The helicopter didn't land. We lowered relatively close and were guided to some hoops. "Grab on and don't let go. You'll go down, fast, but not so fast that you'll break all your bones. We're extending a lot of trust, but landing next to that many horses? Not on our schedule."
I reached for the hoop when Cindy suddenly shouted, "Woah! What are you doing? We have wings." Oh... right.
"Can you take us down, Cindy?" I reached for Sandra and Dusk, gathering them up securely under each arm. Cindy took over most of our body suddenly, stepping us to the edge and jumping free into the air. Our wings unfurled from our back and caught the wind. The rotors of the copter made things a little shaky, but we quickly fled its presence and circled towards the ground.
Flying was great! Even if my passengers were clinging to me with all their power, I was having the time of my life, feeling those huge wings bear me along with so little apparent effort. I'd have to learn how to use them myself as soon as we had time.
We set down close to the mob, and most of their eyes were locked on us. They were a haggardly looking lot, with many of them looking underfed, frightened, and some even sick. I didn't know ponies could get sick. I set Sandra and Dusk down carefully as control of the rest of our body was returned to me.
One pony approached. It stood upright on two legs, but still had hooves, seemingly locked somewhere still between human and pony. She was female. "A-are you here to... k-kill us?"
Sandra shook her head quickly. "What? No way. We're ponies too, look at us!"
She did look at us. "But... you came from there." She pointed a hoof up at the helicopter that hovered there.
Dusk flashed a bright smile. "We're here to keep everyone safe, promise, humans and ponies."
I offered a hand towards the seeming leader of the group. "I'm Will and Cindy. What's your name?"
She glanced back at the large mob, then advanced slowly and hesitantly. She pressed a hoof into the offered hand. "I'm... so scared..."
Sad noises came from the crowd, many of them unintelligible. I got the impression a lot of the ponies present were feral and had no real idea what was going on around them except that they didn't want to leave the company of other ponies. I drew the female close and gently hugged her, and she sagged in my grip, letting out a relieved sigh. Other ponies began to advance at this, and soon we were surrounded in hopeful ponies, their big eyes gazing at us with desperation.
I wasn't sure even they knew for sure what they wanted, however. "Alright. First order of business, no more going to the city." I pointed at Kansas City in the distance. "You will stay with your fellow ponies. Do not let other ponies wander away. Do not le--" My words cut off as one of the many ponies crowding in on us managed to work their way under me and fix themselves to a teat, filling their empty belly with my milk.
Sandra, bless her soul, took over smoothly. "We're going to show you how you can make your own food, and we're going to be one big family, and family looks out for one another. Some of you are more lost than others, and it's up to those of us that can speak and think to look after the other ones."
Dusk took a slow breath before his horn began to glow. He projected an image into the sky where all could see, showing a simple farm. "We're going to start there. I want every able bodied pony working together to make the rows. We'll have the humans deliver some seeds and supplies, and soon we'll be eating good, I promise. We need some volunteers from ponies that don't have wings or horns. Step up to Windy and wait patiently. She'll make you better at farming and make it so you can mingle with the humans if you have to."
Another pony joined the first, making me squirm in place, but being fed from felt... mostly good, and thankfully they weren't biting. I released the female I was holding and asked her, "Say, do you know how bad off most of the ponies here are?"
She looked over the sea of ponies. "We've been foraging for food for a long time. I don't... I don't even remember the before-times. I wasn't always a pony, right? I remember... a house... It was a nice house." She smiled a little, but it fell quickly. "Some of us are very sick. I'm worried for them."
I waved out to the crowd. "Gather up the sick ones, put them together and to the side, to be cared for and to limit contact with healthy ponies. We'll see what we can do for them."
I had meant the command for the pony-human I was speaking to, but the crowd mobilized, and soon the sick ones were being ejected from the herd into their own little gathering to the side.
A small unicorn approached with a cautious smile. "Excuse me, um... I was a nurse before... you know... Can I help?"
The pony-human mare gasped. "You can remember that?"
The unicorn shrank back a little. "Not everything... but I want to help."
The first day was spent getting to know these ponies. While many didn't have words to share, they all wanted to be known and loved in their own way, and we tried to give each a moment. We found four caretakers in all that watched over the sick ponies while Sandra and Dusk got busy arranging the others to begin assembling a crude farm.
I didn't want to be the herd's primary foodsource for too long. They do get sore after a while.