To quickly recap, blinking, all I can think to say is, “What?”

“Hospital’s empty!” the stallion declares, as I plant my forehooves and just stare, trying to understand, I’m facing off against a strong looking earth pony stallion whose mane is a light purple, with dusty green fur. Both of us are standing in front of the hospital located in the town of Ainsworth. He claims he was a frequent visitor to this hospital because of some deteriorating condition, but now he looks healthy as a horse!

“Well not empty, persay,” he continues in a rich, deep voice, “There’s the people getting injured on account of being a pony and all. But you name it, osteoperosis, muscular dystrophy, one poor guy with the Parkinsons, it all just got wiped clean! It’s been hard for everyone, but for me this pony thing is a miracle!”

“But why?” I ask, ears flopped in total confusion, “Why would she do that?”

“Why would who do what?” he asks nonplussed, squinting at me.

“Why would...? Do you know Twilight Sparkle?” I ask, flipping my ears up and looking at him warily.

“Sounds familiar,” he says, looking worried at me, “She one of those people changing their names?”

“No, she was a pony originally,” I tell him, frowning, “She’s... the one who turned us all into ponies, and she’s evil!”

“Well, I sure wouldn’t begrudge anyone to be upset about that,” he says with a reserved expression, “Just ‘cause it worked out for me. But she seems okay in my books. What else’s she done that’s evil?”

“She... she hates us and... and I don’t know,” I say, shaking my head slightly, “I guess it was just... an accident that she saved you, I guess. Nobody really knows why she decided to turn the whole world into ponies. All I know are just... secrets and lies.”

“So, it’s true this pony thing went all over the world?” he replies soberly, head sinking in a sort of resigned surprise. “That’s a lot more serious than just this town. Some nasty folks out there might not take to well to people being turned into this.”

“You really hadn’t heard what happened?” I ask him, tilting my head in disbelief.

“It’s a small town,” he replies, effecting a sort of shrug, “Plus with the power out, we can’t exactly tune into the ten o’clock news. Anyway I never been concerned much about world affairs, but... it just doesn’t seem like good news.”

“Well it’s...” my tail switching back and forth behind me, I finally settle on, “It really isn’t important, I guess. It’s just I thought what happened to everyone was just... bad and evil, but it hasn’t been so bad for me, and... and then I hear about hospitals. Why didn’t she just leave you sick, if she hated us so much?”

My gaze yearns for some sort of closure that I have no way of knowing would ever come. He looks back sadly, saying, “I really don’t know. Sounds like she means a lot to you, though.”

“She...” ugh, why am I blushing? “I don’t know why she does anymore but,” I say shyly, shamefully, “She... really does.”

And it’s funny, but for all I learned his friend’s name was Doreen, I never did get that stallion’s name.

Well, Nick’s happy to get it through my thick skull at least.

“Why didn’t Twilight only change the people in the hospitals then?” he asks, when I mention the worries that mysterious stallion brought into my life.

“She could’ve done so much good, and instead she decided to just screw with us,” Nick groans, while I help him with the meal preparations we’ve been doing at one of the local churches, making a vegetable, potato and beef stew in a big cauldron sized pot they have in their soup kitchen. He levitates the vegetables over to me, and I chop them up with a knife sort of held by the handle in the crook of my hoof, just enough to lift it up to chop with.

“She changed the whole convention center,” he explains, passing me two beets and a squash, “She could have done that to a hospital, or even sold that as a service for the terminally ill. But she didn’t. She could’ve had oh I dunno... conversion centers, where people could go and find that sparkly dust of hers in a nice little sealed room, because they wanted to be ponies.

“I was there, Meadowsweet,” he tells me solemnly, “I heard what she said to us. Twilight just doesn’t care about us at all. Our whole world is just... collateral to her. And that’s why she’s evil, even if she accidentally helped a few hospital patients.”

“You don’t think it was intentional?” I ask unhappily, scraping the chopped beets and pepper into the pot.

“Something on that scale,” Nick says frankly, “She probably didn’t even think about the hospitals. That spell just... changed everyone into a pony, and to heck with the consequences.”

Speaking of to heck with the consequences, we both get a bowl of stew, and a lot of other ponies do as well, and I’m feeling kind of wiggly as Nick and I head out of the church, so “Say, Nick it’s been a while since we... you know. Are you um... busy?” I ask the purple haired unicorn hopefully.

He opens his mouth, then closes it again. Then he asks in a low voice, “You’re... pregnant, aren’t you? This time?”

“Y-yeah I’m pretty sure,” I reply glumly, “I wouldn’t be asking otherwise.”

“Aren’t you with Sue?” he persists. And I am, so this is a bad idea, but...

“Yes, but... I miss you,” I murmur with ears low, and I do, but... but...

“...lemme show you where I’ve been doing your sister,” Nick says, trotting a few steps ahead then looking back with a challenging grin, “It’s nice and private.”

“O-oh, I didn’t know she was with you,” I tell him in shock, trying not to think of him doing Mira, and trying not to want to see that. “Nice uh... catch?”

“You’re the one throwing yourself into my arms,” he replies in amusement, “You’re totally okay that I’m doing your sister?”

I also try not to scrunch, telling him, “So what if I’m okay with it? I-it’s good that you’re making her feel that way. I just... like... feeling that way too.”

I fail.

“Well, it’s not like you’re gonna give me an STD,” Nick says, rolling his eyes, then calls out, “C’mon,” and trots off.

With a relieved sigh, I run after him in eager pursuit.

I didn’t talk to Nick just to fuck him, of course. He helped me understand how what Twilight did is unforgiveable, so of course I’m gonna want to get him to fuck me. Or... something. It was just nice of him to talk with me, and I’m really horny, okay? He had some important things to say about this stuff, and so does my sister, Mira, although we certainly don’t end our conversation in fucking. Come to think on it, after Mira, my next conversation with Nick doesn’t end in fucking either. Unless you count fucking Sue. I guess I’m not fucking Nick at every opportunity, since he has Mira, and Spearmint. Just... occasionally.

Mira has a different opinion on Twilight than Nick, though. I’m not sure if I agree with it. I hope I’m not just thinking with my ovaries. When Mira disagrees with Nick, do I take his side just because he’s making love to me?

Nick’s just fun to be around, and really clever, and I think that every time we have sex, I feel that affection for him a little bit more. It’s bringing us closer together as friends, like a test of trust. I raise my tail, he cums inside, and neither of us hurt each other over it. I can’t do that with Mira, so I can’t feel... quite as close to her. I never needed her as much as I needed a horny stallion, and that’s perfectly fine, just... I hope I’m trusting the right people, for the right reasons.

“Wouldn’t you be tempted?” Mira asks while we lay there out on the lawn just looking up at the stars. Mira’s on her side looking at me, but I just kind of... paused mid-roll on my back. “If you had the power to turn every human being into a pony, wouldn’t you be tempted to just... see if you can do it? Twilight did something none of us could ever do in a million years, and I don’t even know if even she could do it again. I mean, there’s no more humans... practically no more humans. What’s she gonna do, turn us into Care Bears next?”

“At least we’d have hands then,” I grumble, looking at the faint outline of my hooves curled above me.

“Heh heh, speak for yourself!” Mira says cheerfully, spreading one of her leathery wings above us.

“Walked into that one,” I say, rolling my eyes.

Mira just smiles and folds her wing back to her side.

“I don’t know if I’m just... being a stupid girl,” I tell her with a sigh, “But in the end I have to admit that Nick’s right. Even if I was given the power to do this, I’d never turn everyone into a pony. I’d transform people who wanted to, or needed to, but not everyone all at once.”

“Sounds kinda boring,” Mira replies indifferently, looking up at the stars again, “And everyone’d be forced to stay human anyway, by other humans.”

“I guess you do have a point...” I reluctantly admit.

I don’t... hate Twilight as much, or feel quite as guilty, knowing that the people on life support didn’t just... die in their beds thanks to her. If her transformation did actual good, then it’s... not as evil as I thought it was. And I understand how tempting it might be to do something like what she did. But it’s just not right for her to turn everyone in the world into a pony, even if it does help some of us. Even if there were diseases and injuries that turning into a pony couldn’t fix, the fact that she fixed some of them is something I can admire. But that’s still no reason to do it to the entire world.

No matter who you’re looking for.

“Oh, hey, Meadowsweet.”

Looking up from my book, I gush excitedly, “Oh thank god you’re here,” with a huge sigh of relief, sitting there on my haunches with a big book spread out before me on the carpeted floor of the Ainsworth public library.

The mare who walked up to me continues to go by the name Brian as far as I know. She’s a green pegasus with blue hair and lavender eyes, and ostensibly a grad student in biology or something the like. More importantly, I know her better than the doctors in town, who... see patients, and that’s all I know about them. I like to think of her as a friend, and I really could use her help.

“I could really use your help,” I tell her as she hurries over to my side, “I just don’t get how the mRNA could possibly link up each amino acid. There’s no mechanism I can figure out that binds the amino acids to each other. All RNA does is attach to amino acids!”

Brian looks down at the biology textbook on the floor, then up to me, saying, “Well, that’s what ribosomes are for, I thought?”

Blushing, I faceplant in the textbook, turning pages rapidly as I blurt out, “Oh jeez, I... I forget where it talked about ribosomes, hold on...”

Well according to this biology textbook a ribosome is a “magic protein make more protein by magic,” but I guess I can’t expect anything specific in an introductory textbook. Cellular machinery is a lot more complicated than stuff like levers and pullies, and what amounts to a tiny mRNA scanner and protein zipper might be hard to explain the specifics of. Brian gives it a shot, but I’m still not clear on how electron orbitals could combine in a molecule. Still it seems like you just have to... do the thing, to get the thing... and if I can’t even put it to words, then clearly I have no idea what I’m talking about.

There’s a reason for my sudden interest in genetics of course. And it’s not whether my offspring will have horns or wings. Brian’s been helping me the most with it since I started spending my ridiculous amounts of free time studying this stuff, and she’s just really good at getting me thinking about... biological things.

One day, some days in the past, I’m not in the library yet, but outside helping someone with their garden. Well, to be specific resting in the shade after the town pony’s garden was fertilized and weed free.

No I didn’t fertilize it like that.

“Wow, Meadowsweet,” Brian says in amusement as I lay there, after the pegasus flutters up to stand before me again. Folding her wings, she quips, “Smells like you’ve been busy today.”

“Yeah, who knew shit smelled?” I say, ears flat as I look at my own gleaming yellow coat, which could probably soak a towel if I rolled on one.

“Oh uh... heh,” she says a little more hesitantly than I’d expect. I look at her curiously as Brian says, “I more meant that you kind of smell like... stallion a little.”

Oh... foo. Blushing, I lie, “Yeah it was... I was just with... Sue,” since Rachel’s cum has been oozing out of my vagina off and on for the last hour, but I’m really not supposed to be fucking Rachel.

Still blushing, Brian admits, “Sorry, I guess... yeah I guess that was in really poor taste. But it really is easy to smell... that.”

“Hey, it’s not like it’s a big secret or anything,” I say in a nervous warble, “I mean you smell like that t-too.”

“Yeah, like a guy, and... detergent,” she remarks mutedly.

“Detergent?” I ask curiously.

“Yeah the sort of bitter uh ne–never mind,” Brian says nervously, “It’s just amazing how our whole genetics changed.”

“Well, we are ponies,” I say skeptically, “How could they not?”

“No, we have a copy of our genes in every single cell,” Brian says, staring off away from the shade of the tree I refuge under, “All those billions of cells, every gene had to change. It’s not like we just got warped into a pony shape. Our genes changed! We’re sexually viable!”

“That does sound pretty difficult,” I admit, “How do you know, that we’re not just... morphed into ponies?”

“The smells,” Brian declares with confidence, “Molecules like scents are something that only your genes can produce. If we didn’t have female genetics, we couldn’t smell like females. Not just in our... female parts, but in our hair, in our fur, in our... everything.”

“Oh, really?” I ask in anxious curiosity, “I don’t know much about genetics. I majored in Mechanical Engineering, unfortunately.”

“Well, proteins are kind of like little machines,” Brian says with a reassuring enthusiasm, “They’re the workhorses of your genes, that... build volatile oils, and stuff.”

“The genes aren’t little machines?” I ask in confusion, because I thought they were!

“It’s a quirk of evolution,” Brian replies shaking her head bemusedly, “When life started out, genes did all the work directly. But the genes would get broken doing so, and then what do you do? So creatures that used proteins instead survived better, since a protein could get broken without messing up the gene that created it.”

“Oh that makes sense,” I say, looking over my own body, to the bright green tail dodging out over my nondescript yellow rear end, “So my... proteins are girl proteins, too?”

“Yeah, hormones and all,” says the blue haired, green pegasus with a sigh, “If we had a Y chromosome, instead of that extra X chromosome, we’d smell male, and that’s true of every single cell in our bodies.”

“Huh,” I say, glancing at her as an odd thought occurs to me, “Where did Twilight get all those extra X chromosomes, then?”

“Same place she got pony chromosomes,” Brian replies easily, “Magic. What I wanna know is why did she make so many of us female?”

“Probably just to fuck with us,” I grumble, sinking my head in disgust.

“Y’know if you’re interested, the library probably has some information...” Brian suggests, rocking on her hooves.

So I’m partaking in some reading now, with occasional help from my biology educated friend, and I think these books help me get the gist of it. Ainsworth is a dinky little town, but their public library has got some old biology textbooks that really make for some fascinating reading material. They’re just introductory textbooks that don’t say much about it, but I didn’t know that proteins could do so much! I thought they were just... goop. But no, there are proteins that can break up molecules and stitch them together, like some sort of magnetic tinker toys. They’re veritable nanomachines! They even convey stuff around the cell, so a protein’s gonna make my volatile oils, and another’s gonna transport them out through my skin. And both proteins have to be made by my genes.

I mean, you wouldn’t think of testosterone as anything other than a bad attitude, but it’s more like the key to a masculinization machine, giving you that male scent, growing hair, and height and... penises. And estrogen activates the stuff that makes the skin soft, grows breasts, and smells female. As in... my fur is silky smooth, my teats are a thing that exist, and I smell female.

I wish estrogen would explain why I keep getting horny. My first pregnancy lasted like a month before I lost the foal, but without it I’ve been with both Rachel and Sue, as eagerly as... something that’s really fucking horny, because I keep getting really fucking horny. Does that mean I’m not pregnant again yet, or is there a delayed effect? At least between the both of them, I’ve managed to resist following Nick around like a lost puppy.

Nevertheless, Brian’s right. If I smell like pony estrogen... that means every cell in my body has to be female and pony. I don’t know whether to be relieved or not, that it’s not just a fake pony suit, but more like a total transformation of everything that I am. I think I understand why she might not think we’re ever gonna get changed back... anyone who knows about this stuff could see that there’s nothing left about us that’s human.

It’s not totally bad though, because I’m still me! Everyone’s still everyone! It’s scary looking in the mirror and seeing this adorable pony... animal, with soft, red eyes that I always forget have that color. But it happened to me, I got through it, and now I get to be this strange, yellow and green... thing. She’s not someone else. She’s just... me. Knowing my genetics changed makes it feel less like I’m getting away with being a pony, and more like I’m just being what I am.

Though I probably won’t appreciate being what I am in 11 months or so, when I have to give birth to Sue’s foal. Or Rachel’s. Or Nick’s. What the hell is wrong with me.

As we engage with the town of Ainsworth, and all these new ponies, strange new abilities and creative applications of technology are springing up everywhere around here. On a more important note, the time comes that I need to talk with Holly, just to see if she’s open to being with Lucy. But it won’t be a chance meeting between Holly and Lucy, if Holly knows about it, so I have to be careful how I approach this. Heading up to the petite red and green batpony, I ask, “Holly? Can we talk?”

Like me, she’s returned from helping around town to our sort of communal barn, and is currently working on making her way through a small bunch of grapes. Looking up at me, she sucks the grape into her mouth and chomps down on it, saying relatively legibly as she chews, “Sure Meadows, what’s up?”

“Holly...” I trail off, trying to figure out how to put this, “How... do you feel about other mares?”

She blinks at me, then replies uncertainly, “You mean like, since I used to be a guy? Or is this some sort of... lesbian thing?”

Swishing my tail uncertainly, I say, “Yeah just... I mean... could you ever have romantic feelings for them?”

“Meadowsweet...” the bat pony groans disapprovingly, giving me a testy look, “You think I’m faking it? I don’t care if you’re a girl. You’re wonderful! I can’t believe you and Sue both like me so much. It’s...” she blushes, mumbling, “You don’t need a penis... t-to make me feel... wonderful.”

I only stare blankly for a moment, before my eyes widen, and I squeak, “Wait, no. Not me! I already know you really like me, I mean, I–I think you do, a-and we’ve done stuff without... without Sue even being there!”

“So... you want to, right now?” Holly says, glancing down at her grapes, “I mean... if you need... some help, I’d love to um... experiment more. Maybe um...”

Before she can blush herself into silence, I whisper to the bat pony, “No, I mean other girls.” She looks at me with dawning realization as I stammer out, “I mean, uh, j-just like... I guess I mean if you think that I’m a-attractive, I guess you could theoretically find another girl um... attractive. I just... wanted to know how you felt about it.”

“I—um—f-fine, I guess?” she replies, staring at me like a bat in headlights, “Did you have some...one in mind?”

“Me, oh n-no,” I lie, looking away, “No I was just talking about in theory you know, if I ever f–found someone.”

“It might be confusing,” she says evenly, “How would you have time for three people?”

“Well, if... if we all do stuff together, then...” now I’m blushing to silence. This is stupid. “I just think,” I force out, scrunching my eyes shut, “That way Sue wouldn’t be as—”

I didn’t mean to bring that up, but it’s not like I should be hiding this stuff from my... second partner. “I just find Sue kind of... much, sometimes,” I tell her, my ears wilting, “I–I know it’s stupid and my fault for letting him, but I just... don’t wanna get... pregnant. So much.”

Before she can chide me for something I already know, I state hastily, “I know it doesn’t matter and I’m probably already pregnant again. But I just think it’d be n-nice if we could have someone for... when only some of us are in the mood.”

“You’re ‘in the mood’ an awful lot, Meadows,” Holly cautions me solemnly.

Slumping my head down to my forehooves, I reply, “I know I know, I just... don’t know how this whole... girl thing works,” feeling like I should be the last one talking about this, “I don’t know how the girl pony thing works. Even Sue only was a human female, so she doesn’t know how to be a mare any more than I do. So I just feel like maybe if someone else was w-with us, then I might not feel in the ...mood as often.”

“I’m in the same bag as you,” Holly says, looking away, “I don’t know if it’d be bad per se, I just... don’t want to ruin anything. We’ve got a good thing here... with Sue.”

“It’s okay, I’m just y’know... speculating,” I assure her, “I mean if it was a unicorn, then she could...”

Holly meets my gaze again with her eyes the color of redwoods that look at me with sympathy, as blushing, I say, “She could... do... unicorn stuff that we can’t do.”

Holly raises an eyebrow and holy crap that sounded wrong. “I mean I... um...” I say, burying my head in my arms and promptly expiring of too much blood to the cheeks.

Walking up to me, Holly lays a hoof on my back and says, “It’s really sweet of you to be thinking of... others like that. I can’t say if I could feel the same way you do about someone, but it’s just nice that you’re really putting a lot of... effort into this. I kind of feel like...”

Pulling away her hoof and looking away, Holly murmurs uneasily, “Sue and I never really... thought about it much. She was just someone at... at work who liked ponies. And when she turned into a guy, all I thought about was... it was just sort of... having sex by default.”

I look up at her, and Holly smiles back. With more confidence, relaxing, she says, “I dunno what it is, but I feel like Sue and I care about each other more, ever since you kind of... dropped in on us. I guess I’m saying I really appreciate how you’re willing to... think about this relationship stuff, when I’d just sort of... do it.”

With a longing uncertainty as I return her gaze, I say, “Thanks. that really means a lot to me.” Frowning, I add, “Which I guess is more of that thinking about relationship stuff you’re talking about.”

She hoofs me lightly in the shoulder, saying, “C’mon, Meadowsweet. It’s no big deal. I just appreciate it, so... keep up the good work, okay?”

I think a little smile sneaks on my face when I tell her gratefully, “Yeah, okay.”

Climbing to my hooves, and crouching before her a little playfully, I add, “So what’s the most awesome thing about being a bat pony?”

“Flying at night,” she says without hesitation. Then with a smile herself, she uses a wing to toss the last of the grapes in her mouth, and trots alongside me, heading giggling out of the barn, just happy to be there for each other.

Aaand then we go around behind the fence and dive into each other’s muffs.

What? I swear she tastes like candy!

Okay, so maybe creative applications of technology are a little important, relationship status nonwithstanding. We manage to get a sort of grinding mill going, for what it’s worth. It’s pretty simple in theory: just put a stone against another stone and turn it, but getting the stones perfectly smoothly conforming to each other is difficult, to say the least. Nevertheless, what comes out of the cement molds has the right angles for my calculations, and the hardest part is mounting the two things together.

I went with a sort of tapering cylinder shape, with a conical indention in its matching pair. Thankfully the stones aren’t very heavy, but it is awkward trying to move them around with hooves. But once we set the one inside the other, then I engage a little winch I put together (mostly with my mouth) levering the one stone suspended above the other, with just enough of a gap to drop stuff in there. The angles are slightly off so that the gap narrows to almost nothing at the bottom, which hopefully will result in flour falling through.

See, trouble is we’re kind of running out of flour, and I don’t suspect a podunk town like this is a high priority for restoring supply lines. So we’re on our own for now, and as barely adequate as grass is, there are certain things not even ponies can chew.

My impromptu mill isn’t very big, but taking apart an old bicycle (with a wrench in my mouth) yields a chain and two gears. That’s gonna let me use the work-energy principle that means a few turns of a large one with more force can yield many turns of the smaller one, with less force. So with those gears crudely welded into place, (No really, I had to balance the welding torch in the crook of my hoof, since I needed to hide my face behind the blast shield) with one big long wooden pole tied into the gear on our second rotating axle, and with a leather loop, we’re good to go.

Rachel’s actually the one who tries it out first. He insists on account of how delicate and dainty I am. Considering the scorch marks on my forelegs from trying to use a blow torch as a pony, not to mention all the grease staining my fur from where I tried to make sure this chain assembly was properly lubricated, I can’t really understand where he got that idea. I think he may be rusing me. But he ducks his head under the harness, and starts walking forward, making the pony sized stone in front of me start turning rather quickly. I use my forelegs to forklift a woven basket full of dry corn kernels into the hopper, letting them slowly, then quickly spill into the crevass between the stones.

“You okay, Rachel?” I call out to the pony marching around me.

“You started putting them in?” he calls back, still plodding around in a steady circle, like a miniature uh... workhorse.

“They’re almost all in!” I shout.

“Then yeah, I hardly even noticed them!” he shouts back.

“Woah, that’s grinding them up like nothing!” one of the townsponies exclaims, from underneath the second stone’s wooden mount. I’m out of corn up top, so I join her down there. She’s a cute little purple filly I might add! She and I watch the corn flour pouring into the bucket below, smaller grains trickling through the imperfections in the grinding stones where the larger ones stay wedged up higher, getting ground away.

“And now we can have corn bread,” I tell her smugly, “I knew we could make use of that awful corn in the fields out there!”

“I just hope it tastes good,” the filly says grumpily,

“Heh, yeah,” Rachel says, looking down to me with a smile.

...

“So, wanna go get some more corn?” I ask.

We hurry to the corn fields, sneaking glances at each other and laughing together. We toss our empty baskets aside, and he hops the fence with me, trotting into the wavy, dry stalks. I turn aside my tail and he just mounts on top of me, and we fuck like rabbits. It’s so intense I just lose myself with that penis sliding in and out of my vagina, grunting and fucking and trying to get him to cum inside right away. An actual whinny escapes me, when his penis starts pumping out semen deep within me. He holds me, and impregnates me, and I... change, and everything is wonderful.

We don’t even talk after that. I just sidle up against him while we’re picking corn with our mouths, and his seed is just in my hips, and that’s all the communication we need. He looks so good, everything looks so good I could swear it was glowing. We pick stuff slow as we can, just so we can be with each other, standing together, while his softening dick slides up into his pelvis, and I let his seed just dribble from my slit over time onto the dirt behind me. By the time we’re walking back to town, baskets in-mouth, it’s impossible to tell that my pussy was impregnated at all.

Corn bread actually isn’t very... good. But it’s a chance for us to get together, and set up a little assembly line, mixing flour, baking soda, sugar, water, salt, eggs and milk. Don’t ask how ponies have been milking cows. Someone knows something about “dutch oven cooking” which apparently involves putting a cast iron pot into a campfire, and... not burning everything inside. We do have to kind of... scoop out the bread with a spatula, but everyone agrees it’s the best thing they’ve tasted since squash stew. I’m certainly happy for the dry, gritty stuff, if only because it means with all the corn growing around, we’re not gonna run out of food any time soon.

But I’m still fucking Rachel every chance I get, and something must be done.

“Sue, how... do you feel about other stallions?” I ask. I’m sitting here out on the park lawn, with my boyfriend and friend, a brown furred, red haired earth pony stallion named Sue. I ask Sue that question with trepidation, hoping that he’ll be less angry, since he’s currently relaxed from a really nice climax, that’s um... oozing out my vagina at the moment, as we sit on our sides together.

It’s not just Sue I’m worried about. Rachel’s getting upset too, and he’s right, we both agree this is wrong, and that I can’t sneak around Sue like this. Even as I’m talking to Sue, I know I’m gonna lift my tail and fuck other stallions again. It’s wonderful, and it’s wrong, and we keep doing it anyway. Rachel feels amazing, but Sue also feels amazing, and I hunger for both of them in their own ways, but it’s just not to be. I’m gonna have to let Sue dump me. He’s gonna hate me, and Holly’s gonna be devastated, but at least I won’t be... being unfaithful anymore.

“What do you mean how do I feel about other stallions?” Sue asks, tilting his head at me.

“I mean, sexually,” I tell him, “Does it make you... u-upset to think about other stallions having sex with... people?”

“Uhm...” he says, frowning as much as his square pony snout can, “I haven’t had a... chance, since they’re always with other people, like mares. I don’t really feel like stallions are all that hot though. You females got the magic there. When it comes to sex I’ve always just... well not literally followed my nose, but now I literally follow my nose, and now it leads me to... ponies who smell good.” Necking over and nuzzling at my ears, he says, “Cute little mares like you.”

Blushing, my heart’s torn between soaring and falling, but I’ve been putting this off for way too long. “I didn’t mean you having sex with stallions,” I tell him, “I mean what do you think about mares having sex with... other stallions? It doesn’t make you angry does it, just to think about?”

“I don’t see why it would,” he says gruffly, “It’s their business what they want to do together.”

“Y-yeah, plus you and... Lucy, you told me about her,” I say shyly, “How you still... want her, and also want me, and I’m okay with that. Are you okay with... I mean, if I...”

“You wanna fuck another stallion?” he asks, raising an eyebrow at me.

“No!” I protest, “I mean, yes! I mean... yes I... think other stallions are hot. It’s just biological. It’s like you said, females have the magic for you, and it also... applies for me, and... males.”

“Well, yeah, it’s just biological,” he blushes, “You uh... want to tell me about some stallion you thought was hot?”

“It’s more about what he can... do with me, that I’m thinking about,” I admit, “Stallions are just pretty hot in general. I think we’re all really... good looking, I guess. Haven’t seen a stallion who’s ugly or mutated or something.”

Sue shudders. “Yeah that’d be something else.”

“So, I like... stallions,” I tell him, toeing at the earth, “And I like... doing things with stallions. Like... yesterday. I was doing things. With a stallion.”

At Sue’s wide-eyed stare, I stammer desperately, “I made him do it. It wasn’t his choice, I just told him it was still sort of okay and it’s all my fault, I swear. So all you have to do is dump me and leave him alone and—”

“You can’t dump me!” Sue says in a panicked tone, struggling to his hooves, “Holly would be devastated! She loves you, Meadowsweet!”

“I love both of you, but it’s wrong for me to keep doing this,” I reply angrily, “Since I can’t stop fucking this guy at every opportunity, I don’t deserve to be with you!”

“I guess you don’t deserve it!” he says, stomping, “If you’re just gonna dump me and Holly, to fuck some other guy.”

Blinking, I correct him, “No, you’re the one who’s gonna dump me.”

“Why the hell would I do that?” Sue demands.

“...because I’m having sex with another man?” I squeak.

“Meadowsweet...” Sue sighs tiredly, giving me a look, “I’m not gonna break up with you.”

Looking frightened at Sue, I whimper, “I just don’t want you to hurt any stallions, because I can’t keep it in my pants. It’s just so easy to do it for mares, I swear he’s not making me I just get all girly and make him do it, so it’s my fault. So please break up with me. It’s not gonna solve anything if you go and attack him!”

“You’re acting like I’m gonna go beat him up, just because I’m a guy,” Sue whines, looking at me accusingly.

“A stallion,” I specify, worriedly, “Brian was saying—”

“That we’re ordinary horses?” Sue interrupts, with a scowl, “Who can’t talk or do magic, and shit where we’re walking? Or maybe she was saying she doesn’t know, because nobody knows what we really are?”

“Yeah, but... there are similarities!” I protest, “And I heard about jealous... human boyfriends doing horrible, horrible things to other guys.”

“In a movie?” Sue asks dryly.

Shaking my head, I say, “No, it was on the... news I think. Some story about a jealous murderer, who trapped the guy in a—”

“Okay, no the news is even worse than movies,” Sue groans, sinking his head, “At least movies don’t pretend like it’s true.”

I honestly don’t know what to say to that.

“If I ask my... stallion gut instincts,” Sue tells me frankly, “I feel like... well, I just came in you, and it was awesome. It feels... weirdly good that you’re gonna give birth to my child, and other guys are still... doing things with you. Like I’m hot stuff because they can’t stop me, I guess, but I also feel like dirt for making you get pregnant. Hot dirt?”

“So you aren’t gonna go attack them, or... defend your mares from other stallions?” I ask worriedly.

Sue busts out laughing at that. Like seriously, a deep belly laugh. “What?” I whine, blushing self-consciously despite not knowing why.

“Seriously, Meadowsweet?” he laughs, wiping at tears with a forelock, “Defending my mares from other stallions?”

“...yeah?” I say, still not getting the joke.

“It’s just the stupidest...” he says unsurely, “You and Holly aren’t my slaves. I’m not some kind of... stupid animal, and neither are you. I’d have to be the worst boyfriend ever, if I’d go beat up anyone you like, just so you can’t leave me. You really think I’d do that?”

Shuddering, I say, “No, no I know you wouldn’t, it’s just so scary sometimes. All those awful stories, a-and there are statistics, I think. And what if by some miracle I’m carrying someone else’s foal? You’re okay with that?”

“I didn’t want a foal in the first place!” Sue replies in frustration, “I just keep getting horny, and... fucking you two, because it feels too good to stop. I guess if you have to get pregnant, I’d want it to be mine. But I mean... is there anything wrong with him?”

“N-no,” I admit shyly.

“Then I have no problem with you having his foal,” Sue replies firmly.

“Even if I’m fucking him?” I ask in exasperation.

“Just mounting up and getting pregnant with him, huh,” Sue says in an odd tone.

“T-that’s about right,” I reply cautiously.

“So... whose dick is bigger?” Sue asks fighting to hold back a smile.

Face falling in dread, I say, “U-uh I mean, n-not that it’s not you, but I like your penis the uh best, because Rachel’s is kinda thick and oh god why did I tell you,” I bury my head in my forehooves.

“Annnd who has the most cum?” Sue asks, poking my side teasingly with a forehoof.

Oh no.

“R-Rachel,” I mumble, “But he’s pent up, since he only has me, so...”

“Like I’m gonna care if Rachel cums more?” Sue laughs, “You’re the one who should care, since you have to contain it.”

“You’re having way too much fun with this,” I grumble, folding my forelegs and lifting my head to glare up at him.

“Just think of it like a little gossip,” Sue says, “You know, between us girls.”

“I suppose we were both technically girls at some point in time,” I tell him warily.

“You’re not gonna give me an STD, so there’s no reason for you not to fuck another guy,” Sue says confidently, “Long as I can be with you, and you don’t dump Holly, I don’t mind if you wanna confess what your... other boyfriend is doing. It’s the closest I can come to fucking a man, since I turned into one.”

I give Sue a long, contemplative look, then ask him, “Y’wanna watch?”

“This was the best idea ever,” I moan, as Rachel mounts me from behind about a week later, and his hot, needy phallus slides into my semen slimy cunt, while Sue mounts me from the front. I eagerly lick my own juices off Sue’s penis still dribbling with his cum, a third orgasm rising inside me, as I’m already getting hungry for Rachel to pull me onto his thick penis, and fill me with so much cum that it gushes down my legs and tail.

Well, with that, I can’t not give Sue everything he dreams of. He’s the most amazing boyfriend ever! As the weeks go by, I kind of arrange to volunteer, so that I can join Lucy in her chore of washing the dishes. Like, all the dishes. She’s the one rinsing them off, and I can slip this scrub brush on my hoof and get them really soapy in the warm water. Warm because we boil it, but otherwise just water from the creek. In our twin tubs go pots and bowls and dog dishes and... all the stuff that aid ponies in eating with their faces. Nary a fork to be seen.

It’s with a casual grin that I ask Lucy hopefully, “Do you know many bat ponies?” though probably not in the way she thinks I hope.

“Well, I mean, two of the staffers went batty,” the peachy colored unicorn says, most of the soap skimming off in her bluish magical aura, before she dips each hovering plate into the um... less soapy water. “But we haven’t really... I mean we’re not close.”

She huffs, frustrated at that, adding, “I suppose mostly I’ve just been hanging out with other unicorns... to teach the town ones how to use magic and stuff. It’s weird and exhausting, and...” shaking her head, Lucy concludes definitively, “No I’m not friends with any bat ponies. You are though, aren’t you?”

Oh, she knows? “Me?” I ask nervously, “Well I don’t know maybe? Guess it depends what you mean by... friends.”

“Like that bat pony colored like Bon Bon except oranger,” Lucy clarifies, waving around a dog bowl vaguely, “I think you two are related or something?”

“Ohh, yeah that’s Mira,” I say with a relieved smile, passing her another clean pot, which she catches in the air with hardly a thought, “She’s my sister. Or was.”

“Was?” Lucy queries, giving me a curious look.

“I was reading about how genetics show who we’re related to, and we pretty much have different genetics now,” I say frankly, “There’s no reason to assume she and I have the same genes anymore.”

“Huh, I wonder if any of us became related then,” Lucy says in bemusement.

“Well regardless, I do know bat ponies,” I say, plunging a metal bowl into the soapy water. Scrubbing out the grass stains, I report distractedly, “A-and did you know they grab things with their little wing claws, but usually not with their whole wing?”

“Why would they grab stuff with their whole wing?” Lucy asks skeptically.

“Because it’s like a hand?” I return, trying to imagine what it must be like to have... hands. It’s surprisingly difficult.

“Oh,” Lucy says, going back to rinsing and drying, “Huh...”

“Yeah, I dunno why they don’t. Must be something about their wings,” I tell her chattily, “I just think it’s kind of cool.”

“Not nearly as cool as the fire spitting!” she retorts with a smile my way.

“Oh yeah!” I perk up brightly, adding slyly, “I wonder if it ever burns them.”

“Doesn’t seem to,” she shrugs, dipping the plates I tossed her into the water in short order, without even looking at them.

“I think only they could say for sure,” I emphasize, hopefully mysteriously.

“So you just... ask them about that stuff?” Lucy prompts cautiously, “I mean, aren’t they embarassed about that fire stuff?”

“Yeah, but I dunno...” I shake my head, “You know how a lot of them are sort of sensitive about their eyes?”

“Well... yeah,” she admits, glancing at me in concern and... oh, I forgot to keep scrubbing! Jeez, 37 people sure make a mountain of dishes to clean up.

“It’s weird though,” I tell her, resuming my efforts on the dirty dishes, “Because all our eyes changed. Mine are bright red! But I don’t feel... sensitive about it.”

“Bat ponies have like... predatory eyes,” Lucy offers, “Like the eyes of a bat.”

“Aren’t we predators though?” I return, and as a unicorn she should be the last one to not think of that! “We all have fangs!” I protest, “...little ones.”

Lucy rinses silently for a while, before saying glumly, “I don’t get it either.”

“Well,” I tell her confidently, “If I ever saw a bat pony, I’d tell them how all our eyes changed, and theirs aren’t any weirder than mine.”

She glances at me again, asking, “Aren’t you friends with a bat pony?”

“Oh... yeah,” I blush, “Guess I’ll tell her, next time I see her.”

I don’t go into very much more about bat ponies or the mythology behind Metal Gear, but that’s the sort of thing I bring up with Lucy. Not all at once, just here and there. And Holly, I tell her lots of things about unicorns that would be fun to ask, as well as a few of the particulars around how fly fishing works. Not telling her I heard about it from Lucy, of course. Just dropping hints, and all.

So Holly’s okay, Lucy’s okay, Sue’s amazing, everything seems just about perfect. I think it’s time to execute my coup de grace.

Hurriedly, I canter up to my bat pony friend and lover, saying, “Oh gosh Holly, I don’t suppose you could help. I made a huge scheduling mistake!”

“What’s wrong?” Holly asks, looking at me with worry, and I’m pretty sure she isn’t busy at the moment, but not 100% sure, but I can’t just go back on this now. Lucy’s counting on me!

“I said I’d help some people in town with their um earth pony stuff,” I tell her, “But I forgot today’s the day that I’m supposed to do the dishes in the afternoon!”

“Oh, you need me to help with the dishes?” she asks, “I haven’t um...”

“It’s easy, you just slide your hoof in the scrubber handle and scrub all the plates with soap,” I tell her hastily, “Luc—whoever else is there can show you I’m sure. Can you do that for me just today?”

“Well, sure, I mean... as long as this doesn’t get to be a regular thing,” Holly says cautiously.

“Great. Thanks!” I tell her, scooting her in the direction of the room with the twin washtubs. “I really appreciate this!”

“Wh—” she has time to say, before I blurt out,

“Well, gotta go! It’s a bit of a walk across town. Let me know how it goes, okay?”

Then I hurry out of our group’s area, and start galloping down the asphalt, giggling madly to myself, thanking my heavenly stars that it’s a cool day today. Asphalt is really fun to gallop on, when the temperature’s not too high. It’s almost pliable beneath my hooves, yet very smooth and even, just firm enough. Sidewalks are actually a real pain to walk down, with your hooves clacking jarringly against the smooth concrete, while asphalt roads thump more than clack.

Except the gravelly ones. The gravelly ones suck.

I really wish I had a watch. Would be pretty hard to find one with a band small enough for my dainty little yellow hoof, though. Plus, I can’t exactly afford anything, so it’d be like... well, stealing is kind of necessary these days, but I’d like to avoid it if I can.

Anyway I’m pretty sure I have a good sense for how much time has passed since I looked at a clock, and I don’t feel like I’m all that late. Hurrying in through the doors to a local school gymnasium, the cavernous ceiling high above me shines its lights down so brightly on all below. Thankfully I’m not the last one here. But I still call out,

“Sorry I’m a little late! Thanks for coming!” Once I get closer to the colorful group of ponies, I say a little breathlessly, “Had to work out some scheduling errors at the last minute.”

“We got a few minutes left still, it’s no problem,” one of the stallions says, pointing a hoof at a clock on the wall of the gym. Battery powered, of course.

“Oh good,” I say, ears relaxing in relief, “So, until everyone’s here, I suppose... wanna figure out how to stretch out as ponies?”

That is surprisingly hard to do, because where ponies aren’t rigid and unyielding, we’re flexible as hell. Some ponies pull on each other to try and get a good stretch, but when you can rest the base of your tail on top of your head, with your hind legs sticking up in the air, stretching becomes more about... muscle tone than flexibility.

Once the last three show up (well three of four, but the fourth wasn’t really all that interested, so they probably won’t show up) I stand up and say, “Okay pony people! Who wants to learn how to dance?”

My fourth dance class goes pretty good. I’m not exactly a professional instructor, but I’m pretty nimble on my hooves, even for one of the early transformed. And the professional dance instructors have no idea how to deal with pony physiology, even if this town had any dance instructors. But heck if I’m gonna try to help show ponies how to move while playing football. So I get to figure out dancing, while they get to figure out dancing, and it’s actually kind of hard to dance and sing at the same time, but I think we’re starting to get the hang of it.

I return to the barn sweating, but happy. Happy to be outta that gym at least. This late in the summer, that gymnasium at the school gets hot as heck, without electricity to turn on the air conditioning. The evening is already cooling off, though, as I approach the barn we’re all living in. I don’t rush in, of course, because of what could be happening inside. Carefully poking my nose in the barn and looking around, I spot my friend Holly off to the side, the little red and green bat pony chatting quietly with a certain particular unicorn of colors purple and pink.

Yanking my head back out, I hurriedly trot around the side of the barn before sitting back against the wall and pumping my forehooves, whispering,

“Yesss!”

It worked! My strategy worked, and Lucy and Holly are friends now! And if my calculations are correct... soon to be more than friends! This is amazing! As I leave them chatting with each other, to collapse giggling giddily against the outside wall of the barn, I try to think out my next move, around my fantasies of Holly and Lucy kissing together with Sue.

Biggest problem is I can’t be seen with both of them, now, until the one becomes intimate with the other. Otherwise they’ll figure it out, and stop being friends with each other, before they even learned what wonderful people they are. So I figure I’ll just wait until they’re kissing, and then I’ll... figure something out, I guess. But for now, I just carefully avoid Holly and Lucy over the rest of the evening, waiting to catch Holly when she’s alone. At last, I see Holly standing there in a room off to the side that we sort of built in the barn, for dining in a little bit of privacy. Lucy’s nowhere to be seen in there. Popping up beside her, I ask Holly, “Sooo...?”

And of course I must have walked right up in her blind spot or something, because Holly leaps up in the air at that with a startled squeal.

“Oh jeezus there you are, Meadowsweet!” she squeaks in relief, descending in a few flaps and folding her darker green bat wings against her sides as she lands.

“Yup, here I am,” I reply sheepishly, “So how’d it go?”

She gives me a cautious look. “Washing the dishes?” she asks.

“...yea?” I say, my ears going down just a little. She doesn’t suspect anything, does she?

“Well,” she replies solemnly, “I met someone named Lucy.”

“Yeah, and?” I say, leaning forward on baited breath.

“And she was really nice,” Holly replies evenly, “We got along really well.”

“Oh that’s great!” I say, relaxing.

“And she asked if I knew someone named Meadowsweet,” Holly adds.

“Oh?” I reply, unrelaxing.

“I said she’s my friend,” Holly tells me, with a worryingly neutral expression on her face, “And that I think she’s trying to get us to be friends, for some reason.

Author's Notes:

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH