//------------------------------// // 1-5 // Story: Heroes Never Die // by Shimmerist Ari //------------------------------// Ari got a day off from work. But not for a fun reason like snow. No, today was a ‘riot day’. It couldn’t possibly be a coincidence that the biggest protest yet broke out one day after the first of the month. A lot of people just had their apartments bought out by Blackrock, their rents increased drastically, and their houses put under threat. At some point, somebody threw a Molotov cocktail at a bank and then it was declared a riot and everyone was ordered to stay at home for the next twenty-four hours. So no work tomorrow. The military struggled late into the night, and was still struggling, to get things under control. Being home that whole time, Ari had no idea how much things had escalated. Ari hadn’t heard any gunshots, but she did hear what was likely an explosion and what was certainly a car crash. She stayed up until 5 AM looking through her dark window, occasionally seeing a group of people run by or an armored vehicle pass. Part of her wanted to go out there and join the rioters. But it seemed pointless. She’d tried the whole protest thing back in 2020. Nothing was accomplished despite how massive and important it felt at the time. In the end, it didn’t matter how much you protested or rioted. You could burn down half the town, even. The people in charge would just smile down at you and things would carry on. Besides, half of them were likely just stealing stuff at this point. Hopefully just TVs. The epicenter looked to be far off, but still close enough to keep her awake all night. The sun would be up soon and with it the illusion of safety. Until then, Ari just kept rocking back and forth, cringing at every siren and sound coming from outside. The upside was that she’d get to talk to ponies all day long… when they woke up that was. They had very regular sleep schedules. For the most part, if the sun was down, the ponies were sleeping. Worse, most of her pony friends lived on the west coast. Not only would Ari have to wait for the sun to come up, but she’d have to wait three hours after that because of time zones. Talking to them was her one source of comfort in this crazy hellscape, but when she needed them most they were all adorably cuddling together hundreds of miles away. And they did do that. Increased desire to cuddle was one of the symptoms of ETS that Purple and the government ‘saved’ her from. Bastards. Her closest interpersonal connections were thousands of miles away, off having magic dreams, leaving Ari just as alone as before ETS. Once again, her community was reduced to the television, her twitter feed, and her silent laptop. But she could at least watch her friends online! Spring Breeze had started posting videos again. Ari watched a video of her playing Beat Saber, some virtual reality game, while flying. Spring Breeze kept telling Ari how great VR gaming was for people like them. It was at the forefront of accessibility options. Of all things, VR got a ‘pony mode’ before anything else, a mode Spring assured Ari would be great for her. And there were games in VR where you could be a pony, too… Sadly, a VR headset didn’t exactly fit into her budget of negative 800 dollars a month. So Ari would have to wait on that for now. Someone was outside! Just… just somebody walking down the streets slowly… but… Ari watched breathlessly through the small gap in her curtains. Two of them. Not in any hurry. Talking loudly. Getting closer. One of them said something like ‘not again’. Then they were out of sight. Ari let out a sigh. Here she was complaining about isolation. Then somebody actually shows up and Ari gets scared out of her mind. It really wasn’t as easy as Purple wanted you to believe, was it? She went back to the internet. She found a video of one pony community reenacting Summer Nights. This place was on fire while the ponies were performing musicals in the streets. The contrast couldn’t be greater right now. “I was so close. Fucking Purple…” Ari swayed back and forth, listening to the bittersweet music of ponies doing these. Outside, somebody came staggering into view. They slumped up against a telephone pole, clutching their face. Maybe they got maced or hit by something. They sat there for 15 minutes before a car came by and picked them up. It was getting close to sunrise at least… it was almost as if their singing summoned the sun. But Ari still had a while before anypony came online. She wouldn’t be able to sleep until then. It was that feeling of 5 AM, scrolling through dank pony memes on Twitter, your eyes glazed over but your body not the least bit tired. She saw one where it was one man pointing to a second man who stood in a doorway, the latter being labeled ‘rehumanizer’. The first was saying “You think he’s gone? He’s never gone!” Ponies really seemed to hate those guys… Ari knew they came after partials too and wasn’t looking forward to that inevitable confrontation. The next was an incredibly smug-looking pony with the caption ‘when the file name is SS.IMG’ “I don’t get that one.” Ari yawned. The ponies still illuded her it seemed. One more. She’d been saying that for hours, but… ‘Leftists when you dead name a transperson’ And you had the typical blue-haired feminist screaming and ranting about how being trans was valid and not a delusion. ‘Leftists when you dead name a pony’ Now she was saying “I won’t entertain your mentally-ill delusions, brainwashed chuds.” “That one’s true…” Ari saw that all the time. Spring Breeze was online! A>Friendo! SBFriendo! SBI’m fine. There was just another riot keeping me up all night. SBYeah, well the rent is due. I’m not the only one getting price-gouged by the landlords right now. SBOn the one hand, I wanna support all the protests. But on the other, I just don’t feel like they’ll do anything. The people in power don’t care about that sort of thing, do they? It still felt like there was just nothing she could do about it… A>I wish there was some way to make a serious change. But no one wants us to have that option. Of course. There had been. And Ari had just barely missed the bus. Purple snatched it away from her with the same smug grin that the bankers and politicians would give those protesters, assured Ari that it wouldn’t make a difference and she should ‘just be happy with the way things were’ instead. Only it did make a difference. No amount of whining changed the world, but ETS had. It seriously had done what all the protests of the last fear years could only dream of. It had opened a door and Purple, a spoiled rich princess, had been so eager to close it to ensure other spoiled, rich assholes couldn’t have their positions challenged. A big wonder why. But Ari couldn’t come out and say the way she felt. Her feelings had just been festering in silence this whole time. Maybe it was just the particular bubble Ari found herself in, but it seemed like all the other humans despised the idea of turning into ponies. At least, the ones they let on TV did. The idea of allowing more transformation was frequently brought up and torn down as unethical by all mainstream sources, right and left. More radical Youtubers were willing to have a more nuanced position and say some of the things Ari thought but that was her only salvation. No one in real life had anything nice to say about transformation magic. Or magic at all, really. But then, Ari was here and wanted to be a pony and no one else would guess that was the case. There had to be more people like Ari around. They were just too scared to open their mouths. So there she was, trapped in this eternal struggle between fear of rejection and the need to be accepted. The fact that she couldn’t safely confide these feelings in anyone was slowly tearing her mind to pieces from the inside out. But maybe she could trust Spring Breeze… A>Can I tell you a secret? SBI really wanted to be a pony, too. SB<’Wanted’ to? As in you don’t now? A>No, no! I do it’s just Ari paused there before sending, not sure exactly how much she should let out. She started the message again. A>I still do. What I meant was I tried to become one but failed. I had to try hard to get myself infected. That’s how I became a partial so far out here. A>So I just barely missed it. Ari held her breath waiting for a response, worrying she may have just made a horrible mistake. SBNo, no. It wouldn’t have even helped my disability much. Not unless I was a unicorn. I just really wanted to be a pony. SBWell everyone is so scared of the mental change aspect of it… but that’s what I wanted the most. I want to be more open with my feelings. I want a herd instinct. I want to be surrounded by a community that all just works together. A>I’ve always wanted to live in a commune. It’s just… well everyone always says that sort of thing goes against human nature. Like, humans are all a bunch of greedy, horrible goblin monsters! And I kind of believed them so I was all… okay, I won’t be human then. Bizarrely, even the people who were all ‘oh no, you totally don’t want to be a pony. Trust me, bro.’ brought out that line as often as possible. They kept mentioning greed as if that was humanity’s one and only strength. That was one ‘power’ Ari had no interest in, personally. A>I know she’s a hero or whatever, but I hate that Purple bitch so much! She just laughs at us with her ‘oh! Just change your life! Just clap your hands and make everything okay! You don’t need help! You don’t need magic! You don’t need any serious changes to your life!’ A>Like, how am I supposed to do that?! I can’t even afford to live anymore! I don’t know if I’ll be living indoors come this winter. Since 2020, I’ve been too depressed to do anything but get out of bed and go to work. I’m already at my limit! And she’s up in her castle telling people she’s never met this and can’t possibly help them?! A>How dare a fucking princess with infinite power say something like that to me?! Even now, I feel like my life would have been so much better off. SBYou just don’t understand the attitude people like me face! Even the people who would normally be sympathetic to me, like people who are super in favor of trans rights and all that, are just like ‘Oh! Humans can be happy too, you know! Therefore, just get over your stupid feelings!’ And again, those are the people on my side! The ones who don’t wanna hang people like me. SBI don’t really see any. But then, I guess if I’m scared of speaking out then all the rest of them are too. Spring Breeze shared one encouraging poll claiming it to be 10%. But the halo effect was a thing, meaning it had to be higher than that. 10% of humans were brave enough to admit they wanted to be ponies on that poll. Ari knew she would have hesitated. So it was likely higher. Then on the other, other hand, that number was nationwide and varied wildly. In some places where humans were a small minority as much as 70% of them were like Ari. In New York, it was something closer to 1%. A>It’s not as easy in New York. It’s weird to think this used to be a progressive state too… I honestly wonder if New York is going to turn red in 2024. Really, no one had any idea which way states would go next year at this point. The entire political map was upended. SBThanks. SBSorry. I don’t know what CET is. SBAnd FT stands for forced transformation? SBWait. What? Forced transformation is legal?! That’s what you’re saying? SBNo way. They banned all transformation magic. The government hates transformation magic. Ari pulled up another tab to immediately start fact-checking Spring Breeze. This couldn’t possibly be true… SBBut you’re saying not even forced transformations are illegal? SBBut then someone can transform you into like… a toad and that’s okay? SBFor real? Why would they make the law that stupid? SBPS! Thanks for listening. Ari heard all this talk about reform before… Though to be fair not from a pony. Even then, Ari wasn’t going to let herself be hopeful about actual political change. She’d gone down that route before. Back in 2020, back in college, Ari still considered herself part of Antifa and joined the mass protests. At the time it felt like if the world would ever change it would have been right then and there. There was so much momentum. And yet… well those protests did nothing. Antifa did nothing. Maybe they moved the needle on the 2020 election… maybe… but certainly nothing more. And it wasn’t like the Democrats were much better than the Republicans. But then again, maybe forming a political party was different than just doing stupid protests and riots and stuff. Antifa wasn’t a legitimate political party like what the ponies were talking about. Canvassing in Georgia had done much to swing the 2020 election… maybe she could try another way. Spring Breeze breathed a tiny amount of hope back into Ari. And one thing Ari had that she didn’t in 2020 was a platform… not nearly as big as Spring Breeze’s but way more than nothing. She decided she’d make a post about this! Maybe spread some awareness. A>Friendos! I don’t normally post political comments, but I want to come out in support of CET and against FT. People should have the right to choose to become ponies and the government shouldn’t be allowed to push its preferences on anyone. A>PS! Support the right to choose! Ari held her breath, constantly refreshing the page for a good fifteen minutes before the first reply came in. What are you all talking about?! I’m not a Shimmerist. I’m not even Christian. I’m basically an atheist. Spring Breeze. Are you a Shimmerist? SB