Ah-Pee lay on the air mattress on the floor beside me, it's actually more like an inflatable bed than a simple air mattress that we are used to using in the military. With 3 separate airbag levels, it comes up nearly as high as the real bed I'm in.

I lay under the covers, muzzle on my foreleg still trying to process what happened at the fire, as well as Blaze asking about a date. The visions were strange, what did Aspen and Haakim have to do with anything, did it mean that Discord hadn’t just banished ponies but also banished others too? Somewhere where the deer changing and the horses, and if how hard is it going to be for them?

“Want to talk about it?” Ah-Pee says, yawning.

“Do you think we really knew each other? We were really friends before the change Ah-Pee?”

“Does it matter? We’re friends now, and even if it turns out we were the bitterest of enemies back then, it wouldn't change the friendships we’ve made since. In truth though, I think we’ve had a deep connection since before we even knew each other, and fate has drawn us together. Just like Blaze’s daughter did.”

“Huh? What do you mean, like Blazes daughter?” I blink a few times.

“Think about this, Rainbow Dash’s Sonic Rainboom, was the catalyst that got your daughter and my niece their cutie marks. If his daughter hadn’t done that, then all the rest would never have met up. Which goes back to the fact, if you and he hadn’t drifted apart…”

“Oh yeah, I already thought of that, but at the same time fate seems to have a way of covering itself, who knows, maybe the element bearers might have been a different group.” I say with a sigh, “Not that the idea of my daughter being a princess and bearer of the elements isn’t a huge source of pride…”

“So, the stag and stallion in the fire,” Ah-pee said changing the subject, “I’ve never seen them before.”

“King Aspen, he’s the leader of the Everfree deer, and the stallion was Prince Haakim, son of the king of Saddle Arabia. I met them both, Aspen in some ways helped me remember to always follow my cutie mark.”

Ah-Pee lifts her covers, looking at hers, “3 pies, so I’m supposed to bake those 3 at a time?”

Giggling, I shake my head, “It’s often not that literal. Likely more a case for you of sharing what you do, with others. You like cooking, but you prefer not just cooking a single serving for yourself, you prefer making lots and sharing with those close to you. That would be my guess.”

“I wonder if there was a pony who's job it is to interpret cutie marks.” Ah-pee chuckles, looking at hers still.

“Oh you mean like the Dr. Foal show. Nope, never happen. Marks are earned during a realization moment, a time of total clarity, when everything comes into focus. Without that the mark isn’t earned. It’s a magical moment, and leaves no question in the ponies mind what their own mark means.”

“OK so explain to me, if you can’t remember Night Light, how can you know this?”

I prop my head up to look at Ah-Pee, “Because it happened to me again, that perfect moment of clarity, when I could feel my mark and knew what it meant… When I was rescuing a group of ponies from a drug lord, I blocked an anti-tank rocket with a shield spell, and then while running away I knew, my magic wasn’t for myself, it was to protect others, by doing what they couldn’t do for themselves.”

“I wonder if other ponies have, re-earned their cutie marks.” She says, “How many of us are there here?”

“Probably thousands, if not tens of thousands, Blaze was cursed several days after me, he apparently had been traveling from city to city looking for survivors.” I say softly.

“Then that’s Discord's mistake.”

“Mistake?”

“The more of us there are, the more likely we will find each other, find groups, help each other. The more there are the more likely we are to survive this, because we can turn to each other, for support, for aid, because we are ponies. We will not fade away, we won’t go quietly into the night, we will live on.” Ah-Pee said sitting up.

I sit up and nod “Yeah, I guess, we are drawn to each other, I’m willing to be even before we knew we were ponies there are those of us that were drawn together.” I tilt my head and blink once “Wait a sec, wasn’t that from Independence Day?”

“Some people quote Churchill, some people quote great writers like Shakespeare, me, I’m a simple farm girl, I’ll quote action movies. Saw that growing up with my brothers lots of times.” Ah-Pee says with a smile.

“Point taken, guess I’ve made a few trek quotes myself.” I say, rubbing my hoof on my nightshirt, looking down.

“Ok side note, what’s with the nightshirt and panties? I can understand not wanting to walk around naked I guess, but really sleeping dressed?”

I giggle and roll over onto my back pulling the sheets up “Military, I’m used to sleeping either in full clothing, or with boxers and t-shirt on. I’ve been doing it for years, the only problem is, the boxers the military made are not… good… for mares. They work fine for stallions but don’t fit well on me.”

“Oh, so its habit, makes sense. Need to be able to jump into a uniform quick, as well as bunking with a dozen other guys.”

Nodding again I look at the ceiling, “Add to that this weird feeling I get that people are trying to see under my tail…”

“There you go, worrying too much, next thing you’ll know you’ll be worrying if people see your udders when you sit.”

“My what? I’m not a cow Ah-Pee.”

Ah-pee blinked, “You need to get a book on equine anatomy one of these days. Mares have udders, it’s what they are called, is just the name given, they are on your abdomen just between your hind legs. You’ve got to have noticed them by now.”

“Oh yeah, I guess, some of the sensitive parts I have to be careful of when washing.” I say flopping my head over to look at Ah-Pee, “Must be hard washing without hands.”

“I make do.” She giggled, “Just have to do some things in different ways. One of the sensitive parts, that’s cute.”

“Sorry I just…” I stammer out a bit, my face heating in a blush.

“I know I know, you never had the birds and the bee’s lecture from this side.” Ah-Pee giggles, “At least you’ve explored it probably, so things won’t be as much a shock.”

“Explored… it?” I blink than look over at Ah-Pee, “Ah-Pee, that’s just… eww… no that’s just wrong.”

Turning her head, Ah-Pee looks wide eyed at me, “Please tell me your just being shy now, that you’ve at least explored yourself in the shower…”

“I… No… I couldn’t, it just…” I say, blushing furiously and burying my face in the pillow.

“Oh sweet Celestia, I’ll see if I can find you a book on equines, just so you understand things. I won’t push it, I know it’s a tender topic, but not knowing and not understanding is going to make thing a lot more scary.”

“I’m sorry…”

*** Ah-Pee’s Dream ***

I run through the forest zig zagging through trees, the Everfree is dangerous, actually it is downright deadly, but sometimes it was the fastest way to get to places, especially the Apple Farm. I look to the left, Peachy Sweet is at my side, crying as she ran.

“Peachy, it’s just timber wolves.” I say, “We’re almost at the farm, there’s no need to cry about it.”

She wails beside me, running and I find myself having to slow her down pulling on her handkerchief a bit to keep her from tiring herself out before we get there. Why was the answer for some ponies to stress crying? We're Apples, this should be nothing.

Looking up in front of me I see a last timber wolf jump out into the middle of the path. “Peachy, fall behind me.”

“Where surrounded, what are you doing!” She screams.

I put myself right in front of Peach running full tilt, “We’re blowing through.”

“Are you crazy?” She yells, then she looks back at the wolves behind her, she started crying again.

Lowering my head I hit the timberwolf dead center, it hurt, my head was ringing but I didn’t stop. My speed, my mass, hitting the surprised wolf caused it to explode, sending pieces in all directions. “That’s why you don’t mess with Apples!” I yell as I come out into the back orchards of the farm. I know the creature will be able to reassemble itself, but we are too far away from it now for it to be any more of a danger.

“We made it, we're alive…” Peachy sighs in relief.

The timber wolves stop at the edge of the forest watching us and snarling, but they don’t follow.

“Apple! You’re bleeding!” Peachy screams and points at me.

I slow down and tap my head with the back of a hoof and look, “It’s a scratch, Granny can take a look at it when we get to the house.”

“How can you do that Apple, shrug off being chased by wolves or getting hurt like that?”

“Do you remember your first time helping out with the apple bucking?” I slow to a walk, looking at the farm house and barn ahead of us.

“How can I forget? My legs hurt for days.” Peachy says as she slows to walk beside me.

“You didn’t cry though, moaned and grumbled a bit but you didn’t cry.”

“But that’s different, we weren’t in danger.” She looks back at the Everfree.

“The pain though is the same, I’ve been hurt before working on the farm, accidents happen. We are Apples though, even you Peachy, I know you prefer Canterlot, but you still have the Apple strength and power in you. As well as the Apple will.”

Peachy nods slowly.

“Being an Apple is more than a name, it’s more than a family. It’s a legacy, a heritage, and has its own gifts. Even as a foal you could buck apples out of a tree. We can tame the wild, we can feed cities, we can grow and live where no other ponies could survive. There isn’t a pony in the world that’s tougher than an Apple.”

Peachy nods.

“You can forget that, living in big cities, the Apple family meetings though help. To put your hooves on the ground and remember, the bond.”

Peachy looks up, her ponytail blowing in the wind. “Apples forever.”

“Apples forever!” I call out, seeing Granny coming out to meet us with Big Mac.

***

The sun is rising over the New Mexico Arizona scrub, creating an orange red glow over the rolling hills. The two teens had been riding all night on their ATV’s and had been waiting for day break to see the area clearly.

Lying on their perch they look though the binoc’s, trying to see any of the houses, in these wide open lands they could probably kill ponies without an issue. No one would care if some of these freaks died. They were, after all, unholy creations.

“Can you see anything?” Sid asks.

“Not yet but it’s still early. How could they let those things sleep inside… they should keep them in a barn or something.” Matt snarls.

“How many do you think are down there?” Sid is getting restless, all of this waiting.

“Don’t know. two or three, doesn’t matter though, it’ll make the commander happy, he’s pissed about people being killed by them.” Matt rubs his eyes and looks again.

“There just stupid animals, can’t we just got down there and deal with them.”

“It’s the police we are worried about, I don’t know if the police have them under protection or not.” Matt responds.

“The police won’t come around here. This is Navajo land.” They both hear the voice behind them. They slowly turn to see four men on horseback, one has a shotgun over his shoulder, the other two have Winchester lever actions, the last is holding an MSG90 long range rifle.

The man with the shotgun shakes his head “They think animals are stupid, but here they are, leaving their guns twenty feet away with their ATV’s.”

Matt gulps “Tribal police?”

The leader of the group just smiled “You wish you were so lucky.” Turning his arm, he shows them the mark on his shoulder, a red Circle with a black eagle feather. “A.R.M. Trespassing on native land is one thing, threatening First Nation’s citizens, looking to bring violence to sacred lands. You’re going to wish the police had found you first.”

***

I yawn, stretching out in bed, then roll on my side and open my eyes. Ah-Pee’s already awake but she's just laying there, looking up at the ceiling. I give one more big stretch and yawn, and then look at Ah-Pee again, “Morning.”

“Morning.” Ah-Pee says, looking at the ceiling.

“What’s on your mind,” I say flexing a leg a bit to get the blood flowing.

“What it means to be an Apple.” She sighs.

“Wow, I never took you for the philosophical type. Contemplating on being fruit, seems different, though I guess some contemplate on being rocks or tree’s.”

At least it was a soft pillow, it came in through a wide arc and hit the side of my face with a low POMF, “I mean part of the Apple family you brat.”

“OK, so what brought that line on then?”

“A dream I was having, I guess. Apple’s more than a name, it’s a heritage… but if I can’t remember the heritage does that make me less of an Apple?” she asked.

I roll over onto my belly, and lean my nose over to touch hers, “You are an Apple, trust me, even if you don’t know it, you have the will and family honor. You have their strength and definitely their nature. The cartoon shows clips of the Apple family, and I look at you with your family and see the same thing.”

“Yeah but…”

“No butts, of course I look at you and Blaze fighting and just think of Dash and AJ going at it, I think there’s some family competition there.” I say with a giggle.

Rolling her eyes, Ah-Pee gets up “I’m going to take a quick shower, before you take all the hot water. Then I think I'll have a chat with Blaze.

I sit up and ruffle my mane with both my forehooves before shaking my head out. Reaching out I bring a brush over to me and start brushing my mane and bangs. Gathering my laundry, just wearing my night shirt and panties, I walk downstairs and put everything into the washing machine. Poking my head into the living room I wave to grandfather.

“Do you have any books on… umm,” I find myself blushing furiously now.

“On what little one.” Grandfather says with a smile.

“On um, mare’s anatomy, I figured I should… read up on it a little.” I say with a gulp.

Standing, he walks over to his book shelf and takes down two books, and turns to offer them to me. Looking at one, basic horses, breeds, skeletons, muscles, the second one though, is on mares and breeding.

Honestly I’m not sure I want to read the 2nd but I take them both and go back into the laundry room lying down. I knew these were feral horses, and in ways this was looking at gorilla’s and trying to figure out humans but sometimes close helps.

The skull I know is wrong, my muzzle is much shorter than a feral horse’s, but the tooth set up and mix looked about right. Flicking my ear I look at the image of organ placement, tapping my own breastbone and ribs counting a little.

Looking at the diagram of a leg, I move my leg a bit to compare how it moves to the muscles in the book, looks about the same, I just have a larger range of movement. Whimpering once I open the book on mare’s starting to look though the pictures and terms.

Magic has a certain convenience, when the washer dings, I open the washer and dryer doors, move the clothing into the dryer, set it to auto, and close the doors and starting the machine. All without looking up from my book once. The idea of being able to do laundry from across the room is a definite bonus.

Turning the page, I gulp hard as I read and look at the pictures, I don’t know if this is what’s going to happen to me but the idea that it could, is utterly terrifying.

Ah-Pee trots up, laying down beside me and looking at the page, “Oh, light reading I see.”

I let out a loud squeak and close the book, blushing so hard my ears feel like they are on fire. “I um, it’s not what you think.” I stammer out.

“No it’s 100% what I think, you’re looking at the books and learning about your anatomy. Internal organs, and such, same thing I did after I changed. Fore leg is wrong for us. We can bend far more than a horse.” Ah-Pee says, her statements helping calm me down.

“Hind legs closer, still a little more flexible. Skull is way off though, might be closer to a males skull but not a females.” I say nodding.

“I notice, as foals they look close to each other but as they grow the skulls differ. Guess it’s a visual sexual cue.” She says, nodding. Then she surprises me by leaning against me.

“A what?” I look at her quick.

“Some species have visual ways of telling males from females, ducks colors, peacock’s feathers, even humans have a visible difference between males and females in body shape.” She said. “Likely the stallion’s larger head was an evolution of challenges, and became a distinct feature.”

“Oh, I get it.” I said nodding, “Makes sense. Might also explain why colts muzzles and fillies muzzles look so close too, because the different doesn’t appear until later in life.”

Looking over her shoulder, Ah-Pee pulls the book on mares under her, hiding it “Hi Blaze, did you get everything I asked for?”

Panting a bit, Blaze scowls. “Yes, and I’m NEVER shopping for those again. You just wrote down 2 names, not what they were.” He said with a snort and pulls 2 small shopping bags from Fort Bragg PX in front of her. “Next time get your own.” Turning, he flicks his tail and storms out.

“You sent him all the way to Fort Bragg? No wonder he’s miffed.” I say, blinking.

“Oh that’s not what he’s miffed about.” Ah-Pee says with a giggle.

I sit up and tilt my head “What did you do?”

Ah-Pee tries her best to look innocent as she goes though the bag. “Got myself some shorts and a T-shirt for fun, as some undies, no I’m not planning on wearing clothing all the time. I should wash them first though before wearing them, always best to be safe.”

“Well that doesn’t explain why Blaze flipped.” I Said, “unless you made him buy them with his money.”

Moving to the second bag she pulls out 2 boxes, looking at them I blush heavily and back up quick. “You sent him to buy those?”

Blinking she looks at me “Oh come on, breath girl, deep breaths, slow and steady.”

I blink then slow my breathing, “Why? We don’t… do we?”

“Actually mare’s don’t, so don’t worry, don’t get scared. Just breathes. Feral mares, horses, during their receptive phase, put out scent, and, well, drip a bit. I figure just in case we are like that, it’s best to have odor control liners. We can start with these, and go to something lighter if needed.” Opening the box with her teeth she takes out some pads from the box and puts them in my saddle bag.

“Just ewww.” I say poking the bag.

“Well, consider yourself lucky.” Ah-Pee says with a grin.

“Oh? Why’s that?”

“You weren’t the one that had to buy them.” Ah-Pee starts to giggle.

*** Yiska***

“ARGH!” I say storming out and glaring at the LT. “Women.”

The LT blinks a few times and chuckles, “Which one?”

“Ah-Pee, she sent me to the store to buy… Girl products.” I say with a snort.

The LT laughs and shakes his head “They are girls, remember? Now think for a sec, if you ever have a daughter of your own, what are you going to tell her about this?”

“I won’t, I’ll leave that to her dam.” I say, shaking my head.

“Now think for a sec, very slowly and very carefully, how will Velvet explain it?”

“She… I… oh you and your evil Jedi mind tricks… I get it, she probably feels the same if not worse about it than me.” I say and huff, sitting down just burying my muzzle in a bowl of alfalfa bits.

“Well I still have to finish this report and send it off to CID, my days pretty much a wash, so, might as well ruin yours too.” The LT says with a smile

“Mine, what did I do?” I say, feeling worried.

“Nothing, but you know what they say about idle hands… or in your case idle wings. JSOC has sent a request for you to play drone for the next few hours. The FBI is scared to bring in helicopters because of the Army of God's heavy weapons. The military isn’t chartered to fly drones that close to civilian airports, they can orbit them around white sands or the other training area’s sure… But that doesn’t help much with that compound. Especially in a civilian matter.”

“But a pegasus doesn’t count. Yeah yeah, I see where they are going.” I say and huff.

“Great, Henry, help him with the harness, it’s so great that he gave the military this idea.” The LT says with a chuckle.

Standing up, I spread my forelegs and wings for the harness. The entire device only weights about 15 pounds, and fits pretty snug, the tech’s actually didn’t do that bad a job with it. Getting the thumbs up from Henry I trot out, spreading my wings, and take to the sky.

“On the heels of war and wonder, there’s a stormy…” Blinking I shake my head quick. Wow, ponies really DO break into song easy. “Come on blaze head in the game, serious work, no time for a song and dance number.”

Turning I see the command post that the ATF has set up and circle in landing. “Corporal Rainbow Blaze reporting as requested,” I say hovering a few feet off the ground looking at a few shocked faces.

“They said they were sending over a Pegasus recon drone, I thought they meant like, an HAI Pegasus, or X-47a Pegasus, but not a real living Pegasus.” The ATF officer says and pokes my wing.

Pulling my wing tight to my side I look at him “I’m US Army, regular forces. You asked for help, you got me.”

“Woah, down boy.” The guy takes a few steps back and a woman comes over, shaking her head.

The woman has the ATF jacket and hat on as well, but seems younger, “It's ok Rainbow, just have some idiots here today. You prefer Rainbow, Blaze or Yiska?” She says, looking at her PDA.

“Umm Blaze works, Rainbows generally used by only closest of friends.” I say, least she’s not pokey like the other guy.

“Ok Blaze here’s your ear piece; it’s on your frequencies, standard Earwig. And.. it’s not going to fit, go figure. Sec, I’ll see if the tech types here can work something out.” Turning, she walks into a tent.

Looking around I find a lot of eyes on me. I sit on my haunches and snort once “Guys, I was born human, went to school, joined the military, I’m Ranger trained. What’s the problem?”

“You’re a talking horse.” One said.

“So I had an accident at work, seriously, I’m still a person.” They continue about their work, but I notice they keep watching me.

I end up trotting around, checking the command center out, while I wait. I am starting to dislike getting watched like this. Why couldn’t people just treat me like…

“I thought Dash was a girl.” One guy says with a chuckle.

“I’m not Dash, I’m Rainbow Blaze, Dash is actually my daughter.” I say, looking at the rifle rack, I think I really do miss shooting.

“Really? Rainbow Dash is real?” He asks.

“Uh huh, she was banished 3 days before I was, I know I couldn’t have helped her but… in some ways I wish I could have been there with her at the time.” I say softly, “Just to stand with her, even if I wouldn’t make a difference, just to be with her at the hardest of times.”

“Wow, so the tv show was right?”

“I guess, I think the story was helped by a pony, or at least by someone who remembered their lives as a pony. I can’t say.” Looking at my hooves, “I’m here, now, trying hard to figure out my life.”

The ATF rep comes over and plugs a blue tooth style headphone onto my ear “Ok that will work, our call sigh is prism, your call sign will be spectrum.”

“NO!” I shout, turning fast.

Backing up quick she blinked “What?”

“Not spectrum, choose another name. Just spectrum has a bad, feeling. No.”

“Ok so what do you want?” She crossed her arms.

“Oxcart.” I say with a smile.

“Ok Oxcart it is.”

“Are you sure you’re ok doing this, cloud covers between 5 and 8 thousand feet, that’s pretty low.”

Looking up I hum softly, then start laughing, “If you hear me snoring just yell a few times.” With a jump I shoot up to the clouds. In moments I break through the top and I hover above them.

“Oh I hope this works,” I say as I drop down to stand on the clouds. “Oh this is going to be the easiest thing ever.” I laugh, and hear the servo’s of the camera whir a little as it looks around.

Ignoring the camera I start grabbing and gathering cloud into a tight little fluffy thicker than the rest, but more than large enough to hold me, and quickly I hop on. Digging a little hole in the cloud for the camera to see though, I grab the sides and gently push it down to below the normal clouds.

“Are you actually lying on a cloud, oxcart?”

“Ah fluffy, you are so soft and cuddly.” I say with a sigh as I relax, just using the occasional wing flap to move the cloud back into position.

“We can still hear you Oxcart.” I hear over the ear piece.

“Oh um, yeah, call it aerial camouflage.” I say, “Took a bit to make it as dense as I wanted, but still relaxing. How’s the pictures.”

“Fine, fine, just float there for a while.”

With very little breeze I just move myself to the far end of the compound, figure it will take me about 2-3 hours to drift across it at this rate. And fluffy is just so perfect, so much better than the couch or floor…

*** Yiska’s dream ***

“You don’t even know how much she loves you, do you?” Ah-Pee says, stomping a hoof.

“Ah-Pee calm down.” Peachy Sweet says.

“Velvet's been as close as kin to me Peach, I just don’t like the fact that her parents made her marry a unicorn, even the Apples will support the marriage of one of ours to a Unicorn or Pegasus if true love is involved.” Ah-Pee says, then she scowls at me.

“T-True love?” I gulp.

“You were her first love. Her first kiss.” Ah-Pee says and huffs.

“I didn’t know.” I say, looking down.

“And then you didn’t even go to her wedding?” Ah-Pee snarled. Peachy blinks then snarls at me too. If Peachy was mad I really messed up big.

“I didn’t think she’d want me there. Then I was called on stormwatch duty.” I said defensively.

Ah-Pee turned, heading into the castle's kitchen, “Come on Peachy, I’ll help you with the pies for the Gala.”

Shaking my head I turn to fly towards Cloudsdale. “Guess I should brush up on my cloud sculpting, my little Dash wanted a castle in the sky for her birthday…”

***

“BLAZE!!!”

“What what? I’m awake, who…” I look around blinking…

“First off you were snoring into the coms, and then there was that whole whimpering about Velvet.”

Peeking over the edge of the cloud I figure I've been drifting for around three hours. “Umm, need anything more?”

“Nope, we're good, first time we ever had a drone that snores.”

“Yeah yeah.” With a kick I disperse the cloud, then fly down to the command station to return the radio.

One of the com tech’s looks at me and shakes his head… “Snore, velvet I’m sorry… snore…”

Grumbling, I turn off the camera and fly back to the farm, its a short flight for me. Hitting the front porch I trot in, “Man LT I’m just getting picked on today, first by the girls, then you then by the ATF. I swear, some days It doesn’t pay to roll off a cloud.”

“Roll off a cloud?” The LT blinked looking at me like I just turned into a… oh wait.

“Yeah, the part about Pegasus sleeping on clouds, it works.”

“Well that’s useful, will help on some recon missions and such.” The LT says with a chuckle.

“And now, an apology that has been waiting over 40 years.” I say with a gulp.

“Ouch.” The LT said.

“You don’t know the half of it. This one, I really messed up with.” I say looking around, “And where are the girls anyway?”

“Upstairs in their room doing their hooves.” The LT says as if that’s something completely normal. “Bits and pieces of a dream again?”

“No, I remember it clearly this time, it was my fault. And even if it was in another life, I should still say sorry.” I say, walking up stairs.