*** Sometime over 1000 years ago, at this hour though it’s Monday ***

It’s taken Star Swirl and the deer a good part of fifteen minutes to figure out how to walk on just two legs. Though some creatures in Equestria walk on two legs as well, most of those are transient stages of motion. Dragons, for example would walk on two legs then drop to four legs to run, the same is true with the diamond dogs. A common sign of such is that the arms or forelegs tend to be longer than the hind legs. While minotaur’s, on the other hand, seem only to walk on two legs, there has always been debate as to if at some points they may run on four, since again their forelegs are longer than their hind.

Looking around the area, there are remnants of a fire. Though it seems too large to be for cooking, as well as a few clay pots left around the circle filled with some kind of seeds. The area around the fire shows lots of foot traffic but the routes in and out seem minimal, meaning the fire was likely the counterpoint of activity by Star Swirl’s guess.

Following one of the trails down from the hill the six of them walk, the terrain is alien, strange, the smells are so dim, it’s as though scent carries little meaning in this world. The full moon hangs in the sky, and off somewhere the sounds of a canine creature of some sort can be heard howling out to it.

The trees are spread out a bit, not like a true forest with a canopy, but instead the sky can often be seen. The trail had lead out of a ravine that follows some kind of ancient river bed, it looks seemed. At the bottom of the hill, several small huts came into view, they are not that advanced though. The structures are low, and have no windows, apparently they have not mastered glass making, this is strange to Star Swirl, since they seem to have discovered pottery.

“Do you hear that?” Maple asks, tilting her head.

Slowly Willow looks around, “It’s hard to focus our ears on the sound, they don’t move.”

“I believe it’s crying, from over there.” Star Swirl states, “Interesting, apparently they are not nocturnal, though one seems to be alone.”

Maple blinks, “You are just too analytical at times, let’s go see what’s wrong.” She starts sliding down to approach the little furless biped.

Kneeling down, Juniper tilts her head, looking at the little biped, “Why do you cry little one?”

She looks up and wipes her cheeks with her forearm, looking at the strange group she sniffles, “Mama’s scared, not enough food and she’s afraid we may have to leave to look for more.”

“What is wrong with the food?” Willow asks, looking around.

“The rains haven’t come, the rivers are low, and the plants are not growing.” She says, whimpering.

Star Swirl tilts his head, “They seem to lack good weather control.”

“Not everydeer wants to pay the prices that the pegasi demand.” Willow says, giving Star Swirl a gentle elbow.

“If it doesn’t rain soon, all of our crops will die, we already don’t have enough food as it is. Momma is worried we will have to leave here.” She hugs her legs tighter, whimpering.

“Willow, we can’t bring the rain but we can help their crops.” Maple says, looking sadly at him.

Willow chuckles, “Ok we’ll help, but really doe eyes don’t work on that face.”

“Can you show us where your crops are? Maybe we can help?” Juniper asks the little girl.

The little girl nods slowly and then leads them over to the fields, the plants are obviously and clearly in distress. Willow looks through the plants before shaking his head, touching the latch on his potion flask he pours out some water over the plants. It only takes a few drops per plant for them to grow to full size and ready to be harvested.

Before dawn the deer helped the entire field of crops, producing enough food for the small community, at least for the short term.

*** Cipher ***

Playing mother is one thing, but we were all worried Feather might try and hurt herself, so we end up taking turns, spending time with her, we are trying to get her as used to ponies as we can. The little one seems guiltier about the change than anything.

Calling up a picture of a 12 year old girl, wearing a guide’s uniform, with braces and dark glasses, I giggle. “Yeah, I was a geek back then, if you look close you can make out a Star Catcher toy, she was my fav pony at that time.”

“Star Catcher? That’s a pegasus, you didn’t like unicorns?”

“Oh yeah, I liked unicorns, but at that time unicorns weren’t in the show, they hadn’t found Unicornia yet.”

“Unicornia? Ok, now that just sounds stupid.”

“Trust me, it was… but this was before they even put out Friendship is Magic.” I giggled “I preferred unicorns myself, The Last Unicorn, for example was my favorite movie.”

I snuggle Feather tighter between my forelegs. “I suffered from a form of ADHD, I was always excitable and couldn’t sit still per say, unless it was for something I was really interested in.”

I bring up a picture of a girl in glasses and braces at the computer, “Take computers, I had fun with them as well as computer games, though I had a strange leg bounce even while working on them. I found I’d bounce my leg a lot, I still do sometimes. I was about 14 here.”

“What’s with those glasses?”

“Well I kept breaking the thin framed glasses, so mom had to get me heavier plastic ones.” I say and call up a picture of my mom and dad. “That’s them.”

“They look so… normal.”

“Dad worked as a travel agent in a call center, mom had a part time job at a donut shop. Wasn’t a bad life, I was sort of a surprise child though.” I say looking at them, “I don’t know if they would understand or even accept me now, dad hated animals, so I was never allowed to have a pet.”

I pull up a picture of me in those bad glasses, with black frames, short cut hair, “I never had a sweet sixteen or anything like that, and that’s a good thing since I just looked awful in a dress. I did get a partial Scholarship to MIT though, and with a little bit of a loan I was able to go to school there.”

“I almost wished I could have got a job with the My Little Pony show. I had pictures of Gamer Luna on my computer. I even studied partly how they did the animations with flash player looking for ways to code flash player to make that easier.” Looking down at the foal between my legs, I give her a soft nuzzle, “I know you’re a 25 year old but I can’t help thinking of you as still a foal. Sorry.”

“It’s ok I guess.” Feather sighs softly.

“Nope no sighing,” I say as I call up another picture, “This is me at my graduation. Problem was, while I was good, I still didn’t really know what I wanted to do, what I wanted out of life, everything felt so wrong to me. Like I didn’t belong, I was a nerd and geek and never tried to fit in, but at the same time I was still pretty hyperactive. And now I had debts to pay off.”

I lay my head over the foal, “That’s when I went into the military. I had to get a special doctors note for permission because of the ADHD. I joined in the army in their special warfare department, as an intelligence and computer warfare specialist. I didn’t do it for the excitement or anything like that. I did it for the debt forgiveness. Essentially they said after 8 year, they would clear my school debts. I still have 2 years to go on that.”

“Hey it just hit me, want to picture something funny Feather?”

“Sure, go for it.” She says sadly.

“Picture debt collectors trying to track down ponies with outstanding debts, how would they ever prove it was us that had say, a $20,000 student loan before the change?”

Feather opens her mouth, and closes it. She looks at her hooves then opens it again.

“And if we ever do get back to Equestria, what are they going to do? Cross over and ask for bits?”

“Repo agency, I’m here to repossess your wagon.” She giggles.

I ruffle her mane gently with a hoof. “I got my mark on May 1st, at exactly 8 14pm. I could probably tell you down to the second when it happened, if I check the logs.”

“The logs, what do you mean?”

“Ok picture this, World of Warcraft, 25 man raid, here I am, sitting in my panties and a halter top with my headset on, I’ve got a camera going beside me, we’re facing off with the boss… and.”

“And? And what?”

“I zone out, 24 people screaming at me, and I’m totally out of it. Never happened before, never happened since, total team wipe.” I still have the log of the swearing as people tried typing to get my attention as well as yelling at me over team speak.”

Feather giggles softly.

“Oh you think it’s funny do you? We had a team wipe, and I learned a whole new set of words and phrases in several different languages when I re-read the logs.” I giggle, once again nuzzling Feather.

“I wish I had the camera pointed a little lower but I did get to see part of my mark appear on the replay of the tape.” I rub the top of her head with my nose, “Now honestly, you’d think me of all ponies would recognize her own cutie mark, nope. I swear I couldn’t figure out what it was. Sure if it had been a harp, stars, green clovers, or blue diamonds I might have got it right away, and recognized it as a pony mark… Well a cutie mark or a case of me eating too much Lucky Charms.”

Feather leans over to look at my mark and I giggle softly “Yep, that had no meaning to me at that time, so I panicked, went to the base hospital. Told them I blacked out for like 10 min and when I came to this was on my leg. They ran tests and kept me for observations for the night. Normally they wouldn’t but because I said I blacked out they thought it was something more serious.”

They dismissed me at like 9 am, I went to work, and got pulled off my computer at about 3 pm and sent back to the hospital. Apparently the whole hair changing color and growing wasn’t normal. Who knew?”

“So my next three days were spent in quarantine, while they tried to figure out what was going on. One of the neat things, no more glasses. Apparently my pony eyes are better than my human ones were. It wasn’t until the 7th that the decided to release me. They determined I wasn’t contagious, I wasn’t carrying any viral agents. But I did have an unhealthy level of caffeine in my system before the change.”

Feather starts giggling again.

“Yeah, I’m still working at getting my caffeine levels back up to where they belong. I swear, the hardest part of the change, the caffeine withdrawals, they wouldn’t give me my Caff-Pow!” I grump softly, “Evil nurses.”

“They let me keep working at the office, but they had to assign a nurse to live with me, I was having a horrible time, I couldn’t do the basic needs, couldn’t feed myself, I couldn’t clean, couldn’t wash, I couldn’t even get dressed.”

“But ponies don’t need clothes, do they?”

“We don’t need, but at work and such it useful. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love being a unicorn from the start, but at first I couldn’t figure out how to do magic, I couldn’t lift things properly with my hooves, nothing. Though I could run, bounce around, and walk. Trust me, even that stuff to me is fun to experiment with. The other problem though was it killed my typing rate. Went from 80 words per minute to about 10. Add to that I couldn’t play any of my video games, and I was less then a happy pony.”

“SOC, that’s special operations command, however said they knew of a unicorn who had magic, my CO got me into a training group and sent us here to learn. Now my typing rates back up well past 120 words per minute. And I can tie my own shoelaces. If I had shoelaces, or wore shoes.”

“So you don’t mind being a pony?”

“I love it, trust me, to me, I was born one, I just had to wait to get my hooves and horn back.”

“So what’s your cutie mark then?”

“That… is a secret.” I say with a sly face. At least now she’s smiling a bit. So I did my job.

*** Velvet ***

“Hi Blaze, how are you?” I ask, trotting in and shaking myself out once.

“Oh fine, just watching a show about horses, they were talking about the proper way for a mare to be mounted.”

“WHAT?!?!” I shout, blinking and looking at the TV sideways.

Blaze chuckles, “Yep, how to approach, which side to approach from, which foot goes into the stirrup, and how to hold the reigns.”

I pant a bit, “Waiter, I’d like to order a ladder, I need to get my brain out of the gutter.”

Blaze start laughing, “Seriously it’s a show on horses and horse riding, I just found it on TV.”

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up fuzz ball.” I say as I walk up and lay down beside him.

“So what’s our plan for tonight?” Blaze asks.

Swaying my tail I move up to him and give him a gentle nuzzle, “No idea, bars and strip clubs are out.”

“Aww why are strip clubs out?” Blaze is just smiling at me over that one.

“Simple, cuz Chippendale’s dancers aren’t your thing.”

“Ok point, and I guess you wouldn’t want to watch girl strippers.” He says, poking my nose.

“And now, the lyrics to shake your tail take on a whole new aspect.” I say and start giggling.

“Ok, now my mind’s in the gutter. So where’s Feather Pinch?”

“It’s Ciphers turn with her, and I made her promise not to try feeding Red Bull to the foal.”

“Why would she do that?” Blaze says, blinking.

“To make her wings grow faster she said. Seriously, Red Bull needs a warning label, not safe for foals or CMC members, do not give Red Bull to young pegasi in an attempt to get them to fly. Not Suitable for Scootaloo’s of any ages.”

“Seriously, that’s just wrong. So very, very wrong.”

“How’s your wing?”

“Oh its feeling great, it’s my leg and hip that hurt.” Blaze says, flexing his wings proudly.

“Well if you’re in too much pain I can leave you be, I was just wondering if you wanted someone to cuddle.” I say, turning and starting to walk away.

“Don’t you dare walk off, get back here. I really do need a cuddle, I’m getting driven nuts by the scents of the girls.”

“Oh I see, it’s the girls,” I giggle, walking back and laying to snuggle him.

“Honestly, it’s you that I want to be with though.” Blaze says softly and wraps his wing around me.

“Thanks, so what do you think about the gate?”

“If it still exists, it’ll be a needle in a haystack to find. That’s if it hasn’t been destroyed. For all we know the movie’s fake, the portal was real but destroyed 25 years ago or heck, longer… and or only hope is that a princess like your daughter can open a new portal home.”

“My bet is they have already found the portal.” I say with a giggle.

“Why do you think that?”

“Would your daughter do a sonic rainboom, and Luna summon everyone if they haven’t?”

“Point, I keep feeling like we are behind everyone else in what’s going on. Like we were two steps behind Spectrum, behind Lighting Dust, behind Fleetfoot. That everyone knows more about what’s going on then we do. It’s just frustrating.” Blaze just shakes his head.

“I know, trust me, I know. I keep getting this feeling everyone’s expecting me to have answers, to know what’s going on. And I’m even more clueless then others. Cipher knows more about the pony series then all of us put together… and still we fumble through spells making mistakes that almost get us killed.” With a sigh I look down at my hooves, “I’m still scared of running into Night Light as well.”

“I know, on one hand running into Dash would be so cool,” Blaze says giving me a tighter hug, “but at the same time, I don’t know how she’d take it, and I can’t even begin to answer the one question I know she’d ask.”

“What’s that?”

“Who’s my mom?” Blaze says, looking at the TV screen.

Blinking, I consider that for a moment, “Ugg, so you haven’t had any dreams about her?”

“Nope, Discord’s curse was better than bleach for that set of memories. Honestly for all I know, Sprinkle Medley was her mom, and the foal she was having was Dash’s sister. Or her mom could have been Daring Do.” He said with a sigh.

“Daring Do? Wouldn’t she like, know that?” I say, giving him a weird look.

“How? If we separated just after Dash was born, and she had some great quest to go on to save Equestria, and didn’t feel she was ready to be a mother yet, would she recognize Dash all grown up?”

Shaking his head, “Yes it’s a stretch but again, I’ve got nothing at all for memories of her being born, of her family time except for a few flashes of us at flight training school.”

“Yeah I know the feeling, though in some ways, I prefer it.” I say, looking down.

“You prefer not remembering Twilight’s first birthday? Or first steps? Honestly I know you, I think those are the kind of memories you’d want.” Blaze says sternly.

“Um, those, maybe, but Twilight’s birth or the act of making Twilight in the first place, mentally and emotionally I don’t think I’m ready for those yet. Then there’s carrying Shining Armor and feeling sick all the time and not able to eat because all his weight on my stomach. So I’m stuck feeling hungry all the time but…”

“But,” Blaze blinks and looks down at me, “but what?”

I look down at my belly, suddenly I feel very strange. I feel empty, alone, like I must be the worst mother in the world for not being able to remember the simple things. Looking up, I feel the tears filling my eyes, “Maybe the curse is for the best… maybe I was just that bad a mare.”

Blaze looks at me, confused, “Huh? Wait what?”

“Maybe I wasn’t ready to be a mom, maybe I wasn’t good at it. What if the show got it wrong… what if I just pawned her off on Celestia because I couldn’t care for her…” I feel the tears flowing down my cheeks.

Blaze sits up and bonks my horn hard enough for me to see sparkles for a second.

“Ow, the heck Rainbow what was that for?” Sitting up, I rub my horn and head looking at him, “I told you never hit a unicorn’s horn like that.”

“You were starting to scare me the way you were talking, you’ve never had self-esteem issues. I figured a good shock would, you know, reset you.”

“Great, a unicorn’s horns is now a reset button to you?” Touching my cheek I feel the wetness and blink, pulling the back of my hoof away looking at the tears on it. “I was crying… but…” Shaking my head I clear the sparkles somewhat. “Sorry I don’t know, what set that off.”

“I don’t know why either, but you started going off on how bad a mare you were, I’ve seen you with Feather Pinch, I’ve seen you with Noi. Even with the unicorn club, you act as a mother to them. There is no way you could be a bad mare.” Blaze says gently.

“The Unicorn Club?” I just can’t help smile at that, “Really? That’s the best name you could come up with for our training class?”

“Well, Velvet’s School for Gifted and Exceptional Unicorns just seems over the top.” He says, starting to chuckle.

“And now, you’re just sucking up.” Leaning back into his wings, I relax a bit.

“Thanks, I’ve been practicing.” Looking back to the TV he hums, “So when do you want to head to the farm?”

“I was thinking Saturday or Sunday, less traffic, and right now Feather seems to be doing ok with us for now. I’m not sure dropping her in with a dozen new faces would do more then make her feel guilty.” Man Discord could be twisted and mean, when in doubt blame it on Discord.

“Oh good, I should be able to walk and fly by then. Being grounded just sucks.”

Watching as the news came on I had a bad feeling, “Today on First news at 5, Cult members in New Mexico attack a police station, 5 dead in a drug fueled shootout. Iranian government is facing accusations in the UN of attacking US and Australian warships in the Persian Gulf. A new Chinese food additive linked to illness and mutations, this and more, tonight at 5.”

“I can’t remember, did we eat Chinese before the mission?” Blaze asks, looking at me.

*** Ballad ***

“My turn,” I say, giggling, “Want to have some fun?”

Cipher looks up, “Sure but what about Feather?”

“I was talking to Feather you nit, go back to your computer.” I giggling.

“Umm Ballad, my computers right here, I never left it.”

“Ok fine, you win, Cipher, do you mind if I take Feather, I have an idea for some fun.” If you can’t beat them play along, I guess.

“Sure no problems, I need to get more coffee anyway.” Cipher says, standing up and trotting for the kitchen.

“Ok Feather, up for a little walk to start? Or would you prefer to be carried?”

“Walkin’s fine, but I got short legs so.”

I start walking at a slow pace and look down, “Yeah but think of it this way, you have all the energy of a little kid, you can probably be zipping around on your legs if you wanted.”

“Second childhood huh,” she said looking up, “this time as a…”

“A pegasus pony, as smart as any human, with better visual abilities, a natural spatial sense, an understanding of weather, and the ability to fly.” I put out before she could finish her sentence.

She blinks and then nods softly, trotting beside me as we head outside.

“I suck at being a unicorn, I need practice with my magic, I haven’t even come close to figuring out my cutie mark, it’s a lyre or harp I know, but exactly what that means, if I’m supposed to play one, or what, I can’t tell. All I know is it’s got something to do with music. So. Wanna help me practice?”

“How? What am I supposed to do?” Feather asked sadly.

“You, need to be my test subject, I need to see if I can multitask, I need practice with my TK, and someone to tell me how bad my singing is.”

Feather nods once, looking skeptical.

“Ok, so first, I need to you spread your wings, keep them spread, get your hooves going…” I giggle and started prancing, looking down at the little foal as she tries to mimic my steps.

“One day, the whole world looks like an open page…” I start singing, “And you've been prancing as fast as you can with a smile on your face.”

Feather giggles, smiling as she prances beside me.

“And then the earth and the sky they all fit together,” I sing out cheerfully, my voice getting louder and more confident… “And carry you away as light as a feather… Chase the clouds from the ground…” Tossing my mane I point up to the clouds with my horn, “In the big blue sky don't wanna watch it all blow by.”

Feather makes a few jumps beside me as I sing, looking up at the sky too.

“So you’re gonna fly… Higher than I ever could… Feel the wind blow through your mane… Feel the sun dance with the moon.” Nuzzling her as I prance, I focus my magic around her to hold her gently.

Letting out a soft eep she looks around, feeling the magic around her, gathering her up and making her float a bit.

“And your hooves can't stay on the ground any longer,” with a nod I brought her into the air with my magic holding her above and beside me, “With a leap of faith I feel a little stronger. Wanna swing from a star in the big blue sky, don’t wanna watch it all go by so you’re gonna fly.”

Listening to her laugh I keep singing as I swoop her around me, flying her with my magic. It might not have been under her own power, but I can see it in her face, just the feeling of flight is filling her with joy.

Singing isn’t my special talent but at the same time, something about this feels right, bringing happiness to a foal like this, using music to heal a broken heart. Maybe a ballad isn’t a bad thing, maybe being Ballad isn’t too bad after all.

Trotting back to the house, I keep her flying beside and around me before finally setting her down when I get inside of the door. “So how was that?”

“It felt weird but good, like I was really flying.” She giggles.

“By all technicalities you were, just not under your own control.”

The smells of Ah-Pee’s barbeque hit us as we round the side of the house, she is doing another huge meal for everyone, with both pony and people foods. Apples, no family can lay out a better spread than them.

I sit down, putting the foal between my front legs so her back is against my belly and sigh, “We both have so much to learn, so much we don’t know.” I say softly.

“Whatcha mean?” Feather asks, looking up.

“Do we have family in Equestria? Who are our parents? What was our lives like?” I say softly.

Feather bites her lip, looking down then the small foal takes a deep breath, “Maybe our pasts are not as important as our futures, and what we choose to make of them?”

Smiling, I lean down and nuzzle her, “From the mouths of foals.”

*** Velvet ***

I trot out with Blaze heading over to the table as the entire platoon, class and friends meet here, the meal is just huge, slow cooked pulled pork on sour dough bread for the humans, stuffed mushroom caps, stuffed bell peppers, and oatburgers for the ponies. Baked potatoes, honey glazed carrots and campfire baked corn. All of that layered over the table, but nothing could beat her famous apple pies. And she has six of them on the table. Glancing over, I have to giggle as little Feather’s eyes are huge, with her tongue hanging out, drool dripping down.

Looking to my other side, I see Blaze doing the same thing, seriously what is it with pegasi drooling over food? It’s not like Rainbow Dash ever did that in the show. I guess I can just chalk it up to them both being physically injured and recovering.

The LT tosses over a pair of Velcro straps with mounting points for knife, fork, and spoon to Blaze and Feather. Blaze laughs and takes the time to show Feather how to put them on, using his mouth and other hoof to wrap it around his foreleg and snug it down. Once ready, everyone starts digging in.

I look sternly at the Unicorn Club, it isn’t about being above digging in, it isn’t about being stuck up or anything, it’s all about using their magic to keep practicing. Though Sugarberry seems to be having fun. Just to be different, she’s using her TK in a contact mode, where she touches her hoof to something, and pick it up that way, I know she’s using her magic but it just looks cute.

Watching Sugarberry holding an ear of corn between her forehooves, munching away even has the LT raising his eyebrows, and soon Cipher and Ballad are copying her, using their hooves as hands. In truth the trick actually might have uses, it looks less intrusive and less magical than just floating food around, and might work when dealing with humans.

I give it a try myself, though in reality it seems clumsier than using my magic flat out, it seems to be a nice gap between human actions and pony. I eat happily, keeping an eye on Feather who is just lost in the meal.

“Ok Sugar, cute trick, I’ll admit it.” I say with a giggle.

“Thanks, I just wanted to, fit in a bit better.” She says, smiling, “Area TK is useful but this little trick is good when we are in public or just with friends.”

Cipher giggled, “That and it’s just cool, makes us look like the ponies in the show.” Reaching over she grabbed a beer with her hoof, popping the top off with her other hoof and taking a swig.

“Oh really now, that’s just showing off.” Ballad says with a giggle.

I smile looking up, “Honestly, it’s actually really good to see. Remember this is a chance to explore new ways of using magic, the whole point to this was to improve quality of life. To make it so you can survive and take care of yourselves, and part of that will be dealing with humans.”

“Cipher, are you sure you should be drinking?” The LT says with a chuckle.

“Oh come on, its hops, barley and such, all stuff horses can eat.”

“Yeah but Caffeine and alcohol on a unicorn, I’m not sure we could drive fast enough to escape the chaos.” The LT says, laughing.

Cipher sticks her tongue out and goes back to her food. “It’s only one beer. Not like I’m going to try and down twelve apple ciders.”

“Or eat dirt if a cider gets spilled on the ground.” Ah-Pee says, looking at Blaze pointedly.

Blaze shakes his head “I’ve had dirt, I’ve eaten dirt, it tasted like dirt. No thanks.”

“Trust me, I was there when he did it, when he was first trying to figure out how to fly. He took a serious dirt nap.” I say with a giggle.

“Hey least I’m not the one that hospitalized herself after a teleport.” Blaze pokes my foreleg.

All the members of Unicorn club blink, eyes going wide, as Cipher drops her beer. “You can teleport!?”