Several days passed. Jon frolicked with the other mares during the day and cuddled with them in the stables at night. One day, Jon was called back to the stables. Once there, he met two women and a young girl he didn't recognize; one regular woman and one who had been transformed like him. The girl, who appeared to be about five or six, was a mare as well. The mare spoke first. She had black hair and coat and appeared to be about 40 years old. The mare wore glasses. As she didn't have hands, Jon figured someone else would have to put them on for her. The human appeared to be about the same age, with long, blonde hair and, aside from a lab coat, was nude. The girl looked very similar to the adult mare. "Thank you for coming, Jon," she said. "I know you want to spend time with the other mares, but we have business to discuss now that you have settled into your new life.
"My name is Dr. Aubrey March. This is my colleague, Dr. Madeline Smith and my daughter, Angela. Feel free to call us by our first names. All of the mares here are on a first name basis. We developed the transformation process and I volunteered to be the first woman to undergo the procedure. I chose this voluntarily so that I could be sure that the process worked. I loved my new form, just as you love yours, and chose to start a new life. Dr. Smith will be transformed herself within a few months."
"You don't just run the institute," quipped Jon, "you're also a member."
"You're very perceptive. You and I, Jon, as well as the other mares, are a new species: Homo Equus. We have the physical strength and stamina of a horse and the intelligence of a human being. We will be working with our human relatives as their partners in a new future. I'm sure you have a lot of questions, and I hope to answer some of them. First of all, I'm sure that you've noticed that you and some of the other mares have had your male identities retained while given female reproductive systems. We are part of the first generation of Homo Equus. My daughter is part of the second. The first generation will all have female systems, regardless of their original genders, and will be mated with stallions. Equines of every generation after that, like Angela, will be either male or female. We do this so that the first generation has as many breeding mares as possible, so that our species can be sufficiently established for a more equitable balance between the two genders to be established.
"Now comes the subject of mating. You're going to be going into heat soon. I've seen the way you and the other mares look at Traveller." Jon blushed. "Don't worry. I look at Traveller the same way. In fact, he fathered Angela." She looked down at her daughter and smiled. Angela cuddled up against her mother. She seemed to take her form for granted, which made sense if she was born that way, instead of being transformed. "And she just adores her father. He'll be fathering a lot of the children around the farm, though we will be bringing in other studs to improve genetic diversity." Jon thought back on Luke, who was so proud of the child he was carrying. Angela would be the baby's half-sister. "Homo Equus and horses can freely mate. Children of these unions will all be Homo Equus, regardless of the species of the father or mother, and they'll all be perfectly fertile. As our species becomes established, we'll be practicing more Equus/Equus unions, though Equus/horse unions will still occur."
"What about incest?" asked Jon. "Even with all the first generation Equus being females, a lot of them will be siblings because so many of us will be mating with Traveller."
"Incest will be inevitable for the first few generations," answered Dr. March. "Hopefully, we'll be able to control it so that there aren't many genetic problems, but we don't want to tell our species who they can or can't mate with." Jon figured that would be why Equus/horse unions would still be occurring as well.
"One more question," asked Jon, awkwardly. "How many years will I be, you know, fertile. I want to have children, but I'm a teenager, I have plenty of time to have babies. What about menopause? What if an, you know "
"An older woman gets transformed," asked Dr. March. "Like myself? Or Madeline?" Jon blushed. "Don't worry, we're not offended. And you ask a good question. When an individual becomes a member of our species, his or her womb is given Rejuvinex treatment. This effectively gives them the womb of a young, fertile girl, so they will be able to have babies for a long time to come."
"It just doesn't seem fair," said Jon, "for a woman to get this new form and not be able to have babies because they didn't get pregnant in time. Especially knowing how much she'll want them." Jon craved babies and the thought of not being able to have them was horrible.
"You're right," said Dr. March. "Its something that Madeline and I thought of when we were developing the procedure. With the Rejuvinex treatment, we will never have menopause and will be able to have babies throughout our lives. Even you and the other teenage mares have had this treatment, so you will never have menopause either. We've even found a way that this process can be passed on to our children, so no Equus will ever stop being fertile."
"Do you have any other questions?" asked Dr. Smith. When Jon didn't, she offered to escort Jon back to the stable, explaining that everyone got the lecture when they got established. Back in his stall, all the other mares were eager to know how it went. That night, Jon fell asleep with visions of babies dancing in his head.
