Once Hope was settled in with Dust, I pulled myself up and stalked from the room. "You're anxious about something, and it isn't Dusk Hope." I glanced up at Cindy who was looking back with some concern.
"I just had an idea, is all, nothing bad." I wave off the worry, then find one of the guard ponies. "Hey, could I talk to whoever's in charge of the radio around here?"
The pony shook his head. "She has requested to not be in the presence of infectious individuals, ma'am."
I felt an ear rise on its own. "She's a human then? Could you ask her to check for me about the slaves we saw and what they think in New York?"
He gave a slow nod. "I'm afraid I only know the barest of details on that, ma'am. You really are polite for a feral. Do you mind if I ask what your deal is?"
Cindy tilted her head. "We're only feral in the technical sense of being infectious. We aren't wild or suffering impulses, besides the usual things, you know, hunger, defecation, lust, all that?"
He squinted at Cindy a moment. "Huh, sure." I could feel Cindy was still enjoying those little urges to continue living. Quite a bit different from being pure energy, I imagined. "Since the law passed a few months back, no one, not a single soul, besides you two, is walking around so dangerously."
I nodded at him. "I'm glad to hear everyone's cleaned, but that reminds me to ask, how? How is everyone clean? We were just spreading our own method of it with our group, how did you handle it?"
"Good old science," reported the soldier. "It was literally a case of take two pills and call in the morning, except the call wasn't generally needed. We got our crate of pills for asking nicely, and we could finally mingle again. It'd been months since we'd seen any of our still-human allies, too long. They were just as happy to see us. Living in isolation, even partial, isn't right. Still, what was the alternative? We'd have turned them if we tried to pretend it wasn't a big deal."
Cindy leaned forward. "What if one of the unchanged ones wanted to become a pony?"
The soldier frowned. "What if one of the ponies was tired of having a fur coat? We can't all get what we want, miss."
Cindy shook her head. "Untrue on both counts! We can turn pony back, if they really want it."
The guard recoiled at the claim. "You're bullshitting me!" He leveled a hoof at us. "Prove it!"
I glanced at Cindy and back to the agitated soldier. "We would, but turning a pony into a human without asking is just as bad as turning a human into a pony without asking. Do you know any ponies that want to be human again?"
The guard thumped the ground with a hoof. "What about me, for fucks sake? If you're not just tugging this stupid tail, I'll totally take a one-way ticket back to walking upright and motherfucking fingers! I'm not the only one. I mean, sure, whatever, some people are happy how they are, but not everyone."
Cindy bobbed her head. "Well great! But we really should get some more people, just to watch. This is important."
He paused, then nodded slowly. "You're right. This is. We should have a doctor or two on hand to watch, in case anything goes wrong, and to verify what the hell's going on." He shivered a moment. "You're not shitting with me, are you? Look, just tell me now if you are. Can you really do it?"
I nodded. "We know how, but we haven't actually done it yet. You'd be the first."
He laughed at that. "Well I get to get into the history books for something, even if it's testing some unknown method of returning to humanity. Would you believe they made me take a pony name? Fuck 'em. I never use it. Call me Leonard Polski, and if you get this right, I'll look the part." He was smiling with building hope. "Come with me, we'll go to the infirmary."
We trailed after him as he clip-clopped down the hallway. "You know, I used to be a quiet walker, then bam, hooves. I was a mean game at hackey sack too. It's the little things you notice when it's all taken away from you. I mean, no offense to you, if you're alright with the whole pony thing, great, but that doesn't mean I have to be, right?"
Cindy quickly agreed. "Of course! I like our body, but we'll fix yours, gladly."
We arrived at the nursing station where two ponies and a human were on duty. All got curious at our entry. "Is our guest hurt?" asked one of the ponies wearing a nurse's outfit.
Leonard shook his head. "You get to witness history. They just offered to turn me back into a human, and god take me, but they sound genuine about it. Can you make sure it doesn't go tits up?" They easily agreed to watch and Leonard hopped up onto an available surgery table and flopped, waiting for us. "Go on."
I settled beside him and we focused our magic over his form. He was a healthy and fit pony, and he had likely been a healthy and fit human. We focused on the spell we had learned and began undoing the influence of Equestrian energy. It wasn't a painless process, if his grunts were any hint. He was clearly trying to weather it stoically, but the loud snap told us all we needed to know. His body was reconfiguring to a human form. Fur dropped from him, making a mess on the table as he grit his teeth. Exposed, we could see the teeth regaining canines and sharp edges. Being reforged, they looked quite white and new. Pony, the cure for oral disease.
Despite his best attempts, a few noises did escape him when delicate parts bent in ways they shouldn't and bones shattered to take on new configurations. In the end, he was smiling. He was holding up a hand in front of himself weakly, flexing the fingers back and forth as he labored for breath. He wasn't naked, though his pony clothes didn't fit right on a human body. He was too far gone to care much just yet.
The nurses and doctors were quite aware, and fascinated. The doctor, the other pony, nodded at us. "Amazing! He appears to have made a full recovery from the equine condition."
Cindy peered at the doctor curiously. "Did you want to be fixed?"
He paused, then slowly nodded. "Can I?"
The nurse turned red quickly. "But I like being a pony!"
Cindy looked confused. "I was asking him."
She thrust a hoof at him. "He's my husband! He's going to, what, be a human married to a pony?"
I understood the issue, but Cindy did not. "Yes?"
He looked incredibly torn. "I love you, Gentle Cross, but I do want to be human. I mean, I could help more people that way, and do my job better."
She turned away from him. "And leave me..."
He came up on her quickly and bumped alongside her. "I'd never leave you, unless you left me. I'd still love you, no matter what."
She began to flush brightly. "You'd stay married, to a pony?"
He nodded quickly. "If that pony was you, yes. Until death does us part." She looked down, but he went in for a kiss, and they met in a rapidly building exchange of passion. It seemed the hurt between them was mended. He nuzzled her softly and nibbled an ear before backing away.
Gentle nodded at him, then turned to us. "Alright, give him what he wants. It's his body, and I'll still love him. I didn't forget what he used to look like, and I married that body too." She clopped a hoof lightly. "I can't imagine going back. This body feels... It feels like me now, but I love him, for him, and I'll stay by him."
Leonard slipped off the table, wobbling as he regained his balance. "Table's all yours, doc."
The doctor frowned. "You could at least wipe it down."
Leonard did just that, brushing his old fur off the thing with his hands and seemingly pleased with having the option of it. "There you go."
The doctor decided to strip first, then hopped up onto the table in only his fur. "Gentle, be sure to note how it proceeds."
Gentle winced. "I'll try, but you're my husband, I can't promise impartiality."
The second time trying it was a bit easier. We knew what to expect, to a point, and tried to smooth the passage, but it wasn't a gentle path to take. He was far less able to accept it with stoic grace and groaned and grunted all through it as his body was ripped apart and rebuilt into the human form it once was.
Gentle Cross' eyes widened as he changed. "Oh... Oh it's working. You're exactly as I remembered. She hopped up, disrupting our concentration. She laid down on him and began nuzzling and kissing into his neck. He hugged her furry form against his naked body. "I don't think they were done," he panted out. "What wasn't finished?"
I looked him over from around Gentle, but he seemed all in one piece. "Show us your hands?"
He gently ran both across his wife's back, scritching at her fur and making her squirm in delight. It was good to see they were getting along despite the species difference. Suddenly she jumped. "Oh!" She half-closed her eyes and grinned at him. "You're still a pony where I need it. Please, can you keep that one thing?"
Leonard burst into laughter. "Oh man, she has you by the balls, literally." The glare he got made him laugh all the more. "Hey, if I had a lady like Gentle Cross asking me, I'd keep a horse cock to please her too, don't worry."
That got the poor doctor flushed with embarrassment. He didn't directly approve, but he didn't ask us to get rid of his pony part either. I felt confident that their marriage would last as the tension between them became nothing but renewed cuddling. She rubbed her face into his chest. "I forgot just how handsome you were. I'll make you a little something special after our shift tonight."
Cindy suddenly perked her ears. "That reminds me, there was someone who approached us asking about being a pony, would that be alright?"
Leonard frowned. "On basic principle, I guess it'd be alright, but I'm not the one that'd give the OK for that. You should get authorization from brass before doing that. You don't want to be the one held responsible if they decide after the fact that it isn't."
Gentle suddenly hopped down from her husband, leaving him exposed. He did have a horse cock, though despite Leonard's jab, his balls seemed human enough. Gentle returned swiftly with a human-sized lab coat that he put on gratefully, hiding most of his form.
Things were getting more interesting.