I saw Franklin up there on the stage. What kind of machinations was he up to now? My hope was that he was going to level with us and be honest with what’s happening. I thought back to the conversation I witnessed between Akai and Franklin and I realized that there was still a lot I didn’t know, like “Project Alicorn”. If I could get my hooves on that, I think a lot of these nagging questions would be answered.
Franklin approached the podium and carefully tapped the head of the microphone, causing that light tap to be echoed through the speakers. He then leaned into the microphone. “Are we all set? There’s sound coming through?” His sentence was amplified by the speakers and upon hearing his magnified voice, he gave a nod and a slight grin.
“Alright good. Hello there, everyone.” Franklin greeted us. “Some of you already know who I am, but for those of you who don’t know, my name is Franklin Merchant.” He paused and took a brief look at the audience before continuing. “I have no doubt that you all have a bunch of questions as well as concerns regarding the current situation.”
Yes, we all have concerns about these transformations. And in other news, water is wet, the sky is blue, and there was definitely only one Matrix movie.
“I want you all to go forth with the knowledge that my staff and I are working tirelessly on this matter. We’re going to make sure you are informed about what is happening.” There were a couple of people in the audience who raised their hoofs, but Franklin held up his own hand in response. “I know you all have many questions and there will be a Q&A session but please save those questions until the end of the speech please.”
“How do we know you’re not lying about this stuff?! We’re turning into ponies!” A dissenting person in the crowd cried. This person’s outburst got a few grunts of agreement and approval from his peers.
Franklin turned to the person and without missing a beat responded to the upset heckler. “Sir, I understand your frustration. You feel like you’ve been kept in the dark and not told what’s going on. From what I’ve seen, this transformation has been difficult for all of you. I understand the anger. I understand the resentment. I will even fully admit that the limited exposure to this information has been deliberate in order to not incite panic.”
Franklin gave the crowd a serious look. “However, I want you all to know this; We are NOT keeping this data hidden for malicious purposes. The reason we have held this information so close to the chest is because we wanted to ensure what we were telling you was entirely accurate. We did not want to ensite panic by giving out information when we didn’t know all the facts. We are not in the business to give in to baseless speculation or planting the seed for potential rumors that could be harmful or cause confusion.”
Franklin adjusted his tie and continued. “My company and our staff began this project as a way to help combat the biological and medical threats that we now face in this new decade. We knew that we needed to bring our best to help combat what we’re facing not just in this country but all across the whole world.” Franklin continued in his monologue.
I tapped my hoof on the floor. Franklin was still talking and talking about his company and their objectives. I yawned and adjusted myself in my seat. I gave a heavy sigh and started to look over at the crowd of pony people assembled in the room. I had only given the crowd a quick scan before Franklin had showed up so I decided to give the audience a more detailed examination.
I started to look at the crowd more closely but unfortunately the area we were seated at had a fair number of blind spots thanks to some support pillars blocking my view. I craned my neck around those pillars to get a look at the remainder of the crowd. Eventually, I was able to get a good look at all the people in the audience.
There seemed to be a very even mix of Pegasi, Unicorns, and “Regular” ponies in the crowd. I wasn’t doing any sort of math but those three groups combined seemed to make up about 90% of the entire crowd as a whole. As for the remaining 10% there was already the aforementioned Gryphon and the white Pegacorn I had spotted earlier. There were also a couple more gryphons besides the one I saw earlier as well. However, there were a couple of people in particular that had caught my eye.
Firstly, I managed to find another Pegacorn sitting pretty much at the opposite end of the hall. They were very pink like Meghan but the pink was a much lighter color. As for their hair, it had yellow, purple, and pink in it. The wings however were what stood out to me the most. Pretty much every other patient I had encountered that had wings were just one solid color matching whatever the “coat” color was. This person defied that convention by having wings that were pink at the base and purple at the ends.
The other character I noticed was...well, I wasn’t exactly sure what this person was becoming. They still had equine-like anatomy like the rest of the crowd with some hooves and a very colorful palette. However, I noticed that this pony didn’t have normal looking feather wings. They instead had wings that wouldn’t look out of place on an insect. This person’s torso seemed less like a biological body and more like a suit of armor, looking like they had some kind of chitinous exoskeleton instead of a coat of hair.
I wanted to take a more detailed look at some of the other individuals I had picked out of the crowd but Franklin’s speech had gotten everyone’s attention for some reason. Aw crap, did I miss out on something big? I turned back to look at the front stage. Franklin was still up there giving his speech, but the topic of conversation had shifted.
“...we understand that you’re all eager to have things go back to normal and be able to go home. That’s ultimately the goal we’re aiming for here. However, in order to ensure our success, we need you to stay here for a bit longer than expected.” Loud murmurs spread throughout the crowd. “I know, I know.” Franklin bellowed. “It’s not ideal. But rest assured, we are working around the clock and we’ll be helping you all out every step of the way.” Franklin then moved back toward the rear wall near where a large TV was hung up. He turned it on and started pressing buttons on a remote control.
“I would now like to turn it over to a pre-recorded message left by the Governor. She has some things she’d like to talk about.” Franklin said as he fiddled with the remote control a bit more. A few moments later, a video appeared on the screen and began playing.
“Hello there,” the video began. “I am Governor Serah Taggart. By now, Mr. Merchant has briefly talked to you about the difficulties that have unfortunately occurred. My administration believes your safety is important and that producing a vaccine is a priority. That is why I have authorized extra funds for this project and I am authorizing more manpower to this cause. I will be mobilizing the State’s National Guard to assemble and deliver supplies.”
The Governor adjusted her stance as she continued. “When I was told about what had occurred in regards to this vaccine and the effects it had on some of the patients, I will admit, I was very skeptical and thought it was a tall tale. However, after seeing what happened with my own eyes, I realized that this was no fable and that many of you are in desperate need right now. These unusual times call for unusually large and decisive measures.”
“There is an additional reason I have decided to deploy the National Guard.” Serah stated, giving a slight frown. “Given the skeptical reaction I initially had concerning the results of this venture, it is not unreasonable to assume that the general public might have a similar reaction to seeing fellow citizens who currently look very different. My administration wants to create an environment where cooler heads prevail, but unfortunately we may also need to prepare for a scenario where people are not accepting. Rest assured, the National Guard will help you and protect you. You have my word on this. Thank you all for your time and god bless.” The recording concluded and Franklin turned off the TV.
I was a bit conflicted about the revelation that the Guard would be brought in. On the one hand, it might make this place feel even more like a prison. Having guns in the hallways would definitely make me feel a bit uneasy as well. On the other hand, I still have a fear in the back of my mind that people will judge and persecute me for looking the way I do. Having someone who is there for the explicit purpose of protecting me and others like me would help put my mind at ease for sure.
“So,” Franklin bellowed out as he returned to the podium microphone. “I think I can now begin to answer questions.” Immediately, a good chunk of the crowd raised hooves in the air. Franklin scanned the room before pointing at a person. “I’ll take your question.”
“Can you tell us what exactly this vaccine is made from?” The person inquired “It can’t be normal if it’s causing this to happen to us.”
Franklin gave a solemn nod. “I expected that question would come up and yes you do deserve to know. It’s a bit complicated, so I’ll have to simplify some things here. Our project was fortunate enough to uncover a compound with unbelievable regenerative properties. After studying it for many months, we determined it could be used for medical purposes and so we decided to run some tests. We had already performed animal testing and encountered no problems so we decided to shift to doing trials with humans. Incidentally, the primary subject we used for the animal testing trials,” Franklin paused, a slight bit of trepidation in his voice. ”...was a regular horse.”
That revelation caused a wave of conversations to ripple through the crowd. It made sense that you would do animal trials first before testing things on humans. The animal testing on horses is a bit of a startling fact. They use horses for animal testing and now suddenly a good chunck of patients are now turning into weird small ponies? There has to be some kind of connection but for the life of me, I had no idea what that connection was.
Franklin nodded and stretched his arm out. “Any other questions?” He asked.
More hooves shot up, though not nearly as many as last time. After a few seconds, Franklin picked on the Pink Pegacorn I had spotted earlier. “Uhm,” they mumbled a bit. “I was wondering if we might be able to talk with our families again at some point. I...really miss them and I want them to know that I’m okay.”
Franklin smiled and nodded. “Yes, of course. It can feel a bit lonely being here and one can feel a bit isolated. We’re setting up a computer terminal in each block so that you all can send e-mails to your friends and family. We only ask that you refrain from talking about the specific details regarding these trials and to not send pictures, but otherwise, have at it.”
I hadn’t thought about my family in so long. They already knew that I would be gone for a few weeks for this trial, but I’m sure they would love to hear from me. It’s been far too long. I wouldn’t be able to show them what has happened to me, but maybe that’s a blessing. I don’t know if I really want other people to see me like this right now.
“Any other questions?” Franklin asked. More hooves went up and he picked another person in the crowd.
“I’ll just get straight to the point,” the unicorn stated. “Will we be able to return to normal?”
Franklin fell silent for a few seconds. He took a deep breath in and out before answering. “We know that somewhere along in the process, something caused this transformation to occur within this group here. If we can diagnose what exactly caused this outcome to happen, we can reverse engineer it. I’m confident that we can solve this puzzle.”
I narrowed my eyes a bit at his answer. I didn’t hear an explicit “yes” in there and that had me a bit worried. Sure, Franklin didn’t outright say “no” either, but it made me think that maybe they were worried that they wouldn’t be able to return us to normal. I shook my head, trying to get those thoughts out of my mind. It didn’t help me constantly thinking in the negative but my mind seemed to naturally wander there.
The questions went on for another fifteen minutes. Most of the questions after those three had ended up being either redundant information that me and my friends already knew or a minor question about something that wasn’t all that important. After a while, Franklin took a look at his watch and looked back at us. “Well, I’m afraid that’s all the time I have for right now. If anyone else has any questions regarding the current situation, you can use the computer terminals to e-mail my office and I will try and get back to you in a timely manner. Thank you all for your time, and have a good day.” Franklin waved as he moved away from the podium and walked off stage.
The crowd soon started to disperse. I turned to my group of friends. “Well, that was certainly a lot to take in, wasn’t it?”
Darnel put his hooves behind his head. “I’m not entirely sure how I feel about all this. Sure, he answered a lot of burning questions, but now it feels like things have only just begun for us.”
Juan twiddled his hooves and sunk down into his seat. “I’m kinda scared about the fact that the guard is coming in.”
Seeing the fear in his eyes, Meghan quickly placed a hoof on Juan’s shoulder. “Ah, don’t worry! The guard is full of trained people who know what they’re doing. Take this from a gal who’s been in the navy. And if they do try to hurt anypony,” Meghan took one of her hooves and waved it past her face. Her expression went from a bubbly smile to what I can only describe as a “chiseled stoic action hero face” and then said, “They’ll have to deal with me.” She finished, her voice seemlessing going down a whole octave.
Will tapped his hooves together. “You know, I kinda wanna be able to get out there and just fly around for a bit, I’ve been cramped inside for far too long and I’d love to see if these bad boys actually work.” Will stretched his wings a bit.
“Well,” I begin. “They’re a bit small on you right now Will, but maybe in a few days you’ll be able to fly.” I looked over and turned over to James who was looking at the ground with a pouty lip. “James? Is there something on your mind?”
James simply looked over at me. “Yes there is Penn. I’m sure you noticed that there were two other patients that looked like us with both wings and a horn, yes? I think we should try and talk with them at some point.”
I nodded. “I agree. I’m hoping they may have some insight or at least some ability to help us out.”
“Indeed.” James responded. “I will go and contact them via the dream world tonight and have them meet up with us. But for now, I believe we have done all we can do for today. Shall we retire to the Magic Meeting Room?” James finished with a smile.
Nathan pulled out his sewing kit. “Oh my. At this rate, I’m going to need to make a lot more adjustments to everypony’s outfits. There are so many in our group now, it’s almost unruly.”
It was true. The Magic Meeting Room was pretty big but we were starting to run out of chairs in there. Soon we’d have to start renting out a space like the one we were in right now. With that discussion behind us, we all started to make our way over to our usual meeting place. I started to follow but I was stopped by Alex tapping me on the shoulder.
“Hey Penn, got a minute?” Alex asked, looking over my shoulder at my friends leaving.
“Uh, yeah sure, what’s up?” I asked, curious. He looked around briefly to make sure that no one else was in earshot before looking back at me.
“I figured out something interesting but I’m afraid I might freak everyone else out if I showed it off to them without warning.” He explained. He pulled out a crumpled up piece of paper from his pocket. At first, I thought he was going to show me something that was written on it, but my hypothesis proved to be incorrect. He focused intently on the paper ball in his hand and a few seconds later it was surrounded by a bright red aura and it started to float out of his hand.
I gasped in surprise. I had used this same ability before...though I ended up fainting a very short time afterwards from the shock. It was probably good that Alex had prefaced this demonstration first, otherwise I might have had a repeat episode.
“I learned how to use telekinesis with my horn. I read in some of the library books that Unicorns had a myriad of different magical abilities and I was curious if any of us had the same kind of magic. I surmise that pretty much every unicorn here should be able to use telekinesis as it seems to crop up in most of the different mythology books I studied. Man, isn’t this exciting!?” Alex exclaimed.
I was taken back by his reaction. I had been struggling with the thoughts and the fears about the unknown situation facing us and I was worried about losing my sense of self and becoming something different. But Alex wasn’t worried about it at all. In fact, he seemed to be enjoying these changes and seemed to invite them on.
“How can you say that?” I retaliate. “We are losing our humanity and yet you seem to be reveling in all of this!”
Alex leaned back with wide eyes. “Woah whoa, what’s this all about? I thought you were interested in finding out about all the different changes.”
“I wanted to know about them because knowing about your problem is the first step to fixing things! I liked having thumbs! I don’t want to be stuck using hooves for the rest of my life!” I yelled back.
Alex huffed. “Well, maybe not all of us liked being the people we were. Maybe we finally felt special and not completely useless and wanted to share in all these cool, new, and magical things we were learning.”
“This is not cool!” I cry out, gritting my teeth. “This is terrifying! Stop talking about this transformation like it’s some gift!”
“Well, it feels like a gift to me and I-”
“ENOUGH! PLEASE!” An unknown voice bellows out from off to our side. Immediately after I hear that phase, the tension in my body fades and the aggressive stance I had taken faltered. Alex’s expression seemed to change completely. The anger and rage were gone, replaced with a sense of calm, but also one of confusion.
The two of us turned around to find the source of the voice. Standing a few feet away was the Pink Pegacorn I had seen earlier. I have no idea what she did, but her voice and overall demeanor had put my mind at ease. I no longer felt any ill will toward Alex for his stances. I didn’t agree with it but something compelled me not to fight with him. Had this person done something to remove all my anger and frustration?
“Excuse me, who are you?” I ask the stranger standing before us.
“My name is Tyler but that name is feeling less and less fitting by the day. If you want, you can call me Cadence. I feel like that name fits me better nowadays. There’s some things I’d like to talk to you about, if you have the time.”