Ivan yawned as he dragged his hooves along the pavement, following Father Nazar.
The priest tucked his hands into his grey jacket’s pockets. His head hunched over a little more as a gull flew overhead.
Katna trotted beside Nazar. Her head swayed and bobbed as she hummed with a smile on her face.
Ivan winced as the sunlight poked out between the skyscrapers and his breath fogged his vision with each exhalation. His skin tingled as a clip from his bag brushed against his barrel, spreading a shiver over him that left him shaking his head to clear the daze. His nostrils flared out, and he smiled at the fresh odor of running, untreated water. They were getting close to the river.
Raising his head Ivan looked around at the metallic façades of the buildings. Every few seconds a doorway spat out a person trekking down the road, their heads hunched over with their hands shoved into their pockets. A few cars drifted along the pavement, crawling around corners back out of sight.
The coast loomed on the opposite side of a highway as they walked towards a set of traffic lights. They stopped, waiting for the signal to change.
“Almost everybody is still inside,” said Katna.
Father Nazar nodded. “They’ll start coming out soon enough.”
The signal switched from a red palm to a white man walking. They crossed a highway along the river shore and then a bridge, which led them to a dirt road winding down a thin peninsula that jutted into the river. A plume of dust rose in their wake, and Ivan looked back to the looming buildings and the thrum of vehicles zooming along the highway.
He looked ahead and saw a boat, a line of scum caking its underside as it heaved atop the waves. A man in green wading pants stood in the boat, waving, and Ivan gulped as they approached.
The man was waving with his left—and only—arm.
Father Nazar picked up his pace, heading for the shoreline and leaving Ivan and Katna to sit on the dusty trail. "Gleb!" he exclaimed, throwing his arms wide open.
'Gleb' gripped the boat's side and vaulted over it into the water with a splash. He waded to the shore and his feet broke the surface again with a spray of muddy flecks of water. He threw his arm around Father Nazar, who returned the hug.
Ivan tilted his head, listening in on the hushed exchange between the two men.
"Yeah! It’s great to see ya again, Father," said Gleb.
"Likewise, my friend." Nazar ran a hand through Gleb's blond hair, pushing the young man’s red beanie askew. Nazar patted him on the back. "Did you make your delivery yet?"
Gleb nodded, pulling out of the priest's embrace and adjusting his beanie back into place. He pointed his thumb back to his boat. "Two months worth of medicine, and no troubles travelling the river." He flicked a lock of hair sticking out from underneath his beanie.
"This is good, and I will pray for continued safe travels." Stepping to the side, Father Nazar swept a hand towards Katna and Ivan. "For you and for them."
Inclining his head towards the foals, Gleb asked. "Is that them? I was expecting adults."
"No, two foals, looking to reach Crimea," Father Nazar said.
"Crimea..." Gleb nodded, taking a long stride toward the ponies. He swung his arm in front of him, stopping it mid-swing as though grasping at some object. He turned briefly to Father Nazar. "Not Nova?"
Nazar Shook his head. "Not Nova Kakhovka, no, but I sincerely hope they decide to stay there instead."
"What's at Kakhovka?" asked Katna.
Gleb raised his eyebrows, smirking at Father Nazar. "Didn't bother telling them what's there?" He shook his head, chuckling as he stepped closer to Katna and Ivan. "Nova Kakhovka was a very small town down the river quite some ways. It was abandoned, and eventually reclaimed by the government. Then, about a decade later, some people bought the land to try farming it... now, with ponification, it's about…” Gleb wiggled one finger, then a second finger. “It’s about two thousand ponies in and around it, drawn in from the entire country."
Katna was aghast. "Is there really a town full of ponies there?"
Gleb smiled. "Absolutely, as sure as there is a horn on your head."
She turned to Ivan, her face bright. "A town of ponies! Do you think any of them would be able to take us in? I could continue learning magic! A-and you could learn to fly!"
Ivan gulped and looked down the peninsula they stood on... "Well... if they'd take us in..."
Katna stomped her hooves into the ground and sent a pebble bouncing across it into the river. "We have to look when we get there! I mean, with so many adults, there'd have to be someone!"
Continuing to nod, Ivan stood up. "Okay, we’ll see if it’s even possible to stay."
Pressing herself against Ivan Katna rubbed her head against his neck. "Oh, this will be wonderful!"
Extending his hand towards the foals, Gleb bent over double. "Yeah, a whole town of ponies. Brought a few of them there myself over the last three years..." He wiggled his fingers. "Hi. I'm Gleb, though I'm sure Father Nazar told you that already."
Ivan placed his hoof in Gleb's palm and shook it. "Ivan."
"Katna," his sister replied. "It will be nice to not have to walk for a while," she said.
Gleb reached over to Katna and tried tousling her mane. She flinched back, her horn smacking against his hand.
"Sorry," she said quickly, “I brushed my mane this morning.”
"It's fine," replied Gleb straightening out and rolling his shoulders. He held his hand in front of him and flexed it. “Just be careful, I don’t have a spare.”
Ivan stared at the missing limb before noticing that Gleb had started staring right back at him. "If you take off your bags I can put them on the boat," said the young man.
There was a high-pitched ‘squee’ and the immediate unclasping of Katna's buckles, followed promptly by her bag sliding off her back and hitting the dust. She grunted as the glow from her horn faded and the bag fell over on its side, pinning her tail. Katna grinned, pulling away from the bag to dislodge her tail. "Yes, please!"
Gleb bent over and grabbed the bag, then marched back into the water to place it inside his boat.
Ivan bent his neck to clamp down on one set of buckles with his teeth, while undoing the second set with his hooves. He shrugged off the bag, then waited for Gleb to take it.
Looking to Father Nazar Ivan said, “Um, thank you for helping us… even though we’re ponies.”
Father Nazar bent over and patted the side of Ivan’s neck. “I know to show kindness to all my neighbours, and surely if you have spent so long taking care of your sister on the road, then there is no reason for me to suspect that you do not have the image of God in your soul.”
Pulling back Ivan inclined his head to Father Nazar. “Again, thank you.”
"Alright!" said Gleb as he returned to the shore. "Bags are loaded, anything else?"
Father Nazar's eyes widened as he took a step to the shore, reaching into his pants’ pocket. "Ah! Gleb, I have to ask, do you still have that solar-charger?"
"Of course," Gleb replied, starting to move back to the boat. "Did ya need it?"
"No," he said, pulling out his phone and nodding towards Katna and Ivan. "But they will. They are still trying to learn things... their... situation left them without guidance. They should be able to find what they need with this." Father Nazar leaned forward, whispering. "And if something should happen if they decide to travel further, they can call for aid from the police."
Ivan snorted.
Father Nazar turned to look at Ivan, handing the phone to Gleb. The colt snorted again then coughed. "Ah, uhm, sorry, just, there's something strong-smelling in the water."
Ivan looked at the water separating them from the boat. Gleb waded back to the shore and bent over in front of Ivan. "Come here, wrap your hooves around my neck, I'll carry you."
Ivan complied. Gleb stood, grunting profusely. "Oh man! You're big for not knowing how to fly! What did Nazar feed you? Bricks?" he commented stepping back into the water. He reached his arm back and pushed up against Ivan's bottom, keeping the colt in place. He hobbled forward, breathing deeply as he reached the boat. Ivan hopped in to a final groan from Gleb.
Turning back around, Ivan's ears wilted. "Sorry, I should have just waded in..."
"Nah, you'd have gotten water in the boat and it would have taken forever to dry." Gleb gasped, clutching his side. "Oh man, Miss Turkovitz didn't like that one."
"Who?" Ivan asked.
"Nobody important, just... whew!" Gleb straightened out then went back for Katna. "Now, little lady, promise me you don't weigh as much as Gigantor back there?" he asked, earning a giggle from Katna. She shook her head, and mounted Gleb in the same way Ivan did. Gleb made his way to the boat, pink filly hanging off of him like a backpack.
Father Nazar waved from the shoreline. "Safe travels to you three, may God keep you!" he called.
Gleb placed Katna in the boat then waved back. "You too, Father! Make sure there's still a place for me to come back to in a week!"
Laughing Father Nazar put his hands back into his pockets. "Don't worry! I'm careful with the candles!"
Hoisting himself into the boat with a wet slosh Gleb got in and dribbled water into the boat. He walked over to the front, sat in the lone seat and turned the key in the ignition. The engine thrummed to life and he nodded. "Ah, nothing like an engine starting with a purr." He slapped the dash in front of him and, working a few pedals, got the boat to roll forward amongst the waves.
Gleb turned back, looking at Ivan. "So, something nasty-smelling in the water? Smells the same as it usually does to me."
Ivan shook his head. "It was something near the shore... So, candles?"
Grinning Gleb looked back at the river as they pulled past the peninsula. "Yeah, once knocked over a candle and set some drapes on fire in the church by accident."
Nodding Ivan looked at the empty sleeve hanging limp from Gleb's right side. He bit his tongue and looked back to the city, counting off the cars passing along the highway.
"What happened to your arm?" asked Katna.
Ivan's ears wilted and he winced. A hoof drew up to his face, and he planted his muzzle in it.
Gleb glanced back, then looked to his right. "Oh, that... that's a long story."
"How long is the trip?" asked Katna.
"Heh, do you really want to waste all my interesting stories in the first day?"
Katna shrugged. "Fair enough."
"Ah, that reminds me though." Gleb reached into his pocket, leaving the steering wheel to turn the boat with the waves. Ivan's ears perked up and he scrambled on his hooves to make his way to the front. Gleb pulled out the phone and held it in front of Ivan. "Father Nazar wanted you to have this. If it runs out, I have a charger."
Ivan nodded, eyes wide. "Steer please!" he said, gripping the phone in his mouth and turning to head back to Katna as the boat drifted off course.
The boat veered back to a straight line as Gleb corrected its course. Ivan placed the phone on the bench next to Katna. She hooved at the screen, which came to life. She pressed her hoof to the icons and seven applications opened up in sequence.
"Uh..." Katna's ears folded over. "Hold on..." Her horn glowed, wrapping her magic around the phone and holding it aloft. The field petered out and the phone dropped back on the bench. She wobbled over to the side of the boat and hung her head over the side. "Ugh... what was that?" she asked.
Ivan's ears perked along with his eyebrows and he joined Katna at the side of the boat. "What's wrong?"
"I was... I was holding the phone in my magic, and... Well, holding it feels like... you have this big squishy arm that feels everything in that object... W-when I..." Katna wretched, heaving a stream of chunky white fluid over into the river. Ivan patted her on the back, and she broke into a cough as her body stopped quaking. "Oh... goodness. That... When..." Katna pulled away from the edge of the boat, then leaned over again to spit into the river.
"You okay back there?" asked Gleb.
Lifting her head up Katna nodded. "Okay... I'm fine, I'm not sick with anything... just really dizzy..."
Ivan's ears flicked about as he kept staring at Katna.
"Umm... yeah, so when I 'gripped' the screen... I 'felt' the screen cave in a little, and then touch something else. Then there was... this energy that just erupted along the screen... I think it was electricity?" Katna gulped nodding to the phone. "L-let's try that again!" she said.
Her horn glowed and her magic wrapped around the phone a second time. It looked exactly the same as it did before, but without the subsequent vomit-trip made by Katna. "Okay... I think..." The phone beeped, opening it’s panel. "Alright! So I just have to apply pressure on the screen when I want to select something. Close those down... Okay... Still feel... okay. Ivan? Are you feeling anything when I push buttons?
Ivan raised his eyebrows. “Why should I feel something?”
Katna tutted. “Ivan, you're a pegasus. Pegasi manipulate lightning. Lightning is electricity."
He shook his head. "No... not getting anything. Are you sure you're not sick?"
She laughed. "What? No! I'm just... I feel the electric current passing through the phone."
Ivan tilted his head, squinting his eyes and smiling. "You're weird."
Sticking out her tongue, Katna blew a raspberry. "Jealous!"
"W-what!?" exclaimed Ivan. "There is little you could do that would leave me jealous," he said, scoffing.
Rolling her eyes Katna continued onto the Internet and, finding the guidebooks on magic again, her lips tugged upward at the corners.
Katna's heart pounded as she scrolled through the guides’ titles, each link a passage to some little extra thing she and Ivan had gained a month ago. Her magic: picking up ten objects from across the room, carving a name into the side of a needle, teleporting, turning lead into gold. Katna leaned back, resting her head on the boat's hull as she pressed the phone to her chest. She breathed out shakily, staring up at the sky. And Ivan, Ivan would be able to fly far and fast and manipulate the weather.
Katna went back to the list of titles smiling as she scrolled through them.
"So... Ivan?" asked Gleb, turning in his seat to look back.
Katna squinted at a title, mouthing the words. "Mental Illness and Transformation." She pressed on the document, and started reading.
"What is it?" Ivan responded.
"You and Katna... where are you from?"
"Pavlohrad," answered Ivan.
Katna frowned shaking her head. That was wrong, she had seen the maps herself as they walked. The lakes and forests and towns. To say nothing of the time spent at the orphanages. They were from Chernihiv. She shook her head again and continued scrolling through the document.
"Really?" Gleb asked. "I ah... I had an aunt that used to live there until a few years ago. Larisa?"
Ivan shook his head. "No... where did she live?"
"By the west end, near the forest," Gleb replied.
"Oh, that must be why. Katna and I were really more in the middle." Ivan reached over and touched her shoulder. "Isn't that right Katna?"
Katna folded her legs against her, shrugged, and grunted.
Ivan pulled his hoof back and frowned. "So yeah, we were right in the middle of the town..."
Katna folded her ears against her head, continuing to scroll through the document, eyes glazed over in a haze as a list of incomprehensible gibberish and statistics rolled over her vision.
"With a fresh brain and endocrine system, many psychiatric disorders enter remission, including clinical depression, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's, drug addictions, and others related to chemical imbalances in the brain. However, disorders caused typically through environmental or social factors may persist, including narcissism, pathological lying..."
Katna looked up at Ivan.
"So yes, we managed to get a ride to the main highway, and were dropped off just at the edge of the river. We were going to walk straight through the city, but I saw the church and convinced Katna..."
Katna gulped, closing the site and entering in the letters for her new search 'pathological lying'. She hit the first result and started reading. Eyes working down the explanation and symptoms, she gulped again, eyes darting between the screen and Ivan. Her sides heaved out as she went further. Tears welled in her eyes as she gasped for a breath, closing the site and placing the phone beside her. She grimaced, scrunching up her face at the feeling of snakes writhing in the pit of her stomach. She bit her lip, holding her hooves over her ears, blocking out the rest of the conversation.
The conversation wasn't going to have anything real. Ivan needed help. She floated the phone over and opened up the site again.
"It is important that, should any problems persist, professional help be pursued."
Katna shut her eyes. Professional help, the kind Ivan kept telling her was dangerous.
Gleb rapped on the boat's dash twice, looking to Ivan as he turned the boat towards a dock. "Alright, I've got to go do something on the shore. Are you and your sis good to stay in the boat?"
Ivan looked at Katna, and she looked away. The squirming in her stomach gave way to the feeling of emptiness. "I could do with some grazing for lunch," she said.
Gleb grinned. "Grazing, right! That's good!"
The boat pulled up to the dock and Katna eyed the third-to-last plank, dangling broken into the water and bobbing up and down with the river. Up the dock, a small path stretched to a lonesome and sagged house covered in yellowing stucco. An awning fluttered over an open window, and a bicycle sat in the ground, wheels half-buried in the dirt. The dirt surrounding the bike formed the beginning of a path to the varnished wood door.
Gleb threw a rope around the post, tightened the cord, then walked past Katna and tucked a brown cardboard box under his arm. It rattled with the sound of plastic knocking against itself as he stepped onto the dock and towards the path.
Ivan hopped onto the dock and Katna followed him. Finding the boards wet against the bottom of her hooves, she lifted them extra high while walking until they reached the trail. Stepping onto the grass, Katna lowered her head and started eating. She looked upwards, eyeing Ivan as he ate as well.
"Ivan?"
"Mhmm?" Ivan lifted his head, swallowing a mouthful of grass.
"Why were you lying to Gleb?"
Ivan shook his head. "He doesn't need to know where we're from, but I couldn't just tell him no."
"Why tell him it was your idea to go into the church?" Katna pressed.
"It was my idea!" Ivan hissed.
Katna shook her head. "No, I suggested heading inside, that the bells would be quieter inside, that it would be warm. You said it would mean falling asleep hungry, and I accepted."
Ivan bobbed his head around, pursing his lips. "O-okay... I-it's not exactly that important of a detail... What?"
Katna shook her head taking a few steps away from Ivan and resuming her graze.
Looking out the corner of her eye Katna saw Gleb hand the box to a man in the doorway. His shirt was partially undone, and a white strip of raised flesh snaked down his chest. He nodded, and Katna's ears perked.
"Thank you... I-I always worry you're not going to be able to come. S-so I hold off on using the treatment so I'll have extra if there's a delay."
Gleb reached a hand to the man. "Mark, don't do that to yourself, man. You know? It ain’t healthy to skip out on this. What if something happened to you, then who'd take care of Katja?"
The man looked downward, grasping at his chest. "I... I d-don't know. You're right."
"One dose every five days, no scrimping." Gleb patted the man on the back and turned back, walking down the path towards Ivan and Katna. He twirled a finger in the air. "Alright, done, let's go!" he declared, stocking past them to the docks and boat.
Ivan and Katna followed suit, getting back onto the boat and sitting next to each other as Gleb cast off again. The engine sputtered on and the boat drifted away from the dock before Gleb steered it back into the main flow of the river.
"What kind of medicine are you delivering?" asked Katna. "And don't tell me it's a long trip."
Gleb let out a short chortle, shaking his head. "You're sharp, I'll give ya that... Go ahead and open one of the boxes."
Katna used her magic to peel off the tape from one of the boxes and opened the flaps. Reaching forth with her magic, she sensed a stack of pill bottles and floated one bottle out. She balanced it on an outstretched hoof, reading the white-on-red brand name. "Qu-Quatromas..." She floated it in front of Ivan. "Any idea what it is?"
"It's some kind of drug for augments… Umm… Let me think." Ivan reached a hoof to his head and rubbed it while squinting at the bottle. "The transition clinics used to run ads for this on the building screens… Something about preventing immune system complications? I haven't seen an ad for this since—"
"2048," Gleb finished. "The company was bought out by another, and they started gathering it and locking it up so they'd only sell the slightly more expensive one, Neophin. But luckily, yours truly has friends who can get a hold of that, and that way, I can give it to folks..."
"So you smuggle drugs," said Katna.
"And give it to folks who need it," answered Gleb. "Emphasis on give. That man back there? Chemical accident turned both his lungs into mush, got augmented with mechanical lungs. He can't exactly have them removed."
Katna looked down at the ground. "Oh... How are you able to get that drug?"
Gleb sighed. "Well... guess it would come up again... Seeing as how your brother told me all about what you've been through, might as well return the favor."
Katna winced.
"My arm?" started Gleb. "Used to have one, then I started getting involved in drugs. Hard ones. Ones that nobody should take. Drugs that will mess you up." He turned back to look at Ivan. "Don't ever do drugs, alright? It will mess you up, and it'll only hurt you and your sister. Understand?"
Ivan and Katna nodded.
“Okay...” said Katna, unsure why Gleb felt the need to talk like her brother and she were three years old.
"Good," said Gleb, "because I got lucky, and I don't want either of you getting involved because you think it will turn out as well for you... Pretty soon, I got involved in trafficking..." Gleb nodded to the box. "I can't go any further on the who, but that's where I met my suppliers that get me that stuff. But in trafficking, you've gotta have something to flex, show off that you can't be messed with. Used my money to get augmented... Then the money started getting less compared to the cost of doing business."
"Augment rejection, it's not pleasant. You start getting tremors, it's hard to think. Eventually I botched a job. I panicked and ran. That's when my boss came visiting." Gleb stared into the distance, head bobbing up and down with the waves. "She stabbed me—”
Katna gasped, then coughed and shifted on her seat.
Gleb continued. “I stumbled around, mind half-addled. Ended up being found by Father Nazar. He got me to a hospital, paid for that, even paid for my augment to be removed when I asked. Money was more available back then... not so much now. Been helping out like this ever since."
"Your boss," said Ivan, "the one that stabbed you." Ivan gulped, and Gleb turned to look at him. "Was it that Miss Turkowitz you mentioned?"
Gleb nodded, looking back ahead. "Yeah."
"What happened to her?" asked Katna.
"Nothing I want to talk about," he answered.
"Why no—" Katna was cut off by Ivan pressing a wing against her side. He shook his head, and Katna sighed, dropping the subject.
Katna and Ivan sat on the shore, watching as Gleb spread a blanket on the ground, followed by a sleeping bag beside it. Gleb stood up straight with a grunt, then walked to their beached boat, reached in over the side and pulled out a small shovel. He scraped off the top layer of grass and dirt in a small circle, then looked over to the copse of trees, then to the blue sky overhead.
“Say, weather’s been nice. I think we could find some dry wood over in those woods.” Gleb raised the shovel with his hand and pointed to a group of trees just a few hundred feet away.
Ivan stood up. “We’ll go find some.”
“You sure?” Gleb tossed his shovel down to the side.
Ivan nodded. “Of course, then while you make the fire we’ll have some time to graze.”
“Alright. So… Don’t wander too far off.”
Katna rose as her brother turned around. “We won’t,” she said. Turning around she trotted alongside her brother and floated out her phone. She turned it on, and then hastily closed the tabs on mental illness she had still open. She unzipped a side pocket of Ivan’s bag and took the time to float a stick into it.
“Thanks.” Ivan leaned over, unzipped one of Katna’s bags with his teeth and grabbed another stick to put in it. “Say, Katna, want to tell me what you’ve learned about Equestria while you’ve been reading? Or ponies?”
“Uh…” Katna looked about, grabbing another stick and placing it in her own bag. “Sure, what did you want to know?”
“How old is it?”
“About 3200 years,” said Katna. “But that’s when the tribes united: pegasus, earth pony and unicorn. It wasn’t until 3000 years or so ago that Princess Celestia and Luna started ruling over it.”
“Wait, Celestia and Luna, aren’t those the names of--”
“Equestria’s princesses…” Katna nodded and pursed her lips. “Old.”
“You took the words right out of my mouth. What were ponies like before Equestria?”
“The tribes lived separately, and things were pretty miserable…” Katna shuddered. “Pegasi controlled the weather, earth ponies grew food, and unicorns moved their sun and the moon to control day and night.”
“W-wait, moved the sun and moon? That can’t be right!” Ivan looked to Katna and shook his head.
“Well, that’s how it worked in Equestria before it appeared on Earth. The ponies moved the sun and moon, but eventually Celestia and Luna started doing that on their own.”
“Okay, that really can’t be right.” Ivan shook his head. “There’s got to be something more than that, you don’t just move the sun or the moon, let alone both.”
“Ivan.” Katna leaned over and rested her head on his flank as they passed a group of mushrooms inside a glen. “Equestria wasn’t like Earth before it came here. Maybe their sun was smaller and closer.”
“Well, alright.” Ivan collected another few sticks for the fire. “Uh… What other countries allow ponification?”
Katna flipped through her phone, she hadn’t thought of finding that out. “Hmmm…” Going through the first few links she found a straightforward answer on a forum. “The UN as of 2054 recognized 186 nations, 126 allow ponification in some form. However most have restrictions like only allowing it in medical emergencies, requiring psychological evaluation, or age of consent.”
“Guess we know which country we’re in.” Ivan smiled, and Katna giggled in response. Ivan’s smile faded.
Katna’s ears focused on him as she lifted a bundle of sticks into her bag. “Ivan, what is it? Another question?”
“Yeah… Nova Kakhovka has a lot of ponies, can you find anything out about that?”
“Okay!” Katna turned her attention to her phone as Ivan gathered more firewood, his ears trained on his sister. “Pony… town… Nope, just a website for an Equestrian town outside Canterlot. Pony, Earth, town… Hmmmm…”
Ivan glanced to Katna. “Hmmm?”
“The first result is about a community of transformed humans in South Africa, and the second page talks about it happening in other places… No, wait; it’s just comments to the news story. Huh, ‘Transit Towns: Friend or Foe, Facts and Figures’. This looks like a promising article.”
Turning her attention from the phone as the page loaded Katna pilfered a few more sticks from the ground. Glancing back to her phone she cleared her throat.
“Although the number of communities collectively referred to as ‘Transit Towns’ globally varies according to definition, the general consensus is that it is a town or part of a town within which a large number of ex-humans take residency. Typically located at the edge of a city and extending into rural areas, such communities have drawn the curiosity and condemnation of other residents.
“When asked why they chose to move to a new location, the most often cited reasons by the humans-turned-pony, sometimes called ‘cata-ponies’ after the means for transformation--trans-species morphic catalyst--, were better economic opportunities, easier access to those they’d met in preparatory classes, and avoiding social violence in their old homes.
“Between earth ponies’ ability to grow plants, mineral deposits and tame animals for resources, pegasi’s weather manipulation and flight for transportation and unicorns’ magic for tooling and manufacturing goods, such communities generally have the basic necessities of life given a sufficient population and a fair time-frame. Critics however call the tendency isolationist, speciesist, and a symptom that belies deeper societal issues.”
Katna’s eyes scanned over the next few pages on her phone. “Most of the rest goes into details: pegasus weather scheduling, pony participation in markets, concerns of housing regulations and zoning.”
“Sounds boring,” said Ivan.
“Yeah, well, we’ll have plenty of time to learn about where we’re going to live.”
“Uh huh, yeah, sure.” Ivan turned around and glanced at his stick-laden bags. “Hmmm… I think we have enough for a fire now.”
Katna pursed her lips. “Okay, head back to Gleb?” Ivan nodded and turned around. She trotted to keep up with him and they returned to Gleb’s camp a few feet from the shoreline.
Gleb walked over, grabbed a bundle of sticks from Ivan and Katna’s bags, laid them on the patch of bare dirt he had made and set about unsuccessfully lighting it with a lighter. He grabbed a few dried leaves from a pile next to him and added them to the sticks. When he next tried to light it he succeeded, producing a small flame that cast a small circle of warm orange light at their camp.
Katna’s stomach growled and she looked up to the nearby hillside. “Ivan? Can we go get supper before it gets too dark?”
Ivan nodded, shed his saddle bags and stood up. Katna mimed him and they walked up the hill partways, bending their heads to the grass.
Gleb lay half-ensconced within his sleeping bag beside the small fire.
Katna and Ivan lay atop the blanket on the opposite side of the fire. Ivan rested his head and gave a contented sigh, his stomach full from two hours of grazing the surrounding hillsides. Katna had her eyes enamored with the phone, reading with a smile on her face.
Gleb munched on a few energy bars. He stuffed the second-to-last one into his mouth, then held out the last bar to Katna. "Want this?" he asked.
A rose glow surrounded the bar and it pulled away from Gleb's hand. The wrapper peeled back and the honey-soaked oats, cranberries and almonds disappeared in Katna’s mouth. “Thank you.”
Gleb smiled leaning back. "Heh, that must come in handy."
Katna nodded, taking another bite as she set down the phone. "Yes it does," she said, the pun flying right over her head. "So... You give out medicine to people with augmentations who can’t afford it?”
“That is what I said I do,” answered Gleb. “I travel everywhere from Kiev to Kakhovka. Pick up medicine near Dnipropetrovs’k, head north, then back south to pick up more medicine, then further south.” He smacked his lips together. “Full round takes me two weeks I’m guessing?”
“I bet it’s more pleasant in the summer.” Katna turned off her phone and lay it beside herself. “I bet the grass and leaves would taste better too.” She lay her chin on her hooves.
“By the river, away from the cities? No doubt, pines as far as you care to look. Of course the light shows the big cities have at night, nothing to dismiss either.”
Katna shivered, remembering looking at the lit up skyline of Dnipropetrovs’k from the shelter of a storm drain. “I have not really had a chance to enjoy the sights of the city.” She caught Ivan eyeing her, and she looked away. “A-and Pavlohrad, I didn’t much pay attention to it.” Katna’s tongue twisted in her mouth as though she were trying to scrape off some foul paste. “So, any other interesting cases of augments who really can’t get medicine?”
“A few,” said Gleb, “it’s a bigger problem where there’s more cybernetics.”
“Well, do you want to talk about it?” asked Katna.
“Sure, but if I get a little too detailed feel free to tell me to stop.” Gleb adjusted his position so his arm stump braced him up in his reclined position. “A lot of the people I make deliveries to the south were augmented over the course of construction projects in Crimea. Employers offered the augmentation with the pay, and so long as they were employed they got the medicine that prevented immune response problems. Then the construction projects finished, and a lot of them moved back north, expecting there to be jobs. A few of them got the augments removed, but that just left them crippled. I know one man had full limb and spinal replacement. Eventually he got tired of having to pop pills. When he got his augments removed, he had family to take care of him. But… there was nothing left in him, he just ate, and ate. His family not wanting to say no. Eventually he went to a transition clinic and became a pony himself.”
Gleb licked his lips. “Another fellow I regularly make deliveries got blinded in a fire during a riot several years back. Then there was that one woman where the hospital gave her an augmented heart after a car accident. It was supposed to be covered by her insurance, but then they withheld her coverage when they learned she was drunk during the time of the crash.”
“Those are the ones that stick out for me…” Gleb drummed his fingers against his side.
“What happened to the construction worker that ended up as a pony?” asked Katna.
“His uncle was a hard-liner on what he considered right and wrong, ended up threatening to cut off his entire immediate family if he stuck around.”
Katna lifted her head up. “That’s terrible!”
“Yeah, it is, but eventually he made arrangements to live on his own. He came out as a unicorn and was able to get a job at a machine parts factory. Hard work, but he’s no longer a burden on his family. I could tell when I visited him that that was what bored at him when he was there.”
“Hmmm, I guess I understand,” said Ivan, joining the conversation. “I kind of like not eating out of the garbage anymore.”
Katna slumped down to the ground, sighing. "You know what would be nice?" she asked.
"What?" Ivan lifted his head and looked to Katna.
"If when you took potion, they let you go to Equestria, no questions asked. Just bring a boat and pick us up." Katna threw her hooves in the air. "A big boat, for anyone."
Ivan chuckled. "I doubt that'd really work."
"Why not? I mean, ponies evolved in Equestria, right? Made cities and lives that work for them." Katna rolled back onto her stomach. “It’d make sense to live there.”
"Yeah, but the other countries, they would not appreciate the people leaving," said Ivan.
"Well, they aren't doing much to make me want to stay." Katna flopped onto her side.
Gleb shifted, poking his arm out at Katna while looking at Ivan. "Yeah, your sister, she's got a point, not that everyone'd take it, but a ticket there? That'd probably be good for some folks." Gleb tucked his arm back into the sleeping bag and yawned. "Uhewhewee! Late night conversations, where do they end up!"
"So... Gleb." Ivan scrunched up his face. "Why did you decide to keep helping Father Nazar after you had your augmentation pulled out?"
Gleb's brows raised and he pursed his lips. He let out a sharp breath that petered out to a popping sound with his mouth. "Well... at the time I, uh... I guess it was because I felt like I owed him a debt, but..." He glanced over to the boat. "With how long I've been doing this and other things to help, it's long since paid. So... I don't know, I should? I mean, I'm good at it, people need it... what else is there?"
Ivan nodded. "Fair enough... What was it like being augmented?"
"When I had that arm? Ohoh..." Chuckling, Gleb shook his head. "When I had that baby, I felt like I could punch out God, take what I wanted, and get what I deserved. It was like... someone had injected me with a million bucks, and it was only going to get better." Gleb pursed his lips. "Well, that turned out to be me telling a big fat lie to myself..." He blinked for a few moments. "What was it like waking up as a pony?"
Ivan's ears folded downward, and he caught Katna's doing the same. He clenched his jaw.
"Uhm... It was kind of scary," said Katna. "But we have each other, and as I keep learning it gets more...” Katna lifted a hoof to her chin. “... exhilarating."
"Exhilarating," said Gleb. "Now that ain't a word you hear very often."
Ivan chuckled. "Katna's the big learner between us."
"Ah..." Gleb nodded. "So, what, is that why you don't feel like flying? Don't want to read up on it or practice?"
Extending his wings, Ivan looked at them, flapping slightly. "No, I just... don't really see the use."
"See the use!?" exclaimed Gleb, cracking an incredulous smile. "Come on, be real, you don't see the use of flying? Get anywhere without traffic, get a look at things from above."
“Well…” Ivan flexed his left wing and winced. “Before we found Nazar I fell on my wing funny; it’s still a little sore. No point in hurting myself right when I’m learning right?”
Katna gave Ivan a nonplussed expression of incredulity.
Gleb raised his eyebrows and nodded. “Ah, I get it, nevermind then." Rolling onto his back, Gleb yawned. "Well, it's time we sleep. I'll wake you both early so you can eat your breakfast. Traveling with ponies... I don't have to carry a bunch more food."
Ivan folded his wings, resting one across Katna's back.
"Ivan, I really think you should learn how to fly," whispered Katna.
Pulling his head back, Ivan coughed. "What?" he replied in a hushed tone.
Katna looked at him, blinking. "Managing to do magic was... being able to do magic... it's... the happiest I've been in a while." She put a hoof over Ivan's. "Happy, not just content or relieved or not sad, happy... You know what I said before? About things being the way they should be?"
Ivan moved his other hoof, sandwiching Katna's. "Yes... does it... does it make you feel that way?"
Biting her lip, Katna looked back into the fire. "I... it feels like a step in the right direction, just like going to Nova... We are going to stay there if we can, right? No lying."
Ivan frowned. "Lying? Katna, I said we’ll see and if it’s possible we’ll stay, and I mean it."
Returning her gaze to him, Katna stared right into his eyes. He tracked the minute movements of her pupils as she scanned him. What was she doing? Ivan's pulse elevated. Why did she doubt him? He was always trying to take care of her; that's what he did. It was what kept him going. Couldn't she see that?
"Promise." Katna squeezed Ivan's hoof. "Promise me that if there's a home at Nova for us we'll stay, and that you'll learn how to fly."
Ivan looked down at Katna's hoof, the fine salmon-colored hairs mixing with his grey fetlocks. He'd stay with her, even if she demanded he fly away. "I... can't promise to fly."
Katna's ears twitched downward, her pupils constricted, and she pulled her hoof out from between Ivan's. She shuffled away from him, out from under his wing, and lay her head down on the blanket.
Ivan breathed in and out, looking at his sister as she closed her eyes, the trembling in her sides easing to the smooth motion of restful sleep. He grimaced.
Why didn't she want him around?