Sassy was enjoying the feed she had been given in the stable when she heard loud whinnying from the paddock. She looked up and over. Thankfully, the large door was open, so she could see a palomino quarter horse mare being aggressively fucked by an Appaloosa stallion. Sassy snorted in confusion. She hadn’t heard any horses leave the stable. In fact, after a quick glance, she could see that none of the stalls that had been occupied when she was brought in were empty. Who were those horses?
Sassy’s curiosity was intensified when the stallion finally dismounted. The mare was dripping with seed from the stallion, who, before Sassy’s astonished eyes, transformed into the horse assessor, Gelvin. Gelvin put a lead and halter onto the mare, then led her into the stable, setting her up in the stall next to Sassy’s.
“Do not worry about needing to be on the road tonight,” Gelvin said to Sassy. “You will be staying here now.” He stroked Sassy’s forehead. “My boss has also decided to rename you to Nyx, something more suitable for your pedigree.” Gelvin smirked at the palomino mare in the other stall. “And welcome to your new life, Aura.” Gelvin left.
“Sassy?” the palomino mare, Aura, nickered softly. Sassy, now Nyx, looked at her, startled.
“How do you know my previous name?”
“It is I, Anya.”
“Anya?!”
“Yes. They cursed my food, transforming me into a mare.” Aura snorted. “Luckily, I am witch stock, and while they could transform my body, they could not transform my mind.”
“Is Gelvin truly that powerful?” Nyx asked.
“It is less that he is powerful and more that I am weakened,” Aura said after a moment. “Though I will grant that horse witches like him can do any horse-related magic, no matter how difficult.” She sighed. “Unfortunately, I am now pregnant with his foal. He made sure of that.”
“…Oh.”
“In fact, we are both with foal.” Aura looked at Nyx. “He mentioned that his scan discovered you were just recently impregnated.”
“Yes, a stallion came across me before we reunited,” Nyx confessed. She stomped her hooves impatiently. “Now that we are both stuck as pregnant mares, what can we do?”
“I see a few options,” Aura said after a few moments passed. “We can attempt to escape now, though we will be very vulnerable, particularly as our pregnancies progress. We could wait to escape until after we have given birth, though that will not be for some time. We could wait to escape until enough of my magic has returned that I can protect us, though I know not how long that will take. Finally, you could use the amulet, though we do not know what will happen.”
“None of the options are especially good,” Nyx said. Aura nodded.
“True. But we must choose one.”