I was relieved.

I lay back, finally, pulling my right hand up to inspect the sticky substance now coating my fingers. I sniffed at them a bit, then gave them a lick, before finally wiping them off on my sheets. My left arm though... I grimaced as I looked, seeing what my other senses had already told me. I had managed to break the skin, biting down too hard in an effort to keep my voice down and avoid drawing the Apples' attention to what I was doing. I needed to treat the wound, but it was far too embarrassing to bring up with the ponies, and I didn't know where their first aid supplies were.

It was early, still. Early enough the farming family hadn't risen yet, and wouldn't for a short time. I could search for it, quietly, and did so. I would have preferred to have the wound covered from view as I did, but that would just get blood soaked into whichever piece of Rarity's handiwork I put on, making it that much harder to clean up my mess. So I decided to forego clothing for now, at least until I had gotten myself bandaged.

After several careful cabinet checks, I saw something promising underneath the sink. I was bent over, finally in a position with enough grip and leverage to pull the case with the nice big red cross symbol on it out when I froze, feeling faintest of warm breath wash across my bare ass cheeks. In retrospect, I could have at least put on my bra and underwear without concern for getting them bloody.

"There's somepony right behind me, isn't there?" I said softly.

"Eeyup," came the answer.

Blushing hard, I shifted my position, looking under myself to see Big Mac's elevated undercarriage. It felt fair that I could see his intimate parts from here, given the view I was providing. I was a bit insulted that he was quite thoroughly sheathed, setting off a war of thoughts in my mind. Did I really want that huge stallion being aroused by me?! Obviously some part of me did, if only as validation. He caught me naked, tail end lifted no less, and he didn't even have the decency to get a nose bleed or a boner? Was I that unattractive? To a pony, perhaps.

"I guess I'm caught," I said, finishing what I was doing and putting the case on the table. I opened it up, and found what I was looking for. Antiseptic, bandages, the works. I wasn't a doctor, but I could field dress a wound, in case there wasn't anyone with a Cure Materia available to help. Infantrymen could save or lose comrades based on their skills in such things, to say nothing of bigshot SOLDIER members.

Actually, shouldn't a SOLDIER team always have a Cure Materia handy? They had a lot bigger budget than the common troops after all. I aborted that line of thinking, as it was obviously stupid and would only lead to madness. Better to concentrate on the matter at hand.

Or at hoof, as the case might be. The pony of few words nudged his way in, wrapping the bandage for me after I had rinsed out the wound. He didn't ask how I came to be injured. I knew he was intelligent, and that it didn't take much intelligence to figure out what had injured me. For Bahamut's sake, I hadn't even had time to rinse out my own mouth! The blood was probably still on my breath, along with other scents those huge nostrils couldn't miss. But he didn't say a word. Not even another 'eeyup' or 'nope'.

"Thanks," I said when he finished, giving him a light kiss on the cheek that at last garnered a reaction: a deep blush, followed by him looking a little unsteady. I giggled a bit before heading back into the guest room to dress for the day.

"You okay, sugarcube?" Applejack asked, breaking me out of my reverie. "You look a little... distracted."

"Yeah, sorry. Just thinking," I said. I took a quick mental inventory, glancing around. I'd been doing a decent job it seemed, despite my thoughts. Hooray for simple manual labor. The apples had been harvested, but now they all had to be inspected for quality, sorted by size and type, and stored in their separate containers to be brought to market.

"About what, if you don't mind my asking?" the farmpony inquired.

I blushed deeply. "I do mind, actually," I admitted. After a moment of hurt look from AJ, I added "For now at least. Let me sort through my thought a bit before I'm ready to talk about it."

"Gotcha," she said. "Well when you're ready to talk it through with a marefriend, you'll know where to find me. And judging from your blush, you're going to want to talk it through with a marefriend or five eventually."

Would I? Probably. But not yet. The whole morning had been rather jarring for me. Now that I was female, did I still favor females, or would males be more appealing? And though nothing had happened between us, my run in with Big Mac had caused me to at least consider the possibility of getting involved with a pony. Crossing the two thoughts had led me to considering the ponies I knew best. At this point I had no answers, just a big jumble of questions and confusion.

We parted ways with a wave once we reached Applejack's spot in the marketplace in town. She didn't need any help actually selling the apples, it was enough that I had pulled a second cart, even if it wasn't quite as full as the powerful mare's. It'd been all I could do to keep any signs of pain off my face as I refused to acknowledge the self inflicted wound hidden under my white cotton dress' sleeve.

I made her way through the streets toward Carousel Boutique to continue working off my debt to the stylish fashionista when a downpour suddenly began, accompanied by muffled snickering. A quick glance around confirmed my suspicion without even needing to look up. It was only raining directly on me, in a three foot radius. In a town where the weather was carefully managed by flying people, rain wasn't just a random accident you had to live with.

I decided to treat it like it was though, continuing on my way unabashed, even as ponies scattered before me to avoid getting wet, the raincloud following my every step.

"Here, Cloud!" Pinkie Pie said, offering me an umbrella by the handle. It was bright pink with red and white polkadots, something I might have found emasculating except that being in a female body made such concerns moot.

"Thanks," I thanked with a smile before lifting the umbrella and opening it. The rain stopped falling upon me, replaced instead with a deluge of confetti, the little paper bits sticking to my wet clothing and skin and turning me from a mix of yellow, white and offwhite to a full spectrum rainbow of confusion. My smile disappeared as I glared at the laughing pink mare.

"Hey, look, now we match!" Rainbow said, as she zoomed in near me, just outside the rain column, laughing herself. I glared at her too a moment, then sighed, letting it go, and then finally started to laugh myself, stepping back far enough to enjoy the prank as if I were in on it instead of the victim.

"Good one," I said at length, offering a fistbump to Rainbow, and then Pinkie before finishing her trek.

"Hi Rarity. Would you happen to have a spell for drying someone out who's been rained on?" I questioned, as I stood just inside the boutique, adding Pinkie's umbrella to the cute little umbrella holder by the door.

"It's called a 'towel', dear," Rarity said, levitating a bathtowel over to me, as she trotted down the stairs. "Oh my! Whatever happened to you dear?!"

"Just a little prank by Dash and Pinkie," I said, as I toweled off, knocking the confetti loose into a scattering on the floor, which the mare quickly began to sweep up with a cute little broom into a cute little dustpan.

"Not that, dear, that," Rarity said, pointing at where the rain had caused my bandage and sleeve to soak, resulting in a large red spot. "Priorities, dear."

"I... the bandages must have soaked through because of the rain..." I explained weakly, avoiding what she really wanted to know. I realized too late, my embarrassment had redoubled her interest, and I was now doomed. Worse yet, she insisted on removing my wet clothes, all of them, leaving me to sit on her couch, naked except for a towel, with a cup of tea to warm me up while she cleaned and eventually dried the clothes. Somewhere in the process she got me a fresh bandage, as well, the second pony to bandage my same wound that day.

"I was, well... exploring myself," I admitted, finally.

"By biting?" the mare said, skeptically.

"No. I was just trying to muffle myself, to keep the Apples from overhearing and catching me in the act," I explained.

"The act of what? Oh... like with your hoof? Sorry, hand?" Rarity could judge a lot from a blush, it seemed. Or at least assume. But she was right this time and I told her with a nod. "Everypony clops, dear, don't let anypony fool you on that," she reassured. "Still, you were right that it isn't polite to wake everypony up while you're doing it. I didn't realize you were such a screamer?"

"Neither did I. That was my first time," I said. It was true enough. I didn't really want to get into the detail of my gender change right now. I'd already told Fluttershy, but hadn't brought it up to any other pony, not even my close friends like Rarity.

"Oh? At your age? Actually, just how old are you, if I might ask? I have no idea with humans, I was just assuming you were an adult," Rarity inquired.

"I'm 21," I told her, "and yes I'm an adult. I had a brief career working for Shinra as a member of SOLDIER, their elite fighting force, before becoming a mercenary."

"You were a warrior? I had no idea. Though I suppose it does make sense of some things," she said. "Like your lack of fashion sense," she added in a quieter aside that I let her get away with.

"Sex and military discipline don't really mix, and I wasn't interested in men... human stallions... that way when I had free time," I excused. While every word was true, of course the reality was that I had been a man, and simply hadn't had any luck with the ladies. Which seemed strange now that I thought of it. A brave, confident, well-respected SOLDIER member usually had all the opportunity they cared to take advantage of, didn't they?

Trying to remember only managed to bring back memories of Tifa. We had been too young back then to really make anything sexual of it, but we had been friends when... she had gotten hurt, out on mount Nibel. Her parents blamed me, and forbid us from playing together. I only saw her one more time before leaving, calling her out to the water tower to bid her farewell.

I tuned back in to realize Rarity was looking at me expectantly. What had she just been saying? "Sorry, can you repeat that?"

"I was just saying, we should get you a proper spa day to get you in tip top form and then find you a nice stallion to go on a date with. Unless you prefer mares?" Rarity said.

"I... this is a fainting couch, isn't it?" I inquired.

"Yes, of course, darling, why do you think I have it?" Rarity said puzzled, before I faked a faint to get myself out of the conversation.

"Big Mac saw me naked," I admitted while cutting fabric for Rarity.

"So?" she said, genuinely confused. "You weren't mid-clop, were you?"

"No, though it was just after. I was trying to get the bandages without waking anyone," I said. "I caught sight of 'him' in the process as well, though there wasn't much to see."

"Of course not dear. Most ponies don't wear much unless it's a special occasion. You actually stand out quite a lot wearing as much as you do. Not that there's anything wrong with that. After all, standing out is what fashion is all about, darling," she offered.

"I guess you're right. But to be honest, I hadn't thought about ponies like that at all before just then," I told her. "I really don't think I'm ready to go on a date with anypony, just yet."

"I understand darling," Rarity said. "But we should still get you that spa day. You'll love it, trust me."

It did have my curiosity piqued, but at the same time it was one more money sink.

Heading back through town in my freshly cleaned cotton dress, I gave a little smile when I saw Fluttershy up ahead. She was walking backward, slowly, guiding a family of ducks through the town carefully. I waved, but she didn't notice, so I figured I would approach her and greet her properly.

Before I could close the distance, however, she backed into a passing griffon by mistake. They got into a one-sided argument as I was still closing the distance. I couldn't make out the words, but it was clear Flutter was apologizing and the griffon was having none of it.

I was walking briskly, since it didn't seem like violence was in the works, but before I could reach them to try to break it up, the griffon drew in a deep breath and roared as loud as she could, driving Fluttershy and the ducks into a panicked run. Before the griffon could recover her breath, I had knocked her head into the pavement, chin first, with a leaping downward punch.

"Ow! What the fish do you think you're doing?!" the griffon demanded as she recovered from the blow.

"Oh, is there a person in there somewhere?" I asked. "I heard a monster roar, so I moved to take care of it. I don't let monsters scare my friends."

"You want a fight, you furless freak?" she asked, adopting a pose I assumed was meant to be intimidating.

She had claws, a sharp beak, and enough toughness to avoid being knocked out by my first solid blow. She also had wings, and I had no ranged attacks. Or even a sword, for that matter. Honestly, I was probably on the losing end of this confrontation if it went to a full out fight. But the first part of fighting is making sure the other party is the only one that believes that. My eyes glowed brightly as I called on the power I had felt so many times recently. I didn't have any materia to guide it right now, so I wasn't sure if it would do anything other than make a bit of light, but it was worth a go. I grinned in a way that showed off my teeth, including the bits of dried blood from this morning. I really needed to buy a toothbrush.

"Sure, I was looking for something easy to do," I said, full of bravado. "Were you looking to die?"

Her confidence cracked, but only cracked. "As if. You're not going to kill me," she said, without true conviction. She was looking into my eyes, and I made sure they weren't just glowing. They were predatory, in a way the predator's eyes were not.

"Deal," I said. "Since you are a person, not a monster... I'll just make you wish you were dead." The cruel grin really sold it, along with the knuckle crack for good measure.

"Forget it, you're not worth my time," she said, trying pathetically to save face before using those wings of hers to escape.

"Wow, Cloud, don't you think you overdid it?" Pinkie asked as she came out of hiding. "I mean she was all *roar* but then you were all *bam!* and she was all *wanna fight* and you were all *you'll wish you were dead*! You know she's not really a monster, right? Just a regular mean meanie-pants. And she's like Rainbow Dash's oldest friend ever."

"Do you have a better idea?" I asked, cringing a bit about that last revelation. I really didn't want to lose Rainbow Dash's friendship over something like this.

"Of course... come with me," Pinkie said. "This calls for extreme measures."

In the end, I was glad Pinkie had suggested I stay out of the party myself. Maybe after this 'Gilda' made amends with the ponies, we could get to know each other on non-violent terms. I certainly wasn't holding out hope for friendship at this point. But I helped Pinkie put together everything she needed for the party, and even managed to get paid for my time, making a dent in what I owed the Cakes for their oven repair bill.

When I reached the Apple's farmhouse, Applejack was gone, Applebloom and Granny Smith had already gone to bed. Big Mac had a late snack while I had a late dinner. We sat side by side, eating quietly for a time.

"Today was a really awkward day," I said.

"Eeyup."

He definitely had a way with words.