Cindy smiled at Pedro. "What would you like? You're not a farmer, so bigger hooves might not be your thing."
Pedro glanced towards Dust Kicker, who translated back and forth. "He wants to know what you mean exactly, and so do I."
I nodded a little. "While we burn off the, er, energy involved, we can put it to work to improve the person along the way. Stronger, better, or just plain different. We want to do what he wants, not what we want."
After having that translated, Pedro looked intrigued, then uncertain. He looked to Dust Kicker and whispered softly to her, and she scowled at him.
Sandra rolled her eyes. "I think he was just denied 'personal' enhancements."
Pedro pointed at his back. "¿Puedo obtener algunas alas?"
Dust pointed at him. "He wants wings."
I felt for his gift, uncertain if it was enough to produce a fitting pair of wings. Cindy shook her head. "We'll do our best, but it might not be enough to get them flight-capable."
She translated that for Pedro, who frowned a little and shook his head. "Si no podemos hacer eso, qué hay de sólo ser más fuerte?"
Dust nodded at him. "If you can't do proper wings, let's go with just stronger. You can't go very wrong with that."
Cindy brightly smiled. "Stronger it is!"
We set our hands on Pedro and gave him a soft petting as he fidgeted nervously. We began to channel the gift in him, reinforcing and enhancing his muscles as it burned free of him. I focused on not making him look too unnatural, producing a powerful and sleek form instead of bulky 'roid abuser.
Pedro opened his eyes when the feelings stopped and stood up on his hooves, looking down at himself. He seemed to like what he saw and looked to Dust Kicker. "Voy a la sala de pesas probar esto!"
Dust Kicker waved him off, and he scampered away with a grin on his face. "He's off to try out his new physique. He didn't look hurt. Not infectious anymore, you said?"
Dusk shook his head. "Without that gift, there's no infection to spread. He's safe to be around humans now. When we left, there was even a human and a pony in love. They might be married by now."
Dust stuck out her tongue. "That's odd. I know I was a human once, but I'm not now. The idea of laying with one..." She shook her head. "I suppose that's not my decision to make." She took a slow breath. "Damn peacemaker. Do you really think humans can be trusted to not harm ponies? They're awful good at doing it without using guns." She thrust a hoof at us. "When things calm down, do you think they will look at ponies as equals? We're just getting straight to the point."
I held up my hands. "Social justice does happen, sometimes slowly, but it happens. I'd rather do it the slow and hard way than by just committing genocide casually and hoping ponies never get the urge to do bad things in the future. Everyone deserves the right to make their own decisions, and if they want to be a human, then they should be, and if someone is a pony, that should be respected too."
Dust rolled her eyes. "If politicians were more likely to sound that way, I'd feel better." She sank to her belly. "But they don't. They want to kill, rape, and pillage, hiding behind flowery words of better times." She slammed a hoof into the deck. "Damn it all." She ground the edge of a hoof-claw into the wood. "She's really lost it. She's just another politician, looking out for #1."
Sandra moved up to Dust and sat beside her quietly. Dust seemed confused at the company, but relaxed and leaned against Sandra lightly. Dusk moved to settle at her other side, and they made a quiet pony sandwich. For a moment, there was peace and quiet.
Dust Kicker grunted angrily and looked up at me. "Your friends are very persuasive. I'd rather live in your world." She rose to her hooves. "I need to talk to my people, see if they're with me." She trotted off quickly, leaving the comfort of quietly accepting pony companions.
Dusk smiled at us. "I think she's a good pony."
Sandra bonked him lightly on the nose. "Most people are good people, they just get stupid ideas, desperate ideas... Maybe we can talk some sense into the princess?"
Cindy shook her head. "I'm not so sure about that. She calls herself a Queen, and, for once, I think that's very important. She wants to be the one at the top. She won't be happy sharing that top spot, especially not with someone who disagrees with her."
I couldn't argue with Cindy's summary. "Considering she's sent orders to have us killed, I doubt we're in for a warm reception. We should assume she'll try to do the job in person if she feels that's the best thing to do, in her view."
Dusk frowned. "And we're going to let her take the first move?"
Sandy shook her head. "Why exactly? She's nuts, we should make the first move and take her down as quickly as possible."
I rose to my hooves and moved towards the side of the ship. "I won't stoop to her level. We're going to talk. If she tries to get violent after that, then we neuter her, snip the power." I looked to Dusk. "Are you ready for that? She'll be expecting something from me, probably."
Dusk nodded firmly. "I'm ready! She won't know what hit her until it's done running her over."