> The Conversion Bureau: Ten Days
>  by Windchaser
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The Night Before
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The man had come late in the night. Jay had just finished getting ready to get some sleep after watching more coverage of the Conversion Bureau story on the news channels. The whole thing was a little too fantastic to believe right off the bat. Ponies that could speak? Ponies that could do magic? He actually laughed at the whole thing when the first stories started airing. He had just changed the channel, surfing the television guide one last time before turning in for the night.

The man knocked twice and waited outside in the cold, drizzling rain. Jay looked down at his watch. 11:30. His parents should be getting home around now, but they wouldn’t knock at the door. They both worked at the chemical plant several miles to the west, for Telios Chemical. They actually met at the factory while working under separate contracts, and through casual workplace chatting, hit it off. They got married not too long afterwards, and then Jay came along. He was enrolled at Blowing Rock High School in North Carolina, paid for by Telios. The company offered to pay for many expenses for the employees as part of their contract, which his parents were very much inclined to agree to as workplace spouses. 

But with all of their work, they weren’t home too often. Most nights Jay would have already gone to bed before they got home. His mother would always leave a note in the morning for him on how to cook up the prepackaged dinner sitting in the refrigerator. He hadn’t had a home cooked meal at his own home for as long as he could remember, each night a stale repeat of the last. Frozen pizza one night, followed by frozen lasagna the next, and so on. Even though he didn’t see his parents too often, he still loved them dearly.

“Mr. Benton? Jay Benton? Son of Laura and Felix Benton?” the man asked. He towered over jay, his black coat slick from the light rain. His black hair was plastered to his forehead and reflected the light of the porch lights, failing to detract from his solemn expression. Jay nodded, his mouth slightly agape in confusion. Had something happened? Where were his mom and dad?

“Will you get dressed? I need you to come with me. There’s been an accident.” Those final four words hit Jay strangely. And with those four words came wave of uncertainty. Accident could mean many things, from a minor injury or a splash of acid causing a burn on an arm to... The man cleared his throat rather audibly, staring at Jay with a piercing gaze. He nodded again and ran upstairs to his room. 

He rooted through his dresser and his meager collection of clothing for something clean. Telios gave his parents a monthly food and clothing stipend to spend on necessities, but the money was mostly spent on food. Jay only had simple tee shirts and a few pairs of jeans. He donned them and grabbed a matching pair of dirty socks and his far too thin hoodie from the corner of his door. He stuck his feet in his old sneakers and walked back down the stairs. 

The man beckoned Jay forth through the door to the house and held the car door open for him. The car’s interior was dark grey with black leather seats, the drivers cab closed off by what seemed to be a one way window. Jay buckled himself in and sunk into the seat. His heart was beating heavily, his sense of dread growing with every minute. The man outside seated himself in front of the steering wheel and started up the quiet electric engine. The car hummed as it backed out of the driveway and sped down the road. Jay only hung his head.


---


The man had said this was the district office for Telios. The tall glass building stood out distinctly from the rest of the town, which itself was comprised of buildings no taller than three stories. Yet the district office was a fifteen story black obelisk looking over everyone around for miles. The black glass doors slid apart as the man and Jay approached them. The lobby of the building was lavish; a chandelier hung above, probably thirty feet high, three inch synthetic diamonds gracing almost every facet of it. Just one of those diamonds cost more than the lifetime income of both of Jay's parents combined.

The man rushed Jay through the lobby and into the elevator, pressing the button to the eighth floor. The doors began to slide closed before someone shouted out in the lobby. "Hold it! Hold the lift!" Another man in a similar outfit as the man with Jay rushed forward, the rain dripping from his hair and coat with each step. Someone followed behind him, someone Jay was familiar with.

"Jay? What are you doing here?" the boy asked.

"Hey Austin. And no, I have no idea." The man and Austin scrambled into the elevator before the man with Jay pressed the button to close the doors. Jay kept his mouth shut after he saw the glare from the man with him when he spoke. It seemed as if they were going to find out soon anyways. The mirrored walls of the elevator began to fog up from where the man with Austin was standing. Apparently he was a bit out of shape and already worked up a sweat.

Austin had been Jay's friend for years. His short blond hair was plastered down from the rain and he was steadily catching his breath from the short sprint he and the man with him shared. 

A tone chimed frothy speaker as the small monitor above the doors lit up with a stylized number 8. The doors slid open, revealing a brightly lit, carpeted hall. There were no doors, but the hallway turned at a corner a few dozen feet onward. The men walked on, Jay and Austin following in their wake.

After a few minutes of walking, they reached a door to a large room, filled with people that both Jay and Austin recognized. The majority of them seemed to be younger than the two of them, probably from Blowing Rock Elementary School. A few of the older people in the room Jay recognized from his high school.

"This is real creepy, Jay." Austin timidly walked forward.

"It's like most of the people from school are here," Jay said. He walked up to one of the people he recognized from his classes, Leah. She was standing by one of the walls, her arms folded. She stared at the floor, a blank expression on her face. "Uh, hey, Leah? You have any idea why we're all here?"

She lifted her head up and stared blankly at Jay. "No I don't," she said forcefully. She dropped her head again and let out a long sigh. Jay walked back to Austin, still standing in the middle of the room.

"Well Leah seems to be as colorful as ever," Jay sighed. 

"If she said something even remotely kind to you, THEN we'd know something was wrong," Austin joked. The two chuckled for a short moment before settling back into silence, the all too breif smiles fading from their faces. 

"I'm... I'm kinda scared, Jay," Austin murmured. 

"Why?"

Austin shuffled in place. "My parents are usually home pretty early in the evenings. My mom promised to make some eggplant casserole and nothing could stop my dad from that. If he was forced to miss that..." Austin's voice dropped to a whimper as he stared at the floor.

Jay patted his friend's shoulder reassuringly. "Listen, everything's gonna be okay. Let’s just wait and not worry too much about it, okay?" Austin nodded and forced a weak smile.

One of the men in black coats stepped into the room and cleared his throat. "Will all children under the age of sixteen come with me please?" His voice was heavy and assertive. Most of the kids in the room followed him, leaving maybe a dozen people left, including Jay, Austin, and Leah. The twelve looked at each other, each more confused than the other.

The door opened once more. A man in a white button down shirt and a red tie entered the room carrying a stack of papers in the crook of his arm. He handed each one of the twelve a packet, asking them not to open or read it just yet. After everyone got their packet, he walked to the front of the room and cleared his throat.

"It is my displeasure to inform you that there has been an accident at the facility your parents worked at, resulting in… in their deaths." A stunned silence filled the room, broken only by a girl towards the back. Jay was frozen in place. His parents... gone? Just like that?

Austin's face went slack. The blood drained from his face, leaving it a pale alabaster, his eyes unblinking in shock. His fingers were trembling slightly. The tremble made its way up his arms, growing in strength as he brought his hands to his mouth. Tears began filling his eyes until, without warning, he turned and grabbed Jay in a great hug, crying into his shoulder. 

The sobs shook Jay as he could feel his friends tears soak into his thin hoodie. Jay apprehensively wrapped his arms around his sobbing friend and hugged him back to comfort him. Austin began to regain his composure and pulled away, wiping the residual tears from his eyes and cheeks.

"When your parents signed their contracts with us, it included certain provisions for you all, their children." The man gave a big sigh. "But because you all are over the age of sixteen, we no longer have to provide for you through company protocol. The younger ones you saw earlier lost their parents too, but they're being placed in company sponsored foster care under other employees. However, because you all are over that age cap, you only have two options. First, you can sign the contracts I gave you all and become an employee yourself, entitling you to keeping your house and belongings, as well as finishing your high school education."

Everyone around Jay began looking at their packets, including Jay. The agreement was hundreds of pages thick, but after flipping through many of the pages, he could see they already filled out with all of his personal information. On the cover page was just a line with a red X. The line for his signature.

"Should you decline our offer, we would offer you transportation to any city within fifty miles around and leave you on your own, to seek a life for yourselves. We wouldn't be responsible for you anymore. However... Because of the recent... happenings... we are offering a third choice. A lift to the nearby Conversion Bureau." All of the eyes in the room rested on the white shirted man. "Enrollment there will almost guarantee you a life, which in my opinion is considerably better than the second option." 

Austin promptly walked over to the trash can by the wall and dropped his contract in there without hesitation. After a short moment of silence, another girl followed suit, but Jay never let his eyes wander from her as he did so. A friend of his throughout middle school and high school, Chloe walked to the trash can with tears streaming down her cheeks as she dropped her contract with the rest of them.

Jay was shocked and saddened to see her here. The few times he had met her parents, they were always very kind and welcoming to anyone who was friends with Chloe. They were gone too? After she dropped the packet of papers in the trash, she sunk down against the wall and began crying into her hands. Leah had followed her, and after throwing out her own contract, went over to comfort her friend.

Jay looked down at his own packet. What was he going to do? He had his two options: become an employee of the company that led to the events that killed his parents… or abandon his species for a new land? He didn't read much up on the ponies since they had appeared several months ago, but he had been hearing the discussions around the school.

He didn't care too much for them, the ponies. But what was making the decision so hard was seeing Chloe so destroyed by what has happened in the past few minutes. Jay had always cared about Chloe since the two of them went to their eighth grade dance together simply as friends, nothing more. It was then that he realized how nice she looked, how bright her smile was, and...

The same thing that made the decision so hard before had made it so easy now. He walked over to the trash can and dropped his contract amongst the pile of others. He looked back at the rest of the group, realizing that he was the last one out of them all to do so. They all watched him as he took his place next to Austin. As he did so, they all steadily looked to the man in the white shirt. He began to smile.

"Technically, the management told me to either employ you or dump you lot on the streets. I always hated that policy." Jay smiled as the rest of the group did so as well. "Now the bureau program is a ten day stay, so I'm going to send you all home to collect everything you need for it. A few changes of clothes, toiletries, and also we'll give you one last night at your homes for closure before we pick you all up in the morning. Be ready by eight."

The man walked out of the room, shortly followed by twelve men in black coats entering. Two of the men Jay recognized as they moved towards him and Austin. Wordlessly, he gestured for the two of them to follow him out from the room. Jay chanced one last look at Chloe, her face still buried in her hands. Leah was helping her up as two more men in black coats waited for them.


---


Jay sat on his bed. The last time he would sit on his bed. He looked around his room. He had packed a duffel bag with a few changes of clothes like the man in the white shirt said. It sat at the foot of his bed. He had looked up some information on the bureau when the man in the black coat drove him back home. The bureau program was ten days, because it helped foster a smooth transition from human culture to that of the Equestrians. 

The bureau they were going to was one a few miles to the east, away from the town. It was just built and had just opened, and it was very likely that the twelve that Jay was a part of were going to be the only ones there. The website had said that interacting with ponies beforehand did assist with the 'conversion', as personal friendships were an important aspect of their culture. 

Jay fell onto his back, the pillow puffing up and steadily deflating as his head sunk into it. He turned off the light on his bed side table and looked at the clock. 12:30. His whole world had been turned upside down in an hour. He had just gone from a regular high school student to a pioneer of sorts. It was still early in the Conversion movement, the first bureaus opening up a few months ago amidst protests and controversies concerning the nature of the program. Not many people had initially jumped at the opportunity, but given that Jay didn't really have an alternative aside from a life on the streets and ultimately a short life at that, he was glad that the bureau was there for him and his friends.

As the world melted around him and the sounds of the world outside faded from his recognition, Jay thought one thing before sleep overtook him. 

Good night mom, good night dad. I love you.

> The First Day
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The shrill alarm blared into Jay’s ear, rousing him from his deep slumber. Groggily, he slapped his palm against the clock in an effort to silence it, and after a couple of unsuccessful tries, the room was filled with silence once more. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Jay tossed his covers to the side and hung his legs off the side of the bed. He dropped down onto them and dragged himself to his bedroom door. He opened it and slid his hand across the exterior, feeling for the note, but there was none there.

“Oh,” he whispered to himself. 

Jay was upset with himself. He had forgotten what had happened the night before so easily. Part of him felt like it was insulting his parents that he didn’t remember immediately, and another part of him wondered why he didn’t experience the same level of sorrow Austin the night before. Why was that? He loved his parents, didn’t he? Why wasn’t he in mourning as much as the rest of his friends?

That’s right. He was going with eleven of his friends to the Conversion Bureau to get… converted. 

Jay dragged his feet to the bathroom and stripped down as he turned on the shower. He stepped in and didn’t move as the hot water washed over his body. He grabbed a bar of soap and began scrubbing along his torso, letting the foam pick up the detritus on his skin before rinsing it off. He leaned on his arm, resting it against the tiled wall of the shower. 

He knew there were countless emotions going through his head, but he couldn’t pin any down. He had no idea how he felt. Was he sad that his parents were gone? Of course he was, he’s their son! He should feel sorry for losing them. But another part of him felt like Jay should feel more than sorry that his parents were gone. He should be crushed. Devastated. His heart should be torn to pieces. 

But… he wasn’t.

For some unfathomable reason, Jay only felt sad. Sad that he couldn’t hear his mother’s voice as she and her father got home as he was drifting to sleep. He was just sad. Not crushed, not devastated, just sad. 

A loud knocking reached his ears even over the shower head still pouring the water over him. He quickly washed his scraggy brown hair and turned the shower off. He quickly toweled off and dressed in his clothes. He walked back into his bedroom and grabbed his bag, taking his time as he took one last look around his room. He didn’t have any posters or any kinds of decorations. The only times he was ever in his room was when he was waking up or going to sleep. Either he was always hanging out with Austin or he was downstairs finishing his homework in front of the television. 

Jay double checked he had everything and slowly made his way down the stairs. In the foyer stood the same man who picked him up last night, only this time he wasn’t covered in rain. Jay and the man walked outside into the brisk morning air. Behind him, the man closed and locked the door to Jay’s house.  Jay opened the back door of the black sedan and tossed his duffel bag in. A muffled grunt caught Jay off-guard. 

“Hey!” a voice called out. Jay moved into the car and sat down in the seat as his bag was thrown to the floor by Austin. “Oh, hey Jay.”

“Sorry about that, didn’t see you there,” Jay said, playing off his ignorance with a smile. 

The man started the car up in a familiar hum as he pulled out into the street and down the road. Jay watched as the houses and scarce trees whizzed by as the thoughts from before began working their way back into his head. Before he could think any further, Austin interrupted him.

“Uhh, Jay? I wanted to apologize… for last night. I’m sorry you had to see that…” he said dejectedly. He fumbled with his fingers, his cheeks beginning to get a bit rosy.

“Hey. It’s perfectly alright. I’m sorry you… I’m sorry this had to happen.”

“By the way, I was meaning to ask you,” Austin began. “Why did you choose the bureau? Why didn’t you just go on your way?” 

Now Jay was fumbling with his fingers. “Uh, I… uh…”

“I knew it!” Austin said with a smile. “It’s Chloe, isn’t it?” Jay sighed and nodded. “Yeah, Leah told me she was really broken up last night. She went right to Andrew’s house afterwards and spent the night there instead of going back to her place.”

Jay’s heart skipped a beat. “She’s still with Andrew?” he asked. 

“Yeah, you didn’t know? As much of a piece of trash as he is, she still stays with him. According to Leah, he’s even coming with us to get converted. Chloe asked him to.”

Jay’s stomach dropped. Chloe had been in a very… uncomfortable relationship with Andrew, a senior at their high school. Two years older than her, he frequently ignored her and made jokes at her, even when she wasn’t present. Jay hated seeing them together. It was beyond him why she had been staying with such a deplorable person, but going as far as to get converted with him?

“I know, I know. But Leah said that he was truly sincere with her when he agreed to go.”

Jay crossed his arms in frustration. “I don’t get why she talks to you plenty, but never so much as says ‘hi’ to me.”

Austin smiled and leaned back contentedly in response. “Sometimes it helps to be social, pal.”

“I’m social! I hang out with people plenty!” Jay said defensively. 

“Sure you do,” Austin responded sarcastically. Jay gave him a stern look and rested in his seat. 

“Ass,” Jay murmured under his breath.

A few minutes of silence passed between the two. “So, what do you think about getting converted?” Austin asked.

Jay shrugged. 

“Wait. Let me get this straight. You’re giving up your own identity as a human being to be a pony because of a girl who’s already with another guy?”

Jay shrugged again. “Well mister fancy pants, what’s your reason?” Jay rebutted. 

“Uh, well… I’d rather keep it to myself, at least until after I get converted. That okay?” Austin smiled sheepishly.

“Sure. So where is this place? We’re pretty far out of town…” Jay looked out the window at the multitude of trees lining the road, a few cars traveling along the road away from them. 

“I heard that the ponies prefer to be ‘closer to nature’ as they put it. They like to place some of their bureaus away from cities and big towns. We should be getting closer to our bureau.” Jay leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. The electric hum of the car began to lull him back to sleep.


---


Austin shook Jay awake as the car began to slow down. Jay blinked lazily and let out a long yawn. His stomach began to rumble; he still hadn’t had any breakfast yet. Austin pushed open the door to the car on his side and wiggled his way out. He reached back in and grabbed his bag, closing the door rather forcefully after he pulled his bag out. 

Jay snapped his eyes open again and followed suit. He stood outside next to Austin as they both looked at the bureau. The building itself was long; it had a large center building that was two stories tall and two wings that seemed to stretch out and curve back behind the main building. The side wings were only a single story tall, but they had windows stretching all along the sides. The entire complex was situated in a small clearing surrounded by the thick forest. Jay could see small hints at a garden behind one of the side wings. 

Several other black sedans were parked outside the bureau; each one had two of the people he recognized from the night before, at the Telios building. The man with Austin and Jay led them towards the building as the other groups closed on it as well. 

“Can I get those bags for you two?” someone asked from behind Jay and Austin. Jay turned around to greet the person, only to have his eyes assaulted by a blob of bright orange and yellow.

“Ahh!” Jay yelped in surprise. Austin turned around and laughed.

“Oh! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you!” the pony squeaked. She raided an orange hoof to her mouth in concern from Jay’s startled reaction. Jay felt his heart slowing down as he caught his breath.

“Oh, don’t worry about Jay. My name’s Austin. It’s a pleasure to meet you, miss…?” Austin held out his hand.

“My name is Clementine! I work at the bureau! It’s a pleasure to meet the two of you as well!” Clementine met Austin’s hand with her hoof in a shake. “I can take your bags for you, if you’d like.” 

“That would be splendid, Clementine. Thank you for your generosity,” Austin said as he slipped the strap of his bag around the mare’s neck. “Jay?”

“S-Sorry about before. It’s nice to meet you, Clementine.” 

“It’s not a problem at all, Jay.” Jay slipped the strap of his bag around her neck on top of Austin’s. The mare began trotting back to the bureau ahead of them along with ponies of all colors coming from each of the other groups. 

“You see, that’s what I’m talking about!” Austin said, poking Jay in the shoulder. “I had to drag you into that conversation! It didn’t help that you yelled in that poor pony’s face either,” Austin said, grinning. 

“Not my greatest moment, I know.” 

The two joined with the rest of the group and walked through the sliding doors into the bureau’s atrium. The large open room had a large circular desk in the middle, with a glass wall in the back, displaying a colorful garden that was enclosed by the circle-shaped bureau. On the other side of the flowers and plants, he could see a largely glass structure, with the same curving wings joining with it that came out from the main building they were currently in. 

“Welcome, fi- erm, I mean ladies and gentlemen!” a rosy red unicorn called out over the group. On her nose sat a pair of glasses, with a darker purple mane falling down the back of her neck. “Welcome to our new Conversion Bureau! Your group will be the first to undergo conversion in our new facility. Each one of you will be given a clipboard with a sheet of paper we ask for you to fill out.” Her horn began glowing with a scarlet light, twelve clipboards floating through the air to everyone in the group. 

Jay stared at the clipboard that floated in front of him until Austin grabbed both his and his own, the red glow fading from them. He handed Jay his paper and looked down at it.

“Once you finish filling this form out, I’ll ask you hand them into Fleet Feather, our resident flight instructor,” the mare raised and pointed her hoof at a white coated male pegasus standing to the side of the group. He nodded at her with his stern face breaking for a grin. “My name is Garnet, and I will formally welcome you all during the orientation meeting in an hour! Feel free to stop at the cafeteria; it’s the glass building through the garden, before then!” Garnet walked to Fleet Feather and began talking to him while the group began to fill out their forms.

Jay pulled the pen out from the clip and looked at the remarkably short paper. Name, gender, proficiencies, known allergies? No ridiculous agreements? No signing his life away? Well, he was signing his life away, but his human life. He walked over to one of the sofas in the atrium next to Austin and read the paper over and over again.

He was signing away his humanity. The final passage and signature stated that all too clearly:

By signing below, I pledge to become a lawful citizen of the nation of Equestria and a subject of the royal princesses Celestia and Luna upon the completion of my conversion.

It was certainly a lot of his identity that would be gone in such a short agreement. 

Austin finished signing his form and walked over to the white pegasus and placed the paper on the table next to him. He gave Jay a wave and walked out into the colorful garden with a few of the others, on their way to breakfast.

Jay looked back down at his form. Was he really going to do this? Forgo his humanity? He wasn’t familiar with the process himself, but from what the talk had been, it was horrific. But the line for listing allergens… it said that it was to determine what sedative they would use to put him under during the process. That was one relief for his mind.

“Everything okay over here? You going to sign or what?” Jay jumped in his seat as the gruff voice reached his ear from right behind him. He looked back to see the scowling muzzle of Fleet Feather looming over him, his wings extended out. 

“Uh, I, um…”

“Lay off the poor kid, Feather. Don’t you know what they’ve all been through?” Fleet Feather backed away as the unicorn from before, Garnet, trotted over to the two of them. “Everything okay, dear?” she asked endearingly.

“Uh, yeah. I’m fine. I was just reading everything over a few times. That’s all.”

“Don’t worry; it’s perfectly normal to be apprehensive. You don’t even need to get converted if it comes down to it. We’re not forcing you into anything.”

He could reconsider? If things didn’t work out during his stay… he could always just leave. 

“Thanks, Miss Garnet,” Jay said. She gave him a smile and as he looked back down to his paper, he heard them turn around and begin to walk away. 

“You do realize that all of those kids lost all of their parents, right?” Garnet said to Fleet Feather in a hushed tone.

“What? That’s absurd! How… Why…” he tried to respond.

“All I was told was that it was a big accident. Please be thoughtful to them, okay?”

A very audible sigh came from the stallion. “Fine.”

Jay began filling out his form and reached the final signature line. He traced the curves of his signature and placed his pen down. He released the breath of air he had been holding and stood up. Looking around, he noticed that everyone around had already left for the cafeteria. He walked over to Garnet and Fleet Feather, who were in conversation until he slipped his paper onto the stack of others on the table. 

The white pegasus trotted up to Jay before he turned to leave. “Uh, I wanted to apologize. For how I acted before.”

“It’s okay. Thank you.”

Jay turned to leave. As he passed through the doors into the garden, he hard Garnet speak to Fleet Feather. “See? That wasn’t so bad, now was it?”

The doors closed and cut off any reply that the pegasus was about to give. The pathway through the colorful garden was made of simple woodchips and dirt, with arches of ivy and bright flowers reaching over the path every few feet. On either side of the large garden area were several mounds of freshly turned soil, dark with water. Small green sprouts could be seen coming from several of them, the new plants coming into bloom.

“Goo’ morfning!” a green colored mare called from the side of the garden, a water hose in her mouth. She carefully stuck the end of the green hose by the base of a few bushes, soaking the dirt by them.

Jay smiled and waved, picking up his pace. His stomach rumbled again. He needed food sooner rather than later.

When he stepped through the set of sliding doors, he looked around for Austin. He was waving to Jay from a table towards the front of the room, by what appeared to be the meal counter. A few small groups of the others were scattered around the cafeteria, but as Jay approached Austin he saw who he was sitting with.

“Welcome back, buddy,” Austin said as Jay took his seat. 

“I bet he was too busy making out with that red pony, am I right?”

Any bit of cheerfulness Jay had vanished in a heartbeat. Andrew sat at the table next to Chloe, his slick black hair combed back. His eyes were squinted from his laughing from his own joke, but nobody seemed to be joining him. Chloe gave him a scowl. “What? It was a joke. Can’t I make a joke or two?”

“Don’t listen to him. How are you holding up, Jay? Everything alright?” Chloe asked, her voice light and airy, but weighed down with concern.

“I-I’m fine. I was just caught up with filling out the paper. That’s all.”

Chloe’s expression lightened her curly brown hair bouncing as she leaned back. As she did, Andrew stretched his arm around her shoulders and pulled her in tight. “I’m here for emotional support. I’d go to the ends of the Earth for her if I had to. What happened to all of you last night was horrible.” Andrew straightened his posture as Chloe looked up at him with a smile. She leaned on his chest, placing a hand on his collarbone.

“Well I’m going to collapse if I don’t get something to eat.” Jay pushed his chair out from under the table and trudged over to the counter. A peach-yellow unicorn wearing a hairnet smiled at Jay as she levitated a plate from her side of the counter.

“What can I get you this morning?” she asked. 

Looking down at the selection, Jay mulled over the choices in his head. “Um, do you have any bacon or sausages?”

The unicorn’s smile wavered for a moment, the plate dipping in her loosened field of magic. “Um, uh, we d-don’t serve meat at the bureau… It’s a part of the conversion process, to wean humans off of meats and onto a vegetarian diet.” 

Jay smacked his forehead with his palm. “Of course. I’m sorry. Then can I get two of those pancakes and some of that fruit salad there?”

“Of course!” The mare’s smile was back in full force again. “By the way, my name is Peach Cobbler. I’m sorry we don’t have any meat for you, but I sure hope you like the fruit. We grow all of our fruits and vegetables outside in that garden there,” she pointed with her hoof out to the garden Jay had walked through, “and all around the back. Grown from fresh Equestrian fruit seeds too!”

She levitated the plate weighed down with two large pancakes and the pile of colorful fruits to Jay. He thanked her and walked over to get a fork, picking up a bottle of juice as well. He walked back over to the table and took his seat next to Austin once more.

“When did you start eating fruit?” Chloe teased. 

“When they ran out of bacon,” Jay replied as he ate one of the brightly colored pieces of fruit.

The explosion of flavor in his mouth was instant. The sweet juices spread from the fruit to coat his entire mouth in no time whatsoever. He finally bit down, the fruit resisting only slightly. It took him a second, but Jay was able to identify the fruit piece as watermelon. Not watermelon flavoring, or watermelon substitute, not even synthetic watermelon. Real, red, juicy, watermelon cubes. 

Swallowing the succulent fruit, Jay greedily snatched another piece of fruit, this time what looked like pineapple. A similar experience followed, but the flavor was much tarter than the watermelon. Austin and the others had finally gone to the counter to get their food as Jay continued to dig in. “Maybe being a vegetarian won’t be so bad after all,” Jay mused to himself. 


---


The rest of the group enjoyed their breakfasts as well. Before long, Fleet Feather trotted into the cafeteria. He announced that the orientation meeting was going to begin shortly in one of the bureau’s classrooms. Everyone cleared their plates off and handed them to Peach Cobbler, who placed them each in a sink filled with foamy water for cleaning. 

“I didn’t know they had classrooms here,” Jay moaned. “It’ll be like school all over again!”

“Oh hush, you. They’re going to teach us about Equestria, so we aren’t bumbling children when we get there,” Austin chided. 

“That doesn’t make listening to a lecture any better, you know,” Jay said.

Fleet Feather led the group to the door to their right as they entered the cafeteria. This section of the bureau looked to be home to many offices and open meeting rooms, as well as what appeared to be a small library. When they were about halfway around the wing, Fleet ushered all twelve of the orphaned teens as well as Andrew into one of the rooms. They all took their seats at the tables spread out across the room. Garnet stood at the front of the room, by the whiteboard.

“Everyone take a seat please,” she asked. When the last person sat down, she cleared her throat and smiled. “I apologize for the… unusual choice in location for this, but since there are so few of you, I felt it was a waste to use the seminar hall. Well then, let’s get this started! Welcome to the Conversion Bureau! As you know, my name is Garnet. I’m the facility director, here at the bureau. If you ever have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to come to me. My office is in the main building you all came in through when you got here, on the second floor. Just ask anypony here if you need directions.”

Fleet Feather as well as a few other ponies stepped out and stood to the side of Garnet. “These ponies here will be your instructors. Fleet Feather,” the white stallion nodded at his name. “He will train any of you who become pegasi in proper flight.”

“Some of you may have seen her in the gardens on your way to breakfast earlier. Honeybell is our earth pony instructor.” The green mare from the garden trotted forward, her hooves still streaked with dirt, her mane still a little wet in places from the hose. She wore a handkerchief on her head, holding back her mane from falling in her face.

“Believe it or not, earth ponies have just as much magic as both unicorns and pegasi!” A couple of the listeners leaned forward. “While it may not be as obvious as telekinesis or weather control, earth ponies have a powerful connection with living things such as plants and animals. Honeybell grows all of our produce here and can help a tomato plant bear fruit in three days from the day it was planted!” The green mare blushed, trying to cover her smile with her hoof. A few of the listeners gasped and began murmuring amongst themselves. 

“And last but not least, our resident librarian Firecracker will instruct new unicorns to control their magic.” A dark grey stallion with a mane of orange with streaks of blue just frowned, without making any other movements.

“We do conversions here in a randomized order and one at a time. Every day, before each meal, we’ll call for one of you to come to the conversion room for your procedure. We do this before meals, simply because the process is much easier on you if you have an empty stomach.” A hand shot up in the back of the room. Garnet looked over the rims of her glasses and pointed her hoof in his direction. “Yes?”

“Can we choose what we become? Like… what kind of pony?” The boy was a little older than Jay, his dark tanned skin standing out from the colorless wall behind him. Jay knew him only a little bit. His name was Sean, but he never really took any time to get to know him personally.

“I’m sorry, but the process has no real discernible outcome until after the fact. Some believe that the process for selection is random, while others think it has something to do with your DNA.” Garnet looked around the room. “Any more questions?” With nobody raising their hands, Garnet began handing out small folders to everyone. “Inside you will find the schedule of seminars designed to ease your integration into Equestria when you arrive. Also, you’ll find your rooming assignment for the next ten days. If you have any issues, please feel free to ask.”

Jay opened the folder he plucked from the air and leafed through the papers to his rooming assignment. “Looks like we’re rooming together,” Austin said, elbowing Jay in the side. They were rooming together. But there was also a third name.

“Dammit,” Jay hissed.

“Looks like we’re gonna be best buds, right fellas?” Andrew said, resting his arms on both Jay’s and Austin’s shoulders. 


---


The rest of the morning passed without trouble. Austin and Jay found their room on the other side of the bureau from the seminar room they had the orientation meeting in. The room was cozy, two beds lined up against both walls with a third awkwardly jammed in between them against the back wall. Andrew didn’t stay long; he dropped his small bag onto the floor and kicked it under the bed before leaving. 

“Why?” Jay moaned. “Why does he have to room with us? Is this some kind of cruel joke?”

“Sheesh, quit being so melodramatic. You don’t have to hang out with him if you don’t want to.” Austin stared at Jay as he flopped onto his springy bed. “Oh. Oh that isn’t fun. Well, not for you at least.”

Jay curled up on his side. “We leave for Equestria in ten days. I’ll likely never see Chloe ever again after that. Gah!” Jay grunted, throwing his limbs out in frustration. “Why the hell does he have to be here? His parents aren’t even dead!”

Jay turned his head to see Austin sitting on his mattress, staring at the linoleum tiles on the ground. He wasn’t smiling or moving aside from his chest. “Austin… I’m so-”

“No,” he said, raising his hand. “You lost your parents too. You don’t have to apologize.” Austin sniffed loudly before picking his head back up. “And you’re right. There’s no way that jerk is just abandoning everything just for Chloe. And if he was, then I’ve been entirely wrong about him all this time.”

“That’s still a big stretch,” Jay said as he sat back upright. “I’m going for a walk. I’ll see you at lunch. I want to clear my head a bit.”


---


Jay sat on one of the wooden benches scattered throughout the center bureau garden area, the sunlight washing over the side of the building onto the hungry plants below. Honeybell was busy tending to the plants by the cafeteria. Every so often Jay could swear he heard her laugh or even sing, even while she was by herself. She was probably just passing the time.

Jay looked at his watch. 11:45. Lunch was going to start soon. Conversions were going to start tomorrow. Was he going to be one of the first to… go pony? He was really hoping against it. He didn’t want to be the ‘test run’ for their group. He didn’t want that kind of attention. 

Jay stood up and walked over towards the cafeteria, tired of doing nothing. The glass doors slid open to an empty room, but as Jay looked, he could see Peach Cobbler milling around the kitchen behind the counter. He walked over, hoping to get an early start on his lunch. He hoped that they had more of that fruit from breakfast.

“Oh, hey there! Uh, what was your name again? Wait! Don’t answer that… Give me a minute… Jay?” Jay nodded. “Yes! I’m trying to learn all of your names by the end of the day. I gotta say… human names are tough! No way to relate it to what you do! I grew up on a peach farm and always helped my mom with her cooking… oh but enough about me. What can I help you with?”

“Is there any way I can get lunch just yet? I’m pretty hungry… and that fruit was awesome from breakfast! There’ll be more, right?”

“Oh, sorry honey. Lunch starts at twelve thirty. Garnet would have my flank if I started any earlier! But I’ll be sure to relay your compliments to Honeybell when she comes in later.” Raising a hoof to her chin, Peach thought for a moment. “You know… I think I know a way you can pass the time. You remember Firecracker, right? The librarian?”

Jay thought back to the orientation meeting, the three instructors: Fleet Feather, Honeybell, and Firecracker. “Grey with orange and blue and the scowl?”

“Yeah, that grouch! Oh, but don’t tell him I said that,” Peach said in a giggle. “He’s having a bit of trouble with the computer in his library, do you mind helping him out? It’s been driving him up a wall all week.”

“Uh, yeah. Sure. I’ll see what I can do.”

Peach smiled and pulled him close with her hoof. “If you can get the old coot to cheer up, I got a little treat for you when you get back for lunch. How does that sound?”

Jay leaned back, a little uncomfortable at the sudden intrusion of his personal space. “Yeah, sure thing. Sounds great.” 

Jay turned around and headed for the office and labs wing of the bureau as Peach Cobbler waved goodbye. After he cleared the doors, Jay relaxed a bit. He began looking around, trying to remember where it was he saw the library earlier in the day. He began tepidly walking down the gently curving hallway, past several darkened rooms devoid of life. Jay looked onto one of the windows on his left. The room appeared to be some sort of laboratory, but the darkened lights made it difficult to discern any real details about exactly what the room was for.

A shattering noise behind Jay was the only warning he got before a blinding pain erupted in the back of his head. Jay’s head was shoved forward from the force into the glass window of the lab he was just looking into. The window didn’t break, but it still hurt.

“Oh Celestia, I’m so sorry! I didn’t see you out there!” A grey stallion galloped out from the door behind Jay. He managed to turn his head to see the shattered remains of an old plastic keyboard in pieces on the ground beside him. One mystery solved, it seemed. “Here, come in here, I’ll patch you up.”

Jay staggered to his feet, his head spinning as he stood in place. He felt himself loosing balance, and reached out to meet a warm, soft surface to lean on. The stallion had moved in front of him, supporting his weight. 

“Come on,” he said. The stallion guided Jay into the library and led him to a wooden chair beside a wide table. Jay fell into the hard chair and leaned back. His head was throbbing, but it didn’t seem to hurt too badly.

“I’m very sorry about that. I… lost my temper. How are you feeling? Still dizzy?” he asked, moving behind Jay.

“I’m… better. Just hurts. A bit.” 

“Lean your head forward. I’m just going to check for any cuts or glass.” Jay let his head slump forward as he felt the stallion’s hard hoof moving his brown hair to the side. Each touch made the pain worse, drawing gasps from Jay.

“Okay, you look clean. No broken skin. Just a mean-looking bump. My name’s Firecracker. I’m sorry about that, the keyboard.” 

Jay leaned his head back again, feeling the blood swell around the back of his head once more. The throbbing was slightly better, and would probably go away by the end of the day. “I’m Jay. Peach Cobbler asked me to help you out with your computer… but it looks like you took care of that,” Jay said, looking back out to the hallway, the shattered remains of glass and keyboard strewn across the floor.

“I guess… I could use some help. The humans who helped build the bureau insisted on installing one of those accursed contraptions for me, promising that it would make my life easier. Fat load of good it did me,” Firecracker huffed. 

Jay took a moment to look around the library he was in. A dozen bookshelves lined the walls of the room, filled to the brim with large tomes and scrolls, much different than the ones he remembered seeing in his school. 

“You like it? It’s a part of my personal collection from back in Manehattan. I donated it to the bureau to hopefully get at least someone to read them. They’ve been just collecting dust, so I figured why not?”

Jay stood up and wandered to one of the shelves and skimmed across the various lavishly colored books. “Might want to steer clear of that section. Those are spell tomes, not really for anypony or human not learned in unicorn magic. Just trying to read the diagrams and script in one of those will assuredly give you a headache.”

“It’s… an impressive collection you have, Firecracker. But, did you want my help with the computer at all? I mean it looks like you have just about everything covered in your library by yourself.”

“That’s what I kept telling them! I don’t need some infernal machine doing the work I’ve done for years! But they kept insisting.” Firecracker grunted as a clattering of hoofsteps could be heard from the hall.

“What in Celestia’s name… Firecracker! Is everything okay?” Garnet asked, her glasses slipping down her muzzle. 

“Kinda. I accidentally hit our friend here in the head with that keyboard, but it looks like he’s made of some sterner stuff than the window was. Barely a scratch on him.”

Garnet looked back to the hall at the mess on the floor. “I’ll get somepony to clean this up and to replace that window. Are you alright?” Garnet asked, looking towards Jay with concern.

“I’ve been better, but nothing I can’t get over.” 

“Well that’s a relief. I’m glad you’re okay. And as for you, Firecracker,” Garnet said, turning to the grey stallion. “You need to learn how to control yourself. We’re gonna have a nice little talk later, okay?”

“Okay, okay, fine. I get it. Don’t worry, I’ll keep myself in check.” Firecracker tried to shoo Garnet off with a few waves of his hoof. 

“Oh, don’t think you’re getting off that easily! My office in an hour.” Garnet disappeared from the doorway and down the hall. 

“You got a broom or something? I’ll help you clean this mess up, if you’d like,” Jay offered. Without speaking, Firecracker trotted over to the doorway and levitated a trash can in an orange aura over to him. The debris on the floor was enveloped in a similar aura, lifting the small shards of glass into the can as well as the shattered remains of the keyboard. “So much for my help,” Jay murmured. 

“Don’t take it the wrong way. I just didn’t want anypony cutting their hooves walking down the hallway.”

“If you don’t mind me asking… What was driving you mad with the computer? I always found them pretty easy to work with.” 

“It’s not even that!” Firecracker grumbled as he slid the filled trash can against the wall. “I can’t for the life of me press the button I want! See these?” the stallion said, holding up his grey hoof. “Obviously not build with these in mind. I try and press one of the little buttons and I hit them all! Drives me crazy, I tell you.”

Jay chuckled and nodded. “I don’t think they intended ponies to be a target demographic for computers when they designed them. Can’t you just use your magic for it?”

Firecracker did a double take. “What kind of- Wait. Like pressing those tiny buttons with magic? Not using my hooves?” Jay nodded. “Those lugs who installed it kept on telling me how the keys needed to be pressed down with something solid, like some sort of tactile response…”

“Really now?” Jay asked. He stood up and walked over to the trash can and peered at the contents. “Nope, it’s just a regular analog keyboard. Not one of those capacitive touch keyboards… I think those ‘lugs’ played a joke on you is all.”

“Well,” Firecracker said with a huff. “That explains that.” He tried to hide his embarrassment at the fact, but the scarlet on his cheeks was bleeding through his dark coat. “Well I do believe that lunch should be served soon. Shall we depart?” he asked hastily.

“Sure,” Jay said. The throbbing in the back of his head was considerably weaker from before. 


---


“Thanks, Peach.” Firecracker levitated his plate of food, a combination of hay, grass, oats, and a small pile of flowers, and went to find a table. 

“Whatever you did, he seems to be a bit more cheerful!” Peach Cobbler whispered to Jay. 

“Really? I couldn’t really tell,” Jay said back.

“This time he thanked me! Usually he just grunts or huffs or just storms off, but now! Oh you have to tell me how you did it!”

“I’m not entirely sure how I did it myself,” Jay murmured. “Turns out he was getting frustrated with his computer, and thought he needed to use his… hooves on the keyboard. A joke played by the men who installed it for him.”

Peach burst out in a fit of laugher, tears streaming from her eyes. “He was… With his hooves? All week? And he didn’t think to use his…? That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard since I got here!” Jay smiled and chuckled shyly. The scene with Peach was drawing the eyes of the entire cafeteria. “Oh! Before I forget, I already assumed you’d fix that chip on Firecracker’s shoulder, so I made you your little treat while you were gone!”

Jay took his plate from the pinkish aura. On it was a small salad, a sandwich, and a small peach tart. “We don’t often get peaches to serve for meals, so when I get them I always want to do something special with them! I made one of my favorite desserts from back home just for you!” The unicorn smiled widely as Jay inspected the treat. “Let me know how you like it, okay?”

“Sure thing,” Jay said before he grabbed a bottle of juice and walked over to the table Austin sat at.

As Jay took his seat, Austin turned to face him. “What on earth did you do to the poor pony?”

“Nothing?” Jay said innocently. “I just helped her out with something is all. She gave me this for ‘payment’,” Jay said, pointing at the tart with his fork. 

“Wait a minute. Let me get this straight. You actually made social contact with a sapient creature without my help?” Austin broke out in a quiet clap. “Sir, I am impressed.”

Austin’s head bobbed forward suddenly. Shortly after, a great pain erupted in the back of Jay’s head where his bump from the keyboard was. He cried out in pain, grasping at the spot with both hands. “Geez, I only brushed you with my elbow. You don’t have to be so dramatic about it!”

Andrew and Chloe took seats on the other side of the table from Jay and Austin, Jay still grasping at his head. Tears began to form in the corners of his eyes from the pain, but he blinked them away. “Doesn’t help that I have a golf-ball sized lump where you ‘brushed’ me with your elbow,” Jay spat.

Andrew frowned. “Well warn me next time, alright? Geez.”

“What did you do to get that?” Chloe asked.

“A bad encounter with a flying keyboard.” Jay began picking at his salad with his fork. 

“Care to explain?” Austin asked with a mischievous grin on his face.

“This is one I gotta hear,” Leah said as she sat down next to Chloe.

“Can I just eat my lunch?” Jay asked, his cheeks feeling warm from all the attention suddenly on him.

“Nope, or you get a smack to your lump!” Austin threatened with his grin still plastered along his face. He raised his hand in a joking manner, about to take a swing at him.

“Fine! I was going to help Firecracker, the dark grey unicorn over there,” Jay pointed to the lone unicorn munching on his lunch. “He got frustrated with the computer he was trying to use and chucked it out the window on the door to the library. Hit me in the back of the head. That’s it. Can I eat in peace now?”

Austin lowered his hand and took up his own fork. “Sounds like you had a fun time before lunch.”

“Laugh it up,” Jay said before taking a bite of his sandwich. The food he was eating for lunch, like breakfast, was full of flavor and color, much unlike the frozen foods he always had at home. The sandwich was pleasantly filled with greens, and the bread fluffy and brown. Each bite was a moist crunch, the juices filling his mouth with a variety of flavors both smooth and mellow.

Jay finished off his main course and looked down at the peach tart Peach Cobbler made for him. Browned slices of the yellowish fruit were coated with a sprinkle of big sugar grains, the outer crust shiny and brown. The dessert was about the size of his palm, so it wasn’t a monumental effort for Peach Cobbler to cook, but he promised he would let her know how he liked it when he was finished.

He stuck his fork into the colorful dessert and pulled out two slices of peach, with a small piece of the crust stuck to them. With a slow and careful motion, he stuck the fruit in his mouth and began chewing.

“Oh god…” Jay moaned. “This is amazing.”

“Really? Can I try some?” Chloe asked. Jay nodded, his heart elated. He graciously held out the small dish towards Chloe as she pulled some of the tart out with her fork and took a bite. “Wow! This is good!”

Jay smiled and placed the tart back onto the table. It was nearly gone; maybe one or two bites left. He rounded up the rest of it and jabbed it with his fork, smiling as he felt the juices touch his tongue once more. 

Content, Jay picked up his plate and half full bottle of apple juice and made his way back to a smiling Peach Cobbler. “So? How’d you like it?”

“It was fantastic! Even my friend Chloe liked it. It’s too bad that you don’t get too many peaches to make more. I’m positive everybody here would love them.”

Peach let out a breath that she was holding. “Thank Celestia! I was terrified that you would hate it… I kind of… lied about the peaches. We have plenty. I just wanted to make sure that people liked my cooking before I made a big deal about it is all.” 

“Peach, that was quite possibly the most delicious dessert I’ve had in years. Whoever made you think your cooking was bad is dead wrong.”

Peach took Jay’s plate in her pink aura and dunked it in the foamy sink. She chuckled half-heartedly. “I’m glad you like it. Let me know if you’d like to try some of my other desserts, okay? You can be my taste tester! If you like it then I’ll start making more of them for everypony here, deal?” Peach stuck her hoof over the counter and met Jay’s hand with a shake.

“Deal.”


---


Jay lounged in one of the fluffy sofas in the bureau common room. Halfway long the residential wing was a large open room filled with tables and couches as well as a billiard table and a large television. The area was for everyone to be able to mingle and socialize, for newly converted humans, newfoals as the ponies would call them in jest, to talk about their experience. 

Jay had switched to the news channel. A camera was showing the flaming husk of a building surrounded by houses and parking lots. The headline across the bottom of the screen read >TELIOS CHEMICAL PLANT TRAGEDY: 120 CONFIRMED DEAD<. It was the accident from yesterday that claimed his parents… and the parents of everyone else here. He turned the volume up to hear the commentary.

“…ion happened around six last night, burning well into today. The cause of the accident is still unknown and will likely remain a mystery until well after the chemical fire is put out. The president of Telios Chemical released this statement today:”

“We are shocked and deeply saddened by the loss of the facility and out workers. We will not stop until the truth of this horrendous accident is brought to light.”

“Stocks for Telios dropped a staggering ten percent today as investors were made skittish of the company and the possibility of other plants having similar accidents.”

An orange earth pony trotted up next to Jay’s chair. “I’m sorry about your loss…” she said mournfully. “I didn’t know about it earlier this morning.”

“You’re Clementine, right? The pony who took my bag when I got here?”

The orange mare nodded. “I’m one of Honeybell’s garden helpers.” Clementine frowned as she sat down, folding her legs under her torso beside Jay. They watched more of the newscast in silence, Clementine glancing over to Jay every few moments. 

“Are you sad?”

“What?”

Clementine looked over to Jay. “Are you sad that you lost your parents?”

Jay sat in silence. He turned his head back to the television, unsure of what to say. He was sad, wasn’t he? Even if he was sad, which he was quite sure he was, how would he convey the emotions properly? Should he just stay silent and stare at the news? Should he make his voice tremble as if he was trying to fight back tears? 

Jay brought his hands and cupped them around his face. He leaned forward, resting his head on his palms. He was just thinking of ways he could fake emotions. Emotions about losing his parents. 

“What’s wrong with me?” Jay mouthed to himself. 

“I’m sorry… you don’t have to answer. It was insensitive of me.” Clementine stood up from where she was sitting and trotted away, towards the exit of the common room. Jay picked his head up and looked at her as she disappeared past the doorway. 

Frustrated, Jay just decided to relax and kick up his feet onto the sofa, laying his head down. He stared at the ceiling as the television droned on. Steadily, his eyes began to lose focus and he closed his eyes. 


---


Jay woke back up to someone lightly smacking his face. “Hey. Hey sleepyhead. Come on, we’re getting dinner.” Austin stood up straight, his arms crossed as he waited for Jay. He rubbed his eyes and smacked his lips a bit. He looked down at his watch. 7:00. How long had he been out?

He rose to his feet and took a few steps forward, letting his attention return to full strength before going any further. Austin and Jay walked out from the common room towards the cafeteria along the back part of the residential wing. 

The cafeteria wasn’t as filled with people or ponies as it was during lunch. Jay and Austin walked over to the counter where Peach Cobbler stood, her hooves dunked in the soapy sink scrubbing dishes. “Hey there! Just in time too, last batch of dinner just finished. Tonight is vegetarian lasagna! And for you,” Peach said in a smooth voice, “I have a new dessert for you to try. Please please PLEASE tell me how it is! And don’t just be kind about it!”

Peach Cobbler levitated two dishes of the lasagna out from behind the counter, the meals piping hot with trails of steam rising from each one. Another, smaller plate was given to Jay. On it was a small danish, oozing with some sort of fruit filling. Peach went back to scrubbing plates while Jay and Austin grabbed themselves each a fork and sat down at a table. 

The lasagna was very hot; Jay burned himself just trying to test it with the tip of his tongue. He dropped the fork onto his plate and took a sip of the juice he took this time: Cranberry. 

“How in the world did you get special treats from the chef?” Austin asked. “It sounded like she has a thing for you, too.”

Jay choked on his drink as his eyes went wide. He began coughing and hacking as the pain in his throat began to worsen. After a moment of more coughing, he cleared his throat, freeing any more juice from the wrong tube. “What? No. I’m just trying out her desserts is all.”

“You seemed to enjoy eating her peach dessert earlier,” Austin said, a sly grin growing with each passing second. It took longer than Jay cared to admit until he got what Austin was saying.

“God! Shut up! No. Well, yes. I mean, uh.” Jay shut himself up by shoving a piece of lasagna into his mouth, realizing all too late how horrible of a decision that was. Austin burst out laughing as Jay spat out his food with a yelp. His mouth began throbbing from the burn. He took another mouthful of juice and held it in his mouth, relishing the cooling sensation.

“You are easily the smoothest person I know,” Austin chuckled. He took a forkful of his lasagna, blew on it, and took a bite. After swallowing, he took another slow bite, blowing the heat from it again. 

Jay swallowed the juice, his mouth a little bit less sore than before. Austin looked up from his plate, and dropped his fork. He took a gulp of juice and hopped up from his seat. “You mind taking care of this for me? I gotta take care of something important.” Before Jay could get a single word in, Austin rushed over to a red pony just leaving the cafeteria to the lab and office wing of the bureau. From what he could tell, it was probably Garnet.

“Sure,” Jay said to himself. He took a nervous bite of the lasagna, and fortunately he didn’t burn away any more of his mouth from the effort. 

With the last scraps of the lasagna spread across his plate, he looked at the new dessert Peach Cobbler cooked for him. The danish had a shiny glaze on top with a bright red jelly oozing out from the sides. He picked it up gingerly, trying not to get too much of the glaze on his fingers. He took a bite, his mouth suddenly filled with more jelly than he had expected in the first place. 

The jam was thick and sweet, the taste of strawberries greeting his taste buds. The fluffy pastry was amazing by his standards. Why in the world was Peach so nervous about nobody liking it?

He finished off the dessert and stacked his plates and placed his fork on top, walking back over to the counter to a very nervous unicorn. “S-So? How was it?”

“Even better than the tart you gave me this afternoon,” Jay said. Her expression dropped to a frown. 

“Are you saying the tart was bad?” 

“No! No, of course not! It was great! I’m just saying that the danish was great as well!” Jay was nervous. He didn’t mean to upset her!

“Okay…” she said, wiping away a tear with her hoof. She took Jay’s plate and dunked it in the sink and began scrubbing. Jay wanted to say something but came up with nothing. She was probably just overreacting, but how do you tell someone that, without coming off as a jerk?

Jay just walked away and hoped that Peach would feel better in the morning. He decided he wanted to take the scenic route to his room. The boys and girls rooms were split on either side of the common room, the girls closer to the cafeteria. Jay walked out into the garden, now bathed in a bright moonlight. He heard the insects chirping away in the dark, the soft floodlights lighting the sides of the building and smaller lights lighting the path through the garden. 

He strode along the woodchip path, his hands hanging in his pockets. He looked up at the moon; part of it was starting to vanish behind a large cloud. A cool breeze began to blow across the garden. Jay picked up his pace as he folded his arms. He saw something in the shadows to his right, along one of the branching pathways. 

In the dim light, he could make out the two figures: Chloe and Andrew. They hadn’t noticed him, but he wasn’t in too much of a rush to make himself too well known out here. He picked up his pace and took a right at the center of the garden towards the common room. The glass doors slid open as he approached, warm air greeting his chilled limbs once more. 

A few of the others in the common room paid him no heed while a few looked his way then back to whatever they were doing beforehand. He turned to his left and towards the rooms, his destination firmly in place in his head.

He exited the open common room and into the dimly lit hallways. The lights were dimmer than before, likely to make it easier for anyone trying to navigate the bureau after dark without blinding them with oppressively bright lights. 

Jay looked along the left hand wall, keeping his eye out for his room. When he came to it, he opened the door to a very dark room. He flicked the switch on the wall beside him, bathing the room in a sickly white fluorescent light. His bag was still sitting on his bed, the sheets still ruffled a bit from when he was lying down before lunch with Austin talking to him. 

8:00. His eyes were heavier than he was used to from his lack of sleep the night before.  He decided now was as good of a time as any to get some rest. He stripped his dirty pants and put on some light shorts and tossed his bag under his bed. He walked back to the light switch and clicked it, drowning the room in darkness once more. He pulled back the sheets, but as he was about to get into bed, he door opened and the lights were flicked back on once more. 

“Oh, sorry Jay.” Austin walked in with a smile he was trying desperately to contain.

Jay only grunted and climbed in bed. “Can you hit the lights? I want to get some sleep.”

“Yeah, no problem. I’ll be quiet when I come back in later. Can’t say the same for when Andrew gets here, though.” 

Jay closed his eyes and curled up a bit under the thin covers. He heard the click of the light switch, the lights on his eyelids going dark once more. He heard the door close and footsteps disappearing down the hall. 

It took very little time for Jay to get to sleep, but not before a twinge of sadness crept up on him when he remembered his parents.
> The Second Day (AM)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jay breathed slowly, his forehead pressing down on the backs of his hands. They themselves rested on the cafeteria tabletop, in front of a bare plate. His eyelids fluttered a bit during his moment of rest, as other people talked all around him, about nothing too loud. Jay was seated towards the end of the table with Austin seated next to him. Austin was talking away with Leah, Chloe, and Andrew, but Jay couldn’t hear what he was talking about. The words reached his ears, but their meanings remained aloof.

Jay scrunched his eyes tightly as he recalled the dreams.

They were jumbled images and sounds, devoid of structure and meaning, but they filled his head with a sense a sense of unease whenever he thought about them. One thing was common throughout the dream: he was in pain.

“Jay,” Austin murmured, elbowing him in the side. Roused from his rest, Jay sat upright and rubbed his eyes. Looking around he could see Peach Cobbler still tending to the kitchens behind the counter. She had served breakfast earlier, but Jay couldn’t remember what it was. Firecracker was sitting at a table by the back windows by himself, just like every meal before. He had a book open on the table in front of him, his nose buried in it.

A somber air hung over the cafeteria, and rightfully so. Conversions were starting today. One at a time, each one picked at the beginning of breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Garnet, the unicorn who oversees the bureau had already called a boy by the name of Caleb Hastings. A tall and muscular teen, Jay vaguely recalled Caleb being a part of one of their school’s sports teams… or maybe all of them. He didn’t know Caleb too well.

The conversions reminded everyone why they were there in the first place. Their lives on Earth were just about over and gone, unless they dared to venture out and start over for themselves from scratch.

“… and he’ll come through those two doors over there any minute now. Just please be patient, you’ll see him, okay?” The bright green earth pony who normally tended the gardens, her name slipping from Jay’s memory, had just guided a middle-aged couple and a red-cheeked girl no older than nine into the cafeteria through the gardens.

The three of them sat at the table next to Jay and his group. The girl sat at the very end of the table, her eyes locked onto the double doors Caleb ventured through half an hour ago. The man put his arm around the woman and smiled at her as he whispered something in her ear.

A soft percussive noise began to draw eyes to the double doors. A pony stepped through the doors and held one of them open for another pony, which seemed to be having trouble walking, let alone standing. He was a navy blue earth pony with a black mane flowing down the back of his neck. His eyes were a radiant orange, blazing in contrast with his coat.

Apprehensively, he reached out with one hoof and placed it on the ground with an auditory clop. Then another clop followed that one. Then another. Bringing his gave up from his hooves, he looked around the cafeteria for but a moment until he saw the little girl staring at him.

“Annie…?” he muttered. The girl burst into tears and cries, jumping off the chair and bounding towards the pony, grabbing him around the neck. He brought a blue hoof up and wrapped it around the girl, still sobbing into his coat. A small tear glistened at the edge of his eye.

“What’s going on out here?” a voice called from the hallway. Garnet trotted out into the cafeteria. “Who’s this?”

The blue pony twisted his head around to meet Garnet’s eyes. “It’s okay. This is my sister Annie.” He turned his head back around and looked down at the girl. “What are you doing here? Didn’t they find you a new family?”

The girl slowly began to regain composure, trying to stifle the last few sobs. “I… I wanted… to see you again!” she said. “I… I want to go with you and all the ponies!”

Garnet trotted up behind Caleb and looked down at the young girl. “I’m sorry honey, but you need to be at least sixteen to consent to conversion without paren-” Garnet cut herself off, realizing what she was saying. The couple at the table stood up, the man clearing his throat.

“Ahem. That’d be us, ma’am.” Regarding them with a quizzical look, Garnet watched them as they walked up to the brother and sister. “We’re Annie’s foster parents as of yesterday.” The woman kneeled down and gave Annie a hug.

“Are you sure this is what you want?” she asked. Wiping away the tears with the back of her hand, Annie nodded her head. “Is this okay with you, Caleb? I don’t want to dump your sister on you like she was a burden.”

Caleb looked down at his smiling sister and back up at the woman with a big smile of his own. “Nothing would make me happier.”

“That’s it then. Can you show us the paperwork we need to sign, ma’am?” the man asked Garnet.

“Of course, sir. Come this way.” Garnet lead the couple back through the double doors.

Caleb began trying to walk to the nearest table to sit down at, his sister assisting him on his way over. Several of the people sitting at the tables around the cafeteria stood up and made their way over to Caleb and Annie, eager to find out what his experience was like. Annie kept her arms wrapped around her brother’s neck all the while.

“So what happened? What did they do to you in there?” someone asked from in the group of people. Caleb shrugged.

“They had me change into a hospital gown… thing… and lay down on my side on this big metal table. Really cold.” A visible chill ran through Caleb’s body. “They handed me this little plastic cup with the stuff in it to drink.”

“What stuff?”

“Well, I don’t really know what it was. It looked like some sort of purple Jell-o with glitter in it. Smelled like grapes. I drank it and that’s the last thing I remember before I woke up like this,” Caleb said as he brought his hooves up.

“What does it feel like?”

“Well…” Caleb began. “I feel… really good. And seeing Annie made me feel even better,” he said, planting a kiss on his sister’s forehead.

A few others asked Caleb some more questions, but the group began to diminish and return to their original places in the cafeteria. A few minutes later, the doors to the garden opened again, Garnet and Annie’s foster parents walking up to the brother and sister.

“Annie, I know we have no right to keep you from what family you have left. My wife and I are beyond happy, seeing you with your brother.” The man knelt down and gave her a big hug, the wife following suit. Garnet levitated a small folder into Annie’s hands.

“Here’s some information for you to give to your brother. I changed around the rooms a bit, so Caleb, Annie’s going to be rooming with you. You’re both moving into room 19A. And Annie, I switched around the conversion schedule so you will be our evening patient at dinnertime.” Annie tried to hide a glowing smile, but unable to control herself, she leaped up and hugged Garnet as well. The red unicorn wrapped her neck around the young girl in an embrace.

Jay turned back around to his table to see Austin and everyone else picking up their trays and plates, making their way to the doors. He hurriedly followed them, falling in behind Andrew at the back of the group. They walked through the hallway to the large common room. They all sat down in two couches facing each other as Austin ran to the other hallway to his and Jay’s room to grab something.

Leah and Chloe were talking with each other in hushed tones, Chloe softly giggling. Andrew stood up and sat down next to Jay, his large bulk sinking into the sofa, creating a pit that Jay felt the pull of. He leaned his body weight opposite of it, trying to keep himself from getting too close to Andrew.

“So, JJ, what do you think of that whole show?” he asked. Jay almost missed the comment for a second; not realizing it was aimed at him, even though Andrew directly addressed him. It was so uncommon for anyone to willingly talk to him that the entire idea of someone other than Austin striking up a conversation over something so… casual in a way… was alien to him.

“I, uh,” Jay mumbled, stumbling over his words. “It’s pretty cool, you know, from a technical standpoint. I mean, they changed his species in only half an hour. Something only thought possible through evolution over the course of millions of years, and even then, there wouldn’t have been such a drastic change.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sure thing, pal.” Andrew said, passively. “I wonder if he still has the hots for girls… you know… not those girl ponies, but human girls.”

“Huh?” Jay said, caught off guard.

“I mean, I’ve heard of some freaky things going on between humans and those horses, but that’s still kinda out there.” Jay sat back and stared off. He kind of understood what Andrew was getting at. What if he got converted before Chloe? Would he lose all interest in her simply because she’d still be human? Or what if it was the other way around? What if she was put off by anything he tried while he was still human?

“Found it!” Austin called from the hallway behind Jay. In his hand, he held a colorful plastic disc, waving it in the air. Andrew immediately got up and followed Austin as he dashed to the door to the open field outside the common room, opposite of the gardens in the bureau. Leah followed them as well as a few of the rest of the others lounging in the common room.

Chloe sat in her seat with a small sketchbook and a pencil, the top of it flitting around over the edge. Nervously, Jay stood up and sat next to her, still over a foot away. He didn’t want to come off as creepy. He leaned over and peered into the sketchbook, but she pulled it away.

“Sorry,” she said as Jay sat back, his heart weighed down by tar. He made a fool of himself, forgetting to respect Chloe’s privacy. He proceeded to slam his head against a mental wall in his head out of frustration. His cheeks reddened out of embarrassment, and struggled to hide any other signs he was showing. The two of them sat in silence for a minute.

“I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember,” she said, breaking the silence between the two of them. “Whenever I felt happy or sad, I would draw. What I drew would be like how I felt while I was drawing them. I… I’d rather not let anyone see, if that’s okay.”

Jay looked up at Chloe. Her wavy auburn hair hung down her head, obscuring a bit of her face from view. She brushed it away, weaving it back behind her ear. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep drawing after my conversion.”

“Why?” Jay asked. “Unicorns are able to use magic, and I think it could act like another arm or hand.”

“I know, but that’s only a one out of three chance I’d become a unicorn. What if I end up as an earth pony or pegasus? How could I draw then?” Chloe’s voice began to tremble a bit.

Jay sat back and sighed. He knew there was no way to influence the conversion that any human or pony knew of. But seeing Chloe like this…

The gears in his head began to turn. They slowly began to creak to life, ideas coalescing before his eyes and subsequently getting tossed aside. Jay brought his hand to his chin and stared at the carpet before him.

“Maybe…” he murmured.

“Hm?” Chloe said.

“I think… I may know how to help. It won’t be exactly like drawing with your hand, but it may work.”

“No, don’t worry. It’s not a big deal. I’ll…”

Jay stood up and began to walk off, his mind still buzzing with ideas. He walked out of the common room, oblivious to Chloe’s protests. Chloe sighed and bright her pencil back to the paper, putting the details on the hair of her mother’s head.


---


 

“Firecracker!” Jay called out, barging into the small library. “Firecracker, are you there? It’s Jay! I need some help!”

“Quit yelling! This is a library, if you had forgotten, you half-wit… Oh, hello Jay.” The dark grey unicorn trotted up to jay and held out his hoof, shaking Jay’s hand. “Great to see you again. This time without any windows broken I see! Progress!” The pair of them smiled, remembering the frustration Firecracker had with the keyboard the day before. “So what can this stallion do for you?”

Jay sat down in one of the hard plastic chairs, resting his head in the cradle of his hands. He was struggling to keep the image in his mind. “Can you get me a pen and paper?” Firecracker’s horn glowed a bright orange, the desk his sleeping computer sat on opening. A small notepad and pen levitated out and fell before Jay. Immediately, he began to scribble down a crude drawing.

“What’s this all for? Hmm?” Firecracker asked.

“I’m making something for a friend of mine so she can keep drawing after she gets converted. It’s a brace, with straps to wrap around her… hoof. A small slot for a pencil, pen, or whatever, and a locking mechanism to hold it in place…”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Firecracker called out, interrupting Jay’s stream of thought. “Why does she need some complicated thing like that? Did she ask you to make it?” Jay shook his head, the pen still scribbling away. “You realize most ponies draw and paint with their mouths, right?”

“What.” He said this more as a literal statement of confusion than a request for clarification.

“Yeah, well, other than unicorns. They hold the pen or pencil or paintbrush in their mouths and go to town. Easier than you think, trust me.” Jay stared at his paper and heaved a big sigh. Firecracker’s eyes widened. “Oh. Ahh. That makes more sense.”

Jay looked up at the unicorn, afraid of what he was thinking. “You’re trying to gain her favor. That does make more sense, even if it means wasting time on some useless hoof brace.” Jay’s cheeks reddened. “Don’t worry, Jay. I’ll see what I can do to help you out. But there’s one catch.”

“What is it?”

“You’ve gotta work that blasted contraption for me. I refuse to have anything else to do with it, after that whole episode yesterday. All you gotta do is check that… ee-mail for me and tell me if there’s anything important, and to write any that I need to send.”

Jay placed his pen down on the desk. “Is that it?”

“That’s it. And I’ll do whatever I can to help you on your little quest. So what do you need?” Firecracker levitated the pad of paper before his eyes and scanned the list. “I think I can help you find some of these things. Some of the labs in this wing are still under construction, and have junk lying everywhere. Follow me.”


---


 

Austin leaped into the air, extending his arm as far out as he could, catching the Frisbee with the very tips of his fingers. He came down landing on his one foot, taking a few steps forward to slow down. He looked across the field, picking out faces of those of his own team and those on the other team. He saw one of the guys on the other team running up to him, probably to hamper his line of sight for a pass. Thinking quickly, he jumped straight up, and twisted his body to give that extra bit of thrust to the disc, sending it soaring down the field.

He began sprinting after it, watching it spin as it descended. One of his teammates, Murphy, was back pedaling, his eyes locked on the disc. He jumped up, his hands almost around the disc when Andrew collided into him, sending him sprawling into the grass. Andrew was quickly back on his feet and grabbed the disc, looking for someone to pass it to.

Austin rushed past Andrew, who wore a smug look of satisfaction. He stopped next to Murphy and looked him over. His arm was folded under him at a strange angle, and his breathing was a little ragged. “Murph, are you okay?”

The blond teen before him only groaned. “Alright, come on, let’s get you looked at.” Austin helped Murphy up and held onto him. He seemed to be a little out of it, his balance shifting from one side to the other. He maneuvered his head underneath Murphy’s arm and guided him back to the main building. Leah fell in behind Austin.

“Oh no! What happened?” Chloe asked, closing her notebook as soon as Austin and Leah came in from outside.

“Andrew decked Murphy here during ultimate frisbee. I’m taking him to see someone about his arm.”

Austin hobbled Murphy’s weight down the hall to the main lobby, hoping that the receptionist could call for someone. Fortunately, Clementine was just coming in from the gardens, but the desk itself was empty. “Clementine! A little help over here?”

The orange earth pony trotted over, a straw hat with a wide brim sitting on her head over her yellow mane. “What happened? Is he hurt?”

“I’m not sure. Do you have a doctor or someone to look at his arm?”

“Yeah, we have someone in the medical wing that can look him over. I’ll take him from here. Thank you, Austin.” Murphy placed his hand on Clementine’s hat and walked off with the mare. Austin turned around and sighed.

“Is everything okay?” Leah asked. Austin hadn’t even realized she had been following him. Again.

“Uh, yeah. I think he just bruised it, maybe twisted it a bit at the worst.” He started walking back to the common room. He wanted to relax, maybe poke some fun at Jay.
 
“Jay should’ve taken the hit for him. Oh wait, he doesn’t do anything fun with anyone,” she said, disdainfully. Austin heaved a sigh, tightening his fists in frustration. Leah always took potshots at Jay, even when he wasn’t there to defend himself.

“Uh, hello?” someone asked from the lobby. Austin turned around at the new voice, unfamiliar with it. At the door stood a teen, he was around the same age as Austin and Leah, maybe a bit older. He wore a pair of dark blue jeans, slightly worn away at the knees and heels, and a bright red open buttoned down shirt with a grey tee shirt underneath. His hair was a smooth brown, the light curls dancing just above his shoulders. He walked up to Austin, his hand outstretched. "Hey there. Name's Rob. Any idea where the receptionist is? I want to get signed up and everything."

"Sorry, we didn't see anyone here. I'm sure she'll be right back though." Austin looked at Rob, regarding both his demeanor and his dress. It was too refined for the area; nobody was able to afford such nice clothing just by working at one of the corporations. He was very friendly, that was a plus, but Austin wanted to be cautious. It had only been less than a minute since he met Rob, and that was nowhere near enough time to understand someone's characters entirely. "Oh, and my name is Austin. It’s a pleasure to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, Austin. What brings you and your girlfriend here to the conversion bureau?"

Leah blushed powerfully, her face turning scarlet. Austin chuckled. "I could ask you the same thing, Rob. You know that explosion at the Telios Chemical plant a few days ago?"

"Yeah, vaguely, though. What about it?"

Austin grasped for the right words. "Our… parents were all lost there. Everyone enrolled here, at least save for one guy. We were given a ride here by the company or a life contract for a, to be honest, quite shitty living. So what about you? How is it you wind up here with the rest of us?"

"Just the calling of a new frontier, really." The answer surprised Austin. "I mean, sure, it's a pretty big thing to do just out of spontaneity, but you only live once, am I right? May as well make the best of it, I say." Rob walked away from Austin and Leah, his neck craned up. He walked around the spacious lobby, looking out past the receptionist's desk to the glass doors to the garden in the middle of the complex.

"This sure is a nice place. I heard about them building this little spit of Eden out here in the woods. Did you know that most of the bureaus are out in the middle of nowhere?" Austin didn't. He assumed that they built all of the bureaus is towns across the world, in order to be available to as many humans as possible. "Oh, don't get me wrong. The biggest ones are in the cities, without a doubt. But they're always crowded, smelly, and quick. In, out, and done. See ya!" Rob said, waving to the empty lobby. "Then they build these little hamlets, away from society, in the middle of nature. Most ponies will refuse to admit it, but they hate the cities in our world. Crowded, polluted, dangerous. Frankly, I don't get why they came in the first place. But back to the topic at hand. These really nice bureaus; they're actually the best ones you can get yourself into. Its own little community."

Austin wasn't too surprised at any of this. Naturally, the ponies would hate any form of urban society since they always strive for more rural communities, but one thing did unsettle him. How did Rob know all of this? He may have come from one of the cities, maybe as far as New York City, but that was a stretch. His clothing was made of very high quality fabrics, his body was trim and fit, and his skin was positively glowing. He must have come from a rich family, but then why come to a bureau if you have such a nice life? Rob said he wanted adventure, but Austin wasn't too sure about that. There were undoubtedly ulterior motives at play. But part of him didn’t think it was right to be so suspicious of a new face.

One of the doors from the administrative wing opened, the same wing Clementine took Murphy to. It was a aqua colored unicorn mare, her mane a pale mint. She stared at the three of them for a moment before rushing to the desk, crying out "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

"Not a problem, miss. I'm here to sign up for my stay."

"Oh," she said. Her horn glowed and a clipboard levitated out from behind her desk and into Rob's hands. "Just fill that out as much as you can and hand it back to me. I'll give you a room assignment and some informational material concerning everything here. My name is Sea Foam. It's a pleasure to meet you all," she said, looking from Rob to Austin and Leah.

Rob took the clipboard and sat down at one of the foam chairs in the lobby. He began scribbling away with his pen, the scratches of it on the paper the only noise present. A few short moments later, Rob stood back up and handed the papers to Sea Foam, who took them and began typing it all in with her magic. She began writing something down, levitated several things into a simple green folder, and handed it to Rob. "You'll be in room 24B. Lunch should be starting soon, and I believe one of the history lectures is this afternoon."

"I didn't know we'd be having classes," Leah grumbled. “I bet Jay’s just gonna skip this class too.”

"It's nothing too boring, I promise you. I believe Garnet is going to be teaching about the history of our land. It's important you know about these things before we send you there. I also hear she has a bit of surprise in store as well," the unicorn said, smiling. "Now off you go! I hear Peach Cobbler has something amazing for dessert today! That mare sure knows how to cook!"

Rob, Austin, and Leah walked through the residential wing, towards the common room where Chloe was probably still sitting. Austin looked at one of the clocks in the hallway as they walked. It was almost noon! Definitely time for lunch. But Austin wanted to find Jay. He was going to get him out of his shell before they got converted even if it kills him. Austin chuckled at the concept.

---

"Hand me the scissors, Firecracker," Jay said.

"Hand me the scissors, Firecracker, PLEASE," the unicorn corrected.

Jay sighed. "May I please have the scissors, Firecracker?" The stallion smiled and levitated them into Jay's hand.

"Of course." Firecracker looked down at the contraption Jay had assembled. It wasn't half done, but it was taking shape. It had taken them the better part of the morning to find the things they had needed for it, but with many of the labs still under construction with junk all over the place, there was more stuff that was less than worthless to sift through. Jay trimmed the straps and wove them through the plastic clip, pulling on them until they tightened as if they were securing themselves to a hoof.

"Hey, Jay. Let's take a break. Lunch time." Jay put the incomplete device onto the library table, amidst a mess of parts and tools. He stood up and followed the grey unicorn out from the library and down the hallway to the cafeteria. There were many people already present, sitting down and talking with each other, but nobody had anything in front of them.

"Right," Jay said to himself. Someone was getting converted soon. The door behind them opened, and the red bespectacled unicorn walked past. Firecracker and Jay took seats at a table to their right, close to the windows at the edge of the room, looking out past the gardens and towards the woods.

"Hello, everyone! Will Miss Andrea Cobb join me up here?” A round of murmurs began coming from all around the cafeteria. A small girl in a wheelchair began rolling herself up to Garnet, who was wearing a pleasant smile. Jay had seen Andrea a bit when he was at school, but never got to know her, just like Caleb. She had been a cripple all of her life, unable to use her legs even as a baby. “It’s okay, dear. Follow me and we’ll get you started.” The pair exited through the doors, leaving the cafeteria in silence.

“Why don’t we go up and get lunch, eh?” Firecracker said. Jay followed the grey unicorn to the counter, each of them picking up trays from a rack. Firecracker had his gripped in a field of magic, the plastic floating in his orange aura. The counter was covered with a few trays of different salad toppings, along with hay and oats as a staple food for the ponies. Firecracker levitated a small bit of salad and hay onto his plate, topping it all off with a few daisies. Jay went with the salad and mixed in some cucumber, small sliced tomatoes, and drizzled a small amount of ranch dressing on top of it all.
 
Peach Cobbler finally rushed up to the counter, a tray floating in the air in front of her. She stopped in her tracks when she saw Jay and Firecracker, her eyes growing wide. “Wait, wait wait! Don’t MOVE!” she yelled as she ran to the back of the kitchen. She ran back up, another tray in her levitation field. She floated two small dishes onto both Firecracker’s and Jay’s trays.

On Firecracker’s tray was one of the peach tarts she had made Jay for lunch the day before. Firecracker looked at the tart with hungry eyes and back to Peach Cobbler. “Thanks, Peachie.”
 
Firecracker walked off back to the table he and Jay were sitting at, while Jay looked at Peach Cobbler. She was frozen stiff, her eyes filled with surprise. Almost immediately, her normally yellowish pink coat betrayed her scarlet blush underneath. Her mouth struggled to form words. “Di… did… Did Firecracker… just thank me? And he called me Peachie?”
 
“Uh, yeah. I think so. Why?”
 
“Oh, it’s, um, nothing. Nothing at all!” Peach Cobbler struggled to pass it off with a fit of nervous laughter.
 
Jay looked down at his tray, noticing the dessert Peach placed there. It wasn’t a peach tart like what she gave to Firecracker before, but a sort of small cake. The frosting was a bright pink, with a strawberry cut into ribbons on top of it.
 
“Oh! This is one of my favorites to make. It’s a family recipe, but don’t tell anyone! I like to use strawberries rather than peaches for it. I like to experiment is all,” she said. Her gaze dropped towards the ground.
 
“I’ll let you know what I think, okay? And if it’s good you can make them for everyone. That was our deal, right?” Jay reminded her. She picked her head back up with a smile.
 
“Yeah… Oh right! I need to make more of those tarts and cobblers for dinner! Well, no time like the present!” She was off back to work before Jay even picked his tray back up. He walked back over to the table where Firecracker waited, though he wasn’t patient enough to wait before he began eating.
 
Firecracker dug his muzzle into the salad and munched away. Jay used his fork, and laughed to himself. With each bite, he imagined doing what Firecracker was: sticking his face into his food. Didn’t his mother say not to do that?
 
Wait…
 
No it wasn’t. It was Austin’s mother. He ate at Austin’s house a lot when he was younger since his parents were never really home.
 
“You okay, Jay?” Firecracker asked, his mouth filled with hay.
 
“I think so,” Jay said. “I have a question.”
 
“Okay, shoot.”
 
“Do you know where we’re all going? Like, when all of us get converted, we’re getting transported to Equestria. Where are we going after that?”
 
Firecracker swallowed a mouthful of salad. “Well, it depends on a few things. Families are usually sent to some of the new towns being set up in the countryside in Equestria. Plenty of space out there. Loners, like you and your pals here, are encouraged to go to particular places. Unicorns should go to Canterlot or one of the universities to work on their magic, pegasi to Cloudsdale for weather training, and earth ponies to… well, anywhere there’s dirt.” Firecracker levitated his glass of juice and took a sip until he noticed Jay’s confused look. “Oh, don’t get me wrong. Earth ponies are the backbone of our society. They grow our food like nopony else can. They just need to find somepony who knows what they’re doing with the dirt, and teach them how to grow things. Everything comes from the ground in one form or another, and earth ponies are the best ponies for getting them.”
 
“Is that what Honeybell was doing outside? And how they claim to be able to grow things so quickly?” Jay asked. He was more confused than he was when he started.
 
“Yeah. See, when earth ponies interact with their crops, by talking to them, loving them, and singing to them, it stimulates the plants with that pony’s magic, helping the growth process along. Don’t bash earth ponies, though. They’re as stubborn as they are strong. You saw your friend this morning, remember?”
 
“Caleb, yeah. What about him?
 
“He could easily buck a tree out of the ground with the muscles he has on him.”
 
“What? An entire tree?”
 
“Eyup. I’ve seen some pretty wild things, even before coming to Earth.”
 
Jay heard a tray fall onto the table next to him, causing him to jump in his seat a bit out of surprise. Austin took the chair, and patted Jay on the shoulder. “Good to see you making friends, Jay.” Austin held a hand out to Firecracker. “My name’s Austin, Jay’s social mentor.”
 
Firecracker chuckled as he met Austin’s hand with a hoof. “Firecracker. Jay’s my target for keyboard tossing. It’s a big sport where I come from.” The pair began chuckling as Jay slumped down and dug back into his food.
 
Firecracker and Austin both got back to their food. Jay finished his salad and looked down at his dessert. The strawberry was a bright red, the icing a brighter pink. He stuck it with his fork, tearing a small part of it off, and took a moment to look at the inside. The spongy yellow cake bounced back to its normal shape after he removed his fork, and the inside began oozing out. Between the two fluffy cake pieces was a glistening red jelly, chunks of strawberry mixed in. It began to drip down onto his plate.
 
He placed the piece of cake in his mouth, preparing himself for the full-on assault of flavor he came to expect from Peach’s desserts. If he wasn’t already sitting, he would’ve been knocked to the ground. The frosting was smooth and sweet, but not overly so. It had a small hint of strawberry, but the real focus was on the inside. The strawberry filling splashed across his tongue, sending his eyes to the ceiling. The cake was moist and spongy, soaking up the filling and adding body to the whole thing. He hungrily dug into it for another bite, trying his best to restrain himself from shoving the entire thing in his mouth at once.
 
“Dude, keep it in your pants,” Jay heard Austin say. Before he could say anything back, the cake was gone, the last bite in his mouth already. “Another one of Peach’s desserts?” Jay nodded his head as he swallowed the last bit of cake.
 
“Amazing. I’m so glad they got her as a cook here,” Jay said, placing his fork back down on the plate.
 
“Wait a minute.” Firecracker’s eyes grew wide. “That isn’t THE Peach Cobbler, from the famous Peach family, is it?”
 
“Uh,” Jay and Austin said together.
 
“Ah. Well, her family is fairly well known throughout Equestria for their dishes. Her father, Peach Crepe, was one of the greatest dessert chefs in Manehattan. All I know is that she shamed her father by serving somepony one of her family’s desserts by replacing the peaches with another fruit. Real shame. Her father all but disowned her after the whole ordeal was over with. Makes sense for her to want to get away from it all.”
 
“Wow. That must really suck for her,” Austin said.
 
Jay looked down at his empty plate, where his strawberry cake had been just a few moments before. Her father almost disowned her for making that? It was a shock to Jay since he was told that ponies were so much better than humans, pretty much devoid of negative emotions. Maybe… just maybe… ponies weren’t so much better than humans after all. Maybe they were more equal than anyone else thought.
 
It was a very surprising thought to Jay. Just about everyone who went through conversion came out happier and smiling, saying they never felt that happy before in their lives. Perhaps the threshold for negative emotions was much further away than with humans? Jay was curious to see what it felt like.
 
Without warning, the three of them, along with the rest of the cafeteria turned to the door to the administrative wing, where Garnet and Andrea had left through. A clattering of hooves on the hard floor preceded a cocoa colored mare with a cream colored mane, and a pair of wings splayed out on either side.
 
“Everyone! Everyone! I can walk! I can run!” Andrea shouted as she slid across the floor and into a table. A smile was spread across her face, her eyes frantic with delight. She struggled to her hooves and stretched out her legs. Everyone gathered around her, congratulating her and hugging her.
 
Jay was blown away. Not only was Andrea, a wheelchair bound girl, able to walk again, but she was also a pegasus now. She could fly, too.
 
“Yeah, I’ve heard this happens to humans,” Firecracker said.
 
“What?” Jay responded, confused.
 
“Yeah, humans who have injuries or handicaps have them cured through conversion. Diseases too.”
 
“Whoa,” Jay said, looking back at Andrea. She was still smiling and laughing with everyone else.
 
“Well, you two better get a move on. That history lecture is supposed to start in a little bit,” Firecracker said as he levitated his tray from the table.
 
“Wait, what? History?” Jay picked up his tray and followed Firecracker.
 
“Yeah, you gotta know at least a little bit about Equestria before you move there. Plus I hear Garnet got a special guest to help out, so I would recommend going.”
 
“I heard the same from a new guy out in the lobby,” Austin chimed in. “We should go. Not like we’re missing out on anything out here.”
 
Jay grunted. He still wanted to finish the brace for Chloe, and he wanted to finish it before everyone turned in for the night. He hated to admit it, but he was nowhere close to done. He was hoping it would be a quick build, but there were some parts and features he wanted to build into it like an angle locking mechanism that he came up with before lunch, but that would take a while just to find the parts to it.
 
Hopefully this history lesson will be over quickly, Jay thought to himself. 

> The Second Day (PM)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jay and Austin had waited for the rest of their group to join them before continuing on. When they arrived at the room where the class was supposed to be held, a few others already seated throughout the neat rows of chairs prepared for them. Andrew moved in first, Chloe falling in behind him, with Leah following her in. Jay weaved through the chairs after Austin, watching as many of the others joined everyone inside.

Garnet trotted toward the front, her slim-framed glasses resting on her muzzle. She watched as everyone took their seats, waiting patiently for everyone to settle down. Fleet Feather stood to the side, looking over everyone with a stern expression. When Andrea finally came in, he rushed over to help her to her spot. In the front were a few cushions where she and Caleb could sit without hurting themselves trying to fit into a normal, human chair. He made sure she was comfortable before returning to his spot to the side of the front of the room. Jay watched as Andrea kept on testing out her new functioning legs, Caleb watching on as well with a smile on his face. Annie, Caleb’s sister leaned against his dark blue side, her eyes drifting closed ever so slowly.

“Attention everyone! We’d like to get started, if that’s alright with you. I promise it’ll be worth the time!” Garnet said, the audience hushing down to silence. The door opened and another person slid in, sitting behind Austin.

“Almost didn’t make it,” Rob whispered to Austin.

He looked back to Rob and said “Hey.” Austin turned to Jay and poked his shoulder. “Jay, this is Rob. New guy in the bureau.” The pair shook hands and turned their attention back to the front of the room.

“Now then. As many of you may or may not know, the history of Equestria spans many years, but we’re going to cover only a few specific events. Namely, two of our nation’s enemies: Nightmare Moon and Discord.” The room murmured. “Now, this may not be a history lesson as you are used to. But let’s start with Nightmare Moon. Our lands are ruled over by the two princesses: Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, the stewards of day and night, respectively. One thousand years ago, Princess Luna grew resentful that everypony loved her sister’s daytime more than her night. That anger and hatred festered, and through ancient magic only known to the princesses, Princess Luna succumbed to the darkness, becoming Nightmare Moon. She was intent on bringing everlasting night to Equestria, so everypony would be forced to love her and her night.”

Jay leaned back in his seat. “Whoa,” he whispered. He could see everyone else was as focused on Garnet as he was.

“Princess Celestia battled her sister for a very long time, but they were equally matched and could not overcome each other. Through one last act of desperation, Princess Celestia harnessed what is known as the Elements of Harmony, and banished her sister to the moon for a thousand years. She took over her sister’s control of night, raising the sun and moon every day and night for a thousand years.”

Someone raised their hands in front of Jay and Austin. “Yes?”

“How old are Princess Celestia and Luna?”

“Nopony knows, except for the princesses. But when the thousand years were up, Nightmare Moon took advantage of her power and trapped Princess Celestia in the sun.” Garnet paused for a moment, watching everyone’s reactions. She let a small smirk escape the corner of her mouth. “Now, instead of me finishing the story, how about you hear it right from the horse’s mouth, so to speak?” she said, giggling to herself. She nodded to Clementine, who was standing at the door to the hallway. She nodded back and disappeared outside.

A moment later, Clementine returned with an orange earth pony, her blond mane tied off at the end, similar to her tail. But strangest of all was the Stetson she wore on her head. She trotted down to the front of the room, where Garnet stepped off to the side for her guest. “Howdy, ya’ll. M’name’s Applejack. I hear ya’ll wanna know the rest of the story ‘bout Nightmare Moon, yeah?” The entirety of the audience nodded in unison. “Well, I reckon I better tell ya’ll ‘bout mah friends.”

Applejack went on about her five other friends: Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Twilight Sparkle. They banded together when Nightmare Moon made her escape and began a search for the Elements of Harmony, using only myths and ancient books for hints as to their location. They tracked them down to the old castle where Celestia and Luna used to rule from, but not before being relentlessly pursued by Nightmare Moon herself. They managed to get to the old castle, and through some magic involving friendship itself, cleansed Nightmare Moon, leaving only a weakened Princess Luna in the wake of the spell.

“Now, ah know it sounds as loony as singin’ to a tree to ya’ll, but it’s all true. Friendship does have ah magic to it. And when Twilight found that out herself, well boy howdy did that send ol’ Black Snooty packin’!” The entire room erupted into laughter and applause as the orange earth pony took a bow. Garnet walked up next to her, waving down the audience with her hoof.

“Now, now. Miss Applejack, would you mind telling everyone about Discord?”

Applejack bit her lip. “Ta’ be quite honest, Miss Garnet, ah don’t remember too much ‘bout that whole thing. But ah will say a few things that ah do remember.” Applejack cleared her throat. “That feller, Discord, he’s a real case, that he is. Even loonier than what you thought about friendship being magic and all that. Crazy, vile, playin’ tricks on ya… Ah suppose some of ya’ll’d like him well enough… until her turned your town upside-down, made it rain chocolate milk, stole the things most treasured to ya’ll. He’ll scramble yer noggins like a butter churner, makin’ ya’ll messed up in there. He almost won, Discord did. If not for some quick thinkin’ on Celestia’s part, we’d be at his mercy still. Last ah saw of him, he’s a nice decorative garden statue in Canterlot, turned back to stone by tha Elements.”

Instead of applause, a stunned silence filled the room. Jay’s mind was filled with a maelstrom of thought. It looked like Equestria wasn’t always the perfect, peaceful Eden it was portrayed as. But even with maddened goddesses, psychotic spirits of chaos… it still seemed like a better place than Earth.

“Thank you, Miss Applejack, for visiting us today! Let’s give her an applause everyone!” The audience rose to their feet and clapped for the orange mare, who blushed in response.

“Aw, gosh. T’ain’t nuthin.”

“Okay, everyone! The day after tomorrow will be our next class in here, right after lunch. Please make sure you join us! Tomorrow, lessons with Honeybell, Fleet Feather, and Firecracker begin, so be sure to see them at some point after breakfast to get your schedule,” Garnet called out as people began milling out from the classroom. Jay stood against the wall outside the room and waited as everyone came out.

“That was pretty crazy,” Austin said as he stretched is arms over his head. Chloe looked down at the ground, her hand firmly gripped in Andrew’s. They were all unsettled by their image of Equestria being shattered.

While it was a paradise compared to Earth, nobody expected mad gods to be rampant there, causing so much danger. Nighttime lasting forever. A world without order or reason. Both were pretty scary thoughts, and the very incarnations of each one had existed in Equestria and threatened to make them happen. All Jay could ask himself was what else is there hiding in Equestria?

Jay walked towards the doors to the internal gardens in the middle of the building, but stopped. He remembered what he needed to finish. He made a few quick goodbyes and ran back to the library and to his project.


---

Austin watched as Jay ran off to the library. He knew what his friend was trying to accomplish, and he commended Jay for trying. Not out loud, though. He wanted Jay to keep trying harder and harder without getting too overconfident from a compliment here or there. He led the group through the gardens along the woodchip path, talking with Rob about what they had just learned about the history of Equestria.

“This is some pretty big stuff,” Rob stated. “That Nightmare Moon sounds like quite the character. Never imagined Princess Luna to have been that bitter and callous over something so silly.”

“You don’t get it,” Chloe said. “I kind of understand why she was upset, at the beginning. She put all that effort into something so pretty, so beautiful, and it was always overshadowed by her older sister.” Chloe gripped her sketchbook against her chest. “The worst fate for an artist… is to be ignored.”

Austin walked in silence. Chloe did have a point.

They all continued through the aromatic pathway, rows of bright flowers blooming on either side of them, filling the air with their scents. Honeybell, the green garden pony, was sitting in the dirt on one side of the gardens, singing a lovely tune to the beautiful day, her vocals perfectly in tune as far as Austin could tell. She noticed him and the group and smiled, giving them a wave as they passed. She kept on singing, not missing a beat. He voice was beautiful, it could easily brush aside any of the synthetically derived vocaloid simulators.

Austin began humming along with Honeybell as she sang, finally able to catch onto her tune. It was a pretty song about coming hone during the summer after a long day in the fields. It was quite the deviation from what songs humanity made instead. Most of them glorified consumerism and wealth, while others were loud synthetic mixes and beats of older songs.

“She has a nice voice, doesn’t she?” Leah asked from behind Austin.

“Yup.”

“I used to be a singer. Maybe you’d like to listen to me at some point?” she asked.

“Erm,” Austin began, at a loss for words. Good lord, he thought to himself. “Uh, maybe some other time.” Leah humphed and went back to talking to Chloe. Leah’s shoulder length raven hair was a stark difference from Chloe’s natural brown waves. Leah’s hair was heavy with artificial coloring and had the looks of incessant visits to a stylist, probably an effort to continuously reinvent herself. She always floated between social groups even when they were all younger in middle school, always trying to impress everyone she met. When she failed with one group, she moved onto another.

She seemed to be gravitating towards him recently, he noticed for the first time a few weeks ago in school, when she had been particularly nasty to Jay. He told her to back off, and surprisingly enough, she did without question. She even seemed to blush when she sulked off.

But she had been getting more oppressive with her advances since they got to the bureau, maybe suffering from the same sort of deadline Jay was facing with Chloe, just without a human obstacle in the way. But it was all for naught, for Leah. For all the social prowess Austin admitted he had, he didn’t know how to break it to her without causing some sort of backlash, physical or otherwise.

Austin sighed. He wanted to get his mind off of this topic. He walked away from the group, but they still followed him, he the shepherd to their sheep. He walked into the common room and sat in front of the television and clicked it on. The news was on, and going through a segment on the HLF.

Austin sighed. He knew about the HLF. He hated them, mostly because they were so prevalent down near him in the south along with other overly opinionated types. He stuck to the segment and watched as the rest of the group sat down in the sofas around the room. Predictably, Leah sat on the same sofa as him, Andrew and Chloe sitting on another couch near them. Andrew watched the TV with rapt attention and Chloe focused on her sketchbook. Surprisingly, Rob also sat on the sofa Austin and Leah sat in, Rob taking the seat opposite of Leah. Austin noticed Leah glaring at Rob for a moment before going back to the screen.

Apparently, there had been an incident with the HLF in a bureau by New York City. A bureau had to go into lockdown from an anti-Bureau riot turning violent when someone hurled a brick through one of the windows. Chaos erupted, dozens were injured, and only a few were arrested amidst the chaos. The person who started it all managed to slip out, but not before the helicopters caught a picture of him. The look on his face didn’t strike Austin as violent, but the brutes behind him did have that demeanor as he hurled the brick.

The newscast then cut to the anchor, closing up that story. She then turned it back to the Telios Chemical plant investigation, instantly drawing the attention of everyone in the room but Rob.

“The investigation in the Telios Chemical case has, today, taken an interesting turn. An anonymous whistleblower leaked some private memos to the press today between the board of directors of the company. The memos, should they be legitimate and not fabricated, could send every member of the board of Telios Chemical to jail for life. We aren’t revealing what was in those memos just yet, but rest assured, this case just got a lot more interesting. The FBI are actively investigating the case.”

Austin’s jaw dropped. The accident was staged by the heads of Telios? If they robbed his parents from him and the parents of everyone else, they’d damn well better go to jail for life. Austin gripped the cushion of the sofa in his hands, his knuckles turning white. Chloe was crying again, seeking shelter in Andrew’s embrace. He seemed passive about the whole thing; he didn’t lose his parents in the explosion, so why should he care?

“Really? All that fuss over a little chemical plant bringing in the FBI? Waste of time, I say.” Austin stared at Rob. He leaned on his arm and watched the TV, ignoring the stunned stares from everyone in the room.

A shudder of rage coursed through Austin's body. Rob, someone he had just met, and was starting to like as well, had just slapped everyone in the room across their collective face. Austin stood up and left, heading to his bed. He needed to cool off and lie down. He slammed the door shut and threw himself onto the mattress.


---

Jay rummaged through a box of scrap parts from one of the unfinished labs, dumping the pieces he didn’t need into another empty box. He technically wasn’t supposed to be in there, but Firecracker said he’s take the hit for him if he was clumsy enough to get caught. Two hours, and still nothing. He needed to find a single screw. That was it. A single, tiny, thumbscrew, with a large enough grip to be able to be handled with teeth was all that he needed now. The sun was starting to set through the window, the forest obscuring the final dying rays of the day. Jay slumped to the ground and moaned to himself. He had one more box to go through, and then he was going to give up.

He plucked the large scraps of metal from the box and dumped them into the empty box, noting they were easily not the part he was looking for. Before him was a carpet of dull, grey metal covering the bottom of the box, screws and nails creating an inch deep layer of metal he needed to go through. He started taking handfuls of the metal in his hand, cutting it in a few places. They didn’t draw blood, but flecks of skin got pulled up. He looked through this handful… nothing. He dumped them into the box with the rest of the larger metal and took another handful. Still nothing.

He looked down at the remaining parts and sighed. It wasn’t there. He dumped what remained into the almost filled box and stood up. He stretched, hearing his joints pop and crack, before walking out to leave. He hit the light to the lab and walked out into the hallway. He walked down, back towards the library, and quietly walked in. Firecracker was organizing one of the shelves, books whizzing back and forth, his eyes scanning each one as they moved past him. Jay took a seat at the computer and logged into the system with Firecrackers username and login password. He checked the email system, reading over the messages from Garnet and the other bureaus. There were messages about a riot earlier today on a bureau in Newark, up north. They gave updated instructions on lockdown procedures, should a riot occur to any other bureaus. He noted down what he figured were the most important to Firecracker on a piece of paper, and logged out of the system. He ripped the paper from the pad and walked over to Firecracker as soon as he finished sorting the row.

“Anything pressing, young one?” he jested. Jay chuckled at the remark, even though Firecracker was over forty years older than Jay. Sixty was a fairly young age for an adult pony, most going well past one hundred years old.

“Not much. Garnet said there’s a meeting after the conversion tonight for Caleb’s sister… There’s some more staff being bussed in tomorrow to help run the bureau since it’s officially open. Nothing else really… just a message about some riot protocols from that thing up north.”

“What thing?”

“A riot in Newark that turned violent at a bureau. They sent out new rules about what to do if something similar happens.”

“Not very likely we’ll have hordes of angry humans outside our doors, eh?”

“I guess,” Jay responded. He looked at the clock on the wall and saw the minute hand right as it hit six o’clock.

“I guess you had no luck finding that screw?” Firecracker said, his eyes still on the bookcase.

“Nah. Checked every screw in the lab.” Jay was frustrated. It was the last part for his brace for Chloe. He was so close.

“Well then, I guess you’ll be needing this,” Firecracker said as his horn lit up. A glob of orange floated out from the bookcase an into Jays hand. It was the exact screw he was looking for all those hours in the lab.

“Wha-“

“Before you say anything, I’m going to remind you that the brace wasn’t really worth the effort. Ponies don’t need anything like that to write or draw.” Firecracker levitated a pen from his desk into his mouth and gripped it with his teeth, and began writing in the back of the paper Jay had written the notes on. The pen wriggled in Firecrackers mouth, tracing out words as clearly as if Jay had spent time on each curve. “Dexterous mouths,” he said, spitting out the pen onto the table. “Even colts and fillies can write like that. Your friend won’t have much of an issue when she gets converted, I promise you. But it says a bit more about you, now doesn’t it?”

Jay sighed as he felt his cheeks reddening. “I…”

“You wanted to impress her. You wanted her to take notice of the lengths you went to provide for her. Trust me, monkey boy; I’ve been around the block more than a few times.” Firecracker held his head high, filled with pride.

“Yeah right. You’re full of it.”

“Feh! I used to have mares climbing all over me! I have the pictures to prove it!” Firecracker claimed.

“Why not anymore, then? Hm? Where are they now?” Jay smirked as he saw Firecracker flounder with words for a moment. He was hesitant to admit to himself the scene with Peach Cobbler in the cafeteria at lunch, just for the sake of his argument.

“Well, I, uh… Bah, fine. They always left me, always saying I was insensitive, distant, or some variation thereof. So, I just gave up one day. There. Happy?” Firecracker glowered at Jay.

“I’m sorry,” Jay said, patting the unicorn on the head.

The door to the library opened slowly, the head of Austin poking in. His hair was a bit messy; the blond hair on the back of his head was standing on end. He strolled in, closing the door behind him. “Hey there,” he said before yawning. “Sorry, fell asleep. What’re you guys up to?”

“We were-”

“About to get dinner!” Firecracker said, cutting Jay off.

Firecracker pushed Jay out the door and into the hallway, Austin following them from behind. He rubbed his eyes and stood up a bit straighter. The walked down the hallway and into the cafeteria, heading towards the counter where Peach Cobbler stood, waiting. Everyone else had already gotten their meals and was seated, and it seemed that she was anticipating him and Firecracker. Mostly Firecracker it seemed.

“What can I get you?” she asked, hey eyes glowing. The spread before them was three cheese penne, vegetable stew, and hay. Firecracker asked for a bit of it all, his tray holding a plate of the pasta and a bowl of stew.

“Thanks a bunch, Peachie,” he said. He turned and before he walked away, he gave the yellow mare a sly wink.

To say that Peach Cobbler exploded would have been an understatement. She let loose a high pitched squeal of joy and spouted a continuous stream of “Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!” Jay couldn’t stop giggling seeing her so happy. When she finally calmed down, she had given Jay and Austin their dinners. Jay had gotten a new dessert to sample tonight, while Austin was given a peach danish, like the one Jay had the night before.

Jay’s dessert was a sort of chocolate cake with a scoop of ice cream on top. The ice cream was a swirl of colors he never expected to be in ice cream: purple, yellow, orange, blue, and red. They all swirled around the scoop, creating a bit of a rainbow effect.

Jay and Austin walked over to the same table they sat with Firecracker at during lunch and dug into their dinners. The penne was very tasty, the cheese creamy unlike anything Jay or Austin had ever eaten before. They were used to cheese products, which more often than not was simply a block of some yellow clay that you melted on the stove. This cheese had real flavor, though.

The food vanished from his plate faster than Jay would have liked, but he was finally able to move onto his dessert. Austin took a small bite of his danish, the effect immediate. He hungrily took another bite, a smile growing on his face. “This is amazing!” he said, bits of the dessert still in his mouth. Jay chuckled and took a fork into his dessert, slicing off a bit of the rainbow ice cream and the cake as well. When he broke the side of the cake, dark brown ooze dribbled out from the inside. Jay got some of it onto the slice of cake on his fork and took a bite.

The ice cream was a rainbow of flavors, as if the colors didn’t give it away right off the bat. He tasted all sorts of distinct fruity flavors; from the tartness of what he guessed was raspberry, to the smoothness of banana, and even the tanginess of orange. It was an incredibly unique experience, and it was only his first taste. When he reached the cake itself, he was greeted with the rich smoothness of a moist chocolate cake, dripping with hot chocolate sauce, which was what was hiding inside the cake, underneath the scoop of ice cream.

“See? I told you she had desserts in her blood. Runs in her family,” Firecracker said, munching on his hay. Jay looked back to the kitchen, Peach Cobbler scrubbing some of the dishes in the sink with her hooves. She noticed Jay looking over and waved at him with a bright smile on her face, to which Jay waved back. He looked around the rest of the cafeteria and saw Chloe, Andrew and Leah sitting at the table Austin usually joined them at. Leah saw Jay looking over and twisted her head back around. Caleb and Andrea were standing at a table close to the doors where they were waiting for Garnet to come through, Caleb’s little sister Annie with her. She was supposed to get converted tonight, Jay recalled.

As if on cue, the door opened, a red mare walking out with a pink blob on her back. She walked over to Caleb and Andrea, both watching her with intensity and wonder. The pink blob on Garnet’s back squirmed as Garnet knelt down. The pink filly fell to her hooves, and then promptly onto her flanks. Her mane was a snowy white, and with no trace of a horn or wings, she was an earth pony just like her brother. Caleb fell to the ground and pulled Annie close to him for a hug.

“Well isn’t that cute,” Firecracker said out loud. “Well, I got a meeting, so I’ll bid you two adieu.” The grey unicorn trotted off with his tray floating in the air before him and gave it to Peach, but didn’t leave before leaning in and whispering something to her that made her blush furiously. Firecracker walked off, following Garnet with a smug grin on his face.

Jay and Austin took their trays up to Peach, who was still giddy with laughter. She couldn’t keep still. “Eeee!” she squealed.

“What did he say?” Jay asked, smiling.

“He asked me out on a date tomorrow after my dinner shift! I’m so excited!” she squealed even louder now. Jay giggled from her outburst of joy. It seemed that Firecracker’s claim was at least partially true.

“By the way, your desserts today were magnificent. What flavors were in the ice cream? They were amazing!”

"Well, I got it from one of my friends back in Equestria. He said that he used blueberry, banana, raspberry, tangerine, and pineapple in it!"

"Well, be sure to give him my compliments. The chocolate syrup was a great surprise," Jay said, smiling.

“Wonderful! I’ll add them to the menu, and I'll be sure to let him know I'll be needing more of his flavors!” She took their trays in her magic fields and placed them by the sink to wash them all off. She began humming to herself as she scrubbed the plates clean.

Austin walked out from the cafeteria towards the common room, but Jay ran the other way, saying he’d meet him there. Jay ran back through the cafeteria and towards the opposite door, and down towards the library. He burst in, scanned around, and grabbed the brace that was sitting on the table.

He ran back through the cafeteria and towards the common room, Chloe’s brace in hand. He knew she probably wasn’t going to use it, Firecracker proved that to him. But she didn’t know that. She was upset and sad that her one skill was at risk, and Jay wanted to do anything to cheer her up. Even spending hours sifting through scrap metal.

Jay made it into the common room, Austin sitting on one of the sofas opposite of Andrew, Leah sitting next to him. Though, Chloe was missing. She came in behind him, almost bumping into him in her rush.

“Oh! Sorry, Jay.” She sidestepped him, rushing into the room, and right towards Andrew. “Andrew! Andrew!”

Andrew’s head lolled over towards Chloe, his eyes half lidded. “Yes, pumpkin?” he said, half-heartedly.

“I talked with Miss Garnet… she said we can both get converted first thing tomorrow!” Chloe smiled and hugged Andrew. She planted a kiss on his cheek. Jay felt almost sick.

He looked down at the brace in his hand. He didn’t feel anything in his chest. His heart was gone, whisked away right when Chloe ran past him. He trudged across the common room, towards the other hall, and dropped the brace into the trash can on his way out.


---

Shit, Austin thought to himself. It would have been more polite to Jay if Chloe had just slapped him across the face and spat on him, but instead she rejected Jay in the worst way possible: by embracing a long future with someone else. The wrong someone. It was plain as day that Andrew didn’t care nearly enough for her as much as Jay did. The kid couldn’t take his eyes off her whenever she was around.

“Isn’t it great?” Leah cooed, reminding Austin that she was there. “They’re going to be together tomorrow! You know,” she whispered. “We could probably arrange something like that for us.”

“That’s it. You need to stop.” Austin stood up from the couch, Leah falling back from his sudden change in attitude. “Leah, I don’t know what made you think I have any inkling of a mote of desire for you, and frankly, I don’t want to know. I have no interest in you. None. Zero. Zip. You’re a bitch to my best friend, and you’re the most ingenuine person I’ve met. Now, please leave me alone.”

Austin could feel the heat rising from his brow. Feeling the deafening silence that permeated the room not just from the group he was standing with, but also everyone else present, he decided to cut his losses and call it a night.

He stormed out and into the hallway, back towards his room. He made a short stop in the men’s bathroom in order to splash his face with some ice cold water. He felt the anger leaving him as the water dripped down his face, but not enough to go back to see everyone. He took a paper towel and dried his face before walking to his room.

Jay was sitting on his bed in a stupor, just as Austin suspected he would. He looked up as Austin came in and grunted a noise of acknowledgement. Austin sat down on his bed and threw his legs up. He stared at the ceiling for a few moments before Jay spoke.

“What happened?”

Austin turned his head and looked over to Jay. “It was Leah. She crossed the line with me, so I gave her a bit of my mind.”

“What did she do?”

“Well… She wanted to get converted together with me.”

“What’s wrong with that?” Jay’s voice was solemn and devoid of intonation. The event with Chloe and Andrew sucked out every little bit of emotion it seemed.

“I don’t like her. At all. In fact…” Austin sighed. May as well. “You remember how I didn’t want to tell you why I wanted to get converted?” Austin sat up in his bed and draped his legs over the edge of the mattress.

“Yeah.”

“Well… last night I went to talk to Garnet, the red unicorn. She’s the one in charge here, see? I asked her a few questions about Equestria; I wanted an honest opinion from her. And…”

“Yeah?”

“People like me are welcomed and embraced in Equestria.”

“People like you?”

Austin braced himself with a deep breath for what he was about to say.

“Well… I’m gay.”

Austin waited a moment before saying anything else to see what Jay’s response would be. He dreaded this moment for years; he had been hiding this aspect of himself for so long…

“And? That’s it?” Jay shrugged. “Makes sense to me.” Okay, not the reaction Austin had expected. “Hey, if you want to fit in without being dogged for who you like, who’s to tell you how you live your life? More power to you. Hope you find a nice guy for yourself.”

Austin was speechless. He was always nervous about coming out to three people most of all: his parents, and Jay. His parents because they were traditional Christian fundamentalists, and Jay because he was his best friend. He was always told that being gay was an abomination and a twisting of the human soul by the devil, and only through the salvation provided by the Lord one could overcome it. While Austin never followed his parents beliefs too closely, he played along if anything just for their sakes.

But what scared Austin the most was being open about it. While West Virginia wasn’t too south as most people thought, it was still as ‘south’ as you could get. He would get death threats, bullied by just about everyone at school, publically ridiculed, and even in recent times, lynched. Random murders with the only motivation behind them being sexuality weren’t uncommon in the south.

He had heard many rumors and stories about ponies being open with their preferences in Equestria without anyone giving a second glance. If anything, if the numbers were true, one out of every eight couples in Equestria was same-sex. It was embraced as the norm. Austin was intent on conversion even before the accident at the factory.

Austin smiled. For all the bad that he dealt with in the common room, there was a whole lot of good in here. He was sure now, more than ever, that Applejack was right: there was a sort of magic in the friendship he and Jay shared.
> The Nightmare
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jay trembled. He was hiding in the dark, and the little voice in the back of his head whispered for him to be absolutely silent. Making any sort of noise meant the end for him. He saw nothing but the slice of light coming from underneath the door, and heard only the heavy footsteps on the floor above him. They felt rushed, but heavy with determination. They scared him, more than he thought they should. 

Jay gripped his legs closer to his chest and started crying to himself. What did he do? Jay was always good. He never missed his homework. He always showed up to school on time. He was kind to everyone he met. 

The door began to creak open. The sliver of light that lit the floor bloomed, blinding him with its brilliance. He shut his eyes, the light distorting from the tears streaming from his eyes. He heard a loud noise, something that filled his head with terror beyond description. 

In the blink of an eye, he was being lifted by his arm and dragged up the stairs, into the blinding light. He cried out for help, but only the noise greeted him back. It only fueled his terror. He felt the carpet under the heels of his feet, scraping away at his skin as he was dragged up another set of stairs. His legs hit each step, each one hurting more than the last. He was lifted into the air one more time by his leg.

He felt the blood rushing to his head, and a cool breeze waft across his skin. The light had dimmed, and the noise had stopped. He saw nothing but darkness, now. He heard the noise say one last thing before letting go. 

He felt himself falling…


---

Jay awoke with a start. His brow was damp with sweat and his heart beating heavy in his chest. He gasped for air, feeling around the darkness of the room for something to hold onto. 

“… outside? Great. I’ll be right out.”

Jay quickly fell back into his bed right as the door opened, flooding the room with another blinding light. A dark silhouette walked in and grabbed something on the ground before walking back out in a hurry. The footsteps faded down the hall for a moment, leaving hims in silence once more. 

Jay looked around. Austin was still asleep in his bed, a goofy smile on his face. He turned around more and saw that Andrew's bed was messed up and empty. 

Jay milled over the possibilities in his head, trying to make sense of what just happened. From what he could gather, Andrew left in the middle of the night. He was supposed to get converted tomorrow morning with Chloe. 

Did he just run away?
> The Third Day (AM)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jay felt the sun burning his eyes through his lids and groaned as he turned over covering his face with the blanket. He heard some rustling in the room behind him, but then silence.

"Jay?"

"Mmm?"

"Where's Andrew?"

Jay made a noise with the same pitch changes as I don't know, and curled back up in his blanket. Jay knew where Andrew was. Or, more appropriately, where he wasn't. He remembered waking up from a bad dream the night before and heard Andrew packing his things and leaving. Jay was very confused at first, but eventually he just didn't care anymore. Andrew had left, abandoning Chloe the night before they were supposed to get converted together.

"Maybe he's at breakfast already."

"Mmm."

"Well, come on then! Up with you," Austin said, as he forcefully ripped the blanket from Jay's hands. He let out a long groan as he twisted over and onto his feet. He rubbed his eyes and smacked his lips, looking around the room in the fresh sunlight. His bag that he had tossed under his bed the day they all arrived was gone too.

Jay followed Austin to the men's bathroom to brush their teeth and take care of any other business they had. They grabbed towels from the fresh rack and picked out shower stalls for themselves. There was a stallion using the gang shower on the other wall, since the stalls were too small for their bodies. Jay finished washing himself up quickly enough, and pondered on the consequences of Andrew's departure as he toweled off. He and Austin dropped their used towels in the hamper on their way to the sinks to go brush their teeth before leaving for the cafeteria.

"What's got you in such a good mood? Last night you looked grimmer than Lurch from that old Addam's Family show."

Jay shrugged. Was he that easy to read?

When the pair entered the cafeteria, they immediately made their way to the counter where the yellow unicorn waited with the same goofy smile on her face. "Good morning, boys! What can I get you sweethearts?"

"I'll have some of the apple cinnamon oatmeal, if you'd be so kind," Austin said, the mare's smile spreading to him too.

"I'll have what he's having."

Peach Cobbler levitated two trays with the steaming bowls to their hands complete with some assorted fruit for each of them. "Enjoy!"

Jay looked around the cafeteria, but Firecracker was absent. Shrugging, he and Austin walked over to the table where Leah and Rob were sitting. Chloe watched them as they walked up, her smile fading slowly. "Where's Andrew?" she asked.

"Did he not eat already? He was gone when I woke up this earlier, I thought he was already down here," Austin said as he set his tray down. Leah scowled at him, but Austin only smiled.

"No, I haven't seen him all morning, and I've been here for an hour," Chloe murmured. She began staring down at the tabletop, her sense of what was happening growing stronger. Jay forgot about this. She was still in love with him. When she finds out that he abandoned her... She'd be crushed.

"Good morning everyone!" a familiar voice rung out. Jay turned his head to the doors to the other half of the building, Garnet standing at the doors, ready to call the next convertee. "Will Miss Chloe Stanford come with me?"

Chloe stood up and slowly walked to the unicorn. When she reached Garnet, she began talking with her. Garnet visibly frowned and spoke again. Jay knew exactly what it was. Of course the bureau had cameras all over the building. They would have seen Andrew leaving the night before. Whatever words Garnet said, the reaction was seen by everyone. Chloe backed up slowly, staring at the unicorn.

"No... No he wouldn't... He promised... He loved me... We were supposed to... Together..." Tears began welling up in her eyes. She looked at the rest of the cafeteria and ran out through the glass doors to the bureau garden before she could lose her composure any further. Leah rushed out to find her.

"Poor girl..." Garnet whispered to herself. "Well, let's see... Murphy Fassler? Can you come up here? Let's get you converted so you don't have to worry about that arm, yes?" The red haired teen followed Garnet through the doors. Jay saw his one arm was in a sling.

"Christ. Andrew's tackle did that much to him? Better he converted sooner than later."

"So what happened? I'm completely out of the loop it seems." Rob blew on a spoonful of oatmeal as he spoke.

"Chloe's boyfriend bailed out last night it seems." Austin began stirring his oatmeal before the fact that Jay had been continuously thinking about finally made itself known to Austin. His eyes grew wide as he slowly turned to Jay. They both began smiling in unison, Jay knowing exactly what Austin was thinking. "I knew something was up this morning when you had that smile on your face. Oh you dog, you! So, what? You saw him leave last night?"

"Yeah. He had a car waiting for him outside from what I overheard."

"Jay," Austin began, his expression hardening. "This is the most dangerous point you'll be in, so you need to know two things."

"Okay, now I'm even further out of the loop." Rob dropped his spoon into the oatmeal and stared at the pair across the table. "Okay, explain."

"Why?" Austin asked. "You were an insensitive prick yesterday in the common room. The deaths of our parents not worth investigating? Really?" Austin's smile had faded completely.

Rob sighed. He ran his fingers through his hair and closed his eyes. "I'm sorry, okay? I forgot is all. You think you've got a lot on your mind? I promise you I've got just as much, understand?"

Austin leaned back. "Really now? More important than the deaths of all of our parents? Go ahead. Try me."

"No."

"And why not?"

It seemed like Rob was about to say something, but he instead slammed his spoon onto the table. "I don't have to explain myself to the likes of you." He stormed off from the cafeteria, leaving everyone in a stunned silence.

"I can't believe I had the hots for that guy yesterday," Austin whispered to Jay.

Jay burst into a fit of laughter, unable to control himself. It took a moment, but Austin joined in, laughing as well. After a short time, they calmed down, Austin patting Jay on the shoulder. "Okay, as I was saying. You gotta remember two things about Chloe right now. One: don't try anything. She's a broken girl. She loved that asshole. Why? I'll never know. But still, any advances on her by you would only hurt you in the long run. And two: don't ask her until you are beyond certain that she'll say yes. Okay?"

Jay was only half paying attention, but he nodded. He was too busy riding the high that came from the fact that he still has a chance to get with Chloe.

It was just before Jay and Austin brought up their trays that Murphy came back through the doors. He was able to keep his footing better than Caleb or Andrea, and he looked not just happy, but proud. He trotted towards the three other new converts and stood there. Then he burst into a jolly laughter as he unfurled his new cyan wings. His bright yellow mane whipped back and forth as he roared with laughter.

"I can see!" he shouted. "I always wanted to be a pilot, but my eyes kept me from it. But now I can literally fly!" Andrea reared up and hugged the new pegasus, her wings stretching out too. She recoiled back in a flurry of blushed cheeks, realizing what she just did. The pair of them both giggled and wore goofy smiles, the same smile Peach Cobbler was wearing earlier. Everyone else around them began laughing and clapping for them.

"I'm heading to the library. Going to see if Firecracker needs help with anything." Jay picked up his tray and began walking over to the counter. Peach Cobbler took the dirty dishes and trays and levitated two little treats out to him and Austin.

"Just a little thank you for getting Firecracker to cheer up!"

"I take it you're excited for your 'date'?" Jay asked with a smirk. The unicorn's cheeks began to turn pink and she smiled and nodded. Jay looked down at the little treat she had given him and Austin. They were round chocolates, but when he popped it in his mouth and started chewing, the thick shell broke open. A creamy, smooth mass of caramel spread out from the shattered chocolate, sticking to his teeth and gums.

Austin had left for the common room, saying he'd meet up with Jay at lunch. Jay strode down the hallway towards he library, still cheerful from the fact that Andrew left. He never really pondered why he had left. Maybe he was afraid of commitment? Maybe he never really loved Chloe. Or maybe he was just scared of conversion. Whatever the case, it didn't matter anymore to Jay.

Jay opened the door to the library and saw that the room was dark. He reached for the switch on the wall to his right, illuminating the large room. He walked over to the computer and booted the system up, the fans on the unit buzzing to life. Jay wondered where Firecracker was since he wasn’t at breakfast at all. The screen blinked on before his eyes, startling him for a moment. He opened up Firecracker's mail client and scanned for any new messages.
 
There were quite a few, many of them being general announcements to all the bureaus. Another one was a news story about the president speaking about the riot yesterday. He said that the urban conversion bureaus would be receiving heavier security measures to drive away HLF protesters should they start being violent. Another message was from Garnet, notifying the staff of Andrew's flight from the bureau.

The last message was about the new staff that was arriving today. There was going to be two new cooks to help Peach Cobbler out in the kitchen, since she could just barely keep up with the needs of the few humans and staff. There was a new pegasus to help Fleet Feather with flying lessons and general weather management on the premises. There were a few other names filling in spots for maintenance and cleaning, but Jay figured Firecracker wouldn’t care too much for that. The last of the new staff was... a human doctor. She was coming in to assist with the conversion process, and with her she's bringing a new supply of the serum used for it.

Jay scribbled down a note with the details of the messages, and set it aside on the desk. Firecracker was probably on some sort of meeting with the rest of the staff to welcome the new bureau workers, so Jay figured he'd sit and find a book to read. All of the tomes were from Equestria, some of them coated with varying layers of dust.

"'The Astronimicon', '1,001 Uses For Telekinesis', 'The Stargazer's Almanac', 'A Brief History Of Equestria, Magic, and Everything'," Jay read out loud. Some of the names he couldn't read, but just looking at the titles made his head hurt. Eventually, Jay just took a stack of books with him to a cushioned chair underneath one of the lights and cracked the first tome open.


---

Austin lounged in one of the reclining chairs in the common room and smiled.

"I mean, it's like having another pair of arms! Well," Murphy corrected, "limbs at least. And they fold up nicely too!" Murphy and Caleb chuckled as they sat at one of the sofas. Caleb's sister, Annie, was trying to do somersaults across the floor, but with her new anatomy it was proving tricky for her to get the leverage to push herself over. Andrea was giving Annie a little push right as she was about to get it, cheering her on and letting her believe she did it herself.
 
“And I can finally walk! I never imagined I would ever be able to afford the surgery for it!” She cantered around the room, hopping form hoof to hoof, her wings fluttering at her sides. She swished her tail back and forth, her cream colored mane and tail dancing in the air. 

It was an incredible sight. Three of his old classmates and one little girl laughing and talking like they had been best friends for years... To his memory, Austin couldn't remember any occasion where Murphy and Caleb ever really talked this casually. And Andrea in the cafeteria, that was surprising too. Leah had gossiped with Chloe a bit about how Andrea had a crush on Murphy all year, but it was a surprise to everyone involved how happy she was when Murphy came out through those doors on his new hooves.

"Oh, Murphy! I spoke with Fleet Feather yesterday about the flight class today after lunch." Andrea was about to continue on until a deafening crack of thunder shook the room. Nobody present had noticed the sky getting steadily getting darker, or the sunlight disappearing behind the black wall of the thunderhead. The first few raindrops began to patter against the windows to the central garden, Honeybell and Clementine gathering their tools up in a hurry. Austin watched as they disappeared into the doors on the opposite side of the garden right as the downpour started. The roar of the rain on the roof sunk Andrea's demeanor.

"And I was so excited to learn to fly today..." she mumbled as she lay her head down on her forelegs.

“Don’t worry,” Murphy said, sitting down next to the chocolate mare. His cyan coat and bright yellow mane were a stark contrast from the weather outside. “There’ll be plenty of time to fly around when we move out to Equestria.” Andrea covered her face with her hooves, her blush returning. 

“Caleb,” Annie moaned. “I’m bored! I wanna go out and play but now it’s all rainy!”

“Well then, if it wasn’t thundering, I’d go out and join you, but unfortunately, that isn’t the case. Why don’t you go and watch some TV?” The pink filly bounced off the chair and scampered over to the table where the remote sat. She fumbled with it with her hooves before squeaking in frustration. Austin stood up and helped her out by taking the control from the floor and turning the TV on.

“Anything you wanna watch?” The filly shook her head. “Well then tell me when to stop.” Austin began flipping through the hundreds of channels, each one getting a shake of the head from Annie. The channel switching suddenly stopped on a documentary covering an old part of the Earth, still untouched by industry. 

Both Annie and Caleb were enraptured by the lush greenery of the vistas. The camera was sweeping over a large forest in the west, curtains of mist and fog rolling over the gently hilly terrain. 

“Whoa,” the brother and sister said in unison. 

“These scenes are as close to what Equestria is presently like. Places like this haven’t been seen on Earth in decades, but are waiting right across the ocean.” The show then switched to real footage of Equestria as it presently is, the difference very subtle. The ponies’ homeland was beautiful, as if not a single bit of industrialization had ever touched it. 

As the camera soared over a valley, Austin could see a small town coming into view. The houses were all beautifully built, and made from nothing more than wood, stone, and clay. No metal, no plastic, no high-technology. Ponies were going about their business, some could be seen working in a field in the distance. Hundreds of towns like this littered the countryside in Equestria.

“And I’ll live in one of them,” Austin said to himself. 


---

Firecracker yawned. The meeting, if he could even call it that, was more just the staff waiting for the bus with the new ponies to arrive. Garnet had told them last night about the new ponies coming to work at the bureau, but neglected to mention any names. What was interesting, though, was that they were getting a human doctor to help in the conversion room. The higher ups had noticed patients were calmer when it was a human who handed them the serum, rather than a pony. Reinforcing a sense of security, it seemed like.

The grey unicorn could feel his eyelids falling lower and lower. The drumming of the rain on the roof didn't help him stay awake either. It drowned out every other noise, but it didn't hide the breaks of the bus as it stopped before the door to the lobby. The doors on both the bus and the building swiveled open, several ponies rushing out and into the rain.

Twelve new ponies: two for the kitchen, two more pegasi (Fleet was the only one in the bureau before they came), a new receptionist to help give Sea Foam a break every now and then, and a bunch more for cleaning and maintenance. A female human walked in through the doors, her red head-mane soaked and sticking to her head. She immediately walked up to Garnet and exchanged pleasantries.

The human had a bright yellow box in wheels she carried behind her. But what was curious was the handcuff she wore that connected her to it. Garnet levitated a key out and stuck it in the cuffs, unlocking them. The human rubbed her reddened wrist and thanked her.

Fleet Feather greeted the pegasi with nothing more than a grunt. The pair nervously trotted inside, their ears flat against their heads. When everypony was inside, the bus honked its horn and drove off into the downpour. Everypony was talking, but Garnet raised her voice over them all. 

“Everypony! Can I have your attention!” She stepped before the soaking wet group of stallions and mares and smiled. “Welcome to our humble little bureau! Rooms are in the wing to your left, and offices are to your right. Lunch will be held shortly in the cafeteria, on the other side of the complex. In most circumstances, you could cut through the gardens, but what with this storm, I’m asking that everyone stay indoors. Please see Sea Foam at the desk for your rooming assignments. Thank you!”

The horde of ponies all rushed up on the poor mare, who was just barely able to handle everypony clamoring for their rooms. Firecracker huffed. 

“Well, well, well! If it isn’t my dear old coltfriend, Firecracker,” a sultry voice sang out from behind the unicorn. Firecracker’s insides writhed at the sound of the voice, the owner of it somepony he never wanted to have to face again.

“Hello there, Jasmine. Long time no see,” he said flatly.

“Oh, come now. Is that any way to greet and old... friend?” She slid her turquoise tail along Firecracker’s flank and around his rump. He cleared his throat and glared at her, drawing a giggle from the mare. “So, where is that cute little filly you left me for? The one with the shapely flanks that you couldn’t stop staring at?” He continued glaring at Jasmine, boring a hole in her head with his gaze. “Oh don’t worry. I’ve gotten over it.”
 
“What are you doing here, Jasmine? You weren’t on the list of new staff that Garnet got.”
 
“Well, darling, that’s because I’m not new staff. I’m just here for the afternoon to make sure the bureau is running smoothly!” Jasmine winked at Firecracker, who remained stone-faced. “Though, if we do have some free time later…” She leaned in close to his ear. “I haven’t had a good bucking in months.”
 
Firecracker felt the blood rush to his cheeks and felt his loins begin to come to life, but he fought it down. “I’m with somepony now.”
 
“Oh! I simply have to meet her! We’ll be such good friends!” Firecracker scowled at his ex-marefriend. Why did she have to be here?
 

---

Jay looked up towards the ceiling, out through the few overhead windows that littered the upper tier of the library. Rivulets of rainwater ran down them with gusto, the downpour fueling them on. A flash of light lit up the clouds overhead, and a few seconds later, the boom of the thunder rattled Jay’s bones. He closed the book in his hands and set it on the table next to him among the others. He wasn’t reading them cover to cover, but leafing through them, looking for passages he found interesting.
 
One of the things that piqued his interest was a compendium of the various races that inhabited Equestria. Ponies weren’t the only intelligent creatures that had existed there. Gryphons had close ties with pegasi, often living in the same cloud-cities as them. They weren’t too friendly with the land-bound ponies, and rarely interacted with them. The book also covered Zebras, Dragons, Diamond Dogs, and Buffalo, as well as many others he didn’t have time to get to. Jay wondered if any of these creatures came to Earth with Equestria, or stayed in whatever world Equestria previously inhabited.
 
Jay was on his way out when he checked the clock. 11:30. He still had some time to kill before lunch was going to be served. As he walked through the hallway, he wondered what Peach Cobbler was going to cook him up for dessert today. He could certainly believe that she was part of a famous cooking family; her dishes sang that in chorus. It was hard to imagine that such a terrible thing happened to her, being almost disowned by her father for not using peaches in one of their family desserts.
 
When Jay walked through the cafeteria, he saw nobody behind the counter. Peach was missing, but the food was already set up. Taking a quick peak, Jay saw that lunch was going to consist of a small pasta bar, garlic bread, and the usual hay and oats. Next to the pony fare, there was a tray of flowers as well.  Jay had no idea what they were for, and just assumed they were for decoration. He strode off towards the other doors as another crack of thunder rocked the bureau.
 
When he arrived at the common room, he saw Austin and everyone else watching the TV closely. He took a seat next to his friend and saw what had drawn everyone’s attention.
 
“We are here; live, at a press conference at the FBI headquarters in Washington DC. In just a few moments, we’ll receive word about the Telios Chemical investigation. Wait… Someone’s coming!”
 
A man in a well pressed black suit stepped in front of the podium, microphones buzzing from the hushed silence. 

“Ahem. As you all may know, we have been investigating the leaked memos released to the press. Our investigations, paired with evidence from the site of the accident, have given us substantial proof that the explosion was triggered by intentional negligence of the safety mechanisms by Telios, as was stated in the memos. This proves beyond a doubt that the deaths of those hundred plus lives were lost taken so that the company could cash in on life insurance payouts for each life lost. The board of directors and the president of the company are being apprehended as we speak and being brought into custody. Thank you.”
 
The room was silent save for the rain pattering against the windows. Everyone looked at each other realizing the true nature of their predicament. They were all there because the company wanted more money. Money. They killed their parents for money. The realization sickened Jay. Was there no act so despicable that a human wouldn’t stoop down that low? Jay felt his hands trembling not so much for his parents but in the loss of faith in his species.
 
If there was a time he hated being human, it was now.
 
Jay stood up and walked towards the door to the cafeteria. He didn’t want to sit there and stare at the TV anymore. Austin followed him, as well as everyone else in the common room. Caleb and Annie walked together, inseparable. Annie didn’t seem to know the weight of what just transpired, and Jay hoped she wouldn’t have to for a while longer. Murphy and Andrea walked side by side, their ears folded back.
 
Jay and Austin sat at their table, Leah and Chloe already there. Rob sauntered in shortly after. Nobody spoke. Chloe stared at the tabletop, still not having said a word since this morning. Jay was still happy that he finally had a shot with her… but seeing her like this only made him sad now. He never wished ill for her.
 
More and more people began filing into the cafeteria, some going straight for the food line. Peach Cobbler was manning the kitchen, with two other ponies working in the back. They must be part of the new staff Jay read about in Firecracker’s email.  He saw a few other new faces: two new pegasi with Fleet Feather, who was presumably telling a downcast Andrea and Murphy that flight class was cancelled today.
 
The doors on the other side of the cafeteria opened up, with Garnet stepping out. She pushed up the glasses on her muzzle before clearing her throat. “Hello again, everyone! First off, I would like to announce that we have some new staff for the bureau who just arrived today! Be sure to say ‘hello’ when you meet them!” Garnet said. “And now will mister Jay Benton come with me?”
 
Jay’s heart froze. It was his turn? Already? Slowly, he stood up from the table, glancing around the room, noticing everyone’s stares were all locked on him. He felt like he was doing something wrong, and everyone was silently reprimanding him about it. Step by step, he walked up to the red unicorn. When he finally reached her, she gave him a warm smile.
 
“Come with me, please.” She pushed the door open with her hoof and held it open for him. He walked through into the hallway and held it open for her as she followed him in. He fell in behind her as she trotted down the hallway, the rain clearly audible from the rooftop.
 
Jay passed the library where Firecracker was. He was investigating Jay’s stack of books on the table where he had left them. He didn’t notice as he and Garnet passed.
 
“So I hear you’ve been helping old Firecracker out, have you?”
 
“Y-Yeah.”
 
“You know, only staff is allowed to read some of those emails,” she said. Her tone was flat, and it made Jay feel uneasy. Before he could defend himself, she turned her head back and winked at him and smiled. “Don’t worry. If it’s something private for Firecracker, I’ll talk to him myself. I’d rather not have to keep replacing windows every time he tries to use a keyboard.”
 
The pair chuckled together. Jay felt lightness in his chest, his heart beating faster than before. His head was swimming in the high of nervousness, but before it could get any worse,  he shook it a little bit, clearing the strange feeling from his mind.
 
The pair marched down the hallway a bit further until they happened on a large metal door. “We’re here!” She placed her hoof on the dark pad beside the door, scanning herself in and identifying herself. The door hissed open and the pair walked in. The room looked not unlike a doctor’s office, one of the examination rooms. There was a flat topped table in the center with lights and instruments suspended from the ceiling above it.
 
A woman was in there as well and just noticed the two of them coming inside. “Oh! Hello!” she said, a smile blooming on her face. “I’m Samantha Daltry. I’m from Dylan Pharmaceuticals. You’ll be the first one to try out the new batch of serum that just arrived today!” Her bright red hair was tied up in a frizzy bun on the back of her head, her face covered in freckles.
 
Garnet levitated a paper bundle from one of the cabinets on the side of the room and pointed with a hoof to a door to the side. “Go and get changed. Drop your clothes into the basket and put this on. Leave the sides untied so it’ll be easier to get out of it when you’re done.” Jay plucked the paper gown from the air and walked over to the door. He closed the door behind him and proceeded to undress. He saw some other clothes already in the basket; probably Murphy’s from his conversion this morning.
 
The cold air stung his exposed skin as he took his shirt off. Goosebumps popped up all over his arms and chest as he dropped the old shirt into the basket. He wrapped his arms around himself to warm himself up a bit, but remembered he needed to get this taken care of as soon as he could. He dropped his pants, causing another wave of goosebumps to show up all down his legs. He dropped the last of his clothes into the basket and unfolded the paper gown and cast it over his head, pulling the hole down onto his shoulders. He opened the door, still shivering a bit and walked up to the table.
 
“Up on here, and lie down on your side. It makes the process easier on you,” Samantha said. Jay put his hands on the cold metal table and thrust himself up, his cheeks reddening as his gown billowed up and took its sweet time coming back down to cover him once ore. He leaned down onto his side like he was asked, trying his hardest to ignore the icy fingers of the table clawing at his shoulder and hip.
 
Samantha turned around for a moment, reaching to some apparatus on the countertop. “Let’s see here. No major allergies, so we’ll give him cocktail A,” she murmured to herself. Turning around once more, she handed Jay a small paper cup. Jay turned it at an angle to get a better look at the contents.
 
The ‘serum’ as they called it, did live up the powerful grape scent. It was similar to artificial grape jelly, a smooth purple liquid that soaked the sides of the cup as he swirled it around. But as the light caught the serum at another angle, he saw a host of glittering sparks hidden in the fluid. Those must be the nanomachines; the human element to the ponification serum. They were magically enhanced by unicorn magic to refabricate the human anatomy to a pony archetype… at least that’s what the news casts said it did.
 
“Make sure you drink it all at once, okay? You can take your time,” Garnet said quietly from behind Jay.
 
“Will I be happy?” Jay asked.
 
“How do you mean?” Garnet replied.
 
“Is Equestria really all that it seems? Is it really paradise?” Jay felt a tear dripping down the side of his face, landing on the cold table.
 
“Well…”
 
“It’s okay,” Jay said. “You can say how bad our world is. We all know it.”
 
Garnet chuckled. “Well, if you insist. Compared to the world you lived in, I promise you Equestria will be all that you imagine it to be and more. You just need to open yourself up to be able to take in everything it has to offer.”
 
Smiling, Jay nodded. He opened his mouth, and tipped the cup. He felt the serum fill his mouth, tingling every surface it touched. He swallowed it, finally smelling and tasting the powerful grape flavor in all of its power. He felt his stomach churn, and his vision fade.
 
“Thank you…”


> The Dream
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jay was without form. He was floating in an endless sea of white. He couldn’t feel his body at all, but he didn’t seem to mind. It was a relief to not have to think about anything else. He had no responsibilities, no worries, not a care in the world… 

The whiteness was shifting. He saw ripples, waves, crests, and splashes of white on white. Looking harder, Jay couldn’t see anything out of place, but he knew something was happening. He watched as the sections of the white darkened, shapes beginning to form. Tall pillars rose above his vision, and a dark hallway stretched out into the distance. Windows began coalescing on the walls on either side of him, the glass panels shifting in color as he moved forward. 

Each window was a masterpiece of stained glass; each one telling a story. One depicted six mares of different colors casting a beam of light at an alicorn of black with a dark indigo mane. Another showed the same six conquering some serpentine amalgamation made up of various body parts of different creatures. 

Jay continued on for an indeterminate amount of time, the sun beaming in on his left, the soothing darkness of night coming from his right. The moon shined in with a gentle glow.

“Greetings, young one. We bid you welcome.”

A voice as sweet as honey sang out to him. Reaching the very end of the hall, Jay found the source of the voice. On the left was the sun, the right, the moon. The images shifted and twisted until they took on the forms of two majestic alicorns, their celestial manes billowing in some unearthly breeze. Warm smiles graced their lips as they regarded Jay.

“You come before us, Jay, son of Adam. Do you wish to be released of your bonds as a human being and join our Herd?” the moon princess asked. Her voice was as beautiful as her sister’s, but more solemn. Sadder. 

“I do, your majesties,” Jay said aloud. He wasn’t aware he was capable of speaking, but didn’t dwell on it. 

“You do so willingly?” the sun princess asked.

“Of course. My entire life as a human has been filled with sadness and loneliness. I wish to be happy, to be a part of something.”

“Remember this: you must be open to others if they are to let you in, as they will let you in.” The darker sister nodded to the brighter one. “We welcome you, Jay, to our kingdom and our herd.”

“Wait, dearest sister. This one is hurt. Healing him may bring him more pain.”

Jay looked at the brighter sister as she regarded his shapeless form. What did she mean he was hurt?

“Ah, yes. I sense it too. Scars are aplenty on this one, and none of them are visible. What would you have be our course of action, dearest sister?”

“I do not know, sister. This is a most unforeseen complication. By healing what ails him now, he will be hurt even more later when he discovers the truth.” 

“Your Majesties,” Jay began. “What is it you speak of? What scars do I bear?”

The white princess turned to him. “I will be frank, young Jay. Your nightmares, the ones that leave you breathless and sleepless at night, they are no nightmares. They are but memories attempting to resurface. By healing you, these memories and the circumstances will be remembered by you, and I fear they may do more damage to you than ignorance would.” Her head dipped. “We want what is best for you, young one. You are now our beloved subject, and your wellbeing is close to our hearts.”

“Would you like to remember what happened to you?”

Jay thought for a minute. Did it have to do with why he didn’t care too much about his parents getting killed? And the nightmares… they had been happening sporadically for as long as he could remember. What unsettled him is that these two princesses truly dreaded how he would feel should he learn the truth. It was the last thing he wanted to have to face on the eve of his new life. 

But…

If he didn’t overcome it, it might haunt him for the rest of his life. Jay needed to overcome this obstacle, and only then could he truly move on and leave his old life behind. 

“I want you to heal me. I want to remember.”

The two sisters nodded to each other. “Of course.”

Bright lights of yellow and indigo shined from their horns, and the room faded from Jay’s vision.
> The Third Day (PM)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jay's limbs were frozen at his side, or at least that was the best he could guess. Hushed whispers swirled around the edge of his perception, but there was a part of a single phrase he could make out. 

"... wrong place... wrong time... need this." 

It was a voice that was faintly recognizable, but he failed to place it. 

beep beep. 

beep beep. 

beep beep. 

The sound continued its pattern for a long time, or at least it seemed long for Jay; he had no way to tell time at the moment. All he could do is sit there, frozen, and listen. His eyes were as still as the rest of his body, beyond the reach of his ability to control or even feel them. 

"... coma for... months... don't know if... wake up." 

Jay wanted to cry out, to get their attention, whoever they were out there. He could hear them! He was there! 

"... sorry."

 Jay felt agony unlike anything he had ever experienced before; a burning that was both everywhere and nowhere at once. He screamed out in futility, crying out for someone to help him. The sounds of a scuffle reached his ears, grunts and screams following them; the burning was finally abating. 

"Get him out of my hospital!" someone yelled. The voices were coming in much clearer now. "Shit... What did that monster do to you?" 

"Doctor?" 

"I want a full tox-screen on the boy. Find out what his father pit into the IV drip. The boy is stabilizing, but there is sure to be damage of some sort. Notify the Director and have Felix arrested for attempted murder of his son." 

--- 

"Shh, Shh, it's okay. You're okay Jay. You're back. Can you hear me?" Jay turned his head away from the voice, the sound hurting his ears. His entire body hurt; everything was sore, especially his head. He could feel each surge of blood in his head from his heartbeat, each beat bringing a new wave of pain. "Motor skills look good... Auditory reflexes..." Jay heard someone snap their fingers right in his ears, amplifying his headache even more. He turned his ears away in an effort to shield his head from any further pain. "... Check."

"Jay, honey," another voice said. "Can you say something for us? Just anything." 

"My head hurts," Jay managed. His throat was painfully dry, his voice raspy and faint. 

"No kidding," the first voice said. She seemed to murmur this, trying to keep her voice down and out of Jay's range of hearing. 

"Hush, Sam. We need to give him some more time to rest.”

"Surely. Lets hope the next one won't take three hours and lose half his head." 

"Sam!" 

Jay lazily lifted his head and pried open his eyes. Everything was hidden behind a curtain of blurry light, but he could make out faint shapes; one was a bright red standing next to him, the other white and orange on top standing further away from him. "Wh... What happened?" 

The red blur shifted uncomfortably. "You were out for a while, Jay. You were shaking and mumbling for the last few hours. Can you get up?" Jay shifted his body. He felt his arms and legs, he felt the cold metal table underneath his body; the metal wasn't painful anymore, but still cool to the touch. He tried to prop himself up onto his elbow and brought his hand up to rub his eyes. A rock hard object smacked him in the nose, drawing a groan from him. 

Carefully, he bent his wrist and began rubbing his eye with the ball of it, the blur finally fading from view. He was still in the lab. His head was still throbbing, and he was trying to gather his memories. Before he could do much more, he looked down and saw what smacked him in the nose: a tan hoof, covered in a fine sandy beige coat of fine hair. He inspected the curious sight, noting the hard part he smacked against his nose. He looked down at the rest of his body, seeing the same beige hair covering the rest of his skin. All the way in the back was a dark brown pile of wavy hair, that jumped up and back down as he inspected it. His tail. 

Jay sat up on his haunches and leaned onto his hooves. His back legs were strangely shaped compared to the last home he saw them; it seemed that his knee now bent the opposite direction, and was higher up on his leg. He brought his hoof up to his face again, slower than before. He felt his long muzzle, and smacked his lips. His mouth felt strange compared to before; his tongue more so. Reaching higher up his head, his hoof clacked with another hard object. He traced it up and up, feeling the tip at a point. A horn. He was a unicorn. 

Garnet held out her hoof. "Let me help you down." Jay pressed his hoof against hers; the hard surface something to prop himself against. He leaned forward and felt his body shifting slowly off the side of the table. At the moment he felt his haunches leave the edge, he tried to bend out his legs as if he was still human. They slid off the smooth floor, failing to catch his weight; he landed in a pile of splayed limbs. 

He struggled to bend his legs to gain leverage to lift his body up; the new joints alien to his mind and out of his immediate reach. He pushed his forelegs out, lifting up the front of his body; he took a moment and relished the momentary volume of success. His legs trembling, he attempted the same with his hind legs, slowly lifting his backside up off the cold ground. 

"Can you walk?" Garnet asked as she regarded Jay. He was struggling just to keep his balance.

"Not sure."

"Let's start you out one hoof at a time. Here, watch me and try and mimic it." Garnet slowly walked forward towards the door, turned around, and walled back. Jay studied her leg movements as she walked; it was more of a matter of moving the legs at a staggered pace, lifting one as the other is in mid-air. Jay out one hoof out, then moved one of his hind legs forward. 

He managed to make it a few feet forward before one of his hooves slid out from under him. Garnet walked over, but Jay was already back up on his hooves. He was getting used to the new ways his legs folded and moved, albeit slowly and clumsily. He looked around the room and spied something odd. Below the table was a plastic basin filled with some lumpy grey slime, spots of it tinted red. There wasn't much of it; the entirety of the mass could fit in a drinking glass, but that wasn't what made him feel uneasy. 

"Garnet? Sam? What is that?" he asked, pointing his hoof at the basin. 

Samantha walked over and knelt down next to Jay. "Towards the end of your conversion, that mass was expelled from your head. It took a while for me to figure it out, but while you were asleep, I found it out to be scarred brain tissue." Garnet's eyes fell to the floor. "Conversion heals all sorts of ailments; all of them, actually. You must have had some serious injury when you were younger if that's what was healed," Sam said, pointing at the grey mass. 

"The princesses... They said I was hurt where nobody could see," Jay said quietly.

"What's that? You saw the princesses?" Garnet asked, her eyes going wide. "Most conversion dreams are vague, formless. You say the princesses spoke to you?"

"Y-Yeah. They asked me if I wanted to remember something. After they left... I had a dream. I was in a hospital... I was in some sort of coma. But I don't remember ever being in a coma or ever going to a hospital before."

"Jay, dear, if this is what I think it is, then you will be remembering many things in the coming days. That scar tissue down there was blocking your ability to recall memories of anything that happened before whatever accident you got it in." Samantha picked the basin up and placed it up onto the counter, out of his sight. "But other than that little thing, you had a picture perfect conversion! Everyone's been worried sick about you; you should go and find them and put their worries at ease." 

Jay nodded. Garnet led him out from the conversion room and down the hallway, taking a slower pace than she would have liked so Jay could keep up. He was finally getting the hang of walking at a steady pace, his legs moving as if they had known all along. To his conscious mind, they still felt strange and alien, but time would erode that away.

Garnet stopped before the door to the cafeteria, placing her hoof on the door and looked back to Jay. “Are you ready to see everyone? Or do you want some more rest? It’s perfectly okay if you do.”

Jay brought his hoof up and looked at it again. He needed to find some things out from his friends so he could make sense of things. “I’ll be okay.”

Garnet nodded and pushed open the door. Jay saw the table everyone was sitting at, but they hadn’t seemed to notice his entry. Jay stood in his place for a moment, unsure of what to do to get their attention. Austin was talking with Chloe about something with Leah listening in, but they were all looking off into the garden. Jay looked back to Garnet and shrugged; he needed some help. She proceeded to clear her throat audibly enough to draw at least a single pair of eyes over.

“Jay?” Chloe looked over, her mouth hanging open slightly. She brought her hand to cover it and stood up from her seat. Austin looked over and began to rush over, Chloe and Leah in tow. 

“Jay, you son of a bitch! I thought you friggin’ died in there!” Austin yelled as he knelt down next to Jay. 

“I’m... sorry. T-There was a... complication, and...”

“Wait a minute,” Austin said, standing back up. “Conversion doesn’t have complications. What happened in there?” Austin glared at both Jay and Garnet.

The red unicorn pushed her glasses up her muzzle. “I’m not at liberty to disclose the details of the procedure, but Jay is if he so pleases. I assure you he came out of it as a perfectly healthy unicorn stallion.”

Austin sighed and knelt back down. He rustled Jay’s shaggy brown mane and smiled. “Well, I’ll say you look pretty good on four legs... and a unicorn no less. Seems about right to me.” Austin poked at Jay’s horn, sending strange shivers down his spine. It felt like he was prodding a new pressure point, the waves of discomfort rippling through his body.

“Please... cut it out. It feels... weird. The horn.” Austin pulled his hand away and stepped back. 

Chloe moved in close to Jay and knelt down. Her blue eyes sparkled in the lighting of the cafeteria, her brown locks hanging on either side of her face. “I was worried that you got hurt in there,” Chloe murmured. Her voice was as quiet as a whisper, but to Jay it spoke volumes. “We’ve been waiting for hours in here after everyone else left. Was everything okay in there?”

Jay saw genuine concern in Chloe’s eyes. Jay looked down at the ground, choking on his words. “I... don’t want to talk about it right now.” 

Another tingle ran through Jay’s spine as something rung through his ears.

Remember this: A closed heart will find no friendship or companionship. You must open yourself to others if they are allow you into their lives.

Celestia’s words rang through his head as they did during his dream, but this time they were more ephemeral, and more difficult to catch if he wasn’t paying attention. The princesses were right; he never truly let anyone into his life, either personally or physically. He never invited anyone over to his house, never talked about his personal life, never told anyone about his feelings. 

Chloe began to stand back up, her face stricken with sadness. Jay planted a hoof onto her arm and looked back up into her eyes. “Actually..." he began, but Chloe was already walking away to Leah. Jay hung his head and trotted over to one of the tables. His legs hung off the chair awkwardly; he shifted his body until he eventually just gave up and stood at the table. Austin walked over and took a seat next to Jay. Rain continued to patter against the windows and a rumble of thunder shook the windows.

"Something's eating you up... it’s written all over you. What’s wrong?" Austin asked. He placed a hand on Jay's back and began stroking his beige coat. The feeling was nice and soothing; Jay would have freaked out by contact like that when he was still human. But in his new body he welcomed the friendly gesture of comfort. He felt glad that Austin was concerned about his well being.

"How long have you known me?" Jay asked. Austin took his hand back and folded his hands together.

"Hmm, probably about six years, now that I think about it. What's going on?"

"Do you remember ever seeing me in school before that?"

"Well, I do remember seeing you here and there a few years before then, but not often. Never saw you at all the year before I started hanging out with you."

"I was in a coma."

Austin did a double take. "The hell you talking about? Why did you never mention this before now?"

"I had brain damage, blocking off my memories of the coma and everything before then. I'm still trying to understand these new memories..."

"How the hell did you get them back then?"

"The conversion fixed that part of my brain. Princess Luna and Princess Celestia asked me if I wanted to remember what happened to me... And I said yes."

"So you had a conversion dream. I've heard rumors of things like is happening, people having strange dreams during conversion," Austin said.

"It was more than a dream... after that dream I had another dream. I was in a hospital... The doctor said my dad tried to murder me."

Jay felt the weight of the realization finally hit him. His dad tried to kill him. In the hospital, while in a coma. What would possess him to do such a thing? 

"That’s very serious, Jay. I don't remember ever meeting your dad, but if I did now... He'd be losing some teeth, I promise you." Austin stood up from his seat and began walking back to Chloe and Leah. Jay followed him in an awkward stride, but froze when his stomach growled. Austin smiled and guided Jay to the kitchen. "Let me get you something to eat for lunch. Hey, Peach! You back there?"

"One moment!" a  once sang back. The yellow-pink mare trotted out from behind one of the walls in the kitchen and walked up to the counter. Her eyes grew wide when she saw Jay's new body. "Oh my gosh! You're okay! And I bet you're famished! Let me throw something together for you!"

The mare bounced back and lit her horn up. A tray and plate floated before her; all sorts of foods began floating onto them, each one of them a different color. She cantered back up to the counter and hung the tray out for Jay. He reached up with his hoof, but Peach floated the tray out of his reach. "Ah-ah! No more fingers, remember?" Jay sheepishly put his hoof back down on he ground. Before he could do anything else, Austin took the tray himself.

"Thank you, Peach. I'll make sure he doesn't make a mess." Jay walked behind Austin back to the table and looked at his plate. There was a small pile of hay, topped with a flower with some biscuits on the side. Jay nibbled on the first biscuit, the buttery bread almost melting on his tongue. The flavor was smooth and sweet, with a hint of salt from the butter itself. 

After Jay finished the biscuits, he eyed the pile of hay. The yellow shoots sparkled with what was likely salt, but Jay was apprehensive. He knew full well he was a pony now, and most if not all ponies enjoyed eating hay, but he couldn't shake the idea of himself stooping to the level of a common animal by eating hay. 

Jay reached out with his mouth and grasped one of the shoots with his teeth and pulled it in his mouth with his tongue. Slowly, he began to chew it. The flavor as unlike anything he expected. The sparkle on the hay was indeed salt, but that paired with the hay itself was extraordinary. The hay had a crispy texture to it, but not unpleasantly so. The taste was similar to a potato chip, the salt accentuating the flavor. There wasn't any grease that spoiled it, and he eagerly dug in for more.

"Never thought I'd ever see you getting so excited by eating hay," Austin said, chuckling. 

After swallowing another mouthful, Jay smiled. "Just wait until you try it. It's better than you expect. Everything. Everything tastes so much more... distinct. You'll understand when you get converted."

"Say, have you tried any magic yet?" Austin asked.

Jay felt the side of his horn with his hoof and shrugged. "I completely forgot it was there. Nope, not yet. I'll talk to Firecracker after I'm finished. He is the unicorn trainer after all." Finishing off his hay, Jay finished off his plate with the daisy. The flower had a strange texture to it, the petals soft and smooth, while the center was crispy and chewy. The petals had a sweet, mellow flavor to them, while the center of the flower was more tart.

Jay swallowed the last of his late lunch and smiled. He enjoyed it much more than he expected to; he never imagined he would ever be eating hay and flowers in his life until he arrived at the bureau, let alone enjoy it so much. Austin took the tray and brought it up to Peach at the counter. She took it with a smile and waved as he left.

"I'll head to the library and see if I can find Firecracker. I'll see you at dinner?" Jay said as Austin got back.

"Sounds like a plan. Don't bring the building down with your amazing skills, or else!" he joked.

Jay walked out from the cafeteria and down the hall to the library. He was eager to tell Firecracker that he was a unicorn, since they had already become fairly close friends since Jay arrived at the bureau. He came up to the door and pushed it open, but when he entered he was greeted with two stares. 

"Excuse you, who said you could come in here?" the pink unicorn mare asked. She had a turquoise mane and tail, and had an antagonistic tone to her voice. Jay didn't recognize her. Firecracker stared at Jay as well, but a short moment later his eyes widened. 

"Jay, is that you?" the grey unicorn asked. He tentatively stepped forward away from the mare, eager to have his attention diverted. Jay stood still as Firecracker trotted around him, inspecting his new body from all angles. 

“And a unicorn, too!” Jay said with pride. 

“Well, that’s good. Can’t have you bashing on my computer with hooves, now can I?” He walked back to the center of the library, and turned back to Jay. “Jay, I’d like you to meet my... friend...” he spat, “Jasmine.”

The mare strutted up to Jay and eyed him over. “So he’s one of those newfoals, then?” She swished her tail back and forth, grazing it over Jay’s body in places. “I’d say he makes a fairly handsome stallion, wouldn’t you think so?” Firecracker frowned at the pink mare. “Oh, don’t be that way.” She trotted back to the stallion and draped her body over his back. Her turquoise mane fluttered over her face, as she waved her eyelashes at him.

“Erm,” Jay said, trying his best not to get wedged into an awkward situation. “Hey, Firecracker?”

“YES?” He shouted, leaping out from under Jasmine. She fell onto the ground and growled at Firecracker, who paid her no mind. 

“Can you at least teach me a little magic?” Jay asked pleadingly. “I want to be able to use this dumb thing for something,” he said, poking his horn with his hoof. He twitched a bit every time he made contact. 

“Well you can start by cutting that out!” the grey stallion said, swatting his hoof away from his horn. “You’re like a foal at this point. Don’t try to overexert yourself.” He stepped back and looked behind him at the pink mare. “Jasmine, do you mind?”

“Not at all, dear,” she said with a smirk, as she made herself comfortable in the soft chair Jay used before his conversion.

“Bah. Alright, well first thing you need to learn is how to access your magic. Try and visualize your magic as a soap bubble in your head, where that twitch you felt came from. Try and feel around it.”

Jay closed his eyes and focused inward. He groped around his head for different things, but following Firecracker’s advice, focused on the spot his twitches came from. There seemed to be a sort of void there, that he was guided around when he tried to feel for it. It pushed him away every time he tried to push forward. Firecracker was right; it was like a soap bubble. And how best to break a bubble with a sharp poke?

Jay focused all of his effort into one strike and thrust forward, breaking through the barrier. A rush of cool tingling coursed through his body, reaching all the way down into his hooves. It was a very comforting feeling; it felt right somehow. He wanted to swim around in the power a bit more, but something was pulling him back. 

“...down. Turn it down, Jay!” Firecracker shouted. 

Jay snapped back to reality to see the room lit up much brighter than it originally was. It seemed to glow in a golden light, the walls shimmering as if underwater. 

“JAY!” Firecracker screamed. The room went dark again, back down to the regular lighting. “If you’re gonna make your horn glow that bright, don’t do it while I'm around.” 

“That... was me?” Jay said, oblivious to what happened.

“Yeah, you lit up brighter than the sun for a minute there.” Firecracker sighed as he walked up and placed a hoof on Jay’s shoulder. “Just... try and take it slow from now on, okay?”

“S-Sure,” Jay stammered. He was a combination of embarrassed and ecstatic. He just did magic! He had no idea how, but he made his horn glow! It wasn’t much, but it was a start. The feeling he experienced was unlike anything ever before, and he was eager to learn more.

“Can you teach me telekinesis?” Jay asked, excitedly. 

“Hm?”

“You know... moving stuff with my mind,” Jay asked, bashfully. 

“Do you now?” Firecracker raised an eyebrow and grinned. “Every foal can learn telekinesis by the time they earn their cutie mark, so you still have some time to figure it out yourself.”

“A what?”

“Cutie mark.”

“What.”

“You don’t...?”

Jay shrugged. The word didn’t have any sort of relevance to him. Firecracker turned his side towards Jay, pointing to his haunch. On it was a small red fireball, surrounded by orange sparks. “It’s the thing that summarizes your entire being to the world around you. It represents you at your inner core. It-”

“No need to get so dramatic about it, darling.” Firecracker shot a glare back to the mare, who proceeded to giggle to herself. “Oh, fine. I’ll keep my little mouth shut.” Jay managed to get a short look at Jasmine’s cutie mark: it was a peacock feather. What that meant was beyond him.

“As I was saying, cutie marks. I got mine when I found out I was skilled with pyrotechnics.” Jay looked back at his own hip, but it was a blank flat beige surface. He hung his ears back in shame. “Oh, don’t worry about it. You’ll get your cutie park at some point. Nopony stays a blank-flank forever. But anyway, telekinesis. Pretty simple, but there’s a few things you need to know about magic that could save your life one day.

“Your limits for what you can do work similar to a muscle; the more you use it and practice, the more you can do later on. If you overextend your abilities early on, the spell will simply collapse, leaving you in an exhausted heap. So do be careful, okay?”

Jay nodded, taking in the information. “Telekinesis. Just think of it as another hand. Grasp out and pick up this book. Try it.” Jay looked at the book Firecracker was pointing at; it was a thinner book and didn’t look too heavy. “Get back to that point you were at with your magic before and focus on lifting the book. Focus on the book, and lifting it. Nothing more. Your mind will do the rest.”

Jay locked his gaze on the book. He pictured reaching out with his mind and lifting it up with an ephemeral hand. He poked the bubble of magic in his mind, careful not to let it overflow in his body again. He felt the tingling course through his horn once again, this time more controlled. Jay opened his eyes and saw his horn was illuminated by a light golden glow, his determination solidified. 

He reached out with his mind towards the thin book, and a golden envelope of glittering light swallowed it. Jay could somehow feel the book as his aura held it. He could feel the smooth covers, the coarser pages, and the weight of the book itself. It felt like it was heavier than if he was holding it himself, but not outside his abilities.

He slowly lifted the book off the surface of the table, smiling as he watched it float. He spun it over its spine, and placed it back down onto the table. 

“Nice start, Jay. Now do it again. Hold it in the air for a full minute.”

Jay nodded, and followed the instructions. He managed to hold the book in the air for about forty seconds before hie spell collapsed, the book falling back onto the table. Jay gasped for breath, not realizing he was so tired. “Take it slowly. Remember, you don’t want to expend all of your energy on one spell. Wait until you feel ready again, and hold the book in the air for a minute.”

Jay took a moment to gather his energy back, which took shorter than he expected, and tried again. He barely managed to make the one minute mark, but he immediately forgot about his exhaustion in his elation. 

“Great. Now catch your breath and do it again, but with a heavier book.”

Jay sighed and lit his horn up once more.


---




Chloe scribbled down a rough figure in her sketchbook, on one of the last pages in the small booklet. The figure was sitting against a wall, slumped forward, and staring at the ground in front of him. She began scribbling in a mess of hair; not too long, but long enough to be easily messed up. 

Leah slumped in the chair next to Chloe, who instinctively clutched her book towards her chest. She loosened up when Leah just stared forward towards the ponified humans: Andrea, Caleb, and Annie. But not Jay. 

Chloe bit her lip. She was worried about Jay. He was clearly shaken by something once he got converted, something nobody else had to deal with. She wanted to talk to him about it, but he was reluctant... she didn’t pursue it any further because she didn’t want him to be angry at her. She didn’t want to pry if he didn’t want to open up. 

“What a little bitch.”

Chloe looked at Leah, who leaned her head back. “Who?”

“Austin.”

“Oh... Why?”

“He turned me down. You saw it last night, right?”

“Uh, yeah. But how does that make him a bitch?”

Leah sighed and slumped forward. “Because I wanted him. And he said no!”

“I don’t follow...”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Chloe sighed and went back to her sketch. She began shading in the figure’s finer details. The subtle shadows on the folds of his pants, the shadow he casts from the light above him, the shadow his hair makes on his face. It made Chloe sad to look it, but she wanted to finish it. 

“Shit, girl. Are you still busted up about Andrew?” Leah groaned. 

“How do you mean?” Chloe asked, still looking into her sketchbook.

“You’ve barely said a word since that douche left this morning.” The comment hurt Chloe in her chest. “I mean, shit. There’s no way you could be so sad about that asshole leaving.”

“He wasn’t-”

“Yes. He. Was.” Leah punctuated each word with a forceful poke to Chloe’s shoulder. “He treated you like garbage while you fawned over him like he was some sort of prince charming or something. You remember when he smacked you last week?”

Chloe did. Andrew had accidentally smacked her cheek with the back of his hand during an argument. He was turning around to leave, but Chloe had moved forward to stop him, winding up in the way of his hand. The force of the blow wasn’t severe, but it left a wide red mark on her cheek for the rest of the day.

“H-He apologized!” she said, trying to defend Andrew. “And it was an accident!”

“Did he now? Why is it that I don’t believe you?” Leah said, holding a finger to her chin. “Oh, that’s right! I saw him leaving you on the floor and walking away without another word said.”

Leah hung her head as a tear began falling from her eye. Leah looked over and jumped to her feet. “Oh, come on!” She forcefully pulled Chloe up by her arms, and with her a squeak of surprise. “You never used to be this sad! Cheer up girl!”

“But...”

“No buts. You have to be kind of glad he’s gone, right?”

“Um,” Chloe mumbled.

“I bet it’s nice not having any jokes made about you!” Leah lowered her voice and said “I know I’m not missing the jokes he makes of me. And the names.”

Chloe giggled, her cheeks still a bit moist with tears. “Hehe, I suppose...”

“He was a terrible boyfriend, through and through, with this morning proving it without a doubt.”

“Yeah...”

“Huh?” Leah said, with a big grin as she held her hand up to her ear. “I don’t think I heard you there! What was that?”

“I'm..." The word seemed to stick to Chloe's throat, reluctant to be free and known. Steeling herself, she blurted it out all at once. "I'm glad that jerk's gone!"

Leah started giggling and hugged Chloe. With at once sentence, a burden seemed to lift from Chloe's shoulders, her heart finally free from the chains it had been pinned under since the morning. "Now how do you feel?" Leah asked.

Chloe giggled and smiled. "Much better, but there's still one thing I need to do. Come with me?"

Leah burst out in a hearty laugh and doubled over. "Sorry girl, but we're not THAT close yet!"

It took Chloe a moment to catch it, but when she did, her face turned red. "Not like THAT! Jeez! Shows where your mind is!"

the pair were giggling as they walked down the hallway. The rain continued to patter against the roof, the downpour seemingly unrelenting in force. The garden outside was starting to flood in places, but nowhere threatening. 

Chloe and Leah walked through the lobby and toward the administrative wing. But before they could walk through the doors, the very unicorn she wanted to meet almost walked right into her. 

"Oh! Chloe, how are you doing? I was just coming to see you," Garnet said. Her glasses reflected the fluorescent lights of the lobby as she looked up at Chloe. 

"Oh, me too! I wanted to let you know I'm ready for my conversion whenever you have a spot open for me." 

"Well that's perfect, because I was just about to ask you if you were ready for it! We wanted to get you done at some point today to keep everything on schedule without having to shuffle the convertees for each days round. It'll just be a mess. But that's great to hear! In fact..." Garnet began, holding a hoof to her chin. "Would you like to get converted right now? That way you can have dinner without a problem tonight!" 

Chloe wasn't expecting to go through with it so soon, and she hesitated. There would be no going back, no second chances, no saying "I changed my mind." she'd be leaving the human world behind for something so alien and strange to her, that it might make her lose her mind if she wasn't careful. But...

There was very little value Chloe held in humanity anymore. She lost her parents, the person she thought loved her, even...

"Can you give me ten minutes? I have something I want to take care of first."

"Of course, honey. There's no rush. Just ask Sea Foam at the desk to take you to the conversion room when you're ready. I'll be waiting there for you."

The red mare walked off, leaving Chloe and Leah behind. Chloe went down and sat in one of the couches in the lobby and opened her sketchbook to the very last page and began drawing. She knew exactly what she wanted to draw, and had everything already planned out in her head. He scratching of pencil against paper momentarily filled her ears over the rain as she drew, the rest of the world drowned out by her passion. 

As she put the finishing touches on the piece, she slammed the book closed and stood up. Leah wordlessly fell in behind her and follow her to their room. She placed her sketchbook and pencil on her bed and walked back out. She wanted to keep that sketchbook, as it contained her emotions and thoughts of the last days of her humanity. 

When the pair reentered the lobby, Chloe confidently walked up to the blue and green mare at the reception desk. "Can you take me to the conversion room? Garnet should be waiting for me there."

The wide eyed mare momentarily sat silence until her eyes lit up with understanding. "Right! She sent me a message about it. Come with me then!" She hopped out from behind the desk and walked over to the door and waited for Chloe. 

"Good luck, girl," Leah said, hugging Chloe tightly. 

"I'll be in and out. Wait for me in the common room, okay?"

"Will do."

Chloe walked off to the conversion room with Sea Foam as Leah walked in the opposite direction. 

"Are you excited?" Sea Foam asked. 

"A little scared, but yeah, I'm excited."

"It's not that bad, trust me. You fall asleep for a bit and wake up, simple as that. At least that's what happened to me."

Chloe gasped. "You used to be human?"

"Yup!" the mare beamed. "Was one of the first converted down in Atlanta. People were scared of the place, but I had nothing to lose by going. Best decision I've ever made. I've never had so many friends as I do here."

Chloe smiled, more weight lifted from her shoulders. She wasn't so afraid of throwing away her humanity as much anymore. Sea Foam led her to a thick door and banged her hoof on it. The door hissed open and Garnet poked her head out.

"Thank you, Sea. Chloe, come on in!"

Chloe timidly walked into the brightly lit room. A red haired woman stood at the counter to the left, looking in a plastic basin. "Garnet, what do you want me to do with Jay's... What should we call it? Brain droppings? Brain child? It does kind of look like a fetus if you look at it at just the right angle. Arms, greatly oversized head, plenty of blood too..."

"Sam! Do you mind?" Garnet yelled. Chloe felt the blood drain from her face. 

"What happened to Jay? What's in there?" she asked quietly.

Garnet sighed. "Jay had some severe cerebral scarring. It was expelled during his conversion and sits in that basin that my oh so tactful colleague was just inspecting." Garnet glared at Samantha, who only smiled and shrugged in response.

"I still like the term brain droppings. But anyway! Let's get this show on the road! Chloe is it? Time to strip!" Sam said, trying and failing to hide giggles from the room. She handed Chloe a paper gown and pointed her to a door on the side of the room. Chloe walked in and closed the door behind her. She stood there for a minute, thinking about Jay. Was that why he was acting so funny when he got back? I'll have to ask him about it after I get converted, she thought to herself. 

She pulled her shirt off over her head, the cold air stinging her skin. She dropped it in the bin before noticing Jay's clothes he was wearing is morning were still in there. She pulled off her bra, her pants, and her underwear, and tossed them in the bin as well. The cold air was causing havoc in her nethers, and the paper gown that Samantha gave her doing absolutely nothing to help her with it. The sides didn't have any ties, so Chloe felt like she was naked in a snowstorm wearing a poncho made of nothing but paper. It sure felt that way. 

She walked back out into the main room, shivering. She had a very small frame with virtually no insulation. She was always miserable during wintertime, but this was worse since she was wearing... Well, nothing. 

"Alright, up on the table on your side." Samantha turned around and pulled a paper cup from in the cabinet. Chloe did as she asked, climbing onto the metal table. The colds metal burned her exposed skin, causing her to yelp in pain as more skin came in contact with the table. When she finally was flat on her side, she looked down to Garnet who stood at the foot of the table. Chloe blushed. She had never been naked in front of anyone before, not even Andrew, which had been the source of much of his frustration with their relationship.

"Um, Garnet? C-Can you move?"

"Is something wrong?" the mare asked. 

"Um..."

"She doesn’t want you staring at her ‘honey pot’."

"Oh. Oh! I sorry, dear. Nudity is almost never an issue with us. I'm sorry if you felt uncomfortable." Garnet moved next to Samantha, who gave Chloe a wink.

"Okay, one dose. Drink it all at once, and lay your head down." Chloe picked the cup from Samantha's outstretched hand and looked down purple goop inside. The scent of grapes filled her nose. Without another thought, she downed the serum and placed her head. Back down onto the table as she felt the world melt away around her.

---

"Testing auditory response, check. Heart rate seems stable... Everything looks green. What a refresher after the one before, right?"

"It's always good to see a perfect conversion. Chloe, can you hear us?"

Chloe fluttered her eyelids open. The room began to come into focus. "I... I'm here."

"Another resounding success!" Samantha cheered. 

"How do you feel, honey? Everything working okay?"

Chloe pushed herself up slowly, but didn't feel the cold of the table as much anymore. She looked down at her hands, but instead in their stead saw two dark blue hooves. She twisted in place and looked back at the rest of her body, which shared the same blue as the hooves. Her tail was primarily a dark rose, with highlights of pink scattered around.

She noticed there were no wings, so she wasn't a Pegasus. She felt her forehead with her hoof, but felt nothing there. No horn. She was an earth pony. But instead of a. Disappointment, she was happy with it. 

"My, oh my. You look gorgeous. I love your colors!" Garnet said as she began walking around. "Can you try and lift your tail for me?"

"Huh? Why?"

"Trust me."

"I don't know how."

"Stay still, then. I just need a moment to check to see if you're in heat."

"What?" Chloe felt a ghostly force grip part of her by her rump, and get lifted. "What do you mean in heat?"

"Just as I thought. You're in season. Don't worry, I'll give you a pill that can counteract the effects of heat for your cycle. Try to stay downwind of any eager stallions, okay?"

"I'm so confused..." Chloe murmured. She did feel unusually warm, especially down by Garnet, but hadn't thought anything of it. "Am I going to have to worry about this every month?"

"Oh Celestia no! If mares were in heat every month, stallions would be rejoicing in the streets. No, our cycles are about a year long, so you shouldn't go into heat again for a good while." Garnet levitated a small tablet from the counter and floated it in front of Chloe's mouth. "Open wide." Chloe opened her mouth and Garnet dropped the tablet on her tongue. "Chew and swallow. It should get to work in a few minutes. We never had anything like this back in Equestria, and now you have pills that can put a mare in heat and take her out of it. You humans are amazing."

Sam stuck her tongue out at the mare. "Sex is what we're best at." Chloe giggled after she finished swallowing the tablet. It tasted of strawberries and went down easily. Slowly, she began shifting her weight off of the table and fell onto all four hooves on the ground. Her legs wobbled a bit from the impact, but she was able to maintain her balance reasonably well. 

"Try and walk to me, dear. One hoof at a time." Garnet watched as Chloe slowly got the hand of her new legs, the patterns of how to move which leg when becoming clear to her faster than anyone yet. "Great job!"

"Thanks," she giggled. "I think that pill is working too." the warmth between her hind legs had dissipated and her head was clearer and sharper than it was before. 

"Word of advice from somepony who's dealt with it many times before: find a special somepony to help you out with it; preferably a single stallion. You're your most fertile then, and you don't want to bear a foal for somepony who left you."

Samantha scoffed. "Handcuff them to you if you have to." 

"I'll... keep that in mind." trying to resolve the situation, Chloe decided to go find Leah and tell her she was okay. "Am I okay to go now?"

"Well, you can walk just fine, and I'm sure you know how to use the facilities, so yes! You're all set. Make sure you meet up with Honeybell tomorrow for your earth pony class. I sure you'll love what she has to teach you." Garnet smiled and escorted Chloe from the lab. "Try to keep from galloping for a day or two. We don't want to have to pry your head from the walls!" 

"I'll stick with walking. Thank you, Garnet!" Chloe waved goodbye with her hoof and began trotting down the hallway back towards the lobby. Sea Foam complimented her on her colors and her mane, which still held the wavy pattern she used to have as a human. Chloe was happy with her colors, her mane, her tail, her hooves, well, she was happy about everything! She smiled a grin a mile long as she trotted down the hallway, the new way of walking becoming second nature already.

When she finally made it to the common room, Leah practically tackled her. She was gibbering about how cute she looked and felt her head through her new mane. "I love your colors... I may have to dye my mane like that when I get converted."

"Oh! Okay, I'll help you pick out the colors if they have hair dye in Equestria!" 

---

Jay wasn't exhausted. Not even close to exhausted. He was far beyond that, leaving exhausted in the dust for some unknown state of absolutely no energy from horn down to his hoof. He was panting and was sweating a bit, but he steeled himself once more.

"Again," Firecracker growled. 

Jay lit his horn up and began to lift the stack of books. It lurched off the table and floated a foot in the air. The stack began to sag and drop down, but Jay corrected it. He would try to count down the seconds towards the end of the exercise, but the last time he did that, he lost his concentration and his spell collapsed. So he focused on lifting the stack of books for as long as he could, and that alone. The weight was far more than he could ever lift as a human, but with his magic, it was considerably easier. Borderline impossible, but still possible.

"And done. Place them down, and don't drop a single book." Jay gently placed the tall stack down on the tabs once more, but he could already feel the balance tipping to one side. One of the books fell from the very top, and without thinking, Jay caught it in a net of magic. He placed it back on the top and collapsed on the ground.

"Well done. Not many new foals can do that well with telekinesis on their first day. But perhaps large loads isn't your forte. We'll try some other things tomorrow if you'd like," Firecracker offered. 

"O... kay..." Jay wheezed. He had a great headache, but he was too busy reveling in his new skill. Firecracker was right; he wasn't too good with heavy objects. Tomorrow he would try some smaller, finer manipulations with some of the screws and scraps from the empty labs.

"How about we get some dinner? It's... about... that... time..." Firecracker's speech grew slower as his head slowly turned. Jasmine was rubbing her side against his and sweeping her tail over his rump. 

Jay's cheeks grew warm. "I think I'll get going then, and uh... Leave you two to your own devices. Right then. Bye." Jay hurriedly rushed out from the room just as he caught the smell. It was a heavy, sweet smell that seemed to slow down his mind. He was starting to feel really warm and each breath grew heavier, but the cool air of the hallway was clearing those symptoms away. Symptoms of what, he couldn't say.

Jay pushed the door to the cafeteria open with his magic, accidentally putting too much force into it and slamming it against the wall next to him. He drew the stares of everyone present, and smiled timidly. He sulked off towards the food counter and a smiling Peach Cobbler.

"How'd your lesson with Firecracker go?" she asked.

"Very, very tiring. But I think I got the hang of telekinesis at least."

"I ink everyone present knows that now," the mare giggled. "So where's Firecracker? He and I were supposed eat together tonight, but he's not with you, then..." the sad truth dawned on Peach's face. "He's with Jasmine isn't he?" she asked with a frown and a hint of tears in her eyes.

"Last I saw of them, yeah."

The yellow unicorn began to sob quietly, tugging at Jay's heart. It was so unusual to see her so broken up, the usually bubbly and happy pony. A thought popped up into his head. "Would you like to have dinner with me instead? I mean, I don't think I'm as dashing as Firecracker, but I don't like seeing you like this."

Peach chuckled at Jay's comment and nodded. "That sounds great. Really. Thank you." She levitated two trays from behind the counter and took them toward the door to the cafeteria floor. The pair of them walked over to an empty table to the side of the cafeteria and sat down. Jay looked over his meal: there was a plate of spaghetti and a dessert that he didn't recognize.

"It's tiramisu! I found out about it from one of my marefriends who's working in Italy. It's a popular dish there, so I figured I'd give it a try!" 

"It looks pretty good, but gotta save that for last,"Jay mentioned. Peach nodded and they both dug into their pasta. The spaghetti was lightly buttered, not enough to weigh the flavor down. The pasta itself was cooked lightly al dente, soft and moist enough to shovel down. But Jay took his time, using his magic to use his fork to eat the pasta. He almost flung the fork into the ceiling when he picked it up, but after controlling how much energy he put into his spell, he was able to keep his grip on the utensil better. After a minute, using his magic for the fork felt like second nature. It was almost as if he never lost his hands and fingers.

"Mind if I join the two of you?" Austin asked as he walked up with his own tray.

"Of course!" Peach said.

Austin took a seat next to Jay and nudged him in his side. "Did you see Chloe yet? She got converted before dinner."

Jay's eyes grew wide as he dropped his fork. "What?"

"Yeah. See the dark blue earth pony with the red and pink mane by Leah? That's her."

Jay did see her. She was smiling and giggling at something, but the sounds brought elation to his heart. He was glad that she was so cheerful again, and so full of life. Perhaps she had gotten over Andrew? It mattered not to Jay. She was happy, and that made him happy.

Looking at her more, he really liked her coloring. She was a dark evening blue, her coat smooth and shining in the light. Her mane and tail shared a beautful dark rosy color with streaks of pink popping out against the dark. She was beyond beautiful to Jay, perhaps now more than when they were both human. It was an odd feeling for Jay when he realized it. He was physically attracted to a pony. Ears, mane, tail, muzzle, everything. Everything about her was beautiful and enticing. 

"Hey, Romeo, enough staring. It's getting a bit creepy." Austin snapped his fingers by Jay's ears.

"Sorry." Jay plunged his fork into the tiramisu and took a bite. It had a rich mix of coffe and chocolate favors mixed in with the little cakes inside, creating a savory and smooth sensation his mouth. 

"Do you like it?" Peach asked, her eyes hungry for his opinion.

"Mhm!" He swallowed the dessert and smiled. "It's so good! You're amazing, Peach!" The look on her face was so bright and happy that Jay didn't expect what happened next.

Peach Cobbler lunged across the table and kissed him right on the lips. 

In that moment, everything froze. A few things made themselves known to Jay, and he listed them out in his head. 

First, this was his first kiss. With anyone.  It was a strange realization, especially since it was a pony doing it, but regardless it was a milestone for him. His parents never kissed him since the coma, at least from what he could remember, and he never was close with anyone his age. 

Second, Peach Cobbler. She was a very pretty mare, that was for sure. She was happy, energetic, cheerful, and all round fun. Her lips were sweet and soft against his, the electricity between the two enough to light a city. But she wasn't supposed to be with Jay, and Jay wasn't supposed to be with her. Firecracker was supposed to be here to take the kiss.

Third, Chloe. Jay realized all too late that she had turned around when Peach had squealed with delight right before the kiss. She saw the lips connect, and with that, all the connotations that went with it. But from her angle, she didn't see that it was Peach that had lunged at Jay, who was clueless to it as she was. 

Things finally returned to their normal speed. Chloe, frozen in surprise, turned back around and slumped onto the table with a heavy sigh. Jay and Peach were locked by the lips for about three seconds before he pulled away. Peach shrunk in on herself, her coat taking on a much redder hue, especially around her cheeks. Austin was at a loss for words, which was a first.

The group fell quiet for a long time.

"I'm sorry." Peach looked up with tears streaming down her cheeks. "I didn't mean to... I just... I'm sorry..."

Jay wanted to say something, but what it was escaped him. "It's... Okay. Don't worry about it," he managed. "I thought you wanted to be with Firecracker, right?"

Peach sighed and another tear fell down her cheek. "His ex-marefriend was in here earlier. She was talking to me and told me about how she and he are getting back together... I was hoping he would come to dinner to prove her wrong..."

Jay fell silent. There was no way Firecracker would voluntarily pass on dinner to do... whatever... with Jasmine over dinner with Peach. He saw the tension between the two while he was practicing his magic. But unfortunately, there was no way to tell what happened without asking Firecracker. But... It could wait until tomorrow. Jay didn't want to interrupt anything, lest he get on Firecracker's nerves inadvertently.

"I'll ask him when I see him tomorrow morning, okay? I'm pretty sure there's nothing going on between the two of them.”

“Thank you,” the mare murmured. 

“The desert was fantastic, I assure you. Keep it up,” Jay said with a smile. Peach smiled and wiped away her tears. 

“Will do!” she said back in a voice similar to her normal one. Jay lifted his tray and plate from the table with his magic and began walking to drop them off. 

“That’s pretty impressive, not gonna lie,” Austin said. Jay allowed himself a pat on the back for his new skills. He was impressed with how well he can use his magic now, at least for a beginner. 

He placed the tray on the counter for one of the new cooks to take. He was a burly brown earth pony stallion with a grey mane. “Thanks,” he said in a rough, gravelly voice.

“Are you one of the new staff?” Austin asked. 

“Yeah, my name’s Cocoa Malt. Malt for short. Nice to meet you...?”

“I’m Austin and this is my buddy-”

“Jay. Nice to meet you, Malt.”

“Say, everything alright with Peachie over there? She looked down in the dumps.”

“Yeah, she should be better now. Got stood up for a small dinner date it seemed. I’m gonna ask that numbskull about it tomorrow and get it all sorted out.” 

“See to it, eh? She does most of the cooking back here and I doubt that me and Berry Blue could handle it all without her.” Jay nodded. “Well, take care then.”

Jay and Austin walked down the hallway towards the common room for a more relaxed evening than the rest of the day beforehand. The rain was beginning to taper off, now reduced to a light drizzle. The streams of water coming from the roof gave a false impression of heavy rain as it splattered across the windows. 

When Jay and Austin got to the common room, he saw Murphy and Andrea as well as Caleb and Annie; the pairs were inseparable. Caleb was chasing Annie around the room, the filly easily able to weave around the chairs and sofas while Caleb just knocked them out of the way. Andrea was nuzzling Murphy’s chest, his wing spread out over her back. 

Leah was sitting by herself, but Chloe was nowhere to be seen; until Jay looked outside. She was barely visible, but Chloe’s dark blue coat stuck out a little bit against the darkness behind her. He immediately made for the door and gently opened it with his magic. 

“Chloe?” he asked, nervously. He was sure she saw the whole ordeal with Peach Cobbler.

“Oh, hey Jay.” She sat on the wet grass looking up at the sky, which was now visible past the storm clouds that still swirled around the bureau. The little porthole to the heavens cleared a lot of the smog that usually obscured the sky, and the glittering of millions of stars amazed Jay. 

“How are you doing?” he asked. “W-With your new body and all.”

“It’s... nice.” Jay knew she was being distant with him, but he wanted to find a way of addressing it without being too much of a jerk about it. 

“Is there something wrong?”

“Why didn’t you tell me about your thing in the conversion room earlier?” she asked without pause. 

“Oh... that...”

“I was concerned for you, Jay, but you pushed me away like always. That and the little thing with the cook earlier... I know she does special things for you with the desserts, but I didn’t know it meant that much to you-”

“Stop. Please.” Jay was forceful with his words, each and every accusation painful and easily addressable if she would pause for a minute. 

“What? What do you have to say for yourself?” She was staring at him with cold eyes now.

“I’m sorry about shutting you out so much. I never should have turned you away earlier. It was my fault.” Jay dropped his head. “Celestia even told me I have to be more open with people...”

“What was that? You spoke with Princess Celestia too?” Chloe said.

“Y-Yeah. I saw her and Princess Luna. They were talking to me about my condition and asked me if I wanted to remember how I got that way. I said yes, and the next thing I know... I’m having a nightmare.” Jay shivered as the voices and pain came back to him. “I think... I think my dad tried to kill me while I was in a coma.”

“What?!” Chloe exclaimed. “How could your parents want to kill you? I never remember you doing anything wrong!”

“I don’t know!” Jay yelled. “I just don’t know! I’m still remembering things bit by bit, but it’s still all a big mess... I just...” Jay felt himself begin to sob as the emotions overtook him. Rejection, guilt, ridicule, hate... Jay was being interrogated by the girl of his dreams. Everything was going wrong tonight.

“Jay, I’m sorry. Jay? Please stop.” Her voice was quiet and gentle, but Jay still felt the accusations from what she had said about him before.

“And with Peach... I offered to have dinner with her because she was supposed to have dinner with Firecracker but he walked off with his ex-marefriend. I was complimenting her on her dessert like usual... and then...”

Jay felt Chloe wrap her hooves around his neck. She felt her soft, cool coat against his, dark blue on sand. She held him as he began to regain composure over himself.

“I’m sorry about that,” he said. 

Chloe pulled back and looked back up into the sky, smiling. “The night sky sure is beautiful, isn’t it?”

“Not as beautiful as you.”

The words left his mouth before he could catch them. The moment he realized what he said, he shoved his hoof right into his mouth, covering his tongue with a gross mix of rainwater, mud, and grass.

Chloe turned and stared at him with a blush. Both of their hearts were racing.

“I’m sorry, Jay, but... it’s too early for me.” Chloe dropped her head. “Andrew left me just this morning, I just abandoned my species... everything’s changing so fast. I’m sorry, Jay, but I can’t... I just can’t right now.”

She stood up and left Jay alone in the grass, just as the rain began to pick up once more. Jay looked up to where the clear gap in the clouds used to be, but it was already replaced by blackness. Rain trailed through his mane and coat, hiding the tears coursing down his face from anyone watching. 
> The Fourth Day (AM)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Firecracker looked out through the window at the indigo sky. Celestia’s… no. Earth’s sun had yet to rise above the horizon, yet the stallion was restless and could not stand to share the bed with her any longer.  She was still snoozing away underneath the covers, her turquoise mane poking out in a few places, her pink coat with it. Her mane was a mess; it was matted and tangled, parts of it stuck to her back.
 
Firecracker felt dirty, in more than a few ways. He was covered in dried sweat from the night before, or what he hoped was simply sweat. He didn’t care to make so much of a racket by leaving and trying to take a shower; Jasmine would wake up, and be waiting for him when he got back.
 
The very name sent tendrils of anger through his body. She manipulated him into this. While he wished the night before was a blur, he remembered it clear as day. He was standing in the library, about to go to dinner, when he smelled it: the heavy, spicy scent of a mare in heat. Or, more specifically, Jasmine in heat. But it couldn’t have been natural; most likely one of those hormone pills the human drug companies make. Once he smelled that intoxicating scent, he was trapped. As much as it pained him to admit, he didn’t have the fortitude to resist the lust he was put into.
 
And now… in his bed was a mare from his troubled past, who stole him away from the mare he wanted to be his better future. He was ready and willing to change; Peach was the mare he wanted. Wasn’t she?
 
“Good morning, my handsome stallion. Care for another go?” a sultry voice whispered from behind him. Firecracker stood rigid, his eyes fixed outside the window to the steadily brightening sky. He heard the rustling of sheets, and the sound of hooves approaching him. With them, though, was the phantom of that despicable scent from the night before. “Aww, what’s the matter? Was I not good enough for you? I’ve been trying to get more flexible, so we could do it like humans do. Why don’t we try that out right now? I hear it’s supposed to be quite romantic,” Jasmine purred in his ear.
 
Firecracker spun around so fast, he almost hit Jasmine’s muzzle with his horn. She pulled away and watched as he walked over to the door and left the room. He trotted down the bleached hallway to the bathroom. He needed a shower. Now.
 
It was unsurprisingly quiet in the bathroom at such an early hour, and the lights weren’t even turned on. Firecracker grabbed a towel and headed for the shower floor, his eyes still sagging from his lack of proper rest. He twisted the knob to a lukewarm and comfortable temperature and let the water run over his coat and down his legs.
 
“Walking away from a lady like that is quite rude, I’ll have you know.”
 
Firecracker hung his head. “Why did you follow me in here? This is the stallion’s room, after all. The mare’s room is just next door.”
 
“Oh, but that’s no fun! And I’d be all alone…” Jasmine said as she sidled up next to Firecracker under the cascade of water. She began kissing his neck along the length of it, moving steadily upwards. She kissed his cheek a few times before trying to kiss him on the lips, and met them unmoving. He glared down at her and scoffed. He rinsed his mane under the water once more, feeling the sweat draining out of it as well as the rest of his coat.
 
“You know, it’s no fun coming onto you if you’re taking this ‘hard-to-get’ thing too far.” She turned around and swished her tail from side to side, revealing more of herself than Firecracker cared to be aware of. “I’m waiting for you to ravish me like you did last night… And I always wanted to do it in a shower. The warmth, the vapor, easy to clean up too-“
 
“Just. Stop.” Firecracker growled.
 
“Oh, I like it when you take me rough! Just like old days, am I right?” She wore a sly grin as she licked her lips.
 
“No. Just leave. I’m not going to ‘ravish’, ‘take you’, or any variation thereof.  I know what you did to me last night.”
 
“You mean loosen up a stubborn stallion? I don’t know about you, but he sure seemed glad to see me.”
 
Firecracker slumped forward. “I give up,” he mouthed to himself. He left the shower running with Jasmine under it while he toweled off and dropped the soaked towel into the hamper by the door. Jasmine stood under the water and watched as Firecracker left.
 
“May as well clean up while I’m here.”  She began to run the water down her back, as she whispered “I will have him. All of him. All for myself.”
 

---

 
Jay turned over in his sheets and heaved a deep breath. His ears were greeted with the sweet songs of birds from outside the window in the bureaus inside garden. The sounds brought a weak smile to his face as he cracked his eyes open. Sunlight was filling the room, a welcome change from the storm the day before. The light still held a yellow hue, meaning the morning was still young. Jay squirmed out from his bed and landed onto his four hooves. He reared up onto his hind legs and attempted to make his bed, but the lack of fingers and opposable thumbs made the process exceedingly difficult. Remembering his lessons from yesterday, he lit up his horn and neatly set the sheet on the mattress as carefully as he could.
 
"Oh, now you're just showing off."
 
"Good morning to you too, sunshine."
 
Austin crawled out of his bed and began fixing his sheets as well. "I'm sorry about what happened last night, with you and Chloe. I told you to wait until you knew she would say yes, after all." Austin's words brought back the painful memories of the night before.
 
The gap in the clouds.
 
The starry sky.
 
The beautiful mare.
 
Her rejection.
 
Jay's heart grew heavy with his remembrance of the events. He was embarrassed that he let his mouth slip like it did, and it ended up ruining what connection he had with her. Now he scared her off, or worse, made her resent her for making a move so soon after Andrew left her. Jay gritted his teeth.
 
"Well let's go get cleaned up and to breakfast, okay?" Austin offered. Jay nodded wordlessly and followed his friend from the room. They walked down the hallway toward the men's bathroom and to the showers.
 
Jay recognized the mare in the shower. She was Jasmine, Firecracker's ex-marefriend. She turned the shower off and trotted to her towel and dried herself off, but not before Jay got a look at her body. While he saw the same body yesterday in the library with the same amount of clothing on, which is to say none at all, he never expected to see her in the men's bathroom, using their showers.
 
"Good morning, boys," she said as she strutted past. Jay couldn't take his eyes off her. She dropped her towel into the hamper before leaving the pair of them alone in the bathroom.
 
Austin dropped his towel onto Jay's head, covering his face. The surprise shocked Jay, who backed up instinctively, dropping his head and trying to pull it off with his hooves. He glared at Austin, but he already disappeared behind the curtain to the shower stall. His shower head burst to life with a hiss.
 
The shower stalls were far too small for his new body, and it seemed he was resigned to have to use the gang shower instead. Jay placed his towel on the plastic bench that rose in the middle of the tiled room and walked up to the wall right underneath the shower head Jasmine was just using. The controller for the water seemed to be covered with rubber, and had a label on it.
 
Turn right with mouth for HOT.
 
Jay followed the instructions and grasped the knob with his mouth. His teeth dug into the springy material with no problem and it tasted like nothing. He slowly twisted his head to the right, feeling the resistance behind the knob give away all of a sudden.
 
Icy claws raked at his back and dripped down his belly. He yelped in shock, jerking the knob further to the right. The icy water warmed up to a comfortable level, but passed it to become scorching hot, burning the same spots that just froze moments before. He bounced out from, under the water and gasped for air. His back stung from the hot water, and he wasn't eager to get back under it too soon. He reached in with his head once more and turned it slowly back to the left, injecting some colder water into the stream.
 
Finally reaching a steady temperature that neither burned him nor froze him, Jay finally was ale to relax. The water felt nice under his coat and in his mane. The long brown hairs of his mane and tail grew darker, almost black, with the water in them. Jay hung his head in the stream and gritted his teeth.
 
Chloe was right. It was too soon for him to ask her, but Jay didn't care. He was frustrated and angry, and it made it worse with the fact that he knew she was right.
 
"Dammit," he muttered to himself as he stomped his hoof down onto the hard tile floor. "Dammit, dammit, dammit!"
 
"You okay out there?" Austin yelled over the water.
 
"I'm fine!" Jay yelled back, louder than he needed to be.
 
Austin didn't respond. His shower head tapered off to a drip then stopped. Jay grasped the knob with his mouth for his shower and twisted it forcibly off. He felt a seething anger in him towards Chloe, but he didn't know why it was so severe. All he knew was that as long as he embraced the anger, it made him feel better about himself.
 
Austin came out of his shower stall in his clothes, his towel draped back over his shoulder. He looked at Jay with a disapproving stare and walked out towards the door. Jay trotted over to his towel and began to dry himself off. His magic proved to be invaluable for this task, as he doubted he would be able to reach some spots with his hooves.
 
He dropped his towel into the hamper by the door and walked out towards the cafeteria. When he got there, Peach waved and gave him a bright smile. Jay saw Malt and the other new cook in the back at the ovens, cooking away.
 
"Good morning, Jay. I wanted to apologize again about last night, I-"
 
"It's okay, Peach. You can stop apologizing." She was about to say something back, but stopped herself. Instead, she levitated a tray out for Jay, who took it in his own levitation field. She wordlessly placed his breakfast onto his tray, only smiling at him. It was subtle, but Jay could see she was blushing.
 
The more he looked at the yellow-pink mare, the more he noticed things about her. Her eyes were a bright orange, so different from any eye color Jay was familiar with. He caught a glance at her cutie mark: two peaches, side by side, one in front of the other a small bit. Her mane was a bright, shining pink, reflecting the morning sun brilliantly. it was the first time he really. Noticed it; her mane was usually hidden in a mane-net to keep it out of the food. She was gorgeous, and he never realized this before. Before he knew it, he was blushing too.
 
He took his tray with a smile and simple "Thank you", and trotted over to the table where Austin was sitting. He watched as Jay took his seat, and then looked him squarely in the eyes. "Jay, listen."
 
"What?" Jay knew what was coming.
 
"I wanted to say I'm sorry again for the night before, but also to say you are an idiot. You need to learn to control your mouth if you are to get another chance with her."
 
Jay levitated his fork and took a bite of his pancake,  the sweetness of the syrup a distinct opposition to his current mood.  "What are you talking about? What other chance?" Jay felt the anger rising again in his body as the conversation continued about her.
 
"Did she say no?"
 
"Yeah. Why do you think I'm so... Like this?" Jay gestured to his scowl with his hoof.
 
"But did she explicitly say no?"
 
"I... um, more or less."
 
"What did she say? The exact words."
 
"I think it was something like "it's too soon," and "I'm sorry but I can't"."
 
Jay didn't care about the technicalities regarding his rejection. It was bad enough that he made a fool of himself, but it wasn't worth trying again offs she was going to just keep saying no.
 
"Well, I-"
 
"Austin Richmond?" a voice asked from behind Austin. He turned around and saw Garnet standing there, a smile on her face. "It's your turn, honey." his eyes went wide with surprise. He silently stood up and followed the red unicorn out of the cafeteria, giving Jay a wave before he disappeared behind the doors.
 
Jay picked at his food for the entire time Austin was getting converted, occasionally looking around the cafeteria. Leah and Chloe sat with each other, talking with themselves. Jay turned his gaze away from Chloe; even looking at her bothered him. He glanced over to the kitchen, and saw Peach jerk her head down to the counter when he saw her. Jay smiled and chuckled at himself.
 
Andrea and Murphy trotted over to Jay’s table and sat opposite of him. “So, how are you holding up? We never really talked to you yesterday,” Murphy said.
 
“Isn’t it so much fun?” Andrea chimed in.
 
“I, uh, yeah. It’s nice.” Jay smiled shyly, not used to people coming over to talk to him for the sake of talking to him.
 
“Have you used your horn at all?” Murphy asked.
 
“Yeah, it’s really handy,” Jay said as he floated his fork up, taking a bite from his cold pancakes. Not the best decision, he thought to himself.
 
“That’s so cool…” Andrea whispered. “What else can you do?”
 
“Nothing else yet. I’m… not comfortable experimenting too much. Firecracker hammered this little bit into me yesterday, and I was exhausted.”
 
“I can’t wait to learn to fly! Fleet Feather is having our first class today! You should come outside and watch!” Andrea asked, her giddiness almost overflowing.
 
Jay considered her offer. With the whole deal with Peach Cobbler the night before, he wasn’t sure he wanted to pester Firecracker with more magic lessons. He was going to simply teach him some smaller-scale telekinesis, and as far as Jay knew, it was something he could handle himself.
 
“Sure, sounds like fun. Plus it’s a nice day compared to yesterday, what with the rain and wind. When is your lesson?”
 
“It’ll be in about an hour, outside the common room,” Murphy answered.
 
A loud crash rang out through the cafeteria, from the doors to the conversion room, leaving the cafeteria in an anticipatory silence. Austin must be on his way back. A few apprehensive clip-clops came from the door, and then paused. The door was nudged open by a sky-blue pegasus with a light blond mane. He shakily walked over to Jay, Murphy, and Andrea. He stood at the table and smiled.
 
“Hey guys.”
 
“Another pegasus!” Andrea cheered. Murphy smiled as well, patting Austin on the shoulder with his hoof.
 
“You’ll learn to use those babies today, if you’d like. Fleet Feather’s class is in a bit.”
 
“I’d like to learn how to walk a bit first, if you’d mind.” Austin awkwardly planted his rump onto the seat next to Jay and sighed. “That was… an experience.”
 
Jay smiled for his friend. Without another thought, he lunged out and hugged his friend. Stunned, Austin took a moment before he returned it.
 
“Wow, way to look so gay, Austin.” Jay pulled back and glared at Leah. She wore a smirk as she looked down on the group.
 
“Oh, thank you.”
 
“What?”
 
“I am.”
 
“You’re what?”
 
“Gay.”
 
The group stood wordless. Jay already knew; Austin told him a few nights before. But the fact that he was saying it out loud now… he must have been much more comfortable about it after his conversion.
 
“And even though I like men- stallions, I meant every little thing I said about you. Now run along now, the adult ponies are talking right now.”
 
Leah steamed and tromped off, storming out of the cafeteria. Chloe glanced back before walking off with her.
 
The entire table burst into laughs. Jay pounded his hoof against the tabletop, rattling his dish and silverware. As the four of them wiped the tears from their eyes, Austin brought his hoof to his chin. “You know what? I’d love to learn to use these bad boys. Count me in.”
 
“I had no idea you were… gay, Austin. When did you find out for yourself?” Murphy asked.
 
“Oh, a long time ago. I just never wanted to say anything about it, you know, since it’s… looked down on. Most often on the ground, in a bloody heap.”
 
Murphy cringed. “Right… Well you never really came off as gay to anyone as far as I could tell.”
 
“Well, I’m just like everyone- everypony- else. I act the same, I like the same things, but I happen to like guys rather than girls. That’s the only difference.” Austin stood up from his seat onto his shaky legs. “Well, let’s head outside. At least if I trip the ground is softer out there.”
 
The group agreed and headed out from the cafeteria. Jay handed off his tray to Peach Cobbler as he passed her by. He felt his heart jump as he smiled at her and received a smile back. She was very pretty, and very nice… Maybe I could ask her for another dinner tonight? Just the two of us, Jay thought.
 
“I’ll meet you guys outside. I need to grab a few things first.” Jay rushed off in the opposite direction to the empty labs. When he got there, he took an empty box and levitated a large ball of nuts and bolts into it. He took the box with him as he cantered to the other side of the bureau.
 
He pushed his way out through the doors to the grassy field under the bright sun and saw Austin trying to walk across the grass, much steadier than he was handling before. Jay sat on the warm grass with his box and watched as Austin fell flat onto his face as he attempted a full gallop.
 
Jay chuckled as he turned his attention back down to the contents of the box before him. He levitated out a bolt the size of one of his old fingers. It was maybe three inches long and half an inch thick and still weighed a bit even with his magic. He placed it down in the grass and pulled out one of the nuts. It seemed to be the right size for the bolt, but when he tried to lift the bolt up, he encountered much more trouble than he initially thought he would.
 
“Levitating two things must be much harder than one thing…” Jay said to himself. Thinking back to the day before with the books, all he ever did was levitate the single book on the bottom, lifting the stack while trying to keep the stack balanced. When he failed and the stack toppled over (which it did quite often), Firecracker levitated all of the books back into position. With Jay’s new insight to the true difficulties of levitation, he was astonished with Firecracker’s level of skill with magic.
 
“Um, can I sit here?” Jay’s concentration broke and the bold fell to the grass. Sighing, he looked up and saw Chloe standing next to him.
 
“Sure.”
 
Chloe sat down on the grass, folding her legs under her body as she looked around the field as she watched Austin trip and fall again. She chuckled a bit, but Jay was focusing on his own task of threading the nut on the bolt in individual levitation fields.
 
Chloe looked down at Jay’s work, and watched intently. Jay could feel this, but he tried his best to ignore the feeling. Unfortunately, it broke his concentration once again.
 
“Do you mind?” he grumbled.
 
“Oh,” Chloe said, looking back down at the grass. “I’m sorry.”
 
Jay snorted and went back to his nuts and bolts. He managed to get them both stationary in the air, but anything else taxed his concentration. Or, more accurately, Chloe was taxing his concentration. Her very presence was bothering him. He didn’t remember ever being so bothered by someone’s presence before.
 
“Um, Jay?”
 
“Mhm?”
 
“I wanted to apologize… about last night… it was insensitive of me.”
 
“Mhm.”
 
“And I…” Chloe felt her words die in her throat. “Nevermind. I’ll leave you be.” She stood up and walked away from Jay to another part of the field and sat down with Leah. Jay glanced at her as she left, then returned to his practice.
 
Chloe hung her head and sighed, her rosy mane hanging in front of her eyes. She looked back over at Jay, who was still focusing on his box of jus and bolts. He was unusually aggressive today, and Chloe had a feeling that she knew why.
 
"I'll wait for him to calm down before I talk to him again."
 
Leah scoffed. "Why bother? The kid's a jerk."
 
"No he isn't, he's just upset with me is all. It'll pass," Chloe said. Even though she said it, she wasn't sure she believed her own words. "I... I think I'll give Jay a shot. I'll ask him when he cools off. He is really kind..."
 
"Yeah, we'll, what about that chef pony girl? Their little tongue tango last night. What about that?" Leah asked, condescendingly.
 
"He told me it was an accident, that he was just trying to make her feel better, and she did it herself. He promised me there was nothing between them."
 
"'He said.' there's your problem right there. Men lie to cover their tracks. They all do."
 
Chloe rested her head on her forelegs. Maybe around lunchtime would be good to talk to Jay. Whenever they talked, it always seemed natural. Enjoyable. And never forced. He was always kind to her, and she never really payed him any heed in the past.
 
She remembered the dance the two of them went to a few years ago. Eighth grade seemed like so long ago, but she could remember the dance very clearly. Everyone she knew was going to the dance, but the requirement to get in was that you needed to have a date. Leah had introduced a bunch of guys to her, in hopes of one catching her interest, but none of them did.
 
She sat in the hallway of the school the day of the dance. Jay had been walking by and saw her upset about it, and offered to go with her so she could get in. He promised it would only be as friends, so she wouldn't have to worry about him when they got there. Chloe took him up on the offer, since they had been good friends for a few years before that.
 
The dance itself was a bust. It was just loud music, and sweaty dancing, and after a few songs, she had to sit out for the rest of the night. Leah, on the other hand, was having a blast, dancing in the middle of a throng of sweaty boys from their grade, their hands all over her.
 
Jay sat with Chloe for the balance of the night, the two of them just talking like they usually did. They ended up having a good time with each other, but when the slow songs came, he said nothing. Chloe was expecting him to ask her to dance, but he sat in silence.
 
Then it dawned on Chloe. The night before, at dinner. Jay did the same thing with Peach Cobbler that he did with her. Peach was upset, and Jay just wanted to cheer her up, but he never expected the kiss. Chloe smiled to herself. She really hoped Jay would cool off soon.
 
Fleet Feather had finally showed up. His white coat and black mane seemed intimidating, almost as much as his bellow. "Line up!"
 
Chloe watched as the three Pegasi lined up on the grass in front of the stern Pegasus. He marched down the line, inspecting each one. Chloe felt a tap on her shoulder and looked back to see the green mare, Honeybell, standing behind her.
 
"Chloe is it?"
 
"Yes?"
 
"We're about to start gardening class in the central garden. Caleb and Annie are waiting."
 
"Oh!" Chloe gasped. She completely forgot about her class today. She was an earth pony, so she was going to learn how to grow plants like Honeybell does. "I'm so sorry, I forgot!"
 
The green mare smiled as her golden mane blew in the breeze under her sun hat. She led Chloe through the common room and to the central garden, where Caleb, Annie, and another mare stood waiting for her.
 
"Hi!" Annie chirped as Chloe joined the group.
 
"Okay, everyone! My name is Honeybell, and this is my good friend Clementine." Honebell gestured to the orange mare who smiled and waved. "We are going to teach you three how to grow plants like how we do in Equestria. It won't be as effective, but we manage to get by."
 
Clementine reached back to her saddlebag and pulled out three packets of flower seeds in her mouth. She gave one to each of the newfoals and trotted back to Honeybell.
 
"Your goal is to make the flower bloom before lunchtime. Find a nice patch of soil to plant in, and Clementine and I will be around to help."
 
Chloe reached down and grabbed her packet of seeds in her mouth, trying her best not to get any dirt with it. She managed to latch her teeth onto a section of the wrapper that was pointed up, avoiding the dirt all together. Caleb and Annie trotted off together to a small spot, where they settled down and began digging holes for their seeds.
 
Chloe trotted around, looking for her own spot. She spied a bare patch of dirt maybe two feet wide by some of the vegetables, and walked over. She dug at the ground with her hoof and made a small, five inch deep hole for her seeds.
 
"You don't need to dig that deep," Clementine said, walking up to Chloe from behind. "Just an inch, like this." she scratched at the loose soil with her hoof, clearing out a small divot of dark earth.
 
Chloe sat on her rump and tore the packet open with her teeth, revealing the three small seeds inside. She poured them out into Clementine's hole, and covered them up with the dirt. She felt an odd warmth come from the soil as her hoof patted down on the spot right above the seeds.
 
"Now what you need to know is that plants aren't just objects. They have feelings and enjoy company like ponies do. Try introducing yourself to them, like this." Clementine cleared her throat and knelt down next to the soil. "Hello there, little guys!" she said Ina hushed, cheerful tone. "My name is Clementine, and this is my friend Chloe! Say hi Chloe!"
 
"Um, hi?"
 
"Now tell them about yourself. They love meeting new ponies, flowers do. Other plants like other things. That cherry tree back there?" she said, pointing at a dark green tree across the garden. "She likes sweet, upbeat songs. The lettuce? They like gossip. Every plant has a different personality that when you appeal to it, they grow much faster and stronger."
 
Chloe nodded, but she was still confused. Plants having personalities? It was even stranger than talking ponies! But seeing as how she was one of those ponies now, she decided to give it a shot. "Uh, hi. I'm Chloe. It's nice to meet you... Flowers." She paused. "I don't know what to say next!" she whispered to Clementine.
 
"Tell them about something that made you happy, a story or something," Clementine replied. “They love stories!”
 
Chloe immediately recalled the dance Jay took her to. "Okay, I got one. A few years ago, I wanted to go to this dance at my school," she said to the mound of earth. "But I didn't have a date to go, so I was sad. But my friend asked to go with me as friends so that I could go. He was really nice, and he knew he wasn't going to have a good time, since it wasn't something that really appealed to him."
 
A green shoot poked its head out from the soil. Chloe froze at the sight of it, confused. Clementine grinned. "Keep going!"
 
"So we get to the dance, and it's nothing like how I imagined it to be. I sat at a table the entire time, not wanting to have to deal with guys trying to grope me," Chloe said, blushing. "Jay came over and sat with me. He must have seen how miserable I was and wanted to help cheer me up. We talked over the music and had so much fun together!"
 
The sprout began to grow leaves and a bud at the end of the stalk. "We talked and talked, it was just so easy to talk to him. But when the slow songs started playing, he fell silent, because we only agreed to go as friends... But now I kind of wish we went as something... more."
 
The flower bud was swelling up fatter and fatter, until it burst open, bright violet and red petals spreading out from the center. Chloe smiled, but she felt a thick lump in her throat. She felt a tear forming in her eye.
 
"Way to go!" Clementine cheered. The other two stalks were starting to grow bulbs of their own, just not as fast as the one that already bloomed. Clementine put a hoof on Chloe's shoulder. "You okay?" she asked, when she saw the tear drip down her dark blue cheek.
 
"I will be. I just made some dumb mistakes is all."


---

 
Jay heard the grass crunching under his feet, but tried to tune it out. He was almost there. Just another twist or two...
 
Fwump.
 
The bolt fell to the grass, the nut halfway up the threading as Jay's focus broke. He gritted his teeth in frustration and turned his head to see who ruined his work for him.
 
It was that guy Austin introduced him to the other day... Rob. Jay didn't remember seeing Rob at all yesterday after breakfast, but here he was, sitting in the grass right next to Jay. His brown hair was dirty and matted to his forehead, dirt and sweat staining parts of his skin. One of his arms was hidden in his jacket, and he seemed to be cradling it as if it was hurt.
 
"Hey, you're that Jay fellow, right?" Rob asked. A pungent scent hung on his breath that assaulted Jay's nose. His speech was slurred and awkward.
 
"Yes... Are you okay?" he asked.
 
"Nnnnope. I need your help. Can you help me out? It's... Pretty important. Really important."
 
"Uh, sure. What did you need?"
 
"Follow me, can't explain out here. We need to go inside. To my room. By ourselves."
 
A part of Jay's mind told him to leave him be, but another part was intrigued by what was bothering him so much. Rob stood up and walked back to the door, almost falling over on his way there. He propped himself up on the wall as he pulled the door open and flung himself inside. Jay opened the door with his horn and followed.
 
Rob led Jay down the hallway towards the lobby, stopping about halfway down. He flung open another door, this time to a dark room with only one light turned on. The curtains were obscuring the window, and the entire situation was giving Jay a very bad feeling.
 
Rob threw himself onto the bed and growled in pain. On his bedside table was a bottle of a sickly yellow liquid, half filled. Rob sat up and pulled his coat off, revealing a bloody bandage covering his right arm. The stench of blood never really used to get to Jay, but now it made him dizzy and almost pass out.
 
Rob pulled two tools from the table and placed them on the bed next to him. One was a blood caked exacto knife, and the other was a pair of pliers. Both were stained with the dark brown crust of dried blood, and what they pointed to wasn't looking too good.
 
"I need you... To help me get something out of my arm for me."
 
"What?!" Jay yelled. "Go see the doctor or something! Doing this yourself will kill you!"
 
"Not for a while, though. But I need this thing out now. Can't wait for conversion to do it. The whiskey there is for the pain, but... It makes the fine workings rather... Challenging. That's why I need you and your magic. All you gotta do is cut a wire or two and pluck the tracker from the bone. Nothin’ to it."
 
"This is crazy! I... I..."
 
Ron was already peeling the bandage off of his arm. There was a nine inch cut down the length of the top of his arm that spread open as the bandage was removed. The white bone was very much visible, and Jay had to do all he could from vomiting as well as passing out. But what got him the worst was the smell... It was unlike anything he had to face before. The skin was darkening and discolored around the wound, the stench of infection clear as day.
 
Rob grabbed the bottle and used his teeth to twist the cap off, sending it clattering across the floor. He brought the bottle to his lips and swung it upward, draining the vile fluid in one go.
 
He grunted and shook his head around as the alcohol seeped into his system, blocking out more of the pain. He reached with his free hand and pulled the skin apart, holding his sleeve up with his teeth.
 
"Shee daht?" he said through his teeth. Jay looked in and saw a grey box, latched to the  bone of Rob's arm. From it ran three wires up his arm and towards his chest. "Cut dose and pry dah fucker out!"
 
Jay bit his lip. He was no doctor, and had absolutely no confidence in what he was doing. Why the hell did he agree to do something so obviously dangerous? He smell was sending his head into a swirl, the colors of the dark room bleeding together.
 
"COME OHN!" Rob screamed through the shirt in his teeth.
 
"Fine, fine! Just... Keep quiet! I need to focus!"
 
Jay lifted the blade of the knife from the bed in his gold aura. The handle was useless to him. He brought it down slowly into the opening and underneath the first wire. He pulled it up slowly, bringing the wire taught. With one jerk upward, Jay severed the first cable. He repeated the agonizingly slow process with the other two, almost dropping the blade inside Rob's arm when he cried out in pain after the second cut.
 
With the three wires severed, Jay looked down at the small object. There was something engraved on the surface of it, and as he leaned in closer, he was able to read it.
 
R. Telios
 
Telios? Wasn't that the name of the company that everypony's parents worked at? Then this must be...
 
"Hfurry!" Rob grunted. Jay wrapped his aura around the four claws that dug into the bone and pulled them out, releasing the object's grip. He lifted it out of Rob's arm and set it on the bed. Rob spat his sleeve from his mouth and threw the object onto the ground. He stormed on it three times, dissolving it into a powder under his heel.
 
"That's right, fuck you, dad!" he yelled at the remains on the ground. He fell back onto the bed and sighed. He looked back down at the gaping wound on his arm and grunted. He reached into  the drawer online his bedside table and pulled out a tube of some sort of gel and squeezed out a glob of the blue, glittering gel and spread it along the cut as he held it closed with two of his fingers. After a few moments, the cut was already healing, but the discoloration was still there.
 
"MiraGel. Heals most flesh wounds instantly," Rob told Jay. "Won't do a thing for the infection, though. I can wait for conversion for that to be fixed."
 
"Who are you? And what was that thing?" Jay asked.
 
"Robert Eugene Telios, son of trillionare energy tyrant, Gerald Heinrich Telios. President of the company that killed your parents and the parents of everyone else here," Rob said, leaning back on the bed. "And that little device you removed from my arm? A GPS locator. My dad's been having some folks trying to hack my neural augments to locate me after I released his memos about the factory explosion."
 
"What was he going to do if he found you?"
 
"Oh, just kill everyone in the building, probably with high explosives."
 
Jay started at Rob, speechless.
 
"I sent him to fucking jail! Of course he'll want me dead. That's why I came here, so I could get these damn neural augments knocked out. Just didn't know it would take so long to get converted."
 
"Why not go to one of the city bureaus? Aren't they faster?"
 
"Yeah, but I'd be recognized. Out here in the middle of goddamn nowhere, I'm just another monkey ready for the pony farm."
 
Jay was starting to feel dizzy again. Too much information was trying to fill his head at once.
 
"Oh, don't worry. My pops won't find me now. So we're all safe." Rob rolled his head along his shoulders, his mind still cloudy from the whiskey.
 
"Oh, we'll that's good," Jay muttered. "Can I go now? I think I need to lay down for a bit..."
 
"Yeah, we're all set. Thanks again, JayJay. I owe you one." He shooed Jay off with a wiggle of his hand as he lay on his back on his bed.
 
Jay stumbled out the door and leaned against the wall in the hallway. His head was still spinning and turning, threatening to rip him from his hooves and send him to the ground.

Jay never really interacted with Rib past watching Austin telling at him yesterday. Recalling the argument, Jay understood why Rob was hesitant to go into his reasons being at the Bureau. It also explained a few other things, such as the comment when he saw the newscast about the investigation into the chemical plant explosion; he had already leaked the memo by then.

But that begged another question: why did he tell Jay? Why tell him about his name and his father? Granted, Rob was very drunk from the whiskey, but it’s still something that one wouldn’t let out too anyone too easily. Jay decided he’d bring it up with Austin later today in private.
 
"Hello there, Jay!" a sweetly familiar voice called from behind him. Jay turned his head around and saw Peach Cobbler bouncing down the hallway towards him. "What's going on?"
 
"Oh, nothing. Nothing at all." Jay didn't want to spoil anypony else's good mood. "Oh! Hey, di-"
 
"Let's head to the cafeteria first. I need to get started on the dessert for lunch!" Peach said. Jay beamed and followed her down the hallway. I was a much better feeling than what he felt helping Rob out in his room.
 
When the pair reached the cafeteria, Jay stopped Peach by the window looking out to the garden. "Uh, Peach? Can I ask you something?"
 
"Surely!"
 
"Did... You enjoy the other night when we had dinner?"
 
"Yeah! Why do you ask?"
 
"I was thinking... Maybe... If you wanted to... Did you want to... Have dinner again? Together?" Jay was unable to form any words after that, his tongue tangled up in knots from his nerves.
 
"Oh, I thought you said that we weren't..."
 
"I know, I know, but... After thinking about it... I... Maybe... We could be...?"
 
Peach Cobbler leaped forward and wrapped her hooves around Jay in a hug. "Why don't we give it a shot?" she said before leading in and kissing him again on the lips. After a moment of shock, Jay closed his eyes and returned the kiss.

Outside that very window stood Chloe, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. She ran off to the other side of the bureau and into her room, slamming the door shut.  


---


"Mister Telios, you have a call." The guard handed the aging man a sleek black phone handset, who took it and held it to his ear.

"We found him. Bureau out in the middle of nowhere in West Virginia. Satellite imagery shows a building there; likely a bureau," the voice buzzed over the earpiece. Mr. Telios's features hardened as he held his fingers to his forehead.

"You know exactly what I want done. Make the damn place a burning hole in the ground," he whispered, his voice still as sharp as a blade.

"But sir, we've come up with a more... elegant... solution. Word is spreading among the county residents of a pro-human demonstration to be held outside the bureau tomorrow." the man on the other line paused for a moment. "We could have someone slip in tonight and plant some incindeary charges around the perimeter and activate them mourning the riot. That way, it can be brushed off as another HLF riot that got out of control."

"Just do it. I never want to see that sniveling little wretch's face again. Burn Robert and everyone around him." Mr. Telios jammed his fat finger on the end button on the phone, disconnecting the call. He knocked on the cell door and handed it to the guard and sat on his bed, his hands on his knees. 


> The Fourth Day (PM)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chloe stared at the ceiling. She felt her belly rumbling like a child demanding its food, but she wasn't in any mood to oblige. She didn't want to have what she just saw rubbed in her face any more than it already was. The plain white ceiling was her only asylum now; the shadows of the curtains cast by the sun reached across the room to the wall beside Chloe.

The door to the room swung open and Leah walked in. She dropped herself on the side of Chloe's bed, and began stroking her rose colored mane. Chloe rolled over onto her side and stared at the wall away from Leah. "Chloe, what's wrong?"

She said nothing. She breathed slowly, but the same feeling in her throat she got when she saw Jay kissing her returned. It hurt, and it brought the tears back. She began to quietly sob into her hooves. Leah sat with Chloe for a good while until she calmed down.

"It's Jay."

"What about that ass?"

"He lied to me. He is with Peach... I saw them kiss before lunch."

Leah cocked her head. "What about it?"

"I just realized... that he was such a nice person to me for so long, and... and I had ignored him, so I wanted to  take back what I had said to him last night. But now..." Chloe fell back into another fit of sobs.

"Guys lie, Chloe. All they want is some hot nookie, no matter how terrible it makes them look. Not even going pony could fix that. Plus this just proves that Jay didn't really like you like he seemed to. The moment you said no, he cast his lure back into the sea to catch another fish, and today they're biting."

"Jay... Doesn't actually like me?" The thought was troubling, and contradictory to what she had seen in him in the past. He felt like the most genuine person around her; he never hid much from her and was always there to listen to her whenever she needed someone to vent to. He was easy to chat with and he was always kind to her, even after she started going out with Andrew.

"Well he may have in the past, but the moment someone easier came along, he changed his mind faster than you could've ever imagined."

Chloe buried her muzzle into her pillow. She had just realized her feelings for Jay, and his for her had just evaporated... It wasn't fair. But... She wasn't fair to him for the longest time. But now it didn't matter. He and Peach Cobbler will hit it off, and the day they all leave the bureau, he'll go off with her and she'll never see him again. But if he's so prone to looking for the easiest way to love, then what would stop him later on? Perhaps he's just like that now.

"I guess if he's just going to be like that now... he's not worth my time." Chloe felt sad saying it, but it seemed to be true given the present circumstances.

"That's the spirit!" Leah gave Chloe a kiss on the head. "Come on, let's get you something to eat, and let's not let that asshole stop you." Chloe lazily rolled over and dropped onto her four hooves with a clatter on the hard floor. She followed Leah out the door and through the halls to the cafeteria. They walked in right as Garnet was calling the next human for conversion.

“Chelsea Gardyle? Come with me please.” A red haired girl stood up from her seat and looked around nervously at everyone staring at her. Her peers who were already converted all smiled as they watched, while the ones who had yet to be called watched longingly. She timidly walked over and followed the red unicorn through the doors.

Chloe followed Leah up to the counter to get their lunches; some kind of soup for Leah, and a green salad topped with flower petals for Chloe. She saw Peach Cobbler in the back of the kitchen, who happened to be looking over as well. Chloe couldn’t stop herself from scowling as their eyes met.

“Come on, Chloe. Let’s get us a table,” Leah said, walking away.

Chloe saw Jay and Austin sitting at a table on the far end of the cafeteria along with the other ponies. She felt her heart tighten as she saw Jay laughing.

The lunch was a somber affair; neither Chloe nor Leah spoke much as they ate.
 
---
 
Austin knew immediately something was up; Jay couldn’t hide a smile well. “Spill it, you goofball.”

“I’m having dinner tonight with a special somepony,” Jay said, almost too sweetly. Austin patted his hoof onto Jay’s back and chuckled. “Peach even gave me another kiss just now!” Austin’s face suddenly went slack.

“What? Peach? The cook?” Austin looked over to the kitchen to see Peach’s head dart back down to her work, easily failing to hide the fact that she was staring over to their group at the table. “Jay, buddy, what happened to Chloe? I thought you were dead set on her, especially with Andrew out of the way.”

“I was, but after she turned me down last night... I guess I just kind of gave up. And after having dinner with Peach... I guess I figured we had something. So we’re gonna have dinner again tonight and see how it goes.”

Austin dropped his head against the table with a loud thunk. His blond mane was sticking to his head, the sweat from his ‘training’ soaking his entire coat. “Ja-”

“One other thing,” Jay interrupted.

Austin sighed. “What is it?”

“You know that Rob fellow?”

“That jerk? Yeah, I remember. Where has he been? I haven’t seen him around for a while.”

“I saw him earlier, and... Well, I found out who he is.” Austin picked his head up from the table to look at Jay. He was a bit nervous, but proceeded on. “His name is Rob Telios, son of the president of the company our parents worked for. The ones who killed them.” Austin sat frozen as he listened. “Rob was the one who leaked the memo to the press about the intentional explosion, and he’s been trying to hide from his dad since.

“He asked me to help him... extract... this chip from his body. A tracking chip.” Jay’s eyes went wide as the images raced back into his head. “It was in his arm, on the bone. He wanted me to take it out and... for the love of Celestia...”

“And? What happened?”

“I… pulled the thing out with my magic and… and he crushed it. He used some miragel to close that grisly cut, but without conversion, he’s going to get some sort of infection. He’s not worried about it though. What he was saying about his dad, though... he said that they’d kill us all just for harboring him. I really don’t want to think about what could happen if they found us here.”

“Well, Rob busted the bug, right?” Jay nodded. “Then we should be fine.” Austin brought his hoof to his chin and thought for a minute. “Makes a bit of sense, now. How he knew so much, why he looked so high-class...”

“He looked high class?”

“His clothes. They were too nice for a company budget. The hair, the nails, the shoes; his general demeanor alone gave it away.”

“Huh. I didn’t notice.” Jay frowned. The possibilities were still unsettling. “So,” Jay started, in an attempt to change the subject. “How’d the flying go?”

Austin began to smile. “Well, Andrea’s a natural, ironically enough. She can do flips and turns like nopony’s business... and did I just seriously say ‘nopony’?” Austin chuckled as he brought a hoof to his forehead. Jay laughed along as well.

“I’ve been catching myself making those ‘pony-isms’ as well, don’t worry. I mean... It’s natural, right? We ARE ponies now. I guess it’s just odd that it’s happening by itself.”

Austin shrugged. “I suppose. So Murphy’s good with speed, but lacking with control. Fleet liked the pair of them together; they could help each other out where they each needed improvement. Myself,” Austin began. “I was a wreck. I could barely stay aloft, and I had no control. All I could do by the end of the morning was hover, and that’s how I worked up this sweat,” he said, pointing to his soaked mane. “Fleet’s giving me some private lessons after our class today, after lunch. Wonder what it’ll be,” Austin mused.

"No idea."

The pair watched as more of their peers filed into the cafeteria; Andrea, Murphy, Caleb, and Annie all wandered over to their table as they did that morning. Jay felt happy about the new camaraderie between him and the others; it was as if conversion opened them all up to each other, their friendships finally appearing.

A few of the other humans still sat by themselves, not as willing to open up as Jay and his friends were. Everyone came to the bureau as a tightly guarded safe, unwilling to open up except for a scant few people if at all.

Jay was both sad for them and excited; they were going to feel the joy of friendship soon, and he wasn't going to prematurely rush it by being too obtrusive with talking with him. It was a funny thought: him talking to people on his own accord. Jay chuckled. He was already a changed pony, and he was ecstatic about it.
 
A clatter of hooves signaled the return of Chelsea shortly before she nosed her way past the doors. She seemed to be capable of walking on four legs reasonably well enough. Her coat was a dull grey, but her mane was white with bright red streaks. She trotted over to Jay and Austin’s table with all of the other ponies with Garnet following close behind.
 
“Everypony, I’d just like to inform you that we’re going to be having a naming workshop shortly after lunch is finished in Meeting Room B. Please make your way over when you finish,” Garnet said. Jay watched as she trotted off to another table on the other end of the cafeteria. Leah and Chloe sat by themselves at the table.
 
Jay watched as Chloe listened to Garnet and nodded her head slowly. After Garnet was finished, she disappeared behind the doors once more. Jay watched Chloe as everyone at his table congratulated Chelsea and complimented her on her looks and her conversion. She didn’t seem outwardly upset, but Jay knew something was bothering her after knowing her as long as he did. Why did it still bother him seeing her like this?

---

Jay fell onto his rump. The coarse carpet wasn’t nearly as rough on his hindquarters as he expected; he had his beige coat to thank for that. Austin sat to his right, followed by Murphy, Andrea, Caleb, Annie, and the newly ponified Chelsea. She was the second unicorn after Jay, and he felt at least somewhat comfortable that he had someone else to relate to with his magic training.
 
Her horn poked out from the top of her forehead, which she poked foolishly with her hoof. And with each poke came a shiver that ran through her body, causing a tremor in her posture.

“Chels... You shouldn’t do that,” Jay said from across the group.

She giggled and put her hoof back down. Jay was going to bring her with him to see Firecracker after their naming workshop. She was new to her horn, and needed to learn control before she began experimenting by herself.

Chloe finally walked into the room, and seeing no other open spot, dropped in next to Jay. She turned away from him the moment she sat down.

“Well good afternoon, everypony!” Garnet sang. She trotted toward the circle of ponies and sat down between Austin and Murphy. She smiled and looked around at the circle through her glasses. "Today is your naming workshop, and while I hope you can walk out of here with a new name to better suit your new lives, it is entirely possible that one or some of you may not come up with a name you're happy with."

"Miss Garnet," Chelsea asked. "What are some of the equestrian naming conventions? I've heard all sorts of names ponies use."

"I'm glad you asked that, Chelsea. Now, many ponies have names that either exemplifies what they specialize at, or how they look. Take myself for example. 'Garnet' is a type of gemstone, and a particularly beautiful one at that. When I was born, my mother and father saw my coat and mane colors and it reminded them of the stone. They were gem cutters for a jeweler, so it was appropriate, in a way."

Jay listened in rapt attention as he began to think a good name for himself. "And you don't need to worry; names aren't permanent. You can change your name whenever you'd like, but in my years I've rarely seen somepony do so. Now let's get started. I’m going to pair everypony up with somepony else, so they can help each other come up with names for each other.”

Garnet trotted around the group. Caleb and Murphy were paired together; they trotted off to a side of the room and began smiling and chatting with each other. Annie and Andrea paired off with each other. The filly giggled and bounced off with the cocoa colored mare off to another part of the room. Garnet looked at Jay, then around the last of the group. He hoped that he could pair up with Austin.

“Jay, how about you pair up with... Chloe.” Garnet smiled and turned around. “And Austin and Chelsea, you two are paired up as well. Remember everypony!” Garnet yelled around the room. “Don’t worry if you can’t come up with anything today! It takes a very long time for somepony to recognize their own traits and strengths. You may not find your name today, but just keep thinking and looking. You’ll find it.”

Jay dragged his hooves along the floor to where Chloe sat. She didn’t seem to make eye contact with Jay; she stared at her forehooves that stuck out in front of her. Her rosy mane hung down in front of her eyes, hiding her face with them.

“So,” Jay began. “Um, have you come up with a name yet?” He felt awkward with Chloe, especially after both her turning him down the night before and his breakthrough with Peach just an hour ago.

“Primrose.”

“That was quick.” Jay wasn’t sure what was wrong with Chloe; her voice was distant and quiet and she still hadn’t lifted her head up to look at him. Though it still bothered him to see her sad like this. “I like it. It suits you.”

She picked her head up for a moment and looked into Jay’s eyes. As quickly as her demeanor changed, her mouth hardened into a frown. She stood up from her spot and walked over to Garnet.

“Already done, dear?”

“Yes.”

“And what is your new name?”

“Primrose.”

“Beautiful, and very much befitting of you, based on what I’ve heard from Clementine. I love it.”

“May I leave?”

“Oh, why of course. Take care, Primrose!”

Primrose trotted out from the meeting room with a swish of her tail without looking back. Jay sat in his spot all by himself, vacant from his own mind. Chloe... no... Primrose hated him, that much was clear as day. But why?

“Jay? Why don’t you come over here with Austin and Chelsea,” Garnet said, waving a hoof over to the pair. Austin smiled as Jay trotted over and landed on his rump next to the pair.

“That didn’t look like it went well,” Austin said with a smirk. Jay sighed in response.

“What’s going on? Am I missing something?” Chelsea asked.

“Jay here had a massive crush on Chl- Primrose for years, and after getting rejected last night, he decided to, ahem... ‘cut his losses’ and attempt something with Peach Cobbler, the cook.”

“Oh! I love her desserts! They’re awesome!” Chelsea giggled. “Wait, how’d the thing with Peach go, at least?”

“Well, I’m sure Jay here could describe the sensation of ‘pony tongue’,” Austin said before bursting out laughing. Jay nickered and snorted in response. “Hey, ease up. I’m just teasing. So, you come up with anything for yourself, yet?”

Jay shook his head. “Austin and I already came up with a name for me! Peppermint! See all the red?” Chelsea said, looking up at her white mane streaked with red. “I mean my hair looks like a peppermint itself! Plus I love mints too!”

Jay smiled at Chelsea’s cheerfulness. He never really knew her either until coming to the bureau; it seemed to be a common issue among everyone here. He never really talked with anyone but Austin, and sometimes Chloe.

“Now let’s see... What should I pick out?” Austin muttered.

“How about Sunshine?” Chelsea said out loud. “You always brighten up situations and make everyone smile! Plus look at your colors!” Jay agreed with her; he was always the one to make him smile, and his blond mane paired with his light blue coat looked like a sun and the sky.

“Sunshine. Hm. I like it!” Austin chuckled. “Now how about Jay here? What should we call him?”

Chelsea held her hoof to her muzzle. “I... don’t know? No offense, but I never really knew you before this...”

Jay waved his hoof. “It’s okay. I... was really quiet before. I kept to myself.”

Austin frowned. “I don’t know what to say, Jay. I’m drawing a blank. You’re really... vanilla. You even kinda look like vanilla,” Austin snickered, drawing giggles from Chelsea as well.

“Ha ha ha. Whatever.” Jay huffed and crossed his hooves in frustration. He was also drawing a blank for what his new name should be.

“Ah, don’t sweat it. Garnet even said that some of us won’t come up with names right off the bat. I’ll see if I can think something up in the meantime. Garnet? We’re ready over here!”

The bespectacled unicorn trotted over to the group of three with a smile. “So who’s what now?”

Chelsea bloomed into a bright smile. “Peppermint!”

“Sunshine,” Austin said.

“Okay, and what about you, Jay?”

Jay looked down at the ground out of shame. Everypony else were getting new names, further moving them to their new lives, while he sat back, still unsure about himself.

“Oh, don’t worry, Jay. It takes a long time for most ponies to come up with brand new names to identify themselves by. Heavens, it usually takes days for most ponies at other bureaus to get their names! So there’s nothing to be worried about or ashamed of.”

“I suppose,” Jay murmured.

Garnet’s horn glowed as she wrote down two more names on her notepad. “Well, it’s official! Welcome to the bureau, Peppermint and Sunshine!”

“Hooray!” Peppermint cheered.

“Glad to be here,” Sunshine said with a smile.

“Now, Jay? Can you take Peppermint with you to see Firecracker? She needs some formal lessons so she doesn’t hurt herself.” Garnet trotted off to the other groups to speak with them as well.

“I have my next lesson with Fleet Feather now anyway. I’ll see you afterwards, Jay?” Sunshine asked as they left the meeting room.

“Uh, sure.”

“You and I need to have a bit of a chat later, anyway.” Sunshine’s demeanor darkened for a moment as he spoke. He turned around and trotted off toward the field for his flight lesson. Peppermint and Jay went in the opposite direction towards the library to see Firecracker.

---

Primrose trotted through the hallway back towards the common room. It was almost cruel of Garnet to pair her up with Jay; though it surely wasn't her fault. She couldn't have known. Primrose was just glad she had settled on a name right then and there, without having to spend more time than she needed to with Jay. It was more frustrating than anything, she thought to herself.

The common room seemed almost empty, the last few humans to be converted scattered about. Some of them sat by themselves in the chairs while the others who were missing were probably in their rooms. Leah was sitting on the sofa, watching television. Primrose walked over and smiled as she sat next to her.

"So what do I call you now?" Leah asked, picking up Primrose's tail and beginning to run her fingers through it.

"Primrose," she answered.

"So pretty! I'm so jealous that you already got converted. I hope mine’s soon," Leah said.

"Don't worry, Leah. You'll get your turn, I promise."

The pair sat for a while, Leah continuing to stroke Prim's tail, and eventually moving onto her mane. She began scratching behind Prim's ears, which sent her eyes up into her head. It felt positively delightful and pleasant, instantly making her wish she had fingers again. The thought immediately brought something back up in her head.

Leah noticed Prim's immediate turn in her demeanor. "What's wrong, Chlo- I mean, Primrose?"

She picked her muzzle up and looked over to Leah. "I miss drawing. I miss my fingers. I miss my sketchbook. I knew it was going to be hard to give up these, but... I've been focused other things recently, and... I just miss drawing."

"Oh Prim..." Leah said as she planted a kiss on the earth pony's forehead. "I've seen some of the ponies around using pencils in their mouths. Maybe that'd work?"

"I don't know..." Prim's mind immediately flew back to Jay promising to make her a brace for her hoof, so she could keep drawing without having to worry about using her mouth. She remembered the second night they were there, when she went to tell Andrew that they were going to get converted together in the morning. She ran into Jay in the common room, who was holding her brace, presumably to give to her as a gift.

But after the display with Andrew, Prim feared she knew what happened to Jay and the brace he was working on. She rested her head on her forelegs and sighed. Leah got up from the couch and disappeared from the common room without a word. Primrose sat and looked out the window to the central bureau garden. Honeybell and Clementine were tending to their plants, smiles on both of their faces.

Lean bounded back into the common room with two things in her hands. She placed the pair on the couch in front of Primrose: a pencil and her sketchbook.

“Oh,” she said. “Thank you, Leah, but I don’t really know if it’s any use...”

“Then what’s the harm in trying? You can’t just pass on the opportunity and say ‘Oh, I didn’t even bother with it because I had my reasons.’ No!” Leah said, poking Prim on her forehead. “Give it a shot. Who knows! It may be easier than you think.”

“Okay, if you say so,” Primrose mumbled. She nudged open her book with her dark blue hoof, the pages fluttering past until the book lay open before her. The picture on the page was a sketch she remembered doing a few weeks ago; a girl with a smile on her face falling, carrying a boy by his hand behind her. He looked unsure, while she was excited and smiling. There was plenty of room beneath the picture for her to test her new skills.

She hesitated as she reached her neck down to the pencil. She slowly opened her mouth and gripped the wooden shaft in her teeth, wrapping her alien tongue around the back end of it. She reached her head back down to the paper and began dragging the graphite tip along the surface.

She began with a simple curve, the tip of the pencil scratching at the paper. Primrose pressed down with it a bit harder to get more of a defined line, but the force caused the pencil to skid away from the path she wanted. She huffed and continued on.

Getting used to the new method of drawing was awkward and challenging. Primrose was so used to having a wrist to twist and contort to make the curves she wanted, but now she had to use her jaw to move the pencil to do so instead. But the more she worked at it, the more natural it felt to do so in this manner.

Leah watched as Primrose worked her craft as if she was born drawing in this new way. She smiled as the familiar look of determination fell over her being, blocking out the world as she secluded herself in her own.


---


“Keep going.”

Sunshine beat his wings harder and harder, droplets of sweat hanging on his blond hairs in front of his eyes. The muscles in his back burned with exhaustion, but he pushed it aside. He panted, his chest beginning to ache from his labored breathing.

“Ten more seconds.”

This was it; the home stretch. He counted down each second in his head.
 
Nine, eight, seven...
 
An explosion of pain bloomed in his back. His left wing was starting to cramp up, but he gritted his teeth through it. If he failed, Fleet Feather would make him do it all over again.
 
Six, five, four...
 
The pain was becoming overwhelming. Tears began streaming down his eyes and cheeks, but the closeness of his goal gave him the last bit of strength to press on.
 
Three, two, one...

“Time.”

Sunshine collapsed into the grass beneath him. His wings lay sprawled out on both sides of him along with his legs. His breathing was wheezy; the cool air was pure bliss for his body right now. The cramp began to diminish, until his wing felt fine once more.

Fleet Feather chuckled. “Ten minutes. Honestly, I was using it as a way to measure how much you could take before giving up like the foals back in your cities. But, I must admit that I’m impressed. Hovering isn’t as easy as anypony expects. Flapping your wings constantly is a sure way to use up all of your energy, just like how you did right there.”

Sunshine let out a pained wheeze. “No surprise there.”

“Fortunately, the secret to flight is not to flap as much as possible, but to flap only when it’s absolutely necessary. What you need to learn to do to master flight is to glide. Take a short break, and let me know when you can fly again. I’m going to teach you how to glide properly.”

Sunshine nodded and rested his head down on the soft grass. The smell of the earth was pleasing to his nose, and the warm sun on his back felt positively delightful. Before he knew it, his body felt rejuvenated enough to follow Fleet Feather. The pair flapped their wings and ascended to the flat roof of the bureau building.

Sunshine looked down. The ground felt like it was around thirty feet below; a strong breeze blew from behind him. His mane got whipped into the front of his face until he turned around to face Fleet.

“Here are your instructions. Follow them to the dot, and you’ll be done for today. Mess up even once, and you have to do it all over again from the beginning. Are you ready?”

Sunshine took in a deep breath of the air and nodded.

“One flap. That’s all you’re allowed. I want you to glide from here, on the roof, to the edge of the forest on the far end of the field.”

Sunshine looked out across the long field. On his left was the black asphalt of the highway, disappearing into the tree line about halfway down as it curved off into the distance. But the very far edge of the forest looked to be about a football field away.

“I’ll give you a tip each time you come back up here, if and when you mess up.”

Sunshine snorted. He was put off by the smugness Fleet exuded; he was so sure that he was going to mess up. Sunshine wanted to stick it to him, and he was going to do it by gliding perfectly on his first try.

Trotting back to the edge of the building, Sunshine began a slow rhythm of breaths. He focused his concentration on his goal: the far end of the field. He took a deep breath and beat his wings, sending him up several feet into the air. He held out his wings and let the wind catch underneath him... but he slowly fell back down to the edge of the building, where he started.

“Wha-”

“Momentum. You had the upwards acceleration, but no forward motion.”

Sunshine huffed and readied himself once more.

“That was tip number one.”

Dammit! Sunshine cursed to himself. Positioning his hooves on the edge of the building, he leaped up into the air with a beat of his wings and forward. He floated on the wind for a few yards until the wind beneath his wings disappeared. He fell full speed down towards the ground until he fervently beat his wings to slow his descent.

Dejectedly, he flew back up to the white and black pegasus. “Tip number two: wait for the right breeze, especially down here where there are no thermal currents.”

Sunshine snorted and tried once more. He made it halfway before his wings cramped up once more. Another flight back to the building, and another unwanted tip from Fleet Feather.

“Tip number three: don’t force your wings open. They should be able to stay open by themselves.”

Another failed attempt, another condescending remark. “You began with no breeze. You need to wait for the right one.”

Sunshine gritted his teeth in frustration. He slowly trotted to the back ledge of the roof, and started a gallop towards the opposite side. With a mighty flap of his wings and a surge of adrenaline through his system, he unfurled his wings and soared across the field. The wind was howling in his ears and through his mane as he floated closer and closer to his goal, but he wasn’t slowing down or descending.

Panicking, he flapped his wings and ascended above the treetops and floated there. “I... did it?”

“Well, no you didn’t. You flapped a second time before you reached the forest.” Fleet Feather fluttered over from the direction of the bureau with a wide smirk on his muzzle.

“What?!”

“Don’t worry; you learned what I wanted you to learn.”

“I... did?”

“You generated your own breeze to fly on, born out of frustration. That was my goal. Hopefully you’ll be able to do it without pounding your head into the ground first next time.”

Sunshine blankly stared at Fleet Feather.

“We pegasi don’t fly like birds, we control wind and clouds and water. We make our own lift with it. Ever seen a bird this big fly?” he said, gesturing to his own body. Sunshine cracked a smile and shook his head. “It’d be almost impossible. Your friends... I think they settled on Skysong and Autumn Gale for their names? They found this out themselves through noticing small things and trying to fly themselves earlier. You didn’t have the amount of time they did, so you were at a disadvantage.”

Sunshine and Fleet Feather began flying back over towards the bureau, this time Sunshine was aided by his own breeze accompanying him. His wings felt fantastic with the strain lifted from them; he still had to flap them to keep his lift, but nowhere near as hard or as fast as before.

“You’re done for the day. I’ll be teaching you and the other two about clouds and weather tomorrow. Nice job, Sunshine.”

The blue pegasus smiled and trotted back inside the bureau.


---


Jay and Peppermint stood in the library for a short while. Jay worked on his levitation, trying to show Peppermint how to do it herself. It was futile, since she couldn’t even get her horn to light up.

“I had the same problem when I started. Don’t worry, it’ll come to you. Just... try to feel for a bubble of some sort in your head.” Peppermint closed her eyes and scrunched her face, attempting to find the ‘bubble’ Jay spoke of. “When you find it, don’t try to pop it, but... uh, actually...”

The door flew open and a grey unicorn galloped in, his face twisted with rage. “Cut it out before you hurt her or somepony else! Damned fool!” he bellowed at Jay.

Jay’s eyes grew wide and his stomach dropped. He scampered back from his spot in front of Peppermint, his heart beating like mad.

“What were you thinking, you stupid monkey?!”

“I was... I was just trying to help, is all... since you weren’t here yet,” Jay said quietly.

“Do you know what you could have done? Hmm?” Jay shook his head slowly. “Just... don’t try and pretend like you know what you’re doing, okay? You don’t. You have no idea what she could have done if she just...” Firecracker seemed to lose his trail with his words, and instead began quietly talking to Peppermint.

Jay’s heart was still beating fast, and his instincts were telling him to leave. As he walked past, Firecracker shot him another venomous glance. Jay picked up his pace and left the library in a hurry.

“Bravo, little colt. Bravo.”

Jay turned around to see a pink earth pony leaning against the wall outside the door to the library. “Oh, hello, uh... Jasmine?” The mare nodded slowly with a foxy grin.

“I have to thank you... Jay, was it?” Jay nodded. “You single hoofedly secured my hold on Firecracker, and for that...” The mare walked over to Jay and around him, admiring his body. “I’m very...” She brushed her tail over his back and rump, sending shivers down his spine. “Very...” She walked up behind him and moved her mouth close to his ear. He could feel the warmth of her breath in his mane, and smell her scent in his nose. “Very grateful. Is there absolutely anything I can do to thank you... Mmm, properly?”

Jay’s heart was racing once more, but this time it wasn’t from fear; panic still played a common role in it, however. He dashed forward from the proximity of the mare. He felt extremely uncomfortable with her so close to him, and she simply made his skin crawl.

“I, uh, I think I’m good. Thanks. I mean, no thanks.”

Jasmine frowned and pouted. “Oh, that’s no fun. Variety is the spice of life, as they say. Well, let me know if you’d like me to show you what they mean when they say a mare ‘winks’ at you when she’s interested.” The pink pony giggled as she disappeared past the door and into the library.

Jay grimaced as he left the scene of the awkward encounter. What did she mean by all of that? Securing her hold on Firecracker? “Did she mean...” It dawned on him. Why Firecracker was angry with him; far more than simply trying to help Peppermint with her magic.

He was angry that Jay was with Peach Cobbler. Very, very mad.

It was something he never expected to see from a pony. They were always portrayed as this peace-loving race of folk, who never cursed, never hurt anypony, and yet... Jay felt almost betrayed by his supposed friend.

But in reality, it was he who betrayed Firecracker.

He knew Firecracker was trying to earn Peach Cobbler’s feelings, saying he was over his past of poor decisions and weak convictions. And Jay ruined it, simply because she showed up and showed interest in him.

But was he really infatuated with her? Sure, he liked her. She was a kind, cheerful, and beautiful mare. She was the first pony at the bureau to actually talk to him more than just official bureau business.

Jay needed to find Peach as soon as he could. He needed to talk to her.


---


Primrose looked down at the picture in front of her. It was a simple portrait of a pony; who it was, she didn’t know. She didn’t put any face on it, but merely sketched out the body structure of some androgynous pony. Her curves gradually came under her control the more she worked with her mouth, and the end result was not necessarily something she would have been proud of in the past, but with her new body it was an entirely different matter.

“Who’s that, Prim?” Leah asked, looking over Primrose’s shoulder.

“I don’t know. Just somepony. How does it look?”

“Wonderful! It looks even better than anything I could draw with my hands!” Leah and Prim giggled together.

The earth pony closed her sketchbook and looked down at it. “This book is full... I’ll have to ask around if there are any I can use now.”

“I’ll ask around for you, if you’d like.”

“That’d be great!” Prim smiled. She was excited to be able to draw again; it felt like she rescued a part of herself she thought was lost forever. “I’m going to go into the garden for a while. I’ll see you at dinner?” Prim and Leah both stood up from the sofa together and walked over to the glass door to the central garden.

“Okay. I’ll look around for that book for you. Have fun… I guess!” Leah vanished into the hallway as Prim trotted out to the garden where Honeybell and Clementine both were busy at work. Prim walked over to Clementine as she giggled with a bunch of strawberry plants.

“Oh, he was handsome, alright. He was kind of a jerk though, so I turned him down.” Prim froze in her tracks. Who was Clementine talking about? Was it Jay? Did he ask her to dinner before he asked Peach? Was he really so low that he would ask every mare he saw walking around?

Primrose stomped her hoof in frustration. Clementine looked up and behind her at Primrose, who hopped back in surprise. “Oh! I’m sorry you had to hear that. It was just a story about this colt from my hometown, is all.” Prim eased up. Jay may have been a jerk, but at least he wasn’t a womanizer... or a mare-izer... “But it’s all good, he’s my husband now!”

“Oh!” Prim said, surprised. She also noticed the strawberry plants perked up when she did as well.

“Anyway, did you need something, Primrose? I love your name, by the way.” Prim blushed.

“Thank you! But I wanted to ask you if could grow something, if that’s alright. It was… really nice earlier when I did it. I really enjoyed doing it.”

“Of course! We could always use help!” Clementine reached into her saddlebags and pulled out two packets of seeds clenched in her teeth. Prim held her hoof out as Clementine placed the packets in it. “There should be a small plot of open earth over there by the cafeteria door. Have fun!”

Primrose smiled and trotted off with the packets in her teeth. She enjoyed talking to the flowers this morning, and she really wanted to get some things off her chest. She would speak to Leah about some of it, but... she wouldn’t listen the way Primrose wanted her to. It was funny to her as she realized what she was thinking. She felt more comfortable talking to plants and flowers than another human being.

The plot of earth was right where Clementine said it was. The light of the sky was beginning to slowly wane as the afternoon started to come to a close. Primrose dug a series of small holes with her hooves and dropped the loose seeds into them. She covered them up with the dirt and sprinkled a bit of water over them.

“I hope that’s enough water for you all,” Primrose said with loving care. She sat down on the sun warmed earth and looked down to the darkened patches of dirt where the seedlings were planted. “I have a story to tell you all, if you want to hear it.”

She was answered by six small buds popping their heads from the ground.

“Well, a few years ago, well before Equestria appeared,” Primrose began. She stopped her story as the door to the cafeteria opened up. The very pony Primrose did not want to see stood before her, smiling.

“Oh, hi there, Chloe!” Peach Cobbler said.

“My name is Primrose now,” she replied bitterly. She saw the reaction in Peach’s smile as it twitched and faded.

“Oh, my mistake. Do you know where Honeybell is? I wanted to speak with her.”

“She’s over by the orange tree,” Primrose spat. She just didn’t want to have to deal with this right now. It was almost as if Peach was rubbing the fact that she was with Jay in her face, and it drove her mad.

“Oh, um, thank you,” Peach said quietly as she slinked off.

Primrose relaxed once more on the ground and looked back at the flower sprouts. She wasn’t really in a mood to tell a story anymore. She poured one last bit of water over them and stood back up and walked away. Maybe she’ll come back to them tomorrow to talk to them.
 
Maybe tomorrow will be better.


---


Jay lifted his head from the table. Ponies and the last humans were filing into the dining hall for dinner, everyone in high spirits. Except for Jay.

The encounter with Firecracker had left him in a poor mood, and Jasmine outside the library only cemented it in place. He saw Sunshine wander in through the doors and immediately dash over. The pegasus dropped his rump into the seat opposite of Jay and smiled. “I flew today! Like, actually flew! Fleet Feather even said he was impressed with me!”

“Oh, uh, cool.” Jay rested his chin on the table again and sighed. Sunshine gave him a worried look.

“What’s wrong, Jay?”

Jay looked up at Sunshine with saddened, pleading eyes. “I screwed up. I screwed up so much.”

“I could have told you that, what with Primrose and Peach, but...”

“No... I ruined everything for myself, Peach, Primrose, and Firecracker.” Sunshine dropped his head down towards the table. “If I didn’t ask Peach to dinner before lunch...” Jay said as tears began forming at the corner of his eyes.

“Jay, you need to calm down. Come on, pull yourself together.” Sunshine turned his head towards the front of the cafeteria to see Peach on her way over.

Peach levitated a pair of trays over to the table Jay sat at, watching each step she took. Something was... off about her, he noticed. There seemed to be an air of gloominess about her that Jay felt getting to him. The he noticed what gave it away. Peach wasn’t smiling.
 
“I’ll leave you two alone,” Sunshine whispered as he snuck off to join the rest of the ponies.

“Are you okay, Peach?” Jay asked as she sat down, placing the trays in front of them.

She perked back up, and after a moment, put up a bright, yet forced, smile. “I’m fine! Just peachy!” Jay raised his eyebrow at her. “What?” Jay rested his chin on his hoof, and tapped the table with his other.
 
She immediately began digging into her green salad with her levitated fork and shoveled the leaves into her mouth. Jay lazily levitated his sandwich up to his mouth and took a bite. It tasted wonderful as usual, but the thoughts that had been bothering him kept him from enjoying the meal as much as he could.
 
He looked up at Peach who had leaned forward with her fork levitating in front of her mouth with some leaves skewered on it, but her mouth wasn’t open. She noticed him looking at her and immediately chomped down on the greens. He continued to stare at her, until she finally swallowed her food.
 
“Oh fine,” she said, slumping forward. “I’m sorry, Jay, but... I don’t think this was a good idea, us... having dinner together again.”

“I know…” Jay said to the downcast unicorn. Silence fell between the pair as the echoes of speech and utensils of the dining hall echoed around them. “You still really like Firecracker, don’t you?” Jay stated. Peach looked up at him feebly and nodded.

“I can’t stop looking at him, and thinking about him… I really like you, Jay. I do. You’re a wonderful stallion, but…” Peach paused and looked at Jay’s eyes, which were focused down and on the plate in front of him. “And you still really like Primrose, right?” Jay sighed and nodded. “So... what now? Do we break up or something?” Jay’s eyes opened wide.

“Um, well, I didn’t actually think we were together... I mean, I know we kissed… Twice… but I mean, isn’t there some formal thing that officiates it all or something?” Jay stammered in a panic.

“Well you sure enjoyed those kisses,” Peach said, giggling.

Jay chuckled. He did indeed like them; they were the only kisses he had ever really gotten from anypony... ever. “Yeah, I kinda did. You have… really soft lips… I’m sorry... I’m new to this whole ‘relationship’ thing. I kind of lost my head when I found out you were actually interested in me.”

“Truth be told...” Peach began. “I’m new to it as well. I’ve never had a coltfriend or even held hooves with anypony before. I couldn’t believe it either when you asked me earlier today... It just feels so nice, you know, to be...”

“Wanted?” Jay finished her sentence for her. Peach nodded and smiled.

“Yeah... I just want to be loved, is all... And no offense to you at all, but... I don’t want to thrust myself into somepony’s life on a whim.”

“I know the feeling. Firecracker kind of exploded today at me, and I think it was because he found out about us,” Jay said, nervously. “Um, Peach, do you mind if we...”

“Just stay friends?” Peach paused, leaving a tense silence between the pair. “Of course not, silly!” Peach giggled. Jay smiled and felt his chest relax. “Ooh! I have an idea!”

“What’s that?” Jay asked.

“How about I help you get with Primrose, and you help me get with Firecracker?” Peach said, smiling.

Jay felt apprehensive about it. “I don’t know, Peach. Firecracker kinda hates me right now... And with Jasmine in the tangle, it makes this a bit harder.”

“Yeah... I don’t like her. She’s been really mean to me lately...”

“She was the reason Firecracker didn’t show up last night for you. She made sure he was too busy to see you.”

“Really? So he may still really like me?” Peach said, lighting up.

“I don’t see why not, he has no real reason to not like you after hearing that we aren’t a... thing... anymore.”

“So that just leaves Jasmine...” Peach said, looking down at the table.

“Yeah. But it shouldn’t be too hard showing Firecracker how much of a jerk she is,” he mentioned.

“I suppose...”

Jay held out his hoof. Peach looked at it inquisitively for a moment before looking back up at the beige unicorn. “Promise me that before I leave for Equestria you will be with Firecracker and I’ll be with Primrose. Can you do that?”

Peach smiled and met Jay’s hoof with her own.

“Deal.”
 
“Do you mind if we… one more time?” Jay asked nervously. He felt his cheeks burning and noticed Peach’s cheeks redden up as well.
 
“Only if you make it quick, lover-colt!” Peach giggled as she turned her head to the side and gave him a wink. Jay thrust his head forward as quickly as he could and planted a swift kiss on the mare’s cheek. He was just so appreciative of her offering to help… he couldn’t keep himself from doing so.
 

---

 
Sunshine looked over at his friend and groaned. Autumn Gale, previously known as Murphy, chuckled as he nuzzled Skysong, the mare formerly known as Andrea. Autumn’s brown coat and deep orange mane suited his name fairly well, and Skysong just really loved the flow of her new name.
 
Caleb, now known as Quake, and his sister, Sugarberry, both munched on their meals as the time passed. Autumn and Quake settled on Quake’s name after he was testing out his earth pony legs at the edge of the forest. Honeybell had mentioned the power many earth pony stallions had in their hind legs, so the pair intended on testing his abilities earlier that morning. Seven toppled trees later, Autumn had commented on how the ground shook with each tree that fell. For Sugarberry, Skysong was positively in love with the young filly and her energetic personality. She was sweet and pretty, and they had loved the way the name sounded.
 
“Sunshine, you okay?” Quake asked. He was facing away from Jay and Peach, so he didn’t see what was going on. Sunshine nickered and began munching on his sandwich once more.
 
“Don’t worry about it too much. I’m gonna be setting that kid straight later we’re done here, just you wait.” Sunshine was intent on shaking Jay out of his delusion. He knew full well what Primrose meant to him. For Jay to just give up on her like that? It was insulting to both himself and Primrose as well.
 
“Well, if the kid like’s that mare, why stop him? What right do you have over who he’s in love with?” Skysong asked.  Sunshine shot a glare at her, making her recoil back. “I mean it. I’m not trying to be a jerk, but why do you get to decide who he’s supposed to be in love with?”
 
“Because…” Sunshine began. He was milling over the thoughts and reasons in his mind, but whenever he was able to put together an argument for it, he always came off as cocky and arrogant for knowing what Jay wants better than Jay himself.
 
What if… Jay was actually in love with Peach? He sounded remorseful about what he did before Peach got there for dinner, but what if he cared for her so much he was able to look past it?
 
“I… don’t.”
 
Skysong sighed. “Just let him decide what’s important for him, okay? There’s no real need for you to get so head over heels for someone else’s love life.”
 
“I guess. But he was always so determined on Primrose, and I just hate seeing him throwing that commitment away. But… I don’t want to hurt him if he truly cares about Peach Cobbler. I’ll let him do what he wants.”
 
Peppermint sighed. “He’s not a bad kid. It was a real shame when Mr. Firecracker snapped at him. The poor guy was really upset with himself after Jay scampered off.”
 
Sunshine’s ears perked up. “He was?”
 
“Oh yeah,” Peppermint said. “He was really quiet for a bit after Jay left. I had to ask him a few times to teach me some magic.” Peppermint looked past Skysong and Autumn Gale to Jay. “His bit of advice did help though. I found that ‘bubble’ Jay talked about in no time once Mr. Firecracker started my lesson.”
 
Sunshine dropped his forehead onto the edge of the table, rattling his and everypony else’s dishes. “So much drama… And to think after getting away from school we’d be free from it all...” he moaned. “I’m getting a little tired. I’ll see you all tomorrow.” Sunshine grabbed his tray with his teeth and trotted over to the counter, handing it off to Cocoa Malt.
 
“Thanks for the food,” Sunshine said with a weak smile.
 
“No problem, kid. Glad to see someone appreciates our work. Most just drop their junk off without another word.” Cocoa grabbed the tray and brought it over to one of the sinks. Sunshine trotted off down the hall and back to his room where he would lie down while he waited for Jay.
 
He still wanted to talk to that unicorn, and offer his support no matter who he chose to be infatuated with. A creeping sense of unease spread through Sunshine’s heart as he thought about Jay and his adventures with romance. Would he, Sunshine, find somepony for himself?
 
Garnet assured him that same-sex pairings were much more common in Equestria than Earth, but… would he find somepony for himself? Wherever he wound up… would there be a stallion there with similar tendencies as him?
 
The concept of loneliness was a scary thought to him. While he had accepted the fact a long time ago that he wasn’t like other boys he knew, he had always known that finding another boy a region as hostile to people like him and getting them to admit it openly was slim to none. But with the hope of that overarching hatred of alternative sexualities would no longer be near him, the feeling of loneliness, as in not finding someone who cares about you, was… scary.
 
The questions ate at his mind as he reached his room and climbed onto his bed. He stared at the ceiling as he stretched his legs out as a single thought ran through his head.
 
Will I ever find somepony to love?
 

---

 
Jay bid Peach Cobbler farewell after they finished dinner together. He was feeling really good about things now; Peach and he were really close friends who were intent on helping each other catch the ponies of their dreams. He never really had that close of a connection with anypony before; not even with Sunshine.
 
The new convert never showed up after they were called. According to Garnet, who came into the cafeteria after the process was complete, told everypony that Hank Cyrus, the convertee, left for his room immediately after his conversion. He said he wasn’t feeling well, so Garnet let him go.
 
Jay, unsurprisingly, didn’t know Hank too well, but was always intimidated by his mountainous composure. He almost never talked, and was built like a football player. He kept to himself even more than Jay did, which was very surprising. To his knowledge, he has never heard Hank speak a single word.
 
As Jay walked back to his room, he wondered what kind of pony Hank was. He didn’t seem like he would be a pegasus; Sunshine, Skysong, and Autumn Gale all had a high-energy and cheerful demeanor about them, not something that Hank seemed to fit into. He may fit the profile for an earth pony; he was strong and quiet, qualities that seemed to fit that race much better than pegasus or unicorn.
 
Jay pushed the door to his room open to see Sunshine lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling. He lazily turned his head to see Jay walk in before he closed the door. “How was dinner?” he asked Jay quietly.
 
“It was okay,” Jay said. “Peach and I…” Sunshine picked his head up and his eyes opened up wider. “We decided to just stay friends. And we’re gonna try and help each other.”
 
“Help each other how?” Sunshine asked.
 
“I’m going to help her pry Jasmine off of Firecracker and she’s gonna help me get Primrose back. I made some really dumb decisions, and… I don’t know if I can make up for them.”
 
Sunshine dropped his head back onto his pillow and smiled. “I was worried you were going to abandon all the progress you made on Primrose after all these years.”
 
“What do you mean ‘progress’?” Jay asked.
 
“You don’t honestly think she hasn’t noticed you always being so nice to her all this time? Did you see how upset she was this afternoon?” Sunshine sat up in his bed.
 
Jay leaped up onto his bed. He felt even worse now about his decisions, and it was driving him mad. He just wanted it to be tomorrow and to start to work on repairing the connection he had with Primrose before it’s severed forever… if it wasn’t already.
 
“Jay? Can I ask you something?” Sunshine asked from his bed.
 
“Sure.”
 
“Do you think I’ll find true love?”
 
Jay paused for a second. “I don’t see why not. Why do you ask?”
 
Sunshine turned over to look at Jay. “I mean… what with me being gay and all… I’m just nervous about how everypony will see me, and if there’ll be somepony like me where we… I mean… where I wind up.”
 
Jay chuckled. “W-What’s so funny?” Sunshine asked nervously.
 
“You’re acting as if being gay makes you different is all.”
 
“But it is!”
 
“Is it?” Jay asked back. “You were the one who talked to Garnet about Equestria and their acceptance of ponies like you. So what if you like stallions instead of mares? Humans may see that as something bad, but you’re acting as if ponies will too.” Jay sighed as he stared at the ceiling. “You’re afraid, like everypony else who wants to be in love. Straight, gay, it doesn’t matter. You’re scared because you won’t find somepony, just like everypony else. Being gay has nothing to do with it; it simply changes the pool of eligible mares to eligible stallions.”
 
Sunshine said nothing back. “And one other thing. There’s no way they can separate us when we get to Equestria. We’re stuck together, whether you like it or not, Sunshine.” Jay smiled at the blue pegasus.
 
“You’ve changed, Jay. For the better,” Sunshine said. It was true; Jay was a completely different pony than he was when he first came to the bureau. Whether that was due to the conversion itself, the conversion curing whatever was in his head, or just his interactions with everypony here, he had grown considerably as a pony. And Sunshine couldn’t be prouder of his friend.
 
“It sure feels that way. I like it. I think I’ll keep this new me.”
 
“Are you gonna try and talk to Primrose tomorrow?” Sunshine asked.
 
“If she’ll even be willing to stand within a hundred feet of me. Did you see how mad she was during the naming thing earlier?” Jay joked. The pair both shared a hearty laugh. “I want to wait for her to be comfortable with speaking to me first. I don’t want to come off the wrong way.”
 
“Patience is good. Take it slow. I promise you that the two of you have something there; you just need to wait for the right time to fire it up.”
 
“Yeah…” Jay murmured as his eyelids began to fall. “I just want to make her happy…”
 
Darkness enshrouded his vision as Jay fell asleep.


> The Fifth Day
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jay rolled over underneath his covers. He had another restless night; the dreams were back, but they only replayed what he had already seen during his conversion, complete with the agony when his father tried to poison him in the hospital. The very idea that ones father would commit such an act left Jay speechless whenever he thought about it. If his father was guilty of wishing to take his life, where had his mother stood? Did she try to protect him?
 
Jay smacked his lips as he sat up in his bed. The sun was well over the horizon, the time likely somewhere around nine. "Crap!" Jay cursed.
 
"Hmm?" Sunshine groaned from his bed.
 
"We missed breakfast," Jay moaned as he fell  back onto his pillow.
 
"Mmm you think Peach won't give us a little something to tide us over until lunch?" Sunshine said, lifting his head off the pillow. "Come on. Let's get cleaned up and see who got converted."
 
"I suppose."
 
Jay  followed Sunshine to the washroom and into the showers. It was the first time they both used the gang shower at the same time, a fact that was a little strange to Jay at first. He realized that they were practically naked in front of each other all the time, but showering together was a bit harder to get used to. And Sunshine wasn't making it easy either.
 
"You got a pretty shapely rump there, Jay," Sunshine cooed jokingly while Jay was trying to wash his mane.
 
"D-Dude! Not cool!" Jay stammered in a panic.
 
"Take it easy, Jay. I was only teasing. No offense, but you're not really my type." Sunshine went back to his shower and hummed a quiet tune. Jay merely snorted in response. He rinsed the last of the shampoo from his mane and tail and turned his shower head off.
 
He went over to dry off as Sunshine finished rinsing his feathers and joined him. Jay levitated the towel over his body, soaking up the unneeded water with ease, while Sunshine had some trouble figuring it out without magic.
 
The towel floated out of his teeth as Jay scrubbed his friends head dry. Sunshine began chuckling as he snatched it back from Jay. "I can finish this on my own, thank you very much."
 
Jay tossed his towel into the hamper and waited for Sunshine outside of the washroom. When Sunshine joined him, the pair  walked off toward the cafeteria. When they got there, they saw everypony huddled in a big group around somepony. Instead of investigating right away, Jay and Sunshine walked over to the counter to Peach Cobbler and Cocoa Malt stood, cleaning the counter of the concluded breakfast.
 
"Oh! Good morning you two! Sorry, but breakfast is over," Peach said mournfully. Her ears perked up and she darted to one of the cabinets in the kitchen. She  levitated out two plastic covered bars and floated them to Jay and Sunshine. "It's all we have, but it's better than nothing, right?"
 
Jay recognized  the meal bars. They were bland, tasteless bars  of processed nutrients that met the most basic of nutritional needs for a meal. He had to have many of them when he still lived at home when there were no groceries or premade meals around for him to eat. The very idea of tasting one of those disgusting foods turned his stomach after getting so used to Peach's cooking.
 
He took both of the bars in his own magic field. "Thanks, Peach. By the way, who  got converted this morning?" Jay asked.
 
"Oh, it was Primrose's friend Leah. She's the light green one with the white mane over there," Peach said as she pointed to the large group with her hoof.
 
Jay sighed and placed his hoof over his face. "Thanks for the food, Peach," Jay said as he trotted off to the far table he and Sunshine frequently used. Jay sat his rump down lone of the chairs facing away from the group. He tore open the tops of the wrappers for the bars and  handed one to Sunshine and began on munching on his own. His new sense of taste protested, but eventually gave in.
 
Sunshine, on the other hand, was not as easy of a sell. He spat out the mouthful of the bar he had. "Disgusting!" he said, looking back at his half eaten bar. Jay shrugged and continued eating his own. He'd rather not be starving while waiting for lunch.
 
Something began bugging Jay's nose. It was a strange smell he didn't recognize, and it made his nostrils tingle. He began to snort to get the smell out of his nose, and after a few snorts and odd looks from Sunshine, he managed to get it out of his nose. Sunshine began making some strange faces too, likely from the same smell.
 
"Eugh. Wanna move to another table?" Sunshine asked. Jay nodded and wandered over to another table that was still a fair distance from the group. He was in no rush to see Leah's new body.  Sunshine seemed to catch onto this.
 
"Okay, dude, what's up between you and Leah? She hates you for some reason or another, but what is it? Did you do something to her?" Sunshine asked as he sat down, looking at the group.
 
"I honestly have no idea what I did to the girl. All I know is  that she's hated me since that... accident. If it was something I did in the past, maybe I'll remember it sooner or later, but as of now, I got nothing." Jay looked over to the group  rut as some o fthem moved out of the way. Leah was standing right in the middle with a great big smile; her coat was indeed a pale green and her mane was white, just like Peach said. As far as Jay could tell, he saw no horn or wings. So she must be an earth pony.
 
The group began to taper off as everypony went back to their own business. That's when he saw Primrose. She was smiling. The sight of her smile and her joy filled Jay with warmth and happiness, but it was immediately sapped away when he remembered that she likely hated him and resented him for his stunts with Peach.
 
Jay sighed and looked around the cafeteria and saw a new face. A hulking earth pony with a coat of dark grey and a mane that was almost black. He say by himself and with a frown. That must be Hank, the one that  was converted the night before. And with Leah converted, that left three more people to take the potion: Rob and two of his classmates he couldn't remember the names of. One was a larger guy who always seemed to have weight problems, and the other was a dark skinned girl who never really talked with anyone. Jay was interested in getting to know them as the rest of their stay at the bureau transpired.
 
---
 
No matter where Firecracker went in the bureau, Jasmine always seemed to be nipping at his hooves, lurking right behind him and never letting him out of her sight. Last night was another night she subdued him to her will, and it was getting tiresome for the stallion.
 
He still was bothered by his actions against Jay the day before in the library. He was upset when he heard that Peach decided to have dinner with Jay, feeling that he stole her from him. But he never had her in the first place. While Firecracker may have been in the process of wooing the graceful mare, he never secured the bond he had been building with her.
 
And with Jasmine constantly having him the way she wanted, it was going to be impossible for him to assure Peach that he was ready for something serious.
 
He rounded the corner into the staff offices and noticed something was off. Everypony present was scrambling about and Garnet was ordering ponies around as if they were at war.
 
"Garnet, what's going on?" Firecracker asked. The mare was reading over some paper, but still payed him heed.
 
"Our phones and Internet are out, including satellite communications. Something's going on, and I'm not taking any risks. Sea Foam!" she yelled.
 
"Y-Yes ma'am?" the timid filly asked, staining in front of the pair.
 
"I want you to keep an eye on the lobby. Send somepony if you see anything suspicious going on either inside the building or outside." the green and blue pony ran off in a hurry. "Firecracker, I need you to stay here in case I need you for anything. I have a bad feeling about today," Garnet said.
 
"Are you okay, Garnet? You're not looking too good," Firecracker said. It was true. Her eyes were sunken in, her body was shaking slightly, and it was clear as day she was panicked.
 
"Can I talk to you? In my office?" The stallion nodded and followed her to her private office. When he entered, Garnet locked the door behind him and ran over to him, bawling.
 
Firecracker was utterly shocked. He had never seen Garnet like this before; she was always organized, clear headed, and the voice of reason in any situation. And now she was crying on his shoulder. He put his foreleg around her neck and held her close. "it's okay, it's okay," he cooed.
 
"I'm s-sorry," she said through her weeping. After a few long minutes of comforting, Garnet finally pulled away and fell onto her rump on the floor. Firecracker sat with her, concerned.
 
"What's wrong?" he asked.
 
"It's... It's too much for me. I'm in over my head. I thought I could handle running a bureau, and for a while I even believed that lie I told myself. How pathetic is that? Falling for your own lie?" another fresh tear fell down her cheek.
 
"Garnet, you're doing a wonderful job here! Look at how much the kids are loving it!"
 
"Are they?" Garnet quipped back. "And it's not just making the bureau a bearable place for the kids... All the regulations, all the security updates, all the paperwork, it's just so much work! I never thought that it would be so hectic as the overseer."
 
"There's something more, isn't there?" Firecracker asked, careful about what he was getting into. Garnet looked up at him woefully.
 
"The HLF are coming today. To our bureau."
 
Firecracker's jaw dropped. "How do you know?"
 
"The United States government keeps a careful eye on the people in this world, and they picked up some not so subtle clues about another protest similar in scale to the one in Newark earlier this week."
 
"But this is private property, right? Property of the Kingdom of Equestria! Their government gave us the land for the bureaus, so any steps they take on out property would be against our law! Right?"
 
The red mare looked up once more, this time even more downcast. "We have no way of contacting the police force of this country with no communications short of going there ourselves," Garnet said quietly. "Nopony else knows about the HLF. Please keep it a secret. From what information I got, they're supposed to gather outside our doors around lunchtime. We have only a few hours, and I don't want this place in a state of pandemonium."
 
Garnet unlocked the door and the two left. She went back to organizing the effort to keep the bureau in order with the imminent threat of the HLF only a few hours out while Firecracker left the offices to find some peace and quiet. Unfortunately, his shadow wouldn't let him have any of it.
 
"Oh, Cracker," Jasmine cooed from behind his ear. "I heard that a certain three letter organization is going to be paying this little bureau a visit soon." Firecracker cursed the mare; she was listening in from outside the office. "Now, as you know, my mouth is liable to say anything that's on my mind. That is, of course, you were to fill it with something else to keep it busy..."
 
She was threatening to tell the entire bureau about the HLF if he didn't sate her lust? Frustration and rage began building up inside his body until he was about to burst. She was the most vile, manipulative, greedy piece of trash this side of the world. But if he was to keep Garnet from having a psychotic breakdown, he had no other choice.
 
He hung his head as Jasmine gave a sly smile. "Mmm I do so love brunch," she said, giggling to herself. Firecracker already felt his loins writhing with the help of the scent that was practically flooding his nostrils.
 
---
 
Leah and Primrose trotted down the hall to the common room together, one supporting the rickety legs of the other. Leah was upset she wasn’t a pegasus or a unicorn, but Primrose had assured her that earth ponies were just as gifted as the others were.
 
“I’m sure you’re right, Prim, but… I don’t know. I don’t see the appeal in farming,” Leah sighed as they found a pair of couches to lounge on. “I like my colors… lime green was always a favorite of mine-“
 
“Until you found a new favorite,” Primrose giggled. Leah smiled and chuckled along with her. “And you don’t need to go into farming, either. You can be a cook, a sculptor, really anything you want! But anyway, we should come up with a name for you, right?”
 
“I suppose,” Leah said, passively.
 
Primrose brought her hoof to her chin as she regarded her friend. Her mane was a beautiful white, and paired with her faded green coat, it was a very pleasing color combination to look at. “How about… Key Lime?”
 
“Eww,” Leah spat. “I don’t want to be named after a fruit! Think of something else.”
 
Primrose shook off the reaction Leah had for her idea and tried to think of another name that she felt would suit her friend. “How about… Evergreen?”
 
“A tree?” Leah gasped. “Why would I want to be named after a tree?”
 
“Okay, I’ll think of something else,” Primrose said, dejectedly. “Forest Mint?”
 
“Too tacky.”
 
The two sat in silence for a while as Primrose tried to think of other names. Every time she would come up with one, Leah would shoot it down immediately. “Well, you may find a name for yourself later on when you figure out what you’re good at.”
 
“But that’s all off in the future. I care about the present, and I intend on living it to the-” Leah was interrupted by a burning in her nostrils. She began coughing and doubled over. Primrose reached over to see what was wrong when she smelled it as well.
 
“Come on; let’s just hang out in our room. It smells like shit in here,” Leah said, swishing her tail as she walked off before Primrose could catch up.
 
---
 
Sunshine flew through the air on his breeze, much to Autumn Gale and Skysong’s joy. When they found out that he found out the secret to flight, they were ecstatic; they were both eager to teach him what they knew as well. Fleet Feather watched over the pegasi from a low hanging cloud above the bureau.
 
Most clouds outside of Equestria were too high in the atmosphere to use for living space for pegasi, but some of the lower hanging ones were more practical for temporary use. The air was thick and heavy with pollutants to Fleet’s keen sense of the air around him, but he was used to it. He watched as Sunshine chased Autumn around the field beside the bureau, Skysong following behind the pair.
 
Something he saw bothered him, though. In the parking lot outside the bureau, a group of cars pulled in. Not a bus or a single car with a lone soul looking for conversion, but a small group of maybe six cars consisting of a few pickup trucks and vans. They parked in the very back of the lot, and sat there for a short while. Fleet Feather snuck to the edge of the cloud to watch the gathering closer. A group of middle aged to older men exited the vehicles along with various signs and other objects.
 
The younger pegasi saw the commotion as well, and looked to Fleet Feather for any idea of what to do. They spotted him on the cloud and all flew up to find him looking over the edge; he gestured for them to be quiet and to watch from the edge as well. None of them had personally walked on clouds before, but Fleet Feather seemed to be secure enough on the cottony blob.
 
Their hooves sunk in maybe half an inch to the surprisingly sturdy material; after the short surprise of their cloud-walking ability, they looked over the edge at the group of men.
 
“Fleet, what’s going on?” Autumn asked.
 
“Nothing good, I can assure you that.”
 
More cars began filling the back of the parking lot, and the group of men grew to be a mob of people yelling things and waving signs as they stood in the parking lot of the bureau. Fleet Feather’s face contorted into a frown as he gritted his teeth. As the minutes passed, the mob grew piece by piece until the roar of voices could easily reach the group thousands of feet up.
 
“That’s enough of that. If you all are going to follow me, stay on the roof of the bureau, and don’t come down. No matter what.” And with that, Fleet Feather dove down from the cloud to the asphalt below.
 
Fleet Feather landed hard in front of the group between them and the bureau. The chants fell silent and were replaced with gazes of hate. “Jus’ what in the hell do you think you’re doing there, vermin?” the man in the front yelled out. He had a thick moustache and wore a plain tee shirt with dirty jeans.
 
“You are trespassing on private property belonging to the Kingdom of Equestria and its two benevolent rulers, Princess Cele-”
 
“Yeah, yeah, Princess Bubblegum Raindrops, right?” the man chortled. “You can’t have us leave public property, and that is precisely what this parking lot is!”
 
“Be that as it may, as a High Knight of the Royal Canterlot Guard, I will not allow you to harass this facility or any of the humans or ponies within.”
 
The man looked surprised. “Military man, eh? Got a wife?”
 
“I have somepony,” Fleet Feather replied, reluctantly.
 
“What’s ‘er name?”
 
Fleet Feather sighed. “HIS name is Daily Dose. He works as a nurse at the Canterlot Medical Clinic, and I care for him very deeply. Why do you want to know?”
 
The front members of the mob stood silent as the man and a few others with him began to seethe with anger. “I don’t know where you think you are, rodent. We don’t take too kindly to you cock-suckers down here.”
 
“Y’all ain’t natural!”
 
“Gut the fag!”
 
“Kill them pony scum! Kill ‘em all!”
 
The calls for violence from the crowd didn’t budge Fleet Feather from his spot. “If you think a few hollow threats are going to move this old stallion, by all means test my patience.” Sunshine, Autumn, and Skysong had never seen or heard Fleet Feather act like this before; they had known he was a bit blunt and hard with his teaching methods, but a knight of the guards?
 
“Any man who tries to pass me will lose more than just their consciousness.” Fleet Feather planted his hooves into the hard ground and stared down the mustached man. "This property belongs to Equestria and her citizens, and any trespassing or attack on residents therein will result in the immediate incarceration of all guilty parties."
 
The man with the mustache let out a hearty laugh. "Yeah? Where's your support, huh? You can't expect us to believe that one stinking horse can overpower the whole lot of us, do you?"
 
Fleet Feather gulped. He knew about the communications blackout when he spoke to Garnet earlier in the morning, and any attempt to call for support wouldn't be possible without it. "We have platoons of guards ready to 'port in at a moments notice. You would be outnumbered within a minute." Fleet prayed to Celestia that they bought his bluff. He knew full well they weren't getting any reinforcements unless they got their communications up again.
 
Most of the mob seemed to buy his threat. They backed off and lowered their signs, but the man with the mustache stood his ground. He reached behind his back and slowly pulled out a gun that gleamed in the bright sunlight. He pointed it directly at Fleet Feather and scowled.
 
"It ain't polite to lie, is it, mister knight of the guard?"
 
Motherbucker! Fleet cursed to himself. He knew. It was set up by the HLF this whole time. But this was too involved for it to be a simple protest. Fleet tried to piece together the revelations made to him, but before he could, his instincts took over before he could realize it.
 
A deafening sound pained the  ears of everyone around as the man with the mustache fired the gun right at Fleet Feather. He had taken the opportunity to leap into the air and behind the barrier on the roof, where the panicked faces of the three other pegasi waited for him.
 
"To the inner garden!" he shouted as he flew over the group. They all obeyed the order and dropped to the center of the garden where Fleet waited. His mane was a mess of black, and his eyes were vacant with horror.
 
"Fleet, what's wrong? What's going on?" Sunshine asked.
 
"Get to your rooms. Only the ones on the inner side of the hallway inside. Do NOT leave them or go near any windows that look outside. We're going into a lockdown." Fleet Feather galloped toward the offices to warn Garnet. They needed to activate the security gates immediately before anypony got hurt.
 
---
 
Jay relaxed in the library. He was looking for Firecracker to explain what was going on between him and Peach Cobbler, but he had been missing for some time now. He practiced a bit more of his levitation with the books on the table he was sitting at; manipulating two books at the same time was gradually becoming easier for him, but the weight itself was proving taxing. He placed the pair of books back down on the table, and sighed.
 
After waiting for Firecracker for a bit longer, Jay gave up. He was sure to show up at some point, and Jay was in no rush to talk to him after their last interaction, but it was not something he could just let go unsaid.
 
"Attention everypony. This is an emergency announcement. Please move to your rooms and lock your doors. We are now in a lockdown. If your room has a window facing outside the bureau ring, please move to a room across the hall. This is for your own safety. I repeat..."
 
Jay listened with disbelief. A lockdown? Why? He timidly walked out from the library and began to drift down the hall towards his own room. He walked into the cafeteria ,but the smell from before assaulted his nose. He immediately closed the door, blocking off the foul stench.
 
It was the same smell from breakfast, but it was nowhere near this bad before. Jay took a deep breath and burst through the doors and rushed through the expansive room. The scent still reached his nose, but he tried his best to ignore the burning pain it caused him. He finally made it through the doors to the residential wings of the bureau. He let out his breath and took a few quaffs of fresh air.
 
He slowly walked down the silent hall to his own room, past the common room. He could hear some noise growing in volume the further down the hallway he walked. It  felt like a deep rumble at first, but the closer he got to the common room, he began to hear more distinct voices and yells.
 
Jay pushed the door to the common room open with his hoof to be greeted with the same smell as what he experienced in the cafeteria. Taking another deep breath, he stormed through the room to the doors opposite of him; the burning in his nose wasn't as bad this time, but his eyes were beginning to water by the time he reached the hallway.
 
He quickly rushed to his and Sunshine's room and tried to push the door open, but it didn't budge. "Who's there?" a voice asked from the other side of the door.
 
"Dude! It's me! Jay!" A click sounded from inside the door as the lock slid out. Jay pushed the door in and closed it behind him. Sunshine locked the door and sighed. "Sunshine? What's going on? Why are we in a lockdown?"
 
"It's the HLF. They're rioting outside the bureau. Last we saw, the group was half the size of the parking lot out front, and still growing. They pulled a bucking gun on Fleet Feather!"
 
"What?!" Jay didn't know what to think. He trotted over to his bed and sat down on it. He looked down at his hooves. "Why do they hate us so much? Why do they want to have a riot here of all places? We're in the middle of bucking nowhere!"
 
"I don't know, Jay. We're just going to have to sit and wait this one out."
 
Jay looked out through their window to the garden in the middle of the bureau, and his thoughts immediately drifted to Primrose. He hoped she was okay.
 
---
 
Leah and Primrose were huddled inside of Peppermint and Skysong's room. Their original room faced out towards the mob, and had to relocate. Skysong had filled the three in about the mob outside and the confrontation with Fleet Feather.
 
"Of course they had to choose today of all days to riot!" Leah groaned. "The very day I get converted, we have to spend it huddled up in the dark. This. Sucks!"  The filly snorted and huffed.
 
"Why haven't the police come yet? Shouldn't they be here to keep us safe?" Peppermint asked.
 
"I don't know... The one guy said that Fleet was lying when he said that we would have guards from Canterlot coming to help us... I didn't like the sound of it..."
 
“We’ll just have to wait until it’s safe to leave, I guess,” Primrose mumbled.
 
She stared out the window to the garden as a few clouds sluggishly drifted overhead.
 
---
 
“Peach, you sure it’s okay to be in here?” Berry Blue asked from the sink. He was cleaning off some platters and plates left over from breakfast, his hooves soaked from the water.
 
Peach Cobbler packed another sandwich into a paper bag along with a juice bottles. “I don’t see why not! The mean folks are out front, right?” she said, smiling. She tried to put on a good show for Berry Blue and Cocoa Malt; in fact, she was terrified. The HLF were well known throughout Equestria and the ponies there, especially those who volunteered for service at the bureaus.
 
“Well we need to get everyone their lunches. Berry, you take care of the girls, I’ll head to the guys’ rooms.” Cocoa loaded the paper bags into his own saddlebags and trotted out the door into the cafeteria. The smell was still present, but with the vents in the kitchen cycling the air, they didn’t have to smell it in there. He snorted and left the cafeteria to the guys rooms.
 
Berry Blue packed the girls lunches in his own bags and followed Cocoa Malt out, leaving Peach all by herself in the kitchen. She looked out the window to the garden in the center of the bureau from the counter. The day was far too beautiful for them to be in a lockdown.
 
---
 
Garnet peeked through the window of the door leading to the lobby. Outside the front wall of glass windows stood the angry mob, yelling and waving signs. The metal security gate had come down at the beginning of the lockdown in front of the glass, keeping the mob a safe distance away.
 
“This is getting pretty bad,” Garnet said as she dropped her head. It was well past lunchtime, and the newfoals were still sequestered to their rooms. “Perhaps we should send someone out to get in touch with the police,” Garnet suggested.
 
“That would be helpful, but that wouldn’t solve our problem. Our communications are down, and according to Fleet, the mob outside knows something about it. But since they’re staying a fair distance away from the building, the police won’t be able to do anything but watch.” Firecracker snorted.
 
Garnet leaned in for another look, but recoiled from the door with a look of disgust on her face. “What is it?” Firecracker asked.
 
“That smell,” Garnet spat. “It’s not that bad in here, but outside that door it’s nauseating.”
 
“What smell?” Firecracker asked.
 
“You can’t smell it?” Garnet responded.
 
“I can’t smell at all. Accident when I got my cutie mark when I was a colt. What did you mean by this smell?” Firecracker focused entirely on Garnet now; it was as if the mob outside didn’t exist anymore.
 
“Well, we’ve been getting complaints from the newfoals about this awful smell in the cafeteria and common room, as well in the lobby here. It’s been there all morning and it’s been getting worse since. Why? What’s wrong?”
 
“What does it smell like?”
 
“It kind of smells like rotten eggs, or something like that.”
 
Firecracker’s eyes grew wide as his mouth went slack. He shook his head to bring himself back as he looked back out through the window to the lobby and mob outside. There it was.
 
A few of the humans in the mob held objects in their hands; some held red bricks, while others held bottles with strips of burning cloth coming from the mouth. The first group hurled the bricks through the gaps in the security gate, shattering some of the panes of glass in the lobby.
 
“Go go go!” Firecracker screamed, pulling Garnet with him. The mare was thoroughly confused as she was being dragged, but eventually pulled herself free and ran behind Firecracker. He quickly rounded a corner and threw open a door to an unoccupied office. He ran in, tossed the desk down and yanked Garnet in with his magic. He slammed the door shut and pushed the desk up against it.
 
“Firecracker! What’s going on?!” Garnet asked as he scurried to the far corner of the room.
 
“Just get over here! Stay away from that door at all costs!” he muttered. Garnet had never seen the stallion so nervous in her time knowing him. “I just hope everypony else is somewhere safe…”
 
---
 
Peach looked up from the sink and out the window from the cafeteria. There were a few humans standing out there, close up next to the security gate. One of them hurled a brick at one of the windows, shattering it. Peach yelped in surprise as Berry Blue looked up at the noise.
 
“What’s that?” Peach asked, seeing the bottle in one of their hands. It had a rag attached to it that was crackling with a flame. The human holding it drew their arm back and threw it at the metal gate, shattering the bottle and causing a bright flash.
 
Peach gasped as the flash grew and grew, until a large brown pony tackled her to the ground and covered her with his body.
 
Peach Cobbler screamed as the wave of exploding gas washed over the cafeteria, knocking down the doors to the halls on both sides, and igniting the gas there.
 
---
 
Jay and Sunshine scrambled around the room, trying to get their senses back. The door to their room burst inward, followed by a scalding wave of heat. Jay looked over at Sunshine, who’s right wing was heavily scorched, most of the feathers burned down to the root. He felt a strong stinging on the left side of his face and body. He looked down and saw some scorch marks, but no substantial burns.
 
“What the buck was that?” Sunshine yelled. He coughed as he drew in breaths of superheated air and smoke.
 
“I have no idea!” Jay yelled back. The lights had gone out, and the light from the window was now obscured by a towering wall of smoke coming from the other side of the bureau. “Was the bureau attacked?”
 
“I don’t know! We should find out if anypony else is okay or hurt!” Sunshine called back. The pair stuck their heads out into the charred remains of the hallway; the ceiling tiles were all on the ground in pieces, leaving the internal wiring above exposed. Fire still burned on most of the walls, creating a hellish pathway that lay before them.
 
“Rob's right next door. I’m going to check on him,” Jay said before going out into the blazing heat. His coat mitigated some of the burning, but it stung his left side considerably. He saw the door after a few short steps and slowly moved it aside.
 
Inside, it looked as if Rob was thrown against the back wall by the blast. Even in the flickering light and smog, he could see that Rob did not look well. He was pale, his skin glistened with sweat, and some blisters had formed on his face from the fire.
 
Jay walked over to him and nudged him. “Rob? Can you stand?”
 
Rob opened his eyes and grunted. He used Jay’s body to help himself up, but needed the support to stay upright. His legs were trembling, and his head seemed to roll from side to side as he walked. “We need to get out of here!” Jay yelled. Rob nodded and followed him out and into the hallway.
 
---
 
Primrose finally came to her senses. The heat was almost unbearable. The door was laying on the ground, and a seething orange glow came from the hallway. Smoke was thick in the air, but she could still see the three other ponies in the room. They all were moving slowly, but they were alive at least.
 
“What was that?” Peppermint asked, shaking soot and burned hairs from her mane and tail.
 
Prim opened her mouth to answer, but she paused. She could hear something coming from the hallway; a faint screaming. She knew she needed to help whoever it was. Primrose ran out from the room, and down the hallway towards the screaming voice. The heat was considerably worse than inside the shelter of the room, but somepony needed help.
 
Primrose found a door the screaming was coming from and pushed it open, slowly. Inside was the wreckage of the kitchen. Pans, dishes, utensils, and food were scattered all over the floor, while some of the plastic cabinets had melted off their hinges. The screaming continued from further in.
 
Against her better judgment, Primrose went farther in to help whoever was in trouble. She rounded a corner in the kitchen and saw the wreckage of the cafeteria. The ceiling was covered by a several foot thick layer of smoke with flames climbing the walls. The screaming was fading to feeble cries as Primrose found her. She was covered by a black, charred shape, but heaving that aside, she saw her. Peach Cobbler, sobbing.
 
Primrose finally got a look at the other side of the black object. It was the back of Cocoa Malt, one of the newer cooks. He had thrown himself over Peach Cobbler to shield her from the blast so she could survive. Primrose froze in terror. Cocoa’s eyes were still wide open, but didn’t hold the glow of life that they usually had.
 
Prim felt something tugging on one of her front legs; it was Peach curling up around it, holding onto her as she wept. Primrose pulled Peach in closer and tried to comfort her, despite her previous reservations about the mare and Jay, but this was bigger than fighting over colts.
 
“Can you stand?” Primrose asked. Peach sniffed and nodded. Primrose took a moment to look around the kitchen and saw another charred figure by the other end of the counter; the other cook, Berry Blue.
 
“Let’s get out of here, okay?” The pair made their way through the smoke and back into the hallway.
 
---
 
Firecracker coughed as he rose to his hooves. Garnet slowly rose to her own hooves behind him. The door had held firm behind the desk, but the smoke was still seeping in through the edges.
 
“What was that?” Garnet asked as Firecracker began moving the desk out from in front of the door.
 
“Fuel-air explosion. Whoever did this snuck in last night and set dispensers to release an explosive and flammable gas throughout the bureau to be lit by the mob. That smell everyone was complaining about? That was the gas.” Firecracker cracked the door open, letting only a small sliver of the outside hallway be exposed to the relatively unharmed office.
 
“Was it the HLF?” Garnet asked before a gust of sweltering air slammed into the unicorns.
 
“No,” Firecracker croaked through a cough. “It’s too well thought out to be just them. Probably someone acting through them to make it look like some accident. Come on, let’s see who else is okay. We need to evacuate.”
 
“Out there?” Garnet said. “Those HLF humans won’t let us leave! We could try and escape into the forest, but my gut is telling me they have the place surrounded. I think… I think we need to teleport out of the building.”
 
Firecracker stopped in his tracks. “Are you being completely serious, Garnet? Who here can teleport so many ponies? I know I can’t, so does that mean…” Garnet slowly nodded. “Blimey. I had no idea you were that good. Okay then, that means we’ll need to get everyone gathered up in one place, so…”
 
“There’s a safe room in the basement under the residential common room, across the bureau,” Garnet said. “It should keep the flames out and everypony safe while I get the spell ready and charged up.”
 
“You need to charge it?” Firecracker asked as he passed a scorched office. The inside was completely charred black, and a few figures were present. Who they were, he couldn’t say. He gave a short prayer to Celestia for them and anypony else who had lost their lives.
 
“Ten minutes. That’s all I need. Go and get everypony else and meet me over there. There should be a door to the basement with a path to the safe room near the conversion room. I’ll make an announcement if the intercom still works. If not, we’ll have to get the colts and fillies ourselves.”
 
“Right.”
 
---
 
Jay managed to guide Rob back to their room without either of them collapsing; Jay was supporting the majority of Rob’s weight on his back. Was it the infection in his arm that was doing this to him?
 
The fire was still going strong, the heat in the air making it harder to breathe with each passing minute. Sunshine helped the two back into their room, and set Rob down against his bed to rest. It was only a short distance, but Rob was wheezing and shaking.
 
“Is he going to be okay?” Sunshine asked. Jay bit his lip; Rob was counting on getting converted before whatever is ailing him got to this point.
 
“He won’t be for much longer. I don’t think he’s been able to leave his room since yesterday,” Jay said.
 
A faint crackling sounded through the room over the sound of the fire. “…lo? Can anypony hear me?”
 
Jay and Sunshine looked at each other in surprise.
 
“I don’t… work, but ev… needs to get to… basement! We’re going to… here!” The speaker crackled once more and died. The fact that it was able to broadcast anything during the fire was a miracle.
 
Jay walked over to the door and braced himself against the waves of heat coming from the flames outside. “Get Rob up and leaned against me!”
 
Sunshine poked Rob with one of his hooves. Rob mumbled and rolled his head to the side. He used Sunshine’s body to lift himself up, and trudged over to Jay. Jay’s head reached just above Rob’s waist, but he didn’t need to lean down far to find Jay’s back to rest on.
 
“Do you know where the basement is?” Jay asked Sunshine. They pushed against the heat into the burning corridor right as the ceiling collapsed on their left, blocking off the way to the lobby. “I guess we go towards the common room then.”
 
After only a few yards of progress, the two ponies were panting and exhausted. The smoke was burning their throats, and the heat was messing with their thoughts. Jay thought he heard voices coming from further down the hallway, but a silhouette appeared through the smoke and fire.
 
“Jay! Sunshine!” It was Autumn Gale, with Quake and Sugarberry behind him. “We were just going to go find you two! Whoa…” Autumn gawked at Rob in his feeble condition.
 
“Quake!” Jay grunted. “A little help? Can you take him?” The blue earth pony nodded and trotted over. Rob saw what was happening and switched leaning posts. Quake was better built for carrying heavy loads than Jay’s feeble frame as a unicorn.
 
“We need to find the basement! What was back there?” Quake asked as he guided Rob forward with the group.
 
“Dead end. The building is coming down in places already.” Jay grunted as another wave of heat washed over him and his burned side. “We need to check the hallway on the other side of the common room for the fillies and see if there’s a door over there.”
 
“Primrose?” Autumn Gale asked, knowing full well why Jay wanted to go through the burning hell the common room was bound to be. Jay looked up at the brown pegasus and nodded. “I need to make sure Skysong is safe too. I’m right in there with you, buddy.”
 
They reached the doors to the common room after a few minutes of slow progression. Sugarberry was surprisingly brave against the fire, not even breaking down once. Quake had commended her on the face and promised to get her a treat after they got out of the building.
 
“You know what that means, right Berry?”
 
“Huh?” the filly wondered, looking up at her brother.
 
“That means we will get out of here. Without a doubt.” The blue earth pony smiled. “I never break promises.”
 
Tears began forming in Sugarberry’s eyes, but not from fear. She knew her older brother would refuse letting anything hurt them.
 
The doors were slightly ajar already from the blast. Jay pushed them open with his magic, unleashing another searing wave of burning air to wash over the group. The entirety of the carpet was gone, leaving only charred concrete for the group to tread across. The furniture throughout the large room was all ablaze, creating a hellish atmosphere for the group to cross into.
 
Their hooves clopped against the hard concrete as they walked through. When they found the other end past the dark smoke creeping down from the ceiling, the doors were blocked off by a wall of fire several feet thick. The doors were closed, and if they functioned like the ones they passed on the other side of the room, they open inward.
 
“How are we going to get through?” Sunshine asked before breaking down into a fit of coughs.
 
Jay lit his horn up and tugged on one of the doors, past the fire. The door swung open towards the group, revealing the hallway beyond. There was no fire that they could see past the door.
 
“Everyone needs to just run through! If you’re fast enough, you won’t get burned!” Quake yelled. "Rob, hop on my back and hold on tight. You too, Berry. Jay, can you get that second door open?”
 
Jay looked up and nodded. He expanded the field of his magic to the second door and opened that one as well. It was straining his mind, but it was holding. “Everypony needs to go through quickly! I’ll come through last! Go!”
 
Quake galloped into a jump with Rob and Sugarberry holding onto his mane from his back. It was surprising to see him carry himself so well with a human and a filly riding him, but Jay was glad to see them go through. Autumn Gale followed the trio, with Sunshine in tow.
 
Jay began cantering towards the door; if he wasn’t too careful, the spell would collapse and the doors would close. Almost as if on cue, he felt the connection to the doors sever from his wavering concentration; they began to drift closed as he desperately tried to pick up speed to push through the barrier. He leaped through the wall of fire and fell through the other side right as the doors closed.
 
“Bucking hell, Jay. Don’t pull a stunt like that again!” Sunshine yelled. He ran over and helped Jay up onto his hooves, then gave him a quick hug. It was a small gesture, but Jay appreciated it greatly.
 
The group wandered down the hall for another few yards. Rob was unconscious on Quake’s back; Sugarberry trotted on beside her brother. Only now did Jay notice that Quake was sweating and his legs were starting to tremble as he lifted them from the ground.
 
Autumn Gale suddenly paused, then shot off a few feet down the hall to a door on the right wall. “Here it is!” he yelled back. The group met up with him and saw it: the downward stairs sign on the door. It had to be the basement.
 
“Who’s there? Hello?” a voice called from further down the hall.
 
Autumn’s ears perked up. “Sky? Skysong, is that you?” he yelled.
 
“Autumn!” the filly yelled, running through the smoke into the colt’s brown hooves. Her cream mane flew over the colt’s shoulder as she embraced him. When she leaned back to get a good look at him, they shared a smile and both leaned in for a deep, passionate kiss.
 
“Skysong! Where’d you go?” another voice called out. Jay recognized it. Primrose.
 
“We’re over here!’ Sunshine yelled. Another group emerged through the smoke. Jay saw Peppermint gallop through, followed by Primrose and Peach Cobbler. Peach immediately ran over to Jay, throwing her hooves around his neck, greatly surprising him. She was openly crying, her tears dampening his coat.
 
“Peach! What’s wrong?” Jay asked, waiting for the mare to come to her senses.
 
“C-Cocoa Malt saved me… he and Berry…” she managed to say before weeping once more.
 
“Somepony help me open this door! It’s jammed!” Autumn yelled as he tried pushing on the door. It cracked open a slight bit, revealing what was blocking it: a collapsed beam on the other side was keeping it shut. Autumn ignored it and kept pushing, struggling against the heat in the air, and the rapidly thickening of the smoke.
 
A sharp crash came from the doors to the common room; a dark grey earth pony barreled through the doors, sending them tumbling to the ground a few feet away. Behind him was a tall woman in a lab coat.
 
“Who are you?” Sunshine asked the grey pony. He scowled as his black mane covered part of his face.
 
“Anvil. I’m Anvil now.” Jay was surprised for somepony to be so hostile to another pony at a time like this.
 
“Oh hush, Hank. He’s just a little upset is all. Something blocking the door?” Samantha asked.
 
“Doctor Samantha?” Jay asked.
 
“The one and only! I was checking up on Hank here-” Anvil shot Samantha a glare. “Fine! Anvil here, to make sure he was okay after last night’s conversion. Sometimes folks get a little… confused after conversion. I was helping him through it when the lockdown started.”
 
Anvil pushed Autumn out of his way. He gave the earth pony a glare as he backed up next to Skysong. Anvil turned around, reared up on his front legs, and delivered a kick with both hooves to the door that sent it and the beam tumbling down the staircase.
 
Jay and Sunshine watched in stunned silence as Anvil wordlessly began his descent to the basement where Garnet was supposed to be waiting. The group was spurred into action when another part of the ceiling by the common room collapsed in, raining burning embers throughout the hallway. They all dashed down the staircase and into the darkness.
 
---
 
Jay rushed into the closed off room through the choking smoke. While the actual fire had yet to reach down into the basement, the lockdown had closed in all of the smoke, flooding the facility with the toxic gas. There were already a lot of ponies inside the room; Garnet was standing in the middle with her horn lit with her ruby glow, Firecracker right next to her with his own orange glow.
 
There were a few of the bureau staff ponies present; but a few faces Jay remembered weren’t there. Garnet, Firecracker, Fleet Feather, and Jasmine were all present. Jay was thankful for the first three, but how Jasmine managed to survive was unknown. The two unicorns stood in the middle of the room, Garnet’s horn lit up already.
 
Fleet Feather stood to the side, watching over everypony present. Peach Cobbler sat on the ground in a stupor, her eyes distant and faded. Clementine walked over and sat with the yellow mare, nuzzling her and trying to get some sort of reaction out of her.
 
Sunshine crashed in behind Jay followed by Rob on Quake’s back. The blue pony rolled his unconscious body off his back in the center of the room; he was pale and his breathing was very slight, almost non-existent. Firecrakcer levitated a cup from a cooler beside him and poured what looked like a purple fluid down his throat.
 
“Somepony take his clothes off! Hurry! And get him on his side! Are there any humans left?” Garnet yelled out over the small crowd.
 
“I don’t think so!” Sunshine called out. “Samantha was right behind us, I think she’s the last one.”
 
“Someone call my name?”
 
The red-haired doctor appeared in the doorway with a smirk. Her white lab coat was stained grey in places and the corners were singed, but aside from that and a few other stains, she looked no worse for wear.
 
A loud clap deafened everyone’s ears that instant. The sound reverberated off the closed space, echoing for a few moments afterward. Everypony looked around for the source, but Jay saw it. Samantha stood in the doorframe with a stunned expression as a blossom of red bloomed on her abdomen. She stumbled forward onto her knees until she was kicked forward by the one who caused the shot.
 
“A… Andrew?” Primrose whispered.
 
Jay stood there, his mouth agape. It was Andrew; he was dressed in a heavy coat and bore a heavy handgun with a sinister grin on his face. “All these new faces! I’ve been gone far too long. How’s everybody doing?” he asked as he strode in. Everyone present stared at him with terrified eyes, but none so petrified with horror as Primrose. And Andrew could see it. “Chloe? Is that you in there?”
 
Primrose backed away as Andrew trudged forward towards her. She backed up into a wall and squealed as he knelt down to her eye level. He brushed a tuft of her mane out from her face as she tried to stay still; but as hard as she tried, she trembled in fear, helpless.
 
“Chloe! It is you!” Andrew cheered as he smiled. “Come with me! We’ll get you cured and back into your real body and-”
 
“No…”
 
“Hm?”
 
“I don’t want to go with you.” Andrew backed away from Primrose. “And I’m not Chloe anymore… My name is Primrose.”
 
Andrew furrowed his brow in disgust. “You’re one of them now, huh?” he said, pointing to Garnet and Firecracker. Primrose dropped her gaze and nodded her head. In a flash of motion, Andrew slammed the butt of his gun down on the top of her head, drawing a scream from the filly. She collapsed in a heap on the ground, blood seeping into her blue coat from the wound.
 
Jay felt something light inside his body right then. An uncontrollable rage, something he never felt before. Seeing Andrew laughing over the stunned body of the mare he was infatuated with… Without a single thought to object to his action, he charged forward and slammed his body into Andrew, sending the human tumbling to the floor a few feet away from Primrose.
 
She cracked an eye open to see what was causing the commotion. Jay stood between her and Andrew, his chest heaving, his eyes blazing with adrenaline and absent of any sense. Andrew got to his feet and stormed over to the beige unicorn, sending a powerful kick into his side. Jay flew and crashed into one of the walls by the door; the impact loosened the already weakened supports behind the wall, causing an avalanche of burning debris from above to land on the unicorn. A massive flanged beam fell forward and landed on his front left foreleg, crushing it under its colossal weight, drawing a guttural scream from him.
 
Jay struggled to retain his consciousness through the pain. His vision was beginning to blur and fade, but he saw Andrew laughing. He turned back around from Jay and to Primrose once again.
 
“There’s no going back, Chloe. No going back.” Andrew lifted the gun and pointed it at the helpless filly on the ground.
 
Jay felt another surge of adrenaline course through his battered body. His eyes darted around the cramped room from his stationary position. Everypony else was huddled together away from Andrew and Primrose, none of them risking their lives to help her like Jay did; it would only end in more bodies on the ground.
 
Somepony had managed to drag Samantha over next to Rob and feed her the potion; she was in the middle of her conversion, while Rob layed next to her in his new equine form. The details of the new form escaped Jay’s perception, but he was still asleep but very much alive.
 
Jay finally saw it. A loose length of rebar jutting down from the ceiling right above Andrew’s  head. His impact into the wall loosened more of the ceiling tiles than he thought, but it was angled perfectly. Jay forced as much of his magic into his horn and subsequently into the piece of iron as he could. When he felt he packed in as much as he could, he let out a loud shout.
 
“STOP!!”
 
The iron rebar shot downward directly at the back of Andrew’s head in a blur of gold and grey. It drove through the base of his skull and out of his mouth and embedding itself into the wall, an inch from Primrose’s cheek. Andrew’s eyes grew wide as soon as he knew what happened. A trickle of blood began to drip down the length of the pole, dripping to the ground as it went.
 
Andrew screamed in agony, struggling to move his head, but only succeeding causing more pain. Jay smiled, knowing that he was able to save Primrose, even if it wasn’t before she got hurt.
 
Andrew pulled the gun up and traded the hand he was holding it in and blindly aimed it in Jay’s direction and pulled the trigger several times. He felt the impacts on the beam that was crushing his foreleg, but after several misses, a single bullet struck home. The intense sensations made the beam crushing his leg feel like nothing; it was as if his entire body was on fire, being frozen, electrocuted, and crushed at the same time while his mind was aflame with agony. He only felt it for a fraction of a second before everything went black.
 
---

 Prim looked in horror as Jay’s horn shattered from the gunshot. It was accompanied by a bright spark and a flash of light as Jay’s body went rigid; his eyes grew wide for a moment then closed as the rest of his body went slack. A trickle of blood dripped down his forehead from inside the messy tangle of his mane.
 
Primrose looked back up at Andrew, the metal beam coming from the blackness of his mouth. The lights in his eyes were all but gone, the pistol hanging loosely from his hand. She tried to squirm out from under him, but her head throbbed with each beat of her racing heart.
 
“Jay…” she said as she crawled over. “Jay! Jay, please be alive! Please!” Primrose could feel the tears coming down her cheeks. The selflessness he showed was unfathomable to her; she had constantly pushed him away and denied anything she may have felt for him until the very last minute. And yet… he still put his life on the line for her. He still cared so much for her that he risked his life for her… a life that he may have just lost.  “Jay, please open your eyes, please look at me,” she cried. “Jay… please wake up… please…” she whispered as she kissed him gently on his cheek. His eyes were only half open, but there was no life behind them. “I love you…” Primrose began sobbing into his mane, using it to muffle her crying.
 
“Prim! Prim, hold onto Jay! Garnet’s almost got the teleport spell ready!” Peppermint yelled. She had grabbed onto one of Primrose’s back legs, and another pony was connected to her. She wrapped her forelegs around Jay’s head and cradled it. Her tears were darkening his mane as she cried into it more.
 
“Garnet! Are you sure you can do this?” Firecracker yelled. The roar of the fire was getting louder over their heads and the room was rapidly getting hotter. The burning wreckage of the bureau was weighing down on the safe room, but it was never designed to support that much weight. If they didn’t go now, the ceiling was going to collapse in on them.
 
“I… I don’t know. But we don’t have any other choice! It’s either try to teleport to Equestria or die from the fire. Which do you prefer?” Garnet asked sarcastically. Firecracker dropped his ears back as he bit onto Garnet’s tail to secure his grip on her as she teleported. Everypony was connected to one another; Jasmine was biting his tail rather hard as she glared at him. He wasn’t in any mood to deal with her.
 
“Are the conversions done?” Garnet asked, sweat beading on her coat. Firecracker leaned down between the two unconscious ponies and listened by each of their mouths. He looked back up at Garnet and nodded.  “Okay everypony, hold on tight!” Firecracker resecured his mouth’s grip on the mare’s tail.
 
A blinding white light began to build up around each of the connected ponies, a strange tingling enveloping their bodies. Autumn Wind and Skysong both embraced each other, staring at the layer of smoke creeping ever closer from the ceiling. Sugar Berry huddled close to Quake, who looked down at his sister confidently and whispered something in her ear. She seemed to relax a bit, but didn’t budge from her spot next to him.
 
Rob was asleep on the ground, his new black mane and yellow coat indicative of his new body; a short horn protruded from the black mess of his mane. Samantha’s coat was a deep pink and her mane bright yellow. Her body showed no horn or wings.
 
The light of the spell reached the eyes of one other though. Andrew was still in unbearable agony, but he looked past it. His vision was only limited to the wall the bar was embedded in, but the shadows on it gave him enough of a direction. He lifted his arm up, aimed the pistol blindly towards the light and fired a single shot.
 
Firecracker watched in horror as Garnet’s eyes widened and a fountain of red burst from her throat, spraying him with a fine mist. With a final, bright flash, the ponies vanished, leaving Andrew as the last of his life left him.  

> The Sixth Day
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sand.

Sand in his coat, sand in his mane, sand in his mouth.

Firecracker gasped a lungful of air finally realizing that he could, tasting a stinging metallic smell in his nose as well as a heavy, salty wind. A dull ringing echoed in his ears, along with what seemed like waves of sound. They were distorted; muffled. 

Some figure shadowed over his prone form; the only way Firecracker could tell was the fact that the blinding sun that was hurting his eyes even through his eyelids let up for just a moment. Somepony began rocking him side to side, trying to rouse him faster than he was already. 

“Wa... it,” he wheezed. The sand in his mouth and his painful lungs were making speaking a great challenge, but he managed to alert whoever was beside him to his awareness. 

He attempted to flutter his eyes open, but immediately regretted the decision. The sun was shining directly into his eyes, and blinded him the very moment his eyes opened. 

“Firecracker, can you hear me? Firecracker!” the voice asked, finally able to reach the unicorn’s ears. 

“I’m... here. In a matter of speaking.” A fit of coughs erupted from inside his chest, but subsided after a moment. Firecracker kept his eyes shut but began to rise to his hooves. His legs were weak, but the urgency in whoever’s voice felt important.

“It’s Garnet!” 

The name... It sent a surge of lightning through the stallion’s body, reinvigorating his mind and rejuvenating his body. He opened his eyes, the pain from the sunlight virtually gone. The stallion standing in front of him was Sunshine, the blue and blond pegasus. He was already rushing off through the sparse vegetation around them. 

Firecracker galloped through, following the pegasus. He burst out shortly after onto a long, white stretch of beach; in front of him was a small crater, with a small huddle of ponies gathered in the middle. Firecracker leaped down the small drop to the floor of the crater and pushed the other ponies out of his way.

Garnet was lying in the sand on her side; her eyes were glazed over and faded, while the hole in her neck slowly dribbled with blood. A familiar sense of dread filled Firecracker. He looked around the group of ponies surrounding them.

“Anypony! We need a doctor! QUICKLY!” Firecracker shouted. A wave of shock coursed through everypony present.

“We don’t have anything to help her with, Firecracker,” a pony said, walking up to him. Her mane was a bright yellow, her coat a light pink. It took a second to register, but it was the doctor Samantha form the bureau. She was converted in the basement before they teleported. “It’s a wonder she’s still alive... for as long as that’ll last...”

Firecracker looked back down at the red unicorn, a colossal weight in his stomach. Garnet’s eye shifted up and looked at Firecracker, a tear rolling down her cheek. 

“No,” Firecracker said, forcefully. “Sam, is the bullet still in her, or did it go straight through?”

Samantha looked confused for a second, but shook the sense back into her head. She leaned down, still slightly awkward in her new body. She almost fell onto her face in the blood tinged sand, but caught herself in time; she looked down at the wound in Garnet’s neck for a moment.

“It nicked an artery and her trachea, but it went clear through.”

Firecracker smirked. “Stand back.”

Samantha backed up into somepony, but wormed her way into the group as it backed up from the center of the crater. Firecracker’s horn glowed a bright orange as a thing tongue of flame snaked out from the tip and down towards Garnet’s neck. Her eyes closed and her body relaxed.

Firecracker’s brow was already soaked with sweat from the heat, but the concentration he needed for the precision of his task meant that he needed to draw on every way he knew how to focus. The tongue of flame disappeared into Garnet’s wound and began coating the inside of the bullet’s path. A fine trail of smoke rose from the wound before the flame melted the skin on both sides of the wound, sealing it shut. 

Firecracker let the flame evaporate and relaxed slightly, letting his muscles and mind ease up. Garnet opened her eye, stared at him and mouthed something before falling unconscious. 

Thank you.

Firecracker wiped the sweat from his brow with his hoof and fell back onto his rump. Garnet was going to be okay... for now. He wasn’t an expert in medicine or restorative magic, but infection was going to become a problem soon if nothing was done. 

A commotion began to rise from behind the group; somepony was yelling. Heads turned to see a panicked earth pony bound out from the bushes further down the beach. She ran towards the group, tears flowing from her eyes, her hooves stumbling every few steps in the sand. 

“Someone! Someone help!” she screamed. Her voice was heavy with panic and cracked on some words. Firecracker shoved himself through the group to find Primrose sobbing on a heap in the sand. She looked up and saw Firecracker looking over her. “It’s Jay... There’s blood... so much blood...”

“What?!” Sunshine gasped. “The bullet hit his horn... I didn’t see any blood before. Then how-”

Firecracker leaned down and nudged a tuft of Primrose’s mane away from her face. He looked her deep in the eyes. “It’s his leg, isn’t it?” Another wave of sobs coursed through her as she nodded slowly. A white earth pony with a lime green mane ran over and began helping Primrose up from the sand. 

“He’s this way,” she said through the tears. She guided Firecracker and Sunshine through a small stretch of tropical bushes and trees to find a small clearing, with a single body in the center. On any other occasion, Jay’s coat would have blended in with the sand around him, but the sand beneath him was stained red. His coat was scorched in spots, his mane was charred black where it got too close to the fires. 

“Sunshine, I need you to turn him over. Let me see his right leg.” The pegasus immediately got to work, and gently began rolling Jay’s body over. His eyes were still wide open, but empty. As Jay’s unconscious body rolled onto his other side, Sunshine bounded back from what he saw. 

Jay’s right leg, the one that was crushed by the falling beam at the bureau, was gone. The cut was clean and made Firecracker’s stomach churn just from looking at it, but it was exactly what he expected it to be. 

“What... Who did this to him?” Sunshine murmured, aghast. 

“Garnet did it.” Sunshine looked at Firecracker alarmed at his response. “Well, not consciously. Her teleportation spell was only so powerful, and there was no way for her to differentiate the metal beam from Jay’s leg by the time the spell resolved. She had to close the boundary right above his knee, right where the cut is.”

“I’m going to be sick...” Sunshine said, already turning around. He scampered over to a bush and stuck his head inside as he began heaving. 

“Primrose, stand back. And it’s probably not the best idea to watch this part. So... just turn around, okay? On second thought, head back with everypony else. We’ll bring him over with us in a few minutes.” The pony nodded and walked out of the clearing back towards the ocean glancing back a few times before vanishing.

The sun beat down on Firecracker’s coat, the dark color of it soaking in more heat than he cared to deal with. But this was no complicated job, like with Garnet. His horn sparked and glowed a brilliant orange, shooting out a tongue of flame towards Jay’s body. The flame focused down to a fine torch, focused on a smaller area, and began the grisly work of melting Jay’s wound closed. For his sake, Firecracker prayed to Celestia that he was truly unconscious in his head. Most ponies pass out from the pain of this process.

The flesh began to blacken and ooze around the stump, until the leg was scourged of hair and closed. As Firecracker let the spell dissolve into the air, the sights that he had to witness brought him to his own bush to empty the contents of his own stomach. 

Sweat dripping from his brow, Firecracker trudged back over to the still body of Jay and turned over to Sunshine. “Hey, get over here and help me with this kid.” Sunshine obliged as Firecracker levitated the unconscious body onto Sunshine’s back.

“OOF!” the pegasus grunted. “Why should I carry him?”

“Because I can barely keep myself up.” Firecracker started walking through the foliage, but Sunshine saw that each step was strained and that he was indeed barely able to stand. While Jay was heavy, it was well within Sunshine’s abilities to carry him to the beach.

“Say, Firecracker, where’d you learn to to do that? Using fire on a wound to close it?”

“Technically, it’s inadvisable to cauterize somepony who’s been hurt, simply because it’s unecessary and painful. We have... plenty of hospitals around.” Sunshine overtook Firecracker as he paused to catch his breath. “Sorry. The air is so hot and... gross.”

“No sweat, take as long as you need.” After a minute, Firecracker was in the lead once more.

“But yeah. I only needed to use fire like that once or twice in my life beforehoof.”

“Care to share the story about it?” Sunshine grunted under the weight of his friend on his back.

“Not at all. I was only really good with the real simple stuff and anything having to do with fire.” Firecracker chuckled. “I bet you can guess what you get when you mix that and the fact that the family business was fireworks.”

Sunshine smiled. “What happened?”

“Well, there’s this party every year in the capital; The Grand Galloping Gala. The Princess commissions this huge fireworks display to go off at the end of the night, and needs several places all over Equestria to make those fireworks. My family being one of them.” Firecracker began grinning. “I always loved the smell of powder in my dad’s workshop. He was teaching me how to pack together my first launcher. He told me to screw on the cap, but I accidentally put too much powder in it already, but tried anyway.”

“So what happened?” Sunshine asked. 

“Well, I wasn’t too good with telekinesis, but when I put more energy into my horn, I accidentally shot out a flame at the powder. Needless to say, it was far from a pleasant experience for me. Fortunately, it was a very small explosive, so I only really hurt my ears and nose. And lo and behold, that is how I got my cutie mark.”

“Very cool!” Sunshine said after a soft whistle. “So did you help your dad out much more with the family business?”

Firecracker’s grin faded into a frown. “Later that night, after my folks were fast asleep, I wanted to try out my fire magic some more. I was a curious little colt, you know? So I went into my backyard and began trying to get another flame going. It was tough at first, but I managed to get a sort of rope of fire to come from my horn.”

“That sounds pretty cool, though.”

“It was, and that was the problem. I whipped it around, not knowing that it wasn’t attached to itself. Some of the fire split off.” Firecracker dropped his head. “My father’s workshop caught. I tried levitating dirt and throwing it at the flames to put them out, but no matter how hard I tried, it kept spreading.”

Sunshine’s smile faded. 

“I tried to tell my dad, but the window was closed and he couldn’t hear me. The main house caught as well when the stored fireworks went off. I actually lost my hearing for a few days after that,” Firecracker said, trying to laugh it off.

“Firecracker... I’m sorry... I... I didn’t...” Sunshine said, trying to comfort the unicorn. 

“It’s okay. It’s a closed wound. I stumbled away into the woods, trying to get away before any more went off. I have no idea how far I ran that night, but it wasn’t until morning that I tried to find my way home. When I got there, I saw what was left of the house from the woods: a charred skeleton where my house used to be. Houses nearby were damaged as well, but not nearly as bad.”

“What about your parents?”

“I saw them with the fireponies. They seemed to have gotten out of the house before the first rockets went off. My mom was a wreck; my only guess was that they thought I was gone, taken out by the explosions.”

“Why didn’t you go to them?”

“Honestly? I was mortified. I was a young colt who just ruined my father’s business, destroyed a part of the town, and... I was scared. I was scared of the shame. I didn’t want to admit it was my fault and live with the consequences. So I ran back into the woods. I don’t know if my mother was calling out to me when I ran. I still couldn’t hear at all.

“I ran off into the woods and got on the wrong side of a very angry Chimera. Gave me a good gash on my back before I ran off. I knew I was bleeding a lot, and if I didn’t do anything about it I was a goner. So... I made that flame rope and... placed it along the wound. I swear that everypony for miles around heard me scream... even fell unconscious afterwards.”

“What happened after that?”

“An older unicorn found me out there. He took me in, healed up my back properly, and got me back up on my hooves. I didn’t want to go back to my parents, and he offered to give me a job as his assistant.”

A long silence filled the clearing between the pair. “Hey, Firecracker. Is Jay gonna be okay? With his horn like that?” he asked, looking behind him, at his friend. 

Firecracker looked back at Jay’s body. The horn was shattered, the jagged stump ending right above his mane. “I’ve never seen anypony who had to go through it, but I read some books with the topic in them. He’s okay, but asleep. Whether or not he’ll wake up is up to him, though. And will he have his magic still when he does? I have no idea. Come on, let’s get him back down to the beach. We need to figure out where we are.”


---


Firecracker looked over the exhausted group of ponies around him. They each held a combination of wonder, terror, relief and worry. The moment Sunshine and Firecracker brought Jay’s body out onto the beach, Primrose was by his side. He was set next to Garnet, who was still resting after Firecracker’s ‘operation’.

Fleet Feather was circling the group from above; he hadn’t said a word to anypony since he woke up. He perched on a low hanging cloud and looked down at the group beneath. A smile graced his muzzle.

He glided down from his cloud the moment he was sure and walked straight to Firecracker. “I need you to stay here for a few days. I know exactly where we are.”

“You do?” Firecracker asked.

“We’re at the bottom tip of the Southern Horseshoe Islands. I used to come here for R&R a few years back when they had a resort a few dozen miles from here, but it was shut down some time ago.” Fleet Feather shook his head to get his mind back on track. “The thing is, I can fly straight back to Canterlot from here, and get a rescue team to get everyone to safety.”

Firecracker relished the sense of relief. Finally, some good news! 

“It’ll take a day or two for me to get there, and just as long to guide them back. I’m not risking teleportation anymore. Once is enough for me, and I’m sure the same can go for the others here.”

Firecracker nodded, thinking back to Jay’s leg. “Of course. So two to three days is it? I’m sure we can find enough food and water to last that long.”

“It’s not food and water that I’m worried about,” Fleet Feather said, harshly. “That stunt you pulled with Garnet and the colt? Reckless and extremely dangerous. You may have stopped the bleeding for now, but what if an infection takes hold?” Firecracker gulped. “You will be held directly responsible for their well-being when we get back.”

Fleet Feather stomped off to Sunshine, Autumn Gale, and Skysong. Firecracker’s sense of relief was already replaced by a weight of dread. But what was worse than that was the doubt. Was he right to use his fire like that on Garnet and Jay? They’re going to be scarred for life from the pain, and that would be the best outcome for them.

The grey unicorn steeled himself. Of course it was the right thing to do. They were within an inch of their lives, and direct action was the only way to save them. Frankly, it was a miracle that they were still alive at all, especially Jay. Perhaps his condition kept his body alive after the teleport, automatically stemming bloodflow to his leg, but whether or not he was aware while Firecracker was working on his leg was worrying him. 

With a loud beat of his wings, Fleet Feather leaped into the sky and was already disappearing over the trees into the distance. Firecracker cleared his throat. “Everypony! Fleet Feather told me that he knows exactly where we are! We did indeed make it to Equestria!” Firecracker expected some sort of cheer, or at least a sense of joy from the prospect, but none was to be had. 

“Well, Fleet Feather has left for Canterlot, and upon arriving there, will dispatch a rescue team to bring us back to safety!”

“Are you saying we’re not safe here?” Peppermint asked from the back. The white and red unicorn was tense, and it was showing on nearly everypony present. 

“No, of course not. We are very much safe! This is in fact used to be a popular vacation spot many many years ago! There’s plenty of fruit to find in the jungle, and more than enough water in the streams for drinking. As long as we stay nearby, Fleet Feather will come back in a few days with a royal escort to take everyone back to Canterlot!”

The tension on the group seemed to lessen, but it was still there. Firecracker saw Peach Cobbler standing towards the back of the group, looking out over the sea by herself. He tepidly walked over to her and sat next to her as the group dispersed for the beginning of their stay. 

“Peach, are you... okay?” he asked.

She slowly turned her head towards him. Her cheeks were damp with tears, but her face held almost no emotion. “No.”

“Do you... want to talk about it?” Seeing the unicorn like this was breaking his heart; she was always such a bundle of cheer and joy back at the bureau. 

“Two of my friends died before my eyes; one of them sacrificed himself to save me.” Her gaze was piercing, and it unsettled him. He backed away, not eager to step on a wound that was so fresh.

“I’ll give you some time... Just... let me know when you want to talk, okay?” Firecracker offered. Peach said nothing and looked back out to the ocean. 


---


Primrose looked over Jay’s dirty coat; the hair by his leg was burnt off by Firecracker and his... procedure. The skin around the stump was charred black and dark red, parts of it cracked and oozed blood. It made her stomach turn to see him like this. “Jay...” she whispered. Tears began rolling down her cheek again, but she wiped them away with her hoof. 

“Prim, you gonna be okay?” Leah asked. Her white coat was splotched with soot and stains, rendering her more of a grey than a lustrous white. 

Primrose looked up at Leah and shook her head. Leah wrapped her hooves around Primrose and held her in a tight hug. Primrose felt a little bit better, but the thought of what Jay was going through still prodded at her consciousness. She looked back down at his stiff body.

Sunshine had closed Jay’s eyes when they set him down. The emptiness of them really bothered him. His horn was jagged and sending off a spark every few moments that would pitifully drop to the sand and die. Firecracker assured her that he was going to be okay, but he needed time to ‘come back’. Whatever the unicorn meant, Primrose wanted to do whatever she could to help Jay. Even if it meant that all she could do was wait.

“I feel really gross,” Leah said, looking down at her coat. “I always wanted to go somewhere tropical too!” she said, lighting up with a bright smile. “Lets go find a fresh spring to wash up in! Seawater would just feel gross when we dry off, anyways.”

“Okay, I suppose that should be okay...” Primrose said, walking off into the jungle with Leah. She took a moment to look back at Jay before wandering into the foliage. 


---


The search paid off about forty minutes into their expedition. Leah was the one who found it at first; It was a crystal clear pool fed by a small waterfall, maybe fifty feet across. Several small rivulets ran off through the jungle from it. 

Leah was the first to jump in, only to realize the mistake she had made. “AAAAAAHHHH!” she screeched. “C-C-COLD!” she sputtered from the pool, trying to find a way to swim back to the shore that Primrose was giggling from. 

Leah trudged out from the water, her coat matted down and her mane hanging down in front of her face, dripping. Even through her mane, Prim could see Leah’s goofy smile as she began to laugh as well. 

Primrose walked over to a small overhang above the water and leaned down. She lapped up a few quaffs of water, letting the icy claws course through her body. She felt refreshed and content, until, that was, she was bumped from behind into the water. 

“AAAHH!” she yelped. Leah wasn’t mistaken; the water was as cold as ice, and immediately caused her to start shivering. As she shakily made her way onto solid ground, her teeth chattered from the cold, filling the area with the clicks of her teeth. Leah doubled over in laughter.

Both fillies slowly eased their way into the cold water at their own paces; they relished the soothing coolness of the water over the humid air above them. Primrose felt the sweat and sand washing out of her coat, and it felt wonderful. They took a while to let the tension from their bodies wash away into the water, and it was the first quiet span of time she was able to just lay there with nopony bothering her and for her to just... relax.

After some amount of time, Leah looked over to her freind. “Hey, Chloe? Can I ask you something?” Leah asked.

Primrose flinched. “My name’s Primrose now.”

“I want to have this conversation as the people, not ponies; the ones we were before all of this.” Primrose sunk into the lake and let out a puny stream of bubbles from her nostrils. “Why Jay? Why now? What happened between the two of you, Chloe?” A tone of genuine concern was woven into Leah’s words, which surprised her. 

“He practically gave his life to save me.”

“Yeah, but how do you know it’s not for some… rough and tumble in the hay?” Leah caught herself right after she said it. “Agh!” she snarled. “I hate these ponyisms. They drive me nuts. I mean to say, what if he just wants you for a quick night under the sheets?”

“For all I know, Jay may never wake up. How was risking his life and getting shot at a good idea when he would just want sex?” Chloe felt a shiver run up her spine as she finished the sentence. It was just a topic that she had never had to talk about with anyone, let alone one that had ever come up while thinking about Jay.

“Granted, Jay wasn’t the brightest light bulb out there…” Leah said, chuckling.

Chloe huffed in frustration. “I… felt it. He was genuinely caring for me so much that he’d rather get hurt than see me like that. No, Leah. Those are the people you hung out with. Not Jay. ”

Leah crossed her hooves and glared at Chloe. “Don’t flip this on me, Chloe! Don’t judge who I spend my time with!” Her voice was rising, and Chloe felt something rising in her as well. 

“Why shouldn’t I? All you’ve been since we got to the Bureau was selfish; you make everything about yourself, and don’t care about anypony else around you.” Chloe was yelling now too. “All you have done is hate on Jay! In fact, you have for as long as I can remember!” The point seemed to physically strike Leah, as she recoiled from it. “What did he ever do to you to make you hate him so much?!”

Trying to dodge the question, Leah began panic. “But… I’m your best friend! And Jay has done nothing but ignore you and… and he cheated on you! With that cook, Peach!” Leah retorted.

Chloe was unmoved. “That was my fault... I drove him away. I was the one who hurt him, and he still ignored that enough to throw himself at Andrew before he hurt me!” Chloe tromped out from the lake and into the air. She shook herself of the loose water to attain some degree of dryness. “I will never forget what he did for me as long as I live.”

“But Chloe…” Leah murmured pitifully, on the verge of tears.

“I’m not Chloe anymore. My name’s Primrose.” Primrose looked behind her and sighed. “When you find out who you really are now and want to be an honest friend, come and find me.

Primrose left the lake and walked back towards the beach as Leah looked toward the waterfall and cried.


---


"Quake? Can I go in the ocean? Please?" Sugarberry whined from the beach. The large blue
earth pony looked down at his tiny sister and hugged her close, smiling.

"That's right; this is your first time at the beach, isn't it?" he asked.

Sugarberry giggled and squirmed free. "Yup! It's so big and blue! So much prettier than the
pictures you showed me on the Internet!"

"Well, that's because this beach is much cleaner and nicer than any of the ones I showed you.
I never expected to see one this nice either, sis." Sugarberry skipped down to the frothing edge
of the water as the sheet of ocean lapped against her hooves, soaking her bright pink coat.

"It's so cool!" she said, bouncing along the hoof deep water, splashing around and getting
Quake wet. He whipped his mane out from in front of his face and smirked as he eyed his sister.

"Hey, Berry!" he shouted.

"What is it?"

A splash of cool seawater erupted from where Quake slammed down his hoof, drenching
Sugarberry and knocking her on her rump in surprise. Quake burst out laughing as Sugarberry
regained her composure and began charging him, intent on knocking him down and getting her
just revenge. Quake played along and fell back into the water, giggling along with his sister.

Sunshine watched the siblings playing in the ocean with envy. Everypony present was in a poor mood, and they were justifiably so. They all had come within inches of death, and yet they were the lucky ones. To the best of his knowledge, Sunshine figured that about less than twenty ponies had survived the attack on the bureau, most of them being Sunshine and the other orphaned teens from his school. 

Sunshine shook his head. That… hell was gone, now. There wasn’t any fire or smoke here on this island, and Fleet Feather was going to be back soon to get them all to safety! They were finally in Equestria, and boy could he feel it under his wings. 

He had done a test flight around the beach with Autumn Gale and Skysong, his two close pegasus friends, and they had agreed: flying in Equestria was like trying to fly after having weights taken off his wings, and it felt marvelous. Sunshine could finally fly with the speed of Autumn and the agility of Skysong. They too were thrilled to experience unhindered flight, and flew off to leave Sunshine behind. 

He watched the pair of pegasi as they found a cozy little cloud hanging over the beach; they disappeared behind the cloud for what Sunshine could only assume was some privacy.

Seeing them disappear flooded Sunshine’s heart with a familiar hopelessness; he was overcome with loneliness, and Jay was in some sort of coma. Jay was the one who snapped him out of this depression last time, but Sunshine couldn’t remember what he had said to make him feel better. 

Sunshine heard hooves walking in the sand, approaching him from behind. He turned his head to see a new unicorn sit next to him, one that he didn’t recognize at first. He was yellow with a black mane, and he looked out to the ocean with a forlorn expression.

“Hey,” he said, grimly. Maybe he wasn’t intentionally trying to sound grim, but to Sunshine it sounded that way. “You feeling okay? You seem out of it. Like everypony- ack.” The unicorn seemed to act as if he had tasted something repulsive and was trying to get it out of his mouth. “I need an off switch for that. Like everyBODY else here.”

Sunshine stared for a moment. This unicorn’s name wasn’t coming to him still.

“Oh,” the unicorn said. “It’s me, Rob.” Sunshine relaxed. Rob had gotten converted in the basement of the Bureau before the teleport, but Sunshine never saw his new body before now. “You feeling okay, bud?”

Sunshine hung his head. “Not really.”

“Worried about your friend?” Sunshine nodded. “He’ll be okay. I’m sure of it.”

“How do you know?” Sunshine asked, forcefully. “You barely even know Jay.”

“I know, but he helped me with that… chip in my arm. He could’ve said no and avoided the trouble all together, but he helped me with it. Looking back at what I spent those days doing still gives me the chills…” Rob said, visibly shaking. 

The pair sat on the beach for some time, watching Quake and Sugarberry play in the ocean with each other. Having Rob next to him, talking to him… Sunshine felt the sense of sadness begin to dissipate, but only partially. 

“So, Rob, what was life like for you before the Bureau?” Sunshine asked, wanting to strike up conversation. 

Rob looked surprised for a moment before smiling. “You’re actually the first person to ask me that in a... well, a friendly manner. Hmm… Well, I was the oldest son of Gerald Telios, president and founder of Telios Chemicals, the very company that employed and consequently killed the parents of just about everypony here.”

Sunshine tried to stifle a laugh, but failed. “What’s so funny?” Rob asked, confused. 

“You said it again,” Sunshine said though his smile.

“Said what again? What did I do!?” Rob demanded.

“You said everypony again, silly!” Sunshine was finally reigning in his smile from the force of Rob’s demand.

“Oh…” he said, his face blank. After a moment, it warped into a smile and a laugh escaped his lips. “May as well not fight it, eh?”

“It’s easy to get used to,” Sunshine said.

“Back to the story. I lived in relative wealth for my entire life, visiting any city I wanted and getting anything I wanted, whenever I wanted. Eventually, I ran out of things I wanted in a very quick time, so in the mean time I decided I wanted to learn more about computers and how to program. I was eight when I started, and I was ten when I finally broke into my father’s most secure database”

“How’d you do that?”

Rob grinned. “With great skill and dexterity, of course. It was mostly a test to see how good I was, and it worked. But I got caught, and within minutes, security had me pinned to the ground, almost breaking my arm in the process.”

“Wow… that’s some intense stuff.”

“You don’t know the half of it.” Rob chuckled. “Thinking back to it all, I was such a bratty kid. I did things that I knew would piss my dad off. I think it was… Yeah, it was a year ago that I managed to get into that mainframe without getting any attention. I saw the despicable things my father did with that company and kept an archive of it all, especially all of his political lunch buddies. I kept it all quiet, ready to send it all out at a moment’s notice when I needed to ruin my father forever. And that was just this past week.”

“After the explosion?” Sunshine asked.

“Yeah. They wanted to make a couple hundred thousand more dollars to make the stock rise up to the next percentage point. And he killed hundreds to get it. I sent the packet to some news groups and high-tailed it to the most out of the way bureau I could find.”

Sunshine sat in silence. In one way, Rob was the reason so many ponies got hurt and… killed at the bureau. But if it wasn’t for that action that earned the ire of his father, that same person would’ve gotten away with mass murder for some stock increase. 

How was he supposed to feel about this? Sunshine wanted to be angry at Rob for causing so many ponies pain… but his own personal vengeance has been served to that vile company. 

“Thanks,” Sunshine said, quietly.

“For what?”

“For getting back at that motherbucker. Thanks. From all of us.”

“Yeah,” Rob said, relaxing on the sand a bit more. “No problem.”


---


“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to these things,” Samantha said, staring at her hooves. Firecracker sighed.

“You’ll be fine.”

“Oh, I know I’ll be fine mister grumpy pants. I’ve seen all those kids get used to them no problem. Say, do ponies ever wear pants?” she asked.

“Huh? What are you talking about? Pants? I mean… sometimes, but most of the time we’re just out like this.” 

“Naked?” Samantha said, scoffing in a sarcastic manner. “Everything dangling out for the world to see? I mean, I don’t intend on sticking my nose where it doesn’t belong, but I never understood the appeal of nudist colonies. I mean I like oogling at an attractive guy as much as any other girl, but to see his junk flopping around all day? Pass.”

“It doesn’t ‘flop around’! It…” Firecracker paused. “Why am I even explaining this to you? Don’t you know all about pony anatomy?”

Samantha smiled and winked. 

“Celestia damn you, Sam.”

“Oh, by the way! I’m Pink Lemonade now!” she cheered with glee. “See the pink mane? The yellow body? I’m sweet, but also tart! I think it fits me perfectly! Hee!” she cheered hopping around the sand.

“Oh, Celestia help me.” Firecracker grimaced at the headache Pink Lemonade was setting up to be, but an idea popped up in his head. “Say, you wanna take Anvil and find some fruits for everypony to eat? He seems fond of you.”

“Sounds good, Firecracker. Keep an eye on those two, and tell me of anything new happens with their burns,” Pink Lemonade said, pointing at the two sleeping unicorns in the crater further along the beach. “I need to know if they develop fevers or if the areas around the burns start to swell up.”

“Will you be able to help them if that happens?” Firecracker asked, clearly worried about what Fleet Feather had said earlier before he left. 

Pink’s smile vanished and was replaced with a grim frown. “The only thing to do then will be to pray that Fleet Feather can get back as soon as his wings can take him.” 


---


Primrose pushed her body through the foliage and out onto the beach to see the sun was
almost setting. How long was she in that lake? Or did she take so long to walk back? “Perhaps we all woke up in the afternoon...” she murmured to herself.

Primrose saw Firecracker sitting next to Peach Cobbler at the edge of the surf, neither of them
moving or saying anything to each other. She also saw the pink body of Jasmine lingering near the tree line,
spying on the pair as well. She didn't seem mad, but more focused, Primrose noticed.

Walking over to the two resting ponies in the center of the small crater, Prim saw that Jay's
burned leg wasn't oozing blood anymore; it had all clotted into ugly reddish brown scabs all
over his stump. The sparks from his horn also seemed to be less frequent and less pronounced.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Primrose settled down into the sand next to Jay and looked him over.

His breathing was shallow and strained, but as long as he was breathing, she was happy.

Prim looked over to Garnet, who was still asleep. The spell to teleport everypony here must
have taken a lot of energy out of her, let alone having to heal from the wound on her neck. She
was peaceful right now; her breathing was slow and deep, her muscles at ease and her coat
cleaned. Somepony must have come up to the crater and washed her down with some water.

She looked back over to Jay, but something bothered her. She couldn't see him breathing
anymore. A rush of panic numbed her until she saw his chest rise. After a few moments,
Primrose had noticed that Jay's breathing was much more at ease and less strained than it was
before. She moved his raggedy brown mane out from his face and planted a kiss on his nose.

She saw a small pile of fruits on a mat of palm fronds sitting next to Jay. Kiwis, cherries, plums, pineapples, and even mangoes sat neatly, their sweet smell wafting into her nostrils at last. She looked around for anypony else that may have left them there, but all she saw was Firecracker glancing behind him and catching Primrose’s eyes. He nodded and turned back around to the ocean. 

She nibbled on the sweet treats and basked in the glow of the sunset, looking up and down the beach. There were ponies spread out along the orange tinted expanse, each either nibbling on their own fruits or trying to settle down to go to sleep.

As short of a day as it felt, Primrose was feeling very tired. So much stress... 

They were almost finished. They were in the final stretch; only a little longer before everything was going to be okay. But right now all she wanted was for Jay to wake up so she could apologize to him for what she did to him. 

Primrose closed her eyes and sent a prayer to Celestia and Luna for Jay’s safe recovery. She rested down on her side and drifted to sleep right as the stars came out.

> The Seventh Day
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The morning greeted Jay with a mix of signals assaulting his senses. The sun was shining bright, the ocean was crashing on the beach, and the air had yet to come to heat up fully from the sun. He took in a deep breath, savoring the smokeless air.

A dull throb ached from his left side. He shifted a bit, and the throb exploded into a spike of pain that lanced up his leg. He grunted involuntarily and gasped from the surprise of it. 

He looked down at his front left leg... to see that most of it was missing. His leg ended a foot from his shoulder; most of it was bare skin, and not his beige coat. The last few inches of his leg were covered in cracking black and brown scabs, covering the entirety of the stump.

Jay stared at it for a long time. His mind didn’t sync up with what he saw; he could still feel the rest of his leg. It was there, and he could feel from his shoulder down to his hoof in the sand. But... it wasn’t there. Just a stump rested in the sand in front of him. 

“Jay!” a voice screamed, practically blowing out Jay’s ears. A body skidded along the sand next to him and wrapped him in a hug. 

“P-Prim?” Jay asked, his throat sore. 

“You’re awake!” Primrose cried, burying her face into his mane. 

“Y-Yeah, I... guess I am...” Primrose looked up at Jay and her joy turned to confusion. 

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

Jay looked at her then back down to the stump of his leg. He looked back up at Primrose with tears in his eyes. “What... happened to me?” He leaned forward into Primrose’s embrace.

“Your leg was crushed back in the bureau... Garnet had to bring you here... but she left your leg back there. Firecracker stopped the bleeding and sealed the wound.” Prim gently kissed Jay on the cheek. “I’m so sorry, Jay.”

“W-Why? it’s not like it’s your fault or anything,” he said, chuckling. 

“I mean... for everything. At the bureau. Being so dense and not seeing your genuine feelings for me, and turning you down, and getting upset at you and pushing you further away...”

“Shh, shh, it’s okay,” Jay whispered, brushing Primrose’s mane out from in front of her face with his one good foreleg. He sheepishly smiled at her, and she smiled in return. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. 

“So where is everypony else?” Jay asked. He could barely see out from inside the small crater he sat in. He could see a bit of the ocean in front of him and a small stretch of the beach on either side. 

“They’re still waking up,” Primrose said, wiping away her tears.

“Hmm? Did we just get here?”

“Jay, you’ve been asleep for over a day,” Primrose said grimly. “We weren’t sure if you’d even wake up from what happened to your horn.”

“My horn?” Jay asked, lifting his hoof to his forehead. He felt a jagged stump where his horn used to be, rising only a few inches from his mane. “My horn! What happened to my horn?!” Jay yelled. 

Primrose grimaced. “Andrew shot you when we were back at the bureau... he hit your horn and broke it. You’ve been asleep ever since.”

Jay’s mind was wide awake now. He looked around the sand near him for something. He saw a palm leaf and tried to levitate it. A shower of sparks flew out in front of him, but the leaf sat on the sand, unmoving. 

“No...” Jay whimpered. A few tears fell down his cheek, but he wiped them away. Letting out a long sigh, Jay looked back up. “So what did I miss yesterday?” Primrose was surprised by Jay’s sudden shift in attitude.

“Are you going to be okay? With your horn like that?” Primrose asked.

“Nothing I can do about it right now, so no use worrying about something out of my hooves. So do we at least know where we are?”

“Fleet Feather left yesterday to fly to Canterlot!” Primrose cheered. It brought a smile to Jay’s face as well. “He should be back with a rescue team around tomorrow at some point, so we just have to hang on until then.”

“So we made it to Equestria?” 

“Yeah... we did.”

---

Sunshine’s hooves kept sinking into the sand as he plodded along the beach next to Rob. He was the only pony present who was interested in checking out the spot he had noticed during his morning flight. It had looked like a bunch of buildings popping out from the morning mist that coated the jungle floor.

When he returned from his flight, most ponies were still asleep on big palm fronds acting as sleeping mats. Primrose was still looking over Jay, who was still asleep. Peach Cobbler was still sitting and looking to the sea, with Firecracker sleeping on a mat nearby. Rob was the only one awake and itching to find something to do, and was curious about what Sunshine had seen.

The best he could tell, the buildings were on the opposite side of the island. Rob had walked what seemed half of the way so far with no objection, but because he came along, Sunshine couldn’t just fly over like he did this morning. His legs were getting sore and tired, but it also felt like he was just trying to give himself an excuse to use his wings. 

“Hey, Rob? Do you mind if I fly around a bit?” 

“Not at all.” Rob’s response felt indifferent to Sunshine. In no time at all, his wings were stretched out, and he was soaring higher and higher into the sky. After the short flight, Sunshine landed back down next to Rob, who flashed him a quick smile.

"Feel nice?" he asked.

"Definitely."

"How much farther to this place do you think it is?" the yellow unicorn asked. 

"I think I saw a bit of it just past those trees down there," Sunshine said, gesturing to a wall of palms reaching out towards the ocean. 

"What do you think is over there?"

Sunshine shrugged. "Fleet Feather said that these islands used to be used for resorts, so that's my guess. Maybe there's something there to help Jay and Garnet out there." Sunshine felt Rob's analyzing gaze on him, making him feel uneasy.

"Really? That's why you wanted to walk to the other side of the island?"

"Fine! I'm bored out of my mind just sitting on that beach. Fleet Feather said that he'd be back in at least two more days, and I just can't spend that time sitting on the back doing nothing! Especially after everything that happened at the bureau... My mind just refuses to stop and rest."

"It's okay, Sunshine. No need to lose your temper. Hell, I'm bored out of my mind too. Maybe we'll find something cool there anyway, right?"

"I suppose... By the way, have you tried to use your magic yet? Jay found it really useful when he learned."

Rob frowned. "I haven't."

"Why not?" Sunshine pressed.

Rob walked in silence for a few moments before answering. “I’m not terribly anxious to go all the way with this conversion thing.”

“Why not?”

“I’m... not done. With being human.” Sunshine only cocked his head to the side. “When we get scooped up I’m taking the first boat back to the States. Couple of loose ends I need to tie up.”

“But can’t you do that as a pony too?” Sunshine asked. 

“It’s not about whether I’m a pony or not!” Rob yelled back, his frustration reaching a boiling point. “I’m not ready to leave Rob Telios and move into... whatever I start calling myself eventually. I don’t expect you to understand.”

The pair walked along the rest of the stretch of beach in a strained silence. Sunshine was nervous that he upset Rob more than it looked like he let on. 

They rounded the last palm tree; the resort was snug in a little cove with a small bay maybe a quarter mile wide with cottages and old buildings lining the water. The paint seemed like it was just finished yesterday; the colors were bright and welcoming, but the structures themselves were beginning to decay and fall apart in a few spots. Two cottages had collapsed on themselves completely; the rest of them held some aspect where they needed repair to be livable again.

The one curious thing that drew the attention of both Rob and Sunshine was a small black boat maybe thirty feet long that was washed up on the sand in the middle of the cove. Rob took one look at it and bolted straight towards it. 

“Rob! Wait up!” Sunshine yelled as he spread his wings and flew after the yellow unicorn. He leaped up onto the deck and disappeared under the canopy, but Sunshine spotted him again, leaning over the back railing. 

The pegasus hovered next to the unicorn as he finished ejecting the contents of his stomach into the sea. Sunshine smelled it before he saw it; five horrifically deformed... blobs were strewn about the cabin. “Wha-”

“People.” Rob wiped the spittle from his muzzle with his hoof and turned back around. “I should’ve expected to see them. Remember the news? Some governments sent out teams to call the Princess’s bluff on the magical radiation of Equestria. I guess this is one of those teams...”

“Oh...” Sunshine did remember the Princess mention something about how Equestria was toxic to humans when she made her first speech, and having found out about it the hard way.

“Let’s see... Ah! Perfect!” Rob said after disappearing once more. Sunshine landed in the cabin of the boat and tried to hold his stomach in place, but the smell was making it much harder than he expected. Humidity does horrible things to corpses. 

“Authorization code: alpha-tau-sigma-epsilon-nine-six-eight-six-two-gamma-mu,” Rob muttered at the glowing screen before him. 

“I didn’t know a computer could work out here!” Sunshine gasped. 

“Satellite link and solar batteries. Keep quiet for this, will you?” Rob asked. He carefully tapped at the screen and keyboard with a hoof to punch in various lines of code. The screen went dark for a short moment, then lit up with the image of a human; he was older, with a thinning head of grey hair and round gold-rimmed glasses. He looked straight into the vid-feed and didn’t say a thing. He was frozen. 

“How did you get access to this terminal?” the older man asked politely enough to initially hide the hostility in his tone. 

“Uncle Theodore, it’s me. Rob.” The old man loosened up and smiled.

“I knew no Equestrian would know how to operate one of these computer terminals, let alone how to get an isolated link to me.” Theodore inspected something next to him and bobbed his head. “And you disabled the surveillance in the room too. Seems like your conversion didn’t take your wits from you just yet, boy. Now what is it? I’m fairly busy, you know.”

“I just wanted to ask a single favor of you. Can you connect me to my father?”

Theodore’s eyebrow rose. “Why? To gloat? To say you beat him? Have you no actual respect for your father?”

Rob ground his teeth and tensed his muscles. “Not an ounce.”

Theodore sighed and punched something into his keyboard. “Just... go easy on him.”

The video feed cut to black for a second and reconnected to another room. A single individual sat in a cushioned chair behind a long table of steaming food and cooled drinks. His grey hair was combed down both sides, ending in small curls just beneath his ears in a U-shape around his head. 

He looked up at the screen in front of him and slammed his fork down onto the table. 

“And a fine hello to you too, father. I take it your stay in prison was short lived and enjoyable?” Rob asked.

Mr. Telios smiled. “Indeed it was. Do you know how much prison workers make for their salaries? It’s a travesty, and one that I helped mend. Same with Jurors. Have you come to gloat? To cheer and brag about how you survived?”

Rob did not answer. Instead, he tapped at the keyboard more and more, ignoring his father. “Can you even hear me, brat? Why did you bother calling if you were just going to ignore me?”

“Will you shut up? Typing with hooves is hard enough as it is.” With a few more clicks, Rob gently tapped the enter key one last time. “Done.”

“Done with what?” Rob’s father asked. 

“A few things, really. First, I funneled out a grand sum from the company’s bank account and donated it to the Kingdom of Equestria. Hopefully now they can afford more secure bureaus, and more comfortable conditions. The ones in the cities? Trash.”

“Naive boy. I can get all of that and more back with a few calls.”

“Not when everyone gets a nice, full whiff of all of your dirty laundry. I think I counted out all of the charges and how long you’d go away for. I think between you and the senior staff of Telios Chemical, you rack up two millenniums worth of jail time.” Rob turned to Sunshine. “Impressive, yes?”

Sunshine was stunned. He didn’t move or speak. 

“I have all of Washington in my pocket, you puny runt! I’ll tell them that all of that data was fabricated!” Rob’s father was a bright beet-red now.

“Uncle Theodore should be meeting with some journalists right now, actually. I assured him a free pass as long as he provided the Prosecution full, unrestricted access to the databases at Telios.”

“You’re doing all of this... why? How have I wronged you? You grew up with everything you could have ever wanted!”

“I wanted a real family! Not the best thing money could buy!” Rob shouted at the screen. Mr. Telios turned his back to the screen and walked over to a dresser. He rummaged through one of the drawers. “I assume the police are about to come and take me into custody?”

“Yes. You will pay for everything you’ve done.”

“No. No, I don’t think so.”

Mr. Telios pulled a black, matte pistol from the drawer, pressed the muzzle against his temple and pulled the trigger. 

---

“Autumn? Are you okay?” Skysong asked, raising her head from the stallion’s mane. His burned orange mane smelled smelled like cinnamon somehow, after all the smoke and ocean water that he had in it. She had noticed it just after they arrived in Equestria; maybe it had something to do with them being here?

“Sky, you see that cloud out that way?” he asked, pointing out past the island and into the sky behind it. She looked, covering her eyes with her wing to block the harsh sunlight. 

It was a wall of cloud, and everything about it rubbed Skysong the wrong way. The colors weren’t bright and cottony white; it was grey and had a very definite head to it, but it was the deep blue in it that unsettled her. “I don’t like it, Autumn. How long until it gets here?” Just after she asked, a fork of lightning peeked out from under the behemoth, striking somewhere in the open ocean. 

“We have maybe a half hour. I’ve heard of these storms from Fleet Feather a bit back at the bureau. ‘Wild Ones’. Uncontrolled storms that form from wild magics in the wild. We have to warn everypony down there to find cover... ourselves included.” Autumn Gale pecked Skysong on the cheek and dove from the cloud, straight toward Firecracker. The pegasus mare followed shortly after.

“Oh sweet Celestia...” Firecracker moaned after Autumn told him about the Wild One headed toward the beach. “I don’t even want to know how bad it’ll be after interacting with your weather systems.” Peach Cobbler was still looking out toward the ocean in the direction opposite of the storm; the only indication that she had heard him was the slight flick of her ear. 

“Where should we go?” Skysong asked. “I can check around the jungle by that cliff for caves that we can hide in.”

“Do that. Autumn? Gether everypony else along the beach to where Jay and Primrose are. We need to stay together, especially when that storm hits.” Autumn Gale nodded and flew off along the stretch of beach, Skysong flying inland.

“Peach? Can you hear me?” The unicorn mare sat unmoving. “Do you even want to hear me?” Still nothing. “We need to get off the beach, at least. Can you at least do that for me?” She turned her head back to take a short look at him, but turned to the ocean once more. 

Firecracker cursed to himself and headed back up the beach, leaving Peach Cobbler by herself once more. “Jay! Prim!” he yelled, coming up to the depression in the sand the two were resting in.

Prim raised her head that had just been resting on Jay’s side. “What is it, Firecracker?”

“We are gonna have to move soon. Inland. Well, once Skysong finds a cave for us to weather the storm in.”

“What storm?” Jay groggily asked. 

“Big storm that’ll probably kill us all if we aren’t somewhere safe when it hits. Nothing too much to worry about compared to what he put up with before.” Firecracker took a look at Jay and his stump; the black and brown scab was cracking less and less since he originally made it, but it still didn't look good enough for him to move on his own. 

“Oh goody...” Jay said as his head fell back down onto the sand. His eyelids fluttered closed as he fell once more into unconsciousness. 

“He’s been like this all day...” Primrose sighed, brushing a lock of Jay’s mane out of his face. “He’s never awake for more than a few minutes at a time, but at least he can wake up, right?”

Firecracker leaned back down and looked over at Jay’s shattered horn. Only the medical staff in Canterlot would know how bad the damage is. 

“Garnet, are you well enough to be able to levitate Jay when we have somewhere to hide?” The red unicorn wordlessly nodded. She had been resting most of the day when she wasn’t enjoying the serenity of the rolling waves. She hadn’t been able to speak since Firecracker used his spell on her the day before, and every time he saw her, the guild dug at him more and more. 

More ponies began converging on the group as Autumn Gale told them about the storm, but there was still no word from Skysong about a cave to hide in. Anvil stood tall and silent with Pink Lemonade; the earth pony was great at finding fruits in the jungle nearby, which resulted in her earning her cutie mark: an orange, a lemon, and a pineapple sitting next to each other on her pink coat.

When Autumn Gale finally brought the last of the newfoals to the group, he landed next to Firecracker and whispered something in his ear. “We have ten minutes.” The unicorn looked up and saw the titanic head of the Wild One bearing down on them. 

“Um,” a diminutive voice said next to Firecracker. She was a white earth pony with a lime green mane; Leah, one of Primrose’s friends. “I know where we can go. I saw a cave when I was in the jungle yesterday.”

“You did?!” Firecracker almost yelled. “Oh thank Luna. Can you lead us there? Quickly?”

“It’s a bit of a trip... It’s by the pond, maybe twenty minutes into the jungle.” 

Firecracker took a deep breath. “Everypony! Listen up! We are leaving! Follow Leah here...”

“Um, my name is Palm Breeze.” The red in her cheeks was very noticeable to both Firecracker and most of all, Primrose. She gave Palm Breeze a smile.

“Right. Follow Palm Breeze here to shelter! The storm will-”

CCCCRRRRRAAAACKKKKKCKK-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

The fork of lightning vaporized a patch of sand on the beach a hundred yards away. Everypony present screamed or gasped in shock. The thunder was still reverberating in Firecracker’s chest as he told Autumn Gale to find Skysong and get her to the pond Palm breeze spoke of. The white mare led the single-file line of ponies into the thick jungle right as the downpour started. It was a few sprinkles at first, but quickly grew into a drenching rain that soaked everypony to the bone. Garnet floated the body of Jay from the sand right as he woke up. 

“Sunshine... and Rob... where are they?” he moaned before falling asleep again. 

“Celestia fuck me with the sun...” Firecracker cursed. “Autumn!” he shouted out. The pegasus was gone, off to find his marefriend to hide with the rest of the group. 

How was he going to find those two ponies when the storm was already here? He hadn’t even seen either of them since that morning, either. Jay was going to kill him, but Firecracker couldn’t risk looking for them blindly in a storm like this. 

Firecracker turned and dashed into the jungle.

---

Sunshine had spotted the one cabana that had four walls and a roof that could stand up to this monster, and to his surprise, it also had some furniture. Rob had made it in right as a bolt of lightning struck the beached boat, detonating the batteries like small bombs. The explosion was lost to the winds and the thunder all around them, but the force had tossed Rob along the floor and into a soaked heap. Sunshine thought it was just a particularly loud crash of thunder. 

“If these things happen all the time, no wonder everypony left this resort,” Sunshine said as he searched through the dresser for a towel. He found two bright orange towels and tossed one to Rob. It landed on his head, but he made no effort to remove it. Sunshine noticed this only after drying his mane and wings. He walked over to where Rob had landed, and noticed that he wasn’t breathing. 

“Rob! Rob! Can you hear me?!” he shouted, flipping the unicorn over. Blood was dripping from his ears and nose, but what concerned Sunshine the most was that he wasn’t breathing at all. He rested his head against Rob’s chest, and past his own racing heart, he heard nothing. “Fuck!” Sunshine cursed. 

He had never been trained properly in CPR, and he certainly had no idea if it would work on a pony, let alone in this situation. But he wasn’t ready to let somepony just die. He pressed his hooves on Rob’s chest where he guessed his heart was a few times, and blew air in through his mouth. 

He repeated this a few more times, but nothing was happening. 

Sunshine slammed his hoof on Rob’s chest a few more times before falling into a heap and sobbing, but his cries were drowned out by the rain and wind and thunder. 

---

Firecracker was halfway through the jungle when he realized. He dashed away from the back of the group without anypony realizing; they were too determined to get to safety from the rain and wind. The wind picked up into a strong gale that pushed through the trees and bushes on the ground, but when Firecracker broke out onto the beach again, he was nearly blown off his hooves. 

“PEACH! WHERE ARE YOU?” he shouted, praying to Celestia and Luna that she was still safe. The sky was a dreadful mix of dark greys, deep blues, and black, that hampered his vision almost as much as the blinding flashes of lightning. 

He dug his hooves into the rain-covered sand and pushed back towards the spot Peach had been sitting for the past two days, and thats when he saw her.

She was laying flat on the sand. And she wasn’t moving. 

---

“Sunshine?”

The blue pegasus raised his head to see the yellow unicorn looking back at him. “Rob!” Be reached forward and wrapped him in a hug and buried his muzzle into the unicorn’s shoulder. 

“You okay there? My chest is killing me... It feels like I got trampled on my a stampede of buffalo.”

“Um, you got tossed by the boat going up.”

“My jaw also hurts a bit...” Rob said, flexing his mouth. Sunshine kept his shut. “I guess I was knocked out for a bit from that blast... I remember running to the door, then a flash, then you laying there. How long was I out?”

“A few minutes,” Sunshine responded. “There’s a towel next to you to dry off with. You can sleep on the bed while we wait for this storm to pass, too. Since, well, you’re hurt.” Sunshine spotted a small couch along the wall near the bed and pulled himself onto it and buried his face in his hooves. 

Rob was fine. His breathing and heartbeat were so small that he didn’t notice them, and he panicked and acted prematurely. Sunshine was embarrassed and ashamed at his mistake, even though Rob hadn’t noticed. 

Sunshine heard Rob climb onto the bed and under the covers. He shuffled around for a few moments, then sat back up. “Hey, Sunshine...”

“Yeah?”

“There’s... more than enough room for the two of us in here with some space between us. You know, if you don’t mind, that is.” Sunshine’s heart jumped. he was embarrassed now not just about before, but also about joining Rob in the bed. But he was most embarrassed about how badly he wanted to. Sure, he fancied Rob since the day he came to the bureau, but he had no idea if Rob could respond to his advances, should he make any. 

Sunshine gulped and slowly walked over to the side of the bed opposite from Rob and climbed in. ROb as facing away from him, his head resting on his pillow as he tried to get to sleep. Sunshine pulled the old covers up to his chin and was surprised at how warm the blankets felt for being so old, let alone how they were still in one piece. Presumably another spell.

It was late afternoon when the storm started, and behind the clouds raining down overhead, the sun was only just starting to set.

Sunshine’s eyes weren’t particularly heavy, but he rested in the bed with Rob anyway. The wind howled outside and the rain slammed against the roof and windows, and the occasional crash of thunder shook the foundations. But under all of this, it still took Sunshine a while to hear it.

Rob was quietly crying.

“Rob?” Sunshine asked over his shoulder. 

“*sniff* Y-Yeah?”

“What’s wrong?” Sunshine turned over to face the unicorn, who was already facing him.

“I’m... just sad. That’s all.”

“Why?”

Rob sniffed again. “I’ve never had any friends, or anyone close to me. I was home schooled, I never hung out with anyone my own age, and I never saw my dad unless he was yelling at me. And now even he’s gone. I don’t have anything left for me.”

“Why not try and remake yourself when you get to your new home with us? What have you always wanted to do?”

“Hmm,” Rob thought for a moment. “I’ve never really thought about it before... Maybe a writer, perhaps?”

Sunshine was surprised. “Why is that?”

“I loved reading books... thrillers and fiction were always my favorites. Should I try to become a writer?” Rob looked into Sunshine’s eyes with sincerity; he was nervous about everything now. He was outside his comfort zone where everything had been handed to him. He was finally trying to make himself without being known as this rich guy’s son. 

“I think you’d make a pretty good writer. When we get somewhere safe, I’ll go out with you and get you something to start writing with, okay?” Sunshine smiled boyishly. A strange feeling was welling inside of his chest; it wasn’t necessarily love or infatuation, but it was something simpler. He simply wanted to see Rob happy and smiling. 

“That sounds very nice of you, Sunshine. Thanks.” Rob began snuggling into the covers once more. “You know you’re my first real friend? Even after you went off at me a few days ago at the bureau. You were kind and welcoming to me, and you didn’t even know me. Why?”

Sunshine thought back to the day he saw Rob walk into the bureau. “I’m like that to everyone. I just like to make ponies... and people feel welcome and happy.”

“You do kind of live up to your name, don’t you?” Rob chuckled. 

Sunshine smiled. “I guess I do, don’t I? I just don’t like it when I see somepony sad, and... I just want to make them smile again.”

“That’s very kind of you. Were you like that as a human, too?”

“Kind of. I... always wanted to be the center of attention most of the time. I enjoyed it when people liked me and smiled when I talked. But now I just want ponies to smile and be happy. I... knew that something was bothering you when you first came to the bureau, even though you tried to hide it.”

Rob pulled the sheet up and over his head. “I’m sorry it was so obvious...”

“It wasn’t, actually. It took me awhile to figure it out. Actually, after I yelled at you that morning, I knew for certain that there was something there.” Sunshine’s smile disappeared. “I was too preoccupied with my new body to try and help you with it until we got here... I’m sorry.”

Rob snapped to attention. “Why are you sorry? I was the insensitive jerk to you! To all of your friends! I’m the one who should apologize profusely!”

“And you made it better by making sure those guilty of hurting our families are going to be put away for good. That was all you. That is how you made it right, whether you realized it when you were formulating it at the time.” Sunshine leaned forward and gently hugged Rob once more. “You are a wonderful pony with a kind heart.”

Rob’s tension eased away and wrapped his hooves around Sunshine and hugged him back. The pair leaned back from each other on the bed. All of a sudden, Rob’s eyes widened and a smirk grew on his muzzle. “Wait a minute...”

Oh no oh no... Sunshine muttered to himself. He shouldn’t have hugged Rob that second time, let alone that first! 

“You do, don’t you?” Rob asked, the smirk still firmly in place. 

Sunshine felt the blood rush to his cheeks as he tried to cover them with the blanket. He looked up at Rob and nodded wordlessly.

“Wow,” Rob said, dropping his head back down onto the pillow. A silence fell over the two for a few minutes until Sunshine got his act together and began worming his way out from under the covers. He hung his head low and trotted back to the couch he had tried resting on before. 

“Um,” Rob began, biting his lip. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable, sharing a bed and all. It’s okay.” Sunshine felt a tear roll down his cheek as he hid his face away in the space between his body and the back of the couch. 

“Oh come on, don’t be such a baby!” Rob sighed. “Why do you think I came with you all the way out here? Just the two of us? To the other side of the island?” the yellow unicorn asked in a coarse tone. 

“The boat?” Sunshine replied, lifting his head up.

Rob flinched. “That was pure luck. I would’ve gone back stateside after the rescue to take care of all of that anyway.” His frown began to fade into a smile as the realization hit Sunshine. 

“Really?” he asked the unicorn. Rob nodded back. 

Sunshine let out a giggle as he bounced off of the couch and back into the bed with Rob. The storm outside seemed to disappear to the two of them. 

---

Firecracker was hopelessly lost in the jungle. The WIld One raged overhead, and constantly tested his hooves’ grip on the ground. Peach Cobbler floated behind him in a orange globe as he attempted to find his way along the path towards the cave where everypony else was. 

Another flash of lightning illuminated the world around him, but something curious caught his eye to his right. He decided to push on towards the odd glimmer that appeared before him, and in a few short minutes, he came across a vast, overflowing pond. 

This must be the pond that Palm Breeze had mentioned!

Firecracker skirted the icy cold edge of the pond, but the edges were constantly growing and spilling off into the jungle around him. He desperately scanned the sky for the signs of the cliff that the cave was against, and after another deafening crash of thunder paired with the blinding flash of lightning, he saw it. 

The cave was just to the left of the waterfall that fed into the pond, but it had swollen by the ferocity of the storm. The wind had also picked up in this open area, lifting Firecracker off of his hooves for a few seconds more times than he was comfortable with. The cave was a wall of black before him when he finally reached it. He conjured an orb of light at the tip of his horn and followed the path into the earth.

It was only a few minutes before he saw the lights and heard the voices of everypony else. The were gathered around Peppermint, who had managed to conjure up a light at the tip of her horn like he had taught her before the bureau burned down. She was exhausted, and it showed; the orb was dim and flickering.

Several ponies galloped over to Firecracker as he illuminated the cave for everypony. He moved past the ponies and placed Peach Cobbler down on the hard rock and removed his bubble. Her breathing was shallow and she was cold to the touch. 

Pink Lemonade had rushed over immediately and looked at the mare. “She hasn’t eaten or had any water in days. Even as we got here, she was running on fumes. Anvil!” The burly earth pony behind Pink Lemonade perked his ears up. “Get me some fruits for the poor filly.” Anvil tromped over to a pile of fruits that were resting on a bunch of palms in a pile. It must have been at least a foot tall pile of fruit!

“Firecracker, take this and mush it up for her. Slowly feed it into her mouth, only a little at a time. Make sure she swallows before giving her some more.” Firecracker levitated the mango from Anvil’s mouth and ripped a small piece off of the fruit. He gently opened the unicorn’s mouth open and slid the fruit inside. Almost as if by reflex, Peach chewed it and swallowed. Was she so hungry her body itself was eating for her?

After he finished feeding Peach the mango, he sat next to Primrose, Palm Breeze, and Jay. Jay was awake again, but he was upset. “Sunshine and Rob are still out there,” he muttered. Prim leaned down and kissed him on the head. 

“They’re smart ponies. I’m sure they found some shelter. Autumn and Skysong felt the storm before they even saw it!” Primrose was hopeful, but the doubt showed on her forced expression. Jay didn’t seem to notice, though.

“How are things going, Jay?” Firecracker asked, uneasy about finally talking to him after doing what he did to the colt’s leg. 

“I’ve been better. My leg doesn’t hurt as much anymore.” A weak smile appeared on his muzzle. 

“How about your horn?” Firecracker was nervous about this subject.

“I don’t know, I haven’t tried anything yet. Is it really that bad?” 

“I’m not going to try and tell you what you want to hear, or what I think since I have no real knowledge on the matter. I’ll let the doctors in Canterlot look at it. They’re the best in all of Equestria.”

“Well that’s good, I suppose.” Jay rested his head on Prim’s outstretched forelegs and nuzzled her dark blue coat. He was asleep within minutes. Firecracker stood back up and walked over to sit with Peach Cobbler and began feeding her another fruit. 

Primrose nuzzled Jay’s head and gave him another kiss. 

“Prim, I want to apolo-” Palm Breeze began.

“Accepted.” Primrose smiled at the white pony. Palm Breeze tilted her head in surprise. “You stayed out there all last night, didn’t you?” Breeze nodded and hung her head.

“I thought about what you said yesterday, and I tried to think about why I was being such a bi- jerk. And I finally realized why I was always hating on Jay.”

“Really?” Primrose said, suddenly curious on the matter.

“My parents were always talking down about his family when they got home from work, especially for the past few years. I had no idea what they were angry about, but every night at dinner, it was something new about Jay’s father being a dispicable human being, which is.. funny to think about now that we aren’t humans anymore. But anyway. I didn’t know it was about Jay’s father trying to...” Palm Breeze gulped. ‘Trying to kill him for the life insurance money. I just thought it was his entire family who was bad, Jay included.”

“So you didn’t like him because your family didn’t like his family?” Prim asked. 

“I... suppose so. I’m actually ashamed of it now, looking back on how pig-headed I was and how I refused to try and understand WHY I didn’t like him.” Palm Breeze sighed and dropped her head onto her forelegs. “I’ll have to apologize to him when he wakes up again. He’s a nice guy, now that I look back on it.”

“Thank you, Leah,” Prim said.

“I’m Palm Breeze now. I left that name when I found out who I actually am. And I couldn’t be happier.”

---

“Captain!” the pegasus yelled in front of him. They were flying as fast as their wings could carry them, with a deluxe sky chariot filled with a unicorn soldier team on board. 

“Yes, private?” Captain Fleet Feather yelled back. His body felt comfortable in his old armor again; the gleaming golden plates just felt so much better than nothing at all. Especially after the confrontation with the HLF at the bureau and their guns. 

“That’s a Wild One out there, isn’t it?” The towering wall of clouds several miles in front of them was indeed a WIld One; a storm created by wild magic and unsupervised waste weather from lazy teams who failed to recycle storms over their towns.  

“Yes it is, private. First time seeing one?”

“Yes, sir!”

“Let’s make sure it’s not your last. Company, halt!” The pegasi all stopped their flight and hovered in place. They all were sweating from flying for almost a full day straight, while Captain Fleet Feather had yet to break a sweat. “We’re waiting until morning for this monster to disperse. Get some clouds for everypony to sleep on. We fly again at first light. Those ponies are going to need us there for them ASAP! It’ll be a long flight home, so get your rest!”

> The Eighth Day
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The dawn hid behind the curious mist that enshrouded the island, and Firecracker flicked his tail out of impatience. After feeding Peach Cobbler the night before, he refused to sleep until everypony was safe and sound on their way back to Canterlot. It was a long night in the cave while everypony slept, and Firecracker had to divert the slowly growing flow of water that fed into the cave and past the boundary of his light spell and into the dark recesses of the earth. 

The Wild One had began to taper off a few hours ago when he visited the mouth of the cave to see how it was outside. Trees had been uprooted, some hit and split by lightning, but fortunately none caught fire. If they did, it was quickly quenched by the drenching rain that had since been replaced with a soft trickle from the skies.

The undersides of the clouds were now splitting and revealing a cobalt sky above, which was growing brighter by the second. “Finally,” Firecracker muttered to himself. He just wanted to be done with this... all of this. He was tired of keeping everypony in check, safe, and happy (in a relative sense). He just wanted to find a comfortable bed and drop dead on it. Just... stop, close his eyes, and land on a soft, feathery pillow. 

He sat his rump down on the sand near the shrunken pond from the night before and watched the sky brighten as what had previously Celestia’s sun slowly brighten the sky and warm the land. Did she still control the sun, even here on Earth? Humans were convinced otherwise, and had substantial proof to back up their claims. 

The humans had indeed impressed the majority of the population of Equestria with their technology and knowledge of their own cosmos, without magic too! Sending humans to the moon? It was something a pony would never consider. Would that technically be trespassing on Princess Luna’s property? Would they find Nightmare Moon’s prison there if they looked?

“Too early...” Firecracker grumbled to himself. Why did he bother to think this much while he was so tired?

After maybe an hour, the clouds had finally departed and the sky was taking on a buttery yellow and blue color of early morning. Something suddenly flashed overhead, but before he could see what it was, it was gone. It seemed to have been heading towards the beach. When the realization finally sunk in, Firecracker galloped down the throat of the cave to wake everypony up.

---

Sunshine cracked his eyes open, but his vision was occluded by a black mane, one that he snuggled into a bit more. Rob stirred and yawned as Sunshine sat up in the bed, looking out the window. The sun was beaming through the glass, and chirps and calls from birds reached their ears. 

“Morning, Sunshine,” Rob said, snickering at how oddly appropriate the comment was. 

Sunshine hopped out of the bed and onto his hooves. He looked back at Rob and asked, “How are you feeling?”

Rob smiled and stretched his hooves out. “Better than last night.” A frown crept onto his face. “Um, is it okay if we keep this... thing... quiet for a bit? I have a lot to sort out in my head...”

Sunshine smiled as he crept back onto the bed and gave Rob a light kiss on the cheek. “Of course. Take as long as you need. I know how much confusion must be going on in your head, and if you need some space to deal with it, just say so.”

Rob suddenly pulled Sunshine onto the bed and planted another kiss on his lips. “But how can I when you’re so cuddly?” he giggled. 

Sunshine laughed heartily. “That’s the first time I’ve heard you giggle! ...well, aside from last night,” Sunshine said with a smirk. Rob blushed and hid his face underneath the covers. Sunshine chuckled and hopped off the bed and walked over to the door and ventured outside into the brisk morning. 

He was really surprised at how much Rob had changed since resolving everything with his father. There wasn’t much sleeping done the night before, but Sunshine refused to push anything onto Rob that he didn’t feel comfortable with. They kissed, cuddled, and before they finally drifted to sleep in each other’s embrace, Rob whispered “I love you.” Sunshine was hesitant to respond likewise, since it was their first night they spent together and Rob’s feelings may have been accelerated by hormones. 

But that was all washed away in a sudden sense of relief. A bright smile spread across Sunshine’s muzzle as he lifted off in a flight that was fueled by his joy. He did a few loops, and even skirted the water of the bay, creating a fine mist with the tip of his wing. It was such a rush to him that he may just finally have somepony... 

Sunshine let out an echoing cheer as he soared higher into the sky. As he reached the apex of his ascent, he noticed something in the distance. A colorful object on the beach on a far side of the island. The same side of the island that they arrived on...

“Oh BUCK.”

---

Spirits were high for the first time in what seemed like forever to Firecracker. Everypony was lined up behind Palm Breeze, who was guiding them back to the beach that Fleet Feather was presumably waiting, if he could count on his perception. 

Peach Cobbler had woken up with everypony else, but she hadn’t said a word since then. She stayed close by Firecracker’s side, but never made any contact with him aside from the few times she needed to lean on him when she was weak. The grey unicorn welcomed the contact, but the moment Peach could manage on her own, she righted herself and looked away when Firecracker craned his neck to check on her. 

It took only twenty minutes to reach the beach, but it was well worth it. 

Fleet Feather was barded in a gleaming set of golden armor, with three other pegasi in similar looks standing at attention. The sky carriage that they had brought with them was one of the largest Firecracker had ever seen in his life. It was ten feet across and thirty feet long, with a canvas canopy and crates of various medical supplies inside. 

A small team of two unicorns rushed over as soon as they saw the first ponies emerge from the jungle. “Where are the injured?” a unicorn with a buttery yellow coat and brown mane asked. His mane was sticking to his forehead with sweat; he was clearly uncomfortable in the heat. The mare with him was a dusky purple unicorn with a bright blue mane. Her horn glowed with an aura in a similar hue to her mane, carrying over a bag of medical equipment. 

Garnet stumbled out of the jungle and was immediately assaulted by the two medics. They inspected the scabs on her neck where Firecracker had performed his cauterization. “Miss, how have you been doing? Any dizziness? Nausea? Anything out of the ordinary?”

Garnet thought for a moment, then shook her head. She then remembered the complication with her voice and pointed at her throat. “I don’t know what you mean, miss,” the mare said. 

“She lost her ability to speak,” Firecracker said aloud. He walked over to the medics and tried to keep his posture up. He was absolutely exhausted, and the last thing he wanted was for two ponies to blast him for trying to do the right thing. 

“Voice is gone?” the stallion asked.

“The bullet had nicked her voice box, so when I was trying to close her wounds, I sealed that off before closing the holes in her neck before she bled out.”

“Hmm...” the stallion said, inspecting the scabs once more. “I believe we may be able to restore proper structure to your voice box when we get back to Canterlot. I don’t see any signs of infection at all, either. Where’s the other one?” The mare led Garnet over to one of the crates that had just been pried open by the pegasi troops for nourishment. Most of the other ponies were around there too, nibbling on packaged sandwiches and sipping from bottles of juice. 

Peppermint was straining under the weight, but she managed to lift Jay all the way through the jungle and out to the beach. She was soaked with sweat and was wheezing, but when she gently laid Jay’s body down on the sand, she took a moment and acknowledged her feat. Primrose came out from the trees shortly after and made sure Jay was alright before giving a big hug to Peppermint. 

“This is the one with the amputated leg?” the mare asked as the three unicorns trotted over to Jay’s conscious body. They leaned in and the instant they were close enough, the recoiled back. 

“That wound is infected, without a doubt. I can smell it from here.” Jay hung his head as if he did something wrong, even though it was out of his abilities to deal with. Firecracker looked down at the leg; whitish ooze was beginning to creep out from some of the cracks in the giant scab, and it did indeed smell awful. 

The medical stallion leaned in and took a long look at his horn, and sighed. “I don’t know. That horn is in bad shape. I don’t know if we’ll be able to fully restore your magic.”

“I’m just glad... that I helped Prim. That’s all,” Jay said before leaning over and resting his head on the sand. 

The two medical unicorns whispered to each other for a moment before approaching Firecracker once more. “Firecracker, right?” He nodded. “This colt’s leg is in horrible shape. Infection was nigh impossible to avoid in this kind of environment, but efforts could have been taken to slow down its progress. Why was it not wrapped in something to keep it away from the elements?”

“Um, I never thought it would need that...”

“Answer me this,” the stallion began in a razor sharp tone. “If it was your leg that was removed, wouldn’t you wrap the wound after sealing it?”

The stallion sighed and dipped his head in shame. “Yes I would.”

The stallion sighed and frowned. “Don’t get me wrong. Your quick thinking saved both of their lives. But you could have handled it better.” The stallion looked over to the purple mare and nodded. “We have to take him to Canterlot immediately to make sure that no further damage is done.”

“Wait, does that mean you’re going to...”

“Yes. We’re teleporting him there directly.”

Firecracker looked down at the beige pony who somehow managed to blend in with the sand with his coat. He was moaning and sweating; he had presumably lost consciousness once again, and Primrose was trying to comfort him through the pain. 

“At least he’s asleep for it this time. Go ahead. Please make sure you save him, okay?” Firecracker asked. 

“Of course.” The two ponies walked over to Jay and moved Primrose away from the colt. She protested and cried out to the point where Firecracker had to intervene and hold her back as they vanished in a flash of blinding white light. 

“NO!” Primrose cried out, lunging at the small crater in the sand that the spell had left. She turned back and glared at Firecracker. “Why’d you let them go? He was fine! We would’ve been there tonight!”

Firecracker knelt down in the sand and leaned close to the blue mare. “They needed to treat him now. And you know as well as they do that he wasn’t fine. Not at all. Waiting until tonight may have been too long and they weren’t willing to take that risk. You will have to wait until later to see Jay again, but isn’t waiting a little bit better than not seeing him ever again?”

Primrose wiped the tears from her eyes. “I suppose...”

“He’s in the best medical hooves Equestria has to offer. Now go and get a sandwich to eat before they’re all gone.” She slowly stood up, and within the minute, Primrose had a sandwich in her hooves and was settled in the sky carriage with everypony else.

Fleet Feather walked over to Firecracker with intense purpose in his eyes. Not something that Firecracker wanted to deal with. Not at all. He’d rather go for a nice walk in another Wild One. Imagining him trotting along, humming a tune to himself as the land was torn asunder by winds and rain was somehow entertaining to him. Firecracker cracked a grin. 

“They take Jay?” Fleet Feather asked. In his full armor, he managed to look even scarier than he did before. 

“Yeah. ‘ported him straight to Canterlot.”

“Good. Are we missing any others aside from Sunshine? I haven’t seen him at all yet.”

Firecracker bit his lip. “Him and Rob were missing yesterday when the Wild One hit. We haven’t seen them since.” Fleet Feather frowned, and with a gust of wind and a beat of his wings, he vanished into the sky. 

Firecracker didn’t like leaving any threads hanging either, but there wasn’t much he could do. He stepped into the sky carriage, levitated a sandwich and a juice from the crate, and took his seat next to Peach Cobbler. While most of the ponies on board were still eating and drinking, an empty wrapper and bottle sat on the floor in front of the unicorn. 

“I guess you were hungry, eh?” Firecracker asked. Peach Cobbler looked up at him as he spoke. Without warning, her eyes teared up and she broke down into heaving sobs as she wrapped her hooves around Firecracker’s neck. She cried and cried into his chest as if she was letting everything that had happened to her over the past few days out at once. Firecracker held her close as she cried, not even noticing as Jasmine crept on board. He didn’t even notice the sky carriage lifting into the sky and flying away from the island and to Canterlot. 

---

“Ohbuckohbuckohbuck!” Sunshine cursed as he panted harder and harder. He beat his wings with all of his might, but he couldn’t manage to ascend any further. The sky carriage was still visible, but it was floating higher and higher into the sky. If they didn’t get their attention somehow in the next minute they were going to be stuck here!

“Rob! I can’t get any higher! You need to get their attention!” Sunshine panted.

“But... how?” Rob pleaded. “I doubt I can shout loud enough!”

“Use... Your... Magic!” Sunshine gasped as he beat his wings as hard as he could. He was holding Rob with all four of his legs wrapped around the unicorn, but the weight was too much. Before long, he was going to start losing altitude.

“I... can try...” Rob murmured, unsure about himself. 

“Jay mentioned finding some ‘bubble’ in his head that... let him use his magic...”

Rob squeezed his eyes shut and focused on finding this ‘bubble’. He poked and prodded around his mind, trying to feel for it until he found a spot that he didn’t remember being there. A surge of adrenaline ran through his body as he focused all of his efforts on the ‘bubble’. As it popped, his mind was awash with strange energies and curious feelings that seemed entirely alien to him.

“I got it!” Rob shouted. 

“Do... something... quickly!”

Rob gathered up a large portion of the new energy in his head and focused it toward the sky carriage.  He released it in the form of a bright beam of light, that almost blinded Sunshine. 

---

“Sir, I thought I saw something,” one of the pegasi guards said. He looked down back towards the island where the flash of light came from, but saw nothing. “Sir? Orders?”

Fleet Feather considered it for a moment. “Stay your course, private. May have just been the sun reflecting off of something groundside. Our first priority is to get these ponies back to Canterlot.”

“Sir, yes sir.”

---

“It’s not working!” Rob yelled, watching as the sky carriage ascended further into the sky. Before long, it was going to disappear behind a cloud and be gone forever.

“Try again! Harder!” Sunshine said. They were already beginning to fall back down to the island. 

Rob gathered up what remained of that alien energy and released it again, without holding anything back. 

---

“AAAGH!” one of the pegasi screamed. His eyes were watering and blinded and he was sagging down, the effort of keeping the sky carriage aloft too much for him. 

“Private Glade! What’s the matter?” Fleet Feather demanded. 

“The light, sir! I saw it again! Much brighter than just a reflection, sir!” Private Glade removed himself from the harness and floated next to Fleet Feather as he rubbed his eyes with his hooves. 

“Where did you see it, Private?”

Private Glade cracked open his eyes and looked down towards where the light had come from. He pointed out with a hoof towards a gathering of small buildings surrounding a bay on another side of the island where they had landed. “There, sir! By those houses.”

“You two,” Fleet Feather said, addressing the two pegasi keeping the sky carriage in position. “Stay here. I’m taking a look.” 

The golden armored pegasus soared down in the direction given by the Private. It wasn’t long before he saw them. Sunshine was holding another pony with his legs, and was falling. He dashed down beneath the pair and caught them on his back before they impaced the sand. 

“Fleet Feather!” Rob yelled. 

“You... found... us...” Sunshine said between gasps for air. 

The weight was manageable for the older captain, and before long they were soaring back up to the sky carriage. Sunshine and Rob were greeted with cheers, hugs, and food; the latter of which they sorely needed. 

“We thought you two got blown away last night in the storm!” Autumn Gale said, hugging the exhausted pegasus. 

“Rob and I found somewhere to crash and ride the storm out. We were just fine.” Sunshine looked over to Rob, who had been reminded of the night before. He shyly smiled.

“Sweet Celestia, was that you, kid? With the light?” one of the  pegasi asked, after getting back into his harness. Rob nodded, noticing his eyes were soaked in tears from rubbing them. “You were brighter than the spotlights at all those Wonderbolts shows back in Cloudsdale. Just try not to blind anypony next time, okay?”

Rob smiled and nodded, feeling a little embarassed from the ordeal. The pegasi flapped their wings in unison and carried the ponies above the cloud layer and into the bright blue sky.

Sunshine trotted over to Rob and looked down at the unicorn; he seemed to be deep in thought, but after a moment, he picked his head back up. “I found myself a name!” Rob said with excitement.

“Really? What is it?”

“Spotlight!” he said. “It kinda goes with my colors and the beam of light from before, so I thought it could work...” 

Sunshine began giggling. “I think it’s a great name!” the pegasus said. “And guess what?” Sunshine was kind of unsure about himself right about now. Was it too soon to say it, or would it be okay? Tossing those thoughts aside, he decided to go for it. Leaning in close to the unicorn’s ear, he whispered “I love you, Spotlight.”

Spotlight’s ears perked up and his eyes went wide. He blushed and smiled and leaned over to Sunshine and whispered “I love you too, Sunshine.” Checking around to see if anypony was looking, Spotlight gave Sunshine a little kiss on the cheek. 

---

The bed was itchy. Every inch of his body itched. it wasn’t a sort of annoying itch, like a bug bite, but a little nagging itch. Jay grumbled and tried to scratch the itch on his arm, but reality caught back up with him. It was his foreleg. And he didn’t have fingers anymore, but hard hooves. 

A sudden, deeper realization kicked in. He opened his eyes to look down at the spot that itched, but saw only the sheets he rested under. Somehow, a spot in empty space was causing his itch. Jay lifted up his shortened foreleg and held it in front of his eyes. The last time he saw the stump, it was a giant scab covered in sand, dried blood, and burned skin.

What he saw now was a smooth, tan half-of-a-leg. The scabs were gone, the burns were removed, and his coat had grown back. It was as if someone had just hidden the rest of his leg in some way. 

“Finally awake?”

Jay looked to his right where he heard the sweet voice come from. The purple unicorn mare with the bright blue mane trotted into the room where Jay was resting. She trotted over to his left side and inspected his foreleg. “Looks like everything healed up well enough. How are you feeling?”

Jay smacked his lips and cleared his throat. “Um, I think I’m okay... What happened?”

“We cleaned off the blood and cleared out the infections in your leg. We grafted some skin to cover the burns and regrew your coat. Any stiffness? Anything odd or out of the ordinary?”

Jay looked down at his foreleg and forced a smile. “Just an itch is all.”

The mare frowned. “It’s where your leg used to be, isn’t it?” Jay was unable to keep his smile up any longer and nodded. “Phantom limb syndrome. Happens to most amputees. Your mind is still convinced your leg is still there. It’s just your brain getting used to it; you should be better in a few days.”

Jay felt it come over him all at once. He had somehow managed to avoid it the entire time he was on the island, but no longer. The tears finally came out, and Jay doubled over as they wrestled control over his body. 

The mare hugged Jay as he let it all out. He buried his muzzle into her blue mane and soaked that bit of it with his tears. “Shhh,” she cooed, stroking Jay’s brown mane. “It’ll be alright. You’re alive, and you’re okay now. Shhh.”

“It’s... not... fair...” he sobbed. 

“Nothing in the world is, dear. But you shouldn’t let this keep you down,” she said to him, still stroking his mane.

After a few minutes, Jay finally calmed down and resorted to just sniffling. “What... now?”

The mare smiled. “Well, you made a magnificent recovery, but there is still one issue at hoof: your horn.” Jay held a hoof up to his forehead, and poked at the remnants of his horn. “We can regrow it, but it’s no guarantee that everything will go back to normal. Or...” The mare sighed.

“What?”

“We could file your horn down to a stump that is hidden by your mane. Unicorns who can’t use magic, well...”

“I know what you’re trying to say.”

“Regrowing bone is not that hard. Redeveloping magic, though, is very challenging and isn’t guaranteed.”

Jay closed his eyes and tried to seek out his magic. There was the slightest trace of it, but it was a pitiful shadow of what it was before. Jay looked up and pitifully nodded. “The procedure is long and painful, so I’ll be putting you under for its duration. It’s a strange sensation, but it’ll be over quickly. I promise.” The mare’s horn glowed for a moment, and Jay’s world went dark. 

---

“Look! Look!” Peppermint yelled, looking out one of the openings of the sky carriage. 

They had reached land a few minutes ago after an hours long flight over the empty seas, but with so many things to see now, it was hard not to look. But Primrose sat on her cushion and just listened as the wind rushed through her rosy mane. Palm Breeze sat down next to her and offered a smile; she returned it and enjoyed the feeling. 

Palm Breeze had become a much more... genuine pony after her night in the jungle. She was much more cheerful and friendly than she was back at the bureau, and Primrose was actually surprised about it. 

“How are you doing?” she asked. It was clear that she wasn’t in her best shape after they took Jay away from her, but it was for the best, like what Firecracker said. They’d have all the time in the world to spend together after they found each other again. 

“I...” she began. “I’ll be fine. Soon.” Deflecting the topic of conversation, Prim asked “How’d you come up with the name ‘Palm Breeze’?” 

The white mare glowed with pride as she was asked. “Well, after thinking about who I wanted to be, I decided that I whatever I did, I wanted it to be on the beach and in the tropics. As hard as the last few days have been on us, I really enjoyed the feeling of warmth all around me. I loved the smells, the sounds, the sun... I loved all of it! And I just figured, well, ‘Palm Breeze’ sounded just right!”

“I’m happy for you, you know.” Prim rubbed Palm Breeze’s shoulder with her hoof. But the white mare seemed sadder than before.

“Part of me will miss being a human... I know it will,” she said. “And if I had a choice in the matter, I wouldn’t have gone to the bureau.” Primrose was very surprised about that. 

“Why?”

“I was born a human! And I feel like... I betrayed my species in a way. I joined the other side. I’m a defector. Regardless of how much I’ve improved as a person, I’m not a person anymore. It just makes me sad, is all.”

“I can see that...” Primrose said. “I don’t really see it as changing, really. I saw the Bureau as a place for all of us to grow closer to each other. And yes, we may be ponies now, but we can meet others wherever we end up living! And I’m kind of glad to be away from all of those companies.”

“Yeah,” Palm Breeze agreed. 

Another hour passed with more and more signs of civilization popping up on the land beneath the sky carriage. Small towns and farms littered the countryside like a picture out of a history book. Ponies were just tiny spots of color from the height that they were flying at.

“Hey! Look right ahead of us, everypony! Right on that mountain!” Skysong yelled. Everypony rushed to the front of the carriage to see the towering mountains that Canterlot roosted on. 

“We have maybe an hour left, so just sit tight,” Firecracker said over the clamor. 

Primrose was anxious to finally stand on solid ground again. She wasn’t made for the skies, otherwise she would’ve been a pegasus. Another earth pony sat down next to her and noticed her unease. 

“Excited to see your coltfriend again?” she asked. Primrose tried to remember the name... Pink Lemonade. The doctor who helped Garnet with the conversions. “Oop! I did it again!”

“Ponyism?” Primrose suggested. 

“Yep! So, eager to see him again?” Pink Lemonade said once more.

“Y-Yeah. I miss him. That’s all.” Primrose felt more embarrassed than she thought she should. “Say, I have a question. Why does Anvil always stay with you? The big grey earth pony?”

“Oh? That big lug?” the pink mare said, gesturing to the large, intimidating pony behind her. “He’s my cousin!”

“Really?”

“Oh yeah. Funny, it was pure coincidence that we wound up at the same bureau! He’s been quiet all his life, and I was the only one he ever opened up to. He’s quite the chatterbox, I gotta say,” Pink Lemonade whispered, looking back at the grey pony. He was laying down on one of the cushions, resting. “He’s very protective of me, since I’m the only real family he has left. I don’t really mind it.”

Pink Lemonade trotted back over to her cousin and watched the sights pass by beneath them. Primrose stood up and looked over the side and watched as a small town disappear behind them. The sun was starting to take on an orange hue, and the shadows on the ground began to lengthen with the waning light. 

It’s almost over... Prim told herself. All of the suffering, all of the pain... it’s finally going to end...

---

Less than an hour later, the sky carriage finally touched down within the stalwart walls of Canterlot. The sun had set, and its last rays were fading beneath the horizon. A ghostly trail of stars began poking through the gloom of nightfall as the moon rose into the sky. The pegasi guards led each of the ponies from the island to their own private rooms within the castle, and a few to their shared rooms. 

The castle was bustling with life and activity, the lanterns in the countless windows and balconies burning brightly. Fleet Feather trotted along one of the causeways leading along the castle grounds with a blue mare trailing behind him. Primrose was anxious to reach the hospital wing of the castle.

The same stallion that Primrose met on the island greeted them as they entered the large doors to the building. Oil lanterns and candles burned along the walls, casting ghostly shadows that dances along the walls and floors. 

“He’s resting up right now. Glitter finished the horn removal procedure a few hours ago, and-” the stallion began. 

“Horn removal?” Primrose gasped. 

“It was the patient’s idea. I’m sure he can explain his reasonings to you, miss.” The doctor smiled at her. “Would you like me to bring you to him?” he asked. 

“Yes, yes please,” Primrose said.

“Will you be okay here, Primrose?” Fleet Feather asked. “Would you like me to walk you back to your room afterwards?”

She didn’t even need to consider it. “I’m going to stay here with Jay, if that’s alright...” Fleet Feather looked up at the doctor, who responded with a nod. 

“Very well then. Good night, and good luck.”

The halls in the hospital were not unlike one that would’ve existed back on Earth. Some of the equipment and medical tools looked like they belonged in a museum, but Primrose realized that the technology from Earth had yet to have any influence in Equestria yet. The same can be said about the use of torches, candles, and lanterns. The doctor stopped in front of a door and gently pushed it open for the mare. As she walked inside, he gently closed the door behind her, granting the room privacy.

“Jay?” she murmured weakly. 

The sand colored stallion looked up from the book he was reading in the bed. His mane was neat and clean; the brown really went well with the beige of his coat. But instead of the horn that used to spear up from the center of his forehead stood nothing but more of his mane. 

“Prim?”

The two locked eyes and in unison began smiling. Primrose walked up to the bed and looked down at Jay’s amputated leg. It was cleaned and repaired the best the doctors could do, but at its longest, it was still less than a foot long. Jay noticed Primrose looking at his foreleg, and scooted it under the covers of his bed out of shame. 

“Wait...” Prim asked, grasping out with her hooves for it. Jay reluctantly pulled it out from the covers and held it out for Primrose to see. She held it in her hooves and began kissing it gently, covering every inch she could find with her love. She looked up at Jay, and slowly inched forward until her lips met his. 

> The Ninth Day (Daytime)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Firecracker slept in more than he anticipated. The feathery bed was delightful compared to what he was used to before arriving in Canterlot, and the service staff had left a large bowl of fruits on a table by the bed. The curtains were drawn back, letting sunlight into the room.
 
The grey unicorn looked over his shoulder. Peach Cobbler was still sound asleep in the bed; it made his heart flutter when he saw how peaceful she looked. She stayed by him the entirety of the day before, not saying anything, at least until before they all retired to their own rooms.
 
“Can I… stay with you? For the night? I don’t want to be alone…” she asked timidly. She seemed embarrassed, shy, and unsure, but Firecracker smiled and said, “You can stay with me as long as you’d like. You don’t need to be alone anymore, you know.”
 
They fell asleep in each other’s hooves, the exhaustive journey north having finally taken its toll. And that’s all that they did that night: sleep. Firecracker wasn’t anxious to try anything with the beautiful mare, possibly risking the valuable trust she had in him. He wanted to take this relationship slow. He truly felt a connection with her, and sincerely hoped that there was a possible future for the two of them.
 
“Mr. Firecracker. Good morning to you. I bring you a message from the Princesses,” a pony said from the doorway. He levitated the envelope over and read the contents.
 
It was a formal invitation to a feast and celebration for the safe return of the staff and residents of the burned down Conversion Bureau. Apparently in their absence, the news found out about the fire that burned down the Bureau and painted the HLF as the perpetrators. It had been feared that everypony inside had died, and the fact that there were survivors was sure to make a wonderful story both in Equestria and on Earth.
 
“Thank you very much,” Firecracker said before the messenger left the room. “Before you go… can you tell me where Jasmine is? Pink coat-“ he began.
 
“She left in the middle of the night, sir. We did not ask her where she was headed.”
 
“Thank you.” Peach Cobbler began to stir in the bed from the commotion; she sat up, stretched her forelegs to the sky, and let out a long yawn.
 
“Good morning,” Firecracker said, walking over to the pink mare. Abashed, she tried to hide her muzzle from him. “There’s some fruit for breakfast over here if you’d like some. How are you feeling?”
 
She dropped the sheets and frowned. “It still hurts. It hurts so much…” she said, covering her heart with her hooves. Firecracker slipped his hooves in and pulled her hooves out from her chest and gave her a hug. She wrapped her hooves around his neck and gave him a hug as well. When he pulled his head back to look her in the eyes, her beautiful red eyes, she kissed him square on the lips.
 
---
“Good morning, Sunshine,” the colt giggled.
 
“Is that ever gonna get old for you?” the blue pegasus asked.
 
“Mmm, nope,” Spotlight said, kissing Sunshine on his nose.
 
Sunshine hopped out of bed and onto the marble floors of their room that they asked for (discreetly) the night before. When they were finally alone and in the sheets with each other, they did a little bit more than just sleep together. Sunshine was very surprised at how dexterous hooves could be when they were used carefully and delicately. The thing that surprised Sunshine the most was that it was Spotlight who started fooling around with him.
 
Sleep eventually overtook them, and they got as much as they could out of it. When they came to, a bowl of fruit sat waiting for them along with an invitation to a dinner and celebration for their safe return to be held by the Princesses.
 
“A party?” Spotlight asked, concerned. “For us?”
 
“Seems like it,” Sunshine said. “But that isn’t until much later. How about in a little bit we go check up on Jay?”
 
Spotlight raised an eyebrow. “And what are we going to do for that ‘little bit’ until then?” he asked, as if he didn’t already know. Sunshine leaned in and kissed him on the nose before leaping back into the bed and under the covers. He waited in anticipation as Spotlight climbed up and found him.
 
---
 
“What was that book you were reading last night?” Primrose asked. Jay propped it up with his hoof.
 
“Astrology. Apparently it’s a big thing here in Equestria, especially before the Merging. Pretty wild stuff in here.” He flipped through a few pages and showed her some of the passages he was reading. Some of it went over her head, but she paid attention anyway since it was the first time Jay’s spirits had been up since the fire.
 
“’Trine’,” Jay said out loud. He smiled and closed the book. “What do you think?” he asked Primrose.
 
“About what?” she asked.
 
“My new name. I’ve been trying to think of one since my conversion, and… I like it. Trine. That’ll be my new name.” A sense of something came over him at that time. It felt like completion, or just a sense of welcome.
 
Primrose kissed Trine on the cheek and smiled. “I like it. It fits you.”
 
“Mr. Jay? How are we feeling this morning?” the doctor asked as he walked in. Trine had found out his name was Doctor Stable, and he was one of the more affluent doctors in Canterlot.
 
“I’m feeling fine. And I decided I’m going by Trine now.”
 
Doctor Stable jotted something down onto his clipboard with a pencil and cleared his throat. “Well let’s go get you fitted for your prosthesis.”
 
“My what?” Trine asked.
 
“A new leg. So you can walk without needing to hop every step or have to use a wheelchair. A gift from the crown.”
 
Doctor Glitter, the female unicorn who comforted him the day before and performed his horn removal, trotted in with a wheelchair for him to ride. With Primrose’s help, he freed himself from his sheets and dropped his rump into the oddly shaped chair.
 
They wheeled him through the hospital and into another wing of the building. There were ponies here in hospital gowns like he was wearing, but they were performing all sorts of activities. Physical Therapy, he told himself. He was not looking forward to learning how to walk a third time.
 
They wheeled him into another room in the wing. Doctor Glitter fetched tub filled with water and a sack. "Go ahead and dip your amputated leg into the mixture when I say so and keep it still,” Doctor Stable told him. Glitter poured a white powder from the sack into the water and mixed it until it took a strange milky white color, and when she gave him the go ahead, he bent his good legs until the stump was mostly submerged in the fluid.
 
“Jay!” somepony shouted from the door behind him.
 
“Who’s that?” Trine asked, unable to turn around from where he stood.
 
“It’s Sunshine and Spotlight! We’re here to see how you’re doing!” the pegasus said cheerfully.
 
“Oh, by the way, I changed my name!” Trine said as the two ponies entered his field of vision.
 
“What is it?” Spotlight asked.
 
“Trine!”
 
“Suits you,” Sunshine said.
 
Trine noticed something about Sunshine. Something about the way he carried himself, something about how cheerful he was, something…
 
“Wait… you two are a thing now?” Trine asked. Both of their eyes went wide as they looked at each other in confusion.
 
“Wha-“
 
“You two are standing close enough that you’re grazing his wing,” Trine said to Spotlight. “And neither of you are moving away from the other.”
 
“Uhh,” Sunshine muttered. He looked over to Spotlight who was trying not to draw attention to himself.
 
“Good,” Trine said, breaking the silence. “I’m glad you finally found somepony to be with!”
 
Sunshine smiled as he shyly pulled Spotlight in with his wing. “It means a lot to us. Thank you.”
 
“You two are cute together,” Primrose said. “Did you two share a bed again?” she asked with a grin on her face.
 
“Frankly, I don’t really need to know what you two do behind closed doors,” Trine said before they could say anything. Sunshine gave him a thankful smile.
 
“Wait!” Spotlight said suddenly, after a few minutes of silence. “Where did your horn go?”
 
“Whoa! I didn’t even notice!” Sunshine said, seeing only a brown mane on Trine’s head.
 
Trine frowned and said, “I had it removed. What good is a unicorn with no magic?” The pain was clear in his voice to everypony present. Losing a leg as well as the one thing that made him unique… it was a wonder Trine didn’t break down crying all over again in front of everypony.
 
“It’s okay, Jay, er, Trine. You’re still you. Nothing can change that,” Sunshine said, nuzzling his friend.
 
After a few more minutes of letting the fluid set around his leg, Trine was finally allowed to stand up, pulling his stump from the coagulated jelly. It made a mold of his amputated leg, and Doctor Glitter cut out the section that held the impression. “We’ll have it ready for you later tonight. For now, we’re just going to give you one of the standard models. It’ll get the job done, but it won’t be the prettiest thing in the world.”
 
She levitated out what looked a bit like a crutch with a cup at the top; the cup had a Velcro belt around it that tightened depending on the size of the user, and the leg was adjustable. It also housed a spring to ‘simulate’ true leg movement, but Trine wasn’t so sure.
 
It took only a minute for Doctor Glitter to get the tightness right and the length set, and it took Trine only a few seconds to fall flat on his face like the first day he had hooves.
 
“Why don’t you take your time with it…” Doctor Glitter said, leading Trine and his friends out into the main physical therapy room. He started walking with Primrose on his left, so he could lean on her as he got used to the resistance of the spring and the general motion he had to use to walk close to normally.
 
Primrose was constantly supportive. She helped him back up each time he fell, gave him small kisses each time he was able to walk on his own, but the most precious thing was what she said when Trine had finally been able to walk out of the Hospital on his own: “No matter how you look, no matter what happens to you, I will always love you.” Trine felt a tear begin to drip from his eye, but he brushed it away with his hoof. With all of the weight on his temporary prosthetic, he sunk down a few inches as the spring compressed, drawing giggles from the two of them.
 
---
 
“Jay!” Firecracker shouted as he saw him and the group from across the lawn. “You’re looking… swell,” he said, noticing the new leg.
 
“It’s temporary, the doctor said. And my name is Trine now.”
 
“Oh,” Firecracker said. At first, Trine thought it was because of the choice of his name, but he noticed Firecracker and Peach Cobbler were looking up at his mane; the mare was covering her mouth with a hoof. Trine felt a wave of shame wash over him.
 
“I’m so sorry, Ja- Trine,” Peach Cobbler said, wrapping her neck around his and nuzzling his mane.
 
“So… nothing left?” Firecracker asked.
 
After a long sigh, Trine said, “Nothing.” He just wanted nopony else to bring it up anymore… he was ashamed at what he was now, and he didn’t want to be reminded of it each time he saw somepony else. Was he still a unicorn, even with no horn anymore, or was he an earth pony, without the magic that makes them special? What was he?
 
“It’s good to see you again, Peach,” Trine said as they parted.
 
“It’s good to see you, too.” The mare looked much more lively and bright than the last time he saw her on the island. It was a good sign that she was still staying close with Firecracker.
 
“You all coming to the dinner tonight?” Firecracker asked. ‘
 
“Of course!” Primrose said, proudly.
 
“The what?” Trine asked. He had been left in the dark.
 
“Oh, horseapples, I forgot to tell you. A messenger came this morning with an invitation for it this morning while you were asleep. Sorry,” the blue mare said.
 
“It’s okay. Is it really that big of a deal?” Trine asked.
 
“Big deal? It’s only a party thrown by the Royal Sisters in OUR honor!” Firecracker said, his voice rising. “Of course it’s a big deal!”
 
“Oh. Sorry,” Trine said, taken aback from the response he got.
 
“It’s nothing to be sorry about! You should be excited!” Firecracker said with a wide smile. “Oh, we're also getting fitted for suits soon, so we should head downtown for that.”
 
“And you!” Peach Cobbler said, pointing at Primrose. “You’re coming with me for dress shopping!”
 
“Dress shopping?” Primrsoe asked. “I thought we were just going to go like this…” she said, looking down at her blue coat.
 
“Naked?” Firecracker asked. “If it was a casual party, sure. But this is a formal Canterlot party. Dress to impress, as they say.”
 
Peach Cobbler dragged Primrose along the lawn with her as Firecracker led Trine, Sunshine, and Spotlight to get their suits.
 
---
 
Peach Cobbler and Primrose walked through the wide hallway and took a left, heading back towards their rooms. Prim hadn’t even seen this part of the castle yet; she had gone straight to Trine’s room at the hospital the night before.
 
“Palm Breeze’s room is right… here!” Peach said, pointing to the door they just reached. Primrose knocked on it with her hoof and waited for an answer.
 
The door swung open and Palm stuck her head out. “Oh, uh, hi Peach, hi Prim! What’s up?” she asked as she stepped out to see them.
 
“Wanna go out with us to get our dresses?” Primrose asked, smiling.
 
The look of confusion quickly evolved into elation as Palm bounced into the air. “Of course!” she said. She pulled the door shut behind her and pranced out of the castle with the other two mares and into downtown Canterlot.
 
The castle was the main part of Canterlot, but there was a great part of it that was taken up by ponies who had moved in nearby and opened up businesses outside of the castle walls. It had grown into its own miniature city in a way, but it was still dwarfed by the grandness of the royal castle that loomed overhead.
 
“The letter said that we can get our dresses from ‘Ribbon’s Boutique’, but we were also allowed to go wherever else we wanted in the mean time,” Peach said, recalling the note the deliverypony left for her and Trine at the hospital.
 
“Anything?” Palm Breeze asked. “We have a while before the dinner tonight… why do we have to get our dresses right now?”
 
“What do you have in mind?” Peach Cobbler asked. “I’m not too familiar with Canterlot.”
 
“How about a trip to the spa?” Palm said. The idea of getting pampered and feeling clean and beautiful… it was too much for Primrose to say no to, and the same went for Peach Cobbler. The three mares trotted along the streets towards their first destination of the day.
 
---
 
The tailor was named, appropriately enough, Tailor Made. He ran the premier stallion’s clothing store in Canterlot, and the Princesses had informed him of their coming as well as all of the other stallions that had made it back from the island. He was a well-mannered unicorn who somehow managed to know exactly what went well with the colors one had. His chestnut brown coat gleamed in the light, and his black mane had a sheen to it from constant care and upkeep.
 
“Good afternoon, gentlecolts. I believe you are here to get fitted for your suits?” he asked in a formal manner. The store itself was on the smaller side than what Trine had expected. Back on Earth, stores were usually great big multi-story buildings with just about everything that you’d need in them. Very few times had he actually been in a store that sold only one kind of thing.
 
But this kind of change of pace was refreshing to him. The old stores were always crowded and never pleasant to be in. “You,” Tailor Made said, pointing at Spotlight. He had been admiring some of the tuxedos on a rack when he heard it.
 
“Me?”
 
“Yes, you. You first. Come over here and stand on this podium.” The podium was situated in front of three mirrors that reflected Spotlight from different angles. His yellow coat seemed brighter and more vibrant than what he remembered on the island. Maybe it was the fact that he had cleaned himself that morning.
 
“Let’s see…” Tailor Made said as he levitated a measuring tape along Spotlight’s features. He had his neck measured, his forelegs measured, even his belly and his shoulders measured. It all seemed a bit excessive to Trine, but Spotlight didn’t seem to mind.
 
“I’ve been fitted for suits my entire life. First time as a pony, though,” he commented as Tailor Made looked him over.
 
“Really? I’ve been meaning to get out and see some of these human fashion trends some of my friends keep raving about.”
 
“Don’t get too excited. Nothing made there comes even close to the quality you have here.” The praise seemed to make Tailor Made glow with pride. “Sure, they can make them faster and make tons of them, but they just don’t fit properly unless you go all out and buy the top of the line stuff. Even those suits are itchy and uncomfortable.”
 
“Well, I promise you will not be disappointed, good sirs.” The stallion then measured Firecracker and Sunshine, but when he came up to Trine, he paused when his eyes fell on the prosthetic leg.
 
“Hmm, this one is going to be a bit trickier, to be honest,” he said, helping Trine up onto the podium. Trine attempted to hide his shame by thinking about Primrose, and it worked. He felt a smile creep onto his face when he remembered how much she cared about him, regardless if his leg was real or not.
 
“I got it!” Tailor Made dashed behind a door and came back out with a roll of fabric. It seemed to be a roll of wool, or some other kind of thick material, but when he began wrapping it around Trine’s leg, it made sense. “I was worried your hardware was going to damage the suits I was going to make for you, what with the metal and the screws and everything. By wrapping it in this, it’ll look fine in passing and it will protect the sleeve as well!”
 
Trine was relieved, and grateful for Tailor Made’s ingenuity concerning the leg. He also picked out a tie or bow tie for each pony; a gold tie for Firecracker, a silver bow tie for Sunshine, orange bow tie for Spotlight, and a green tie for Trine. 
 
“I’ll have these done up for you fellas and delivered to the castle later this afternoon. Thanks for stopping by!”
 
They gave the unicorn their thanks and walked out onto the sidewalk of Canterlot.
 
“That was quick,” Sunshine said.
 
“What now?” Trine asked as they walked down the street.
 
Firecracker walked ahead, clearly with something in mind. “Follow me.” He gave them all a sinister grin and they followed.
 
---
 
“This. Is. Delightful.” Peach Cobbler relaxed in the warm bath with Primrose and Palm Breeze, their manes up in towels. The warm, soothing waters eased their aches and soreness away from the past few days; it was distressing to know how good it felt after not realizing how bad they were to begin with.
 
“I could sit here all day,” Palm breeze moaned. Steam was rising off the surface of the water in wisps and curls, and the scented candles burned around them, filling the air with pleasing scents.
 
Primrose looked over to Peach Cobbler. “Peach?”
 
“Yes, Primrose?” she asked, lifting her head up.
 
“I’m sorry about how cold I was to you. You know, after that whole thing with you and Trine back at the bureau. I feel awful.”
 
“Prim, it’s okay. He and I were thrown into a tight spot, and we saw each other, and… Well, we promised to stay friends after realizing that’s all we really were, nothing more. Even when we were, well, ‘together’, I still noticed how he looked at you.”
 
Primrose’s ears perked up. “Huh?”
 
“Oh yeah. He was pining over you. I doubt that he ever thought ill of you, even for a moment. He is such a kind and compassionate colt; you’re lucky you have him.” Peach gave Primrose a sweet smile.
 
Prim had never realized how badly Trine had cared before. Sure, he risked his life to save her, and she never once questioned his love. But was he always that enamored with her? Where he could think of nopony else even if he tried?
 
It wasn’t his doting and attention that made her start to cry, but her negligence and ignorance. She had ignored his attentions and advances in lieu of somebody… Primrose could scarcely remember why she had ever felt anything for Andrew before. Even the name was trying to be forgotten in her memory. Thinking back, she saw so few redeeming qualities and traits in that human that it made her sick to even think about kissing him.
 
Not that human. That man. Primrose had to correct herself. She didn’t hate humans; she was one before. Primrose the pony was built on Chloe the human. Primrose could only be alive because Chloe had been alive before. And Chloe wasn’t gone; she had all of her old memories and her mannerisms, but she was also Primrose the earth pony.
 
“Prim? Are you okay” Palm Breeze asked, scooting across the tub to comfort her.
 
“Yeah,” Prim said between sniffs. “I’ll be fine.” Palm Breeze still gave her a big hug, and Peach Cobbler even came over and gave her a hug too.
 
When Primrose had finally cheered up, the mares followed up their soak with massages, mane trims and styling, and what was known as a hooficure. It was strange and alien to Prim and Palm, but once the spa staff began, their concerns faded away.
 
When they left the spa, the three felt refreshed, relaxed, and beautiful.
 
“Should we go get our dresses now?” Peach Cobbler asked. The two other mares agreed and they maneuvered down the street towards Ribbon’s Boutique.
 
---
 
“On three. One, two, three!” Firecracker threw his head back and downed the glass, followed by Spotlight and Sunshine. The latter two began coughing and hacking immediately afterwards and took quaffs from their glasses of water. “I never said apple whiskey goes down kindly.”
 
Firecracker had led the four of them to a popular bar called Shots’ Shots, run by the aptly named Shots. The nickname his patrons gave him was ‘McDrunk’, since he would always serve his customers while he was drunk himself. The nickname had stuck, and the orange earth pony just changed his name to McDrunk outside of formal occasions.
 
“Hoo-boy, you two boys look like you’re ready for another round!” McDrunk shouted. “It’s not erryday you get an open tab from the castle!” He reached down and grabbed the whiskey bottle in his teeth and poured the three another round. “How about you, boy? Want some liquid courage?”
 
Trine recoiled in his seat from the rancid breath of the pony and shook his head fervently. He had only a glass of water that he sipped from while the others enjoyed their ‘liquid courage’.
 
“This stuff tastes like detergent!” Spotlight gasped after his second drink.
 
“Who done told you my secret?” McDrunk said from across the bartop. “Jus’ Kiddin! I make all this apple whiskey myself!”
 
“I come here whenever I’m in town,” Firecracker said. He drank another shot, and as Sunshine and Spotlight made faces from the burning taste, he didn’t even react to it. “You get used to it, I promise you two,” he said. Turning back to Trine, Firecracker asked, “You sure you don’t want to try some?”
 
“Yeah! Try some!” Sunshine said as he whirled around on his chair. His breath was making Trine feel sick, and a lot more so than he expected.
 
“No, I’m fine with my water.”
 
“But it’s fun!” Spotlight said, swinging around and leaning over Sunshine.
 
“I’ll pass.”
 
“Try some!” McDrunk said loudly. “Jus’ a little sip! C’mon! Jus’ one sip!” His breath was dripping with the liquor, and Trine began to feel himself in physical pain from it.  He lurched off of the bar stool and onto his prosthetic leg, which gave out from under him. He picked himself up and ran clumsily out the door and vomited on the sidewalk.
 
A well dressed unicorn couple recoiled in horror as they saw Trine, and scoffed. “Honestly. These ponies drink and drink, and when their bodies say to stop, they drink some more. Sickening,” the stallion said before walking off, kicking dirt into Trine’s face.
 
Firecracker burst out the doors and found him. “You okay? What’s wrong? Something in the water not agreeing with you?”
 
Trine tried to hide his face as he wiped the bile from his muzzle. The stench of whiskey on Firecracker’s breath was weak, but it reminded him of something. Something horrible.
 
“My… My dad smelled like that when he tried to kill me. He always drank that stuff when he would hurt me.” Trine felt awful, both physically and for ruining the trip for everypony. 
 
He tried to stand up, but was still shaky from being sick. Firecracker helped him up the rest of the way. “Just stay here. I’m going to go get those two before McDrunk accidentally lights them on fire from his fumes alone.”
 
Trine was recovering from his daze, and the taste of vomit in his mouth was less than pleasant. When Firecracker came back out, the two stallions were clearly drunk from the whiskey from their inability to stand still without wobbling from one side to the other.
 
“You want something to eat?” Firecracker asked, careful to avoid getting his breath near Trine’s face. The beige pony nodded.
 
Firecracker led the four of them to Pony Joe’s, a small donut shop run by a portly pony named, well, Joe. Firecracker ordered each of them deluxe glazed chocolate donuts with a mug of hot chocolate to wash it down with.
 
“Hey!” Firecracker yelled. “You two. Hooves on the table.” Spotlight and Sunshine lifted their hooves from under the table and began to eat their donuts. Trine wasn’t eager to know what those hooves were about to do.
 
The donut cheered Trine right up, and made him feel better. He vowed to himself that he would never go to McDrunk’s bar again, no matter how much he was forced. Sunshine and Spotlight were finally starting to sober up as they were leaving back for the castle.
 
The sun was beginning to set, and it seemed everything was getting busier. The roads were crowded and filled with ponies, but it didn’t stop them from reaching the castle gates.
 
---
 
Trine rested on his bed. His actual bed; not the one from the hospital, but a genuine king size bed with cotton sheets, fluffy pillows, and easily the most comfortable bed he had ever even just sat on.
 
Primrose had finally come back from her shopping trip with Peach Cobbler and Palm Breeze when a pony brought two boxes with him: one addressed to Trine, one addressed to Primrose. He had told them to be in the grand dining hall in an hour for the opening speech by Princess Celestia, and that she had something for all of her guests of honor.
 
Primrose and Trine decided to spend half of that hour in the bed together. She had helped him remove his prosthetic leg, so not as to damage any of the sheets with it. They just laid there in each other’s hooves, and in all thirty of those minutes, no words were spoken. The feelings that enveloped them closed them off from everything else in the world; they were perfectly content and happy. They kissed and held each other and rested, the two of them savoring the feeling of being wanted and loved. 
 
When Primrose saw the clock said that they had twenty-five minutes left, she vanished into the washroom with her box. Trine heard the sink go and all sorts of other things but paid them no mind.
 
He pulled the lid to his box open with his teeth and gazed inside. On top was his green tie; it was going to be very tricky for him to get that on by himself. He placed that on the bed and began slowly dressing himself. He had to reattach his leg before doing anything, and that took a good five minutes of his time. He slipped the woolen sleeve onto the leg and slipped it gently into the white dress shirt. He awkwardly propped himself up on the bed to get his other foreleg in, and buttoned it down with a clever trick with his teeth and his tongue.
 
The jacket was considerably easier to manage after dealing with the shirt. He left the two buttons undone at the bottom until he had his tie on; he was going to ask for Primrose’s help for that. He walked over to the washroom door and gently knocked on it. “Prim? Can you help me out?” he asked.
 
When the door opened, his jaw dropped to the floor. Primrose had her mane styled up in curls that cascaded down on both sides of her face and along her neck. Her dress was a dark scarlet silk with dark rubies along the neckline. The back end of the dress hung over her rump and ended in a brighter red seam. Around her neck she wore a string of bright pearls; it contrasted the subtle darker tones of her dress and just left Trine speechless.
 
Trine did in fact lose all recognition of everything but her for a few moments. And because of that, he fell flat on his face before her. She was stunning, and as he used that word to himself, he felt that it didn’t do her justice.
 
“Your tie?” she said, knowing exactly what he needed. He simply looked up and nodded with his mouth still hanging open.
 
After a few maneuvers by the two of them, Trine’s bright green tie lay flat against his chest and his coat was buttoned up. Two flaps hung over his rump, and as he looked over himself, he felt so naked compared to Primrose.
 
They stepped out from their room and followed the steward to the grand hall for the speech from the Princesses. 


> The Ninth Day (Nighttime)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The grand banquet hall was a spectacular place. Windows lined each wall, each one a different work of art. There were dozens of guests, all dressed in gaudy outfits and extravagant jewelery. It was a simple task to spot the other newfoals. A four piece orchestral group was filling the air with gentle tunes, much to Trine’s surprise considering their size. 

Primrose spotted Sunshine and Spotlight easily as they entered. They stood nearby each other, unsure of where else to go or what to do. Primrose complimented them on their bow ties and gave them affectionate kisses on the cheek. 

“This place sure is nice,” Trine said, looking along the table of treats and drinks for the guests. “It seems a little over the top for something like us surviving.”

“But it is a big deal!” a familiar voice called out from behind him. Trine looked around and saw Garnet smiling as she walked over. 

“Garnet! You got your voice back!” Trine said, smiling. 

“The doctors told me it was a quick fix. I was more concerned about you after the... teleport.” Garnet dipped her head. “I am incredibly sorry about what happened with your leg, and I wish there was more that I could do to make it up to you.”

“Well, if it wasn’t the teleport, it would’ve been that chunk of the ceiling that did me in. Please don’t feel too bad about it; the doctors got everything fixed up for me.” Trine forced a smile. 

Garnet noticed the absence of his horn, but didn’t say anything about it. “I hear the princesses have something to say to us when they take the stage,” Garnet said, changing the topic. “As I was saying, there’s been a huge outpouring of support for Equestria and the Bureaus since the fire. Unfortunately, we were the only survivors from the building, but the fact that we did survive after the first real act of violence on a bureau is a testament to our determination. Or something like that; at least that’s what the media’s been saying.”

“Well it’s good to hear that there are some people out there who don’t hate us,” Sunshine said before gulping down a cup of something from the fountain. 

“Good evening, everypony!” Peach Cobbler cheered as she and Firecracker trotted up. 

“Hey, Peach,” everypony said. 

“Garnet!” Firecracker said after noticing the red unicorn standing amongst the group. “Did they-”

“Yes they did. Full recovery.” Firecracker gave the mare a hug. “You single hoofedly saved our lives that day, you know,” Garnet said, looking at him and then at Trine. 

“I... I just didn’t want anypony else to die. That’s all.”

A fanfare of horns and drumrolls echoed through the banquet hall as the two Princesses made their entrance. Trine was entranced by their beauty; they both looked just like how they did during his conversion dream, but more... defined. And much more beautiful. Celestia’s mane held a faint glow to it as it cascaded along an invisible breeze, while Luna’s mane sparkled and shined from the stars and comets suspended within it. 

“Good evening, everypony,” Princess Celestia said as she positioned herself in front of the microphone. “It is with great joy and pride that I welcome the survivors of the Blowing Rock Conversion Bureau to Canterlot!” a deafening roar of hoof-stomps and cheers rang through the hall. “Your resourcefulness and determination brought you to the safety of Equestria. But let us not forget the noble ponies who lost their lives in the attack on the bureau.”

Princess Celestia began reading off the names of the ponies and few humans who had not made it to the basement before Garnet cast her teleport; the room fell to a painful silence as a few ponies throughout the hall began sobbing. 

“... Berry Blue, Cocoa Malt, Honeybell, Clementine, and Sea Foam. May their spirits be free, and their memories honored.”

Trine saw Peach Cobbler openly sobbing; Firecracker was trying to comfort her, but there were tears coming from his eyes as well.

“And for the children who lost their parents in the accident that brought them to the Blowing Rock Bureau. I have a special guest who has a message for all of you.” Celestia’s horn glowed for a minute as a television panel floated out and set itself up next to her. 

The screen flicked on and a male human smiled through the screen. It took Trine a moment to recognize him, but it was the same man who broke the news to everyone the night before they left for the bureau. He was the one who suggested the bureau in the first place. 

“Good evening! SOme of you may recognize me. My name is Sean Plott. Due to some happenings during your stay at the Bureau and consequential early departure for Equestria, Telios Chemical LLC has been dismantled and liquidated for severe crimes against the people of the United States of America and the people who worked for them.”

“Sean, can you tell them the good news?” Celestia asked out loud. 

Sean chuckled and straightened his glasses. “Of course, your majesty. Every family who worked for Telios Chemical LLC received a sum of money from the holdings of the senior staff based on their net worth to tide them over until they can find new jobs. The families of the victims from the chemical plant accident, however, will be receiving the balance of this money, which roughly equates to... eleven million, six hundred thousand dollars per individual.”

“The royal treasury has received the money and is in the process of converting it all to Bits, our own currency. The process may take some time, since a very generous anonymous donation had recently been made to our coffers a few days past.” Celestia looked into the audience towards Spotlight.

Sean leaned forward on his desk. “I know this money won’t be enough to get your loved ones or your families back, but it’s the least the few of us back here Earthside could do for you. Enjoy the party, all of you.” The screen winked out, and the hall was silent once more. 

“Wha...” Trine began, his jaw hanging slack from his mouth. 

Everypony seemed to find one of the orphans near them to stare at, and each of them were frozen and speechless. A low murmur began to spread throughout the audience, until it rose to a cacaughenous roar. 

It was a few minutes before the orchestral group began playing again, and Trine, Primrose, Sunshine, and Spotlight were still having trouble grasping the shear magnitude of what happened. Colossal sums of money were given to each of them except for Rob since he didn’t lose any parents in the initial accident, but Sunshine had promised to give him half of his money before he said a word. 

“Sir, the princess wishes for a moment of your time,” somepony asked Trine. He was one of the royal guards, dressed in golden armor. Trine told everypony that he’d be right back, but Primrose insisted on coming with him. The guard didn’t object, so Trine went along with it. 

He led the pair through a few hallways through the castle until they reached a well lit hall that looked similar to the one they had just come from. “Trine, Primrose. Please, come over here.” The sweet voice echoed through the room for a moment until it faded to silence. 

Primcess Celestia was waiting for the two of them by one of the windows; she was looking up at the night sky as they approached. She turned her head around and smiled. 

“How did you like the good news?” she asked with a smile that melted both of their hearts.

“It’s... so much to take in at once. Your majesty.” Trine almost forgot to address her as the royalty she was. 

“I am to understand that you were fitted for a new leg earlier today, correct?” she asked, glancing down at Trine’s left leg. He nodded; a hint of sadness crept into his mind for being reminded of it. “Come here, my little pony, and remove your shirt.”

Trine blushed as Primrose helped him from his suit and dress shirt, revealing the ugly pole that served as his leg since the morning. He felt a golden aura surround the strap that secured the leg in place; it came loose and the leg fell to the floor. A crate that Trine hadn’t noticed sitting behind the Princess opened up and floated something out. 

“This was supposed to be a prosthesis that would be given to royal guards who were injured and handicapped on their duties,” Celestia said, pulling the wrapping from the floating object. 

It was made from a dark metal that resembles iron, but held much more luster than the old metal could. Trine saw cords and glowing crystals inside the leg, but what purpose they served was unknown to him. 

“Hold your leg out, please.” Trine obeyed by sticking his amputated foreleg out as he tried to balance on his three other legs. The Princess slid the top opening of the leg in place over his stump; the fit was perfect, and as it reached the bottom, a strange sensation rose up from the skin inside of it. The prosthetic leg seemed to tighten around Trine, locking it in place. 

But what was so unsettling to him was what followed. An electric shock shot through his body and burned the leg inside the new mechanical prosthetic. Trine fell to the floor in a heap for a moment, but pushed himself back up. His head was spinning, and his tongue tasted metallic, but he felt okay.

“It looks like it worked!” Princess Celestia said, smiling.

“Huh? What worked?” Trine asked. But he realized it just as he asked. He looked down, and for the first time in so long, he lifted up his left hoof. The new leg responded to everything he told it to do, just like his old leg did. He could even feel things through his new leg.

“It’s a magically enhanced prosthetic prototype. The process to make them involved too much time and effort to make it viable for what my sister and I intended, so we decided to pursue other avenues for what we sought. Consider this a gift.”

Trine tried walking around on the new leg at first, and when it felt almost too natural to be real, he tried galloping around the empty hall. 

He leaped into the air and shouted with joy. He laughed and cried and thanked the Princess when he came back over to her, hugging her leg and kissing her golden hoofguard. “Please, Trine. I only wished to help you.”

“I know.. I’m just so grateful... You are far too kind. I...” Before he could say another word, the Princess put a hoof to his lips. 

“You are very welcome, child. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a party to attend to. I doubt Luna can keep the nobility entertained for long...”

After the alicorn left the two in the room together, Trine simply broke down into tears. Primrose knelt down and held him to comfort him, but they weren’t tears of sadness. “I’m... just so... happy...” he said, trying to smile.

“I know,” Primrose said, feeling her own eyes tearing up as well. “Everything is going to be better now,” she said, kissing him deeply and passionately.

---

When they made it back to the party, another musician had replaced the orchestral group on the stage; a white unicorn with an electric blue mane and violet sunglasses blasted dance music from two giant speakers on either side of her. Many ponies were in the middle of the room dancing with each other.

Sunshine and Spotlight saw them as Primrose and Trine reentered the main hall. “Hey, you okay? Your eyes are a little red,” Sunshine said.

Trine only lifted up the sleeve to his shirt and showed everypony his new leg. “It feels exactly like my old leg and everything. Apparently I never have to remove it if I don’t want to!” Trine had found a small pamphlet of instructions on how to care for the new leg in the crate the Princess had taken it out of as he placed his old leg inside. 

“Amazing,” Firecracker said, looking closely at the metallic leg. “And you can feel with it too?” Trine nodded his head right as Sunshine tapped his hoof against it, drawing a yelp from him. 

“Careful! I’m still getting used to... feeling again,” he said, rolling his sleeve back down. 

“Oh! Some of the others from the bureau were talking about moving out tomorrow morning,” Spotlight said, gesturing for them to follow. They found everypony gathered in a big circle. Quake, Sugarberry, Autumn Gale, Skysong, Pink Lemonade, Anvil, Palm Breeze, and Peppermint were all discussing something together. 

“If we pool some of the money we can do it!” Skysong said, pleadingly. 

“I don’t know...” Quake replied.

“What’s going on?” Sunshine asked Autumn Gale as they reached the group.

“Skysong asked Princess Luna if there was anywhere we could move in and stay together. Supposedly, when the Merging happened, a lot of ponies just up and left a few towns all across the countryside to go to Earth or just moved to other towns when their homes got too lonely.”

“And we just need to pool some of our new money to rebuild this one town that would be perfect!” Skysong said.

“Where is it?” Trine asked. 

“It’s on the eastern edge of Whitetail Woods,” Quake said. “But we’d need all sorts of things to get those homes all built back up again, and what about food? Why not just move somewhere else that already has a steady population instead of starting our own place?”

“He does have a point,” Spotlight said, raising his hoof. 

“If I may interject...” a voice said from behind Trine. Princess Luna had managed to sneak up behind the group without any of them noticing. “I heard that you all were interested in moving into Fair Haven, is that correct?” Luna’s voice was much gentler and less formal than her older sister, but still commanded great respect.

“We’re deciding on that, your highness,” Skysong replied. 

“Well, we have yet to assign towns as target locations for convertees interested in moving to Equestria, and if you were able to bring life back to the town, we could direct them your way. I believe that it still has a train station, which makes deliveries and travel very easy. Please let my sister or me know what you all are planning.” Luna gave a curt bow and disappeared into the party once more. 

“Fair Haven, eh?” Autumn Gale said. “I like the sound of it. Sounds homely.”

“And we have enough money to get the place started, too!” Skysong cheered. 

Quake looked down at his little sister and nudged her. “What do you think, kiddo?”
 The pink mare looked up at her brother and smiled. “Can we have a swimming pool?” she asked. Everypony in the circle began laughing, and Quake said “Of course we can have a swimming pool.”

“It’s settled then?” Trine said. Everypony nodded. Autumn Gale turned around and went off to find Princess Luna to tell her the news. 

“We’re going to have a home,” Trine said, amazed at the prospect of it. So much was happening, and so fast! He felt like he was going to fall off the ride if he wasn’t careful. 

Primrose looked up at Trine and smiled. He leaned over and kissed her. “I’ll let you pick out the colors.”

The rest of the night was lost in celebrations, dancing, and high spirits. 

Trine and Primrose stumbled through the hallways of the castle, giggling and kissing as they found their room. Their minds were still running on the fumes of the celebrations and the amazing things that happened, but the party had come to a close and they were asked to go back to their rooms. 

A train was scheduled to depart early in the morning for Fair Haven, and was being loaded with supplies and construction materials for everypony to use to build the town back up with. It had fallen into mild disrepair, and was going to need some work to bring back up to perfection.

But that was for tomorrow. 

Tonight, Trine and Primrose were in their own world with each other, and they would have it no other way. Trine’s head felt a little funny, like his brain was drifting in the ocean and his vision was trying to catch up with him whenever he turned his head. The drinks they served at the party had tasted funny, but he hadn’t minded after the first few. Primrose had some drinks as well, and she seemed to be under the same effects that he was. 

Trine closed the door behind him and fell backward onto the frame. He started giggling and laughing as he stumbled over to the bed where Primrose was. “You gonna get up here with me or what?” Prim asked, half laughing. 

“One sec!” Trine said, trying to struggle onto the bed. He clicked the release that removed his new leg; it dropped to the floor with a clang, giving Trine the ability to roll onto the bed with Prim. “So how you doin?” he asked, his head upside down while he was on his back. 

“I’m feelin good...” she said, her blush painting her muzzle purple under her blue coat. She crept forward and began kissing Trine on the lips, then moving down and kissing his chest and down his belly.

---

Sunshine was feeling the drinks from the party. He thought maybe, maybe, he had a few too many, but he felt so good he didn’t seem to mind. And neither did Spotlight, who had a few more drinks than he did. They were laying down on the bed, their hooves running over each other’s bodies. 

“Somepony’s a little tense,” Spotlight cooed into Sunshine’s ear. 

“My wings are so sore...” His wings had been tense and heightened since they got on the bed together.

Spotlight sat up and tried to roll Sunshine over onto his belly. “Come on. Roll over.” Sunshine obliged, and he felt the unicorn straddle him just behind his rump. Two hooves began rubbing his back, and it felt so good it drew a moan from Sunshine.

“Oooohhhh~” 

“Just tell me where to go.”

“Higher... Oooohhhh! Yeah! Right there...” 

The hooves pressed hard into the muscles of his wings; he had been so sore since he tried flying Spotlight up before they caught up with the sky carriage. But he was eased free of the aches and pain and felt only Spotlight’s hooves.

“Lower now... right on the wi- OOHHHH!” the pegasus moaned out loud, barely able to contain how amazing it felt. 

“Oh my~” Spotlight growled, pressing harder on the wings, drawing even louder moans from Sunshine. “Somepony’s enjoying this!”

Without warning, Sunshine threw Spotlight off of him and pounced on him. They were far from done for the night, if Sunshine had any say in the matter. And judging by the hungry grin that unicorn was giving him, he was more than willing to oblige.

---

“Peach?”

“Yes?”

“Is everything okay?”

“...”

The silence uneased Firecracker more than if she had said no. Was it something he did? Something he had said? Did he have too many drinks? He was always able to hold his liquor well, so he shouldn’t have done anything too stupid...

“Firecracker, can you promise me something?”

“Anything.”

“Promise that you’ll never leave me...” A twinge of sadness was woven into her voice... It sounded like she was on the verge of tears. Firecracker rolled over to face the beautiful mare. Just looking at her in the dark left him speechless, and longing for her.

“Peach, I want to spend the rest of my days with you, and I know for a fact that I’ve never felt this way about anypony before or anypony else. I love you so much and nothing makes me happier than to see you smile.”

“Do you mean it?” the mare asked, the tears falling freely now. 

“Of course. How could I love anypony else?”

“I... just don’t want to lose anypony else...” she whimpered.

“I’m here to stay, if you’ll have me.”

“I love you so much, Firecracker.”

“I love you too, Peach Cobbler.”

> The Tenth Day
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The train's horn blew in the cold, morning air just as the vehicle lurched forward. The sun had yet to rise, but the horizon was beginning to glow in anticipation of its arrival. Car after car exited the station filled with lumber and stone, while others were piled high with secured crates and trunks. Only two cars on the train held passengers: the first two. 

“I’m... not coming,” Palm Breeze had said. Primrose was confused and saddened, but she had tried to hide it. “I need to move on. I need to be a new pony. I’ll come and visit, I promise!”

Primrose was going to make sure that her friend was going to keep that promise. She was resting her head on Trine’s chest as they rode the bumpy train towards their new home in Fair Haven. Her head was still a little fuzzy from the night before, as were her recollections of the night itself. She had found out later that the drink that everypony thought was simply fruit punch, was in fact an alcoholic drink preferred by the nobility in Canterlot. When Trine had found this out, he fell into a silent depression. The blue mare dared not stick her nose into it unless Trine wished to talk to her about it. 

Sunshine and Spotlight, on the other hand, were out cold. They simply picked their seats on the train and went straight to sleep. The ride was supposed to be several hours long, and even leaving before dawn it was going to take them most of the day to reach their destination. They were officially “out” as of last night as a couple when they started kissing each other without any discretion. The drinks may have been involved, but in the aftermath of the event, they decided hiding it wasn’t necessary.

Primrose looked up at Trine. He had his metal leg hanging out of the window and was watching the castle fly past as they exited Canterlot. He was quiet and had closed everypony out since Firecracker told them what the drink the night before was. Primrose was a little upset that they were served alcohol, and maybe some things that she remembered happen the night before may not have happened. 

Thinking back on those things she and Trine did with each other... fueled by love or alcohol, it didn’t matter. What they shared last night is going to stay with her forever, and she couldn’t be happier. 

Firecracker was seated with Peach Cobbler, who was looking a lot more at peace than she had the day before. When Primrose was out with her and Palm Breeze, some of her mannerisms felt forced. But today, she had an air of calm around her. Her smiles felt natural and easy for her to slip into. Firecracker seemed happier with the change as well. 

Autumn Gale and Skysong sat together on a seat in the front of the car. Skysong’s brown coat and cream colored mane were moving in the rushing wind; her eyes were closed and she had a smile on her face. She was enjoying it. Autumn Gale’s orange mane sat reasonably still compared to Skysong’s. Their matching brown coats seemed to blend together as if they were two parts of the same pony.

Quake was listening to his little sister Sugarberry rattle off all sorts of different things that she wanted to have at their new home. Some of the things Primrose heard in addition to the pool she asked for the night before included: a slide, a firepony’s pole, a jungle gym, a swing set, a giant tub of ice cream, a trampoline, a canoe, and a set of roller skates. Quake simply nodded and smiled. The little filly was delightfully ignorant of what they had left behind, and would be able to grow up in an ideal setting.

Pink Lemonade and Anvil were seated in the back of the train car. Prim craned her neck back to see them; Anvil was leaning in close to his cousin and his mouth was moving. Pink Lemonade was certainly listening; her ears were facing him, even though she was looking out the window as the green scenery passed the train by. She turned around and said something to him, and for the first time that Primrose could recall, he smiled. What they were talking about was lost to her under the roar of the wind and the rumble of the engine. 

Peppermint sat by herself on the seat opposite of Pink Lemonade and Anvil by herself. She was silently resting like most of the other riders. 

A few other ponies who were interested in moving to the new town were on board the other train car along with some others who were to act as movers for the new residents. Primrose only caught a few glances of them as they were boarding, but she was sure she was going to get to know those ponies in time. 

Primrose looked back up at Trine once more. He was still staring out the window, closed off from the rest of the world. The dark blue mare snuggled up against him and closed her eyes. 

---

A loud whistle signaled their arrival at the Fair Haven Train Station. Nopony was on the platform to greet them, the last residents had left a few weeks ago to move to another town that held more work and markets. The station itself was still in good condition; the platform was wooden and raised about three feet from the tracks to match the height of the train. There were some parts of it that were covered in dirt and were starting to rot, but all in all it seemed in reasonable condition.

Trine was one of the last to leave the train. He looked across the small platform at the brick building that acted as the actual ‘station’. The glass was murky and the room inside was dark. One of the big mover ponies pushed the door open and flicked on some of the lights inside, a few others following him inside shortly after.

“So...” Sunshine began as the group gathered outside of their train car. “What now?”

“Well, I suppose we just choose which homes to take for ourselves,” Skysong responded. 

The town of Fair Haven was small; it covered about a square mile of grassland nearby the Whitetail Woods, which was visible just nearby. The other direction was mostly covered in grassy fields and hills, leading to a chain of mountains at the horizon. The main area surrounding the train station was a town square; in the middle was an out of service fountain maybe thirty feet across with a flat basin for ponies to cool off in during the summer. Along the three roads leading away from the station were several buildings. One was an old bakery, another was a hardware store, and the largest was less of a building, but more of an open air market. 

Most of the windows were as dark and murky as the ones at the station, and the buildings themselves were in the early stages of disrepair. Some windows had broken, some doors were on their hinges and exposing the inside of the building to the elements, while others just needed some cleaning and touching up to regain their initial splendor. 

“I call the bakery!!!” Peach Cobbler squealed as she galloped off towards the old three story building. Firecracker chased after her, but couldn’t match the speed fueled by her excitement. Skysong and Autumn Gale flew off together to snatch a home of their own. Sunshine and Spotlight hung around with Prim and Trine while everypony else begun their claiming spree. 

Trine slowly walked down the stairs to the grassy street of the town and surveyed their options. “Hey, Trine?’ Sunshine asked. 

“Yeah?”

“Can you and I have a bit of a chat? Over here.”

Trine followed the blue pegasus to the dried fountain. “What’s going on? You’ve been completely... out of it. What’s up?”

Trine frowned. “It’s nothing.”

“Ponyfeathers it’s nothing! I know you. You’ve been looking forward to this for Celestia knows how long, and now you look like you’re standing at a funeral. Come on. You can tell me.” Trine opened his mouth, but hesitated. Sunshine was staring intently at him; pressuring him. 

“It’s... last night. The drinks. I did things... Things that I probably wouldn’t have done if I had been clear headed. I... My dad was like that. He drank every night. I don’t want to do something that I’ll regret because of a stupid drink...”

Sunshine wrapped his neck around his friend in a hug. “Trine, you’re not your dad, and you never will be. It was an accident with those drinks. And you don’t have to drink any of it ever again if you don’t want to, you know.” Trine still felt guilty about what he did, even with all of Sunshine’s encouraging words. “Try not to think too much about it right now. Let’s go find some homes, okay?” He followed the pegasus back to Primrose and Spotlight, and down the road away from the train tracks. 

The houses shrank the further they went from the center of town, and after around seven homes on both sides of the street, the road opened to the grasslands that seemed to go on forever. Looking back, Trine surveyed the buildings open to them. One of them caught his eye: a two story house about four buildings away from the center of town. To his knowledge, nopony had claimed it. As he trotted up to it, Sunshine and Spotlight approached the house next to the right of theirs. 

Trine pushed the front door open as Primrose wandered around to the back. The inside was dark and dusty; there were spider webs spun in the corners of the rooms. There were no decorations or furnishings to speak of other than simple walls, a nice wooden floor, and some basic light fixtures. Spying the switch on the wall next to him, Trine turned the lights to the house on. The bulb flickered to life. 

The living room was spacious, and with a little bit of effort, it could be very eye-catching. The kitchen was bare and empty, but still had some cabinets and drawers. There were spaces for a refrigerator and oven, but those had been removed when the previous owners left. The upstairs was a bit nicer; a master bedroom and two bedrooms were similarly unfurnished as the lower level, but there were bed frames that hadn’t been taken out. 

Trine looked out the back window and saw Primrose rummaging through a small shed. The view from the window was beautiful as he looked out into the distance. A few homes stood nearby, but beyond them were rolling hills and the forest. He opened the window and let the refreshing afternoon air blow into the house, riling up all of the settled dust. 

“Ah... ACHOO!” Trine rubbed his nose with his metal leg. When the cold metal touched his nose, he quickly righted himself and used his real leg. More and more he was forgetting that his new leg was metal and not ideal for some uses. 

“You okay up there?” Primrose asked, popping her head out from the shed. 

“Yeah.. I’m fine,” Trine answered. He left the room and walked down the stairs and exited through a door in the kitchen into the backyard. Primrose had found some seeds in the shed and was already planting them in a patch of dirt in an old, overgrown garden. She fetched a water pail and began running some water over the dry soil, letting it soak in. 

“Trine?” she said as he approached her. She placed the water pail down and turned to face him. “What’s wrong?”

“What do you mean? I’m fine.” His lie was so bad he didn’t believe it himself. Primrose gave him a pressing glare. “Fine. I...” he began. It was unusually hard to articulate what was wrong; so many things were bothering him, and trying to boil it down to a single sentence was trying. “I wish last night didn’t happen.”

Prim’s eyes went wide with shock. “Why? I thought last night...” she said, seeming to shy away from him. “I loved everything about last night...”

“How could you enjoy it? I had no control over what I was doing!” Trine said, his heart racing. “Those drinks... I can’t believe I let myself drink them...” He dropped to his knees as tears began forming in his eyes. “What if... What if I hurt you? Or did something you didn’t want me to do to you? Oh Celestia...”

Primrose knelt by Trine and lifted his chin up with her hooves and kissed him deeply. “Trine... Everything you did to me last night was amazing, and would give anything to have you do it again.” Her cheeks began to blush when he realized what she was meaning. 

“I... oh my...”

Primrose nodded. “It was good, I assure you. I would just like to remember it better the next time we’re together.” She stood back up and began to water her seeds. 

---

It was much later in the day when the movers departed. They left several crates within each of the houses everypony chose to stay in, as well as a request form for anything else they need when they were to return next, which they assured would be frequently with the conversion movement starting to pick up. Peach Cobbler offered them all muffins and cookies she cooked in her new bakery for their hard work; they graciously accepted and boarded the train for Canterlot. 

With the entirety of the small town left to themselves, the orphans and displaced workers of the Blowing Rock Conversion Bureau had a picnic. They set up blankets on the east edge of town, in the grassy fields that seemed to go on forever. The sun was starting to dip closer and closer toward the canopy of Whitetail Woods, but everypony was too busy to notice. 

“Quake!” Autumn Gale shouted as he kicked the soccer ball toward the blue earth pony. The ball soared toward him, but he had enough time to ready his buck. His hooves impacted the ball, sending it hundreds of feet across the field, vanishing into an area of tall grass. Autumn flew over the area and searched for the ball.

“I guess... I score?” Quake asked half-jokingly. 

“I’d say so!” Autumn gale said, the ball cradled in his legs as he fluttered back over. 

Trine bit into the cinnamon muffin Peach Cobbler had made for him and everypony else; her new bakery had been stocked with an oven and refrigerator left by the previous owners as well as all sorts of cooking and baking tools. According to Firecracker, the look on her face was something he hadn’t seen since the bureau. Some of the crates also stored enough food and produce until the next delivery, and Peach wasted no time in warming the oven up. 

Primrose nuzzled Trine’s mane; she had already begun growing some vegetables in her small garden along with some small colorful flowers to bring some quick life to the area. “I’m hoping to grow plenty more and move them all over town,” she had said when Trine asked. 

Trine enjoyed the social intimacy he and everypony else shared with each other; they were all friends and had been through so much together, and they were going to be friends forever because of it. 

Looking back, it was amazing to him. In just ten simple days, they had gone from orphans and outcasts in Spotlight’s case, to ponies of Equestria settling a dead town and bringing life back to it. The effect was surprisingly immediate as soon as somepony came out through those double doors just learning how to walk on hooves for the first time. Quake was the first; everyone was interested in what happened to him, but that’s all that it was, Trine believed. Not many of them had actually cared about him until after he got converted.

At least his sister did. Sugarberry was one of the only ponies who had a deep personal connection with Quake, so much so that she would have rather gotten converted with him than grow up with actual parents. She was now running around in the tall grass and giggling without a care in the world.

Autumn Gale and Skysong had come next; Autumn because of his arm getting hurt during some games outside in the grassy fields near the bureau. Skysong, who had been restricted to a wheelchair her entire life, was finally granted the freedom she had always desired as a pegasus. The connection between the two had been acted on almost immediately after they had gotten converted. While it was unfair to attribute it solely on the conversion, it made it easier for them to get to know each other as pegasi learning how to fly. 

And then it was Trine who had gotten converted. The experience that had illuminated the dark truth of what his father had done to him in the past to try and get a few extra bucks. In a dark but funny bit of karma, it was exactly what the heads of Telios Chemical did to his and everypony else’s parents. But the experience of the conversion itself was both unsettling and humbling. Seeing the Princesses address him specifically and aid him in opening himself to the people and ponies close to him did help him. 

Primrose was the next to get converted. The heartbreak of losing Andrew that morning was eating away at her; it was plain to see at the time. And Trine had too soon to open his heart to her while she was still hurting. The pain of rejection ate at him for days, until the attack when his feelings for her had thrown him between her and a vengeful Andrew. He lost his magic, his horn, and his leg, but he had gained the mare of his dreams.

Sunshine was next, and he had a much easier time of it than any of the others before him. His conversion was quick and he took to using his hooves faster than anypony before. His flying, on the other hand, not so much. But that didn’t keep him down at all. He was always a happy and cheerful person on the outside, and from that point on, he felt accepted for who he was, regardless of his taste in stallions. 

Palm Breeze, Peppermint, Spotlight, Anvil, and Pink Lemonade were the last to get converted, but had little time to adjust before being sent to the island after the lives of so many had perished in their place. 

So much had changed in these last few days... Trine chuckled just thinking about how his life had played out before his trip to the bureau. Sitting at home and watching TV when he wasn’t at school. He had only one friend to speak of, and he was quiet, shy, and always felt out of place. But now all of those had been reversed: he was outgoing, friendly, and he hasn’t felt so close to so many in his entire life. And he was sure almost everypony here shared his feeling.

Trine surveyed the group and noticed a big, grey pony lumbering over towards them. “Hey guys,” Anvil said, walking over to the group with his cousin Pink Lemonade behind him. He glanced back to her and bit his lip, only to see Lemonade wave her hoof in the air. “If you guys need any help getting anything built from those crates... just ask.” A smile bloomed on his cousin’s muzzle. 

“I’d love some help tomorrow, big guy. You free then?” Sunshine asked the sooty pony. He nodded once, and smiled; the smile seemed a bit forced and awkward, as if he hadn’t genuinely smiled before. 

Trine looked down to Primrose, who seemed to be drifting in and out of sleep. “Getting tired?” he asked. Her response was a long yawn and  few blinks of her heavy eyelids. “I guess so,” he chuckled. The sky was darkening from an azure blue to a darker violet as the moon peeked over the mountains across the fields to the east. 

“I have no idea why I’m so tired,” Primrose said before yawning again. 

“You were in the garden for a few hours earlier.”

“Oh.”

Trine stood up after nudging her head off of his side. He walked over to Sunshine and Spotlight, both of whom were busy finishing off their muffins. “Prim and I are gonna turn in for the night. Maybe tomorrow we can go through the rest of these houses and see if anypony left anything behind.”

“Sounds like an adventure,” Sunshine said.

“I think we’ve had enough adventures for a lifetime,” Spotlight said back to him.

“There’s about twenty other buildings around town that nopony went into today. Maybe we can repurpose some of them for storage for the time being,” Trine suggested. 

“I’ll talk to Anvil and Quake about it in a bit. They’d be the best for carrying things,” Sunshine said. 

Trine bid goodnight to everypony else and helped Primrose back to their home. The only working light was the one upstairs in their room, which made ascending the staircase an interesting endeavour. After bumping into several things and knocking even more over, they made it to their own room, which had been furnished and decorated in a very plain way by the mover ponies. 

A quilt was laid out on the bed, one that was decorated with all sorts of colors and patterns. Primrose snuggled in underneath it as Trine tucked her in. He closed the door to their room and turned out the light. He hit the switch that unlocked his metal leg from his stump and left it by the edge of the bed he was going to sleep on. He wiggled under the covers and gave Primrose a gentle kiss on the cheek before turning back over. 

He began to close his eyes, but there was one thing he wanted- no, needed to try. 

There was a small latch on the window that locked it down, but that latch was unhooked. 

Trine closed his eyes and tried to survey his mind for that familiar bubble of energy that he felt when practicing in the bureau. Everywhere he looked, he felt nothing. Emptiness. Only a void greeted his searching. He poked and prodded different parts of that void with his consciousness, but felt no resistance, no pressure... nothing. 

His heart sunk. He felt his forehead with his one good hoof. What was left of his horn was a flat, hard surface obscured by his mane. When he first touched his horn after his conversion, he would feel shivers and little shocks along his spine. But now, he still felt nothing. 

It really is all gone...

Sleep was beginning to shroud his mind. He turned over and buried his muzzle into Primrose’s sweet-smelling mane. An image in his head appeared of the latch swinging closed, with a satisfying-

click.