They were welcomed back to the hospital as heroes, even if the soldiers were wary of Spitfire.

Aiko stood up for her new friend, though her explanation drew more questions. One of the doctors looked Spitfire over with undisguised curiosity. "So you are of the same variety as Aiko? You can exert control over other specimens."

Spitfire bristled as her leathery wings ruffled. "They're friends, not specimens."

"Yes, yes, of course." The doctor made a quick little scribble. "Have you met any others?"

Spitfire shook her head. "Aiko was the first I met."

Aiko slid up besides Spitfire. "Stop bothering her. She can start answering questions tomorrow, if she feels up to it."

Elsewhere, a small group of military men questioned Yuka. "So you know how to use that?"

Hiro was also present, and nodded. "She has all the paperwork, she checks out, and I've seen her use it."

Yuka shrugged. "I hunted before things went south. My only question is if you're going to shove me in with the horses or let me sleep with people?"

The man frowned softly. "You're an interesting case. You're obviously no horse, but we can't prove you aren't infectious."

She sneered and turned away. "Whatever. Just pick one, but don't blame me if I defend myself from 'curious' little horses trying to shove their noses where it isn't wanted."

Hiro frowned at her and his claws ticked against the ground. "You wouldn't hurt them, I hope? They are people, just like you, or me."

"Great." She shrugged. "Then, like people, they should know how to respect my space. Easy."

The guard pointed to her unloaded shotgun. "You realize we can't allow you to keep that while you're here."

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, hell. I was pretty sure about that. I'm taking it with me in the field though. Only a madman would wander through the city with nothing." She smirked at Hiro. "Like you."

One of the soldiers shrugged. "She sounds pretty normal to me. Maybe we should just let her use one of the empty rooms?"

The one that seemed to be in charge nodded. "Right. Hiro, do you think she's safe?"

Hiro chuckled softly. "No, but only to people who bring it on themselves. I fear for the man that tries to take what's hers without her permission."

Yuka flashed a bright smile. "I'm glad we understand each other so well." She offered her gun out to the soldiers. "Alright, let's get going. I'm sure you have other things you need to be doing too."

Haruna rode on top of Pinkie as she strode into the pony wing with Homer beside her. Their presence was quickly noticed, and ponies began to fill the hallway with friendly greetings towards Pinkie and Homer, and curious eyes for their passenger. "Who is this little girl you've found?"

Pinkie set Haruna down gently. "Everybody, meet Haruna!"

Haruna looked down bashfully a moment before she gave a little smile. "H-hello..."

The introductions came swiftly. Little bows, gushes, 'aws', and even the occasional nuzzle, sniff or outright hug.

The colt was last, approaching nervously. "Um... hi..."

She tilted her head at him. "Hi..."

They stood staring at each other awkwardly before Pinkie grabbed both of them and mashed them together with herself in a fierce hug. "I'm so glad everyone knows each other now! Now we can all be friends, right?"

Forced closer, they smiled at each other, and a tiny bit of the awkwardness between them melted. "Wanna meet my mom? She's very nice, and we have a room to ourselves."

She nodded and followed after him as he went to his room to introduce his first girl friend to his mother, even if she was more of a friend that was a girl rather than a true girlfriend. The difference was not missed by his mother, whose eyes filled with tears even as she warmly welcomed the filly and watched them play together.

The hallway felt a little more like a home with two little ones to make it their home, and to bring their energy with them.

On the roof, the commander of the army looked out into the eyes of the large pony that sat beside the building, looking back at him.

She licked over her lips. "Is... Is really you? Really?"

He gave a stiff nod. "What's happened to you?"

It was a question she struggled to answer. She frowned with concentration, her hooves lifting and falling as the words failed to reach from her mind to her mouth. "Miss you..."

It wasn't the answer at all. He nodded at her lightly. "What... What is it you want to do?"

She perked her ears up at him, then reared up, holding out her forehooves. "Let... build. Please."

He put his hands on the edge of the ceiling, the lip that prevented people from falling off. "If you want to build, then you go ahead. Sa--"

"Ground." She tapped a hoof on the ground, though even a light tap from her made the ground tremble. "Ground Stomper. Old... Name gone."

He pinched his nose lightly before covering his face. "I suppose that's true... Tell me, are you happy?"

She went still a moment before she shook her head. "No..." She reached out a lone hoof towards the commander. "Want... small, human. Not get. Large, horse. Be good." She rose up and shook out, tail whipping out. "No time for sad."

He cracked a half of a smile. "No time for sad. Truest words I heard all day." He held out a hand and she leaned up towards it, just short of touching it with her quivering nose. "You're still my daughter."

"Father..."

His radio crackled to life and he brought it up to his ear to hear better. "Up on the roof. What's the situation? I'll be done in a moment." He hung up his radio on a hook at his front. "I have to get going... You do what you know is right. I'm with you, and I love you, alright?"

She nodded quickly at him. "You go... Do... right." She smiled at him lopsidedly.

He chuckled a bit as he turned away. With his own words turned back on him so swiftly, he knew his daughter was in there, struggling in the body of the behemoth she'd become. They left one another without further words. There were no more required.

Ground stepped around the hospital slowly. The soldiers kept an eye on her. She often felt like she was being watched, but it wasn't as bad as when she'd first approached. She put the thought aside, and instead turned her attention to the mostly-intact building she found. It would be a fine place for little horses to call a home. She reached for it and began cleaning it up. She swept out debris, blew out the dust, and carefully began gathering things to make sure the roof was solid and secure.

It was like building a doll house, only these dolls would be alive, and if it fell over, they would be hurt, not damaged. She felt the simultaneous joy of creation and the soft edge of needing to get it done right. Nobody would be hurt for her neglect...

Hours went by with only the noise of when she moved a large object with her even larger hooves or grabbed something in her mouth, but she was pleased with the progress she was making.

A tiny whickering noise drew her eyes down to see a little pony with two tails swaying in curious counterpoint looking up at her. It whickered again as if asking her something, but she didn't know what. She reached slowly and set a hoof down in front of it, and it moved in to sniff at her a moment before nuzzling her and moving for the house.

"Like... house? Horse. Horse house," Ground said, feeling pride swell as the wild pony seemed to approve of her creation already. The feral didn't reply to her, not directly, but it found a soft place to curl up inside, and it rested there despite her gently working on the house. It trusted her, and she felt all the more lifted by its simple act. She would make a fine place for the entire herd, and perhaps some other ponies that needed a safe place to be.

The commander arrived in the radio room. "What's the situation?"

The radio operator nudged one of the muffs on his ears off. "The base is live!"

"Which one?"

He pressed the muff tighter as he talked in the clipped language of radio operators. Short and terse, and communicating as much as they could in as few words as possible. "They've established a forward base at Kumatori Town Office. They have words for your ears only." He held out the headset towards the commander. "When you're ready."

The commander took the headset quickly and slid it over his head, lowering the boom to speak. "I'm here. Status report?"

The news that came was not what he expected. "Total blame for this event has been thrown at our feet, at least by the Chinese government. We don't know if they're just using it as an excuse or not, but they've made all the noises of going to war, and we have confirmed reports. We could have them on Japanese soil in a matter of days!"

He scowled and slammed a fist into a cabinet. "Damn it all! Are they being as badly affected as we are?"

"Uncertain. Media's a mess at best. Ground reports show a flurry of activity, but if it's troop movements or their cities falling apart, or some combination, we can't confirm. We have over half of our enrolled forces unable to fight. Conscription's a wild dream on the best of days. In our current condition..."

"A bad joke," agreed the commander as he paced back and forth. "On the other hand, if they aren't being affected as badly as we are, they're walking right into a live biohazard zone. This disease might be our first line of defense."

The voice on the other end let out a sigh. "A paltry defense. Against a concentrated force, it just means more civilian losses."

"Do we have any orders from higher up?"

"We fight as well as we can. Good luck."

The line went quiet, and the commander surrendered the headset back to the operator before he walked stiffly from the room towards his own room.

But that's mostly everyone else's thing. I was in my room, gathering up a few cooking supplies. We got enough from scavenging to make for a real party, and I was gonna have it! I mean, after we talked about Spitfire's herd of ponies. They could be in on the party too! Nothing saying 'feral' ponies and normal ponies couldn't be together, just not humans.

I bounced out of the hallway and saw Aiko in her room. She was with her own herd, Emma and Kuri, and they were being all snuggly and stuff. Aw. I waved at them and moved on. I didn't expect them to have much time for me. Oh hey! Hiro and Spitfire were talking, so I bounced over to join in.

Spitfire was frowning. "I won't leave them alone for long."

"What a coincidence! I was about to go talk about that."

They both looked over at me. Hiro nodded. "I shouldn't be surprised. I doubt the idea of a feral pony population closeby is going to make any of them feel secure."

Spitfire clopped a hoof on the ground. "Too bad. They're my responsibility. I'll keep them away from the hospital, but I'm not leaving them that far away. Are you going to help me out or not?" She leaned in close to Hiro, nose-to-nose. "We're dragons. We have to stick together."

Hiro went a little red. "T-that may be, Spitfire, but I have to think about everyone, not just you, or your friends."

I hugged the both of them. "We're all ponies. Let's go talk to them, together. We can work this out if we just remember we're all friends."

I wasn't sure if she really heard me, even with one of my legs around her. She reached for Hiro's forehooves and gently ran her hooves over his claws. "You're so lucky, getting to have fingers, of a sort."

Hiro turned all the more red and backed up a little. "You have very nice wings, and they work."

Spitfire fluttered her wings a little and smiled at him before turning to me. "Alright, Pinkie, let's do that. All three of us."

Sheesh, was everyone here getting a special somepony but me? "Sure. After they say yes. I'm going to get started on making a big party for us all, Spitfire's family included."

We walked together out of the hall and headed for the officer's wing. Why do they call hallways wings anyway? Imagine if a building could fly! Well, I guess pegasus buildings could fly... Would they have real wings? Anyway! We asked if the commander man was in, and off the soldier went to find him.

Hiro glanced aside at Spitfire, then at me. "Pinkie, are we alike?"

I pointed at myself. "Me? Well we're both ponies."

He shook his head. "I meant me and Spitfire."

I looked back and forth between them. "Oh, well, hmm... You're both ponies, but you're also both dragons. Your legs are the closest together, and your tails aren't far apart, though Hiro's is more fluffy, and Spitfire's has that spade to it."

I wasn't sure why he asked that, and before I could ask, the soldier came back. "He's not in the mood to talk right now, is it important?"

Spitfire stepped forward. "It's damned important. My people are alone without me there to protect them. I want a place for them, closeby if they can't be in the hospital itself."

The guard perked up. "Ah, right. He gave authorization for some kind of 'preserve' or something on the north side, towards the river. Your large horse friend's been working on it."

Hiro let out a breath. "Good, but they're people, not animals. Preserve..."

The soldier had no apologies to offer, and didn't. Before they could argue about it, I tried to focus on the good parts. "That's great! We should make sure Ground Stomper's doing okay. Maybe she could use some smaller ponies to do the little stuff." I held two hooves close together. "Or maybe she'd just like the company."

Spitfire spread her wings wide. "I'll meet you there." Off she went, darting down the hallway. She was pretty good at using those. Maybe not Rainbow Dash good, but pretty good.

Hiro nudged me as we walked. "Miss Pie, a question."

"What's up, Hiro?"

"Would we... Is it bestiality?"

I frowned a little at that. "Is what?"

"Us? Are we the same kind of thing. Do we even have a kind of thing?"

I held up my hooves. "Slow down there, Hiro. You just met her. You should make sure you like her first."

He shook his head. "I plan to, but she's... She's making it clear she's interested, and I don't know. I was starting to think I'd just be alone. Half-dragons are their own thing, then she showed up."

I huffed a little. "You're being silly! Like I said before, we're all ponies. We can play if we want to, or make a family." I paused a moment. "Do you want to make a family, Hiro?"

"Huh, what?" He jerked upright, looking startled by my question. "I mean, yes, eventually? I wanted to... but right now? It would be irresponsible to even have a child in this mess."

I reached out and set a hoof on his shoulder. "You'll do the right thing, Hiro. I believe in you. If you make a family, you'll do everything you can to be a great father, and it doesn't matter if you're a human or a pony or a dragon or all of the above."

Hiro nodded a little, but didn't reply. We emerged from the hospital and circled around to find Ground seated in front of a building that looked nice and clean. Spitfire was darting in and out of it, carrying things to and fro and looking helpful. When we drew close, Ground noticed us and smiled. "Hello."

"Hiya! How's it comin'?"

Ground reached up and ran a hoof slowly across the roof of the building. "Mostly... Spitfire help. You help? Hiro?"

We both nodded and moved in to lend a helping hoof. Helping a friend was almost as fun as a party, almost. The sooner we could get Spitfire's herd over, the sooner we could get to having that party!

Her instructions were slow and forced, but we followed them to get a bucket of sealant ready and we split up to start basically painting with the stuff. We coated the walls and ceilings bit by bit, blocking any breeze we could find. The windows, when broken, were carefuly pulled out and sealed over. We oiled the door hinges and got them swinging smoothly and it really was looking nice!

The most complicated part came when we had to start following pipes to make sure the water was flowing properly. Hiro said it wasn't very good for drinking, but for washing, it'd be just fine, or taking care of little pony needs. As the sun sank deep into the sky, we all retreated to the hospital. We waved at Ground, leaving her outside, and headed into our rooms. As we went, a thought came to me. "Ground Stomper really needs a house for herself. It's not fair that she has to sleep on the ground, in the open."

Hiro frowned a little. "You're right. She knows how to build, maybe she just hasn't thought of it. We'll bring it up tomorrow on our way out to fetch Spitfire's group and lend any assistance she may need to get it done quickly."

Author's Notes:

Hiro isn't sure where he stands with life sometimes.

Ground meets her father, who also receives very poor news indeed.

What do we do?
1: Being attacked is a losing game. Let's send a unit to them first to scout on them. We hear Pinkie's good at sneaking...
2: Ooops, maybe they were coming sooner than we expected?
3: A bold plan! Perhaps we can control their pony population with our royalty?
4: Muster the last line of defense, with Yuka and Aiko putting out a combined call for all ponies to assemble. What could go wrong?
5: Focus on stabilizing the home front. With two royalty, surely the ferals can be quarantined, and some semblance of normalcy is possible?