As John had predicted it was indeed a very spectacular light show. The beams of light had descended upon the region in more than a dozen places, exploded without force, spread the magic in great expanding domes, and then ricocheted back out to where other crystal ponies were waiting to repeat the process. It was something beautiful and it was also something that brought fear to many ponies.
Mattie sat sleepily watching the news play out on the projection screen within the church. In a pony pile with her were her mother, Tonya, and Calvin. John was up in the AV room making sure everything was running well. The entire sanctuary was packed to the brim with ponies watching the news, waiting for the moment of the President's announcement. Many others chose to just like together in groups as the quarters were simply too cramped to fit everypony otherwise.
They watched news reports of smaller towns out west where ponies were coming to the aid of humans, they saw humans interviewed who expressed happiness that ETS was gone, but also often apprehension about the still present pony population. There was still no word about exactly how and what had happened, only that it had stopped ETS.
Occasionally a pony would be interviewed and what they said was often reflected in the whispers of those that huddled together within the church.
"I don't want to change back. I'm happy as I am."
"You aren't taking my wings from me! You might as well kill me!"
"We just want to be left alone."
"Why should we be happy for the humans? They treat us like dirt. We tried to help them out, but they refuse it."
"I don't know what I am going to do. Half my family are ponies, and the other half aren't. Are people going to demand I choose between them?"
"I suppose it is good that the humans don't have to be afraid anymore. I am happy for them."
"I didn't think there was anything stopping this. I don't know what that means for me now."
"I'm pregnant and my foal will be born a pony. Nothing is going to make me go back to being human. You could hurt my foal!"
The fear was oppressive. Yes, there were many who were happy that the humans weren't getting forced transformations anymore, but even they had an undercurrent of anxiety about what that meant for themselves. They said there was something like half a billion ponies in the world, about a quarter of the US population were ponies. That was a lot of ponies, but there were still far more humans, and this was still the humans' world. That left the ponies feeling very much at the mercy of their previous species.
"I am glad I got my cutie mark now. They can't take being a pony away from me," Tonya said.
One of the surprises on the day was Tonya had gained a mark on her flank. The abstract symbol for male and female. It could mean something about her previous nature as a trans person, or it could represent the fact that she just really was into expressing her sexuality, maybe a bit of both. They knew the term for it now by the news reports, cutie mark. Mattie had asked in fascination how Tonya had gotten it, a lot of ponies did. Tonya had refused to say, and the blush from her mother told her she didn't want to know for sure what she suspected. That blush spoke volumes and had managed to be a bigger shock than talking to an alien pony princess had been. All things considered her mother being replaced with some sort of doppelganger seemed as likely an explanation as any.
Between Tonya getting her cutie mark, seeing reports of them on the news, and the rumor that this is what made things permanent, there was a strong desire for cutie marks now among all the ponies of the church, Mattie included. She could feel she was almost there. She just needed to find some final piece.
"We interrupt this news report to take you to a live transmission from the President of the United States addressing the end of the ETS outbreak."
All the sanctuary went silent as a tomb as the screen shifted to the image of the president. He still looked human at first glance, but on closer inspection his hair seemed a little too silver, and the matching eyes confirmed the story. If they had just had another few days they might have had the leader of the free world among their number. No telling if this would stick now.
"My fellow Americans, both human and pony, and all those tuning in around the world; today marks the official end to Equine Transformation Syndrome. I know many of you are confused, scared, and have questions. I am here to answer them to the best of my ability.
"There is no simple way of saying this, so I will say it straight out. Equine Transformation Syndrome was the result of a single alien invader from another world. That pony, Sunset Shimmer, had been living in secret on this planet for more than twenty years preparing to unleash this pandemic upon us. Her goal was nothing less than to forcibly change the entire population of Earth into her own species.
"Fortunately, we were contacted and assisted by the world that she was native to. With the combined efforts of Earth and Equestria we were able to eliminate the terrorist Sunset Shimmer, and find a way to counteract what she had done.
"I am making sure I am clearly stating this now. This government and our allies put no blame on the ponies of Equestria for the actions of one mad terrorist. It has come to our attention she had been branded an outlaw before she ever arrived here by their government, and they were under the mistaken impression that she was deceased. It was pure luck that they were able to even determine that she had escaped to our world and have any time to try to stop her. They took action on our part, with no personal gain for themselves, and they have our gratitude for that.
"We are now opening formal diplomatic relations with the first extraterrestrial species we have ever encountered. They plan to work with our world to develop a full cure for Equine Transformation Syndrome, but for now, there will be no further outbreaks of it.
"Their government has concerns about the safety and security of the fully transformed, and discussions regarding those ponies are ongoing. For now I wish to assure any pony that may be watching that this government will not tolerate any attack on its citizens by other citizens, and that our pony citizens' safety is a top concern. Until regular order can be restored, any human attacking ponies will be punished in swift order. We are still under martial law, and violence will not be tolerated.
"I will be dispatching all branches of the military, along with FEMA workers, to the hardest hit areas. We will be maintaining order, and bringing much needed relief supplies to both humans and ponies. We understand that while there are no new occurrences of Equine Transformation Syndrome there are many that are still in varying stages of it already. We will establish official government regulated shelters in all major metropolitan areas to meet the needs of these citizens. It is the Equestrian government's belief that those in the earlier stages of this may still have the changes reversed.
"In a few moments I will transfer this transmission to an undisclosed location where Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria will address the people of Earth as a whole for the first time. She has worked tirelessly and selflessly with our ground crews for some time now, and we would have lost all of humanity without her efforts. It is my sincerest hope that her continued work as official ambassador of her world will help bring us to a new era of peace and prosperity."
The image faded out and was replaced with that of an empty podium at some other place. The image on the screen split in two with commentators giving their opinions and recapping the President's speech as they waited on this Princess Twilight Sparkle to come and give her own address.
"So that's it then, they are going to force us to change back," Mattie's mom said with a sob.
"They didn't say that, Mom," Mattie said.
"They definitely implied it," her mother snapped. "They are going to try to subvert God's will."
"Let's wait to see what Twilight Sparkle has to say, so we have more information before we start panicking. I understand your fear Mom, and would be lying if I didn't feel the same thing, but we have to get all our information before we start deciding what to do," Mattie said with a sigh.
"Why'd they have to kill Sunset Shimmer? She was just trying to help us," her mother cried.
"I don't know, we will see what Twilight Sparkle has to say," Mattie said through gritted teeth. She was getting frustrated, and it wasn't just her mother, those same fears were being echoed throughout the sanctuary. There were even a few prayers that could be heard begging God to protect them from being changed back.
"For now we know there is food and protection on the way, and we needed those things. We have to do our best to show them that we are fine as we are while they interact with us," Mattie said, trying to get her mother to focus on the immediate concerns.
"God intended us to be ponies, why is he suddenly doing this?" Her mother asked.
"Because we are not ready. If we are careful, and if we gain the trust of the humans we can make it so in the future. Think about Dad, and how unready he was for this. There is just too much fear," Mattie said, trying to reason with her mother in a way her mother understood. She wasn't sure how she felt about such things herself, but she wanted to calm her mother's fears.
"You use that word a lot you know, fear," Tonya said with a laugh. "I'm about to start calling you the fear pony." Nopony seemed to pay her quip much attention.
"So, you are saying like spreading the gospel? Bring the humans to want this to happen?" Her mother said, no longer crying, and completely disregarding Tonya.
"Something like that," Mattie said. Maybe not with the full religious overtones, but through time and reason they could secure themselves a place and get the humans to join them of their own free will. Whether that was the right thing or not was still in question, but it was clear they needed to show they weren't a threat. She knew one thing, she had no intention of changing back.
"Sunset Shimmer was misguided, but she brought us a great gift. I think that makes her a martyr. You're right, we should do our best to continue her cause in the right way. By earning the trust of hearts and minds," her mother said with devotion. Not quite what Mattie was saying, but close enough.
"Hush you two, somepony is coming to the podium," Calvin said. He was extra crystal-like since the spell. And despite the fact it still felt like normal fur, which Mattie was laying on at the moment, it reflected the light around it in prism-like ways.
Coming to the podium was a purple mare with a two tone mane, who had both feathered wings and horn. The white mare from the vision had those features, so did Luna, but no pony from Earth seemed to have those two features combined. It seemed there was another type of pony out there; one, that as far as Mattie knew, was native only to this Equestria place.
"Hello everyone and everypony. My name is Princess Twilight Sparkle, but you may all just call me Twilight, as I hope to be seen as a friend to you all. In my short time here I have been very impressed by your culture, technology, and other achievements. I hope that both our worlds will have much to gain by working together in the years to come.
"It is unfortunate about the circumstances that brought about our first formal meeting. I want to reiterate that Sunset Shimmer was acting on her own, without any cooperation with us. She tried this exact same thing before, and we had to take action about it then as well. We're sorry that we were slow in realizing she had escaped justice to here, and beg your forgiveness for that.
"I need to stress that she almost succeeded in her plans. If we had been any slower, and without a few lucky breaks on our part, we would not have been able to implement this counterspell. She was a brilliant mind, and we're still trying to understand everything about her spell. There are some aspects of this transformation that are well beyond our current scope of knowledge. And the scale on which things have happened is mind boggling. There are now ten times more ponies living on this planet than there are on my own, and their well-being is a top priority to me personally, and for my world. Equestria will not tolerate the mistreatment of ponies, even newly transformed ones. If you're a pony watching this address let me assure you we will not allow any more to be done to you against your will."
A small cheer went out across the sanctuary at this statement from Twilight. These ponies from the other world would try to protect them. Mattie liked the sentiment, but she was not sure they could do it in practicality. The princess had just admitted they didn't have the numbers. There were less ponies on that other world than were likely in the United States alone. The ponies here would still need to see to themselves for the most part.
"We will be sending ponies out to help with pony communities, and helping them become more self-sufficient. We understand a lot has changed in very little time, and it isn't possible to just put things back the way they were. We have hope that the ponies of this world don't all choose to abandon the many great achievements they accomplished as humans, and continue to work alongside humanity as they did before. This would be a tragedy if they lost those things, and one of the many horrible things that Sunset Shimmer would have caused had she been successful."
The ponies of Equestria thought that the ponies here should hold onto the old technology? That was interesting. She had complained about the lack of transportation options for food, and there were likely numerous things she hadn't considered too. Things would need to be reconfigured for pony use, but she saw the value in them, plus it made them more relatable to the humans, which meant less fear and suspicion. It was a job for more technical minds than hers on how to go about it, but the need to be one of the ones encouraging these things was definitely growing. Ponies were not sheep, but you had to encourage them to think. They needed to be concerned about their well-being to choose to think about things, just like with the food, but they were not simply brainwashed drones just doing their jobs.
Twilight's speech continued, and Mattie half paid attention. She was caught up in her own world of thoughts. She thought of her father, and how he had rejected both her and her mother. She thought of her mother, and her mother's attempts to rationalize all this in a way she understood. She thought of how the ponies had in a few hours put up a barricade around this church ground and set guards. She thought of how quickly she had gotten in line with curing ETS, and how Calvin had done his part after he realized what might be if he didn't.
Fear was something she spoke of a lot, that was true. There were two types of fear, rational and irrational. Both of her parents before their transformation had an irrational fear of what was different, and what didn't fit their views of the world. They didn't try to understand their fear, as there was nothing that could be understood, and they ended up saying and doing hateful things. But her father's fears after the transformation had some legitimacy. They gave her hope that he could still be reasoned with in time, if she reached out to him. Rational fear could breed rational thinking as long as you didn't let it control you. It was the great motivator.
She would embrace the fear, help ponies understand why they feared, and recognize why others feared. She would address the underlying reasons they had that fear and help them do the same. She was not here to invade ponies minds and soothe them into not thinking beyond a few simple cares, she was here to make them think and to be aware. That was her purpose, that was her destiny.
As she thought this, a bright glow went up from her flank, attracting the attention of every pony nearby. After a brief second it ended, and there sat a cutie mark upon her flank, declaring her purpose, though it was not very cute.
"Um, congratulations on your cutie mark. It is a little morbid though, don't you think?" Tonya said with apprehension as she looked at the mark with mild revulsion.
"I hate to say it, Mattie, but she is right. That mark is a little scary, please tell me that you aren't destined to be a murderer or something," her mother said as she too looked at it with a hint of fear in her eyes.
"What is it? She is laying on me and I can't turn my head enough to see it," Calvin said from beneath her in their pony pile.
"It is a mark of fear. I want ponies to see their fears and understand them. If you don't fear you become apathetic and ignorant. We will not be that; we are not brainwashed, we are free thinking beings," Mattie said as she looked at her grisly cutie mark, a pony skull, and smiled.