It's hard to put a hoof, er, finger on it, but you feel pretty darn good! You're laying out beside Nick, breathing softly with the calming breath of the afterglow. "Shit."

He pricks an ear up. "Something wrong?"

"A lot of things are wrong," you laugh out. "I've lived over 60 years of thinking guy sex was pretty great, and then you come along and go 'nope!' I'm too old for this." Your voice did not match your words, nor does your body of a perfectly prime mare. Actually, technically... "Shit."

"Something else, or still mulling that?" He nuzzles into your neck and shoulder in a warm and fuzzy affection.

"Yes, to both." You sit up, shaking yourself into focus. "I just realized, if I'm younger now." You raise a hoof into view. "You are technically older than me now. How old are you again?" You never bothered to check that. There wasn't a lot of reason to care, before. Things are changing.

"Fourty-five." He sat up with you, a bit slower. Poor guy was a guy. He was feeling nice and relaxed after that. "And I have a pretty younger lady, if she'll have me."

"Ugh." It is easier to grunt than to answer that, right now at least. "I have questions, so many of them. Let's just shove relationships right out of things right now." You hop down to the ground, clip-clopping in slow circles. "First, enough pony." You rise up to two legs, as you did before. The fur withdraws, the tail tucks away. You're a human! But something doesn't feel right.

"Shit," joins in Nick as he becomes a human, a naked human. Funny thing there, naked ponies are no real big deal. "Shit."

"That's my line, shit." Your voice did not sound right, at all. "God damn it." You leave Nick behind, running into the bathroom with slaps of your naked feet on the ground and clicking on the light on the way. Staring back at you was an old woman. You, if the good lord had crossed your genes a long time ago. "I did not sign up for this." You slam your female hand against the nearest wall, doing no real damage.

Nick comes in at a strong walk, but not running. He's wearing pants. Nick reaches a hand for you, but hesitates, not making contact. "I know it'll sound kinda... tepid.. but I'm not abandoning you."

"This is fucked up," you sigh out. "It was bad enough when I was sometimes a girl horse. Look, forget that. Forget all of that! I want information, yesterday." You wheel about to jab him in his stupidly sexy abs. "I'm kindness, great. You're loyalty, fantastic. What are the others?"

"That's fair." He grabs a shirt from past you in the bathroom, a basic T-shirt he slips into. "You want to be naked?"

Right! You're naked. A naked old lady. "I have nothing I could think of wearing now." Still, you grab a towel to at least cover something up. "Out with it."

"Honesty, that's another one. They can be trusted, which is a power itself, but they're also good at keeping others honest, and spotting when they're not." Nick fidgeted with his shirt. "You can wear a T-shirt at least. I'll get one." He wanders off, voice receding, but he's still talking. "They're called on to keep deals straight and unwind things."

He's back in his room, at least his voice sounds like it. Now he's coming back. He has a T-shirt in hand that you accept to wear something instead of nothing. "And?"

"And there's generosity. Not to be confused with kindness, generosity is way less focused on any one person or thing, and is about setting other people up to succeed at their things. They can be leaders, but also make great supports for leaders, and excel at either spot." He turns away while you get dressed. "Then there's laughter. Sounds dumb, but this world's shit, let's be real." He shrugged. "Someone to keep spirits up is as valuable as keeping our skin intact sometimes."

"Last, magic." He turns back to you, all changed as you are. "Rarest of the bunch, usually a unicorn, but not always. Fun fact, if a not-unicorn gets magic, they get a lot of extra baggage along with it that they're probably not ready for, so be happy that didn't happen. And I mean on top of the stuff you're already getting used to that's more than enough."

"That is hard to imagine..." What would they get? You were a unicorn, and not magic, so it wasn't really your business. "Are magic unicorns extra good at magic then?"

"To start." He held out a bundle towards you. "Built for a guy, but it'll cover lady parts just as well. Your pants, your shoes and socks and everything else. "We'll have to get something your new size, obviously."

"Obviously..." You start climbing into your awkwardly fitting clothing. You could get into them, and they were better than nothing. You could abandon the towel at least. "This has to be a lot easier going the other way."

"Which other way?" Nick's patting himself down, looking ready to do something.

"Lady who ends up a guy horse. Way less questions."

"Still could be problems." He swats you on the side. "C'mon, let's get moving. Still, if that lady was active as a human, could get stuck that way, and end up a lady pony for a while."

"Right, sure, but being a pony is already odd. It's already 'stepping out'. Not as big a deal." They would never have to see themselves in the mirror, so close, but so far. "Where are we going?"

"To do something you wanted to do." He guides you to his beat-up car in the driveway. A trusty thing, it's gotten him all around for quite some years. "You wanted to learn more about magic, right?"

Shoot, you had almost forgotten. Your brain is a wild jumble of competing ideas and priorities. Thinking about magic sounds way better than... almost anything else. You climb in to see this magic person. "This is going to suck, isn't it?"

"Learning magic?" He lifted one shoulder. "Not too bad from the unicorns I talked to."

"I meant... this." You pat your busy belly. Speaking of that. "I am no expert... like at all, but this doesn't happen instantly, even the start. How could I be pregnant already?" Ugh, the p word. A word never meant to apply to you, or anyone involving you, at that age.

"You aren't... but you will be, or you wouldn't be locked." He starts the car and draws smoothly onto the street to get started in the journey. "As a guy, not an expert either. Magic? Pretty sure that. Pretty sure the whole thing qualifies as that. If you need anything, I'm here to help."

"A morning after cocktail?" That was an option, right?

Nick goes quiet. Shoot. "You want this, don't you?"

He sighs, grip on the wheel tight enough to pale his hands. "It's your body, your choice. I said I was pro choice before, so if I flip now, I get to admit I was talking shit the entire time. That would be my first kid. Not yours."

Right, you had kids, produced the old-fashioned way for a guy, which you were denied being for the moment. You were a damn grandfather! A grandfather that was about to become a mom. The world was strange... "So we're clear that I get to decide?"

"Yeah, totally... Doesn't mean I can't talk, but it's your decision." He turns off the highway back into new narrow roads. You didn't come close to a city. "The one I was talking about lives near here. A bit kooky, but he's alright. He knows about magic."

Right, magic! You did want to know more about that. "Question. You were--are--tough as a human, despite not being a pony at the time. Can I do magic?"

"Yes and no." He wobbles his right hand and returns it to the wheel. "It's like doing something complicated while wearing mitts. Technically yes, but it's harder. I'm tougher as a pony too, so that isn't that different, and pegasi have it worst. No flying humans, sorry."

Sucks to be them. "They get something?"

"Ask one. Don't have any real close pegasi friends." He draws into a driveway, gravel crunching under the car. "Here we are." He stops the car, turns off the engine, and climbs out. "Welcome to Erick's place."

Erick? You climb out and behold the small one-story house. "Do we all live in places that look kind of similar?" Welcome to Florida. But that isn't fair. Little ranch houses were all over the country. "Is he home?" You don't see another car there.

"He always has been." Nick sprint/jogged to the front door and rapped the back of his hand against the metal screen door there. "Yo, Erick."

A voice emerges, sounding like an intercom, "Nick? Wasn't expecting you today. Who's that with you?"

You look around for a camera, there, above the door.

"A friend who needs your specific help."

A loud click sounds. "Come on in."

Nick opens the screen door and opens the wood door behind it inwards. "Come on in."

A gust of cold air hits you, proving Erick has air conditioning, and uses it. Not that unusual for Florida houses. "Nick! Stranger!" The one talking was a guy, maybe in their 40s? A peer of Nick. If they were in the same class in school, wouldn't have surprised you. "Come in, and stop letting the heat out." Once you're in and things are closed, he starts looking you over. "So, dropped tail? Late in life to do that."

Nick shrugged with a strained laugh. "Yeah, I did the boop years ago, and, turns out, it can take a while."

"Wow. Still, you're among friends. You know how to let it all out?"

That trick, you have. You hit the ground with all fours and a flick of your new tail. "I was not expecting this even a little. But... if I have to be a horse, I want magic."

"Not the worst attitude." Erick joined you, becoming a dark-blue unicorn with bright-green eyes. On his rump's a picture of a building, a state building of some kind, with the pillars and such. "Call me Eager Study when I'm like this."

Nick flicked an ear back, in his pony form too. "I forgot to even bring that up. I'm Steady Step, and she doesn't have a name yet."

Sure you did! It just wasn't a pony name... "How do I get one of those, just pick one?"

"That's half of it," assures Eager as he turns away and trots into the living room at a light jog. "But you came to learn magic. And I love teaching magic, so that works out great!" He comes hurrying back with several heavy books. "Boring part, but I want you to look at chapter 1 of each of these books and see which one 'calls out' to you, or bores you the least, whichever comes first." With heavy thumps, he sets them in front of you. "Once we know where your inclinations are, we can get going."

You make a motion with a hoof as if turning the page to open the book, but your magic does the actual lifting. Some of that was english, some of it was not. "Um... It's squiggles, and not Japanese, or... any language I know of."

"We'll get to that." Eager waves the thought away. "Stick to the English parts for now. You look like someone who wants to get to the point, not spend a lot of time with the fundaments."

Maybe because you're life is being turned upside down and you're just trying to find a silver lining! You manage to not shout that at Eager. He seems nice enough. "Reading time."

Author's Note

A first, everything got a vote, hence our protag's conflicted state with no obvious winner.

But new poll! https://forms.gle/pv5hGRkte31JdHCz7 Decide our fate!

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