The LT sits with his legs stretched out behind a stone block. He’s holding the tablet in one hand and a power bar in the other, relaxing. The sun is out and it is was a nice warm day. Blaze is flying circles up at about two thousand feet, he isn’t straining, and it’s a fairly lazy orbit.

“You got enough water Velvet?” Henry asks, offering me a bottle.

“Yep thanks Henry.” Smiling, I look over at Fleur. “Welcome to the fun.”

Several bullets impact against the large stone block the LT is leaning against.

Blinking, the LT looks back, then looks over at Watson, “Hey that was 7.62 by 39, if these guys were up to date shouldn’t they be firing 5.45’s?”

Emma Watson has her head down, hiding behind a concrete barricade, “You’re supposed to be the experts, you tell me?”

I giggle, “The 7.62 sounds a lot different than the 5.45.” Looking over to Fleur I smile softly to her, “Alfalfa cookie?”

“How can you be so calm?” The other mare asks, her eyes wide.

“I’ve been in worse fire fights. I’ve had friendly artillery and close air support landing rounds within 300 feet of me while Taliban were firing heavy weapons at us. You sort of get used to it.”

“So what’s the plan then?”

“Well CID started this mess by pulling up way to close to the docks. We are giving our snipers some time to get into position. At the same time, members of the First Special Forces Detachment are swimming up to board the boat from the far side.” Looking around, I hum softly, “LT, how long does it take to reload an RPG-29?”

“I figure you have a little more time to relax.” The LT calls back.

Nodding, I look back to Fleur, “Once they are in position we can start pushing. Right now they think they have the upper hand and all the cards. Once we start our push, though, things are going to change fast. They are likely going to try and negotiate. Ask for concessions, say they have hostages…”

“RPG!”

Looking over the barrier quickly, I throw up the shield. It’s pretty far from where I am. I set the wall up a good hundred feet away from our position. The shield doesn’t have to be strong, only strong enough to give something for the warhead to impact.

As the RPG shoots across the deck, it hits the pinkish blue field. As the nose compresses against the magical barrier, the thermobaric warhead detonates. A massive overpressure pulse wave moves across the deck at supersonic speeds knocks several of the hostiles down.

Cringing, the LT calls across to me. “Several of those guys are not going to be hearing too well after that. If they can ever hear again that is.”

“That’s if they get up again.” I say and give my head a shake. Those overpressure warheads can kill out to a decent range.

“Those guys are armored head to toe.” Fleur says. “I’m not sure the 5.56’s we have will do much.”

“Yeah that’s why we’re using AP rounds.” I say.

“Velvet, get ready, snipers are in place, we’ll begin our move across the deck. Grab the M240.”

“What? When did I become the heavy?” I huff.

The LT chuckles, looking over at me. “When you proved you could lift half a ton, of course.”

Turning to get into position I look at the machine gun. “Come Sasha, let us fight man versus tiny baby man!”

Blinking Fleur looks at me, confused, “Who’s Sasha?”

“I… You?”

“Is that a pony reference I don’t know?” Watson asks.

“ARGH!” Standing up, I throw up my shield and hold the M240 over it, spraying supressing fire across the deck.

The sound of the big M107’s ring out through the air as Jay and Sanchez go to work. Slowly, we advanced up the deck of the barge. The barge is one of the large ocean barges that are towed up and down the coast. Normally unpowered, this one has 2 decks, an upper deck where the cargo containers are stored, and a lower deck normally used for bulk goods. The hatches to the bulk cargo deck are closed and sealed. It would take a crane to lift them anyway.

“Still feeling sick?” The LT asks, ducking around the side of a canister to fire a burst.

Walking my shield forward, I keep firing the machine gun in bursts, “Really? You’re asking this now?”

Henry pulls the pin on a stun grenade, throwing it in a high arc over the shield. “After this I’m doing an ultrasound on you.”

“I’m not pregnant.” I huff.

The LT chuckles, “Fleetfoot’s pregnant. We talked about it last night, have you talked to Blaze about it yet?”

“I’m not pregnant.” I snarl, emptying the M240 and dropping it aside.

Henry ducks behind a shipping container, “Well if you have morning sickness, sore udders, moodiness or such, it’s best to check it out.” Ducking his head back, he watches rounds impact against a canister.

“I am not!!!” I yell and unleash an energy blast down the length of the barge. “PREGNANT!” The blast buckles the sides of shipping canisters, melting steel and aluminum. It cuts a divot down the center of the barge, melting the deck and setting straps and wooden pallets on fire. The light from the beam is blinding. As it strikes the rails at the end of the barge, it vaporizes them. A hundred-twenty foot long smoking line down the center of the barge is cleared of everything.

I stand huffing, legs spread a bit. Panting hard, my sides heaving as I look down the length of the barge, fire in my eyes. My horn smokes a bit as I throw the shield up in front of me again, though I don’t think it’s needed at this point. Everything’s quiet for a few moments. The only sound is traffic in the distance and water splashing against the side of the barge boat.

From somewhere off to the side comes the call… “We have hostages. We want to negotiate.” He cries out, “Just please, for the love of God… tell her she’s not pregnant first!”

*** Drizzle ***

“Come on Streams.” Drizzle says, poking the other pegasus with her nose.

Sighing, Jetstream turns over onto her side, “I don’ wanna.”

“You’re a pony now. Don’t make me start singing.”

Shaking her head she looked at Drizzle over her shoulder, “Why would it matter?”

Smiling brightly, Drizzle spreads her wings wide and raises a foreleg to the window. “Cuz we’re ponies, there’s magic in song, if one starts singing, it catches on.”

“You wouldn’t dare.” Streams says with a sigh.

Drizzle giggles softly, “Trust me, I’m the lesser of the evils. There are ponies out there like Pinky Pie, Mindy, and Surprise, who would make it their sole purpose in life to get you smiling. I just want you to start exercising your wings.”

Still laying on her side facing the wall, Streams lifts a wing up, “One.” She puts the wing back down weakly against her side, “Two.” Repeating the action once more, she continues the count. “One… Two. There, happy?" The bedridden pony snarks.

“Nope, look I brought you something.” Smiling Drizzle holds up a pair of pegasus flight goggles. Light brown with a dark brown rubber strap, and big clear lenses. “One of the guys down at the 520th has started to make them. These are the basic model, but he’s got an advance version that he’s combined with Google Glass.”

An orderly walks in, starting to clean the room a bit.

Drizzle looks up at the busy private, then at Streams, and switches to Eponese. “Oh did you know we have our own secret language?”

Streams blinks and flicks her ear a few times.

Drizzle smiled, that has her. Even if Streams can’t understand it, she remembers it on some instinctual level. Continuing, she giggles, “Oh yeah, it drives the human’s nuts, cuz it sounds like normal horse sounds according to them.”

Streams closes her eyes, laying her ears back, after a few moments she sighs, and slowly crawls out of bed. It is clumsy, it’s not coordinated, but at least she is moving.

“There you go.” Drizzle says, switching back to English. “Take it slow. Don’t worry about falling down. It took me a good twenty minutes to learn to walk, and then another ten minutes to realize I was doing it wrong”

“Doing it wong?”

“Yeh, don’t try moving both legs on one side forward at once… you can do it, but man, its uncomfortable to walk like that.” Smiling, Drizzle does her best to help Streams walk. She does start her stopwatch though. She isn’t going to make a big deal of it, but she wants to see. Four minutes twenty-seven seconds before Streams has walking down. This might put her quicker than Goldie when it comes to learning how to walk as a pony again. Someone’s not going to be happy.

“Ok, I bet you’re hungry.”

“I little… I guess.” Streams looks down at her hooves.

“Oh don’t lie to me, girl. Hospital food sucks, and they still don’t know the calorie count pegasi need to stay healthy here. I had my change in a hospital too. It’s the worst.” Drizzle says with a shiver.

“What happened to you?”

Drizzle looked at Streams shaking her head, “It was horrifying, I grew pony ears, a mane, a tail, my feet turned into hooves… I even grew wings… no one was really sure what was happening to me.”

“Oh, one of the first that changed?”

“I turned the middle of May, but I was flying transports out of Japan when it happened. People and ponies weren’t sharing information at that time, so I ended up in the base hospital in Okinawa. Trust me, rice and Jello does not make a pegasus happy.” Drizzle says, “Yeah I wasn’t even the pilot, I didn’t have enough hours to qualify as a pilot yet, my flight tests were shaky at best.”

“Why? You’re a pegasus.” Streams says walking beside the other mare.

“It’s hard to explain. I started flying gliders and small planes, but those, I didn’t instrument fly.”

“I tried flying gliders once… It was fun but I… I couldn’t get along with the instructors…”

“Probably the same type of the problems I had. I wanted the plane to flow with the air currents, not fight them… and a big plane can’t really do that.” Drizzle giggles, shaking her head. “A C-130 isn’t a pegasus.”

“I was on my glider course. I ended up in a snow storm with almost no visibility, getting hit by updrafts, and I’m having a great time.” Streams says, looking down, “The instructor said I was crazy and shouldn’t ever fly again.”

“Yeah, trust me, even as humans, some of us followed our cutie marks. You and I belong in the clouds… we feel safe there, at home there. It’s where our cutie mark tells us to be. We are weather ponies, we can smell the air and tell where the storms are.” Inhaling deeply Drizzle closes her eyes, spreading her wings wide.

Closing her eyes too, Streams finds her own wings spreading. “I… I can feel it…”

“Funny huh? Just standing here, being able to feel the weather in your wings.” Drizzle says in a bubbly voice. “Now come on, it’s a bit of a trot, but I wanna get you to have some real food in your tummy.”

The pizzeria is just a few blocks from the hospital. A local restaurant, not a major chain, but it is supporting the base and area. The blue handicapped button has the picture of the wheelchair and a pony on it, separated by a slash.

Tapping the button with her wing, the door swings open in response to Drizzle. “Doors like that are hard to pull in pony form.” She trots inside.

“Hi, where’s Tom?” Drizzle asked looking around.

“He doesn’t start till 6pm, your off shift early.” The cashier says.

Looking over her shoulder to Streams, Drizzle laughs. “I’m helping a friend with her change. So we need an extra-large Pegasus Special.”

“One anchovy, barbeque chicken, and green pepper pizza with caramelized onions, topped after baking with fresh diced alfalfa sprouts and spinach. Do you need any dipping sauces? We’ve just got spicy cheddar as well as a ranch dressing.”

“No thanks. Can we also get two large Barq’s root beers as well, please?” Drizzle adds with a smile.

“Sure thing.” Walking around the counter, Bob kneels down and holds out the tap to pay pad for Drizzle so she doesn’t have to fly up onto the counter.

Heading over to the booth, Drizzle hops up and takes a seat. Looking around, Streams follows her and climbs up, taking a seat for herself.

“This base is the home to the 520th Pegasus Air Police squadron, so several of the stores have started getting used to us. Base supply here carries pony equipment, some of the stores sell pony goods. You won’t get the same treatment from humans everywhere. Even some of the Marines on base don’t like us. But you can’t have everything.” Drizzle says before biting the straw and taking a sip.

Opening her muzzle and tilting her head back and forth a bit, it takes Streams a moment to figure out the straw. She can’t focus on the straw unless she tilts her head forward, but she can’t bite it that way, because her muzzle pushes the rim of the cup.

“It’s the simple things that get us sometimes.” Drizzle smiles, “You should have seen me trying to figure out how to use a cellphone for the first while. Then I got a foreleg strap for mine. Though you need to see the picture we got of Goldie, she got it in her mind that she could use a fork on her salad. She bit the fork, used it to get some of the salad, and then lifted it up with her mouth.”

“Umm. How did she get it from the fork to her mouth if she was holding the fork?” Streams asks, confused.

“That’s where the picture comes in… That exact moment of realization when she figured out… she’s totally screwed.”

Both girls start giggling.

“So I thought we were, um… vegi… vegitar…you know, don’t eat meat.”

“Naw, pegasi can eat birds, fish, eggs and such. We didn’t often grow crops, and we are kind of nomadic…so.”

“So, no beef?”

“Nope, but fish and chicken are fine.” Drizzle closes her eyes, sniffing and smiling.

Mimicking Drizzle, Streams blinks and looks around.

“Our senses are better than humans… and the smell of that barbeque chicken is great.” Drizzle looks to Streams then gently puts a wing around her, leaning into her. “Friends?”

“Friends.” Streams says timidly, with a little smile.

The cashier walks from the kitchen, he sets down a huge pizza between the two, before putting a wet cloth in front of each of them. “There you go girls. I’ll be back in a few, but yell if you need anything.”

Streams blinks and giggles at Drizzle, “You’re actually drooling.”

“So are you, so are you. It’s a pegasus thing.” Drizzle says and wipes off her muzzle on the cloth before digging in.

Streams quickly finds out that the pizza tastes even better than it looks, it’s not just raw alfalfa sprouts and spinach, the cook chopped them and stir fried them with a little bit of olive oil, as well as some extra onions, caramelizing the onion. That was then used to top the pizza so it is still tender, in contrast to the slightly crispy crust.

“Pegasus comfort food, it’s just something we love after a hard day at work. After flying in the rain, tired, we can come here. They even have towels for us, the staff takes time to actually make sure we are dried off and cleaned, rather than saying we are wet so we can’t come in.”

“How many pegasi come here?” Streams looks around in awe.

“That’s the thing, there are only about two dozen of us or so. It doesn’t matter to them, though. They help us.” Drizzle digs into the pizza again.

“Why?”

“I’m not sure, none of them, or their families, changed. They had a regular customer that changed, so they knew about it before we got here but. The management just insisted on this treatment. Treat everyone who comes in as a person, no matter what their problem is.” Taking a sip of her pop, Drizzle giggles.

The cashier comes over with a small home baked cake. It’s just a simple cake, nothing really special. Though it is covered with apple slices and cinnamon and a sugar drip. All homemade fresh, and baked in the pizza oven. It isn’t even on their menu. Placing it in front of Streams, the cashier smiles. “She said you just changed. For that you need something special. Something just for you, happy birthday.”

Drizzle blinks and huffs, “I didn’t get one of those for my change.”

Looking down at the cake, it is like something inside of Streams breaks. Burying her face into Drizzle’s neck, she starts crying.

Drizzle gently wraps her wings around Streams and holds her gently as she sobs. “It’s okay, let it out. I’m here for you.” Causing the other pegasus to cry even harder.

***Twilight Velvet***

“Velvet there was part of the EUP.” Henry says, sitting beside Fleur. “From what I’ve read it’s essentially a military reserve unit. Long ago, after Celestia banished Luna to the moon, the princess found she couldn’t defend her ponies on her own. Her response, was the EUP. She also went to the school of gifted unicorns like her daughter.”

“They have a unicorn’s school?”

“Yep, you probably went there too.” Henry says.

“Doubt it, back in Equestria I was apparently some kind of fashion model, or gold digger.” Fleur huffs.

“You know, Velvet, according to the stories, was just a stay at home mom and a writer.” Henry muses looking over towards me.

“Really? How come she’s so strong with magic?”

“That’s the problem with the show. Her cutie mark, three stars, it’s about magic. The TV show puts such an emphasis on cutie marks, but shows some ponies doing things that doesn’t match their marks.” Henry smiles, “I think it was because either they didn’t know or didn’t cover enough about the pony. Velvet was EUP. She was a student of the Academy, but the show never covered any of that.”

“Why?”

“Maybe because the writers didn’t know, maybe it’s because it wasn’t talked about in that way, maybe the show thought they didn’t need a strong mom figure for Twilight Sparkle with Celestia filling that role.” Henry shrugged. “In the end, Velvet lives up to her cutie mark.”

“So what’s my cutie mark say about me?” Fleur says, looking at her hip.

“That’s harder to say. I don’t know about Equestria. Here on Earth, the Fleur is used for leadership, policing, religion, and military aspect.”

“LT! This is taking too long!” I call out, “Can’t I just blast all humans in a 300 foot area and turn them into sheep?” Yep, it’s a bluff, but after that energy blast it’s enough to scare the criminals.

“Go sit with Henry.”

Huffing, I walk over and sit. “And this is why I’m not a cop.”

Giggling, Fleur shakes her head. “You don’t take prisoners?”

“We don’t usually have people surrender to us. It happens, but then we don’t have to negotiate with them.” I say. “This whole hostage thing, no way. That we leave to the police, FBI or other groups.”

“So you’re pregnant?” Fleur says innocently.

Everything goes deadly quiet in an instant. Henry just shakes his head at Fleur, no.

“I’m not. I don’t know where they started this. My mother made a comment about it, now everyone’s going on about it.” I say firmly.

“Oh.” Fleur shakes her head.

“I’m still doing an ultrasound. I want to check you for stomach problems.” Henry says firmly.

“Ok that I’ll accept.” I say.

Blaze lands beside me, “Wow you are stubborn. I think it’s the hormones.”

“Gelding time,” I say, looking at Blaze, the sweetest smile I can muster pasted across my muzzle. “That will solve the hormone problem won’t it?”

I get the back of my head wacked by Blaze, “Behave.”

“Mare abuse, mare abuse!” I giggle.

“So Fleur, are you coming back to base with us?” Henry asks, looking at her.

“I think that’s the idea. I need a lot of help with my magic.”

“Between her and the Unicorn club you should be back to adult levels in a few weeks.” Henry says. “They are really good at it, I even picked up some things from them.”

“You?”

"Well yeah, I went through the gate to Equestria, for the big battle. Well, I actually could use magic cuz of their teachings.” Henry chuckles.

“What makes it so special?” Fleur ask, her ears flicking.

“Well first off, I have books from Equestria now, to help with teaching. They were sent through the gate. More importantly though, is the teaching method.” I look at Henry, “Fundamentals.”

“ACK!” Henry dives behind Fleur. “You evil mare, I will NEVER do those.”

Laughing softly, I shake my head.

“What are fundamentals?”

“Unicorn torture.” Henry says, nodding. “It works great for perfecting your magical control, but trust me you’ll be wasted after it.”

I smile, “Don’t worry we’ll have lots of food and drinks for you though.” Leaning over, I give Fleur a hug. “Trust me, magic burns calories, you won’t have to worry about putting on weight.”

“Unless you get pregnant.” Blaze corrects.

“Really? Are you planning on trying to sleep with her?”

“What? I? No!!! I’m a one mare stallion.” Blaze says with a firm nod.

“Good.” I huff and boop his nose with my hoof.

Looking over I see the police leading out a dozen men in handcuffs. “Finally, what’s the count on hostages?”

“No idea, we still have to sort through them.”

***

The little griffin feels her crate tipped side to side. It has been quiet for nearly an hour. She has no idea what is going on. She had been kept in the dark since the auction. Her cage had been put into a wooden box so she couldn’t see at all. She could only hear really loud sounds, and there haven’t been any of those for a while now.

All they had given her to eat was bad meat, old fish, but at least the water is clean. At least she hopes it is. She doesn’t feel well though. Her wings hurt, her paws are sore, her stomach has her constantly feeling like she needs to throw up.

She had given up crying, she couldn’t cry any more. She has nothing left to cry about. For her, there looks to be only one option. The next chance she gets, the time she has a chance, she will kill whoever opens the cage. She’ll get free somehow. She has claws, she has talons, she has a beak. Someone will pay.

***

I worked with Fleur, giving her some help with her TK as we open boxes… “Fish.”

“Pegasus food? That, and the old oats.”

“Weapons here.” The LT calls out. “Looks like a shipping crate of SR-3M’s. Eight of them in here.”

“AN-94’s here too, three cases, eight per case.” Eric calls out.

Henry opens a box. “Pony, it’s alive.”

Moving over I see the young earth pony, she doesn’t look too well, but she’d recover with luck. Helping her out of the box we have her taken to the medics.

“That’s what? Eight ponies now?” Blaze calls out.

“Yep, and twenty humans in the storage container.” The LT calls out. The humans are all female, between the ages of twelve and sixteen years old. The idea that they would sell twelve year old girls turns all our stomachs.

“You realize I’m not a supporter of this… deal… I don’t care if their intel pans out. I think we should throw the book at them.” I say, growling and open up another box, pulling out a young stallion. “You’re safe. We'll get you some food, water, don’t worry.”

Henry moves over and starts opening another box.

***

Light starts to fill the box. The little griffin pushes herself as far back against the cage as she can. As the person comes into view she waits, watches. She knows she can fit her talons through the bars. All she needs is a good shot.

As it is lifted to head level, she lunges forward. Impacting into the front of the cage, hard. The inertia carries the cage forward as she reaches out, slashing at the person’s throat. Blood goes everywhere and the cage goes flying. Hitting the ground it breaks open. She’s free of the cage, now she needs to escape.

The body of the human hit the ground in front of her, clutching his throat. Blood seeping from between his fingers and out of his mouth.

***

“Look out!!!”

It’s too late. There just isn’t enough time to react.

The little pegasus hits the water hard and bounces a few times across the surface, before coming to rest face first on the shoreline.

Drizzle cringes, closing her eyes, then she opens one slowly.

“Ouch…” Jetstream says and slowly stands up, spitting out some dirt.

“Woohoo, you’re now a pegasus!” Drizzle says, bouncing on the spot.

Narrowing her eyes, Streams looks at Drizzle, “I thought I was one.”

“Nope, not until you eat dirt. It’s a rule. You have to eat dirt while trying to learn how to fly. Now everything from this point in, it’s a breeze.”

Smiling she shakes her mane and tail out. There is that wet mane look she had in the show, complete with the goggles. Tilting her head, Drizzle trots around Streams.

“What?” Streams blinks.

“You know, with a wet mane, your mane style kind of looks like Rainbow Dash.” Drizzle giggles. “But you have to watch those hot takeoffs. You’re probably somewhere in the speedster category, meaning you can fly fast.”

“How fast?”

“Well maybe high subsonic, low to middle supersonic. Much faster than I can, but I’m a pure weather pony. You’re an endurance and high speed flyer.”

Looking back at her wings, she flexes one. “But the wings don’t look big enough.”

“It’s based on magic. Mine’s more geared to weather than yours. You can still storm buck, but your calling, according to the stories, is long distance flying. We’re talking non-stop flights from here to LA in a single hop. Maybe even here to Japan.”

Taking to the air Jetstream looks down at Drizzle, in a moment the two are airborne. Playing with each other, they laugh, flying in circles and spirals. Dancing through the clouds with each other, they play hide and seek. They do some cloud shaping, and cloud bucking as well.

Finally they gather up some clouds tight enough to land on, and Jetstream touches her hooves to the cloud before lying down. A few moments later, Drizzle lands beside her and puts a wing over Streams. Snuggling tight, Streams rubs her cheek against Drizzles before putting her head across Drizzles forelegs to use them as a pillow. The two take the moment of peace, to relax.

***

“Pony.” Henry calls out, lifting the young mare out of the box, Henry sets her down. “Don’t worry ma’am. We’ll get you out of here. You’re going to be okay now.”

“Fleur, can I get some help here?” Watson calls out.

Trotting over, Fleur focused her magic on the top of the crate. With one yank she pulls the lid off, crushing it. The heat generated by the wood being crushed that quickly sets it on fire.

Looking over I flinch and grabbed the burning ball, tossing it out into the water. “Don’t worry Fleur, you wouldn’t believe how many lemons Sweetie Belle blew up, practicing spells with my daughter.”

“Lemons? Why lemons?”

“I don’t know, but apparently they are explosive, and flammable.” I say, giggling.

“Well looks like that’s it. Our final tally is ten ponies and twenty humans. The rest must have been shipped out already.” The LT says.

“The ponies are going to be handed off to psychologists and helped to adapt. They are probably going to be sent to Big Mac’s farm or Dusts farm.” I say, nodding.

Coughing once a little pegasus blinks, “What about the griffin? There was a baby griffin here till yesterday.”

***

Looking around at the laboratory the little griffin jumps up onto a cabinet. She is small, but still strong and her claws are deadly. Using her beak and talons, she breaks open the slats on the air vent. It only takes her a few moments but she is away, moving through the ductwork of the building. Now she needs to find a way out.

She knows the top options. One, find her way up to a rooftop vent, or two, find a vent into another office and from there fight her way to freedom. Either way, she will be free. Even if a lot of humans have to die for it.

Author's Notes:

“It’s the simple things that get us sometimes.” Drizzle smiles, “You should have seen me trying to figure out how to use a cellphone for the first while. Then I got a foreleg strap for mine. Though you need to see the picture we got of Goldie, she got it in her mind that she could use a fork on her salad. She bit the fork, used it to get some of the salad, and then lifted it up with her mouth.”

“Umm. How did she get it from the fork to her mouth if she was holding the fork?” Streams asks, confused.

“That’s where the picture comes in… That exact moment of realization when she figured out… she’s totally screwed.”

Artwork by Alkarasu