Sandra curled on herself, peering at the new mark that adorned her flanks. The picture showed what looked like a bulging belly with little lines coming off of it as if for emphasis. "I don't get it."

I did. With a soft snort, I reached for her, stroking from head down towards her thick tail. "You're, uh, apparently a breeder."

Her fur darkened in her face and cheeks. "You're joking! i don't want to be just a breeder forever!"

I stepped over her, easily done with my new long pony legs. I settled on her, trapping her in strong pony muscles and gently squeezing legs. Her agitation seemed to calm with my affection, and I kept my hands busy stroking over her ears and hear. "You're not 'just' anything. You're my best friend, my only real link to my past. Keeping you sane has been a lot of what keeps me sane too."

She purred a moment before she rolled over underneath me, wrapping her legs around my large barrel and pressing belly to belly. "I think you're trying to say you love me. Well... I love you too." She squeezed with her legs and ground up against me, making my blood start to flow into my eager shaft, but I didn't want to rut her again just yet.

Cindy spoke up, "We should get to work. As fun as this is, I think the world is counting on us."

Sandra nodded at Cindy. "I agree. Let's, mmmf..." She cut off as my shaft, ignored or not, swelled to fullness and ground against her belly. Temptation seemed to play over her face before she shook her head. "I think you need to meet the other 'royalty'."

I carefully stepped off of Sandra, hesitating with a powerful shudder when she used one of her tendrils to lap up the seeping prefluids from me. I could easily get used to having her for a girlfriend. "Let's ask Crystal then."

Crystal, who had never actually left, perked an ear. "Ready to get going then? I thought you two might relapse into another rut."

Cindy stuck out her tongue. "We're stronger than that. We'll plow Sandra later, after business."

Sandra rolled up to her hooves and huffed at Cindy. "You say that as if it was just a given..."

Cindy tilted herself. "Isn't it?"

Sandy's blush was intense, and she didn't argue it further. I moved to follow after Crystal as she left the farming fields and head further into the caves. "I have a question for you, Crystal. Are you immune to these things? You don't even seem slightly worked up."

Crystal twisted an ear back towards us. "I think I rolled well on the big chart of mutations. Being crystal hasn't given me any huge urge to lift my tail, and that's more than fine by me, considering I used to have a dangling part."

Sandra advanced on Crystal quickly. "I had no idea. I'm so sorry, for not finding out more about you. We're kind of family now, it shouldn't have taken this long for this to come up."

Crystal shook her head while facing forward, trotting along at a good clip. "If I wanted to share it before, I would have. Don't blame yourself for it." She looked over her shoulder, suddenly stopping. Her eyes fixed on me as she grunted. "If you, specifically, try to 'fix' that..."

Cindy looked at Crystal curiously a moment. "Why does that sound more like a challenge than a request?"

"It's not!" Crystal galloped away in a sudden rush. I followed at a more sedate rate with Sandra at my side.

Sandra rubbed up against my legs from the side. "I don't think Cindy's wrong, but don't push her like that, not now. She's not ready to face her new body, and she's holding this whole community together."

I couldn't argue that basic idea. This little gathering seemed very cooperative and peaceful. They provided for their own food and there was no fighting to be seen. If all the ponies everywhere were busy being so innocent, there wouldn't be fighting at all. "I feel like we should find and take care of the 'worst' herds first, the ones that will make humans not want to deal with us."

As I said that, we came around on Crystal, sitting on her haunches and looking at us. "We agree then. So which do you want to go for first? Just in the US we have a few outright violent cells, two that have made it a point of cultural pride to debase themselves and anything they can find in the most outrageously sexual ways they can find, and one that goes out of its way to perform acts of terrorism."

I raised a brow. "Come again on that last one?"

Crystal rolled a hoof. "I was quite clear. They sabotage infrastructure in uninfected areas, taint water when they can, attack food stores, and do whatever they can to make the lives of surviving humans as difficult as possible. You remember the shapeshifter that got you out? Most of them are those. They go where they want."

Cindy made an expression of disgust. "That's just... awful. They may not be gifted, but that's just..."

Sandra nodded lightly. "We should start with them, if we can. People don't deserve that, and there's no way we can even try for peace while they're active."

I rolled a hand lightly. "This reminds me, what happened to her?"

Crystal frowned a little. "She went back to her herd and is probably up to no good. She took a break to bust you out. That kind of chaos was right up their alley. Your calling off the attack probably annoyed them something awful."

Author's Notes:

First stop, the changeling herd. Can they be convinced to work towards peace when their mission of disruption seems to be working so well?