Fluttershy
Angel had stopped bouncing up and down on me. He actually fed the other animals...
That was never a good sign... And I hated leaning on him. It made me feel worthless, but I just didn't know what else to do.
I wasn't sure what had happened to me. All I could do was curl up under the covers and wish it would all go away...
Some part of me knew I was over-reacting it was just some curse, and not even a super terrible one at that... Maybe Discord had played some little joke, maybe it was all a nightmare.
"Fluttershy!" A stallion I didn't recognize called from outside.
I blinked. I had company? I hadn't been expecting...
"Fluttershy, dear please come out! We're worried sick about you!"
"Flutters it's okay, we're here for you!"
I knew it was rude, but there was no way I could answer the door like this. What would they think? What could I do... So I just layed there, paralyzed with fear.
"Alright, buck this!" a southern voice shouted.
There was a loud crash.
Five stallions I didn't know and... Princess Celestia and Luna? appeared around my bed.
I blinked at them. What the-!
The pink one grabbed me, very, very tight. "Fluttershy-we-were-so-worried-and-!"
I panicked... I rolled over and threw him off! I was strong, really strong! He crashed into the floor...
There was blood.
The white one shrieked. "Pinkie!"
Then, and only then did I notice their coloration... And their cutie marks...
#
The Sun
My sister and I walked out of the cottage, leaving Butterscotch to his friends. Bubble was fine, we'd made sure it was no more than a scrape... The poor yellow stallion was still crying his eyes out though.
I kept my face calm, as I had in the face of horrors for thousands of years. He really hadn't recognized them.
Something was very wrong.
Luna continued her lecture on transponies. I was only processing my sister's words mechanically.
"Butterscotch- ugh! Sorry, Fluttershy.... SHE was never the best pony at coping with emotional stress in the first place, but now... This is only going to get worse. The mind is designed to function with a body that it is part of it, not one that it's fighting... Sister are you listening?"
Mechanically...
I let out a breath. "Yes Luna, I am, but you seriously can't tell me that the best way to help these ponies, who are not only pivotal to the survival of the nation, but our friends... Is to start physically tearing them apart."
My sister groaned. She had that petulant look in her eyes that she got when she'd read a book on something I hadn't... Though to be fair it was mixed with genuine concern.
"Sister I keep telling you! This is an illness. It needs a treatment!"
I looked away and grit my teeth... And it was going to be such a nice day too... Warm winds, not a cloud in the sky... One of those days I could be proud of.
And now I had to deal with this.
"Luna," I began, cautiously. "I agree that this is a serious situation. However, the Elements of Harmony are, perhaps with the exception of a lack of sleep, in perfect physical health. Obviously I'm extremely worried about them, but to me their problem seems far more mental than physical."
Luna grumbled. "Gender dysphoria is physical, not mental."
I wasn't going to get into a long philosophical argument so I just nodded. "Magical then. The cure should fit the disease."
"But we have medication that could help them!"
I winced. I knew what she was suggesting. "Luna, I know the things you've seen in the line of duty have been disturbing at times, but-"
"You're both right!" Came a voice.
We turned around. Dusk eyed us from across Fluttershy's little bridge, still looking extremely disheveled, but with a bit of that controlled determination I'd always admired.
Luna blushed. "Twilight... Hello... Um... how long were you listening in?"
He sighed. "Long enough. Sorry, I wasn't trying to eavesdrop it's just... That didn't sound entirely happy."
Now it was my turn to blush.
"Look," He began, "You're both right. Gender dysphoria is serious and if a pony is totally cognizant except for the fact that they really hate their bodies then there are standard medical ways to help that. But Celestia is right too! If we'd had gender dysphoria for years and slowly came to the revelation that we just weren't happy being stallions that would be one thing, but that isn't what happened here..."
He looked down at his reflection in the happy little stream below. He grimaced. "I don't remember looking like this, the others don't either. Someone's mind, or body, or... something has been altered. That isn't a natural disease."
Luna opened her mouth as though she had something to say... Then closed it, defeated. "Alright then Dusk. What would you have us do?"
The purple alicorn winced. "Let's stick with Twilight for now... At least in private. I think for the instant we should just play the part of stallions while we investigate. One way or another we've been attacked or hit with... Something... But we're no newbies when it comes to things like that. We're the Elements of Harmony and whoever did this is going to get friendshipped so hard their teeth fall out!"
Luna and I exchanged a look.
Dusk Blushed. "That came out weird... But that's not the point! We can handle this, I know we can. We just have to figure out what happened."
I smiled. Whatever had happened to Dusk it hadn't robbed him of his spirit. "Very well my faithful student, how shall we begin?"
For the first time today, I saw my faithful student smile a real smile...
"I found a lead."
Six? Who is the random wierdo that tagged along?
...
IS IT GENDER SWITCHED MAUD?!!!!!
6042845
Sorry about that, typo. It has been fixed.
6042826
That's not what I meant... I more meant using how what's happened to them seems sudden rather than ingrained in their psyche and their altered memories to explore the concept more in depth.
How did those people talk to them?
6072462
Ugh... Being trans is complicated. When you tell people you don't like your body a certain way, they start telling you you're crazy or have mental issues or what not. Hear that enough times and you'll start to believe it. And since the standard treatments for mental illness have proven rather ineffective in dealing with gender dysphoria... You can see how things can go South pretty quickly.
ok, so... not ludicrously cruel.
6072508
It's a sort of catch-22 situation to be transsexual, as far as dealing with other people. They'll say you're crazy, and you very well might be, for taking expensive, heavily restricted, and dangerous chemicals, that probably will shorten your lifespan, just to feel more like a woman (not quite as life shortening the other way around, IIRC). But then, if you force yourself to ignore your weird body, and say no to the unsatisfying chemical solution, they'll say you're just a poser and it's all just pride and denial. And who are you to correct them?
Personally I think anyone should be able to say "yeah I want to be a <what I'm not>" and nobody has any right to say it's not real or genuine, or demand that you "prove" it somehow. Still a sucky situation, but at least people aren't treating you like a mental patient.
Ugh, and don't even get me started on the femynysm SJW thing, where people are all "you only want to be a girl because it's popular now," or "because you think girls are better than boys," or "because the evil feminists infected you with man guilt," or something like that. It's sad, because most trans-women are gay or at least bi/gay, so you could say they have a pretty healthy respect for men, outside of their own personal situation!
At least it's not flipped around like in the Victorian era where they were all "You just want to be a man because men are superior and you are just a simple animal wishfully imitating your betters, like a parrot." (No, really.) (Though they literally murdered non-straight men back then, so it wasn't so great for men either.)