Tanya sits at her desk with a feeling of dread. She’s lead a pretty normal life, at least she thinks so. It isn’t anything special. She isn’t the leader of a major corporation or company. She isn’t from a rich family. She’s just…her.

Looking at her photo-book, she sighs. She was a base brat, as a child. Her dad was a finance officer, so she moved around every few years. This played havoc with her school. She bounced between public schools, base schools, and even a Catholic school.

Looking at the pictures of herself in the plaid coveralls and green tie she shook her head. “What a geek.” She muses, looking at the school uniforms they had for her in grade school. She also did brownies and girl guides. Her parents tried to give her as much a chance to make friends as they could in each new place.

Geek is an understatement. Flipping pages, she traces her finger along pictures of her playing Halo with her Dad. She remembers Shadowrun weekends with her friends. They even played some D&D from time to time. She props up her chin and sighs looking at a picture of her with her LAN friends from a World of Warcraft group she was in high school.

MMORPG’s offered her a different outlet than regular friends did. Unlike normal friends, her online friends stayed with her trough a move. She didn’t lose them, or lose touch with them, as she changed bases. A few of them she’s kept for almost a decade.

She is the youngest in her family, with two older brothers and an older sister. This leads to an array of fights at home with siblings about everything from privacy and clothing, to bathroom time. She was always a scrapper though. She learned to hold her own against her brothers in a fight, and even took some martial arts. Never went that far in the arts though. Green belt in judo and a yellow belt in karate was about as far as she went. It isn’t because she didn’t want to go further, just her family moved and they didn’t have the same martial arts around her.

She wasn’t super pretty, though she isn’t plain either. Her sister is the big fashion model of the house. Boasting about her figure, her hair, she even got a job in the industry. Tanya still gets to bug her sister though about it at times. Especially since her sister has a smaller chest.

She went to college, doing some pre-law, but her main field of study was a master’s degree in criminal justice. After a series of rapes on campus she started specializing in sexual assaults. Having a friend get raped can change your prospective rather quickly.

She took up fencing in college. She always liked a physical outlet, fencing gives her a way to work through her frustrations. This is good, since her brothers aren’t around for her to beat up. She uses the epee as her primary choice for proper fencing. The local SCA, however, gives her a chance to have fun with the heavier rapiers.

After college, she joined the Army Criminal Investigation Command as a specialist in sexual assaults. She was more then capable of investigating other crimes and her team was often called for them. Drugs and murder often went hand in hand with sexual assault cases.

Anthony snaps his fingers in front of Tanya face a few times. “Agent Fargo, wakey wakey.”

Looking up she has tears in her eyes. “Oh God, what if it happens to me?”

“Then you get a horse's butt. Come on, what’s the estimated chance? .002%?”

Shaking her head, Tanya looks panicked. “I’m serious Anthony, what happens if I change like them?”

“Well, if you have any sick days left, you’ll probably use a few of them, or take a full sick leave. Grow a tail, maybe some cute fluffy wings like Fleetfoot has. Then you’ll learn how to be a pony for as long as you need. Then, back to work.”

“Are you that dense? You heard what’s happening? What if I become a stallion? Or an elderly pony? Or some baby foal?”

“You’ll use the men’s room, you wear diapers and get on social assistance. You wear diapers and don’t get on social assistance. Look, you’re usually the up one here. I know you’ve been worrying about this a while but at this point I’m almost tempted to call the boss and have him send you home. What’s got you so panicked?”

“It’s my birthday today. I’ve been to the bathroom 20 times now, checking my hip. I can’t take it. I’m so scared.”

“Ok why are you scared? Remember, CID has been trying to recruit a pony, if you change, you’ll be guaranteed a job. If you don’t change you’ll still be part of the CID. Come on, you need to breathe, relax and calm down.”

Propping up her chin, she looks at the pictures of her friends. “Terry, Wendy, Kim, Angela, Snowslide, Lena. It’s because of them that I changed from law to criminal justice. Kim got raped in college. Boys club didn’t want to investigate it.”

“You’re not going to stop being you. You heard what LT Fisher said.” Looking up, Anthony sighs. “Boss, Agent Fargo is freaking out. It’s her birthday and she’s terrified she’s going to change.”

“I think that’s part of the reason the government doesn’t want this all to go public. Look, take her down to the infirmary, both of you are on downtime for the next few hours. Just rest, talk with the psychologist.”

“But…”

“No buts. After you talk with her she can sign you back on duty.”

“Why am I going?” Anthony protests.

“Because she’s your partner and can use your support.”

“Yes sir.” They say in stereo.

*** Velvet ***

“What do you mean you are waiting for clarification on your orders?” The SAS Major says, looking at LT Fischer

“Just what I said, the situation is far more dynamic than we were informed. While normally, Rangers will think on their feet or hooves, in this case we need keep them constantly updated and have to wait to hear back from command.” The LT looks down at the radio station as Blaze sits, speaking in Navajo.

Fluffing his wings, Blaze goes about his work. He chats away in a modified code speech, through encrypted coms. There is no real reason for him to be doing this. The information he is giving doesn’t even pertain to the mission at hand. For the most part, he is just talking about unicorns in general and what the show says about them.

He knows command will be recording this. Code talking isn’t used anymore, but there are still code talkers in the military. Mostly, they are soldiers that studied and learned the codes as part of their history and heritage. What he is doing right now, however, is called a Focus Feint.

The SAS and MI1 and MI6 will be flipping out over this. They’ll be working hard to decrypt the scramble section. Which Blaze is hopping. Regularly, with enough computer power, they could probably have it done in 3-5 days, maybe a week. Then they would have to deal with the Navajo language. That could take them a few hours or so. Then, there is the code speak, that might take them anywhere from 1-3 more days to figure out.

With any luck, he’d have the agencies focusing on him for the next week. In reality though, he figures he’d bought the group at least four days. Since this had gone political, it was time we needed. And time the British are trying to deprive us of.

Trotting up, I sit down and look between Jay and Blaze. Taking a deep breath, I shift to the pony language as I speak, “She’s hunkered down with Henry. They have enough supplies for two or three days down there. She’s worried about her brother though.”

“Did that thing just whinny?”

The LT blinks a few times, “Um yes she did. Just...”

“Just what.” The major asks, stepping forward.

Pinching the bridge of his nose the LT shakes his head. “I’ve been hanging around ponies too long, I thought I recognized a few terms.”

“How, that was a mess of horse noises.”

“Pony noises.” Blaze says, “If it was horse noises it would be lower pitched. Though I don’t speak Saddle Arabian.”

“What does Saddle Arabian mean?” The Major says, looking back to LT Fisher.

“It’s likely a dialect spoken by the horses of the western deserts. They live outside of the borders of Equestria.” LT Fisher says, then he stops, looking at the blank look on the Major’s face. “Yeah, horses, deer, buffalo, dragons, griffins, and other species live on their world. You think we have problems with different religions.”

“Right, next thing you’re going to tell me is dolphins are intelligent.” The Major sniffs derisively.

“Actually they are, some unicorns actually have a spell to talk with them. There a friendly people, just a little upset with humans making a mess of the dolphin’s world.” Blaze says, listening to the radio taking a drink. Then he switches to the pony language. “Okay, that should keep him going for a while.”

“You are cruel, though now I wonder if there is a spell for that.” I say, giggling.

“For what?” The LT asks rubbing his nose, eyes closed.

Blinking, I switch back to English. “Ok no more pony time for you LT, you’re starting to understand the language.” I say with a giggle.

“Sorry.”

“Why don’t you just take her by force?” The SAS Major growls.

Rolling his eyes, the LT draws his gun. “Velvet.”

Blinking, I look as he levels his service pistol at me, quickly I throw up a shield as he fires a round at me, which bounces harmlessly off the shield.

“The HECK! LT did you just shoot at my mate?” Blaze says flatting his ears and pawing the ground.

“I was giving a Demonstration. I’ve seen her block an RPG round. I’ve seen the shield stop grenades, sustained machine gun fire. She can walk with the shield up. Now think about that for a second. That’s just defensive. To try and force her to do anything would be like trying to force a centurion tank to do something. You could do it, but you’d need a ton of firepower, and do lots of damage to the area.”

Blaze grumbles, “How would you like it if I shot at Fleetfoot.”

“BOYS!” I yell. “I knew what he was doing. I’m fine. Not saying I should do something to someone else’s special somepony.” Looking between the two sternly, I let my horn glow to make my point.

The LT taps a foot, looking at me.

“Sorry sir.” I grumble, “It’s those darn mother instincts.”

“So… I’m your foal.” The LT says, looking even less than amused.

“Umm. I thought I had my shots for hoof in mouth.”

“Ok, Blaze, you’re up for patrol. Give us a wide area scout. Make sure the unicorn isn’t teleporting all over the place on us.” The LT says.

Nodding Blaze takes to the air.

“Velvet you’re on coms for now. Use pony language only over open coms.”

“Why?” The SAS Major says, looking none to amused with our antics.

“Simple, so humans can’t understand or translate what’s going on. Thus we don’t need to keep secrets.”

The sonic boom let us know Blaze is off to have some fun.

Longingly I look back towards the storage cache and sigh. So many books, so much stuff to sort though. New spells. Maybe there’s stuff…

Blinking I shake my head as my muzzle is hit softly with a rolled up newspaper. I rub my muzzle and look up. “What?!?”

“I’ve seen that look on the show. It’s trademarked to your daughter. Get to work.”

*** CID MIR ***

Tanya sits down on the chair in the office. With three different military investigation branches in one building certain facilities are included. They have their own infirmary, but it is little more than a basic examination room. It has one bed, including various diagnostic and emergency equipment, as well as several chairs.

Normally it is staffed by at least one nurse or two EMT’s, able to handle most traumas including gunshots. Kicking her foot a bit, she huffs and looks at Anthony. “You had to tell the boss.”

“You were the one throwing yourself into a panic.” Anthony says, grumbling, “Now I’m stuck in here with you.”

The psychologist walks in and takes a seat at the desk. “Hi there Tanya, I’m Doctor Berkeley. You’ve been stressing out?”

“Seriously, she’s scared she’s going to grow a horses…”

The flying pillow catches him square in the face. “Look I’ve just been stressed out, it’s my 25th birthday.”

“You’ve been worrying for days now though.” Anthony says, throwing the pillow back on the bed. “You’ve been late for work, down, depressed.”

“Yes. I know it’s stupid but I keep thinking about what they said. Countries could start mandating checks on the 25th birthday. It’s like I’m waiting to find out if I have some terminal illness.”

“It’s not a sickness though.” The doctor says.

“I know but… it’s just anxiety. I can’t sleep I can’t eat. I’ve checked my hip like 20 times today, worrying.”

“Why worry though?”

“I… I don’t know. I guess after hearing everything, I just keep thinking of all the ponies that have had to give up their lives.”

“Being a pony isn’t something to be scared of.”

“I’ll still be your partner and support you, even if you do get a butt stamp.” Anthony says.

Pulling down the side of her skirt to Anthony, Tanya sticks her tongue out at him.

Anthony blinks a few times, then he coughs.

“What?”

The doctor tilts her head, looking at Anthony. “Something wrong?”

“It’s not wrong, but you had better contact HR. Her mark has come in.”

Blinking, Tanya looks down at her hip, “Oh Fu…”

*** CMC EC ***

“FUN!” Feather laughs, bouncing on the trampoline, using her wings to help her do loops.

Candy laughs, “You could do that without the trampoline.”

“You wanna try?” she says, hopping off.

“Nope, this little colt is a ground pounder.”

Cloudy bounces off the trampoline, then she lands on the ground, shaking her head. “Nope not for me either. It hurts my legs.”

“Well I guess Cirque Du Soleil cutie marks are out.” She looks down for a moment, then she brightens, “unless we wanna try shooting Feather out of a cannon, there’s lots of cannons around base.”

“No thanks, I’m not a Zebra.”

“Well I guess there’s no fighting destiny then.” Cloudy says.

“What?” Candy blinks.

“We need to go by our names again. We need to find Feather a French Maid outfit, feather duster, and have her try cleaning a hotel.” Cloudy says.

“No. Just. No. On so many different levels, no.” Feather says, spreading her wings and snarling a bit. “And don’t even THINK of a fanfic that has anything to do with me in a French Maid outfit.”

“Well fanfic writer is out too.” Cloudy says, giggling.

“You know what?” Feather says, “Let’s just forget about our cutie marks for today and do something fun. Go somewhere fun. How ‘bout a movie?”

“Well whatcha wanna see?” Candy says.

“Toss up, Green Lantern or Avatar 5.” Cloudy giggles.

“Oh let’s do the new Green Lantern movie. Maybe we can learn new spells.” Candy giggles.

“Just remember, whenever they say Green Lantern. Replace it with Radiance.” Feather giggles as they trundle for the theater.

Trotting inside they looked around, the down side to being small is everything just looks so huge and massive. Tickets and snacks are both sold at the concession stand, rather than at the front door so they nod once to each other. The twins run up to the counter first, followed by Feather.

“Feather, you’re up!” The foals say. They are getting used to this.

Candy and Cloudy stand side by side in front of the counter, and Feather does a wing jump, to land on their backs. As a pyramid Feather has enough height to see over the counter. This way she can place orders without having to hover.

Feather strikes a pose, spreading her wings, and all three called out. “Cutie mark Crusader, Cooperation!”

This probably isn’t the best idea, though. Truth be told it isn’t their fault. How could they know that the base daycare and summer camp programs are going to be at the theater too today? How could they know that kids would outnumber adults eight to one?

*** Pope Airfield ***

The ground crew signals the pilot of the C-17 Globemaster III, he is a go for the test. Pushing the throttles forward with full brakes, the engine power comes up as the engines roar. Static engine tests are part of the plane’s checkout.

The ground crew looks at each other, confused. Even near the engines, the sound of the C-17 is drowned out by the screams of the children blocks away at the theater.

*** CMC EC ***

The children swarm the foals. There are just too few adults to control the children in a situation like this. Quickly, the children are around the ponies patting and squeezing them. Hands are grabbing manes, hugging, and stroking them.

Feather tries to take flight, but they grab her tail and wing as she was pulled down. The crowd of children is hemming her in. One hoof in the air she calls out plaintively, “Help meeee!”

Candy finds handfuls of popcorn offered to him as he is hugged and patted. His horn is grabbed and pulled to see if it is real.

Feather has her wings stretched out as she is probed and looked at… Questions fly about her being able to fly.

“Who’s idea was the movie?!?!” Candy calls out.

“Feather's!” Cloudy calls back over the din. “Watch your hand!”

“Feather, you’re going to pay for this.” Candy growls.

Yelping, Feather manages to slip free and fly up, to land on top of a display case, curling her wings against her tightly, tail between her legs she looks at the chocolate and popcorn stuck to her feathers. Looking down from the display she has the aspect of a terrified kitten.

Two of the staff behind the counter lean over and grab Cloudy and Candy by their shoulders and forelegs, pulling them up out of the mob. Both of them are quickly set up on top of the display with Feather. The top of it is a good six feet high. Enough to keep them out of reach. It’s lucky they are foals, had they been adults, there would have been no hope of lifting them out of that mess.

Feather looks at the twins and whimpers, “I need a shower.”

“We all do, I think.” Candy moans.

“Why? It’s just a little chocolate and some sticky stuff…” Cloudy starts, then he stops, seeing the expression on Candy and Feather.

“I wonder if Cloudy was this much of a mess in Ponyville.”

“Meh, it could have been worse.” Candy says.

“How?” The girls blink, looking at him.

“Picture if we tried to go to Disneyland.”

*** CID HQ ***

CID effectively has what is referred to as a board room in it. It isn’t really a board room, since they have no board of directors. It is, however, a meeting room where brass can sit in comfort. Nice chairs, large oak table. Several TV’s are in the room, although the 72 inch big screen can be used for movies.

Tanya has been given a large comfy chair to sit in. The psychologist and Anthony are staying with her as the director had asked her to be brought there, rather than leaving her in the infirmary. A large Caf-Pow has been swiped from the NCIS side of the building, and some doughnuts from the break room.

“Ok first off, you won’t be fired, and this won’t count against sick days or sick leave.” The HR Rep says. “While the term or concept may sound strange, we are treating it more like a maternity leave. You can choose to continue to work through the change, though day two and three you will be on desk duty. Or you can opt to stay at home, or at the base hospital.”

The Director smiles reassuringly, “Whatever you choose, we won’t think any different of you. However if you do go home we wouldn’t mind someone there with you. Even if it’s just to help out and to be an emotional sounding board. We don’t want you to feel like you have to go through this alone.”

“Well none of you are changing.” Tanya says, sighing.

“You shouldn’t think of it as changing, you’re just returning to how you’re supposed to be.” The psychologist says, “It’s likely going to be a scary and confusing time.”

“You make it sound like puberty.” Anthony chuckles.

“In a way, it is, and a lot of the same fears end up being present. Why am I changing? Why am I reacting like this?” The Psychologist nods, “It even has its own special talk.”

“So… What am I… turning into?”

“You’re mark is unique so it is pretty easy to track down. You are turning into a unicorn mare. She’s probably in her late teens or early adulthood. There’s no fear of becoming a little foal or changing genders.” The Director says.

“And its reverting back, this is how you were born. You just had some time off as a human.” The psychologist says softly.

“As a unicorn, part of your transitional learning will be magic. Don’t worry, if it’s needed, we can fly you out to Fort Bragg after the change is done. From what we’ve seen though, it’s best for unicorns to start with their magic as soon as possible, just to get used to doing it. Otherwise they can have magical accidents.”

“Fort Bragg?” Anthony asks, looking confused.

“Currently we are using that as our unicorn training base. There are four unicorns there right now that are friends. The training program was created by Twilight Velvet herself. Any of the other unicorns can likely mentor a new unicorn in their magic. Twilight suggests doing it as soon as possible to prevent the risk of sparks.”

“What’s a spark?” Tanya asks, blinking.

“It’s, well it’s an uncontrolled magical release of energy. Apparently, it can be caused by either lack of control, emotional responses such as fear, or not using or understanding the magical energies.” The director says, “They can get quite messy.”

“That I’ve heard.” Tanya said and looks around, “This is just…”

“Do you want some time alone to think?” The director asks.

“I… I’d just like to do some work, keep myself occupied.” Tanya says.

“I understand. I don’t really want to put you in the field right now, I’d prefer if you have some time to relax.” The psychologist says.

“I think it should be up to her right now, you should be fine with your team for today and tomorrow.” The Director says.

“First though, I think you should watch the training videos. I know you’ve read most of this stuff already from the case reports you’ve worked on. But it’s still a good way to start.” The psychologist points out.

The Director stands up with a chuckle and heads out the door, the HR paperwork has been signed, it isn’t unpaid time off, it isn’t vacation time. They had worked it much like a maternity leave, so she won’t have to worry about not paying bills while she adapts to her new form. In a few days they can re-do her paperwork for her new form.

Pressing play on the big screen TV, the logo for the US Armed Forces and Equestria comes up.

“Hello, my name is Twilight Velvet. I know this is going to be a confusing time for you, but to really understand this we need to go back to 1995 Earth Calendar. To the Kingdom of Equestria….”

*** Blaze ***

The Westland Apache simply doesn’t stand a chance. It would take a Tornado or Hurricane to keep up with Blaze but with the maneuvers and G-forces he was pulling at low altitude the risk of a pilot accident would have been too great.

If you needed a royal muck of things, call a pegasus. Blaze has all eyes on him, RAF radar operators had to create a massive no fly zone that keeps shifting, just to prevent civilian aircraft from seeing the pegasus. This is not what the local government wants. They want this handled quietly. They want to keep the public in the dark.

Zipping down low over the water Blaze chuckles, he isn’t sure if this will work, but it will be fun to try. Following the river he heads for a low bridge that will be perfect. Just as he gets near the bridge he slams on the brakes hard, letting his hooves hit the water and back winging with everything he has.

Air pressures kicked up a large wave of water, carrying it forward out the other side of the bridge. The mass of water travels a good fifty feet before starting to break up and dissipate, falling back to the river. Chuckling, Blaze hovers under the bridge, to the AWACS operator, that must have looked confusing as his radar track broke apart and vanished. Dropping to the bank on the side of the river he trots out, heading back on hoof. Using the tall grasses to hide himself, he works his way back to Beth’s farm house.

Making it up to the front door, he chuckles, “Wow this is too easy.”

Rearing up, he rings the doorbell, then sits down, waiting. Then he realizes he doesn’t have his beret on, quickly putting it on, he adjusts it. He is military after all, he needs to look proper. When Beth’s mother opened the door Blaze smiles. “Hello, Mrs. Abbott, is Tommy here?”

Seeing a rather colorful talking pony in combats is probably a little more than she is able to take. With one loud scream she passes out slumping to the floor.

Hearing the ruckus her husband runs to the door. “Honey, what…”

Maybe he’ll be friendly.

Grabbing the shotgun by the door, Mr. Abbot turns to aim at Blaze.

Nope.

Shooing straight up, Blaze lands on the roof above the door. “Whoah, whoah, hold on… I’m looking for Tommy, My names Blaze. I’m with the US Army, 75th Rangers.”

Tommy runs out blinking, and looking up at Blaze.

“A male pegasi? Like the pictures?”

“Yes I’m male. I’m not Dash.”

“Who?” Tommy says, blinking

“What is that thing?” Mr. Abbott shouts.

“I’m not sure, some kind of equine. But I’ve seen pictures of them.”

“Um, yeah, Beth wanted me to make sure you’re safe.”

“Beth?” Mr. Abbott says, his face a mask of confusion.

“Um, this way.” Tommy says and jogs over to the garage.

Blaze looks down at Mr. Abbot then zips off after Tommy, shaking his head. Landing in the garage he looks up.

“Sorry my parents don’t know she changed. The forest turned her into a unicorn to protect it.”

Blaze facehoofs and shakes his head. “No, she was always a unicorn. She was cursed to be reborn as a human, but the curse ended and she reverted to her unicorn form.”

“Okay, I owe her a fiver.” Tommy says.

“For?”

“She said she was like the unicorn from The Last Unicorn, I said she was more like a unicorn from anime. She won.”

Blaze facehoofs again. Why couldn’t people just watch My Little Pony?

*** 43.351289, 42.435889 ***

“We have a new shipment ready.”

“You’ve already botched two shipments.” He says, relaxing in the hammock. It has been a while since he was home. Or at least in his home country.

“Sorry sir, it won’t happen again.”

“Pass the phone to Grigory.” Shaking his head, he can’t stand excuses.

“Dis is Grigory.”

“I need you to do me a favor.” Shifting a bit he makes himself a bit more comfortable. “Do you still have that MSS Vul pistol you love so much?”

“Of course.”

“Would you be so kind as to take it out and shoot Marlen in the head for me?”

A few moments of silence and Grigory comes back. “Done. The shipment will be leaving Russia for the USA tonight. There will be no mistakes this time.”