Theresa Perkins trotted out from the back of the house to the carefully manicured garden which covered the back yard like a verdant blanket. The late September sun that Monday morning felt warm on her pale-pink fur -- despite the partial cover from a set of saddlebags -- and brightened her cherry-red hair. Its rays highlighted the bouquet of flowers that was her cutie mark when her haunches turned into the light as she stepped carefully among beds still thick with bloom despite the lateness of the season.
She cast her amber eyes skyward. Pegasi sped across the skies, clearing out the clouds in preparation for the council meeting. At least that was what the wing she could see was doing. Somewhere out of the reach of her eyes, another wing was still at work ensuring that the first frost held off a little longer so they could build up a bigger supply of food for the impending winter.
She sensed the problem before she even saw it. She lowered her gaze, though she already knew what she would see. Theresa tilted her head as she stared at the thistle. "We've had this discussion before."
Theresa did not seriously believe that the weed could understand her words. Instead, it was more an expression of a deeper connection to the earth into which this living thing had rooted itself among her prized flowers.
She clicked her tongue and shook her head as she settled on her haunches and carefully closed her fore-hooves around the stem of the thistle. She tugged but it did not budge.
"We can do this the easy way or the hard way," Theresa said. "Your choice."
She tugged again. This time, the roots had loosened enough that she could pull the weed free of the ground, roots and all.
Theresa smiled. "Good decision."
She slipped the weed into her saddlebag and headed to the edge of the yard. A fence had once stood there, but some application of earth pony strength had taken care of it. The real boundary between yard and surrounding land was fuzzy, just like a lot of things concerning land despite -- or as some believed, because of -- the Limited Pony Homestead Act. Like a lot of things coming out the US government lately, it solved little and irritated many.
Theresa moved beyond the confines of her garden. She dug a small hole with a fore-hoof before replanting the weed. She patted the soil around it before turning back to her garden.
Prior to her transformation, she could have only dreamed of doing this. She had loved being a florist, and now she got to grow the flowers as well as arrange them, with the added bonus that some flowers she raised were edible as well.
Theresa headed back into the house to prepare breakfast. Despite her smaller stature, the human-sized kitchen still felt cramped. Where the counters were too high for her, low tables had been placed about the room. She tried not to complain, telling herself that she was doing this out of love for her husband Tom.
She headed into the pantry and started transferring items to her saddlebags. She frowned as she scanned the shelves for the elusive last item, the bread. She finally raised her eyes and sighed when she saw it was on one of the higher shelves.
"Tom!" Theresa called out, trying to keep the irritation out of her voice and failing. "You put something back in the pantry out of my reach. Again!"
Instead of the expected soft step of her husband's shoes, she instead heard the clop of hooves. "He's not here, sis," said a unicorn mare with light blue fur and violet hair as she trotted into the room.
Theresa turned to her younger sister Anna. "Where is he? He was supposed to be watching Molly."
Anna lifted her head, and her horn glowed. "He managed to get enough signal on his cell phone that it told him he had a voice mail." She levitated the loaf into view. "So now he's off trying to get a better signal to return the call."
"Thank you, Anna," said Theresa as she took the bread from her sister, her hoof tingling briefly as it touched the food preservation spell.
Anna rolled her eyes and smirked. "You've been living here for what, two months now? How many times do I have to tell you my name?"
Theresa trotted past her sister, glancing at Anna's cutie mark, that of an artist's brush sweeping across a twilight sky. "I've known you as Anna far longer than I've known you as Evening Vista."
"You can call me 'Eve' or 'Evie'. And when are you going to get a proper pony name?"
Theresa suppressed her initial thought of "maybe never" and said, "I don't know yet."
Eve paused before saying in a lower voice, "This has to do with Tom, doesn't it?"
Theresa removed her saddlebags and started preparing breakfast as if she had not heard her sister at all. Finally, she responded, "Not everything has to do with him."
"Oh? That why you're living in this over-sized cavern instead of a proper pony home?"
Theresa jerked her head towards Eve. "This is your home, Eve!"
"Was my home," Eve said. "And even then only a summer home. I resurrected it out of deference to you and Tom."
"Tom is human, he needs a home properly sized for him."
"At your inconvenience. And Molly's."
Theresa did not want to have this conversation again. It seemed to come up more often recently, but then again, so did the arguments with Tom. "We shouldn't be talking about this, not if Molly can hear."
Eve smiled. "Molly's outside with her friends, showing off what she can do now."
Theresa managed a weak smile. Molly had been upset at first to have become a pegasus who couldn't fly yet. She had come crying to her mother once that perhaps she would be better off as a human again, a claim that Tom had vigorously backed up.
That all changed a month ago when Theresa and Tom heard a scream from Molly. When they raced upstairs to see what was wrong, they discovered it had been a scream of delight, as they found Molly proudly hovering, her wings beating like a hummingbird's.
Ever since, all Molly could talk about was what kind of cutie mark she might get.
In a softer voice, Eve said, "I wouldn't be making a point of this if we were a little closer to the community. As it is, I feel isolated out here."
"Nothing says you have to stay here," said Theresa. "I don't mean that sarcastically, sis, I--"
Eve raised a fore-hoof. "No, I get it. But family is important, and you're family." She smiled. "And I've grown attached to little Molly. She's so adorable. And she likes my paintings."
"Everypony likes your paintings," Theresa said with a small smile.
"I'll be perfectly honest, sis," said Eve in a more serious tone. "I don't want Tom unduly influencing Molly."
"Eve ..."
"You can't watch her or Tom all the time."
"I wish you'd stop treating Tom like the enemy."
"I'm not," Eve insisted. "But given everything that's been happening outside our happy little pony land, can you blame me for being a little cautious whenever rehumanization comes up?"
Theresa heard the sting of disdain in Eve's voice at the word. Of everypony in the family, Eve had embraced her new life the easiest, even going so far as to say that everypony was better off for it. Such talk made Theresa uneasy, as it sounded much like the more radical beliefs of the Shimmerists. She had never seen Eve associating with them, as they had very little presence in Pony Hope, but with the Pony Council having been convened, there were ponies from all over the country in town.
"I'm not worried about it," Theresa declared. "Rehumanization is impossible without consent, and that has nothing to do with a parent or guardian's wishes. If Molly wants to remain a pony, she'll remain a pony. Besides, I've known Tom for far longer than I've been a pony, and I know he would never do anything to hurt Molly, either physically or emotionally."
Tom stood in the middle of the street of what was now little more than a ghost town, Lazy Pines in name only. He had stepped into something akin to a post-apocalyptic landscape, a place of human habitation that had become a silent mausoleum in its memory. Lazy Pines had never been a bustling town even in the best of times, but it had never felt so empty and lonely.
No, it wasn't like a post apocalypse, it was a post apocalypse, just not the kind that anyone had ever expected.
When his cell phone rang, he brushed away a lock of brown hair from his blue eyes and lifted the phone to his ear. "Um, yeah, Tom here."
"Tom, this is Mike," said a deep voice at the other end. "I've been trying to reach you for the past few days."
Tom glanced back the way he had come. His legs still ached from how far he had to walk to get a signal. He was going to miss breakfast, but that was not a huge loss; breakfast without proper bacon was just no breakfast at all. Where he was perhaps the only human within ten miles, not a lot of meat was available; he'd have to go as far as Denver for that. "Sorry, but it's hard to get any sort of signal out in the sticks here."
"How are you holding up?"
Tom may not have had pony ears, but he could hear the note of concern that went beyond mere concern for him or his family. "I'm coping," Tom said in a shorter voice than intended. "Still not sure what I'm going to do." He hesitated. He had not intended to pour out his feelings, but he no other outlet. "I thought for a while Molly might come around, but things have changed, and not for the better."
"I'm sorry to hear that Tom, especially with the news I have to give you."
Tom suppressed a sigh and gripped the phone tighter. Guessing his manager's intent, he said in a defensive tone, "I'm still officially on sabbatical for another few months, Mike."
"I know, and that's what I've been telling the VP," Mike said. "But we're hurting here, Tom. We're still hemorrhaging money. We laid off almost forty percent of the workforce and still can't turn a profit."
Wind blew hair in front of his eyes. He frowned and glanced up. Several pegasi flew in formation across the skies.
"I've managed to shield you from it because you're one of the best financial planners we've got on staff," Mike continued. "And we need you back here. You can help turn this company around."
"And what am I supposed to do about Molly?" Tom exploded. "Or Theresa, for crying out loud. She's marked already!" He paused and said in a softer voice. "It's never going to go back to the way it was, and now I'm not sure what I should do."
Tom's throat tightened in the ensuing awkward silence. He didn't want to believe his beloved wife of fifteen years had turned into some alien creature who shared little in common with him anymore. He had wanted to raise a large family with her, but now that dream was gone as well; he was the verge of losing Molly as well.
"I normally refrain from offering any sort of personal advice to a fellow employee, especially one who reports to me directly," said Mike in a grave voice. "But you do have some options."
"And what would those be?" Tom said in a voice of both anger and desperation.
"You have legal rights concerning your daughter where rehumanization is concerned."
Tom simply nodded for his manager to continue, though he knew the gesture would go unseen.
"Everyone who could potentially be rehumanized has to see a counselor to ensure they want to undergo the procedure."
"Molly has made it very clear she doesn't want it."
"Hear me out," said Mike. "And this is off the record. Do you think you could get her to Fort Collins?"
"I have no idea," said Tom. "Why?"
"I understand that the counselors at the rehumanization center up there are very effective."
Tom had heard that as well, but via pony sources, thus it was never cast in a good light. From their perspective, the counselors cared only about getting as many rehumanized as possible. They were not so much counselors as propaganda artists who said whatever it took to convince a pony or partially transformed to rehumanize.
He had no idea what to believe. He desperately wanted Molly to be human again, but he didn't want to do anything to traumatize her. Sometimes he wished he had refused to abort his vacation in Lazy Pines to deal with an emergency back in the office in New York. Had he come down with ETS and transformed along with his wife and daughter, he would be thinking nothing more of this. He actually did get the flu while in New York, but the cure -- the counterspell -- had stopped it from proceeding to full ETS.
"I'd have to convince Theresa to let me take her," said Tom in a flat voice.
"That's one option, yes."
Tom frowned. "You are not suggesting I kidnap her!"
"Certainly not! What kind of person do you take me for?"
Tom covered his eyes with his hand. "I'm sorry. I've been under a lot of stress. Some say living among ponies helps you be more calm, but those are people who don't feel like they've lost their family."
"I shouldn't have snapped at you," Mike said in a more contrite voice. "Things have been stressful here as well."
"So what other option were you thinking of?"
"While I would normally be the last one to suggest breaking up a marriage--"
"You mean divorce her?" Tom said in an incredulous voice, but only to mask his own guilt, as it was an idea he had floated himself.
"The courts view cases like yours -- where one partner is human and the other a pony -- in a favorable light, especially if no assets like a home or car are involved."
"What I need is custody over my daughter. Can they give me that?"
"I can't say for certain, but most courts tend to lean towards the human side in such matters," said Mike. "If you want a phone number of someone I know who's been handling divorce cases like this, I would be glad to provide one." Mike paused before adding in a more somber voice, "He's the same one who handled my daughter's divorce."
"Sorry to hear that," Tom said.
"She was lucky not to have had any children yet. She wanted kids, and that was not going to happen with a pony husband."
Tom took a deep breath and let it go as a shaky sigh. He still loved his wife despite her species shift. She had purposely inconvenienced herself so that he could be comfortable in a human house, even if he had to rely on pony magic for basic amenities. He still believed she wanted what was best for Molly; they simply disagreed on what that should be.
He felt something of their relationship could be salvaged, even if it meant nothing more in the end than an amicable breakup, but he wasn't sure yet he wanted to go that far. At the same time, he had to hedge his bets.
"All right," Tom said, "Text me that phone number."
The morning sunlight glistened on Heather's spring green crystal coat as her trot turned into a canter. She had sensed the erratic magic blossoming like watching a distant fireworks show from Carol and Henry's house ahead. She weaved about on a street thick with ponies; mornings were always full of activity, with neighbors coming to check on one another and often share the breakfast meal, but there were far more ponies in town than she had ever seen.
The homes lining the street were clearly "second generation," designed after the cultural exchange started with Equestria. Where the first generation were crude, boxlike structures, these were small but quaint thatched roof domiciles with shaped windows which mimicked designs seen in small Equestrian towns, especially places like Ponyville.
Heather had just turned down the path leading to Carol and Henry's house when the door glowed with unicorn magic and burst open, revealing a very harried Carol, her magenta mane in disarray and her dusky red coat ruffled. "Heather, thank God!" Carol cried in a distressed voice. "It's Lee. He's surging again!"
Just as Heather crossed the threshold, she heard a loud thump followed by a young foal's giggle. "It's all right," said Heather in a gentle voice. "We'll get this sorted out. Is Henry here?"
"He's helping the weather team get things in shape for the council meeting," said Carol as she fell into step alongside Heather. She smiled. "Oh, and it's Thunderburst now."
Heather chuckled. "Settled on a new name finally, has he?"
"Yes, and I still have to decide on one for myself." Carol rolled her eyes. "Can you believe that Thunder once suggested I call myself Balanced Accounts? I can't tell sometimes when he's kidding or not."
Heather smiled as she glanced at Carol's cutie mark -- a quill poised above a page arranged in neat columns of numbers. "I daresay it reflects your talent both before and after the change, but it's really up to you."
"I want something that flows a bit better and sounds less, I don't know, utilitarian." Carol's eyes flicked to Heather's haunches. "And what about--?"
"Here we are," Heather said a bit more loudly than intended as they reached the room, anything to forestall the question she dreaded hearing yet again. She stopped just inside the threshold and cast her blue-eyed gaze upon the tiny unicorn foal, his horn just barely poking up from a mess of wavy dark red-brown mane, his fur a pale yellow. The rest of the room was in disarray, pillows and blankets having been tossed to the floor in haphazard piles, toys thrown to far corners of the room.
As Heather watched, a flash of light erupted from Lee's stubby horn, and the side of Heather's face was smacked by a pillow.
"Lee!" Carol cried as the foal clopped his fore-hooves in delight. "That wasn't nice."
Heather simply smiled and advanced on Lee. "It's okay, he doesn't really know what he's doing." She sat on her haunches and scooped up the foal in her forelegs. At once, she felt the errant magic flowing into herself, where it would be changed into something more innocuous. As soon as little Lee realized that his magic was no longer having an effect, he bawled his distress.
As always during moments like this, memories flickered in the back of Heather's mind. She had started down the pediatrician track before turning to general nursing instead. Those memories were sometimes hard for her to conjure, as they required her to see herself as human. So many of her fellow ponies had thrown such memories to the wind, but she fought to hold on to them despite having made her decision to remain a pony.
"Shh," Heather whispered into Lee's ear. "Look at me, Lee. Look at Auntie Heather!"
As Heather siphoned off more of the errant magic, her crystal coat brightened, the glow spreading to the rest of her body until she was like that day when the counterspell had hit her, an embodiment of living crystal.
Lee stopped crying, his eyes widening. Finally he gave a delighted squeal as his gaze darted over Heather's glowing body. He played with a few locks of Heather's sparkling mane.
Carol uttered a relieved sigh. "I don't know what I would do without you, Heather."
Heather would have blushed had her form allowed it. "Really, I'm not the only crystal pony who can do this."
"Yes, but you've always been good to us and our family. All I really miss is having Doctor Conner around."
Heather's smile became wistful. "Me, too," she said in a soft voice. Those memories, at least, were not at all hard to recall.
"Wasn't he part of some cultural exchange with Equestria?" Carol asked.
"Yes, he went over there with some other physicians to learn pony medicine."
"Have you heard from him lately?"
"I received a letter from him last month," Heather replied as Lee snuggled against her fur. "He's doing well. He said his biggest problem is that in his attempts to learn Equish, he realizes just how bad his singing voice is."
Carol laughed as she trotted past Heather and started to put the room back in order. "Spoken Equish sounds beautiful, but I'm not sure I'd ever pick it up without a spell, and, well ... you know how stingy the powers-that-be are about that."
Heather heard the faint tone of resentment in Carol's voice. She had a feeling a lot of that was going to come out in the council meeting. It was likely one of the things which caused a council to come together in the first place. Up until then, ponies had tried not to appear as if they wanted to form their own government separate from that of the United States, but that was getting them nowhere.
Lee yawned, and his eyelids drooped. Draining a magic surge was always tiring on the foal, and it was a nice trick to get them to nap. Equestrian pediatricians had taught her that the cycles of surging and sleeping were a normal and healthy part of a foal's development.
Heather realized how much she loved doing this the first time she had tried it, and she had immediately gained her cutie mark, that of a pacifier superimposed on a lightning bolt.
Despite her attempts to hold on to her human roots, Heather could sympathize with ponies like Carol. Many crystal ponies had worked alongside Equestrian mages to help drain the remaining pool of transformation magic, and many continued to work closely with human authorities afterward. For what exact purpose was largely unknown, but speculation was rampant and not at all optimistic.
The glow from Carol's horn subsided as she finished making the bed. By this time, Lee had drifted off to sleep, and Carol carefully lifted him from Heather's forelegs. "Thank you again," Carol said in a soft voice as she gently lay the foal in bed and covered him with the blanket.
Heather stood and smiled. "I was happy to help."
She was also happy not to have to mess with insurance forms and the like. If any sort of "payment" were to be had from this, it would be Carol putting her unicorn abilities to some use that Heather needed. This system of favor-exchange seemed to work, but even Equestrian advisors had suggested adopting a hard currency. Some ponies were, but only fairly recently and slowly.
"Will you be attending the council meeting?" Carol asked as they headed out of the room.
"If I don't get anymore surge emergencies this morning, yes," said Heather.
"I have to watch Lee, but Thunderburst will be going. He, uh, may have some choice words for them if things don't go anywhere."
Heather could guess what those words would be. Of all the pony tribes, the pegasi felt the most constrained. Over the summer, they hated sitting on the sidelines when tornadoes ripped across the Midwest. Even within the pony homestead lands, they were restricted in using their abilities on a larger scale. Not that it stopped many of them lately.
"He's been trying to defer to Sunny in these matters," Carol continued. "But with all due respect to her, she's not being forceful enough. She's trying to accommodate too many interests at once."
Heather still remembered the day when a human named Laura Tanner -- now going by the name Sunrise Storm -- came to Kevin's office with orange hair. None of them had any idea what a fantastic and seismic shift lay ahead. Despite being only seventeen, she still commanded a great deal of respect from among ponies in general and pegasi in particular.
"She's doing the best she can," said Heather. "She's taken on a lot of responsibility for somepony so young."
"We don't deny that, and we really look up to her," Carol said. "But it's been six months now, and not enough has been done. The humans just keep pushing rehumanization as the fix for everything when it's not."
"They gave us the Pony Homestead Act so we can continue to live on these lands."
"Limited Pony Homestead Act," said Carol with a frown. "The limitation is even in the name of the legislation itself."
Heather realized it was a losing battle to continue the debate. Carol had a point; while Congress had stated that the only real limitation was not granting ponies ownership of the resources of the land beyond what was needed for food, water, and shelter, it also limited what magic could be used.
Yet she could see where the humans were coming from. They suddenly had a large chunk of America carved out and given to a bunch of aliens. The fact that many of these "aliens" were once human seemed to matter less as time went on and the economy continued to founder.
Heather needed to retain that human perspective, thus she was loathe to adopt a pony name despite the popularity of the practice. Fortunately, ponies being who they were, nopony judged her for it, but Heather still felt awkward discussing it.
"I have to go," Heather said. "I'll see you later."
"Of course," said Carol as she escorted her friend to the door. "Sorry for spouting off like that."
"I have a feeling a lot of ponies are looking for that same opportunity."
"And I for one hope they get it," said Carol in a firm voice.
Molly hovered with her hooves barely inches above the leaf-strewn ground, but she might as well have been soaring through the heavens with as proud as she felt under the supportive gaze of her friends. Her wings were a blur, humming faintly, yet they held her steady. Dappled sunlight played off her pale pink fur and light orange hair.
"I even had Mom time me the other day," Molly said in a bright if slightly breathy voice. "I was able to hover a whole five minutes!"
A unicorn filly with creamy orange fur and pale yellow mane and tail smiled and clopped her fore-hooves together briefly. "That's amazing, Molly! I wish I could use my horn that well." She closed her green eyes and concentrated, and weak sparks flew from her horn. "That's all I can do."
"You're a year behind me, Gina." Molly giggled. "Or should I call you Marmalade now? Or just Marma? Or what does your Mom and Dad call you now?"
Gina rolled her eyes. "It was my grandmother who suggested calling me Marmalade. Said my colors reminded her of her days on her parent's dairy farm." She settled back on her haunches and curled her tail around them. "I'm not sure how I like it yet."
"Sounds fine to me," said an earth pony colt with red-brown fur and black mane. "My parents are kinda leaving it up to me. I don't have any idea what name to take." He glanced at Molly. "You better not strain yourself too much."
Gina waved a fore-hoof at him. "Aw, you worry too much, Juan."
"But she's breathing kinda hard now, like when I was trying to move that big boulder the other day."
Molly was indeed panting, but she didn't want to admit that the effort was taxing on her. She had been assured by Equestrian physicians that she was progressing normally for her age, and that she didn't need to push herself. It could take another few months before she had built up enough endurance and pegasus magic to truly fly.
She settled back on her hooves and folded her slightly achy wings against her sides. She raised her muzzle in the air and said in a lofty voice, "Only stopping so Juan won't be such a fussy-pot over me."
Juan blushed faintly. "Just didn't want you to hurt yourself is all."
Gina turned to him. "Sooo ... your parents suggest any names for you?"
"Well, yeah, but they're all in Spanish."
"At least you have someone in your family who's trying," Molly said in a glum voice. "I can't get Mom to talk about it, and Dad ..." Molly averted her eyes. "Well ..."
Gina frowned. "Is he still trying to get you to be human again?"
Molly's eyes glistened. "All I want is for him to be proud of me," she said in a slightly shaky voice. "He always was before. I tried to show him how I can almost fly and it just made him upset."
Gina's pupils shrank slightly. "You don't think he's gonna force you, do you?"
"He can't," Juan said. "They said you can't be made to do it if you don't want it."
"Yeah, well, humans can say whatever they want, it doesn't make it true."
"I thought it was the Equestrian ponies saying that. Pretty sure."
Gina waved a hoof. "Whatever. The point is, we can't let anypony take Molly's wings away."
Molly sighed and glanced at her blank haunches. "If only I could get a cutie mark like Mom has!"
"She's an earth pony," Gina saw fit to point out.
"Well, I didn't mean one exactly like hers." Molly smiled. "Maybe a cool one like Sunny's."
"Sunny? You mean Sunrise Storm?"
"Yeah. She got it when she did that really cool thing with the clouds when it was raining too much, and there was going to be this landslide, and--"
Gina giggled. "Molly, you are such a fanfilly."
"I am not," Molly protested, though she was still smiling. She had to admit that she did look up to the first pegasus she had ever seen fly. She still remembered how disappointed she had been that she couldn't do the same thing.
After she could hover, Molly would practice in the back yard. She had been beside herself with joy the day Sunny happened to see her practicing and flew down to congratulate her. Molly had come within a hair's breadth of asking for Sunny's autograph.
"The point is, if I had a cutie mark, then I wouldn't have to worry about this rehumanization stuff anymore," Molly declared.
"Yeah, but they said that you can't control that sorta thing," Gina said. "You just have to wait until it happens. Even my Dad still doesn't have his yet."
Juan hesitated before saying in a tentative voice, "Um, maybe there's a way to do it sooner."
Gina glanced at him. "And how would you know?"
Juan scraped a fore-hoof on the ground. "It was something I heard, but I don't think she was supposed to tell me. She kinda seemed upset she had let it out."
"Who are you talking about?" Molly asked, perplexed. "Who did you talk to?"
"I think her name was Applejack."
Gina gasped and whirled around. "What?! You talked to one of the Element Bearers??"
Molly's mouth fell open. "He did??"
"How did you manage that?" Gina demanded.
"My whole family are earth ponies," said Juan. "We were sent to a training session about using our magic. Applejack was the instructor."
"Ohmigod, ohmigod, you met one of the Element Bearers!" Gina shrieked.
"Are they really as powerful as they say?" Molly asked.
"Did you see any of the others there?"
"Did you see Rainbow Dash? I've heard so much about her!"
"Oooo, did they use Rainbow Power? I'd give anything to see that!"
"What about--?"
"One at a time!" Juan cried, his ears flattened against his head.
Gina giggled. "Sorry. But, wow, you've been holding out on us big time."
Juan smiled as his ears relaxed and rose. "Applejack just seemed really down to earth. Never acted like she was anything more than just another pony."
"Just another pony?" Gina said. "Ha! Right."
Molly's wings quivered at the thought meeting a famous pony from Equestria. Ever since the cultural exchange had started, many ponies of Earth were eager to learn about their brethren in the other universe. Many of those in Pony Hope had become Harmonists, who wanted ponies to live much like those in Equestria did. To them, the Element Bearers were looked up to as both mentors and heroes, guides to how ponies ought to live.
Molly could scarcely recall the initial trauma of her transformation. Her outlook had completely changed, first when she had sprouted wings she had been sure would work, and again months later when they actually did. She had almost cried when her father still argued with her about becoming human again.
"What is it Applejack said?" Molly asked in an insistent voice. "Was it something to do with cutie marks?"
"Sorta," said Juan. "She talked about her younger sister and her friends. They call themselves the Cutie Mark Crusaders."
Molly gave him a puzzled look. "The what?"
"At first they were trying to get cutie marks for themselves, but now they try to help other ponies get theirs."
"That's it!" Gina cried. "That's how we can get Molly her cutie mark. We have to contact them!"
"Oh, come on, get real," said Juan. "They're in another universe. How are we supposed to do that?"
"Same as how we're getting taught about magic and other pony stuff. They can come here."
"The humans are not going to allow that. The last thing they want is for us to get cutie marks and then we can't rehumanize."
Gina stomped her fore-hooves, which crunched against the fallen leaves. "Then why did you even mention it?"
"I dunno, I thought maybe we could just do what they did. Make our own group," said Juan.
"And how did they do it?" Gina asked.
"Applejack said they kept trying all sorts of things they might be good at, but she sorta laughed about it and said they were a bit crazy."
"What's so crazy about wanting to get a cutie mark that way?" Molly asked.
"I think it was more what they did to get it that was crazy," said Juan.
Molly's heart leapt at the idea that they could somehow speed up the process of her getting her cutie mark and end the debate once and for all. Then her father would be forced to accept her as she was.
Gina, however, tended to be the de-facto leader of their group, and the unicorn filly looked deep in thought, tapping a fore-hoof against the side of her head as if in silent debate. "Hmmm. I dunno. That sounds like an awful lot of work. Where the heck would we even begin?"
"Maybe we should wait until after the council meeting," said Juan. "They're supposed to be talking about getting the humans to let us live more like they want to."
Gina nodded. "Yeah, let's wait before we go through a whole lot of crazy effort for nothing."
Sunrise Storm -- Sunny to her friends and once known as Laura Tanner -- hovered high over the settlement of Pony Hope and surveyed the work she and her cohorts had done. The mountain peaks were dusted with snow from the clouds that had drifted in overnight, but the air over the town itself remained comfortably warm. Wisps of moisture roiled here and there at the boundary between the disparate temperatures, and wind tossed the trees near timberline.
A purple pegasus with a tri-colored red and pink mane flew up to her. "It's getting harder to hold off the first frost, Sunny," said Rainy Skies, Sunny's closest friend who once went by the name Emma. "There's less warm air in the jet stream to harness. We have to go far enough south to draw it up that we're hitting up against the border of the homestead lands. Thunderburst is still grumbling about the run-in with that helicopter patrol."
Sunny decided not to dwell on yet another confrontation with humans; she was going to hear enough about that at the council meeting. She was happy not to have to preside over it, despite how much other ponies often looked to her for guidance. Instead, that honor fell to the Pony Hope mayor, a unicorn mare by the name of Golden Sunshine, or just Goldy to most. Sunny had been happy to work closely with her for the preparations, but was more than happy to let Goldy have the limelight.
"We need to hold it off until the weekend," said Sunny. "The earth ponies should have the last harvest in by then."
They already had enough to get Pony Hope through the winter, but Sunny had been insistent that they have enough extra to send to any human communities who needed it. This would be the first winter for the northern hemisphere in the post-ETS world, and supplies of food and fuel were still critically short in some areas of the country. Most pegasi in the United States had the distinct feeling that the coming winter was going to be a harsh one.
Rainy smiled. "I've heard that most of the foals are eager to see the first snow of the season. Maybe we should give them a treat and conjure up some after that harvest. I've never done snow before, so I'm eager to try it."
Sunny just smiled in return and had no further comment. She hated having to shoot down ideas from her cohorts, as excited as they were to expand their range of abilities. While she was fairly confident that most pegasi under her auspices were skilled enough to pull it off, the last thing she needed was for a blizzard to be blamed on pegasus abilities.
Rainy tilted her head and hovered closer to her friend. "You okay?"
"Huh? Oh, yes, sorry." Sunny's smile faded. "I guess I'm a little worried."
"About what?"
"About how this council meeting is going to go."
"But this is a chance to get what you want," said Rainy. "You want ponies to have more freedom to, well, be ponies."
"I also want humans to stop being afraid of us," Sunny declared. "I'm not sure this is going to help. How will this appear to them? Will they think we're trying to break away and form our own nation? That's what Bob had pointed out, too."
Rainy raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, but he's the same pony who's been trying to devise the spells that humans won't let unicorns learn from Equestria. So exactly who's side is he on?"
"That's just it, I don't want there to be 'sides'. We can't lose sight of the fact that every last one of us used to be human."
"It's not going to be like that forever," said Rainy. "The foals who will be born come spring, for instance. They won't know anything about being human. It's not going to matter to them."
Sunny bit her lip. What she had failed to do as a human was think about the future, and becoming a pony had not magically imbued her with that ability. She still struggled to see past the immediate future, her long term vision fuzzy at best. She wondered if perhaps she still had taken on too much responsibility.
She glanced down. "If the weather team is done, we should get to the meeting, I'm sure they're waiting for us."
"Weather Wing One!" Rainy's voice called out. "Form up for descent!"
Sunny turned around as the other pegasi zipped over and dropped easily into formation behind Rainy. Sunny managed a small smile. Rainy was turning out to be a good wing-leader. Sunny had been afraid that some of the other pegasi would accuse her of favoritism for picking Rainy over the others, but everypony had accepted the decision. Even Henry -- no, Thunderburst, Sunny reminded herself -- had accepted it, even though he would make a great wing-leader himself.
Sunny let Rainy take the lead and followed them down. As the ground loomed, Sunny marveled at how much the settlement had grown with the influx of ponies from Breckenridge and other points south. The original site had since become a sprawling town square. A large pedestal had been built at its center, and there were plans to erect a statue to commemorate the founding of the town.
Many had suggested that it be a statue of Sunny. She had quickly defused that idea and instead offered that perhaps it should be one of Twilight Sparkle as a way of thanking her for what she's been trying to do for the ponies of Earth. Ponies were eager at first to take her up on that idea until the months crept by with no obvious improvement to their situation.
While the town square was always bustling with activity, it was now a sea of rainbow hues as pony representatives from nearly every community in the homestead lands crowded among one another. Those lands covered a swathe of territory stretching over much of Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah; parts of Montana, Idaho, and Oregon; and some scattered communities across Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. It was the largest concentration of ponies in North America, and more pony immigrants were arriving every day.
While Pony Hope was something of a nexus for travelers, Sunny had never seen this many ponies from out of town.
Rainy and the weather wing landed first. Sunny landed in time to see Rainy turn to her contingent and say, "Dismissed!" The wing broke up but did not go far, as they were all eager to see and hear what would transpire.
Sunny trotted over to a unicorn mare with a deep amber coat and red mane streaked with orange. "Sorry for the delay, Mayor Sunshine," said Sunny.
Golden Sunshine smiled and nodded. "No worries, I'd just as soon you made sure we have nice weather for this."
Sunny smiled and glanced up. It couldn't have been any nicer. Save for some wisps of clouds that streamed in off the mountain peaks, the sky was a crystal clear blue, more so than it had ever been when humans were the majority in this part of the country. Lack of cars and vigorous pegasus activity had scrubbed much of the haze of pollution from the skies. The sun's warmth offset the morning chill, and the wind was calm.
She dropped her gaze to the other ponies. They were arranged in a circle around the center of the town square, a mix of all the tribes. Even a few night ponies were there, though some struggled to stay awake, and many wore sunglasses against the glare of the sun. Sunlight sparkled off the coats of three crystal ponies, one of whom she recognized as Heather. The other two had to be from out of town, as Heather was the only crystal pony who was a permanent resident of Pony Hope.
Sunny's eyes lingered on a contingent gathered around a massive earth pony stallion with a gray-green coat and brown mane. She shuddered slightly as she saw they all wore pendants shaped like Sunset Shimmer's cutie mark.
The Mayor stepped forward, and Sunny glanced at the mare's cutie mark, that of a sun rising behind a stylized capitol building. Touted as the first pony politician, she had been very easily selected as Pony Hope's first mayor, and so far most residents were pleased with her style of town management.
"Thank you everypony who agreed to come," Goldy announced. "I would like to open this first meeting of the United Pony Council by stating what I hope we will achieve."
Sunny's eyebrows rose. Already she had heard something that was a potential game-changer. United Pony Council? Had they already dropped all pretenses of considering themselves Americans?
She was not the only one. Low murmuring had broken out among the other ponies as Goldy's horn glowed and she drew a small scroll from her mane. The large earth pony stallion and his cohorts looked pleased.
Goldy unrolled the scroll. "In this gathering, we show that we are committed to the betterment of our lives, to the safety of our loved ones, and to the prosperity of our future. The time has come to lend our voices to our cause, and it is my fervent hope that they will become one voice, a show of solidarity that will give the needed strength to our community. If we are to see to our needs, it is not enough to have the will, we also must have the power behind it, the power of pony cooperation, pony identity, and pony magic."
She lowered the scroll to a thunderous stomping of hooves.
Sunny joined in, though not nearly as enthusiastically. So this was indeed it, the point where ponies would unite under a common banner; it was just a question of what that banner would be.
When the applause abated, Goldy continued. "In the petitions I have received, I have found three common lines of thinking. I've decided to give voice to a representative of each in the interests of fairness, so that we may hear all sides before we open this to general comment and debate. I give the floor to Fire Springs."
The silence was broken only by the clopping hooves of an earth pony stallion with bright orange fur and dark red mane and tail, steam rising from a stream of water as his cutie mark. He wore a tunic with a symbol upon it of a silver crescent moon set against a splotch of black upon midnight blue.
Rainy leaned over to Sunny and whispered, "Wow, they brought in the big guns, didn't they?"
"What do you mean?" Sunny asked.
Rainy gestured with a wing. "Look at what he's wearing. He's a member of the High Luna Council."
Sunny had known that the pony was a Lunite, but she had no idea they had such a thing as a "High Luna Council." When Princess Luna had helped alter the message the night ponies were sending and began training them in proper dreamwalking, some had become so enamored of Luna that they spread a vision of her similar to how Sunset had used a Celestia stand-in. This led to the rise of a movement which saw Luna as a spiritual leader. She was not worshiped per se, more seen as a sort of divine prophet or avatar.
"My fellow ponies!" Fire Springs called out. "It is very fitting that we have gathered in Pony Hope, the first of the pony settlements after our transformation. Yet perhaps you do not quite understand the true significance of this place."
Fire turned slowly in place so he could be seen as addressing all the ponies around him. His gaze lingered on the Shimmerists for a moment as he said, "It was this settlement, this first gathering of free ponies, that was directly assisted by humans. It was humans who helped us set up our first homes, humans who watched over us and fretted about our health and well-being, humans who tacitly acknowledged that we were a new species deserving of our own home."
"And what has that gotten us now?" a loud, deep voice rang out as the gray-green stallion stepped forward. "What have they done for us since then?"
"Strong Hooves!" Goldy called out in an admonishing voice. "Please do not speak out of turn. You will have your chance to lend your voice to this discussion."
Now Sunny realized why the stallion seemed familiar; he was the one her father had described upon his return from his father's farm. Strong Hooves frowned but subsided and stepped back.
Sunny felt fur brush against her left wing and sensed a familiar scent before her nose. She knew who was standing next to her before she saw the green unicorn colt with lighter sea-green mane.
"Sorry I'm late," Bob murmured.
A second familiar pony joined him, a pegasus filly with darker green fur and cornsilk yellow hair. "But we did manage to hear Fire Springs opening bit," said Tina.
Sunny smiled and glanced at her adoptive brother's haunches. Still blank, despite how Bob had thrown himself into spell-making. He maintained he was still on the fence about remaining a pony, yet in a few months the decision would no longer be his to make, as he would be beyond the window of time when it would remain possible.
As for his fillyfriend Tina, she was doing what she always did as a human: going with the flow and seeing where it took her. Her haunches were unmarked as well.
"I agree that we face challenges now," Fire continued. "I do not deny that we have grievances which must be aired. We would not be coming together like this if we did not. But nothing is going to be gained by pretending that humans do not exist. We cannot lose sight of the fact that we were once them. We cannot live in our own isolated world. We share this world, and we share a mutual need to thrive. We have to find a way to do this together, humans and ponies alike!"
"He's really playing it by the book," Bob whispered. "That's straight out of Lunite dogma."
"In other parts of the country, this has already happened or is happening," Fire continued. "There are communities in other parts of the country and all over the world that have managed to reach an accommodation, a peace, even a working relationship between ponies and humans."
"I wonder if he's referring to Carbondale," Bob murmured. "A Catholic priest pony there has been working towards what Fire described."
"It's not the only place," Sunny whispered with a small smile. "A few places in the southern states as well."
"Not until after a lot of crap went down with the night ponies," Tina said.
"What I am not saying is that we lose our identity as ponies," said Fire. "I have no desire to return to being human, and I don't imagine a lot of you do, either."
This earned some begrudging nods from the Shimmerists. Sunny glanced at them and shivered slightly. "I'm wondering how dogmatic the Shimmerists will be."
"From what Dad said of the ones he met on his father's farm, I expect this to get heated," said Bob.
"What I am saying is that we need them and they need us," Fire declared. "We each can do things that the other cannot. Witness how ponies and humans are getting along so well in the town of Palisade!"
"Oo, that was a direct shot across the Shimmerists' bow," Tina whispered. "They're close to that Shimmerist stronghold in Grand Junction."
Sunny glanced at Strong Hooves. Despite the stoic look on his face, his ears were drawn back slightly.
"Ponies have helped humans get that town's industry back on it's feet," Fire continued. "And hooves! The peach crops and wineries that are the lifeblood of that town are back in full operation and have even extended their growing season into the fall thanks to pony help. Yet it would not have been possible without human drive, human resources, and the human willingness to work alongside us."
"We helped with that," Rainy whispered proudly.
"So did my Dad," said Sunny.
"I just didn't know so many humans had moved back into that town."
"My point is, there's mutual benefit in working together," Fire said. "Granted, things are far from optimal at the moment, but we cannot simply wait for things to get better, or rely on our Equestrian benefactors to swoop in and save us. We have to make the first move. We have to go to the humans with open hooves and hearts and show that they have nothing to fear from us. We must become one people, with one purpose: to ensure the safety of both our species and our world into the far future."
His words were met with another stomping of hooves, and Bob said, "I wonder if any of them got the subtle hint in the last part of Fire Springs' statement?"
"You mean the Devourers?" Sunny replied.
Tina snorted. "I doubt it. Nopony ever talks about it despite it being public knowledge."
When those ancient magic-eating beings revealed by Star Singer's vision had first been announced, it had caused something of a renewed panic among humans, at least until scientists had reassured them that any such threat was likely many light years and several centuries -- if not millennia -- away. Many were still skeptical of the claims, stating that they had yet to discover solid evidence that these beings existed. Bob had speculated that it would take finding an exoplanet with evidence of a destroyed civilization to lend credence to the Equestrians' claims.
"Both humans and ponies are at a crossroads," said Fire. "The big problem is this: we, for the most part, can understand humans. But we ponies are a mystery to them. We're an unknown, and humans fear the unknown. As long as we continue to look inward, we will continue to be an unknown, continue to be feared, and continue to endure strife. Our way forward is clear. We must strive to work and live alongside humans for the betterment of us both. Thank you."
Another round of hoof-stomping applause greeted his conclusion.
"That was a good speech," Bob said. "It makes a lot of sense."
Tina smirked. "You sound a little like a Lunite yourself."
"I'd probably be one if I didn't think Princess Luna was simply a powerful pony and not some divine avatar."
When the applause died down, Goldy called out, "Strong Hooves, you now have the floor."
Sunny tensed, her wings fluttering for a moment as Strong Hooves strode forward. She could see why he was the Shimmerists' spokespony. He had a very commanding presence; even his cutie mark -- a cracked boulder -- demanded respect.
"Fellow ponies," Strong began. "I wish you to indulge me for a moment in a demonstration." He pointed a fore-hoof. "Look to the north."
Many pony heads turned in that direction.
"What do you see?" Strong said. "Or perhaps I should say, what do you not see? Or to the east or west for that matter?"
Ponies exchanged inquisitive looks among themselves and with Strong Hooves.
Strong pointed south. "Now look that way, and maybe it will become more clear. Or, in a way, unclear."
"I think I get it," whispered Bob.
"Explain it to me, then," Sunny said.
Strong Hooves answered for her. "I'll tell you what you didn't see to the north, east, and west that you see to the south. Smog!"
A murmur rose from the ponies along with nodding of heads.
"And why do you see smog to the south?" Strong asked. "Because of the recently reopened I-70. We now have humans traversing our lands spewing their noxious chemicals into the air, air our pegasi had reclaimed from the polluted mess it once was."
"That's hardly fair," whispered Sunny.
"He's got a point, though," replied Rainy. "We did clean up a lot of crud they left behind."
"As much as I respect Fire Springs for his desire to see peace between humans and ponies, I maintain that he is failing to see one very important point," said Strong. "He is failing to see how much better off we have become as ponies! Allow me to further illustrate this point by telling you about my grandfather. To his dying days, he told the story about how he and his pals once beat up a 'nigger'. He told it like we tell tales around the campfire, as if it were something to amuse us. Even in this so-called enlightened modern world of humans, he was proud of what he had done!"
Many ponies' ears flattened, and several wore faces of disgust.
"We would never dream of doing that to our fellow ponies, nor hurl tribal slurs upon them," Strong declared. "As much as I disagree with Fire Springs, I cannot conceive of harming a single hair of his mane. If he came to me starving, I would give him food. If he were stranded out in the snow, I would give him shelter. If he were battered and bleeding, I would carry him myself to a healer. And this is coming from a pony who, as a human, used to believe as my grandfather did."
In the silence that followed, Bob whispered, "And there's the pause for dramatic effect. He really knows how to work a crowd."
"This transformation has profoundly changed me for the better," Strong continued. "It has changed all of us for the better! When I awoke from that vision bestowed upon us by Sunset Shimmer, I openly wept, for I realized we as a species had been saved from the self-destructiveness that pervaded our entire society. We have a chance to do it right, to live with nature instead of in destructive mastery over it, in cooperation instead of competition. How can we do that if we must rely on being in the good graces of humans, the very ones whose evils we have sought to escape?"
"That is not a fair point!" Fire Springs declared. "They do not have magic. That forces them to find other means to survive."
"Then let them continue to use those means!" Strong snapped. "At least as long as it takes for them to come to their senses and realize that they would be better off as ponies. We must remain true to who and what we are when that day finally comes to pass. If we were to go hat-in-hoof to them as you propose, at best we risk diluting what makes our society work, and at worst take on the more destructive aspects of human culture that we have managed to cast off. I will remind you that there are many crystal ponies who now continue to work alongside humans. There is every chance that they have already been corrupted. Do you wish that to spread to the rest of us?"
"And he completely ignores the fact that the night ponies as a whole tend to be more aggressive," Sunny muttered.
"For a reason," Rainy said. "They help protect us at night."
"But at the expense of hurting humans! I know it was mostly a few incidents in the deep south, but--"
"We have absolutely no proof that crystal ponies in the employ of humans are working against other ponies," Fire Springs said in a flat voice.
Strong Hooves paused before turning away from Fire Springs. "Perhaps not. But we do have proof of humans continuing to work against us. Morning Glow, if you would?"
A unicorn mare from the Shimmerists' contingent trotted forward, and Sunny's ears drooped when she beheld what was in the pony's magic grip. The unicorn dumped the wreckage of a US military drone surveillance craft into the center of the square to the aroused murmurings of the other ponies.
"This was found patrolling outside of Pony Hope this morning," Strong announced.
"Wait, what?!" Sunny blurted before she could catch herself, causing many ponies' gaze to swing towards her.
Strong stepped up to the wreckage. "They already knew we were having a meeting here and intended to spy on it. They would have had we not intercepted and destroyed it."
Sunny clenched her teeth and snapped out her wings. She flew over to Strong Hooves and landed with a clop before him. "I had given all my patrol wings strict orders not to damage any of these drones. They were only to shepherd them away and outside our settlement. You should have reported this to me rather than deciding for yourself what to do with it!"
Testament to the great respect Sunny commanded, an awkward silence fell, and even Strong Hooves looked intimidated, despite having at least twice Sunny's bulk. "You were busy with the weather detail, and I felt I had to deal with the matter rather than waiting for you to be freed up," said Strong.
"Still, you could have just forced it to leave rather than--"
"With all due respect to you both," said Goldy in a gentle voice. "I think we should take this up separately."
Sunny sighed. "I'm sorry, Mayor Sunshine."
"And I am also sorry for having failed to consult you, Miss Storm," said Strong Hooves in a contrite voice.
Sunny gave him only a partially mollified look before winging her way back to her friends.
"Sorry you had to deal with that," said Rainy.
"Yeah, so am I," Sunny said in a glum voice as she folded her wings against her sides.
"But he did have a point. I mean, did we really want to risk humans finding out what we were doing here? Bob, don't you agree?"
Bob considered. "Yes, but now we've pretty much told humans that we have something that was worth hiding from them."
Fire Springs trotted up to the wreckage. "Just what point are you trying to make?"
"My point is that we would be better off asserting our rights to live independently from the humans," said Strong.
"And just how can we do that? By your own words, you accuse humans of being warmongers. What would stop them from moving against us if they think we're seizing land they believe they still have rights to?"
"All we need is the additional magic," Strong explained. "If our unicorns could acquire the right spells, we could defend ourselves easily. Some of our own kind have been attempting to do just that."
"With only limited success, I might add!"
Sunny felt Bob stir beside her. When she glanced at him, he had focused his attention on the debate, as if specifically avoiding Sunny's gaze.
"We know there are ponies among the Equestrians opposed to the restrictions placed upon us," said Strong. "If we assert ourselves, that would give them more leverage to come to our aid."
"Which threatens to destroy what the humans have already done for us!" Fire cried.
"And we come back to my original point: what have they really done for us? The Limited Pony Homestead Act? Note the emphasis they place on the word 'Limited'."
"Only in that we do not have access to the resources upon some of those lands, resources that in most cases we have no practical use for."
"Because it's an excuse to run us off our lands to get at those resources!" Strong Hooves thundered. "We may consider ourselves a herd, but we will not be herded!"
"Please!" a new voice called out. "Please, let me speak!"
Sunny's pupils shrank slightly. "I know that voice."
"Yeah, so do I," Tina murmured.
Both Strong and Fire turned their attention towards an approaching unicorn mare with pale red fur and bright yellow mane streaked with white. Upon her haunches was a sun with long rays rising at the end of a road heading off into the distance. "Both of you are getting nowhere with your debate. I should be allowed to speak."
"Oh, wow," Sunny said. "That's the mare I heard speaking at Preacher's Corner."
"The one where the fight broke out?" Bob asked.
"Yeah, that's definitely her," said Tina. "I recognize her colors."
"Strong Hooves, will you yield the floor to Bright Future?" asked Goldy. "Or do you have more to say?"
"Only this," said Strong as he turned towards the crowd. "We should keep in mind that many humans still consider us 'brainwashed'. This implies that if they apply enough pressure, we will 'come around' and give up everything that we've built. We won't. We can't. Not if we want to remain free, happy, and prosperous. Thank you."
A hoof-stomping nearly as thunderous as that which had greeted Fire Springs' conclusion roared over the square as he stepped back over to his contingent.
"Bright Future, you have the floor," said Goldy.
Tina leaned towards Sunny. "Gotta admit, she picked a great pony name for herself."
"My fellow ponies," began Bright. "You have heard two approaches to our current situation. Each one represents a road that swings hard to one direction or another. One road leads to an eventual complete integration with humans. While it may bring peace, it risks us losing who are. The other road leads to complete independence and isolation. This has its advantages, such as preserving everything we hold dear, but it risks alienating ourselves from those with whom we must share this planet. Let me offer you a middle road."
By this time, she already had the rapt attention of the gathered ponies. Sunny herself hoped to hear something less extreme, something she could stand behind.
"Strong Hooves mentioned that there are ponies in Equestria sympathetic to our cause," said Bright. "Let's talk about Equestria for a moment. We are so focused on that nation of our brethren that we fail to realize it is not all that lies on the other side of that portal. Equestria may be our primary contact, but it is not the only nation in that world, nor are ponies the only creatures who live there."
"She's got a point," Bob whispered.
"All sorts of other creatures inhabit that world," said Bright with a smile. "Griffons and Dragons. Yaks and Caribou. Zebras and Minotaurs. All of these creatures are intelligent, most have their own nations and governments, just like humans do here. Now, ask yourselves, those of you who have taken the time to learn of those lands beyond the portal: do the ponies of Equestria live in isolation, or do they reach out to those other people?"
A low murmur rose as ponies exchanged looks and comments, and some began to nod their heads.
"Of course they reach out to those other creatures!" Bright declared. "Equestria is firmly built upon the five Great Pillars of Harmony: Honesty, Loyalty, Generosity, Kindness, and Laughter."
"Oh, yeah, definitely a Harmonist," whispered Tina.
"From what Sunny said of her speech in the park, I doubt she would be anything else," Bob commented.
Bright continued. "But more importantly, they realize that the Great Pillars are not just for ponies, that they matter for all beings, regardless of whether they have hooves, claws, fur, feathers, or scales. There is a magical artifact which exists in Equestria, a device specifically designed to call to the Element Bearers and direct them to places all over their world where they are needed to bring the Great Pillars to others."
Sunny exchanged confused looks with her friends. "Any of you know what she's talking about?"
"No," said Rainy in a bemused but curious voice.
"Not a clue," said Tina.
"There's been a lot of restrictions placed on advanced magical knowledge," said Bob.
"This artifact does not recognize borders," Bright said. "It has sent the Bearers into lands outside Equestria. It has sent them to show others who are not ponies how ponies live and how they thrive. Neither this artifact nor the Bearers themselves care that these people are not ponies, so why should we?"
"Could she be making this up?" asked Sunny.
"She seems awfully sure of herself," said Rainy.
"Strong Hooves was right on one very important matter," Bright continued. "We are indeed better off as ponies, but is that strictly because of our transformation, or was it the message that came along with it? Why can we not deliver that same message to the humans? Why can we not show them how we live, how we honor and embody the Great Pillars? Who is to say that humans cannot one day live by them, too, regardless of whether they remain humans or become ponies? Why should it matter what species they are? If it doesn't matter to Equestria -- if it doesn't matter to the likes of the Element Bearers or Princess Twilight -- then why should it matter to us?"
The hoof-stomping applause which greeted her words shook the ground in deafening retort. Even Sunny joined in, finding this message the most optimistic of all. Rainy joined in with a vigor that eased Sunny's mind; she had worried that her friend might find the words of the Shimmerists more appealing, especially with as much as Rainy had been complaining about humans lately and bringing up her brother's death more.
Bright smiled through the applause, waiting for it to subside before her voice rose again, this time with a note of triumph. "My fellow ponies, is not the path clear? We cannot isolate ourselves, but nor can we give up what we have gained. We can seek only to spread our good fortune to the humans. I propose we remain united in our stand to maintain our homes and our families where we have already settled, but that we also send an envoy to the humans to show them exactly how we live and what we embody."
"If I may ask," Strong Hooves' voice rose. "How does this even remotely address the restrictions that the humans have placed upon our proper use of magic?"
Bright turned towards him. "If we go to the humans with nothing but demands, they will refuse us. But if we go with the intent to show them how we intend to live -- how we intend to use that magic we want -- then that will ease their minds. Then when we have that magic, and we continue to live up to the Great Pillars, they will see the advantages of living by them as well."
"But what of helping them?" Fire Springs asked. "How does your proposal accomplish this?"
"We don't help them, they help themselves," Bright replied. "By following our lead. We cannot solve their problems. Throwing our magic at them will not fix things, especially when they distrust it. When the Element Bearers are sent by the artifact I mentioned, they do not shower other people with pony magic in hopes of fixing things, they instead show those people how the Great Pillars work. They help other people help themselves. We should do the same."
Bob leaned over to Sunny. "I'm still wondering if she made up that story about an artifact, or if she's privy to information we don't have."
"But how could she do that?" asked Sunny. "With as tightly controlled as access is to the portal and everything that comes through it?"
"It can't control what Equestrian ponies do or say once they are through the portal."
"Strong Hooves did say there were ponies in Equestria more sympathetic to us," Rainy murmured. "Franky, we could use that right now."
"We seem to be at odds with one another," said Strong Hooves.
"Thank you, Mr. Obvious," Tina muttered.
"How do we resolve this?" Strong continued. "As Mayor Sunshine mentioned in her opening words, we need one voice. We need a single leader, one pony to speak for us all."
"Hang on!" said Fire Springs as he stepped forward. "Why do we need that?"
"Because it will give us the unity that we need," Strong said.
"And it is what we see in Equestria itself," said Bright. "They are ruled by a Princess."
"Ahem," said Fire. "Two, actually."
"Yes, true," said Bright. "Though at any given time, only one generally gives her counsel."
"Unfortunately, we do not have the luxury of an alicorn ruling over us."
"We could," Strong muttered.
Fire frowned. "Don't go there, please."
"Why not?! If the humans had not murdered Sunset Shimmer--!"
Goldy stepped between them. "Enough. I agree, this is not the time or the place for this discussion. Strong Hooves, I am aware of how you and your fellow Shimmerists feel, but bringing it up now is only going to cloud the issue at hoof."
"I have to admit, I like Mayor Sunshine," Tina commented. "She knows how to cut through the bullshit."
Rainy's ears twitched. "Well ... I think some ponies have a right to be upset that Sunset was killed."
"Yeah, I get that, but it's not relevant to what we're trying to do." Tina glanced at Sunny. "No offense, Sunny, I know you were close to her."
Sunny shook her head, though her eyes glistened. "No, you're right, we need to move on. I have."
Yet even as she spoke, she was aware of the furtive glances at her by the Shimmerists. She had been approached by them on several occasions in the mistaken belief that because she had been close to Sunset, she harbored the same sentiments as the Shimmerists.
She sometimes wondered if she should have told them about the nightmares she had while she was still sorting out her feelings about Sunset in the wake of her death. They had distressed her almost to the point of depression until the night ponies had learned enough about dreamwalking to help her.
"My apologies," said Strong in a sincere voice. "Bright does has a point. We need a leader, one to speak for all of us."
Bright considered, then turned towards Goldy. "Mayor Sunshine, you were the first pony leader, and those in many other communities have emulated you. Would you be willing to take on this role?"
Goldy hesitated. "I must admit, this is quite unexpected. We have not yet come to a consensus."
"I would trust you to make the right decision among all our proposals. I'm sure a lot of other ponies would as well."
In response, a brief spate of hoof-stomping assent rippled through the crowd.
"Well-played," Bob whispered. "Harmonists have had a lot of influence here."
"I've worked with Mayor Sunshine a lot," replied Sunny. "I trust her to make the right decision."
Goldy glanced at the other contenders. "Strong Hooves, Fire Springs, do you also believe as Bright Future does?"
"Somepony must make a decision," said Strong. "We cannot be at odds forever."
"And I will also concede Bright's point about a single leader," said Fire. "It does make sense."
"If we still considered ourselves American citizens, I daresay there should be a vote," said Goldy.
"My contention is we are not!" Strong declared. "We are not required to dither with ballot boxes or politicizing. The point of being ponies is to get away from all that."
"And they don't do it that way in Equestria," said Bright.
"Yet we don't really know how Princess Celestia came to power," said Fire. "There's been very little information forthcoming about alicorns in general."
"All the more reason to take such matters into our own hooves," said Strong. "Of course, now that you brought her up, there is still the idea of petitioning Princess Celestia to rule over us as a protectorate."
"Absolutely not," Fire declared. "That would only fuel the unfounded fears by humans that Equestria is seeking to take over Earth. Even we of the High Luna Council do not advocate petitioning Princess Luna to rule over us."
"I agree," said Bright. "We need our own leader, even if she is a princess-apparent."
"I will agree to take on the role of a spokespony for the United Pony Council," said Goldy. "But I will not take on any greater title than that, even with 'apparent' in the name. I won't accept the trappings of royalty, even in name alone."
"Yeah, I like her," said Tina.
"And I am inclined to accept Bright Future's proposal," Goldy continued. "If only because it is a compromise, and that is what ponies are about. But I am willing to entertain objections. Strong Hooves?"
Strong considered. "While I do not hold out hope that humans will follow these Pillars as easily as we do, it at least preserves our identity as free ponies. No objections."
"Fire Springs?"
"I could wish for more active involvement with humans, and I doubt the High Luna Council will want to stop efforts in that area," said Fire. "But I have no objections."
Goldy turned towards the crowd. "Are there any objections from the council itself?"
While a brief murmuring rippled through the crowd, nopony spoke up.
Goldy nodded. "Then I formally accept the title of First Pony of the United Pony Council."
A long hoof-stomping applause accompanied by a raucous cheer met her announcement.
Tina leaned closer to Sunny. "If I were the cynical type, I'd make a comment about 'thunderous applause' here."
"You are the cynical type," said Sunny with a small smirk.
"Hey, then it works out. Seriously, though, we did just choose a leader by popular acclaim rather than voting."
"The only way we could've done better is if they had chosen Sunny," said Rainy.
"Still, in a way, it makes sense," said Bob.
Sunny was grateful for having Bob's comment to reply to rather than having to demur to Rainy. "Really? I thought you were the one who was hanging on to the idea that we're still Americans."
"I've been doing a lot of thinking about that," said Bob. "Since I've been coming up on when I'm finally going to have to make some sort of decision regarding the future."
Tina grinned and wrapped a wing around him. "That's his long-winded way of saying he has to decide whether to stay a pony or not."
Bob blushed slightly but leaned against Tina. "I've come to realize that ponies are indeed a people apart. The whole brainwashing argument at this point is moot. Our thoughts and feelings are what they are and nothing short of more magic will change that. What the humans may still call 'brainwashing' is what we now call our culture."
"I thought you were adamant about holding on to your human heritage," said Sunny.
"I still am. I just think maybe I can still do that as a pony."
"There's more to it than that, isn't there?" Tina said.
Bob looked uncertain and said in a lower voice, "I don't want to talk about that right now." He glanced at the Shimmerist contingent. "Not here."
Sunny was curious as to what was going on, as that was the second time he saw Bob look uncomfortable. As close as they had become in the wake of their transformation, she didn't want to push it. Of all of them, Bob had best retained some of his human persona, thus he tended to be more private. While most ponies would offer up their feelings at the drop of a hat, Bob took more coaxing.
As lost in thought as she was, she failed to notice Goldy approaching until she spoke. "Sunny? Do you have a moment?"
Sunny whirled around. "Oh, yes, of course, Mayor Sunshine." She smiled. "Or should I say, First Pony Sunshine. Congratulations."
Goldy smiled. "Thank you. It was unexpected, and I will admit it is contingent on one thing."
"What's that?"
"That I have your assistance."
Sunny's pupils shrank. "My assistance? In what way?"
"I can't do this alone," said Goldy in an urgent voice. "I need another pony to help me, and of all those I can think of, you are the most respected."
Sunny blushed. "I-I'm flattered, but--"
Rainy poked her in the side with a hoof. "Come on, you have to do this!"
"But I'm still helping train the weather wings."
"I can do that! I'm already helping you with it because so many more pegasi have been showing up lately."
"I'm confident Rainy can handle that task in your stead," said Goldy. "And with luck, we'll get the humans to agree to send more instructors from Equestria and alleviate some of the burden on both of you."
Sunny felt in a bit of a quandary. Assisting Goldy directly might be seen as placing her squarely in line with the Harmonists. Yet this would let her do exactly what she wanted: find a way to bring humans and ponies together.
Goldy was right; Rainy was almost as skilled as her mentor. She was already a wing-leader. She could easily take over many of Sunny's responsibilities.
As she dithered, Bright Future approached them. "Hello! Sunny and Tina, I'm told you were there when that unfortunate fight broke out at the park before we all better understood what was going on. I want to apologize if anypony got hurt in that altercation. It was never my intent to inflame people, only to help them cope."
Tina waved a hoof. "It's fine. Not your fault, really."
Bright turned to Sunny. "I want to echo our First Pony's sentiments. I think you would make a great addition to her administration."
"But what would I be doing?" asked Sunny.
"Helping me reach out to other ponies," said Goldy. "Having them support my decisions. And you can give me some of your own insights as well, since you have family who are still human or rehumanized."
Sunny was not at all sure how useful she would be. Yet she had a great deal of respect for Goldy and wanted to see her be successful. "All right, I'll try."
Goldy smiled and pulled her into a hug. "Thank you, I really appreciate this."
"If I may ask a question?" Bob said. "Of Bright Future, that is."
Bright turned to him. "Of course."
"That anecdote you told about the magical artifact which called the Element Bearers to solve problems," said Bob. "I don't ever recall hearing about that."
"Ah, well, I know it's not quite part of the approved information," said Bright. "But some ponies from Equestria are known to drop additional tidbits here and there if you ask the right questions."
"That seemed to be an awfully large 'tidbit' though."
"I suppose it is as Strong Hooves said. There are those more sympathetic to our cause in Equestria and want to show us how we can be more like them."
"Maybe I should make this clear," said Sunny. "I don't want to see us becoming a carbon-copy of Equestria. I don't even think we can."
"That echoes my sentiments as well," said Goldy. "We have to do what's best for us. Equestria can certainly be an inspiration, but we can't follow that model blindly."
"Yes, I agree," said Bright. "I do feel that the Great Pillars of Harmony are universal, but it's up to us as to how to realize it. After all, it's not like we're going to have an immortal alicorn princess to guide us anytime soon."
"Or at all," Bob added.
"Yes," said Bright in a more subdued voice. "Or at all."