I was allowed to relax, so I did. Dusk and Sandra refused to leave my side for longer than a bathroom break, and that was alright, as I enjoyed their company. Crystal approached with a hopeful expression, only to have Dusk suddenly turn a little hostile, growling before his senses returned. "Oh, sorry, it's..."

Crystal sat and looked at Dusk. "Are you claiming William?"

Dusk pawed at the ground softly with his hooves. "Not all of her... Sandra has the front and I have the back, of the genitals that is. We share the rest of her."

I found it odd to be referred to as a 'her', but then realized he had never even heard me sound like a 'him', let alone look like one.

Crystal approached Dusk and softly nuzzled with the male, the tension between the two melted away as they hugged one another. "Be at peace. I've already put a foal in there anyway. If Will is alright with this, I'll settle for one foal, or however many I get this once."

They both looked at me, expecting me to resolve this. Cindy grinned softly. "I have an opinion, if you want to hear it."

"Go ahead? I'm surprised you said that out loud."

Cindy nuzzled at me. "I want everyone to hear it. I think unicorns seem to be much more rare, and actively hunted by humans. We should let Dusk have us, though this is a far away thing. Foals don't happen overnight. Until we pop, we're not claimed by anyone."

Crystal perked an ear. "I'm the only crystal pony I'm aware of, if we're comparing rarities."

Dusk suddenly smiled. "Why don't you let me top you?" Then he frowned. "Why are we having such a frank discussion on who gets to mount who?"

Crystal nuzzled Dusk softly. "Welcome to a new era. You're not wrong though... A crystal unicorn... That might be worth it. I refuse to mate on desirable physical traits alone." She pulled Dusk to the ground and snuggled with him as she began interviewing him, getting to know him better.

Sandra slipped up onto our back and whispered to us, "Crystal's kinda funny that way. She obviously wants to bang, but on her terms. I'm glad we have each other." It felt nice to have Sandra so close, so I just nodded.

Inevitably, Crystal did allow Dusk to perform the duties of a stallion, progressing smoothly except for the fact that the unicorn had two swollen members. He worked each into a hole in Crystal, making her squirm and fidget in obvious discomfort at first, but that turned slowly into acceptance, then delight as they rocked against one another faster and faster.

Dusk's enhanced balls visibly clenched as he filled Crystal. Her eyes went wide with surprise, and became clear why a moment later as seed began to spray out forcefully from their connection, making quite a mess around them. He filled her every crevice with thick unicorn seed. She sank to the ground beneath him, woozy from the powerful injection. Dusk embraced her from above and behind, squeezing carefully before working himself free of her.

After some relaxing time, Crystal sat up. "I'm going to need a bath, but before I do that, are you ready to continue, Will?"

I nodded. "Time is of the essence. Let's get more people on board. Let's go to the community we just recruited. Some people from there will make recruiting the next a lot easier."

And that is exactly what we did, after Crystal and Dusk rinsed off. We got to see the earth ponies were settling in, and brought a few pegasi willing to give peace a chance. The new pegasi went to work gathering moisture in the air to create rain for the crops and to fill collection barrels, and the farmers were already mingling with the human farmers, working to expand the agricultural area enough to meet the demands of the community.

If you're curious what I did with the pegasi, well, they had their own idea, and they really wanted bigger wings, to the point of not really wanting to hear any other idea. It felt as good as anything else, so I gave them that, and they strutted around their peers showing them off before we had to go. I can only imagine I'll get a few more requests for that by the time we returned.

We scored a few volunteers and took a few humans with us to the next largest town in the area, and thus the week was spent. The humans would approach first and explain the situation. If they outright refused to hear of it, we quietly left and went to the next community and swang back around later. Maybe it was desperation, or maybe it was the fact that we didn't try to push or shove ourselves, or that we had different people every time we approached. Most communities eventually agreed to join our effort.

Humans were not the only ones we were expanding into. With Crystal giving up an increasing number of earth ponies, I began to feel around for ponies to shore up her herd's numbers. We started returning to the herd with as many ponies as we left with, diminishing the feral population in the region as a positive side-benefit. It was about this time that I got curious. "So... what state are we in?"

Crystal drew up short. "I never did tell you that, did I? Sorry. We're fairly dead center, Kansas. I had lofty dreams of spreading out from the core." She moved to bump against me. "A dream you're helping fulfill. We'll save a lot of people."

I sat on my haunches. "Well we're making good progress, but it relies too much on me. We need to get someone else, preferably multiple someone elses able to do what I do and sterilize ponies of the gift."

Crystal frowned. "I don't want to sterilize everyone just yet. Peace is looking good, but we haven't gotten there yet. Well..." She rolled a hoof. "My teleporting aside, only unicorns do outright magic like that. We should get more of those, and maybe they can help?"

Dusk smiled at the idea. "I'd like that. I don't like being the only one around."

Crystal snorted softly. "Welcome to my world."

Unicorns were trickier to find, but we did find them. Using Dusk as a kind of filter, I was able to tune my pony sense to unicorns and we wandered the state gathering them up. Many of them were hungry and alone, much like we'd found Dusk. In several cases I was pounced upon and had to just lay back and let them get their fill of my new pony teats before we could get much out of them, but most were at least moderately aware. They could all talk, for instance, though the level of functioning beyond that varied, with some being quite cognizant and others barely at child level. All of them were happy at the idea of joining a herd of friendly ponies, and we brought them back to Crystal's group, where they eagerly became part of the herd.

It took some time and patience, but a few of the higher-functioning unicorns were willing to watch me work and copy it. They weren't nearly as fast about it, and could only do exactly as I did, but they could do it, burning out the gift and leaving an earth pony with large hooves or a pegasi with large wings. I didn't establish a standard with unicorns yet, as we didn't plan on them coming back out with us to towns. Still, it was a victory, and we felt confident we'd have kansas, as a state, converted within a month, with the feral population drained and the majority of humans living alongside the ponies they had feared a few weeks earlier.

Things were looking up.

Then Liz came.

Author's Notes:

Oh Liz, can't you let us enjoy the moment?

Changelings, almost as bad as typos sometimes.