So I’m a pony, everyone’s a pony, and ponies are fucked up. Either that or I’m fucked up, and I just hadn’t realized it for the last few decades of social isolation. Which somehow is not considered a fucked up thing, compared to my active social life now, which is fucked up. Or at least fucked. Fucking all around!

I wish I could say I was upset by this, but mostly I’m just confused. Is it because I turned into a pony? Because I turned into a woman? How does fate conspire to have me giving moral support to a fellow earth pony mare who just had sex with a guy right in front of me, while my loins are still metaphorically sizzling from doing it with Nick, and a bat pony named Peter a few days prior?

That’s not even counting my official boyfriend or two.

Nevertheless, here we are, and the deed is done. Eleven of us ponies piled into a trailer, while a convoy of trucks rumbles down the empty roads, taking us to locations unknown. With any luck, these trucks will take us to a secret military base where they are in contact with Princess Celestia, gaining the secret knowledge needed to save our world and our humanity from an evil unicorn named Twilight Sparkle.

I just don’t understand how Twilight Sparkle could be so different from how she is in the show, while still being so much the same. She sounded the same, acted the same, looked the same, had the same... nervous bookish awkwardness to her, and then she goes all evil maniac on us and disappears. Does she have a split personality? Is she possessed? If she was a changeling, why would she pretend to be Twilight Sparkle a second time? We’d never suspect a thing if she changed into Sunset Shimmer, and said they were both from opposite-day-Equestria or something. Not that we were very difficult to deceive, but still. How could someone so... her be that much of a jerk?

I can’t blame Twilight for disappearing on us, considering she had just manipulated me and another couple hundred ponies into destroying humanity, but the hatred in which she left us just... doesn’t make sense to me at all. I suppose insanity isn’t supposed to make sense, and if we have to take Twilight Sparkle down like some sort of rabid dog, I hope I’m ready to do what needs to be done.

What I am doing that needs to be done is joining this secret project to defeat her. But that’s for the future. More immediately, I’m doing something unrelated to Twilight, that doesn’t really need to be done, and probably shouldn’t be done. Namely sitting idly by while a complete stranger gets impregnated in front of me, a stranger whom I’m now sitting idly by and slightly leaning against her for support. I can smell his semen still coming out of her, though my nose is a whole lot better than it used to be. She had sex. I saw her have sex with that stallion, and it seems so weirdly normal that her vagina’s still leaking semen out a little bit beside me.

I know exactly how she feels is the thing. I was just as slimy and satisfied as she is, and I smelled and looked like this too. It’s the same thing I’ve been doing all this time. Only difference is someone else did it this time. Someone I don’t know, and yet I saw that stallion cumming into her, as she braced against me and filled with his children. I felt her when she was feeling his semen seal her fate, and I feel her against me now. I know what’s inside this little pony, and that’s just kind of cool somehow. Little sperm, swimming up into her, changing her to be more like me. We’ll both have fat, round bellies, and I’ll know exactly how it happened to her. She’s busily getting pregnant beside me, just by sitting there on her belly and letting it happen.

Well Blaze is mostly cleaned up at least, and none of us can change the fact that she’s having Strider’s baby now, maybe. All we can do is try to get her to open up, and... not be a complete stranger anymore. As long as she might be getting pregnant, it’s the least any of us could do, since we just sort of... let it happen to her.

“How’d you come to Bronycon?” I ask the pensive orange mare, with the less orange hair, sitting on my haunches next to her, while she continues to sit on her belly, looking at me with striking blue eyes full of curiosity. “Do you have any family to go back to?” I ask her.

“I... um... yes,” she says shyly, “They were at the convention place, but I don’t know what kind of ponies they turned into.”

“None of us do, honestly,” I say with a heavy heart, “I’m lucky that anyone knows who I used to be. I wouldn’t even recognize my parents if I saw them.”

“They’re probably at Tennessee now,” Blaze says, ears drooping, “I wanna get changed back before they see me like this though. It’s weird being like this.”

“Can’t even imagine what my dad would think,” Candy says glumly, walking up to us, “If he isn’t a girl, too. God, what happened to us all?”

“Pony happened,” Lucy says definitively behind her. “I’m sure we can just tell each other who we are though. I mean, who would lie about that?”

I’m... tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt, aren’t I.

“A-a-anyway,” I say hastily, nudging Blaze, “So I came from Minnesota, with um... oh the other two people I came with stayed back in town. We didn’t come to attend Bronycon, though, just to try and stop Twilight Sparkle. It was a long... ride.”

My insides shift in antsy satisfaction, remembering how Nick took me back then, remembering how I made him take me, and how earlier today... I probably smell like his semen too, right now, just a little. I wish I knew of a... not horrible way to talk about that. It’s so incredible and strange what’s happening inside me, and I can’t share it with anyone... except Nick of course. I wish I could tell Sue at least, but I don’t think he wants to hear the story about how I was first mounted and impregnated by some other man. He was okay with Dusty though, but... I just don’t know.

“Well I came from the east coast,” Candy says, trying to strike a pose on the trailer floor, while I stop wallowing in my own inabilities and listen, “Not quite up in Maine. It wasn’t too much of a trip to get to Bronycon in fact.”

“None of us come from the same place, but we were friends before Bronycon,” the purple, blue-haired pegasus filly says, indicating the other two foals with each of her wings, “So now we’re like the CMC!”

“Except one of us is a colt,” the colt points out.

“Exactly like the CMC!” the filly insists, nose up proudly.

As if emboldened by this, the blue unicorn filly speaks up, saying shyly to Blaze, “It really is okay if you wanted to do that just now. I’ve never been able to see anybody... doing that before.”

“I’m a grownup pony,” Blaze explains to the cluster of foals giving her various looks, in something of an imperious tone, “You feel all tingly and achy when you’re grownup, and I really wanted it. Then he slides in you and you really can’t stop wanting it.”

“Yeah, we saw,” the colt says, looking a little nonplussed at the mare’s attention.

Blushing redder, Blaze stammers, “S-so you can’t make fun of me. Grownups just have to s-stand there while it keeps putting babies in them, and it wasn’t anything strange or stupid.”

“It was kinda messy though,” the pegasus filly says teasingly with a cheeky smile, pointing a hoof over at where Blaze was standing when he came inside her.

“Oh,” Blaze says, face flushing under her orange fur as she looks at the messy wet spot from where Strider’s cum, and her own juices I suppose, leaked out between her legs. She stands up, heading over there looking at it helplessly, stammering, “I–I don’t know how to clean this up. It just came out I couldn’t stop it. I felt it—it was just too much. What do I—?”

“Here, I brought a towel,” Lucy says, as a plain towel glowing in a shimmering blue aura floats over from her side of the trailer, to crumple down over the puddle of Strider’s semen. “Let that soak it up, I guess,” she says uneasily.

“I just do it somewhere the dirt can soak it up,” Sue points out, as we all look up at the hefty earth pony stallion. He scrunches all too adorably for a stallion at our gaze, then says touchily, “Yeah I... I cum too. I admit it. I put it inside...” he points a forehoof at Holly, going, “Holly. I just hold her against me and cum in there, and I’ll just start feeling it coming out around me.”

“Could you feel it?” Blaze asks the other stallion, Strider’s his name, a blue stallion of a pegasus with greenish hair. “Could you feel it,” she asks eagerly, “Coming out around your penis?”

“Yeah, I...” Strider looks around anxiously, stating, “You all s-saw me do it, so there’s no reason to hide it. It happens when I...” he looks to the purple and green bat pony, saying, “I m-mounted Candy too, and it happened with her too. But your dick just keeps cumming when that happens, so you just have to hold in in there and let it come out around you while you’re doing it. I don’t usually overload... Candy’s vagina.”

Candy blushes at that, finding something very interesting to look at underneath her wing.

“It ...moved out of me,” Blaze says unsurely looking at her hindquarters, “Then it went to the floor, but mostly the fur on my butt took it up, a-and it’s kind of icky now.”

“That’s Strider’s cum though,” Candy says fondly, “It’s putting a baby in you right now. I mean, it’s his... it’s part of him. S-so that makes it feel a little better, for me at least. I like having his... cum all over me. It is a pain to clean though if it dries.”

“We can clean up at the next rest stop,” Lucy says dismissively, “But that’s not gonna stop Blaze from getting pregnant.”

“It’s okay,” Blaze says appeasingly to Lucy, “I did it on purpose, on accident.”

“Yeah, I think that about sums up every act of sex in general,” Lucy says, with a roll of her eyes.

“You can um...” Holly says, stepping up close to Candy, but not whispering to her, when she says, “It’s something I like to do with Meadowsweet sometimes, and... Lucy. You can... clean it off with your um... tongue.”

Candy blushes hard at that, but Holly stammers, “I-i-it’s not like that, it’s just like grooming, and it’s okay because Strider’s semen already got into you, so more won’t hurt. You think about how it felt when it went in your... vagina, then it’s no problem to lick it off of her.”

A beat, and Blaze blurts out, “She does not have to lick my butt. I’m okay being sticky it was my fault.”

“No, I think she should—!” Holly protests to Blaze, then looks to Candy saying, “... try it. Just a little bit. I–I’d do it myself, but I didn’t... Strider’s your stallion.”

I fail to see how that makes a difference, which explains so much about the difference between me and Holly, but Candy still blushing red says, “Okay, I can... just a little. I mean...” Looking at Blaze she says, “We have to get to uh–know each other better anyway, right?”

“If you can, I dunno any other way to uh... clean off,” Blaze says a little tremulously, turning her rear Candy’s way, “Maybe because we’re ponies we can do like... mommy ponies do to their foals?”

Candy inches forward, looking around, then a little closer, touching Blaze’s side with a hoof, before giving a very hesitant lick. The next lick’s stronger then, and it doesn’t really matter what’s messing up Blaze’s fur. It just kind of gets you when you start grooming someone, so soon Candy’s not really thinking of anything else, just closing her eyes and steadily licking Blaze’s fur straight.

So... yeah. Candy’s preoccupied in... licking Blaze’s hindquarters now. She looks kind of like a kitty. The green furred bat pony with a purple/pink mane and tail peeks her dark eyes open eventually, saying, “That’s (lick) okay that’s (lick) I think that’s... clean.” Strider’s walked up beside her by then, waiting for her to finish her thing and notice him, and when she notices him, he sounds almost tearful, when he says,

“Thank you so much. Candy, you’re amazing.”

“What?” Candy says in honest surprise, wings slightly spreading as she looks askew at the stallion.

“You just... I didn’t think you were gonna touch her, after I went and did that,” the pegasus stallion says, fidgeting beside her, looking confused with his feelings himself, “I just grabbed her, and s-started doing her, and I knew you were gonna hate me, and break up with me, and I still had to... I still did it. But you’re okay! W-with her, even! Something just... it just really hit me. You’re actually okay with... all this.”

“Yeah, we can... talk about this,” Candy says hesitantly, “I just need some time to think, but... yeah I kind of...” She looks at Blaze’s smoothed fur on her clean rear end, and probably didn’t even notice herself cleaning all the way to the pony’s soft orange vulva. “...if you’re okay with it, and Blaze really wanted it, then...” She gives him a scared look, asking, “H-how many mares do you think you could...?”

“It’s three, statistically,” Sue says sarcastically over my head, “Meadowsweet is big on statistics.”

I am not! Okay maybe a little.

“Well, then I’m o-okay with it,” Candy says in a queer sort of relief, nuzzling up against Strider, “As long as it works out, I can... share. It’s not like Blaze is gonna make me any less pregnant by having sex with you, right?”

“I wish we could share a one pregnancy, too,” Blaze murmurs with a doleful gaze their way.

“Still can’t believe I just...” Strider says, subtly leaning more against Candy as he tells Blaze, “...had sex with you. You were just staring at me, and you just let me... so you really liked me just fucking you, huh?”

“Yeah!” Blaze says with a quirky smile, “You went inside my... vagina! And it felt really good!”

“Hey Candy I just,” he says, leaning against the bat pony all casually, but blushing as he mumbles, “P-put my penis in that pony. S-so you know. She felt just like you, except her butt was bigger. I wanna mount you sometime, and have her watch me cum into you. And that’s okay, right?”

“Her butt was bigger?” Candy asks touchily.

“Just look at her!” he declares, “Blaze has a gorgeous butt. And you gotta be okay with that. Candy you’re beautiful, a-and you get to have her butt too, not just me. You can y’know... lick it like you did.”

“I was just... cleaning her off...” Candy says, looking down in a blushing bashfulness.

“You can do a lot more than just clean her off,” I point out emphatically.

Candy looks at the reticent Blaze, looking uncertainly back at her, and she smiles and says, “Well don’t just stand there, get that gorgeous butt over here.”

Candy, Strider and Blaze all get together then, nuzzling each other and doing those horsey hugs as Blaze says gratefully, “Thanks you so much I really wanted it and it felt really good and you’re not mad and...” It kind of falls to wordless whuffles then, and it looks like... some manner of success has been achieved, even if... everyone gonna be giving birth now... except one pony, that is.

Everyone giving birth seems to be all happy cuddly, and... the brown mare with blue hair has moved off to the side again, looking despondent, and still smelling horny.

“No it’s okay I can ignore it,” she says as I approach, before I can even say anything, “I don’t wanna... bother anyone.”

“Well those two started having sex, so if that didn’t bother us, then I don’t think anything can,” I say frankly.

“So what, I should just start humping a post?” she replies caustically, “Begging for some... pony to put a baby in me?”

“No, no! Just...” I say, backpedalling a step.

“And he already came in her!” the mare declares in frustration, half standing up, “So I’d just be making an idiot of myself for nothing!”

“Pony stallions are pretty... uh, vigorous,” I tell her nervously, “He’ll probably be able to do it again pretty soon.”

“O-oh,” she says, sitting her rump down again.

“We definitely should’ve had stallions all go in their own trailer,” I sigh fretfully, “Didn’t even occur to me that people would just... do that.”

“It’s okay,” she says in a strained tone, “I can hold out better anyway, because I already y’know... had a kid.”

...

“You had a kid? ” I blurt out in astonishment.

“Like before all this happened!” she protests, blushing, “I’m just saying I know how bad it gets, so it’s easier for me to hold out!”

“Oh, so...”

“So I don’t really want to do that again,” the brown mare says with a grimace. “I just... sit here being horny, and you uh... I mean it’s not as bad, now that Blaze... took care of him.”

“You had a baby? ” Blaze asks curiously, creeping up beside me to look at the other mare with wide eyes. “Like you’re really a mommy and you got a baby in your tummy and stuff?”

“Oh god, now you’re all gonna make me talk about it,” the brown mare groans, burying her snout under her forehooves, “I had a kid,” she declares down there, “It was a bad idea, and I don’t wanna do it again! End of story.”

“That’s... fine?” I say a little uncertainly, “You don’t have to tell us anything you’re not comfortable with.”

“Well, good,” the mare says grumpily.

“Well it’s just I have to do that now,” Blaze says, ears going down as she apprehensively lowers her tail against her own orange rump, “I just don’t know what it’s gonna be like. I know the baby goes in your belly though.”

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean...” the mare says, sitting up and looking at Blaze with earnest sympathy.

“It’s okay, I’ll just... you know,” Blaze says with a shaky, awkward smile that mare’s way, “Squeeze ‘em out or s-something.”

The mare sits up, looks around warily and says, “So you all got... pregnant, huh?”

“Pretty much, yeah,” I say, looking around as well. “It’s kind of hard to avoid... not that that’s an excuse.”

“I’m not pregnant!” the purple and blue pegasus filly crows proudly.

“What was it like having a baby?” Blaze asks the brown mare hopefully, “And what’s your name? Mine is Blaze. “ She puffs up her chest a bit at saying her name.

“You mentioned,” the brown furred, blue haired mare replies dryly, “My name’s Susan. And uh...” She glances around at us, before admitting to Blaze, “It wasn’t that bad giving birth. It’s just really hard, and it takes a long time. Like all day.”

“All day?” Blaze asks with an anxious quiver.

“O-only the end is really bad,” Susan assures her with a worried tail swish, “Most of the day it’s just... distracting, and scary. You can’t stop when it’s started, and it just keeps getting more and more... insistent. Like you can just do normal stuff but then you have to stop because your whole belly just...”

She looks around nervously at the rest of us again.

“Hey, I haven’t been pregnant,” Lucy says squeezing up beside me to speak to Susan, “I’d sure like to know what it’s gonna be like!”

“It’s just weird,” the brown and blue Susan says, grimacing uneasily, “I never told anyone about this before, I mean it’s not illegal or anything, but I was... sixteen.”

“Oh,” Lucy says faintly, shrinking back a teeny bit.

“Technically that’s like the most illegal thing ever,” one of the fillies points out. “Considering what you had to do to...”

“I-it’s not illegal if nobody ever pressed charges,” Susan says with a fierce blush, “I just did something stupid, and I was a stupid kid, and... then I was stuck with it.”

“What about the father?” the other filly asks.

“He was stuck with it too, b-but he didn’t have it literally growing inside him,” Susan says, somewhat nonplussed, “It’s really okay if I just talk about this? No uh... Christians in here or anything?”

“C’mon, they just had sex! ” the colt among us says irritably waving a teeny hoof in the direction of Blaze, Candy and Strider, “You could tell us where you hid the bodies at this point, and we’d probably be okay with it!”

“They’re under the bridge behind the orphanage,” Lucy says seriously. For... about a second, before the unicorn mare busts out in laughter, saying, “Hid the bodies, hah!” to herself as she does so.

“Well I’m Christian,” Holly says to my complete and utter shock, “But I believe in forgiveness. And you’re not saying it’s a good thing, so... why wouldn’t anyone want you to talk about it?”

“You’re Christian??” I squeak at the red and green bat pony in utter incredulity. “But you let me... you did to Lucy... don’t Christians practice monogamy?”

Blushing, Holly looks aside, admitting, “W-well I never said I was a good one.”

“Yeah, but, you just let me and Lucy be with Sue, and it’s wonderful!” I tell her in worried exasperation, “How are you—are you okay with this?”

Looking down, Holly says ruefully, “When I was Christian I didn’t exactly expect that we would turn into magical ponies, so I’m kind of not sure what I believe in anymore.”

“One thing’s for sure,” my Sue says with a disaffected sigh, “Whatever God intends, it clearly isn’t what we thought He intended.”

“But there’s nothing in the bible that says you should be monogamous,” Holly insists somewhat huffily in her defense, “It just says be faithful to your... husband.” Holly’s hesitation there is obvious, as the little bat pony mare gives an anxious look to her—to our big earth pony stallion lover.

“So I guess you two are together?” Susan asks, looking from Holly to Sue.

“Oh, right I’m H-Holly,” the red haired, green bat pony says, then gesturing a hoof at our red-haired, dusky brown stallion saying, “This is Sue, and we’re together with Lucy,” she points a wing at the purple haired peachy orange unicorn, “And Meadowsweet.” Her other wing points to the yellow furred, stripey green haired mare with these weird red eyes, who I cannot see in this trailer, since there isn’t a mirror in here. “We’re all um... friends.”

“Beeeeeeest frieeeeeeends,” Lucy says, rolling her eyes.

“Oh you’re the ones with Meadowsweet!” the purple haired Susan declares, giving me a thoughtful look, “Yeah I guess that makes sense, considering you’re in the same trailer and all.”

“I’m David,” the purple and blue pegasus filly says, fluffing her wings up, “And this is Chris and Stan,” she indicates with a wing the unicorn filly in shades of blue, and the green-haired, tan-furred colt.

“I’m Can—I’m calling myself Candy,” clumsily says the green bat pony with the pink and purple locks of wavey hair, “And he’s Strider.”

“That’s a good name, isn’t it?” Strider asks hopefully, and the blue and green pegasus stallion definitely has the wrong colors, but I guess he could pull it off if he could get some aviators and a turn table. So I don’t protest it.

“Y’know it’s weird we’re all getting to know each other,” Susan says, lifting a foreleg, “It was so awkward before uh...”

She glances at Blaze.

“I dunno why we didn’t just all introduce ourselves at the start,” Candy says, “I saw you around, but we never ran into each other before, until now.”

“Well I couldn’t, because I wanted...” Susan replies in anxious iritation, trailing off then looking to Strider. “I mean the cat’s out of the bag now, heh heh, right?”

“...you still haven’t been taken care of,” Candy observes solemnly.

“Well I don’t just have a... guy to randomly do me,” Susan says, rolling her eyes with a hopeless drawl.

Candy gives her such a conflicted look as the silence draws out again, so I just blurt out,

“You know me and—” the two look my way. “Me and... Lucy, and Holly and Sue,” I tell them nervously, “Are... together. Like all of us. Like we’re all carrying his... baby.”

Now they seem quite attentive, so I continue, “So I... so we decided to do something like that. I think it’s natural for the sort of ponies we are.”

“You mean he got into you?” Blaze butts in up to my face in excitement, “He started putting his babies into you?”

“Yeah, um... maybe?” I say tentatively, “I mean yes he has, just like you um.”

“I couldn’t do it until now,” Blaze says dolefully.

Wincing, I say, “I-I was just thinking maybe you should be with Strider and Candy, and...”

Susan groks me, once I look her way, taking a step back saying, “Ohh no, you think I wanna be part of some sort of harem?”

“Don’t worry about it, it’s a silly idea,” I backpedal furiously, but Sue saves my butt, saying to Susan,

“It’s not a harem. I don’t get to tell them what to do. A harem’s when they’re like your slaves because you’re rich. I’m just here because they need it. We’re just a group of friends.”

“Who fuck,” the purple and blue pegasus filly prompts.

“Ye—” Sue starts to say, as the colt next to the filly adds,

“And you got them all pregnant.”

Sue’s ears go down.

“Well I won’t call it a harem,” the brown-furred, blue-haired Susan says earnestly, with a sympathetic look towards the stallion Sue, “You just made a mistake, and got stuck in a situation you weren’t ready for, uh...” she looks at me, Holly and Lucy, “...three times.”

“I’m still trying to figure out if there’s a good method for abortion,” I tell her glumly, “But I didn’t realize how hard it would be, with all the factories, and... and Internets shut down. I—I think high doses of vitamin C might do it, but I’m kind of not sure how to get that, and not sure how far along I am, so... it’s probably too late to try.”

Susan gives me a sympathetic look, then says, hesitantly, “It... hurts the most when you... can’t get the kid out.”

Looking around at us all, she says, “W-when it started actually moving in me, it hurt in a different way, but the scariest is when your... belly just crushes down and nothing happens. I-it’s dilation or something, I forget exactly, but near the end it was just terrifying I felt like I was... a–a contraction started coming and I could feel it coming but I didn’t want to. I knew it would just hurt and wouldn’t do anything. And then the baby slipped—uh.”

She stutters to a halt at that, blushing before saying, “Then it like, shifted inside me. A-and you know, my vagina got really uh... loose in my last trimester. But it still wasn’t big enough for a baby’s head. I mean it was big enough, but it really didn’t feel like it. So it hurt like crap s-squeezing them out, but... but I started getting excited then. Like holy crap, finally! I did mention it took a long t-time, right?”

She seems too shy to continue, but Blaze asks, “Did you see the baby coming out of your... vagina, then?”

“Oh, y-yeah, kind of,” Susan replies tentatively, “They covered everything up in a hospital blanket, but I could see around it a little. I couldn’t move much at that point other than pushing. The weirdest thing is your hips, they...”

She lifts a hind leg and looks at it, then puts it down again.

“I dunno for ponies,” Susan says, “But humans have like a... the hips separate so the baby’s head can fit through, and I felt that happening to my hips, and... yeah you can’t even walk when they’re... coming out. I was basically a baby birthing machine at that point. It was wild.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to get pregnant?” I ask her.

Blushing, Susan says, “W-well I was just saying because you all are gonna, I mean maybe gonna have to do that. So just don’t get scared when nothing happens, it’ll be... uh... cool when it does.”

“Ponies are quadrupeds anyway,” the unicorn filly says down there beside Susan, “That helps with birth. Bipedal, um... ness only evolved recently, so giving birth is still catching up.”

“Foals still have huge heads, if you’re any indication,” Susan says, looking down at the light blue unicorn filly in amusement.

“Oh,” the filly replies, looking down, “Well it just sounded like fun, even if I used to be a...”

The filly just falls silent at that.

“I dunno why we’re talking about this,” Strider says unhappily, “I’m not doing anything baby related with you, and you don’t want to get pregnant.”

“W-well I wouldn’t say I...” Susan full on blushes, saying, “I mean I do want to—I–I have wanted to get pregnant, even as a pony, e-even as a human, but I just use the memory of how much it hurt, so I wouldn’t do... what Blaze did in front of a stallion.”

“Yeah, I think I get what you’re saying,” he says, turning the other way with a sigh. “I’ll try not to... do that to you.”

“T-thanks...” Susan says, her voice heavy with disappointment and her ears going down.

“Hey, it’s not like you have to be pregnant, to be happy,” Candy says appeasingly, ambling up to Susan, “The danger’s passed, so let’s just not worry about it for now, and do something else instead.”

“Like what?” Susan asks, giving Candy a half-sided reserved look.

“Like, maybe we should... get to know each other,” Candy says with a nervous smile, “So... tell us a little about yourself?”

“W-well my name’s Susan,” the brown and blue mare replies, relaxing a little, “And I was at Bronycon to buy some plushes, and... yeah. I’m an administrative assistant, usually. Uh, earth pony heh heh. Any... questions?”

“Where’s your kid?” Blaze asks curiously.

Susan’s ears go down at that. “Oh, yeah, that was... I was sixteen when it happened, so there really was no way it was gonna work out. I had to give them up for adoption.”

“Oh, sorry,” Blaze says, tail going low as she looks away.

“It’s alright, I mean it kind of sucked, but it was a learning experience,” Susan says with a weak smile, “Did you know you still have to be their parent for like a whole year, before you can even put them up for adoption?”

“Really? Why’s that?” Candy asks innocently enough, though Susan hesitates before answering.

“I had to get the... baby on solid food first,” Susan replies testily, “So just y’know, nursing. But you still have to put them to bed, and deal with all the crying, and... I kind of had to retake my sophomore year of high school.” She rolls her eyes, saying, “The way some people acted about it, they made you think you could just drop them off at the orphanage as soon as they’re out.”

“Well I sure hadn’t even thought about that,” Blaze exclaims in astonishment, “You’re right, all they ever show on TV is the mother leaving the baby in a basket.”

“I sure didn’t leave him in a basket,” Susan says with a wince.

“Did you ever reunite with him?” I ask thoughtfully, “They didn’t try to keep you from finding him, did they?”

“No, they...” Susan gives me a look, “I mean, yes, they seal the records and stuff. I dunno I just... dropped him off, and that was that.”

“But you weren’t sad for... for being forced to leave your child behind?” I ask, scrunching in confusion, as none of what I’m saying seems to be striking a chord with her.

“It was my idea!” Susan protests, “I mean my parents helped, but... what’s wrong with putting your child up for adoption?”

Everyone’s kind of at a loss to answer that.

Shrinking back against the side of the trailer, Susan says, “Look, I know I–I know people get all upset about it, but I was sixteen and I knew I couldn’t handle it. I just... the kid just sort of came out of me! Doesn’t mean I have some God given right to, I mean I guess depending on your religion, but. I was sad yeah, but it’s better for him now that he’s got real parents, and I wasn’t that sad.”

“I didn’t think it was possible!” I declare in wonder, “I never saw anyone just... give up their child.”

“It sounds bad when you say it that way,” Susan says, flicking her tail irritably at me.

“No, no I mean it’s good,” I assure her, “Just surprising. I didn’t even think it was an option. All I ever saw of adoption was in... movies, really.”

“Everything you ever learned about people was in movies, Meadowsweet,” Lucy says with a wry ear tilt.

“Hey, what else was I supposed to learn from?” I ask her, pouting offendedly.

“Your friends?” she suggests.

“You mean... Nick?” I reply in mild confusion.

I don’t think she’s the only one giving me a look.

“He can’t have been the only friend you ever had,” Lucy says, tilting her head in wary confusion, “...right?”

“I um... yes?” I reply, still confused. “I wasn’t exactly popular in school?”

“You had no friends. At all.” she says flatly.

“I... knew... people?” I tell her, “Nick’s friends um... well they mostly moved away for college, and some kids I hung around at lunch, but I don’t think I knew anyone who really... liked me?”

Blushing, I add, “N-not that I’m unlikable or anything, it’s just I’m not very... interesting, I guess? I had a friend named Michael once, but uh, that was elementary school. Haven’t seen him since.”

“Meadowsweet, you’re one of the nicest people I’ve ever met,” Holly says in her sweeter voice than mine. “You sound like you were alone, all the time.”

“Well... Nick... I mean, I w-worked at a convenience store, but y’know. Nobody really... talks to you...” I say, shrinking back against Holly’s worry and concern.

Shaking her head slowly, my bat pony best friend says, “I just can’t believe you didn’t have a ton of friends, when you were still a—”

She almost says guy.

“...human.”

I’m the one who just doesn’t get it though. Why would anyone think I had a ton of friends? A bit defensively, I ask my red and green bat pony friend, “Did you have a ton of friends, Holly?”

“I had... friends,” Holly says, glancing aside. Sue’s looking at both of us with concern, I fear, and everyone in general is pretty quiet when me and Holly have to... reveal things. I hope we’re not disturbing anyone. “My coworkers mostly, but some of them were friendly,” Holly continues, “We’d go out to lunch, and talk about... work and stuff.”

“What did you talk about?” I prompt curiously, “Stuff about... advising corporations, and investments and stuff?”

She laughs, saying, “Mostly about Sue, actually. All the guys wanted to know when I was going to pop the question.”

“You were gonna marry her?” I ask in astonishment.

“No!” Sue declares irritably, butting in, “No they just kept giving him a hard time about it.”

“It’s okay, they were all getting... married,” Holly says, with a shy blush, “We just didn’t really... want to... yet.”

“My fault really,” Sue says glumly, “I just... I mean it’s so weird. You’re in your twenties and everyone wants you to be pregnant, and all you’re thinking is ‘I’m just this girl!’ Like how could I just... do that?”

“Oh, you were a girl?” Blaze asks Sue, sounding very surprised.

“I make a pretty good guy, huh,” Sue says with a sloppy grin, “But yeah, my parents didn’t name me Susan just to make fun of me.”

“My parents did,” Susan remarks, waving a foreleg. A beat and she grins saying, “Nah I’m just kidding. It’s a nice name.”

“I probably should pick a new one, eh,” Sue says, swishing his tail uncertainly, “Doesn’t seem as big of a deal to be a guy with a girl’s name though. It’s definitely been an experience turning into a guy, and uh...” he looks Lucy’s way, “Being a guy and stuff.”

“I stayed a guy, thankfully,” Strider says, sounding a bit weirded out even to say that, “I can’t even imagine just... switching like that.”

“It’s... weird,” I admit, “But it’s not that different really. You just start wanting different things, that feel good ...differently.”

“An innie instead of an outie,” Lucy offers teasingly.

“You can’t even imagine?” the other bat pony named Candy says, looking at Strider with offended concern.

“Oh, uh, sorry Candy yeah I mean... it’s just me I can’t imagine,” Strider says, blushing and taking a step back from the batpony, “You make an amazing uh, girl.”

“Yeah, well you’re the worst boyfriend ever,” Candy pouts grumpily, standing up from where she was laying together with Blaze, “I don’t even know why I’m going along with it. I should be furious!”

“Well, lucky for me?” Strider says, staring up at the ceiling in the important business of toeing the ground.

“Did you ever... do it in a girl?” Blaze asks excitedly, following Candy up to a standing position, to address the grumpy bat pony, “Like, when you were a guy?”

“I... of course I did!” Candy says, a little off guard at Blaze’s interest. “I had normal relationships. A few, even! Just hadn’t... found the right...” she looks at Strider with insecurity.

“Did you ever... m-make your girlfriends... pregnant?” Blaze adds nervously. Candy turns to look back at her.

“No...” Candy says in cautious appraisal of the orange earth pony, “Well, yes in theory, but I knew she was on the pill.”

“Would you, even if she wasn’t?” Blaze asks, squinting at Candy a little... challengingly.

Surprisingly, Candy only looks apologetic at that, tail shrugging and saying, “When you’re... with a girl, you have to be really careful. Once a guy gets started, he’s gonna want to finish. Like, really bad.” The jilted mare looks to Strider then, saying, “That’s how I knew how you felt, when you...” she gestures vaguely in Blaze’s vicinity. “It makes you want it, especially after you’re inside.”

“It’s still no excuse,” Strider says, pouting. “I don’t know what I was thinking. I just got so...”

“It’s okay, it was my fault too,” Blaze says, stepping towards him.

“Honestly,” Candy says, drawing Blaze’s attention, “It’s not like you did anything wrong. I was just lucky enough to run into him... first.”

“How’d you meet?” Blaze asks curiously, “Just at the Bronycon?”

“How’d we meet, or how did we meet meet?” Candy replies warily.

The orange earth pony just looks at her in confusion.

“We...” Candy blushes, looking away in aggravation, “Met at the holding area, where the government moved us because they didn’t want a quarantine in the middle of Baltimore.”

“Oh, uh... yeah I didn’t...” Blaze says quietly, but she stops looking away, asking, “A-anyway, so you just... said hi?”

“I said hi,” Strider offers, standing beside the two, “Candy was a little busy freaking out at being a girl and stuff.”

Candy doesn’t protest that, but she doesn’t say anything to support it either.

“I told her it was no big deal,” Strider continues, “And how different it was that we were actually ponies. She shouldn’t care if she was a girl or not.”

“I... did care, obviously,” Candy says cautiously, “I mean I y’know, wanted him... like a girl. Um...”

“Took a while, but you were really wanting it by the time we got to the place where Twilight Sparkle took us,” Strider says, “And it was after I trained with Twilight one day, you just thought you were saying some bad jokes like if I really thought you were a girl I’d do something stupid like ask you out.”

“And you asked if I was interested in that stuff,” Candy says, fidgeting on her hooves, “Like you were all surprised. So I kind of told you how I’d been feeling it more and more, like...” She glances at the rest of us, then looks at Blaze and says shakily, “A-and then I just lifted my tail for him and... it happened.”

“I didn’t know any boys once I got to the farm,” Blaze says bemusedly, “I don’t think there’s any way that could’ve ever happened for... me.”

“Well, it happened for you now,” Candy says with a warm smile. Her smile falters then, as she blinks, ears flopped. “A-and I’m glad!” she says in surprise, “He just... did you like that, because if he hadn’t, you would never even have had a chance. I just randomly got lucky and...”

“Now you don’t have to feel bad, because I didn’t had a chance?” Blaze suggests.

Candy nods faintly.

“What were you training with Twilight about?” the unicorn filly asks the stallion curiously, then scrunches and adds, “I mean I know you were mostly thinking about having sex and stuff, but besides that?”

“That day, it was just resonance,” Strider says, looking up at his own horn, “Sort of a thing where you pass the magic around, like a wave or something, just to try to get used to connecting with each other uhh magically. It’s... kind of hard to describe.”

“It beats what I was doing,” Candy says, rolling her eyes, “We were barely allowed to fly, back then!”

“Twilight said people would find us if we flew,” Holly says looking haunted, “I really did think the whole world was just gonna... kill us for being ponies.”

“After Twilight left, we got plenty of chances to fly,” Candy says pragmatically.

“Yeah,” Holly agrees with a smile, “Not to mention learn how to sit on clouds!”

“There’s a trick to it?” I ask curiously.

“Ye...no,” Holly replies cautiously, “It’s only a little treacherous if you fall asleep when the cloud is evaporating.”

“That makes sense,” I cautiously agree. “So bat ponies can sit on clouds too, just like the pegasi?”

“Bat ponies can sit on clouds, but pegasus wings are just amazing for shaping them,” Candy says with a note of deep respect, “They have this... thing that... did you know they can move all their feathers individually?”

“Yeah I had a um... pegasus friend,” I reply, thinking back about how Brian was moving her wings, while I just stood there being an envious horse. Then I blush and add, “N-not in that way, I mean. I’m just talking about Brian. I think she’s in one of the pickup trucks.”

“Even fillies can do it!” the pegasus filly says, extending her teeny little wing and wiggling it so that the line of feathers ripples like a wave, “It’s not like a hand at all though.”

“Really?” I ask curiously, squinting at her extended purple wing, which looks sorta like a hand?

“Yeah, it... see, these are just feathers,” she says, folding the uhm “fingers” of the wing back up against the top of it, “My actual hand is just... pointing all the time.”

“I... really can’t see it, sorry,” I say, peering at her wing in puzzlement, “It must be really weird.”

“Not any weirder than hooves,” she says seriously, looking up at me, “Or being a girl.”

“Or having a tail,” Susan points out, switching her own deep blue tail behind her.

On our journey, we have a little bit more of an opportunity to move around once we take a rest break. Apparently it’s going to take two days to get to wherever... this secret location is that we’re going. I could ask some of the military personnel where it is, but... I really don’t need to bother them, I can just go check on my friends and not talk to any of the... humans, or the serious looking ponies that totally aren’t connected with those guys who put me in that... place, but who cares, because I’m just talking to my friends, anyway!

“Brian!” I say trotting up to her once I spot the green pegasus mare with the blue mane. “How’re you doing so far?”

“How about yourself? Anything exciting happen in that trailer?” she asks teasingly.

“Uhhhhhhhhhhhh” I reply intelligently.

“Oh, I... I see,” she says, eyes widening as she sniffs at the scent I inadvertently dragged with me out of the trailer. “That’s right, you and Sue and... his other mare went in the same trailer.”

“Oh it wasn’t him, actually,” I tell her in surprise, “It was the other guy, and this... other mare, who... I–I guess it’s kind of private.”

“No, no you’re right, sorry,” Brian says, turning her nose down abashedly. She looks up though, and says wistfully, “I wish I had the guts to just do it in public. They just started...? No, no sorry,” she looks away again.

“Y-yeah basically,” I say, unsure of what I even should say in this sort of situation, “You know how we can uh, smell, so when she lifted her tail... he just... climbed right on.”

“And you’re all totally cool with this?” Brian asks cautiously.

“Well they didn’t ask or anything,” I reply testily, “They just started doing it, and nobody was protesting. It was really... wild.”

“We’re just so used to being human, being able to conceal our ovulation,” she says, tail lowering. “It’s pretty obvious when I’m... receptive.”

“So... pregnant then?” I ask bleakly.

“Yeah,” she says, toeing the ground.

“Who with?” I ask worriedly.

Brian does nothing to assuage my worries, saying, “I don’t really wanna talk about it. We don’t have to talk about that stuff all the time.” She has a point though. Hmm...

“Oh, there is one other thing I wanted to talk to you about!” I say as it occurs to me, happy for at least a diversion. “A filly was trying to tell me about her wings; you might be able to help actually. She said they’re always pointing?”

A surprised laugh bursts out of Brian at that. “Heh...” she concludes, giving me a bemused look, “You know, I never thought of it that way!”

“What’d she mean?” I ask, sitting on my haunches and holding up a foreleg in a vague wing... feather shape. I would lose at charades. “I just don’t get how feathers aren’t like the... fingers of your hand?”

“They are and aren’t, I suppose,” she says enigmatically, “My feathers—the feathers rather, are the most mobile part of my wing. Just like fingers of a hand. I uh... have no idea how they’re the most mobile part but...” She spreads a graceful green wing, and stretches the big feathers out all like fingery things, “It’s a decent analogy,” she concludes uncertainly.

“Then why did that pegasus filly say they weren’t like fingers?” I ask.

“Because they aren’t,” Brian replies simply. Turning sideways and stretching her broad green feathery wing out in front of me, Brian says, “Here, feel the top edge of my wing.”

Uh.

“...with my mouth?” I ask leerily.

“Uh—yeah, I guess,” she blushes, partially folding her wing before extending it again, “R-right you have to do stuff with your... I mean we have to do stuff with our mouths now.”

“I could touch it with my hoof but you know,” I say reservedly, “Can’t feel things with it as much.”

“Yeah, it’s just weird,” Brian says, redfaced, “And it’s not sexual or anything just weird but go ahead.”

I cautiously nose at the top part of her wing, looking at her out of the side of my face as I take an experimental nibble. She’s not freaking out at least, and her wing is kind of... plump and fleshy on the top.

“Okay, now... you see at the very tip,” Brian instructs tensely, “Where it stops being fleshy, and puts out a pinion? Er, a big feather? It looks like it’s part of my arm, but it’s just the edge of a feather.”

I nose at the edge of her outermost feather, saying, “Oh, so your whole hand is just... half the top part?”

“Ever see a chicken wing?” she asks. Blushing a little at that, she clarifies, “Well stick a bunch of big feathers on that and you have a bird wing. Mine’s not exactly like that, but it’s still a sorta v-shaped arm with a... pointy hand, that’s always pointing. See how it sort of... points over my feathers? They fan out below it, like this.”

She stretches out her feathers again, then leaving her wing spread, she folds the outermost ones up under her wing... arms like the filly did. “Oh, your feathers are a folding and unfolding fan, underneath your wing. That makes sense!” I declare in delight.

“The weird thing is I can do stuff like...” Brian lifts each feather in her wing like piano keys, “That or like...” Brian crosses her feathers over each other, “That or like...” She turns her entire wing upside down somehow, lifts a single feather in it, then... bends that feather down somehow, until it springs back straight.

“Plus I can feel stuff with my feathers,” she adds, “I should only be able to feel pressure with them, not temperature, or texture. Like uh... do your mouth thing on this big feather here, but don’t pull on it be careful.”

I uh, do so, and once I’m mouthing the tip of her feather, Brian says, “Your mouth feels warm and... not as wet as I’d expect. But I guess we stop salivating when we’re carrying something.”

“Plus I sort of bite on my lips to grab something,” I specify, upon releasing the primary feather, “So those aren’t exactly the inside of my mouth. Not sure if you’re supposed to do that.”

“Anyway the point is I should only be able to feel the pull of you tugging at my feather,” she explains, “There aren’t any blood vessels in my feather, and without blood vessels, there can’t be any nerve endings. But I can even feel when a cold breeze touches only my feathers, or the wetness of a cloud they brush. Magic is the only explanation I can come up with, which means I can’t come up with any explanation at all.”

“So... your fingers are always pointing like...” I hold my foreleg up to match with the top edge of her wing, pointing the hoof outward, “Like this, but your feathers have an extra special role, the way fingers do on a human hand?”

“That about sums it up,” Brian nods, folding her wing, “That and I have wings. Y’know:” she squats holding up her forelegs, saying, “Arms,” then touches her haunches with them saying, “Legs,” and finally spreads her wings, concluding, “Wings.”

“They are kind of an addition, instead of replacing your arms or legs,” I have to admit.

“They replace the arms in birds, and they kind of feel like arms to me,” Brian says, “But it’s like I woke up one day with four arms, two pairs of arms, except that one of the pairs I feel like walking on, like legs.”

“And I thought tails were confusing!” I say in astonishment, “How do you even wrap your head around that?”

“I can’t imagine only having four limbs at this point,” Brian says, shaking her head in disbelief, “That’s why I’m so... not sure any of our humanity is left. There’s no way this stuff would feel natural to a human.”

“A tail’s not that bad,” I say, curling mine up to look at it, “It’s outright normal compared to your wings.”

Brian perks up at that, saying, “Oh, really? ”

“Huh?” I reply intelligently as Brian stalks around slinkily, and takes the tip of my green curlish tail in her mouth.

“Are you... making a joke?” I say in confusion while my hair gets soaked in the icky saliva of a mare treating the strands as if they were a mouthful of succulent grass. It’s a very close resemblance.

Brian spits out my green tail then, saying, “Okay, I cheated a little by being extra messy with it, but my mouth sure was wet, wasn’t it?”

“Uh... yeah?” I say, curling my tail away from that mouth warily.

“You could... feel how wet my mouth was,” she prompts cautiously.

“My tail will dry out,” I tell her appeasingly, “I don’t mind, but why—”

“There are no nerve endings in your tail,” she asserts impatiently, “You’ve got your dock, and then just long hair. How can your tail feel wet, when the only part of it that got slobbered on is just hair?”

I take another look at my tail.

“And how are you curling it like that?” she adds, “There’s no muscle attached to that hair. You have to be just... moving it by magic.”

I flick the tip of my tail, feeling like going and finding some way to clean it off, even if Brian’s mouth is probably cleaner than anything else my tail’s gotten into lately. I nibble at my tail myself, and it’s just hair in my lips. I flick the tip again. It’s just... hair that I can move. And feel.

“That’s how my feathers feel,” Brian asserts definitively.

...

Well, at least inside this trailer things are going well and not causing severe existential anxiety. After our first rest stop, things are still really comfortable, even between me and the complete strangers who... made a baby right next to me. With everyone’s company, I relax a little bit, and stop feeling like my own tail is stalking me.

While we’re underway and headed down the road to an unknown destination, we tell each other stories about our lives before the transformation, and after it too. Apparently Blaze really didn’t have any friends back at the barn, so putting her in with Strider’s herd—uh—group is a godsend for her, not just for the sex aspect of it. She’s really sweet when she knows there are people who actually like her.

Someone tells an absolutely awful joke at one point, and we all laugh. Then Lucy starts, “...We’re Apples forever, Apples together~♫”

It’s an easy one, for bronies at least. Okay no it’s an easy one, for bronies, who happened to have turned into ponies who are stupidly good at singing. Each of us ends up having to think up our own verse, but it’s... so obvious. I know I couldn’t’ve thought of rhymes like that to save my life when I was human, but I can’t even imagine how I’d find something like this difficult. My verse is:

We have ups and downs, we have smiles we have frowns
But the one thing we plainly see
We’re closer than ever when we sing together
The bumps in the road bring you to me.

Everyone just naturally goes into harmony during the chorus. Pony magic, I guess. It just sort of happens that way, you sing the notes that... harmonize with everyone else. It’s just amazing to be part of that, to feel the song swell within you, and join with the others so wonderfully. It’s a powerful feeling, as pony feelings naturally are I suppose, but I can even see turning down a chance to have sex if we can sing like this. I’m almost absolutely sure I couldn’t have sung this at all before I had a pony brain, and Brian’s worries be damned, that is kind of cool!

Also somehow by the third chorus it becomes “Ponies to the Core.

Author's Notes:

Hair magic is canon.