The Conversion Bureau
HUMAN
in Equestria
By Chatoyance
16. The Six New Mornings: Ghosts And Flowers, Part Two
Lime Sherbet is used with the permission by the superb author Gabriel LaVedier, from the excellent Dames Of The Tea Table, which you should read because it is wonderful.
Special thanks to my spouse Aedina for her assistance with historically accurate Elizabethan speech.
Morning Star walked slowly away from Hyssop Garden and joined her young friends.
"How is she doing?" Crimson Beauty tried not to stare at the nervous, worried pegasus.
"She just wants to be alone. I thought maybe she would be more willing to talk with a filly, you know?" Morning Star sighed.
Shinden kicked one hoof with the other. "Yeah, my mom and Swift's dad both struck out. And I think Crim and Plantain's mom bother her somehow. Same with Morning's dads."
"I think her issue is adoption. I believe Hyssop is worried that Oliver won't accept her for some reason. Rather like how your mother felt afraid." Crimson looked away from Shinden to his mother. Peridot was chatting with the rest of the parents - Hwinym, Windshear and Spindrift, and her own mother, Banana. All of the parents stood together, except for one. Hyssop Garden stood alone, down the hallway, staring off into space.
Hyssop had started the day in good spirits. She had brought a very nice, very pink set of filly saddlebags, a very cute pink-and white hat, and also an adorable stuffed diamond dog toy. The diamond dog toy had a pink bow tied around its neck. Oliver had adored the Sachs family house servant. Hyssop had done everything and anything she could think of to show her child that she loved and wanted her.
But something was wrong.
The revivification process had been going on now for over an hour. Both princesses appeared locked in some desperate effort. Twisting ribbons of thaumatic force streamed from the twin diarchs to swirl in complex patterns around both Oliver and Isla. The head maid of the castle, Lime Sherbet, had seemed concerned when she came by to see the new ponies. The process had never taken this long before. Lime had reassured everypony that the princesses would take care of whatever was going on, and that everything would be alright, but...
Something, was clearly wrong.
"I wish we could help her somehow." Swiftwind's ears drooped low as he glanced again at Oliver's mother, Hyssop. She seemed like a statue herself, just staring at the wall, but there was no way for her to fully hide how she was feeling. Her ears were pulled flat against her poll, and her wings twitched as if unable to find a comfortable place to remain folded.
Swiftwind turned his head away, and noticed Crimson and Plantain's mom approaching.
"Hyssop. I know. It just breaks my heart. But she just plain doesn't want to talk." Banana Acres bent her head and nuzzled her fillies. Crimson and Plantain pressed their heads and necks close to her, and finally snugged their bodies in on either side as well. Everypony felt worried about whatever was going on.
"Ms. Acres? Has there been any word from Isla's dad?" Morning Star stared at the flickering, pulsing glow emanating from the Waiting Room. Nopony dared to even go close to the door, now.
Banana gave her two daughters another comforting snuggle and raised her head. "No, dear. I'm sorry. Isla's father is completely refusing to respond. I just don't understand these humans one bit!" Banana Acres gave a little soft stomp of frustration with her forehoof. Everypony was speaking in quiet tones, and trying not to make noise for fear of distracting the princesses.
"Luigi Draghi was always a prideful and stubborn man." Peridot Cabochon bent over her son, Shinden, and gave him a lick on the poll to tidy a rebelliously upright strand of mane. "But even I am shocked. After all these years, Drahgi's heart hasn't softened one bit." The rest of the adults had joined Banana and Peridot, forming one large group of parents and foals.
"How long has it been now?" Hwinym braced his legs as his son, Swiftwind, pressed into him. Since becoming a pony, none of the former human children had changed more than Swiftwind. As Asher, he had been angry and rude. As a unicorn, Swiftwind had shown himself to be remarkably sensitive and gentle. He adored his father.
"Ah! Let me see..." Spindrift drew a pocket watch out of his fancy tweed gentlesire's jacket. "Ith thin athout, thait, I thant thee ith thotherly..."
"Let me help, love." Windshear took the watch with just a hint of a kiss from his husband's mouth and held it for him to read the time.
Spindrift briefly nuzzled their daughter, Morning Star - she had pressed herself close, for comfort - and then studied the watch in Windshear's teeth. "Oh. Goodness. It's been almost an hour and a half now."
"I'm afraid!" Morning Star buried her muzzle into Spindrift's immaculate tweed.
Windshear carefully placed the closed watch back in his husband's pocket, and drew close in a three-way pony hug. "The princesses are... well, they're the princesses, Star. I'm certain everything will all be alright, whatever happens."
Crimson Beauty raised her head from the soft, warm, chestnut coat of her mother, Banana. She tried to smile for her sister, to cheer her, but Plantain was staring down the hallway. Crimson followed her gaze, as did the rest of the fillies, colts, sires and mares clustered together.
Hyssop Garden was softly crying.
She had not moved from where she had been standing. Beside her, on the polished marble, were her gifts for her future daughter. A tear ran down her cheek and spattered in the floor.
The group began to move toward Hyssop, unable to let her be alone any longer.
At that very moment, Hyssop Garden was briefly covered in a shimmer of golden light. Instantly, like a marionette with its strings cut, Hyssop crashed to the floor and flopped over. Her muzzle was open, and her tongue lolled past her teeth onto the marble. Her eyes were open, staring at nothing.
Windshear and Spindrift were there in an instant. "She's not breathing! Spin! Get a unicorn, now!"
Peridot Cabochon stood over Hyssop's body. "Give me room! I AM a unicorn!"
"She knows what she's doing. She designs medical tools." Hwinym began forcing the crowd of shocked ponies to back up, and make space.
Peridot closed her eyes and focused her magic. Her horn began to glow, the glow echoed on the fallen body of Oliver's mother. The telekinetic glow ran up and down Hyssop Garden, pausing to close her eyes, and gently place her drying tongue back in her mouth. Then Peridot shut down her hornfield and opened her eyes.
"Hwin, Shear, Spin? Get the foals out of here. Take them to that gallery on the other side of the Waiting Room. Now!" Peridot's eyes flashed, and the three stallions began ushering sobbing ponies away from the scene. "Acres?"
Banana Acres stood across the body of Hyssop, trembling. "Is she?"
"Very. Not even a trace of her Couplement inside. She's... gone. I can't find any reason for this to have happened. Her heart was fine. Her lungs were fine. No blood clots, no anything. No reason. None at all. None... at all." Peridot was beginning to lose her scientific detachment. During the past year, she had gotten to know Hyssop. The two had begun regularly meeting for lunch. Peridot had helped her shop for the saddlebags for little Oliver.
A tear fell from her eye, despite all of her efforts to be the proper attending unicorn on site. "Oh... sweet Luna..."
Banana Acres moved around the body and hugged Peridot with her neck.
The chamber was large and round, like a great dome, like three quarters of a bubble. It appeared, in the dim light, to be made of some dark and gray crystal.
Taking up almost all of the floor was a great, circular dais with many concentric steps. In the center of the uppermost plateau stood a very elaborate chair, almost a throne. It faced a vast holoscreen, large as half of the dome, through which the lost earth of the past could be seen. The view into the screen was strange, a first person sort of viewpoint, as though seeing through the eyes of a child. A small hand gripped a bannister as tiny feet went up a staircase.
Behind the throne, the back of the dome had been sealed off by a pile of junk. No... not junk, chairs. Theater chairs. Dozens and dozens of theater chairs had been dumped in a great pile against the flat wall that was the back of the partial dome. A small window in that back wall let three holoprojector beams through. In the corner, where the wall met the curve of the chamber, a tiny, doorless fort of plascrete blocks had been built. It had a single, tiny opening. It resembled some ancient solitary torture cell from earth's bloody and violent history.
Hyssop Garden blinked. She felt strange. One moment, she had been standing, crying, in the hallway outside the Waiting Room. Her little filly should have been alive by now, saved by the princesses. But something had gone wrong. She had stood and waited for well over an hour. She worried that her little Oliver would not choose to live. Then, while she was deep in her thoughts, she had suddenly felt as if she were falling. Now... she was here.
Wherever here was.
"We do beg thee grant us pardon for thine precipitous discorporation, good mare of Equestria! Thy beloved offspring teeters even now upon the very precipice of vile oblivion, and we beseech thee of thy most needful aide."
Hyssop's eyes found focus on the face of princess Luna, the diarch of the night. Instantly, Hyssop bent her forelegs in a pony bow, overwhelmed by royal presence. "Princess! I... I don't understand. How did I get here? What is this... wait! You said my offspring was in some kind of danger? Oliver? Oliver is in danger?"
"Your filly calls herself 'Peony', Hyssop. She is indeed in grave danger. I know this is very strange, and very difficult for you, but we have called you here to try to save your daughter." Celestia filled Hyssop's view now, her mane a softly glowing light in the dim chamber.
In addition to the two princesses, Hyssop became aware of a third individual, a small, snow-white pegasus filly with an equally white mane. "P....Peony?" Hyssop moved to try to touch her daughter.
"I'm Isla! Wow! You're a pony!" Isla had been expecting the human form of Peony's mother.
"Isla? I... yes. I became a pony early on, to prepare a home for Oliver when she... when... 'Peony'..."
Hyssop shook her head, trying to clear it.
"...for when my Peony was brought back. I wanted her to have a proper pony home to..." Hyssop began to feel less stunned, less disoriented, and more herself. She looked more carefully at little Isla-the-pegasus, and then at the two princesses. Then she looked around the strange room. There was no sign of any other ponies... or little human children, either.
"Where's Oliver... I mean Peony? What is going on?" Hyssop felt confused and afraid for her child. She had no idea what was going on, but she understood one thing clearly - her filly was in some sort of trouble. Peony was apparently missing, because she wasn't anywhere around, and this made Hyssop feel even more confused and upset.
Celestia bent down to look into Hyssop's troubled eyes. "This place we are in - it is a representation of your daughter's mind, of the seat of her consciousness. Literally." Celestia nodded at the elaborate chair on the dais. "It is currently a bit of a mess..." The princess gestured with a hoof toward the pile of chairs and the little cell of blocks "...because your child is deeply conflicted. She is afraid, Hyssop. She is consumed with fear and shame."
Hyssop looked past Celestia to the interior of the strange dome, trying to make sense of everything. "Fear? Shame? Why? I love her! I accept her completely! I got her nice saddlebags, and I've done her room in pink - that's her favorite color you know, and..."
"I am certain of your devotion to little Peony. But she herself seems to feel... otherwise. I believe she is terrified that she will never be accepted or loved fully. It is my understanding that this was an issue on your world, that those born with rare circumstances concerning sex and gender were often targets of scorn?"
Hyssop pulled back from the princess, her muzzle open. "I never! I've been nothing but supportive of Oliver... Peony! It never mattered to me what she was or wasn't as long as she was happy!"
Celestia raised her head, staring at the vast screen that covered half of the chamber. Hyssop followed her silent gaze.
Hyssop saw the human face she once had worn fill the view. It looked strange to her now, almost unreal. Her human lips seemed to kiss something just above the screen, before looking down on the camera. "Boys will be boys, I suppose." Hyssop startled at the sound of her old human voice, from her old human mouth.
"But I'm not!" The voice was weak but adamant. "I'm not a boy!" It was Oliver's voice, when he was very young. Peony's voice. Peony.
"Shhh... shhh..." Hyssop saw her human face even closer now. Her old self seemed to be checking the camera, studying it. "Did you hit your head, sweety? Of course you're a boy, you're mommy's little man, and everything is going to be okay!"
The screen suddenly went dark. Then, after a few seconds, the vast holoscreen brightened again. The movie now seemed to be following a first-person walk down a long hallway. Hyssop recognized the location - it was from many years ago, when she and... Peony... had lived in Spain. Peony would have been about five or so.
"This sequence replays, over and over. Peony goes to your bedroom, apparently trying to express some aspect of human mareness in order to comfort herself. She cries, then runs downstairs when she hears you come home. She falls, and hurts herself, and then the exchange that you just witnessed occurs."
Hyssop felt herself being nuzzled, only then realizing the tears on her cheeks. It was Luna, standing close to her, as Celestia continued.
"Foals are very vulnerable and aware of every small thing, because life is new to them. The most unthinking of messages can have enormous impact. As a foal grows, she is influenced by everything in her life as she tries, constantly, to seek approval from those around her." Celestia stopped and nuzzled Hyssop too, for a moment.
"I know you meant nothing intentionally unkind by your words. That said, your filly has seized upon this one event as a symbol for what one of my ambassadors described as 'A culture of denigration and ridicule of any deviation from an entirely imaginary norm.' From what I have been told, it is likely that your child endured a lifelong attack upon their identity and self worth from the the culture you both lived in. She only knows that she is afraid of rejection, and that she is ashamed of existing at all."
Hyssop fell to her foreknees, crying. "What can I do? Tell me what to do!" Her tears became wails, because the full import of the situation had broken through. Her filly was dying, out there, in the real world, and the reason her daughter was dying was because she had given up all hope of being loved.
Hyssop wept, the wracking sobs echoing in the chamber. Isla tried to move to comfort her, but princess Luna held the little pegasus back with the silver grasp of her hornfield. Both Celestia and Luna withdrew, into the shadows under the screen, taking Isla with them.
"Mommy?" The voice was faint. It came from somewhere near the chair, near the center of the dome.
Hyssop, alone on the steps near the chair, cried out. "Peony?" Hyssop's tears intensified at the eerie feeling she was speaking to the ghost of her already dead daughter.
"Mommy! Please! You're crying! Why are you crying?" A vague shape began to form on the seat of the chair.
Hyssop couldn't see now, the tears filling her eyes. Why wouldn't the princess tell her what to do? Where had they both gone? She found herself choking on her own sobs, and gasped for breath.
"Mommy! Don't be sad!" The shadow in the chair instantly took on color and solidity. A little human girl bolted from the chair and wrapped her arms around the bawling pony on the steps. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! It's me, isn't it? you're crying because of me! I'm sorry mommy, please don't cry, don't cry, I'll be good, I promise, I promise I'll be good, just don't cry, just don't cry..."
Hyssop pressed herself into her daughter's arms and chest, sobbing harder at the warmth, at the pressure, at the fact that her child was finally there. "Peony! No... I'm sorry, I'm the one that is sorry, Peony... I want you to come home. I want you to come home right now!"
The little girl squeezed tighter. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry... I'll be whatever you want me to be, just don't cry anymore, please stop crying!" The shape of the little girl began to waver, and alter, the colors fading, the Tudor dress changing into a drab suit. The body began to expand and grow fatter and less delicate. "Please don't cry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."
The change startled Hyssop, who pulled away slightly, her hooves on the shoulders of her child. "No! Stop that!"
"Mommy?" The shifting, altering shape was poised, halfway between forms.
"Peony... I just want you to be happy!" Hyssop sniffed, her eyes still dripping. "If you want to be my filly, then be my filly. Don't be something just because... because you think you have to please me. It doesn't please me, Peony. I just want you to be you, whatever that is..."
The mutable child slowly began to fade back towards her female appearance. "But... but you said... and all the kids... and mister Astor and 'those damn faggots' and what happened to missus Walton's nephew and..."
"Shhh.... shhh... that's all in the past. That's all earth stuff, and the earth is gone." Hyssop slowly ran the bend of her pastern down her daughter's human forearm. "Just forget all that. I want you to be who you want to be. The princess tells me that your name is 'Peony' now. Is that true?"
The shape in Hyssop's forelegs quavered, and lowered it's undefined head. The answer was barely audible. "Yes."
Hyssop smiled through her tears. "T-That's a very pretty name. I like it very much."
A blurred, hopeful smile began to focus into a clear and sharp grin. "Really?"
"Very much. If I had a little filly, I would name her 'Peony', and take her home and be proud of her every day. I miss my little Peony very much. Would you come home and be my pretty little Peony?"
The little girl in the Tudor dress buried herself in her mother's embrace. The tears now came from her, as she wept out a short lifetime of quiet, private grief and suffering.
"Will you come home with me? Will you be my little filly?" Hyssop wrapped her wings around her daughter, embracing her with all but hind legs.
"I..." the voice was breathless and still crying. "I... can really be a girl?"
"A girl pony, but yes. Yes, yes, my little Peony. Come home with me and be my little girl."
Suddenly, Peony jerked in Hyssop's embrace, and raised herself. She stared into her mother's eyes. "The other kids! All the other ponies too! They'll all hate me! They'll hurt me!" Peony became slightly transparent, and Hyssop felt her daughter slipping away.
"No! That's not true!" Isla galloped free of Luna's fading hornfield. In three leaps she had made the top of the dais, and unable to stop smashed into Hyssop and Peony. Legs and arms and hooves and feet tangled together. "I like you better! I already told you that! I'm not a liar! I said you were pretty and everything!"
It took a bit of time for the three to right themselves. Isla was still mad. "You listen to me, Peony! If any pony even tried to say something bad to you, why... I'd buck 'em right in the roadapples!"
The absurdity of this brought Hyssop to laughter. Peony, seeing her mother finally not crying, began to laugh too. "The what?"
"Roadapples. I heard that somewhere. I don't know what it is, but I'd kick'em for you!" Isla had managed to stand, and she puffed out her chest and set her hooves firmly, as if she were ready to face down anything. "Besides, this is Equestria, Peony. Nopony is gonna say anything bad because ponies don't do that."
"It's true, little Peony." The three looked up to see Celestia and Luna standing over them. "All the things that you feared on earth do not exist here. If any pony came to me and wanted to be a filly - or a colt - my sister and I would gladly change them, and nopony would ever be anything but happy for their happiness. You will be welcomed and accepted, Peony, I promise."
The princess of the night took a step forward. "Thou shalt be loved and cherished, little filly, by mother and friend alike, and thou needs fear no pony in all of Equestria. We do give thee our royal promise on this, that thy life as filly and mare shall be as that of any other. Come thou then, and do give us in return thy pledge to live as our beloved little pony!"
Peony looked from Luna to the face of her mother, to Isla, to Celestia and then back to Luna. "Can I be a pegasus like my mommy?"
Luna nodded.
"Can I be pink?"
Luna rolled her eyes slightly, but nodded.
"With really soft pink hair and pink eyes and pink wings and be pretty like Isla?"
Celestia tried to hide her smile at her sister's restraint.
"Verily, little filly, if pink thou dost wish to be, then we pledge our troth that pink thou shalt become. Thy pinkness is most truly assured!"
"Okay." Peony turned to her mother and snuggled between her forelegs.
Peony nibbled at the clover pudding. She had tried many things already, and all were good, and all had been filling. She hadn't much room left, but Crimson had said the clover pudding was too good to miss. After a taste, Peony slightly regretted eating so much of the rose petal cake.
She had indeed turned out pink. Her coat was a delicate and shimmery pink. Her mane and tail were much lighter, almost a milky, pearlescent pink. Her eyes were hot pink, bright and shining like gems. Peony had spent some time just staring at herself in the gallery mirror, flaring out her wings and giggling, until her mom and Isla had told her to sit down. The head of the castle maids, Lime, had brought food for everypony. Peony realized she felt very hungry. The scary day was drawing to a close. Everypony was finally relaxed now, enjoying themselves and each other.
An hour previously, the room had not been so jolly. Back when the princesses had first entered the gallery, all the pony families had looked up and stared with wide eyes, fearing the worst. But then Isla had trotted through the door, between the princesses, and everypony's spirits had been raised. It took a little coaxing, but when Peony finally entered the room, all the stallions and mares and colts and fillies swarmed around, crying with joy. Both children had been saved!
At first, Peony had been nervous and shy. But, with enough 'ooh's and 'awwws', she was soon trotting merrily about, her wings flapping with excitement to be alive in the world. The overwhelming, and nearly fatal shame and fear that had so scarred the former human child had been conquered by one of Equestria's most astonishing sorceries. The cure had been the unstoppable power of truly absolute, truly unconditional acceptance. No monster of shame, no creature of fear, could win against such genuine affection. Fear and grief and worry had been turned to joyfulness in the room.
That joy had turned to shock and confusion when Hyssop Garden followed shortly behind her daughter - everypony had been convinced that she had been dead! Celestia calmly explained that yes, Hyssop had been dead, but only for a little while, and only just a little bit. Certainly nothing that couldn't be fixed. Hyssop, or at least her spirit, had been needed... elsewhere... in order to help save her daughter. Celestia had maintained control of her... ghost... the entire time, so there had been no risk of Hyssop being tempted by any greater vistas. The princess apologized for upsetting anyone, there had just been no time to explain things.
Very little of this bizarre explanation of events was understood by anypony, but that was okay. Everypony was just glad to have Hyssop back alive, and to have everything be alright.
After that, Celestia and Luna had excused themselves, leaving Lime Sherbet and her staff in charge of the situation. In no time at all, the reunion had become a banquet, with food served on rolling trays and every pony enjoying delicious treats from the royal kitchens. Lime was used to transformations now, and newfoals were always hungry after becoming ponies, and besides... all ponies enjoyed tasty treats during celebrations!
The two last children of the Masada Six had survived, despite a bit of a scare, and that was something worth celebrating.
Hyssop smiled, watching her little Peony happily savoring a small bowl of clover pudding, her big pink eyes shut tight to concentrate on the flavor. Her new filly looked so cute enjoying the treat that Hyssop almost felt like crying again. Finally, she tore herself away from watching her precious filly, and turned to another precious pony.
"Isla... I wonder if... if you would like to come live with Peony and me? Peony adores you, and... you two get along so well... and, if you would let me..." Hyssop looked down, unable to make eye contact for long. "...I know you're disappointed about your father and..." Hyssop swallowed and looked back up "If you want, you can be Peony's sister. I would be happy to be your mommy. If you want me to be."
The little snow-white pegasus licked banana frosting off of her face. Apparently the royal kitchens did not lack for desserts. "You'd have to give me a name. A flower name. Because we're a flower family." The filly looked thoughtful for a moment. Then impatient. "So name me!"
Hyssop tried to work through this sudden data-dump of child-logic. Oh! Hyssop Garden. Peony. Flowers. 'All Garden children should be named for flowers'... that was her reasoning. Okay... what name? A white flower, because Isla was white with a white mane? A favorite flower? It was hard to come up with a name on the spot. Hyssop felt like this was some kind of a test. Maybe, in Isla's young mind, it was.
"Tulip. Because Tulips represent a declaration of love. I want you to feel loved, and to have a happy home where you can be a happy filly." Hyssop looked over at Peony. "And also have a sister who clearly cares for you very, very much." 'Enough to sacrifice her own life' was what Hyssop thought after her words. The profundity of Peony's selfless act had been on Hyssop's mind for years now.
"Peony Garden, Tulip Garden, and Mommy Garden." The little pegasus flapped a wing, sending a small burst of air at Peony. Peony startled from her pudding trance and looked about, finally focusing on the source of the wind. "We're sisters now."
Peony smiled. "For real?" Pink eyes focused on Hyssop.
"For real." Hyssop smiled back.
"Oh... and my name is 'Tulip' now. Don't forget it! Tulip." Tulip took another bite of her banana and creme dish.
Peony looked from her mom to her new sister and back. "We're all pegasuses. Pegasisuses. You know what I mean."
"Mnn-hmm. I guess we are." Hyssop stretched her wings and folded them. "Birds of a feather."
"We should live in a cloud house." Peony grinned at her new sister. "And fly together in the sky!"
"I don't know how to fly." Tulip's ears fell.
"We could go to school. No more dumb tutors. Ponies to play with." Peony turned to Hyssop "Mom! Tulip doesn't know how to fly. I think you should find a way to get her into school. And me too. We both need to go to school so we can learn to fly good."
"I could teach you." Hyssop sat up tall. She felt proud.
"That's okay. We'd prefer school, right Tulip?" Peony gave a quick nod.
"Right. With lots of other foals to play with." Tulip nodded back.
"And a nice teacher who is... nice." Peony licked at a bit of clover pudding stuck to her muzzle.
"Oh! I'll need saddlebags too. Like yours. Only green." Tulip studied Peony's attempts to get the pudding. "Left. No, other left. Yeah. You got it."
"For books! They'll probably have books. About flying and stuff." Peony turned to Hyssop. "Tulip needs saddlebags too. Like the ones you got me? Only green. Oh, and we want to live in a cloud house someday, okay?"
Hyssop Garden stared at her two daughters. Already they were tag-teaming her. She laughed. "I'll see what I can do."
"She's a good mom, huh?" Peony yawned, filled with contentment... and a lot of tasty treats.
Tulip yawned as well. "I'm tired."
Hyssop shook her head. The day had been a day of wonders and terrors. Her daughter had almost died. She, herself, actually had died, and then been... brought back... by the princesses. She'd been inside her filly's head, along with Tulip, who had just become her second daughter. Yet the two of them... it was like Peony and Tulip had always been sisters. It was as if all the scary, strange events of the day had only been some silly, harmless nightmare. Equestria truly was magical. It certainly had plenty of arcane beams of thaumaturgical force, but the real magic wasn't showy at all.
The real magic of Equestria was in the heart.
"Miss Lime?" Hyssop caught the attention of the kind chief maid. "Could you tell us where our rooms are? My daughters are getting sleepy. Actually, so am I."
Lime Sherbet, always on top of things, didn't even blink. "I've arranged for a very nice little suite for you and your fillies. Follow me, Ms. Garden." In actuality, Lime had two rooms prepared, one for three, and one for only two. She was glad her happiest guess of possible outcomes had come true.
If there was one thing Lime liked, it was happy endings.
I need to make an apology to Gabriel LaVedier - he was hoping for a special, specific event that just didn't work out. Sorry, good Gabriel, the return of Mister Tumblebumble the diamond dog just didn't fit in terms of mood or story. I did consider it, though.
I know this chapter was long in coming. I am sorry, everypony. Life always takes precedence, you know?
The story is not over, just in case anypony is left unsure - there is more to come. All the loose ends have not been tied up, and they need to be. That said, at least the horror of dark forests, nasty beasts, and awful injuries is at last over! We have happy families, tasty pudding, and no child was left behind.
... ... ... *sniffles, then just loses it, running for the tissues!*
I just love happy endings!
And thaaaaat's a wrap! Presumably the rest is epilogue, or dare I hope a final act wrapping up the whole Masada business?
I hope we'll get to see a little more into the characters' heads - I'm curious what Asher's take on his past behavior is.
Yeah... The funny thing about that one was how ironically innocent it was. She didn't see the bit with the clothes, just the fall down the stairs, and kids say weird things because it's all new:
I remember when I was about 3 or so I was asking the babysitter some question about the parts of this toy turboprop helicopter I had (she told me the air intakes were speakers for addressing crowds...), and she said, "Well, when I was a little boy, I didn't play with helicopters, so I don't know." I was confused but figured it was an idiom for something being so long ago or so removed from your experience that it might as well have been another life entirely. Eager to show off my new idiom to my mom when she got home and impress her with my canny sophistication, I said to her, "Well, when I was a little girl, I didn't eat [gross thing]." She was just confused and I felt real dumb.
But it's because of stuff like that that I couldn't blame her for her "he doesn't know what he's talking about" reaction, as tragic a misunderstanding as it is (that seems to be a recurring theme with these parents).
How many times? I'd want to look into getting a seasonal/special event thing going. Do they do breed, too? Is there a home kit for either of those?
3033328
This is Fimfiction. You know there has to be at least fifty second-person masturbation stories about just that, and most of them likely cover every one of those items like some unholy checklist.
And I would almost be willing to bet that some have been in the featured box.
"You enter the breeding pits of Equestria. Twilight Sparkle winks at you and then turns around to face you. She changes you into a mare. Big Mac suddenly arrives. (thirty pages later) You wonder if you will ever stop dripping."
3033349
Those are so ridiculous - They never take breaks to hydrate.
3032950
I wanted to see the diamond dogs too. The kids and adults of the Masada were as much "pack" as the ponies are now "herd".
3033349
I think I read the cover-page description blurb of that one somewhere on here, actually.
Yay for happy families! I'm glad the princesses were able to make Peony's colour scheme work out. (Also, knowing ponies' magic colours kinda removes some of the suspense if you pay attention.)
Hyssop, Peony and Tulip. D'awwwwwww!
Somepony else also likes gardening metaphors...
"I'm just going to borrow your soul for a sec. kthnx."
More than anything, your takes on the princesses are marked by a willingness to do what needs to be done, no matter how others might perceive those actions. They can't help but think several dozen moves ahead, resulting in actions that are sometimes inscrutable, sometimes audacious, and sometimes borderline ridiculous. But it all makes sense in the end, because they knew what they were doing, even when it seemed like just the opposite. CelestAI has nothing on her flesh-and-blood (sort of) counterpart. It's almost frightening to try and imagine such mentalities. I don't know how you do it.
In any case, good end. Now to wrap up the dangling plot threads. I look forward to seeing the bows.
3033985
It seemed like more of an emergency action to me than some kind of chessboard master-stroke. The sisters were hoping that only Isla would be needed to convince Oliver to go pony, but they miscalculated and had to quickly regroup.
"We need to do something, and we need to do it right now." That's how it came across to me.
3033448
There's a good point here about how this isn't a full-on happy ending just yet. I don't take "happy ending" to mean "the ponies are happy," because the ponies aren't the only characters in this story. There is still the matter of the diamond dogs, and yes, the humans remaining in the Masada. They're probably not feeling too happy right now. Heck, I bet they're feeling downright glum.
I think the impulse to prematurely call "happy ending" is because there's no Great Evil here left to be dealt with. Is there even a villain at this point who needs to be defeated? Has there been in years, at this point in the timeline? Am I missing it? I mean, Stefan is no threat to anyone, and hasn't been since Celestia first showed up on Earth and started (literally) getting into his head. I've already gone over why I think he's tragic, so I won't retread that ground. The diamond dogs have had their ties severed through the splitting of the families, which for better or worse they consider their own families as well, as midnightshadow pointed out.
I guess there was the thing that scalped Asher, but it just be doing what it do, man.
A happy ending is an absolute state—anything less is within the spectrum of bittersweet, which realistically is where most endings wind up. There's the complete downer ending, but we're already clear of that. I'm sure the ending is coming, but unless everyone still in play does wind up happy, I wouldn't call it a happy ending.
3033328
Agreed, after all, a life unexamined is a life not worth living.
As for crazy things children come to believe because of parental word choice...
[youtube=34qB4tQHy-g]
3033985 Yeah, I think it was more of the "I need a solution, stat!" like 3034534 has suggested. Don't know why she didn't try that right off the bat.
3033349 3033458 Now now, I'm sure there are plenty of first and third person fictions that are just like that too. But thirty pages later... that'd be the "John Galt Speech" of pony smut.
If only things worked out so easily on Earth...
Couple more proofings for you:
You've got "Sach's" where you need "Sachs' ".
Again it seems like you can't settle on the spelling of a name, this time "Hwinem" vs. "Hwinym".
3034534
I didn't mean to imply that Celestia was planning on the Hyssop Soul Shuffle from the get-go. I was just impressed at her capacity to stay cool under pressure, to formulate and enact such an extreme backup plan with such rapidity. It's like watching a surgeon stabilize a patient within seconds of some perilous development.
3034534
Yeah, it seemed like this kind of teleportation/possession would be something they'd all be familiar with, especially given how there was a flash of magic beforehand. Though maybe a lot of things do that.
3034933
Sometimes they do; it's not like anyone's out to get you. Although, to quote Doctor Manhattan channeling Lao Tzu, "Nothing ever ends."
3034856
Hey, I'm not knocking the second-person, gender-bending, or the clop. I've seen all of them done well. But I think I actually saw that story, and...
i.imgur.com/MHuW96t.gif
3034534>>3035034
My Celestia and Luna are not like CelestA.I. - they only have two of the legs of the barstool of theodicy - Omnipotence and Omnibenevolence. They don't know everything. They can be fooled, they can be hidden from, and they can make mistakes. They can fail.
Neither are they as superintelligent as CelestA.I. - they are vastly smarter than human beings, but not as smart as a AI with billions of minds under her belt. By comparison to CelestA.I. they are duuuummmmbbbbb.
Inside Virtual Equestria, CelestA.I. has all three legs of the barstool of theodicy - she is everything, so she is Omniscient as well. Virtual Celestia is vastly more sapient that my TCB Celestia.
That said, my TCB Celestia is still vastly, massively more intelligent than a human being. She still must make choices and decisions based on limited information, and her own emotions. She has to hack situations, and work out compromises. She has to try things until they work.
But I try to paint her has being very good at it, and also as acting like a ruler. My depiction of Celestia is Elizabeth I of England in hooves, with superintelligence.
3034534
The usual seems to be what I might call for lack of better 'mostly happy' endings. The big things turn out happy, but the rest is kind of bitter sweet.
I really like the header image.
3035303
The thing is, that fallibility makes them much more engaging. It's the same reason that myths about the Norse pantheon feel more heroic than those about the Greco-Roman one; because the Aesir can die, there's something genuinely at stake, and the sense of risk adds to the sense of reward. Similarly, because Celestia and Luna can err, when they do succeed, that success feels much more fulfilling than sunbutt.exe's inevitable value optimization. Especially when they start making these spur-of-the-moment gambits that only they have the power and knowledge to perform.
It's a small part of why "Luna Eclipsed" was such a good episode. We see this incredibly powerful being, able to steer the moon and summon dramatic lightning at will, yet for all her might, she is still vulnerable to confusion, alienation, and ostracization. She may be like unto a god, but she's still a pony. But I ramble...
(And really, any organic intelligence is dumb with a capital everything when compared to CelestAI. )
3033349
I was kinda being serious, though: I mean, what if one's sense of identity, such as it is, were really fluid? And by breed I meant pony type; that was a bad choice of words... But it seemed like that change shouldn't be off limits if physical sex isn't. ...Then again we don't have "morphs" like that here so maybe they wouldn't actually seem equivalent.
But no: what if a pony was like, "there's a beauty pageant and wet shorts(?) contest I want to be a mare for, then be a stallion for the beard-off, then a mare again for my friend's bachelorette party, then a stallion again for visiting my mistress, then a mare again for vacationing with my other mistress, then a stallion again for the wine tasting with my husband"?
Or they were like, "You know, I've really come to hate farming and want to join the weather patrol and be on their aerobatics team"? Why should they put up with having those options closed off to them, when the power already exists to do something about it?
There are times when there are sound, abstract reasons you can't always get what you want (wanting to be famous but the world has only so much attention to give, or anything else like relative status that's necessarily zero sum) but that's not for lack of the power to do so. We don't stop medical research or (at least most of us) poverty alleviation programs to teach people lessons in accepting their lot - We tried that in the Middle Ages and it's one of the reasons we do a lot of things differently now.
...Or is that kind of variety just what reincarnation is for, and you get like one redo and then you gotta wait it out? Or would the kind of individual who might potentially develop an overriding need to fly simply never not have been a pegasus to begin with?
3035831
Greco-Roman gods can die, and are depicted with far more human flaws than the Norse aesir are ever presented with. Thor is brash, but he's nowhere near the kind of messed up individual Ares is. Beowulf's big 'flaw' is that he succumbed to something and had sex with it. Greek heroes periodically have psychotic episodes.
Norse mythology is still cooler, in my opinion, but I'm just saying that when it comes to tragedy and flawed divinity, Greece wrote the book on it. Literally.
Edit: To elaborate, Odin isn't human by any stretch of the imagination. He's a walking dead man, and knows everything that will happen via his sacrifice to that well of eternity that the Norns watch over. The tragedy of Norse mythology is inevitability. Thor could be the greatest warrior that ever was or will be, and Odin can be the wisest shaman king that the world will ever know. It makes no difference, because none can escape their fate.
The tragedy of Greek mythology, and I say Greek instead of Roman, because the Roman's put their metaphysical wang in every mythological pie from the east to Egypt, is character flaw driven. The gods create problems because they are not very good 'people' and heroes fail because of their hubris or other psychological issues.
If you watch Game of Thrones/follow A Song of Ice and Fire, Rhaegar Targaryen is a Norse god, Robert Baratheon is a Greek god.
3036407
You could always ask them to make you a changeling. I wonder how that would go.
Not every story can make me cry and laugh at the same time.
I think I can add this story to the single digit list of Fics that have made me cry.
Thank you, Chatoyance. I appreciate what you did.
3036407 3037418 Or you could just have them become a unicorn so they can cast the gender-bender on themselves.
As for stopping poverty alleviation programs, that was more something that people tried doing from 1700-1950, and replacing it with forced labor and residential schools. Then there was the shutting down of mental asylums, which pushed most mentally ill people onto the streets (for several countries). Now many people who are either homeless or in prison in fact have mental illness.
Peony
Shame, bashfulness
Prosperity, honor (in China)
Masculinity, bravery (in Japan)
I decided to look up flower meanings, since it seems Chat pays as much attention to them as JK Rowling does.
For further irony, pink was originally for boys, and blue was for girls, before WWII. pink being white-washed red, the colour of blood and aggression. Blue being a cool and comforting colour. If I recall, the French armies wore pink trousers for awhile.
Obviously Peony wouldn't know that, and things have changed, but I do think it is ironic considering the Japanese value attached to peony.
3033349
The way you write second-person instantly puts me in mind of Infocom text adventures.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be molested by a Princess.
You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
If this predicament seems particularly cruel:
Consider whose fault it could be --
Not a torch or a match in your inventory.
I like happy endings too Lime :)
That is funny.
Heh, ponies can't be mean to each other. Wonder what you think of the later seasons with Cozy Glow?
9775621
In my story world, she would be one of the members of the HLF version of the Worldgovernment's Project Dagger. Converted with a retrovirus installed that prevents the elimination of psychopathology, then kept awake and screaming through the Conversion Process to prevent any conversion dreams and thus potential communion with Celestia. The result in my stories are ponified earth agents with fully human, psychopathic minds... and no souls. That would be her.
But, that said, my stories do not use anything beyond season one - or those things specifically detailed as part of the plan of Lauren Faust before she got kicked off the show by Hasbro.
Me too, Lime. Me too.