of private.”

“Well, maybe it shouldn’t be,” I gripe at her, “Lucy needs you to love her!”

“No she doesn’t,” Holly protests, “Why’s she need me to love her?”

“Because then the rest of us can...” oh god I shouldn’t say this, but how to I tell her without saying it? There’s no one around except me and Holly, so I guess I could just to confess to her.

“I want her to have sex with us,” I urge Holly, “I don’t want to have to split myself between everyone and Lucy. I need you to help me m-make love to her—”

“Oh my god Meadowsweet, stop talking!” Holly says, blushing horribly as she stares at me in urgent shock.

“No, I’m not gonna stop talking,” I retort angrily, “This is important! I’m not just talking friends. I w-want her to stick her tongue in me! And in you, too! And Lucy needs a stallion, like Sue! I promised not to tell why this is true, but I know Sue would love to have sex with her.”

Looking upset at Holly, it looks like she’s going to leap forward, storming off past me in a hail of tears, so I tell the panicking bat pony fast as I can, “And Sue wasn’t mounting Lucy, because he was afraid of hurting you! But I don’t believe that you couldn’t share him, and he could be with all three of us. Holly, you’re strong, and wonderful, and I think Lucy would love to be with you, as soon as she finds out that thing you do with your tongue when—”

Holly leaps forward, slamming me on my back and covering my mouth with her forelegs, hissing, “Stop talking! You don’t understand! Lucy is listening to us right now!”

W-what? But Holly’s by herself! My mouth blocked by furry green forearms, my eyes search the room, but I don’t see Lucy anywhere in the area. Then Lucy crawls out from under the table Holly just leaped over, blushing from head to toe, as much as a unicorn with sorta pink fur can so do.

“S-sorry, we thought you might be waiting to talk to Holly alone,” Lucy mumbles, looking every which way except where Holly has me flat on my back with her hips squarely pressed against mine. “So I figured if I hid, you’d s-stop hiding, and talk to us. Her. Um.”

“I’m so sorry, Lucy,” Holly says, eyes shaded in shame as she crouches on top of me. She pulls her forehooves away from my mouth to brace them on my chest and to settle her butt on my butt. She ignores me, turning her head behind us at the unicorn, saying apologetically, “Meadowsweet is just... she’s really amazing I swear, but...”

Holly doesn’t seem to understand how to finish that thought.

“I know I’m an idiot,” I groan, flopping my head back against the floor. Holly’s tail twitches above mine, as a hot trickle of... oh dear, I don’t think that’s sweat that dripped from her pelvis to trickle down me down there. We’ve been... talking about lewd stuff for a while, haven’t we.

“I... I just wanted things to happen naturally,” I say nervously, trying to ignore the bat pony sliding her junk ever so slightly against mine. Shifting just to accomodate Holly, I say, “A-and then I go and offend you with my stupid mouth. I’m just not smart enough to do it right. I can’t stop thinking about s-sex, and I keep talking about it, even though I shouldn’t.”

“Could you two uh... stop rubbing your hips together?” Lucy asks guiltily, “It’s kind of distracting.”

A moment of realization, and Holly practically rockets off me, as we both scramble to our hooves, blushing so bad that between the three of us alone, the Red Cross could complete a blood drive.

Once we’ve stood there silently long enough for some of the blood to return from our faces to our brains, Lucy says, “I... I’m not saying no. I mean, it’s just a little much. I just... need to think about this.”

“I understand,” I say, ears low as I duck my head before her.

“It’s just I’ve never... been with a... I mean I’ve never been with other girls before,” Lucy continues, giving a nervous laugh, “I know I seem all wild, but I really don’t even know if I could... feel that way.”

“Holly or I could probably show you,” I tell her honestly, ears perking up, “There’s a lot of cool tricks that two... females can do.”

Nodding, Holly says, “Plus if it helps, neither Meadowsweet nor I were female before this. So it wouldn’t really be gay.”

Lucy’s blush returns with a vengeance at that, as she stares at me and Holly with a renewed shock.

“And we have Sue,” I tell Lucy quickly, before my and Holly’s illegitimate femininity can scare her off, “I mean, we don’t have him, but he is sort of with us, and he used to be a girl. You could be with him... I mean, if he’s okay with it. But I know he will be.”

“That might not be a good thing,” Holly adds, ears drooping again. “Me and Meadowsweet are probably preg... probably gonna get pregnant, I guess. If you were with us, he’d p-probably make you pregnant, too. Sue doesn’t have a lot of restraint, especially since he turned into a guy.”

“Think! I have to think about it!” Lucy blurts out, snapping out of her astonishment trance or something. “Have to think about it by myself, I’ll um...” she says, looking frantically between the two of us, “I h-have to go.”

Then she charges past us, out of the room.

“That couldn’t possibly have gone better,” I groan, looking after her, “What was I thinking...”

“Just... next time tell me, okay?” Holly says, looking at me with the hurt, conflicted look of a sympathetic disapproval. “Before you set me up to... try to fall in love with anyone else?”

“Y-yeah, I... don’t have anyone else in mind,” I tell her despondently, “I just... I thought I was so smart, and now I don’t, so I’ll try not to do anything s-smart again.”

Nuzzling me comfortingly, Holly says, “Meadows, you keep saying you’re an idiot, but you’re one of the most brilliant people I’ve ever known. I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but you are not an idiot.”

I dunno what to say to that, so I just duck my head under hers, and just kind of... let her cuddle me between her neck and her wing. Well one thing leads to another and she soon brings me to a squealing orgasm, muffled by the fact that like hers in mine, my snout is also buried in her moist crotch. But the important thing is, as much as I mess up and fail, Holly’s there to help pick me back up again.

Between our flying lessons, and our magic lessons, soon the entire town is helping with the weather, and with... magic stuff. Before long, it’s honestly embarassing how much food my group has available, because people just keep helping us out and practically giving us their gardens, even after they learned all the basic stuff I or any other pony could teach them. Gratitude goes a long way I suppose, when you can stay in the nearby vicinity of the person who you helped out.

We’re also the ones who spearheaded the hunting effort. Nobody’d even tried to go after the cows before we got here. I’m pretty sure Twilight Sparkle didn’t teach any of us about hunting, but... she did teach us about fighting I guess, and apparently flight? I suppose if she was a changeling, then she’d know how to teach people how to fly, but I don’t really know what she is at this point, beyond somewhere else, hopefully very far away.

So magic, flying, fighting and hunting, and... soil cultivation. What else did Twilight Sparkle accidentally teach us? It’s infuriating that she’d just betray us like that, twice! We never asked for it, she just... threw away all this gratitude that everyone had for her. The entire town is thanking us for helping them learn to live as ponies, and Twilight Sparkle threw that all away! Why? What does she stand to get out of it? Who is she searching for?

Me, I’m walking around the town again with nothing in particular to do, searching for nopony in particular. People are much more active than when we arrived: everyone’s more well fed, and walking, and flying a lot better. The park’s getting to be more of a popular grazing spot than anything. I don’t understand why this pony thing happened to us, or even if it’s a good thing, but I don’t think we’re doing too badly.

Honestly I don’t know what I’d do if I was a human again. It feels so... natural to be this way. My transformation has been complete for so long, it feels weird to imagine my legs with more than one finger each. I’m just some dumb pregnant mare who’s having a very odd pregnancy that doesn’t really feel like a pregnancy. It’ll start feeling like a pregnancy in eleven months or so, I’m sure! But that’s one month less than a year away, give or take a month or so. I don’t feel pregnant, but I had to have conceived sometime in the last three months!

Though we’re still pretty much avoiding the asphalt on hot days, a bunch of foals are using the huge lawn in the city park to run around on and play together. And there are a lot of foals. Too many foals. It’d be an idyllic scene I walk up to, but instead, soon as they see me, the foals immediately leave their ball rolling away forgotten, and turn to look at me with worry, clustering together like a bunch of frightened kids.

But... if they really were kids, they’d have no reason to look so frightened, apprehensive or ashamed, just because I saw them playing. So I kinda know what’s going on here, why they wouldn’t be comfortable with themselves, even after being a pony for so long. It’s normal enough for me, but some people didn’t just change genders....

“Hey, can I play?” I ask brightly, trotting up to the ball and putting a hoof on top of it. “That looked pretty fun!”

“Ron was just kicking it, and I just was kind of... bored and started going after it,” a cute little blue filly with green hair says, in reluctant explanation. “It wasn’t anything crazy, just we started playing um... yeah, just like b-basketball or something.”

The ball is a volleyball rather than a basketball, but I still smack it with a hoof, then when it rebounds into the air, I catch it saying, “Kind of hard to play basketball without a...” I don’t get to finish though, because the foals are all staring at the ball in my upturned hoof going,

“Ooooh!”

“Oh, r-right!” I chirp, giving the ball a few little tosses, “Yeah ponies can um... balance stuff really well. You should try it. It’s not too hard.”

A yellow furred filly with long purple hair steps forward, lifting her forehoof up in the air like mine, saying, “Like this?”

“Just imagine balancing something on your hoof,” I beseech her, “That’s what I did. Just sort of... imagined it settling onto there, and not falling off any way. Then, it doesn’t!”

She stares at her own hoof intensely, and a little worried I’m doing this wrong, I carefully move my hoof close to hers, and then with a little toss, the ball lands squarely on hers.

She only holds it a few seconds, before it wobbles, and she says, “Woah...!” as her hoof tilts to overcompensate and the ball goes bouncing off away.

“S-sorry it takes a little practice,” I tell her sheepishly, “Keep it up though and—”

Then I get swarmed by a dozen foals all demanding, “Do me! Do me!”

I don’t really like to judge anyone here. Honestly I think the foals seem happiest of all of us, when they’re not ashamed of being foals. And it’s really sad actually, because after that um... educational lesson in ball holding, a lot of the foals are still asking where I came from to have such skills, so I tell them I’m with the out-of-towners and they all chorus with understanding. So I tell them,

“I don’t know if it’s because I was in that group! I don’t have that much of a head start on you all. Try asking some of the town people who got turned into adults. A lot of people in my group got totally mixed up turning into foals, and of course none of them were kids in the first place.”

“I was!” a pink pegasus filly with blue hair pipes up, beaming proudly.

“Johnny!” a blonde haired pink filly whispers harshly, blushing in embarassment, as the filly known as Johnny looks at her and says, “What? I was! And now you are too!”

“I... uh...” Johnny’s... friend looks at me, with a pained grimace that might have been an attempt at a nervous smile.

“Look, I have zero problem if anyone’s a foal, who wasn’t one originally,” I reassure her with a hopeful smile, “Even if you wanna just... run around and play with a ball.”

“It’s just embarassing...” she says, losing her smile and looking away. A pink filly with green hair walks up and bumps against the blonde haired one supportively.

“It’s okay dear,” she says, sounding like a kid pretending to play grownup, which is pretty much the opposite situation of what’s going on here, I think. “We’re all a little frazzled by this.”

Someone else giggles at that, “Hehe... frazzled.”

“Well I’m not frazzered,” the blue haired pink filly says, shaking out her wings and scampering up to those two. “I think it’s the best thing in the whole world. Mommy and Daddy are kids, just like me! There’s no bedtimes anymore!”

Blushing harder, the blonde one blurts out, “That’s... because we fall asleep anyway when the... there’s no point in staying awake when it gets dark, since you can’t see without a light!”

“I can see pretty well in the dark, actually,” remarks an earth pony colt in the group, with a few approving murmurs around.

“I don’t mind sleeping at dark, really!” the blue-haired pegasus says fluttering up into the air briefly in front of her former parent, “I wish you and mommy were pegasighs, so you could fly too!”

The blonde filly just glances left and right fearfully at the other foals and me, not even looking at her... daughter. Oh.

“Say, what’s your name?” I ask the blonde one, craning down to her level. A moment for fear to flash in her eyes, before I realize what I just asked, then I pull back and blush fiercely, stammering, “A-a-actually don’t tell me. Just... can I talk to you for a sec?”

“Me?” she squeaks anxiously.

“Can we have our ball back?” one of the fillies calls out. Oh, right, yeah... I kick the ball which I totally forgot I had, and the whole herd of foals goes scampering after it. Most are... really bad at running, but they don’t let that stop them.

The “Mommy” and the real foal are still standing there next to the filly I was addressing, looking uncomfortably at me, so I tell them, “Hey, can I talk just to her, just for a few minutes?”

The blue haired pegasus looks to the green haired earth pony questioningly, and “Mommy” says, “Okay, I guess? Catch up with us later Da—yeah.”

Those two go running off toward the crowd, and the blonde haired, pink filly looks up at me, as if receiving a death sentence. Which... is kind of understandable. So maybe I can sort of... turn things the other direction.

“Sorry, I’m just kind of embarassed by it,” I tell her alone, “I don’t wanna exactly announce it to everyone, especially... y’know... foals.”

Staring at me in confusion, she asks, “You’re embarassed? By foals?”

“Because some of them really are originally kids, and it’s just... they ask weird questions and stuff,” I say, and I’m actually blushing, jeez. I better just say it. “So, I... used to be a guy.”

The filly’s shining green eyes dawn in realization, as I add, “Sorry, it’s just the filly called your f-friend Mommy, and I figured... well, it looked like you were embarassed. Are you the uh... Daddy?”

“Y—yeah, it’s... weird,” she says in a trembling voice, looking away, “I don’t know what to do about it.”

“Well, I was just thinking you could try doing what I do,” I offer.

Still not looking my way, she perks an ear at that, possibly consciously.

“Nothing,” I explain, with a smug toss of my mane. Wait, she can’t see my mane. Shit.

It takes her a moment to realize I’m not saying any more. “Nothing?” she asks, looking up at me in confusion.

“I’m not doing anything!” I declare, with a very serious smile, “I’m just doing whatever I want to do, and sometimes I’m acting like a girl, and sometimes not I guess, but I’m never trying to act like a girl. Or a guy. Or... whatever you want to be.”

“A... guy,” the filly cautiously asserts, “An adult. I should be... protecting them, and I just wanna play with them, and it just feels... scary to try to be a good father. I just get scared, and I don’t feel strong anymore at all.”

“I can’t say I know what it takes to be a good father,” I admit, looking over at the foals with the ball, “But your daughter seems happy enough. And um... wife, I guess?”

“Both of them are taking it better than me,” the filly says glumly, “Even Johnny, he... I–I’m not the only one on in our family who switched um...”

Gulping, I reply nervously, “Her too, huh. I mean... him, or her, or... whatever you want me to call her.”

“I don’t know,” the filly says shyly, even a little resentfully as she scrapes idly at the ground with a forehoof.

Looking at her with concern, I ask, “Do you... have a pony name?”

“A pony what?” she asks, looking up at me cluelessly.

“We’re ponies,” I explain, “From the My Little Pony show. And they all had pony names, which fit them. Or... fit their world at least.”

“I never even saw the old cartoon,” she moans, stomping, “It was just a stupid little girl’s... no I never saw it.”

I actually didn’t ask if she did, but what I say is, “Some people are taking new names that fit their... gender and um... personality I guess. Like a friend of mine is named Holly. She uh... had a guy’s name before that.”

“Oh no, I’m not gonna just give in to this,” the filly says with a furious stomp of her little hoof on the grass, “It’s not fair that this happened, and I want to change back!”

“No! I didn’t mean it was a good thing that you were a little filly,” I tell her in alarm, while she blushes at that and shrinks back, “No, I just meant a name to help you feel better and make it less embarassing. Like my name’s Meadowsweet, and originally it was... um...”

...

Dammit, brain. Stop being so enchanted!

“Arnold,” I cautiously enunciate. Before she can laugh, or scream in horror or whatever, I hastily add, “But I never said I was okay with this, or that I wanted to be a girl pony.”

I suppose I’m technically lying, since I have said I wanted to be a pony before, but I definitely did not say I wanted to be a girl. I screamed it, when Holly did the thing with her tongue, which is completely different from saying it.

“But I like to call myself Meadowsweet,” I conclude, “Because I don’t have to tell people I’m not really a girl. It makes me feel... better about being this, as long as I have to be a girl anyway.”

She actually stares at me speechless for a moment, and I don’t think she’s giving me the look. Is she?

“I-it’d be way too weird,” the filly grumbles, looking away again, “What, am I some kinda hippy who calls himself Meadow...sweet no offense I mean.”

“None taken,” I reply easily, “You should’ve seen how much of a hard time people gave me over that name when I was a kid. Ponies do have kinda nature loving names. Mine’s like... a flower, or something. A lot of names are flowers, because flowers are delicious.”

Okay now she’s giving me the look.

“What?” I whine at her confused leer, “You should try them! They won’t be around once Fall comes!”

“I... I suppose?” she replies very cautiously.

Clearing my throat, I continue, “Anyway, my point is I think you’d feel better if you didn’t have to call yourself uh... your real name, when you’re in a group.”

“...Darryl,” she says miserably.

Looking at the group again, I ask, “How many of them know?”

“N-none, well just my wife and... Johnny,” Darryl mumbles.

“So, none of them know what to call you at all?”

“I–it’s fine,” she says unconvincingly.

Looking at her again, I consider the broadly curvy hair on the filly, as opposed to my kind of bouncy... curly-ish hair. And her colors, sort of blonde and pink...

“How about Lily?” I suggest.

She stares for one more moment, before her snout scrunches up in hot-blooded embarassment, and she mumbles, “That’s a stupid name.”

“Hey, if you had to pick a pony name, it’s not a bad one,” I counter, “You’d be okay around a pony whose name was Lily, right?”

“Yeah I guess,” she says, giving me a less than enthusiastic look, “Why that name though?”

Shrugging, I say, “I don’t think it matters really, as long as it’s not y’know... embarassing. I wouldn’t name you Schmoopy Poofkins!”

She can’t hold back a giggle at that.

“You don’t have to tell everyone,” I tell her, “But just in case someone asks you what your name is, just say it’s Lily. And if they ask about it, say it’s a nickname a friend gave you.”

“Uh huh,” she says shyly.

“Because I just did, right Lily?” I say, giving her a wink.

Lily doesn’t say anything, but gives me a teeny little blushing smile.

“So uh, that’s all I wanted to talk to you about,” I say to this adorable filly, who doesn’t look like she ever used to be a man, “So let’s go join the other kids, okay... Lily?”

“Yeah that’s... fine,” she says, looking longingly at the group of distantly squealing and laughing foals. “L-Lily’s not such a bad name,” she remarks as an afterthought.

“I can call you Darryl, if you really want,” I say with a reluctant wince.

She just smiles up at me though, and says, “No, Lily’s fine.”

So I take a few steps in that direction, and she follows, then I speed up to a regular walk, not going any faster as she’s not only less coordinated, but has shorter legs to keep up with me. And soon I’m sort of... bounding around while the foals try to hit me with their ball.

I let them hit me a lot. ♥

So... another reason not to travel across the country, apparently there are bandits now, not that I ever learn anything about that. How there are bandits, I have no idea, because how is any of us going to carry something valuable with us, when we don’t even have hands to carry it with?

“Did you hear?” says Phillip, an earth pony who used to work at the feedlot says, with wide blue eyes. These days she’s working with the weeding committee, because as the town vote decrees, one of the few things totally unpalatable to us being English Ivy, we gotta keep that stuff from eating our new vegetables.

“Millicent got robbed!” Phillip says, shaking her head in bemused disbelief, “With all that’s happened to us, who’d be resorting to thievery at a time like this?”

“Someone who was hungry, I imagine,” I tell her, after spitting out another mouthful of withered ivy. “We’re so lucky that everything’s been going so well here. I’m sure other places are just swallowed up in death and violence. People might have to prey on each other just to survive.”

“Yeah, I suppose,” she says, kicking the vines loose from where they bored holes into the concrete. Because I guess english ivy is this mutant monster plant that nobody ever told me was this nasty. Before this weeding, I just thought ivy was pretty. “I was kind of surprised when people just... started growing food like that,” she says, “And just giving it away.”

“It’s just temporary,” I venture, giving the red furred tomato pony a thoughtful regard, “And it’s not like anyone’s been giving someone all their food.”

“Still, it’s weird,” she says, tossing the ivy into a growing mountain of dead ivy we’re accumulating. Seems like more than it is, since a human would probably find the pile about knee height at most. Doesn’t take much for something to start getting close to taller than us, when we’re little ponies. “I guess it’s this weird earth pony thing,” my vaguely friend says, “Like, we’re super good farmers or something.”

“I haven’t done much farming, but yeah, I don’t think this ivy is going to be growing back,” I reply, looking over the half-emptied yard that had been just full of it not a few hours ago. “So I guess we’re also super good... anti-farmers or something.”

She titters at that, saying, “When my momma told me I had a black thumb, I never thought it’d be a hoof.” And lowering her head, with a toss of her neck, she throws another heap of ivy onto the pile.

“It doesn’t feel like magic, is the thing,” I say, breaking up the soil around some stubbornly deep roots, “It’s just y’know, you stomp your hoof... right, and it does this.”

“Not like it’s only earth ponies, either,” Phillip replies, “I think like three people decided to start putting gardens on their roof, now that they got the wings to reach up there. And stuff just grows, when you water it!”

With a wry nicker, I say, “I’ll maybe be impressed when they start planting gardens on top of clouds.”

That’s how I hear about our bandit problem, and it takes me like ten seconds to completely forget about it. I probably should be attending town meetings, and listening to politics and decisions or whatever, but I have other townspeople to help deal with any bandits, or other violence, so I don’t have to worry about that.

I have a small town’s public library to help deal with the new awareness of my biochemical femininity. I have a town inundated in cows, who’s constructed a solar powered meat locker, so I don’t have to worry about getting enough to eat. I have a stallion, and an... extra stallion who I shouldn’t have, who can both help cum inside me. But there are things in my life that nobody else can help me with, things I’ve gotten myself into, things like Lucy and... Rachel.

Lucy is on my mind an awful lot, but she isn’t the only friend I have who’s in trouble. My other friend has the opposite problem to her, a stallion without enough mares, and I think I can help him. To address Rachel’s needs though, I’m afraid I’m going to have to approach... other mares.

Don’t get me wrong, I love being able to approach people and make friends, but I mean like... groups of mares. People in my larger group thing—which is totally not a herd—have gathered together in smaller ways when congregating. We can’t all do everything together, after all. And upon taking a look at who’s with whom, I can see the solution to my problem is obvious, if intimidating.

A lot of us are mares, either naturally or turned into them, and a lot of the mares are hanging out together, in groups of just mares. Like, to the point that there are groups of six girls, while a guy’s only got one or two standing around him. It’s just hard to be around a guy I think, if you don’t have anyone to impregnate your needy little rump, but it ends up sabatoging any chances they have of getting laid.

It’s intimidating to talk with these groups, because I have been seen with Sue, and it’s so unfair that only I get fulfillment like that. They just start walking in the other direction when I approach, or give me these disapproving looks, or both. But it’s important I do this, not for me, but for my friends... and for these lonely girls. I think I know what they’re going through, and I can’t believe it, but I might actually be in a position to help them!

Or... condemn them, depending on your definition of morality.

I’m still not all that good at relationships, but I think I’m learning. I’m certainly not trying to let it happen naturally anymore. Doing what comes naturally only succeeded because of my awesome friends making up for my terrible mishandling of things, so even though it doesn’t feel natural, I have to trot up to a group of mares standing around in the barn after lunch, saying casually, “So... not a lot of us turned into stallions, huh?”

The blue haired, pink pegasus mare among them blinks at me and says, “Well hello to you too, Meadowsweet.”

“Oh, h-hello Firefly, sorry I’ve...” I bite my lip at not even thinking to introduce myself, “I’ve had a lot on my mind lately, sorry.”

“More like a lot on her ...” one of the others mumbles, while another snickers at whatever she said. Six mares here, just standing in a little group, all looking at me. Um.

“Yeah, I’m Meadowsweet,” I say with a nervous laugh, “And I uh... just noticed you all kind of hanging out together, and... I think I know why.”

“Because we’re friends? ” Firefly says in a very unfriendly way.

“Well yeah, but I was just thinking that maybe since you’re all f–currently female, some of you might be single?” I ask anxiously, “Not that there’s anything wrong with that, i-if you want to be single. I’m just curious.”

“Why would you care if we’re single or not?” Firefly asks in a disaffected tone, turning to give me a sideways look.

Swallowing, I say, “I was just thinking some people e-especially girls might not want to be single, because with so few of us as stallions, it’s hard for girls to find a relationship.”

“Oh that’s rich, coming from you,” says a bat pony, shorter than Firefly, with pink fur and green hair, and a disgusted scowl on her face.

“Me?” I squeak, stepping back.

A blue earth pony with brownish hair steps forward saying, “Yeah, you get all the stallions you want!”

“What are you just here to rub it in?” asks a unicorn who’s brown with blue hair, but a different brown, and a different blue, a hurt expression on her face.

“No!” I protest, sweating, quickly losing control of this situation, “I wanna help you!”

“Well, maybe some of us are happy not getting as pregnant as we want all day,” Firefly declares vehemently.

“Are you all single?” I ask, anxiously. Six is too much!

“Didn’t you hear what I said?” Firefly retorts, “Some of us want to be single, and there’s nothing wrong with that!”

Blinking at her helplessly, I plead, “But that’s what I just said!”

“No you...” Firefly paused, her eyes turning up in thought as she frowns. “Okay maybe you did,” she says, “But why are you here, and not with your stallion?”

“Just what is wrong with me being with a stallion?” I ask, stomping.

“B-besides getting pregnant,” I add quietly.

It’s a blue-green pegasus with a pink stripe in her blue hair who says vehemently, with a stomp of her own, “You’re not even sorry for what you did to Nick!”

...what? I completely blank on that. I hope my stomps don’t look as adorable as that one she just did.

“Everyone thinks you’re so great,” Firefly sneers, “And you don’t even care that you broke Nick’s heart, and rejected him for that dirtbag, Sue!”

...

“He was your one true love!”

I try not to bust out laughing. I fail. I fail hard. Oh god they’re gonna kill me where I lay, hugging my gut in belly shaking laughter. Nick they’re actually talking about Nick and... and that dirtbag Sue! Sue’s standing over Nick’s plaintive pleas, he’s gotta wife beater on, and one of those little dirtbag moustache goatees, with me slung under his arm and I can’t stop imagining it, help!

Even worse than murdering me, they all start to turn to leave! “Wait!” I gasp breathlessly, holding out a forehoof to them and wheezing, “It’s not... haha... not like that! Please just...” Trying to steady my breathing, I slide my haunches under me, saying, “Please, just... hear me... out.”

“None of us know what really happened,” the sixth pony huffs defensively from the cluster of them together, an orange unicorn mare, with a pink mane, “But everyone knows you were with Nick! You and him were the first to get together! Together on the journey to Bronycon, with only one blanket to share!”

“While that’s... technically true, I didn’t reject Nick at all,” I huff, sucking in cautious breaths and crawling to my hooves. Feeling a little less likely to bust out laughing again, I say, “Nick rejected me, and I’m totally cool with that. It was the meat diet thing, where he wasn’t feeling good, so he couldn’t handle me and... two others.”

“Two others?” the blue/green furred pegasus among them asks, her eyes wide and attentive.

Biting my lip, I say, “Yeah, um... Nick is with Mira, and...”

I solemnly swear that immediately following this moment, I was going to say “And I really shouldn’t talk about other people’s private lives,” but before I can speak, the green-haired pink one exclaims in shock,

“Mira?! But she was the driver! Did you pull off on the side of the road?”

“Yeh, no she was human back then,” I assure the pony lady, “Mira got with Nick after we got to the farm, and Mira really is... great for Nick. And you should ask her if you want to know more about their... love life. I–I really don’t know.”

“So, Nick broke up with... you?” Firefly asks, with a reluctant astonishment.

“Yeah he... sorta, I mean... yes, we broke up, before I started having a relationship with Sue,” I tell her confidently in the end. Because technically Nick and I did stop having sex, before Sue started doing me. I don’t mention how I started fucking Nick again, after I had a relationship with Sue... and Rachel, who is the subject of my interest here.

“So Sue is my... one and only, I suppose,” I add laughing weakly. My diaphragm hurts. “And... he’s about the opposite of a dirtbag. Have any of you talked to Sue?”

“And get you coming after me? Not a chance!” Firefly protests with conviction.

“Why would I come after you?” I ask in bewilderment.

“Seriously?” Firefly replies, “You’re having sex with him, right?”

“...y-yeah I guess so?” I say uncertainly, “Not sure I should be talking about his... wait no, this is my private life um...”

“And you won’t get mad?” someone else asks very skeptically.

“I don’t get mad if you just talk to him,” I say, turning to beseech the mares.

“So, we can all just go cuddle up with Sue,” Firefly suggests warily, “And go off with him alone, totally not having sex, and you’re totally okay with that.”

“No, I’m not!” I tell her, frustrated, “He’s already got me, and Holly, and Lucy! I’m trying to get you to have sex with my other stallion!”

Giving me a sideways look, she asks, “...Nick?”

“No, my other, other stallion,” I clarify. And now they’re all looking at me in extra disgustment.

“It’s not like that!” I protest, splay-legged, “I’m not supposed to be with him!”

“There aren’t as many guys now, and you’ve got three?!” Firefly demands, scraping the ground dangerously, “You’re not suppose to be with—wait, you just said that.” She looks confused at her own forehoof.

“Look, I’m not worried about Sue,” I claim desperately, “At all. He’s got no reason to leave me and the others to go have sex with other females. We’re taking good care of him.”

“Well... yeah, but... I mean what if one of us tries to... jump him?” Firefly asks, glancing with worry at the others.

“He’s like twice our size!” I retort, “What are you gonna do, whine him to death?”

“I could stun him,” the unicorn mare says, while the bat pony mare adds,

“Ponies like me are taking down whole cows. If we worked together...”

“But y-you aren’t planning on just... mass raping Sue are you?” I ask with a nervous laugh.

“No, I...!” the bat pony says in surprise, then blushes heavily, shuffling her wings, mumbling, “No, it just came out wrong I’d never really...”

“We’re not all single, you know,” the pink and green pegasus says with a defiant frown, “I’ve been having a great relationship with a guy named Andrew, who stayed a guy pony.”

“Then why isn’t he ever hanging out with all of you?” I ask, looking confused at the other five mares beside her.

“Because we’d stun him, and dive bomb him, and mass rape him if he did?” Firefly asks humorlessly. “It’s just impossible to think when one of the male ponies is around!”

“Y-yeah...” I grant, ears briefly tipping down.

“It’s easier to keep it just girls,” the blue/sortablue pegasus says, “Especially for those of us who can’t just... go have any stallion she wants.”

“That’s kind of what I was thinking,” I admit, pondering, “Not because you’re really going to rape a guy. That was just metaphorical.”

“Y-yeah,” the blue earth pony says, stepping back and glancing around with the others, “Metaphorical.”

“I just wanted to know who needs a stallion,” I tell her firmly, “So I know who to recommend. To a stallion, who I might know.” Addressing the whole crowd, I ask, “So... who’s single?”

Then they all just look at me, silently! After all that!

“Meadowsweet, maybe you shouldn’t recommend any of us,” Firefly says, not alleviating my rising panic. “We’re all female. We can’t have... sex now, even if we want to, because I don’t wanna give birth to a fucking pony.”

“Not to mention pregnant for-fucking-ever,” the green/pink bat pony groans.

“Oh, it’s not so bad,” I say. Everyone gives me a look. “I–I thought there’d be more nausea, but... I feel fine, really!” I tell them, lifting a hoof.

“Are you trying to get us all pregnant?” the bat pony asks staring at me in disbelief.

“No, I... I’m sorry, I thought... I’m not trying to...” I stammer, trying to figure out how to explain to them how Rachel’s gonna make like a million mares pregnant if he doesn’t have a few to focus on.

“I–I’m just saying,” I just say, stumbling away, “I didn’t mean you have to, I just wanted to let you know, sorry. I um... sorry.”

Then blushing in shame, I flee.

So now I really am afraid to approach groups of mares who are obviously single. It must be driving them up the wall, to be so irritable, and I just can’t deal with it. I can’t help them, because I feel wonderful, and I always say something stupid because of all the wonderful things I just take for granted, that all the other mares only wish they had.

I shouldn’t even want Lucy in our group. Sue would have to fuck me more, if she wasn’t I’ve got way too much free time, if I’m fucking Rachel on the side! I shouldn’t want more time with Rachel, even if Lucy could possibly give it to me if she’d help with Holly and Sue. I should want Lucy to be with Rachel, so that I can be true to Sue. But Sue needs Lucy, and she needs him. She was his first, and they only broke up because of Holly. I don’t want Holly to feel like she’s a wedge between them.

And I especially shouldn’t want Lucy myself, for the beautiful unicorn that she is. Am I just projecting my love of Twilight onto her? Because it’s really easy to do so!

Of course I’m the one who Lucy comes to, after what I went and said about her. Not knowing she was there, I blindly told Holly that I’d basically want to violate Lucy in the lewdest way possible. Like I was some kind of.... vile temptress? What do you even call a girl who accidentally turns someone on? Succubus? I can’t think of any word that applies, that doesn’t imply I was secretly doing it on purpose, which I was not!

I wish Lucy could’ve come to someone not-stupid like Holly. But I’m the one who’s here, and Holly’s nowhere to be seen, nor hiding under any tables. Lucy comes to me, and she’s not particularly subtle about it. It’s pretty clear she’s been “thinking about it” for quite a while. She staggers in, her heady musk quickly suffusing the air, late for helping me with the dishes, for understandable reasons.

“You okay, Lucy?” I ask, as she struts up to the sink, and starts silently rinsing the dishes that I’ve already soaped up.

She doesn’t answer at first, just standing there staring at her dishes being rinsed. But after a while, Lucy asks tensely, “So what’s it like?”

I blink at her, and she adds, “Being a girl.”

Oh.

“It’s... hard to say, really, because I’m a pony,” I tell her, soaping up some more plates, “How do I know I wouldn’t be feeling just as weird if I turned into a pony, but stayed male?”

“I know, but...” she says pensively, “Y-you can still sort of tell, right? Like... how’s it different between your... legs?”

“Oh, um...” I have to think a moment as I wash, just to tell her the difference without taking three hours to explain. “Well uh... I don’t have a penis,” I venture.

At her sigh, I hastily add, “I–I know that’s obvious, but what I mean is it’s weird not having one. I should have a boner, but there’s nothing to boner. I just get... squeezy and melty down there. Sometimes it feels like a boner, but there’s just nothing there. I guess it’s... what makes it so I can wink and stuff. Which is a horse thing, not a girl thing, sorry.”

“No it’s... it’s fine,” Lucy says tensely. “Could you—”

I just look at her pensively, as I toss another dish into her magic. Is she... coming onto me? She’s still doing the dishes automatically, but with how unicorns work, I’m pretty sure she’s still concentrating fiercely on what to say to me, despite also rinsing off these dishes.

“Could you show me how to—I mean, how you— how I could...” she says haltingly, finally managing to get out, “How I could... be with you? And Holly? Like, lesbian s-stuff? N-not really lesbian since you both used to be guys, but I’m just curious how it...” she bites her lip then, blushing and considering, before asking, “How you compare, to... me?”

“What do you mean?” I ask, waving a soapy hoof and quickly confirming, “No, I know you mean sex. But what do you mean ‘compare?’”

“Well I was...” her blush deepens, “Born a... girl. A-and I want to show you how I feel and... and see how it’s different.”

“O-oh,” I reply meekly, looking back to my dishes. I have to keep working while I talk, unfortunately. I wish I could do these things automatically like Lucy. Then again, I can’t really afford to subdivide what little brain I’ve got.

“That’s something I’ve been curious about too,” I say quietly. “Because you started out female, so you’d know any differences that are just due to being a pony. We could figure what differences are making me a girl, then.”

“Yeah that’s...” she dips a few plates, “A good thing to figure out, I guess...” Lucy concludes, dissatisfied.

“Hey, you ready for another set of dishes?” says a blue pegasus mare named Nate, descending from the sky with another bin full of them.

“Just add them to the pile,” I groan entirely too cutely. “There aren’t any more, are there?”

“Not for lunch,” Nate says, landing and placing the bin next to our other mostly empty bins. “Hey, thanks for um... doing these. Can’t be fun to do a hundred people’s dishes.”

“Yeah, but there’re like a hundred of us,” I reply, “So with us doing this, there’s a hundred people doing all our other jobs.”

Nate smiles at that, then flutters off, and once we’re alone, an unusually mousey Lucy asks, “C-can we meet after these dishes? Just us? In private?”

“...yeah, no problem,” I say neutrally, passing off a bunch of soapy bowls to her, “To um... talk?”

“Yeah... talk,” Lucy says, with a wince that might’ve passed off for a smile.

After the dishes, I hurry with that purple and pink unicorn, over to the private spot that Rachel once showed me, by the fence at the back of a car dealership. There, among the quiet, dusty automobiles, we can... talk, without anyone disturbing us, and without either of us getting a faceful of corn.

“Hey... Meadows,” Lucy asks as we arrive, stepping around to face one another, “You... really like me, huh?”

I fidget on my hooves way too long before answering her, but finally manage to blurt out, “Yeah, I do.”

“I... I can’t believe how nice you are,” she says, blushing and refusing to make eye contact, “Not only aren’t you mad, but you’d try to... share your boyfriend with me? After what I did?”

“What’d you do?” I ask in confusion, “You mean the one time you had sex with him?”

“It was right after we changed,” Lucy says with a morbid stare off past the cars, “We were still in the... the first holding area they shipped us to.” She looks at me a little scared, and says, “I guess he told you all about it, huh.”

“Sue... he really liked it,” I say to her, “You showed him what a... a penis feels like inside a woman. That’s just a really special experience for a guy.”

“I’m so sorry,” Lucy says, hanging her horned head in shame, “I should never have done that. It’s your right to give him that experience, not me.”

“I don’t think so?” I say leaning back from her a little, “It’s not like he hasn’t been there for me lots after that.”

“Yeah right,” Lucy gripes, an orangey pink ear going flat, “You don’t mean that. You’re so nice, it makes me feel even worse. You should’ve been the one to show him how to be a man, not me.”

“Me?” I ask in confusion. “Why would I have been the one to show him anything?”

“Because you’re his real girlfriend,” Lucy says, still refusing to meet my eyes outside of a frightened flash of green, “And I’m just some... stupid slut who couldn’t hold back. Y-you were just so afraid to have sex with Sue, because you used to be a guy, he was so frustrated, so I just... I showed him.”

“I wasn’t afraid to have sex with him,” I say in total confusion, “I didn’t even know him back then!”

Lucy does meet my eyes at that, looking at me in puzzlement. “You are Sue’s girlfriend, aren’t you?” she asks.

“Well, yes, um... sorta,” I say hesitantly, “We have been doing the whole... boyfriend/girlfriend thing.”

“And you were his boyfriend, before Twilight changed us into ponies?” Lucy prompts.

“Oh!” I exclaim, a light bulb going off in my head, “No, I’m not his real real girlfriend. Holly—I mean... yeah Holly is his real girlfriend. She was his boyfriend before all this, I mean.”

“Holly?!” Lucy exclaims in shock, “But she just...”

“We’re not... big on advertising it,” I tell her frankly, “I don’t really want her to have to deal with everybody knowing we’re all... deviant and stuff.”

Lucy seems even more confused by that, saying, “But you were...” She kind of trails off, staring at me in shock.

Before I can speak, she shouts, “You were trying to set me up with Holly!”

“Y-yeah, so that you could be together with Sue again...” I venture cautiously.

“I thought you were trying to set me up with you!” Lucy protests.

“Then why would I get you and Holly to do dishes together?” I whine uneasily. What I thought was we were gonna do it here! I’m not gonna force her, even if I really kinda... wanna... sit on her horn. But come on!

“No, before that!” Lucy protests, “When you were all... coming onto me and stuff, but not in a creepy way!”

“I... I wasn’t doing it on purpose,” I tell her sheepishly, “I wasn’t worried about doing stuff with you myself,. I wanted to make sure you were with Holly first, so you could have Sue again.”

Lucy looks at me another moment, before her blue eyes start tearing up and she wipes them on her forehoof, saying, “How could you do that? Nobody’s that nice! Y-you’re just trying to make us all... happy!”

At her accusation, I respond with an uneasy hoof lift, “I... yeah? Is that bad?”

“No, I just... I was hoping we could... do something right now,” Lucy says, trembling in place. “Not with Holly. O-or Sue. With you. ” Wait, she does want me? Oh thank goodness. I thought my nose was broken for a minute there. From the smell of it, Lucy’s alluring fluids are probably trickling out of her right now, and I don’t mean tears.

“Don’t worry, I can smell you,” I tell Lucy honestly, “I didn’t mean we couldn’t do it, sorry I meant...”

“Can’t we all smell each other?” she says in confusion.

“No, I mean... the special way that girls smell when we’re... horny,” I tell her, blushing at the thought of it. “You can smell me, right? J-just thinking about it makes me feel all... wanting to do it. I’ve been getting horny a lot lately.”

Lucy gives me a look, then inhales quietly through her nose. “I can smell you,” Lucy says, distantly, “I didn’t know what that was. So every pony knows when I’m horny?”

“I think so,” I reply conservatively, “I want you to be with Holly, and me, so that you’ll know it’s okay to be with Sue again. S-so you know I want it too, right?”

Lucy nods pensively.

“So that means I... wanna do something with you,” I cautiously explain, “Right now. I-I’ve wanted you this whole time too. I’m not just here to tell you to date Sue, though I hope you will. I came here, because you didn’t want to just... talk, and I don’t either.”

Lucy stares at me in indecision, then looks around at the great load of empty cars shielding us from the view of all but a pegasus who’d have to fly directly overhead. “I want to, really,” she says desperately, “I haven’t... been with someone in so long. A-after Sue, every guy was taken. But I don’t know how to do any of that... girl-on-girl stuff.”

“It’s pretty easy,” I tell her honestly, “I did it before with Holly. You just turn your back to me and lift your tail, and... then you tell me if I’m doing it right.”

Lucy does just that, and it’s interesting how the pink fur growing out of her skin doesn’t quite match with the pink flesh of her pussy, when it gives a big wink the moment she lifts her purple tail up to expose herself. “Okay, so you just...” she says tensely. Stepping forward, I touch the unicorn’s softly furred inner thigh with a hoof.

“That okay?” I ask, “It’s a bit much, to just... jump in.”

“Okay, okay, just... I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Lucy says, tail bobbing up again, instead of falling down like a purple paintbrush over my eyes. “You wouldn’t believe how much I... w-was thinking about you... today.”

“Oh I can believe it,” I say gazing in awe at her clearly dripping vulva, “You wanna do a lot more than just think.”

“P-please, I’m sorry, I just,” Lucy scrunches her eyes shut, piking her hips up at the light touch of my hoof, “I can’t hide it anymore. I want it, so please just... help?”

I sure as heck can’t say no to that! I immediately nuzzle her quim, and Lucy squeaks in surprise, which is fine. More firmly, I press the soft round front of my nose against her soft, hot entrance, just holding it there, until she stops shivering from the realization, then I pull away.

“Okay, so nipples feel pretty good,” I remark, leaving her pussy for now, lifting a forehoof to stroke the soft hairs along the inside of each of Lucy’s flanks.

“Yeah, they... they do,” she says distractedly.

“Let me know if there’s anything I oughta be doing,” I tell her, still softly rubbing under there, “Or if it’s not working for you, I really am new at this stuff.”

“Because you had a penis,” Lucy says hungrily, rocking against my hoof, “‘cause you were a guy, and now you have... pony boobs.”

“They call them teats I heard,” I reply, as she squirms under my subtle hoof, “Male ponies don’t have them.”

“They don’t?” Lucy asks, her rocking interrupted in surprise, still with my hoof cradling her soft round underside.

“No nipples at all,” I insist, pressing my frog against one of her nipples and flexing the... thing against it. “These are only there to produce milk...”

“Heh... you uh... you wanna produce milk,” she says, her tail shifting above my head, as she feels me down there. “Because you’re female now. T-this really does feel like touching your boobs, just to let you know, even if they’re between our legs. You can feel this.”

Holding one of her slight swellings with my hoof, I go to nuzzle between her legs again, and this time I stick my tongue out. My hoof pulls away smoothly, as I glide my tongue along her slit, up her belly, and around her nipples. Lucy stiffens at that, but doesn’t comment, and I lead her on for a while, just this soft deep stroking of her back there.

Then I pull in my tongue, again letting it drag right up along her slit again on the way back into my mouth. With a groan, Lucy shoves her hips back against me strongly, compressing my nose, and making me jerk back from her butt.

“Sorry!” she yelps, not turning around. “You’re... using your tongue, huh,”

“Oh you are gonna love my tongue,” I tell her warmly, “Ponies are totally OP.”

“OP?” she asks in confusion.

“J-just trying to warm you up to it,” I say smoothly dodging the subject. “So that you get used to my um tongue down there. I don’t have a penis anymore, so my tongue is the only thing that can...”

“No, okay, tongue is fine,” Lucy says, facing forward again, “It just felt really... slippery. On my ...pussy.”

Well, I return my tongue to her slit, at first only in slow licks up the insides of her thighs. But soon I’m happily in the center, spreading her, tickling her into winking, tasting her tart nectar. It tastes so much like Holly’s but so much not. The taste is basically the same, but my nose is flooded with not just sex, but Lucy.

“Oh, it feels... really like... I can’t even...” she says softly to nobody in particular, rocking in place.

I pull back to tell her, “Just think of my tongue like a wet sort of... penis,” then go back to lipping at her folds, squirming my tongue inside, to tease at the scrunched up entrance to Lucy’s vagina.

“A-a-are you gonna put it in me, like a penis?” Lucy asks anxiously.

I’d tell her I will, but my mouth is otherwise occupied, so I just force the tip of my tongue in her entrance, and then slide up deep into Lucy’s vagina as I can go. Oh, it’s every bit as wonderful as Holly. Lucy’s ovenlike heat surrounds my tongue, slimy and alive in there. I can feel her depths. I can taste her arousal.

Lucy squeals at that, and pushes strongly back against me again. “Oh jeez, you did,” she moans, “It is like a penis.”

Wishing I could talk, but not wanting to sound very silly, I instead shift my tongue to curl around inside her vagina, as a wide-eyed Lucy goes, “No... no that’s a tongue not a... holy crap...”

I slide my tongue entirely out of her, while Lucy rocks in place, murmuring, “Holy crap I’m... wanting a man in me, just like your... tongue dick.”

As I start licking along the inside of her folds again, she grunts, “Wanna... wanna dick. God, I’m fucking a... girl this’s so weird.”

When I cautiously probe her clitoris, her hips stiffen so sturdily, and the unicorn emits a squeak almost adorable enough to come from a bat pony. “You’re getting ready to have sex,” I tell her softly, pressing my forehoof into the flesh of her teats just a little. “You’re all ready for a man to put his penis inside.”

“Uhn... lick me please~” she moans, quivering.

“Wanna feel where Sue’s cum is gonna go?” I ask her slyly.

“What?” she replies breathlessly.

I smush my tongue up against her nether lips, and Lucy smushes them more, pushing back against me with heavy breaths. Sliding my tongue in deeply and decisively, a pleased murmur escapes my own voice, as I lip at her helplessly winking labia, and probe her deep within.

Yeah, that’s gotta be the cervix. It’s already kind of... openish.

“That... feels... something’s...” Lucy says, hardly able to speak from what’s happening to her in there. So with determination and a lot of practice with Holly, I squirm the tip of my tongue to wedge in Lucy’s cervix, then as she gives an intense squeal, I... stretch it wider, to force my way in. Her irony depths feel even hotter as the tip of my tongue reaches into that strange softness, while Lucy just makes these choked squeals, as if she’s trying not to make noise, but can’t .

Oh heck do I want to be her right now. Lucy’s passage is fluttering around me with the early echoes of an orgasm and I’m fucking buried in her as far as I can go. I am as wet as I can be, and I can’t even bother touching myself, it’s so important to me to make this mare feel incredible. While I squirm the end of my tongue all around the lush depths beyond her cervix, her strongly winking clit almost fucks itself against my lower lip. I reach up to stroke her nipple with a hoof again, when her inner flutters strengthen, then turn to powerful crushing clenches, as the orange/pink unicorn falls into a shivering orgasm.

Lucy soon stands there doing nothing, but within she’s clenching like a vice, flexing rhythmically around my tongue. I hold my face tightly against her rump, until I feel the flexing within start to ease. Moving my tongue strongly in her curiously quiescent womb, makes her grunt in intense surprise as the clenches pick up again, just enough to prolong the orgasm. And I’m certainly doing my best. If this doesn’t convince Lucy to give Sue a chance, I don’t know what will!

At last sliding my tongue out of her, it seems like Lucy hardly notices, though I know she does. But instead of putting it back in, I walk alongside her, to lean against her. Lucy moans and shoves her head under mine sideways, pressing her thick neck against my shoulders. Yes, I’m definitely going to say the front part of my body feels like shoulders. She continues to press her whole body sideways against me for... a while, but at last she starts to relax, and take her head back to herself.

She stares forward silently a moment, then looks to me in something between amazement and fear. “I don’t know what to say,” she says faintly, “That was... holy crap I’m a lesbian.”

...waitasec.

Author's Note

You turned your swag up too high, Meadowsweet!

To Have Loved Then Lost

After a sec, I realize that Lucy must be talking about a metaphorical thing, not becoming literally lesbian. The purple haired, pink unicorn is not talking about losing interest in men, but rather talking about gaining an interest in women. Or at least an interest in former men, who everyone says are totally girly, even though I’m like, totally not!

“Told you ponies were OP,” I tell Lucy with a shaky laugh, nudging my shoulder against her warmly, finding her still slightly quivering from that teensy little orgasm I managed to give her. I stand with the post-orgasmic unicorn surrounded by cars that some ponies may have figured out how to drive, but nobody seems to have figured out how to keep them consistently fueled.

“Is that why we have this freaky long tongue?” Lucy asks, giving me a sorta bluish eyed look, “You just... totally just... I didn’t know it would feel that good!”

“Yeah, but a guy’s penis makes him feel good, not just you,” I reply sagely, “My tongue doesn’t orgasm.”

Stepping away from me to give me a more thoughtful look, Lucy fails to comment on my wisdom. It’s not until we’re leaving through the car dealership that she speaks above the soft clop-clop of our hooves, voice heavy with excitement when she carefully says, “It’s really... incredible you know what it feels like to have a penis.”

“It’s... nice, yeah,” I admit, sparing her a shy glance, “I’d probably be a lot more weirded out by guys wanting to have sex with me, if I didn’t know what it felt like to want that.”

“W-what’s it like?” the purple haired peachy unicorn asks, blushing, “I mean... so, your penis feels really good inside a woman, huh? Felt. Um.”

“No, I remember,” I tell her, blushing. We pause at the edge of the yard out in the sunny afternoon, clouds scudding overhead as I tell my friend and... lover, I guess, “A penis feels kind of like that clitoris thing, except big and spread out, and... heavy.”

“Heavy?” she asks, looking like she already sort of understands.

“Not literally, it just feels... like it’s hanging there, between your legs, like a big weight, that needs to be relieved with sex,” I tell her, feeling somewhat jaded when I say, “And if you don’t have anyone, it just makes you feel like... going up to some girl and just start doing her.”

Lucy seems alarmed at that, so I hastily add, “Not uncontrollably, but like you want to woo her, and date her, and feel better about yourself. You’re standing there just... wanting to do some girl, and how much of a terrible person do you have to be to want that?”

“Pretty terrible, I think?” Lucy says uncertainly, “You’re basically saying all men are pigs, right?”

Sighing, I shake my head, saying, “No a penis doesn’t make you a terrible person is what I’m saying, but you feel that way. Even as a girl I look at... penises and I feel like getting that inside me, and I might be a terrible person for doing it, but not for wanting it. Because guys feel that way too, just... opposite.”

“Oh, so you’re saying arousal as a guy is just... there,” Lucy concludes, swishing her tail in a conflicted manner.

“Yeah, it’s just... how Sue feels now,” I admit, “They always say guys do it for power, or to exploit women, or out of anger, but since I was a guy I know the real reason is it just feels that good to him.” Blushing, I add, “Makes it hard to resist giving it to him. I didn’t really mean to get pregnant.”

“It’s funny, I’ve been friends with you a while, and you’ve probably been pregnant the whole time,” Lucy says with a weak smile, “You don’t seem like it. But I guess you’re getting morning sickness and everything.”

“A little,” I say cautiously, looking at my unrevealing yellow-furred rump, “I think ponies don’t have very difficult pregnancies.” My voice gets a little shaky when I say, “It’s we-eird that there’s a baby pony in me, but it hasn’t even gotten big enough for me to feel it.”

“Eleven months is a long time,” Lucy agrees solemnly, also looking at my butt. “I guess we’ll just have to find out.”

Lucy and I are working out amazingly, at least. She’s getting the hang of... oral sex, and it’s just adorable how she likes to explore around my uh, womb, even though the baby’s not big enough to feel in there yet. If I was worried about her fucking Sue though, it’s certainly becoming less worrying as I get to know her better.

Lucy’s... I don’t want to say obsessed with penis, but she likes me to shove my tongue in as if it were a penis, instead of licking her, or curling inside her or anything. I make her orgasm with my lips, and the soft underside of my hoof massaging her nipples, but as her throes of orgasm start to take her, Lucy keeps saying things like “Hoh god, I want dick,” and “He’d shove it deep and just fuckin’ do me,” or “Wanna push... my... baby outta my... hanhh!”

Suffice to say it’s going to be really easy to introduce her to Sue. Not as easy as Rachel though. No really.

“Sue, I... have a c-confession to make,” I say in a small voice, having pulled the stallion over to the relative isolation of the car dealership parking lot. He probably thinks I want him to do me here. Not that I don’t, but...

“I–I really like you,” I tell him, “And I’m sorry I just... I swear there’s nothing the matter with you and it’s just me being stupid and... extra stupid.”

Sue gives me a skeptical look, then says in his classy baritone, “...you’re not breaking up with me.”

“No! No I’m not—it’s not that,” I blurt out to the stallion’s very unimpressed tone of disbelief, “I’m just scared that y-you’re going to break up with me!”

“Why would I do that?” Sue asks in confusion, “You think you’re not amazing enough or something?”

“I think I’m...” doing something that you’ll never forgive me for except I know you will and I’m just getting scared for nothing but I don’t want to hurt you and I don’t want you to try and put on a brave face for my sake when it tears you up inside and I especially don’t want you to go kick his ass.

“You’re...?” Sue asks as I trail to silence.

“I met a...” oh god I can’t take that back. “...stallion,” I say, blushing hard, “Named Rachel.”

I shouldn’t have picked the used car lot. It’s too quiet here. He’s looking at me too quietly and I’m going to say it wrong and Sue says,

“You’re fucking Rachel?”

...

“N-no, well, I mean...” I stammer nervously, “Yes it’s just...”

“You?” Sue asks in wide-eyed disbelief, “You’re just going off and... fucking her?”

“H-he prefers to be a guy,” I stammer, “J-just hasn’t thought up a good pony name.”

“How long have you been...?” Sue asks faintly.

“...he might be the father,” I tell the stallion, staring dully downward. “I just couldn’t help it. We just got to know each other and he was so nice, and I just... we came here, and... then I made him cum inside me.”

“I don’t think you can force a stallion to cum inside you,” Sue says dryly, “Unless you are a lot kinkier than I thought. You really can just go off and fuck him on the side, no problem?”

“N-no! I can’t... it’s been really bothering me!” I tell him, “I can’t keep lying to you. I–I haven’t stayed true to you.”

“Yeah, I never thought that you’d do it,” he says, shaking his head, “You’re stuck back in the 1930’s romantically, practically.”

“W-well I do watch a lot of...”

“So what do mean he might be the father?” Sue asks, “You had sex with him before meeting me? I thought that was Nick.”

“I haven’t been with Nick!” I say hastily, at least something I can claim as virtue, “But I’ve been... having sex with Richard, ever since we came to... Ainsworth. I met him here. H-he was one of the original convention ponies I mean, but I started doing gardening with him here, and...”

“What’s it like?” Sue asks softly.

“...what?” I reply with a confused blink.

“How does he uh... compare to me,” Sue says with a nervous laugh.

It’s hard to think with all the blood in my cheeks, but I say, “Uh, um, well um, h-he’s an earth pony too so...n-not as light as Nick, but um... he’s thicker, but you’re longer u-um I mean just sometimes you really hammer at me i-in there and it gets sore and I like it but he’s not as long, but... thick. He’s... really warm...”

“Temperature-wise?” Sue asks.

“Hearted,” I conclude anxiously, “He’s really nice a-and loving, and I don’t know why he likes me and not other mares, but I’ve been trying to find him some so he doesn’t have to be... alone. I–I think you’d like him. But... it’s my fault for forcing him to, I mean, doing him without telling him I had a boyfriend, and then we just did it, and he knows now, but you don’t, but it’ wasn’t his fault so please don’t kick his ass!”

Sue blinks.

“Not that you would... kick his ass,” I tell the stallion, “You’re really cool and nice, and... I just want you to know you can... break up with me if you want.”

Sue gives me a long look, and then asks, “...can I watch?”

“I love you so much, Sue!” I moan passionately as Rachel fucks me from behind. “He feels so good! I love you I love you’re letting him put a baby in me...”

“Don’t talk,” Sue chastises me from where he stands off to the side sporting a boner that should not be left to its own. Doing nothing with it, it hangs between his legs, as he watches me get fucked saying, “Just focus on getting it done. It’s okay if you wanna fuck him now, and nothing else.”

“Oh Sue I hhh hh hhh,” I fall to heavy panting, looking off as I feel another stallion’s thick phallus filling my birth canal.

“I can do the talking for now,” Sue says, as my thought turn only to Rachel and what he’s doing to me. The other stallion stalks around us as I love him watching us, and I arch back, hungering to look sexy for him as I fuck this other man. “Still can’t believe you two can just do this right in front of me.”

No talking. No talking only fucking.

“He’s got pretty big balls,” Sue says, behind us, “Getting ready to pump his sperm into you.”

A wordless moan escapes me as I want it.”

“J-jesus Christ Sue, I’m... gonna put a baby in her,” Rachel pants, hugging my ass as he pistons in and out, “You’re o... okay with this?”

“Hey, she’s pretty sexy too, Rachel,” Sue says teasingly, “All rocking back against you, her tail all wrapped around you, her tongue’s even hanging out.”

“T-that’s...” Rachel says faintly, forgetting about everything but fucking me yess please.

“But her insides, those are beautiful,” Sue says, “Hot as an oven, sliding in and out of her. Getting ready to pump her full of your cum. I was in there Rachel. I pushed deep into that vagina you’re in, then started cumming my brains out, held her down, and put a baby in her. That’s what you’re gonna do.”

“Oh... ohh... want to...” Rachel pants hoarsely,

I moan as Rachel pushes deep and flares. Short and deep strokes, pushing up as far into me as he can, ballooning inside me. “Looks like he’s flaring, Meadowsweet,” Sue says as my tongue is hanging out and I don’t care, moaning loudly, pushing back against the stallion who I need to push in there and cum. “You’re all ready to start making his babies, looks like.”

“Yuhh—ahh!,” I manage to moan.

“Sue you gotta...” Rachel grunts, “Watch me... put a... this’s how she changes me how she... makes me put a baby in her.”

“Gonna put a baby in her, huh?” Sue asks politely, “Right here huh?”

“I’m gonna... I’m gonna...” Rachel pants, thrusting, thrusting “I’m gonna—!” thrusting deep and spurting his cum into me. I climax. How could I not? Rachel holds me as I jerk helplessly on my hooves, whinnying like an animal as his semen pumps into my convulsing cunt. I can’t do anything else I can only flex flex thrashing my head, everything rushing with pleasure, my belly swelling with semen as it starts splurting out of me.

“I-I’m done,” Rachel says pantingly as I can’t stop! “She’s still cumming... hard.”

“Can’t—! Stop—! Hnnnhnnh!”

My birth canal absolutely wrecks me for what seems like an eternity, but is in reality more like 30 or 40 seconds. I finally manage to stop orgasming around all that beautiful penis and semen, my frantic panting slowing into relieved gasps. My eyes close blissfully as everything relaxes, and I moan, “Sue it’s... inside me. I’m full of Rachel’s... semen, right now... I’m... I’m making his baby.”

“Guess you don’t need my help then,” Sue says. My eyes snap open.

“No! No please, I need you!” I declare frantically, “Please put a... a baby in me!” I force myself forward, groaning as I pull Rachel’s softening member all the way out of me, and he releases my haunches, leaving me to stumble free. I can feel Rachel’s seed pouring out of me! I have to get Sue in!

I whimper dazedly, just walking backwards to get between Sue’s legs. trying to push my needy rear into his penis, saying, “Rachel! Watch I need his babies! I need them so bad!”

“God, Meadowsweet, you’re a beast,” Sue says in awe, and I don’t even try to hold back a whinny as his hooves slide down along my flanks, just like Rachel’s. Sue’s penis flexes against me, pushes into my slippery entrance. I push back to slide him deep as his hips jerk powerfully forward. He snorts and I squeal and he’s humping hard already. My pussy is making him fuck me.

“Oh...” Rachell says at the sight of us, “Oh wow...” I try to focus on the stallion who impregnated me, but I really need to focus on just fucking right now.

“Wow, you actually... calm down a lot when he’s fucking you,” Rachel says in fascination.

“Yeah I... I... I really need to fuck him now,” I say, looking up at Rachel self-consciously, as Sue humps his penis into me, jamming it up deep and just hammering me with his need to breed me.

“Go ahead and fuck him,” Rachel says warmly, “You look so beautiful doing it. I’m so glad he was... willing to show me how beautiful you look when you’re between a stallion’s legs.”

“I’m messy,” I growl in defiance, “And dirty. And gooey. And I wannit.”

“Yeah, that’s beautiful,” he says, “Sue’s right you’re just this gorgeous beast. You’re gonna have both our foals.”

“Uhh u-uhh wish I... could...”

“It’s okay, you can fuck him now, just like you need,” Rachel assures me, “I wonder if you can talk right now.”

“W...what?” I ask dazedly.

“Well I can’t talk when I’m fucking you,” Rachel says, “But Sue’s not gonna stop fucking you, if we just have a conversation. Pretty cool how you got that freezer working, because even between all of us we only eat a cow really slowly.”

“A cow? I... can’t think about... can only think about... fucking him.”

“Oh that would make sense yeah,” Rachel says, mollified, “So... fucking him huh?”

“Yeah. In out in out ohh he’s sliding in me.”

“How do your hooves feel?”

What? “P-planted,” I tell him, planting my hooves hard and shoving back needing penis in me and nothing else, “Need to push back... gainst him... hard.”

“Your ears are back,” he says with concern, and touches the base of one with a hoof, “It’s really hitting you hard huh,”

“Yeah oh... oh jeez...”

“Try to relax,” he says, “Can you lift your ears?” His touches tingle when he teases my ears up into their upright relaxed position. A climax is swelling in me suddenly enough it catches me by surprise.

“There, you’re doing what you need to,” Rachel says, lifting my chin with a hoof, “I wanted to tell you to relax so many times, but I had to cum inside you instead, and now I can. This’s incredible.”

I try to relax but—! “Can’t stop—climaxing!” I squeak urgently, my whole body shaking at Sue’s thrusts.

“It’s okay, just do what you need to do,” Rachel says patiently, stroking my shoulder fluff as I rock there. I can’t stop—!

I pant there cumming like a statue at Rachel’s gentle strokes. As my vaginal clenches fall to a calmer bliss descending on me, I say, “Oh... Rachel...!”

Sue starts thrusting again. Rachel doesn’t bother me or him, so we just lose it to a simple in and out repetitive thrusting. Sue flares and I just pant harder, short deep thrusts pressing right up against the entrance to my uterus. We don’t do anything else, until Sue pushes deep and the first spurt of his cum rushes into me.

I lift my head, seeing Rachel still watching us with interst. “He’s -ah- cumming,” I tell the dusty orange earth pony, lifting a hind leg.

“Wow, a stallion is cumming inside you right now,” Rachel says in awe, not approaching too closely.

“Y-yeah... heh...” I say with a self-conscious smile. Spurt. Spurt. “Y-you can come closer I won’t bite,” I tell him. Spurt spurt. I realize then that’s a stupid thing to say when I just bit him, for... reasons, but Rachel hurries forward takes my chin in a hoof again, and kisses me. My eyes slide closed, spurt spurt, as my belly swells taught with his cum, spurt, spurt, spurt, spurt, spurt, spurt, until it splurts right out of me. Spurt, spurt, I kiss Rachel back hard, and with our lips pressed together, I feel a Spurt, spurt, spurt... spurt... fleeex, and Sue’s done.

We sit together afterwards, two stallions, with a heavily impregnated mare between them, who isn’t far enough along to be heavily pregnant. “We probably shouldn’t... tell Holly,” Sue says quietly.

I look at him anxiously but Rachel’s also anxious saying, “Yeah there’s... more ways it could get screwed up. It’d kill me if what I was doing ruined your relationship. I—I wish I could stop.”

“It’s awesome Meadows is... doing this for you,” Sue says. “I’ll try to find a mare for you too, but... they don’t exactly advertise for me.”

“It’s so stupid, there are so many of us now,” I say in frustration, “So that means they have to sit around, suffering too, while I get you both. I wish I could... have this. It felt so amazing. But it’s not... right.”

“Well I won’t tell if you won’t tell,” Sue says in amusement, “Just tell ‘em the truth if they ask, and otherwise... you can go find Rachel whenever you want. And maybe we can get together sometimes. Awesome that me and Rachel can give you just... two stallions.”

“Even if it’s unfair, it is pretty amazing,” Rachel says, “You had semen running down your legs. I can cum so much it’s incredible, and so can Sue, and we both did that in you.”

“I-it is pretty spectacular,” I have to admit, “I wish there were more stallions than mares. Then everyone could be just... just...” I rub my purringly plump belly. That is not my stomach. “So full.”

“Can’t have everything you wish for,” Sue says, “Tell you what, how about if Holly needs it then you’re outta luck, but you can always find Rachel. And if Holly’s good then me and Rachel can see how much semen we can stuff you with.”

“Let’s go again,” Rachel says hopefully, standing up, “I can’t cum hardly as much the second time, but I can pay a lot more attention to who I’m fucking in round 2.”

“S-stop making me orgasm just from thinking about it,” I say impishly, standing up too. We both look hopefully at Sue, and it’s not long before I’m bent over, with a pistoning cock in me, getting ready to spurt even more semen into my greedy pelvis, albeit not as much.

“Oh, l-looks like it’s... your turn Rachel,” I purr as Sue struggles to seal me by pressing his flared penis against me in there, so that none of the semen that he’s spurt, spurt, spurting into me has any chance to leak out. Between him and Rachel, there’s still enough for me to complain about how achingly stuffed my uterus is.

It’s not like I was hesitating to introduce Lucy to Sue or anything. I know they’re perfect for each other, and my insatiable marehood wanting to monopolize both Sue and Rachel’s time has nothing to do with that whatsoever. There’s no tipping point, because I wanted Lucy to be with me, Sue and Holly in the first place, and that is that.

So the tipping point happens after Lucy starts secretly stalking us. We don’t catch her, no, but I’m walking out of the dealership parking lot one day, whickering in happiness all full of both Sue and Rachel’s semen, when out of the blue, Lucy grabs my tail and pulls me aside, saying frantically,

“Meadows, c’mere! I... I need to tell you. I saw him inside you!” She’s wild eyed and worked up like crazy by this, telling me nose to nose, “Sue pushed his penis into you and held it in there while he came and came!”

“Just now??” I ask in horror.

“No, after dinner yesterday,” Lucy says earnestly, reeking with arousal as a bead of moisture drips between her legs, “Holly was with you, and Sue was cumming inside you. You don’t mean he... came inside you just now??”

“H-he did,” I say, shying back from her a little. But the pink and purple unicorn will not be denied. She zips back behind me, and pulls my tail high into the air. I look at my tail caught in the grip of her glimmering bluish magic as Lusy noses under there, saying huskily,

“Is this his... semen? God it’s even coming out of you!”

“I-it does that for a while,” I continue to stutter. “Not like it oop—!”

Her magic outright lifts me in the air then, by my side more than my tail, pushing me flat on my back and pinning my horsey hind legs wide.

Lucy pounces on top of me, horn glowing brightly, straddling me as I say, “C-c-careful if you get any inside you—!” Then she mashes her labia right up against my own and holy moley does she want it!

“Oh god his seed’s all over... me...” Lucy pants staring at her groin, “This’s happening to me... I want you to... squeeze.” I shouldn’t I shouldn’t. Something suckles at my nipples. I... squeeze my vagina, pushing out the semen that would’ve flowed out of me on its own. It has nowhere to go though, with Lucy’s entrance pressed up against mine.

Blushing hard, not knowing why I want it so much, I give into Lucy’s urges, and she doesn’t even know Rachel is impregnating her too. Why is this so hot? The gooey seed goes into her! N-not much, but.

“I—I just impregnated you!” I squeak up at the other mare, afraid to try for more. Lucy pants silently, staring at our groins. Then she jerks her vulva away from mine, standing up as she sticks her rump high in the air, while I lie fallen on my back before her. “Let me... let me in!” she whimpers. What is she...!

Then I moan as something pulls my labia apart. Oh god Lucy’s a unicorn. My nether lips are glowing in Lucy’s blue sparkling aura as she pulls me apart, and something tries to penetrate me. I feel like I should shut it out, like she could kill me if I let it in. “Please...” she whines, looking back at me with aching desire.

“You... you want Sue’s seed,” I tell her huskily, trying to deal with the feel like my labia are stroking themselves.

“I–I shouldn’t,” she says shamefully, “I shouldn’t do this. Oh god Meadowsweet, he’s in you, please...”

I relax, and then gasp and arch up as her magic surges up my entire vagina. It’s not stretching me or spreading me, but it tingles! Bracing my hind legs, I feel something pull within me, all the way up my passage. My pussy bulges open slightly, and a white blob of semen emerges from between my legs, surrounded in her aura.

Lucy stares at the floating blob in shock. “Oh god I’m doing this,” she says faintly. Then she gives me a wild look saying, “I... I want Sue to fuck me. Don’t care if he’s yours. Wannim to cum in me. Oh god.”

She whimpers, her expression growing anxious as she pushes the blob of semen against her own slit. It... vanishes within her. A second passes, until the glow on her horn fades, and Lucy says, “I... I did it. It’s as deep in me as I can go.”

Rachel would kill me if he found out.

“D-do you want any more?” I ask her, looking up at the unicorn with wide eyes.

The fear fades from Lucy’s expression as she gives me a look of shock and hope. “Please, just... take as much as you want,” I tell her blushing hard, “Go ahead and... i-impregnate yourself with it.”

“Meadows, I... I want to have a baby,” Lucy says looking at me in tremulous gratitude. She lights up her horn, “I’m gonna do it.”

Her tingly magic once more envelops my groin. “I can feel you going inside~“ I whine as the tingle slides up inside me again.

“I–I can feel you!” she states in bewilderment. “You keep... moving in there. Oh god that’s his semen just pooling inside you.”

“I don’t know what you’re feeling but—!” I say with a whimper as something pulls from within me again. “I can feel you doing it,” I groan, eyes half-lidded as I watch semen emerge from my pussy again and float over to Lucy’s. She gives an indulgent grunt as it slides into her, and her magic’s already pulling more out of me.

We pant there quietly, as Lucy impregnates herself with three more globules of diminishing size, sliding her magic all along my flesh in there to get every drop out. There’s no way to tell if she’s impregnating herself with Sue or Rachel’s foal. She thinks it’s only Sue!

“Can... can I go into your uterus?” she asks with an indulgent lip bite.

My blush speaks volumes.

“That’s your cervix,” Lucy explains nervously, “I can feel it. I could... do things to your baby if I...”

“No... it’s okay, I... I trust you,” I tell her foolishly, but truthfully. And if she does, I... I deserve it.

I have to jerk my hips up again then as her magic pulls at that thing inside me, the same place Sue likes to ram his penis up against. It’s not like Holly’s tongue pushing up to search for my baby. Sue’s magic just slides up into me without needing to jam open my cervix, making me touch my swollen abdomen with a hoof as it all begins to tingle. I’m going to Hell and I love it.

Lucy squats over me then, grunting, “Unh, yes,” as her magic pulls from within my most mysterious feeling deepest place. That does push my cervix open, as something squeezes out there, and slides up my vagina again.

“Lucy, you’re having... S-Sue’s foal,” I tell her nervously. “You’re—unh—pushing it into yourself!”

“You have to let ‘im fuck me now. Yess...” Lucy pants, as more of Sue and Rachel’s semen slips into her slit and slides within her until... she’s pregnant.

My belly actually starts receding, as Sue pulls glob after glob of semen out of me, and pushes it into her. We’re both panting, and her groin is dripping with semen now, and I don’t think she cares. As long as enough gets deep inside her.

At last I feel so empty. Her magic swirls within me, Lucy saying, “That... that’s all of it I think.”

“Can you feel my baby?” I ask hastily before she can delight her horn, spreading my legs to try to give her even better access to me somehow.

Lucy’s eyes dawn in realization and she concentrates a moment, before something pushes on me lightly in there, as she says, “There’s... a little bump there. It’s uh... tenser than the rest of your uterus. I can’t see with my magic, just feel. That’s... probably it.”

“C-can you push there again?” I ask softly, touching my belly with a hoof, “I want to feel where my baby is.”

She does, in a careful, controlled manner that Holly’s chaotic slippery tongue could never do. “So they’ve... implanted,” I say in conflicted wonder.

“How do you feel?” Lucy asks in fascination.

“I–I get morning sickness sometimes,” I tell her, “I guess my uterus is getting ready to... it already is kind of growing a baby.”

“Wow...” Lucy says, curiously caressing her magic upon my most intimate insides.

“H-hey don’t worry about me,” I tell her with a self-conscious blush, “Now you’re gonna have a little... bump in your uterus too!”

“Well now that I’m... pregnant,” Lucy says fussily, “I–I want to be with Sue again. I want in on your thing with Sue and Holly. H-he came inside me first, you know.”

“Y-yeah, that’s why I wanted to get you together with him,” I tell her.

“You wanted to get me with him?!” Lucy exclaims in shock, her magic kind of heaving me up by my insides there, “I thought you only wanted to be lesbian with me, so he wouldn’t impregnate me!”

“You know how much, it... makes you want to put his semen in you,” I tell her a little resentfully, “And get pregnant. Well, it makes me want... you to get pregnant too.”

“With how crazy ponies are about pregnancy,” Lucy says dazedly, “I wouldn’t be surprised if I was the only one left who wasn’t pregnant.”

“You’re not,” I tell her in confusion, “You’re pregnant now.”

“...oh yeah,” Lucy says faintly, her tail dropping over her semen stuffed hindquarthers.

“Maybe not!” I protest blushingly, “It might take a few tries before it h-happens to you.” I hope not. I hate how much I want her to have Rachel’s child and not even know it. “And I shouldn’t want you to, b-but I want you to have a bump inside you too. I wanna see Sue... cumming inside you.”

Lucy gives me a look, then she bodily lifts me by my groin to her face from the inside , saying, “I’m gonna make you cum so hard Meadowsweet.” She’s so intent and ruthless at it that I have to scream out her name as loud as I can, jerking my hips spasmodically at the powerful pulses inside me. And when she lays my moaning, limp form to the ground at last, I can’t help but notice she’s talking to some ponies in apologetic tones who came running up in alarm. Oops.

Anyway, Lucy takes to Sue with the enthusiasm she seems to apply to everything. Somehow she can’t believe me and Holly are okay with it, even though Holly was perfectly okay with me, so why wouldn’t we be okay with someone else? But after Sue’s finally mounted up on Lucy, rhythmically thrusting inside her, Lucy starts to relax around us. The anxious unicorn breathing deeper, forgetting her inhibitions, until she’s staring at us gladly, rather than with fear, as Sue prepares to pump his semen into her birth canal. It feels so dirty but thrilling to know that I might’ve let her get pregnant with Rachel’s cum. But if Sue keeps at it... I think he’s got the best chance here.

Lucy’s anxiety only shoots up again when she heaves against her fucking stallion and shoots me a panicked expression squealing anxiously, “It’s happening again! He’s getting bigger!”

“Y-you didn’t know what the flare is?” I ask her. Lucy faintly shakes her head. “It’s his penis trying to seal off your womb,” I tell her, “Means he’s about to cum.”

“Oh, I love it,” she moans, growing liquid-eyed, pushing back against his hips, “Does this happen every time?”

“Y-yeah,” I say fondly.

“It’s... too much I...” the orange unicorn mare tosses her mane, staring above me with her mouth hanging open panting as she plants her hooves and heaves back against the thrusts of her stallion. Sue’s hips shove close then and he pulls her against him, staring intently at the back of her head as he feels his penis prepare to ejaculate. All is still for a timeless moment, then Lucy pants a single breathy, “Hahh,” with eyes widening in shock. She sinks her head to look at me crazily, arching back against him, and deeply breathing again, “Huhh. He’s...”

“That’s it, just let him impregnate you,” I say, rubbing behind her ear, and also rubbing my own soaking wet thighs together in drunken indulgence, by proxy.

“It’s so warm...” Lucy whines, staring at me liquid eyed. “It... wait what’s...” her face drops in shock as her pupils narrow and she helplessly gasps tenser and louder, “Ah! Ahh! Ah! Ahhh!”

Lucy’s voice tightens to open-mouthed silence in that all-encompassing paralyzing pleasure of orgasm, and I can see a certain red and green bat pony on her back, sideways to Lucy with her head underneath her.

“Holly’s likes to lick me too,” I tell the powerfully orgasming Lucy, “Sue’s gonna start leaking out of you, and Holly’ll lick it all up.”

Lucy responds by snaking forward and biting my—shoulder, holy crap!

“Damn,” Sue says, as the unicorn shivers under him and I’m afraid to move because her teeth are digging into my flesh! “She is cumming hard,” Sue declares, holding his hips firmly against hers. Her breath on my neck comes hot as she breathes to the rhythm of her body contracting around the stallion over and over again.

Shakily, I take my unfettered arm and hang it around Lucy’s neck again, whimpering from the crushing pain behind her bite. She snorts, and doesn’t let go, but the pressure of her jaws lessens. She just... holds onto me with her mouth from then, until the tremors in her have settled.

After a moment, I try telling her gently, “You’re all pregnant now, Lucy. You can let me go.”

I wince as she slightly shakes her head.

“Okay, then...”

Lucy relaxes against me bit by bit, as Sue climbs off of her, worried about what she’s doing to my shoulder. Waving him off with the arm hanging onto her, I say, “No, no she just... needs to do this right now. It’s only a little bite.”

Lucy’s ears go down at that, and I stroke my free forearm down her mane as she trembles, saying, “It’s okay... it hit you pretty hard, huh. Just... take all the time you need.”

Lucy’s breathing evens out, and if she wasn’t y’know... biting me I’d think she was drifting off to sleep right there. Her silent... thing ends, when she shudders, and opens her jaws, pulling back and whimpering, “Oh god Meadowsweet you’re bleeding...”

“Doesn’t look too bad, does it?” I ask uneasily. Lucy just starts licking my shoulder with stinging little swipes of her tongue. “I have to do that when I bite myself sometimes,” I tell her softly.

When Lucy hardly responds, eyes closed as she continues to lick my wounds, I remark a little nervously, “So... I taste good, huh?”

Lucy pauses, then jerks away, stumbling backwards and falling to her haunches on the asphalt with a squish. “I... I wasn’t tasting you!” she squeaks, staring at me in guilty horror.

“I don’t see how you could avoid it,” I gripe, trying to look at my own shoulder, and not really succeeding. I sure can taste it though, when my own tongue swipes over the indentations in my flesh her teeth left, little dots of blood blooming from the fangs in her mouth managing to pierce my deceptively soft seeming hide. The blood flow’s already almost totally stopped though, so I guess it was pretty superficial.

Lucy meanwhile fishmouths a moment, before admitting warily, “...you taste more like a rabbit than a cow.”

“Hey, if you eat me, then give birth, I guess we can call it even, huh?” I ask with an awkward smile. My attempt at levity doesn’t go off very well. The next time I’m hugging Lucy while Sue pushes deep, I whisper to her, “You can bite me, if you need to.”

“M-Meadowsweet...” she says wistfully. Then she moans as semen starts to pump into her, then bites my shoulder again. Just wraps her whole mouth around the flesh of the pony hugging her, hanging on for dear life as her pregnancy becomes even more assured. She doesn’t break the skin this time, but she still licks me. So I start licking her. And Holly and Sue think it’s adorable, so I don’t really feel ashamed that Lucy and me sit together licking each other for a while.

“I dunno why I keep biting you,” Lucy says apologetically afterwards.

“You might’ve just gotten pregnant,” I remind her. Lucy’s ears droop at that, but I persist, saying, “You just gave into the urge to give birth to my little ponies. You have to do that now. I can understand if it makes you want to bite something when you feel that happening to you.”

Lucy’s kiss is much softer than her bite.

The town’s been gathering supplies for winter, even though it’s like the middle of summer. We won’t be able to grow stuff in winter, so we’re gonna need a pretty big surplus. Of hay at least. The meat is pretty much taken care of around here. A thousand ponies eating half of a quarter pound of meat every day, give or take a mouse, that adds up to 125 pounds a day, which adds up to 1 cow every 5 days, 75 cows a year, and 150 cows over 2 years. So given that cows give birth every other year or so, a herd with 150 um... female cows would totally sustain us. There are a lot more than 300 adult cows out there.

“Well I dunno how many cows there are exactly,” a dark blue earth pony mare says, who used to be a guy working at the feedlot north of town named Louis. She gazes with her bubblegum pink eyes at the cows clustered together wandering along the horizon. “But we had 50 pens, and I dunno, maybe a hundred cows per pen? So there’s gonna be at least uh...”

“5000 cows,” I say dazedly, “That’s a lotta cows.”

“Yeah uh, doesn’t seem like that much, now,” she says, as we watch the sun set over the small bunch of cows, “There sure is a lot of land for ‘em to spread out on. I’m really worried about the big cities, you know?”

When I shake my head negatory, she clarifies, “These cows were meant to be slaughtered and shipped all across the country. Now we got more than we know what to do with, but what about where we were shipping them to? Gonna be hard put to find meat in the middle of New York City.”

“Maybe that’s where everyone’s starving to death,” I muse darkly, “In the middle of cities where not even grass will grow.”

“Wish I could help them,” Louis says sympathetically. “Hope they’re not gonna come in like... armies of ponies or something, to take our cows.”

“I wonder what it’s really like out there,” I tell her worriedly, “But nobody’s come over here from... Omaha or anything.”

“A few people came from Wood Lake,” she counters, “But that place is a uh, there are like 20 people living there, so they just didn’t have enough people to keep the place going when the trucks stopped shipping.”

“They probably don’t have a creek,” I muse, “We’d be stuck if pegasi couldn’t literally whip water up into rain clouds.”

“Yeah, eating hay, rain on demand, ponies are... really good at living past the apocalypse,” she says, with a fond look at the grass tickling at her hooves.

“Except for the meat,” I point out regrettably, “I don’t know what a pony could possibly hunt in a city. Cats?”

She shrugs, looking off across the horizon, murmuring, “Maybe those cows have ranged farther than we thought.”

It’s been a mild summer I think, mostly thanks to the pegasi, and wherever they get those rain clouds from. Still nice and warm though, Lucy’s working out great, and there’s plenty of time for me to hook Rachel up before the next really big, huge, unexpected change in my life. It’s easy to do so in fact, because well... I thought I failed, but it turns out I don’t know everything there is to know about pony interaction.

“H-hey, Meadowsweet, right?” says a bright weirdly blue pegasus with a pink stripe in her blue hair, the mare fluttering down from the sky to land by my side, right when I’m heading out of town, back to the barn for lunch.

“Oh, hi,” I tell her, quite happy to pause on my way to talk with someone new, “Sorry I think I’ve seen you, but I don’t know if we’ve met.” At her conflicted look, I ask nervously, “We haven’t met, have we? I kinda forget that sometimes.”

“It was when you—I just wanted—” she stutters, shifting from left to right hooves uncertainly. “You uh... you said you know a guy,” she says, then blushes, and stammers, “I–I mean we met, when you said you knew a guy who was a stallion, and I’m sorry I should’ve said something, and I just wanted to say none of us meant to upset you.”

Blinking, I say, “Oh, right! You were with Firefly, when I...”

Oh, right.

My ears go down in shame, as the mare repeats, “I don’t think any of us wanted to upset you. It’s just hard sometimes. Being a girl who can’t... get any, and you’re getting all sorts of...”

“It’s true,” I tell her glumly, “It’s so unfair how many stallions just... wanna be ...with me. I started out with Nick, and... kind of pushed myself onto Sue I guess. It’s because I was like you at the time.”

“Like me?” she queries, incredulously.

“Not for months,” I assure her, “But it was bad even after just a few weeks. Nick wasn’t... with me anymore, and I was just getting desperate. To find a guy. I didn’t wanna get pregnant, but... y’know.”

“Yeah, I know,” she sighs, “Not much choice about it. Either be miserable, or... have a foal.”

“So I just... followed Sue and Holly,” I say sheepishly, “Until... well, they caught me, and they were offended, but Holly was just worried I’d expose them, and Sue was willing to forgive me, if I had sex with him. Next thing you know, he’s... y’know, putting babies in me.”

Wide-eyed, the pegasus mare asks, “Are you okay? He just forced himself on you?”

“Hey, it was my fault for snooping on them,” I reply irritably, “I had to just... I mean I did it because I wanted sex, so why shouldn’t he give me what I wanted?”

“I dunno, just... I wasn’t there, so I can’t say if it was bad or not,” she admits shyly.

“Well, that’s why I got two stallions,” I tell her, “I just was lucky enough to know one already. When Nick finally made love to me, I was literally the only mare in the world. Except for Twilight Sparkle, but she was... away.

“S-so it’s not like I’m a great catch or anything,” I conclude sheepishly, “Just... right place at the right time.”

“And the third stallion?” she asks, with a pained look, “You said you had an other other stallion!”

...

“Maybe I am extra pretty, or something?” I tell her self-consciously, “I’m not any skinnier than you. Um...” Pushing my butt against hers, I remark, “My hips aren’t especially wider than yours, see?” Stepping away from the surprised mare, I admit, “I don’t know what makes an attractive woman, much less a pony one. Mostly it’s just that I’m willing, I guess? I–I mean you never just hung out with Rachel, did you?”

“The gardener?” she asks thoughtfully, “I brought some rain to him once or twice. Mostly I’ve been hanging out with...”

She falls silent then, frowning and rubbing her foreleg under her chin. Meeting my eyes with striking orbs of warm gold, the mare says anxiously, “I couldn’t hang out with stallions! I couldn’t just hang out with him, because I wanted to... you know. Be with him! With guys. With other guys. I–I’m not even supposed to be a girl.”

“Oh, you used to be a guy too,” I realize with a look of sympathy. “Pretty crazy being a girl, huh?”

Blinking at me in shock, she blurts out, “You used to be a guy?!”

Ugh. Hanging my head, I grumble too cutely, “Not a very good one, I guess. But yeah.”

“Wow, sorry um... man,” the mare says cutely, just like I always do, “If it helps, I wasn’t very good at being a guy either. I never really managed to have much of a relationship.”

“That’s pretty common, just for being human, I think,” I tell her, “But I dunno if it’s more common for those of us who ended up as girls, than for those of us who stayed guys.”

“Well, a guy I met in town named Joe used to be pretty good at being a guy,” she muses, “He said his family weren’t doing all that well since both him and his wife ended up as girls.” She winces, and concludes, “I think really it was mostly just the fact that our group is all bronies, that um... I don’t wanna stereotype but...”

“When you don’t have anything going for you, it’s a lot easier to devote yourself to a fantasy,” I suggest with a wry curl to my tail, “I think a lot of unsuccessful people are really into fandoms. I’m just glad that a bunch of kissless virgins been able to tolerate each other since getting turned into ponies, and... into girls and stuff.”

“Hey, I’m not saying we’re all 2D waifu losers,” the pegasus mare grumbles, “I mean heck, I had a lot of sex, as a guy before changing into this. Just never managed to get it to the point of a steady relationship.”

“At least you know what it’s like to have sex as both a guy and a girl,” I say with comforting touch to her shoulders, “Lots of us only get to know what it’s like as a girl, since they were virgins as a guy. We know how much better orgasms are for girls, right?” My snort of laughter turns into an uncertain nicker, as I add, “Or how much longer they are, at least. I dunno, what kind of orgasm do you like better?”

She fishmouths at me, while I look back in confusion. What’d I say? The greenish pegasus blushes and turns her golden eyes away, saying, “I... I don’t know what it’s like as a girl.”

...oh. Riiight.

“That’s why I wanted to talk to you,” she says shamefully, almost sounding like she’s about to cry as she says, “I thought you might be able to... help?”

“I... can, sorta,” I tell her cautiously, “But you probably want my friend’s help. I can only use my tongue, since I don’t have a um... penis.”

Fully blushing and staring at me again, she says, “N-no, I meant with a guy! You said you could... wait” Her blush fades, as she looks at me curiously, saying, “You’ve been with... other girls? ”

“U-um, well I am with Holly and Lucy, now,” I tell her self-consciously. “There aren’t as many stallions, so since there are three of us in our... thing with Sue. Yeah, I... have been with other girls. And if you let me help you, you’ll probably be with other girls, too. Not just a stallion.”

“I wouldn’t even know where to start...” she says faintly.

“Well, you know how we have these freaky long tongues?” I suggest.

Blushing, she hides her face behind a wing, moaning, “Oh my god.”

“So um...” I say so eloquently, “I’m um... I didn’t mean to make it sound like I just wanted to have sex with you. I did say I had a guy who might be able to help you. And I’m sorry, but I am kind of trying to set you up with him. Because he needs you, so he can stop making mistakes with me.”

She looks at me in cautious hope, as I say, “It isn’t fair that I’m getting three guys, and there’s so many female ponies who can’t get any at all. I told him he should go with girls who couldn’t find a stallion, not me. But he doesn’t know any, and it’s easier if I ask for him, since you can tell me, without getting... all stallion crazy.”

“You’re trying to make me get pregnant, you know,” she says tensely, “I’m gonna be giving... b-birth to a foal, because of you.”

“Yeah, I’m a terrible person,” I say glumly, ears going down, “We’re all gonna have too many foals now, and it’s all my fault. W-what I’m talking about really will change your life forever. I know how eager he can be, and how you can... change. If we meet together, there’s a good chance he’ll have sex with you. My friends are all ending up to be mothers, because... it’s just so painful to go without. And if you try to play it safe, you just... lose it and stop playing it safe. So yeah, you’re gonna get... pregnant.”

She looks me in the eye for a while, then says quietly, “You’re imagining it right now, huh.”

“What?” I ask, blinking in confusion.

“Imagining me... getting pregnant?” she prompts cautiously, then “Giving birth?”

While I blush, she says, “You’re imagining me just... squatting there all alone in the woods, trying to push some stallion’s baby out of me.”

“No, I’m not imagining you there all alone,” I tell her with a frown, “I wouldn’t try to get you to let Rachel have sex with you, if I didn’t think he’d be with you even for childbirth. A-and I’d be there too, whatever I could do to help.”

She stares another moment, before blushing herself and turning away saying, “God, that is so wrong. I’d just... do it right in front of you too.”

“You wouldn’t have a choice,” I caution her, “They say you can’t stop it or even hold off at all when the baby’s due.”

“I wouldn’t hold off, either. I keep thinking about it,” she sighs, “I can’t stop wanting to feel what it’s like to give birth, and have sex, and I’m just gonna get pregnant, and... yeah.” Turning away, the pegasus adds, “I knew I was gonna get pregnant if I came to you, b-but here I am. Too... tingly back there to care.”

“Hey, you’re not the only one,” I whimper, my tail bobbing behind me mostly consciously. “So I could... show you what it’s like to be with another girl, if you want,” I tell her cautiously, “But if my stallion friend’s there, you’re gonna get so worked up you just um... have sex with him.”

“Not, I mean... yeah I want it,” she says dully, “Not by choice though, my body just sorta... feels like it’d feel good. I’m curious, a-and I go in. Back there.”

“If I lick you, it’ll make you want it even more,” I caution her, “Way more than if you just talked to him, until you end up doing him anyway. So it’s probably easier to just go straight to the... making babies part.”

“...well, it beats chickening out,” she says, shrugging her wings.

“Yeah it’s... really nice actually,” I say with a small smile, “Once he’s in there, you stop worrying about it, you just feel... totally fine about getting pregnant, and your body lets you do what you need to do.”

“That sounds... I mean is it bad if I say that sounds wonderful?” she says, “Is it just something girls feel? I just keep worrying about it so much, and to think that it’d all just go away, and it’d just... work.” She tries to hold back a smile, herself. “C-can you help me?” she asks, “I really do wanna do it.”

“I should be asking if you can help me,” I reply seriously, “My friend really needs someone to go steady with, and if he could save someone like you from not having any chance of having sex, I think that’d be just incredible. Your ass is powerful. It has something that can make guys feel incredible, and I think it’s a shame when someone can’t use it. S-so would you help my friend, by letting him be with you?”

“When you put it that way it makes me feel so special,” she says, turning away shyly. She looks back at me, then down, then at me again, then away.

We stand silently.

“This’s a terrible idea,” she says, swishing her tail, looking at me again eagerly, “So when do you wanna do it?”

Returning her look more pensively, I say, “I was gonna have um... sex with Rachel this afternoon, so, this afternoon, around 4pm?”

“And... I’m gonna have... sex with him instead,” she asks cautiously but hopefully.

“Yeah, you are,” I say with a smile, “I’ll be there, and you’ll just have... sex with him. And you’ll be his girlfriend then, and can keep having it as much as you want.”

“I can’t believe I’m gonna just stuff him in my...” she trails off, before blushing and blurting out, “Okay, I’ll do it. I wanna do it. Put his penis in my vagina. A-and get pregnant.”

“Okay, what’s your name?” I ask her.

“Martin,” she admits, ears going down again.

Hm... blue hair, but there’s a bright pink stripe in it. Her fur isn’t blue exactly, but it isn’t green. But she’s got those golden eyes, really striking against the rest of her.

“Maybe you could call yourself Golden Eye?” I suggest.

“...like the spy movie?” she says skeptically.

Face hoofing, I groan, “Right, that one. I dunno, just thought you might be more comfortable if you changed your name from Martin, just while this pony thing keeps up.”

“Oh, like a pony name?” she says, “I was thinking about that... how about Goldfish?”

I blink at her, while she adds, “Y’know, because my eyes are like goldfish, swimming around in me?”

“Goldfish are orange though, almost red,” I tell her, ““How about sunfish? Since you’re like the sky, and the sun’s... swimming in it?”

“Sunfish are gigantic butt ugly fish though,” Martin replies, shaking her head. “My eyes are a darker yellow anyway, more like dandelions or marigolds.”

“Marigold, how about that?” I ask, “And Mary, for a normal sounding nickname?”

“Well, it sounds kind of girly...” she says reluctantly.

“No hurry if you wanna think about it,” I tell her, “My friend’s been sticking with the name Rachel, and he turned into a guy, so he’ll have no problem with Martin.”

“Martin already is a pony name,” Martin grumbles, “It’s a big weasel type critter. Just doesn’t sound very girly.”

“So you want a girly name?” I ask her. At Martin’s heavy blush, I hastily add, “Just think about it! And if you’re not there this afternoon, it’s okay. I’ll just... let Rachel have sex with me instead.”

“Okay,” she says, her eyes distant in shock, “I’m actually gonna get a guy in my... vagina. That’s just... you really mean this afternoon this afternoon?”

“We could wait until later if—” I say, but she interrupts, saying,

“No, no that’s fine! I’ll... g-get pregnant this afternoon then, okay?”

“Okay,” I allow cautiously. “And it’s fine if you chicken out. ...you probably should.”

Nodding, she takes wing, saying, “Thank... thanks so much. I was afraid you’d be kidding, and it’s just... gonna happen! I don’t think I can chicken out. I’ll be there, don’t worry. Thanks again!”

Then she soars off into the sky. I look after her with a mixture of longing, concern, satisfaction, and of course, guilt. It’ll make her feel so good, but I can’t help but think that in eleven months... I’m not gonna be the only mare giving birth.

I have no right to tempt Martin into being pregnant, but I also have no right to moonlight between Rachel and Sue, and I can’t just leave Rachel without making sure he has someone to take my place! I shouldn’t be trying to make anyone do the thing that gets you pregnant, but I can’t help but empathize with just about everyone’s plight. One thing’s for sure, if Martin’s any indication, there’s gonna be a lot more mares giving birth in eleven months, than if I had let them stay miserable and done nothing. It feels a little evil, but... who’s gonna stop me?

That feels a little bit more evil.

Nevertheless, I regret nothing, not impregnating myself, not cheating on Nick with Sue, or Sue with Rachel, or Rachel with Nick again, not allowing Lucy to pull Sue’s semen out of me and impregnate herself, or introducing her to Sue so that he could make sure Lucy was pregnant, repeatedly. Not changing into a pony, not changing into a girl, and not changing everyone in the world into ponies. I regret none of that, when Lucy teaches me how to orgasm with just my hoof.

Humping against my foreleg while Lucy refuses to touch me, walking around my whimpering form saying, “More attention to your teats. You need to really knead at them with your frog.” It feels so good to comply, my tail hiked up in the air as I try to make sense of my growing pleasure, whimpering,

“Wanna make... milk. Milk my foal. Suck on my...”

“Get your hoof back in your cunt. You need to get it good and wet with all those juices you’re drooling out.”

I’m much more familiar with orgasm now, thanks to Holly’s wonderful tongue, and Sue’s wonderful tongue, and also Lucy’s I suppose. And the fact that I’m so goddamn horny all the time. I feel it happening, but I can’t believe it. I don’t need anyone else if I can orgasm with a hoof. I rub myself and spread myself, and grab my own tail and yank it—that actually helps! I jam my tail against my nethers, stroking the soft silky hairs up and down, while my moist frog barely touches my erect nipples before making me quiver with pleasure.

“It’s... happening!” I tell her, when it finally does. I tell her that a lot before, but I’m kind of bad at judging it. Nevertheless, this time, a horny little mare tells Lucy, “It’s happening! Oh Lucy thank you so... it’s happening! Filling... me up... oh god...”

“Time for you to orgasm,” Lucy says smugly, as a pulse pulse pulse turns into a powerful clenching that jerks my hips in glorious spasms. “Lu... Lucy! Lucy oh god!” I manage to cry out, before I topple onto my side. My upper hind leg jerks in the air; I can’t stop it because of what’s happening inside me! I pant up to Lucy as everything tingles and pulses and flows, and then she kisses me.

It’s embarassing, but so wonderful as I have to make little noises with her lips pressed up to mine, “Mmm! Mmm! Mmm!” as my body works me over. I want to continue my urgent high pitched grunts for all eternity kissing this wonderful unicorn, but my voice inexorably smooths out, “Mmm! Mmmm! Mmmm. Mmmmm...” until I’m softly mmmming, sinking into blissful relaxation, as Lucy’s tongue slides into my mouth.

I know it’s weird, but tasting each other, lips pressed to lips, exploring each other, it’s wonderful to open our eyes, our huge eyes, and just gaze into the beautiful jewels that our irises are. That limpid pool of black in the center of her emerald eyes is Lucy looking back at me. That’s her seeing me. Like a wide, yawning tunnel into her soul.

I still like Sue cumming inside me better, but it’s just awesome to have me and Holly lying there gasping in orgasm as Lucy teaches us how a real girl would do it, and shows us sometimes, herself. Lucy’s magic is amazing too. Nick never used his magic. Sue can watch his semen impregnate Holly, with the bat pony blushing in front of him as he ejaculates into the air, and Lucy’s magic guiding that semen up to where Holly’s cunt is spread, flooding into it, penetrating her cervix, and ensuring it’s all contained within Holly’s uterus, a tautly stretched bulge inside her at the end. And that’s just one of the cool tricks Lucy figures out to do with us!

You’d think she would be enough for a dozen of me, but as the summer fares on, I am utterly insatiable, and quite eager to encourage that lust in others. It’s 4pm sharp that a blue pegasus mare with a pink stripe in her hair descends to me from the sky, in the backyard of a house with a For Sale sign on the front. I know it’s 4pm sharp, because I guess ponies have a freaky sense for time, since it’s been exactly 43 minutes since I checked a battery powered clock that read 3:17pm.

“So you’re here,” Martin says, alighting on the warm grass, “And I’m here because I’m being a big idiot a-and where’s Rachel?”

“Asked him to come a few minutes late,” I tell her, “So you don’t have to fly up to this big, strange stallion and just... yeah.”

“So he’s pretty big, huh,” Martin says, folding her blue wings, and scraping a forehoof distractedly.

“Oh, I think so,” I tell her with a coy flip of my tail, “But I guess today you’re gonna be the judge of that.”

“Yeah, heh heh...” she says, wincing nervously, “Just gonna get a big... penis in me back there. Does it hurt? I mean... your first time?”

“Honestly, I think it depends,” I reply, gazing at her appraisingly, “You seem like... it won’t hurt a lot though. You’re pretty relaxed.”

“Trust me, I’m terrified inside,” Martin groans, “I’m just even more terrified of passing this up and having to sit around wondering what it’s like.”

“You’re not terrified on the outside, though,” I protest, “I was way more terrified, inside and out, and it still worked great.”

“What’s it like?” she asks, then blushes and adds, “I–I mean what’s he gonna... do you lie on your back, or...?”

“Oh, it’s like... have you ever seen dogs doing it?” I ask her.

She shakes her head.

“Well, um...” I say, walking up alongside her, “So you know how weirdly tickly your flanks are?”

“Uhm... no?” she asks, shifting a hind leg, “Just that they’re blank, like everyone else’s.”

“Oh, no that’s actually not the flank, the show got it wrong,” I say with a sorry laugh, “Your flank’s where your belly starts going under your hind legs, right here.” She squeaks and jumps up in the air when I press a forehoof between her hind leg and her belly.

“Sorry!” I call up to her.

“No, sorry it just surprised me is all,” she says, as flapping gently, Martin descends again. “I didn’t know my... flank would be so weirdly tickly.”

She pokes curiously behind her hind leg with her own forehoof, though it’s trickier for her to reach. “So he... pokes me there, with his... penis?” she asks, looking at me in confusion.

“M-maybe it’s better if I show you,” I tell her, “Turn your rear to me and I’ll... climb up on your back.”

She does so, and clumsily and uncertainly, I mount Martin. Her wings shift and slightly spread as my arm scrunches into the rear feathers that point behind her. My arms slide down her thighs into the sensuously smoothly tickly spots along her sides. She stiffens at that, as I tell her, “Okay, this is called mounting, Brian told me.” My face is hot from the bizarre intimacy of this sort of thing, but I still manage to say, “See how my... forelegs just sort of slot in next to your hind legs?”

“I-I see what you mean about flanks,” Martin says, already all aquiver with need.

“When the stallion is like this, he can just...” Well I can move my hips against hers, but that’s about it. “...put it in you back there.”

“It does feel pretty... strange,” she says, blushing as she looks back at me. “Y-you’re not as heavy as I thought you’d be.”

“He’ll only be putting about half his body weight on you,” I reply, “My friend’s a little bat pony, and she doesn’t have any problems.”

“...oh,” Martin says shyly, pushing her hips against mine, “So this’s like... pony doggy style.”

“I thought you said you’d never seen dogs do it,” I protest.

“No, doggy style, like how humans do it,” she whines, “Like... wait, is that why they call it doggy style? Because dogs do it like this?”

Blinking at her, I say, “...yes, yes it is,” trying not to imagine a stallion mounting me, while I’m mounted on top of Martin. Would that even work? This doesn’t feel... special, at least not to me.

Martin seems into it at least, so I grip her rear against me as a symbolic gesture. “When the stallion does it, he just thrusts against you like this,” I tell her in blushing anticipation, “And his dick just starts pushing into you.”

“I’m gonna feel it...” she breathes, despite my ineffective attempts at demonstrating a stallion’s thrust. “I’m gonna really be a girl, for real.”

“Couldn’t wait to get started, I see,” Rachel says, from where he’s gripping the fence with his forelegs, lifted his head up over it to look at the two of us. I didn’t even hear him come up! What is he talking about? Wait, I’m mounting this bluish pegasus.

“I–I’m just getting her used to it!” I protest, hugging Martin protectively, “If you just jumped on her, she’d have flown away, and then you’d be hanging on for dear life!”

I don’t know if it’s the scenario, or the fact that I was so offended when I said that, trying to defend my honor, but that blue haired earth pony stallion loses his grip on the fence and goes crashing down behind it, laughing his head off.

This is off to a great start.

The Game is Afoot

To recap, I’m the worst pony. I made a friend, found out she was a virgin, and promptly decided to impregnate her. And I don’t even have a penis anymore! My friend Rachel was having... guy trouble, specifically “fucking every mare he sees including me” trouble, and now Martin here’s gonna fix everything. It’s not gonna all blow up in my face. We’re not gonna run away from each other screaming and crying.

That is, if I let the actual stallion mount her, instead of doing it myself.

Well I climb off of Martin in a hurry, touch down to all fours on the grass in an empty backyard in one of the random suburban neighborhoods around here. Looking nervously to the nondescript fence, Martin says, “So that’s Rachel, yeah. I did deliver some... rain to him a few times. So he’s gonna...”

“Y-yeah, just going all out,” I tell her, eyeing the blushing mare. “Seemed like you spent enough time holding back.”

“God yes,” she groans, lashing her pink striped tail, “I don’t even care, I just... want something more than just... nothing.”

“You’re gonna get a lot more than something,” I say warningly, “You’re probably gonna walk away from here pregnant.”

“I don’t care,” she says, shaking her head slowly, “I’m just gonna do it, and not miss my chance again. God, I’m gonna get pregnant with a pony, but I’m gonna do it. I–I want it. I’m such a horrible person.”

“No, you’re not... horrible,” I say, with a sympathetic wince, “Just... horny.”

Meanwhile finished laughing, Rachel climbs the fence again then, lifting himself up over the edge, then struggling to get his butt over the top, descending to the grass beyond it. I wonder why he didn’t just jump over the thing. Martin conceals a laugh, watching him. Oh.

So placated, Martin looks at the stallion marching up to us, then looks up at the stallion standing before us. Rachel’s a tall boy...

“S-so I’m gonna have your foal, huh?” Martin says with another nervous laugh. “Wow, you seem really... healthy.”

“Pretty healthy, I guess,” he replies in that chocolatey voice of his, a tall and virile male. “I’m Rachel,” he tells this fertile female, “If you didn’t know. Meadowsweet said I was gonna be with someone today, instead of... her.”

“I’m... Martin,” the blue pegasus says shyly, looking to her wing instead of his way, but with a smile on her face. “W-was thinking about changing it though.”

“To what?” he asks, as I too look at her curiously. Has she decided on one yet?

“M-maybe it’s kind of a bad time,” she says hastily.

“No, no it’s fine. We’re um... getting to know each other,” I say. “But I did say Rachel wouldn’t mind if you were called Martin.”

“Actually I was thinking of changing my name too,” Rachel says. “How about Dusty?”

“Dusty?” I ask, looking at the blue haired, dusty orange stallion, “Why Dusty?”

“‘cause my fur’s kind of dust colored, and it sounds like a guy name?” he replies, “And I’m digging in the dirt a lot.”

I nod appreciatively, while Martin blurts out, “How about Bubblegum Comet?”

We both look her way, as she hastily explains, “Because I’m um, blue, so you can’t see me against the sky, but this really pink stripe,” she waves her tail, “Looks like a comet from above. I guess?”

“Better than any of my ideas,” I tell her, “But could you be okay with people calling you Bubblegum?”

“I like it,” Rachel—er—Dusty says, “Sounds like Bubblegum Crisis.”

“Oh jeez, I thought I was the only one who knew about that anime,” says Martin—er—Bubblegum, the mare now pink, not just in her mane and tail, but her cheeks too.

Closing his eyes with a sheepish smile, Dusty says, “I’m kind of a huge anime fangirl.” He then adds more seriously, “But you don’t have to be one just to know about Bubblegum Crisis. That’s one of the best anime ever made! I bet even Meadowsweet has heard of it.”

“I’m more of a movie buff than anime specifically,” I say apologetically, “But it does sound like something I might want to watch!” Wincing, I add, “You know, if we ever have regular electricity again.”

“We should get some kind of a drive-in theater going,” Bubblegum speculates, “I bet that’d use less electricity than everyone having a TV.”

“Trot-in?” I suggest. She laughs at that.

“Well, right now I’m not worried about it,” I say with a grateful smile, “Because you two are gonna be doing something way more fun than watching movies.”

Blushing heavily, the pink striped pegasus named Bubblegum says, “Y-yeah you’re just gonna...” She looks up at the orange furred, blue haired stallion with a nervous smile, her voice trembling as she tries to say casually, “Just gonna start having... sex with me, huh?”

Dusty’s silent at that, so I say, “He... kind of needs to. If you don’t stay with him, he’s gonna have to... do it to someone else. Y-you seemed like you were really suffering from it, so if one of us has to get pregnant, if it’s you, at least we can help you feel better.”

“Is that why you came to my um... g-girl group?” Bubblegum asks me unsurely. “Just to make us feel better? ”

“Well... yyyyeah, sorta?” I say raising an uneasy hoof.

“T-thank you...” Bubblegum says, tears coming to her golden eyes. “This has to be the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me,” she says, “Nobody ever just... found me a girlfriend, or a boyfriend.”

“Well, I dunno about nice...” I say cautiously, “You’re gonna have a baby now, y’know.”

Bubblegum nods, wiping off her eyes.

“Meadowsweet’s crazy nice, for what she’s doing,” Dusty says wryly, “She could have two guys, and me all to herself, but instead she’s just giving me to you.”

“I could not!” I protest, “No way I could have sex with you, enough! You’ve been putting babies in lots of mares around town, just to... satisfy your need!”

“H-how many?” Bubblegum asks worriedly.

After a pause, Dusty mumbles, “Five, so far. None of them wanted to do it more than a few times though.”

“How... were they?” Bubblegum asks self-consciously, “A-any different?”

“Some, yeah,” Dusty says carefully, “There was a unicorn named Cindy who totally did the magic horngasm thing, when I started uh... putting a baby in her.”

Bubblegum stiffens at that.

“Hey,” Dusty says unhappily, “Maybe we shouldn’t...”

“No! Please, I...” Bubblegum turns her rear his way, lifting her tail out of the way, winking almost immediately, “I don’t know what I’m feeling. It... it just needs to go in there. J-just a little, please? I just want to feel it a-and you’re gonna... make me preg... please I need to feel it.”

Dusty’s tongue shuts her up pretty quickly. She stiffens at that, her wings snapping out, so I tell her, “Don’t move! Just let him do it. It’s okay, just enjoy it. I–I love it when he does that to me too.”

The pegasus mare stands stiffly still at first, until her wings slowly fold and she starts rocking against Dusty’s artful minstrations. “I’m not just enjoying it...” she says in shock, “It’s... flowing through me. My hips are taking me over! I can’t... get erect I can’t think—!”

“Don’t think!” I counsel her as she looks at me anxiously, “You don’t have to think. You’re just... getting a baby in you now.”

“Getting a... a baby in me...” Bubblegum says, shivering as Dusty tastes within her, staring forward, “No... no penis... just that vagina... I–I feel strange.”

“You’re just turning into a female,” I tell her, “In your head I mean. You don’t have to be Martin anymore, or Bubblegum. Just be this... female who’s getting a baby in her, and nothing else. That’s what your body needs you to do right now.”

That seems to cut out the last of her anxiety, and it isn’t long before her eyes are half lidded, staring forward, her husky panting growing more urgent, until she shudders and declares, “Ahh! I think I’m... gonna! I–I can orgasm?!”

She’s looking at me when she blurts that out, so hoof lifted, I reply, “Yes?”

“No I... I can’t... I could never... Oh god nobody ever licked me before! It just... keeps getting... bigger!” she declares intensely, “H-how do I orgasm? I don’t even have a... it’s just... filling me up...!”

“It lasts about a minute,” I tell her, “For me at least. Just let it happen, and once it starts... that’s how long before it’ll let you go.”

“I love this!” she practically sobs pushing back shamelessly into Dusty’s muzzle, “I haven’t been able to... it’s been months! Oh god it’s happening! Ahh! Ahh! Ahhh!”

“Dusty!” I call out to the stallion, “Mount her, now!”

“Ahhh?!” Bubblegum squeals, looking back as Dusty pulls his mouth free of her and heartily mounts her. The base of her tail jerks as his forelegs slide down along her flanks and Bubblegum faces forward, the bluish furred pegasus panting frantically as she stares off, feeling him back there.

I catch her chin in a forehoof so she meets my eyes, telling her, “You’ll orgasm when he penetrates you. It won’t be long.”

“He’s gonna... put a baby in me,” she says faintly to me. Then she stiffens as her wings half spread again, the mare declaring, “I feel him! Sliding against me!”

I hug her head, trying to keep her calm, as I tell Bubblegum, “Just let him do it. Your body needs his penis now. You need to orgasm. You... you need to get pregnant right now.”

“It’s touching my... oh god he’s gonna put it in. Oh god it’s stretching—!” she declares, lifting her head and stiffening in my embrace sitting there on my haunches beside her.

“It’s okay, just let it happen,” I console the mare, as Bubblegum’s eyes roll back and her hot breaths huff out of her mouth. To her urgent moans, I tell her, “That’s it, get it nice and deep.”

Bubblegum whimpers, and Dusty just holds inside her for now, so I back up from her so she can focus on her own breeding more. I don’t think she could run away now. I ask the mare, “Are you okay? How are you doing?”

Panting harshly, Bubblegum stares at me and replies, “I didn’t think it would be this different! I don’t have a penis! It’s just... going into me!”

“That’s your vagina,” Dusty says wonderingly, as his hips come to rest flush against Bubblegum’s ass, “You can feel me with it. Can’t stop me pushing into you.”

“That’s where he’s gonna cum,” I tell the mare, rubbing myself urgently with my own tail, wanting to be her, wanting his cum to pour out of her, growling, “I wannit to happen to you,” to the panting Bubblegum, “You’re getting pregnant.”

“Why’m I letting him do this?” Bubblegum asks herself anxiously, staring forward with narrow pupils, “I need him in me! Oh god it’s just taking me over. ”

“Just... just let it happen,” I pant at the rising tingle in my own thighs, “You’re doing great. Just fuck him now, hard as you can.”

“It’s sliding... oh god I can’t stop...” then she looks at me and urgently squeals, “I can’t stop orgasming! H-hold me! Please! I need...!”

I scramble forward again to return that sort of comforting embrace, breathing beside me, her whole body stiffening as Dusty thrusts into her, Bubblegum declares, “Oh god it’s so... big... ”

“Let it fill you up,” I tell her, “Let it—” and then she abruptly jerks in my arms, suddenly moaning in hot grunts,

“Uh! Unh! Uh! Unh!”

“That’s it,” I tell her, as Dusty can no doubt feel it too for how he pushes deep and holds tight to her, “It’s better when you can orgasm around a penis, huh? Just focus on orgasming now.”

“Need to—need to–need to—” she tries to say before just gasping in shallow breaths, hunching forward into my arms and relaxing into her orgasm.

“You’re a quarter of the way through,” I tell her encouragingly.

“A quarter–!” she manages to declare, and I don’t actually know how long she’s gonna orgasm. Not like I timed it before.

“Yeah, ponies go for a while,” I tell her, releasing her to stand beside her, “Males too.”

“Feels good to squeeze around me with your vagina, huh?” Dusty asks his mare in lusty amusement, “It’s making me wanna cum in you, you beautiful female. Just relax. You’re doing great, Bubblegum.”

“H-halfway by the way,” I tell her, as long as I’m lucid enough to keep track here.

“Half...!” she whimpers, and even her wings are twitching with the need to convulse around that man-pole inside her.

Bubblegum lasts a little longer than a minute actually, and towards the end she’s totally lost in in, moaning harshly, “Don’t wanna—stop—never wanna—stop—don’t wanna... unnh, it’s... it’s... I can’t... it’s stop... stopping. Oh god... I can’t even...”

She opens her eyes from where they were scrunched shut, to look at me worriedly. And then her irises shrink as Dusty starts fucking her.

Soon, sweat trails down both of their sides, while they stare forward intensely, but distantly. The pegasus mare is undulating against his thrusts by now, her mane drooping limply around her ears. The sheen of sweat shines on her face as she heaves for breath, to pump him harder and faster and more. Her wings are beating irregularly as if to take off or just fluff up or something. He doesn’t seem to mind them as she thrusts her hips back, just strokes his penis to culmination with that vagina inside her.

“I’m... changing,” Bubblegum murmurs harshly once words come to her again, turning her head down, rocking against him with powerful intent. “Something’s happening to me...” she continues, “I can’t explain it.”

Lifting her chin with my foreleg so she can meet my eyes, I smile at the golden eyed mare encouragingly, saying, “You’re just going full girl, that’s all.”

She stares at me with those half-focused golden eyes, rocking passively, then says, “I love you, Meadowsweet.” Just... says it. Not like she doesn’t care, but as if it was a statement of unequivocal fact. I–I–I’m backing up and blushing now.

“I need him... to put a baby in me,” Bubblegum says huskily, “So I’m gonna just have sex now.” And with that, she ignores me, until they’re both ignoring me and fucking so powerfully I don’t want to say anything on the off chance that it would somehow pull them out of this lusty trance. Then Dusty’s thrusting takes on a different character, short and deep. I think he’s flaring in her. I just can’t resist.

“He’s flaring in you, Bubblegum,” I tell the barely responsive mare. “You don’t have to talk, I just want to tell you. That means he’s about to cum. You’re gonna be a mother, Bubblegum.”

“W-what is it... like...” she whimpers intensely, struggling to focus on me with those liquid golden eyes.

My own ruby red eyes widen when she asks me that so plaintively, and a smile grows on my face. “You’re gonna feel these hot, slimy bursts of semen,” I whisper to her indulgently, “Right up into your womb.”

“Feels so good, Bubblegum,” Dusty murmurs in ecstasy up back there, “I’m putting my seed in you... unhn. Hnn. Nnh—!”

Bubblegum stiffens then, and Dusty’s perfectly still when his penis starts pumping into her. Arching back at the feeling, Bubblegum gazes fixedly at me while it happens inside her. “It feels... it keeps shooting... deeper,” she says tensely, “That’s gonna... make me pregnant?”

“Yeah, that’s his semen,” I admit apologetically, “Should start overflowing now... Dusty was kind of pent up today.”

“It...! It is~!” she says in a joyful whine, “I can’t... it’s getting...” she lifts a hind leg, then gives an “Ooohg!” as it just bursts out of her.

This’s what happens when Dusty only ruts me twice a week or so.

Bubblegum stares with fascination between her legs as his seed pours out down her belly, puddling on the ground, and inside her, she’s feeling the pulses of semen decidedly, unquestionably impregnanting her maybe.

She lifts her head then, and grinds her ass back against his groin with a silly grin and a satisfied, “Ahhh. I’m so fulla... semen. I’m gonna have your baby, Dusty.“

“Yeah, I got as... much in you as I could,” he says insecurely, “S-sorry if you didn’t want it.”

“How could she not want it?” I ask incredulously.

“Ask her in eleven months, and she’ll tell you,” Dusty says in an unamused tone, with kind of a guilty tilt to his ears.

“I’m getting—pregnant,” Bubblegum repeats to herself in disbelief, folding her wings and shifting her rump against the stallion, “I feel... it’s just heavy in there,” she mutters, “And... and warm and I dunno. I feel so full and f-fuzzy headed. This is normal?”

I tell her, as Bubblegum look at me in a plaintive daze, “It’s just like with me and my friend Holly. Your eyes are dilating now, and you’ll start sort of wanting to hug people and be close to them.”

From pinpricks, to full, wide ebony orbs, surrounded by gold, she gazes at me in confusion, saying, “My eyes are dilating? You look so... soft and haloy.”

“Yeah,” I say, smiling at her, “You’re relaxing and just... accepting his seed into your body, I guess. It’s just changing you to be more like a mother.”

“God, I feel so weird,” Bubblegum breathes with a blissful smile herself as she stands there on all fours, happy as a clam beneath the big stallion who weighs heavily down on her, “I’m changing...”

Bubblegum looks amazing right now. Her whole attitude is shifting, as her mind floods with satisfaction. Even their scents, his is one of supreme success, and everything about her is changing to scream impregnated female. Or whatever females smell like after they get the impregnation process started with a ton of semen inside.

Dusty climbs off of her then, and Bubblegum gasps, “Oh—you’re sliding—you slid out, that’s so wonderful!” And she just rolls on the grass in joy, thanking Dusty, “Oh, I’ve been needing this for months. You just gave it to me, you wonderful... stallion. I was just needing it so bad it hurt, and now everything is wonderful!”

“Just wait until your second or third time,” I tell her, wryly.

“How many times is this gonna happen to me?” she declares in pleased astonishment, holding in Dusty’s seed with her forehoof, and squirming her thighs around it.

“I’ll make you pregnant... eventually,” Dusty says with a tinge of regret, “I never can manage to stop. But we can do it any time you want. And Meadowsweet’s been doing her absolute best to make sure you’re gonna wanna do it with me, instead of going to another stallion.”

“Another stallion?” Bubblegum asks, staring at him in bug-eyed incredulosity.

“Hey, it could happen!” I protest nervously.

Bubblegum rolls to her feet then, and trots forward to press her head against Dusty’s chest, saying, “I’m so incredibly lucky to have even one chance, I’d never give it up just like that.” Then she... continues rubbing against him and nuzzling with him, simply allowing the semen he deposited in her to ooze out of her vulva and drip down between her hind legs.

I hurry after, and sidle up to the other side of her, as Bubblegum looks at me curiously. “You’re feeling really good about... touching other ponies right now,” I tell her, “So you get to be in the middle.”

“I could kiss you, Meadowsweet, you’re incredible!” Bubblegum says joyfully. So I curl my flexible neck to turn my head and kiss her. She’s surprised, but she doesn’t object. And then Dusty moves back to eating her out, so she really doesn’t object.

With all the mares to be found in the world now, it turns out to be surprisingly troublesome finding a second mare for Dusty. I guess we got lucky with Bubblegum. A lot of the others are either hostile to the idea of sharing, or treating it like some kind of competition. I can definitely tell you Dusty shuts that down right away. I sure wouldn’t want to date the mare who tricked my other mares into thinking I was mad at them, or the one who had sex with me, just so she can tease them about how much I don’t care about them anymore. Yeah Daphne is a total bitch.

But I can imagine we’d find that mare, and even a third for Dusty. Then I could be true to my real boyfriend, Sue, instead of having to take care of Dusty too. Our whole society could continue to recover. Maybe they’d get trains working again even out in the boonies here. I think I saw some tracks covered in grass outside of town. We’d get electricity and grocery stores, and stuff like that working again.

I’d bear Sue’s foal, and I’d discover that the hard part begins after you’ve given birth to the little monster. I’d have a family, and maybe get a job to provide for them, once money starts working again. I’d be with Holly and Lucy for their births, and help babysit their foals so they could do whatever they do. We could help each other raising our foals like a proper... close-knit group, which totally isn’t a herd.

I don’t think we’d ever get changed back, even if it was possible, for our children’s sake. They’d be real ponies, and I sure want to be a pony for any children of mine. We’d stay ponies, our kids would mature, then one day my daughter would come home with a stallion, and a foal growing in her belly, ready to make me a grandmother. And we’d never hear from Twilight Sparkle ever again.

Or, the government could come save us from that terrible fate.

Dawn stands at attention, or rather sits at attention, sitting up stiffly straight on her haunches, and announcing to the group, “The uh, M-major General is here with some very important news. I just want you to know that I verified the chain of command, and I’m pretty sure this is the real deal. S-so I just want to introduce uh, him and... here he is.”

Dawn is the member of the military, who inadvertently set off the destruction of humanity, by pushing Twilight Sparkle into getting us to cast that spell, which was supposed to open a portal to Equestria, but... didn’t. It really didn’t. Dawn was in our group, but left to... deal with the military, who were struggling to hold together with everyone changed into a pony.

And now she’s back. The whole group’s gathered here in the barn, with her standing up on an improvised stage composed of some large boards, crates, nails, and a sheet. Dawn’s fur is as blue as the early morning. She still has her orange mane kind of disturbingly cut short, and even her tail’s in a bob. Her mane’s mostly covered by a... brown baseball cap on her head, that seriously doesn’t fit.

And standing behind her is a ... well a “Major General,” whatever that is. Amazingly enough the general has a stiff blue jacket on. Was that custom sewn? It’d have to be! There’s a... award holder attached to it that goes on military jackets, except it’s kind of dangling down below her barrel, where it’s attached to her chest under there. I guess that works because when it hangs down, it faces forward, so we can all see the whatever it is. It’s a square... thing with colorey squares on it.

The general’s fur is a bright, cheery pink, and her hair is a soft purple, also cut short, and she has two large, red eyes, paler than mine, and blending with her fur a lot better than mine. She’s got a nubby little horn poking out of her head...

...and she’s about a head shorter than Dawn.

Ponies have really big heads.

“Thank you, Sergeant,” the cute little pink filly says in a squeaky soprano, stepping up as Dawn backs off from introducing her, then hollers to the crowd, “Okay! I’m Major General Carey you may have heard, and I’m here because your country needs your help! The Terrorist agent known as Twilight Sparkle has committed a heinous crime on our soil, and she is still at large. She is a dangerous and unstable criminal, who may yet do harm to us all, and she must be brought to account for her crimes!”

I try to listen carefully, but I’m just too busy along with half the room trying not to audibly squee at the filly’s boisterous, and completely adorable behavior. “She’s probably an old man,” I tell myself, “Probably a chain smoking womanizer, with over a hundred confirmed kills.” Oh god, it’s not working!

“You are the lucky few who have trained under Twilight Sparkle,” the filly says, puffing her chest out proudly, “And you are the best hope we have of applying that research and development, verifying its safety, and helping us put it to use to track down this dangerous criminal who...”

Wait, what research and development? Was the General saying something important earlier that I missed? Gosh I wish she’d kept her hair long. I bet the General’s mane would look so adorable with a big pink bow in it. Does everyone in the military have to cut their hair short? I don’t know much about the military at all. All I know is since I’m male, I had to register with them in high school to fight in the army if they decided to start drafting people. Holy crap, like everyone in the military is gonna be female now!

“Twilight thinks she has us beat,” General Carey says in an offended pout, “She thinks she can do whatever she wants, and there’s nothing we can do to stop her. But we have intelligence that combined with your help can certainly put an end to her mad orgy of”

Oh jeezus christ the filly just said orgy. I bet she knows what an orgy is. I bet she was in an orgy. Like she went to a brothel in some foreign land, as a guy, and just womanized all over the women with all the military budget. What’s she gonna do now? Is she gonna... go to a playground, and bully all the other little foals?

I dunno what powerful old men do, if they’re cute little fillies. Is she gonna work at the brothel? Or is that defeating the purpose of womanizing? Can she even do anything like that? It’s not possible for little girls to do that stuff, I’m pretty sure, since they haven’t done puberty or anything. I don’t know what all the adult foals are doing about their existing sexual relationships. Should I ask Lily? How would I even ask someone about that?

“Twilight Sparkle didn’t show you how to get to Equestria,” the filly continues, her accusation of the mare hanging above the crowd she faces, “She deceived you, and taught you something else entirely. But what she did teach you was powerful, and I think we can use that knowledge to completely undo her schemes. Twilight Sparkle didn’t come out of thin air. She had to come from somewhere. And what if I told you there is an Equestria, and she’s a known criminal there?”

Okay, now my ears swivel forward in attention.

“Twilight Sparkle is a wanted criminal even in her own country,” the Major crows proudly, “She thinks herself untouchable now. How could we possibly extradite her to face justice on her own land, if we couldn’t open a portal to Equestria?”

Strutting back and forth on the improvised stage, the cute little filly chirps, “Twilight Sparkle never intended to let you do that, because she knew her people wanted to bring her to justice. She escaped to our world using powerful magic that she thought no one else could possibly perform. But with your help, I believe her arrogance will be her undoing!

“I’m here to invite you,” the filly says confidently, “As military contractors, to help us decipher the secrets and mysteries behind the origin of Twilight Sparkle. It’s completely voluntary. Anyone who wants to stay here and do nothing, that’s your perogative. But if you come with me, you’ll be working at a top secret base, where we have positive proof of the existence of Twilight Sparkle’s native land. We are in open communication with the authorities there, and we stand a chance on ending this cartoonish fiasco that’s taken our world by storm.”

Her adorable glower fading to a look of wonder, the general says, “Make no mistake, Twilight Sparkle is not the only thing we stand to gain here. We stand poised to enter a new golden age of humanity, if we can de-cipher this strange technology of theirs they call magic! You can help us discover the secrets of these ponies. You’ll participate in the most in-depth study of magic in the world, teaching you everything we’ve managed to learn from the Equestrians, and giving you the chance to achieve your true potential. Even the least of you, even our best and brightest desperately need your training, just for how to function from day to day, while we’re all like this.”

Giving us an even, confident look that hints at a strong soul beneath that filly’s eyes, she says, “With any luck we can work together to put the final nail in Twilight Sparkle’s coffin. I believe we can open a portal to Equestria, and unlike that manipulative monster, I’m confident we can prove it to you, so that you will know you’re doing it right this time. This’s your chance to be a hero, ponies. To make right what was wrong. To save humanity, and to send Twilight Sparkle screaming back to the pit she crawled out of.

“So who’s with me?!” she squeals.

Just about everyone joins me in cheering.

“Talk with me, or any of my subordinates,” the filly says, blushing at the resounding um... hoof stomping applause, “And keep in mind this is a very big committment. Once you sign on, you’ll learn secrets that we can under no circumstances allow Twilight Sparkle to know. We’re gonna do our absolute best to keep her from finding out about our little operation, so be ready to keep some secrets if you join us.”

...

Well, holy mackerel! This is incredible! They have open communication with Equestria? Maybe even Princess Celestia?? Is she teaching them magic? Why doesn’t she just open a portal here? I don’t even have to worry about answering that question, since we’re gonna learn all those secrets, and more!

The government came back with this incredible message in an even larger convoy. Instead of supplies, they have... room. Vans full of empty space, and cushions, with all the back seats pulled out. Probably not the safest way to travel, but I don’t think we’re gonna find 136 child’s booster seats. One-hundred thirty-six being the official count of how much of us from the original group who are left, apparently.

There are... humans here, again. They’re conspicuously the only ones in this convoy carrying guns, though many of the pony soldiers have some sort of bludgeoning, or slicing weapon strapped to them. I don’t know exactly how they’d use them, but I bet they’ve been working at it a while. The military ponies all seem to move around and walk a little clumsily but not terribly. I’m not sure what I could teach them, but they’re willing to let me try!

I could make a difference! Finally! After all this paralyzing confusion, no idea of how to move forward, feeling like I’m just running in place, getting nowhere. I could help research pony magic! I could even maybe get to try to figure out the little things that I can do. I might not be magical like a unicorn, but I’m sure something I’ve learned about myself would be useful to them! I might even be able to see Twilight Sparkle again!

It would beat hanging around town and teaching people to pony dance.

“They want to study magic! How cool is that!” Janice outright cheers to me later, “I bet they’d love this subdivision thing!”

“Don’t forget the actual spells we know,” Lucy points out, the two unicorns looking excitedly between each other, “It’s not just wishful thinking!”

“It’s more like wishful searching,” Janice says, as she lights up her horn, “Once you know where you want it to go, you pull it that way and...

“Bam!” Janice shouts, as the space above her gives a burst of white light, like a camera flash.

“Not just studying, but training,” I point out, “We’re gonna be learning how to better at being ponies, even if we can’t cast fancy spells or fly.”

“Yeah, like how you walk so silently,” Lucy says appreciatively.

“I do?” I reply in confusion.

She gives me a look.

“I–I mean I guess I can walk... kind of silently?” I tell her nervously lifting a hoof, “All I’m doing is landing um... softer. I hadn’t even thought about it before.”

“Well if it’s a subconscious reflex, it isn’t one that I share,” Janice says, rolling her eyes, “I can’t walk into the room without a big clop clop clop.”

“I really don’t know that I’m doing anything special,” I tell her skeptically, “I’d be happy to show you how to do it though, if I am even doing anything.”

“And that’s the stuff science could study,” Janice says excitedly, “Instead of just teaching it, we could actually figure out how we work!”

“We’d be helping defend our country, too!” I cheer back, “And we don’t even have to be soldiers, and they’re still gonna train us!”

“Seems too good to be true,” Lucy says somewhat worriedly. “They were the same guys who were locking us up before.”

“They’re ponies now,” I assure her smugly, “Back then, they were afraid we were gonna give them some kind of pony disease. And those guys were doing that illegally. Real soldiers help people, and defend others from danger.”

“Hey, if they try anything, I’ll let loose a shock spell big enough to knock ‘em all out,” Janice says, pawing the ground, “I’d like to see them try locking any of us up again.”

“Plus we have children now,” I say, thoughtfully, “Most of us... I mean, no offence but I’ve been uhh... pregnant for a month now, and they’re gonna have to treat me nicely or they could end up hurting an innocent foal, too!”

“Oh, yeah, right... foals,” Janice says, looking without satisfaction at her own midsection.

“You wouldn’t happen to want a foal, would you?” I ask hopefully.

“Meadows!” Lucy exclaims to me in outrage. What?

“Oh. No,” Janice replies, with a sideways look my way. “No not that. Not me. No no no no. No no no. No. Definitely not.”

My ears go down, but you don’t have to tell me a fifteenth time. I’ll just have to find somebody else to... take that risk with Dusty.

Lucy, Janice, lots of unicorns are excited, since they get their well deserved position in the spotlight, and some understanding of the mysteries surrounding their horn. Dusty is totally cool with it. “How much you wanna bet they don’t even have a garden growing at their base? We earth ponies might not be super magical,” he tells me confidently, “But I think we’ve got more to show them than they expect.”

“Plus we can help our unicorn friends,” I add cheerfully, “I’m sure everypony will play their part!”

“Play their... oh, heh,” Dusty says, smirking at me for some reason.

He stops smirking.

“A-anyway yeah, I’m ready to show my stuff,” a flustered but hopeful Dusty says, “Finally, a chance to make a difference!’

“Finally!” Sue says, “A chance to kick Twilight Sparkle’s ass! ”

Sue’s even more enthusiastic about this than Dusty! I listen with bated breath as Sue says heatedly, “She thinks she’s so hot, that no one could find her, but I bet our unicorns’ll be able to figure out wherever she is, and then she’s got pegasi and bat ponies all zeroing in on her location.”

“Or even fighter jets!” I add, “Maybe people could get those working, maybe even the humans could!”

“We’re all human,” Sue says resentfully, “Twilight was the one who made me this stupid horny stallion, and then tricked us into helping her, then laughed and cheesed off!”

“Oh, r-right, you used to be a girl,” I remark to Sue somewhat reservedly, “I forgot about that.”

“Seriously?” Holly cuts in, the red and green bat pony looking at me in surprise. Then her surprise deepens as she says, “Oh that’s right, you used to be a guy, too!”

“Yeah, well sorry for not being a responsible guy pony or anything,” Sue says caustically, before I can stop scrunching long enough to form an angry reply to Holly’s surprise. “But I just wanna see the look on Twilight’s face when we undo all the stuff she did, and I can be myself again.”

“We’d be the ones making you pregnant, then,” I tell her uneasily, “I–I mean not that I would, but...”

“Yeah, you wouldn’t,” he says, looking down at me, “I’d go back to my old life where I... got together with my old friends, and...”

“...not me,” I conclude.

“Meadows, we’d never abandon you...” Holly says, putting a hoof on my shoulders, “You’re an amazing person! E-even if you turn into a guy. I mean I guess I could be attracted to you, then.”

“Well I don’t know how I’d feel about you as a guy,” Sue tells me, sinking his head anxiously, “I don’t even know what you look like as a guy! And I mean I’m... not really used to getting fucked anymore.”

“I was all alone,” I tell her unhappily, “No one to really be with at all, until Twilight came and... screwed me over. I wanna stay with you, a-and Dusty... and I’m afraid of what’ll happen when we’re all a bunch of... guys with a few girls.”

“Well... I’m not gonna change back right away,” Sue protests, shifting nervously from hoof to hoof, “Mostly I just wanna get Twilight back for fucking with us.”

“You and me both,” Holly groans, “I can’t believe she’d do that to us! All of us!”

“Yeah, well... you join a bat pony flying squadron, or whatever,” Sue tells Holly, tossing the brown mane on his head to smile jauntily at her, “And I’ll always be there to celebrate when you land, if you know what I mean.”

Holly blushes, than says hesitantly, “Let’s... celebrate right now. You uh... can handle it, right?”

“Sure thing,” Sue says proudly, “I didn’t cum at all yesterday, so I’m ready for both of you.”

Giving a luxurious stretch, Holly looks at him with half lidded eyes and says, “Well... I dunno about changing back, but I’m definitely feeling like being a girl right now.”

“You go first, then,” I tell her gladly, “I love seeing you be a girl.” Looking up at Sue, I add, “And I love seeing you be a guy. And by the time you start... impregnating her, I’ll be so full of love, I won’t even slightly be able to resist.”

“And that’s Meadowspeak for you’re gonna get horny too,” he proposes. At my nod, Sue says, “Okay then, let’s go... be guys and girls somewhere.”

“I know just the place,” Holly declares, “I found it flying around here.” With an excited hoof dance before Sue, she squeaks, “Ohh I love how you’re just gonna do it to me! I never had a girl who ever felt like I do!”

“Lead the way then, princess,” Sue says wryly. Holly blushes at that, but doesn’t stop smiling, and quickly turns and leaps into fuzzy green leathery winged flight.

Later that afternoon, I’m just purring internally for what Sue did, soon as he got inside me. Nothing creative, but something very, very satisfying. I spot Nick then and hurry over to him, saying joyfully, “Hey Nick!”

“Oh hey there Meadowsweet,” the purple haired, grey unicorn says, looking my way.

“Pretty incredible, huh?” I ask him eagerly, “They’re even letting the earth ponies come along! This’s gonna be the start of a great adventure.”

“You’re not seriously considering going with them, are you Meadowsweet?” Nick asks, looking utterly horrified.

“We’re... all going with them,” I say uneasily, looking his way sideways a little, “Aren’t we?”

“Are you retarded?!” he exclaims in alarm, staring at me in shock, “You’re gonna go with them, after what they did to you?”

“W-what? But they didn’t do anything?” I say, taking a step back at Nick’s unexpected severity.

“So they didn’t imprison you and starve you to death?” he counters acidly.

“N-no, that was other people, I’m pretty sure,” I tell him, “I mean they’re ponies now, so some of them might be the same people, but what are the chances?”

“Meadowsweet, they’re the government,” Nick says, stalking at me angrily, “They’re both the government. Of course they’re gonna deny it, until they get you alone. Then bam!”

“I–it’s not like that!” I protest frantically, taking another step back, “They couldn’t even pull the triggers anymore! I...”

Noticing I’ve squeaked into silence, Nick cools quickly, backing down. He sags wearily, and says, “Sorry Meadowsweet, I just can’t trust them. I’m tired of chasing after Twilight Sparkle. Maybe they’re legit, but honestly, this’s what we should do. Call their bluff. Forget about this stupid war game with cartoon ponies. Go somewhere and just... live.”

“They can’t do this without us, though,” I plead to him, an ache in my heart as I can’t see how to fix this, and I didn’t even know anything was wrong.

“They’re gonna have plenty of volunteers already,” Nick says, rolling his eyes and striding away. “Let those guys go save the world.”

“I want to help though!” I say in outrage, trembling at my friend’s just... how could he not even care? People need our help!

Sighing, Nick turns and returns to me, facing me about as solemn as I’ve ever seen him. “Meadowsweet,” he says, “You and I, we’re not... heroes. We’re just people. The more we try to be heroes, the more things get fucked up. Every time you tried to fix things, it just got worse. You need to stop just... supporting anyone for any reason, because some people really do want to hurt you, and they’ll take advantage of your trust again and again. You’ve always been so... trusting of others, and you just have to stop.”

Nick leans forward, hugging me with his neck, the way horses do, I guess. “I’m worried about you,” he says, “With what you’ve been doing with... those guys, you’re gonna have to think of your children after not too long. You can’t just keep throwing yourself into danger. Nothing good will come of it. If you go with the government, I’m not sure you’ll be alive to come back. These military people say they’re trying to chase some fantasy of reaching Equestria. Do you really think it’s real, not just a convenient lie? Aren’t you tired of chasing after someone else’s lies?”

“I can’t believe you’re saying this!” I tell him in a trembling voice, staring rigidly forward at the feel of his neck against mine, trying not to feel comforted. Dammit, why am I crying? “You went all the way to Baltimore! You fought for... for months to learn how to get to Equestria.”

“And look how far that got us,” he replies, pulling back and giving me a flat look.

“That’s because of Twilight Sparkle!” I argue angrily up at him, scraping the ground, “She’s not even here anymore. We’re doing this to fight against her!”

“Oh are you?” he cuts back, “How do you know the great general isn’t Twilight Sparkle in disguise? How do you know any of these people aren’t her secret agents?”

“You can’t...” I say, aghast. “You have to trust someone,” I fuss in frustration, “If we just assumed everyone was Twilight Sparkle, then she really would win! Y-you could study real magic, and even figure out how to get to Equestria yourself. The general said that!”

“The general said a lot of things,” Nick grumbles.

“We might be the world’s only hope!” I protest, “How can you just... abandon humanity like that? You want us to be ponies forever?!”

I realize I’m getting shrill, but I don’t care. Stomping I shout at him, “You know what? Maybe I will throw myself into danger! Maybe my stupid... stupid pregnancy can stuff it! I’m not crippled, just because I’m pregnant. How the heck am I gonna hurt my baby, just by... just by going to save the world? A-and so what if I die? That’s still one less baby in the world, because I guess that’s all I’m good for!”

“Are you listening to yourself?” he counters angrily, “You think you’re the world’s only hope? You’re gonna get imprisoned or worse, and you’re gonna do it with another innocent child this time.”

Another—?! “Y-you can’t be blaming me for having a miscarriage!” I gasp in horror, “I didn’t starve myself! and you wouldn’t even cum in me afterwards, so how could you be upset I lost your baby the first time?”

“I’m upset because you’re hurting yourself, and you need to face reality,” Nick shoots back, “These soldiers are no good. They’re just as much of liars as the rest of them. You should just... let other people handle it, because you’re not the hero you think you are.”

“Something is wrong,” I stomp, “Things aren’t right with the world. Twilight’s still out there, and... and everyone’s a pony! If I can’t even fix things, and make our world a safe place to live, then why would I even think about starting a family?”

“Don’t think I don’t know what you’ve been doing,” he growls at me, “You’re gonna start a family whether you want to or not, because you can’t be happy with a guy if he doesn’t cum inside you.”

“I–I’ll figure out some sort of abortion,” I stammer at him.

“Wh—really?” he asks in genuine surprise, “You’d do that?”

“I can’t have a child ,” I tell him in frustration, “Twilight’s still out there! The world’s just crazy, it’s just not safe, and I’ll be dammed if I have a child, now!”

“How are you gonna just... have an abortion?” he asks, testily, “Do you even know how it would work for ponies, or horses, or whatever we are?”

“They’re... they’re actually in contact with Equestria,” I reply in desperate hope, “I can learn how they do it over there, where ponies come from!”

“And all you have is their word that Equestria even exists,” he states coldly, “All you’re gonna end up doing is giving birth, in some isolation cell.”

“I don’t care if Equestria exists!” I shriek at him, loud enough to shut his stupid pie hole. “They need our help! And I’m going to help them! And I don’t care if I... if I give birth in a freaking helicopter! You’re just gonna ... gonna die all alone because you didn’t ever trust anyone, just because one single pony betrayed you!”

“Look what she did!” Nick shouts, gesturing around himself at nothing and everything, because he means the whole world, and he’s right. But he’s so stupid he can’t even realize that it really is nothing he’s waving at, even though we are all ponies.

“And I’m not gonna let her get away with it!” I tell him, “I don’t even care if you’re with me. You can fffuck off for all you want, but you can’t make me give up too!”

“I’ve had enough of this,” he snorts, turning and trotting hastily away.

“And Equestria is real!” I shout angrily to his back, “It’s not a fantasy, and it’s not a lie!”

He doesn’t even turn around.

“Equestria’s real,” I repeat, sinking to my belly. “A-and I’m real,” I add, rolling to my side. “And the world’s a good place,” I say, curling up, “Where b-bad people don’t win, and it can’t end like this. It’s not right...” That’s about all I can say anymore, crying my helpless, girly, sobbing tears.

So it turns out not everyone’s on board with this. I’m... just feeling kind of blank about that, when I finally rub my itchy, red eyes dry, and sulk out of the barn. Nick’s right, but I just can’t pass up this chance. No way the military could imprison us now. I’d just kick open the door and run, before they got us through the gates. They don’t even have... armored vehicles really, just vans, trailers, and pickup trucks. Many that look like they were just nabbed off the street, since they probably were. I just really, really need to find some closure in my life, and if that risks being pushed into an isolation cell again, maybe I... will just let them shoot me instead.

But they’re not going to. They’re the good guys. We’re the good guys, and we’re gonna figure out how to go to Equestria. Me and Holly, and Sue, and Lucy, and Dusty, and even Bubblegum Comet is with us the whole way. The uh... fact that these are the ponies I’ve been having regular sex with probably plays a factor in that. But they’re not the only ones. The vans are packed! There’s like twenty ponies per pickup truck!

But not Nick, and... not Mira.

I wish I could say Mira was on board too. Miss let’s-go-save-the-world-in-Baltimore herself, who actually enjoys being a pony. But at least she doesn’t try to convince me not to go.

“Huh... I can’t even feel a lump at all. Are you sure?”

“M-maybe you should feel more.. heh...” Mira says, laying on her back and kicking a leg as I rub her golden furred belly.

She um... she really likes belly rubs.

“You really think you’re pregnant?” I ask the purring bat pony.

“Mmm, well I think so,” she says, as I stroke her... belly that contains a womb with the crook of my forehoof. “Been eating more, and I dunno... getting tired, and... well something’s making me pee.”

I cease stroking that belly.

Sitting up and looking at it, Mira says distantly, “Yeah, one of the g—real girls was saying you’ll have to pee more, because your uterus is getting bigger already. At least it’s that way for humans.”

Maybe that’s why Holly likes peeing so much? Because she’s been pregnant this whole time?

“You really think your uterus is getting bigger?” I ask her cautiously.

“I dunno, it doesn’t feel any different,” she says, laying her own hoof on her belly, “And yet it kinda does. I’ve just been feeling... different. I dunno, I’ve never been pregnant before, but... if I had to guess, this’s what it’d feel like.”

“I have been feeling... different too,” I say uneasily, “At least off and on. But I’m still going, because this’s important.”

“Seriously?” she asks, looking at me incredulously, “You’re just... gonna... ignore being pregnant?”

“I’ll give birth when I need to,” I insist, “You think I’m going to have a problem with my pregnancy, just for going somewhere, just to try and help?”

“Maybe,” she says, tilting her head at me, “Do you even wanna be pregnant?”

“Not like I have a choice,” I grumble, ears going flat, “It’s just so hard to say no.”

“Well, I haven’t been telling him ‘no,’” Mira says coyly, “Matter of fact, we’ve been not telling each other no as much as possible. I kinda... really wanna have a baby now.”

Giving her a wary look, I ask, “Any reason why, or do you think it’s just hormones?”

Mira frowns in thought, and says, “Actually you’re a lot of the reason why. You remember when I was... not feeling so good about being a bat pony?”

Wincing, I nod, saying, “Yeah, it was pretty bad... being a pony isn’t the easiest thing in the world.”

“Well, I got to thinking, and you kind of helped me realize that it’s just... that bat ponies are really awesome,” she says, spreading a wing and looking at it fondly. “All our weird abilities and how our wings actually are kind of awesome looking, and I started feeling I dunno... beautiful.”

“You are beautiful,” I tell her without any hesitation, regarding her soft tresses of pink and blue, framing a body furred in golden yellow. “Your colors blend so lovely together, and I love how your mane just kind of... swooces around your ears like that. I wish I could have pretty colors like yours.”

“Yeah, and...” she blushes, half hiding under a hoof, “Yeah stuff like t-that I mean.”

“I like my colors too,” I make sure to assure her, “Just... you really are beautiful, at least by my pony standards.”

Putting her hoof down, Mira looks at me pensively, then says, “So I... met a bat pony named Peter. You know Peter, right?”

And now I’m imagining the deep groans as that purple bat pony stallion cums inside my sister. Okay. “Y-yeah, I... thought you were with Nick,” I tell her honestly.

“I... am I guess,” she says, “But I’m thinking of going with Peter, if he can spend time with me. I just... made sure that Peter was the one who came inside me, because I wanted to give birth to... bat ponies.”

“And you’re sure it’s not Nick’s foal?” I say giving her a curious look, “Didn’t he ever try to impregnate you?”

“Well, I didn’t wanna get pregnant at first,” she repeats, glancing down defensively. “And then you talked to me, and then I kinda... did.”

“So you...”

“Yeah, I uh... met a bat pony I liked, and lifted my tail for him,” Mira says shyly, “And next thing I know, I’m getting pregnant with little bat ponies. Nick’s okay with it. He says I can have um... a bat pony foal, if I want, plus he has... two other girls. And Peter’s just really... really handsome.”

“Yeah um...” I say with an uneasy empathy, “I think I’ll try to stick with Sue and... Dusty for now.”

“You sure?” Mira asks, fluttering her eyelids, “Don’t want to get yourself some cute little bat pony babies?”

Please tell me my sister’s not trying to pimp her boyfriend on me.

Author's Note

He’s not her boyfriend. He’s her surrogate father!

The Bull By The Horns

To summarize, I like Peter.

“C’mon, Peter, you can do it!” Mira cheers on the stallion who’s breathing hard as he holds my hips I brace against his thrusts because I can feel his shaft sliding in and out of me, ready to fill me with a leathery winged child. The night is warm and dark, and there is a male holding me, mounting me, fucking me. I feel myself wrapped around his slick, slimy shaft, slimy because of me, because I want it so bad my cunt is just melting to have him within me. And he is.

“Meadowsweet wants my babies,” Mira tells him practically, “So make sure she’ll have lots of little bat pony babies inside her, when she goes with the general.”

“Mira—unh,” I try to protest, but as I feel that penis fucking every inch of my tingling vagina, all I can think of is what this male wants to do: grabbing my hips, pushing his penis so deep, and punching bursts of semen into me, while I take every drop into the mysterious depths that I have now. Mira nuzzles me, but all I care about is making that a reality. I’m just panting at nothing, tongue hanging out, hungry for that cock’s bounty. Taken by the urge to stuff my vagina with penis, I feel Peter’s erection flare in it, stretching in my hips, spreading me deeply, then...

“Ahh yes,” I gasp in a girl’s voice, at the feeling of hot thick spurts rushing up into me. I push against Peter, push his orgasming dick into my vagina, so I can stand there breathing, feeling powerful spurts of seed steadily pumping into my quivering passage by a thick, kicking dick. If I wasn’t already pregnant, I might be upset at this, but as-is I can indulge in my hunger for it, and outright growl in pleasure as I feel his ejaculation entering me.

Then his penis stills, and I’m pregnant maybe again maybe. As my whole body, except my hind legs, relaxes, I croon deliriously to Mira, “Mira I’m gonna give birth to your babies and his babies in an isolation cell.”

“Aww, that’s... wait what was that last part?” the deep voiced Peter asks above me.

Okay, to really summarize, I’m being asked by my sister to cheat on my boyfriend, and on my other secret boyfriend, in order to get impregnated with her boyfriend’s baby, because my sister is as much of a freak as I am. Shit’s fucked, nothing makes sense, Twilight Sparkle is evil, and in the process of preparing to travel to a secret military base, to plot against Twilight’s evil machinations, there are apparently a few things I have left to do. Things being people. People being a man named Peter, my sister’s boyfriend.

Also I’m a pony.

“Woah woah, hold on,” I yelp at Mira the previous day, before that bat pony stallion ever even came close to fucking me, waving a soft yellow furred foreleg protectively against my darker yellow furred sister. “You can’t be serious!” I squeak, immediately wanting it but also fearing it, “He’s your boyfriend!”

“Yeah, and I’m carrying his child!” Mira says stubbornly, swishing her candy colored tail in stripes of blue and pink, “Why would I get myself knocked up, if I didn’t think he’s gonna make some awesome kids? I’d rather you have his babies than Sue’s!”

“W-what’s wrong with Sue’s babies?” I say in red-faced offense.

“C’mon, you know what’s wrong,” she says with a playful wiggle of her rear, partially spreading her wings, “You want your kids to be as handicapped as you are? If you have sex with Peter, they could fly!”

“Earth ponies had kids who were unicorns and pegasi in the show,” I say uncertainly, lifting a hoof at the cheeky mare professing to be my sister.

Mira rolls her eyes at that, saying, “You know Mrs. Cake had to have been sleeping around. Anyway it’s probably a way better chance if you mate with an actual bat pony. That’s why I don’t get why you didn’t stay with Nick. Don’t you want his unicorn babies?”

“I don’t want any babies!” I squeak indignantly, “E–except when I’m horny, of course. But I mean... you are supposed to have babies with the man you love, not... pick out the best breeding stock!”

“I don’t see why,” Mira says, strutting past me with a flip of her tail, “Why not have some fun? Live it up already!”

“Because this doesn’t happen!” I squeal in utter exasperation.

Mira stares at me as I break down, slowly blinking her eyes, batlike pupils, slitted in the daylight. “How is this possible?” I ask her, sinking anxiously on my unsteady hooves, “Everyone says I’m so nice, but I... I fucked Nick! I should be a guy. I shouldn’t be able to fuck anybody! I shouldn’t even say the word fuck!”

Pacing back and forth next to the barn, I tell her, “B-but then suddenly I got to have sex with Twilight Sparkle! She just wanted me, and it was perfect! A-and even when I’m a girl, I’m still... getting fucked, left and right!”

“Meadows, I—” Mira says with an apologetic grimace, but I interrupt, saying,

“Sue should hate me for... for spying on him and Holly. Nick should hate me for cheating on him with Sue. Twilight Sparkle does hate me, and she still fucked me! A-and Dusty! You know Rachel’s called Dusty, now? I had to have sex with him, just to keep him sane while I helped him find some steady partners. That’s four people in one year. Five if you count Nick twice, before and after he turned into a pony!”

“What are you saying?” Mira says in frustrated confusion, tilting an ear, “You don’t want to have all that sex? I mean sure that’d be normal, but that’s not who you are! You love... everyone! It’s a crime you haven’t been able to get sex before this! I—I wanted to fuck you!”

A blush flooding her orange furred face, struck speechless after her outburst, Mira gapes at me, then looks away and says faintly, “W-when you said that the girl you were thinking about in school went out with someone else, I—I wanted to pin you down and give you what Alice wouldn’t. You were so down, and... and horny, and I couldn’t do anything about it.”

I look shocked at my batpony sister, as she torridly confesses, “Every time you came from work and you just... it seemed like everyone you knew was getting married, and I just wanted to fuck marriage and rules and just... screw you!”

“Well, but, why didn’t you say anything?” I whine, trying to look at her in a new light, but this is Mira! She can’t possibly have ever wanted to screw me!

“Because I’m your sister!” she replied, scraping a hoof in frustration, “It’s supposed to be the worst, ugliest most... unsexy thing in the world. There was no way you wanted me because y–you just needed a normal relationship, and it would be wrong of me to just try... molesting my own brother! You’d just look at me, and see your sister, and get disgusted at the very idea of ever touching me.”

“I never ever got disgusted at that!” I protest, “I mean yes it’s wrong, but... you were beautiful even before you were a pony! Even if you weren’t my sister, you were way out of my league! I’d be lucky to get some cynical fat jerk to have sex with me.”

Mira slumps, saying, “Yeah, it sucks. Human society sucks. Our society sucks. I never wanted you to have to be lonely so long, and you just were. Because I thought I was doing the right thing, and you know what I think now?”

I really don’t.

Meeting my gaze evenly, Mira continues with intense blue eyes, “I think the right thing to do is what we feel is right, and right now I’m feeling like fucking your stupid yellow butt into the ground and filling you with batpony babies. And I can’t do that, so let’s go get Peter to do it instead.”

Shaking my head slowly, I take another step back, saying, “It’s just so impossible. I didn’t do anything to deserve this much... love. Other ponies—other mares can’t get any sex at all, and I’m just gonna add on Peter like some kind of trophy?”

“Hey, it’d be my trophy not yours,” Mira says teasingly, sauntering up to me despite my skittishness, “If I’m the one who wants good things to happen to you, you can’t blame yourself for getting them!”

“Well I don’t mind being a trophy, but...” I say quietly, not quite looking at the bat pony beside me.

“Heh... yeah, you’re a real catch, Meadowsweet,” Mira says, nudging my side with hers comfortingly. “I bet he’d be overjoyed to know he gets the chance to make you feel that good. It’s just such a treat to see you when you give in and really enjoy yourself, y’know?”

“You sure can’t watch yourself get...” I grumble reluctantly, “...fucked into the ground.”

“So you’ll do it?” Mira asks in hopeful delight.

A quick consultation with my gonads says yeah I totally will.

“I just wonder why me,” I ask her with a resigned sigh, “Why not another girl who (quote) gives in and really enjoys herself? Why not um... Patricia?”

“Eh, she’s great and all, but I don’t know her all that well,” Mira says, rocking on her hooves, “It might seem like us flying ponies all get buddy buddy, but the sky is actually a really big place. And um... you were even there back when I was naked. And... fucked, when I was a human.”

“I was?” I ask, tilting my head in confusion.

“Yeah, when Nick tried to... turn me into a pony,” Mira qualifies, “You were right there and I was like ‘Fuck if you weren’t a girl, I’d just do you right here.’”

“Y-yeah that was really... something,” I say, remembering how odd I felt about her human crotch dripping with Nick’s pony semen back then.

“It’s like a domino effect or something,” Mira insists, “Twilight got you past that first time, and everything came from that, so now you’re just getting used to your um... sexuality!”

“Which apparently includes raising my tail for every stallion I see,” I grumble.

“C’mon, bat pony babies~?” she sings, leaning towards me and smiling at me tempingly.

Blushing, I say, “Okay but just this once. And only if he’s okay with it.”

“Yesss!” Mira cheers, snagging me by the hoof and half fluttering up into the air, “C’mon lets see if we can introduce you.”

“H-hey,” I say nervously, “If he’s in the sky, I’m not gonna do it.”

Blinking, Mira looks down where she’s hooked her foreleg in mine, and drops to the ground, saying, “Oh, sorry. That’s just kind of my go-to these days for moving around. C’mon, he’s gotta be somewhere around town.”

“I’m probably already pregnant with Sue’s foal anyway,” I protest as I follow along with Mira, trotting into the town proper, “And I might give birth to an earth pony anyway.”

“Yeah, or,” Mira chirps with a glance back at me in amusement, “You’ll have a cute little bat pony baby in your belly.”

Shaking my head, I sigh, “Well, if I have to have a baby, I guess I wouldn’t mind having, um...” I almost say ‘yours’ but instead I say, “...his.”

Peter proceeds to be entirely too agreeable with the idea, and since he’s not coming with, it really is a one night stand. Especially since we did it at night. Standing. It’s a strange comfort I feel, being with Sue and Dusty, knowing I can be with them and keep being with them, and still give Peter a chance to put a baby in me. I can still remember him moving within me, and the place his penis was moving within is just right back there, under my tail. I still literally have his semen with me. It’s like a piece of Peter is... there with the three of us, there inside my hips, doing mysterious things to my womb, which is a thing that I have now.

I think I have one, at least.

So with Mira and Peter’s... sendoff, or whatever you call it, I’m off to my isolation cell. No I don’t actually think that’s what the government is going to do to us. No, we don’t just jump in the vans and go. And no, I don’t think everyone is secretly working for Twilight Sparkle and plotting to imprison me forever. Unlike Nick, I’m just joking.

The government isn’t even invited to our final grand council of what the fuck is going on. We do have a meeting though, just us barn ponies, because apparently there’s this huge controversy over whether to go save the world. There are even some ponies watching the door, in case any of the government types try to come over here, so there’s a lot of distrust brewing, but mostly we’re just meeting to decide what to do about them, not to keep any secrets or anything.

“Okay, I know we’re split on this,” the green and blue pegasus known as Patricia says, having flown up to stand on the stage we kind of erected in the barn for this purpose, “I’m not gonna try to convince people to leave or to stay, but I just want to talk about what we’re gonna do about this.”

“Why can’t we just split?” a pony in the crowd calls out, “Half of us have already split!”

“That’s one idea!” Patricia agrees loudly, “But we need to figure out how we’re going to split. I don’t want anyone to feel like they have to go, or... stay here, just to be with their friends. People are arguing about it pretty badly though. So we need to find out what’s going on, and talk to each other about this. You think someone’s making a mistake, I need you to tell us why now, and we’re all gonna listen with an open mind. Nobody’s gonna interrupt you, or argue with you. I just want to hear what people know about this, and what they think we should do. I know you’ve been wanting to talk about it, so we’re all here now, and it’s safe to speak your mind. So uh... Sue? You wanna go first?”

In the crowd, Sue calls out, “I pretty much agree with Meadowsweet, so why don’t you ask her?”

Oh fuck no.

“Dammit Sue!” I squeal at him. Alas, there’s nothing to be done for it. I climb up on the stage, fear flaring in me until I turn around and see everyone’s there, all around me, and it hurts on a level I can’t quite understand that... soon they might not be.

“S-so I’m bad at this,” I tell the crowd, a pregnant horse with greenish hair that can’t decide whether or not to be curly, “But okay, fine. Twilight Sparkle is absolutely horrible. She hurt me, and then hurt me again. I don’t know who she really is, but she’s not the Twilight Sparkle we know. She’s a... a monster.”

I look down and take a calming breath, before facing everyone again, adding, “But she’s not all powerful! She almost accidentally brought a tracking device back with us, a-and she was really bad at dealing with it. She tried to stop us from... from making love, and it didn’t work! She tried to get rid of me three times, a-and I’m still here.”

Lifting my head before the crowd, I am still here, and she can’t stop me! “So everyone thinking the government or the police are secretly on her side,” I say confidently, “After what she did to them, like they’d ever listen to her! We have to trust someone, or we’ll miss our chance and she’ll pick us off one by one. I don’t know if the general was telling us everything, but there’s no reason to think the government means us harm anymore.”

My resolve fades a little bit as I really am not the person who should be saying this. I wasn’t even paying attention to the General’s speech, so I don’t know if she told us everything or not! “So... I’m going with them, because...” I say unsurely, “Because I keep thinking it might be the only chance we have of s-saving everyone, and turning people back to human, who want to be. And if it’s all a trap by Twilight Sparkle, then I’ll just break the doors down and run away and warn everyone. So I don’t know if that helps or not, but... that’s why I’m going.”

My lip trembles, as I say, “I just can’t stay here. It’s t-too important for me to just ignore this. I might be totally useless to them, but I have to try!”

They’re all um... looking at me silently.

“So um, who’s next?” I ask, looking around.

“I was gonna say something!” shouts a mare in the back, “But I’m with you now!”

“What?” I say, blankly. I was trying to explain why I’m being stupid about it, not convince them to be stupid. And now everyone after me is just saying like, “Let’s go!” with nobody even objecting to it anymore. But at last, the one pony who taught me about herding cows comes up, just a yellow furred earth pony, with light orange hair and green eyes.

“Okay, so we don’t all have to go,” the pony known as Brisket declares, “The people here still need us, and I know people in town who I don’t wanna leave behind. I’m not saying we shouldn’t go, but it’s okay if we don’t all go. I think only the ones who really wannit should go.”

That earns some grumbling at least, ponies murmuring at each other, like how beside me, my friend Tess remarks, “Y’know, she’s got a point.”

“She doesn’t just have a point. She’s right!” I quietly hiss back to the green and pink pony, “I didn’t want everyone to go. We have plenty of people who want to.”

There are a few more negative-ish opinions after that. A pink earth pony who I don’t recognize says in a trembling voice, “I—I’m pregnant now, and I can’t just go off on an adventure. Everyone who’s pregnant has to stay here and s-start raising their children, even if they aren’t really a...”

She blushes at that, and mumbles an apology, stumbling off the stage. Surprisingly, it’s the candy haired Mira who flutters up to the stage in response to that pregnant mare. “Hey, everypony,” she says dramatically, “You know what Meadowsweet’s been doing? Like a lot of us, she’s been getting pregnant!”

Oh god this is worse than getting called to the stage.

“So Meadowsweet’s going, and she’s gonna be fine,” Mira continues, “Why should she be worried? She’s going to a high security place, like the highest, and they’re not stopping her for being pregnant. So she’s gonna... have her foal there, and she won’t even have to worry it’ll get trampled by a cow. So um... think of your baby if you want, I guess. I mean I totally...” she glances at her rump and swallows, “Um... do. But this isn’t a war zone, it’s just some kind of... government project. Might as well give birth there as here, right?”

There’s several thoughtful murmurs at that. But I’m more concerned with the mare who went before Mira. My bat pony sister is nicely covering for me up there on stage, while reminding everyone that I went and had sex as a girl, so I creep away from the front of the crowd, shuffling up to the pink pony who went before Mira.

“Um... you’re right,” I mumble shamefully.

“What?” she says, turning to look at me in confusion.

“I shouldn’t go,” I tell her, “I should f-focus on raising my foal. You’re right for doing that, and I’m just being stupid about it. I just can’t give up this chance to find out what’s going on, and h-help and stuff, but that doesn’t make it right for me to go.”

Though her hair is but a lighter shade of pink, I can’t help but notice she has striking, yellow eyes, as I tell this living, breathing pony who’s a real person behind those golden eyes, “I don’t know you, but I do know you shouldn’t ever have to go with us, and... maybe risk your life. You can just stay here and have your baby, and... you’re doing the right thing.”

“Thank you,” she says, blushingly, “I’m Carnation, and I know you’re Meadowsweet, but I really just get so worried sometimes. It’s nice of you to come um... say something to make me feel better.”

“What are you worried about?” I ask, “I mean, is it about the... pregnancy?”

“I... I dunno how I’m gonna feed a baby,” she tells me with scared eyes, “We’re just... just farmers now and I don’t think babies can eat hay!”

Blinking, I give her an incredulous look.

“What?” she whines self-consciously.

“Well uh, b-babies can drink uhm, milk,” I say conservatively.

“Milk is even harder to get though!” she protests, “Cows are huge, now!”

“I uh”

Has it finally happened? Have I discovered someone even more clueless than me?

“I meant your milk...” I tell her leerily, “You know you’re gonna be uh... doing that, right?”

She’s very quiet at that. I hope I didn’t break her! After a few seconds, she says in a lost voice, “I didn’t even think about that.”

“I just don’t know either,” I assure her anxiously, “I heard that you basically just stand there while the foal kind of latches on and stands beside you, um, drinking your milk. A-and it sounds pretty easy.”

“I don’t wanna make milk though,” she whimpers, her eyes tearing up, “Why did I let him do that? M-my mom I remember she was sore if she didn’t... nurse my kid sister all the time, I mean. I’m gonna have to...”

“I’m so sorry,” I say to her hopelessly, laying my neck alongside hers. She doesn’t protest, at least. “It’s not scary or anything,” I grumble over her shoulder, “But it sucks, and we don’t have a choice anymore.”

“W-well birth is pretty scary,” she says, stiffening against me. J-jeez, I don’t wanna give birth! Panicking at the thought, I pull away from her, as she stomps and says,

“I’m scared because they say giving birth hurts a lot and it’s just gonna happen to me now, and I can’t stop it!”

“I wish there was something we could do,” I whimper in frustration, cringing back from the smaller mare, “I couldn’t find anything in the library, except something called the morning after pill, and I don’t even know what pills work on ponies.”

“Oh, you mean like an abortion...” she says distantly, the fire fading in her eyes.

“If you can figure out how then...” I look at her beseechingly, “Then please do! I know it’s evil, and people don’t like it, but... it’d be so much better if we weren’t so helpless. I’d even...”

Uncertainly, I confess to her, “I might even a-actually have the foal anyway, if I just had a choice. It’s just so much harder to deal with, when you can’t stop!”

“It’s okay, you don’t have to cry,” she says shakily, and I’m not crying, am I?!

...okay maybe a little.

“We’ll just... do our best,” she says, pushing up close to me and hugging me with a foreleg, “And... and I don’t know how I’m supposed to comfort you. I’m the one f-freaking out here!”

“Well, you’re not alone at that, at least,” I tell her, my sorrow fading before a warm feeling inside at her presence and thoughtful compassion. “Maybe after this’s all over, you can show me your foal, and I’ll show you mine. Or however that works.”

“That... that’d be fine, I suppose,” she says faintly, as we come to stand separate again. “It’s just not something I ever thought I was gonna be able to do.”

“You and me both, sister,” I groan, hanging my head.

Once we’re well into the actual preparations to leave, I get a bit of an unusual visit around that time. I’m busy dropping sacks of salted meat into the back of a covered pickup truck, and it goes without saying that I have to rear up to put stuff inside the truck even with the hatch down. Because ponies are so small, it’s ridiculous how huge everything seems now.

“Meadowsweet, is it?” a little girl asks me, making me look down from the tailgate I’m reared up on. Standing beside me and the truck is a pink filly with purple hair and a smart blue jacket uniform, albeit no longer adorned with all those bulky medals.

“Oh! Uh...” I push off of the pickup truck, not knowing if I should duck down, or... try to do a bow with my forelegs? “Hello Major General uh... sir,” I tell her with my best terrible approximation of a bow to the cute little filly.

“Just call me General Carey,” she says with a tired smile, “I wanted to express my gratitude that you decided to help us out. We were really counting on you being on board.”

“It’s the least we could do,” I tell her, squirming on my hooves bashfully, “I know we were pardoned, but we still had a hand in what happened to everyone.”

“No, not everyone,” she says giving me a concerned look, “I meant you in particular. Meadowsweet, right?”

“Y-yes?” I say in confusion, “I mean yes I’m um, going? I know I’m just an earth pony, but I think I could help out with c-cooking or something.”

She giggles, saying, “I highly doubt it’s going to come to that. Anyway, I’m just passing on the message. You’re doing your country a great service!” The filly then gives me a cute little salute, and just heads off after that. I look after her thoughtfully for a moment as she wobbles away, wondering what that was all about.

Berefit of answers, and kind of worried what they might be, I just go back to loading up the truck with our share of dried meat, and busily getting pregnant with Peter’s babies in my womb. Well, maybe.

Over these past few days of deciding who’s to go and loading everything up, one of two things has happened. Either the semen Peter put in me impregnated me, or my body eliminated it since I’m already pregnant. Still not sure which is the case, at this point. It’s interesting though, how subtly different Peter’s semen is than Dusty’s, or Sue’s. There’s a different... feel to it, or song. I don’t know exactly what I’m feeling. It’s just a pleasant feeling of experiencing and learning about Peter, from what he left in my... inside.

Is it different because he’s a bat pony? Dusty and Sue are both earth ponies. I didn’t even think to notice before, too worried about my potential pregnancy to really pay attention to how Nick’s semen felt compared to Sue’s. I wish I could have sex with Nick just one more time, to see if he feels different in a different way, for being a unicorn.

But there’s no way Nick’s gonna even talk to me, after I blew up at him like that.

“Meadowsweet?” Nick asks as I startle in place, the paper wrapped package of meat I was hoofing thudding into the back of the truck as I do so.

“Nick?” I squeak, turning to look at him incredulously. The purple haired unicorn’s just standing right there before me, not even looking angry at all.

“Hey, sorry for blowing up at you the other day,” he says, glumly pawing at the ground with a forehoof. “I didn’t mean to upset you so badly.”

“It’s okay,” I assure him in confusion, turning my body to face his way too, “You’re really not mad? You’re... wait, are you going to try and convince me to stay?”

“Like I could convince you the last time?” he says, rolling his eyes, “I think you’re making a mistake, but I could be wrong. I guess one of us is gonna find out.”

“No, you are right,” I say with a sigh, “There is a lot of danger involved here. They could try to do something bad to us. They could be working for Twilight Sparkle. I shouldn’t be taking risks with a baby coming, I should just settle down and... give birth I guess, and let the real heroes take care of Twilight and let them go to Equestria.”

“Buut...?” Nick prompts cheekily.

With an earnestness that surprises even me, I reply, “But if they’re not evil, I still feel like I could help out somehow, even a little bit. Being pregnant isn’t so bad! I can still do things. I can take it easy once I start getting... near the birth and stuff. And I just... it makes sense if I would want to take some risks, to make the world safe for my children, right?”

“Still can’t believe you got pregnant,” he says, shaking his head. “It wasn’t fair to you, at all.”

“Hey, I have had it a lot better than other mares so far,” I tell him indignantly, “Maybe earth ponies are super good at giving birth, because it hasn’t been bad at all for me so far. I sure kind of started... liking the idea of giving birth. Maybe it won’t be as... painful as everyone says it is?.”

My friend gone unicorn stallion smiles a little at that, saying, “Yeah, you’ve been fantasizing about it a lot. I dunno how much you thought about birth as a guy, but no way you felt like you wanted to do it yourself. That vagina of yours definitely gives you some weird thoughts. Can’t believe I stayed a guy through all this. Sure dodged the bullet there.”

“I think we all got affected by this, even people who didn’t switch sexes,” I contest lightly, “I’m just glad I get to be who I am now.”

“Whaddya mean ‘get to be?’” Nick asks curiously.

Taking in a calming breath, with my yellow, furry, pony chest-belly place, I explain to my friend simply, “I don’t have any magic, or wings, or anything, but I dunno, I just feel better about myself.” I turn to look at the pretty green tail descending out over my butt, a tail I can curl and straighten sort of like a snake, or like a tongue made out of hair. That came out weird.

“I feel like I’m... kind of cool,” I say, flicking my tail behind me, before looking at Nick again, “In a totally not-cool way. Is it bad if I say I like myself?”

“I think it’s bad if you say you don’t,” Nick retorts wryly.

“Yeah, just...” shifting on my hooves, I gaze up at him, very aware of being this soft little yellow and green mare, standing before my friend who’s taller and much more male than I am, or probably ever was.

“Male or female, I wasn’t happy with who I was as Alex,” I confess before that purple haired unicorn with a sigh, “My life was... I know I should go back, and I shouldn’t be ungrateful, and there was just no one else to care for it, and at least you were there for me for some reason, but I was gonna die in that house. I just never had any chance to do anything else. I never had any opportunities, that I didn’t just fail at. I didn’t have anything in my future to look forward to.”

An irresistable smile grows on my face, as I tell him, “But now I’ve met so many friends, and I’ve found... I don’t know if I would call it love, but what I’ve shared with people since this happened to me, it has been so wonderful.”

Looking out over the endless plains on the way to the distant horizon, I say in awe, “And I’ve never been to Nebraska before, but here I am! Trotting about, a little pony in cow town! With bat ponies and pegasi flying all around, and unicorns casting magic right in front of me!” Turning back to look at Nick and blushing, I say, “It’s just kind of... cool, you know?”

Nick gives me a warmly calculating look, and then says, “Your name was Aaron.”

“What?” I reply, blinking in confusion.

“It wasn’t Alex. Before all this happened, your name was Aaron,” Nick says seriously, “Before it got changed to Meadowsweet.”

“...oh,” I say with a blush rushing to my face, looking away from him and scraping the ground with a hoof. “Aaron. Right. G-got it.”

“I know you say you’re a totally different person and all, ‘Meadowsweet,’” Nick says with a bemused smile, “But you don’t even pretend you knew. You just admit it and work with me, and honestly that’s what I always liked about you. You have this visionary sort of vision, but you’re so agreeable about it. I know we haven’t been... close close lately, but even after turning into a pony, and uh... being inside you, I feel like you’re still the friend I’ve always known.”

“Well, I sure wasn’t the friend you’ve always known when we were headed to Baltimore,” I grumble at the ground, trying not to die of blushing, “I didn’t even feel like myself back then. I mean,” I manage to look up at him, saying, “I felt like myself, but I just couldn’t stop wanting to get all... female and stuff. You’re right I never, ever wanted to be pregnant as a man!”

“And now that you’re pregnant, you’re starting feel like yourself again?” he asks.

Shaking my head, I say, “No, it’s just that I stopped trying not to be female. It’s easy to be me, if what I am is a girl pony. I mean... I’m not complaining about what we did back then. It was wonderful losing... control and just becoming someone who wanted your babies. It was just so weird, wanting to do things I never even imagined I would want to do, but I did and it was just... thrilling to feel it happen.”

“Yeah,” Nick says shortly, as we gaze at each other in some uncertainty, a grey unicorn stallion with purple hair, and the yellow furred, green haired mare that is me. “That sure was intense back then,” he says.

“...yeah,” I admit, glancing away fussily.

“S-so you’re gonna head out soon,” Nick remarks casually as my ear turns his way, “You wanna... I mean before you leave...?”

“God yes,” I reply, sagging in relief.

So, Nick does feel more... unicorny it turns out. I don’t know what it is about his spunk that reminds me of unicorns, the same way that Peter’s felt like battiness. Some female... genetic instinct thing, I guess. I don’t have time to ask Brian, because Nick kind of made up with me at the last minute, so the fur on my butt is still damp from cleaning myself off from him leaking out of me, when I climb up into one of the trailers transporting us across the country to a mysterious location unknown.

With what little equipment we have loaded into the trucks, mostly just ourselves and one truckful of food, we’re ready to go. It’s a hot day when we leave, the shade from the metal trailers doing little to combat that. And of course we’re not just smelling like sweat. I guess I’m lucky for Nick just sort of... cumming inside me right before we left, but unlike me, there are at least two mares here who are really fucking horny.

Besides me, Sue, Holly and Lucy, there are a bunch of ponies in this trailer. Six mares total, counting me. One of the mares is a lighter green bat pony with purple and pink hair, another a brown earth pony with bright blue hair. The remaining mare is an orange earth pony with darker orange hair and these bright blue eyes which dart around anxiously. Her and the blue/brown mare are the ones who smell... that sort of spicy longing that I’ve come to know as desire. The green bat pony mare seems okay, but she’s pressing closely against the side of the other stallion in the trailer: a brick red unicorn, whose hair isn’t colorful at all, it’d just be ordinary black hair if he didn’t also have a tail.

There aren’t just stallions and mares in this trailer, but a little trio of two fillies and a colt. Honestly we probably should have put all the foals into one trailer, but it didn’t occur to me it would be a problem, and I guess no one else realized it either.

Off to the side on the periphery of the eight adult ponies, there’s a purple, blue-haired pegasus filly, a tan earth pony colt with bright green hair, and a light blue unicorn filly, with darker blue hair and strikingly brown eyes. That’s eleven ponies total, in a trailer made for maybe two horses at best, so it’s a little crowded in here, but we are definitely little ponies, so there’s plenty of wiggle room.

Outside our trailer, the whole convoy rumbles along, with the humans in the motor vehicles doing the driving, driving down long, largely empty highways, with occasional cars here and there abandoned on the side of the road. I’d pay more attention to what we’re travelling past I suppose, but I’m too worried about what’s happening in this trailer.

Taking stock, I know for a fact that Sue’s been quite satisfied today thanks to Holly and Lucy, and by extension so have Holly and Lucy. I’ve been busy... saying farewell to Nick, so I’m taken care of. But as for the other half of the room... I suppose they could be a mated group, but I don’t know them, and it really doesn’t... smell like it.

One of the three remaining mares seems fine, looks bored, in fact, but the other two, like those mares that Bubblegum Comet was hanging out with, they seem tense, frustrated, horny and... receptive. And while Sue himself is tapped out, I don’t think the other stallion is.

“Stop poking me!” one of the mares I don’t know growls as we vaguely mingle together on the side of the trailer.

“Me? You stop poking me!” another replies.

“Nobody’s poking anyone,” a third hisses irritably, “No one has anything to poke with!”

“She was poking me with her wing!”

“No I wasn’t! I was just getting comfortable!”

“I have something to poke with,” says the stallion who’s not Sue, with a jovial ear tilt.

Silence.

“Yeah, bad joke,” he concludes, his other ear tilting as he blushes, sheepishly, but maybe not with all that much repentance in his deep blue eyes.

We’re all afraid to speak up about it, because how do you tell a complete stranger “Hey there, you’re smelling horny right now!”? I’m still not sure how to tell a complete stranger just about much of anything! Should we even be talking, if we’re complete strangers?

Tensions continue to mount, until the orange mare stomps, groaning, “Why do all the stallions have to smell so good? ”

“Oh gawd, here we go,” the young pegasus filly groans.

“No, we don’t go,” the mare tells the foal unhappily, a reddish-orange haired earth pony mare, with deep orange fur. So I guess she’s orange and... orange. She’s got an odd accent, sounds vaguely texan, but not quite. “I’m not supposed to do any of this, or feel any of this, not yet!” she says anxiously, “You foals don’t know how much it makes you feel like just... doing it!”

“None of us on this trip are real kids you know,” the purple, blue-haired pegasus filly says up to her with an unrepentant frown, “All the foals who were real kids are with their families, and they all stayed behind, or left a long time ago.”

“Your family’s not here?” I ask the pegasus filly with a worried look her way.

“Uh, no,” the filly replies with an uneasy pout, “Anyone who was a real child had their family with them at Bronycon. Any adult who became a foal was just there alone, without any family. That’s why we could come on this secret mission, but the three of us are... pretty much on our own.”

As the foals subtly cluster a bit closer together after that remark, there’s something terribly sad about their situation. I know they’re not really foals, but somehow it doesn’t seem to matter. What do you say to them though? How do you comfort someone who doesn’t want to be a child, without comforting them like a child? I guess normal adults just... go get a beer, or something?

Well the trailer rumbles and bumps along, and the orange mare clearly needs it bad. Her smell is only increasing, and her marehood is winking at every opportunity. We jostle together, and nobody knows what to say to anypony else. Presently, the orange mare’s just staring at the red furred stallion’s undeniable erection, panting quietly under her breath... like she can’t even try to hide that she wants it.

The stallion seems to notice, trying to look only at the bat pony mare as he changes his angle so the orange mare can’t see his erection anymore. The orange mare responds by turning away from him and just lifting her tail, just like that. He looks at her for a frozen moment, then surges into urgent action, mounting her right then and there and—

“Strider, don’t!” the bat pony mare squeals in alarm.

He climbs off the orange mare, looking at the bat pony nervously, saying, “I–I wasn’t going to...”

“W-well good,” she says, moving to stand between Strider, the red furred unicorn stallion, and this horny orange mare.

Time passes.

“I wonder what it’s like,” the orange mare says staring at what she can see of Strider’s flank. It’s kind of hard to block the view of his penis no matter what the angle. At a look from the other bat pony mare, the orange one blushes and stammers, “I-it makes me want it! I’m sorry! I never had even one chance and I just i-it makes me want to feel it.”

“Yeah, you and every other pony!” the bat pony mare says angrily, “He’s my boyfriend! What am I supposed to do, just rent him out to every lonely mare?”

“I’m sorry,” the orange mare whimpers, sinking to her haunches and looking down, “I–I just want it, just one time to feel it, just even only just one.”

“I know,” the bat pony mare says sadly, “I can smell it.”

I wish I could say the bat pony mare is disgusted with the orange one, rather than with this whole situation, but the look she’s giving the other mare is so conflicted, her ears down and even her lip trembling, watching the orange pony just sit there on her haunches, trying not to make it obvious that she’s crying.

“You know, you can share,” I speak up. I probably shouldn’t and my voice sounds more resentful than I want it to, but I say it anyway.

The purple and green bat pony mare gives me a frightened look and I tell her, “You’re perfectly good not sharing! It’s just I’m... I’m with Sue here.”

Pointing my nose over Sue’s way, I tell the other batpony, “And so is Lucy. And...” I look at Holly worriedly, but she looks at me more with thought than fear, so I admit, “A-and Holly here. Holly’s really glad she ...shared Sue with me and Lucy.”

“What’s your name?” Holly asks curiously of the other batpony mare.

“It’s uh, I–I mean... Candy,” she hesitantly stammers, “I’m with... I mean yes I’m with S-Strider.” She looks up at the dark haired stallion in fretful affection.

“I... I wish you’d share with me,” the orange mare says, standing again, looking at the batpony mare named Candy tearfully, “I’m not supposed to but I want it. I don’t even know what it feels like.”

“She doesn’t have to share,” I say to the orange mare, “I just wanted Candy to know there’s more mares than stallions, so if she’s okay with it, stallions can... share.”

The words ring to silence in this bumpity trailer. Then the orange one just turns and lifts her tail again. The red furred stallion mounts her.

“W-what do I do?” Candy asks anxiously, staring at the two of them, “I don’t want... you’re gonna impregnate her!”

“I–I could pull out!” Strider protests with guiltily low ears.

“You never did with...” Candy looks around at us nervously, “... me.”

“I feel him!” the orange mare declares in hungry distress, “He’s gonna... he’s gonna put it into me! He’s grabbing my waist! ”

“It feels good when the stallion does that, huh?” I ask the orange mare, then blushing, I back off, looking to Candy saying, “You tell her. He’s your boyfriend. Tell her what he did with you?”

“He...” Candy looks at me uncertainly.

“Tell her,” I point at the mounted mare.

“He just...” Candy says, facing the orange pony.

“Ohhh it’s—touching my place!” the mare replies in alarm, struggling to focus on Candy as she feels it underneath the shifting stallion. “Please, I want it so bad!”

The two mares gaze silently into each other’s eyes, then the one Strider is mounting murmurs, “It’s pushing...” and her irises shrink as she breathes deeper and deeper.

“Oh it’s... happening to you,” Candy says, lost in awe, as she reaches a hoof to touch the other mare’s cheek, “When it happened to me, I wanted it so much.”

“I need it in, ” the earth pony tells her lover’s girlfriend, baring her teeth as she growls, “I need it... more...!” then with a furious snort, the mare shoves her ass backwards. Her mouth drops open as she stares off panting, with her hips pushed firmly against the stallion mounting her.

“It goes really deep, huh?” Candy asks, with a nervous laugh, “You look... you’re really enjoying it.”

“It’s... deep, it just went in me so... A-am I gonna have a baby now?” the orange mare asks, reeling from the sensations.

“Do you want one?” Candy asks uncomfortably.

“No, but... ohh he’s sliding... nnnh!”

“Sliding’s the best part,” Lucy points out, “That and how you can feel where he’s gonna put that baby into you, when he pushes real deep.”

Strider’s gleaming shaft emerges as he says, “I–I’m not pulling out. Just like... just like you, Candy.”

“He put a baby in me too,” Candy explains to the flustered dick filled mare, “I didn’t want a baby a-and I still don’t, but I still made him put a baby in me.”

“I... I want him to put a baby in me,” the mare replies wide-eyed and simply, and it’s beautiful, because she’s anxiously meeting Candy’s eyes at first. Then as Strider fucks her, the mare’s breathing deepens, her eyes half lid, and she stops caring that Candy or anyone else is watching her, coming to focus only on being bred.

Candy’s still a mess, though. Her whole body screams of conflicted emotions, her face twisted in uncertainty, with dripping wetness between her thighs.

“Candy, um,” I say to the mare, “You need to... touch yourself.”

“N-no I—!” she squeaks, going red-faced, tearing her eyes away from the couple to look at me.

“We can smell it, remember?” I say, “Just... it’s okay if you want to touch yourself. I mean... look at them, right?”

I gesture to the mating couple.

Candy’s eyes dart from me to them, to the rest of us, as she says louder, “So I can just... just go and...”

She reaches warily between her legs with a foreleg. Her blush deepens momentarily as she touches herself, then looking at us in worried guilt, begins to stroke herself down there.

“It just helps you relax,” I assure her, “See, it’s okay. We all know you want it, so go ahead. Makes it less scary the more you do it, right?”

Candy’s breathing too deepens as she subtly rocks against her own foreleg, looking past us as she thinks of herself back there, saying, “Yeah, it...”

“Look at them,” I say, pointing over to the ones fucking.

Candy looks at them, and a soft, “Oh...” escapes her, her tail bobbing up even as she slides against herself, more and more slickly.

“It’s... it’s making me want it,” she says darkly, staring at the other two.

“Don’t worry I’m with Sue, and I’m never disappointed,” Lucy says enviably, “Strider’ll have plenty of time for you.”

“No,” Candy says lowly, “It’s making me want... him to do it to her.”

She continues silently watching their wet earnest thrusts, Candy’s legs are at that awkward, stiff angle of a mare whose butt’s in the air. “I want it...” she murmurs again, as it looks like Strider’s about to...

Strider pushes into the orange mare with an intense groan, as the mare gasps and squeaks, “He’s—bigger!!”

“He gets bigger every time,” Candy tells the mare, gazing at her with lidded eyes, “He’s gonna put a baby in you now.”

“I can feel where he’s gonna do it!” she declares, looking at Candy and the rest of us anxiously as she rocks there.

“Put a baby in her, Strider,” Candy says in aching lust, squirming her slick thighs around her forelimb, “Don’t pull out of her. Put... every drop into her. You’re gonna get pregnant now. He just shoved deep into me and I felt him cumming. Couldn’t stop it. Strider... make her p-pregnant! Hold her and do her and—!”

As Strider shoves deep, straining against her, the mare says anxiously, “Is he gonna...?!”

“Yesss,” Candy says, horny as all getout, looking into the frightened mare’s eyes with a hunger for what’s happening to her.

The mare looks back at Strider saying urgently, “Wait I don’t wanna AHH”

She snaps back to stare forward, with narrowed irises, which brings her eye to eye with Candy.

Riding her own foreleg, the batpony mare hungrily growls, “How does it feel? Hot, and gooey, and it keeps going into you.”

The mare bites her lip, shoving back against Strider’s rump as his penis pulses behind her, pumping his semen into her womb. “It’s moving—oh—it’s so—oh..”

“You’re pregnant,” Candy states lustfully, “You’re pregnant now.”

“Unh... unh it’s so hot... I wannit!” the orange mare declares, panting to Candy as she declares hungrily, “Imma mommy! Unhh wannit...”

As the two calm down with Strider’s semen solidly inside her, I want to... to lick Candy, even if I’m not supposed to. I don’t even care, I just do. Candy squeaks in surprise, her tail jerking right up as I bury my snout in her snatch.

“Woah, Meadowsweet, you...” I hear Lucy say beside me, but I’m too ashamed to stop. If I stop I’ll have to explain. She tastes so like every one of my wonderful female friends, as I clean her tangy juices off herself. This new mare is so needy, and soft, and hot under my tongue, and vulnerable.

“N-no please!” Candy pleads desperately, to Lucy I guess, “Let her... let her... she’s sticking it inside me I need it!”

Candy clenches around my tongue as I hold it within her, lipping at that pert little slot my tongue’s sliding into. And well... that sort of thing. Candy doesn’t hide her arousal, gasping more and more urgently rocking there against my snout, until her wings spread anxiously as she blurts out, “I—I’m gonna... oh god I’m gonna...!”

“Meadowsweet sure knows how to make a girl cum,” Sue says as my vision is full of furry green batpony butt, holding Candy in my forelegs to make it easier to pull her against my face. “Me and Lucy helped her with that.”

“D-do I look like this?” Holly asks furtively on Candy’s other side, “I-it’s okay you can fold your wings you’re just gonna c-climax.”

Candy folds her wings and I guess that catalyzes it in her. I can feel her whole body shiver, as her snatch shifts, and then starts powerfully pulsing around my tongue. Candy jerks away from me as it hits her, the sliding of my tongue out of her setting her nerves off like a symphony. The other green batpony falls over, squeaking and writhing and jerking on her side, and I can see the rest of the ponies in the trailer again, of course gathered around us. Focusing on her red and black stallion, I heave up the orgasming batpony in my forelegs, saying, “Don’t just stand there. Come hug her!” Strider hurriedly sinks to his belly beside us as Candy weakly grips her forelimbs around him when he cradles her, and takes on her weight from me.

“Thank...oh god... thank ynnh,” Candy says articulately, hind legs twitching rhythmically beside us.

“You too,” I say to the orange mare, who blushes and crouches down to push up against Candy’s other side. I... reluctantly pull myself free of the mare, standing and saying, “Is anyone else supposed to be with Candy?”

“No reason the rest of us can’t join in,” Lucy says, giving me a chiding look. Then she lays with the three of them as blushingly I return to cuddling the orgasming Candy. Then Holly, then Sue, then well... it feels good for ponies to lay together. Or on top of others, as the foals seem to prefer, the three looking with curiosity mostly at the impregnated orange pony. Laying here, I feel surrounded by love which I don’t deserve, but oh well.

...Strider must’ve pulled out of Blaze right away. His huge dick is still hanging there slowly deflating, in just the right place. What are the chances? I... I shouldn’t but... it’s not going to get any weirder than this. Shifting my right hind leg under it, I slide his limp dick up my knee to my pelvis, and just... press his silky softening head right up into my marehood.

“You... you probably shouldn’t do that,” Strider says softly.

Shifting, I squeeze his penis between my thighs, just to keep holding it against me. “I... I know,” I say. He doesn’t pull away. There’s absolutely no way he can penetrate me at this angle, but I just... it just feels... nice to have it there. I think he’s the only one who knows I’m doing this.

His semen’s still drooling from him of course, but I’m pregnant, so there’s no... especial danger with that. It’s just... nice to feel it dribbling up inside me instead of all over the floor. I... I just like stallions, okay? It feels... like him.

We all lay together with me and hopefully Strider enjoying in some fashion his penis pressed up against my muff, until Candy relaxes, and her breathing evens out. And of course her confidence goes right out the window.

Hunched in the center of us all, Candy says morosely, “I—I don’t know how to be a girl. I just saw the look on her face, and I wanted her to... to feel it.” Meeting the orange pony’s eyes, she concludes, “A real girl would have made you stop.”

“I’m a real girl,” Lucy says, rolling her eyes, “There’s a lot of different kinds of real girl.”

“Oh, s-so am I a... a good... girl?” Candy asks Lucy, with beseeching greenish wide-pupiled eyes.

“You seem fine to me,” Lucy says, “But does it matter? If your dude likes you...”

“W-well I just...” Candy trails off.

“I like you,” Strider assures her, and I’m pretty sure he means it, even if he’s okay with me...doing something naughty.

“Ponies are different,” I say, attracting Candy’s attention. “It’s just my um... theory,” I continue a little more shyly, “There’s a lot more mares than stallions. So we probably are acting like real girls. Just pony girls have instincts to share.”

“So it’s okay if I s-shared Strider?” the orange mare asks hopefully, “It’s okay I don’t mind if he does just one time. Just...”

“Hey, we’re gonna have to stay together from now on,” Strider says with a frown, “It’s my fault anyway. I shouldn’t have been following you. You just looked kinda lonely, and... s-sorry I took advantage of you.”

“You think he’s gonna abandon you?” Candy asks her incredulously, “He won’t... I won’t make him abandon you just outta jealousy. You’ll help with my baby, right? Maybe we can help each other?”

“Oh, yes!” the orange mare says earnestly, “I’ll help both our babies if you want, if I can just... I don’t have to be alone anymore.”

“Of course you don’t have to be alone anymore,” Candy replies to the mare falling silent, “Strider and I’ll take care of you. And if you need to do... that with him again. I—I won’t say no.”

The mare’s eyes flood with tears, and hugs the surprised Candy hard again, sobbing, “Thank you! Thank you! I love this! Thank you! I wanted it for so long. It felt so good! Oh thank you!” And... everything’s okay now. Somehow.

As we lay there, my tiny little affair doesn’t last much longer. Strider’s penis slowly deflates, and eventually parts from my vulva, leaving a trail of his jism as it shrinks back into his cherry red sheath.

The orange mare is still beside herself with giddy relief, rubbing her cheek into Strider’s chest, saying, “I’ll make your baby I’ll make your baby in my tummy I won’t stop until I make your whole baby, thank you...” while on her other side, Candy looks bemusedly on.

Then Candy’s face falls in horror.

“Oh—oh my god. Oh no,” Candy declares, jumping up from our group to flitter up into the air anxiously, hovering over us.

“What?” Strider asks, half getting up himself, “What’s wrong?”

“We just put a baby in her!” Candy declares shrilly, pointing a foreleg at the orange mare. “We just—you just fucked her, and I just told you to cum in her!”

“I know. I was there,” Strider says dryly, “I dunno what we’re gonna do, but we’ll have to do it togeth—”

“No, you don’t understand,” Candy cuts him off sharply, looking at the frightened mare in alarm, “This is so fucked up. We don’t even know her name!”

“...oh god,” Strider agrees in horror.

The orange mare looks between them in confusion saying, “It’s... okay. My name is just a pony name anyway.”

“You forgot your real name too?” I ask her in bewilderment, “I thought I was the only one!”

Blushing, the orange mare says, “N-no... I just... d-don’t wanna say my real one.”

“Oh, because it’s a guy’s name, right,” I say, in the distinctly mollified tone of someone who really should never open her mouth.

“R-right,” she says.

“I meant your pony name,” Candy says bemusedly, settling back down to the center of our little cuddle, “You don’t have to say your real name. I d-don’t want to say my old name either.”

Blinking, the orange mare says, “Okay. My pony name is Blaze. Because I’m fire colored. I-is that okay?”

“Blaze, yeah,” Candy says with a weak smile, “And I’m Candy.”

“Well my name was David,” says the unicorn stallion, “But I’m red and black, so... Strider. Get it?”

I don’t think Blaze gets it.

Author's Note

Road trip!!

Simple Pleasures

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.

The Sincerest Form of Flattery

So, Mira’s with us. That’s a... thing. She somehow flew fast enough to catch up with a bunch of motor vehicles. Not that we were going very fast, for a convoy of trucks in uncertain road conditions. I still can’t believe she’s here! Mira doesn’t end up cramming into the trailer with me and the others, but goes with Melissa and... one other friend in a van. I see her every time we come to a rest stop though, her boisterous, cheerful self that I’ve always loved to see.

I help clean up that morning, pulling out stakes with my hoof, carrying plates with my mouth, folding up tables on my haunches. I get back to the trailer that we’re going to continue the journey in, and... Susan’s there. I stand next to her, Lucy, Sue Candy on my other side, waiting for the rest to arrive. “You know, you can... switch trailers,” I tell Susan cautiously. The brown furred earth pony mare with a blue mane and tail is still smelling horny today, and she looks at me saying,

“...I know.”

“If something happens...”

“Something’s... gonna happen,” Susan says quietly. She doesn’t tell Strider though, but I think he knows, from what we talked about yesterday, and the fact that Susan’s still here.

Soon we’re all back and in the trailer, and the truck pulling us is turning back onto the road. Susan’s just... standing around. So is Strider. I don’t think anyone wants to say something for fear they’ll make something happen.

“So you can really smell me, huh,” Susan says with a sheepish laugh, looking around, sidling her rump in Strider’s general direction.

He doesn’t answer, but it’s definitely been a long enough standing around for her scent to affect him. Physically. Between his legs. Strider gives Candy a look, then mounts Susan.

Susan’s tail jerks up as soon as Strider touches her. Hunching forward, as he climbs on, Susan murmurs with an intense stare, “Oh god, this is happening.” She stands there, trembling as Strider shifts his hips behind her, then lifts her head sharply, irises narrow, declaring, “I feel it! He’s—he’s in! He’s in! He’s...” her eyes fill with aching delight, as Strider levers his hips against Susan’s rear end, “Iii...in!”

He’s in.

Strider stays steady for the moment, while Susan looks among the rest of us, eyes pausing on Candy, as she says nervously, “Sorry it’s really... hitting me. How do I look? He...he’s in me right now.”

“You look beautiful,” Candy confesses distantly, struck by the sight of her stallion mounting and penetrating the blue haired brown mare named Susan.

“I’ll do this to you,” Strider says hotly, leaning against Susan, “And to Blaze... and to Candy... oh god I don’t deserve this. You feel so good. I... I don’t want to pull out.”

Susan blushes, saying, “...I know.”

The red unicorn starts fucking her then, and Susan just looks off distantly as she feels it, bracing against Strider’s thrusts. Blaze is watching in fascination, while Candy’s touching herself again, and this is somehow all... fine.

“I guess we’re all gonna be pregnant then,” I say with a tinge of longing as the last mare in the trailer gives into the urge to get impregnated.

I didn’t think Susan had presence of mind to hear that, but she replies, softly and breathlessly, eyes closed, saying, “Sorry, I... I didn’t want to... hold out... any longer.”

“It’s okay, just do what you need to do,” I tell her nervously, feeling like I shouldn’t be the authority here.

“We’re not gonna be pregnant, if that helps!” the pegasus filly calls over from where the three of them are watching the mating with interest.

It really shouldn’t make me smile, but I have to smile at her, replying, “Y-yeah, thanks!”

Susan’s eyes are closed, her mouth open with grateful gasps of absolute bliss, as Strider humps her so smoothly, rolling his hips against her, his own gaze distant as he feels it. “She... she feels pretty good, huh?” Candy asks, standing shyly by the couple looking up at Strider’s expression.

“I... I don’t deserve this...” Strider says emotionally, focusing on Candy with apologetic ears as his thrusts slow, “Candy you’re so beautiful! She feels so good. I can do this in... you! And... and Blaze?”

Susan moans as he hunches over and thrusts harder, more urgently. “It slides inside you!” she belts out, bracing against his thrusts, “Pushed me down and...” she says staring forward with hot breaths, “Started kicking in me. Felt his cum was frikkin 15... unnh... don’t care if I get sick uhn uhn unh...”

Nothing much else happens other than this wonderful, musky, primal mating. Strider eventually pushes deep and holds it, and Susan’s irises narrow as she says,

“Oh god...”

Lucy says sympathetically to the mare, “It’s okay just—” Susan whimpers loudly then, gazing off again as something starts happening to her. “Just let it happen,” gently concludes my orange and purple unicorn friend.

“I’m... letting it happen to me,” Susan moans, shoving back against Strider’s ejaculation, The blue and brown mare just pants then, accepting the stallion’s semen into her.

Strider relaxes presently, sagging against Susan’s rump. “She... she’s pregnant,” he says quietly.

“I... I did that,” Blaze declares in wonder, “You can feel his babies in you now. His... his stuff changing your belly.”

“You’re just gonna let yourself get pregnant now,” Candy says in amazement, “That’s what I did. I just stood there full of semen, letting my egg change into a fetus, then just latch onto me in there and start growing. I didn’t really control it of course, but imagining it...”

“I will,” Blaze assures her, “And I will give birth too, even if it hurts.”

“Long as I don’t have to do it in a hospital anymore,” Susan says giving a resigned sigh, “Feels weird just... standing here with his penis in me, w-with all of you around.”

“I can’t even stand on all fours,” Strider complains, “But I... wanna stay in you a little more.”

“Any time,” Susan says, looking back at the mounted stallion with an affectionate smile.

The only thing that happens after that is when Sue mounts Holly, and the only thing abnormal about it is that there’s a bigger audience this time. Holly’s usually too shy to do it in public, but I guess somehow in just this short time we’ve all become closer together. Nobody gives her a hard time over it, and she gives such sweet coos when Sue starts pumping his semen into her, saying how much she loves it, I’m... kind of glad on some level that other people get to hear such joy coming from her.

We’re pretty much good after that. The boys are tapped out... mostly. Lucy still has yesterday, when Sue came inside her before we left. I’m still trying to figure out the strange feel of the semen from both Nick, and Mira’s friend Peter, within me. The foals are foals, and they don’t have those urges. And Candy seems perfectly content with the vicarious pleasure of Blaze and Susan both becoming purringly pregnant, sitting with her as his semen within slowly transforms their bellies, joining the rest of us as pregnant mares.

Candy, Susan, Blaze and Strider are lying on one side of the trailer. Me and the other two mares of my group are lying together with Sue on the other. And in the middle of all of us, the foals are making themselves busy with a ball they found, using our collective sides as a barrier to bounce off of as they careen about with it, like tiny little pony shaped bumper cars. And the trailer rolls on.

The endless plains and pastures pass, nothing but fields of crops and dusty roads as far as the eye can see. Leaning out from the trailer’s window, I find that the wind that blows past me contains a wealth of the smells of hay and earth and maybe even some of the creatures that walk on it, but more important than the smells I’m smelling, I can see dead ahead of us: a city.

I see us approaching a city in the distance, and... see it, and see it. It doesn’t seem to be getting any closer. Did I mention endless plains and pastures? It’s well into evening when our caravan stops on the side of the road for a rest, and we still haven’t reached the city yet. I do see a few pegasi fly off in that direction, but don’t think much of it until a few come flying back to explain about the city they’ve just scouted out.

“The inner city’s empty,” the blue pegasus mare states calmly after soaring at our caravan like a rocket, and backwinging to land on her hind legs with a rush of wind, which I think is pretty damn cool, “There are people still in the suburbs. We can probably risk a fuel run, but we’d have to go down the Interstate into the city proper. Should be a gas station nobody’s watching.”

Trotting up to the group who’re discussing this, I ask, “Do you need any—I mean can I come help?” And I don’t really know any of these ponies, but before I can have second thoughts, one of the army mares looks at me and smiles, saying,

“Oh no, you don’t worry about that. The vehicles are our responsibility, you just keep riding safely.”

“Yeah, but... I haven’t exactly gotten a chance to look at a... city yet,” I tell the soft blue mare, “I’m really curious what it’s like. If it’s dangerous... I can just run away, right?”

“It’s not dangerous,” the pegasus says, who reported what she saw in the city. The military mare shrugs with her tail, turning to me and saying, “You could carry gas cans too, so yeah it’s no problem if you want to come along. Just don’t feel obliged. It’s not your job.”

“Well it is now, because I’m gonna do it!” I declare optimistically. A little less optimistic when I’m trying to figure out how to tie gas cans to my body, I’m nevertheless excited. Should I be excited? They said it wasn’t dangerous. Are people okay? They said it was empty! What’s the deal there?

A few of the other civilian ponies accompany the military group actually, mostly pegasi since our pegasi actually know how to fly. I don’t know why they don’t just have pegasi go fly in alone to get the gas cans filled, but their earth pony and unicorn entourage hurries along behind them with me in the middle of it. The big plastic cans are definitely clunking against my sides as the rope holding two on each side of me rubs uncomfortably into the fur on my back, but if that’s the only danger we face, I’m not even slightly concerned!

The empty city is eerily quiet. Not too quiet, as I can hear a... is that a leaf blower I’m hearing? Some kind of motor running in the distance. The cars are quiet though, all swerved off the road, clogging the freeway we walk along. Trot along. Just a bunch of non-winged ponies carrying gas cans, following the cues of the winged ponies flying overhead to navigate.

The freeway rises up now and then, to tower over the city around us. I can’t see much over the tall concrete barriers on either side, but I don’t see many ponies here. A few ponies came to stare from a distance at us marching up the expressway back when it was cleaving in half lush neighborhoods full of green trees. But they keep their distance, and as the pegasus said before, the inner city is... empty.

I can see a little more of the city itself once we get off the Interstate. More parked cars in varying states of disarray. The roads we walk on are smooth, solidly paved. We stay off the sidewalk for the most part because why would we need a sidewalk, if there are no cars driving around? That and not all the drivers parked correctly while transforming into ponies, so the sidewalks are more blocked than the roads some places.

We round a corner, and “Woah,” I say in a stunned tone, as we travel down a block with the storefronts all closed, and across their fronts is some crude graffiti, not the gang signs you might expect, but a huge message painted onto it, saying simply, “WEST SIDE HEADING TO SOUTH FARMS. SEE RESIDENCES FOR FORWARDING INFORMA”

The message runs out of storefront then, but the meaning is clear, and I’m starting to understand why. There are a few sterile parks here and there as we walk along, but even the lakesides are paved around here. The greenest thing I see currently is the grass on a road divider, which has grown ludicrously long since nobody has come by with a lawnmower in the past half a year or so, but it doesn’t even taste very good. Kind of bitter/sour. The biggest area of actual dirt I see is a cemetary, and I know nobody’s gonna want to farm there!

“I thought things would be different, Mira,” I tell my sister, because of course she had to come with our group, once she heard I was getting to go on a little adventure. She’s so enthusiastic, it’s wonderful. “Not that I’m disappointed. Well maybe a little disappointed.”

“About what?” asks the yellow batpony with blue and pink hair, blinking her bright blue eyes at me.

“There’s nobody here,” I tell her. “No uh... gangs or warring or anything. It’s just empty.”

“There’s signs painted frikkin everywhere saying they went to the south farms, so I guess that’s where everyone went,” Mira says, looking up at a hulking parking garage as we pass by it.

“Yeah, but... they just went south to... just do more farming?” I ask skeptically, “Where’s the people fighting in the streets and like, killing others for defending their territory and stuff?”

“I guess it could be like that down south, but honestly I don’t see a lot here worth defending,” Mira replies, “A lot of expensive property, but... you can’t eat real estate.”

Things get suddenly greener and lusher as we approach something called the “Minnehaha Parkway,” which near as I can tell is a long thin strip of thick trees, with a sign on the road approaching it labeled “Minnehaha Parkway.” “There are places like this,” I point out to Mira, gesturing that way with my nose as we trot across a creek bridge, “But who’s gonna cut down all those trees?”

“Can’t believe we got stranded somewhere that was so nice and empty, and flat,” Mira says gladly, as we cross this little green belt in the city, “We could just take over the existing farms out in Ainsworth, and we didn’t even need them, practically.”

“I wonder if Twilight Sparkle took that into account,” I say thoughtfully.

“Well she couldn’t’ve based in the middle of an urban area,” Mira replies practically, “No way to hide a hundred ponies that way, before everyone’s a pony. We’d have been found out!”

“That makes sense,” I say unhappily, “I’m sure she wasn’t doing it for our benefit.”

Refueled and moving again, our convoy makes its way bit by bit out of the endless farms and fields, into thicker and thicker trees, switching from deciduous to pine. It is a really long way away to their secret base it turns out. I wasn’t sure where Ainsworth was relative to it, though to be fair I wasn’t sure where Ainsworth was, in the whole entire nation! Somewhere in Nebraska, wherever that is.

Well we’re not in Nebraska anymore. We have one more rest stop, where the whole bunch of us shuffle out of that trailer, and my toes hit packed loam when I jump out. It’s like the world expands around me. The trees soar overhead, a forest beyond me in the distance, as I inhale the rich pine scent. There’s a crisp chill in the air that uncomfortably reminds me of home. I wonder what month it’s getting to be. It’s not Autumn already, is it?

I have to laugh at the cute little “CMC” bunch among us, the two fillies and a colt just about stir crazy when we get out to stretch our legs. “C’mon,” the pegasus filly among them says eagerly all wiggly on her feet, “Let’s go somewhere and show Whisper.”

“Really?” the colt asks, and I still forget which of the three is supposed to be David, or what their other two names are.

The pegasus filly trots up to him, and harshly whispers “whisper whisper last chance,” into his ear.

“C’mon, let’s go!” the unicorn filly whines, running circles around them, “I wanna try it!”

I get a little worried when the colt rolls his eyes, and says, “We are gonna get in so much trouble, but okay.”

They go charging off then, and I don’t think they noticed I was turning my ears their way. Or that I was there at all. I can be kind of... unobtrusive sometimes. I trot cautiously after, as the three go running into the woods, right past Blaze as they go. Stopping beside her, I ask, “So... it’s okay if they just go off by themselves alone?”

“It’s okay, they’re adults, so they can take care of themselves,” Blaze says sagely, looking the direction the foals went.

“They’re still small,” I contest, which isn’t quite how I feel, but just... “I’m just gonna check on them really quick,” I add uneasily.

“Oh, wow, a-and nobody’s gonna check up on me anymore,” Blaze realizes, looking down at her hooves, “That’s weird.”

Huh?

“I guess I could check up on you, if you want,” I tell her unsurely, “But only if you run out into the woods, and could get hurt on your own.”

Blaze giggles at that saying simply, “Okay,” with an even, welcome smile on her face. I think she understands me, but that lady acts... odd sometimes.

Giving her a thin smile back, I turn and go bounding off in the direction that the foals went. They had a bit of a head start, but as luck would have it I spot a place where little foal hooves have imprinted in some mud, heading down what looks like a deer trail along a creek. I guess it’s a pony trail, now!

I head more cautiously down that trail, which takes me longer than them, but I can’t really risk making noise here. They don’t want some dumb adult thinking they’re real children who needed supervision. Which I’m not. But they totally would think I was, so I soft-hoof down the path, and as long as I step around twigs and leaves, I can pretty much walk without hardly a sound.

Eventually, my ear turns at the sound of the unicorn filly’s sharp cry, down a beaten path off the narrow trail. I hurry in that direction, and I hear the sounds of struggle, and the unicorn filly again calling out in alarm, “Flint!!” so I bound forward in a panic, crashing my way into a clearing and scooting to a halt.

The three foals are looking at me with big eyes, like three kids who were caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Except ponies don’t have hands, and the unicorn is the cookie jar. The pegasus filly is standing beside the colt, who is mounted right up on the unicorn foal, balls deep inside her.

A frozen moment, and the unicorn squeals, “I can explain!”

She can’t explain.

The colt keeps fucking her, not really fucking her but more of just a soft, steady rocking of his hips against hers, as he looks up at me guiltily and says, “Please don’t make us stop...”

“Please,” the unicorn filly begs then, looking up at me beseechingly with big liquid brown eyes, bracing her rump against his thrusting, “Please let him oh oh Oh miss Meadowsweet, it—feels amazing. I didn’t know it would feel like this!”

That filly’s cute little blue rump has a... penis in it.

“We’re not really kids, so... so none of your beeswax,” the pegasus filly declares, her teeny little wings spread wide as she stands between me and them, glaring at me challengingly.

“It’s okay, I won’t tell! I just...!” I blurt out, taking a step back from the whole situation, “I didn’t think it was physically possible!”

“Well... it is,” the pegasus filly says, with a wary frown. Behind her, the blue unicorn filly has been reduced to intense gasps, along with the green haired, tan furred colt, as they continue to do something foals should not be able to do. “And we’re not breaking any laws, so...” the pegasus filly adds.

I am not comfortable with this! “I have no problem with this,” I tell her, trying to appear confident, “So you... don’t have to... defend them?”

Blushing, the filly folds her wings, and still looks up at me, before following my gaze to the mating couple. At least the colt’s looking at the filly as he humps into her. The unicorn filly still stares at me though, in anxious disbelief and shame, and I just can’t stand that.

“Having sex is pretty crazy, huh?” I tell her soothingly, trying not to cringe visibly as I approach, just looking nonchalant as I walk up to... a couple of kids just sorta having sex. No problem, right? “How do you uh, like it so far?”

“Tingles when he slides into me,” the unicorn filly declares in anxious wonder as she rocks there, “I’m... stretching around him. Every... time he pushes in, hugging my... whole butt... it’s getting in my head can’t... think...”

Well, at least that’s familiar. “It’s okay not to think,” I reassure her, even though I have no idea what I’m doing, “Just do what you need to do, okay?”

“Okay...” she wibbles.

Is it okay? Shouldn’t I be pulling them apart and treating them like kids? It just doesn’t seem right to ruin their growing ecstasy, as the unicorn filly discovers what it feels like to be bred. I know how this feels, and I know how bad it feels to stop, but... they’re just kids!

“Is it making you think how hot Flint is?” the pegasus filly asks excitedly fluttering up to the unicorn, not waiting for an answer. “It feels like his penis’s just sinking into your brain,” she states enthusiastically, “And your vagina is gonna feel super important now. You’re going into a full girl, who doesn’t hold back, who likes to lift her tail and... and you like being girly now.”

“I... I want his... babies inside me,” the unicorn filly replies, panting hotly as the colt fucks her and staring at the pegasus in amazement, “Don’t care about anything... anymore just being a girl and... my bottom needs him in... ”

“I love being in you, Whisper,” the colt moans breathily, hunched over her, “You really are a girl you feel just like Flitter. I’m gonna—in your... vagina, change you more...”

Then he really starts fucking her.

“Flint~!” the unicorn squeals urgently, her eyes filling with loving adoration as she pushes her hips back against his hard, fast humping. And this time, no panicked adult pony leaps out from the underbrush. Guess I was the only one.

So the blue unicorn filly is Whisper, and the tan and green earth pony colt is Flint. No idea about the purple pegasus filly with blue hair. Whisper just softly pants now, staring forward and bracing against the flattened grass, as the colt does his uh... thing.

I’m pretty sure these two aren’t gonna do anything more than fuck now, so I nudge the pegasus filly aside, saying to her a little bit more privately, “Sorry, I shouldn’t have followed you. I just heard you were gonna get in trouble, so I wanted to make sure you weren’t getting hurt.”

“It’s okay,” she says a teeny bit resentfully, but also a teeny bit gratefully. “I’m just glad you’re okay with them, and... us doing this.”

“Well you’re too young to get pregnant, and you have adult uh, minds, so if you manage to actually enjoy it? Not my business,” I tell her agreeably, “So... you’ve been having sex with him too, huh?”

“It’s okay, right?” the purple pegasus asks anxiously, “I liked it, and he... came inside me. M-my vagina. Aand my butt won’t stop feeling really girly now.”

“You’re preaching to the choir, sister,” I tell the filly grumpily, “I’m like, super girly or something, and I love when Sue um... cums inside me. Far as I’m concerned, you can let Flint cum in you as much as you want.”

“Flint?” she asks, quirking an ear. Then before I can answer, she blushes fast, and says, “Oh, right, s-sorry we gave each other some s-s-silly pony names, just for between us. I’m Flitter, she’s Whisper and he’s Flint. I–I don’t know if I want everyone to know we have pony names yet, though.”

“Your secret’s safe with me, Flitter,” I say with a wink. I really hope I don’t accidentally say her name in public after saying that.

“T-thanks,” she says giving me a relieved look, adding, “So it’s okay if we have sex, even though we’re technically foals.”

“Hey if you can make it work, I don’t mind,” I say nuzzling her, wishing I felt as confident as I spoke, “You’re still cute little foals. Whisper and Flint are just... playing a grownup game right now.”

“Heh... it’s not exactly house,” the filly says, looking over at the mating foals, with a bashful smile on her face.

I think Whisper’s climaxing, and Flint doesn’t look far behind, but the unicorn filly’s not rocking as much, just staring dully forward, being really loud about it, with her guttural moans of, “Huuhh... huuhh... huuuuh.” Her curly little tail spasms against Flint’s hip as she cums. It might be sexy if she didn’t sound, and sort of look like a blue Sweetie Belle.

“...I think he’s about to do it,” Flitter says in curious wonder, standing up and heading over to them. I head back over too, still not sure how I should react to the foals humping there in front of me. It’s not as... hard to look at as time goes on, I guess. It’s kind of... cute, even? He’s got these cute little balls that... I dunno I just wanna grab both foals in a big, warm hug and...

Rationally, I know that a big hug would interrupt them, and at this point they just want to keep having sex without any distractions. So I sit on my haunches next to them, flattening more grass, while Flitter stands beside me, and we wait for the two to finish.

“I didn’t know I looked this... hot, when he did it to me,” Flitter murmurs.

“Well, it’s cute?” I say uncertainly, “I mean... you should see it when a big stallion just climbs on Bubbl—on Holly or...Lucy and just gets so thick. But this could be hot, too, I guess?”

“Yeah, I... never thought I’d say it, but I like Flint’s little penis,” Flitter says with a tiny giggle, “I don’t think a full grown stallion would even be able to get it into me!”

“He could press it against you though,” I muse, “So at least his semen would go inside.”

“Y—that’s uh—uhm...” Flitter blushes hotly, staring forward at the thought, “That’s weirdly sexy and... probably never going to happen.”

“Probably, yeah,” I say a little regretfully.

The tan colt ceases his thrusting about now, and holds tremblingly tight to the unicorn filly’s powder blue flanks, giving Whisper a moment to speak passionately, as we all wait for it to happen to her.

“I love this,” the filly pants, staring forward, “He’s gonna cum in me. It’s—ah it’s hot! It’s—!” Whisper pushes her filly hips against him just like a mare, clenching her teeth, and closing her eyes. “Ungh... yes... squirt... ” she grunts serenely, holding the colt’s penis deep in her round little rump.

The colt quickly starts to relax atop Whisper. I guess he wouldn’t cum as much as a stallion, makes sense. Whisper looks over at me and Flitter sitting there then, in what I guess would be worry, if her eyes weren’t dilating. The deep brown of her irises makes the effect even more striking, as it happens to her.

“I really don’t mind,” I tell the big doe-eyed filly with something like affection fluttering in my heart, like affection for a kid who... just experienced great joy.

“I—I have a penis inside me,” she admits to me in nervous defiance, still breathing a little hard from getting fucked just now. “Right now. I feel it.”

“Yeah, well you still look like a cute little foal,” I tell her wryly, “Feels good to have a penis in that cute little butt, huh?”

Whisper blushes, looking down at that, saying bashfully, “I–I... thanks. I like being... cute, and it’s so cool to just stand here with him inside my... my place.”

“I don’t feel cute,” Flint remarks quietly, “I feel... dirty.”

“Well, you’re both cute,” I insist, saying to each respectively, “You’re a cute little colt, and you’re a cute little filly. So go ahead and have sex. You can’t un-cute yourself. Though, Flitter and Flint should both hug you now, Whisper.”

“Why?” Whisper asks, half knowing the answer already.

“I look all haloey right now, right?” I ask as I smile encouragingly at her, “Your eyes are dilating. I dunno why that happens, but you’re gonna feel all cuddly. So it’s nice if you want to be with your friends.”

“Can I hug you?” Whisper blurts out, looking a little lovestruck at uh, me.

“S-sure, just... um...” I lay down on my side in the grass, and wait for Flint and Whisper to... separate.

Giving me a cautious look, Flint dismounts Whisper, and the unicorn filly coos a happy, “Ooh!” when he climbs off of her, and out of her I suppose. She looks at his... dangling little colthood in a daze, then looks at her own groin, walking in a little circle as she examines herself. She then looks at me portentiously and states, “It’s... coming out of me. A little.”

“It’ll do that for a while,” I tell her dismissively, pointedly avoiding looking at her rear, “We’re in the woods, so just... let it drip out!”

Whisper looks concerned and puzzled as she walks up to me. She wordlessly climbs up my side, laying her whole body along mine in an awkward sort of hug. Then she starts... crying.

“Thank you, thank you,” the filly sobs, pressing her cheek against my fur, nuzzling me desperately as she says, “It felt so good, thank you, I wanted it so bad and it’s okay and he did it to me, oh thank you so much.”

“Don’t just stand there,” I hiss at the other two, “Come hug her!”

Whisper slides off me, trying to hug them, still crying, and the three end up leaning against each other, Flint and Flitter both embracing Whisper sort of leaning against my side, while I sit there slightly curled around them.

“You just slid in there and started... can’t believe I want penises in there.” Whisper remarks in dazed disbelief, poking at her own blue fuzzy belly, “My... my belly has cum inside it.”

“Pretty incredible that you’re okay with this, miss Meadowsweet,” Flitter says fondly, “Me and Whisper are gonna have cum inside us, and... that’s just fine with you.”

“I had a stallion putting cum in me just two days ago,” I tell the filly accomodatingly, “It’s just normal for vaginas, if you... wanna get pregnant. You’re too young to get pregnant of course, I think. I hope.”

“Ha ha I’d explode,” Flitter says nervously, laying a hoof on her own belly thoughtfully, “It’s weird to think... that a baby could start growing in there.”

“It’s not that weird,” I tell her uneasily, “I’ve got a baby growing in mine, a-and they haven’t even started showing. They say it’s only at the very end that you start getting really huge.”

“It was so weird how Strider just... put babies into those two,” Whisper says pausing uncertainly, “I remember being like him, trying to get a... a girl pregnant, but not really of course. But watching them, I started wanting to... be a girl, more. So I finally... said OK and Flint s-showed me what it’s like.”

“You were copying them?” I ask, looking with some concern at the filly leaning against me.

“M-maybe a little,” Whisper says, blushing and looking away, “They just did it right in front of us, and I started... wanting to be like them, f-feeling so good back there. E-even if Flint doesn’t overflow.”

“You know, if we could find a stallion to do it, he could definitely make you overflow, Whisper,” Flitter says amusedly to the little unicorn.

Whisper blushes in disbelief and says, “F-Flint was huge! He felt... bigger than I thought! W-would a grown stallion even be able to get it in?”

“He wouldn’t have to,” Flitter says sweetly, “He’d just have to press it against you when he came, and it’d fill you right up.”

Whisper looks like she’s going to die of blushing then, Flitter giggles impishly, and in the ensuing silence, Flint, the colt, says quietly, “I don’t wanna get changed back.”

Me and the two fillies look his way, and he says, “I wanna go through puberty again. I know it sounds crazy, but with Flitter and Whisper with me, it’s gonna be awesome. The only hard part about puberty is how it’s so forbidden and illegal and stuff, so it’s hard to find people to share it with.”

“There’s also teen pregnancy,” I point out, “Though I think you three are too young for that... probably.”

Flint flicks an ear, but he says, “I’m sure we could figure out contraception or something. Even if we couldn’t have sex... When I hit puberty, my dick got big and fat and huge. If I could share that with someone, a-and if they’d be okay with it, then I wouldn’t feel like I was turning into such a f-ing... monster.”

“Me and Whisper are not gonna be getting boners anymore, but we’re gonna growing too,” Flitter points out, “I want to see you getting big, so that I can show you how my body is growing big enough take that... f-ing monster of yours.”

“I started... doing it when I was 14,” Whisper confesses, “I wanted to go inside a girl so bad. My penis was getting huge too, and I had nobody to even talk to about it.”

“What about your parents?” I ask her uncertainly.

The unicorn tilts her nose up to look back at me, asking dryly, “When have anyone’s parents ever been comfortable talking to their kids about sex?”

“Anyone who’s too comfortable goes to prison forever,” Flint says in frustration, “So all we get are people too afraid to teach us, people who hate us for urges we can’t stop having, and nothing else.”

“I never thought about it before,” I muse sympathetically, “I remember when I started masturbating, and it was awful. I couldn’t talk to anyone about it. Or have sex with anyone. I don’t think I’ve ever talked about it until now, and I’m 33. That’s... twenty-three years...”

“If you talk about it as an adult, you go to prison too,” Flitter says in dark amusement, “Gotta protect the children from you after all!”

“I don’t think you go to prison just from talking about it,” Whisper says critically, “But it is pretty bad, yeah...”

“The whole thing traumatizes kids more than it saves them from trauma,” Flitter says flatly, “If the law makes kids feel helpless and powerless, then it’s part of the problem. Kids are gonna make stupid, terrible decisions, but they aren’t gonna get traumatized if they feel like they have a choice about it.”

“Were you really 10 years old, miss Meadowsweet?” Whisper asks curiously.

“A-actually, yeah it was... weird I know,” I admit shyly, “B-but I liked it, and...”

“It’s not weird,” Flitter grumbles, “Girls mature sooner than boys. But that just makes it even more ridiculous that it’s illegal!”

“Well, I think I would’ve been a lot... happier if I had someone to do it with,” I admit reluctantly, “I couldn’t even have sex when I turned 16, and it was legal!”

“Don’t you mean 18?” Flitter asks, “You’re still underage at 16, after all.”

“You are? No you’re not. Really?” I ask her in confusion, “Pretty sure that’s just for driving, and even then you can get a permit?”

“I’m not a lawyer,” the pegasus filly admits with a blush, “But I’m pretty sure it is 18.”

“Well, not at my high school,” I say with a roll of my eyes. “Practically everyone got a girlfriend my sophomore year, if you know what I mean. I just never... knew any girls. I’m just saying it’s hard to feel like that, with no one to tell you how much they love your new... urges.”

The wind whispers through the silent pines.

“Can’t believe I get to be a kid again,” Flitter muses, one soft purple wing shifting against my belly as she gets more comfortable, “I’m with Flint. Not changing back, growing into a Rainbow Dash clone, taking everything Flint can stuff in me.”

“You’re such a perv,” Whisper says critically, but not angrily, “But... I think... me too. It’s okay to have those feelings, and I want to have another chance at having them again, especially if I can have them with you two.”

They all hug, and we lie warmly together, and we probably should be getting back, but I think the foals are falling asleep. I told Blaze I was going after them, so everyone back at the rest stop should know we’re... busy.

Poor Whisper’s crotch is starting to look pretty sticky, though. So I guess we can’t just... laze around like this for the rest of the hour long break. Resisting the urge to just clean off the filly with my tongue, I ease apart from the three of them to little protest, then pick up the sleepy Whisper, intending to carry her over to that creek we passed on the way here.

I get about five steps into my grand plan, before I hear Flitter behind me call out, “Miss Meadowsweet, what are you doing?”

Ehm... “I’m jus’ goin clean her up a bi’” I tell the filly around carrying Whisper, turning back to show her that Whisper’s safe.

“Are you scruffing her?” Flitter asks in amazement.

...

My mouth falls open and Whisper drops to the ground with a squeak, “Ohmigosh I’m so sorry!” I declare in alarm, craning down to her, “Are you okay? I didn’t mean to—”

“I-I’m fine, it was just a little weird,” Whisper says, climbing to her hooves. “You just grabbed me and—”

“I am so sorry,” I repeat, “I wasn’t even thinking. I just... I carry things with my mouth. That’s all I was doing.”

“Do me! Do me!” Flitter cries out excitedly, hopping up with her purple wings abuzz.

I look at her in confusion.

“I wanna see if you can scruff me!”

Soon all three foals clamor at my hooves, wanting me to... scruff them, like I was a mommy cat or something. I guess... ponies are cats? I guess ponies are cats. The skin on Flitter’s neck is thick and loose, and when I carefully bite and lift her up by it, she says, “WoOoOah that iiis weird!”

“Whup?” I ask, self-consciously. I don’t wanna be a mommy anything!

“Can’t... can’t really just wanna... hang here and...” the filly says in kind of a worryingly slurred voice, trailing off to silence. I don’t drop her, but I do put her down very quickly, asking,

“Are you alright?!”

“I’m... fine it’s just...” Flitter says, getting to her hooves a little wobbly, “It’s just like kittens,” she concludes, not nearly as excited about it as before I picked her up. With an affectionate nuzzle of my shoulder fluff, she says, “You can scruff me any time you want!”

“Did you want to carry me to the creek?” Whisper asks hopefully, “I can walk, but...”

“Hey, I haven’t got a turn!” Flint whines.

After being conscripted into basically scruff themed airplane rides, I do willingly carry the unicorn foal down the banks of the creek. She cleans herself there, and I give her some tips, including uh... enlisting the aid of the tongue of one of her friends. I carry her up the creek bank too, because it’s pretty steep, but I put her down from there and she trots along to join with the others. And I... apparently have an instinct to scruff foals. Great.

The three foals trot back down the trail like the most innocent kids in the world, laughing and running after each other. Whisper’s totally right. If I didn’t know her little blue butt was full of Flint right now, I wouldn’t think they were doing anything but going to school with Cheerilee. It’s weird some of us became young foals, but it still raises joy in my heart to see them running ahead.

I guess it’s because they’re adults, that they’re having unnatural sexual impulses at that age. Are they unnatural though? Because I was masturbating when I was 10! If that’s normal for humans, then... what’s different about ponies? That we actually have sex instead of yearn for it? That doesn’t make us sex crazy compared to humans. It just makes us... better.

Back at the rest stop, it’s obvious even to those of us who aren’t keeping a terrible secret that Whisper is something of a new filly. She’s speaking up a little more confidently, she’s more active, and just full of a joy and peace that she didn’t have earlier. I know what those three were doing is wrong, and it certainly wasn’t flattering to watch, but... I’m not gonna spill the beans on them. I feel like they should be together, even if they’re doing things people wouldn’t approve of, because it would just be too terrible to separate them, and destroy the friendship they share, even if it was for their own good.

It’s been a few days on the road, and I have a few... things to think about, but we’re almost there, tires underneath us crunching down a path deep in the woods, far from any populated area, where a secret base is so secretly hidden. To this fate we embrace instead of refusing to play, our caravan of ponies and secret humans at last arrives. I don’t know exactly what we’re gonna do here, or how we’re gonna defeat Twilight Sparkle, but considering my track record, sex is probably gonna be involved in some way.

It’s someone else’s smart idea in one of the other vehicles: as we approach the nondescript looking government buildings buried in trees out deep in the woods, all the vehicles come to a halt. I’m really not certain what’s going on, until my pegasus friend named Brian sticks her green furred, blue maned head in the trailer, and says, “Hey, we’re all getting out early, just to make sure they don’t.. y’know... try to pull something funny on us, when we get there.”

Impressed with her, or whoever thought of this’s foresight, I eagerly disembark to find more dense forest around us. There’s an unpaved road leading further within that the convoy is parked on, and a mostly piney and dry understory, with brush and brambles whenever there’s a break in the trees or the steep banks of a creek.

“The complex is just ahead,” one of the military ponies says, looking sheepishly apologetic as she explains, “It’s an old military base that hasn’t been used in forever. Don’t ah... go in without our approval, security is on a policy of shoot first ask questions later. But we’re not going to hustle you through the door or anything. They know we’re coming, so they should be rolling out the red carpet any minute now.”

“Can they even shoot guns?” one of the ponies in the other trailer asks, “How do they pull the trigger?”

“The humans can shoot the guns,” the mare next to her whispers harshly, elbowing, er... shouldering her in the side.

“Maybe the ponies could use their tongue?” a friendly sounding stallion suggests.

“There isn’t enough leverage,” she grumbles, “Trust me, I’ve tried.”

Well, the military ponies head down the main road in their convoy alone, while the rest of us disperse into the woods around the complex looking for distant hiding spots to scope the place out. None of the pegasi are risking flying over it, in case the humans, or ponies with particularly dextrous tongues are aiming for the sky.

The walls so-to-speak are just chainlink fence, with that scary barbed wire on top at an outward angle. I’m not going to venture close to the complex that emerges beaten out from the center of the forest, but I can see some shadowy buildings and a water tower, from my hiding place partially behind a log, underneath some ferns that my hair and fur blends with entirely too easily. The military personnel who accompanied us are going to go ahead to bring the others out and open the gates or whatever, so mostly we just have to watch and wait, but as I’m crouching there I notice something curious.

It’s a little chipmunk, and I say little, but to me chipmunks are about rabbit sized. Nevertheless, I see a chipmunk hopping through the foliage, making its way across the loamy turf of pine needles I’m half embedded in. I can’t help but notice that I’m downwind of it, since I can smell the little critter, with his stripey back and chubby cheeks. That means he can’t smell me. I bet I could just... pounce on him from here. I wonder if he’d taste anything like a squirrel. I tense up, ready to spring.

“Meadowsweet!” a mare shouts, making me jerk up in place, seeing Bubblegum Comet swoocing around through the trees, asking, “Are you somewhere around—uh”

She lands.

“Oh, I see you’re... busy.”

I look down at the... chewed up body of a chipmunk between my forehooves. I almost got the skin off, and... “Eheh yeah, I just caught it and...” I giggle nervously, looking up to her with a blush, putting my forehoof over it in a poor manner of concealment, trying not to imagine how bloody my face looks right now. This is not the way I want to introduce myself to the complex, I wasn’t even thinking about hunting, I just... saw the little guy and wanted to... bite him.

“It’s no problem uh, I didn’t know you were one of the ones who... did that sort of thing,” Bubblegum says uneasily, looking at me and the little chipmunk carcass, a bit sideways. “You know, with the hunting?”

“Well I helped with the meat preparation mostly,” I say, making matters worse by trying to clean my face off with the fur on my foreleg, “Usually it’s the unicorns that do the hunting, since they got the horns and all. It’s just this time I was downwind, and...”

I look down at the chipmunk again, a little worried myself now, “And it just sort of... happened,” I tell her uneasily, “I mean it was... it died, so I couldn’t just waste it.” Looking up at her meekly, I add, “And I might have gotten a taste for squirrel?”

“Yeah that’s... I’d say it’s weird if I hadn’t done it myself,” Bubblegum murmurs, with a shake of her head as she lands before me and my situation. “It’s just hard to imagine you actually killing a... uh...”

“Chipmunk,” I specify softly, since it’s kind of unrecognizable at this point. Feeling a little guilty, I add, “I wish I could’ve saved the skin... its stripes were really pretty. But it’s pretty simple to kill something; the hunters told me all about it. You bite its... neck, and break it, and it dies. Right away. So um... I don’t think it suffered.”

“No problem, just... I guess it’s kind of cool?” Bubblegum says uncertainly, “I thought you were like some super pacifist or something a-and felt bad when I was killing um... things, when I thought you didn’t.”

“As long as you ate them, didn’t you?” I ask her.

Bubblegum nods faintly, looking at the chipmunk more than me, when she says,

“Well anyway, the gate’s open, and we’re all heading in. Patricia went in and checked the place out, and she’s pretty sure it’s not some kind of crazy death camp. So, soon as you’re... done, go head over there, and they won’t shoot at us now.”

“...you wanna try some?” I offer.

Frowning, Bubblegum says, “You know how dangerous they said that raw meat is. What if it’s got parasites?”

“I’m pretty sure it doesn’t,” I tell her frankly, “It’s not alive anymore.”

“...parasites can survive even though the chipmunk dies,” Bubblegum says cautiously.

“Yeah, but it’s still alive then,” I reply in a practical tone, “You know, how it’s sort of alive still, like a bunch of living things waiting to come after you?”

Shuddering, I add, “It’s so creepy.”

“So... this one doesn’t have any...?” Bubblegum asks, looking at the bloody corpse at my hooves.

“Nope! Perfectly safe,” I tell her with a smile.

A little smile dancing on her own face, Bubblegum says, “Okay, Meadowsweet. just to show you we’re both weirdo ponies.” And then she cranes down to share in the bloody reward. Once we’re done, and... mostly cleaned up, through mutual tongue bathing (less sexy than it sounds), Bubblegum walks with me the short distance through the woods, to the imposing looking fence with the barbed wire on top. This time, the gate is left wide open. I can see a few ponies further within, including Brian, among others.

Bubblegum and I cautiously trot in through the gate, heading up to the nondescript looking buildings, curious as hell to find out what kind of place it is, and what the various buildings are for. It’s something straight out of elementary school: cheap, prefab portable buildings that were surely trucked in on demand. There are permanent facilities, including a big building that looks sort of like a gymnasium. Nobody addresses us much, until we happen upon a cluster of our members being given a tour by one of the ponies who was living here in the complex.

“...apartments are fully furnished, though plumbing has been an issue,” the guide says, a brown and purple earth pony mare with more of a speaking than a walking ability, since she keeps stumbling to a halt to talk about places, and looks at her hooves to much. She does seem to have no problem talking though, and answers our questions quite gracefully. Apparently the big permanent building is a laboratory! She explains about where we’re going to be living, where we’re going to be working and eating, and where training occurs.

That’s kind of interesting, because there’s a broad area kind of like a football field, where a bunch of ponies are doing drills, or trying to at least. They’re pretty good at moving, actually. I don’t know why they wanted us here. They’re dashing across the field to feint each other out, and running laps, not actually galloping more like just stumbling quickly.

These soldiers may have yet to figure out galloping, but... I don’t know if I could teach them how. At least for me, there was nothing to figure out. It just ends up happening when you run. I could teach them to dance like a pony, and it’s a lot different than dancing as a human. With four legs, there’s a lot more ways you can stand on them, more combinations at least. One person in our dancing thing back at Ainsworth was trying to dance on their hind legs, but when you really get four to the floor, you can do so much with it, and you’re way more stable too.

But why would soldiers want to learn how to dance? I don’t even know if I know how to dance. I was just pretending I did, and figuring it out as I went along, just for fun. I could teach them what I figured out, but there’s probably somepony here who’s better at dancing than me, too! So why are we here? The unicorns, so they can share the magic they know, and the pegasi to teach about flight, but... what should I do? What do any of us earth ponies have to teach?

“Meadowsweet?” someone calls out, hurrying in my direction. I turn from gazing at the strong ponies running around the field, and come to see a pale blue unicorn mare, noticeably young, with a brightish pink mane and tail. But more of an orangey pink, whatever that would be called. I can’t say I’ve ever seen her before in my life.

I meet this mare’s excited, shining, big baby blue eyes and she immediately smiles brightly as she totteringly approaches me. “Oh my gosh it is you!” she gushes in excitement, waddling hastily up to me as if she’d rather be trotting, “I didn’t know if they’d be able to get you!”

“Get me?” I ask, taking a step back from the excited mare.

“Yeah, get you to come join us?” she replies in a chiding whine, stopping and half turning aside, still looking my way, “You are the real Meadowsweet, right? Patient zero? The first person ever turned into a pony?”

Oh, I think I see what this is about.

“Y-yeah,” I say, ears ducking despite myself, “Twilight Sparkle used me like a... a prototype or something. I’m sorry, if I’d known—!”

“Come on, you gotta meet the others!” the other mare interrupts, scooting around behind me and pushing me forward with her forehead and hello! She is definitely a unicorn!

“C’mon, I gotta take you to the lab!” she grunts, hooves scrabbling for purchase. I wonder if she’s aware that her horn is penetrating me right now. I only wonder just for a second, before I stumble forward and uh... off of her. She seems satisfied at that, sidling up alongside me as she says, “This way, c’mon,”

“Okay okay,” I reply grouchily, not really sure how to react to... what just happened. At least it wasn’t... the other hole. “So you wanna experiment on me or something, to see if you can find a cure?” I add as I walk with the young unicorn.

“Well, yeah, but,” she says uncertainly, stumbling, but walking forward with determination, “That’s not what we’re doing right now. You’re pretty famous with us at the lab.”

“...because I’m Patient Zero?” I ask, really not sure what else it could possibly be.

“What? No,” she says, stopping and giving me an irate look. “Because of your incredible magical powers!”

...

“...what?” I ask as she immediately starts walking again, going ahead of me, before she turns her head back, and gripes,

“Come on!”

I don’t know what this is about at all!

Author's Note

We have arrived!

Too Much of a Good Thing

I follow this clearly insane pony on the completely vain, bizarre hope that she isn’t completely out of her mind. She leads me into what’s ostensibly a laboratory, but if they think I have magical powers, it’s more likely it’s an insane asylum, and they’re just really good at convincing the government that they know how to do science. The big, warehouse-like building towers over me as we head inside the giant doorway, and ignoring that, I stop short after I’m inside, staring upward in amazement.

“What’s wrong?” she asks, looking back at me, and then up to the ceiling.

“You have electricity!” I declare, pointing a forehoof up at the ceiling light, which is... a little unsettlingly remniscent of the last electric ceiling light I encountered.

“Oh, yeah we have everything,” she says happily, “There’s a generator out back with enough fuel to last for months. This place was built out in the middle of nowhere, so they had to set it up to function off the grid.”

My eyes widen at that, and I say “Oh, wow, so you have... electric everything?”

“You had some electricity too, didn’t you?” the new pony asks me, with a sympathetic yet confused look, “I had heard they were starting to get infrastructure back online.”

“Not as such,” I reply, toeing the ground, “Oh, but we did get a freezer working, to store the uh... meat.”

She blinks at me. Uh...

Shaking her head, she says, “Never mind that, for now. You need to meet the director! He uh... she doesn’t... just, c’mon!”

The big, warehouse-like building is actually fairly cramped on the inside, with a little hall leading to a small, unmanned reception area. Of course the doorway is twice my height, and there is plenty of room for several little ponies to walk through these halls, but I’m pretty sure if I were a six foot tall male human being, I might be feeling a little claustrophobic in these cavernous halls.

My impromptu friend, a pale, blue unicorn mare with a pink mane and tail, just shambles on past the reception desk, and shakily rears up to stick a key card held in her mouth, into the slot on a security door. It beeps, and she leans back, pulling the door open before falling back to four hooves, one of them stuck in the way to keep the door from closing.

She leads me through there, through another hallway, and then a... computer room, I guess. There is a large metal table in the center, which has some papers on it, but it’s too tall for me to see exactly. There’s a step stool pulled up next to it, I guess so everyone else can climb up there. There are sort of cubicles around the edge of the room, with a bunch of people at them, well... ponies, at least, all giving me varying degrees of wary and hopeful looks. I don’t see any humans. How the heck do ponies operate computers? My hooves aren’t small enough to fit on a single key.

“Hi um... well, I’m Meadowsweet I guess,” I say chirpily, waving one of those forehooves in greeting, and I’m really not sure what to do in this sort of situation. “I was supposed to see your director about... something?”

“...you owe me fifty bucks,” a stallion off to the side says quietly, while the mare in the neighboring workstation to him facehooves.

Before I can question this, I glance down at a foal approaching me, saying in a reedy voice, “I hope your trip wasn’t too terrible. I’m glad you came, after how badly they treated you.”

Uh. This kid is...

“I’m Dr. Peterson,” the little green furred filly with bright pink hair says, looking up at me with big, green, yellow uh... green eyes. Yeah. Green eyes. Her pink hair curls around her big ears like a reverse watermelon, and she speaks in the voice of a child, if that’s not obvious. What is it with authority figures, and becoming heart stoppingly adorable?

“We’ve been hearing about you since the mess with Twilight Sparkle began, and the Aurora Effect, and the world,” she says in a bit of awe, “You seem to be the lynchpin of this whole thing. Sorry I’m... I’m just so happy to get a chance to finally meet you! We’ve all been desperately curious... would you mind answering a few questions?”

“S-sure, I suppose,” I say with a smile down to the filly, “I might not be as... scientific as all of you though. But I do have a background in engineering, sort of. So... what is it you wanna know?”

“I’m not sure if engineering is precisely involved, but that’s good to know,” the doctor filly says, smiling back brightly as she chirps, “What was it like, manipulating space and time? How did you learn to do that? Did Twilight Sparkle teach you?”

...

“...what?” I ask.

“You know, the teleportation, and were you somehow liquefying your bones, or was it actual spatial distortion?” she starts to explain, but goes back to excitedly gushing, now fluttering little wings at her side, “I’m surprised they could hold you at all! It seems impossible, that you could just bend reality to your whim, so what was really going on? Are there actual techniques and principles to it, that we could learn from?”

I take a step back from the excited filly... doctor... director, whining desperately, “I have no idea what you’re talking about! I can’t do any of those things! I might have some sort of magic when it comes to weeding a little bit, but where on earth would you get the idea that I can bend reality?”

She doesn’t reply, staring at me in utter, openmouthed astonishment.

“She needs to see the footage, doc!” that stallion from before calls out.

“Right!” the filly yelps, standing up stiffer, and giving me a puzzled and purposeful look, “Come on, I think we need to seriously confirm that this isn’t all some sort of elaborate hoax.”

“A-alright, sorry if I got your... hopes up,” I say, ears going down. She just stumbles in turning, then walks the other way. Everyone in the other cubicles follow to gather around the cubicle of the director’s, as she leads me to an honest to gosh computer workstation, whirring with power.

“It’ll ‘ake me a ‘omen’ to pull i’ up,” the filly says, having climbed up a stool to her desk and bitten down on a pen. She moves the mouse around dextrously with her little forehoof, hunting and pecking with the pen on the keys as she does a file folder search, narrowing it down to a few video files just named by their timestamps and “Anomaly #23” whatever that means.

Then, a movie loads up, and it’s... I scramble back, and my rear end promptly collides with the crowd gathering around us.

“T-t-that sure is my uh my cell, that they uh...” I stammer, staring at a hallway leading to a bulky iron locked door with a slit in it, a horrible, horrible bulky iron locked door. Then the screen flickers, and I... watch myself frazzled and harried, squeezing out of the door’s slit in a total panic, hyperventilating as I land on the floor of the hallway, scrabbling backwards as something strikes the door from within.

It’s horrible. Even on the grainy security footage, I can see how much I struggle to stand on my wobbling, skinny legs. Was I that bad? I can see my ribs from here! I’m... really a pony. I’m standing here on four hooves, watching footage of myself being a pony, and... I remember doing all that. I–I don’t know if I want to remember, but... that’s not a human on that movie there. It’s an animal, a little horse-like creature, trembling and traumatized, stumbling around the hallway as if she were looking for her stable.

“So that was you, right?” Dr. Peterson asks hopefully, “Reports say that you were technically the first to escape from that facility, and you did it all on your own. Then you just... stayed in the hallway.”

“There was no slit on the hallway door,” I say faintly, “I should’ve tried breaking it down though. I just didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t even sure I had escaped.” Trembling, I can’t look away. Have I escaped?

The screen goes dark then, like blackness! Like... oh, like the movie’s ending. Right. As the movie file stops playing, I look at the director fretfully, and say, “That’s not real magic. I was just squeezing through the slit! I had to!”

“I don’t see why that wouldn’t be real magic,” she replies huffily, giving me a frustrated look, “That was a two inch slit at best, so either you had to liquefy your bones, or you had to distort space somehow to get through it, and that’s not—”

“It was not... distorting space,” I reply, cringing at the memory, looking at that black video display rectangle, hardly saying, “There was... just a lot of ...space in the slit that I just... pulled it out so I could fit through it. Okay maybe it was distorting space. I just did a... I just had to get out of there!”

Turning back to Dr. Peterson, I feel a little angry myself as I shout at her, “You saw that... thing hit the inside of the cell! I had to get out of there!!”

Her anger turns to surprise at mine, and she shrinks down, saying up at me with big eyes, “I’m sorry. I just wanted to know how you did it, and if it’s possible to... measure it...”

“Heh heh, sorry, I-I didn’t mean to upset you,” I say with a rigid grin, pulling back from the frightened filly, “I just was in that cell for a while and it was kind of bad and...” I look over my shoulder at the lights overhead in the room we’re in. The lights. The lights overhead.

“...I’m going outside,” I conclude, feeling all kinds of wrong for even being there. I’m not in my cell anymore. I’m not. I’m not. I’m not. But there’s no way I could’ve gotten out of it. How did I do that? I’ve got to get out of here!

I bound through the hallways in utter panic, only sliding to a halt once I’m outside the building, surrounded by wind and sky and trees and earth and oh god am I claustrophobic now? Sinking to my haunches, my heart is racing as the breeze caresses my fur, because I’m not in that cell. I’m outside. I escaped it, I’m free, and I never have to go there again.

For a moment I wonder if Nick had a point, what with these being the... same people who imprisoned me. Why would they show me that, if they were trying to capture me, though?

A few of the scientist ponies come out after a while. “Dangit, we’re so sorry,” a pale green stallion with blue and orange hair says in a nasal voice, shuffling up to me. “We shoulda known you were all uh... PTSD about that.”

“I’m fine,” I lie calmly, as a few mares come walking up to either side of him with equal looks of concern, “Just... a bit much to deal with. Sometimes I wonder if I’m not still in that cell, and dreaming all this up.”

I glance around, but I don’t wake up yet.

“It’s true, there’s no way I could’ve possibly fit through there,” I admit to him and... three others, “It just seemed so obvious at the time. Like I was dreaming or...” Shaking my head, I attest more confidently, “I know I’m not dreaming. It’s just hard to accept sometimes, that... I did... that.”

The filly named Dr. Peterson steps up, asking me, “...do you think you can do it again?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you want to find out what you can do?” she asks cautiously.

“I don’t know.”

“That’s not the only thing you did that was unexplainable by modern science,” she says to my troubled demurity, “We have two other videos from your... unfortunate imprisonment.”

“I just... never thought I was anything crazy or magical or anything,” I say, not quite able to meet her eyes, “I could understand if I was a unicorn, but... I just didn’t even do anything, I just sort of did it. It didn’t seem magical or anything.”

“Well, I think you might be a bit more magical than you realize,” the filly chirps at me with an apologetic smile, “Sorry again for bringing up some memories that are still a bit... raw I guess. We’re just physicists, not any kind of psychologists or... jailors. They just forwarded us the videos, and evidence, and... um...”

She looks around at various ponies moving around, many from our group, then looks back at me, asking, “Why don’t you get yourself situated first, and find where you’re living on the base? You can deal with this later, once you are all settled in.”

“All settled in, right, got it,” I say, feeling more drained standing there than I have this whole trip here. I... I think I need Sue, and Holly. And Lucy.

The four of us end up sharing an apartment, and they actually do sort of have apartments here. The only indoor plumbing we have is a building specifically dedicated to it, with a small water tower connected to it, where they have showers, and sinks, and regular plumbing basically. No flushing toilets though, since what’s been used thus far are just latrines mounted over pits dug into the earth.

So there’s no indoor plumbing, but each apartment unit has a bedroom with two beds, a pretty large coat closet, a chest of drawers, a hat rack, basically all the things you don’t need when you’re running around naked all the time. Running around naked is great though, honestly. I hardly even miss clothes. It’s easy to just scamper out of the building, buck naked, and I find myself hardly chilled as the cold hits my thick fur. Wait, did I always have thick fur? I think it might have gotten thicker.

“Had any ideas for names?” Lucy asks later that day, finding me lying there buck naked on our bed, reading a magazine I found, just an article on the history of “The American Dream” nothing really important. Glancing over at my unicorn friend, I let the magazine flop on my quite fluffy chest.

“Not yet, no,” I tell her, moving to stare at the ceiling of our apartment, “We still have a while before we have to think of names for our foals. Mostly, I’m wondering what we’ll be doing here. They found some... some weird stuff that happened to me.”

“Like what?” Lucy asks curiously.

I still don’t really feel like talking about it, but I started, so I might as well. “When I was stuck in a cell, in that... prison,” I say to the ceiling, “They didn’t have to break me out. I mean, Twilight’s ponies didn’t have to. They still had to rescue me, but they didn’t have to break me out. I was already outside of my cell.”

“How’d that happen?” she asks, walking up to the bed I’m laying on, looking at me with an enviously powerful, comprehensible and sensible pink unicorn horn jutting out from her forehead.

“They want me to make sense of cartoon logic, I dunno,” I pout, tail switching testily. “I needed to go through the slit to escape my cell, so I went through the slit. I just... made enough room. I was pretty upset at the time. Like really, really, really upset. I was so hungry, and starving, and... I turned off the light.”

“O-okay?” Lucy says uneasily, “I don’t entirely know what that means.”

“There was a light in my cell that never turned off,” I tell her distantly, “I couldn’t sleep, so I just... snuck up there and pulled out the fluorescent tubes. And it was dark then. Really really dark.”

Lucy’s silent, but her ears are going down, but I’m pretty sure she wants me to continue. “I started... seeing things,” I say, “I dunno. They say I was in there for weeks, it just got so boring, and with the lights out... I–I saw my friends, Nick and Mira, and... it was just... hallucinations, and I knew it was, but it felt so real. So I was scared there was a... a monster chasing me. I mean there really was, somehow, so I panicked and...

...

“A-and squeezed through the slit.”

“So, you escaped your cell through a... mail slot?” Lucy prompts in confusion.

“Just for ventilation, I think,” I tell her hopelessly, holding my hooves overhead, “It was about this wide.”

“...the width of your hoof?”

“No, the space between my hooves. Like an inch or something. Too small to fit through.”

Lucy’s silent at that.

“I just found some space, off in the... the corner of it. There was lots of space if you looked at it!” I protest disjointedly, “But space doesn’t just come out of nowhere, but it... it did. They showed me footage of me. Squeezing out of the slot. I was just like a cartoon.”

“I don’t think any of us had to do that,” Lucy says solemnly. “Twilight certainly wasn’t making us squeeze through mail slots.”

“Supposedly it means I have magical powers,” I say a little bitterly, “Even though I just... I don’t even know what I did. I just did whatever works, and it worked.”

“Weren’t you wishing for magical powers?” Lucy asks hopefully, “What, do you have magic um... hooves or something?”

“I don’t think so,” I say with a sigh, “But I can kill weeds by stomping on them, so I... I guess that means magic hooves. We all have magic hooves, with how we can hold stuff. I think whatever magic I was doing back then, it isn’t... hooves. It’s... complicated.”

“I just thought you’d be happier,” Lucy replies, somewhat discomfited.

“I am!” I protest, “It’s just I was kind of messed up at the time, and when they showed me the footage I was freaking out a little. I’ll have to go back, and remember that stuff, if I want to... find out about this.”

“Well, you’re talking with me about it, and that’s not so bad,” Lucy remarks, “But it does sound pretty... heavy. Are you sure you want to learn about your... magical powers?”

I take in a breath, then release it, and I’m still a yellow and green pony. Lying on a mattress.

“Yes, if there’s anything I can do that’s a little bit more useful than just being a talking horse,” I say, trying not to roll my eyes, “Then I’ll try to figure out how I did that. It’d be a pretty incredible technique for... escaping through slits, and stuff.”

Okay, I mean, I guess if it has no limits I could just... sneak through keyholes or fit a whole... tank inside a desk drawer or something? I don’t feel like that would work, and I don’t know why. It seems like it’d be some incredible revolutionary thing, but it’s... hard to even think about, much less think of applications for it.

Nevertheless, it turns out earth ponies have magic, too! My attempts to recreate that trick don’t have much luck, other than them having to cut me out of a metal box I got my head stuck in. I try, but... how far am I going to go, in trying to recreate the situation where I did it the last time? Lock myself in a dark cell with no food, very little water, and only a 1.6 inch slit to escape out of?

It actually makes me trust these government scientists a lot more, when they’re horrified at my suggestion to repeat the isolation cell, and they would rather not know how it works than subject me to something like that again. At least they act like they’re horrified, and maybe I do have to lock the windows and hang cans on the doorknob before I can sleep, but Sue and the girls are... accepting of that, and nobody comes to... take me away or anything.

The rest of the videos aren’t very helpful either. The scientists don’t show me anything inside the laboratory anymore, but they set up a laptop right outside, on a little folding table. In the most of the other videos, I don’t watch myself at all, but I do watch some armed guards approaching my cell. This was filmed after the rescue, and I’m long gone, but apparently the guards didn’t know if I was, since my cell stayed locked closed, and I’d inadvertently disabled the camera on the inside by turning off the lights.

I have no idea why they’re armed and wearing body armor, just to check on me, but I guess after... other ponies defeated the whole facility’s security, they wanted to be extra careful or something. So they unlock the door to my cell and pull it open. They scramble back as all that ocean water that was in there rushes out of the inky darkness that I never want to return to, but seeing the cell door open and unlocked is actually kind of cathartic. They opened my cell and I wasn’t in there, so I guess it just helps me accept that I really did escape, and I’m not still trapped in there.

Then the camera jitters with static as some huge, bulky thing hurls out of the shadows and pins one of the guards against the wall. Tinny shouting and screaming and gunshots come out of the laptop’s speakers as the whole scene devolves into utter panic. It’s hard to see what it is because all the humans are thrashing around, and blocking the view with their limbs and bodies as they try to shoot the thing, and the creature itself is dark as pitch, and strangely difficult to look at.

“I told you there was something in there with me!” I protest, pointing a forehoof with dismay at the sudden desperate battle on the screen. “Why the hell did you put something like that in there with me?”

“We didn’t,” the director chirps seriously, big, cute eyes focused on the camera footage. There’s no humor in her voice when she turns from it, meets my eyes, and says, “There’s no one who could’ve brought that thing in there... other than you.”

N-no...

The third video is a little more informative, as far as what happened. It’s filming the corpse, which dead and quiescent looks like a huge black wolf with... things sticking out of it, and a strange, gaping mouth. It’s like something out of a horror story, and I... have magic that did that? There really isn’t any other explanation, as the video pans to the now well lit interior of my cell, where part of the stone wall is distorted as if it were melted, covered in a thick, blistering grey crust which a science pony tells me is cooled lava... somehow.

“Yeah, I guess I was... teleporting, on accident,” I tell them, uneasily recalling those strange visions and experiences. “I don’t know where the m-monster came from. I thought the lava tunnels were just a hallucination.”

“And you couldn’t just teleport out of your cell,” a science pony named Curtis says, an orange haired, blue pony who stayed male, “Because you had no control over where you were... going?”

“I was just... thinking about things,” I tell him with a helpless tail shrug. I’m not sure he catches the tail shrug. “And things got crazy. You know what happens when you’re hallucinating. You just think about things that get more real, and start talking to you, and it just gets crazier from there?”

“Still, if you could control it,” Curtis says, giving me an appraising look that makes me wonder if he’s checking me out for how flipping female I am, “Then you’d be the first pony who could teleport, aside from Twilight Sparkle.”

Okay no getting excited over this guy. Not every stallion is focusing on my potential for progeny. He’s only thinking of my potential for teleportation.

“I wonder if your friends were really talking to you, too,” a greyish green science pony named Dr. Roberts says, one of the ones who didn’t stay male. “You said they were part of your hallucination.”

“Um, Mira should be around here somewhere. She came with us... sorta,” I say, blushing at that particular near-disaster that she caused. “I could ask her if she um... saw me. Like a ghost or... astral projection or something?”

“Sounds good, which one’s Mira?” the filly asks curtly.

“She’s the bat pony with the yellow fur, and blue and pink hair,” I reply distractedly, still staring at the frozen video footage.

“...which one?” Dr. Roberts repeats, with a subtle roll of her eyes.

Out of the roughly four dozen ponies we contributed, and the fifty or so ponies they represent, it turns out there are three bat ponies among us with blue and pink hair, and yellow fur. Of course Mira’s fur is more of an orangey yellow, and Cricket has a more yellow yellow, with a greyer blue, and a pinker... pink. And it’s confusing, but I do recognize Mira by her color, hairstyle, and just... being Mira.

“Hey, Mira,” I ask her curiously, trotting up to the bat pony, “You won’t believe it, they think I can teleport!”

“They’re going to teach you how to teleport?!” Mira asks in astonishment.

“Oh thanks, real supportive,” I say, rolling my eyes, then before she can apologize, I tell her excitedly, “But no seriously, it looks like earth ponies might have magic too! Not like a magic horn, or wings, but...”

Her initial excitement is tempered by how I taper off uncertainly. “But...?” Mira prompts.

“You remember when I was... you remember right after the convention?” I ask her tentatively, “I kind of got... captured, and... kind of messed up?”

“That’s what they tell me,” Mira says cautiously, raising a wing my way. “I couldn’t believe they’d do that. Guess I was right to uh... sneak away.”

“You totally were,” I agree heartily, “But I wanted to ask you if you saw me, about uh... 2 weeks after the convention?”

“You mean when you rescued me?” Mira asks in confusion, “That was at least a month after the convention.”

Shaking my head, I say, “No, like... when I was in that cell, they say I might have... teleported places I was hallucinating about, on accident.”

“You were hallucinating?!” my bat pony sister asks, stepping back in alarm.

“Well you try spending half a month in total darkness!” I whine, my ears dipping, “It just gets weird after a while!”

“I hadn’t thought of that,” she says faintly, “So you saw uh...”

“I saw you is the important part,” I say, perking up, “Except you were behind a wall, but I could still see you, or something. It was just a crazy hallucination, I thought. But you said it was good I didn’t say what kind of pony you were. I said we got captured, and Nick asked... okay Nick was there too, but he asked if they got you, too.”

“In the hallucination?” Mira prompts.

“Sorta,” I reply hopefully, “Do you remember seeing me saying that, or... something? Like appearing, like a ghost me or something?”

“No, I didn’t see you at all,” Mira says, pausing in her dish washing to face me, adding perkily “I did hear you though!”

What

“It was... i-it was probably just a dream,” Mira says, half-turning shyly, “I just thought I heard your voice in the room, saying like the military got you, and I tried to ask uh, something. And you just said you promised you’d make things better... somehow.”

...

“Then I woke up,” Mira concludes. “That wasn’t... really you, was it?”

“Oh dear sweet Luna I’m a dreamwalker,” I groan, hanging my head.

“The heck is a dreamwalker?” Mira asks critically.

“I have no idea,” I reply, still slumping.

That still doesn’t explain the seawater, and the creature, and the magma deposits, and the missing sink, and squeezing through the slit, and fitting that water bottle into my vagina, which they uh... recorded on tape. That was not my proudest moment, seeing myself doing ridiculous things with a water bottle on the camera recording. They weren’t sure exactly what I was doing either, so I kind of had to tell them it was... sexual. Yeah things got really quiet then. Thankfully we haven’t spoken about it since.

But all these incredible abilities I supposedly have, they don’t seem like abilities that I have. They’re just things that happened to me. I certainly can’t do anything to the degree that they caught on film. I’d have thought that film was a hoax, if I didn’t remember doing that stuff, myself!

But I can do... things. I may not be able to do all the things, but I can do things. Like... genuinely weird things. Like finding space in places that shouldn’t have that much space in them, which in hindsight makes the water bottle trick kind of obvious. My greatest attempts to teleport just sort of... cause weird things to happen, like one of the computers starts playing a music file on its own, then violently short circuits. We don’t do testing near any of the other computers after that.

Trying to do that ocean thing ends up with me sort of... slowing my fall as I attempt to swim in the air, but no water appears. Oddly though, there’s a salty smell in the air afterwards. It’s all very inconsistent, and not all that useful, but it’s there. I can do magic, and that’s incredible!

Not as incredible as what these people have in the depths of their laboratory though.

“Some of you may be wondering how we know so much about Equestrian technology,” the pink and green filly named Dr. Peterson, says, standing in the front of a meeting room, on a wooden stage that was pretty much erected for sake of the fact that she was too short to reach the whiteboard. “What you’re about to hear may shock you,” she says ominously, “But Twilight Sparkle didn’t come from nowhere at all. In fact, Equestria is real.”

“And you’re in open communication with the authorities, there!” somepony calls out from the audience in excitement.

“What?!” Dr. Peterson squeaks, staring across to that pony, “How did you know that?”

“The Major told us already!” that pony calls back, some mare I haven’t met yet, “That’s why we came in the first place!”

Through a few murmurs of acknowledgement in the audience, the bright-red-faced little filly on stage announces insecurely, “Be that as it may! We do have some limited communication with Equestria.” She stops blushing so much as she gets her rhythm back, clearly heard by all thanks to a microphone clipped into her shoulder fluff, “We have been contacted by their world’s Princess Celestia, and told a different story about Twilight Sparkle than our cartoon show led us to believe. In her world, Twilight is wanted for several crimes against the state, including attempted regicide and betraying state secrets to their enemies. She was a high level um...” the filly hesitates before reciting the phrase, “‘Combat unicorn,’ who became involved in a radical group promoting the superiority of ponies to every other race. Her country, as such, wishes very much for her to return, and they are willing to help us in accomplishing that task!”

Well, it jibes with what the Major said. I can’t help but giggle at the filly trying not to trip on the microphone cord though, as she says with determination, “Twilight Sparkle escaped her trial using a dangerous magical artifact to break this hole into our world, and destroyed the artifact once she’d passed through, closing the portal and presumably rendering her beyond their reach. But in fact that’s not true, because the portal remained open in the form of a tiny wormhole, through which we’ve established a rudimentary sort of communication.”

She pauses to grunt quietly, lifting her foreleg and turning so it can step out of the loop in the cord.

“The Equestrians have agreed to teach us how to reopen the portal,” the filly goes on, “Which is supposedly much easier to open if stabilized from both sides. And in exchange, we assist them in their investigation, bringing Twilight Sparkle to justice. It’s a win/win situation, and except for a few hurdles, I think we can accomplish this.”

She paces back and forth on her short green furred legs, as she says, “Firstly, the Equestrians have not been fully open about their technology, and I think you all can help fill in the holes that they don’t want us to fill, to make sure they’re true in their intentions. Secondly, Twilight Sparkle is... ahem! Not here.”

Oh my god she actually says the word ‘ahem’. That is so adorable!

“They say they will lend trained personnel to aid in her capture once the portal is open,” Dr. Peterson continues, “But until then, Twilight Sparkle must not know a connection to her world remains. If she destroys that, then we have no hope to bring her to justice among her own people, nor our own. She knows more about magic than any of us will be able to decipher in a lifetime on our own. That’s why we need the help of Equestria to ah dammit! ” with a soft thump, the filly falls forward onto her face as her hind leg catches in the microphone cord.

“Don’t we have wireless...?” she asks angrily lifting her head to glare at the human next to the speakers. He shrugs, pointing our way. Looking at her audience (us), the filly blushes again, climbing to her hooves, and sniffling as she wipes her aaaaaaaaa even her sniffles are adorable!

“Point blank, we don’t know if we can trust Equestria, any more than we can trust Twilight Sparkle,” Dr. Peterson says furiously, “We are giving them as little information about our... situation as possible, but they’re giving us little information in return. We need your help to use your lessons you learned from Twilight Sparkle to decipher what they’ve told us, identify how trustworthy any of it is, and if we can’t learn how to undo this... pony transformation ourselves, we need to open the portal enough to gain... aid from them, and to shove Twilight Sparkle through it so hard her ears pop!”

I think my ears pop with the fury behind that filly’s angry squeal, microphone amplified. She pauses at that, shamefaced and droopy eared, and says in an even tone, “S-so if any of you would like to go over what Twilight taught you, we can start to set up some sort of... training schedule, in order to improve our magic—our skill at Equestrian technology, and prepare for when more... open negotiations with them can begin. Are there any questions anyone had regarding that?”

“Huh, what sort of things did you learn about the Equestrian technologies?” a round voiced stallion calls out from the crowd... and since I know three stallions who came with (Sue, Strider and Dusty), he’s definitely one of the nine stallions I do not know.

“That’s an excellent question!” the filly director says, with a bright smile, “It’s been brought to my attention that Twilight Sparkle led you all to think that only unicorns had any magic!”

I think this time, I succeed in not tuning out the entire speech to spend the whole time squeeing at the filly’s adorableness, but what a speech it is. We’re going to learn magic, not just from Twilight Sparkle, but from ponies in Equestria, too! Maybe even Princess Celestia, herself!

The really thrilling thing is, in preparation for the battles ahead, the military are teaching us not just magic, but...

“Now, I know you’re not military personnel, so you won’t be handling the weapons, but I don’t think that matters, because you’re gonna be the weapons!”

Sergeant Browning is not one of the lucky ones. She doesn’t seem to be letting her unasked-for feminity stop her though: a very purple orange haired earth pony mare, with a rank of some sort crudely hung around her neck.

She stands in front of us, declaring in a shrill voice, “You’re all a class above the rest of us right now! You’ve been ponies longer, you’re better at being ponies. You don’t know shit about how to fight, but I don’t care if you all think you’re no good, because by the time I’m done with you, the only thing you’re gonna think is how good do you need to be? It’ll be hard, really hard, and then I’ll make it harder, but you came here to save the world, and you’re gonna do it.”

What is quite possibly the greatest drill instructor I have ever met, fills me with an astonishing amount of hope, as she declares, “We’re the only thing standing between Twilight Sparkle and our world’s future. We are the last hope for the human race. You’re gonna crawl into your beds, and cry home to mommy, and wish that you never met me, but you are going to be ready for whatever that unicorn, or whatever any of those Equestrians have to bring against us. I don’t care if you turned into a little girl, or,” the earth pony spits to the side growling, “An earth pony. You’re gonna do what I say. You’re gonna tell me what I wanna know. And you’re gonna kick Twilight Sparkle’s lilac ass!”

She steps forward then, declaring, “Now I want to see you doing laps around the compound. The whole compound. You’re horses; you’re built for running, so get running, and I want to see you run so hard that you drop!”

I uh... drop. But heck if I don’t run harder than I’ve ever run before. The area cleared around the perimeter fence thumps under my hooves as me and the rest of the... okay fine maybe it is a herd, but us “civvies” who came from Twilight Sparkle’s group, we run together, and I’m straining so hard to keep up with everyone as the chain link fence just blazes by us, and we bound around another corner.

I don’t count how many laps. I just... feel an acid tang stinging in my muscles, creeping up my legs into my chest and rear, and she shouts “Come on! Feel the burn!” as we pass, and I do, I push through it at that and... well, most of us are stumbling, sides heaving as we slow down so much she can actually catch up shouting, “Come on, even I can beat you pansies! Get moving!” And off we go again.

I’m not the first to drop. Middling, maybe. We all kind of run out of steam at once though. First person goes down and then we’re all just... holy crap. The instructor keeps at our heels until we’re all... lying on the ground gasping for breath pretty much, and she totally cheated because she waited until we were so exhausted all she had to do was hastily amble along to keep up with us, before she started chasing us.

Then she has us jumping on... stumps, and off of stumps. On, and off, and on, and off. The rest of the day continues something like that, until I feel like my legs and my whole body’s made out of jelly. And... luckily it’s only earth ponies in this group, since the pegasi and others are doing other exercises. Once me and Sue collapse in the apartment, absolutely worn out, a cheeky unicorn named Lucy decides to start getting us up again, through gentle, teasing words, and then head butts, and then actual zaps that jolt me and Sue up to escape the jerking sting of her evil horn.

“Keep moving!” Lucy says cheerfully, having not gone through any of the torture Sue and I are now experiencing, “Or you’re gonna be so cramped up tomorrow you won’t even be able to move!”

She’s right, damn her, but... with Sue and I shambling about like zombies, only given a few minutes by Lucy to lie and recover, it’s... not a fun evening. I don’t feel like eating, but just... munch on grass mostly, and drink greedily from the water piped down from the water tank over the whole complex. And that’s all we do. But eventually Lucy tires of torturing us, and Sue and I end up sleeping like the dead until late in the morning tomorrow.

“Lucy! You said I wouldn’t be cramped up!” I moan that morning, on my side, unable to straighten my legs, much less stand up.

“No I didn’t. I said you would be if you didn’t keep moving,” Lucy says practically, taking a towel in her magic and... doing magic with it. She lifts my leg up with the towel and... wiggles it in a way that just gets the blood flowing with tingles and stings of pain. “And you’re never gonna talk to that drill instructor again,” she concludes, in sage vehemence.

“But she said we should report back today,” I protest weakly.

“Meadowsweet, shut up we are never doing that again,” Sue groans from where he lies prone on the bed.

“You’re not gonna get yourselves hurt right after coming here!” Lucy protests, tsking over me as she rolls a broom handle wrapped in a towel against my ow ow ow ow ow ow, “She doesn’t know anything about what ponies can or can’t do!”

“That’s... why she was... ahtss...” I say with difficulty as the rolling pressure makes pain erupt wherever it touches. “Trying to... see how hard we could...”

So... Lucy’s kind of... right. And apparently she’d once had a job as a massage artist. (Who knew?) I’m certainly in no shape to move after that incredibly terrible stunt we pulled. But I really don’t wanna make that drill instructor feel like she pushed us too hard! I’m technically walking around by the next day, and my right inner thigh keeps giving out, and I think I pulled something in my shoulder, but the rest of it manages to fade into simple grindingly painful muscle soreness.

I approach the purple instructor mare again, once I feel good enough to really move, walking up to her, my own aching ears drooped down apologetically, as I tell her, “I’m so sorry about missing your training the past couple days.”

“Training? What training?” she asks in bewilderment, “I haven’t trained anyone since... oh no you were one of the civvies on Tuesday!”

“Well I am sorry you had to just stand around then,” I tell her, “I just couldn’t even move. I didn’t know I could push it that hard, and I guess it was too much.”

Her head sinks at that, and she turns her body, hunched, to face me, saying incredulously, “You’re apologizing? You didn’t just half cripple the earth ponies on your entire squad, because I didn’t know when to call it quits.”

“You were just trying to...” I try not to wince as I lean too much into my bad shoulder, “...find out what we were capable of. I should’ve known when to call it off—”

“No,” she interrupts, walking around to face me head on, “It’s my responsibility, and even if we’re these weird fantasy ponies, I shouldn’t have thrown a bunch of civilians into day zero boot camp.”

Blinking, I ask, “But... aren’t all soldiers just civilians, on day zero?”

She gives me a look. It doesn’t last long though, before a laugh rises up in her, and she turns away, saying, “Fine, fair enough. But you’re not all twenty year old men, who you can push until they drop, and they’ll be back for more the next day. You know why?”

Why what? “...no?” I offer cautiously.

“Because twenty year old men are wimps!” she declares hotly, stepping in my direction, “I never saw enthusiasm like that! You would’ve been bitching and moaning if you were one of the new guys, not kicking up and running again like your life depended on it. That’s why you can push new recruits, and they don’t... all end up incapacitated for the next two days.”

She starts to turn away at that, and I quickly say, “So, you think maybe we can try again, in a few days?”

And here comes another look. One of thoughtful appraisal.

“How about you tell me how ponies work?” the instructor asks, “You all... moved better than I ever managed to do, like this.” She looks down at her own bright purple forelegs, the back up to me, “This is the craziest situation I’ve ever been in, so uh, now don’t go telling anyone, but I’d really like you to... show me how you do that cool horse thing.”

“...cool horse thing?” I prompt cautiously.

“Yeah, you know,” she says, walking in an odd stumble forward, “When your... legs go all weird and you move... faster?”

“Oh, trotting?” I declare, “That’s easy! You just only have two feet planted at a time. Uhhh hooves. Like...” I jump forward, landing on my front right hoof and back left, pausing to say, “This? And...” then I hop to the opposite hooves, pulling my other two hooves in. “And it sort of...” I hop back and forth, trotting briskly forward, then stumble to a halt again. “Goes from there. You just keep pushing it and it keeps going.”

“Neat!” she says, looking at my legs with interest, “So like how walking only lifts one hoof at a time...”

“Trotting lifts two, yeah!” I tell her happily, “No, the real tricky one is cantering.”

“What’s cantering?” she asks curiously.

“Someone back at the farm showed me,” I tell her, “You start on one hoof like this,” and I jump forward, landing on my left forehoof. “But you’re still pulling in your hind legs, see, so you push off to land on the other forehoof.” I demonstrate, saying, “And now you can...”

And she’s already giving me an astonished look, “You know what, I am tired of getting all these looks!” I whine at her in frustration, “What did I do?”

“H-how are you staying balanced on just one hoof like that?” she asks in envious exasperation.

...

“I... don’t know,” I reply, looking down at my hoof planted there.

As I continue to recover admirably from almost killing myself on accident, elsewhere in the base, the Trouble Trio should be pretty busy helping the other servicemen who turned into foals. That doesn’t stop Whisper from dogging me for advice, while Flitter keeps following me around like a nervous puppy, and Flint follows those two. So in other words, these three are not nearly as busy as they should be.

“You really want to call yourselves the Trouble Trio?” I ask the three foals I rode with here at one point during our regular mealtimes.

“It fits!” the blue haired, purple pegasus named Flitter asserts, “We are totally trouble. Plus it’s an alliteration.”

“The Totally Trouble Trio,” the pale blue unicorn Whisper says to herself with a quiet giggle.

“Yeah, because we’re,” Flint says proudly, the green haired, tan-furred earth pony colt of the group, “You know... doing stuff?”

Oh I forgot to mention that Flint loves making me blush horribly.

I’m not sure why these three are sticking with me so much, but it probably has to do with the fact that I caught them having sex, and didn’t flip my lid. The three of them share one room, but Flitter leads me into it eagerly, saying, “C’mon, I want to show you how it’s gonna work!” and such like that.

“I’m kind of not... feeling all that up to...” I say weakly as Flitter trots ahead of me and doesn’t look back, and Whisper head-butts me from behind, startling me into their apartment from the poking of her horn.

Not comfortable with this at all, I let them force-mosey me all the way in. The pegasus stands on the floor beside the bed, eyeing the window above and declaring, “See, you can’t even see us on the floor from the window! So we can totally have sex in here without anybody knowing!”

“Well, good job, I guess?” I say, looking from her to Flint coming in, and the colt says to me,

“You wanna watch us have some right now?”

God fucking dammit he is good at making me blush. “I really don’t think I need to...” I say leerily, but Flitter saves the day, saying,

“Flint is talking out of his ass. We’re just foals!”

Wait.

“Yeah, I won’t be able to uh,” Flint blushes, “Cum anything, for a while now.”

“You remember, when you were a kid, right?” Flitter asks me hopefully, maybe a little self consciously with how her wings are spread. “I mean I wasn’t a girl, but guys have to seriously hit puberty before you can get it up more than once every other week or so.”

“And ponies are the same?” I ask curiously.

Flitter tailshrugs, saying, “Same-ish? The weird thing is he ejaculates, but... yeah we’ve been sticking to once a week or... two.”

“Then why did you bring me in here, and act like you were going to?” I ask in exasperation.

“Because now you know we trust you,” Whisper says, “If we just told you we weren’t doing it anymore, you’d feel like we were afraid to tell you we were.”

“How do you know?” I ask, “Is that a pony magical ability of yours?”

“No, you just seem like... a bit of a worrier,” Whisper says with a bashful smile.

“You saw us right in the middle of it, and it was just... seriously bad timing,” Flint says with an even gaze, but ears drooping in regret, “Anyway, we couldn’t tell you that in public either, so... that’s why we brought you here. Sorry.”

“It really is okay,” I assure him, “It’s nice not to have sex once and a while.”

“So does it really hit you that hard if you’re an adult pony?” Flitter asks curiously, “Like... what’s it like?”

“It’s actually a lot like being a human adult,” I tell her, “You look at people you’re attracted to, and if you have hormones, you want to have sex with them. Gets all tingly back there, you know? But uh... scent is a lot more important. Like I can smell when someone’s aroused, usually. That’s why I was surprised at you three.”

“Yeah, but... you know, how you get all crazy and uninhibited and stuff?” Flitter asks.

“M-maybe a little,” I admit, “It’s like trying not to scratch an itch sometimes. You don’t go... crazy, but you’re right on the edge of—you know... lifting your tail and going for it? Like what happened with Blaze.”

“Have you ever... done what Blaze did?” Whisper asks shyly.

Smiling, I flump against the bed while the foals cluster around, saying, “Yeah, did you hear the one about me and Nick, on the way to Baltimore?”

So I tell the story that everybody already knows, and Flitter tells a story of how she was talking with a mare, who just cut off mid-sentence to go bounding after a stallion she saw. “They were probably already together,” I suggest, but Flitter shakes her head, saying,

“She could’ve still waited then. It was driving her crazy, I tell you.”

“Like an itch you can’t scratch...” Flint agrees thoughtfully.

They try to be nonchalant about it, but it isn’t long before I have three foals lying against me again, telling stories about stuff and using various parts of my body as pillows. Flint likes my thigh.

So me and the trio talk, and then I head to my apartment for the night, finding Sue, Lucy and Holly all curled up together on the bed. They don’t wake as I lightly hop up there, turning in a circle to make the mattress comfortable, then settling down with the rest of them. As I drift off to sleep, I think about the three foals, sleeping together but by themselves, and I wonder if they’d want to sleep with us. It’d be nice to have some foals around...

We’re not spending our entire time here having weird pony sex. Okay there is a lot of weird pony sex, but this time it’s science! One of the science ponies I get to talking with is named Artemis, or Dr. Palmer, but he likes his first name better, especially as a pony. He’s a deep grey green bat pony stallion, with messy brown hair, and these vivid purple eyes that remind me of someone very smart.

I meet Artemis for the first time after he’s debriefing us one day, or whatever you call it when you explain what’s going on. The bat pony stallion says in a clear tenor, “We received more information from Equestria earlier this week. Just more on the basics of their wormhole technology, but many of them bear striking similarities to some of the spells that Twilight Sparkle taught you. I’m not saying we’re gonna enable all you unicorns to teleport, but we might just be able to enable you all you unicorns to teleport!”

And the whole audience erupts into questions.

I talk to Artemis afterwards, as he’s using his wings to shovel his presentation papers into a pair of briefcases tied together with belts, hanging on his back. “Excuse me, Dr. Palmer?”

“Oh heavens no, please call me Artemis,” he says, turning to face me. “Oh, Meadowsweet?” he says in mild surprise, “What can I do for you?”

“Well, I was curious about that teleportation,” I say, gingerly walking up to the slender stallion, “Is it anything like what I was doing?”

He hesitates a moment. Not good. But then he says, “I can’t thank you enough for how much you’ve helped us in our research. Your abilities of spatial manipulation and awareness are unbelievable!”

“R-really?” I ask, a little perplexed, “I couldn’t do any of the stuff I did in my cell, though. Not really.”

“That was a very unusual circumstance,” he replies, unconvinced that I’m lame, “It might be that ponies have some sort of survival mechanism that kicks in when they’re under extreme duress. Of course we’re not going to test that. But you still did a lot of cool stuff in the lab! And we’re still trying to figure out how you managed to move from the lamp to...”

“...getting stuck in the refrigerator, in the faculty lounge,” I reply flatly.

“Well, that definitely was teleportation!” he says hopefully, “Or at least the folding of space in a very novel way. But this new data is unicorn only, I’m afraid.”

My ears go down at that, because I was hoping to make what I figured out actually useful, and not so frustratingly intermittent. “The Equestrians are very reluctant to talk about the magic of earth ponies,” Artemis says with an apologetic smile, “It might be like in the cartoon show, where they’re not fully aware that earth ponies have magic at all.”

“Do you have any pictures from Equestria?” I ask hopefully.

“We’re still limited to a form of morse code, I’m afraid,” he says, shaking his head regretfully. He perks up quick though, saying, “But I’m confident even with our rudimentary knowledge of pony capabilities, we might be able to get the gateway open up to ten centimeters wide, which is quite big enough to see what’s on the other side!”

“I wonder if I’ll ever get to see Princess Celestia,” I say wistfully.

“She has been talking to us,” he replies, to my great interest, “But it’s ah... abstract morse code, as I’ve said. And as lovely a ruler as she is, Princess Celestia has never been loose with her secrets.”

“Have you watched the show by chance?” I ask in hesitant delight.

“Most of us have, just to give us an idea what we’re dealing with,” he replies, “But I did watch, and enjoy a lot of it.”

“What was your favorite episode?”

He thinks a moment, before saying, “Probably the one with the shooting stars.”

“Owl’s Well That Ends Well?!” I squeal in shock and outrage.

Author's Note

The cad!

Thick as Thieves

“Hey,” a very familiar rough voiced mare says, swaying heavily as she walks up to me.

“Hi, Daredevil,” I say amiably, looking up to regard the pony.

My ears go down.

My so-called student’s purple and pink tail is drooping low over her gently curving blue furred hindquarters, and I don’t like to stereotype, but with the way she hugs her arm around me, and looks at me so dully, and the fact that her breath stinks of alcohol, I’m starting to think that there’s something very wrong with this mare.

“I hear you can get me...” she pauses as if to think on what she’s about to say, then blurts out, “Laid.”

Rather than acting embarassed, Daredevil seems to find this hilarious, laughing as she pulls away from me and almost falls over. She’s got such beautiful green eyes, if they would point in the same direction. What the heck is going on here?

“You’re onea those... chivvies Mehsweet,” she says with a noticeable slur in her voice, “Not a stuff shirt like the guys around here who’re all upset about how it’s besti... best...bestity, when I’m notta pony Imma woman!”

Pausing in washing the dishes, I’m sort of glad no one else is helping me at that chore this time, if Daredevil is gonna put on a display like this. I turn to face her, coming down from the sink to four hooves while she looks at me evenly...ish, and says, “They think I’m a... think Imma guy, but I wanna put a big old piece of guy meat heh heh guy meat right where they can’t see in fronna their own fucking faces that goes inta me down... back there, cause I don’t gotta dick, so why’re they callin me a man? I’m a woman and... and I uh...”

She hiccups, and now she looks like she’s going to cry.

“You’re totally right, and I agree with you,” I assure her hastily, walking up to the slumped mare, unsure of whether to touch her or not, “And you’re a good person, who doesn’t deserve to... to be like this.” I have no idea if she’s a good person or not, do I? “And uh...”

I really shouldn’t burst her bubble, but wincing, I admit, “You don’t have to pretend. I know that alcohol doesn’t work on ponies.”

“Fuck you!” she replies pushing an angry forehoof into my shoulder and sending me sprawling on my back. (She doesn’t have to push hard.) “I can ge’ durnk ‘f I want!”

She rolls to her side then, laughing gently to herself, saying quietly, “They said I couldn’t get drunk. Ha! I wanna’d’a get drunk, and I did. On fucking warm beer! Haha everythin’s... spinnin’”

“How much beer did you drink? ” I ask incredulously.

I only get a quiet snore in reply.

The dishes don’t get washed that night, but I nose under the mare’s shoulders, and sling her up on my back, then go trudging off through the electrically lit evening, to the medical office they have here. The three ponies there look at me with alarm as I walk in, so I announce, “She’s fine! Sorta. She’s...” Daredevil wiggles on top of me and mumbles in her sleep. “Moving at least. I think she had too much to drink?”

“How?” the brown mare blurts out in utter disbelief.

“I have no idea,” I reply, “But it must be something worse than beer, so uh, pump her stomach, I guess?”

“We don’t have a stomach pump. This is just a first aid station!” the green mare fusses.

“She seems alright, just drunk. Somehow,” I tell them, “I’ll just keep an eye on her, and make sure she doesn’t need... whatever you give drunk people.”

“We might be able to put her on an I.V. to keep her electrolytes up,” the green mare says, as confidently as a pony with no opposable thumbs can say, “We’re just terribly short of supplies here. I keep telling them we need to get equipment from a hospital, but no they can’t even confiscate basic... sorry.”

She walks up to me, inspecting the mare lying on my back, pulling back her eyelid with a hoof, and muttering, “Well she definitely looks drunk.”

“Some activated charcoal should help,” the pink and green one says, coming up with a bag of charcoal dust? A bag of activated charcoal, I guess, floating in her golden magic. “At least with whatever’s left in her stomach.”

They manage to wake Daredevil up enough to force feed her vile, inky black fluid that looks like it would be more suitable for a torture chamber than a medical office, and if I didn’t know it was just a mixture of water and charcoal dust, I probably would be heading for the hills before the Silent Hill music started playing.

Then of course Slenderman would get me.

I can’t help but wince as they shave a patch of blue fur off of Daredevil’s arm. The unicorn handles putting the actual needle into the drunken pony’s arm, and it’s really easy to locate veins in that pale pink flesh underneath. That is not a cartoon pony’s leg. You can see the rough edge of the fur, where it transitions to actual shaved flesh. Blood vessels in that flesh. I look at my own featureless yellow leg, and even on that, I can see a texture to my dense fur.

I dunno, just the reminder that we have blood vessels is kind of jarring, despite the fact that I’ve felt my own heart beating, and even bled a little on occasion. We really are living, breathing creatures somehow, with a skeleton, and blood vessels, and flesh. It feels... permanent.

Suffice to say I’ve got a lot to think about, as I sit there on my belly next to Daredevil’s cot, waiting for Daredevil to awaken. Or waiting for the heart monitor to start getting irregular, and go screaming for the medic. Night falls, and I doze off at some point, then snort awake when Daredevil moans, and waves a hoof overhead, saying, “What the hell happened last night—oh jezus christ I’m still a pony girl.”

“Hey, uh—” I say as she yelps and sits up in the bed to look at me in surprise. “There’s a pan if you need to—!” I declare, and her eyes widen as yes she needs to. So I grab the pan and shove it at her, and the purple, pink and blue mare pulls it from my mouth into the grasp of her forelegs, and just straight out hurls forth the remainder of that black slop out of her stomach.

“Am... am I dead?” she asks incredulously, staring down at it, “What the hell is this... stuff?”

“I-it’s activated charcoal,” I tell her, “I wasn’t sure if you had drank something worse than beer, so we kind of let it soak up the bad stuff.”

“Oh, no I was just drinking beer, I... I think?” she says, looking up from her own vomit in confusion. “How the hell did I get drunk?”

“How could you not know?” I ask in astonishment, “You were just drinking beer, and nothing else?”

“Yeah, and just some of that stupid hay,” she specifies, “But it never even hit me before, or anything. I was just thinking about things and...” she sighs, mumbling, “Boy, I need a drink.”

“Yeah, the Major General was like that, too,” I muse, as I recall the dramatic and captivating experience a few weeks ago that will surely be a tale to tell to my foals, and my foals’ foals.

Why the fuck is there so much whiskey in this fucking bottle it tastes like fucking piss fuck you fuck ponies I hate being a stupid little fucking girl who can’t even get fucking drunk. Fuck!

“I think a lot of people are.”

“Drunk?” Daredevil asks skeptically.

“Thirsty,” I reply, with a disgruntled tail flip.

“So I uh...” the blue earth pony mare looks at me cautiously, asking, “I didn’t say anything weird, did I?”

“Oh, no! No, you... didn’t say anything weird! ” I reply warily. She wasn’t in her right mind, so how could I blame her for saying that, but how would I tell her without her blaming herself? “Just the normal silly drunk things. It was just kind of weird that a pony was drunk.”

“Yeah, I think I’ll stay away from...” she sinks her head staring at her lap, moaning wearily, “Beer for awhile.”

“But didn’t you just want a drink?” I ask, confused.

“Not that kind of drink!” she replies, looking up at me irritably. Then Daredevil winces at raising her head, holding it, and adding, “I-I mean yeah that kind of drink, but I just don’t wanna say anything stupid.”

I’m not sure Daredevil is well yet, with how long she blushes and looks at me, but I smile and repeat, “You really didn’t say anything stupid.” And this time I mean it.

“Did you wait here this whole time for me to wake up?” Daredevil asks, looking at the darkness out the little window, “What time is it?”

“I, uhm, I’m not sure exactly,” I say, “But it’s really not a big deal.”

“Yeah, I guess,” she says, looking wistfully my way.

So... that’s it I guess. I know she wasn’t in her right mind when Daredevil said that stuff. It’s troublesome though, because now I know why she was talking to Dusty the other day. Of course she wants to have sex with him! And Daredevil’s already Mira’s friend. It’s the perfect group: Mira, Daredevil and Bubblegum with Dusty, and... not me.

But if I try to get them together, I could get Daredevil pregnant! I should get him with the already pregnant Maize, but... Daredevil’s so cool! But I already try not to stay up at night hounded by the guilt that I basically impregnated Bubblegum using Dusty’s penis. So isn’t it better if I just... don’t say anything? If Daredevil asks him to impregnate her, great, but if she never says anything, it’d be better if nothing happened, and Dusty continues to need me to be with him.

...right?

Daredevil’s all cleaned up, and checked out, a little balder in places but not too worse for wear. Instructed not to attempt to consume alcohol until they figure out what the hell happened, she’s not too happy about that. But we walk out of the medical building together, at least, Daredevil confessing to me,

“Thanks so much for saving my ass. I still don’t understand what happened, and you just sat there for hours, waiting for me to wake up.”

“It was just in case you stopped breathing or something,” I tell her as we walk around to face each other outside the building, “Someone had to do it, and I didn’t have too much um...” Okay so I might have skipped my afternoon training, but I’m sure they’ll understand. Oh, I hope someone finished the dishes. “...stuff to do today.”

“Still, thank you,” Daredevil repeats, a cool night breeze washing past us. “I don’t know a lot of people who care as much as you do.”

I–I don’t know what to say. “People um... A-anyone would...” I rest on my haunches, holding a forehoof to my chest and just... “...thanks.”

Daredevil smiles more gently at me, and says, “You know you do make a really pretty girl, especially when you’re embarassed.”

“I–I’m not—” I fall silent, not because I’m embarassed, but only because to finish that sentence would get me struck down from on high for the world’s most terrible lie.

“And your scrunchy face is adorable,” she adds sagely, “Hard to believe you’re such a badass in training exercises.”

Daredevil trots off then, while I rub my nose furiously in my hooves to stop making that stupid scrunchy face. And it only gets worse from there. No, not the scrunchy face, thank Celestia. My snout would implode.

Things get worse not in terms of embarassment, but worse in terms of temptation. I can’t get the thought of Dusty doing Daredevil out of my head. Despite not being Twilight trained, Daredevil manages to join Sergeant Browning’s training group, as in the group that I’m in, not the one I’m teaching.

So now she gets to run around with me all the time, not to mention sparring and wrestling. And every time we get close, I’m remembering her drunk confession, wanting to force the horniness out of that beautifully passionate pony with my uh... tongue. Obviously I don’t, but it’s just a little awkward when her butt ends up in my face way too many times for me to stop thinking about that pert little blue-furred muff, and how much she secretly wants to use it. On Dusty.

So I’m definitely not feeling like I can just ignore Daredevil or Dusty’s group. But Daredevil’s doing alright on her own, I think. She’s definitely talking with Dusty, without me of course, so that means there’s no chance with me, her, and Dusty. Not anymore. A-and that’s a good thing. I’m with Sue, and not Dusty. Nor Peter. Nor Nick. And that’s final! Dusty and Daredevil are just a thing that I want, but can’t have.

It’s just hard to convince myself of that when Dusty’s pressing me down, ejaculating inside me, while I hold him close to make sure he does it, gasping in passion his name.

The brown haired, green furred bat pony stallion named Artemis ends up being my connection with the research team. He introduces me to the other scientists, on an individual basis. Dr. Herman, and graduate student Lieberman. Incidentally the mares at this base seem to prefer referring to each other by last name if possible. Guess that’s one way to deal with being formerly guys. I’d think these science types would all be straight shirted professionals, academic scholars concerned with brainy concepts, and not stuff like friendship. But actually they’re surprisingly nice people, who kind of... have a hard time with friendship in the same way I do, and are also concerned with it the same way I am.

I talk with Artemis a lot about Equestria, and what the Equestrian ponies have to say about places like Ponyville, and Canterlot, what he’s allowed to tell me at least. They really do call it Ponyville, he says. I talk with Artemis about the origins of the wormhole too, which... aren’t very remarkable and don’t make a lot of sense, but it’s something at least.

The story he relates is that scientists detected a spatial anomaly in one of those gravity detectors they have at the bottom of mountains and stuff. Investigating should have led them to some sort of radio interference, or some sort of meteor impact or something, but what they found was just... an abandoned cabin out in the wilderness, with a pile of ancient VHS tapes, and no apparent source of electricity with which to play them. The tape has not been played, but was only labeled with “My Little Pony” and otherwise unremarkable and blank.

The wormhole, and the tape it’s embedded in have been kept sealed away from the outside environment, so they could carefully study it, but it isn’t going to be sealed away for much longer. Because as I’m working on morning drills one day, I hear some shouting and yammering and a rousing cheer over to the area cleared out for unicorn practice. I don’t know exactly what’s going on over there, but it must be something good. So I shrug and continue my drills.

After my training and their practice ends, Lucy elucidates me, cantering up to me and exclaiming in an delighted tone, “I did it! Meadowsweet, I did it!”

Relieved, I turn away from Daredevil, who was... well, I was trying to talk with Daredevil about how she keeps watching me practice, trying to find out what she thinks is so great about just watching me, but she keeps being strangely obstructive about it, dodging the questions with noncommital answers. And it was getting really awkward.

So turning away from Daredevil in relief, I ask Lucy, “What did you do?”

“We were winking today!” Lucy says, beyond excited.

...

“I uh...” I blush heavily. “I might be getting my definition of winking mixed up,” I tell Lucy with a leery hoof lift, “All I know is winking with your eye, and... winking with your other part.”

Daredevil bursts out laughing.

Lucy blinks a moment, before blushing herself, ignoring Daredevil’s joyful mirth, saying, “No, no not that kind of winking. It’s what they uh... used to call teleportation in the show. Ponies—well, Twilight Sparkle mostly—would wink out like a... candle? And then wink back in again. And I... I did that.”

Lucy comes to stare past me as she declares, “I just winked. Me, not some cartoon character. I was here, then I was... something, then I was there.”

“Seriously? ” I ask, staring at her in amazement and intrigue, “What’s it like?? How do you do it?”

“I’ll show you!” Lucy says, strutting proudly, “You ready to... oh uh.” Lucy notices Daredevil then, and blushes for some reason, adding “Didn’t know you were busy with... her.”

“Hey, don’t mind me,” Daredevil says with a quirky smile, “Let’s see what you got.”

“I–I just didn’t know you two were um... friends,” Lucy says sort of bewildered in the ears. Then, before things can get even more awkward, she closes her eyes and concentrates. A soft blue aura bursts into life all around Lucy’s orange horn, with that weird twinkling sound. Then the glow grows brighter and brighter, engulfing her as Lucy grunts with the effort. Then there’s an explosion of blue that just... poof explodes where she used to be.

Then with a burst of identical light, she lands on the ground about 5 feet away, panting for breath and laughing to herself. “I’m not dreaming, am I?” she asks, looking at me and... Daredevil, whom Lucy also seems to know. Lucy herself looks lost in wonder, as she asks, “I really just teleported, right?”

“Yeah, you did!” I tell her, stepping toward her appreciatively, “It looked just like in the show, except blue!”

“It’s more of an azure really,” Lucy says smugly, and I have no idea what an azure is. Some kind of precious gem? “But the important thing is I did it!” the happy orange unicorn mare declares, “And it was so weird! ”

“What’s it like?” asks the blue mare next to me in wonder. Daredevil gives Lucy an honestly surprised and hopeful look, a look I don’t usually get from her at all, or from anyone really.

“It’s like turning inside out,” Lucy says in guttural glee, a little flicker of blue crawling down her horn as she speaks, “It pulls you into it, and then you’re just... popping out where you want to be. I dunno how it works, but it just does! I do the right things with my horn, pour all my magic into it, and poof! Then poof!”

“It doesn’t hurt, does it?” I ask with concern, but at Lucy’s enthusiastic head shake, I relax with a smile.

“The only thing they’re worried about is exactly where it’s pulling us,” Lucy says, pursing her lips, “Because we wink out, and then wink back in, so we’ve gotta be somewhere in between, right?”

“That is kind of weird,” Daredevil says in vague interest, “But hey if it works, who cares?”

“Congratulations Lucy, at any rate,” I tell her with gusto, grabbing her attention again, “We really made the right decision coming here, if it’s helping us uh... helping us who are unicorns learn how to teleport! Or... wink, I guess you’d say it.”

Lucy snickers at that, letting one forehoof dangle over the other as she leans lazily, saying, “Yeah, I’ve been winking all afternoon. Really long and hard, yup. Sticking myself out there, and then pulling back in again. It’s uh...”

Daredevil is definitely smirking, and I’m mightily trying to suppress a smile myself. Lucy’s joking tone turns puzzled though, as she says, “I think it actually is like winking, like with your...” She looks down at Daredevil still lying there trying not to giggle, then mumbles, “Because when I wink out, I get pulled back in. It’s like when you wink and your horse... junk back there pulls back in.”

“Huh,” I say, puzzled enough at the thought I don’t have to laugh at it, “I guess that is kind of peculiar.”

“Great, so I’m just one big peach colored clit,” Lucy concludes grumpily.

I think Daredevil’s going to pass out if she continues laughing like that...

It’s getting to be so Daredevil and I are about evenly matched in sparring. She’s about ten million times stronger than me, if she could ever get ahold of me long enough to get me pinned. Not to say Daredevil can’t move like a whirlwind, but it’s interesting how different she is from me, despite us both being earth ponies. I guess that would make her a tank, and I’m... DPS? I’m not sure what you’d call my category. The most I could ever afford was to read about people complaining about those online games, not actually playing them.

Daredevil’s personality is as strong as she is, but also nice. Daredevil invites herself to talk with me, Lucy, and even Sue, but she’s really cool about it, not to mention really cool. She has a lot of combat experience even from before being a pony, and it’s neat how she compares the two experiences. She’s also interested in our lives, listening quietly while Holly tells of how our group was defeated by the evil machinations of Twilight Sparkle. Daredevil’s jokes make me laugh, and well... make us all laugh.

And then she’s off with Dusty again, leaving me just to stare at her and... yearn.

Things are going great with the people I’m supposed to be having sex with at least. Holly really isn’t involved with any of the combat training stuff, and Lucy is really good at hers. She can teleport, and set things on fire as well as Holly ever could. My unicorn marefriend has all sorts of weird variations on ways to disable your movements, from muscle locks to twitchy zappy nerve things, to feeling like you’re stuck in a solid shell for a moment. A lot of it is because I keep finding ways to sneak out of those, so Lucy’s got to figure out other ways to snag me.

Sue’s not that good at fighting actually, and mostly he’s been doing er... maintenance work, but he swears he’s cool with it. And we all sleep together, and do things together, and when we are... fucking, we try to be private about it, but sometimes that doesn’t always work out.

To that poor mare’s credit, she still holds out for a while, until it’s just too much for her to stand. She still jokes with me, and relies on me, and trains with me, and just sort of likes my company in general. The blue mare with pink and purple hair named Daredevil is like another Lucy, brash and rough, but really affectionate in her own way. And unlike Lucy, Daredevil is an earth pony! Lots stronger than me, but I’m still pretty strong, so we can really put everything into sparring together, without me being worried about breaking my surprisingly delicate unicorn friend.

So me and Daredevil are... grappling, to try and execute the pins Sergeant Browning was teaching this week. Of course we’re grappling, and I’m getting all close to her, and pushing up against her as we struggle to get the upper hand or hoof on the other. I’m of course trying not to think of how her teats are pressing against mine. I still haven’t come to terms with how only Dusty gets to play with those teats, and... of course I can’t let her know I’m thinking sexually about her.

Ponies really are too flexible for most human pins to work, so the sergeant had to take it to more extreme stuff like... well, not exactly being hogtied by your own limbs, but certainly twisting and gyrating together. She slams me on my back eventually, and before I can react, she presses her lips to mine in a solid, desperate kiss. I... what?

I tilt my head so she can fit her lips against mine better and I’m so totally off guard by this that I don’t even think to try and pin her anymore. She squirms around, locking her hind legs with mine so that our pussies press together, and she’s soaking wet! Inhaling through my nose it’s obvious, but I didn’t even realize how horny she was.

She pulls free from the kiss, and with her greater strength... I think she actually could have me pinned, like this! I can’t lift my shoulders as she braces on my chest. All I can do is just vaguely cradle her between my arms as Daredevil growls in a voice dripping with lust, “I need this. Don’t fucking... don’t say anything you fucking... oh fuck I want your stupid sexy pussy.”

Then she kisses me again and writhes against me, trying to somehow rub her junk with my junk. I don’t know what to do! This is... she’s just so full of need! Oh god, my pussy’s tingling too, that prickly goosebumps feeling inside me that I know is getting aroused. It’s just so freaking hot how this... this candy colored mare is so lost in her emotions, rubbing against me, like a hurricane of lust.

The aroused mare pulls free of the kiss again, panting hard, saying, “Don’t... don’t run I’m... I’m going to Hell. I’m just gonna...” then she plants her hind legs on either side of me, and starts... rubbing her pussy on my belly. Just hunching over and pressing it to my... my teats and belly, and then up to my chest, saying, “I wanna do this I wanna... stick my dick in you and oh... oh god don’t hate me. I’m gonna... I’m gonna. Fuck, Meadowsweet, I saw you doing it.”

Stroking her tail between my thighs, Daredevil says in a heady lust, “You were a freaking lesbian, putting your tongue inside her right where she wanned it...”

Arching up against the stroking of Daredevil’s soft silky tail hair in my slit, I beg her “Please, you don’t have to—”

“Shut up,” she says fearfully, crawling up my torso to plant her hind legs to either side of my head. “You’re gonna stick your tongue in me. I need something inside me. I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna...” her groin hovers over my nose as she hunches over me hungrily. Then I kiss her down there, and she sinks onto my snout, begging, “Please, put your tongue in me...”

Her moan is more of a shout, when I slide my tongue into that mare’s hot, drenched pussy. I push deep, and curl around in there as she mindlessly humps my face, because that’s what she needs right now. Then, as her moans die to blissful satisfaction, I slide my tongue out of her, and start licking her vulva, lipping at them just like Lucy says is good, and rubbing along her clitoris as it winks out pushing against my tongue.

It isn’t long before Daredevil’s even more of a panting, sweating mess, rocking against my face to the rhythm of her breathing. “I’m gonna cum! Meadowsweet, I’m gonna... I can’t believe it!” she declares in shaky excitement, “Keep doing that! Please keep unh... God, I need it innnn.”

Well I certainly listen to her, and she grunts in satisfaction as I lick deep within her, patiently palpating her cervix as I do, and lipping at her vulva to tease her clitoris of hiding. Daredevil quiets, barely rocking against me. “How the... fuck do I cum...” she pants, “It’s filling me... how’m I gonna... ohh fuck it’s... hnhhh...”

She starts to hump hard again, then shudders to a stop, then her tight whine turns into a squeal as her vagina starts to convulse powerfully around my tongue. Hanging onto my head, she pants, “Oh oh God oh oh...” as it happens to her.

“Thassit, glab my tongue,” I tell the mare as Daredevil can’t stop her vagina from doing it, feeling her powerful grip while she shudders against me again and again. As her moans quiet, her vagina does too, until Daredevil is just there, her cunt smooshed up against my snout, slowly relaxing and breathing more evenly.

“Oh god you’re inside me,” Daredevil murmurs almost inaudibly if she wasn’t hugged around me, “You just... I just...”

She doesn’t know what to say, and she’s holding my tongue in her, so I’m not going to say much right now. At last, Daredevil speaks guiltily, “I don’t want you to pull out,” she murmurs, “Soon as you pull out you’re gonna hate me. They’re gonna kill me. Oh god, oh god. How did I just—hnnnh!”

That last part is me forcing my tongue all the way out of her, so I can softly lap just inside her slit. I follow her groin as Daredevil falls to her back. The mare can’t stop humping in the air as I bury my face in her crotch. God, she’s so horny it’s incredible. I don’t want this to end either, because she’ll be sad then, and right now she’s just arching up against me and thinking of nothing but satisfying her needy cunt.

I don’t leave her alone until Daredevil jolts into another urgent climax, hips bucking unsteadily. She twists away from me as if to stand, but then just lays there on her side, moaning quietly, “Oh god oh god...” the base of her tail jerking with every inward pulse. I stand quietly as she just lays there twitching and cumming. Her tail stills eventually, then she relaxes. Panting for breath, the blue and pink mare just curls up in the fetal position, mumbling unintelligibly.

Looking down at Daredevil’s lost expression with unease, I ask warily, “...you okay?”

The blue mare freezes. Then she turns to look up at me in disbelief.

“Am I okay?” she squawks incredulously, actual tears trailing down her cheeks, looking at me with unbearable guilt, “Am I okay?”

“Look, I’m... I’m fine!” I tell her, scraping the ground a little angrily. Not at Daredevil, but at this whole... thing. “Fine, you raped me. Whatever. You weren’t hurting me, you weren’t doing it because you don’t care about me. You just got horny, and... come on, I was practically humping you in that wrestling match! I was clearly asking for it! And I was just too clueless to realize you wanted me! Daredevil, if I knew you needed it this bad, I would’ve done this ages ago! Why didn’t you tell me?”

A pause for her to stare at me like a deer in headlights, before I groan and facehoof at my own cluelessness, muttering to myself, “Oh sure, just tell your crush you wanna sit on her face. No problem, right? Easy peasy.” Looking at a warily standing Daredevil, I smile weakly, and say, “It’s okay if you didn’t tell me. I would’ve rather you did, but you’re still my friend, even if you wanna uh... stick your dick in me.”

“Tha-that was pretty dumb,” she says with a skittish laugh, “I was gonna have to... to run. Just disappear, and you’d all hunt me down, and I tried to tell myself it wasn’t worth it, all the terrible things that’d happen if I t-tried anything.”

“Thankfully this is the real world, and not some slasher flick,” I tell her, feeling just a tad jaded at Daredevil’s distress, “I don’t care if you rape me, as long as you care about me, and respect me. If... if you ran, that would have been worse.” My voice aches with too much pain, as I ask her, “You think I would rather lose my friend than get raped? I got dumped once, pretty bad, and that felt way worse than any time I got raped!”

“...I’m your friend?” she asks, meeting my eyes in shocked hope.

“Yes, you’re—” I start to say, before she interrupts, blurting out,

“You got raped more than once?!”

“Yeah it... technically yes,” I admit testily, “But they say they just had sex with me without asking first, and it’s not rape somehow. I think it is rape, and they’re just afraid to call it that, because they don’t want it to be, but I swear it’s no problem! It’s just really hard to just... get consent every time. H-how long have you wanted to...?”

“Ever since we met,” she mumbles, staring downward, “You were just so cute and nice, and I wanted to... I wanted to be a man again. I–I’ve been kind of stalking... I just wanted something , even if you didn’t know I was... watching.”

“Oh, you... were w-watching us, right,” I say, looking sideways at her.

“Not in a... okay yes it was in a bad way. I saw you with...” the blue mare blushes, saying in tenuous excitement, “Holly, through the window. I–I mean you don’t even pull the curtains and—”

“Oh, maybe we should,” I murmur, looking down and frowning.

“No!” she blurts out, as I look up to meet her green eyes, “No that’s not... necessary,” she says, and with her blush and droopy, swishy tail she looks seriously self-conscious about her actions. “I won’t uh, spy on you if you don’t want,” she says, “I just... you know...”

...

“Did I ever tell you how I met Sue and Holly?” I ask my chagrined friend, with a shy but not so shy smile. At her headshake, I continue, “I was feeling so... horny like you, and they weren’t even tempting me with getting close to me. I just couldn’t help it, even though they barely knew me. I saw them heading off to have sex, and... well, I spied on them.”

“You did?” Daredevil asks, giving me a vulnerable and hopeful look uncharacteristic of the normally tough mare.

“I didn’t mean to... but yes, I did spy on them,” I insist, trying not to scrunch out of embarassment, “And I got caught. Um... it went better than expected.”

“I’ll say,” she says in amazement, “If you’re still with them.”

“That was the... second time I got...” I tap my chin in cautious calculation, before admitting, “No wait, the third time I got raped. I should’ve just consented, but I just felt too guilty to ask for anything, and well... Sue and Holly took care of me either way, so I didn’t have to consent. It would’ve been... stupid if I said yes please put a baby in me.”

“But I would’ve forced you, even if you didn’t want it,” Daredevil says guiltily, “I thought you didn’t! And I thought I had to force you, because I just wanted it so bad. It just started happening, and then I had to do it, because you... you wouldn’t ever let me touch you again.”

“It might have been bad if I didn’t want it,” I say uncertainly, “I guess you just... lucked out? I wouldn’t try that with anyone else, and if you feel like you’re gonna, just... talk to me about it okay? And if talking means sitting on my face, then go ahead.”

“Y-you’re unbelievable, Meadowsweet,” Daredevil says, distantly. She takes my hoof in hers, gently, then strongly, then pulls herself up to hug me, rubbing against my shoulders, curling her neck along mine, saying in blessed relief, “It felt so good! You were just going in me and it was just amazing. Just give me a... a chance and I’ll never rape anyone ever again thank you so much...”

She starts crying somewhere in that, so I just spread my imaginary wing to cover her with, and wrap my foreleg around her, as Daredevil tells me of her forbidden dreams, hopes, and fears as a my little pony, and as herself. And we’re... lovers now.

That orange-on-orange earth pony mare with the blue eyes comes trotting up to me one day, and I’m like, “Oh, Blaze! How’s it going with Strider, and uh, Candy and Susan?”

She frowns at that and uh oh.

“Can you come with me?” she asks, “I need to ask you something. It’s p-private.”

With grave worry I follow the mare, and we head off outside the complex to a lonely place in the wood, when Blaze decides we’re far enough. Then she looks down and just... kicks at the ground.

“So, it hasn’t been going well with Strider and—?” I try asking.

“No! No!” she interrupts, “It’s going really good. He’s doing me whenever I want now. And they’re all in love with me. And we’re good friends.”

“...but there’s a problem,” I prompt her cautiously.

She nods.

“You don’t have to tell me, but,” I offer as gently as I can, “If you do, then I’ll try to help however I can.”

The orange earth pony mare named Blaze stares down, then scrapes the ground again, then looks up at me with scared eyes and says,

“I’m 10.”

...

Blushing horribly, Blaze looks away, saying, “I’m 10 now. I wasn’t when I changed. I got older when I changed, a-and then I had a birthday but I didn’t tell anyone because I turned 10 and I think I’m the only one.”

“But you were...” I say faintly, recalling just what this mare was, with Strider.

“I know I’m not supposed to do that,” she says guiltily, “I just wanted it so bad. And it felt so good. Y-you saw him. In me. You were okay with it, and you helped me so much, and I want to ask you because I need help.”

“I didn’t know you were 10 though!” I protest in shock.

“P-please don’t tell!” she says, meeting my eyes fearfully, “They’re gonna hate me! I–I love being a grownup! I’ll make a baby in my belly, just like a mommy. I’ll be a good mommy. And I want to... to have sex. Just like a grownup.”

Oh god it’s so obvious now. That’s what was bothering me not her accent. Her vocabulary! “S-so what’s the problem then?” I ask weakly, trying not to see this grown mare as a scared child.

“They’re gonna find out,” Blaze says with a tremble in her voice, “I didn’t have any friends after I changed, not even one, so I was safe. But I just wanted him too bad, and now we’re friends. I–I–I don’t know how to be a grownup. I try, but... they’re gonna find out. I don’t know what to do.”

“L-look, you fooled me, right?” I tell her nervously. Blaze ducks her head shamefully, but I tell her, “It’ll probably be fine! Lots of adults don’t have a big vocabulary. J-just don’t lie to them if they find out, but I–I mean it couldn’t hurt to just... let it be, right? Just be yourself, and if they like you then when they find out, they won’t be mad. And if they are, tell them I told you to keep it a secret. Then they could be mad at me, okay?”

Blaze looks up to meet my eyes, saying shyly, “O...okay. I can just be my...self. And it’s okay if I keep having... him in my vagina?”

I’m a horrible influence on 10 year old children, when I can’t see any reason why not, so I say, “I... can’t see any reason why not.”

Blushing, Blaze says, “I know that kids are not supposed to do that. But I really do like it. And I want to be a mommy now. And... I like having some... friends.” She leans toward me saying urgently, “I couldn’t be friends with any of the foals not even if there were real ones, because I was a grownup, and none of the grownups talked to me, so I didn’t know what to do. But it’s okay. I’ll ...push Strider’s baby out of my vagina, if he likes me, and they like me, and I don’t have to be alone...anymore.”

God, I shouldn’t ask. She’s so happy right now! She doesn’t even think getting pregant is that big of a deal, which I should correct her on. But her happiness is tinged with a lonely... desperate edge to it, that I just can’t leave unspoken. “I’m the only one who you’ve told, right?” I ask her, “That you are really 10 years old?”

“Y-yes you’re the only one,” she says cautiously, “But I know you won’t tell on me because you’re really nice.”

Dammit she’s right. “Well, I just want you to know I’m okay with you being ten, so you can talk to me about anything. So you can tell me anything you haven’t been able to talk about until now.”

She looks at me blankly, and I guess... I have to ask. Giving Blaze a sympathetic look, I ask, “Where are your parents?”

I should have known what would make a grown mare cry. But I hug Blaze, and she hugs back, sobbing over my shoulder. I can’t believe she was ten! That’s just awful! All by herself, for all this time? Why didn’t she ask for help? She didn’t know anyone at all, and her parents were gone, and I’m glad Strider impregnated her because that means she finally has—wait no I’m not supposed to be glad about that.

She quiets down eventually, but doesn’t stop hugging me. Her breathing comes evenly against my chest, her warm orange fur meshing with mine. “You can hug me as long as you like,” I murmur to her, “I can be your... mommy for a little.”

She shifts at that, but doesn’t start crying again. Blaze pushes free of me then, sitting on her haunches before me here under the trees. “I didn’t know what to do,” she says, sniffling and wiping her eyes with a foreleg, “I couldn’t find them and I just had to be alone all the time.”

“Do you know what ponies they turned into?” I ask her, not very hopefully.

She shakes her head. “Daddy was at the conference,” she says, “Mommy was there, but... I was being bad.”

“You won’t get in trouble with me,” I reply trying to look at her supportively.

“I saw the convention,” she says, “I didn’t know what it was, but I saw all the ponies. Not the real ones, but there were cute pony dolls and pictures and... and I shouldn’t have run away from my mommy, to look at them. We were just there for Daddy’s conference, and she was talking to the man at the desk, so I just... went to look at them, a little.”

“And then you started changing into a pony.”

She nods. “There were pretty patterns all over the ceiling and I thought it was the convention. Then I just... fell down and I couldn’t walk.”

“That happened to me too,” I tell her sadly.

“Really?” she asks, looking curiously my way.

Blinking, I reply, “Yeah? Everyone transformed pretty much in the same way.”

“I tried to move,” she says, “And my arm just started coming out of my body, my pony arm. And it was weird because I wasn’t scared.”

“I was pretty scared,” I have to admit, “My sister wasn’t though. And I was more upset than scared. That is kind of weird now that I think about it.”

“Well my arms and legs came out,” Blaze continues, “And everything stopped being all woobly. But I had hooves. And then you came, and started saying that we could walk, and showing us. Then the police came, and I didn’t know what was going on sorry. But after they took you away, I stood up and walked to where Mommy was. There was nobody at the desk though. Then I saw the foals.”

Looking low, Blaze says, “They were so small and cute like a doll but they were real and... and I was bigger. And I had a grownup voice now. And all the people who used to be grownups were ponies like me. So I... didn’t want mommy to see me like this. I didn’t want her to see I was... older.”

“I met a foal once who didn’t want anyone to know she was supposed to be a grownup,” I tell her sympathetically, “but never any kids who became grownups.”

“I... I think I’m the only one,” she says in a choked voice, “And I didn’t know what to do and they put us in the vans to go to the compound. And then I saw... ponies having sex. And I started wanting it. But then everyone already had all the stallions, and I didn’t want to be a mommy, and it just... f-felt so good when Strider went into me, and I felt his babies going into me.”

“Well I don’t care if you’re supposed to be 10, that was... beautiful seeing that happen to you,” I tell her fussily, “It’s such a wonderful feeling, and you should be able to feel it. Even if you have to h-have a baby.”

“I don’t want to be a kid anymore,” Blaze replies, “I want to do that with him, and I want to have his baby in my tummy, even if I have to give birth it out of my vagina. I want to make a cute little foal to come out of me and stand there and I’m making one in my belly right now. Like a real pony for real!”

“I sure don’t know any 10 year olds who feel like that,” I say in amusement.

“What was it like when you were 10?” Blaze asks curiously. Uh.

Blushing, I say, “Okay yes I felt like that when I was 10, but I’m a weird one.”

“You did?” Blaze asks with wide eyes.

I’m certainly a horrible influence on 10 year olds when I say, “Yeah I was about 10 when I started... wanting to put a baby in a girl, even if my penis wasn’t very—.”

“You used to be a boy?!” Blaze asks, giving me a wide-eyed, astonished look.

Tail drooping, I grumble, “Yeah, I know it’s not obvious, sorry. But I was. So if you had stayed a boy, then you might have started having urges anyway. Maybe.”

Blaze gives me another look, a more wary look, and says, “I used to be a girl.”

Blushing horribly, I say in absolute abashement, “Oh, jeez, I thought you used to be a boy, because you changed your name...”

“I don’t want anyone to know my name’s Cindy so that they think I’m a boy who turned into a girl,” Blaze says shyly as I risk peeking out from hiding my blush behind my forelegs, “Then when I say something, they think I’m being a boy not a kid.’

It was working. “That’s... really smart, actually,” I tell her without having to fake being impressed. “I–I’m really honored that you would tell me that you used to be a girl... Cindy.”

“Thanks,” she says, giving me a shy smile, then says, “I would have let you put your penis inside me.”

“What?” I ask, looking her way.

“When you were 10,” she says, “I would have let you put your penis inside me, and cummed inside me. I didn’t know boys liked to do that so much.”

I am a horrible person.

We part ways, though Blaze still pulls me aside now and again to just... talk. About her old school, about her parents, who were some kind of business oriented people. She didn’t have the details. I haven’t heard of anyone looking around for their missing 10 year old daughter, so I couldn’t say where they’d gone. Strider, Candy and Susan seem to love her to pieces though, and I don’t know if they know or not, but... they know what is true now, even if Blaze was different in the past, and that’s what really matters.

...right?

“Hey there, Meadowsweet!” my friend Artemis calls over to me one day, “They were saying you fashioned some sort of a grindstone back in Ainsworth?”

“Oh, yeah it was pretty cool,” I say, “We made it out of cement, so we could shape it pretty precisely.”

“Mind showing me?” he asks, innocently enough.

“It’s not that complicated,” I say lifting a self-conscious hoof, “I could draw a diagram if you like?”

“Just curious about how people were doing being ponies, out there in the world,” he says, “It sounds very old school and practical!”

I’m soon showing Artemis the grinding stone design that we figured out back in Ainsworth, sort of drawing diagrams with chalk, on that chalkboard in the meeting room. And I drop the chalk. Seriously, how do you hold this slippery thing in your mouth? Artemis gives me a pitying look as I have to crane my neck down to bite the chalk cylinder and lift it up again.

He sighs impatiently, and says, “Looks like I’m not the only one who has trouble holding chalk like this.”

Oh. Or... maybe... not pitying, and not impatiently.

I look at the surprisingly sympathetic stallion. Then, I put down the chalk on the tray and look at him in surprise, asking, “But you have those claw finger things on your wing. Can’t you hold stuff with them?”

Rolling his eyes, Artemis strides over and unfurls a wing, easily picking up a piece of chalk with the little claws on the apex of it. Okay, I’m not seeing the problem here. Then, he puts the chalk to the chalkboard, and before he can draw a line, the chalk squips out of his grasp and drops to the floor. Oh.

“These wings are wonderful in many ways,” he says, “But those little claw finger things don’t have any strength to them. I have to be really careful, or I lose my grip, and it’s hard to write without pressing against the chalkboard.”

Then he picks the chalk up in his mouth, and writes, very crudely, “OR I COOLD DO THIS” then puts the chalk down in the tray again.

“Huh, I hadn’t thought about how your wing claws wouldn’t be strong,” I say, curiously fiddling with the little things on his wing. They do grip at my hoof kind of weakly.

Then Artemis pulls his green bat wing away from me, and folds it to his side, stumbling a few steps away and blushing as he says, “Right, yes so being a pony is strange. That’s abundantly clear.”

“If it’s any consolation, at least you got to stay male,” I tell him, wincing inwardly as I realize how close we were getting, and what my very female ass could end up provoking him to do. I rest safely on my haunches though, while he sighs, and says,

“You’re certainly right there. I can’t even begin to imagine what my colleagues are going through. It’s making them act so strange, and guarded...” his ears go low as he adds, “From me, I suppose.”

“More like from themselves,” I say, flicking my tail ironically. He looks at me in a questioning manner, so I blush (of course) and tell him, “Y-yeah, so the only time I um... avoided someone because he was a stallion, was because I wanted it, and I was afraid I would just go do it with him.” Eyes dropping down, I mutter mostly to myself, “Then I went and did it with him anyway.”

But I persevere in my thought, lifting my head and not letting the resentment of being pregnant get to me, at least not now, saying confidently, “So it wasn’t because I was afraid of any of the stallions. It was because I was afraid of myself. I’d never felt that way about... men before.”

“So you just started seeing er, male ponies as attractive?” he asks curiously.

Slightly nodding, I say, “It was mostly the scent that did it for me. You know how our noses are, and mine started smelling boys as... smelling good. Then I got stuck under a blanket for hours with my best friend, which concentrated the effect, and...” I curl one foreleg, and stick the other forehoof through the crook of it, in and out.

“Oh, well, um,” Artemis says, now blushing himself, as I guess we’re passing the blush ball to each other. “My scent isn’t... bothering you, is it?”

Yep, passing the ball right back at me. “I uh, don’t think so,” I tell him in a fluster, blushing as I try not to think of what we’d be doing, if his scent was bothering me, “No offense, but my uh... libido has gone way down since I finally got pregnant.”

“You’re pregnant?” he asks in surprise.

“I know! Isn’t it weird how not obvious it is?” I exclaim, forgetting my embarassment in excitement, “It’s gotta be going really well, because I’m not even getting morning sickness. It uh... growth is exponential, so I won’t be huge until the very end, but I haven’t even noticed a bump!”

“Huh, and how long have you been pregnant?” he asks, a little skepticaly.

“...I have no idea,” I reply glumly, “At best a couple months. At worst uh...” I look at the calendar hanging on the wall, “...10 months.”

He gives me a look. “You are not ten months pregnant, even for a horse,” he tells me flatly.

“Yes, I know that much. I just don’t know exactly when it started to take though,” I sigh, “I kept making mistake after mistake, and I just stopped... trying to avoid it. So I’m definitely pregnant now. Just not sure when it’s due.”

“You’re taking it remarkably well for someone who used to be male,” he says, drawing my ear his way.

Then I double take, following my ear to gape at Artemis in surprise, saying, “What? How did you know I used to be male?”

“You said you’d never felt that way about men before,” he replies, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh, well,” I say shortly, shyness flaring in me as I lose eye contact again, “It’s just that I get a lot of people saying... I’m really feminine or something. It’s nice to um...” I sneak a glance at him, smiling slightly as I say gratefully, “It’s nice to have someone figure out that I’m supposed to be male now and then.”

He stares at me silently for a sec, then shakes his head out, and says, “I can definitely see why people would think that you weren’t. But I certainly don’t think there’s anything wrong with you. You can act as feminine as you like, for whatever definition of feminine you like. I’m honestly worried about my colleagues acting a little too uh... female for their liking.”

“Have you ever thought of... letting them... do the female thing... with you?” I ask, standing to look (up) at him with concern.

He looks down to meet my eyes, then solemnly states, “I have a wife.”

“O-oh, so...” I say staring up at him sympathetically, “So you actually swore an oath not to... be with anyone else.”

“I’ll be honest, I’ve thought about it,” he sighs, looking aside, “I’ve never even been around this many technically biological women before. It’s not something I can do, though. I couldn’t do that to him.”

“To who?” I ask, tilting my head.

“...my wife,” he says.

“Your—oh,” I say, with even more sympathy.

“Yes, she didn’t... stay female,” he says, ears going down, “We’ve been having a hard time... dealing with it.”

“Have you talked with her about it?” I suggest, leaning against the poor guy.

He sighs, leaning back. “We have, and... he does seem to prefer to be called male while this is happening to us,” he says, “We haven’t... talked about my uh... feelings, in so many words. I can’t just tell him I’m contemplating cheating on him.”

“I’m guessing you haven’t been feeling especially homosexual,” I venture.

“Not particularly, for either of us,” he says, slowly shaking his head, “We tried some... experimentation, but it didn’t... go particularly well. I certainly haven’t been having feelings for any other er, stallions.”

“But you have been having feelings about mares,” I prompt.

He hesitates, then tells me, “It’s not as bad as it was in the summer, but I have been feeling... lonely, yes.”

“And about... me?” I suggest.

“N-w-well yes just the... possibility, but,” Artemis says, blushing.

“I mean it’s fine, I don’t need it myself or anything you know I have a boyfriend...s,” I say with a blushing wince. “Not that I’d say no, but...”

Giving me a thoughtful look, Artemis says, “...you’d really have sex with me?”

“I want... someone else to have sex with you,” I reply through my blush, “There are a lot of... lonely mares, who can’t get it at all. That’s who I want you to be... with.”

“Even though I have a wife,” he clarifies.

“That’s your call!” I protest, “You should be true to her yes and you swore an oath, but you... you really haven’t had any sex since July?”

“Everyone seems to be female now,” he says, turning away and scraping the ground in frustration, “And my wife couldn’t stay female, she had to turn into a...” he looks at me, saying, “...sorry, yes. But it’s not like anyone has... offered.”

“Of course you swore to stay with your wife, but...” I say, “It just seems like you really need that.”

“I... I do,” he says, hanging his head, “It’s just maddening. Seeing everyone just... naked everywhere. I’ve never cheated on anyone before. If my wife finds out... so I can’t do it. I just have to be... miserable, for now.”

I should let him do me, right here. “So...” I tell him, stepping away and raising my tail, and showing him, “This makes you want to... do me?”

“I... I want to do you so bad, Meadowsweet,” he says, hind legs wide no doubt to straddle something hard between his legs.

“...I won’t tell, if you do,” I say.

Then he’s rushing forward and he’s on me and just hugging my ass, forelegs gripping my flanks, his penis slapping my belly. We struggle together until he’s in me and thrusting and he doesn’t stop until he grips me close and deep, and I feel semen burst from the swelling head of his dick, shooting up deep inside me.

His flared penis finishes ejaculating. Then Artemis... relaxes.

“Well now I... really hope you won’t tell,” Artemis says faintly.

“Scout’s honor!” I squeak, sneaking a peek back at the green bat pony.

“Can’t believe I just... Meadowsweet, I’m inside you!” Artemis says, looking down at me in disbelief.

“Yeah, feels good doesn’t it...” I say with a silly smile, “So big and heavy in me. My place really likes having a stallion in it, just all wrapped around you.”

“We... we can’t do this again,” Artemis says, not dismounting me in the slightest. “But thank you. I needed that so badly.”

“Sure, no... no problem,” I say, shifting under his weight, “I have Sue and... Dusty, so don’t worry. They’ll do this to me any time I need it.”

Softening within me, gazing down at my green tailed rump, Artemis murmurs lowly, “I don’t want this to end...”

“There are a lot of mares who don’t have... anyone to do it with them,” I tell him warily.

He thinks on that, then loses my gaze again, saying, “I–I can’t I’m sorry. I just want to savor this... this wonderful gift you’ve given me.”

“Take all the time you need,” I tell him tenderly, nestling my ass in his pelvis. Just exchanging soft words with him, as Artemis softens and shrinks out of me.

I’m pretty much sitting in his lap, pressing against his sheath when he finally slips out of me.

“Well, I guess that’s that,” he says, looking down.

“Maybe you could talk to... your wife about it,” I tell him, rotating belly down so I can face the stallion, pulling my gangly legs up around him.

Sighing, Artemis says, “I’ll try. I’m not gonna tell her—him that you were involved though.”

“Wish there was something else I could do,” I say, looking down glumly.

“You’ve done just what I needed, Meadowsweet,” Artemis says warmly, lifting my chin with the... the edge of his wing, to meet his eyes. “Thank you.”

I shouldn’t try to kiss him. But I tilt my head slightly as he leans forward, and I lean forward, let my eyes slip closed, and we kiss.

Author's Note

Maybe Meadowsweet should be paying less attention to how guys think, and start trying to understand what’s going on in her own head...

...naaah. Arte/sweet OTP!

Bearding the Lion

As the days grow cooler and crisper, I fall in love with myself all over again, learning how to fight, and how to move. The sergeant tries her best to make things miserable, but it’s just so amazing how I’m blossoming into a whole new pony, practically. I’m moving faster, kicking harder, and it just feels so good to get out there and really push myself. I don’t feel like I have to hold back with the sergeant. I’m supposed to fail and get chewed out in her mind, so I don’t have to worry whether I succeed or not. Every time she ups the ante, I can’t help but feel the thrill of challenge, that I could push myself and impress her, and impress everyone, and impress myself, yet she’ll still treat me as the same old green recruit by the name of Meadowsweet.

I never felt that good about myself before. I think it’s a pony thing, but I can’t be sure of that, because I never did anything like this as a human. I was always hearing horror stories of the military and of boot camps and psychological torture, so I never even thought about getting into it. I was never all that fat, but I was never all that strong, or healthy either. Couldn’t take a lot of travelling. I feel as if I was exhausted all the time back then, just from doing a whole lot of nothing.

Now I’m strong, and sleek, and outright glowing in the mirror when I get up before dawn for the morning exercises. I think that’s just pregnancy, though I’m definitely not showing any sort of baby bump back there yet, so I can’t be more than six months from conception. But I look healthy, and feel healthy, and... I suppose my diet has something to do with it. I haven’t eaten much of anything sugary or fattening in the last half a year or so, and there were some packaged cookies here but... I honestly found the potato chips far more alluring. Even chips are few and far between though, and much better are the deer that my fellow uh... ponies have been taking down in packs of three or four. Whether you’re a pony or not, hamburgers taste like lard cakes compared to the nutty, musky, hearty strips of meat they get off of those beasts.

...actually, being a pony might have something to do with it.

I really don’t know what to think of ponies though, if we’re hunting deer in packs. Or would that be herds? I can’t believe we’re hunting in herds. Or whatever you call it. Not herds though. Anything but herds.

“It’s really amazing,” Brian tells me, when the green pegasus with blue hair isn’t busy with flying drills, or whatever the pegasuses do. She managed to get her hands on some genuine MRI scans of a pony. Because that’s the first thing that makes sense to do when you get elecricity back up, right? The military brought them here for our pony technology research stuff, and Brian was really happy to be able to see them. High resolution scans of bones, and even internal organs. It’s... kind of unsettling to look at, because they really do look like weird horse bones.

“This is the digestive system,” Brian says, tapping a hoof on the bluish vaguely intestiny sort of shadows, “It’s actually more convoluted in earth ponies, which makes sense given how you can tolerate hay better. But there’s a functional cecum in every one of us. Overall, our digestive systems remind me more of deer than anything, which makes sense given our small size. The erh... hunting doesn’t makes a single lick of sense, but the rest of it seems sensible.”

“What about our uhm, reproductive system?” I ask uneasily.

She taps another shadowy part, saying amiably, “This’s mine, not the male reproductive system of course. It shows I’m uhm, early on in my pregnancy if pregnant at all. I think they have an ultrasound device that some mares are using to um... check. That’s the most reliable way to do it.”

“I don’t really need to,” I tell her, “Even if it’s only a 10% chance, you do it enough times, and...”

Blushing, Brian says, “7 times. Is when your chances are higher than 50%. I calculated it once.”

“Maybe I’ll do it sometime,” I say, “But I... have had sex much more than seven times. It’s pretty impossible I wouldn’t be...”

“Yes, of course...” Brian says, looking to the diagram unhappily.

“It’s cool how you get to finally study this stuff now that we have stuff to x-ray ponies with and stuff,” I tell her with a warm smile, “You haven’t been able to do anything but think about this for a while.”

“It’s incredible,” she repeats, happily scrunching her forelegs to her chest, “I’m just glad we’re so... sensible on the inside! This magic flight is just crazy, but anatomically I kind of... make sense.”

Curiously, I ask, “Where do your wing bones attach?”

“There’s a second lobe on each shoulder blade,” she replies, stretching out a green, feathery wing. “The muscles seem to attach around the mid-back area, and around the belly. My mid-back area feels kind of like an upper-back area, because of the extra musculature.”

“Huh, like here?” I ask curiously, laying my hoof across her back, while Brian spreads both her wings, and muscles in her back flex beneath my touch.

“Yep, see?” she says after a few times extending and folding her wings. Brian walks out from under my hoof as she says, “It makes as much sense as it could make sense. I just think it’s really cool how I have sort of... second shoulders in there.”

“I’m not even sure I have first shoulders,” I say, waggling a foreleg in the air, “My shoulders just don’t... shoulder. They like... bend toward the front of me and don’t move.

“That’s true for mine too,” Brian admits, “It’s an evolutionary adaptation to make quadrupeds more stable at running. What’s weird about our kind of ponies is how you can un-lock the shoulders. The x-rays are pretty clear. It’s kind of like how horse legs lock, except more, and for our shoulders. You know how you can pull your arms out, when you need to?”

I sit on my haunches and do so, looking over my upper leg, while asking her, “Yeah, so...?”

“So... shoulders!” she says, pointing at my...

“Oh huh, I can rotate my shoulders like this,” I say bemusedly, and when I stand up they... slide into place and won’t move again.

“There’s got to be a reason Twilight Sparkle’s species is sapient,” Brian says excitedly, spreading her wings and swooping up into the air. “Maybe our forelegs are grasping appendages, like some sort of pony, raccoon hybrids!” she calls out, turning loops up there.

“Pony raccoon bird hybrids, in your case,” I point out, standing up on all fours as I watch the restless pegasus above me, not exactly with envy, but I definitely feel more stuck on the ground like this.

“It’s so arbitrary when you think about it,” she replies, gliding past me upside down, “And yet something about it feels so deliberate.”

“Twilight deliberately turned us into this,” I have to point out in unamusement.

“Touché,” she admits, fluttering down to perch lightly on my back. It’s weird. Pegasi are weird.

Brian and I can talk about that evil mare’s plans all we want, but there has been no sign of Twilight Sparkle anywhere near us, or anywhere at all. No more humans turned into ponies. Not one bit of news of her. It’s like she never even existed, except for the fact that we’re all ponies.

At least I think there’s no news of her. It’s hard to get news with only basic television broadcasting restored. That itself was a huge challenge, since with all the nation’s televisions set up to use cable, it’s a lot more infrastructure than just tuning in on the rabbit ears. Expensive, high maintenance equipment, to make sure we aren’t just watching the broadcast for free. There were a lot of things making money out of nothing like this, that just stopped being workable when everyone in the world woke up without opposable thumbs, and now we all have to figure out how to go back to doing it the easy way.

So there might very well have been news of Twilight Sparkle, but even the military’s eyes and ears are very limited, and false sightings abound in a world determined to find somepony to hold accountable for all this.

That wink—er—that teleportation process is something I pay very close attention to. Because Twilight Sparkle’s big thing was winking. If we could master that, we might have one leg up on her. That’s not even going into how revolutionary it is to be able to wink. Walls, locks, safes, those all don’t work if you can teleport. You wink out, outside, then wink in, inside. Just the thought that someone could teleport a bomb into your stronghold makes me feel uneasy. What if someone could... you know, teleport only your vital organs, about twenty feet to the right?

And so, thanks to my foolish curiosity, I stand there before a dozen unicorns, preparing to meet my doom. “Well I wouldn’t say no,” I say nervously, “But you know, I’m just a little worried it might only be killing me, and creating a copy of me.”

“For our sake I hope it’s not,” says a friend of Lucy’s named Marie, maybe a little unsympathetically. A brown haired, green furred unicorn, looking very smart in how she levitates that clipboard and pen, she rolls her eyes and drawls “We’ve all teleported ourselves at least once!”

I... huh. “I guess you couldn’t die, then,” I admit to her with a weak smile, “Something has to be there to bring you back, after all.”

“I swear it’s just moving into a weird... place except not,” she says hopefully, “And we’ve teleported animals and they came out fine!”

“Yeah that... sure must have been tricky catching them alive,” I say with a shaky laugh.

“Not with a stunning spell,” she says, giving me a look. Oh, right. Unicorns don’t have to use their teeth.

“So how’s this gonna work?” I ask, ignoring her look and totally not blushing, “You’re just gonna... teleport me somewhere?”

“Just a few feet,” Marie says, “From this spot, over to that spot over there.” She indicates where a chalk X has been drawn on the asphalt of what was once a parking lot, back when this facility used to be a sawmill.

“And I just stand here, and um... think happy thoughts?” I ask, looking down at the other white X I’m standing over.

“Just don’t make any sudden movements, and try to relax,” she assures me, “And uh... let us know if it starts causing any pain.”

“Alright, then, fire away,” I say with an awkward smile, kicking a foreleg under the other one. I’m gonna die, aren’t I.

Marie’s not the first to do it. It’s their most promising unicorn, whose name I don’t catch, who’s teleported the biggest stuff the farthest. A brown haired purple mare lowers her head to point her horn at me, and the green aura of her magic... woah.

“I-it doesn’t hurt, but wow, I can actually feel that,” I say, lifting that foreleg to look at the prickly green light crawling up it. Sort of like a bunch of tiny little constant static shocks, just enough to tingle. I can’t see it climb up my neck, or cover my face, and it isn’t visible from the inside, but the horn of the fiercely concentrating unicorn is glowing brightly, and I’m pretty sure I’m entirely glowing, when I wave and say, “Uh... see you on the other side!” The green light gets really visible, blinding out everything else.

Then things get weird.

It happens so quickly, I’m already seeing the second green flash as I... slip together, try to walk forward and stagger on my hooves. “Wow, that was... weird!” I say as the others trot up to me with worry. Lifting my head and looking around at the unicorns, I ask, “So, all the... parts of me are still there, right? I didn’t get a second head or anything?”

Their response is to stick a thermometer into my mouth and start attaching sensors to the previously shaved spots on my skin. Yeah... my skin is also pink under this yellow fur, for what it’s worth. But the monitors and tests and such demonstrate nothing awry, and my temperature is 100.7 degrees, which is actually kind of on the cool side for pony standards apparently, but normal for me. Honestly I think they just use the thermometer to keep me mute, so I stop yammering on about my experience while they test my vitals.

The enforced muteation gives me a chance to think about what happened at least. For something that passed in the blink of an eye, there sure was a lot happening! They take out the thermometer, and I immediately chatter, “You’re right, it was like moving into a weird place! And it just kept repeating but smaller and... what are those things where it looks the same no matter how close you look at it?”

“Fractals!” Marie declares in triumph, looking up from the hovering clipboard she was scribbling on, “Of course! That explains how the infinite recursion takes place in a finite magic field.”

“Yeah, fractals. It was fractals,” I agree in relief, as they’re pulling the sensors off of me, “It was just dividing space smaller and smaller around me, and I can’t call it rotating, but I just... flipped through that, like a playing card!”

“You could see that?” she queries in shock, “It always just looked like a really confusing flash of light, to me!”

“Not with my eyes,” I correct her, “When all those short distances become uh... infinite? It happened so fast, so I couldn’t really get a good feel for it.”

I then get to be teleported by about six eager unicorns, joyous in their newfound abilities, and curious as to what I’m actually experiencing. The sixth one screws up, obviously, because the fractal... spatial thing gets too close to me and kind of jams up against me, becoming really hot, really fast.

“Holy heck!” I squeal as I wink in, rolling on the tarmac trying to put out the smoking patches on my fur. Thankfully one of them knows a cooling spell, so I get the pleasant experience of feeling like I got dunked in ice water that was somehow totally dry.

“Sorry! Sorry!” the blue and green unicorn mare declares in shock, galloping up as the icy sensation cools me off, “It was really hard to... to do something that big! I swear I teleported a rabbit without anything going wrong!”

I think I cough soot, when I smile weakly at her and say, “Alright, so add a maximum mass limitation to your notes, and please...” I stand up level with her saying sympathetically, “Please don’t do that again.”

“I–I should’ve stopped,” she says, ears going down, “It was just... I knew I was having trouble, I should’ve stopped.”

“But you wanted to push yourself,” I reply, putting a hoof on her shoulder. Oh uh... yeah the fur on my arm’s looking a little more singed than usual. Hope that won’t need to be shaved, but I don’t think there’s any actual burns.

“And you did it!” I persist encouragingly, taking my singed leg back gingerly, “You teleported me just as good as everyone else! You just need to put a little more redundancy in the third ring, where you subdivide the perspective.”

Blushing, she looks away saying, “Yeah I... oh,” then she stops blushing and looks at me again a little surprised, saying, “I guess I could try that?”

I really don’t understand these looks I get sometimes.

When I’m not busy getting teleported, Blaze has been pulling me aside to just... talk. I’ve been trying to help her with her vocabulary as much as I can, and talking about her thoughts and feelings regarding her adult... activities. She tells me about her old school, and which pony she thinks her friends are from back there. I tell her about friendship and magic, and she really seems to like that. And sometimes she just has to be held, and stroked while she tells me how scared she is, and how she has to do grownup things like mopping floors and how she doesn’t know what to do when people expect her to make decisions.

I spy on her once, just to make sure she’s okay, and she really does look like a scared kid, there belly up on the edge of the bed, asking Strider if she looks ‘sexy.’ Of course he says yes, but y’know, you’re never entirely sure. So Blaze tenses up as he plants his forelegs to either side of her, his hips in between her spread legs with his erect shaft nestling right into her folds. Her breathing turns to moans as she stares at him sliding into her, and I can hear it, albeit muffled from where I’m peeking in through the window here.

That’s when the magic happens. Blaze’s anxiety fades, with his smooth, rolling red furred hips sliding that gleaming shaft in and out of her. Planting her forelegs on the bed to lean her hips back into his fucking, eyes sliding half closed, the orange mare stops trying to look cute, and starts caring only about breeding. Her tongue comes out as her panting grows huskier, more urgent. In the end she lifts one forehoof to lay it on her belly, right where he’s fucking her in there, growling at him hungrily, not fearfully, that he’s gonna do it. Strider pushes deep and just hunches over, holding his hips to her. She doesn’t make any noise, just watches her furry orange pelvis as it happens in there.

I don’t see Candy or Susan in the room, so I guess it was just those two this time. Strider says something muffled then, and Blaze responds excited now not frightened in any way, something like “... felt so good ... semen into ... belly is full of boy now.” Maybe I should warn her to say man, or male, instead of boy, so they don’t find out that she’s ten. They hug then, and she says something about how much she loves him and wants to have a baby. He says he’s scared of having a baby, but she consoles him, promising she’ll take good care of them and that he doesn’t need to worry, and something about it being a cute pony.

I should feel horrible for letting something so evil happen. I should feel horrible for spying on them, but it’s just so beautiful seeing it happen to her, seeing it happen to him, seeing how much they love each other. I lay on the edge of Dusty’s bed the next time, just like Blaze, on the hope that someone sees me looking like that. That’s not a vain hope, as Lucy’s there, stroking my belly as I tell her in adoration how Dusty’s seed is rushing up in there. I want Blaze to have her baby foal. I want to be like Blaze, even though I’m scared of having a foal myself. It’s scary and dangerous, and probably a terrible idea, but how can anyone living properly ever experience something as wonderful?

“Miss Meadowsweet?” a pegasus asks from above. I look up and...

Oh.

No, it’s not a pegasus. It’s a... human.

His uniformed body towers over me in ways I’m acutely aware of. “They’re preparing for another dialog with Equestria,” the human—I mean—he says, with an... expression on his flat face. “Dr. Peterson said you wanted to observe?”

“Oh! Yes,” I declare, scrambling to my hooves from where I was sitting on my belly. I’m standing before him on... four hooves, and... he’s... not. His short feet are broad, sideways against the floor, only two of them holding him up, as if he were a constantly reared up... bear or something. Ugh, why am I so different?

“Just uh... lead the way, mister...?” I tell him with an uneasy smile up to the man.

“Sergeant Roberts,” he says, sort of... angrily? As if he was gonna flatten out his ears and lash his tail, except he hasn’t... got those. “Though I’m mostly just the man with hands these days.”

“Oh, right, hands!” I say nosing curiously at his—he jerks his hand away, and I realize what I’m doing. Blushing, I back up, saying, “Sorry, it’s just I have to do everything with my... nose these days.”

“It’s no problem... miss,” he says, with a definite delay in the ‘miss’ part. There’s something... ugly about his words. Too... polite? I don’t know. Oh god, maybe he thinks I’m a pervert for... doing the thing that practically everybody knows I do now. “Of course you don’t want to actually shake my hand,” he grumbles irritably.

“No I can um...” I sit back on my haunches, until my feet are as flat to the floor as his. Reaching out a foreleg, I say, “Pleased to meet you mister...” and he wraps his huge, bony flesh fingers around my entire hoof u-uh...

“Roberts,” he reminds me, politely shaking my hoof and then letting me go.

“Right, Sergeant Roberts, sorry,” I say, planting that hoof and trying not to freak out or anything, because whatever Twilight did to me, I’m not gonna let her get away with it!

“Lead on, then,” I state carefully, standing and walking past him, brushing his legs with my tail to make sure of... something. And wait, why am I in front, if he’s leading? I look back and the human—I mean Sergeant Roberts starts to swing his long legs, moving steadily forward past me.

I have to resist the urge to trot up ahead of him again. He knows the way, so why would I want to be in front? I just feel... antsy with him walking in front of me. I can’t explain it.

“I think Twilight made us nervous of humans, or... something,” I tell him, ambling alongside the lumbering black clothed beast. Maybe if he wasn’t so big, but Jesus Christ is he big.

“Oh of course you’d think it’s all Twilight’s fault,” he says dryly. Wait, what?

“No, it... m-maybe it’s my fault?” I say uneasily, tiptoeing around beside him, looking up at the stoic expression on the uniformed man. “I just haven’t really been around hands for quite a while.”

“Yeah, your whole life,” he says... again, kind of meanly? He startles then, and looks down to me adding, “Your whole... pony life I mean. After you got ...transformed from humans.”

I look up at him worriedly. “Is everything alright?” I ask, “I didn’t mean to offend you. It is kind of sad how I can’t even really act human anymore. It must be so... scary.”

“It must be?” he asks suspiciously, as I stare toward the laboratory we’re approaching way over there.

“The people you know, who got turned into ponies,” I say with sinking ears, “They try to be themselves, but we can’t even think like we used to. How could you tell we didn’t just... replace the people you love, like some sort of cute bodysnatchers?”

The man stops in his tracks, making me stumble forward a few steps. “Why would you say that?” he asks nervously. I think it’s nervously. Staring down at me like some kind of predator.

Looking up again at the... man who’s staring at me, I say, “You know Brian? She’s a pegasus, and she’s really good with biology, but that... scares her. She’s so scared that maybe we’re just... ponies who got tricked into thinking we used to be human, and the real Brian is...” I swallow nervously, “...gone.”

He stares at me for another moment, before looking forward again and starting to swing his long two legs in a walk again. “That might be a concern for some,” he says neutrally.

“I can’t imagine when it happened though,” I say as we arrive at the laboratory, “I was perfectly human, then I just sort of collapsed into a pony.”

“Collapsed into a pony,” he says skeptically, holding the door open for me to enter.

I walk inside, and he follows me down a hallway, as I say, “Yeah you know, like when they transform?”

“I was several hundred feet underground at the time, so I didn’t actually see that,” he remarks dryly. “Just came up top, and there were a bunch of ponies lying around.”

“Well, you sort of collapse into a blobby weird sort of thing,” I tell him, as he pauses to punch in the code on a password locked door, with his weird finger things. “But I could still see, and hear a little. And feel.”

The door opens, and once again he lets me in first, following after it swings closed.

“Your fur just starts growing in like crazy, and everything else is all weird ripply colors too,” I tell him, “I couldn’t tell when it was happening to me, but you sort of... shrink into your limbs and pony shape and such. My sister could move her wings, even when they were still forming. You start feeling like you can move your arms and legs again, and then you’re just a pony lying there, really confused.”

“...we’re here,” he says neutrally, stopping at the door into the lab.

“I’m just trying to say,” I say hastily, butting up against the side of his leg, “There wasn’t anywhere I could’ve died in there. I just fell down, felt weird, got up on hooves barely, and saw a pony in the mirror.”

“Well of course you don’t think you replaced a human who died,” he replies crossly, “That’s what you’re programmed to think!”

“I... can’t deny that,” I say with a frustrated stomp, “But I mean all my memories could be totally fake then, and maybe there never even was a human called Meadows—”

...

“...called Anton,” I tell him evenly. “And maybe he did die and I replaced him instantly, but Twilight Sparkle did that, not me. I’d never do that to anyone, and if I could, I’d save Anton’s life, t-though maybe not if I had to die, but I just dunno what to tell my friend, and she’s not even a human! She’s one of... of us. Whatever we are.”

He actually laughs at that last sentence, saying, “Hell I don’t know. Anyway, you have permission to enter.”

Sergeant Roberts lets me into the main laboratory, a room full of ponies, electronic monitoring equipment, and a great glass window on one wall, the experimentation chamber beyond it.

One of the ponies, a deep green bat pony with a shock of brown hair immediately recognizes me. “Ah, Meadowsweet!” Artemis declares, trotting up to me. “Thank you, Sergeant Roberts,” he says politely to my large companion.

“Yes sir,” Sergeant Roberts says politely, “I’ll be in the lounge if you need me.”

“Alright,” Artemis says cautiously, and Roberts sods off, while Dr. Peterson also walks up to me, the little blue and pink unicorn filly chirping happily, “Art here says you wanted to see how we were communicating with Equestria. We’re about to have a scheduled meeting so to speak, where they’re gonna be waiting on the other side so they can read our message.”

“Sure,” I reply, as Sergeant Roberts makes his way out of the room, “How do you send messages to them? Is there a wire, or...?”

“Check it out,” the filly says, climbing up on a bench that’s scooted up against the window. Dr. Peterson presses her nose to the glass with a light tink of her little bitty horn joining it, and I look over her at a darkened chamber, with a pedestal on it, and a glowing red bead shining on whatever’s on the pedestal.

“That’s the original tape,” she explains in a loud whisper, “That somehow has a wormhole to another universe punched in it. What we’ve done is point a laser beam at the anomalous point of origin, and by pulsing the beam, we can send them messages in Morse code.”

Sighing and drooping her tail a little, the unicorn filly settles on her haunches on the bench, looks up at me and says, “They don’t have any computers, obviously, otherwise we could send pictures and documents back and forth. As advanced as they are in magic, I fear, from what we’ve learned, that their technology is quite primitive.”

“Well, they don’t have opposable thumbs so...” I say, giving her a swift shrug of my tail.

Dr. Peterson laughs brightly at that, saying, “That’s certainly true! I think their magic must be itself some form of biotechnology, that we humans with our grasping appendages never developed. But I have to admit grasping appendages aren’t nearly as much of a problem, if we keep our intelligence. Most of us have still been able to at least operate the equipment, even if it’s sometimes a matter of hunt and peck.”

She purses her lips then, gazing down again at the laser, and I have to resist the urge to nuzzle at the ears on her round little head. So... adorable. I wonder if she’d ever consider wearing pigtails.

Of course the government has to ruin everything. “What’s she doing here?” a strident voice declares, as Major General Carey struts in, with an entourage. The purple haired, pink furred unicorn filly gives me an irritated look and doesn’t even speak to me when she says, “Get her out of here.”

One of the uh, entourage ponies moves towards me but before I can scramble out faster than you can say “Yes sir!” to a cute little filly, Dr. Peterson steps up and states with ear-quirked confusion, “This is Meadowsweet. She wanted to see the—”

“These are class-i-fied negotiations!” the major states insistently, and she actually has to pronounce the syllables classified like some kind of school kid that is so adorable, “And she doesn’t have any security clearances.”

“What’s she going to do, leak Equestrian secrets to the Russians?” Dr. Peterson asks irritably, and before the two little unicorn fillies can angrily confront each other, horn to cute little horn, I shout,

“It’s fine, really! I just wanted to see the um, setup, sorry! You can keep your messages secret! It probably doesn’t concern me anyway, and I can just trust whatever you say they said, right?”

The pink filly general looks at me with cautious suspicion, then says, “R... right.”

“Why do the Equestrians get to know more of our secrets than a United States citizen?!” Dr. Peterson declares vehemently.

“That’s enough Dr. Peterson,” I snap irritably. Her ears go down, but I’m already disappointed at not getting to see it, so why’s she trying to keep stringing me out like this? “I already said I was leaving. You don’t need to... escort me.” I look uneasily at the general’s entourage as I say this, then I just... leave.

Snorting an entirely too cute huff, I stride stiffly out of the room, pulling the door closed with my tail, standing in the hall before I relax, sighing. “It’s always something,” I mutter, sulking my way out of the laboratory, where I find a handful of foals busily playing in the snow laughing and rolling balls of snow along the ground, a sharp contrast to those few furious fighting foals within. Seeing that gets my mood up a little, and it’s not like I needed to know those secrets anyway. They’re the government. They take care of that stuff. I head over to see if those foals would let me play with them, and only wonder about what’s going on in there a little teeny bit.

I still don’t know what Daredevil likes so much about me, but it’s wonderful how she can hold me so steadily in that strength of hers, yet touch me so gently between my legs, until I’m writhing in her arms, kicking in the air as my womanhood takes me and fills we with wonder. It actually doesn’t happen a lot though. Sometimes we’re just touching each other then just... holding each other, and sometimes we even drift off to sleep. It’s definitely not as urgent as back when I still needed... someone to impregnate me. But Daredevil’s not pregnant, so she’s gotta be feeling horny, and there’s no way I can give her what she needs. So that’s why I should have seen this coming.

I hear it before I see it. Quiet moans and grunts of ponies mating with each other, except I can hear Dusty and Sue behind the door. Excitement and shock fills my yellow furred face, because I thought I was the only one of us who did that! I thought there was something wrong with me, to want Dusty and Sue both at the same time. But now, I push open the door to my apartment, declaring in wonder, “Lucy! I didn’t think you were gonna do that. This is so incredi—”

There are three ponies in the room besides myself. Sue on one end, doing the actual fucking, while Dusty on the other end takes care of a mare’s oral needs. And to the blue furred earth pony in between them, with a pink and purple mane and tail, I say bemusedly,

“You’re not Lucy...”

“Hey uh, Meadowsweet,” Sue says with a nervous smile, “This is totally what it looks like.”

Between Sue and Dusty, Daredevil stays silent, not even moaning as she looks at me with one frightened eye.

“S-surprise?” Dusty says awkwardly, yet not quite pulling out of the quiet mare’s mouth. “We wanted to tell you but... thought it’d be better just to show you, Daredevil wanted to...”

“She wanted to find out what it’s like to be a mare,” Sue says passionately, hugging Daredevil’s hips to him. “She wanted to... fuck me and Dusty, just like you... all at once.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I ask Daredevil with a flare of disappointment as I edge into the room. “Are you pregnant? I didn’t even get to see a stallion cum inside you the first time! I—I wanted to see it happen to you, but I thought you didn’t want it!”

“This is her first time,” Dusty says passionately, and wait, what? “We just penetrated her,” he says, hugging Daredevil’s purple maned head to his groin, “We wanted to... show you instead of telling you.”

“Oh,” I say in shock, “Oh so...” I watch the two resume fucking her, and it is a beautiful sight. Both big stallions humping powerfully against her, the blue mare with pink and purple hair breathing stiffly through her nose, with her eyes scrunched shut, and her ears flat back um...

“Hold on, this is too much!” I shout in a squirrelly tone, trotting forward. “Isn’t it... kind of overwhelming to just do it all at once?” I ask the doubly fucked Daredevil plaintively.

“She wanted it that way,” Dusty says with a frown. “Wanted her... first time to blow her mind.”

Daredevil has her eyes opened now that the two stopped thrusting, at least. She blushes at the sight of me seeing her though. Doesn’t seem inclined to separate from them, but...

“Yeah, but she can’t even tell you if it’s overwhelming!” I protest, “Has she even had a stallion inside her at all before?”

“Look, she was licking me and I just started... okay fine,” Dusty says gruffly, “It does seem kind of... sketchy, now that I think about... you know how hard it is to think when—!”

He pushes off of Daredevil’s shoulders, leading Daredevil to gasp for air. “Thanks, Meadowsweet,” Dusty grumbles, blushingly.

Daredevil’s panting, “Couldn’t... breathe when he shoved it into me, what the fuck I thought...”

“You can breathe through your nose, but you have to breathe on the out-stroke,” I tell her sheepishly.

Daredevil’s answer is to suck in a shocked breath and stare forward, as Sue begins thrusting into her again, declaring in unbelieving amazement, “I... I have a dick in me!”

“It’s a lot different from anal sex, I’ve been told,” I dazedly relay to her, “You were saving this for... me? You’ve never done this before, and you were saving... vaginal and oral at the same time? ”

“Didn’t think it’d be this... different,” Daredevil says distractedly, bracing against the stallion’s thrusts, sweat trailing down her side despite the relatively cool interior of the apartment we’re in. “I can... feel where he’s gonna...!”

“Y-you’re gonna get pregnant you know,” I warn her helplessly.

“Wannit so bad, ” Daredevil whispers huskily, falling to steady panting, as she and Sue earnestly mate together. Rocking there, just... humping, and it’s Sue, not Dusty! I didn’t even know Daredevil was into Sue! “My belly’s getting... huge like you,” Daredevil murmurs in a daze, “Gonna fucking... birth my fucking foal right inna your vagina. S-sue, Sue. Sue, are you gonna... cum in me?”

“I’m gonna cum so hard,” he rumbles, balls swinging as he prepares to impregnate her. “Your body’s... making me cum in you.”

“Oh god you’re just gonna... squirt it outta there... in me!” Daredevil gasps, “Fucking... slamming your... cum hole inna my cervix...”

“I swear this really was Daredevil’s idea,” Dusty says uneasily beside me, as I sit there bemusedly on my haunches watching the two sink into grunting, huffing, earnest fucking.

“Oh, I believe it,” I tell him distantly, “It’s just... most mares can’t handle that sort of thing.”

“Fuck you I can’t handle it!” Daredevil shouts angrily, humping hard against Sue’s groin, “Shove your dick down my... my throat and I-I’ll swallow it!”

A moment of no noise but grunts and soft slaps, and then Dusty says, “Well you heard the lady, Meadowsweet. Time to fuck her throat with your dick.”

“Seriously?” I ask him dryly.

“Please I can... I can do it...” Daredevil moans yearningly, “I wanna smell him again.”

“I-I didn’t say you couldn’t!” I protest, “Go ahead Dusty, I mean...”

As Dusty moves into position again, I ask Daredevil worriedly, “You really think you can handle it?”

“I can... take anything wimp like you can take...” Daredevil says looking at me with a challenging grin despite Sue’s gleaming cock sliding again and again into her thick rump. Just standing there, being herself, and getting fucked.

Dusty wipes that smile off her face by shoving his dick in it. Just climbs up onto her shoulders and smacks her in the cheek with his erection, and then she’s moaning, and licking it, as Sue fucks her forward into Dusty’s groin.

“You won’t be able to talk pretty soon,” I warn Daredevil as Dusty humps against her, “Anything you want to say before...?”

“I... I’m gonna be a mommy! ” she shouts wetly from under there. “He’s gonna cum in me! Oh god I’m... taking Dusty too unlgh...”

That’s about it for Daredevil’s empassioned speech. I have to thank whoever designed us ponies that Daredevil doesn’t choke on his cock. When you swallow something, you just... swallow it, and Daredevil does so enthusiastically. And I think she’s getting the idea how to breathe now. “Just remember, breathe on the out stroke!” I repeat to her, a longing in me to wrap my own tongue around that penis, as Daredevil is reflexively doing.

I watch for a while in grateful amazement, before telling Daredevil, “Seeing this is incredible, Daredevil... they’re surrounding you!”

Daredevil’s left eye looks at me in adoring affection, she lifts a foreleg in order to give me a hoof’s up, and she still manages to fuck both of them on only three legs!

“They’re... they are kissing,” I relay to her, watching the boys brace on her and press their lips together. “I can never tell when Dusty and Sue start kissing, when they do me, but they are right now. Just using you like a table. I can’t believe you can do this!”

Daredevil just slams all fours to the ground and her whimpers grow more and more intense, as she stares sightlessly into Dusty’s groin, until Sue shoves deep, holds within Daredevil’s pussy, and announces, “She is cumming hard.”

“Already?!” I squawk in offense.

Daredevil’s eyes have scrunched shut, and she’s quivering there between them, breathing in hot snorts through her nostrils with Dusty’s penis just emerging gleaming from her mouth. At least he knows not to push in so she can breathe like this.

“She was... soaking wet when we got here,” Dusty says, as Daredevil opens her eyes to look up at his groin in utter adoration, “She was ready when Sue... entered her.”

The two start fucking her again, and Sue starts getting more and more intense, just staring forward and rolling smoothly in and out of her. I—I nuzzle Daredevil’s side, then climb up on her back sideways, hanging there reared up on the rocking pony, seeking out Dusty as Sue moans, “Oh god I’m getting close!”

I get Dusty’s attention with a quick kiss, whispering to him urgently, “Dusty, you need to pull out again!”

“What? Why?!” he whines intensely, “I’m almost...!”

“No, no you have to cum in her vagina,” I tell him urgently, “She’s gonna get pregnant! Then it could be yours or Sue’s! You... you both need to...”

“God, you’re right,” Dusty groans harshly, “Can’t just... cum down her throat. Gotta put my... my foal in her.”

He pushes off Daredevil, who gasps for breath again, immediately upon his thick penis sliding out of her. “I felt the—holy crap...” she pants, “Sue’s... the flare is... holy crap it’s sealing me off. He’s... he’s...”

“He’s about to cum,” I tell her admiringly, “Your first time feeling a guy do it inside you.” Sue’s thrusting ceases, so I finish with, “Here he goes. You’re gonna be a mommy now. How’s it feel?”

“It’s... it’s deep and...” she pants, head hunched forward staring at me anxiously, “Is he really gonna make me pregnant? It’s so—hunnnh!”

Her head snaps up and butt pressed to Sue’s pelvis, irises narrowing, Daredevil shouts, “It’s hot! Deeper!” Her eyes grow liquid as she shifts her hips against Sue, exclaiming, “Oh god I can’t stop taking every spurt!”

“Feels pretty good huh,” I tell her in an affectionate sort of melancholy as my friend stares forward, panting at the feeling of Sue’s cum pumping into her vagina, “It’s what our bodies are made for, taking his seed in. Most of it at least. It’s okay if he starts leaking out.”

“Fuck!” Daredevil cries out then, as Sue’s cum starts to pour down between her hind legs, “God damn fuck yes nnnh!”

Standing beside me and looking at the flustered, gasping Daredevil with skepticism, Dusty asks, “Are you sure you can take both me and Sue?”

“Get inside me “ Daredevil growls at him.

She steps forward, giving a thick groan as Sue slides out of her pussy, spurting briefly under her tail. As Sue dismounts, the mare shudders there alone, dripping semen between her legs, sides heaving. She stumbles towards me and the other stallion, drunken with lust, going right under Dusty’s chest and licking all along his shaft, tonguing the hole in the tip of its stiff length, moaning, “Ungh... this’s where you’re gonna start cumming from. Spurting and spurting into me mnnnh...”

“Turn around, I need it in you,” Dusty says tensely, “Unless you wanna swallow it agai—”

Daredevil twists around like a snake, sticking her head and shoulders out between his forelegs, and then walking forward until his penis is slapping against her entrance. “Oh, you’re just... hooking it in there,” she says looking back, more like a giddy schoolgirl than a trained military officer, and then with a quiet but hearty moan, she faces forward.

“Fuck... Dusty...” Daredevil pants, as he sinks into her body, “You’re even thicker than Sue!”

“He’s a tight fit,” Sue warns her, “You should be loose enough by now though.”

“How did I get that monster into my mouth ... mmmmnh!” she declares intensely, then squeals tightly, as Dusty starts fucking her in earnest.

This is almost a perfect situation. If Bubblegum were here, she could kiss with Dusty, while he was losing himself in fucking Daredevil’s hot, slimy vagina. Bubblegum could do it in midair, in fact! But Dusty’s lips remain the only thing unmolested, as Sue starts kissing Daredevil now, and I scoot underneath her and Dusty in order to do the thing.

“Ow, fuck!” Sue declares, jerking back, “Did you just bite me?”

“I... I ah... hahh ahh...!” Daredevil tries desperately to respond.

“I’m doing the thing!” I call out from under her and Dusty.

“Warn me next time!” Sue gripes.

“Sorry!”

The thing isn’t really anything special, mostly just enjoying this fucked mare above me. My chin gets slimy with her and Sue’s fluids, as inches away from me, Dusty’s penis is pistoning in and out of her. I nip at her little blue furred nipples, and suck at them one by one, with my hoof gently palpating her mound right where Dusty’s fucking her, to indirectly push her clitoris more firmly up against that slick, sliding penis. Because Holly did that to me, and we kind of worked out what felt best.

Dusty doesn’t stop fucking her until he cums. Daredevil looks so... calm and confident in the end, just standing there fucking Dusty like she had no other care in the world. Then her eyes widen and she says with a girlish delight, “Oh fuck yes, you’re flaring too.”

Dusty’s thrusts become short and deep, while she coos happily, “Gonna cum in me, huh big guy?” looking back at him with slitted eyes. “Better hurry, Sue’s cum’s getting me pregnant ri’now.” Eyeing him adoringly, the tough blue mare says, “You’re hardly thrusting anymore. Gonna start spurting? Gonna—”

They both groan intensely then, as the base of Dusty’s penis starts pulsing. Gazing at the stallion as semen floods into her womb, Daredevil relates intensely, “Fuck, you’re doing it too. You feel... different, woah. Holy crap, keep f-fucking unh... I hafta take it into me, and get pregnant. Unnnhh,” That last bleating moan is because Dusty starts pouring out between her legs even faster than Sue did.

“Meadowsweet, lookit me,” Daredevil pants, looking at me adoringly for some reason. “Imma fucking double mommy.”

Events proceed naturally, and we’re all soon cuddled around Daredevil. She’s laying her head against my side, while the two stallions sandwich her in between them. “I have no idea how this is going to work,” I say in bemused frustration, “I wasn’t supposed to do anything with Dusty, but then you just do this with Sue and Dusty.”

“I don’t wanna lose you, Meadowsweet,” Dusty says fretfully, “You don’t need a... system or statistics. I don’t want you to find that last... mare for me. I want you to be with me too.”

“Well, I mean,” I say cagily, “Daredevil, do you... want to be with Sue?”

“I wanna be with you, Meadowsweet,” Daredevil says contentedly, “But Sue and Dusty were both awesome. How about we both do them both?”

“You’re okay with the others too, aren’t you?” I ask hopefully, “Holly and Lucy... and Bubblegum and Mira?”

Oh god, I’m going to be able to love all of them!

“Yeah, they uh... they’d do the thing that you do?” Daredevil asks hopefully.

“Daredevil they’re...” I wibble, “They’re going to love you!” hugging her tightly and never letting her go because she needs me and they’re going to love her, and somehow she made everything okay!

After I’m done... falling in love, or whatever, I sit embarassedly separate from Daredevil. Wiping my eyes to clear them of tears, I glance between the glowingly content stallions on either side of the mare.

“I’m sure Holly and Lucy will love you,” Sue says evenly, “And if they’re okay with it, I’m okay with it. And yeah I’m still okay with you being with Dusty too, Meadowsweet, so don’t worry about it.”

“I’ll ask Bubblegum, uh... heh,” Dusty shifts, saying cheekily, “Maybe I’ll wait until I’m doing her to ask. That ought to warm her up to the idea.”

“What about that girl, Mira?” Daredevil asks Dusty curiously, “Is she going to be cool with it?”

The rest of us share a look.

“Oh wow,” Mira says, some time later, fluttering up to a puzzled looking Daredevil after I break the news to my bat pony sister, “That has got to be earth pony endurance!”

On our side of the wormhole, one huge issue seems to be dominating all the others. No one’s really talking about it, but... okay, maybe some people are talking about it.

Okay Brian is talking about it. A lot.

“We’re doomed. That’s just it. The whole world is doomed,” Brian tells me bleakly at lunch, again. “I’m pregnant. You’re pregnant. If even half of us are pregnant, that’s still orders of magnitude higher rate of reproduction than even human beings.”

“So, we’re gonna overpopulate?” I ask with concern, around my own mouthful of slowly chewing hay.

“Humans are already overpopulating!” Brian declares, around nibbling nervously at a seared musky deer steak, “If we’re reproducing ten, twenty, fifty times as fast as humans... we’re a global superpredator. A genuine global superpredator, with no natural predators hunting us. If we can’t control our reproduction, we’re gonna cover the globe in ponies, drive anything made out of meat extinct, then eat each other until we die off!”

“It can’t be like this all around the world,” I say skeptically, from where we squat next to our plates of meat, salty squash and hay. “Most girls in the base here didn’t used to be girls, so we weren’t trained in... not getting pregnant, like real girls were.”

“Isn’t Lucy a real girl?” Brian asks, with a cautious look my way before eating, “I thought she was with your...”

“...thing, yeah,” I admit, sheepishly. “Mira’s pregnant, too, and she used to be a girl. But I don’t know if they’re exceptions. Oh, and also Blaze. Uh.”

“Yeah, I don’t think it’s our gender change that’s doing this,” Brian says caustically, a bit of squash on the tip of her nose before she licks it off. “I can’t even blame real girls, even if they were taught some secret anti-sex lessons. It’s just so much... harder to resist!”

“Not harder to resist but it’s just... easier to do,” I counter cautiously, “I’ve done stuff that I’d never have the guts to do as a human, even if I was a human girl.”

The green pegasus frowns at that, but looks down at her plate, saying reservedly, “A lack of inhibitions, yes. It just feels so natural to... do these things that should be shameful. We’re bloodthirsty predators, and it doesn’t even bother us. It doesn’t even bother me!”

“I feel bad for Sue and Holly,” I say looking down at my own plate. Couple of scraps left that I can just sort of hoover up. Chewing, I add, “They were vegetarian before all this.”

“Well they’re not now,” Brian declares conclusively, “Though I think not many humans would stay vegetarian without access to beans, eggs, milk...”

“Lots of beans up here, but not much milk,” I agree.

“But back in our original barn, we were stuck with nothing,” Brian replies, “That’s when everyone started going crazy over meat.”

She sighs again, adding, “Crazy over meat, and over getting pregnant. And now we’re all gonna have babies, all 7 billion of us on the planet... well three quarters of that amount, but still.”

“Maybe it’s... not that much?” I try weakly, “Maybe you’re missing something.”

“I can’t imagine how I could possibly miss something,” Brian says bleakly, “I was...” she looks at me, then whispers, “I-it’s kind of hard to miss getting pregnant.”

I start to blush at that, but... we’re the only ones around right now, so I give a little smile instead and say, “It feels pretty good though, doesn’t it?”

Brian blinks, before really blushing and saying “I–I mean yes I suppose it’s just natural—.”

“No, no sorry it was a bad joke,” I say, clearing my throat and looking the other way.

Regarding me, Brian swishes her tail behind her, then says, “It’s okay, you can... I don’t mind if you talk about that stuff. It’s just natural, after all?”

I look up to meet her pale purple eyes, bite my lip, and try asking, “So, how was your first time?”

Brian’s face falls in regret, smiling sadly as she says, “Pretty terrible, actually. I dunno if Jack was a jerk before transforming, but he sure was a jerk, and he just left anyway.”

“Oh, he was one of the ones who...” I say, face falling with sympathy as well.

“Yeah, he left to find his family,” Brian says, droopy tailed, “I think part of it was me. I–I just started crying after he came in me once, because I couldn’t stop getting pregnant, and he just left, he didn’t even care, but then like a day later I was sticking my butt in his face, tempting him to... wanting him to impregnate me.”

“I can see why he’d have an issue with that,” I say critically, “But it’s not your fault. He’s the one making you feel that way in the first place!”

“Well, I wish he stayed,” Brian says resentfully, “Because Richard was just... ugh.”

“Ugh?” I ask cautiously.

“She was a friend of Jack’s at the convention,” Brian tells me, “And she knew a... stallion named Mark who was in on it.”

“In on it?” I ask worriedly.

“Richard turned into a mare, but she... she and Mark liked to force me to consent,” Brian says, flat-eared. “They said they knew what I was doing with Jack, and they’d tell everyone I was just a pregnant... slut, if I didn’t let Mark have me too. Richard never had sex with him in front of me, so I didn’t... know if maybe I was the only one in the whole group having sex.”

“Jesus,” I tell her in shock, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was just being a stupid female, ” Brian says, her eyes shaded in shame, “You know how stupid girls just blame themselves and hide it, a-and I just didn’t want you to feel bad too. If it was only me it was fine but... but anyone else... nobody else should have to deal with people doing... that. You were so... innocent.”

I blink in surprise, as Brian says, “You were just this perfect... you had a wonderful loving relationship, and you didn’t do anything weird you just... got pregnant, and had normal sex, and I didn’t want you to know I was...”

“I’d have told you I was peeing in front of Sue,” I tell him frankly, “If it meant you would tell me, or tell someone what they were doing to you!”

“You were peeing in front of Sue?” Brian asks incredulously.

“I-it’s a horse thing,” I tell her with a blush.

“No, it really is a horse thing!” Brian declares, “That’s a thing for ponies, too?”

Blinking at her, I say, “I think so? You’d have to ask um... Holly. She was the one who... knew about how we should do that. W-we hardly even do it anymore though.”

“I would hope so,” Brian says wryly, “But yeah, it’d have been nice to know. Peeing, really?”

“Yeah, just lift my tail and... well it was just on the ground, but...” I say blushingly, “Then he smells it and... likes that, and... then you’re really horny.”

“I’ll have to try that next year,” she muses, “I’d hate to think what it would have been like if Richard knew about that though, or Mark. Or Greg.”

“How many jerk boyfriends have you had? ” I ask in horror.

“Too many,” she groans, “Mark was the worst though.”

“He does sound pretty awful,” I admit.

“It was so creepy,” Brian shuddered, “They made me say I wanted it, every time. Mark would even tease me, until I was begging for it. And as soon as I said yes, he’d just be... on me and in me and I freaked out, but he wouldn’t stop, and I never asked him to stop because when I did, he would stop. ”

“I... kind of understand?” I say cautiously, “It really sounds like you wanted him to stop though, in that situation.”

“No I mean, Mark and Richard would get so disgusted with me if I told him to stop, and Mark would pull out then they’d make me sit there, empty,” Brian says fearfully, “I just had to sit there wanting it while they told me I... I didn’t deserve it, and that I was just a liar and... and worse things too. I knew they were manipulating me, but I just... what was I supposed to do? At least they were...willing.”

I wish I had wings like Brian, so I could wrap them around her, but I lay a foreleg across her back at least. She doesn’t resist as I feel my fur settle against the silken feathers of her folded wing. She leans against me slightly as she says, “So the next time I just... pretended I wanted it, and tried not to freak out, just so he would finish in there and they’d leave me alone. They were okay as long as I... consented. I-I’m so glad that they left after we got to Ainsworth.”

“I dunno what to tell you, Brian,” I tell her softly, “They had no excuse for bullying you. I guess some people are just... screwed up, even as ponies.”

With a slight laugh, Brian pushes away from me, saying, “That was the worst it got, thankfully. Greg was just... weird.”

“What happened with Greg?” I ask concernedly.

“I happened,” Brian said, rolling her eyes. “When Mark and Richard left, I was... I mean we all were going nuts by then, but I thought it was because I no longer had a stallion to... finish in me. I wasn’t thinking clearly, I don’t know. All I know is Greg could smell me, and I could smell him, and, of course I presented for him. How could I not? He was just... out, and I wanted it so bad. I tried to tell him no, but...”

At my sympathetic nod, she says apologetically, “I would have said no if he asked, but once he mounted me, I... well, I wasn’t exactly begging for it, but...” blushing, Brian admits, “Okay maybe I was begging for it a little.”

“Hard not to beg for it, when you start feeling it,” I tell her sympathetically, “It just does things to you, when you feel him in your... vagina. When I start getting penetrated, I can’t even think about anything else.”

“It was all I could think about,” Brian replied morosely, “I didn’t want to move. I asked him to... cum inside me. I just got so hungry for it. And it was so satisfying.”

“But you didn’t want it?” I ask in slight confusion, “I mean, this is a bad thing, right?”

“I wanted it, I just couldn’t control myself!” Brian says with ears tilting back, “S-so I started avoiding him, but...”

“But?” I ask sympathetically.

“But he started following me, and just... kept on doing it,” Brian whimpers, “I let him do it, I mean. I wanted it once he started. I told him how much I loved him and wanted his... his baby in me. And it felt great. Not orgasm, but you know?”

“It definitely feels pretty amazing to me, even without orgasm,” I say thoughtfully, “I usually orgasm though.”

“Maybe that would have helped,” Brian says bleakly, “I kind of broke down later, a little bit. When my estrus went away, and that meant pregnancy. He didn’t care either though. And he wouldn’t leave me alone.”

“Did you tell him to leave you alone?” I ask worriedly.

“I told him, kind of,” Brian says uncertainly, “I told him to stop following me because it was going to make me pregnant, since I couldn’t resist... since I wanted him inside me so badly. He just smiled at that, and I told him I was gonna let him do me right now, that I was a fucking girl and I couldn’t stop wanting his baby. Then I turned my ass and...”

Brian scrapes the ground, snorting in frustration. Then she sinks her head and sighs.

“I don’t think he ever talked to me,” Brian says miserably, staring at the ground she scraped, “He would just come up and start having sex with me, and he didn’t need to say anything, b-but he didn’t say anything. I only found out his name was Greg from his friend, who said that Greg knew we were... that females were desperate. S-so I knew it was wrong, and that he was just using me, so I went with Luke, so that Greg would leave me a-alone.”

“...did it work?” I ask.

“Kind of,” she says with a grimace, “Greg didn’t like to... share, maybe? He was just committing to going full horse, I guess, but he didn’t have the guts to fight Luke, so I was... okay. Even if Luke also kind of... used me, but I owed him one, so... it was technically consensual?”

“Doesn’t sound like it was very fun though,” I point out solemnly.

“Yeah, well then Luke... told me I couldn’t go off by without him, because guys were looking at me,” Brian says, lashing her tail all the way to its base, “And I told him I don’t care, and he says as a woman it’s my duty to... and then I didn’t have anyone.”

“Have you ever been with someone who wasn’t a jerk?” I whine softly.

The green pegasus mare just shakes her head sadly.

“Do you wanna be with someone who isn’t a jerk?” I venture.

“I wish I had,” Brian grumbles angrily, looking away from me, “I just ignored my urges. I was a girl, who wanted to be with guys, and I just ignored it. It just built up, until I was so desperate that I went with the first jerk who told me to lift my tail. I should’ve... just had sex with a nice guy, and not tried to avoid them until some asshole forced the issue.”

“It might’ve been nice if you did back then,” I tell her critically, “I wasn’t asking about what you should have done though. I mean now.”

Brian looks at me curiously.

“Would you like a nice guy to be with?” I ask her a little flustered, “Like, now?”

Sighing, Brian looks away and admits, “I think so, but I’ll probably just pick another jerk. I guess I’m really bad at judging guys. I should know exactly how they work, but I don’t, so I can’t really trust myself to try again.”

“...what do you think about bat ponies?” I ask thoughtfully.

Brian turns an ear my way.

Author's Note

Don’t look now, but I think Meadowsweet might be considering shipping Brian with somepony she shouldn’t.

The Lark that Sings

My hoof connects and it’s all over. The pegasus goes tumbling mid-flight, and scrapes the ground as he sinks into the snow. Only his elbow pads get scraped up though, sliding on them across the ground to a grinding halt.

“Go Meadowsweet!” Lucy cheers from the bleachers. Both of my forehooves slowly connect with my own face. We’re in the pegasus training area today, a somewhat larger cleared out space than the unicorn area, with just enough room for a flying pegasus to manuver... mostly. Lucy is sitting on the unused truck we affectionately refer to as “the bleachers” and cheering me on for some reason.

“Could you possibly go find something else to do?!” I call out to Lucy in exasperation.

“That’s the spirit!” Lucy says, hopping happily on the hood of the truck in a manner suspiciously remniscent of a certain pink party pony who shall not be mentioned in polite company.

“No, that was really good,” the orange pegasus stallion whom I toppled says as he comes striding up. Various forms of uncomfortable padding adorn his and my body, which is good for me, at least. “I didn’t see it coming at all,” he continues, “You should try faking out your movements more.”

“Yeah it just seems kind of... sneaky,” I tell him with a wince. Before he can protest, I stammer, “Not–not that I wouldn’t do it to Twilight Sparkle! I know I should focus on that more, and I’m trying to. I just don’t know.”

“Well, good job, still,” he says, patting my back with a wing. Ouch.

With a phony smile, I tell him, “Hey, after losing the last 7 matches, I had to succeed at some point, right?”

“Goooo Meadowsweet!”

I think my bruises have bruises.

Let it not be said that I’m an extremely good fighter. I’m pretty good against unicorns, off and on against earth ponies, but pegasi continue to flummox me. Impossible to track, difficult to hide from, I keep finding myself a sitting duck in any open sort of sparring situation. About the only way I could consistently beat them is if I played dirty, like kicked snow in their eyes.

Of course when they’re required to stay on the ground, I win more often, uh... sort of. You’d think disabling a pegasus’s wings would be easy with how most of the wing is feathers, but most of the wing is feathers. When they’re stuck on the ground, they spread their wings as you engage with them; flap them right in your face, all big, fluffy and confusing. It’s practically impossible to get ahold of them because the feathers slip through just about anything, and have no resistance to tell you even grabbed one. Then you end up accidentally sticking your whole leg through a wing, where the feathers catch your arm and... yeah. I’ve gotten pinned more than once, with my arm trapped in one wing, while their other wing just sort of slapped on top of my face so I couldn’t see, or smell. Wings are OP.

I guess it’s a sort of rock paper scissors thing. Earth ponies can flummox unicorns pretty easy, at least earth ponies with any familiarity with that unicorn’s spells. A lot of my sneaky not-really-powers seem to act to counter some sort of unicorn’s spell, at least. Pegasi don’t share that adaptability though, and they’re big colorful targets up in the air, those who aren’t white as clouds or blue as the sky that is. So unicorns can just zap them every time. But of course, once a pegasus is up in the air, there is not much an earth pony can do to stop them, much less defeat them.

Bat ponies, for all their scariness, kind of get the worst of all worlds. Something that would’ve just ruffled through the feathers of a pegasus’s wing will scratch that of a bat pony. Not that we’re engaging in anything risky of damage to anyone’s wings. They just can’t fight with wings spread, and keep them tight to their sides until they’re up in the air and ready to fly. So no wing buffetting to speak of. They’re a little bit resistent to unicorn stunning techniques, but they don’t speed up as much, or as quickly as pegasi do. They still remain somehow more agile in the air, and can twist and turn to avoid obstacles and other ponies. So they can get defeated by all three, but have some advantages over the other three tribes, like the campfire lighting thing, or the catlike pupils... which make seeing in the dark easier. I say “easier” because with our gigantic eyes it’s pretty impossible not to see, even in low light conditions.

That’s my experience, at least, sparring with mostly trained military people who’ve been unceremoniously dumped into weird bodies they don’t even know how to walk with. I’m a decent fighter for a civilian, but I’m guessing my time spent fighting with Twilight Sparkle helped a lot with that. She was someone actually trained by Equestria, while all they’re getting here is some cryptic morse code advice from Equestria. Against a native Equestrian, it would end very quickly and messily for all of us I think, regardless of what tribe they were in. But I take what I can get.

And Crystal can’t... hide it anymore.

I mean, none of us can really hide “it” at all, because we’re still all going around naked for the most part. The few humans among us can’t exactly sew cute little pony outfits for all of the rest of us. It’d be too warm with all this fur anyway. Being unable to hide her pussy is not Crystal’s only problem though.

She’s a sort of greenish blue pegasus, with a mane of green and blue stripes, and pretty purple eyes. I don’t really know her, except seeing her kicking ass in the flying exercises above my head. She’s kind of been... skipping exercises though, I hear from Brian, and pretty much avoiding others. I try to approach her once and she just flies away, and what am I supposed to do about that?

Well, eventually I just sneak up on her, and introduce myself, saying “Hi! You’re Crystal right? No wait don’t fly away! I just wanted to introduce myself!”

Crystal hovers a moment, then drops heavily to the frozen ground with a crunch.

“You probably know me,” I say sheepishly, “After everyone made me give those stupid speeches. I’m Meadowsweet, though.”

“Well uh, pleased to... I mean we’ve been living together, so... yeah,” Crystal says, her high alto tinted with dissatisfied confusion, and her wings slightly spread in an odd way, as she faces me head on. “So... hi. If you didn’t want anything, I guess you can... you know, whatever.”

“Brian was telling me—” I say hastily as she tries to take off again, “...about you,” I continue cautiously, as Crystal returns warily to four hooves, “She’s worried that you’ve been skipping exercises, and avoiding people. I uh... had to sneak up on you, sorry. I’m kind of good at that.”

“Y-you sure are, heh. I didn’t even...” Crystal says with a half smile, “Glad you’re on our side.”

“It’s not that great,” I grumble, “But yeah I’m glad I can be useful.”

An awkward silence falls, in which she won’t meet my eyes.

“So... is everything alright?” I ask, giving her a sideways look.

Crystal’s ears very briefly dip downward, and she asks tensely, “You used to be a guy, right?”

I think my relieved smile does the talking for me, but I still tell her, “Yup! It’s no big deal though. Might as well act like a girl as long as I look the part.”

That makes Crystal blush oddly enough, and the green and blue pegasus asks shyly, “So... did you... ever start wanting to get pregnant? Like actually want it?”

“I uh... only when I’m... in the process of... I mean having... you know, sex?” I say hesitantly, not sure how to answer such a personal question without sticking my foot in my mouth. I’m going to stick my foot in my mouth, aren’t I.

“No I mean, did you ever really want it?” she asks persistently, leaning towards me, “Like right now if you could... be pregnant, would you?”

“It’s not like I have any choice about it now,” I grumble entirely too cutely. My expression turns to worry as I ask, “Why? Did a stallion have... sex with you?”

Crystal gives me a look. Uggggggh.

“You could say that,” she says enigmatically, then folds her wings and turns slightly sideways, so that I can see... oh. Oh.

“You’re showing,” I say numbly, at the small, but noticeable swelling in the green pony’s flank. It can’t be fat, because we don’t have enough food to pig out on, and the rest of her isn’t fat, so it could only be...

“N-no one else is!” Crystal says in blushing frustration, hiding her belly with a wing again, “I look like the only girl who... who is such a girl, she just went and...”

“...had sex with a stallion,” I finish for her.

Crystal stops fluffing her wings angrily, and sinks sadly back to herself. Herself and... a little more. “I didn’t even wanna,” she says lamely, “At first. But after we started doing it, I just started... it started making me think about things.”

“Is the stallion here with you?” I ask cautiously.

Crystal shakes her head. “No, he left pretty early on,” she says, “But I definitely deserved... to get pregnant back then.”

“You really enjoyed it,” I suggest quietly.

“I really enjoyed it,” she says in wide-eyed emphasis. “You don’t even know. It was better than any...”

“No, I know,” I say to the suddenly blushingly silent pegasus, giving her a reassuring smile, “We just... feel like being girls, now.”

“Y-yeah, we do,” she says, with a nervous giggle, “Even though you were a guy, it just sorta feels amazing. So that’s why...” Crystal lifts her wing and slides the feathers along her bump, “...this.”

“I wish I knew what to tell you,” I say with sadly turned down ears and tail, “Sorry you have to... be like this.”

“Well I don’t mind being like this,” she says perkily, “It’s just I’m the only one.”

“You don’t?” I ask in surprise, “You mean you want to be pregnant?”

“Well—no—but...” she says, scrunching, “It’s just...”

“No, no it’s fine if you do, I’m just surprised,” I hastily assure her, with friendly up-turned ears, “Most people don’t want to be pregnant. It’s... kind of cool that you do. Since you are.”

Her smile of relief is telling enough, but she turns her body more sideways to show me, saying excitedly, “It’s just so cool! That’s a pony! Inside me! I’m growing a real pony, just by standing here!”

“It is cool!” I say, looking with wonder and fear at her bulge, “I was starting to wonder if our bodies even could do that.”

“Well they can,” Crystal says, biting her lip and adding, “And I’ve been eating a lot, and working hard to grow a pony in me, and I’m doing it! Y-you want to touch it? You totally can.”

“Oh, could I?” I ask, stepping forward towards her.

“Yeah, go ahead,” she says, even lifting her wing out of the way.

Curling my foreleg around her green belly, it’s strikingly firm, and round.

“It feels really good to... rub,” she says hesitantly, “Or whatever you know.”

“Like this?” I ask, stroking along her wispier furred belly.

“Like a massage,” she says uncertainly, “N-never mind, it’s stupid.”

Well I try lifting her up in my arm so to speak, and she immediately sinks against me, a satisfied groan escaping her. Her wing tries to fold on my head, but she lays it across my back then, while I use firmer palpation to... soften her belly up, I guess. It really does feel tight, though I’m not sure if that’s tight muscles, or pressure from within.

“Thanks, it just gets kinda achy sometimes,” she says in a quite satisfied tone after I’m done exploring her slightly pregnant belly. “It was amazing enough when we turned into ponies,” Crystal says, fluttering to stand separate from me again, “But my body can grow a pony. I can grow into a pony. It’s like I’m turning into two ponies, one out here and one in... here,” she wing pats her flank again. “And all I have to do is just eat, and I just grow like that.”

“It is pretty... weird,” I tell her, and at her look I add, “But in a good way! I mean it’s really great you’re actually happy with it. Aren’t you worried about giving birth?”

Her ears tilt down a little. “Yeah,” Crystal says, looking off into the distance, “Is it weird if I kind of... want to give birth, sometimes?”

“Oh no, I uh...” I don’t know how to say this politely! “Sorry I don’t mean to be crude, but I um f-fantasize about that sometimes, too.”

“It’s like... it’s a muscle right?” Crystal says, heedless of my hemming and hawwing, settling on her haunches and looking down at her slight bulge, “I can just imagine it squeezing down really hard n’ stuff, and stretching uh.”

She looks at me worriedly, before admitting, “As weird as it is having a vagina, it feels really good to stretch ‘em.”

“Oh, I know, I imagine that too,” I tell her, leaning forward with interest, “Where it stretches you, but from the inside it’d be so...”

“Incredible,” she finishes with a wistful sigh. “I know it’ll be really... hard, but to see a pony coming out of there, my pony baby, I just wanna...” Crossing her eyes and frowning, she puzzles over her words, before declaring, “Stretch the hell out around her and just have her like squeeze outta me.”

“God, yes,” I say, sinking my head. “Vaginas are so sensitive, but sometimes you just wanna... freaking abuse the darn thing. I guess it’s instinct.”

“Not like I have any choice about giving birth, right?” Crystal says with a nervous smile, “So it’s okay if I wanna do the whole thing, like even give birth?”

“Yeah, I just wish we didn’t all have to do it,” I grumble, lifting a leg to eye my own flank for any... swelling back there.

“Maybe we’ll be lucky, and I really am the only one?” Crystal offers hopefully.

I have to laugh, groaning, “Wouldn’t that be nice.”

It takes Crystal a while to work up to letting everypony see what’s happening to her, but I think I help break the ice at least. Seeing Crystal just standing there, or flying above me, just growing a foal in her, there is something incredible and beautiful about it, but that means this is real. It means I’m going to do that. I feel fine now, and she actually seems okay with a baby in her, but... there’s a baby inside me, and inside us all who had sex. How are we going to deal with that? There’s no way we all can get an abortion any time soon. What’s giving birth going to be like? Am I going to... love my child? I don’t even know them! I just don’t know how to feel about all this.

Our herd continues to train and learn, and hunt, and even farm, a little, even out here in the wilderness. The fall has fallen swiftly to winter though, so our days of growing food are pretty much over. No matter how good you are at it, there’s no growing plants in thick snow and subzero temperatures, so it’s pretty clear we’re going to have to get by on what food we’ve managed to acquire so far.

It’s alright though. The humans—who I still haven’t really got to know very well—can drive us to places to commandeer supplies, and we haven’t yet been snowed in so badly a four-wheel drive can’t get through it. The apartments we live in aren’t too well insulated I imagine, but they’re nicely heated, and they will shield us from the wind and snow. The main laboratory building itself is very sturdy, and large enough for all of us to fit in, if some truly crazy weather comes blowing through.

Oh and as for stockpiling, there is all this hay. We’d been gathering the stuff in preparation for winter, and now that it’s here, anyone can just go and take some to put in their apartment and munch on with their friends. It’s quite soothing, and our digestion at least seems slow enough to get some energy out of it. I certainly know it doesn’t resemble hay coming out the other end!

The filly known as Major General Carey only drove in recently, and hasn’t been with us this entire time. Not sure where she came from this time, but she made sure to bring supplies, including a bunch of honest-to-gosh actual not-a-dream beef jerky, and I really can’t complain about that. There’s enough for all of us, a little at least, and it goes really good with hay.

It snowed pretty heavily last night, enough to leave an inch or so to start melting in the sunny morning. It’s definitely getting colder, and I’m certainly glad for a full body fur coat. Looking at myself in the mirror, I think my fur might actually be getting thicker. I don’t think horses have winter coats, though, so why would my little ponies?

It’s definitely true we’re not in Ainsworth anymore. That town was outright toasty compared to here. It’s almost as if we were right back in Minnesota, considering how cold and snowy it’s been getting. I try not to make a habit of guessing though. The less I know of our location, the less I can blab about it to Twilight, either from some magical influence she has on me, or just me being an idiot.

Our training and research continues on. The general tries her best to maintain top security, but it’s only a matter of time at this point. They need our help to experiment with what they’re learning from that portal, and we can’t do that unless we know what that is.

Then one frozen November, the gloves come off. Or would they be boots? Either way, the Major General looks disgruntled, as the filly named Doctor Peterson stands before us in their assembly hall / lecture building. (Not the sort of thing you’d expect to see in a military installation!)

“Alright everyone, it’s time we shared some of our research findings with you,” she states clearly, “Classified or not, we certainly can’t do this without your help, so I trust you all were listening to the general’s speech on the consequences of revealing this classified information...”

Maybe somebody was listening to the general’s very impassioned speech about classified information, maybe. But we’re all listening now. Dr. Peterson lays out her best attempt to explain what we’re going to do. Apparently the portal to Equestria has similar properties to a teleportation in-progress, and by sort of teleporting from a nearby generated space, we should be able to stabilize the wormhole enough to increase its aperture.

It kind of makes sense, too! You just do the thing where you shove space in between two flat plates to make them stick together, despite the growing gap in between them. So the plates kind of pull towards each other as if they were touching, but you can even walk between them. Then unicorns attach their teleportation to that pully connection between them, and do the teleport thingy on the wormhole and it... expands.

I may be really bad at explaining things, but it is kind of obvious, given the fact that the portal’s more of a pinch than a cylinder, that needs to have a non... space thing in the middle of it. A four dimensional thing could make a whole sphere, but a three dimensional magic... thing could press them together flatly like a pinch and... yeah I am definitely bad at explaining things.

It doesn’t exactly keep me up at night to think that we might be secretly being manipulated by some master plan of Twilight’s to make everything even worse, but it probably would be, if I wasn’t so tired of worrying about that stuff. General Carey’s obviously keeping secrets from us, and she goes to mysterious locations. Is it to contact Twilight Sparkle in her new secret lair? Whoever has a high enough security clearance isn’t allowed to say specifics, but at least Artemis and Dr. Peterson seem completely unconcerned.

“There is absolutely nothing we’re telling Equestria that could possibly benefit Twilight Sparkle,” the brown and blue bat pony named Artemis tells me, after I express my worries to him for like the millionth time. “I’ll be quite honest, that Princess Celestia doesn’t seem concerned with Twilight, so much as helping us get better from what Twilight’s done to us. I can’t talk specifics, but Celestia’s aid has been immeasurably helpful in integrating the manifolds of Twilight Sparkle with a greater universal panoply.”

I’m going to pretend I understood any of that last part.

“I only wish we could just tell the princess about our problem,” Artemis sighs, “It’s wonderful to be learning so much from her, but all this spy stuff is... well, I suppose it is what I signed up for.”

He then rolls over on his back, from within the huge tub of water that Artemis is bathing in. I say huge because it’s a normal bathtub and (sigh) ponies are small. But it’s hard to find time to hang out with the busy bat pony, so I take advantage of the fact that he kind of talks with me until we amble into his apartment, and he enlists my help in filling up the tub. The water’s cold, but not a huge deal for ponies I suppose. So here I am perched, reared up on the edge of the tub, while Artemis is getting enviously clean.

“What can’t you tell Princess Celestia about?” I ask curiously, then twitch my ears self -critically and clarify, “You don’t have to tell me if it’s classified of course. I didn’t even know we had a problem we couldn’t tell her about!”

Artemis lifts his head up and gives me a look. “The problem of turning every human being on the planet into a pony?” he says dryly.

“Oh, uh, yeah,” I grumble, glancing away, “That.”

“All they ever say to her is that there is a rogue agent turning people into ponies!” Artemis whines, flopping back again and winging through the water. “We’re getting advice on turning back, and apprehending Twilight Sparkle, but we need to know how to live as ponies. How they even have a civilization at all, without opposable thumbs!”

“I guess the military is just being careful,” I tell him warily, “For all we know, everypony in Equestria is as bad as Twilight.”

“I find that hard to believe,” he laughs bitterly, “It’d be hard to form a civilization without opposable thumbs, but downright impossible if everyone was that awful.”

“Well... people aren’t that awful by themselves usually, on our side,” I say, trailing a hoof in the water, “So whoever made her that way, they’re probably in Equestria somewhere.”

“It’s probably not any worse than our world,” Artemis says, splashing up to my side, “Lots of crazed monsters come out of just normal human society.”

“Sometimes I wonder about that,” I reply with flat ears, “When people go bad, there’s always something wrong with... their upbringing. Is it really normal society, if it’s an abnormal society inside our society that’s creating monsters?”

“I have to admit abnormal societal elements cannot count as normal,” Artemis points out wryly, “Hey, you wanna climb in? You’re smelling pretty... ehm...”

“Oh, yeah,” I blush, well aware of how I’m smelling. Like Dusty, specifically. And dust. I am a very dirty pony. And also a very dirty pony. Rearing up from holding the lip of tub, I spring over the edge, sliding forelegs first into the water.

With a shock of cold water, I’m submerged. I pop my head out, hind hooves vaguely touching the bathtub floor as my tail spreads out in a plume of soft green hairs behind me, and the water gets a lot dirtier. I can feel the smells of me and others, and just general stickiness slipping off me already. “Thanks!” I tell him in relief, lifting a foreleg to push my bangs out of my eyes.

“No problem,” the drenched bat pony says, affectionately pressing his nose to mine. We swim together and splash each other, and I slap his face with my wet tail totally on accident. I think the best thing about baths is I don’t have to smell him, but I can still be in close quarters with a stallion. Not that I have been feeling any special compulsion to follow a stallion’s scent lately. This pregnancy really is keeping my libido under control, even if I’m so not ready for the end result of it. But swimming is just... neutral territory, as far as pony love goes, I guess. Just one way I’ve managed to find to curtail Artemis’s need to mount me, cum inside me, and fall head over heels in love with me.

Another one of those ways is a good friend of mine: a green pegasus scientist by the name of Brian.

Go figure, Brian and Artemis hit it off really well, just as I’d suspected. Brian’s smart, but not too smart, so she’s basically following his line of thinking like a puppy. Artemis is acting like someone who’s lived most of his life not so much surrounded by puppies, but surrounded by retarded ferrets who can’t follow his train of thought at all. This student/teacher thing just pops up between them, since Brian is technically a grad student, and Artemis is technically a professor (albeit a research professor).

But I kind of didn’t warn Artemis about Brian’s terrible love life, and didn’t warn Brian that Artemis was... married. So we’re all talking together, and I’m trying to think of a way to bring any of that up without ruining things between them, when Brian says,

“So you’re saying that since a weak interaction can change the flavor of an elementary particle, then collecting the probability transition vector of those interactions into this matrix explains charge parity violation which is why we need five quarks?”

I’m... honestly kind of lost at the point that they get talking about particles of particles. I sucked at linear algebra. All I can really tell is that “charge parity violation” is the reason there’s less antimatter than matter.

But Artemis says, “Yes, but the natural CP violations of the weak force don’t explain the exotic particles emitted during the teleportation events which turn the whole standard model on its head!”

“Oh, so you need to change the parameterization,” Brian says, looking at the chalkboard. Did I mention we’re in the chalkboard room. “To...”

“Not sure about that part,” Artemis says, heading up to it himself, “We have no way to measure it at the moment. But it would explain how a horn at room temperature could emit Cherenkov radiation.”

“I just don’t understand why Cherenkov radiation is always blue,” Brian says, looking from chalkboard to batpony.

“Well I... I actually have... no idea why it would be that particular wavelength,” he says in puzzlement, turning to her, “I think it depends on the refractive index, but... I’d have to go look it up.”

With a laugh and a smile, Brian says, “I guess even you don’t know everything.”

“You know more than I’ll ever know about biological mechanisms,” he says with a bit of a blush. I think they’re going to... oh no. I think they’re going to kiss!

Artemis and Brian lean forward and kiss, and... I–I probably shouldn’t have taught Artemis about the whole turning your snout thing, because it works great. Their eyes slip closed, and they push closer together, breathing hotly through their noses as they kiss passionately.

They gaze into each others eyes as they part lips, then they both look at me in a total panic. “I–I—I” I stammer, “No complaints from me! You know what I get up to,” lift hoof, nervous laugh, I should have told them. “Artemis is... I’m sorry Brian, Artemis is...”

“I’m... married,” Artemis tells her very reluctantly.

Brian stares at him in horror and then her eyes flood with tears as she trembles and says, “It’s not fair...” t

Then she screams at him “It’s not fair!!”, then just runs full tilt past me and out the door, hurling herself up into the air and soaring off into the snowy sky.

“I–I need to tell you,” I say to the shocked Artemis, “I don’t know what to do I need to tell you!”

“Tell me what??” he asks, staring at me with slits of eyes, “What the hell did I do to her? What the h-hell did I do?”

“S-she used to be a guy, and she didn’t want to be a girl, but she had to,” I tell him, “She met a stallion named Jack and she lost control, and... had sex. But she said he left her crying when she was afraid of getting pregnant. Then he just left her entirely, and went to find his family, but then his friends moved in. They said such horrible things to her. I-it’s not my place to tell you but I don’t know what to do.

“They made her say she wanted it, then teased her for wanting it, then punished her for—for lying when she told him to stop. Then they left, and she ended up with a guy who didn’t talk to her, not a single word. He just kept following her a-and doing her.”

I’m crying now, and maybe Artemis is too but I can’t see clearly, as I tell him, “And the whole time, Brian thought I was innocent, she couldn’t talk to anybody about it and...”

I... I need a moment here. After I feel like I can talk again, I wipe at my eyes with a foreleg, saying, “I knew you’d be perfect for each other but I didn’t know how to... tell you about it. I think that kiss was the first time she’s ever genuinely wanted to be a girl.”

“Can you...” Artemis’s voice does sound shaky as he sits on his haunches before me and I stare at his haunches because I’m scared and— “Can you find her, for me?”

“M-me?” I ask, almost making eye contact in my confusion.

“Yeah, use your earth pony magic?” he says quietly, “Cartoon logic it? She could have gone anywhere, and I don’t want her to d-do anything rash.”

“What do I tell her though?” I ask, “I set her up with the wrong stallion and I should have told you and—”

“Don’t tell her anything, then,” he says, “Tell me where she is, and I’ll... I won’t let something like that happen to her. Not her. I’ll... do whatever I have to.”

“But your wife...” I murmur as he grabs me and I stare into his tear-streaked violet eyes as he shouts,

“Fuck my wife!”

...

“My wife doesn’t... need me,” Artemis says faintly, backing off, “Right now. I need to show Brian she can kiss me and... and be intimate with me, and just have something besides... besides that. Please, Meadowsweet. Just... try?”

“I’ll g-give it a shot,” I tell him, standing unsteadily, “If my stupid weird magic ever works, n-now would be a really good time.”

So I look all over the camp, and I do find her, surprisingly quickly. It can’t be my magic though, because Brian’s just sitting in the back of the shower room and crying. I mean anyone would have found her, right? Well, Artemis and I are together when I approach the showers again, and she’s still in there. It’s a good hiding spot, considering it’s below zero and snowing out here. Nobody’s gonna be thinking of coming and taking a shower any time soon.

“Brian?” I call out as we clop into the uh... girl’s shower room.

“Go away!” she calls out miserably, her voice echoing in the halls.

Beside me, Artemis says in his warmer, deeper voice, “Brian, it’s me Artemis.”

Her sobs choke to a panicked silence, but she doesn’t answer. So Artemis calls out again, “Brian... I need you to kiss me again.”

“W-what?” she says in a lost voice, an unfolding lump by the wall lifting up her head.

“Meadowsweet told me what happened to you,” Artemis said, “I might not be the perfect man, but I won’t be anything like those... did they really tell you that you were a liar, if you... told them to stop?”

“They said I was a liar for... for wanting it,” she protests, “But I couldn’t help it! But I’d have to be a liar, if I said I wanted it, then told them to stop, right?”

“Brian, that just makes you a human being er... metaphorically speaking,” he says, “Please, just... come over here. I won’t let anything like that happen to you again.”

I don’t know if Brian believes him or not, but she stands and... slowly clops over to where we stand in the light. She’s a mess, but... so are the rest of us.

“I am married, but,” Artemis says, “My wife turned into a stallion, and he’s just been putting me off. If I ever met someone like you in college, I... I would have married her. I need someone like you, and you need...someone like me right now. So please. I won’t let you down.”

Brian looks at me.

“O-oh I can leave sorry I—”, I stammer to the green pegasus, hoof up-raised.

“No!” she yelps. Then blinks at me. “No, I...” Brian’s tail goes between her legs, “I don’t... want to do this alone with h-him.” Looking at Artemis guiltily, she says, “No offense.”

“Meadowsweet’s... she heard of the troubles with my wife,” Artemis replies, “And then Meadowsweet and I... h-had sex.”

Brian looks at me with wide eyes as I blush, hiding behind a foreleg. My foreleg is not nearly large enough to hide behind.

“You were... with her, huh,” Brian says faintly.

“She was amazing,” Artemis says passionately, “I’d never been with anybody as a pony before, and then I was, and she was so amazing about it. So anything you and I do, it’s okay if she’s here to help you feel safe.”

Looking between us, Brian says, “I just don’t think I could... she doesn’t need to watch. I just don’t want to freak out around another... stallion, alone.”

“I can look the other way, if you...?” I offer.

“Yeah I’m um...” Brian said with a nervous grin, “It’s just if Artemis kisses me again I wanna... do a lot more than kiss, and you don’t have to... I mean... do you want to see it?”

“...yeah,” I say, weakly.

“Do you want to... be with Artemis too, with me there?” she asks curiously.

“What? No!” I squawk, dropping my hoof to the floor.

Confused, and blushing, Brian says, “Oh I–I didn’t mean any offense it’s just I just suspected ponies were naturally polygynous, and...”

“No, it’s not offensive,” I assure her, “It’s just that I have two stallions in my life! I’m getting more than taken care of!”

“Two stallions is polyandrous,” Brian replies giving me a disbelieveing look, “Polygynous means multiple females. How are you—?”

“Two stallions a-and four mares!” I protest, hotly, “Five mares! I have so many... j-j–just enjoy him. I’m cool with it.”

“She found you, didn’t she?” Artemis asks Brian, “She... set you up to be with me.”

“She... she mentioned that... you might be interested,” Brian says, looking the batpony’s way, “She didn’t say you were married.”

“She also didn’t say it doesn’t matter if I’m married,” Artemis replies stiffly, “You need me now, we’ll work out the details later. Now please, kiss me. And we’ll see what... happens.”

Brian nervously approaches him, saying, “I-I don’t know anything I mean about how to uhm—”

“When you last kissed me it was wonderful,” Artemis says, “I just want you to... give it a shot. I want you to kiss me again, because Greg... didn’t.”

Brian gives him a lost look, as they meet each other’s eyes again, saying, “That was my... my first kiss by the way. W-when we kissed. Last.”

“I... I’m honored,” Artemis says in surprise, though in retrospect considering her past boyfriends maybe it’s not such a surprise. “You just tilt your head a bit so our mouths can join, Meadowsweet showed me a–a little.”

She looks from me to Artemis, then says, “A–all I did was just...” she steps forward, nose-to-nose with him as he turns his head, and their eyes slip closed again as their lips softly press together. A timeless moment, and then they pull apart, Brian’s eyes flutter open again, before she goes in for another kiss. Her tail bobs as she pulls back and kisses him again, putting her hoof on his shoulder to press close to him. The arousal in their scent grows with each kiss. Both breathing through their noses, hey’re still gasping as they part from that kiss.

“Oh...” Brian fusses in confused frustration, her tail bobbing again as she shifts her hind legs somewhat apart, looking up at him, conflicted, “Sorry I... I need...”

Artemis definitely has a wife. It’s like watching an artist. He kisses Brian, under her chin, making her tilt her head up, then trails kisses all the way down her neck and shoulder as she stands there trembling, her scent sharply increasing. I should touch myself or something, but it’s just so beautiful as he turns Brian’s body into a symphony, nibbling at her wings, sliding against her side, nuzzling at the base of her tail to get it bobbing up again.

So I just sit to my belly, not even wanting to touch myself, since it might distract me from what’s happening before me. Nosing under her tail, Artemis says dazedly, “I’ve... never been able to see a pony female this close before.”

“M-meadowsweet?” Brian squeaks, looking my way.

“We weren’t really looking down there, eheh,” I admit, lifting a hind leg.

“It’s so beautiful,” he says in awe, “So different from a human female, but... but this is you, Brian!”

“T-the labia majora prodtrudes a bit more,” she says blushingly, “And of course the clitoris is more i-internal. N–nh...”

Her eyes go distant, as Artemis lays a hoof on her rear, spreading her open. “So strange how our skin is the color of our fur,” Artemis says, “You’re pink on the inside though.”

“P-pigments seem to be some kind of... n-novel dye molecule that grows in... my skin is pink if you... shave my fur, but where I have no fur, the skin remains g-green,” Brian explains, “I-I’m just all green, boring I know.”

Releasing her slit to close again, Artemis asks, “May I kiss you here?” Brian is obviously dying to be kissed right there, and he just asks that, and hovers so close.

“K-kiss?” Brian squeaks, looking back at him, “You mean like... c-cunnilingus?”

Cunniwhatus?

“I have a wife,” Artemis says in amusement for once, “Who taught me a thing or two.”

“N-nobody ever,” Brian admits, facing forward, “I mean t-they say it feels really good but I nevernhhh!”

Brian’s tail jerks up as Artemis presses his snout up right against her little green colored slot. She looks terribly anxious but her anxiety quickly starts to fade as she stares off, murmuring, “Oh, you... you’re just...”

Isn’t long before she’s hunched forward, wings loose, panting for breath. Staring at me with the hunger she feels inside, Brian says, “I want him to... mount me. Feels better and better. It’s making me want it... a... a penis. Meadowsweet, he’s... putting it in me! All the way hnnh in me!”

Parting my gaze from the pleasure drunk Brian, I look down at Artemis, saying, “You can get your tongue past her cervix. Just tease at it until she opens up enough for your to fit. It’s an uh... erogenous zone for ponies.”

“For Earth ponies too!” Brian says tensely, rocking there against his snout, “Our Earth... horses penetrate the... cervix, but not the tongue! He’s—I can’t stop it jerking open it... he... he’s in!”

“Yeah, your uh... cervix clamps down on him then, and you can feel him in your uterus,” I tell the tense mare, staring off into space, “That’s where your baby is right now. He might be able to find it, if it’s big enough.”

“He’s—deeper!” Brian squeaks, wings folding tight, “Keeps putting more—he’s moving in there!”

“He’s probably feeling around for your foal,” I tell her fondly, “I’ve never found anything myself, but it’s fun to do.”

“In my belly...!” Brian declares, leaning back to just feel him in there.

“That’s not your stomach, huh?” I remark to the mare.

“It’s my womb,” she says in awe.

Progressively, Brian goes from panting to again squeaking, “He’s—he’s pulling it out!”

“He needs to put his penis in there instead,” I inform her smugly.

“Oh I... I want it...” Brian says, dazedly. “Out... out... he’s...!” Her head snaps up again and she tells me urgently, “sliding his tongue all around the... hnnh his lips, he’s... I–I think I’m gonna climax!”

“Have you not climaxed yet?” I ask her with a sympathetic squirm in my own nethers.

“No it... nobody ever used their mouth!” Brian says tensely, “Does the—the vagina u-undulate??”

“Does the vagina what?” I ask in confusion.

“P-pulse!” she says, gazing upward, “I can’t... it stopped moving I—”

“Oh, yeah it sort of stops squeezing, when it’s getting ready to go nuts,” I tell her, “You won’t be able to m-move really. You won’t fall over, he’ll... I’ll be there with you.”

“I’m—should be—climaxing!” she squeals in alarm, “How much bigger is ahh ahhh!”

“A lot bigger,” I tell her in delight, as it happens to my friend for the first time, “That’s why you won’t want to climax as much. But every once and a while, it’s incredible!”

“Need–need–need it...” she says in lust soaked tones. It looks like she’s pretty darn close, so I call over to Artemis,

“Artemis! You need to mount her, now! Climax feels so good with a stallion inside you. She’ll be able to feel her whole vagina just going nuts all around you.”

Artemis pulls his slimy muzzle away from Brian’s entrance, climbing up on her as Brian looks back and whimpers needily, “Hurry! I... I need it!”

“I’ll help,” I say hastily, diving down to where the stallion’s splotchy penis is coming up to Brian’s smooth green furred belly with her little pony teats. I lift that hot staff of meat up to Brian’s pelvis, and her entrance is just gleaming with moisture, the smooth curve of her pelvis ending in that anus and vulva, just begging for a penis.

“You look beautiful, Brian,” I declare in honest awe. Artemis lets me move his penis where I may, so I lift it up saying, “I–I’m gonna put it in you now. There, r-right there, Artemis. Push in... you’re entering her.”

“Stretching mee~!” Brian squeals.

“That’s his penis,” I tell her, standing up beside the mounted pegasus, “It’s just sliding inside you back there.”

“He’s... he’s ...thrusting...” Brian pants, as Artemis heaves his hips against hers, in and out. “I... I’m gonna climax—can’t think...”

“Don’t think, just let it happen,” I tell her, “Let it fill your whole body.” Brian moans, as I tell Artemis, “Push it deep when it hits her. Hold it in so she can squeeze all around your penis.”

“R-roger that,” he says, sweat trailing down his temple as he thrusts.

“I’m—!” Brian squeals in urgency, “It’s–! It’s—!”

“You’re climaxing,” I tell her warmly, as her wings anxiously snap out as if to fly, “It’s beautiful. Every muscle in your body tenses, and you can’t think it feels so good. Y-you’re past the point of no return, there. It won’t end anymore until your vagina starts clenching.”

Brian’s body jerks as everything happens at once. With Brian erupting into shallow gasping breaths, irises tiny, Artemis pushes deep saying, “She’s really... squeezing hard it’s... I’m in.”

“It’s okay, you don’t have to do anything but climax anymore,” I assure Brian as she can’t even focus on me, “You’re having an orgasm, so just be this orgasming mare now. That’s what we need you to do.”

That’s what I’d want someone to tell me, at least!

With her panting coming in intense grunts, I know Brian’s just rippling all around Artemis’s cock now. It’s a significant effort, with how freaking strong our vaginas are. Brian settles down slowly, her gasps turning to pants, turning to soft moans of, “Oh... oh god... oh god...”

“You get to just relax from here,” I tell her, half honestly, as Artemis starts thrusting again, “Enjoy yourself and all.”

“I feel so good,” she says in almost disbelief, “He’s moving in me...”

Well I stay close with her, since she needs someone’s comforting presence while she singlemindedly rocks there doing what she needs to do. I need to think of someone else to do this with her though. Again though, I might feel embarassed myself if I had to do that, and just ignore my companion, as Brian’s ignoring me to focus on her breeding. So I tell her, “I love how you’re rocking against me, pushing back to thrust him into you. That’s Artemis sliding inside you... wanting to put his babies inside you. He can feel you in there.”

“I’m... I’m gonna...” Artemis pants, thrusting into her hard, “Cum inside her. Meadowsweet. Just like... you. Gonna... cum...”

“Just focus on having sex with him now,” I murmur to Brian, my heart fluttering worryingly for the amorous bat pony stallion, “That’s what I need you to do now.”

That’s what she does, saying nothing, panting, rocking, staring forward, determinedly fucking him. Brian only cries out when his thrusting changes, lifting her head and exclaiming in joy, “Meadowsweet, I’m a... I’m a bitch!”

“What?” I squeak.

“He... he flared,” she pants, as Artemis tenses atop her, “Can’t pull out till he cums... it’s inevitable now...”

“He... can pull out but...” I admit uncertainly, since it is difficult to do.

“Ah... Artemis!” Brian calls out behind her, “I’m... not pregnant! Put your baby in me! I wannit!”

“You’re not pregnant??” I ask her in a tight whisper.

“The... the... ultrasounds...” she says, “Must’ve... miscarriaged. Oh Meadowsweet, he’s cumming like a dog in me. Imma bitch in heat. Unnh spurt, spurt, spurt I feel it...”

“I-in here, wow...” I say, lifting a foreleg against Brian’s soft green belly.

“S-still! Spurting! Nhh!” she cries out in passion, shifting against me while Artemis’s dick pulses into her back there, and his creamy seed starts leaking out, dripping between her legs.

“A-artemis,” I say looking up to the dull-eyed, panting batpony hunched over my friend, “You look beautiful too. I can see you pumping your seed into her!”

“You... you saw the last of it,” he says quietly, relaxing as he focuses on me, “I can’t ejaculate any more.”

“I got plenty in me,” Brian says indulgently, snugging her tail around his ass, “Gonna have your foal now.”

“Not my puppies?” he asks.

Brian’s ears go down at that and she says nervously, “Heh heh... it’s just o-our sexual response is more like dogs than anything. But I love it. You still are... leaking semen into me just a teeny little bit.”

“I–I suppose,” he said, “Should I... pull out?”

“It’s not exactly analagous to the—” Brian says, looking back at him, and then she murmurs, “I–I can just talk like this?

“Hm?” Artemis asks.

“I can just... talk to you like this?” Brian asks, rhetorically, “You came in me, Artemis! I can talk to you about how the flare is different in our horses, but for you it’s analagous to the knot. Artemis, I still feel your semen inside me. And I can just talk to you, and tell you about how it feels, and you’re... oh god, sorry...”

As Brian is just overcome by emotion, I lay my head over hers, in that sort of horsey cradling. I can’t believe she had such an awful year. If she hadn’t, she wouldn’t have cried over this. If she hadn’t had all those jerk boyfriends, she wouldn’t have felt like this. She wouldn’t be crying tears of happiness just because she can talk with the stallion doing her. She wouldn’t be this full of gratitude and heartwarm joy and—

Wait, it’s a bad thing that she had those jerk boyfriends, right?

For once I didn’t mean to get somebody pregnant. But Brian’s absolutely in love with the idea now, not even slightly frightened at all that she’s pregnant, so I guess she really does love Artemis that much. It’ll only take a few miracles at this point to make it work out between Brian, Artemis and his wife. At least with Brian... occupying Artemis’s time, I don’t have to keep fucking yet another stallion in my life. No promises on his wife. I’m feeling quite happy with Sue and Dusty though, Lucy and Holly are wonderful, Bubblegum and Mira are divine, and me and Daredevil get to be part of all of their lives.

Hard to believe it, but Christmas is coming up again. I don’t usually even have reason to celebrate the season, but then again I haven’t had this many friends before. So I’m greeted with the fresh pine scent, as I walk in the dining room one early November morning, and it looks like someone managed to cut down a tree! It’s perched in a crude planter by the wall, with a few ponies around it adding decorations. A sign next to it says “Add One Decoration each.”

We don’t have any ornaments, but you could’ve fooled me, considering what cool stuff unicorns can do with tin foil, or earth ponies with glass. Oh yeah, glass is... squishy for earth ponies when they handle it right, allowing the sculpting of glass without raising its temperature. Bat ponies have been putting folded paper ornaments on it, and pegasi have been keeping the tree watered and alive. Not to say that’s all everyone’s doing, but that’s what the overall job distribution looks like to me.

The pegasus and bat pony foals who are old enough to fly are really smug, taking care of all the top ornaments themselves. Everyone else who can fly is pretty much letting the foals do it. Because it’s adorable. I spot one of the humans putting an ornament near the top, some sort of photo, but I don’t recognize which one of the humans it is. The photo’s... I mean... it’s a photo of other humans. Probably the guy’s family. I have no idea how I used to distinguish between human beings before. They’re all practically the same color!

Someone makes an actual wreath out of needle covered branches pulled down from the pine trees all around our base. There aren’t any Christmas lights, or candles, but it’s... nice.

The biggest part of the season for us is singing carols, because that’s what ponies do. I’ve never even had the opportunity to sing Christmas carols with others, and now it’s just... easy. It’s hard to resist, even, so why resist? We sing Jingle Bells at training. We sing Deck the Halls at lunch. I sing Silent Night with Sue, Holly and Lucy in our apartment, and then we fall asleep together, not even using the second bed. There won’t be any presents when Christmas comes, but I think it’ll be a wonderful time for us all.

The first time we open a portal, I’m told that I’m supposed to act as a mediator, like the bouncer at a club, except the only thing I kick out is unruly magic. We’re not entirely sure how it works, but Princess Celestia hinted at it, some other earth ponies have had luck, and apparently there is some science involved. We’re far away from the portal to Equestria of course, standing outside in the snow in the unicorn testing area. I wait there, trying to... feel static on my fur or something, not sure exactly what I should be feeling. A mare named Dr. Taylor (first name omitted) repeats that my job is pretty much just hanging around and “being a lightning rod,” as she calls it. So mostly I just wander back and forth, watching with fascination as the unicorns work.

I’m told that the Law of Similarity is the worst kind of hocus pocus, something that seems like it ought to work, but in reality is just total fiction. That used to be what people thought was the case, but I guess it was just convenient to call it fiction before we discovered it. I really hope ponies don’t have the power to make voodoo dolls or something, but what the researchers do is draw two very complex diagrams on two pieces of paper, both identical and unique, and that’s supposed to be important.

Separating the papers to either side of the whole field, the unicorns do work on them, while I help out by making some... portal stabilizing stuff, mostly by slamming some cinder blocks together with my rump, then biting on them to drag them apart, without... separating them. It’s weird. Me and this blue haired earth pony smack cinder blocks together, and every repetition, they get effectively closer, until they’re pulling together so tight, we can’t pull them separate anymore.

That’s what the unicorns... filter their magic into, to draw that attractive force into the space above the diagram. It’s somehow more special than just magnetism, or glue. With both unicorns working in sync at the source and destination, they tell me it’s like pulling two spheres together with telekinesis, until they intersect. Their cross section appears as a circular hole in the air above the diagrams, which expands to the size of about a dime.

Then all hell breaks loose.

The unicorns try to cut off all their magic, but it’s still happening! My blue companion and I are running around frantically in between the portals, but she’s leaving afterimages of herself as she runs toward the... thing, and I fall up into the air to hover in place with something trying to pull me inside out until I kick out to disrupt it. Landing, my tail is in front of my face, because the space I’m in just wrinkled around like that so I slam my hooves to smooth it out. Then the two portals vanish with a pop.

“Oh. Feedback. I see...” a very flustered and disarrayed Artemis says, fluttering down from where he and the rest of the winged ponies fled that crazy shit that kept making my head bigger and smaller. “Perhaps we need to open the portals farther apart.”

“How far apart?” one of the unicorns complains, also one of the science ponies, stomping up to Artemis. “The moon? The nearest solar system? We’re gonna turn the entire planet inside out, at this rate!”

“Well, the Equestrians said they had portals that were several cities separate...” Artemis says weakly, “Maybe we could try... twenty miles?”

Twenty miles is more than enough, it turns out, and with the unicorns straining to turn our cinder block energy into portal energy, something... goes right. The portal has a noticeable hum, deepening as it expands, and through it is... the camp they set up, 20 miles away. Astonished ponies stare back at me, who I only saw much earlier today, before they took the long trek down the road and through the wilderness, to a spot sufficiently far away to test things again. Everyone’s afraid to step through, but Dr. Peterson... she steps through. Others follow, and I gingerly avoid the humming white light that borders the portal, scrunching my eyes shut and just jumping through. I travel 20 miles in a millisecond, just by jumping from one spot to another.

As Artemis tells me later in reverent tones, that’s 11% the speed of light.

Author's Note

Here we go...

Before The Dawn

So ponies can violate relativity, it seems. The relativistic forces accelerating me to 11% the speed of light should have torn me into plasma in a fraction of an instant. A lot of our experiments are proving the impossible possible, making gravity our bitch ever since pegasi learned to hover, once breaking the ice in a mountain stream just to see if we can make a perpetual motion machine.

And... that’s the most of my involvement with the portal research. Most of it’s just repeating the same thing over and over again, to do measurements and statistics. It certainly doesn’t take time away from my enthusiastic training exercises, and it certainly doesn’t take time away from completely innocent preoccupations of mine, like stalking stallions who are married to other stallions, who I may have been fucking, and may have hooked one of my friends up with just a teensy bit.

Artemis’s wife is Dr. Browning, who’s also a scientist on the research team, making her and Artemis a match made in Heaven, if they both weren’t guys now. Once a woman, now he is a strapping strong green unicorn stallion with an orange mane, who definitely, beyond the shadow of a doubt identifies as male. I know I shouldn’t be meddling further in the relationships of others, but I’m still proud of this one, this final relationship I manage to heal.

I feel like there should be a less sketchy way to do it, but I have no better ideas, and I’m just observing things after all, not doing anything wrong, so in what free time I can eke out of training, I start... stalking Dr. Browning. Just following him when he thinks I’m not there, and being sneaky in general. Not the most ethical use of my training, but I do learn some interesting things. Especially when Dr. Browning prances up to an earth pony mare who’s certainly not any mare I’ve seen together with Dr. Browning or Artemis before.

Even I can tell from my vantage point beneath a snow covered tarp off to the side that the mare’s very hot and bothered. She smells like she was trying to be very hot and bothered, very recently, not an unlikely prospect.

“Hey there,” Dr. Browning says as the mare stares up at the approaching stallion, owlishly, “I don’t think we’ve met? I’m Charger, or at least that’s what I’ve been calling myself since I turned into a man. What’s your name?”

“Oh, I’m just... um... Private Westville,” the mare says in a cheery soprano, eyes widening as she adds, “You used to be a girl?”

“Why?” Dr. Browning, that is to say “Charger” asks, the orange and green maned unicorn squaring off in front of the green haired pink earth pony calling herself Private Westville. “You looking for someone to show you how?” he adds slyly.

Well one thing leads to another, and with Charger groaning in relief as he ejaculates into the panting mare he’s mounted upon, I think... I have a plan. For the time being, I go to Brian, and she doesn’t like it when I say,

“Okay, I have a plan that’s gonna work perfectly, but you have to stop having sex with Artemis for the next few days.”

“What’s the plan?” Brian asks with an unhappy whicker.

“You’re gonna get another jerk boyfriend!” I tell her, with a totally sane smile.

A few days later, I have Brian about as aroused as a newly pregnant mare can be. Honestly it’s hard to get her very worked up with how nervous she is, but I manage. I don’t understand why we get so nervous about that stuff, since she’s already pregnant, but I guess it’s just something girls have to deal with. In a scientific sense though, pregnant sex isn’t something Brian needs to really hesitate on.

She gets over her stage fright quickly enough, seems eager even as I lap at her teats, whimpering, “Oh god, I’m ready. I’m I’m gonna do it. Meadows this is... I want him...”

“Great job, looks like you’re still pretty easy,” I encourage her, backing off with a smile, “Now just stand outside the breakfast area, wave your tail a little, and if he asks, you haven’t had sex yet.”

“Right,” Brian whimpers, staring over at the building we’ve been serving food in. “Just... deceive him, just like that.”

“From what I can see yeah,” I remark thoughtfully, “He doesn’t ask a lot of questions. Just be honest with him, except for the you know... being a virgin part.”

“Right...” Brian says, taking a deep breath before trotting over there, and trying to stand nonchalantly. Her nervousness works in her favor, since it makes her seem even more antsy. So when Charger trots out of the cafeteria, and when Brian’s tail wafts her scent at him, he pauses, and turns to look at her.

Brian immediately blushes and looks away. Charger grins, and trots over in her direction. They talk in quiet tones, and I’m not hiding this time, so much as standing out of the way, so Brian flashes me a look, as she turns and heads off with Charger, as docile as can be. I am so glad she’s had experience with putting up with guys like that. I’d probably kick him or something if I tried to let him fuck me.

So with them headed off to consummate their brand new relationship, I hurry to find Artemis.

“I still can’t believe she’s been...” he says, trotting together with me as we hurry to the spot that Brian led Charger to, “Womanizing. I didn’t think she was that bad.”

“Well, maybe we don’t know the whole story,” I tell him reservedly, “But you have to admit, nobody’s gonna get in trouble, if you confess about Brian while your wife is fucking her.”

“...this is so very fucked up,” Artemis replies in confoundment. Both of us ignoring any reservations we might have, we peek around the corner, where Brian’s whimpering in a convincingly genuine way, and mounted on her rump, Charger is just going at her like there’s no tomorrow.

“Well, go on,” I whisper to Artemis, “I’ll be right behind you.”

Artemis just stares above me in shock for a moment, before blushing and pulling back around the corner. “Right, um...” he says, then reluctantly trots out into the open, clearing his throat, and calling out as Charger freezes on the spot, “Um... Adelyn?”

Without unmounting, the stallion turns to look in terror at his bat pony husband, as Charger stammers in a warm baritone, “I–I can explain t-this isn’t—”

“No, no, it is,” Artemis says in a chiding tone, “And I don’t know where you get off doing this, but I’ve... been... cheating on you.”

“You’ve been—?!” Charger says coming to a choked halt, “But— I— we...” he gestures at Brian with a forehoof in confusion. “I’ve been cheating on you!”

“Yes, I know,” Artemis says, tilting an ear, “You’re cheating on me right now.”

“You know?!” Charger retorts, then blushes and adds, “I mean o-of course you know. I-I’m...” he faces forward, looking down at a pensive Brian saying, “I am so sorry I didn’t think he’d... it just didn’t come up!”

“Of course it didn’t come up,” Brian says testily, staring at the ground with her shoulders hunched as she adds, “Because you’re being a jerk.”

“What?” Charger balks, as the mare he’s fucking totally tells him off. “I’m not being a...! Oh god.” He totally dismounts Brian then, who turns in a circle, then looks back at him warily. Ignoring her (natch), Charger faces Artemis, stammering,

“Y-you don’t know what it’s like... I-I didn’t think it would be this different! It makes me want to... how do you deal with staying horny all the bloody time?”

“I... I don’t,” Artemis says ruefully. “I’ve been cheating on you, too.”

Staring back blankly, Charger stammers, “O-oh. Right.”

“With her,” Artemis adds, pointing a hoof at Brian.

Charger blinks.

Brian walks over to stand with Artemis, bravely telling Charger, “We’ve been having... sex. And that’s o-okay. I wanted you to have sex with me, so you couldn’t get mad at Artemis. Because now you know how good I feel in there, and you can’t blame him for...” Brian glances back uncertainly, then patting her own green ass with a wing and an awkward smile, “...tapping that?”

“You set me up!” Charger says staring at Brian in shock.

“For a good reason!” Brian retorts hotly, “I never lied to you! I didn’t have to! You can...” Stepping away from Artemis she presents for Charger, saying, “You can finish if you want, even! I just don’t want you to get mad at Artemis, for... doing me.”

“I can?” Charger asks dumbly, then looks at Artemis and repeats in incredulity, “I can?”

“Go ahead,” Artemis says glumly, waving a wing at the other stallion dismissively, “We can talk about this afterwards. According to Meadowsweet and Brian, we might have to change our relationship, but that doesn’t mean we have to end it.”

Charger blinks at Artemis, then says flatly, “No seriously, I can just... fuck her? Right in front of you?”

“Well somebody fuck me,” Brian says in feathery flusterment, “Because I’ve been getting edged for the last hour!”

Brian gives a delighted little “Oh...!” when the penis of Charger mounted atop her hits home again. She looks over her shoulder at his hips, while Charger stares down at her as if seeing her for the first time. With slitted eyes, Brian purrs, “That’s it... push it aaaaall the way into me...”

“What’ve I gotten myself into...” Charger says upon bottoming out in the mare.

“Me~!” Brian sings joyfully, pushing her rump up against Charger’s pelvis.

Charger seems like he’s going to back out, but his eyes lose focus as he starts to rhythmically slide in and out of her. Her smugness fades as the dizzying pleasure of a man filling her starts to get to Brian, and soon neither he nor she are concerned with anything other than fucking. “It... it is kind of beautiful, after all,” Artemis remarks to Charger, “Seeing you as a stallion, just lost in the... need to mate.”

“I... I...” Charger says, blushing in flustered lust, “It’s making me want to...” then he grabs Brian’s rump hard, hunching over her and humping into her as hard as he can, much to her delight. Artemis and I let him do his thing then, as we’ve both had enough sex to know that Charger just needs to focus on this now. When Charger flares, he looks up from Brian, saying to the engrossed looking bat pony stallion anxiously, “Art, I’m gonna...!”

“Don’t tell me, tell her,” Artemis chides him.

With short, deep, needy thrusts, Charger tells Brian, “Miss, I’m... I’m going to... c-cum in you. It’s just f-filling me up. Every... inch of my... penis’s tingling. I can’t... stop I’m gonna... Miss I’m gonna c-cu-cuahnnhh!”

He pushes deep, intense, and stops for a silent moment, before Brian’s eyes light up, and she arches her hips back against his.

“Oh, I feel it,” Brian says in wide-eyed wonder.

“I c-ca–Art, I—!” Charger barely vocalizes at the same time, before Artemis kisses the stallion right on the lips, standing alongside the pegasus mare who Charger is impregnating. Surprised at first, Charger kisses back harder as he gives one strong, decisive hump against Brian, then holds quietly close to her, the base of his penis pulsing as he fills his female up with seed. Their kiss grows tender as Charger finishes ejaculating, and when they part lips, every drop of Charger’s semen is pumped up into his female. Brian takes it willingly, acceptingly, and indulgently, the vessel for his semen, and the incubator for his child.

For someone’s child, at any rate.

Satisfied that all is well, I quietly back up from where I’m watching them on a nearby roof, then on the other side of the building, I shimmy my way down the drainpipe, trotting out between the buildings and the fence, leaving the three of them to work things out from there.

The three of them work things out great, and one day, I coincidentally, totally randomly and unintentionally approach a green haired, pink furred earth pony who I haven’t met yet, who’s working on shovelling fresh snow out from the pathways between buildings.

“Mind if I help?” I ask, a second snow shovel coincidentally laid across my back. She pauses and looks at me with purplish eyes slightly darker than the color of her fur coat, which is itself pink... or purple. I dunno.

How do you tell if something’s pink or purple?

Well the purplepink mare nods wordlessly, since she has a shovel in her mouth, and with my help it goes almost twice as quickly. I’m slow at first, just from figuring out how to wield a shovel with a foreleg and a mouth, but I watch and learn from her, and we swiftly get the job done.

“Thanks,” she says in her cheery soprano and a sort of southern accent, panting and wiping her brow after dropping the shovel. I’m panting too by now, as the exercise has both of us much warmer than the cold snowy landscape around us. “Whoever you are. Did the sergeant send you?”

“What? No, I just thought you looked like you could use a little help,” I tell her, not sure which sergeant would be “the” sergeant. “Also I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Well shoot,” she replies amiably, “Whatever might you wanna talk about with me? Name’s uh...”

“...Private Westville,” I cautiously answer for her.

“Oh right, you’d know it,” she says, looking down, “Sorry I’m just still not used to calling myself by this here ‘private’ thing. I only been enlisted for uh... well, I met the President on accident, so now I’m here.”

“It’s no problem,” I say easily, with a jostle to her side to get her to look up and meet my eyes, “My name’s Meadowsweet.”

Her eyes widen at that, as she says, “Oh you’re the civvie who’s some kinda magical earth pony that they was talking about, right?”

“...every earth pony is magical,” I grumble, “I just got a little extra magical for a little bit there.”

“Well, no worries,” she replies with a smile, “What can I help you with?”

My sweat’s already starting to freeze as we stand here outside, so I look around, saying, “You wanna go somewhere warm to talk?”

There is some nice heating in the buildings, at least. Apparently the old sawmill had been heated using scrap wood, and the insulated piping for that was still in place when they put these buildings in. Stick some radiators to that, and you can heat a good sized area. So she takes me into her apartment, where the air is toasty warm, and thankfully there’s no one else in here.

“So um... West, can I call you West?” I ask Private Westville, “Since we aren’t using uh... first names.”

“Oh, yeah, you. Uh...” she says, lifting a deceptively dainty looking hoof, still crusted on the bottom with snow despite kicking it off when we came in. “That’s about right,” she settles on eventually.

“So I um... was talking to... Charger,” I tell her with a sympathetic wince.

“Who’s that?” she asks with a confused head tilt. Really?

“He’s a green unicorn stallion, with an orange mane and tail,” I offer cautiously, “You might’ve... run into him before.”

She might have purple fur, but West’s entire face is blushing red now.

“It’s okay if you, um...!” I reassure her unreassuringly, lifting an appeasing foreleg, “I just wanted to know if you’ve been getting... sick lately.”

“Sick?” she asks faintly, giving me a sideways look.

“Especially in the mornings, just having an upset stomach, getting dizzy, feeling... strange,” I list for her, “Stranger than usual, I mean.”

“N-no I haven’t,” she says in befuddlement, “Is there something going around?”

“You could say that,” I reply with my ears going flat in self-disgust. “So you’re... probably not pregnant then.”

“O-o-oh,” she replies lamely, turned so sideways, she’s looking away from me entirely behind herself, ears dropping.

“...do you have anyone to talk about it with?” I ask her less than hopefully.

“N-no, uh, I uh—” her voice catches as though she was about to cry. I am totally screwing this up! Maybe if I don’t talk about her?

“I used to be a man, just in case that isn’t clear,” I tell her, “And I got... pregnant one day. M-maybe more than once, even.”

At least her ear is turned my way.

“It was... really amazing,” I continue, “I couldn’t hold back, and neither could he. It was a lot different than... doing it as a guy.”

“Why are you telling me about this?” West asks looking at me in a fearful puzzlement.

“Because you feel bad about what happened,” I tell her urgently, “And maybe it is a bad thing, but I want you to know I know how you feel, and if you need someone to talk to...”

“How could you know?” she asks in a hurt tone, “Yours didn’t just... started doing you without even asking,”

Well crap, I sure hope I’ve managed to stop Dr. Browning’s behavior.

“A-actually my stallion did, but I wanted it at the time,” I tell her, “Did you... want it?”

“No, I... started... wanting it,” she admits guiltily, looking away.

“After he was inside?” I ask.

She nods, looking severly troubled.

“That happened to me too,” I gingerly admit, “So it’s alright if it makes you start wanting it. Not like it makes him any less of a jerk, right?”

The private might have a shadow of a smile at that.

“It sure is a rush when your urges take you,” I sing to her fondly, “Your fears and worries melt away. You start to feel the girl it makes you, to be like that, it’s all okay.”

“What we did is not okay though,” she sings bleakly, “I couldn’t make myself say no,”

“What that man did was not okay,” I retort as the song picks up in earnest, “What’s okay is what you do! You stop wanting to get away, wanting a foal when he cums in you,”

She looks like she might nod, at least.

“Well that’s okay, it’s all alright,” I sing to her encouragingly, a jaunty little tune as I prance in a circle around her “The difference between day and night! Nice guy, mean guy, doesn’t matter. It’s still okay if you want to get fatter. Then freak out after the urge to breed, thinking about want or need.

“Because it’s not your fault at all,” I continue, “When you’re heeding Nature’s call. You didn’t stop having a vagina overnight. Don’t blame yourself for his mistake, it’s just not right!”

“I really started wanting to have a kid!” she sings in distressful protest, “But I’m scared of all that screaming pain. I freaked out after what I did!”

“In a heartbeat, would you go again?” I sing wryly.

At her blushing non-answer, I continue, saying, “When I freaked out from being mated, the scariest was wanting more. Even in my fear belated, even knowing what’s in store. Your belly gets bigger deep inside. Then one day you’ll find you just can’t stop, your contractions pulling your cervix wide, they say you can feel your own foal drop.”

She listens in fascination, as I relate to her something I’ve never experienced, reiterating, “But still it’s not your fault at all, when you’re heeding Nature’s call. You didn’t stop having a vagina overnight. Don’t blame yourself for his mistake, it’s just not right!”

“But I don’t want to be a mother!” she sings fretfully, “Why me, and not some unlucky other?”

“It doesn’t matter why it’s you,” I reply, crossing before her to face her seriously, “It’s just less scary when you think it through.”

Presenting my butt for her, I declare, “Your body’s made to have a child! You can give birth if it’s in the cards. I hear it feels pretty wild, just stand there, stretching, pushing hard, soon your foal’s just hanging out of you. You keep on pushing till it’s through. Your brand new foal will start to nurse, while you push out the afterbirth. This is something you can do. And if he doesn’t ask before he takes you, well...”

I lean in her direction, tilting my eyebrows at her expectantly.

“What we did is not my fault at all,” she sings with a shy smile, “If I’m just heeding Nature’s call. I didn’t stop having a vagina overnight. I can’t blame myself for his mistake. I’ll just give birth, and”

And we sing together, “It will be... all...right~!”

...

“And to be fair, he only did it once, right?” I ask.

She nods.

“If you go three weeks without feeling seriously funny, they you should be fine,” I assure her, “So just forget about him, and don’t be afraid to kick a stallion who tries to rape you. If you do, then I will personally find a stallion to impregnate you, who isn’t a rapist at all. So you don’t have to worry about missing your chance.”

“Thanks, that’s... comforting, I think,” she says with a cautious stiffness to her tail base.

“I mean I’ll do my best, at least...” I say sheepishly. “I’ve just had some luck with that recently.”

“Say, weren’t we singing just now?” she asks in a curious sort of surprise.

“Huh, I guess we were...” I reply bemusedly, “I hadn’t even thought about it. Ponies are pretty awesome, huh?”

“A lot more awesome then I thought they were when I woke up as one,” West says with a quirky smile.

“It was bar none the weirdest song I have ever sang in my life though,” I admit, going over the grotesquely bizarre yet catchy lyrics, wondering how I come up with this stuff.

“I definitely should stick to show tunes,” West agrees, with a sympathetic wince.

Through some combination of scheming, total honesty, putting up with jerks, and spontaneous urges to break out into song, I think I manage to play a part in saving Artemis’s marriage. Oh and Brian seems to be the first pegasus I know who loves getting double teamed. So Mira and her earth pony endurance can stuff it.

I’m shocked to see Charger approach me one day, the big stallion blushing shyly to a halt and saying, “Meadowsweet, I... I wanted to thank you. I was out of control and all this time all I had to do was keep... being with the same women. Artemis told me about how you helped, and even West said you talked to her. I haven’t been able to stop being aroused this whole time, and now I’m... not.”

“I... uhm... why?” I ask in wary confusion, taking a step back from the womanizing stallion.

“I never understood why guys stayed with their girls,” he says earnestly, “But with Brian, and when West came back to me—”

“Wait, West came back to you??” I blurt out.

“Yes, she said you... helped,” Charger says uncertainly, “And they’ve been asking others, and I dunno how Artemis and I are gonna deal with six, but... but I don’t have to hide it anymore. I can go back to them, and get to know them. You guys need to do it, to stop being horny! I wasn’t getting a boner for...just for sex, I also had to sleep with them and say sweet things to them, all that sappy romantic guy stuff. I don’t even wanna have sex with you!”

“Oh, that’s... nice?” I say, uncertain of whether I should be relieved or insulted by that.

“Because I know Brian’s there if I need it, and if she’s not there’s West, or Alan. A-alan came back to me too,” the stallion says, “I had to thank you because I’ve been feeling great all week and I’m not so bloody horny anymore. Without your help, I... I might’ve lost Artemis. And everyone else.”

Wiping at his eyes, Charger says in a shaky voice, “So... so thanks, I wanted to tell you. And keep on... doing what you do.” Then he well... charges off. And I... don’t even know how to feel about it. I wasn’t even trying to help him. Just give him a little scare, so he wouldn’t stray as much. I don’t feel like I deserve the praise, but at the same time I did help him, and it’s amazing if he can just come up and thank me for it.

...sappy romantic guy stuff?

Well, none of us earth ponies can feel any weird space folding happening anywhere around that portal, but the scientists say it’s okay because it just means the ends of the portal are very far apart, or even in different universes, natch. We can’t really open the Equestrian portal without unicorns on the other side, and apparently we aren’t there yet in negotiations. I get the impression it’s our side that’s reluctant to provide the unicorns, but I’m still not privvy to the top secret negotiations, so it’s just my impression by how the people are are acting about it.

Somehow I think that no matter what we did about that portal to Equestria, it would go terribly wrong. We ponies in our secret military base practice observing the Equestrian portal. Not opening it, observing. We’re not stupid. Ignorant, maybe. Foolish. Desperate. But not stupid. With what we’ve learned so far, we could probably open it within a week’s time, given some help from the other side, and it is so urgent that we do so before a certain somepony can destroy it. But with the amount of care the military are taking, I can understand if it takes a few months of thinking things through, before we actually get to see into Equestria, even after we have the ability to do so.

Fortunately, we once again have to rush things for the sake of that damnable mare, Twilight Sparkle.

They don’t tell us she’s been sighted, but the rumor goes around anyway, especially around me. I’ve been getting this nasty habit of kind of... curiously, coincidentally listening in on people talking about that stuff, even when they think they’re alone. I don’t hear concrete facts about Twilight, but... people know she’s a growing threat, and that she may have been warned about our base up here. If any of us leaked that info, the humanity of the whole world could be doomed.

I know I’m pretty sure I’ve come to know so much classifed information just by the rumor mill that under normal circumstances, they’d have to lock me in an isolation cell to keep me from blabbing their precious secrets. Not that I’m grateful Twilight caused a massive global crisis or anything, but I’m certainly glad these are not normal circumstances. Never again....

Lucy tells me she heard some of the soldiers talking about how Twilight Sparkle was heard interrogating someone out in a nearby town, right in the earshot of someone who knew about our base back here. No reports that Twilight Sparkle knows our exact location, though if she did it’d probably be pretty obvious. The portal would be destroyed, the remaining humans wouldn’t be humans, and Twilight would be laughing at us again.

So things are rushed along, and negotiations hastened, and one day all the best of us are in the portal chamber, ready to try and coordinate an experiment with the Equestrian unicorns on the other side. And I really wanna see it, but... I guess it makes sense that I wouldn’t be directly involved. Someone needs to be the first line of defense, after all. Plus I know Twilight Sparkle on a personal level, so I’m less likely to fall for her tricks.

Thus everyone gets to do incredibly exciting cross dimensional experimentation, and I get to guard the door. All the scientists are in on the experiment at least, maybe a few other ponies. Sue, Mira and Lucy are all sheltering in our apartment without me, and of Dusty’s mares, uh... well, Daredevil is in the portal chamber, helping guard the scientists. I’m at the door at least, but the other 6 of my friends and loveds are just waiting out the storm elsewhere in other buildings. I kind of miss them.

I’m not the only one stuck guarding doors, but I’m the only one at this entrance, and it is the main entrance, I suppose. Just a precaution, they said. It’s boring as heck, and I want to help out somewhere else, but I don’t protest. I know that this would be the absolute worst time for Twilight Sparkle to show up, so of course she’s gonna.

It’s really boring to wait. I’m all alone standing in the entryway lobby thing, next to that reception desk that’s taller than my head. Tempted to flop out on my side, I just feel too on-edge to really relax. They’re doing something so important deeper within the building. I can feel it. And I just don’t know what could possibly go wrong.

There’s no way Twilight would even come here today! A nasty blizzard moved in yesterday, and it’s already dumped out a foot of snow. Enough to reach to my belly that’s for sure, and nothing makes me regret being a girl more than sinking up to my labia in powdery snow. It’s about as pleasant as kissing a snowman. I can’t say I’d rather be a guy though, because they’ve got testicles down there, and I don’t even want to think about how it feels to freeze your nuts off. It doesn’t seem to bother Sue or Dusty, at least? Okay, Sue did complain once by laying his cold testicles on my face and going on about how warm I was. I just rolled my eyes, beneath the furry nut sack lying against them, acting like I wasn’t enjoying it. His junk does feel kind of... adorable though. It’s so silky soft to the touch. ♥

The blizzard’s bad enough to have us locked us down in our buildings, for the most part, and it’s been going on for quite a while. So I guess we’re safe from Twilight. Even if she somehow realizes what we’re doing, I can’t imagine she’d risk the blizzard just to keep us from communicating better with Equestria. She’d just bide her time, and destroy the portal when the weather wasn’t too dangerous to travel in. Or run away, or hide, or find another world to portal to. Not even Princess Celestia could find Twilight on the entire whole planet Earth, I think. Especially with negotiations over jurisdictions and national borders and stuff.

We’re not even opening the portal all the way this time, either, so there’s nothing to worry about! It’s just a test run, where we’re going to widen the portal to just about a dime’s width, just enough to fit a borescopic camera through, to get our first look at the other side. So no problem, right? There’s no reason to think the Equestrians are going to even do anything bad!

Even if we’re not willing to open the portal all the way like they want, the Equestrians still agree to help. To gain our trust, I suppose. Not that someone’s more trustworthy just because they look good on camera, but it’s definitely a good first step. The procedure shouldn’t have a lot of fanfare either, just poking a tube through a hole basically. The President isn’t here, or even the General, since we’re just testing this time. We’ve all been in the portal chamber, so none of this is secret anymore. After they’re all done and packed up, I should be allowed to see the footage of this experiment, at least.

It’s still frustrating though. I have to just stand here, far from the portal chamber, guarding the door against a unicorn who isn’t there, while incredible things are happening behind me. I can feel the power of the pegasi holding back the winds from our walls with whispers of their wings, all those people in the portal chamber, pouring their magic into it, earth ponies and unicorns alike. Bat ponies doing a lot of the fine manipulation with their mobility and their dextrous wing claws. All for opening a tiny hole across impossible, infinite distances, into a whole new world. A whole universe parallel to our own, where the show is real, and we’re as fictional in their world as they are in ours.

...

They’re sure taking their good sweet time of it.

I’m still bored to tears waiting for some muffled cheers deeper within, or for the sense of prodigious power coming from there to fall back to normal levels, or a failed experiment, or an explosion, or anything, when my ear moves toward... the door outside.

From laying on my side, I leap to my hooves as I hear a distinct crunch crunch of walking through the snow approaching the building. No one huddled in the apartments should have been out here. Everyone who was supposed to be in the laboratory is inside. It can’t be. This is literally the worst possible moment of all the possible moments for—I hear the tinkling of magic. I can hear her chanting maniacally as she approaches, “No, no, no, no, no...”

The tinkling grows to a shrill humm, just like the moment before any unicorn teleports, but more powerful than I’ve ever felt before. The ripple goes way past me, deeper into the building. I don’t know who’s outside, but I know exactly who’s outside, and I know what she’s doing!

Kicking out, I connect with the... thing, and Twilight Sparkle bursts into existence right in time for my hoof to connect, sending her tumbling into a heap.

She barely even acts like she feels it, not that there was any force behind my kick. Twilight Sparkle snaps to crouching on all fours in a single movement, her shrunken irises staring daggers at me as a single word drips out of her mouth with a oozing hatred, “You! ”

Her Twilight Sparkle disguise must be slipping, because she looks like a demon. Her coat is dry and dull, her limbs are thin and almost skeletal, and her dissheveled, uncombed hair hangs limply over her face. Her teeth are showing, her s-sharp and pointy fangs as she growls, “What. Are you doing here?”

“What are you doing here?” I yell at her in return, trying not to curl my tail between my legs.

“That’s none of your business,” she says with a disgusting sneer, trying to leap past me, and I... I actually grab her, and pull her back and force her down into a leg lock that I’ve been practicing. “Let me go!” she shouts.

“Do you think I’m stupid?” I tell that stupid unicorn, who lights up her horn and blasts me right off of her. Landing on my hooves, I tell her furiously, “You can’t trick me again! I’ve been training every day to... to stop you!”

“I–I swear I’m not trying to trick you this time!” Twilight says, staring at me in a new light, eyes wide with what I hope is fear. “We’re all friends here, right?” she says with a nervous smile, “This is just a harmless prank right?” then her face just contorts in rage, as she bellows, “Get out of my way you idiot, I have to stop this!”

She blasts me with a stunning spell that I’ve never felt before, it just crushes me to the ground and I feel like every inch of my body is paralyzed. But I don’t... let myself be paralyzed. I manage to hook my foreleg around her hind leg and yank her bodily backwards as she tries to walk past me. She’s so light, she just collapses like a bundle of sticks when she loses her balance. Is this a fake Twilight? Some kind of golem made out of sticks?!

Twilight’s actually struggling to stand almost as much as I am this time, shouting, “You absolute fucking retard, you are ruining everything! I’ll kill you, if you don’t get out of my way! I will not hesitate to use lethal force! Do you want to be a statistic?!”

“You’re hesitating now!” I protest.

“I don’t want to hurt you Meadowsweet!” she outright implores me, actually managing to pretend to look upset, “Can’t you see what they’re doing? They’re sacrificing you so that I can kill you just so that you can stall... oh no you can’t stall me oh no nonono”

Her horn lights up, and Twilight starts to teleport past me again, and I don’t know why I feel terrible for doing this, but I kick out again, interrupting her teleport to unceremoniously dump her out in front of me again. “How did you learn that?!” she screeches angrily, stalking sideways to me.

“I’ve l-learned a lot!” I tell her furiously, “More than you ever taught me. I have real magic even though I’m just an earth pony, and I can defend myself too!”

Snarling openly, Twilight looks like she’s gonna leap at me to tear out my throat! She looks like she thinks I’m going to tear out her throat! She looks half dead! What happened to her? We stalk in a slow circle, as she searches me for any weakness, and I shout to her, “What happened to you? Why did you betray us? Why did you turn everyone into ponies?”

“Of course, they...” Twilight says staring at me with a blood curdling smile, “They taught you too. They taught you all the secrets. They told you everything.”

“Y-you need to stand ac-countable for your c-crimes against Equestria,” I whimper, when I should be just jumping her, and... and doing something. Instead, I do nothing. Twilight lights up her horn, and we’re not sparring anymore. She’s not just gonna shock me or make me think I’m a pigeon. I don’t want to die! I start to desperately leap at her as Twilight Sparkle vanishes in a burst of purple light. She—! I can’t...!

I land on thin air, and I kick out, but... she’s not teleporting past me! We circled around and now my back is to the door outside and her traces vanish away from me. There’s nothing I can do! Twilight teleports further into the complex, and all I can do is charge after her, screaming as loud as I can, “Twilight Sparkle! She’s here!”

Running in a panic through the halls, not even stopping to open the doors, I’m still not fast enough, as I hear another tinkling teleport, and then another, and then I’m at the door to the portal chamber while on the other side of the wall, Twilight Sparkle teleports inside.

Bursting through the door, I shout again, “Twilight Spar—!” only to step back at the sight therein. Daredevil and another pony have Twilight Sparkle pinned flat on the floor, and Daredevil outright has her teeth on Twilight’s horn. The unicorns surrounding the portal to Equestria look almost serene, if they weren’t straining, their brows dripping with sweat as the glow from their horns flows around them. There’s some big metal... thing that three earth ponies are using to fuel the unicorns with special energy, and I think it’s actually working, because I can see a shining disc of white light glowing above the sealed cassette tape.

“No!!” Twilight screeches, reaching towards it with a hoof, “You are ruining everything! I haven’t found her yet! She’ll kill us all!”

Artemis has dropped his clipboard, staring at Twilight Sparkle in horror.

“Abort the test!” Dr. Peterson squeals, “Abort the—”

All the unicorns yelp at once as the portal jumps to about the size, not of a dime, but more like a quarter’s diameter. I can only see this portal’s bright white ring, with darkness beyond it. Twilight kicks Daredevil then, somehow hard enough that the earth pony goes flying, then just... shoves the other pony off her, and lights up her horn. Our unicorns are struggling, tearing their horns out of the magic field one after another, but Twilight shrieks, “No! It’s too late!”

I don’t know what to do! Twilight Sparkle is standing there alone and vulnerable, but she’s not attacking anyone. Between us and the wavering portal she faces it, her horn blazing like a star. Then everything starts to make sense, as through that hole in space, a long, slim black spire extends and extends, burning with a strange, dark fire.

“Run!!” Twilight screams as the portal explodes, tossing everyone across the room like ragdolls. I land hard, scraping across the floor as the portal bursts open wider and wider, cutting through the walls like a buzz saw, and the ceiling...!

I don’t even think. I just jump, kicking a falling fragment of the ceiling above me to smash another chunk of masonry away from falling down on top of someone. Everyone’s screaming, unicorn magic is shoving falling debris out of the way, and the whole ceiling just comes down on top of us! I throw a heavy support beam off of my back, about to go help those buried, when a horribly familiar voice behind me causes me to freeze on the spot. I don’t want to look back. I don’t want to look back. I try not to look back. I fail.

“Ah, my beloved subjects,” says an impossibly tall winged unicorn, black as night, stepping elegantly through the immense portal, beyond which I can see now an endless army of grim looking ponies in dark armor and perfect formation.

“It’s been so long, I was wondering whether you were going to invite me at all,” Nightmare Moon says in a deep, mocking tone that drives its chill deep into my bones. “And it seems some of you survived,” she says, her catlike eyes fixing powerfully on my own.

Then she turns away from us, striding gracefully back through the portal, saying casually over her shoulder, “Kill them all.”

“Yes, my Queen,” Sergeant Roberts says quietly, along with one other.

It’s only then that I notice the humans in the room. Two humans, on either side of the portal room, in full uniform, looking out for any need to defend the experiment from any purple unicorns who come to call. One of them, I recognize, but it doesn’t matter at all, because there’s another horribly familiar deafening crack, and Lucy goes down screaming, because those two have lifted their assault rifles and opened fire on us. Holly tries to get away and they just cut her down right out of the air and I can’t take it anymore I have to get away I don’t want to die!!

I wish I could say bullets are whizzing past me, but they aren’t, because they don’t. There’s only this ear bleeding crack, and then a horrible smoking hole appears out of nowhere, wherever the gun was pointed. That’s how fast bullets move. The gun doesn’t point at me though. How can they not point at me? They’re busy killing everyone else, while I run for my life, scrambling up the piles of fallen debris, leaping until I’m climbing up all the way up onto the roof, out of the crumbling, ruined building this portal tore open. The creaking roof beneath me terrifies me, as I gallop down its slope and leap, flying off the roof to somersault into the thickest snow bank I could find in two seconds.

It’s not enough! The sounds of gunshots continue, and they’re gonna hunt me down and kill me! I have to get out! I bound through the snow as fast as I can, and it feels like the naked trees around me are howling monsters as the wind whips through their branches and blasts me with flakes of chilling cold. I run, and I run, and I run, and I can’t escape!

Finally... lost, and doomed to die in the cold, my heart just can’t take it. I stumble to a halt, wracked with sobs as they just... they just killed them! I’m not bleeding. There are no holes in me, trailing blood in the snow, only a long, broad abrasion along my side, where the jagged edge of the roof scraped me as I struggled up on top of it. How is that possible? All those people die and I only get a scratch? I-it’s the biggest scratch I’ve ever gotten, and my yellow fur is darkening with blood but... what?

What just happened?

What??

I start stumbling forward, desperately wading through the unmarked snow. Everything around me is icy, howling and white. I can barely see through the endless rain of terrible snowflakes. The sky is dark with them, the thick clouds showing no sign of abating.

I’m shivering by the time I find a road. I’m not bleeding, because the blood is flaking off me as little red bits of frozen ice. I can’t feel my legs. I... I need to get out of this snow. I need to find somewhere to keep warm. Somewhere to hide from that... thing. The show does not do her justice. The show does not do her justice. Her sharp teeth and her evil eyes, and that contemptuous hatred that burned in them. She was everything that ever scared me about the dark, a true nightmare given shape and form. I’ve never been so scared in all my life. Even thinking about how scared I was is terrifying.

I follow the road, hoping and praying it’s not the one that leads back to our secret laboratory. I never want to see that place again as long as I live. She was just killing my... my friends and... I sink into the snow in confused sobs again, unable to save them, unable to stop that look in Holly’s eyes, when she... died. When everything betrayed her, even her own body, all I could do was run away.

I force myself to walk again, hating myself for being the stupid, weak, helpless coward that I am, and always have been. I don’t want to die. I don’t deserve to die. This snowy road numbing my legs, and making my teeth chatter is my Hell, and I’ve just landed in it to suffer for all eternity, for being such a loser that not even God can forgive me.

A side road emerges from the formless white. Not even a road, just a driveway, winding into the trees to the left of me. A driveway means houses though, which means shelter, which means survival. Maybe I can warn anyone who lives there of... o-of what we did. Again.

How could we have been so stupid? I fight my way down the driveway, hating myself, my friends, and my government. It’s so obvious. Of course everyone in Equestria is just as evil as Twilight. We just connected to some stupid nega-Equestria, where her sociopathic behavior was the norm. Of course they knew how to open the portal after we got it started for them. We should have found a way to test it while they didn’t know we were there. Why did we trust them to help us?

I just don’t know how things went so wrong, so quickly. We just... let Nightmare Moon just walk into our world, and now? I just don’t know. Is she going to hunt me down? I don’t know. Why didn’t she try to negotiate? I don’t know. Why were the humans killing us? Mind control? There’s no way they’ve been on her side all along, is there? I don’t know what’s going to happen, but Holly and Lucy, and probably everyone I love is dead, and... I don’t even know if anyone at all survived, because I ran away. I got lost, and now I’m approaching not houses, but...

As I trudge forward, a huge dark shadow looms out of the blizzard in front of me, and for a moment as the wind whips through my mane and tail, I fear it to be something even bigger and more evil than Nightmare Moon. But the dark hulk is just a building: a huge, wooden barn, sagging slightly amid the overgrown forest that now crowds closely around it. I suppose it makes sense there’d be abandoned property out here in the middle of nowhere. Places like this don’t stay populated long, especially not with the constant pull to live in the increasingly dense cities.

The door into the barn is... not exactly attached, just stuck lying askew, partially blocking the doorway. I squeeze under it and the howling wind vanishes around me. The icy white snow turns to cool, blue darkness. A cloud of snow bursts off me as I shake like a dog, and I don’t even care, because I’ve done that reflexively since turning into a pony, and it’s probably the least weird thing I do.

I’m still shivering, and all four of my legs are numb, but I find some... some straw left over from whatever livestock were kept in here. Walking on it, my hooves work it loose so I can scrape the straw over myself, sinking into the ancient dead strands, like the scratchiest blanket ever created. But it works. I slowly stop shivering. My legs start tingling and throbbing. My side hurts. I wish I could start a fire, but I don’t have... Holly...

I dig further into the straw, wanting to hide from... everything, and just feeling dead inside. What was I supposed to do? All that horrible stuff just happened so fast, even though I wish it wasn’t so. What do I do now? Do I sneak back? Can I sneak back? Maybe I’m super sneaky, so not even Nightmare Moon will notice I’m there? Maybe I’m just full of it. What would I even do if I got there? Pick open their iron manacles with a hairpin in my teeth? She was just killing them! She wasn’t even capturing them, or talking to them. We would have talked with her! We would have negotiated with her, no matter how black or scary she was, as long as she treated us nicely! She just... Lucy’s scream...

There’s a crunching in the snow outside, just some wild animal stupid enough to be out in this weather. And by stupid wild animal I mean a fellow pony, since deer and rabbits are far too smart to be caught out in the year’s first big snowstorm. It’s Nightmare Moon! It can’t be! I’m paralyzed with fear as the other door to the barn groans and clunks, then barely slides open. I didn’t even think to check for a back door. I remain hidden, as the pony softly clops forward in the dark shadows, looking around suspiciously, then lighting up her... horn.

No. No it couldn’t... possibly be her. Not again. Again. Again! I recognize that glow though, that distinctive purple glow. Or... not exactly purple, but... purplish?

From where I am buried in the straw, I watch a little purple unicorn named Twilight Sparkle quietly gather a pile of branches by an open window, and with a spark of her horn, start a fire. She clears out any loose hay from the area with a whoosh of her magic, but it doesn’t reach the pile of hay containing me. She’ll kill me if I reveal myself. She’ll... will she kill me? I foiled her plans though! Or did I? Wasn’t Twilight planning on handing off our planet to her... her queen?

The deranged unicorn sits her bony rump in front of the fire, facing away from me as she stares into it, and she too is shivering. Shivering in the soft sighs that are her real voice. Not exactly the one from the show, but the similar voice I learned so well, when she was my friend. Our friend. In the heat of the fire, her shivering evens out, as I gaze out at her from my hiding spot, and Twilight Sparkle begins to cry.

It’s worse than crying, because she tries not to. A choked sob escapes her and she swallows, sniffling as she rubs her foreleg across her nose. “Why—” Twilight croaks, and her voice sinks into another sob. She stiffens, trying to take in a deep breath and release it, but her breath shudders as she does, and in the end she just gives up, defeated, hunched there on her haunches, sobbing bitterly into the fire before her.

Something is wrong.

It doesn’t make sense. She caused all this. She orchestrated it! But there’s nobody around to cry crocodile tears in front of. Why is Twilight crying? Is she just crying like a petulant child, upset that a bigger kid came along to take away her toy? Why does she sound so full of grief then?

The straw makes no noise when I slip out of it, because I don’t want it to. I might be able to make my way out of the barn without her ever knowing I was here. But instead I draw nearer. Why? Twilight Sparkle doesn’t deserve anything; not respect, nor trust, nor even pity. She could have just warned us about Nightmare Moon, and we wouldn’t have opened the portal. She could have just stayed with us, and gotten pardoned with us, and wait no that wouldn’t have worked at all. But Twilight could’ve done so much good, and she didn’t. She ruined everything. Any decent person would just kill her now, before she could cause any more harm.

I think I may be a horrible person.

“Twilight—” I start to say as Twilight heaves in a shocked gasp, and falls to her side, craning her thin neck around to stare at me frozen in fear, with shrinking purple irises, her cheek fur wet with tears. Flickering firelight paints her side in its orange glow.

I don’t even protest at this point. I worked hard to get this sneaky, even if I seem naturally inclined to do so. I don’t even know what to say to her, or why I’m even doing this. My best guess is I’m a horrible person, and quite insane, possibly thanks in part to Twilight’s transformative cookies. “...hi,” I tell her with a weak wave of my foreleg.

As her speechless silence ends, Twilight’s irises return to normal, her body subtly relaxes, and her eyes dull. She climbs back up to a sitting position, turns back to the fire. “I don’t even care anymore,” she murmurs flatly, then stares silently at it, while I come and stand by the fire in view of the evil unicorn. I kind of want to sit down beside her, and give her a hug. I don’t know why.

The fire’s heat quickly warms me more than any old moldy straw ever could. I notice Twilight’s even dug out a little pit in the ground, to keep the fire contained. That’s smart. Don’t want the fire to reach the walls after all. Where did she learn that?

“Why are you here?” Twilight suddenly cuts in coldly. “To kill me?” the sickly purple unicorn asks bitterly, “You missed your chance there.”

“I didn’t come here to kill you, no,” I mumble, staring into the fire.

“Why then?!” Twilight shouts angrily into my right ear, and I look at Twilight, but she’s glaring fixedly at the fire again, not me, “Why do you keep coming back?” Twilight angrily asks the fire, “Are you that stupid? Why aren’t you screaming at me? Why are you acting like I have done nothing to fuck you over? Why are you here?!”

I don’t think she wants to know that I just randomly wandered into the same barn as her, to get out of the snow, but there’s nothing else to explain. It seems so self evident why I’m standing here with the unicorn, even though it’s so hard to put into words exactly what I’m feeling. Feeling like I’m totally lame for describing it wrong, I answer haltingly, “I just thought—you looked like you could... use a friend, right now.”

Twilight turns to me, meeting mine with her beautiful violet eyes. Her mouth slightly opens as if to speak, as she gives me a look that somehow manages to be uncomprehending and understanding at the same time. Her eyes fill with tears again though, and Twilight Sparkle angrily wipes them off with a foreleg, staring into the fire again.

“Twilight, I’m... sorry,” I say with ears low, taking a step her way.

“You couldn’t possibly have known what would come through that portal,” Twilight says dismissively in an empty voice, “I made sure of that. You’re giving yourself way too much credit if you think this is your fault.”

“No, I mean I’m sorry for treating you like Twilight Sparkle,” I tell her in wistful regret. Twilight turns an ear my way, so I continue, “When I found a purple unicorn out in the snow, I thought—”

“Lilac,” she grumbles, turning her ear back.

“Okay?” I reply uncertainly, “But I thought my greatest hero had just appeared before me. I took you in and... treated you like someone you’re not.”

Twilight just stares into the fire.

“If I had known, maybe we could’ve worked together,” I plead to her, “Maybe you wouldn’t have had to hide from me. I–I don’t know why all those things you did were to save the world, but it seems pretty obvious now that you were just trying to stop your true enemy, Nightmare Moon.”

Twilight jerks her gaze at me to give me a conflicted look, then just sighs, glaring into the fire again.

“Maybe we could have defeated her without turning the whole world into ponies,” I speculate, “Maybe we could have worked together with all the governments of the world, to give people a choice to become a pony or not!”

Twilight doesn’t seem to want to speculate.

The wind is moaning overhead as the storm whips through the trees surrounding the barn we’re hiding in. Sitting here by a fire with Twilight Sparkle, I tell her with immense conflict in my heart, “Turning into a pony was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. It was the greatest thing that ever happened to a lot of people. But... changing everyone against their will? You were laughing when you betrayed your friends!”

Twilight only responds by flinching, ducking her head guiltily low with her ears laying back against her head. Is she ever going to speak to me again?

“I guess I just couldn’t see that there was still some good in you,” I tell her mournfully, “I did everything I could to stop you, when I didn’t even know what you were doing in the first place. I know you’re not the same purple unicorn I came to love from the show, but I think I could have loved the real you too. You have just as much right to be that wonderful, magical purple unicorn as she does. Maybe you just had to deal with things she never had to face. When I first met you, I thought ‘That’s Twilight Sparkle!’ but I should have seen you and thought, ‘I wonder who that purple pony is?’ You may have purple fur, and a purple mane, but it wasn’t right for me to—”

“I am lilac!” Twilight Sparkle literally snaps at me, as the hideously skinny mare practically takes off my nose, making me scramble back from almost hugging her. Then she stands on her hooves, her glare full of fire as she stomps the ground, shouting at me, “Lilac! Lilac! Lilac! ”

Throwing her head up and pacing away from me around the fire, she gripes to the ceiling, “I am lilac, and all you stupid humans keep calling me purple. I am not purple, I am lilac! You care so much about skin tone, but soon as a pony’s fur is another color, you can’t even be bothered to get it right!”

Around the fire to glare in my face me again, she accuses, “Didn’t you all spend the last half of a year as ponies, and you never once thought that maybe you need to be little more specific in your description of somepony’s color? That maybe it is incredibly insulting that somepony thinks you look like a grape popsicle, when you are clearly lilac? I am not purple. I am lilac!”

“What’s lilac??” I ask in terror, afraid to even move enough to push her away from pressing her snout against mine.

“What?!” she announces in outrage, backing up a little at least to look at me in measured fuming.

“I d-don’t know what lilac is, sorry,” I tell her, cringing away.

“You... you don’t... you really don’t know what lilac is,” she says, staring at me in amazement.

I nervously shake my head.

“Wh—but I know what lilac is!” Twilight sputters, “How could—how could you not know? Haven’t you ever read about it in a book before?”

“Maybe? I don’t read a lot of books,” I tell her as full of remorse as a sort of yellow and sort of green little pony can be, “I’m more of a movie buff. I didn’t even know it was so important to you. I-is lilac the color of your fur, or your mane?”

Giving me a silently thoughtful look, Twilight Sparkle says evenly, “Lilac is the color of my fur. People keep thinking it’s purple, and... honestly doesn’t it look more blue than purple?”

“Compared to... Rainbow Dash?” I ask skeptically.

A weary laugh escapes Twilight as she says, “Fair enough. Well, for your information, I have lilac fur, and my mane is indigo blue.” With an exaggerated groan, the unicorn paces agitatedly away from the fire across the barn while saying, “You would not believe how many humans think my hair is purple. It has a purple eye band, and that’s it. The vast majority of it is undoubtedly, definitely blue.”

“And the pink stripe?” I ask curiously, following the demonic looking unicorn away from the relative warmth of that tiny flame. “I mean—um, or—w-whatever color it is.”

“It’s my sparkle band, and it’s a deep rose magenta,” Twilight says, looking at her ragged tail somewhat dejectedly, where the two bands of color still retain some definition, “If my magic were the same color as my eyes, they would just be one band of color. It’s very rare to have two.”

“Do know what color I am?” I ask her hopefully. At her look of surprise, I blush and admit, “I don’t know what my colors are other than yellow a-and green, but it’s a weird green, and there’s this grey stripe in it. Does that mean my magic is grey? But my eyes are red! I–I just don’t know much about colors.”

Twilight’s big conical ears go down, as she shivers, saying with surprising demurity, “Normally a pony would study what their colors were, and tell anypony who asked. I don’t think anypony ever asked me what their colors were.” With a wistful look my way, she says mournfully, “You really are a human, aren’t you.”

“Yeah, I was,” I say, and I can’t help but notice how much she’s shivering. It almost looks like her body is going to fall apart on the spot, so I ask, “You wanna... go sit by the fire again?”

Bowing her head, Twilight looks so defeated as she stalks back to the little fire, staring into its life giving warmth as she sinks to her haunches. It doesn’t look like she has much life left to give. As I approach, Twilight remarks,

“You’re some sort of creamy yellow. Custard comes to mind. Your mane is a medium aquamarine, I’d say, which is not green. Your stripes... I dunno, beige? They’re pretty desaturated. And your eyes are a ruby red. They look...”

Twilight Sparkle looks into my eyes for a moment, before turning away and just silently staring into the fire.

“C-can I... is it alright if I sit by you?” I ask her politely, and maybe a bit desperately. She needs... she needs something.

Hanging her head wearily, Twilight groans, “Why not...”

I come sit beside her, wrapping my tail around the unicorn’s bony rear, while Twilight pokes at the fire with a stick in her magic. The unicorn mare sounds on the edge of tears again as she continues looking away from me and asking the fire bitterly, “Why not? Why not just sit here with you? All my plans have been ruined, and there’s nothing I can do about it now, so it’s not like I have anything better to do.”

At Twilight’s heartbreaking despair, I gingerly suggest, “Well, you could...”

“What?” she asks, sparing me a disgusted glance, “What more do you want from me?”

“I–I just had a few questions,” I nervously reply, “About... everything.”

Twilight Sparkle sighs, but at least she doesn’t snap at me. “Go ahead,” she says listlessly, “I can’t imagine what questions you’d have for me at this point, but I’ll tell you whatever I know.”

Author's Note

Well?

At Wit's End

“Why did you turn me into a pony?”

Our fire is meager and meek because our fur is warm, and also because who knows how much dry, flammable stuff is in this drafty old dilapidated barn? We can’t build it outside though. The swirling winds and icy snow would extinguish it in minutes. Our fur is what keeps us warm, well mine at least. I can’t help but think my fur coat is warmer than my companion’s, because Twilight Sparkle, the unicorn who destroyed humanity and laughed, her lilac fur just looks so ragged and wrong, wrong like the rest of her. What happened to her?

That’s the question I probably should ask, but considering that I’m a little green-and-grey-haired, yellow-furred mare with weird red eyes, and considering that I don’t know why I am little, green, grey, yellow, red or female, I’m just afraid that I’ll never get that question answered if I ask anything else. I want to know why Twilight betrayed me, why she dumped me, why she did the same thing to all of us, then the whole world, and it all goes back to the completely inscrutable act of changing me into a pony for no reason. That’s where everything started, and... that’s also the first question that slips out of my girly-voiced round snout.

A displeased laugh graces Twilight Sparkle briefly, before she grumbles, “Starting right out with the big ones, huh.”

“It just doesn’t make sense,” I declare in that sweet female voice of mine I’ve gotten so used to, from where Twilight Sparkle has let me sit beside her at her fire, “I took you in, showed you nothing but kindness and next thing I know, I was turning into a pony, and you were laughing at me. You... you hated us, and you never said why. Why do you hate everyone so much, that you just laugh at us, then leave?”

Twilight doesn’t answer for a moment, but she sighs, gazing into the fire, and mutters, “I’m not a good pony.”

I feel like saying something, but she turns to me saying confidently and bitterly, “I am not a good pony, Meadowsweet. Until recently, I wasn’t even trying to be. I didn’t even know what a good pony really was. I try to be good, but then it’s just so hard to resist.”

With a shaky smile, she adds, “I mean you should have seen the look on your face! What was left of it at least. How many times would I have a chance to do that to someone? The timing was just so perfect, I...”

Her face hardens at my look of worry and she turns to the fire again. “It was necessary to turn you into a pony, for experimental purposes,” she says neutrally, “Sorry if you think you’re some sort of special snowflake, whom I chose above all humanity. I just needed a test subject, and you were the closest option.”

“I wasn’t thinking that, but it does seem a little strange,” I reply cautiously, “You... changed my name to Meadowsweet. Why did you...?”

A soft laugh comes from her, as Twilight says warmly, “It’s fascinating, isn’t it? When your physical form was in its in-between state, I could perform tasks that normally can only happen to the very young. You were being ‘born’ in a sense, so it was trivial to give you a name, as if you were a newborn foal.”

“But... why?” I ask hopelessly, “Why did you change my name?”

Her laugh turns into an amused snort this time as she lifts a foreleg, looking at it and admitting fondly, “It was so amusing how you started referring to yourself as ‘Meadowsweet.’ And you thought it was gonna be the name of our foal! You had no idea and...”

Wincing at me guiltily, she says, “Iiit was just for fun, sorry.”

“You know... I’m fine with ‘just for fun,’” I earnestly grant the surprised Twilight, “I thought there was some... terrible reason for it. I mean, it’s not like I remember having any other name, and my name really fits me as a pony, so... no harm done?”

“I... suppose so,” she says reluctantly, giving me a measured look, “It also might have shielded you somewhat from all that... financial trouble I left you in.”

“Why did you need all that money, anyway?” I ask her curiously, “What were you really doing? I thought you were some kind of... changeling invader, trying to give us some kind of a pony... transformation plague.”

“Oh, you found the biology books, huh,” Twilight says in an odd amusement.

“There wasn’t even a plague,” I say in confusion, “It wasn’t contagious at all!”

“It really threw you off the trail though, didn’t it?” Twilight asks hopefully. Her eyes are twinkling as she asks, “Did you find the imprints I left in my journal? Or was it the trashed emails? Did you find the clues in the safety deposit box? I’m sure you noticed the book with the hidden cutout inside it.”

“No, what?” I reply in befuddlement, “You left imprints in your... journal, that I used that trick where you rub a pencil over it. And the... trashed emails. You wanted me to find those?”

“How else was I going to get you to confront me in Baltimore?” Twilight says in chiding exasperation, “It worked perfectly, too. You arrived right on time for me to get ‘defeated’ so I could give the police someone to blame.”

“You set us up?!” I blurt in outrage.

“For a good reason,” Twilight assures me, lifting a skinny foreleg in my direction. Then her eyes widen with worry and she plants it, saying to me, “Oh oh, no but I didn’t think they would... I was just trying to throw them off my trail. I had reason, but I didn’t think they were going to torture you.”

Glaring at the fire, Twilight growls out, “They didn’t even have the balls to do anything but try and starve you to death. They had no right to do that to you Meadowsweet. Your own people did it! Your own military is just as bad as my Queen, in their own way.” She looks at me sorrowfully, saying, “They didn’t even treat you as human anymore.”

“Well I wasn’t,” I say a bit resentfully, not really meeting her eyes.

“That’s not the point,” Twilight fusses, “I got you out as quickly as I could. It wasn’t so bad, was it? I–I’m so sorry it got so bad, Meadowsweet. We searched for you and we found everyone else, and we couldn’t...” Her body wilts, as her voice cracks in despair, “Couldn’t find you...”

“You found me,” I assure the wearily sagging unicorn, before Twilight passes out, because it looks like she’s about to do that, left to her own devices, and her own guilt, “I-if you really saved me, then... you’re amazing!”

Twilight doesn’t seem to understand, so I tell her, “If you didn’t intentionally make them do that to us, then it’s not even your fault. It’s just an accident, or their fault! I’m just so glad you didn’t plan all that.”

“Yes, not everything is all part of my grand master plan,” Twilight says with a roll of her eyes, “All I was trying to do is potentiate the ionosphere with a ridiculously large scale magical spell. I wasn’t trying... to torture anyone, or make anyone suffer inordinately. How much do you think I plan ahead? You think I was deliberately dying in the snow, just to get into your home?”

“The... thought had occurred to me,” I say with a wince.

“I was dying,” she growls, glaring at me, “When I came to this world, someone had moved the cassette to some kind of cache out in the middle of the fucking wilderness. I came out in a blizzard, and there was nothing I could do but try to find shelter.”

“So you weren’t just pretending,” I quietly remark, voice thin with dread.

Twilight Sparkle looks at the fire.

“I’ve never been so cold before,” Twilight Sparkle says quietly, staring into the flame, “I had to fight that storm for days, totally unprepared. I couldn’t find shelter, and... I-I fell.”

Looking at me pensively under her bangs, she says, “I remember falling. I couldn’t feel my legs. I didn’t even know they’d given out until I hit the ground. I’d even stopped shivering. I read that’s a bad sign for hypothermia. I was so tired, and so cold...”

“I’m glad I saved you then,” I say in relief, grimacing a bit as I add, “Eeeeeven if you did all those... bad things. Nobody deserves to die like that.”

“The last thing I remember,” she concludes bitterly to the ground, “Is getting angry at the snow for covering me up, because it wasn’t just killing me, it was also hiding the body! It was just covering me up and there was nothing I could do about it but just die, a frozen fool. Then I was waking up in your bathtub.”

“For what it’s worth, that was the best moment of my life,” I tell her wistfully, “If you had died just then, I... I don’t know how I could have lived with that.”

Twilight gives a tearful, shaky laugh, as she says, “It was a close call, but ponies are pretty tough you might have noticed. I guess I finally have a chance to thank you for it. I know any of you bronies would have done the same, but nopony ever... saved my life like that, with no questions asked. It was... nice.”

“You thanked me before, but I thought you didn’t mean it,” I remark distantly, still remembering Twilight’s painful laughter so long before. I want to hug her so bad, but afraid to break this tenuous connection we have here.

I’m also kind of afraid to break her. She’s just a bundle of sticks...

“Well, I did mean it,” she says, briefly wiping her eyes with a furry foreleg again, “And I really would have told you sooner if I didn’t have to betray you.”

“Your queen ordered you to betray us?” I ask cautiously.

Surprise colors Twilight’s features, before she gives a thicker laugh, saying, “Are you kidding? I’m plotting against my Queen, not following her orders! No, I did that all on my own.”

“Why then?” I ask, heart sinking, “Why did you betray us all?”

“What I did for you was a gift!” Twilight protests, suddenly glaring at me in outrage, “You should be thanking me for going through all the trouble for your stupid backwards civilization. You should be honored to be a pony, not ashamed!”

“You took away our humanity!” I protest in equal frustration.

“Humanity was a mistake,” Twilight growls bitterly, staring forward.

“I... I’m not the one you should be arguing with,” I whine, ears low, “I know you’re wrong, but... someone else could say it better. I–I know humans aren’t...”

“You said once that you didn’t regret becoming a pony,” Twilight remarks quietly, “Did you mean that?”

“I... did,” I reluctantly admit.

“You wouldn’t believe how very few of you ever told me how much they liked being a pony,” Twilight says, her brow darkening, “So many who hated it, who hated me, when ponies are clearly the superior species.”

“Lots of people did regret it,” I try to explain to her, “I’m just the weird one. I like being a pony, and I don’t... hate you at all. I don’t even care if you turned me into a powerless earth pony, with no magic at all. I still found—”

“Seriously?” she asks, blinking at me in disbelief, “You think earth ponies are powerless?”

“W-well not totally,” I have to admit, “We just aren’t quite as magical as a unicorn.”

Giving me a look, Twilight announces tiredly, “Meadowsweet, earth ponies are the most magical ponies of all.”

“...what?” I ask blankly.

“Earth ponies are the... all the other tribes are attempts to improve on perfection, as far as I’ve been able to learn at least,” Twilight tells me in a tentative amusement, “You can bend the fabric of reality to your will! All I have is a horn.”

“I don’t... usually bend the fabric of reality to my will,” I protest weakly, “Other kinds of pony have more... control, and less unpredictability.”

“That may be true,” Twilight allows gracefully, “But earth ponies are the most powerful.” She sighs at that, turning to look at the fire.

“Why did... you turn me into an earth pony, then?” I ask, still floored by the revelation that Twilight Sparkle might be jealous of my magical powers.

“It was random,” Twilight says dismissively, not even looking my way, “You turned into the pony who you would have been. I could direct it a little, but for you, I didn’t do anything special.” With a weak smile, she says, “Guess you just... lucked out, huh?”

“Lucked out?! I turned into a—a girl!” I splutter in protest, “W-was that random, too?”

Twilight’s ears go flat at that, saying, “Yes, yes I know, you males all got changed into females so much. It’s just a factor of the sex chromosomes. Ponies have four, so only a quarter of us are male.”

“H-how does that work?” I ask in confusion, “Don’t you run out of—”

“It works better than human reproduction,” Twilight asserts sulkily, “It’s a matter of...”

She holds her head with a skinny hoof, and before I can ask, blurts out, “Gametogenesis. Males just have... more... gametes. So...”

I have no idea what gametes are, but Twilight Sparkle... isn’t doing so good.

“I don’t care if you resent me,” she says darkly, glaring at me as the fire crackles in front of her, “I don’t care if every human hates me. I don’t even care if no one in your world ever forgives me. You’re all lucky to be what you are, even if you don’t want to be a cute little earth pony mare.”

“Well I forgive you, at least,” I tell her uncertainly.

“Of course you forgive me,” Twilight drawls unappreciatively, with a roll of her eyes, “You’re Meadowsweet! You’ll forgive anything, even when you shouldn’t!”

“You... have a point there,” I admit uneasily, as Twilight shakes her head, looking at me with those beautiful purple eyes, saying earnestly,

“No, you don’t understand. I destroyed humanity. I willingly destroyed humanity, and I would do so again. And without even hearing my reasons for it... you forgive me.”

“W-well you must have had pretty good reasons, so...” I say, lifting a hoof shlyly.

“I just don’t get it!” Twilight shouts, collapsing to her belly by the fire in a resigned, exhausted frustration, the kind where you have given up hope, but you still press on, “I cannot find anyone in your world who forgives me just like that, and you just... do? Nopony does that, Meadowsweet! Of all the humans I’ve ever met in all the world, you have to be the stupidest, nicest, most...”

After a pause, I prompt her uncertainly, “most...?”

Twilight Sparkle is not even meeting my eyes anymore, just looking at me in horror.

“Oh no ,” she says in a voice thick with dread, “It can’t be. Not you!” She scrambles to her hooves, edging back from me, declaring, “You’re just... we... we came together by chance! You were the first person to find me. I can’t stop finding you! It has to be, but how could you be—?!”

On her shaky, skinny legs, Twilight paces frantically in front of me, saying to herself, “I don’t believe it. I don’t believe it! How could I have been so blind? Of course it was you. It was you all along!”

“What was me?!” I ask, scrambling up in panic as Twilight rushes up to me to answer.

“You are the one who I have been looking for!” Twilight tells me in astonished delight with a huge smile, like right in my face! “All this time and I never realized it. You have to be the one I’m looking for. There’s no other possible explanation! I–I–I just know it’s true!”

“B-b-but I was... right... here?” I ask uneasily, stepping back from the eager unicorn, “You knew where I was. What are you talking about?”

“Ohh this is so amazing. This is so perfect. I can’t believe it. It’s going to be okay. It’s going to be okay!” Twilight says to the back of the barn, ignoring me again and continuing to pace with all the excitement of a giddy schoolgirl.

As I blank at her reaction, she finishes her circuituous path, looking at me with such hunger, saying huskily with a frenetic desperation, “I need you to come to Equestria with me.”

“What?” I ask numbly, struck numb from the idea that Twilight would say that, even after all we’ve been through!

“I really mean it this time!” she whines almost childishly, her tail and ears going down, as if in apology? What do I say to her? She knows I know she’s lying, right? She’s lying, right?

Then Twilight turns away and starts pacing again, muttering to herself, “Oh, but they’ll surely have the portal guarded. I could probably sneak through myself, but...”

“Actually I’m pretty sneaky—” I start to cut it, but Twilight interrupts my interruption, saying triumphantly,

“That’s it!”

She hurries back and crouches low before me almost playfully, saying, “I need you to promise me that when you get there you’ll say you did this willingly. You’re willing to come to Equestria with me, right?”

“Wha—what about my friends??” I ask in utter confusion. “They’re in t-trouble and maybe dying! I—”

“I swear to you that their best chance to survive is if you come with me to Equestria,” Twilight says in absolute confidence, “Right here, right now.”

“Okay?” I say in continued lack of understanding, “Why would their—”

“Great!” Twilight declares cheerfully, “So you’ll do it? You’re a brony, right? Of course you want to go to Equestria! There might even be mares willing to...” Wincing at me, she checks out my flank and says “Uh... oh. Right. But still, you want to meet the rest of the cast don’t you?”

“You bet I do!” I declare at her, “And I always wanted to go to Equestria. Even when you tricked us the first time, I really wanted to. I never stopped! I’m just confused—”

“So you’ll go, willingly?” she asks, shifting on her hooves anxiously, “You’ll tell them you came to Equestria of your own free will?”

“Yes! But—” I start again, but Twilight says,

“Don’t worry, everything will work out alright. As long as you tell them you came willingly.” Twilight adds in gleeful relief, “Ohh, this is so exciting, Meadowsweet! You’re my best friend, and we’re going to save the world!”

“What?!”

Twilight’s spell hits me like a blackjack to the lower brain stem. I didn’t even notice her horn lighting up, I was so confused. It’s not a stun spell, not an anything spell, just a meaty thwack and then I’m spiraling down into darkness.

There are... voices around me, singing. I can’t understand what they’re singing. Just a wordless song so complex it sounds like a tree full of migrating birds, but lower in pitch, muted, and at a distance. I... I think I’m... awake? When did I fall asleep?

There are people around me, gazing down at me as I crack my eyes open with a quiet moan. They’re ponies, actually, all surrounding this bed I’m laying on, with a thin cover pulled up to lay over my body. I open my eyes to regard one and it’s Cheerilee.

...

It’s Cheerilee! Holy crap! She has a headband, but with her curly bouncy pink bangs, and her dark pink fur that’s probably not pink and I should ask what color it is specifically right away before I offend anyone else BUT IT IS CHEERILEE. Equestria’s greatest schoolteacher is looking down at me with a green headband holding back her bangs, and a very... very grim look on her face.

I’m in a bed of some sort, in a room with Cheerilee and and also Bon Bon! The one with the blue and pink hair! And a third... pony that I don’t recognize, but I think Twilight did it! I think we’re in Equestria!

I don’t see Twilight around. The mare I don’t recognize with pink hair, and deep purple fur is smiling at me as I awaken, looking my way with gentle eyes. The other two are... not smiling. Bon Bon looks worried, and Cheerilee looks uncharacteristically serious, as she frowns at me and says, “Obing, mewmle mooler ah beninibea. Miungr obilizio zezeu mooah. Bi zerl moo ohh, thweem vlele oh zeem ah beeah. Mleirrr gumlimu June venuleah!”

Okay, no, I should be specific. Cheerilee frowns at me and sings “Obing, mewmle mooler ah beninibea. Miungr obilizio zezeu mooah. Bi zerl moo ohh, thweem vlele oh zeem ah beeah. Mleirrr gumlimu June venuleah!”

Eyes snapping wide, I sit up and wince as the back of my head throbs in pain. It’s tender to the touch of a forehoof, but more importantly I’m sitting up here in a tiny little bed that’s just my size, in a tiny little room with a door that’s just a tiny little wooden door, not a towering plastic behemoth high above my head. And I look at Cheerilee in alarm, saying, “W-w-what?! Were you singing a—a song? Do you speak English? I didn’t think—y-you have to speak English! You did in the show! Sorry I—I don’t speak... Ponish?”

Cheerilee’s mouth drops open in shock.

I don’t know how she manages to sound sarcastic when singing, but somehow, Bon Bon, grinding her forehoof into her forehead, sings very sarcastically, “Boo zhoo neh uh” something something “the noon the Z linilalala” something “ahh.” It really is too completely bizarre and fast and absolutely incomprehensible to pick out more than a few words. And why are they singing it?

Staring past me, Cheerilee bites her lip, and quivers furiously, then she turns around and strides her flower marked ass stiffly away from me, singing over her shoulder angrily, “Buthiuvum jezimlew...” then more gibberish. Not an English word to be heard. I do recognize the groan of exasperation at the end though.

Cheerilee pushes the door knob with her hoof and the whole door swings open. The dark pink schoolteacher pony stomps out of the room then, and slams the door behind her with a flick of her tail.

In the silence, the unknown purple (definitely purple ) pony winces sympathetically at me and sings quietly something that ends in “benini beah.” I don’t know whether to be reassured or scared that one of the words she sang in there sounded a lot like a low growl.

My first ten minutes in Equestria are a lot like the rest of my social life: extremely awkward and kind of terrifying. Bon Bon sings something to the purple one like, “Bee gling menoonlu thi,” etc etc, “miuvilu—” and she just groans in exasperation at the end of that, like Cheerilee did.

The purple mare with the pink mane doesn’t look happy either, gazing at the door after Cheerilee and singing, “Obie ojioona me bea...” with a rising tone at the end that sounds... unfinished.

They don’t talk with each other anymore, and I uh... I’m just curious out of my skull. I try smiling at the purple one because she seems nice, and I say carefully, “Meadowsweet,” pointing at my own chest. Then I reach a forehoof out and point it at her, asking, “You?”

She only hesitates a moment before touching her own shoulder with a forehoof and singing, “Oh Jejuna mleenie may.”

“Oh Jejun—” I repeat uncertainly.

The mare balks at that, shaking her head, and repeating “Oh Jejuna mleenie may” but singing it like...

“jeh jioon...ah?” I try, singing the second word higher, and the “ah” lower. She nods and smiles. I start to sing, “oh jehjoona—” and she stops my words with a touch of a hoof.

“Oh,” she sings low, then “jejuna” higher. I try singing the second word low, and the rest high, but she shakes her head at that too, dammit. Bon Bon’s watching us in amusement, so I guess this is okay to do?

She sings “Oh” then lifts her forehoof slightly, and sings a second “Oh” one note higher. Then lifting it again, she sings “je” and “june” at the highest pitch. Singing “ah” she descends back down in pitch and hoof almost to the floor, finishing with “mleenie may” and then with her hoof touching the floor, “ah” at the original pitch.

So. The... wow. Pitch is really important for the Equestrian language. I hope I don’t have to get the exact notes right.

“Oh Jejune?” I venture, going up in pitch, then “Ah mleenie mayah” going down in pitch.

She smiles brightly at that, and hops on her hooves once, declaring, “Bveeyou!”

I manage to sing her name well enough for Jejuna to smile brightly and sing to me in return “mezzo sweend, mleni me moo” where “sweend” is lower in pitch, and “mleni me” is higher.

When I try singing just “mleni me,” by itself, her eyes widen in surprise and she starts to nod, but then the door opens, and Applejack walks in.

Applejack. Walks in.

I don’t recognize her at first, because she’s not wearing her hat, but she’s got the same verdant green eyes, the same orangeish fur that’s another color I should learn ASAP. The same adorable white speckles on her cheeks, the same straw blonde bouncy bangs that cowlick up just a little bit between her broad, conical ears. It’s Applejack! She looks... worn out.

“Howdy there uh, sugarcube,” Applejack sings, but in plain English, thank goodness.

“Woah,” Applejack murmurs in surprise, with briefly narrowing irises, looking down as she touches her own breast/shoulders, “Been a... while,” she says to herself slowly. Then meeting my eyes again with hers of brilliant green, she tries to smile and says in a shaky sort of warble,

“Sorry if’n I get the wrong word zometimes, idz uh... it’s been a while since I dalked like this.” I’m not having too hard a time understanding, but...

“...dalked?” I ask, tilting an ear in slight confusion.

“Talked, zor—sorry,” she says with her smile more like a sheepish grimace, “Ah wasn’ the bes’ of us to the human speak in the startin’ place. You cain unnerstand me though, can ya?”

“Oh, so... you only speak um... ‘human’ in the show?” I ask thoughtfully.

Applejack relaxes at that and nods, saying, “Yep, bud ah’m best we got in right now, an’ we need answers from you, pronto.”

“Me?!” I whine in utter confoundment, “I don’t even know where I am! I don’t know if this is Equestria. I don’t know what’s going on! Where’s Twilight?”

“She’z not anywhere you have da worry about,” Applejack says, narrowing her eyes quite worryingly at me, “She cain’t hurt you now, no matter what say about her, and that’s the honest truth. Ah just wanna know if she foalnapped ya, or if you’re here of your own vree will.”

I...honestly don’t know what to say.

“I don’t know,” I confess, looking around the room again, at the other two ponies who have backed up to let Applejack speak, “Both? Neither? She just... what are you gonna do to her?”

Applejack groans in exasperation, scraping her hoof on the floor, before glaring at me, and saying, “You sound mighty confused pardner, good you be careful what you say? What does ‘she just’ even mean?”

“Oh, it was a sentence fragment,” I tell her, blushing, “I didn’t know how to finish the sentence, so I had to say something else. B-but is Twilight going to be okay?”

“Depending on how you answer,” Applejack says testily, “Are you here of your own vv...free will, or did she foalnap you?”

“She...”

I give up.

“She foalnapped me of my own free will,” I grumble.

Applejack gives me a befuddled look. “Listen sugarcube,” she says carefully, “Maybe ah’m not unnerstanding your words right. She foalnapped you...?”

“Right,” I answer as Applejack leads me cautiously on.

“And you came here of your own free will,” Applejack concludes skeptically.

“Look, what happened was...” I rub my forehead with a hoof, adding, “Sorry, that was another sentence fragment. What happened is first, Twilight asked me to come with her to Equestria. She said it would save the world and all my friends. Then, I said yes. Because I want to be here, of my own free will.”

“Then why did you arrive in a sack?!” Applejack declares in loud aggravation, lashing her end tied blonde tail.

“Twilight said she needed to sneak me across the portal,” I hastily explain, “I tried to tell her I was already sneaky, but she cast a uhhh sleep spell on me, and then I woke up here.”

“So...” Applejack’s eye twitches, “You are here of your own free will, an’ she clubbed you in the head and foalnapped you against of your free will, but you to wantin’ be here in the first place.”

“Y-yes,” I say, sighing and slumping back down on my wrists. Which I have, because ponies aren’t amputees. Our forehooves just don’t have as many thingies on them as hands.

“Well, that is definidely the sorta thing that fool pony’d do,” Applejack says wryly with a half smile, half grimace of disgust, “We thought she juzt nabbed ya and slung you over her back like some kinda vool darn ruffian. That wouldn’t’a worked at all.”

“Why wouldn’t it have worked? I’d still be here, right?” I ask, a little resentful at how close Twilight came to resembling that statement.

“The Elements o’ Harmony cain’t be unwilling,” Applejack counters in surprised confusion, “Am ah sayin’ it of wrong?”

“What do the Elements of Harmony have to do with me? ” I ask with a frustrated huff.

Applejack gives me a penetrating look, like she’s searching inside my eyes for my very soul.

“...what?” I reply, squirming under her gaze. I really don’t know what’s going on at all!

“She didn’t tell you, did she?” Applejack says at last, ceasing her fierce stare, closing her eyes and shaking her head slowly, “‘Course she wouldn’t tell you.”

“Wouldn’t tell me what?” I ask, forcing myself to settle down from trying to escape over the back of my bed.

Applejack opens her eyes again, and looks at me with an appeasing smile, as she says plainly, “Sugarcube, you are the sixth Element o’ Harmony! You’re gonna be Kindness!”

“What about Fluttershy?” I ask, and immediately regret it. Applejack’s smile freezes. Her only movement is a slight contraction of her irises. Oh god. Oh no. That explains everything.

“Lemme zhow you~” Applejack sings in a shaky tone, looking away from me, then clears her throat, saying, “Lemme show you around. Ah... need some time to think of the words. Ah don’t think Twilight has the power to tell you.”

“O-okay,” I say, clutching my blanket in the crook of my forelegs, as Applejack turns around to face the door. Thinking a moment, I add, “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what?” Applejack asks, looking over her shoulder.

“I’m sorry she was... lost,” I quietly clarify.

Applejack gives me an odd look, then the orange pony just says, “C’mon, follow me.”

Looking to Bon Bon, Applejack sings something like, “Oh meir-r-r oh nimooli ah” something “nimooli” something something “bing leia.”

Yeah I have no idea.

Bon Bon sags with relief at that though, a silly smile falling across her face, as she faintly sings, “bibi bing bview miah.”

“Oh vimie binga janavanah,” Applejack replies softly with a tentative, aching hope in her two-note song that makes me wish I knew what they were saying. I know Bon Bon straightens up again, when Applejack sings more authoritatively, “Oziziu mavi “ something something, “vena.” At Bon Bon’s outright salute, Applejack adds, “Obing meirrr” something “Debezi” and I don’t catch the rest until she ends in “nimuahhh.”

“Jinern,” Bon Bon sings, standing smartly on all fours again. Away from her, heading halfway out the door, Applejack looks back to me and calls out in English,

“You comin’?”

Oh? Oh... oh! Applejack’s talking English to me again. Springing to attention myself, the blanket pools around me, as I stand on the bed, look to the others and say, “Thank you—uh, I mean...” I try singing “mleni me” and a quick, joyful laugh bursts out of the purple furred Jejuna, while Bon Bon just tilts her head and gives me her own penetratingly pensive look. Then hopping off the bed, I trot off after the light orange farm pony.

The hallway we emerge into is only barely lit by a wall sconce, and only the glow of the cool moon pours in through the curtained windows in a small entryway at the end of the hallway, in whatever building we are in. Another pony I don’t recognize lounges sideways on a couch in that entryway. I think they’re green, but it’s hard to tell in this light. Applejack looks their way, but they just silently wave us on with a hoof.

I follow Applejack out the second shockingly ordinary sized door, out onto a dirt path amid the shadows of many buildings all around. It leads to a larger path of flat stones, eerily lit by street lamps of some sort at regular intervals.

Our hoofsteps mingle with that of other ponies walking up and down this path, not ponies from my group, or Ainsworth, but ponies who have a certain... tired confidence in their poise, like ponies who’ve been walking this way all their lives. I can pick out their colors as we pass under street lamps, and even see some who look like I might have seen them on the show. Way more hairstyles than I ever saw back on Earth, since most of us Earthling ponies barely knew how to brush our own manes and tails. Not many ponies wearing clothing though, despite the cool night breeze ruffling my fur.

I’m pretty warm, having that thick winter coat that I seem to have grown over the past months. It’s not winter time in Equestria, is it? Do I have to shave this stuff off or what?

Groups of ponies are singing quietly together as they walk, in that strange language. Making light conversation I assume. It almost looks like humans in a mall, except on all fours, outside, in the dark, and without being surrounded by advertisements. Some carry their own lights: lanterns held in their mouths, or their magic. Nobody talks to Applejack, or tries to talk to me, but I hunch closer to that apple emblazoned butt as we walk, nervous that someone’s going to try.

“Can we speak here?” I whisper to her ear nervously.

“...not yet,” Applejack whispers back, and just keeps on trotting. The farm pony knows these ways well, and as our hooves clump quietly on the dirt, I find we start heading up a sloping hill. The buildings fall away as we start to pass grass and trees on the right. I can’t tell where the trees end, might be a whole forest beyond there. The Everfree?

Applejack’s voice doesn’t sound... quite like herself, but I definitely detected tones of Ashleigh Ball in it. Her accent’s... a little weird, but I can’t really complain at this point. Applejack is Applejack, a stocky golden orange earth pony with brilliant green eyes, and little white freckles on her face, and her... shoulders, and her butt. Okay, she has way more freckles, and she’s missing her hat, but...

I have no idea who Applejack really is, do I?

As we crest the top of the hill, we’re all alone up here. Further ahead the path turns back towards the town, but that’s not the way we go. Applejack walks off the path, heading away from the road. Following curiously, I watch the strangely hatless mare sit on her haunches, then pat the grass next to her.

Sitting my own butt next to her, I still can’t believe she’s real, whoever she is. I don’t know why it’s so hard to believe, with all Twilight Sparkle did to me, with what I am. But even if she isn’t a perfect match for the cartoon, Applejack is here, next to me, warm and soft and weighty where our thighs press side by side against one another, and real. There’s something incredible about that.

“Well, whaddya think?” Applejack asks fondly, gazing forward.

“About what?” I ask, tilting my head at her.

“About the view,” Applejack asserts, pointing a hoof in front of her. I turn to look and the glowing, twinkling stars bloom across all the sky like an endless army of fireflies high overhead, not just black and white, but spread around in painted colors like impossibly distant sparkling clouds of purple and pink. The moon, pale and round, shines its icy glow down on a land illuminated in blue. It sails in a sea of stars so many stars it feels like I could drown in their gorgeous canvas of light. The glimmering lights of the town are below us on the treeless hill we sit upon, two ponies sitting down on our feet, and lightly braced on our forehooves.

I sink down to laying on my side, and I just can’t take in how beautiful it is. The small sea of golden lights below us from windows and street lamps softly accentuate the dark curves of each building. The miles and miles beyond the town’s edge, all the way to the sea of stars, full of dark fields, and mysterious stands of trees. Not all is enveloped in darkness out there. Some kind of glowing motes, actual fireflies I suppose, drift in shifting clouds here and there in the distance.

“Welcome to the Dreamlands,” Applejack says softly, as we gaze over this beautiful vista.

“It’s beautiful!” I reply, in shock. The night skies above my planet were beyond amazing once all our city lights went out, but these skies look even more beautiful. This whole quiet, cool landscape just captures my heart in a way that I’ve never felt before. There’s something amazing here, something more precious than all the jewels in the world. Though I don’t actually know how many jewels this world has.

“It is beautiful, an’ dangerous,” Applejack cautions, “Y’gotta be careful not to let th’ beauty blind you. But it is worth a look-see.”

“Thank you, Applejack,” I tell her in aching gratitude, looking towards Applejack, regrettably away from that view, “That’s why you wanted to show me this?”

“That and to zsoften the blow, if you ain’t figured out yet,” Applejack says, still gazing fixedly forward. “Thiz is... what you might call Equestria. It ain’t sunny, it ain’t got no rainbows, and everything you saw in that there show of yours was a lie.”

I look forward again, gazing silently at the strange beauty beyond us. “I don’t think it was all a lie,” I say carefully, “It’s just nighttime right now.”

“Heh...” Applejack says with a wistful smile, “You could say that ah s’pose.”

Then, with my heart hurting for a different reason now, I ask, “When did Nightmare Moon bring about eternal night?”

Giving me a surprised look, Applejack sounds impressed when she says, “You’re pretty zharp, partner. You got all that just from th’ pilot episode?”

“I–I’m pretty dumb actually,” I say, lifting a hoof and blushing at it, “It was just kind of obvious. I saw Nightmare Moon, and you said Equestria isn’t sunny... so she must have done the eternal night thing. She must have done it when...” Looking Applejack’s way, my ears go down as I ask leerily, “Was it when Fluttershy... died?”

Applejack snorts a laugh. I don’t expect that. I don’t think she expects it either, crossing her green eyes and looking at her own orange snout. “Ah dunno when the queen brought about the eternal night,” Applejack says sheepishly to me, “Quite a bit before mah time.”

Looking down the hill again, Applejack’s ears are held carefully upward as she says softly, “Ah ain’t never seen the sun before.”

What.

“H-how?” I ask completely incredulously, looking past her trying to conceive of how, “Wouldn’t the planet freeze? How do you grow apples without... without sunlight?”

Applejack doesn’t answer for a moment, then she sings, “Zerlunie bing booah zherlini neizhe booah.”

A pause, and she adds, “Truth is, lay down when the sun comes to rise. Ah think that’s right.”

“Is that what it means?” I ask curiously.

“It means go you to bed when sun rises, or you’ll be sorry,” Applejack says with a bitter tone to her voice, “Something we sing to foals, so they ain’t get no hurt.”

Blinking, I declare in astonishment, “They hurt foals, if they don’t go to bed before the sun rises?!”

Applejack spears me with a look, saying stiffly, “Ah might have mah words mixed up again. You’ll find out when anyway. Don’t worry by we’ll make zure you get right down time to bed.”

“I’m... not even going to question that,” I admit flatly, “There’s just so much to know. I still have so much to learn about Equest—the Dreamlands, I don’t know where to start.”

“You’ll probably wanna learn somethin’ of the home speak,” Applejack suggests, lifting a hoof and looking down at it, “Ah don’t know all your speak so good. Human speak, that is. They cared ah said mah lines,” Applejack glances down, admitting, “Rest ah just had to pick out on myself.”

Pick out... “Oh, you mean pick up on,” I realize as the golden haired pony turns her ears down in shame. “That’s pretty incredible!” I tell Applejack as her ears turn up in not-shame, “You speak English so well, and you weren’t even taught how?”

“I-hi-hit ain’t no big deal,” the now bashful apple pony says, looking away. “It’s just... puttin’ the words together. You’ll probly pick our speak up beautiful quick, of yourself.”

Her face grows grim again as looks back at me and she says, “By the by, not you should speak in your own tongue ‘round here, outside. You won’t be the first pony babbling in strange tongue, but of your words, some big trouble. Lots ponies of these days know the human word Nightmare, word Equestria, if the wrong ponies get wind of it, well...”

Sighing, Applejack dulls her gaze and concludes, “Make a lotta trouble will for us is all. Best not speak human speak when’re around ponies you don’t know.”

“I could understand Nightmare, but why is the word Equestria forbidden?” I ask cautiously.

“Those ain’t the only two,” Applejack retorts, “Bella’ll get you familiarized ah imagine. But this ain’t Equestria. Equestria’s just... an old mare’s tale. This land is called vale mliluj, kinda like land o’ dreams. The Dreamlands. It’s a bid of a trick itself. Vale peerriluj might be a better way t’say it, but nopony wants to get taken in by the queen’s finest to have a little chat about that.”

She tilts an ear and adds, “Peerrilu means not a dream, more like a nightmare.”

With wide eyes, I gaze down to the town, saying, “It’s that bad, is it?”

“Y’gotta be careful not to let th’ beauty blind you,” Applejack repeats, solemnly, “But now that you’re here, we can...”

Her voice catches in her throat. Wait what? To my confusion and dismay, Applejack slowly breaks down crying now, staring down at the town while she says, “That darn fool Twilight, she actually did it. If you’re the mare she was looking for, we might be able to... we might all be able to... finally...”

I don’t know if it’s appropriate, but to hell with Equestria if I’m gonna let Applejack cry by herself. I wrap my forelegs around her barrel from behind, and she’s even warmer when you hug her. I feel... unfathomable strength in her, yet such vulnerability, like I could break her with a word.

“I’ll be her,” I furiously tell the mare in my arms, “Even if I’m not the right mare, I’ll be her anyway. Because you need her.”

I don’t know if crying louder is a good sign or not, but I feel like I dodged the bullet there, or... no, I feel like something I tried to do finally managed to go right.

We’re sitting together after that, because that’s what ponies do. Just sitting on our haunches, hip to hip, looking up at stars more beautiful than I’ve ever seen on Earth, and thinking.

“Fluttershy was Twilight’s only friend,” Applejack says out of the blue in a tight voice.

“Before Twilight met you?” I ask cautiously.

“All of pony was enemies, or underneath Twilight,” Applejack says frankly, “Fluttershy was... differnt.” She gives a wistful sigh, adding, “Gentlest soul I ever did meet.”

“...how did she die?” I ask, immediately regretting it.

Applejack looks down at that, silent, and I’ve totally overstepped my bounds, oh god. I said something horribly wrong.

“She died,” Applejack says flatly, meeting my eyes humorlessly, “Ah don’t know better how put to it. She was uh... taken apart? No that ain’t it.”

“Disintegrated?” I suggest in horror.

“Geshundheit,” Applejack replies casually. “But it ain’t how she died so much as how she lived. What they did to her was...” Applejack looks down again, her voice heavy as she says, “Unforgivable.” It doesn’t look like she wants it to be.

Before I can ask, Applejack spears me with a harsher look, saying seriously, “An’ you ain’t her. You seem like a nice mare and all, but ah don’t trust Twilight Sparkle, not one bit.” Poking me in the chest, Applejack says, “And that means I don’t trust you not one bit neither. So if thinking you to be new Fluttershy, better think twice, ‘cause I ain’t let you hurt Twilight like that, no matter who y’are. If thinking by you to be Kindness, you better be mighty sure you’re up to the task.”

I push her hoof away.

“It’s not like I have any choice,” I tell Applejack resentfully, “All my friends are... are dead, or worse. My whole world is gonna be taken over. And you need Kindness or the Elements of Harmony don’t work. If I’m not good enough, I don’t know what you could do. You seriously couldn’t find one pony in all of um... vale mleeloo that was kind as me?”

“We... tried, sugarcube,” Applejack says with difficulty, leaving her nervous forehoof lifted, “If Twilight hadn’t gone off on th’ queen’s duty... it’s a magicky thing. Our world... lost Kindness. Takes a mite to recover like... long as a pony lives like. An’ legends say only th’ Elementa Magic can find th’ others.”

“And Twilight’s the Element of Magic,” I venture cautiously.

“Twilight’s the reason any of us believe in the Elements at all,” Applejack replies firmly, “She found the records and uncovered the hidings. She done everything she could to save us all. Ah trust her with mah life.”

“Didn’t you just say you don’t trust her one bit?” I ask, with a bewildered tilt of my head.

“W-well ah trust her reeoo... her intentions,” Applejack says nervously, “She just gets a mite... confusedlike at times. A bit.”

“Don’t you have her in prison right now, or something?” I ask a little skeptically. I’m not so sure if Applejack is... attempting to deceive me, or just... confused. She already struggles to find the words even when things aren’t horribly complicated, so I guess I can’t blame her.

“Ah... uh...” Applejack scrunches up her muzzle and tilts an ear, venturing out, “M-mostly we’re puttin’ watch of her. But maybe ah trust Twiligh’, not her judgement at times. Got she a good heart, but... came here with you, it looked like she ain’t eaten in weeks.”

“I thought she looked like a demon, at first,” I say faintly.

“A whut?” Applejack asks, raising her ear again.

“A... a monster,” I reply slowly, “I didn’t even think about how much she looked like... me.”

“You?” Applejack replies in confusion.

“I had to... not eat for... a few weeks once, when I was in a prison. Got really dehydrated, and started getting... skinny,” I say, staring at my own, lush, healthy, well-fed forelegs. “Twilight... she was at least as thin as I was. Is she gonna be okay?”

“...ah caught somma that,” Applejack admits stoically, “Let’s get on down to seeing her, so that we cain of each other make more sense.”

Applejack walks with me down the hill back into town, but we head into a different house from before, a house that is also dark inside. Then we uh... turn around, and head back outside the front door again. I have no idea what she’s doing, as Applejack circles a second house, twice, walks in through the door, then heads up the stairs.

She looks back down at me and whispers, “C’mon!”

“Sorry,” I whisper, halfway up the second step, “These stairs are so tiny!”

“What’re you talkin’ about? C’mon!” Applejack whispers back, and goes on heading up.

At least I don’t have to practically climb up the stairs like I did back in Ainsworth, but these stairs are weirdly narrow, just enough room for my hoof to plant on them, and so shallow. I make it, but I keep stumbling, expecting the stair to be higher, ascending with difficulty to find Applejack in an adjoining room, waiting by an open window.

She gestures at it with a forehoof, whispering, “After you, sugarcube.”

Looking down, the window opens up to a six foot drop to an alleyway outside the house. I dunno if she’s testing me or what, but I jump down all the way to the earth, and as Applejack plummets down beside me, a flick of her tail shuts the window panes above us. Then she strolls down the alleyway—which dead ends—before just hopping the fence at the end of it. I follow suit, as Applejack opens a window in the house on this side of the alley, and climbs in there.

“Is this a test or something?” I whisper after squeezing in after her.

“Almost there,” she whispers back. Then we just... walk out the front door of that building, and travel around another building, to a third alleyway. There’s an even narrower alleyway behind that house, between it and a tall fence, and after going through there, Applejack climbs the fence again, coming down on the other side, as I soon follow. She’s already opened a trap door on the ground in the yard on the other side of this fence, saying, “In here.”

We move down a set of wooden steps, while Applejack pulls the trap door shut above us, leaving us in total darkness. She pushes past me then, and I don’t know where anything is. There’s a series of clicks I orient my ears at though, and I find Applejack facing an inner door, opening at her hoof to an equally dark interior. After I follow her blindly in, and the door closes behind me, Applejack opens the door across this tiny room. It leads to another set of steps going downward, but I can see them this time, because there is a dim glow coming from below.

Down we go, and slowly since I’m not used to these weird sized stairs. Hooves are surprisingly good at gripping though, so I don’t fall or anything. She follows the glow as we exit another door, leading into a large chamber very dimly lit, but beyond it are two large double doors, with light shining in from under them. Applejack just pulls them open, letting bright light flood into this room. My eyes sting as they shrink to adjust, and I follow her out into a mess of light, motion and noise, bright ponies and stone walls.

We enter an ampitheater of sorts. It’s huge! A big cavern hollowed out of stone or something, with glowing lights all along various bannisters on either side. There are ponies here, walking about, filling the air with a thin chorus of song. A pegasus even rises, in two flaps to the upper level. Two levels of walkways circle this ampitheater, each with ponies walking around the edge of this place. And suspended up in the center is a bright glowing ball of fiery light overhead, that illuminates everything brightly, and feels kind of warm.

A sun?

“Welcome to the Resistance!” Applejack announces much more loudly, waving a forehoof around, and leading me in as I gawk at the geometric designs carved along the walls, and a burbling stone water fountain in the center of this place right under the fireball. There are a few ponies laying around it as we approach, as though it were just an ordinary summer’s day.

“Wait here,” Applejack says, leaving me to stand by the fountain, “Ah need to go figgur where Twilight’s bein’ got.”

So watching Applejack hothoof it away, up some stairs, across a balcony, and down one of the halls bordering the ampitheater, I wait there by the fountain with no ability to talk to anyone else. Of course somepony immediately decides to talk to me.

Author's Note

And now for something completely different!

Sorry for the lack of updates. I like to write around 3 chapters ahead of what I’m trying to call finished, in case I need to make any massive changes that nobody’s gonna wanna re-read. When I published the last chapter, I had... no buffer. So I needed to write 3 chapters before I could publish one. Ideally I’d want to write 4 chapters ahead, but you’ve all been waiting long enough I think. Chapters 34 and 35 are “finished” and so I think it’s safe to say that this chapter isn’t going to change much, retroactively.

By the way, try taking the cover art of this story and editing it, turning the brightness levels up really high. That is why I haven’t been able to use this wonderful picture drawn by Andromidus as cover art:

Sorry, Andromidus! You’re right it does kind of look like wings!

In the Heat of the Moment

We’re all sitting in a circle by the fireplace, trying to plan our next move here, and I can grip the cup of hot cocoa well enough by bracing it between my hooves, but it’s too hot to bring my sensitive pony lips up to the surface.

“This is so unfair,” I say bitterly, looking down at the wonderful smelling drink I can’t drink, and then back up at Mira. “You’re the only one of us who wanted to be a pony, and you don’t get to be one! Meanwhile, I have to sit here, and... and I can’t even stir it with a spoon to cool it down. Why didn’t it work on you?”

“First off, here,” Mira says, cruelly presenting me with a spoon. Then she surprises me saying, “No seriously, take the handle in your mouth, then you can stir it just fine, right?”

A few moments later I’m torn between resentment and embarassment as I sulk there, stirring my hot cocoa with a spoon held in my lips.

“You must be the prototype,” Nick says thoughtfully, regarding a yellow and green girl pony, who is me. He’s not having as much trouble with his cocoa, mostly because he doesn’t let it trouble him. Curse his insufferable willingness to just wait for it to cool down! “Maybe Twilight figured out how to make you contagious, but she hadn’t gotten to the point it’d spread beyond that.”

“She sure got to that point now,” I protest grumpily, leaving the spoon in the cup, “You saw the notes we managed to recover. She’s gonna turn a whole bunch of people into ponies in Baltimore!”

“And that’s just the start,” Mira adds in horrified fascination, “They are gonna be contagious then, and we won’t be able to stop it.”

“We’re just gonna have to go there ourselves,” Nick says frankly, “We don’t know who in the police is compromised. We might be the only people on this planet who know what Twilight Sparkle’s plans are!”

“She has no idea we know about this,” I ponder, sipping at my cocoa. Still a bit too hot... not terrible though. The spoon bumps up against my snout. “She thinks she took all the evidence with her. If she figures out we know, she’ll just change her plans, and then we’ll all be in trouble, with no way to stop her!”

“We have to take a subtle approach,” Mira says, “We’re only gonna get one shot at this. If we can surprise her in her hotel room, and stop that... machine. If we have an actual device she made, the police will be forced to believe us, the one who haven’t been taken over that is.”

“Only one thing to be done then,” Nick replies, sitting up straighter from eyeballing the evidence piled in the middle of the room, and addressing us confidently. “We’re going to Baltimore!”

Dragging an overstuffed suitcase in my mouth, a twist of my rather thick neck delivers it neatly into the back of the sedan Mira drove up into the garage.

“Hey did you remember your toothbrush?” she calls out loudly, from beyond the doorway leading out of the garage.

“I don’t even have hands,” I shout back, “And you expect me to brush my teeth?”

“Well, haven’t you been?” Mira says, poking her head in the doorway so she can speak in a more normal tone.

“Uh... yeah,” I say, sheepishly fidgeting there next to her car, “I just wrap my hoof around it.”

“Don’t forget it,” she repeats, then swoops back into the house. What does she take me for, a forgetty forgetterson?

Shut up. It’s a valid phrase.

It’s cool in the garage in the early morning. We had to get up before the sun rose, just to make sure we wouldn’t miss getting there on time. All packed up, ready to drive on to destiny, now a couple of ponies have to figure out how to wear seatbelts in this thing. It’s not the problem I thought ponies would have, mostly because I thought ponies would be... bigger. Me and Nick pretty much sit there with a seatbelt tecnically wrapped around us, but I don’t know how safe it is. We don’t need standing room in the vehicle, don’t need seats removed or anything. We just... sit on the chair cushions like a couple of gangly medium sized dogs.

“You’re getting good at using your mouth,” he remarks from under the blanket, as the car shudders into motion and Mira pulls out of the driveway.

“Shut up,” I grumble back at him from under the blanket, “Just because I can buckle our seatbelts doesn’t make me good at it.”

In order to prevent anyone from reacting with dismay and alarm at a bright green and yellow earth pony mare, and a purple maned grey unicorn stallion sitting in the back seat of Mira’s car, we took back a dark fuzzy blanket to cover up both of us. It’s nice and warm under here. Trouble is, now I’m smelling him. It’s not an amazing smell. Honestly he still smells kind of soapy and a bit damp from his shower this morning. But as the light of the morning sun falls over and filters through the fabric, this peculiarly enticing sort of spicy smell fills up our blanket fort, and when I breathe it in, it seems to fire right down into my groin.

“So,” I loudly declare, trying not to breathe too deeply, “Anyone up for a game of I Spy?”

Nick smoothly cuts in with, “I spy with my little eye, something yellow and green.”

...oh.

“Is it me?” I ask, my ears flattening out under the blanket.

“No, it’s the other yellow and green thing I can see!” Nick drawls, “Of course it’s you.”

“How about this?” Mira asks, “I spy with my little eye, something... square.”

After a few moments, I whine, “Mira! We can’t look out from under the blanket, either.”

We sit there for a while, stumped, while the car turns down the city streets, heading for the highway. “Okay, so... 20 questions?” Nick asks, at last.

Time passes, and 20 questions starts to get a bit more ...focused.

“Is it bigger than a breadbox?” Mira asks.

“Nope!” I declare, giddy in the assurance that they’ll never guess what I thought of.

“Is it animal, mineral or vegetable?” Nick asks.

“Animal,” I say, with a chuckle—I mean—giggle. 2 down, 18 to go.

“Is it a squirrel?”

“Nope.”

They waste 7 more questions on that line, at which point Nick asks in exasperation, “Are you sure it’s an animal?”

“I never said it was an animal,” I reply snidely, “I said it was animal.”

“Is it... multiple animals?” Nick tries.

“Nope.”

“Is it part of an animal?” Mira asks. One of my ears tilts aside.

“Y-yes,” I say, and they’re down to 9 questions. Dammit they’re getting too close...

“Does it have any bones?” Nick asks.

“Nope!”

“Is it found on a pony?” Mira asks, slyly.

“Uh... yeah?” I say, blushing hotly under the blanket. They only have 7 left. If I can just—

“Is it my dick?” Nick asks cheekily.

“Dammit Nick, how did you figure it out?!” I shout angrily.

“Wait, seriously?” he asks, pulling back in surprise, “You were thinking about my dick?”

“It’s kind of hard to stop thinking about it,” I grumble, trying not to imagine it pushing into me, and failing, squirming.

“And I thought Twilight was your one and only!” Nick crows, eyes glimmering with amusement.

“Well maybe she would be, if I wasn’t... this... mare,” I say with difficulty, “I keep having these thoughts, and it’s just... it’s just biology, okay?”

“Having all those womanly thoughts, huh,” he replies in amusement, “Can’t help but think of my manhood?”

“You’ve been pitching a tent for the last hour!” I shout in exasperation.

“Woah!” Mira calls back in admiration, “You’ve had a boner for an hour, Nick?”

“Don’t be silly,” he replies, shifting to swing his... his boner away from my general direction. “No man can maintain a boner for an hour unattended! C’mon, you were a guy a few months ago, Meadowsweet. You know how these things work!”

“It’s been going up and down,” I admit shamefully, my hoof rumpling the blanket as I cover my blush with it. “And I have no idea how my thing works, so it’s kind of a big deal.”

“Well, I can’t help it,” he concludes, “If you’re gonna keep smelling like a girl, I’m gonna have a reaction to it, simple as that.”

“Me?” I retort fussily, “You’re the one who’s been stinking up this blanket with your stupid hot stallion scent.”

“Neither of you can help with that,” Mira calls back, “So who cares? Just be smelly horse buddies.”

We both blush at that. Nick lifts a hoof, and says amiably, “For the record, you smell really good, Meadowsweet. I don’t mind it at all.”

“Of course you like it,” I say mutedly, “That’s the problem.”

“You don’t?” he asks, “Because I can—”

“No, I like it,” I cut in hastily, saying quieter, “I really like it, and that’s a problem. It’s making me want to have sex with you and...” I’m whispering now, as I tell him, “And my scent’s making you want have sex with me. It’s just hard to ignore.”

“Yeah, uh,” Nick says uneasily, “Dunno what to tell you. Sex is a lot more serious for you than it is for me. Sorry I guessed what you were thinking about, flattered as I am. You wanna go again?”

“No, you figured it out,” I tell him with a sigh, “You get to go next.”

“Alright,” Nick says with a gratified smile. He pauses, thinking carefully before saying politely, “I spy with my little eye something wet and squishy.”

“Fuck you, Nick.”

I shift my sensitive haunches, trying to ignore the tingly flowy feeling down there, like warm milk and pop rocks. I know what that means, after two months of feeling that way, but I’m afraid to ask for a shirt to sit on or something, since then Nick would know I want to be a mare for him, even if I get pregnant. If I told him, then I’d have to do something besides sitting in this tense silence, as our vehicle powers on toward Baltimore. I can ignore my... marehood, for now, but ignoring Nick’s stallionhood is another story.

A glance at his own hips shows his dark, flat-headed shaft peeking out again, growing longer and stiffer before my eyes. “Like what you see?” he murmurs in nervous amusement.

I blush and tear my eyes away from his fleshy tool, hissing, “I have to like it. I’m a mare now, remember?”

“Not every girl appreciates me getting an erection, I’d say,” Nick replies quietly, not even trying to conceal his own staring at my hips.

“I can’t help it!” I whisper back offendedly, “I can’t stop smelling you under here!”

“What do you think is making me so horny?” he whispers, laughing lightly, “I bet we could smell each other getting horny from halfway across the room.”

I don’t tell him how I was practically huffing this smell through the crack in the doorjam the other day.

“You two okay, back there?” Mira calls out in concern.

“We probably should get separate blankets,” I reply in a worried tone.

“Yeah, Meadowsweet here is getting horny from being trapped under this blanket with a stallion,” Nick says in all too calm amusement.

“S-shut up,” I tell him, squirming, “I’m not the one with a h-huge hard-on, so there!”

“You wanna have one?” Nick asks, staring at my groin again, “I could give you one.” I don’t think he’s... joking.

“Just like that, huh?” Mira cuts in from beyond the blanket, “I wonder if you’re in heat, Meadows.”

“I’m in heat?” I ask in confusion, “That doesn’t even make any sense!”

“We don’t even know if ponies can get into heat,” Nick says, tearing his eyes away from my groin. “All I know is I’ve never wanted to... to fuck you more, since I changed into this thing.”

“Yeah,” I say in heated restraint, forcing myself to look away from him again, “I know how you feel.”

We sit there, waiting for Baltimore to come, and we don’t even want to stop smelling each other anymore. He smells so good it makes my lip curl. I want his spicy musk to surround me. I have to sit there shifting my haunches, so my... my labia rub against each other, and he’s a hair away from just masturbating right here. With every giddy inhalation, I feel wetter and emptier, and my scent’s making him feel the same way too, in its own way.

“You’re uh...” I say, checking his boner status, “You’re sporting a pretty good one, now.”

“Your hips are so gorgeous, you know,” he tells me a bit dazedly, “I don’t know how any guy could hold back against that. I just wanna take you and... and make you forget you were ever a man.”

“Oh Nick,” I whine tensely, “I don’t feel like a man, anymore. I’m trying not to want it, but it’s so achy and wet. I wish we could. I–I don’t want babies. What am I gonna do?”

“You don’t want babies, or you don’t think you should?” Nick asks skeptically, “If you could... grow a foal inside there, and give birth, would you want it?”

“Why do ponies have to be so horny?” I moan, not even trying to look away from Nick’s erection anymore. The one he wants to put inside me.

“Well I am horny, and you are horny. M-maybe we could just a little,” he whispers anxiously, reaching for my rear. “Just a little.”

I try to tell myself it’s not just a little, but a whole lot. But I want it and he wants it, and he wants me. “I–I’ll get pregnant,” I say shying away, then not shying away. “It makes me wanna get pregnant,” I tell him, pushing my butt into his hoof just to be closer to him, then shakily standing on the car seat, pointing my butt right at him.

Lifting the blanket with my tail, I tell him in a harsh whisper, “S-sorry... I can’t stop l-letting you into my...”

Then he’s on me, and weighing me down, and my rump pikes up against him because suddenly I want it so, so, so bad. The desire just flares in me, and it feels like I’m burning up between my legs. He’s hunched around my rear, a heavy, thick, male pony pressed against my back, strong arms gripping me, keeping me from running away so he can make me pregnant.

“Nick, stop!” I cry out desperately, lunging away from him, not because I’m afraid of him, but of my own desires. He thumps against the back of the seat, declaring,

“Dammit Meadows, I’m trying!” as I hit the door of the car and lie there on my side, looking at him. His penis.

“Are you two having sex back there?” Mira’s voice comes, sending a chill through me that almost quenches my horniness.

“It’s just hard to resist, f-for both of us!” I protest, “Nick was mounting me I couldn’t just let him.”

“Well you were sticking your butt at me,” Nick protested, “And even waving it around, trying to get me to mount you. Don’t act like you don’t want it!”

“Okay hold on, this blanket thing is doing a number on you two,” Mira says.

“Not just the blanket,” I protest, standing up to stick my butt up for Nick even though I shouldn’t, “I haven’t had any in the month he’s been right there. I could feel it, if I... t-t-the urges are... I just pushed it into Twilight Sparkle and came. I had a penis that could... I felt it cumming inside Twilight. Nick has a penis I could... it could make me pregnant...”

Nick starts to mount me again, as I docilely turn aside my tail, but then the whole car makes a sharp right turn, sending us both tumbling again. “What was that for?!” I protest shrilly as the car shakes and vibrates under us. Did she turn down a—?!

“I turned down a farm road, okay?” Mira says, stopping the car. “We’re out of sight of... I think nobody’ll see us here, if they drive by.” There was the sound of her unclipping her seatbelt and she said, “Hold on, I’ll get the blanket off you.”

Then something grabs the blanket we’re panting under, and lifts, sliding it right off of me and Nick. I take a breath of fresh air, and a slick droplet trails down my hind leg. That must be my... lubrication, just coming out of me. Nick and I look worriedly up at Mira leaning up on the back of the driver’s seat. She looks down, meeting our eyes in a timeless moment.

Then Nick looks away and puts his forehoof on my rump, and that makes me look away. I don’t understand how he can do this as he climbs atop my rump, and his forelegs slide down along my flanks. His penis smacks against me down there and I let it because I want it so bad. We urgently shift together until I feel Nick start to penetrate me.

It is nothing like when he was a human. My rear feels like it’s melting as I feel his penis spread open the sort of fleshy slot I have back there, then strong pressure that just sinks into me right there. Every inch of his fleshy pole, I have to stretch all around it. I just brace myself against the seat, panting harder and harder as Nick slides into me, until his hips press right up against mine.

Mira remarks, “So, I guess you’re gonna make some pony babies after all?”

Oh god, he is. I am. “Mira, I...” I say, looking up at her, then Nick just humps, humps, humps, stronger as I stare forward in a panic, gasping, “It... tingles! Can’t... think. unh unh unh unh...”

“Gonna do it, deep in you, gonna...” Nick murmurs, as we intensely thrust together. All I do is stare off feeling that penis pumping in and out of me, getting ready to ejaculate. Feeling with my round, receptive hips singing in pleasure as I slide all around Nick with my vagina.

“I really should separate you...” Mira says, biting her lip, “But I... wanna see my little sister getting pregnant. Just think of the cute foals you’ll make!”

“I don’t... wanna make... cute foals!” I protest tightly, “But oh god I’m doing it I’m doing it I’m doing it uhnnnh...”

Mira’s hand comes down on my mane as she says, “It’s okay Meadows, let Nick put that cute little foal in your belly now.”

“Love you... so much... Mira,” Nick says faintly.

My hot thick heavy hips need to feel this, to feel him. Finally. Mira can watch; I need to give into the hungry urges to do this to myself. It’s so powerful and bestial and thrilling. In and out in and out. I want it deep, deep, deep, just fucking I don’t care. All I can think about is panting and that inner sliding, and the memory of that one time I saw him cum. Big white spurts just jetting out of his huge penis. That’s what he’s gonna do in there.

Nick feels like he’s swelling even huger inside me. I don’t know what I’m feeling and I don’t care. Then he pushes deep and stops. I look back at him in hunger, terror, bliss and desire. He’s gonna do it! He’s gonna?!

Nick’s looking forward at me in pained anxiety, and then something... happens to him, and I think I know what. His anxiety fades, his teeth unclench, his mouth falls open to heavy panting, and he gives me a look of unrepentant purpose, no longer wondering if, or whether, but determined to do what he’s gonna do.

“Wow, Nick’s cumming pretty hard,” Mira observes, as I snap to look at her saying,

“Not yet! If he pulls out now I won’t—nnnhhh!” The penis spurting hot slimy pulses within me makes me stiffen, and that doesn’t stop it. Oh god it’s hot. It’s going into me!

“You’re really putting a foal in her Nick...” Mira murmurs, stroking my mane again.

My mind is blank with the feeling of his semen rushing into my vagina as hard as he can ejaculate it, pooling inside me. Just as much as he spurted on the floor, now it’s all going into me. I whimper, standing there in the back seat of Mira’s car, letting Nick impregnate me.

His penis calms, and his spurts slow, and I’m still tense as a whip, my tingling insides full of—semen! We can’t take that back! I don’t know if I want to take that back. “I–I’m getting pregnant!” I squeak, “I can’t stop! My belly’s changing in there!”

“Can’t believe I just let you do that,” Mira says, hand coming down to slide along my back, “I don’t care if you’re pregnant though. You really needed it. Not like a human baby either. You don’t mind having a cute little pony foal, do you?”

“I...I don’t know,” I tell her faintly, “I feel... s-strange. My whole belly’s... going off. Or something.”

“I could’ve pulled out, but... I want you pregnant too, Meadowsweet,” Nick says, still mounted, still penetrating me, as he sags against my rump, “I–I could smell how much you needed it. And now you’re changing... your scent is changing.”

“I just... I feel weird,” I say testily, lifting a hind leg and planting it again. “Your... penis isn’t shrinking very fast.”

“I’ll head off any farmers,” Mira says, though we are decidedly alone off the road here, “You two just... get a cute foal in Meadowsweet’s tummy, however you like.”

“I-it’s happening,” I inform Mira uncertainly, “My belly’s... m-making you a cute foal right now. Oh Nick...”

Somehow it’s easier for me to just... let myself be pregnant, with how fondly Mira, and... and even Nick feels about my foal. Would it really be so bad if I made a foal for them?

Nick eventually dismounts, pulling what he has left out of me to dangle between his legs. Something else slips within me, and I squeak in surprise as Nick jams his hoof right up against my... my entrance. “Oh jeez, can we get a towel?” Nick asks anxiously back there, “I don’t know how much of my cum is gonna... leak outta you!”

“I can’t believe I have cum in me,” I murmur.

“Yeah, I’m holding it in just to make sure you get as pregnant as possible,” Nick says with a wince that might pass for a smile.

“I don’t think it works that way, but okay,” I tell him, perhaps a little less than pleased.

I feel so pampered, with Nick pressing against my vulva to hold himself inside me, and Mira pulling the towel from out back. I’m definitely the center of attention. My “Ooh—!” when Nick releases me and his semen just dumps out of me is about the most womanly noise I’ve made yet.

So of course I have to be the worst at being a woman in the world, by looking between my own legs, and remarking, “Wow, just look at me go!”

“That’s uh... yeah it’s a...” I do believe I’ve made Nick speechless.

“Sorry it’s just so weird,” I tell the stallion sheepishly, “That I have female parts and they’re... y’know.”

“The weird thing is that it’s you who has it,” Nick replies.

“It would be less weird if you had it?” I ask him in confusion.

“No! Just...” Nick scrunches oh my god that is adorable, “It’s less weird when it’s just something she was... born with.”

“Well I wasn’t, but... I think I don’t mind,” I say, feeling all... fuzzy from that intense sex.

“You don’t?” Nick asks giving me a skeptical look.

“I feel pretty good actually!” I say, sauntering up to him, all giggly inside, “Maybe this being a girl thing isn’t so bad.”

“It’s great, except for the part where you get pregnant,” Mira says, wrinkling her nose at the towel and just tossing it into the back of the car.

My hips feel special. I could make a baby in there. “Yeah...” I murmur dreamily, leaning against Nick feeling so much love for the musky male who just made me a mother.

“You okay?” Nick asks, sounding worried for some reason.

“Oh Nick, you did this to me,” I tell the stallion, gazing at him in abject shining adoration, “I feel so different!”

“I meant to pull out, it just...” he says shyly, looking shamefully downward.

“And you couldn’t,” I coo, rubbing my... cheek against his, and then my whole body, “Because my vagina made you want to push deep in me and cum.”

“You seem really uhm... calm about this,” Nick says, albeit leaning back, a warm edifice of support.

“I guess I do?” I remark in surprise, crossing my eyes at my own soft yellow snout. But then I lean against him again, cheek to cheek, purring, “I feel wonderful!”

He stays with me back here as this thing happens to me. With us under the blanket again, Mira pulls the car back onto the highway, and his scent isn’t driving me insane anymore. Even though I feel like it should be. Maybe it’s because under here, I can smell the moment his penis erupted inside me. As my breathing returns to normal, I couldn’t be happier.

We sit together on our bellies in that silent, sideways contact for as long as it takes Mira to get back on the highway. Then Nick moves, and I move in response, and in moving, I feel funny. “Feels weird to be... just standing here, g-getting pregnant,” I tell him, in a slight flare of nervousness to my blessed calm. “I really was getting worked up there.”

“Yeah, I shouldn’t have done it to you,” he says unhappily, “I was gonna pull out.”

“Yeah, my vagina sure changed your mind,” I say, thinking back to the important place within me, and back in time to when male, I came inside Twilight Sparkle, “Soon as you started... penetrating, you just couldn’t hold back.”

“You changed my mind,” Nick says, nibbling idly at my flicky ear, “I just... started wanting you to get pregnant, and give birth. And you wanted it so much.”

“I didn’t say I did though,” I say worriedly.

“You did, though?” he says in confusion.

“Yeah, after you...” I puzzle out my fuzzy memory that only remembers with crystal clarity the feeling of that fleshy penis’s thrusts, “...I guess your penis changed my mind too,” I tell him softly, “I still feel kind of... tingly in there. Soon as you came, I just... changed.”

“Just glad you feel okay with it,” Nick says softly.

“God, I could be just like my mom now,” I realize in shock, “She felt like this when she was getting pregnant. With me!”

“I never wanted to be a dad before,” Nick muses, laying his head on the back of my neck, “But I was trying so hard to, when I was...”

“Cumming inside me,” I tell him fondly.

“So I guess I... will be a dad,” Nick admits uneasily, “If you really are gonna... give birth.”

“I... I actually can’t even imagine giving birth,” I confess, thinking of my well used vagina, “Even your penis was too big, when you were a human. It actually hurt to... to stretch around it. Your pony penis is amazing and perfect though. I–I guess that’s one good thing about this transformation.”

“Could be better,” he says noncommittally, “I miss hands. But yeah, I never came like that in a million years until I was a pony. It’s... nice.”

A moment later, and I feel a little worried, saying, “Ponies have such big heads. If it hurt when you were a human... I’ve seen girls giving birth o-on TV before, and they were in so much pain. They were just screaming and swearing, and... that’s just gonna happen to me?”

“It’s not like on TV, but yeah,” Nick says resignedly, “Haven’t read much about it actually, but I will if you’re pregnant.”

Despite both our efforts, my mood continues slipping down like that in fits and spurts, but it takes the better part of an hour to go into a total meltdown.

“Calm down, Meadows,” Nick says frantically, “It’s—”

“I can’t calm down!” I protest my breath coming short and shrill, blind as I stand up under the blanket, “It changed me somehow! I didn’t even care about your... your gunk inside me. Oh god it’s still inside me. If I get pregnant, I’m not ready to be a mom! Oh god what’s happening to me? I feel terrible about this! I felt so good before! Oh no, Mira, I’m sorry! I just... I just ignored you, and I didn’t want you to stop me so I could get pregnant. I should’ve said no! I should’ve never let you start, if I knew you couldn’t stop! Nick I’m sorry I—”

“Meadowsweet, calm down,” Nick says, pulling the blanket up and getting right in my face, “It’s just some hormonal thing. You’re fine. If you get pregnant we’ll deal with it, but now’s not the time to be upset. Just relax, and it’s okay if you freak out a little. Do you want... me to sit with you?”

“Uh... uh huh,” I say, feeling like a stupid little baby for saying it that way in a childlike, high pitched girl’s voice. Nick sits with me in the blanket, and he hugs me as I shiver there, afraid of my own bottom, full of the semen that I felt Nick’s penis so earnestly spurting into me. “God I’m a wreck,” I moan into his embrace, “I just wanted some relief. Didn’t want to turn into a girl, and didn’t want to want to be a girl, I just did.”

“No talking,” he says, “Just... go with it. Do whatever your body needs to do. And I’m sorry. I won’t ever do anything like that to you again.”

“But... but I liked it,” I whine.

Giving me a look, Nick says, “Just... no talking okay?”

I sit there shivering against his comforting warmth, and I feel awful and scared and pregnant and... he’s right I need to calm down. Now that I’m a girl, it really must be some hormonal thing. Not like back in college, when I couldn’t...

...it’s exactly like back in college, isn’t it.

“We’re gonna find Twilight, and we’ll have you changed back before you even think about getting pregnant,” Mira calls out behind her, as my awareness helps cool my anxiety, “Even if you are pregnant, it’ll probably be able to change you back. We have to stop her from doing this to a bunch of others. Then we can fix this. Don’t worry.”

It’s some measure of comfort.

Once I feel okay enough to talk, I say in a little voice, “Nick, I...” I turn to look at him, still flustered from what we did together, but not... panicking, at least. “I don’t blame you for this,” I finally settle on telling him, “I know how hard it can be to resist my... a female’s invitation. I couldn’t stop, either. Nick, I don’t know what to do!”

“Stop Twilight,” Nick suggests darkly, “Then we can... try to figure this out. She knows what’s going on here. She can change us back as easily as she changed us forward. I swear I’ve never been this horny before. Did Twilight plan this?”

“I don’t know anything about pregnancy,” I fuss in frustration, “Maybe it’ll stop me from transforming back. How long until we know if I’m pregnant? Because I never even... I never even looked up this stuff! What if it starts tomorrow? Or this afternoon?”

Mira speaks up then, calling over her shoulder, “Hey Meadowsweet, it’s uh... about a week, until symptoms—I mean—signs start showing up. If you start menstruating, obviously it didn’t take.”

“Menstruating?” I ask in confusion, “What’s that?”

The car swerves on the road. Mira pulls over, hard.

“You never learned about menstruation?” she shouts in outrage.

“I–I guess not?” I tell her, trying to tell what she’s doing through the blanket, “Is it a girl thing? Because if I learned about it, I don’t remember.”

Mira starts driving again.

“Wow,” she says in impressment, “Remind me to tell you about menstruation some time when Nick’s not around.”

I think about that a moment, then say in puzzlement, “Why can’t Nick be around?”

“It’s kind of a girl thing,” she says seriously.

“Oh, is that why I never learned about it?” I ask, thinknig on her words, “Because you can only tell it to other girls?”

“N—” Mira starts to say, then pauses. “Huh,” she replies eventually, “I guess that could be true? You might’ve learned it in sex ed.”

“Back in high school?” I ask critically. “I barely remember Geography!”

“Well, I do know what menstruation is,” Nick says with very flat ears. “Unlike some pony, I’ve had a girlfriend before.”

“Hey, I had a relationship with Twilight Sparkle!” I protest, frowning.

“Her evil twin, for two months, yeah,” he says teasingly, “You didn’t catch her at her period during that time?”

“Her... period?” I ask, a vague horror rising in me as that word reminds me of... something I heard before. Maybe in a movie?

“Okay, so imagine this,” Nick says.

“Oh no,” Mira moans, “Don’t you dare, Nick.”

“No, I’m curious,” I tell her. “What, is it disturbing? I’m not a little kid anymore y’know.”

“You have your girl laying against your chest,” Nick describes fondly, “She just rode your dick like no tomorrow until you nutted, and then you just slipped out of her. Then, you notice that your crotch is covered in blood.”

My teeth clench, as Mira whines, “Nick!”

“You think she’s dying,” Nick goes on eagerly as I listen in horrified fascination, “You freak out and jump out of bed, trying to call the ambulance. She stops you at the phone, and she’s freaking out too, but not for the same reason. She tells you she forget she was on her cycle, and you ask her what the hell does that mean. She’s standing there totally naked, as if she doesn’t even notice the blood dripping from her cunt. ‘I didn’t even notice!’ she tells you, ‘I swear I didn’t know my period started this early!’ You ask her if her period means that her vagina is going to be bleeding, expecting her to react with horror when she realizes her horrific injury. And she looks at you like you’re an idiot, still bloody mind you, and says ‘Um, yes?’”

“Nick, you seriously learned about menstruation by having sex with a girl on her period?” Mira asks in exasperation.

“No, I learned about it when she made me go buy tampons, and I read the label on the box,” he replies evenly, “But I like my story better.”

“Nick, shut up,” Mira growls, “I’ll tell her what it is if you’ll just shut up!”

“Shutting up now!” he says innocently.

There’s all too long of a silence.

“Meadowsweet?” Mira asks in honest concern, “Are you okay there?”

I try to breathe. “I’m—” I say queasily, trying to escape my own groin, “I just... I’m gonna b-bleed out of my...”

“It’s not blood, first off,” Mira asserts. “It only looks kind of like blood. And it’s completely healthy. Every girl goes through it, once a month. I guess they don’t bother telling guys about it, because they don’t have to deal with it.”

“Well it’s definitely a... a shocker!” I whimper.

“You think that’s bad?” Mira drawls, “Try never being taught about menstruation until it starts happening to you one day.”

“But didn’t you say they taught it in sex-ed?” I ask in puzzlement.

“Yeah, once you’re 16,” she groans, “Menstruation can start as early as age 9, and usually by the time you’re 14.”

“S-so you started bleeding,” I say with a wince.

“I thought I did,” she replies, “I tried to um, find the injury. Didn’t tell anyone at first ‘cause I was scared it’d be something serious. Then Mom was like ‘Oh Honey, you’re having your first period! That is such a magical miracle wonder at your time in life!’”

“Huh,” Nick remarks, “You sound a lot like your mom, Meadowsweet.”

“Mira was exaggerating. Mom does not have a high, squeaky voice!” I squeak in offense.

“No, I meant her deluded optimism,” he replies dryly, then in a falsetto, “‘Oh, Twilight Sparkle is visiting me! That is such a magical—’”

“I get your point,” I snap at him, cutting off Nick’s falsetto. “And it was literally magical. She’s a magical unicorn!”

“...changeling,” he adds.

“Right, changeling,” I reply softly, looking away from his eyes, back at this grey blanket covering the both of us.

“Menstruation is...” Mira says, pausing in thought, “Once a month, a female releases an egg, right? You know that, right?”

“I did pay some attention in sex-ed,” I say, rolling my oversized eyes.

“Well, the uterus has to get um... ready for that egg to implant itself,” she continues, “If it ever gets fertilized. So it’ll thicken, and engorge with um... blood. Just to connect with the egg, I mean. Not bleeding out the vagina, but like... blushing. Your uterus gets nutrients to the—er—the uterus gets nutrients to the baby through your circulatory system. Kid hooks up to it, and it all turns into like, the amniotic sac and the placenta and stuff. I dunno exactly.”

“So, when does the bleeding start?” I ask uneasily.

“If you don’t get fertilized,” she continues, “It can’t just stay engorged. Has to clean out and start over for the next egg. So all that um... tissue sort of comes off, and there’s only one way for it to get out of you.”

“How is that not bleeding?” I ask, turning on my side to squeeze my thighs shut over my feminine V. That thing’s gonna freaking... bleed?

“Because it’s the used tissue, not blood,” she says nonchalantly, “It’s totally isolated from your circulatory system before it starts shedding. So you don’t have any cuts or injuries. Just a lot of um, bloody tissue that makes its way out of you. And blood...ish. Old, unused blood.”

A moment to blink at that bizarre... image, I ask in a small voice, “Do... do you get enough iron in your diet?”

“What?” Mira asks cluelessly.

“You’re not injured, but you’re still losing iron,” I tell her, “You know, hemoglobin?”

“Um... red meat, mostly,” she says, “I never had any sort of problem. I think when guys eat all that iron, it just passes through them.

“It might be why I like spinach more than you,” she suggests on an afterthought.

“I... actually like spinach now,” I mumble sheepishly. “I was hungry, and... and it was all Nick got from the store, because... I was a pony.”

“Well, um... yeah, so... once a month a girl will start y’know...” Mira trails off.

“Bleeding out of her vagina,” Nick says helpfully.

“So, if that happens, you’re not injured or anything,” Mira replies, “It’s just your monthly attempt at pregnancy. You can... you actually can stick a tampon in there, to keep from making a mess.”

“Oh, so that’s why nobody likes tampons,” I say faintly.

I have a lot to think on as we drive down the road. “I’m not going to have menstruation, am I?” I muse to the solemn silence. “At least that’s something good about getting...

...

...pregnant.”

“Yeah, but then you have to give birth,” Mira groans, “And then you really do bleed.”

“O-oh right,” I say mutedly, “How am I going to... how am I going to do that?”

“From what I hear, it’s mostly automatic,” Nick replies helpfully.

“Yeah, but... me?” I reply, looking down at my yellow forehooves. “I can’t even imagine... no, I can imagine, and that’s kind of terrifying.”

“That it’d hurt?” Nick asks sympathetically.

“I feel like I’d want it,” I tell him, hugging my forehooves against me, “Even while it’s hurting.”

“Better to want it than not want it,” he muses.

“Never thought I’d... enjoy having sex as a girl,” I tell him shyly, looking Nick’s way with a blush.

“Yeah, it was pretty incredible,” Nick says distantly, remembering the experience.

“Are you two gonna go for round two?” Mira asks cheekily.

“Round—?!” I utter, lifting my head and looking her way in shocked outrage.

“I had sex with him too, y’know,” Mira says with an audible roll of her eyes, “I know Nick can get it up again.”

“O-oh that’s right, you did,” I say faintly, staring forward.

“Sorry if I’m ...out of line,” Mira says uneasily, “I mean you were the one talking about sex and how sex changed you into a pony. I figured you were... I mean I know you’re into that stuff: it’s just biology, but we just never talk about it because... well... y’know.”

“I really don’t,” I say in a resigned frustration.

“You know, how I’m your sister?” Mira says cautiously, “It’s just inappropriate for us to uhm... talk about that stuff.”

“It’s not like you were having sex with me,” I gripe, “Nobody was!”

Mira doesn’t answer that, and considering I just had sex in front of her as a girl and got pregnant, I’m feeling unusually bold about it, so I tell her, “I’d appreciate it if... you’d tell me about that stuff. I won’t get offended; how could I? Even if I can’t... get any myself. Once I change back.”

“Well I know it’s awkward to talk about,” Nick says, “When you can’t get any, and I don’t want to... y’know go gay for you, so there’s nothing I can do to help once you get changed back. So much easier to talk about, now that it’s an option.”

“And it’s not gay?” I ask.

“I’m a vagina man, what can I say?” Nick says in amusement.

Sighing, I just give up and say, “If it’s hard to talk about sex with someone who can’t get any, that would explain why I couldn’t get any.”

“And now you can,” Nick insists, “And Mira’s right I can get it up again. Not like you’d be any more likely to get pregnant, right?”

“Hold your horses,” Mira calls back, “I need to find a place to park already.”

Nick and I can’t resist peeking out from under the blanket as Mira says, “Oh wow. The convention center’s pretty spectacular. Look at this architecture!” The space age modern building with its tall columns and faceted glass ceilings is pretty amazing it’s true. I haven’t seen much like it in my life, not that I can see much without risking someone seeing us.

Mira drives around looking for parking as Nick and I retreat under the blanket. His penis is starting to come out again. He looks down at me looking, and before he can say something snarky, I stammer, “S-so about that round um, two?”

“We don’t have time,” Nick says in disappointment, so I turn and present for him under the blanket, saying,

“Maybe we could just do it a little?”

Blinking at me, Nick stands and moves forward, his penis hanging between his legs before he unceremoniously mounts me, saying, “Meadowsweet, you’re amazing.”

Blushing hard, I stammer, “W-well it’s just I can’t get any more p-pregnant and if youu...” His penis is just going right for me. “Oh Nick,” I say, trying to angle myself to get him in, and it just works, and as he sinks deep I have to say huskily, “I wannit.”

“Ugh, parking here is terrible,” Mira says, the car turning this way and that, making us struggle to stay put and thrust him into me, but boy do we try. Nick wants in me bad, and I want him. “I’m going to try this garage,” Mira says.

Mira revs down the car, giving us some precious moments to urgently thrust together. I stumble forward as the car lurches forward again, Nick slipping sloppily out of me entirely. I guess as Mira passes the toll gate, and the light outside the blanket darkens.

Nick’s mounted up again by the time Mira finds a parking spot, and we’re both panting quietly as he thrusts in and out. The car finally stops and turns off. Then the overhead light comes on through the blanket, and Mira lifts the blanket off of me and Nick. U-uhm.

“We um, we wanted...” I say looking up at her as Nick rolls his hips against me and his penis within me, “R-round two.”

“It’s fine,” Mira says appeasingly, “You two are still adorable. Um... you might wanna stop though, because we need to figure out what our game plan is here.”

“We can talk like this,” Nick says, thrusting deep and holding there, “Unless Meadowsweet thinks I’m too heavy?”

“N-no you’re wonderful!” I exclaim, looking back at him, then blushing again and looking forward. “Yes, we can... talk like this, I guess,” I agree self-consciously.

“Not like you get many chances to do that,” Mira replies in an impressed tone, “So... any thoughts?”

“Besides Nick’s penis in my vagina?” I ask, wryly, though a little surprised that I can think about more than that. When he’s not actively thrusting as fast as he can, I just feel wonderfully full, and an urge growing in me to thrust, but nothing stopping me from waiting and letting it grow. “A-actually, where’s the floor plan we printed out?”

Mira unfolds the floor plan in front of um... us, and I can crane down and look at it with no problem, as long as I don’t try to thrust too hard.

“We need to find the Ventilation System,” Nick points out atop me.

“There’s a service entrance here,” I remark, “It’s marked so it’s... probably where Twilight went in.”

I try to reach a spot on the map, but I have to pull away from Nick to do so, and he pulls me against him, snorting as he starts to thrust. Soon we’re both just having sex again, not really paying attention to anything else.

“Well that explains how that turns out,” Mira says, in a strange sort of melancholy as she asks, “So are you two just gonna finish or...?”

It’s hard to think, but I’m worried about her, and full of penis, but are we doing something wrong? I try to separate from Nick, but he just pulls me against him as I just want to stand there getting fucked. But...!

Wincing at the... tension at my entrance, I lift a hind leg and firmly push back against Nick’s abdomen to stop him from thrusting into me. Nick just releases me then though, dropping out entirely and coming to all fours beside me. “Yeah, it’s... it’s too hard to talk like that,” he says, somewhat mollified.

“It’s weird that we can just... do that,” I say, looking at my own hindquarters in disbelief, “I mean, wow. Just...”

“Back to the matter at hand,” Mira says, sounding irritated enough for me to give her another worried look.

“Twilight doesn’t know I’m a pony, so I can get the jump on her when she comes in and sees Meadowsweet,” Nick goes on, the stallion who should be inside me, instead jumping down between the seats to look at the map. When he rears up on it, his dick hits the seat. I can’t imagine he doesn’t feel that. I can’t believe that fits in me.

“I-if she uses some sort of changeling mind control,” I contribute, pointedly not looking at Nick’s penis, “Her notes said it made ponies into loyal slaves.”

“If she tries anything, Mira can come in and subdue her,” Nick says, with a look Mira’s way, “She’s not a pony so she should be immune.”

“And I call the police, soon as we see her,” Mira says, “That way she won’t havn time to signal her corrupt cops to stop it.”

“The entrance is out on the street, though,” I say, touching the spot with a hoof, “And it’s broad daylight outside.”

“I can go out in broad daylight,” Mira says confidently, “So how about you two stay hidden in the car here, while I look around for some way to get you there unseen.”

“That’s perfect!” I tell her in delight. I walk up to Nick hopefully. He’s so big, and smells good and there’s no more risk putting him inside me. Turning my rear his way and lifting my tail, I notice Mira’s still there giving me a very amused look.

“I didn’t know you’d be such an insatiable minx,” Mira says, as I blush hard, stammering,

“I–I was just—”

I can’t help taking heavier breaths then, because Nick mounts me, hooves sliding down along my flanks and oh, there’s his penis touching my belly! “I was just trying to... help him finish,” I try to explain to Mira.

“You look like you need some finishing too,” Mira says appraisingly as Nick’s already pressing into my vulva. I think he’s getting better at finding his way into me already.

“He’s—penetrating me~“ I tell Mira as I can’t stop that penis spreading me open deeper. I can’t help but start panting hoarsely at the feeling. I look up at Mira guiltily, feeling him slide all the way up inside me, in a few hot thrusts, until I’m full again,

“He... he’s in,” I conclude.

“Yeah I can see that,” Mira replies, “Giving me a play by play, huh?”

Why was I telling her? It just seemed so important, because I was—oh yeah, “So just... go unh, do your thing,” I tell her, having a hard time talking as Nick starts thrusting, not even really remembering what Mira’s thing is, only thinking about how to get more of those hearty thrusts into my passage.

“You two are so horny, it’s just taking you over,” Mira says wistfully.

“Sorry, I just—just want to...” Nick says atop and inside me.

“No don’t worry, it’s adorable,” Mira says with that melancholy to her voice that gets through the foggy lust that’s already descending upon me.

“You two keep making pony babies then,” Mira tells us casually, as we mate together here in the back seat, “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be back once I’ve found something you can hide in.”

“You can... stay,” I say senselessly, “You can h-have Nick too. You were leaning on the... the wall, with his seed coming out of you. Your... h-hips looked so beautiful!”

“Nice of you,” Mira replies curtly, leaning over us as we hump together to turn off the overhead light, but then backs out of the car again saying, “Cover up with the blanket after you’re uh, done. Just in case anyone parks near here.”

She closes the door and leaves then, and though I watch her go worriedly, it’s wonderful as silence descends, and Nick continues to thrust. I don’t want to make noise, just feel this eager hefty sliding of that flesh pole dripping with my juices. We’re just quietly thrusting together, in the darkness of the parking garage. It’s okay I don’t want to do anything else now. Not talk, or think, just the same thing over and over again, in a rhythm that’s gonna get Nick to cum.

Besides that utterly satisfying sliding stretch of a penis within me, a tingling is growing, descending up into my pelvis. I’ve never actually... orgasmed as a female. Am I gonna do it this time? The echoey car noises in the distance make my ear turn that way nervously, as I crouch there, urgently fucking him. He bites my neck then, just... grabs me with his teeth. I–I don’t know why. I feel him, want him, have to stand here for him and have his babies.

He pushes deep then and I can’t escape. He won’t let go. Then with a snort of hot breath against my neck, I feel Nick ejaculating into me again. I don’t try to escape. I just close my eyes, feeling his cum rushing into me. As if his sperm weren’t already inside me. I had to have produced an egg. Just popping outta me in there, and now it’s gonna grow into a pony baby. Nick doesn’t cum as much this time, which is probably good, since Mira’s not here to help clean up what’s dripping out of me. I still relish every rushing spurt in me, staring off with slitted eyes, feeling him do this to me.

Nick releases the skin of my neck then, saying “Sorry, I...” I feel a soft tongue lick there, right by my mane, “Just seemed like...”

“No, you did... good,” I tell him reservedly, “It made me feel... ready to have your babies, so it’s probably supposed to happen.”

“I guess ponies are cats after all,” Nick says.

A laugh belts out of me at the fitting absurdity of that. My laugh gulps to a surprised halt right away though.

“You okay?” Nick asks worriedly.

“It feels... really weird to laugh with a penis inside me,” I tell him, wide-eyed.

A moment’s pause, then Nick starts laughing too, and it’s contagious. And this time I don’t care that my vagina is sharing in the amusement, twinging unmistakably around him with the hearty contractions of my diaphragm.

It’s only after Nick pulls out, and unmounts, and cuddles my still giggly, female pony body against him under the blanket, that my ardor start to cool. “I... I’m feeling weird again,” I tell him nervously, as anxiety flutters in my chest, “It’s weird being a female. I... I really did start wanting to get pregnant.”

“And you don’t now?” Nick asks quietly.

“...I don’t know,” I mumble into his chest, “I can’t really... get pregnant anyway because we’re gonna make Twilight change us back.”

“No, that means you can get pregnant,” he says, “Because it won’t matter when you change back. So you can get as pregnant as you want.”

Shivering at the forbidden thoughts, I pull Nick’s hooves down to my belly, pressing them against my lower belly, where my soft round pelvis only holds an entrance. “That’s where my uterus has to be,” I tell him, “That’s where I want to... make your baby. I feel like such a girl now. The sex... I don’t feel like a guy anymore. I feel like a... a girl. And a mom.”

“I’m just glad you’re not freaking out about it again,” Nick chuckles, affectionately nuzzling my animate ear. “You’re okay with just... having my penis in you now, huh?”

“I guess I was getting awfully worried about sex, and ‘us’ for a while there,” I murmur, “It was... a lot better than I thought it’d be.”

“You were so stressed at becoming a... mare, and a useless earth pony,” Nick says emotionally, “But between your legs you’ve got a treasure that’d put Griffonstone to shame.”

“So do half the gryphons in Griffonstone,” I point out a bit unhelpfully, squirming my legs together around that slimy “treasure.”

“Well yeah, but... you know what I mean,” Nick replies.

“I... I can’t believe I feel so calm about this,” I say in the sacred quiet of an echoey car garage. “Hope it lasts this time.”

“Sorry you’re going through this,” Nick replies sympathetically, “But it’s so fascinating what you’re figuring out as a mare. I mean how many chances do guys get to be female? And you’re paying attention to it.”

“Why wouldn’t I pay attention?” I ask the warm unicorn against me, an ear flicking in... some emotion. I don’t really have much control of my ears either.

“I don’t think many girls would think about how arousal makes her want babies,” Nick points out, “Other people don’t even want to think about it, but you pay attention to yourself. It’s just really cool. That’s one thing I’ve always liked about you, even when you weren’t a pony.”

“Paying attention to myself?” I reply curiously.

“Paying attention,” he says, “Exploring new ideas. It’s something I’ve never gotten from a girl before, and now my friend gets to be a girl.”

“I’m sure lots of girls explore new ideas...” I say uncertainly, holding my forelegs over his hooves hugging my fuzzy chest. His seed slips slowly within me.

Nick sighs against me, and says, “They don’t think it’s safe to tell it to a... a boy, I guess. You’re just so open and trusting. Others think I’d just use that knowledge to trick them into having babies, but you trust me enough to ask me to help you with it.”

“But...” I murmur uneasily, “Didn’t you trick me into having a baby?”

“T-that doesn’t... I mean, not intentionally,” he stammers, flustered, “I meant how guys intentionally do it, because they... hate women or something.”

“Yeah, you were just...” a warmth flares in my heart as I snuggle closer to him, “Being an animal. And I did tell you it was making me want babies.”

“You trust me enough to open up to me like this, and that’s just amazing,” Nick says gladly, “It’s just really cool to be with you like this. Even if I...” his ears go down again, “Kinda might have gotten you pregnant just now.”

“I suppose if I was less trusting, none of this would ever have happened,” I say in surprisingly little regret, “It’s really... it’s not like I condone Twilight’s actions, or want to be pregnant, but I... think it’s really cool to be with you like this, too.”

After a pause, Nick adds, “Cumming inside you is also a nice perk.”

Blushing, I squeeze my legs a little tighter together on Nick’s penis, saying, “Y-yeah it sure is. I guess maybe it’s not such a bad thing that I got changed into a mare?”

“Hey, I’m not complaining,” Nick says in amusement.

“I’m just glad I can feel this way,” I tell him quietly, cuddling closer, “I... I know I’ll worry too much about this stuff later, but right now, I feel like I can just lay here with you and... just be here.”

“Me too, I haven’t felt like this in... forever,” Nick says, close and calm.

“I wonder if Twilight will let me stay a pony, until I can have your baby,” I muse in the quiet darkness.

“...you don’t have to,” Nick says again, “But if you want to, then... I don’t see why not. I think you’ll be a—a wonderful mom.”

Swallowing I tell him in a strange excitement, “I’ll t-try my best.”

So we lay there, with automobile traffic noises drifting around us, under this blanket where we... where I got so freaking impregnated I’m surprised it’s not coming out of my ears. How the heck did things get this far, this fast? It all just bowled me over like a wrecking ball, and now we’re... um...

“Am I your girlfriend, now?” I ask Nick in confusion.

His quiet snore says I’m not gonna be getting answers any time soon. Amusingly enough, he hasn’t... entirely slid out of me yet. So I just lay there feeling his chest rise and fall against me, until I drift off, myself, my whole new womanhood purring at the memory of the manhood calmly quiescent in its little sheath again, within the stallion behind me.

Author's Note

Yep, the entire rest of the story is pretty much just unrelated sex scenes that don’t move the plot along at all. Nobody ever heard from Twilight again, and they never the plan, until everyone almost accidentally the whole thing, and then sexytimes abound. That’s pretty much exactly how it goes. Hope you didn’t expect any mysteries to be revealed or anything!

Beating Around the Bush

Author's Note

Horses doing horse things!

Beating Around the Bush

So I’m... probably pregnant. Certainly. Absolutely. I don’t know. And there is a chance that I’m not, so I’m certainly not angry at Nick for... whatever you call it. The rhythm method, I think? I can’t imagine he’s not tempted to cum inside me, because I know I find myself wishing for just a nice satisfying spurt before he pulls out. I wish he’d wait just a little bit too long and then bam, cum inside as he’s pulling out. Not that I want to get pregnant for real, just... when he’s mounted on top of me, and I’m all hugged around his sliding phallus, it’d just be so satisfying to feel it ejaculate in there.

I actually find myself masturbating about that. Just imagining myself standing there firmly while he holds it deep, me tight against him. I’d give a blissful “nnhh!” as I felt the seed just blast against me in there. One, two, three good squirts. Then he’d pull out of me all apologetic, and I’d stand there trying not to smile, feeling like I got away with highway robbery, even though I’m the one getting robbed. Heavy with the thick seed inside me, I’d becoming pregnant with his foal right before his eyes. I’d just be this contented, pregnant mare.

When I’m not horny, I’m super glad not to have a foal to worry about, but... the next time Nick’s inside me, I can’t help but wish to feel a few good spurts in there, and I can’t imagine he doesn’t feel the same way.

Well, if he’d stop having too much of a headache to fuck me, that is.

That’s getting to be a real problem actually. I don’t know how things could ever settle down, after Mira, my sister and my... friend decided to light a campfire by spitting on it. Yet settle down, they do. A month after Twilight left us, our little refuge out here is still going. We’re eating grass, fruit, some skinny zucchinis, dark green leafy chard, and... honestly it’s not so bad!

I must’ve needed to adjust or something, because these extra vegetables are really hearty, and I stopped having... bathroom problems somewhere along the line. I’m still pretty hungry, and I guess... skinnier than I’d like to be, but you can’t see my ribs anymore. I wish I could say the same for every pony, but one thing that’s getting more and more worrying is that some of us are getting sick.

Not sick like, sneezing, but sort of listless and dizzy, and... I dunno, shouty. I haven’t gotten Nick to make a joke in like, forever, and it’s understandable if he’s upset at what Twilight did, but this is Nick we’re talking about. He’s supposed to be mister sarcastic! He’s not supposed to blow up at me just because I say it’s nice outside, and complain that the sun’s too bright, and his headache won’t go away.

He’s not the only one either. Most of the unicorns, many of the pegasi and bat ponies, and... not many of the earth ponies. As the only biologist among us, Brian helped so much with the pregnancy advice, but on this matter, she’s left at a loss.

“It’s gotta be something in our diet,” she says, grazing next to me, a tad more listless than usual. She’s one of the unlucky pegasi. “Salt or... some sort of deficiency. We’ve got enough vitamins and minerals though, and the uh... salt lick those ponies flew over is taking care of salt, technically. Some of us just aren’t... metabolizing calories very well. That’s my best... guess.”

She goes for some more grass, and I finish my mouthful, saying, “I can’t imagine what it could be. We all had to change our diet the same, but not everyone’s getting sick. I feel um... f-fine,” I lift a hoof a little guiltily at her sideways glance. “I have to eat a lot, for... those calories and all, but I’m really starting to get used to it.”

Well, she’s finishing her mouthful, and I have no idea what I’m talking about, so I might as well go nibble up some more myself. The shining spring sun overhead warms my back and... butt, as its solar power draws forth these green blades of grass from the soil. Convenient for us, I guess. We’d probably all be starving if Twilight abandoned us during the winter.

“We were fine until Twilight left, and destroyed humanity,” Brian sighs hopelessly, “Then we couldn’t get any more soup or bread or... fruit that isn’t some kind of a weird berry/apple hybrid. Maybe some people are allergic to those... bush fruits. But nobody’s swelling up, just...”

She trails off, sighing again, and going for more grass. I wish I could help her, and I almost wish that I was one of the ponies who wasn’t feeling good. But instead I get to be healthy as a horse, so to speak, while my friends stand there slowly wasting away. Brian’s still doing... okay, but Nick’s getting to be a serious problem for me.

The real problem here isn’t so much that Nick isn’t feeling well, but that I’m dealing with it... poorly. Oh I’m not freaking out or anything, though I worry for him terribly. The problem is he kind of... stopped... fucking me, on a regular basis. Him and John, now Spearmint, are really getting into each other, and Nick’s just not up to it often enough to do both her and me. And I think a... third mare. Also Mira.

You know, maybe this isn’t entirely my fault!

Nevertheless, one day I’m kind of hanging around, standing there feeling all melty and tingly achy and everything. You wouldn’t think girls just got horny for no reason, but here we are. Maybe ponies are different? I’m considering masturbating, but wanting something more than masturbation, when I notice a mare and a stallion going off together nickering at each other. The same sounds that came out of me, when Nick was about to... do me. And I wonder if they’re gonna do it, and if I could at least... you know... see something. So I sort of follow after them.

I’m not a pervert, I swear. I’ve just been getting so horny, and I don’t have anything to do with my ass. I just want something even if it isn’t exactly... normal. I don’t even mean to sneak up on them. I just skulk through the bushes after them far away from the farm, to find them in a clear area beneath a stand of pine trees, kissing and whispering to each other. The stallion has a brick red mane, almost brown, with chocolatey brown fur that I didn’t think ponies in the show could have. His mare’s a lot more colorful, something that seems consistent between males and females, I guess. I’m not sure what I mean by “colorful” but her red hair is more vibrant than his red hair, and contrasts more with the mint green of her fur, as opposed to his red and... brown.

I peer from around behind a tree, not sure if I should say something, when she just turns, and flags him. Her tail goes up, and... and I can’t see much of her pinkly winking marehood, because he dives in right away. Just sticks his nose right between the mare’s legs. Then the mare’s soft green fur reveals itself to be more than fur, when smooth, curved bat wings half spread in shock at the touch of the stallion back there.

It’s so subtle what happens to this mare. After the inital gasp, she lets her wings gently fold, while the stallion is just... down under her tail doing things. She looks back, as if to check that her own ass is being licked, then faces forward and relaxes. When she faces forward, I can’t really see her face from this angle, but I can hear her breathy gasps getting more ragged as the pleasure takes hold of her.

At her indulgent moan, I just have to slide my foreleg between my legs and touch myself. Bracing a forehoof against the tree I’m hiding behind, I slide my other down my belly, until I feel my soft petals part as they strike its frog. I should tell them I’m here, but he’s... he’s licking her right in the place that I want to be licked! My hoof feels nice and soft as I rub myself, and a familiar pleasant warmth builds up in my belly. Even though own nethers wish Nick was doing that to me, even if he didn’t even mount me, even if...

I... I wink against my hoof. It just happens to me. I start sliding against my own foreleg, as its fur gets slicked down with my own hot juices. I wanna... wanna be as juicy as possible for him. Make him go inside me, and put his tongue inside me, and cum inside me, and whatever else, as long as it happens deep in there, where my hoof can’t reach.

I am of course thinking about Nick, as I should be, and not about this stallion I’m watching, whose chocolatey brown balls are soon joined by a slightly mottled penis that grows down between his hind legs. No, if that penis went inside me, that would be terrible, and not at all what I’m fantasizing about. Watching him spread his legs slightly, I can see that penis stiffen and thicken, until it lifts up and slaps against his belly, and I can’t see it anymore.

I can see his balls though. God, ponies are just out on display. I’m out on display. Any stallion who saw me now would see my tail hiked up, and the soft part of my hoof pressed into my tingling nethers, spreading those lips, inviting him in. H-his balls that would pump their semen into me, and impregnate me. I’d h-have a foal growing inside, the way that Nick never could—!

I freeze then, when she anxiously cries out, “Okay, okay! I’m ready to...!” He stops licking her, and backs up a few paces, and shortly, I see why. The panting mare looks back at him again, her face warm with blush, her eyes half-lidded, tail pushed aside. Her heavy breathing slows as a look of concentration, or passion crosses her face. Then beneath her raised tail, p-pee starts to trickle from her labia.

I don’t know what I’m feeling, when a strong burst of urine leaves her rear end, cascading down like a gross waterfall, or the spray from a hose. She saunters in front of the stallion and does it again, looking back at him so needily and intensely. She just keeps... peeing in front of him. Just seeing him there seeing her, it’s incredible in a way I can’t understand. I hump my horny pelvis against my hoof, imagining that I was the one doing that for him. I’ve never wanted to pee so bad in my life.

Then he even... he even smells it. That must smell terrible! What is he doing, and why is it so hot? He doesn’t even hesitate after that. With a stream of her urine trickling to a halt, he mounts up behind her, and she faces forward again, cooing, “That’s it... put your penis inside me...”

Then he... jams his hips forward, and she doesn’t even try to cover up her moan. I mean, we’re a ways away from the barn, so nobody would probably hear, but I hear. And his hips begin rhythmically rocking aganst her hips. That’s all they do then, just breed like animals, not even talking, just panting, and snorting as he fills her with dick, like I could be filled until I orgasmed—!

In the sun dappled understory beneath these pine trees, two ponies steadily, fixedly rock together. Breathing as one, bodies joined, they prepare to make a baby pony. And I ruin everything by orgasming. I don’t even think about it until it’s too late. All I can think about is stroking myself to fulfillment, pushing against that buttonlike spot at the front of my passage that’s like an electric shock of pleasure, while winking against my own hoof, that spot pushes back. I choke back a whimper, and want that for myself.

She’s just snorting and pushing back, staring forward and rocking there, just this delicate looking red haired, green furred batpony, mounted by a chocolatey brown stallion with red hair. With her fluids dripping, and their hot pistoning, I can smell them from here. She moans, “Ohhh yess...” as her stallion shoves himself inside and... and he’s going to cum inside her. I want him.

He holds it inside, and hunches over her to bite her neck then, hanging hungrily onto the panting mare, pressing her down, and the only indication that he’s started from this distance is the mare’s satisfied, “Nnh!” I do notice she subtly arches back, but I can’t see his penis pulsing or anything. I can only hear her saying, “Ohh Sue you’re... really filling me this time...”

Sue. His name’s Sue. He must be one of the girls who transformed. Why would a girl... ohh yes, he pulls out of her and he’s just flared huge. That’s what I want in me. His cum’s gonna be pouring from her cunt, as she stays there, tail raised, and he g-goes in with his tongue again. Oh my god. It’s not fair. I think she’s gonna orgasm!

I want to just run away and cry, but I have to see. I have to see if she does it. Her grateful panting, and whinnying grows more and more urgent, until she cries out, “Yes! Oh! T-there! Oh god...!” Her eyes grow distant, her tongue hanging out as she pants, open-mouthed. Then a jet of flame erupts from her mouth as her whole body shakes, the mare just staring off, going, “Uhn unh unh...” as it happens to her. I-it’s okay if I can’t do that. Maybe I could get Nick to use his tongue more... Nick won’t even talk to me anymore.

I want to see her beautiful orgasm finish, as her stallion walks alongside the unresponsive mare, nuzzling at her mane. But I can’t... stop crying, so I retreat as quietly as I can, and go running out of the woods to just... it’s not fair! I collapse against an old fence, trying not to cry at something I shouldn’t want. It’s not a very successful attempt.

I think about trying to... get Nick to do me again, but he’s just flat-eared arguing with Mira, when I see him, and I really don’t want him to snap at me. So I end up having to try to masturbate with my hoof between my legs, feeling nothing less than purringly pleasant until I drift off to slumber there in the barn.

Of course I have to follow those two again. Of course I have to keep torturing myself like that. I know where their hiding spot is now. I watch when they head that way together, so I can gallop ahead taking a circituous route, and get there before them. Ensconcing myself in a bush, utterly silent and undetectable with a hopefully good vantage point from here. I’m so fucked up, but my pelvis just... wants to be here, all on its own.

The two arrive, talking in quiet tones like, “I want you already,” and “I’m gonna pee again,” and um... stuff. Oh the way she winks when his tongue presses into her labia, is so beautiful, the experience shuddering through her whole body. John doesn’t have a penis. Maybe she can do that to me. M-maybe I can do that to her. Is he pushing his tongue inside her? She’s just parting around him!

Luckily I’m upwind, so when the mare dances off, lifts up her tail and starts squirting urine out of her soft entrance, I don’t have to smell it. I guess they’re just... into that. I wonder if Nick would let me do that. N-not that I’m into it or anything. Wow... her soft, round ass is just begging to be penetrated. He doesn’t even hesitate to take in her scent. His erection slides out and stiffens, pulsing with his heartbeat.

“I–I want it!” the mare says quivering eagerly, “Oh I... I wanna be a girl! Sue hurry I need to be penetrated!”

Sue doesn’t charge forward and start humping her straight away anymore. The mare actually uses one of her wings, to start spreading herself open, revealing the pink, moist flesh behind her fuzzy green fur, murmuring, “Please...” but the stallion just stands up straight, looks around and says loudly,

“You might as well come out. I know you’re hiding somewhere.”

The mare’s tail goes straight down, covering her beautiful slickness in bright red locks of hair, looking around, declaring, “Oh no. She’s back?!”

I want to die.

The stallion’s casting about, looking for the horrible person spying on them in secret. I’m well hidden within this bush, but the mare flutters around him, then looks right at me, and says, “H-her scent’s coming from over there!”

I am so wet from rubbing and watching, I probably stink up to the high heavens. Oh god how could I let this happen. How could I be such a monster? What do I do?!

I suppose there are worse things to do than cower there, not trying to run away, and sob at them, “Don’t look at me!” when the hovering mare pulls aside the bushes to reveal me, curled there in the fetal position, trying to hide my face, hating myself for everything I’ve ever done. The last thing I expect is for the mare to descend into the bushes and hug me. W-what?!

“It’s okay. I’m not mad,” the red and green angel from above says, pressing against me so warmly.

“Well I am!” the male shouts from right outside the bushes next to me.

“Shut it, Sue!” the mare shouts back like an angry chipmunk, lifting her head up from where I’m not sure of anything anymore. “Can’t you see she’s having a really hard time?”

Sue shuts it at that. And this impossible mare tells me quietly still just sitting on me. “We... caught your scent the last time,” she says, “We only did, I mean. How long have you been... watching?”

“Th-that was my first time,” I whimper, afraid to look at her, “I swear I didn’t mean to... I just wanted to—”

“It’s alright,” she says, laying her head against mine, “You don’t have to come out if you don’t want. But you don’t have to hide from us either, okay?”

She doesn’t wait for an answer, spreading her canvaslike wings and pushing strongly down on me to propel herself into the air. “I guess we were really putting on a good show,” the mare says with a nervous laugh beside the still irritated stallion.

“We don’t need any creeps hiding there, watching us, Mike,” the brown earth pony stallion named Sue says unsympathetically.

“I... I’m sorry!” I say guiltily, stepping hastily out of the bushes, and just... walking up to them. “I am so sorry. I won’t ever do anything like this again I—”

“Wait, you’re Meadowsweet,” the red and green batpony mare says, giving me an intrigued look, “The first pony?”

“Second pony, if you count Twilight Sparkle,” I grumble, staring at the ground before them.

“Weren’t you with that unicorn, Nick?” Sue asked, “You two were the first... couple, right?”

“Only because we had a head start,” I reply unhappily, “And because I’m a... a pervert.”

“Why aren’t you with him right now, then?” the red and green batpony mare named Mike asks, with what sounds like genuine concern, “You clearly need it.”

“We’ve been having... problems lately,” I say uneasily, “Just ‘cause I’m a girl, and there are... certain things I can’t do.”

“Like what?” she asks.

Meeting her eyes, I find Mike’s slitted pupils surrounded by a warm brown iris. “Like... orgasm, y’know,” I tell her uneasily, “I’m just one of those girls who can’t orgasm, I guess. And Nick can’t finish in me, since he doesn’t want to make me pregnant. So why should he even do it anymore? There’s no point!”

I look away again.

Silence, then Mike says angrily, “You were just... spying on us. How would you feel if we told Nick that?”

I snap up to look at her glowering at me, and even Sue looks at her saying, “Woah, Mike.”

“I won’t tell,” Mike says contrarily, “But you realize this means you can do anything you want to her, Sue, and she can’t tell either.”

Uh oh.

“W-woah,” Sue says, giving me a different look.

Pulling Sue away with a wing, Mike leans up to whisper into his ear, “... needed ... want ...”

Backing up from him, Mike says, “Please, just... be a male, for once?”

“I... alright,” Sue says, looking shaken but sure.

Striding over to me, Mike says curtly, “Lift your tail, or we’ll tell Nick,” I do because... I’m trapped! They’ve got me no matter what. I want to beg him to penetrate me, but why do I even deserve to ask?

I whimper, turning and lifting my tail in shame. I just want to show them how badly I want it in me. Sue heads forward and I’m afraid to look back. What if his penis is too big? He’s huge, so his penis is going to be as bad as a human one! Oh god I’d even do a human at this point. I wait for him to mount me, but instead, a strange, hot, wet, fleshy thing presses up against me there, teasing into my needy labia. With a surprised squeal, I leap forward, looking back at Sue with wide eyes.

Sue looks forward at me with wide eyes.

“Y-you just licked me!” I protest frantically.

“You got a problem with licking?” Mike asks skeptically.

“Well it—it’s weird!” I whine, tail between my legs, “You don’t want to lick that. I pee from there!”

“You’re saying Nick never licked you?” Mike declares in exasperation. At my silence, she says in further exasperation, “Oh my god he didn’t.”

“It’s weird!” I protest, “I just wasn’t ready for that. I didn’t... want him to!”

Sue gives me a look, then says, “Tough luck. Lift your tail, and let me lick you.”

“B-but!” I say.

Standing beside me, Mike hikes up my tail with one light green wing, saying, “Go ahead, Sue.”

“This’s so fucked up,” he says, but approaches as I think frantically.

“Is it really so bad?” Mike asks me, still hanging onto my tail, “Just let him do it for a while, okay?”

“I–I’m just a little... weirded out by hnnh” My sentence is cut off with a short whinny as Sue’s tongue once again presses against me.

“You can’t even put up with it?” Mike asks in an annoyed tone.

“N-no, I can!” I protest, and Sue’s tongue’s squirming right into where I open, his lips tugging at me back there in strange ways.

“Just put up with it for ten seconds,” Mike says, as Sue slides his tongue all the way up to my soft mammaries. “10, 9, 8...”

The tingle is undeniable as I breathe harder and harder in the countdown. His tongue is just making me flex against it back there, hooking in my passage and licking up my... my gross juices back there. “2... 1,” Mike says, releasing my tail but I don’t want to stop, and Sue doesn’t stop. Then his tongue just pushes in me, like a penis! Then it twists around in there.

My tail’s not going down at all as I can’t think about anything but penis now. All I care about is my tingling, needy groin that his tongue is stroking all along and inside. Panting heavily, hunching forward, I notice the red and green batpony walking around in front of me, and I can’t stop panting at the rushing tingles, telling her, “Sorry it... it just feels...”

“You love it now, huh,” Mike says with a little smile, “10 seconds was enough. You look... you look wonderful with what he’s doing to you.”

“unhh I... I can’t think...” I say unable to find words for the urges his tongue is inflaming into great bonfires.

“I was just pretending to be mad,” the batpony mare says in amusement, briefly pressing at my snout with a playful foreleg, “Feels pretty good, doesn’t it?”

“He’s... he’s just licking it!” I gasp, my groin just shimmering at the touch of his tongue, “I can feel his taste buds!”

“This’s what Sue did to me,” Mike says with a look of admiration my way, “He knows everything about licking a girl.”

“I–I can tell!” I squeak, “I need a—penis! It needs one! He’s just licking away my juices!”

“Sure is a relief, huh?” she says, “None of that stuff to bother you back there.”

I just whimper in disbelief. My legs are shaking with his tongue strokes making my marehood just explode in pleasure and need every time, more and more. It’s just building in me as I squeak, “Am I gonna...! Orgasm...?!”

“Oh no, clearly you’re not one of those girls who can orgasm,” Mike tells me rather unflatteringly, “Can’t you feel yourself not orgasming?”

“No!!” I squeal in panicked outrage. Sue gives me no quarter.

“You smell so wonderful,” Mike says in bemused appreciation, “You’re getting just what you needed, now.”

“I. Need. PENIS” I snap.

Ignored, all I can do is shiver and pant and my insides are fluttering or... or something.

“I hate you...” I moan lowly, as my orgasm builds against my will, “I can’t stop it... oh... ohh... OHHhh?”

Sue abruptly stops licking me, and I barely even look back before he’s climbing on my rump. “Oh god, oh god, oh god,” I pant desperately as the stallion just slides his penis right up my belly, and presses it in.

It just slides up d e e p and sinks right into my deepest parts and he thrusts and thrusts and I squeal loudly as my squeal just cuts off as my whole vagina just starts convulsing around him. Orgasm! It’s just blasting through me, it just hit me like a truck! All I can do is take desperate, shallow gasps as I just jerk there from the powerful pulsing clenching within me all around that penis that I can’t stop doing!!

“Nick doesn’t deserve you if he couldn’t make you do this,” Mike says before me as I’m full of penis, and clenchclenchclench and...! “Feels good, huh?”

“I can’t—stop—!” I squeak sucking in panicked shallow breaths as my whole body twitches in rushes of uncontrollable pleasure.

“It lasts about a minute for me,” Mike says, then ducks down, looking under my belly. “Oh wow, Sue, you’re just going into her down there...”

Her hoof comes to touch against my tingling belly and I have to stand there just clenching around Sue’s hot fleshy penis, right where Mike’s touching me. Giving intense little, “Mnm... mnm... mnm...” I just... do what I need to do, as the other female explores my orgasming body.

Those unbearably satisfying clenches slowly slacken, as I stand there tingling, on a razor’s edge, afraid to move because of this climax that just won’t end! Then Sue pulls out. In. Out in out in aahhh!

Popping up beside me, Mike says smugly, “His penis’s covered in your juices y’know. Makes you feel like you’re melting. I’m getting wetter too, but it’s you he’s gonna impregnate this time.”

I want to kiss that mare. I need semen in me. That thrusting penis makes my hips ache to be fertilized, for him to push deep and...

“Doesn’ matter ‘f I wannit,” I tell the other mare huskily, pushing back into my eager breeding, “He’s gonna ‘mpreg nate me...”

“We can do anything to you, this’s amazing...” Mike says, eyes half closing as she leans forward and... licks my temple.

“Haha, you’re even sweating from your head,” she says bemusedly, backing up, “Guess your brain’s working really hard to change into a... breeding female.”

I try to answer, but she heads me off, saying, “No, no, don’t say anything. I just never get to see myself like this. I always want to stop being... I need you to stop being yourself, now. Just focus on being that breeding female. That’s what you are right now.”

Unh, yes, breeding, hips, flanks, penis, semen, humping back against him. Not caring about anything other than him expanding in there, making me moan, sealing me off, preparing to impregnate me.

Looking up above me at the stallion, Mike says a little guiltily, “You probably should pull out, we don’t really wanna impregnate her.”

Oh don’t pull out don’t pull out don’t pull out— “Ahhh yes!!” I shriek as his penis fires semen into me. Sue doesn’t pull out. He decisively pushes in and just erupts as deep into me as I can imagine. Mike meets my eyes as I stand there getting pregnant in front of her, whimpering in joy, “Yes ohmigod yes oh ohmigod it’s going into me ohh...”

I moan with incomprehensible amounts of gratitude, feeling him deep, erect, firm, cumming into my womb without hesitation. The cum inside me floods me with the desire to eat, to live, to breathe, to do anything I can to get my belly round and full and gravid. To cry out like an animal as I push a child out of me.

“Okay that was... wow,” Sue says atop my back, as I still quiver there, reduced to a semen stuffed broodmare. “That kinda got away from me.”

“Hey, it happens,” Mike says, backing up from me and looking up at Sue. I stand there trying to catch my breath and get my wits about me, after Sue climbs off of me, and stands beside me. I feel so full and heavy though, in my belly. And Mike’s looking at me curiously.

“Wow, your eyes are really dilating,” Mike says in surprise, with a beauty to her, as if she were suffused with this warm glowy wonderfulness.

“They... are?” I ask breathlessly, “I’m just relaxing because of his... cum, or something.”

I try blinking, but she says that doesn’t help, and in the end I just want to lean together with her, crossing my neck with hers to be close to my new friend because this is wonderful.

“You did such a good job, spying on us,” Mike says in a voice heavy with emotion, pressing her neck to mine, “You needed this so bad there was nothing else you could do. I’m so sorry you had to spy on us. No one should have to need it that bad. You don’t have to feel like that ever again.”

“I... I love you,” I tell her sincerely, trembling, full of penis, full of semen, orgasmed, fulfilled. I love them so much, I tell them how I’ll have their baby, and I’ll do anything for them, and I want them to feel so good.

We stand together in the afterglow. Sue softens progressively, and then pulls out, dismounting and walking up alongside me, “You were right Mike...” he says as my legs give out and I sink to my belly and they both sink down with me, to lay here impregnated, “She needed to spy on us, and that’s different from just wanting to spy on us. I hope she’s not mad once she... comes down from that high. Because I just impregnated her...”

“You always did have a hard time knowing when to quit,” Mike replies, as I protest,

“I will never ever ever ever be mad about that ohmygosh I’m just full of... semen’n... orgasm it just happened ohmigosh...”

“It’s okay if you’re mad later,” Mike says, leaning against me, “Go ahead and enjoy how wonderful it makes you feel now.

I do.

I also calm down eventually, but... still don’t feel like freaking out. They lay with me as I come out of it, and the only thing I can think is, “Mike... you never got to cum!”

“I liked what happened better,” she says in amusement, “You don’t have to... spy on us anymore. Though I can’t promise Sue didn’t impregnate you.”

“It just... takes me over, sorry,” Sue says guiltily, “So easy to...”

“It’s okay,” I tell him with a warm nuzzle to his cheek, “I was gonna have to have somebody’s baby. If I have to have a child, then yours sounds wonderful.”

A pause and Sue says, “She sure takes a long time to come down from that high.”

“No, I swear I’m... I’m lucid!” I protest, “I’m just saying! I just can’t believe you just... you just saved me like that. You should’ve been angry, and I thought you were, but then Mike was... just kidding. I’ve never... seen anything like it before. I was a creepy pervert, and you just saved me. W-we can do this again, right?”

“Of course!” Mike says in delight, “You’re wonderful! You’re not a jerk at all. You were just... at the end of your rope.”

“If I was, it’s kind of a short rope,” I tell her, my ears wanting to back a little. But not too much. “T...thank you for being even more wonderful and not... letting me feel like the most horrible person in the world.”

“As long as you don’t keep spying on people,” Sue cautions. “You’re not gonna get crazy lucky and find someone like Mike every time.”

“We’ll let you know now,” Mike says with a wink, “When you know... we’re going off to have some fun.”

I could kiss her.

As the days go by, with Sue and Mike so eager to take me aside, and share their wonderful relationship with me, I should be upset about getting pregnant again. I just feel so weirdly calm about it, letting his semen swim up into me all through the day, waiting for the implantation and the changes that herald my pregnancy.

I guess it’s that I’ve been having a lot more anxiety over not getting cummed inside, than over the prospect of pregnancy. Which is terrible, and I’m terrible, but it’s the truth. Maybe it’s because I’m a girl, and girls have some sort of hardwired instinct that keeps them from being terrified of pregnancy. Maybe I’m just sick and tired of being terrified. But whatever is the case, of one thing I am absolutely sure.

This is pretty much all thanks to Nick and his stupid headaches.

My ticket to re-impregnation is not nearly my most important discovery here out on the farm though. My most important discovery did sort of play an unseen role in bringing me together with Mike and Sue, but is not related to Mike and Sue in particular. It’s more related to Nick sort of accidentally breaking up with me, or me with him, I guess.

It truly is a perplexing problem, this strange ailment befalling my friends, and others among us, because it’s not consistent. Mike is fine, Brian is not. Mira’s a mess, Nick is a mess. Most of the unicorns are acting headachey, and losing weight, but some of them are doing just fine. Same goes for the pegasi. There don’t seem to be many earth ponies who are quite as under the weather, but it’s hard to say who’s resentful at their entire life being ripped away from them, and who genuinely feels like crap. I’d say it’s an earth pony superpower to not get sick, but... that doesn’t tell me how to help my friends. And not even the smart people among us who know about pony biology can find a solution.

So of course I’m the one who stumbles upon the solution.

I can’t believe I’m the one who has to bring this to everyone’s attention. Am I just cursed to bear witness to every mind-blowing revelation that occurs? It’s all about a pretty pink haired and purple furred unicorn mare named Janice, who I’ve been trying to get to know better, for no other reason than I’m trying to get better at knowing all these... people I have to live with. She’s friendly enough, but sometimes I’ll find her curiously reserved about walking together with me.

“Yeah, no, I’m just... going on a walk on my own,” she tells me, more than once. “I just like my solitude, okay?” And that’d be fine, except that something about how she says it... she never looks me in the eyes when she tells me, and turns aside in that nervous looking way. It just seems like something’s wrong.

Nevertheless, if she’s not gonna talk to me about it, I figure it’s none of my business. I let Janice have her solitude, and nothing comes of it. But the trouble is that sometimes I like to go on a walk alone.

I can’t even come close to describing how wonderful it is to finally get a chance to put my limbs in gear and do that... galloping thing, galloping until the wind is in my mane and tail, and the landscape’s just flying by. Other ponies love that stuff too, way more than most of us did as humans. Of course as humans we couldn’t run super fast, but it’s more than that.

After a restful sleep, and a lengthy and tasteless breakfast, it feels so good to just cut loose and run. I never felt like just... running for the joy of it when I was human. Nor am I the only one who feels this way. I’m usually running with some other ponies like that red-furred filly we saved calling herself Firebrand, or with Patricia, who likes flying and running.

But not today. Oh, no, I just have to be out trotting gayly about all by myself, without a care in the world, when I see a flash of purple and pink, while passing by a few stands of trees. Stumbling to a halt, I cautiously walk back, peeking into a gap between the trees and bushes at a pony who isn’t trotting gayly about. It’s obviously Janice, because her pink is... a different pink than Steve’s, and her purple’s darker than... that other pony’s purple fur. She’s hunched over, squatting on her haunches, quite engrossed with whatever she’s doing.

So just to be safe, I brightly announce, “Hey, Janice!” a good distance away as I trot up to her. I may as well have snuck up behind her, and whispered an inch away from her ear, “It’s the funny man...” because she shrieks a whinny and jerks up, flailing about as she fails to jump to her hooves, toppling over sideways, then flopping like a fish to get her belly underneath her. Finally she stands spread-eagled and looking at me with a glowing horn, her eyes mere pinpricks of green.

“I–I can explain!” she shouts in panic, “I-i-i-it was an accident! I didn’t... I’m not... please don’t...!”

“Janice, it’s okay! It’s just me! What happened? I promise I won’t—” I manage to tell her, stepping forward slowly, but all my caution is for naught. She leaps away, right over a fallen tree, and bolts off out of the woods. Running up to where she had been standing, I look after her in exasperation, my eyes trailing from the fleeing pony, down toooooh holy heck that is a dead squirrel. No, that’s... most of a dead squirrel. It doesn’t smell rotten though, just really fresh and exciting, with the irony scent of its blood lightly staining the grass it’s lying in.

Looking after Janice again, I clamber over the slim fallen tree, giving the dead squirrel a very wide berth, then go charging across the field after her. And you’d think with a head start like that, she’d be long gone, but she’s actually galloping... really slowly? I dunno, I just pour on the speed and start catching up to her, shouting, “Janice—” only for her to shriek,

“Leave me alone!!”

That stops me in my tracks, and she shoots ahead again.

“What is going on?” I whine to nopony at all, “It’s just a dead squirrel!”

Nopony answers me. Scrunching my snout furiously, I bound after her again. This time I keep my distance though. I want to respect her wishes, but I haven’t seen anypony this upset since Dawn flew in to tell us about the extinction of humanity! I’m just... worried about Janice being alone right now. I barely even know her, I don’t know if she has depression, or suicidal tendancies, or what, so... I do leave her alone, but I also leave her in sight.

Janice actually does vanish from sight once, dropping down into a creek bed. She’s given up running though, when I hurry up to spot her again. She scurries down the creek to where a farm road crosses it, but after finding that the drainage pipe is too small for even a pony to fit into, she just sits with her back to the earthen mound of a bridge, crying her eyes out.

She’s not looking at me. She’s not looking at anything. So I stop galloping, and instead walk quietly along the upper bank of the creek, coming up to her bridge, trying to look as compassionate and unthreatening as possible.

“Janice—” I tell her, and she shrieks and jerks up again, staring at me in terror. Dammit!

“Please don’t run! I just want to talk!” I say frantically to the panicked unicorn, “I–I don’t get what’s disturbing you about a dead squirrel, but I’m sure whatever killed it was just... following its instincts. C-carnivores have to eat too, and... it’s sad, but you don’t have to freak out about it!”

My earnest words manage to get through to her, and she stops hyperventilating, instead staring at me incredulously, like she can’t believe how much of an idiot I am. I get that a lot.

Honestly I don’t mind so much. If I say something stupid, and that makes ponies think I’m an idiot, then at least they’re thinking about me, and not their fear, or whatever’s terrifying them. It’s really hard to be frightened of someone who you think is an idiot, I guess I’m trying to say.

“Y-you really don’t know what happened,” she says shakily, not moving an inch from where she lies in the creek.

“Well, no...?” I admit, pausing at the top of the creek bed, looking down to where Janice is currently soaked from the thighs back in a trickle of burbling water. “I didn’t see what killed the squirrel,” I say, lifting a tentative hoof, “Did you?”

Something between a shudder and a giddy laugh goes through her. “No, I...” she says, pausing in thought, “Didn’t see what killed it. I-it was probably some p-predator or something, like a... fox I saw a fox.”

“It was just a... random squirrel though,” I whine, planting my hoof in consternation, “Right?”

“...yeah?” she replies noncommitally.

“Why are you so upset, then?” I ask, slowly clambering down the creek bed. I can smell the squirrel’s blood, as I approach her. Was she cradling the darn thing? With her dark purple fur, it’s impossible to see any bloodstains on her arms. “I don’t care if you... get upset at a squirrel dying,” I tell her in frustration, “And I won’t hold it against you, b-but you know I wouldn’t hold it against you! So why are you afraid of me?”

“Because, it—because...” she says, her face twisting up in confusion as she tries to figure out what to tell me. “Because I... changed...” she bites her lip, looking away and mumbling, “...a lot.”

“More than turning into a pony?” I prompt, a little grumpily. Probably justifiable grumpiness, since I’m trying to give theraputic aid to a pony, while standing on the slope of a creek bank out in the middle of nowhere, completely naked, furry and female, balancing on my fingers and toes, which are hooves. And probably pregnant.

Janice shakes her head at me, saying, “Yes, no, I don’t know. I just... it was just... really... tasty.”

I start to reply, but she cuts in, with a pleading stare, saying animatedly, “I was just playing with them, you know, because they were all running around, all bushy tailed and...” she gets agitated then, saying haltingly, “and running away—and climbing trees, and it was so easy to... it just sort of... happened. I–I think something’s wrong with me, like really really wrong, I—”

When she chokes back another sob, I can’t take it anymore. I leap the last bit down into the creek and hug her, cradling my neck around her ears the way Mike likes to do to me. Janice is... not a filly, but she’s like, one of those teenage ponies. A little smaller than me, but mostly just gangly. Skinnier than I am, even, which is pretty skinny for a pony, I guess.

...and now my butt’s getting soaked too. Oh well.

Janice doesn’t burst into tears again, just wordlessly pushes her warm head into my shoulders. Her breathing’s evening out at least, but she’s not saying or doing anything, just lying with me, and... needing me. It’s all I could ask for, but what does she need?

“I’m a terrible pony,” she mumbles into my chest.

I don’t know what to say to that, but she assists me, continuing more elaborately, “Every other pony’s been fine with just grass and vegetables, but I just... I never even ate vegetables before. I just couldn’t give up... meat.”

“E-even the squirrels started to look tasty,” she says, “I got... angry I dunno, they’re all running around, while I’m trying to choke down some more grass. So I was just playing with them, teasing them a little bit, just chasing a little bit, and I used that stun spell that Twilight taught us. I–it was easy. So I caught it, all excited and just...”

She tenses against me, saying, “You can hate me, but I’ve been... I never ate anything weird before this, nothing that wasn’t steak, or pork, or chicken. But I just... and I never ate anything raw, or... a-alive. I just... bit it, and it kind of b-broke, and the blood tasted like some kind of weird metal, and I was so hungry, I just... I’ve been catching things, a-and eating them.”

Counting Your Chickens

Artemis and I have a bit of an unusual relationship. He’s not a “fan” fan of the show, but just someone who likes the episodes. And I’m a fan, fan, in the sense that I was involved in some of the big controversies on the Internet, and I knew enough to inform people which episode is the best, and which is the worst. But despite my enlightened status as a brony, as the days pass, I can’t seem to convince him that the shooting stars episode is bad. And he has some really uncomfortable arguments that I might be wrong in every way.

At least I’m doing much better in combat training.

Training as a pony sure is troublesome, because it’s too easy to motivate ponies. I don’t really understand it, because I don’t feel like I’m being too motivated. I just feel normal. I’m just so happy to be doing everything I can, to make her feel better about us, and then I end up face down on the bed, passed out all day. The instructor’s less enthusiastic at least, which tempers things a lot, but it adds a sense of unease. We don’t know how to train any more than she does. We start to get a sort of rhythm though, once she figures out we’re here to actually train our pony bodies.

And I’m really doing better! It seems like I run faster every day, without even getting too sore if I’m careful, and it’s not long before I’m practically prancing through the obstacle course. The sergeant actually asks me to show some of her men what us “civvy” ponies have learned from our time back at the barn. So I guess I must be doing pretty good indeed! And that’s where I meet... Daredevil.

“Okay, that’s it! Lift your front legs more, like this, see?” I try to instruct, bounding along with the military ponies who’re actually struggling to keep up with me. I don’t know when I started thinking of them as front legs, but here we are. We gallop in circles in a big open area where a building was originally supposed to be, then I show them about rearing up, and doing that reverse rearing up thing, where you stand on your front legs, and lift up your hind legs, and feel like kicking something behind you. Most of them get the hang of this stuff pretty quickly, and one earth pony in particular is really kicking tail, so to speak.

One pony is doing really well in my training class. She’s a blue earth pony mare, with purple and pink hair. She’s just so enthusiastic! The others are also rugged military types, but she’s enjoying it more, instead of just going through the motions? A lot of them I think are resentful that a civilian has to teach them how to walk.

“Hey,” the rough voiced mare says, confident on her hooves as she trots up to me after training. Her purple and pink tail arcs cheerfully out from her softly curving blue furred hindquarters, but don’t let them fool you. She’s one of the strong ones. I can’t even hold a candle to the force she can put into a horsey buck. It wasn’t very thick steel admittedly, but how many horses do you know who can dent steel?

Okay I don’t know any horses, so I don’t know what they could dent. But Daredevil can kick. I’m not the heaviest even among mares, but Daredevil only needs one arm to lift me up. And she loves to do it. When we get into wrestling, she’s always wanting me to be her partner, even when I can’t participate as much because I have to make sure the others are doing it right.

“Say, I never thanked you the other day,” the mare says deliberately, sitting on her haunches right next to me, holding up a forehoof. “Name’s Daredevil,” she says, freezing a moment, before adding, “Not really, but it’s a cool name, huh?”

“Pleased to meet you Daredevil,” I say happily, briefly hooking my foreleg in hers to roughly approximate a hand shake, “You probably know I’m Meadowsweet, but what did you want to thank me about?”

“Oh uh...” Daredevil looks down at the hoof I just held, a slight blush tinting her cheeks, “Just for showing us how to kick like horses and stuff.”

“It’s no problem. I’m not really even an instructor,” I admit to her a little shamefully, “I’m just one of those ‘civvies’ as they’re saying, and I was doing a little dance class back in Ainsworth, so I guess the Sergeant likes how I’m doing, enough to try and get me teaching you guys.” Noting Daredevil’s marehood, I add politely, “So to speak.”

“You can dance?” she asks, looking at me in mild curiosity.

“Just, you know, messing around,” I say, rubbing my head with a nervous laugh, “Nobody really knows how to dance, since we got four legs now, so I’ve just been improvising really.”

“Could you show me?” she asks. Then blushes and says, “I–I mean, uh... not that you have to and...”

“Sure, I could show you!” I tell her happily, standing up from where we’re sitting together on the ground here. “It’s not much to look at though. I’m just...” I make a show of rhythmically hopping from diagonal to diagonal, sticking my opposite legs out forward and back, sticking my tongue out and really rocking it.

“Haha, that’s the dance that purple pony was doing!” Daredevil declares with an amused laugh, causing me to blink in surprise as I settle to all fours, still again. “The one they were all backing away from?” she adds, eyeing me nervously.

“Yeah, but you saw the show?” I ask, skeptically.

“That episode at least. They had us watching the uh... footage,” she says, looking like she wants to hide behind a foreleg, “To prepare for any combat with a uh...”

“Oh, no that makes sense!” I declare emphatically, “Ponies don’t even move like real world horses, so you’d have to watch the show. But that’s not how I was really dancing. Check this out!”

I don’t think I’ve ever had an audience of one before. Zero or plenty. But Daredevil seems to like watching me just prancing around and shaking it to my own tune. I manage not to burst out into song, but there’s a lot of humming involved.

I finish up with that sort of S jump, where I twist along an S in the air as I descend to my forelegs, then my hindlegs. Panting and sweating, since I just did that training exercise with her group earlier, I don’t know why she’s just staring at me, open-mouthed. I’m not that awesome at dancing, am I? “So... any... any good?” I ask tentatively.

“That was amazing!” she says, starry-eyed, “You just made that up? You’re beauti— I mean,” she blushes again, “Your dancing’s really beautiful!”

“I–I’m uh... well I’m...” I reply, blushing too, because my dancing’s not beautiful, is it? Is dancing my special talent, or something? I look at my rump, but like everyone else, I’m still blank as a board. “Thanks,” I finally meekly settle on, wishing I had a real response to that.

I see a lot of Daredevil in my little sub-training class, but oddly enough I start seeing her hanging out with Dusty. It’s kind of weird, because I see Daredevil and Dusty talking together, then Daredevil just trots away once I approach. She’s perfectly friendly to me otherwise, but she never wants to be around me and Dusty at the same time. Dusty seems kind of evasive about it too, for some reason, but I do find out that he’s really impressed with how Daredevil was an actual military man, with admittedly human oriented military training. And Mira’s getting to be good friends with Daredevil; she says Daredevil really thinks I’m great at dancing, or something.

Dancing isn’t even the only thing I’m good at. I never knew how little of my potential I was exercising as a pony, until I really had a chance to start exercising it. After a few weeks of achiness, any soreness just transforms into a glorious satisfaction. I’m running harder than I could ever have imagined, jumping even higher, and landing lightly and surely.

I’m actually starting to wake up looking forward to my training sessions! Seargant Browning doesn’t hesitate to make it hard, but I can take what she’s dealing out! You can see it in her eyes: she even starts to trust us, that we’ll help her as much as she’s helping us. She’s not gonna admit we’re doing well, but the admiration she chews us out with just shines through.

Even when not training, I start feeling perkier, and more sure of myself. I just feel better moving around in general. More natural, less clumsy. I think we all are. Our drill instructor looks like she feels that way, at least. By the time she’s pushing us as hard as she did that first day, she’s running right there along with us, and boy does she gallop like a boss.

I wish I could say it’s an earth pony power, but honestly pegasi are still kicking ass in just about every aspect of physicality. When they’re not flying, they can outrun me. When they’re not running, they can lift as much as I ever could. I’m not the strongest of the earth ponies, but the strength between earth ponies and pegasi is still a pretty even match.

Not to say I’m not weak or anything. I’m pretty freakishly strong, especially once I’ve been training to lift and move more. It’s just the earth ponies like Daredevil are another order of magnitude in strength, like breaking stone with their hooves strength. Some of the pegasi can do that too, albeit with a flying start. But aside from those top performers, I can pull my weight pretty well, all 40 pounds of it, and don’t let anyone tell you I only weigh 37 because that scale was totally biased.

Unicorns don’t have nearly the um... “constitution” that the other tribes do, so they tire out super easy. But they’re strong, and sleek, and agile, in a way that makes other earth ponies look clumsy in comparison. In fact, if I had to say how athletic I was, I find myself having an easier time moving like a unicorn, with those fast, slick moves, instead of the ones where you power through the obstacles in your way. We earth ponies start sparring with the other tribes eventually, and I can usually get the first blow on any unicorn who isn’t allowed to use their horn, where other earth ponies don’t stand a chance.

Of course if they can use their horn, unicorns zap me with a paralytic thingy, then one hit and wham I’m on the floor. So I lose every time, while a tougher earth pony just sucks it up and hits back. I think I’m getting used to that trick though. One time I get hit by that “thingy,” and when they try to kick my wobbling form out of the sparring circle, I still somehow manage to... fall in the right direction?

I’m not sure how I do it, but I hook her foreleg as I fall, and then she’s on the ground outside the circle, looking up at me in astonishment, before I topple over like a fainting goat. I still envy the earth ponies like Daredevil who can just power through it the first time, but it seems like spells stop working so good on me after a while, even if they drop me easily at first.

I’m just doing super well in a lot of ways, that some of my friends really admire. Lucy thinks I can get better at that magic thingy, and as a unicorn she’s quite willing to help me try. Lucy’s been out with the hunting party though, to get enough meat to keep our whole base in top shape. But when she’s not taking down deer with a blast from her horn, she’s quite happy to practice with me, and sometimes all that close bodily contact turns to sex, which is great for both of us.

I’m not sure about Holly, she’s been doing flying things mostly, if any training at all. Bubblegum doesn’t like to spar with me since she can kick my ass being a pegasus, and I think she prefers grappling with me at night, with Dusty, in bed. Sue and Dusty aren’t really training all that hard; I think they got tired of it pretty quick, but they’re both supportive, and they say I look awesome while I’m doing it. Awesome as in “I’d hit that.” Something about the way my body moves when I’m training just really... catches their attention. I don’t know why it’s happening that way, but I’m sure not complaining!

One thing’s for sure. By the time the next four months pass, I’m aiming to be the healthiest, most physically fit mother to ever give birth to a my little pony.

Mira has not been doing quite as well as I have, having come over here. She’s helping out all over the place, and doing her own sort of training, but... she keeps sitting by herself a lot. And I know that’s not like Mira, before or after she turned into a pony. So I find her sitting on her own one day, over by the picnic tables, where ponies (especially pegasi) like to sweep off the snow and stand on them, sunning themselves in whatever sun comes through the the white clouds overhead. I say especially the pegasi, because they can kind of punch a hole in the white clouds overhead, to illuminate the table in sunlight, the cheating bastards.

My sister’s not even sunlit as she sits on the cold tabletop, her hooves hooked over the edge as she stares off into space. I approach her with concern, saying, “Mira, have you—” And then Mira yelps and startles, turning to stare at me in astonishment. What?

“Don’t scare me like that!” says my orange bat pony friend/sister, with a pink and blue tail she’s now switching back and forth, “I didn’t hear you coming up!”

“With those ears?” I ask skeptically, eyeing Mira’s broad, conical ears with the cute little tufts on the tips of them.

“You’re just kind of really quiet sometimes, Meadowsweet,” Mira says frankly, “You gotta make more noise or something.” Patting the table beside her with a wing, she asks, “Anyway, what’s up?”

“Oh, nothing much,” I reply, hopping up on the table next to her. Plenty of room for us both. Mira lays her wing over me, and I sidle close to her, as we briefly nose at each other. She smells like herself, and lonely.

“You’ve been off by yourself a lot since coming here,” I offer sympathetically.

“No, I’m friends with some ponies here,” Mira weakly protests, “...mares at least.” Hmph....

Sighing, Mira wing hugs me closer, shuffling her limbs underneath her.

“I shouldn’t have come,” Mira says, as I meet her slit pupiled eyes with concern, “I never think things ahead; it’s stupid. I left Peter behind, and he totally said I could go, but... Nick didn’t come either. And Melissa came, but she’s been... spending time with a guy named Jon, who I don’t really know. I just don’t have...”

“You don’t have a stallion anymore!” I exclaim in shocked realization.

Never let it be said I was quick to the draw.

“Y-yeah,” Mira says with a kind of ragged smile. “It’s not so bad since I got pregnant, I’m not dying horny. I just wish I stayed back with Nick and Peter and... I’m pregnant, and it’s kind of terrifying to just sit there being like that, and there’s nobody who can help me out here besides myself.

“The thought has crossed my mind a few times,” I tell her out returning her snug with my foreleg, “You should have people who can help you, besides just me that is. But I guess people kind of are hanging out with their... stallion and all.”

With a chuckle, Mira says, “Makes sense, right? He’s the way that they get some sugar!”

“Yeah, I understand, it’s just weird,” I mutter, staring at the dirt between us, “I sure haven’t been spending a lot of time trying to introduce mares to mares, after all. Maybe we shouldn’t focus on stallions so much.”

My batpony sister giggles at that, saying, “Nice to know you’re on the case. But man yeah, I should just go up to Jon and introduce myself, but I’m afraid I might... I mean, I already have Peter. And Nick, sorta. So I can’t go just sleeping around or anything.”

“Well, Peter and Nick aren’t here, so I don’t see why you have to sit around not being with anyone,” I tell her grumpily, “We’re on an adventure! And it’s not like you’re... married or anything.”

“...so you think Jon should fuck my pussy?” Mira asks coyly.

Blushing, I say, “N-uh, m-maybe, but I wonder if I could...”

“If you could what?” she asks and dammit I shouldn’t have said anything. I’m going to mess this up, I just know it. “Fuck my pussy?”

Dammit!

“Dusty has... I–I mean you know Dusty, right?” I tell Mira, looking into her baby blue bat eyes.

“I think so,” she says, “He’s the um... he was doing gardening back at the farm, or something.”

“Well, he’s here,” I tell her frankly, “And he’s... I’ve kind of been looking for if any... body who’s... female and is interested in...”

Blinking a moment, Mira blurts out, “Ohh, you think me and him should...”

“It’s just that he only has um... Bubblegum Comet is with him now, but he’s too much for her all the time,” I relate to Mira, strategically omitting that I’ve been letting Dusty fuck me to give Bubblegum a break now and again. Not that I’m trying to hide it at this point, but how do you say something like that without sounding horrible? “Stallions... I mean pony males seem to do best with more than one mare,” I say, “Like Sue with me, Holly and Lucy, you know?”

“Just because there’s three times as many females doesn’t mean you have to have exactly three of them for every stallion!” Mira protests in frustrated offense.

“I know it doesn’t have to be exact!” I whine, “It’s just I have been...”

Looking for an excuse to be true to Sue again.

“Feeling like Dusty needs someone else,” I say tactfully, “And if you’re already pregnant, that’s even better.”

With a predatory smile, Mira says smugly to me, “You want Dusty to fuck my pussy, huh? Just stick it in my pregnant pussy and let fly.”

“W-well basically,” I blush, “Are you interested in... that?”

“It’s so weird that we can talk about this stuff now,” Mira answers in enigmatic wonder, “I could never even joke with you about it with you before, but then there you were with Nick. You just... got pregnant right in front of me.”

“I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help it—” I start to protest, but she reassures me,

“No, no it’s okay! I like being open with you about this. And it was my fault really. I just didn’t think you were into... sexy stuff, and then you just did it with Nick. It was so beautiful how he just mounted you like that. And I thought I couldn’t even... change into a pony. So you were my... at least I you could get pregnant i-if I couldn’t, right?”

“Oh,” I say faintly, “So that’s why you were...”

“Nick made up for it, post transformation,” Mira says with a silly grin.

I can’t suppress a smile at that saying, “Nick sure is a great guy.”

“Yeah, he... sure, I guess,” Mira says with an unsure tilt to her ear, “But I mean he did you, he did me. It’s like indirect fucking!”

I can’t blush enough at the thought of Nick pushing my own fluids into my sister’s pussy.

“So, therefore we can talk about it,” Mira insists huffily, “It was just kind of incredible to see you feeling that. And I kind of want you to see that happen to me, too.”

Recovering from blushing somwhat, I say, “Do you... really lose it, like I do? Like I was standing there and all I could think about was him and...”

“Yeah, I... I do,” Mira says softly, “When I feel him inside me, I just start... humping back against it. I’m um... quieter than you’d think. I–I can’t talk with you, all I can do is focus on getting pregnant.”

“And you’d be willing to do that, with Dusty?” I ask hopefully.

“If he’s willing, I’d love to show you that!” Mira says and uh oh. “You look incredible when it’s taking you, and I want you to be able to see it happening to me.”

Blushing and glancing away, I ask, “B-but if you were just with Dusty, not me, then...?”

“I wouldn’t do that to you, sis!” Mira says in a hurt tone, “You’d be getting me together with him in the first place! I’d want you to be there, at least.”

“O-of course I’ll be there!” I say facing her with an anxious grin.

“So you’ll talk to him about it?” Mira asks hopefully.

“Sure, I’ll... talk to him about it,” I say, and hopefully she can’t see my tail drooping in defeat back there.

“Okay, lemme know then,” Mira says, with a playful wiggle of her own tail and rump, “And enjoy the thought that your sister wants some of that too.”

I try to be embarassed about that and all I can do is smile, saying, “I love you Mira, vagina and all. You might not be my biological sister anymore, but we still grew up together, and I love how having sex became part of you.”

“Y-yeah, we were just kids heh,” Mira says bashfully, “And I started like... putting stuff into me, and wanting to have sex with boys, a-and I couldn’t talk about it since you wouldn’t understand since you had a penis.”

“Did I need to understand?” I ask in disappointment, “I understand now, but I think it’s cool that you get those urges, whether I understand or not. I mean... it’s you, Mira. It’s my sister looking at boys and having... urges and stuff. You’re not just a... a doll, you were becoming a woman, with a vagina that needs to be filled, and I really would have respected that sort of thing. I mean, when was your first time?”

“I-it was in high school,” she says cautiously.

“With... Andrew?” I guess.

Mira nods.

“Well, I didn’t know at the time,” I continue, “But now I know why you liked him, and... brought him over, and stuff. N-not just to have sex, but it was pretty clear you were enjoying... whatever you were doing together.”

“It was sex,” she says with her ears slightly going back, “It was hard to stop once I started letting him go into me. You know how it is. He was just so awesome, and I stopped getting a period, and...”

“But don’t you...” I ask in confusion, “I mean don’t human girls only stop getting their period when... oh.”

“Heh, yeah,” Mira says nervously, “Aaanyway so I wasn’t allowed to go out with him after that.”

“Oh, I thought you just stopped liking him,” I say seriously.

“Mom and dad never told you?” Mira asks curiously.

I shake my head.

“Man, I don’t get humans sometimes,” Mira sighs, swishing her tail in frustration.

“Well even if you got... I mean especially since you got pregnant, I’m glad Andrew... fucked your pussy,” I tell her with a little bit of a giggle at saying that last part, “Because maybe you’re out of control sometimes, but... I never did that with a girl because I was scared I’d... do that to a girl.”

“It’s scarier for a guy, I think,” Mira muses, “I did something stupid yeah, but I was the only one who was gonna pay for it. Andrew was gonna make me pay for it, and there was nothing he could do about it. I mean isn’t it disturbing to get urges to just... knock up some chick and make her give birth?”

“I’d say so, yeah,” I tell her faintly, “I don’t know how other guys do it, not responsibly at least. I would’ve... probably cum inside, if I had a girlfriend at age sixteen. I wanted to, at least. I-if I knew she would abort, I would have gladly made a mistake, because it feels so good, and it just hurt so much to have to go without that forever.”

Looking down glumly, I say, “You didn’t just take the easy route and play it safe, Mira. You jumped in head first, and almost... had a baby at sixteen just like uh... a-and it worked out in the end, and it really shows how passionate you are. Having sex, and... even having babies I guess is part of you, and you don’t have to deny it. I had to deny it.”

“It’s still bad that I am uhm... pregnant, with no way to abort this time,” Mira points out, “But yeah, it is part of me, and... part of you too now, I guess.”

“I never thought I’d want something inside me so badly until I turned into a girl,” I reply with a soft smile, “But now I know how you feel. So yes I will... get Dusty to fuck your pussy. And I’ll be there for you this time, to see you love it so much.”

“I’m just so glad you’re okay with me being like this,” Mira says eyeing me wistfully.

“I think it’s wonderful that you have those feelings,” I tell her warmly, “Even if they make mistakes happen, you’re a wonderful person for having them... and wanting that.”

Mira hugs me.

Well, Mira pony hugs me, pushing close and pressing her neck up against mine, in addition to her wing. Then her one foreleg hugs around my back, and I follow suit. She pulls back from the hug, nose-to-nose with a smile. Then she kisses me.

My eyes widen in surprise, and Mira keeps kissing me, eyes closed, pressing her lips to mine. It starts rushing through me, that my sister the golden furred bat pony is kissing me, and I quietly moan into it, my nethers awakening at the soft, steady press of her velvety lips on mine.

Mira pulls back from the kiss then, looking dazed herself, then says, “Pass that on to Dusty for me, and see if he’s okay with it, alright?”

“A-alright,” I say dumbly.

She spreads her leathery wings then and swoops up off into the sky, leaving me sitting on the picnic table looking up after Mira, wondering how I’m ever going to leave Dusty, with how much I wanna love her too.

The relationship between me and Mira has been... well obviously changing since she came with us to the military base. I had no idea she was open to that stuff, though I suppose every adult is. Seems like it’s given Mira a chance to really open up to me, and I’ve felt comfortable about opening up to her.

Only trouble is... we’re both complete perverts, I guess. I’m not trying to be a pervert, but then Mira tries to say that she’s a terrible person just because she has sexual desires, and I just can’t leave her feeling like that!

“It’s okay to want sex, and it’s okay to talk about wanting it,” I insist, “There’s nothing wrong with you just because you... like Dusty, and want to tell me about it.”

“I’m not saying it’s wrong,” Mira gripes in frustration as the two of us stand out back behind the cafeteria, “It’s just kind of slutty. Not even you talk about this stuff!”

“I do so!” I protest.

“Well—well tell me how you felt then,” Mira says, looking at me with anxious blue eyes, “When I made you just... get Peter’s babies. You looked so awesome and... and what do you even say about something like that?”

I pause in thought, and she’s right it’s really hard to put into words how I felt when Peter was impregnating me. But I can at least talk about it! “It doesn’t have to be anything complicated,” I tell her with a flutter of anxious frustration, “Like, just, um, Peter’s um... s-smaller than Sue.”

Blinking, Mira tilts a batty ear at me and says, “No he’s not?”

“No I mean, his...” Okay yes it is a little hard to talk about, but I force myself to say, “His penis is smaller.”

Mira snorts at that, trying to cover up a laugh under her wing, as I stick a forehoof out in her direction and immediately protest,

“No, no it’s fine! He still felt amazing. It just wasn’t really ramming against me in there. I—I get sore from that with Sue, sometimes.”

“It’s fine, Meadows,” Mira says still giggling softly, “I liked how he... I mean it’s okay for you to talk about it.”

Her ears are tilting down, so I reply earnestly, “Only because I want to show you it’s alright for you to talk about, Mira! I want you to be okay telling me how you feel. Go ahead and tell me how Peter made you feel, or what you want to do with a guy, and I can’t promise Dusty will, but it’s alright for you to want it! So please, go ahead and tell me if you want. I’m totally okay with it! I–I want that stuff too now, right?”

Mira only pauses a bit after my entreaty, before saying, “I want—”

She blushes at that, but then continues more confidently, saying “I want him to... I wanna sit on... a guy.”

I try to imagine that, prompting, “His penis?”

“Yeah,” Mira says, “Like he’s lying there and... I want to f-feel him sliding inside me, so I can... push him as deep as I want, if I’m on top of him. So I can grind him deep and... h-how big is Dusty?”

“He’s... long enough?” I say uncertainly, “He’s a bit of a stretch though, like wider than Sue.”

“I-I wanna stretch around him,” Mira says blushingly, “Just hug him with my wings, and with my... my fucking dripping snatch. I wanna hug tight to his belly when he starts cumming, and feel him all...”

She looks at me anxiously.

“...his penis sort of kicking in there?” I suggest.

Mira nods, “And those rushes of cum are just... fucking astronomical. When I fucked Nick, when I was... human, I didn’t even know. I just sat on him, and he was so adorable. I could push my boobs into his face, but I didn’t care because I really wanted to turn into a pony. When Nick came, I just... freaked out it was incredible. I just sat on him, and sat up and stared at my own freaking groin, feeling him just putting it into me. It was... incredible.”

“I dunno why ponies cum so much, but yeah, it is pretty wonderful,” I say with a silly smile, “Was it any different when he fucked you as a pony?”

Mira gives me a wary look, “You mean in the convention center?” she asks.

“W-well yeah, he said you wanted a heh... cock instead of walking,” I say with a nervous smile, “I uh, g-guess he didn’t tell you that he told me, huh?”

“No, it’s fine,” Mira says, glancing away, “It was freaking weird though. I’d just felt my wings growing. Like growing in, all jerk jerk, I couldn’t stop making them bigger. So my mind was already blown, and then I... get a really stupid idea, and Nick’s okay with it.”

“He just... stood you up and started doing you, huh?” I ask cautiously.

“Yeah, it was freaky,” Mira says, “I kept lifting a hoof and—it was a hoof. I could feel freaking hooves pushed into the ground. And you know how our vaginas are behind us now. Plus he grabbed my tail, and that felt weird. So Nick starts cumming inside, and I have to say it with my weird new voice, when I start shouting how he’s putting pony babies in me now and I can’t believe how much his dick stretches me, when I’m...”

“Ponies are a little smaller, d-down there, it seems,” I tell her sheepishly. “Sounds like a pretty incredible experience.”

“I’m just glad we separated when Nick got—uh—caught,” Mira says, “I didn’t say anything so they didn’t catch me. Just learned to walk right there, and walked myself the fuck out of there before they caught on I was with Nick. Then I just... hid out in that one lady’s house, worrying about Nick, getting pregnant with his baby, well probably not because it was just one time.”

“It only takes one time though,” I say cautiously. “And you’re definitely pregnant now.”

“Yeah, me and Peter made sure of that,” Mira says in amusement, “I’m gonna be making a cute little batpony foal in my belly.” She gets a little solemn at that though, saying, “Wish I hadn’t ditched him. Do you really think Dusty will let me join his uh, herd, if I have someone else’s foal?”

“I’d be shocked if he didn’t,” I tell her, “He’ll probably be overjoyed that he’s not gonna be a father again. Bubblegum is um... the pegasus he’s with is most certainly pregnant. I heh... kinda made sure of that. And I just think Daredevil might be joining you soon. She talks with him a lot, I mean. And it’s not a herd.”

“I dunno if it’ll work,” Mira admits uneasily, “That’s a lot of people to keep track of. Do I just... like watch them do it, until he does me too?”

“I don’t think you need to jump into it like that every time,” I say helpfully, “I think Dusty’s managing the hay today. So let’s go introduce you to just him. Just to talk and stuff.”

“Man, Meadowsweet, you are on top of this,” Mira says in admiration, “When did you become such a... people person?”

“Since people started caring about me,” I reply, “So, you want to come meet Dusty, then?”

Wait why is Mira giving me a concerned look now?

She doesn’t explain though. She just admits, “You don’t have to work miracles, just... I’m kind of a wimp for just asking for that stuff,” squirming shyly, “Even if it doesn’t get serious, I’d like to at least get to know some people, so we can maybe do... stuff.”

“Y-yeah, I still have to return the favor you gave me with... Peter,” I tell her coyly, earning a little blush at least, “And it won’t take miracles, I think. The others are just as nice as you are.”

“I’m sure it’ll work out great,” Mira replies too casually, “Meet him, be myself, not get tossed aside, and we’ll be best friends!”

“Wait what was that part about tossed aside—” I start to add, but she just loudly states,

“So, show me which one Dusty is already!”

“Let’s go see ‘im,” I tell her amiably, trotting off away from the cafeteria. For a second I’m worried she’s not going to follow. Turning and looking back, I see Mira trotting across the frozen well stomped ground after me, so I smile back at her and together, we head off on the hunt for Dusty.

It doesn’t take long. He’s over by the hay storage unit.

Mira and I approach the building we converted into a hay storage barn, and as luck would have it, and the fact that it’s between morning training and lunch, Dusty and Bubblegum are hanging out together. Mira balks on approaching, but I assure her that Bubblegum’s great, and that she can say anything she wants in front of her.

Judging by Bubblegum’s blushing, glowing complexion and her delighted tone as she talks with him, it’s pretty obvious what she and Dusty have been doing together. I don’t see Daredevil, but these two at least I think Mira’s gonna love. “Oh good, you’re here!” I declare, trotting up to them. They look at me curiously, as I gesture with my tail behind me, saying, “Dusty, Bubblegum, this’s my sister, Miranda!”

“Mira’s your sister?” Dusty asks in astonishment, as Mira stops to stand behind me with an awkward hoof wave. “The famous firestarter?”

“She’s not—” I blush indignantly, “Famous. She was the one who figured out that whole mouth fire thing though.”

“Figures she’d be your sister,” he says in amusement.

Rolling my eyes at him, I turn to Mira saying, “This’s Dusty, the famous farmer, and Bubblegum the famous uh...”

“Raincloud deliverer,” Bubblegum offers helpfully.

Mira snorts a laugh at that saying, “Wow, that’s useful if I start any fires.”

“So you’ve known Meadowsweet your whole life?” Dusty asks Mira thoughtfully.

“Literally, since I’m the youngest!” she says with a smile, “What do you wanna know about her?”

Uh...

“Oh, nothing much,” Dusty says looking my way fondly, “But she sure is adorable when she scrunches.”

...dammit!

“So how long have you two known Meadowsweet?” Mira asks, failing to hide her look of amusement my way as I furiously try not to scrunch.

“Since Ainsworth,” Dusty says confidently, “She was the one who got me and Bubblegum uh... together.”

“So... you’re the one who’s pregnant with Dusty’s foal, huh?” Mira asks Bubblegum with interest.

“W-we haven’t... I mean I haven’t noticed anything. Yet,” Bubblegum says looking anxiously up to meet Mira’s eyes, “Sorry it’s kind of something that’s—I used to be a... guy.”

“Woah, really?” Mira asks, wide-eyed, “So you’re as much of a noob as Meadowsweet when it comes to having babies!”

Bubblegum loses her blush, saying with a tilt of her head, “I guess you could put it that way?”

“Don’t worry, it’s my first pregnancy too,” Mira says, lifting a wing to look at her own still quite sleek belly, “I don’t think anything can prepare you for that, even those of us who were born as girls.”

“You were born a girl?!” Bubblegum asks excitedly, flapping her feathery wings to rush right up to Mira.

“Uh y-yeah?” Mira states in nervous confusion.

“I really have no idea how to be a girl,” Bubblegum frets there in the air before Mira, “Am I doing it right? I mean, I know it’s hard to say, but could you give me some... um... tips sometime?”

“Tips like what?” Mira asks. At Bubblegum’s shy confusion, Mira adds, “If you wanna know if you’re acting like a girl, yeah you’re acting like a girl. I think a guy’d be a better judge of that, really.”

Turning to Dusty, Mira asks hopefully, “Were you born a guy? Or are you new to guyhood, too?”

“Well, my name’s Dusty, which is a pony name, because I wasn’t. Born a guy,” Dusty says cautiously.

With a flap of her wings, Mira rushes up to hover before Dusty saying, “Holy crap, really? What’s it like? You’re a girl and you still put a baby in Bubblegum over there? Was it like having sex like normal, except the other way?”

“Uh y-yeah?” Dusty states uncertainly, “It was an... experience?”

“Dusty tries to explain how girls are supposed to act,” Bubblegum sighs, fluttering up to the two, “He’s just kind of distracted what with the whole being a guy thing.”

“Yeah, well being a girl around him is pretty distracting too, I imagine,” Mira says, with a sly look at Bubblegum.

“I’m just glad I didn’t screw this up this time,” I say, trotting up to the earth pony and the two fliers. “You know how I’m looking, Dusty, for any girls who are uh...”

“Interested?” Dusty says.

Mira squares her lips, but neither confirms nor denies.

“Mira is pregnant, so there’s no risk,” I say hopefully, “And she’s been kind of alone since coming here.”

“The past three months?” he asks, looking at my bat pony sister with sympathy.

“I just wanted to help with saving the world, a-and you know... y’know Peter, right?” Mira asks, giving Dusty a leery look.

“Yeah, one of the male bat ponies?” Dusty replies, tapping his chin, “I think I saw him once or twice. Did he come with?”

“No, he didn’t,” Mira replies in a tone of finality.

“Ohh,” Bubblegum cuts in, wide-eyed at Mira’s sobriety, “So you and him...”

“Yeah we were...” Mira glances aside, “I mean, I’m supposed to be with him, just he isn’t here now, and Meadowsweet was saying we’re on an adventure and...”

“You were the one who flew to catch up with us, weren’t you?” Dusty asks, giving my colorful sister a concerned look.

“Yeah, I really didn’t think that through,” she says with a sheepish titter, “But he got me good and pregnant before we left. So I might have a kid who’s...” She flaps her bat wings demonstratively. “Not yours.”

“No, no this is amazing!” Bubblegum says, coming right up to Mira again, still not landing, “Dusty’s been needing—we don’t really want to make anyone else pregnant, but you’re totally okay!”

“So... no problems if I’m carrying some other man’s child?” Mira says, as Bubblegum lays her forehoof over the other pony, landing beside Mira to lean against her affectionately.

“I dunno Peter, but I wish him nothing but the best,” Dusty says, standing before my sister, “Maybe real guys are supposed to be offended but I’m not. It’s wonderful if you have his baby inside you as far as I’m concerned. And I don’t care if you’re a mother to be. It feels the same, right?”

Mira blushes at that, and bless his heart, Dusty actually chuckles. “Well, I think you’re alright,” he says, “And Meadowsweet really has been looking for a good match, for uh, us. So if Bubblegum’s okay with it...?”

“I’m more than okay with it,” Bubblegum says in excitement and relief, with a little hop beside Mira. She blinks and adds, “Unless something goes hugely wrong.”

“So I can just... do your boyfriend?” Mira asks testily, wings slightly spreading as she gives Bubblegum a sideways glance.

“W-well I–I mean,” Bubblegum replies, blushing, “I’m not really a girl so—I mean it’s not a big deal really. If he’s okay with it.”

“It’s just weird,” Mira says faintly, making Bubblegum’s ears go down. “No not weird weird!” Mira protests, “Meadowsweet put a lot of thought in this and she would know if you’d be upset. I... don’t mind if you wanna let me in your uhm... group.”

“No it’s okay, I know I am weird,” Bubblegum says sheepishly, though her ears do perk up, “I’m really still just... a guy inside, and Dusty’s just another one of the guys, who,” Her tail droops a little, as she concludes nervously, “Ma-a-ay have put a baby in me.”

“Heck, maybe you can help each other,” Dusty says, looking between Mira, Bubblegum and me. “Maybe we could like, babysit each other’s kids so one would be taking care of three at a time. It could work!”

“Wait, three at a time?” I ask in sudden concern, “I’m not supposed to be in—”

“Well, you are,” Dusty says, giving me a flat look, “You’ve helped me and Bubblegum, and you might even be carrying my child, depending on when the pregnancy took.”

“Meadows, you dog!” Mira exclaims, staring at me, “You’ve been doing him too?”

“I... j-just on a temporary basis until he... until I find enough girlfriends for him, or something,” I mumble somewhat less than confidently, staring at the floor.

“And Sue, wow,” Mira says, sitting to her haunches, “Like, at the same time?”

Dusty looks the other way, while I face her and protest defensively, “Not usually! There’s—”

“Ohmygod, you did do it at the same time,” Mira crows in shock. “How the heck do you handle two stallions?”

“The same way you handled Nick and Peter?” I suggest, confused.

“Not at the same time!” Mira protests, “I couldn’t just—both of them, without going nuts? You are something else!”

“Earth pony... endurance?” I venture with a timid wince.

“For the record I’m totally okay with that,” Dusty says, then blinks and adds, “I mean duh, of course I am. But Meadowsweet had fun, I swear. And it means I can actually get with a guy that way, just indirectly. I-it’s nice.”

“Because Dusty used to be a girl,” I point out, “So he originally liked guys.”

Though now that I think on it, so did Sue. Are they both attracted to each other for being former girls?

“You don’t have to do it,” Bubblegum says, stepping up with concern to Mira, “I tried it once and it was just too much. So no pressure or anything.”

“Yeah, Dusty’s the one who needs you,” I tell Mira, “Sue’s doing just fine with me, Lucy and Holly.”

“Still, it’s pretty crazy how much you’ve been balancing relationships and stuff,” Mira says to me, idly tapping the earth with a forehoof. “I thought you were just gonna be a matchmaker for other people your entire life, until you turned into a pony.”

“Until I turned into a mare,” I make sure to add in my almost-as-sweet-as-Holly voice, “It’s easier to match myself that way.”

Mira gives me a look, like she’s not sure how to respond to that, even though I wasn’t saying anything weird, was I?

“So, you’ll give it a try?” Bubblegum asks Mira hopefully.

“Why do you want me to?” Mira asks the pegasus intently, “I mean, you have to give up your time with him, if you let me y’know do him!”

“It’s kind of really a lot,” Bubblegum explains, blushing nervously, “Dusty’s wonderful, but I... I just...”

“She passed out once, and I was—we have to be kinda careful,” Dusty cuts in beside Bubblegum, “You know how crazy it feels, right?”

“Yeah, but,” Mira says with a distant look at Dusty, “Crazy that I could just... you’d really just do that with me. Any time I wanted.”

“My stamina willing, I can’t complain about a chance to be with more mares,” Dusty says, puffing his front out proudly.

“Keep saying that after Meadowsweet finds a third mare for you,” Bubblegum chides him dryly.

“For us,” Dusty says, with a significant look at Mira and me. Standing before Mira, he says, “You can take it however fast or slow you want, of course.”

“You wanna hug?” Bubblegum asks, fluttering up to Mira alongside Dusty, “Because I can totally give you hugs.”

“Heh, that’s...” Mira says with a a laugh, that fades into a hopeful smile, “Actually, I could use a hug right now.”

Bubblegum Comet and Mira both sweep each other up into an enthusiastic hug on both parts, and Dusty grabs ‘em both out of the air and wraps his arms around the two. Then he grabs me and pulls me in, saying, “You too, Meadowsweet.”

I shouldn’t, but I join in, practically purring at their warm, softness.

Mira will be great for Dusty I’m sure, but besides her, people here are military personnel, so they’re very no-nonsense, disciplined, and confident in their masculinity. Which completely goes out the window when they turn into mares, so the female ones are pretty much half bonkers. Since there were almost no female personnel at this base, that means everyone who turned into a mare is half bonkers.

There are the geeks, for whom drowning in work and computers seems to be the go-to solution for denying that they are girls now. There are the white knight types, who seem to think that in denying their urges, they’re somehow protecting themselves, as a man would protect a woman. The best hope I have are the ones who are confused at being female, but still not wanting to be female. It seems like nobody here even wants to have sex as a girl.

But then I’ll go out at night and hear a high pitched whimper, as some lonely mare is trying not to cry as she feels more and more female, the more she stimulates herself and gives into her needs. And she hardly ever notices me, because I’m... quiet.

I guess everyone was right, back at Ainsworth. The one thing I’m best at, more than running or spatial whatsits, is sneaking around. It’s not something I’m proud of, but it seems to be something I am getting scarily good at. I find myself utterly dominating at capture the flag exercises, because nobody ever seems to notice me! Ever since I met Sue and Holly, I’ve been careful not to stand upwind of anypony, but... other people do that too, right? I just walk around the tree, and I guess I am totally silent walking through these leaves, but a pegasus could do that by flying over them. And yet they don’t.

The pegasi are generally all way up in the sky, trying to grab each other’s tags, and as for seeing me down here, at least my pegasus friend named Brian swears up and down that I wasn’t in the middle of an open clearing, even though I could look up and see her plainly looking my way. I’m not camoflaged, just hiding at the right times. Moving with a silent fluidity, that comes more easily every time I do it.

And then the flag’s just right there. I just walk up to it, and it seems obvious to me, but I must have been psychic to know the right approach that would stay out of the eyesight of everyone guarding it. That accounts for the range of vision that ponies have, with our huge eyes! There’s one time an orange bat pony mare with purple and green hair is staring right at the flag with slitted orange eyes, after having lost the past three points, and right away, I see a way I can crawl to it under the grass up to the side of the hay bale opposite from her where she can’t see me, then just stick my hoof up and... snag it.

She bursts into motion, diving over the flag stand, and overshooting me because I just scamper around in front of it. Her wings spread, we face off and I make sure to leap away the direction she’s not protecting. She almost gets my tag, but I just—you know—squeeze behind a bush, or a wall, keep things blocking her view of me. And she screams “Flag captured! Flag captured!” once she can’t keep sight of me, while her three defenders hurry up to her. “Find her, she just grabbed it!” she shouts, “It’s Meadowsweet!!”

I can scarcely hear her scream of frustration as I’m already halfway back to my own base. I feel really bad about that one, though. After the exercise, I come up to that particular pony, an orange bat pony mare with a purple and green mane and tail. I start to shyly say, “Sorry about upsetting—”

The mare yelps and jumps a foot up in the air, wings snapping out, spinning to look in my direction in shock.

“Sorry about upsetting you! With that last point!” I say loudly, planting my hooves wide to try and make myself visible as possible and stop doing the thing already. “You really did almost get me. I just barely managed to slip away.”

Blinking her orange eyes at me, the less-orange mare says incredulously, “We had four guys on the capture point, including a unicorn and we couldn’t spot you!”

“That m-makes it easier, actually,” I admit to her, lifting a hoof, “When there’s a lot of people, it’s easy for them to have blind spots. Blind pathways? Ways you’re not gonna look.”

“Having multiple people is the only thing that eliminates blind spots,” she contests.

“Well I mean yeah if you’re coordinating perfectly,” I reply wryly, “But you have to call out where to search then, and keep track of each other. That makes it harder to keep track of me. So if you see me again, just call out a warning, then forget about everyone else. It’s harder for me to find ways to slip away if you do that.”

“Why are you telling me this?” the mare asks in confusion, “Don’t you wanna win?”

“Why would I want to win?” I reply, confused, “These are exercises, to see what we can do. I wanna try to be all y’know, sneaky and stuff. But if you catch me, that’s great too, because then that’s something you can do.”

“Well—you—that—” she states, dumbfounded.

“Sorry, I never caught your name,” I tell her, as friendly as I can.

She looks down shyly at that, and doesn’t say anything. Oy.

“You don’t have to tell me—” I start as she cuts me off saying,

“No, no it’s fine. It’s just my name’s kinda... my name’s... Lance.”

“Used to be a guy, huh” I reply cautiously.

“Yeah, it’s just weird,” she says with a nervous laugh, “We’ll get changed back I guess, but getting called Lance, it reminds me I’m...” Her hind legs subtly shift, “...not a Lance.”

“Have you thought of changing your name?” I ask, “Just until you get changed back, I mean.”

“So what, like a girl’s name?” she asks uneasily.

“No, like a pony name,” I tell her, “Like Twilight Sparkle was named after twilight and sparkling. And my uh, pony name is about meadows and sweetness, and meadowsweet. So just pick a name that fits you.”

“Like what?” she asks uneasily, “I don’t wanna be called Sweetie Cupcake or something like that.”

“How about your colors?” I ask, “Like how my friend Holly is red and green. You’re uhm... orange and purple so... Tangerine something? That’s not purple though. Purple... pumpkin?”

“I don’t think there are purple pumpkins,” she says, ears distinctly unappreciative, “Only thing purple you see in the fall is eggplant, and corn.”

“Purple corn?” I ask skeptically. I’ve only ever seen yellow.

“You know, maize?” she prompts, “You see it in fall displays. Some of it’s purple, mostly it’s a whole bunch of colors.”

“Like what?” I ask.

“Like purple,” she replies, “Red and orange, and yellow, of course.”

“Well you’re purple and orange,” I reply thoughtfully, “Why not call yourself Maize?”

“That—” she starts to protest, then blinks at the thought, “Huh... that’s not cutesie or macho.” Looking at me, she asks, “How did you come up with it?”

“I... didn’t?” I say in confusion.

“Oh right, I came up with it,” she says, blushing and looking away, “Yeah, Maize is fine. I just... call myself that?”

“Just tell people to call you that while you’re a pony,” I reply amiably.

“Okay,” she says with a smile my way, “Maize, then? I... I guess it does sound kinda girly.”

“Is that such a big deal?” I ask.

“Well I used to be a guy, so it kinda is,” she says, frowning my way, “I guess you wouldn’t understand.”

“Why wouldn’t I understand?” I ask, lifting a hoof.

“Well... it’s different if you used to be a guy,” she says in a strained voice, “You don’t know what it’s like just changing into a girl one day.”

My ears go disgustedly flat. “...I used to be male,” I reply, “I know I don’t act like a—or feel like a male, not um...” Ever. “Anymore. But it really isn’t all that different. You just start liking guys instead of girls.”

“I mean not really, because we’re all ponies and stuff,” she says with a laugh, “I guess some people were having problems cause they moved us in separate living quarters from the guys. The sergeant said he’d have the heads of any of us who engaged in bestiality. As if any of us would ever really do that.”

“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with it,” I protest.

“Maybe not for you,” she says with a challenging snort, “You’re one of those civvies, who doesn’t have to follow orders!”

She balks then, looking away and saying “Not that you’d ever actually do anything with... another pony.”

We meet each other’s eyes, hers a lighter orange than her fur. I don’t know any better way to put it. Losing her gaze, I glance down saying, “Maize, I’m... pregnant.”

Silence. I meet her eyes again, and the wide-eyed batpony says, “A-are you sure?”

“It’s pretty impossible for me not to be at this point,” I tell her with an uneasy smile, “So yeah I’m pregnant.”

“What’s it like?” she asks, so full of curiosity.

“Not all that different, actually,” I reply, looking briefly at my own ass, “I got a few headaches and cramps at first, but now I’m just... not as horny anymore. I dunno when I’ll start showing.”

She blushes, staring at the floor, and I worry I’ve said too much, until she asks, “So it doesn’t bother you if people uh... j-just start doing it like horses and...”

“My friend says we do it more like dogs, but yeah,” I reply, “I can’t exactly be bothered by something I did myself.”

“Well, you know, I mean,” she says with a blush, staring off as she recalls, “It was just crazy after we turned into ponies. I mean you’d have to be a real pervert to... n-not that you are I mean that’s just what they say, but what if one of us... soldiers had... sex, l-like a pony?”

She laughs nervously, still staring forward, saying, “Crazy, right? And the girl might not... know if she’s pregnant, and she wouldn’t have anyone she could talk to about it, so none of us would do anything like that, right?”

Giving the orange mare a pensive look, I ask her, “How long ago was it?”

Her tail droops, and her ears go down. “P-please don’t tell I’ll get in so much trouble,” she says quietly.

“Your secret’s safe with me,” I assure her, “Was it someone you knew?”

“No one you’d know,” she says, still not meeting my eyes, “I–I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I just started wanting it and...”

“...he came inside?” I ask.

Blushing harder she says, “It’s hard to stay buddies we—we’re just buddies. But then I was a girl. Couldn’t stop thinking about how we could... do stuff together. I–I just...”

This will take a delicate approach. Unfortunately, she has me instead, so all I can think to do is say, “I... All I had to do was stand there, with my tail up. He just climbed up on me, I was... all gooey and dripping between my legs. It feels like it s-slides up really deep, huh?”

“W-what?” she asks, looking at me faintly.

Blushing horribly, I tell her, “I’m just telling you how I felt, because I–I felt the same way as you, so you don’t have to be scared to tell me. You... couldn’t stop it. He was hanging onto your butt and you just kept opening in there, that’s how it felt, right?”

“I—...yeah?” she squeaks anxiously, “I-it’s supposed to—”

“I like how he swells up in the end,” I tell her a little more confidently, just because I feel so bad that she feels so bad. How could I be afraid of my own problems, when she needs someone to make her feel better about hers? “Just... getting ready to cum in there.”

“That happened every time,” she says in a lost hope, “Then it just... jerks in there, and... and just cumming up... into me.”

“Male ponies make a lot, huh,” I say with a bit of a giggle, “Just starts... hitting you in there, every spurt, and then you feel like you’re filling up with his... semen.”

“I–I loved it!” she says in trembling distress, “It just started going into me, and I wanted it so bad! And I’m pregnant now! Am I gonna give birth???”

Before she panics, I say, “Take your foreleg—no I mean your wing. Wrap your wing around your own belly.”

With her fleshy wing wrapped around it, I tell the scared mare, “That’s where you’re making a foal right now. You might not be pregnant, but if you are, that’s... what’s happening in there. Girls naturally wanna do that, so just think about it. You’re a girl right now, making a baby in you. Let your instincts just... get used to that. It’s okay if you want it, even if you don’t want it. Your belly just... wants to do that right now. So just... let yourself be pregnant... for a bit.”

“I–I don’t know why,” she says, her trembling easing off slowly, “I never wanted any of these things before. And I just let him into me and I wanted it! That stupid girl parts just... made me like it!”

“I don’t want a foal,” I tell her in honest regret, “Because I don’t know how I’m going to take care of it, and I heard that giving birth hurts a lot. I don’t want to force a foal to have me as a parent. But my belly still wants to do that. Your belly still wants to let his penis in, and fill with his semen, and grow big, and–and even give birth. Because you’re a girl.”

“But I—” she protests, as I insistently tell her,

“It doesn’t matter if you were a guy. It’s fine if you want to turn back into a guy, but right now you’re a girl, a real girl. This is how you’re supposed to feel. There’s nothing wrong with you. And it’s okay.”

...

“I-it felt so good,” she whimpers, tears in her eyes.

Maize probably isn’t the only military mare who needs someone to talk to, but at least I help her feel better. We talk a little after that and I start thinking about maybe bringing up Dusty and asking if she wants to do that stuff. I know my pregnancy isn’t completely killing my sex drive at least.

The problem is, Dusty’s getting along so well with Bubblegum and Mira, if he gets together with Maize then I won’t be able to.... I shouldn’t be thinking about that though. I should introduce Maize to Dusty’s group, find they get along really well, then I should return to Sue, to whom I should... stay true.

For better or for worse, Daredevil throws a wrench into those plans.

Author's Note

Burn the heretic!