Tanya wakes up in bed, a cold compress on her face. She sits up, stretches a bit and groans. Her horn is sore, her legs hurt. Sitting up slowly, she looks around. She’s in a room, the walls are wood panels painted white. Light streams in from a rectangular window. A wooden door is closed.

Looking down, she looks at Drizzle sleeping, curled in a ball. She is lying on a mat on the floor with a pillow under her head. Poor little thing just looks so tired. Tanya notices that she is wearing clothing though, why would she sleep in clothing?

Ruby is laying stretched out under a blanket, she has two pillows under her head. She doesn’t have her ponytail. It’s strange, seeing her without that. She almost always has the ponytail.

Leaning out of the bed, Tanya puts her hand on the floor. It feels weird, strange. It feels wrong. She looks down at her hands and screams. Scrambling backwards in bed, she pants hard, looking at her hands.

“Ugg, Tanya, what’s up.” Drizzle says, sitting up. “Okay, that was a bad idea. I might need a barf bucket.”

“My hooves, what’s wrong with my hooves?” Tanya says in a panic.

Glancing over, Drizzle giggles, “Nothing, your hooves look normal. Your hands, they will be gone tonight.”

“Hands? Hands… Yeah, hands… I’m… turning back into me.”

Anthony opens the door, looking at Tanya, “Is everything ok?”

“She’s just woke up confused.” Drizzle giggles.

“You’re… not a pony…” Tanya says.

“Um girls. English please.” Anthony says. “I don’t speak whinny.”

Both girls looked at each other and blink, “English…”

Closing their eyes it takes a few moments for their brains to reset.

“English, like this? I’m Tanya right?” Memories of her childhood come flooding back, of her spending time with her dad, fishing. She remembers fighting with her brothers.

“Yep, that’s English.” Anthony says, looking concerned.

Drizzle sat and altered between English and the Pony language a few times and blinked. “I remember how to speak it.”

“You couldn’t before?” Tanya asks, a little worried.

Shaking her head, Drizzle blinks. “Maybe it was the energy that kick-started something in our minds.”

“I couldn’t remember being me for a moment. What happens if I forget who I am?” Tanya says in a panic.

“Did you remember your pony life?” Drizzle asks.

“Well, no… not really… I remember you and Ruby, but… nothing specific.”

“That old man said you might not be strong enough for it.” Anthony says sternly.

“I… I had to try.”

“You wouldn’t be you if you didn’t.” Anthony says with a chuckle.

*** Velvet ***

Walking beside Beth, I give her a little nuzzle. The poor thing is wide eyed, looking around in awe. To be honest I’ve never been in Buckingham palace either myself. We are flanked by both US Secret service and Royal Guards, leaving me wondering who is protecting us from whom.

Stepping across the threshold into the Grand Hall, I look up at the curving marble stairs of the grand staircase. All around, portraits are set into the walls. Looking at Beth, I can see she’s just as nervous as I am. Leaning over, I cross horns with her again, “It’s okay Beth, you’re not alone.”

“I know. I’m glad you’re standing with me.” She says softly.

Gulping heavily, we step through the door into the throne room. Honestly, in some ways, Celestia’s throne room is more impressive, but still. The room is fairly large, with a huge ceiling. The wall paneling was all a deep red, with gold accents. White columns against the walls rose to the ceiling. The upper trim is engraved and carved with figures bearing arms.

The entire carpet is a deep red, to match the walls and lead up to the pedestal where the thrones are. Two thrones sit side by side atop a rise of three steps. Behind them, there are red curtains with gold trim.

“I present to you Beth Abbott and Walter Fitzpatrick as well as The Honorable American Minister of Foreign Affairs, Secretary of State Robert Kenny.”

Walter, why did he have to use Walter? I find myself cringing, hearing that name. I know it’s me, or who I was, but still. I don’t have any of the Walter parts anymore. Walking up with Beth, I curl my foreleg in a bow. Beth mirrors my movements perfectly, matching my bow in time. We had actually practiced this part at least.

The Prime Minister walks over, taking his seat while the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh look down at us. Beth and I hold our pose in a bow, trying to stay as still as possible. She is as scared as I am, I think. One mistake now, and it’s all over.

“You may rise.” The Queen says.

Standing up, I close my eyes for a moment. “You’re Highness, Prime Minister. While I was born Walter, I, like all of the colorful ponies both here and abroad, were actually sent here from another world. We are and were ponies first. This isn’t a contagion, or something that needs to be hidden away. This isn’t an accident. It was a betrayal on our homeland that had us banished here to get us out of the way.”

“As a pony, I was born Twilight Velvet. I grew up in the Kingdom of Equestria. I servered the Princess there as a member of her military reserves, the EUP. I had children there, a beautiful daughter and a wonderful son. That is who I am as much as I am Walter. I spent 25 years growing up without any memories until the curse ended.”

“Many ponies are confused and scared when the change starts. They don’t know who they are, who they are becoming. Some can’t remember anything about their lives in Equestria so can only respond in human terms. They can only draw from information based on human stories or myths.”

“We are here, not just for Beth, but for all ponies in the United Kingdom. The police and military have been rounding up any they find and putting them in holding facilities until they can figure out what to do with them. The problem is, we haven’t done anything wrong. We are not invaders, we are not criminals. Some may have committed crimes out of fear or need, but that’s simply because there is or was no support for us.” Looking to Beth I nod.

“Fear can drive ponies to do desperate things, confusion misinformation than compounds the problem. If someone starts changing and doesn’t know why, then finds out or hears that others who showed the same symptoms were locked away. Well, the only rational response then is to run and hide, to do what you need to survive.”

“We don’t belong in concentration camps. We don’t belong in holding areas. Sadly, we don’t belong on your world, really. We are here though, and we are refugees. We need help. We need support and a way to organize ourselves.”

Turning I curl my foreleg, bowing to Beth. “Your Majesty each of us has our true identities, our true names. These were hidden from us in the change, and often are hard to relearn or accept. I wish to present to you The Duchess of Maretonia, Her Highness, Ice Mirror.

*** Fleetfoot ***

“You and James?” Ah-Pee says, smiling, “That’s just so…”

“Terrifying, he doesn’t want to be a pegasus, he’s scared of it. He still has bad dreams about it. Now this.”

“You have to tell him.” Sugarberry says, sitting beside her.

“I could always get an ab… ab…”

“No you can’t.” Cipher says softly, “You can even say the word, and you know why.”

“Because it’s… not the pony way…” She says, looking down.

“No, it’s not.” Ah-Pee say. “James is a good man. He won’t take it the wrong way or badly.”

“What am I going to do?” Fleetfoot whimpers.

“Well, let’s see. You’ll continue working probably till your 3rd trimester… by then you’ll start slowing down and take a desk job for the next few months. Finally you’ll give birth.” Ah-Pee says.

“But…”

“You will come to Henry. Then he and I will help you give birth. You’ll raise the foal, probably with our help.” Cipher says.

“And Blaze and will help teach it to be a Wonderbolt.” Sugerberry says and nods

“W…w...” Fleetfoot blinks, looking between them.

“Oh come on, you yourself said with training James could have been a Wonderbolt, his cutie mark is a speedsters mark, he may not be Blaze or Dust fast, but he’s way up there. He’s got talent and natural aptitude. And you, the fastest Wonderbolt there was, until Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust. Multiple time winner of the Wonderbolt Derby, beating Spitfire hooves down? Three time gold medal winner in the Equestrian Games?” Cipher says, laughing.

“Yeah, given it’s parentage… it’s going to be a speedster and Wonderbolt in training.” Sugarberry smiles

“It’s all about breeding.” Ah-Pee says with a giggle.

“It can’t be anything BUT a strong flyer.” Cipher nods.

Blinking, Fleetfoot looks between them, then she break down in tears, hugging them all with her legs and wings.

*** Velvet and Beth ***

Nodding to Beth, I smile softly.

“Your Majesty, the British government is holding over 100 of my people scattered throughout different detention facilities that I know of. Maybe more. I’ve come to ask you for your help.”

The Prime Minster shakes his head. “We are trying to keep their kind a secret, to prevent a panic, we can’t just let them go.”

“I’m not saying we want to walk around London. Given their treatment, I’m sure most ponies now would prefer to stay away from humans.” Beth says. “We can grow our own food, if needed.”

“Really?” The Queen asks, tilting her head.

“From what Velvet has taught me, ponies have strong magic in them. The earth ponies can make plants grow quickly and through some of the harsher lands. If we have some land, materials to build with, we can start growing our own food. We can build our own community.” Looking to the Queen, Beth takes a deep breath.

“Given a little time we could probably become self-sufficient and find a way to start paying taxes back to the crown.” Beth says, “Selling excess crops we could earn money, without really needing to interact with humans much.”

“But you would still need startup money?” The Prime Minister states. “And the people would ask about such spending.”

“Sir. A large museum was set up by a pony long ago. Star Swirl the Bearded visited this world many times in the past. He collected a fair amount of human artifacts as well as kept many pony artifacts in a vault here on Earth.” I say.

Beth blinks and looks at me, a little shocked. Glancing back to her I nod slowly, “Trust me.” I murmur.

“I’m sure the human items could be sold and the proceeds used for the grant to the ponies.” Looking at the Prime Minister I nod. “A few of the items could sell for millions. Normally all the items in the vault would fall to the crown, the problem is, these items were collected by ponies, for ponies. As such, they fall under The Duchess’ control. She is the ranking monarch here for the ponies.”

“What type of items?” The Prime Minister says.

“One item in particular.” Nodding to Beth I step forward. “One of the original 180 Gutenberg Bibles in mint condition in its original binding. A single page from that book goes for 170 thousand dollars. A complete book, is worth over 100 million dollars. That’s about 65 million pounds. Even if a simple 10% finder’s fee was applied to that, it would be 6.5 million pounds. I’m sure, in exchange for that, we could arrange a fair amount of farmable land and some basic start up support.”

“My ponies won’t interfere with people or England unless asked, we are peaceful. We just need a place to live.” Beth says and bows deeply.

“How about some land on the Shetland Islands? The population there is low. Living conditions may be a bit rugged, but I think they could work out a nice life there.” The Queen says.

“Thank you, your highness.” Bowing deeply, Beth touches her horn to the carpet.

Glancing at Beth, I mirror the movement. It looks hopeful, the ponies of England will be freed. They will have a homeland on the Shetland Islands.

*** Tanya ***

“Celestia, I’m starving.” Tanya says without thinking about it. Ruby is still unconscious, but her color seems to be strong.

“What was it like? I just saw this huge explosion of light.” Anthony asks.

“I’m not sure but I think I tasted purple before I passed out. Whatcha eating? And where are we?” Tanya asks, rubbing her neck.

“MRE number 23, pork stuffed chicken breast. And Running Thorn's house, spare room.”

Holding out her arms Tanya giggles, “Got a spare?”

“Nope, sides, I don’t see any wings on you, so no meat, you’re a veggievore now.”

“That’s just cruel, what am I supposed to eat?” Tanya huffs.

Searching though his bag Anthony pulls out a box and tosses it to Tanya. “P-Ration number 3 here for you, apple cinnamon. P-rats have a higher fiber content and calorie count then MRE’s, better for ponies.”

Looking over at Drizzle he tosses her one as well, “P-ration number two, carrot cake surprise.”

“What’s the surprise?” Drizzle asks suspiciously.

“That it’s not edible by humans.” Anthony says, chuckling.

Opening the packages, the girls dig into their breakfast. Though, in reality, each pack has enough food for the day, but with the energy they had spent, they need the calories.

“She looks better, but will she wake up anytime soon?”

“Don’t know. What we did helped restore her magic and mind but, she still has to come to terms with what happened.” Tanya says, then glances up at her horn. “Just think, a few months ago, I’d be making jokes about magic being silly and Penn and Teller being fake.”

“Well, has your opinion of Penn and Teller changed?” Anthony chuckles.

“Nope they are still fake. But magic is most certainly real.”

“Speaking of fake, I wonder what would happen if a girl had silicone implants before her change.” Anthony muses.

Both girls blink, looking at him in total shock.

Drizzle squeaks once, “That’s a rude thing to think about.”

“What brought that on?” Tanya says, shaking her head.”

Anthony takes a sip from his juice pack and points at Tanya’s chest.

Looking down Tanya, whimpers, feeling her flat chest. “They’re gone, I’m not turning into a stallion am I? Why are they gone!?!?”

“Psst. Ours are lower down, remember?” Drizzle says, looking at her hind legs, then at Tanya.

Blinking she feels lower for a moment, then blushes and tries to look innocent. “Yeah, I knew that.”

“Yep, she found them. Do horses have two or four?” Anthony chuckles.

“Two… that’s not polite conversation.” Drizzle says firmly.

“I said horses. Not ponies. And the question still stands, wonder what would happen if the pony had implants before the change.”

“Umm they’d vanish I think. I’d hope. Otherwise they’d have to be removed…just yuck.”

“Yeah if they didn’t vanish they could rupture during the change.” Anthony says. “Hmm, wonder if a warning should be placed on voluntary implants before the age of 25.”

“Well that will piss a lot of people off.” Tanya says, giggling.

“Mom… is that you?”

All eyes fall on Ruby, for the first time since they found her, she has said something.

***

She sits alone in her bedroom. The TV is on in the background. Her laptop is on, but she is ignoring it now. There isn’t any point. It’s her birthday today, her 25th, yet no one really cares.

Her parents had died, her father when she was 12, her mother when she was 18. She had tried college but it didn’t work out for her. She had a hard time dealing with people, with making friends. She can’t really talk to people.

She’s always had a hard time reading their faces. She can’t understand their emotions well. She knows emotions, but she can’t read them. This makes talking to people all but impossible in person.

The rest of her family mostly ignores her. She never sees them anymore, since her mother died. She lives alone in a small apartment. No one has come to see her for her birthday, but it doesn’t matter. Her hip says it all.

It had appeared early in the morning. It’s a magenta cloud with yellow lightning bolt, her cutie mark. She found out what it meant on the internet. Though what it really means is her life is over. Not that anyone would miss her. She isn’t even an important pony in the series.

Looking at her hip she pops the pills into her mouth, a mix of sleeping pills and allergy pills. She heard it was painless. It’s a quiet way to go, in her sleep. Closing her eyes, she lay on her side, curling up. Hugging her teddy bear she cries herself to sleep.

*** Velvet: 60.551427, -1.176868 ***

The wind is cool, blowing through my fur. My tail flicks behind me as I look across the grassy fields. While it is July, the temperature here never really gets higher than about 17 degrees centigrade. We are near a highway, which makes supply transport easy.

Blaze has scouted the area out first to be sure. There are humans around, but none nearby. There are miles and miles between farms here. Farms are a loose term, few things really grow here, at best, it’s oats, barley and alfalfa.

Humans raise sheep, fish, and of course there are the Shetland ponies. There are other towns on the island. Even a few airports, but the air traffic is low and limited to small planes. None of the planes would interfere with the pegasi.

Putting his wing over me, Blaze looks at Ice Mirror. “It won’t be easy.”

“I’m sure the earth ponies and pegasi can grow anything here. If wild ponies can live here, we can live here, and we will have houses, which is even better.”

Looking up I smile, “Now that’s the spirit.”

Hearing the trucks we look over, the first of the houses are arriving. Several temporary power generators are being set up to provide base power, there is a river, but for safety, a water purification truck is being brought in and set up. It isn’t meant to be permanent. The ponies were going to have to figure out how to do things for themselves in the long run.

Once all the houses are in place, power will be strung from the local power lines. If that is the route the ponies want to go. The first of the living houses is lowered into place. They are nothing fancy. Not even really nice looking.

Each house was either 30 feet or 40 feet long, set as either 1 bedroom, or 2 bedroom houses. While they have heat, they are set up more like a camper with water storage, grey water and dark water tanks.

I nose the door open and look around inside, they come carpeted and semi-furnished. They have little more than beds, tables, chairs, and some very basic cooking utensils.

“Not a lot here.”

“We’ll buy what we need when we get settled down.” Ice Mirror says, “Once we know everypony’s special talents, we’ll be able to start working on our lives.”

“Any idea’s what you’re going to call the place?” I ask sitting down on the carpet.

“I think I shall call it. 'A House'.” Ice Mirror says, looking around the house.

Blaze groans and facehooves. “That’s not what she meant, and you know it.”

“Nope, I’ll hold it to a vote. The ponies should have the freedom to decide.”

“New Maretonia.” Blaze says with a chuckle.

Looking back Ice Mirror laughs, “Maybe. Twilight’s Dawn also comes to mind.”

“As long as that’s reference to my daughter, we’re fine. If it’s me the army would throw a fit.”

“I don’t have to tell.” Ice Mirror says with a playful wink.

“The finder’s fee on the human artifacts is going to give you enough to build this community the way you will want to. You just have to decide. Plan it out with the other ponies.” I say.

“The first bus load should be arriving soon.” Blaze adds, leaning back and looking out the door. “Bit of a storm coming through, should be here in about six hours.”

“How do you know?”

“Pegasus weather sense.” I say thumping my hip against his.

“Really though, pegasi have tricks to getting fresh water. Earth ponies growing. Unicorns with their TK to build. It should work well.” Blaze says, hugging me tight with his wing.

“So are you staying?”

“I can’t I have foals back home, I have a mom who I have to see.” Looking down I scuff my hoof. “Celestia I don’t even know what to do about my mom.”

“We could really use you to help organize.” Ice Mirror says, tucking her muzzle under my neck.

“I know and I’ll be in touch I promise. Just set up a satellite internet and we can talk whenever you need. I still have a ton of stuff to teach you about magic and ponies.”

“First though, I need to see my mom.” Sighing, I look at my hooves. “Queen of England, Secretary of State are easy… mom’s going to be hard.”

“Trust me, I know the feeling. My dad is going to freak.”

“Just make sure he doesn’t have that shotgun handy.”

I blink looking at Blaze. “He didn’t.”

“He just missed me.”

“Wow, you must be fast, I’ve seen him shooting birds.”

“Call it combat reflexes.” Blaze says and strikes a pose.

“I’ll call it luck.” I reply then nibble between his wings.

“I… can’t move my wings.”

“Wing boner.” I say with a giggle.

*** Tanya ***

Tanya and Drizzle sit on either side of Ruby, hugging her. Drizzle has her wing around her, and Tanya is hugging with both her arms. Anthony had backed out, this wasn’t a place or time for humans to be around her.

“It was a day after my cutie mark appeared. They broke into my apartment.”

“Do you know who?” Tanya asks stroking Ruby’s mane.

“No, not really. They were all in black.”

Carefully, Tanya pulls Ruby’s mane back and puts it into a ponytail. It doesn’t need to be, but it’s how she always looked in the pictures and in Tanya’s memory. It is her pony look, so they hope it will help Ruby.

“Don’t worry, we’ll protect you. We need to get you back to base first.”

“Back to… base?”

“Yeah, my change hasn’t finished yet, and I’m supposed to get special training in being a pony. Want to join me?”

“Can I?”

Tanya nodded slowly, “Of course, I think you can probably use some training too.”

“Do you want to stay with the marines, Ruby?”

“I… I don’t know if I can.” She says, looking at her hooves. “I can’t really do my job anymore.”

“Oh nonsense. Part of the training we get is how to do our job.” Tanya says softly.

“And even if the marines don’t want you, I’m sure the army or air force will pick you up. Both army and air force have huge support for ponies.” Drizzle says.

“I’m Army CID.” Tanya points out.

“Air force.”

Tanya tries standing up and moans, whimpering.

“What’s wrong?!?” Ruby says, looking up.

“Change has gotten to my back, hard to stand up straight.”

Drizzle lifting the side of Tanya’s skirt up and giggling. “Yep, you got a horse’s…”

“Don’t say it.” Grumbling Tanya gave a stern look.

“Let’s get you back to base. Ruby can you walk?”

It takes Ruby a few tries to get it, but she has her walking down fairly quickly. She knows how her legs work, she just is out of practice. It is good to see her up and moving again.

“Ok Tanya, your turn, hop on my back and hug my neck.” Drizzle says, spreading her wings a bit.

“Are you sure it’s safe? You’re not full grown yet, so taking my weight could hurt you.”

“Never leave a pony behind.” Drizzle says as she holds her wings out. It is tricky going, but Tanya is able to get on her back. Walking downstairs, grandfather is rocking in his chair.

“Thank you Grandfather.” Tanya says, smiling.

“Thank you sir.” Ruby adds.

Merely nodding, Grandfather says something in Navajo. There is something about it though, the words… they sounds so familiar to them.

*** New York ***

The little griffin screams out as the cattle prod hits her flank. Curling up tighter against the cage, she looks out, tears in her eyes.

The humans laugh, poking at the little thing with their prod and sticks, trying to get her to show her wings again.

They are on a barge tied up to a pier on the Hudson River. Bidders will be coming here tonight. The idea of owning their very own griffin entices a lot of people. While ponies may be a niche crowd, a griffin is big bucks.

“I wonder if it can be bred.” One human says laughing a bit and hits the little cub with his prod again.

“Who cares? We are getting money for this that’s all that matters.”

“Hear that little thing, bidding for you will start at 250,000 dollars. You could be worth your weight in gold by nights end.”