The next day, everyone continued where they had left off. Daring completed her survey of the human ruins, satisfied that the Peregrines could help her identify and analyze her findings. She also had the benefit of Blaze’s smartphone. Her feathered appendages had proved quite adept at manipulating the device. Daring took lots of pictures, although half were selfies next to some ruins. She stepped through the worldgate where a very worried unicorn had waited for her. It had been the longest minute of Trixie’s life!

Daring stopped the stopwatch function and gave the phone to her partner. Trixie compared the time elapsed on the phone borrowed from Cirrus, then switched apps and made a calculation using a stylus held in her magic. She frowned and then glared at her companion. “You are not going back!”

Daring Do was always willing to push the boundaries of safety, but even she knew where to stop, especially when the unicorn was so deadly serious. “No problem, Trix. Let’s go join our friends. I gather you have bad news for them?” She headed for the exit with Trixie hot on her hooves.

“This time, Trixie measured the time differential at 253. Before you ask, the uncertainties for both yesterday’s and today’s measurements are around one percent.”

Daring gave a long whistle. “That’s quite a jump in so little time. We’d better find that missing bowl soon or else the Peregrines might no longer have the option of returning.”

However, despite some other interesting discoveries, the bowl was not found that day. The four returned to camp well before sunset to wash in the nearby stream and prepare dinner before it got dark. After the meal and clean-up, Blaze fetched the laptop which had been attached to the solar charger all day. They watched another movie – The Princess Bride this time. As the Peregrines suspected, their hosts found it to be just as hilarious and entertaining as the former humans did. It also lifted their spirits after Trixie’s depressing news.

Nevertheless, when Blaze and Cirrus went to bed, the mare found further comfort in the stallion’s embrace.

Daring offered Cirrus another flying lesson the next morning. The mare was torn once again between searching for the bowl and learning about the new skill that she found thrilling.

Daring said, “Let the two unicorns do some of the heavy excavation. We’ll join them for the more delicate work soon enough.”

That pushed her over the tipping point and she took up Daring’s offer. Blaze was glad that she did so – anything to get her mind off their troubles was a good thing. He was happy to work with Trixie in the meantime.

The two pegasi joined them in about an hour and a half, and the pace of work accelerated. In fact, Blaze was a little upset at how fast they were proceeding as he was sure that they were causing unnecessary damage to the ruins. This was counter to a true archaeologist’s spirit, but the looming deadline made him bite his tongue and pushed him on nonetheless.

Another day was nearly done when an excited shout came from Cirrus’ ruin. “I need a unicorn here, stat!”

Everyone hastened over and they soon saw the problem. A huge branch had fallen on the structure, collapsing the roof and a couple of the walls. Although they had cleared the worst of the debris earlier, it had still taken a few hours to work through the remainder more carefully. The big limb had been left in place due to it holding up one remaining wall, but one of its smaller branches could now be seen blocking access to the uppermost of a series of stone shelves that had remained untouched. Cirrus’ flashlight was illuminating an object on one of the shelves, and Blaze grinned when he recognized its shape.

Trixie quickly assessed the situation. “Pegasi – get out. Trixie will move the limb enough to access the bowl. Blaze – be prepared to pull the bowl out as soon as you can. The wall may collapse at any moment once its support has gone, so move out of the way as soon as you have it.”

Cirrus objected. “Wait! First, levitate out anything that you can easily access on the lower shelves.”

Daring nodded. “Good point. This may be our only chance to get them out safely.”

Less than a minute later, the two pegasi exited the structure holding a few flat stones, several wooden tools, and a small tooled leather scabbard.

In response to Trixie’s raised eyebrow, Blaze nodded. “I’m ready.”

The stallion was glad that he had been getting plenty of levitation practice over the past couple of days. Grabbing the bowl in that confined area was tricky for an amateur like him. However, although he had found he possessed at least as much lifting power as his teacher, he definitely did not have the delicate control needed to move the limb carefully and minimally.

Trixie’s magic enveloped the branch and slowly moved it both up and sideways. Her field expanded to also lift sections of the wall when they began to shift. Blaze took a magic grip on the bowl and began pulling it out. He forced himself to focus on only this task and not offer assistance when he heard Trixie grunt from the strain of her efforts. Blaze felt resistance at first because the gap was not yet big enough, but the moment it was, the bowl popped out and flew into his waiting hooves. Despite Trixie’s efforts, the wall began crumbling almost immediately and both unicorns beat a hasty retreat, allowing the structure to collapse harmlessly.

Cirrus joined Blaze in an instant and he held out the bowl so that they could both get a good look at it. Although it had suffered more weathering than the one in the temple, the unmistakable shape and dark residue inside made clear to both that this was definitely the object they had been searching for.

Cirrus said, “Let’s get back to camp and try this out.” She turned and headed back.

Blaze trotted after her, the bowl floating in his magic beside him. “I’m surprised you don’t want to do it right here.”

“If it works, we’re grabbing our stuff and heading to the temple as soon as possible. Besides, I left the handkerchief with our blood on it safely stowed in our tent.”

“Oh. Good point.”

Once at the campsite, Cirrus wasted no time in fetching the handkerchief. However, Trixie stopped her from immediately dumping it into the bowl.

“Let Trixie scan the bowl first.” The unicorn cast an analysis spell over it and, after a few seconds, nodded. Without canceling the spell, she said, “Its magic is still active. Put the hoofkerchief in now.” Cirrus did so and the unicorn concentrated again for a moment. Then her magic winked out. “Trixie felt a magical exchange occur. In her highly educated opinion, the bowl now possesses your human patterns. You may now proceed.”

Cirrus held up her pocket knife with a wing. “Cut me, Blaze.”

“Sure, but I suggest you take off your clothes first. No way they’re going to fit on an adult human.”

“Oops. You’re right.” She took off her shirt, then the shorts followed. Although it was embarrassing, it was nowhere near as bad as when she had just been transformed. She then held up a foreleg. “Do it.”

Blaze hoped he had sufficient control to make the cut minor. He considered passing the knife over to Trixie, but he could see that his spouse wanted him to do the job. He succeeded in making a small cut and blood welled out. Cirrus held her leg over the bowl and watched as first one drop then another fell into it. She then stood back.

After a few seconds, the pegasus collapsed to the ground. The other three watched in fascination as her body transmogrified. Wings, tail, and fur shriveled and disappeared, her muzzle retreated into her face, ears moved down, limbs shifted and changed in length, hooves were absorbed, and fingers and toes sprouted. The exposed skin turned dark and the pale mane turned into black hair. Then the changes came to a halt and the human groaned.

“That was no more pleasant the second time around. Oh, shit.” Cirrus got up and looked over her new form. “I’m still female.”

It was obvious to Blaze that Cirrus was not only female, she was also now a Mayan. “If it’s any consolation, you’re a gorgeous young woman.”

Cirrus glared at him. “No, it’s not a consolation. Are you going to try your luck or not?” she challenged.

Trixie spoke up. “It is as Trixie warned you – there is no link between your human blood and your pony forms. You only added to the pattern pool. One of two things has happened. Either you again received a random human form, or else your pony form was already linked to that human. Trixie’s opinion favors the latter, but even if the former, that female body is now permanently linked.”

Cirrus closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them again, she frowned and said, “No! I refuse to accept that. Blaze – your turn!”

Blaze shook his head. “Sky – you know it’s not going to work.”

“DO. IT!”

The stallion sighed. “Okay. If nothing else, this will remove all doubt.” He took off his trousers, then nicked himself and dropped some blood into the bowl.

A few minutes later, a Mayan man groaned, stood up, and looked himself over before turning his gaze to Cirrus. “Well? Satisfied?”

The woman brought her hands to her face and collapsed to the ground, weeping. Blaze moved over to Cirrus and put his arm around her without saying anything. Trixie left them alone and busied herself with starting a meal. Daring watched the two for a long moment before coming to a decision and flying off. Eventually, Cirrus stopped crying and tried to wipe away the tears.

“What the fuck are we going to do, Blaze? There’s literally zero possibility of anyone believing that two Mayans are Cyrus and Blaise Peregrine. They would believe we stole our passports and belongings and lock us up as thieves. Worse, they’d think we were insane. Hell, we’d stand a better chance of convincing them of who we are as ponies. Of course, we’d never get the chance because some fucking local will inevitably capture us and parade us as circus freaks.”

“I wish I could say you’re wrong, Sky, but that’s exactly what I was thinking too. At least we’re humans again.”

Cirrus shook off the man’s arm, stood up, and glared at him. “Do you think I want to be a woman? Look at me! Is this stranger your husband? No! This isn’t me! This is some person who died centuries ago. This is a female who I know nothing about and don’t know how to be. And what about you? How are you not screaming at how unfair all of this is?”

Blaze got up and took her into his arms again. Cirrus resisted for a moment before giving up and laying her head against his chest. He stroked her hair and leaned down to kiss her before saying, “One of us has to be strong, and if that’s my role now, then so be it. Sky, we may have to put our previous lives aside now, but we’re alive, we have friends, and we can make new lives here. Trixie told me that as ponies, we were physically young adults, and it appears these human forms are pretty much the same. So, we have plenty of time to reinvent ourselves.”

Cirrus snorted. “Yeah, as two weird aliens in a world of ponies. Blaze… I don’t think I can deal with that.”

Something was dropped at their feet. Daring gave the startled humans a serious look. “Then don’t. Become ponies again. You were both adapting to that already. Sky – you’re a great bucking mare and nopony can say otherwise. And don’t tell me that you weren’t loving learning to fly.”

The Peregrines looked at the object on the ground and recognized the bowl from the temple.

“She’s right,” Blaze said. “I think you and I would be better off as ponies.” He smirked. “You might want to do it soon. I think this male human is starting to get turned on by the sexy nude female in his arms.”

Cirrus gaped at him for a moment before her expression firmed and she punched him in the chest to make him let her go. “Men!” she exclaimed. “It pisses me off to be on the other side of the sexual equation and understanding women’s reactions now.”

Blaze grinned. “But it got you out of your funk, didn’t it? Now, are you going pony or not?”

Cirrus considered for a moment before nodding. “Yeah, let’s do it.”

“Oh! Wait a moment. I want to take a couple of photos of us as humans for the record.”

Cirrus rolled her eyes. “OK, but if you start treating it like a photo shoot for Penthouse, I’ll knee you in those very visible balls.”

Blaze chuckled. “Consider me warned,” he said as he fetched his phone from his trouser pocket. He took several shots of Cirrus who then returned the favor. She then passed the phone to Daring.

“Take a video of us during the transformation process. Might as well document that too. I’m sure as hell not going to do this again.”

“After you,” Blaze said, handing Cirrus the knife.

“Wait!” yelled Daring. “The phone just went dark.”

Cirrus raised her arms in exasperation. “Seriously? Both phones were fully charged this morning. How did it run out of battery?”

“Welllll…” The tan pegasus rustled her wings at her sides while gently clopping her forehooves together. “I did take that phone to the Earth side, so it’s been hours and hours, right? And I took a l-o-o-o-o-t of photos!”

Trixie smirked. “Oh? What was so interesting that it required that many photos?”

Daring waved a hoof. “There will be time for all that later. Maybe much later. There’s no rush. What there is a rush for is getting the transformations properly documented.” She rummaged through Cirrus’ pants and soon had the second phone pointed at the couple. “Camera … Video … No, not pano, whatever that is … red button … a-a-a-a-n-n-n-d ready!”

Cirrus nodded and jabbed a finger. She squeezed a couple of drops into the pony bowl and passed the knife back to Blaze before sitting on the ground in preparation for the change. Blaze followed suit while Daring recorded the process. Minutes later, two ponies got onto their hooves and Daring stopped recording.

Cirrus stood and stretched her wings. “Thank God, we’re the same ponies. Unless I became a stallion, I wouldn’t want to start learning another new body.” She did not notice that Blaze was freshly appreciating his four-legged spouse before their attention was drawn away.

“As Trixie said earlier, your pony forms are now linked to those human forms, so you were always going to return to them. Now, if you’re over your existential crisis, Trixie has prepared refreshments, and the food will be ready soon. Trixie hopes that you’ll provide some more after-dinner entertainment on par with the two previous nights.”

Cirrus surprised herself by giggling. “I think we have the perfect movie for tonight.”

Spirited Away was a huge success. Daring was intrigued by the different culture and myths presented in the story. Trixie was also fascinated by the animation that brought pictures to life. Both ponies were aware of the allusion to their new companions having been spirited away from their own world. Also, both Blaze and Cirrus found one of Daring’s unconscious habits adorable. She would puff her wings out and tilt her head when trying to puzzle out something completely foreign to her sensibilities.

That night as Cirrus and Blaze settled down to sleep, the stallion said, “Sky – you know I still love you, don’t you?”

The question surprised the mare, but she quickly responded, “Yes, and I still love you too. It… it’s just been a bit hard to adjust to our changed dynamic.”

“Would you hate me if I said I like what I am now?”

Cirrus sighed. “I think I already realized that. You took to being a stallion very quickly. How long have you known?”

“I think from that first night together when you snuggled in my embrace. It felt so right. You weren’t imagining my physical reaction. It surprised me a lot, and I thought it was just a passing thing, but it isn’t. Each day, I have been feeling more and more confident as a male. I like being a big strong stallion. I like the admiring looks our friends give me.” He kissed Cirrus. “And I adore holding the mare that I love in my embrace.”

The pegasus was quiet for a long moment before responding. “Blaze – I admit that I have been getting more comfortable as a pony, but being female is still too strange for me. I don’t know how soon that may change, if ever, but damned if I want you to stop holding me and loving me.”

“I can promise you that, my Sky.”

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