Sandra was happy to see me when I got home, and begged to be let out of the cords I had clumsily makeshifted her prison out of. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"
She hopped up and down on her hooves, turning the chair to face me. "It's hard to explain, but I really want to be with you right now, not stuck in this chair forever. I won't try to leave again, promise. You can't keep me in a chair forever."
She was sounding pretty sane, and I didn't think keeping her in a chair forever was the ideal path, so I went around her and started working the ropes. I only just noticed then that her fingers were gone. She had hooves. She was a horse completely. As soon as she was free, she flopped to the ground on all fours. "This is going to take getting used to." She walked around the room, testing her new limbs. They were sized right for four-legged transport, and I thought she was moving pretty well for being fundamentally different from human anatomy. She walked up to me and reared up, using my shoulders as a support. "What'd you find, and why do you smell odd?"
Smell odd? I didn't think I smelled that strangely, if a bit rank. But she had a bigger nose than me, so maybe? I unslung my backpack and unzipped it, showing her the goodies within, to say nothing of the extra bags I had carried back. She grabbed a package of spaghetti in her mouth and held it up to me. "Can we have this tonight?"
I reached to take the package from her. "Sure thing, Sandy. You're a very cute pony, by the way."
She did that odd blushing through fur thing. "You're just saying that. I was thinking, since we're both infected, why do we care about the tap water?"
I shrugged. "I suppose until the water goes bad enough to be unsafe for anything, we should enjoy it. That reminds me, some of the, uh... what's a good word for it, mutants? Victims?"
"Victims." She sat on her haunches. "None of us asked for this, right?" She looked me over, then pointed at my head. "You can take off the towels now."
I pulled them off and lowered my hood, revealing the stupidly-long horn to the world. She seemed to like it. "It's pretty."
"Right, but how long before the rest comes in? I like having hands, and not being shot by scared survivors. I ran into two ponies on the way to the store."
She looked interested, her tail swaying back and forth. "Were they nice, or feral?"
"Both." I took the bags into the kitchen and got to putting everything away. "They could talk, though one of them a lot less fluently than the other. Both were mostly nice, but had no concept of personal space, like, at all."
She followed after me, not even glancing at the door. I was relieved to see that she did seem to be recovered from the impulse to rush out and join the others. "What? Were they sniffing your crotch or something?"
I raised a brow. "That's an oddly accurate and specific example. I was partially raped by one and managed to give her a good kick and she pouted and ran off. The second one was a huge behemoth with three heads."
"Get out." Her expression went flat with disbelief. "The ponies I saw all looked pretty normal. None of them had more than one head."
"Scout's honor." I held up a hand. "She pinned me to the ground and had her way with me, talking chipperly through it all out of all three heads. I'm still not sure how I feel about that."
She frowned a little, brushing the floor with her tail in little swishes. "Well I won't do that to you."
I chuckled. "Thanks, I think, but it's an odd day when you have to even say that. So what's it like, you know, being a small horse?"
She stood up and did a little circle, looking herself over. "I'm feeling a lot more like 'me' now. Something about this whole... thing... is making me not... see it? It's hard to explain. When I stop thinking about it, I can just act like I was always a pony." She waved a hoof at me. "If I stop to think about it too hard, I realize just how alien I am and it freaks me out until I can forget it again. Like thinking about breathing."
Great, then I was thinking about breathing, and I laughed at the apt comparison. "I get it. It could be worse. There really are some bizarre ones out there, and you look pretty normal."
She tilted her head at me. "I wouldn't have complained about some wings or that horn. Not a bad replacement for hands." She held up her forehooves as she sat up on her hindlegs. "I got ripped off."
Without thinking about it I softly scratched her behind an ear and she went down to her haunches and making an almost purring sort of sound, so I kept going, gently working my fingers through her fur in slow exploration of her changed skull and I crouched down to get at her more easily. My hands wandered down to her sides, scritching over her ribs gently. She was warm and soft and my friend, and the sounds she was making told me that I was making her happy, and I wanted nothing else at the moment. My face was close to hers, her breath smelled oddly of cinnamon. She leaned in a little and we kissed briefly before she scooted back, blushing fiercely. "Sorry!"
Compared to the other ponies, it was almost nice to get such a shy gesture of affection. She was a friend already, not a stranger in a parking lot. "We're cool, Sandy." I stood up and got to preparing the pasta she had selected. "Why don't you pick out the sauce you want?"
"You got sauce?" She advanced on the bags and began nosing around through them before she grasped a jar between hooves and set it aside. "You're a godsend. Sorry, again. I was just... relaxed, and then you were so close... and I just wanted to." She perked her ears suddenly. "Oh god I'm still trying to spread this."
I plucked the selected jar up and set it on the counter. "Good thing you can't infect me."
"Our hero, William, immune to pony kisses, and humanity's best hope." She burst into giggles at the thought. "How about I come with you next time?"
I shook my head. "That seems like a bad idea. What if someone comes in here and takes all of our stuff while we're out and around scavenging?"
She paled, which defied my limited understanding of biology. "You'd... want me to fight someone?"
"Not if they have a gun I don't."
She shrugged. "I'm safer with you than alone. I don't know how to fight, especially not as a pony."
This apocalypse was very inconvenient.
After dinner was devoured, I was ready for sleep and collapsed onto the bed. Only moments later, Sandra hopped up and snuggled in next to me. On one hand, I wanted a little space, on the other, imagining her situation made me feel bad for her. I decided to just bear with it, at least until I felt her on top of me instead of beside me. She was aggressively snuggling me and serving as a living blanket. "Sandy, come on."
She flipped her ears back. "I don't want to sleep alone. Being alone is physically painful." She grabbed the blanket in her mouth and draped it over the both of us before calming down on top of me. I moved a hand to slowly stroke over her more like a big cat than the human she once was. She seemed to enjoy the attention, and soon we were both asleep.
Luna was there. "Can you understand me?"
"Yes. Why do you ask that every time?"
Luna smiled. "You are not the only of your kind I have met. Many have become mindless, some are as foals. You are unchanged, and this is good." She raised a hoof to point. "Mostly."
I had my horn, a quick check revealed. "Your, uh, essence, is pretty messed up."
Luna frowned. "It was not our intention. I can only apologize."
I rolled a hand. "Apologies don't fix our world. We have three-headed pony creatures burrowing in the ground, and pegasi with three tongues big enough to use as tentacles."
Luna's eyes widened. "Truly? The corruption is worse than I had originally thought. We are seeking a solution, but we cannot physically reach your world, so whatever we find, you will have to implement. Do you recall our dreams upon awakening?"
I nodded at her. "This is the most vivid dream I've had before." I reached out and poked the dark-furred pegacorn on the snout, which made her recoil away from the touch. She wasn't nearly as snuggly as the ponies we had on Earth.
"Y-yes, of course. Good. I will visit you often, to check on your status and update you should we find anything. Be safe, human."
"William." I'm not sure if she heard me or not, as I woke up.