With her foal delivered, Crystal began to shed some of the weight she'd put on in her rapid pregnancy. I was almost jealous a little, still swelling up as I was. She'd been through it so quickly that she didn't seem to be having much of it stick around, with more of the growth focused on her child and less on making her plump. I, on the other hand, or hoof, had grown rounder in a lot of ways.
Cindy said it made me look cute, and matronly, but I wasn't sure if 'matronly' was the keyword I'd been aiming for. Aiming or not, I had it. I emerged from our home. Ponies waved, and some stopped, and the rarest would come right up to me and reach. "May I, Princess William?"
I let him, which emboldened the others, and soon there were hooves gently running along my sides and bottom. One set of fingers stood out in the petting and I saw one of the partials, who never fully finished becoming a pony, but she seemed comfortable enough with it. As soon as they got their fill of belly rubbing, they went on their way with soft words of encouragement.
The door opened behind me and Crystal trotted out. "Oh, Will, I had a feeling you were out here. I wanted to talk to you about something, something kind of important..." She turned and led me back inside. I could feel a nervousness in her, just as she seemed to have a sense for where the people she cared most about were at any given moment. "Karen grew up fast, and he's doing well. I..." She looked over her shoulders at me. "Promise you won't be angry?"
I perked an ear. "I promise to listen to what you have to say. I don't get angry that easily. Is it that bad?"
Crystal shrugged as she sank to her haunches. "Maybe? I... You can turn ponies back into humans, right?"
I stiffened with surprise. "You want to be human again?"
Crystal shuffled awkwardly in place. "I was thinking about it? I mean, I don't mind having experienced what I have, but..."
I nodded at her. "It is your body, and your decision, but I do have one question for you." She perked an ear back at me and waited. "Is this something you want because you're 'supposed' to want it, or something you really want?"
She became confused and frowned with new thought. I gently mussed the top of her head. "Do you not like being what you are? No guilt here, we'll let you go if that's what you want."
"Let me go?" She took a step back. Perhaps she hadn't considered how different the relationship would be if she suddenly became a male human.
I nodded at her. "Is that what you want, to go do your own thing, like before this all went down?"
Crystal sat up and ran a hoof through her soft and glimmering pelt. "I guess I would be running backwards... to nothing. Why couldn't I stay with you still?"
I leaned in and bumped noses gently. "You could, if you like, but as a man, what would you do? People are still getting used to the very idea of a man and a pony, or a woman and a pony, together. There's also our little 'balance' of masculine and feminine. Cindy enjoys having you around as you are. She seems less keen to be topped, not entirely against it, but she has her preferences, and I guess I do too? We're both male dominant in the bed, and you wouldn't have parts for that."
That made her wince, but then she perked up. "Wait, so... That explains a lot, the way you two act with Sandra and me when, you know?"
Cindy turned the corner, slinking like a cat as she crept up towards Crystal. "What's this I hear? You want to leave us, Crystal? I thought you loved your new self."
Crystal flushed darkly as Cindy approached. "I was just asking. I wanted to know."
Cindy grabbed Crystal from the ground in her arms and started snuggling her against her own breasts. "You're a part of this herd, and I love you dearly, Crystal. If you want to go, or change, I'll do my best to support you." She held Crystal out at arm's length. "But... In my opinion, you're delightful just the way you are. Please don't change, my shining Crystal."
Crystal's flush deepened as she glanced towards me. "Do you feel the same way?"
I closed the distance and shared soft snout-rubs against her and Cindy both. "I do. I love you just the way you are, and you seem pretty happy with it, but if we've been wrong, then don't let us stop you. Take what you want."
Crystal returned the nuzzles and began nipping at us, and the idea seemed to melt away. "I lost most of what I was attached to already, as my old self, but I've gained so much, here. I have ponies that look up to me, and a family that..." She nuzzled in against me and hopped into my arms. I held her close and snuggled against Cindy, trapping her between us. "You aren't angry for me looking back, are you?"
Cindy snorted softly. "If looking was a crime, they'd have to arrest me and throw away the key, and Neon would just be executed. No, it wasn't a bad thought to have, but I'm glad you're not following through on that one." She leaned in and kissed Crystal on the forehead. "You're too adorable just as you are."
I ruffled up the fur just over her tail in a fond scritching. "Besides, you're Cindy's mare, just as I have Sandra."
Cindy nodded quickly. "Sandra's my mother. I can't be topping her. Hugging, kissing, sure, but topping? Come on."
Crystal looked perplexed. "You don't take offense to the fact that our family tree confuses the snot out of me, are you?"
I kissed Crystal on the snout. "It confuses the rest of us just as well. I'm curious about a lot of it, in fact. Cindy, when you did what you did, how much genetic change... I mean, do you change genes when either of us adjust people with the gift?"
Cindy looked perplexed a moment. Genetics wasn't something I thought about a lot, and she couldn't dip into my memory as easily without being a part of me. I offered a hand and she took it, and she knew what little I did after rooting around a moment. "Oh. I didn't check, but... I can't see how we're not, since we grow that way from that point on, and our foals carry it on, or everyone would have human babies, and that isn't happening."
Crystal frowned. "Well if you adjusted so much, are you really the same baby, or egg, that Sandra originally made? You two might not even be related after all the adjustments you did to look like Will."
The thought was both relieving and kind of frightening at the same time, and it seemed to run through Cindy just as well as we echoed one another's thoughts on it. "There's no real way to test that. They don't have working genetics labs, and won't for a long time. We're still celebrating the return of street performance plays, and I heard a paper press is coming online soon. That's a bit off on the infrastructure ladder from a biotech lab."
Crystal hopped cleanly to the ground with a swish of her brilliant tail. "I remember I once said newspaper was dead. I was proven wrong there, for sure. No one's checking their email anymore." She sat down, looking up at us. "Do you two ever miss it? All the things we took for granted back in the day, you know?"
I nodded slowly. I remembered my computer, and my television, and my car. I remembered warm food every day, but I also remembered working a job I didn't really like to afford it all, and being mostly alone, except for planned events. "We gained some things, and lost some others. I hope, in time, the world will grow back a better place than it started as."
Crystal pointed at me. "That reminds me. You do know this whole building is like a hazard zone for humans, right? They won't go near the place unless they have to, and they do that when we're asleep if they can schedule it. They fear the few ponies that are uncollared and uncontrolled. You're like... ferals."
Cindy frowned, tail twitching with agitation. "I have yet to accidentally infect someone."
Crystal nodded at Cindy. "I know that, and most of the ponies know that, but people are scared. The only ones breaking the pattern are the ones you made into humans in the first place. I feel like we should do something about that."
An idea hit me and I clapped my fuzzy hands together. "At this point, we don't need the 'gift' near the surface. People are humans or ponies, and turning a pony back into a human isn't a function of the gift, and there shouldn't be anymore humans wanting to be ponies. If we could get the gift of us--" I pointed to Cindy. "--and Karen to stay away from the surface, we'd stop being so infectious. It's the contact that does it, so if we stop secreting the stuff, we're fine."
Cindy tapped a hoof on the ground thoughtfully. "We should visit Luna. It's been too long, and she should meet Karen in his new, individual, body."
Crystal smiled with sudden hope. "Do I get to come too? I really wanted to meet her after you described her. It can be a whole family trip."
It became swiftly settled. We would gather the family together and cross that void to petition Luna, and see what wisdom she could lend to the affair, and maybe catch up on what was going on with the wider world. We were past due for that.