With the crops starting to become a stable thing, the mood lifted considerably. As proven many times in history, I recall, a well-fed population was a happy one, at least compared to the alternative. I made the rounds through the ponies, feeling for the gift. This herd was scheduled to be entirely free, myself excluded, and we couldn't have any mistakes there.
I could still feel them, as ponies. That was separate than the burning fire of the gift. I couldn't find any of that except one larger earth pony that resembled a dinosaur. She had a long neck and a thick tail and was generally heavy, like a little brontosaurus. Some of the gift lingered around her tail and I reached for it. As if afraid to let me decide its fate, the gift fled along her tail, and she let out a squeak as she grew several sharp spikes, and the gift faded away.
I pulled out the walkie talkie I'd been given. "Herd is clean. The farm's going smoothly, and morale's great. Did you talk to Crystal?"
A male voice came in reply. "That's a negative. Command wants to keep this local. How long until you can send some farmers to the city?"
I considered with a frown as I did a slow circle. "This would be a lot easier if the two weren't treated like separate settlements. I don't think it's a good idea to separate the ponies just yet, and they're clean, so why are they miles away from the city that needs them, and could provide much more comfortable arrangements for them in return?"
"I'll ask, but no promises." The line went dead and I was free to do as I pleased, so I found Sandra and Dusk working with the sick ponies. They were recovering nicely as a whole, some of them had even left the area with a clean bill of health. A solid social circle was doing them as much good as steady food.
Sandra smiled up at me. "Welcome back. You know... I was thinking, ponies really are absurdly social, myself included now. Surround one with a herd that supports them and they start perking up right away. I'm just glad they were sick from exhaustion, hunger, and neglect, and not any actual disease. I can only imagine a communicable bug that could survive in a pony would spread through us stupidly fast."
I frowned a little at the thought of it, but Dusk beat me to replying. "Well we're aliens, for better or worse. It'll be a while before bugs get used to us being around. It's probably our kid's problem. We should enjoy it while it lasts, but it won't last."
The radio came to life. "Orders are clear, you're to bring ten farmers and two weather controllers to the city to demonstrate to the population that they're not hazardous to have around. If they work out for a week, we can bring in more horses from the group, but the civvies are not going to tolerate that entire mob at once showing up at their doorsteps." It was far from ideal, but we didn't live in an ideal world.
We gathered up some ponies that volunteered to be away from the herd for the good of their kin, and made our way to the city. I ended up being their rest-stop along the way when they got thirsty, but otherwise we made the trip without difficulty, and soon we arrived at the checkpoint. They didn't want to let me past.
"You're not clean, we can't let you have contact with the civilians."
Sandra stomped a hoof. "He's the most controlled of anyone here. Unless someone rushes up and kisses him, no one is getting infected."
The guard didn't seem impressed at all. "Clean horses only past this point."
I shrugged. "Sandra, Dusk, go on with them and make sure they settle in. I'll wait here. This isn't worth a fight about."
They went on without me, and I sat and waited. I cleared my head and felt outwards. I could feel the herd in the distance, and ferals beyond them. There was a subtle difference between the calm ponies and the wilder ones, and I looked back and forth between the two, learning the differences of their flavors curiously.
~They're not the same, are they?~ came Cindy's thoughts. ~Ponies change once they start valuing peace I think. Or is it something else?~
~I think it's more the difference between surviving... and living. Our ponies are also clean, do you think that might have something to do with it?~
~Could be~ agreed Cindy as my view changed. She was nudging the view outwards, zooming out further and further until I felt I was looking at the entire country. At that level of zoom, I could only feel vague impressions of the ponies everywhere. A headache was starting to build focusing on this much at once. ~Look.~ She directed me towards New York, where a friendly patch seemed to be, feeling much the same as the local herd. ~We should ask about that.~
I shook myself awake and fumbled for my walkie talkie. "Hey, what's the situation in New York?"
There was silence for a while before a new voice came on the line. "What makes you ask about there?"
"Just a hunch." Really, I couldn't think of a better way of explaining that wouldn't bring a hundred more questions.
"Right. You're not the first rogue to approach civilization with an olive branch. Things didn't go so well after they let them in. Humans are plenty safe, but they're the second-classes now. The horses are running the show."
I cringed at the thought. "Oh, well. Shit. No wonder you've been so nervous."
"The worst part are the sympathizers. Anyway, you're not like that, right? We'll be watching to see, and we're a lot more ready than they were."
The voice went quiet and left me to stew on it. The ponies taking control of the state? If they were still acting like ponies, it probably wasn't as awful as it could be, but it was far from ideal.
And so it went, with more and more ponies brought over to help around the city. The larger ponies were eager to help as well, and got to cleaning up fallen things like collapsed buildings and debris, helping restore the city to a sense of normalcy. It would be an entire month before the last of the herd trickled in and the people of the city had grown calm enough about the presence of ponies to not stage an immediate revolt at their presence. That's not to say everyone was acting nice to them, from what I heard, but there wasn't much more I could do, not even being allowed in myself.
Things were calm enough, at least until news came that a pony had succeeded in courting a human male, and the two wanted to become a couple. Sandra explained it to me afterwards that the ponies thought it was odd but didn't raise much fuss about it, but the humans thought their fellow was a bit out of it. Ultimately the human was allowed to move in with the ponies. It proved to be an extreme test though. He didn't become a pony, and obviously had... heavy exposure. For all the fuss and turmoil, perhaps it was for the best.