Dipping its wings, the C-130 turns and slows as it lined up on the box for final approach. The pilot throttles back as he lined up on the box about ten miles ahead. The large cargo plane’s rear doors are already open with the pallets of supplies lined up.

“Looking good, we are three minutes to drop position.” The co-pilot calls out, watching the GPS tracker.

“Captain, the cargo is ready, but I’m showing dust trails about eight miles behind us. I think it’s one of the militia groups, probably four or five vehicles.” The payload specialist calls up. That isn’t terribly uncommon, often when food drops happen, armed gangs, militia groups, or whatever, will swarm in and try and take everything themselves. The hope is that at least some of the food will be able to be scavenged by those who really need it.

“Let the ground group know to pull out. We don’t want them getting kidnaped.” The captain says to the co-pilot as he adjusts his path a bit.

“Looks like the civis will have to fend for themselves.” The co-pilot says sadly and switches to the air to ground radio. “Spotter, this is meals on wings, you have five bandits, eight mikes out. Pack up and make a run for it to your north by north east.”

“We are on final, drop in thirty seconds.” The Captain calls to the payload bay before freezing in shock. He didn’t even see it, it didn’t show up on his radar but then again his radar was mostly for weather so it obviously doesn’t have a transponder.

The shadow it casts is enormous. It blocks all sunlight into the cockpit. At 134 feet, the C-130’s wingspan is fairly large, but this is even bigger. The pilot had heard of, and even had a close call with pegasi, but nothing like this.

“DROP! DROP NOW!” The pilot yells as he pushes all setting to emergency. A moment later, sunlight floods into the cockpit again as the co-pilot scrambles get a better look. A few second later the plane shudders as the payload specialist releases the load. The coms transmitting his panicked screams as he sees what had the pilots spooked.

*** Velvet ***

I wake up early. I’m always an early riser, but in this case, it is even earlier than normal. Blaze mumbles as I slip out from under his wing and shake myself out. I really want to be up before Cookie.

Carefully, I slip out of my room, into the living room and see the mare asleep on the sofa. I have to admit, she is truly beautiful. Her mane and tail are really nicely styled and have plenty of bounce, her colors are unique, and she really stands out. She isn’t flashy like Blaze, and doesn’t need bright colors to draw attention. Instead, she simply has a natural beauty about her.

Yes, this is going to be hard on her.

Walking over, I lay down beside her, cuddling up against her side, blowing softly into her face. As I do, I watch her relax and snuggle back in her sleep. Laying my head down beside hers I cross horns with her. I don’t know how much her instincts have come back, but closeness always helps keep us ponies calm. I will also be here for when she first wakes up. I can keep her calm and help her.

*** Somalia ***

The zebra foal screams, turning to run as fast as he can. His mare puts herself between the gunman and the little one. Humans run with ponies, trying to get away from the militia. The food pallets slam into the ground in and around the square, but machine gun fire is preventing the refugees from getting anywhere near the relief supplies.

There is no way they will be able to get back to the safety of the valley in time. Two of the tactical vehicles split off to cuff off their retreat. The ground crews for the airdrop have already abandoned them. They drove off, for the safety of Kenya.

There is nothing they can do. The militia has heavy weapons and vehicles. The refugees are on foot and unarmed. The militia are well known in Somalia, they will either put the refugees to death, or sell them as slaves.

The foal closes his eyes as one of the tactical vehicles come right at him. He can hear his mare scream, then the rending of metal. The first vehicle is hit dead center, and ripped in half. Parts of it land hundreds of feet away.

The second vehicle barely has time to turn to avoid the first. Even that doesn’t save it, though. The small Ford truck is hit dead center and crushed into the ground with everyone inside. There is no chance for survival of the militiamen in the truck.

The militiamen know they are in trouble, and try their best to escape. The gunner in the rear bay opens up with the machine gun, to no effect though. The 5.56mm rounds just don’t have the penetrating power. A moment later, the vehicle is engulfed in flames so hot it turns the steel to liquid and instantly sets off all the ammunition stored on board.

The last vehicle keeps driving off as fast as it can. There is no need to destroy it. Instead, the survivors will spread the word, the fear. And fear is good. Fear and terror will keep others away. Fear and terror will protect the Valley of Blood.

*** Los Vegas ***

“What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” Anthony chuckles. CID has provided them with a black SUV, complete with tinted windows. More importantly it has a good AC unit in it.

Fleur looks at the windows, wondering if they went with the tint to keep people from seeing her, or if it is just because it’s Vegas and hot. Either way, she looks outside and sighs. “I told you, I’m not having a foal with you.”

“WHAT!” Anthony hits the brakes, causing lots of honking from other drivers.

Glancing back at Anthony she sticks her tongue out, “You are listening. I thought you were ogling the girls. Especially after that ‘what happens in Vegas comment’.”

“I am not ogling the girls.” Anthony huffs.

“Wow, micro string bikini top, I remember when I could wear those.” Fleur says.

Anthony’s head shoots to the left, looking out the window, then he blinks, looking back at Fleur. “Wait what? Since when do you…”

Fleur has her tongue out again, grinning from ear to ear. “Males. No matter the species.”

Anthony huffs and grumbles, “No fair using shiny bouncy things against me.”

“There’s the place. Front door or back?” Fleur says, looking at the Club.

“Hmm? We are here on official business, the front door is best.”

“Yeah, just worried if she’s there against her will, they might hide her. We can always try sneaking in the back and looking around first. Maybe try teleporting inside, or using my TK to open the door.” Fleur says and started to wag her tail a bit in excitement.

“OH yeah, how about CID Fundamentals, we have you try using lock picks with your magic.” Anthony says, smiling easily.

Fleur instantly flattens her ears and shivers, “You evil, evil person, using that word.”

Smiling, Anthony leans over and speaks softly and clearly, narrowing his eyes but grinning widely as he spoke the word, “Fundamentals.”

“Front door it is!” Fleur says, wide eyed, backing away from Anthony.

Getting out of the car, Anthony walks around and opens the door for Fleur, “Mi’lady.”

Stepping out, Fleur holds her head high and trots up to the club. It’s still early, so there isn’t many clients, or customer traffic inside. Fleur instantly notices she’s getting looks from people on the street. Almost immediately she starts feeling self-conscious, as if people are looking at her as an animal or worse.

“What is that thing?” One man says.

A woman huffs, sticking her nose up, “Stupid stage props, someone probably stuck a horn on a deer for a show.”

She has never felt ashamed of herself, or her body before. But here, stepping out in public, around people that don’t know what she is, no other ponies in sight or smell. A feeling of fear and shame begins to fill her. Her ears flatten and her tail tucks against her body as she lowers her head a bit.

“It’s probably just an animatronic toy. Prop for some overpriced show, or cheesy production.” A man tells the woman next to him.

“If it’s an animal, shouldn’t it be in chains, or collared, or something?”

Anthony sees her distress, he comes close and puts his hand on her back. Speaking quietly and gently, “Its okay, if they can’t accept you because of what you look like, they aren’t worth your time.”

Walking inside the restaurant, Fleur looks around. The front area has a server desk with menus as well as a seating plan.

Looking up, the server blinks, “Oh hello, wow, that’s so pretty, is it yours?” She says, smiling and looking at Fleur.

Fleur blinks and looks at Anthony then nods, “Yep, bought him from a breeder for 25 bits.”

The server blinks, looking between Fleur and Anthony in shock for a second then smiled brightly. “Oh wow, you must be working with the magic show! That’s such a cool trick, yeah he’s down the hall and to the left.”

Looking at each other, Anthony shrugs and takes the lead. Fleur huffs, following, “Well she’s legally blonde.”

“I don’t know. I’ve known some pink manes to be total ditzs.” Anthony chuckles as he stops at the door, “but yeah. I guess she was just hired for her…”

Fleur pokes him in the butt cheek with her horn before he can finish. The shock of the jab causing him to jump and rub his rear. Glairing back at her, he huffs, “I was going to say personality.”

Knocking, Anthony hears some shuffling inside, followed by a male voice calling, “Come on in, it’s safe now.”

Anthony opens the door, stepping inside. Glancing around, the room is cluttered with props and costumes for the show. Boxes and magical trinkets line the shelves and work benches. A light blue unicorn mare with two tone blue mane lays partly obscured by a cloak. She is doing her best to lay motionless and slow her breathing. It might have fooled the average person, or someone who hasn’t spent time with ponies.

“Safe from what?” Anthony says.

“You’re not Donna. I was expecting Donna to bring my lunch. Who are you?” Conroy says, looking a bit concerned.

“Agent Wilks, CID.” He says, flipping is badge, then his ID, “Criminal Investigations Department, we received several calls about a recent show you did.”

“Oh, with that thing? It’s a stage prop.” Conroy says as he points to the unicorn.

“Well then you should have no problems with me examining it, right?” Anthony smiles.

“Yes I do, unless you have a warrant, back off. Its proprietary tech.” Conroy says, moving in between Anthony and the pony.

“Don’t push it, I just want to check it out.” Anthony says firmly.

“And I said no, insurance reasons, I don’t want it damaged, or for you to get hurt.” Conroy says, crossing his arms over his chest defiantly.

“Hurt? But you let kids play with it.” Anthony says, raising an eye brow.

“Under supervision, it’s very powerful and dangerous, so back off. I don’t want you to get hurt.” Conroy narrows his eyes.

Anthony smiles, “If we are breaking out the guns…Mine's bigger.” He says, pointing over his shoulder at Fleur.

Walking into the room, Fleur shakes her head. Smiling she looks over at the other mare, “Minty, is that you?”

Minty blinks and shakes the covers off of herself, before she runs over to hug Fleur, tears leaking down her face, “Oh Celestia, there are more here than just me?”

*** Velvet ***

“Mom, another half hour, there’s no school today.” Cookie whimpers with her eyes closed.

Giggling softly, I twitch my ear and give her cheek a gentle nuzzle. “It’s okay, little Cookie, you can sleep as long as you need.” I say softly and rub my cheek against hers.

“Thanks mom.” Cookie relaxes a bit.

Quietly I relaxed and waited for her to click in. I can almost hear the gears’ turning as Cookie realizes I’m not her mom. She’s at that point where she’s just starting to wake up so I back my head away a little but keep my side to hers so she can feel my presence.

“Hush now quiet now it time to lay your sleepy head.” I sing softly.

“Hush now quiet now it’s time to go to…” She starts to sing before lifting her head. She blinks, looking around confused. “Bed?”

“Morning Cookie.” I say with a smile.

Smacking her lips a few times Cookie looks around the room, blinking. “Ugg, I feel like a Bradley just parked on my…” Looking down at her forelegs, she sighs, “Oh yeah, that happened.”

“Come on little one, we have a LOT of work and learning to do today.” I say with a smile

“First, I’m twenty-five, I’m not a foal. Second... what work? I just changed.” She huffs.

Smiling, I stand up, “You are so lucky you changed now. It will be so much easier for you to learn.”

“Don’t sound so up about it, I still got stuck with being a mare.” She says and struggles to put a foreleg on the ground. She tries to figure out its range of movement, grumbling. “And no, I’m not letting a guy anywhere near my butt.”

“Don’t need to. Girls can hang around with boys, just as friends, or you can hang around with girls, just as friends.” I say smiling.

“Why did I have to become a mare?” She sighs.

“Same reason I did, because our geo-spatial coordinates in the multiverse matched us with the closest child being born on Earth. Since humans generally have a 51.9% chance of the child being male, several females found themselves cursed as males.” I say with a firm nod.

“In other words you have no idea.” Cookie huffs.

“Nope but it sounds good, truth is, it’s a curse, don’t overthink it.” I say, shaking my head.

“So can you turn me back human now?” Cookie says.

“Yeah, I could but… you’d be a human female.” Sitting I look at her. “And personally I think that would be more a shock to your mentality then just being a pony mare. In some ways being female pony is easier then female human.”

“So I’m stuck female either way? What kind of BS is that.” She huffs.

“The curse kind, see the problem is, let’s say I COULD turn you back to being a human male. You’d still get your memories back over time… Dreams of your life growing up in Equestria. Of being a little filly and your family. Of learning to cook, of getting your cutie mark. Going to school, your first dress, your prom. And trying to deal with that and come to terms with that as a male.” I sigh, looking down.

“You went through that too?” Cookie says, letting her legs dangle off the front of the sofa.

“With me it was more, it was my children, my foals. The feelings associated with them are so powerful.” I say with tears in my eyes.

“Umm, you’re crying.” Cookie says, leaning over to nuzzle my cheek.

“Yeah, I’ll chock it up to hormones, darn pregnancy.” Shaking my head, I sigh, “As a male you’d still remember your first love as a mare, your first date. The memories come back slowly, which is a good thing because it helps us adapt and reconcile them slower over time. If you were male though, you’d still remember these things but… it would be harder to come to terms with.”

“I guess I have a little bit to think about.” Cookie says, looking down.

“A lot to think about. But first, let’s get you walking.”

*** Los Vegas ***

“I thought I was the only one.” Diamond Mint says, looking around the room, “I started off doing everything I could to keep myself secret.

“Well, at first that might have been a good idea. We started turning on May 1st, 25 years after Discord first cast the curse. Discord controlled Equestria for 25 years, so lots of us got cursed.” Fleur says.

Anthony looks at Conroy and smirks, “I told you mine was bigger.”

“Discord’s real?” Minty says, blinking.

Fleur nods and smiles, “So are Dash and Twilight, but they made it back to Equestria, the gate opens every two and a half years, the last time was June 1st.”

“So I have to wait two and a half years?” Minty says, blinking.

Fleur looks at Conroy, the two guys are scowling at each other, and she shakes her head. “That is, if you choose to go back. Some of us are staying for family, friends, or jobs. Some of us found our cutie marks and special talents work better on Earth than Equestria.”

Standing up, Minty walks around the room, “So people know about us?”

“Not really,” Anthony says, “Some do, some don’t. The government hasn’t made you public, respecting your privacy. But, at the same time, it hasn’t denied or covered up your existence for the most part. Some companies cover you up, block internet searches on you, that sort of thing. We have had cases of ponies taken as slaves, bought and sold, and much worse. So the US military has been investing these cases with regards to military personnel who have changed, though sometimes we investigate calls or complaints just because it’s pony related.”

“Yep, we are checking up on you, Conroy, to make sure you are treating her properly.” Anthony says, smirking.

Minty blushes, lowering her ears a bit and giggles, “The show was my idea. Conroy was hiding me for almost a month and a half in his home. I was starting to get so claustrophobic that I came up with the idea.”

“You know, using magic in a magic show is kind of cheating.” Fleur giggles.

“Umm I don’t. I can hardly lift a fork with my TK.” Minty says.

Fleur giggled, “You know, there’s a pony at Fort Bragg that’s running a three week magic course.”

“For military ponies?” She says, blinking.

“Oh no, not just the military but civilians too, dependents of military members, spouses, children. Generally, she teaches any unicorn that wants to learn.” Fleur says, smiling. “She could help you get your basic spells going again.”

Minty blinks a few times, “But it’s a military base.”

“It’s one of six locations right now that have concentrations of ponies. Fort Bragg has unicorns and earth ponies with some pegasi. Quantico has their own little Cloud Barracks, with the 520th Air Police, pegasi who chase down other pegasi to keep them safe. Big Mac is running Sweet Apple Orchards on Earth, a mixed community. Lighting Dust has a mixed community growing where she lives. And then there’s the colony that’s founded in the Shetland Islands. They have over two hundred there now, from all over the UK, and Eastern Europe. And lastly Hawaii, which has almost five hundred ponies now, from all over the Pacific.”

“Two hundred ponies? Five hundred ponies?” Minty says in shock.

“Uh huh. And some griffins. We figure at least a few thousand were cursed, if not a few hundred thousand. We won’t have a total for like twenty-five years. Discord could have cursed ponies up to the last day.” Anthony adds.

“Last day?” Minty asks.

“1st of June 2020. The day we took back what was ours. Equestrian Liberation day.” Fleur says proudly.

“Were you there?” Minty asks wide eyed.

Fleur shakes her head, “Nope, I didn’t change until July, so I missed that completely, but I did help out with the cleanup afterwards. We handled notifications to families, as well as some criminal cases involved with ponies trying to get there.”

“I’ve kinda been keeping in touch with my family by text, but haven’t talked to them since my change.” Minty says sadly, her ears flattening.

“It’s hard, but you do have options. You aren’t forced to stay anywhere. You can even go and get training and come back here if you like.” Fleur says.

Minty smiles brightly, “Only of Conroy can come.”

“I’m sure that’s allowed.” Anthony chuckles.

“Great. Let me go get my socks.” Diamond Mint says, bounding for the closet.

Anthony blinks, looking at Fleur confused, “Socks?”

“Heck yeah. I’m from the socks generation… a girl can never have too many.” She says, grabbing several pairs of leggings and packing them into a bag. This includes a pair of dark blue and light blue striped ones with the letters NC and three diamonds blazed on them.

“Well you’ve been pretty lucky it seems.” Anthony says.

Diamond Mint blinks as she uses her forelegs to push down her socks into the bottom of her bag. “How so?”

“There’s going to be a serious cultural sensitivity issue here, but as far as we can tell, the curse was pretty random. The rule was twenty-five years and the curse ends. So you have twenty-five year olds turning into foals and elderly, or swapping genders… Such that a twenty-five year old man turns into a five year old filly. Add to that, the reactions of different parts of the world with them being taken as slaves. Doing a magic show in Los Vegas seems normal.” Anthony says, looking around.

Diamond Mint shivers, “Turning into fillies? Ugh, I don’t know how I’d ever deal with something like that.”

*** Velvet ***

Cookie slowly walks in a circle in front of the mirror. She examines her forelegs and the way they move. She turns slowly, lifting her hind leg and putting it down, looking at how it bends as well as examining her cutie mark. She looks at her mane and hops a few times, making it bounce.

Gulping, she turns her rear to the mirror, looking at her tail and moves it around a bit. Swishing it side to side and bouncing it up and down for a moment before bracing herself. She tightens the muscles in her forelegs a bit and spreads her hind legs a bit as her whole body tenses up.

“You can do this, Cookie. You can deal with this. You’re a Marine remember. Semper Fi.”

Cookie takes a deep breath as she looks back over her shoulder at the mirror. With all her willpower she moves her tail aside so she could see under it. It is the first time she can really see her female parts, or the female parts of any pony for that matter.

Shaking her head no vigorously, she drops her tail, “Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, and nope. Don’t want to deal with that.”

I giggle softly, shaking my head. “You don’t really need to most times. Only a problem when you have to go to the bathroom and trust me, it easier.”

“Easier!?!?! EASIER!!! What’s easier then standing and peeing?”

“Oh that’s the fun part. We can still stand and pee, heck we can use urinals in reverse. Problem is, some boy ponies have problems sitting on the toilets. It’s because their stuff doesn’t point backwards easily.” Smiling I shake my head. “Only time it becomes an issue is when you have to wipe, or use a bidet. Then you kind of notice.”

Panting hard, Cookie closes her eyes and shakes her head.

“Cookie, calm down. You are doing fine. Just don’t think about it. Look, we are mares, not human women. We don’t sit around talking about boys, mane styles, and worrying about our weight. Well, Rarity might, but come on.”

“Don’t think about it! How can I not think about it?” Cookie says, starting to walk in circles.

“It’s…” I start before getting cut off.

“I’m a mare, a filly, something like that, whatever they call a teenage female horse… I can’t be one. Celestia what if I get pregnant?” Cookie says, starting to look at her tail as she walks in circles.

Tapping a hoof I sigh. “That can’t…”

“I don’t want to be some old broken down brood mare!” She says, tears in her eyes.

‘Brood mare?!?! Brood mare! Really?’ I shake my head and grumble, narrowing my eyes.

“This is the worst possible thing!” She said, almost with a Rarity style pause in her speech.

“Calm down! MARINE ATTEN-TION!” I yell out again.

Almost by reflex Cookie freezes in place, lifting her head high, her hind legs coming together in response to the command. Blinking a few times she realizes what she did and looks at me.

“Ok now Marine, adapt and overcome. You would never freak out like that on the battlefield.” I say sternly.

“This isn’t the battlefield and I wouldn’t…”

“What if it got shot off?”

"What do you mean?” Cookie says.

Yeah, it is a bad thought but I have to go there. “What if it was shot of on the battlefield?”

“Then I might freak out.” Sighing Cookie shakes her head. “I just don’t want to be a girl.”

“You’re a mare, trust me, I don’t want to be a human female either. PMS, bras, just ugh. But we are mares, strong, proud, and true. So don’t think about it in human terms. Instead we are going to start concentrating on your magic.” I say.

Cookie looks at me, blinking.

“So get that tail moving Marine, hup hup hup.” I say trotting out, heading for the training ground.

*** Panama ***

“We shouldn’t have let her go.” Full Steam says, pacing back and forth inside the wagon.

Ambrosia shakes her head as she lays in the bed. There just isn’t enough room for her to do anything with Full Steam pacing like that. “It isn’t fair to keep her penned up in here all the time. She needs to be out in the sun too.”

“She’s only a little foal though.” Full Steam protests, turning to face Ambrosia.

Ambrosia just can’t help but laugh, “She’s twenty-five, she’s a sun aspect earth pony, and has a sun cutie mark. You want to keep her out of the sun?”

“Well yes, if it keeps her safe.” Full Steam looks at his hooves and rubs one against his leg nervously.

“She took a cloak with her, she’s getting us more supplies, food and such.”

“But her legs are so small, what happens if she gets stuck or something.”

“Are you a mare or a stallion, ugh, you dote over her worse than any mare I know.”

Full Steam looks at her sternly, “And how many mares do you know?”

“That’s not the point, and you know it. Sit down, eat some soup.” Ambrosia says and points to the table.

Huffing, Full Steam sits down and blinks, looking at the TV. “Ambrosia, how do we have power in here? We’ve been traveling for days, wouldn’t the batteries have died by now?”

“I scavenged a pair of alternators from some wrecks at the junk yard, they were still working, so I tied them in to the wheels of the wagon. They charge up the batteries while walking so we have lights and power at night.” Ambrosia says, rolling over onto her back looking at the TV upside down.

“You can make anything, can’t you girl?”

“Which is funny, cuz my cutie mark is apple slices. Honestly I think fixing things and building things is an Apple trait too.” She laughs.

Both ponies look over as the door opens. Backing her way in, Sunny is dragging a large bag that is almost as big as she is. In a moment, Full Steam stands over her and bends down to pick the bag up, letting the door close.

“Thanks, that was heavy.” Daze says with a huge smile.

“What’s in there?” Ambrosia rolls off the bed onto her hooves and trots over to the table, sitting down.

Full Steam drops the bag, and a few potatoes roll out.

“Rice, corn, corn flower, bananas, some potatoes, salt, sugar, sugarcane, and something called sorghum. Local cattle can eat it, so I figured I’d bring some back with me.”

“You didn’t steal this stuff did you?” Ambrosia says, looking sternly at Daze.

“No way, I traded for it at a local farm.” Daze says, sitting down looking proud.

Full Steam sighs, “Oh, ok that’s…wait what did you trade?”

“I traded my natural skills in equine handling. I helped them with a pair of horses that were giving the farm trouble.” Daze says, looking out the window.

“Umm, since when do you have a natural skill in that?” Ambrosia says, looking at her.

“Most communication isn’t verbal, its facial expressions, tail posture, body posture. I sort of figured since we generally carry ourselves like horses a lot of our mannerisms would be the same.” Sunny says.

“I don’t buy it…” Ambrosia says.

“Meh, I got within twenty feet and realized the mare is in heat, and she doesn’t like the stallion. Trust me that’s a smell I know.”

Ambrosia just covers her face, blushing a bit but shakes her head. “Ok that I’ll buy. You bluffed them.”

“No I told them the truth, she was in heat, best to keep him away from her for a few days then try working with them. Note the date down and if the problem starts again in 28 days, they know the cause.” Daze says, smiling.

“And they gave you all of this just for that?” Full Steam says, looking doubtful.

“Well, I might have had some suggestions for their planting and such, how to get the best out of their crops, about sun times and shadows. You know.”

“Ok that I’ll buy. But you took a huge risk exposing yourself.” Ambrosia says.

“I did no such thing. I kept my tail down, and covered by my cloak all the time, I’d never expose myself in front of strangers.” Daze says firmly and nods.

Ambrosia and Full Steam both groan, covering their faces with their hooves.