Sometimes a story just grabs me and won't let go. Actually, that's how anything I make ever gets made. Graphic novel, text novel, computer game, board game, sculpture or toy, it all comes down to a notion demanding I make it real whether I want to or not. So it is, apparently, with the Red Kryptonite universe.

All writing is a form of therapy. All creativity is a form of therapy. If the world was truly decent, if life were genuinely worthwhile, there would be little reason to invent worlds that could never be. There would be too much to see and do that would be far too much fun and far too satisfying to experience and participate in. Writing stories is the work of a soul desperate to reach an itch they can never, ever hope to scratch.

Welcome To The Survivors Of Humanification Support Group For The Greater Portland Area

A Red Kryptonite Story
By Chatoyance

"I've been missing my muzzle a lot lately." The thirty-ish looking woman felt her flat human face with her middle fingers. She ran her fingers over her wide nose and thick lips as if they were still strange to her, even after thirty years of possessing them. She had been only a filly when she had endured humanification. Usually the youngest ponies adapted the most easily and completely.

"Go on." Lyndsey, the Group Therapist, tried to get more out of the plump, dark-skinned woman. Jenna - 'Jenna Taylia' was the name they had stuck her with, it was on her Transformed Human Identification and Naturalization Guarantee card - tended to be shy, and seldom said much.

"I don't know what else to say." Jenna lowered her arms and left them between her legs. It was something a lot of former Equestrians unconsciously did, as if they were still using their forelegs to help support their weight.

Lyndsey shifted in her seat, and moved her pad of paper to her other hand. "Tell us about what brought on this feeling of missing your muzzle. What inspired this feeling in you?"

Jenna dug her middle fingers into the padded seat, between her thighs. She pawed at the cushion with one finger, still, somewhere in her unconscious mind, digging at the ground with a hoof. "Cereal. Eating cereal."

Jenna glanced briefly up, turning her head to peek with one eye. "Dinner. I was having dinner. I had a big bowl of my favorite. I get Oats and Barley from the health food store." Jenna scraped her seat again with a fingertip. Getting Newmen to eat properly was sometimes a problem. Human bodies couldn't live off of grains alone. Many former ponies suffered from nutritional issues. Jenna clearly felt embarrassed to admit that her dinner was just cereal.

"It's okay, Jenna. Everyone knows it's hard, sometimes, to maintain a proper diet. We all have favorite foods." Lyndsey looked around at the group, getting several nods and a few quiet laughs. "What was it about eating your cereal that made you think about your old body?"

Jenna raised her head, daring to look with both eyes at the therapist. "It was so easy... and fun... to just stick your muzzle into a bowl, you know? Just dive right in and munch away!" Jenna's eyes began to look shiny, and then wet. "My m-mom, she'd just put a bowl down for me, and I would just lean over and... and it wouldn't get in my eyes, or in my mane, because my muzzle... it's not flat, not flat like what I have now and... and..."

Mary Crizmus leaned over and put her arms around Jenna. Mary always sat next to Jenna at meetings, they were friends. Jenna sobbed, softly, mumbling about how she missed her mother. Jenna's mother had died shortly after her humanification, of old age. Jenna had been foaled during the second quarter of her mother's Equestrian life. After humanification, Jenna's mother had transformed into a astonishingly elderly woman well beyond the very edge of human possibility. She had only lived a year.

What was perhaps more difficult was Jenna's age after transformation. At only twenty Equestrian years going in, she was the human equivalent of a eight-year old child. Humanified, Jenna had ended up in a fully adult body, treated as an adult by the naturalization system. She had endured a very rough time of it after the death of her mother. Now, thirty years later, Jenna would have still been, if barely, underage by Equestrian terms. She was still just a child, really.

It was difficult for every former Equestrian to come to terms with a lifespan vastly shorter than three hundred years. Some had openly wondered if escaping to earth had been worth the bother at all. But Celestia had wanted something of her universe to survive, and something of her ponies. And that was that.

Lyndsey the therapist looked around the room. "I feel certain everyone here can understand and identify with what you are feeling, Jenna." There were many nods as she looked around the group. "And while I may not have known such an experience myself, I can understand what it must mean to you, and how much it took to open up about it. So thank you, Jenna, for the gift of telling us about your feelings."

Long experience let Lyndsey know that there would not be anything more coming from Jenna. Tonight had been fairly exceptional - Jenna had offered something at all. It must have really been bothering her.

"Is there anyone else who has felt something like Jenna this week?" Lyndsey decided to run with Jenna's admission. It was a decent topic, and stories from the others would provide emotional support for Jenna. "Anyone else have any moments that reminded them of their old bodies?"

"I always miss my tail!" Mike Hockertz half raised his hand as he spoke. He lowered it when Lyndsey acknowledged him with a nod. "Even to this day, I still worry about getting my tail caught in a door, or hurting it sitting down in a chair!" That got a laugh from Old Hugh in the back. His last name was Jarse. The humans had enjoyed themselves far too much when they gave out earth names to the 250,000 Newmen that survived the destruction of Equestria. It must have been hilarious to them.

"My grandfilly... my granddaughter... she... she gets mad at me when I forget and try to groom her." Jack Goff had only recently joined the group. All anyone knew about him was that he had two grown children and at least one grandchild.

"You know..." Jack mimed nibbling with his teeth. Lyndsey didn't seem to understand. "Equestrians... we... we would use our mouths to groom each other's manes. It was normal. Very comforting. Very loving. It was just how we did it. Only that's 'weird' here. Apparently. Milly was very clear on that point." Jack looked like he just might tear up himself. "I don't want to be 'weird' to my own grandfilly!"

"I know what you mean." Hugh and Jack often went out together after meetings for a drink. Sometimes they would get drunk. Both were unusual in taking a liking to the human's alcohol. "I used to just lean over and groom Strawberry... Fanny... we'd be at a restaurant and I'd just do it, you know, like... like back home. Oh, the looks we'd get!" Hugh instantly looked deeply sad. "I miss... Fanny... I miss her. I really miss her." Hugh's wife had been significantly older than he. Humanified, she had ended up much, much older because of the scaling difference. They had only a decade together on earth.

A sixty-something woman with bright red eyes raised her fingers and waggled them. Ivanna Mandic had retained her Equestrian eye color by a rare fluke of the humanification process. Around eleven percent of Equestrians retained pony aspects, and for two years they had been quarantined in a fenced-off internment camp to make certain they presented no thaumatic threat to the general population. Some had rudimentary horns, a few ended up with tiny, deformed, featherless wings on their backs. Three had famously had hooves, more or less, instead of hands and feet. Their digits had remained stuck together when they had formed during the process, and left them severely disabled. And of course... the rest had unusual eye, skin, or hair color.

"I wanted to confess something." Ivanna's shoulders slumped, and one ear twitched slightly. A small percentage of humans are able to move or wiggle their ears like other animals to some degree, transformed Newmen commonly had that ability.

"Confess something?" Lyndsey seemed concerned. Newmen hadn't entirely adjusted successfully to their new hunter-gatherer, apex predator instincts. Some had been driven to terrible acts that they themselves couldn't comprehend. Much like humans themselves, of course, but it was more newsworthy when Newmen were involved.

"I... I kicked a dog." Several of the members gasped, softly. Jenna looked up from Mary holding her with a shocked look on her face.

"You... was the dog injured?" Lyndsey hoped this wouldn't lead to a lawsuit or publicity. She didn't want the rest of the group affected.

"I don't know. I think he was okay. He ran off." Ivanna scraped her middle fingers on her pants legs, hoofing unconscious ground. "Staggered off. He was making curious shrieks. It was horrible." The way Ivanna said the word, the way she shuddered, made it clear that her own action had greatly unsettled her.

Lyndsey made several notes on her pad of paper. "Did anyone see you do this? Are you in trouble with the law?"

Ivanna shook her head, studying the floor with her red eyes. "No. It was at night. Nopony else was around."

Lyndsey made another note and breathed out slowly. "Alright. Tell us why you kicked the dog."

"It was barking. All the time. It always barks, all night long." Ivanna slumped over, her elbows resting on her knees, her head down. "The people who own it... they don't take care of it, they just leave it in the yard and go away for days sometimes. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't even hear my own music. I got really angry. So... very... angry. I don't even know how anypony can get that angry and live." Ivanna sat up suddenly, tears in her eyes.

"I didn't want to kick the dog! That wasn't me! I would never kick a dog, not even for barking all night! I don't understand! How could I do such a thing? I just don't understand!" It was as if Ivanna was pleading for some magic to cure her of a terrible injury, only earth had no magic.

"Ivanna?" Ivanna was crying now. Lyndsey put her pad down, got up, and walked over to the woman. "Ivanna? Come on, it'll be okay. Really. This too shall pass. Let it go. That's it." Lyndsey was stroking Ivanna's back, gently, while pulling an empty chair close so that she could sit down.

"Okay, Ivanna, everyone... remember how our bodies affect us, how human nature is different. We've discussed this before." Many times, actually, but it always seemed new when something bad happened. "Humans don't have the same background as Equestrians. Humans evolved to hunt and raid and fight and gather. They are primates, not equines, and primates have different drives, and different impulses."

Lyndsey rested her hand on Ivanna's back. "There are a lot of humans who would have done the very same thing. That doesn't make it right..." Jenna had begun to object, but settled down at that statement. "It doesn't make it right, but it does make it human. Humans can get angry, and sometimes they can lash out. It can be harder for Newmen to deal with such impulses because such drives are new to them, strange to them, and can sneak up. It's hard even for natural humans to cope with angry impulses. And lack of sleep only makes that harder still."

"But I hurt a poor doggie!" Ivanna's flat statement embodied her horror. It was the shock and horror of a child dealing with the reality of facing that they had lost control of themselves, despite the desire to be good. It was the sorrow of an innocent at harming a living being.

"I know, I know." Lyndsey patted Ivanna's back. "That is a sad thing. But you didn't kill the dog, that's something, right?"

"I hope I didn't. You don't think I did, do you?" Ivanna looked like she might burst out in a full tantrum of tears.

"No. No. If the dog could run away, it will probably be alright." Lyndsey had no way to know if that was true, but therapy for Newmen was a delicate matter. Their emotions were very volatile, and the usual counseling trick of having a patient cry out their sorrow could end up with potential hospitalization. It would certainly put an end to any further group activity for the night.

"I should go tell the owners, and apologize, and lay down on my belly and beg forgiveness." Ivanna sniffed again.

"Um... that is certainly one possibility..." Lyndsey felt a small fear settle into the pit of her stomach. Newmen had trouble keeping jobs and housing because they were different, because, after all, they were 'alien monsters from beyond the stars'. It had not been easy for the newest immigrants to be accepted, despite humanification. Newmen were a minority, and one that even other minorities could look down on. Ivanna could, if this event became known, end up homeless and unemployed... or worse. Some Newmen had been beaten, others killed, merely for existing. There was a strong anti-Newmen movement who saw the former ponies as alien invaders, or satanic demons.

"I would strongly advise that you do what most humans would do." Lyndsey looked around the room, then back at Ivanna. "Say nothing, do nothing more about this. Just let it go. What is done is done. Saying something will only cause more trouble for you... and for the owners of the dog, too."

"But isn't being honest a good thing?" Jenna was sitting up straight, her own tears forgotten for the moment.

"Yes, honesty is a good thing. Usually. But in human society - which we all live in - sometimes honesty just causes trouble. Especially for marginalized people... which Newmen are. We've talked before about 'good lies' - little white lies to spare someone's feelings, deliberate omissions in order to avoid falling into traps or in order to keep ourselves safe from those who would take advantage of us." Lyndsey smiled "Honesty is good, but lying and omission are simply part of human survival. That is just how things are, because some people are dangerous. So I'm going to give you some serious advice, Ivanna, and you too, Jenna, and the rest of you too... and it may seriously conflict with what you feel and believe, but it is necessary."

Lyndsey swallowed. "When a group is marked, singled out, when they are considered second class... or third or fourth class, which is what Newmen are, then they have to be extra careful. They have to do things that may not be entirely right to avoid troubles that are completely unfair and really, really wrong. When you are a marginalized group, the response to anything involving you seldom is equal to the circumstance. You are treated more harshly, and with less fairness, than someone who isn't in a minority group. We've discussed this before, remember?"

Several members of the group nodded, especially Jenna, who had suffered in the past both from being a Newman, and for having dark skin.

"Ivanna, if nobody saw you kick the dog, let it go. I beg you. Just let it go, and get on with your life. Learn from the experience, try not to ever do such a thing again. But nothing good will come of you trying to tell anyone about what happened. Any response you get will likely be far worse than any person deserves, even for a moment of anger and violence." Lyndsey, as she spoke, recalled the incident in Los Angeles where a Newman was beaten to death because he forgot himself and ate his food with his face down in the plate in a restaurant. It was such a small thing, but some young men took their anger too far.

"But I hurt their dog!" Ivanna was beginning to tear up again. "Nopony should ever do what I did!"

Lyndsey sighed. "I understand. I truly do. But this isn't Equestria, and despite having a human body now, not everyone considers Newmen the same as native humans. There is a lot of anger and suspicion..." Xenophobia, if the truth be told, Lyndsey thought to herself "...toward Newmen, and admitting to this incident is likely to not only hurt you, but cause trouble for other Newmen too. You don't want to hurt the rest of the group here, do you?"

"No..." Ivanna wriggled in her chair, as if it had suddenly become terribly uncomfortable. "I don't want to hurt anypon...anyone. That's the whole point. I shouldn't have hurt the doggie, I shouldn't hurt anyone ever!"

"That is a wonderful ideal, and I wish everyone - Newman or not - could live up to it. But part of being human is understanding that sometimes it is possible to lose control, or to fall out of balance... to fail to live up to ideals. It's just part of life that sometimes we hurt others even if that isn't something we truly want to ever do. I'm sorry, but that's just... well, human. Do you understand?"

"Moe?" Lyndsey turned to the left and addressed a mousey little man with unkempt hair. Morris Lester was another Newman in the group who had a remaining pony artifact. His hair was not entirely human. It was safely black, and not some bright, impossible color, but it was thick, like a mane, and it ran down his neck all the way to the middle of his back. He didn't have anyone to shave it regularly, so he wore turtleneck sweaters even in hot weather to hide his small unhumanity. The only way he could keep his hair neat was with enormous amounts of hair product, which was more than he could afford.

"Um.. yes?" Moe was a little on the shy side. He was the next youngest Equestrian after Jenna. Sometimes they got together to play. Jenna had an old Playstation, and Moe owned several board games. Both collected toys when they could. They had been denied the childhood that the long-lived Equestrians enjoyed for many decades of their lives.

Lyndsey got up, since Ivanna seemed stable now, and took back her original seat. She picked up her pad and made a quick note. "Last week you told us about the job you were trying for. How did that work out for you?"

Moe, who had been on assistance for over a decade, sighed. "I applied at the toy store, but they said the position was filled. But it's still available online, so... I think they may have... not been telling me the truth." His hesitant speech was combined with a sad look on his face. Even after so many years as humans, so many of the former ponies still had trouble with how humans acted.

"It was your name again, wasn't it." Lyndsey shook her head. Over the years she had become so angry at the naturalization system. The names assigned to the Newmen couldn't be legally changed, because there was a lot of pressure to constantly track and observe them. To much of the public, the very idea of the Newmen was frightening and disturbing. Transformed alien creatures from another universe. A magical, possibly satanic realm of witchcraft and spells. And the people who had given them human names... it had been the cruel hijinx of Ellis Island all over again, only especially mean, considering the unique plight of the Newmen.

"That... and my mane." Moe shrugged. It was an old issue for him. "I've tried getting a buzz-cut, but it grows so fast!"

"I know. I know." Lyndsey made another mark in her notepad. She had hoped that this time things would have worked out. A toy store seemed perfect for the - relatively - childlike former Equestrian. It was such a strange thing, to deal with men and women who looked middle aged but who, from their own perspective, were just children. It was a significant problem with the Newmen, since those who tended to still be alive also tended to have been transformed at very early stages of pony development. The oldest member of the group had just barely passed the age of Equestrian majority before her conversion.

"Well, we're all proud of you for trying. That's the important part - you saw something that you wanted to do, and you made the effort to try. I'm very proud of you, Morris!" Lyndsey clapped, knowing that the other Newmen would join in heartily. Newmen always joined in like that, when the purpose was supporting or encouraging someone.

"Alright then. Who hasn't had a turn to say anything yet?" Lyndsey scanned her list of group members. It had changed recently, with the loss of Poul Shmokar and Harry Balzac, and the addition of...

"Dawn hasn't had a turn!" Jenna waved her hands and pointed at the far corner of the room. "Dawn... Meadow. Dawnmeadow! Because she took her name back!"

Oh yes. 'Dawnmeadow'. Amanda Blow. The oldest member of the group. Amanda had decided, against the law, to go by the translated version of her Equestrian name. Her choice carried no weight, of course, but Dr. Winters had suggested humoring her, at least initially. This was her third week with the group, and so far the only thing Lyndsey had learned about her was that she was a very unhappy woman. Or perhaps mare... because that is what she insisted she was, despite her physical transformation.

"Dawnmeadow!" Lyndsey was very careful to say it as one word. "Has anything happened for you this week that you would like to share with the group?" Lyndsey braced herself, mentally.

"Yes, actually." Dawnmeadow appeared to be in her middle fifties, which would have made her the Equestrian equivalent of twenty-one when she was transformed. She had been a unicorn once. She claimed she still was, that she just 'wore' a monkey suit because there was no other choice.

"This week I grew older. I did a bit of calculation, you see. " Dawnmeadow sat, her arms folded across her chest, leaning against the corner in the back of the room. "The average life span, here in the Yoo-Ess-Aey is eighty-two years. If you are a mare. Stallions don't live as long. We're thirty-fifth in the world rankings for life expectancy, so 'Go Yoosa!'"

"I figured out that each day we spend here is the equivalent of three-and-a-half Equestrian days. So I certainly hope everypony here had a full month of fun and laughter and friendship and magic this past week." Dawnmeadow's lips pressed tight together. "Because I sure didn't."

Lyndsey forced herself not to react. "It isn't always how much time we have, but how we make use of what time is given us. Did you try to have any enjoyable experiences, Dawnmeadow?"

The elder Newman woman glared briefly. "I spent some time, online. I was trying to learn about the last days of Princess Luna, before she... faded. I wanted to know what her last words to us were, maybe to understand the reason we were sent here a little better. Maybe to try to find a way to deal with being like this..." Dawnmeadow indicated her body with a wave of her hand. "...and maybe even a little hope."

Lyndsey regretted her words the second they left her mouth. "And what did you discover?"

Dawnmeadow gave a soft, trembling half smile. "Did you know that there are bills being drafted to prevent Newmen from being able to marry humans? Or that it's legal in most states to deny us housing, jobs and even medicine on religious grounds? I didn't know that. Apparently, by merely existing, we are an abomination before one of this planet's alicorns. An alicorn that nobody ever sees, that nobody can ever hear or touch or visit. But she... sorry, he... sure can write long books. Long, meanspirited, hate-filled books. That's what I learned."

Lyndsey briefly held her forehead with a hand. "Dawnmeadow... I understand... that you are upset. I get that, I really do. But part of group therapy is trying to make an effort to cope, to deal with the world as it is. I know this isn't your world, I know it's tough here. But there are good things too. Ice cream? Pizza? Time spent with friends? Earth may be a savage world in some ways, but we still have friendship here."

"Yes." Lyndsey smiled at Jenna. "And video games." She turned back toward Dawnmeadow's corner. "And movies, and television shows, and books and stories and music, too. Even here, on nasty old earth, somehow we all manage to find fun things to do and enjoy. That's really important, Dawnmeadow. Some would say that's the whole point!"

Dawnmeadow sank into herself, folding her arms over her chest again. "It hurts. It hurts here. All the time, it hurts." After a brief pause, she sat up again. "Yeah... I know what I'm supposed to do. Really, I do. I'm supposed to put on a happy face and just accept the hoof that fate has dealt me. Ignore the hate and abuse and meanness. Keep on keepin' on as if none of that stuff even existed. Give up on impossible things and be involved in the real world doing real things.

"Well, you know, I've tried to do that. I've tried to do that for thirty years now, since I was put into this monkey-suit, and while I may look like a monkey, and sometimes my suit makes me act like a monkey... I'm not a monkey. And I never will be. I miss my universe. I miss my princesses. I miss magic, especially the magic of friendship that bound all ponykind together in kindness. I miss walking on my own four hooves in a world where nopony ever needed to be afraid of others.

"But this week, most of all, I miss living in a world without hatred, without groups dedicated to oppression and laws supporting that oppression. I'm tired of false alicorns being an excuse for mindless bigotry and violence. Yeah, I'm upset. Of course I'm upset. I'm upset because I don't see any path that leads to me ever living in the world I belong in. I only see a short run through a world of dangerous apes who think hurting others is moral, or patriotic, or lawful, or right, ever. Therapy that, please. Seriously, I need all the help I can get on this." Dawnmeadow leaned into her corner, and turned her head, aligning it with the wall, struggling to hold back tears.

After a short silence where Lyndsey wrote on her pad, she looked up at Dawnmeadow. "I hear what you have to say, and I don't have any easy solution for you. There isn't an easy answer to any of that. But that isn't the real issue. The world is what it is, and you are here to stay, that is a fact. Your pain is valid, but perhaps it would be helpful to question whether hanging on to it is making the life you must live better or worse. We all grieve, when we are faced with tragedy - that's true for humans and Newmen alike." Lyndsey ran a hand through her hair. "But... even grieving eventually needs to end."

Dawnmeadow snorted, face still against the wall. "Yeah, you tell me how to do that."

◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊

Ivanna hadn't shown up for the next meeting. Or the meeting the week after that. Or ever again. It was in the news - apparently Ivanna had been driven to go admit what she had done to the couple that owned the dog. She had tried to beg them for forgiveness, and had somehow ended up inside their house. Whether she had forced her way in or been invited was in dispute. The man kept a gun collection. He shot Ivanna seven times at point-blank range.

"They're just going to let him go! I don't understand... he killed her, while she was trying to apologize! I know that can't be right!" Jenna was incredulous, even more than she was outraged and grief-stricken.

"He got off on the Pony Panic defense." Dawnmeadow had started being unusually sociable with the members of the group since the event. "They claim that Newmen inspire xenophobia because they used to be alien monsters, and that somehow means it's natural for men to become irrationally afraid and no longer in control of their behavior. A lot of humans have gotten away with killing Newmen using the Pony Panic defense." Dawnmeadow affected a ridiculous voice "A social advance from an alien creature, especially one with obvious alien characteristics can reasonably induce a panic-based violent psychosis because of the severe anger, humiliation and rage that proximity to such an aberration can produce. Males have traditionally been protectors and warriors, and as such can be reasonably expected to use violent means to react to such an imposition upon normality."

"That's just bullshit. That's complete bullshit." Hugh stared at the tiles between his feet as if somehow his eyes could burn holes through the floor through sheer anger.

"I'm sorry sweety... but it's happened before. It's legal if they say it's legal." Mary felt helpless. She wasn't entirely able to process any of what happened either.

"They kept showing that awful picture of her, from her THING card. They went on and on about her red eyes, like it was evil somehow to have red eyes." Moe was sitting close to Jenna, and had his forehead resting against her back. He was wearing his usual turtleneck to hide the mane down his back, and he had worked extra hard to slick his thick mane hair down flat with what appeared to be several ounces of some thick, greasy substance.

"Milly kept worrying about whether or not the same thing was going to happen to me. She was even more worried that it might happen to her, because she's the grandfoal of a Newman. I didn't know what to tell her. She has a rough enough time of it at school... though this thing has made them finally do something about the bullying and abuse she has to deal with." Jack shook his head. "How am I supposed to comfort her? I can't tell her any of us is safe, because we aren't!"

Lyndsey sat, holding her new pad of paper. She was supposed to be their therapist. She was supposed to help them cope with their lives and the world, but all she felt was loss and anger. One of her group was gone. "I tried to tell her. She wouldn't listen! DAMMIT!"

The outburst shocked the former ponies. "Lyndsey?" Mike had turned pale. Lyndsey never swore at meetings.

"All of you. Listen to me. There is something you can learn from this." Lyndsey was almost shaking. "You are a minority. Get that through your heads. It isn't fair, it isn't right, but you are, and that is how things are. That's not going to change any time soon, no matter how many 'Equestrian Pride' parades there are. You have to act differently than other people. You have to keep your head down a little more. You have to not act like you have all the same rights as other humans, because you don't. You aren't equal, and you have to be the one aware of that, because the world around you doesn't give a fuck." Lyndsey had tears running down her cheeks now.

"Ah... shit." Lyndsey sniffled. "I can't be your therapist today. I'm sorry. I'm just not doing well about this."

Jenna moved carefully away from Moe and half-dragged, half rode her chair over close to Lyndsey. She sat down and put her head over Lyndsey's shoulder, leaning into her. It was a completely, innocently pony thing to do, hugging her like an Equestrian, instead of like a human would.

Lyndsey leaned back, into Jenna. They sat that way for some time, both sniffling a little. Moe and Jack and Mary crowded in, followed by Hugh and Mike. Finally Dawnmeadow shifted and joined the little herd, all nuzzling each other, one big, armless pony hug.

"Maybe you've gone a little pony yourself, from helping us." Jenna softly lipped a lock of Lyndsey's hair. Suddenly, she startled. "Oh! I'm sorry. No offense!"

Lyndsey reached out her arms and pulled Jenna back to rest on her shoulder. "No offense. That would be impossible." A moment passed. "Thank you for the compliment, Jenna. I hope you're right."

"Maybe... maybe I should... go back to using my human name. For a while. Just to be on the safe side." Dawnmeadow - Amanda - had her eyes shut tight. "Just until... until this... isn't all over the news all the time."

"'The nail that sticks out, gets hammered in.'" Lyndsey intoned. "This sort of thing isn't new, even if Newmen are. Humans have been doing this to each other over smaller differences forever. If it's any consolation, what... happened... isn't something brand new that only happens to Newmen."

"No. No, that doesn't make it better for me." Amanda, Dawnmeadow, sounded exhausted. "It makes it worse. This is normal here, isn't it? Commonplace."

"No, not... not normal. Not commonplace!" Lyndsey thought for a moment. "Um... it does happen, and I guess the whole 'panic' defense pretty much is that such violence is 'normal'. But... that doesn't mean that it really is, or that the law is right. The law is not about right or wrong. The law is about control. Sometimes, a lot of the time, that control is pretty arbitrary. Even if people are told to think that it's a matter of right or wrong. Don't try to judge right and wrong from what is legal or not legal. The two are not the same."

"Sometimes... sometimes I think about what it would have been like if it had been the earth dying, and humans had to escape to Equestria. And become ponies, instead of us having to become humans." Mary snuggled closer into Jenna's back. "If humans had become ponies, I know we would have welcomed you. Nopony would ever... kill... somepony who was trying to apologize. We had all kinds of aliens, even. Dragons and diamond dogs and griffons too! They all came from other universes, just like we did to get to earth."

"Why didn't they accept humanization? I've always wondered." Lyndsey felt warm and safe in the group embrace. Maybe she had turned a little pony from dealing with these extraordinary people for so long.

"The dragons just went away. The humans didn't want them anyway. They were too big, and too scary. Nopony knows where they went. I heard a rumor that they had their own way, but I don't know what it could have been." Mike opened his eyes to note the time, and then closed them again. "Celestia couldn't command them, they were a sovereign people. Maybe they just died with Equestria."

"I heard the dogs did get transformed. They just got sent to another part of the earth. Russia or Korea or somewhere." Hugh lifted his head. "Or was it that down south continent? You know, the one with all the dangerous animals?"

"Maybe. That or the other one. India? I don't remember. Maybe I'm wrong." Hugh sighed. "The griffons couldn't be transformed. It didn't work right on them. They didn't survive, and there wasn't time to find a solution for them. Some tried to fight their way through the Gate, but they needed magic to survive, just like dragons. And us. And there isn't any here. They just faded away. Like... Like..."

"Amanda. Amanda fucking Blow. Ha-ha. I'd better get used to it again. So much for trying to be myself."

"A...Amanda." Lyndsey shifted slightly, becoming more awake. "Did you ever find out Luna's last words... before she... faded?"

"Her last moments are 'classified'. All records sealed until umpty-ump in the future. For 'National Security'." Amanda was angry again. "Apparently, they wouldn't even let any Newmen in at the very last. Only government humans. I guess I'll never know. None of us will ever know."

"I bet I can guess though." Amanda sat up and stretched her back. According to the clock, the meeting was already long over. "I bet I can guess her exact words."

"Forgive me." Amanda headed for the door, slinging her ratty coat over her shoulders.

Transformed Human Identification and Naturalization Guarantee
Identification card list of current group members:

Jenna Taylia
Mike Hockertz
Mary Crizmus
Jack Goff
Hugh Jarse
Moe Lester
Amanda Blow

Former Group Members:

Ivanna Mandic
Poul Shmokar
Harry Balzac
Helda Dick
Ophelia Cumming
Pat Maweini
Tara Holenme
Lucy Bowells
Seymour Cox
Ida Fuqder

Continue monitoring of Newman refugees. Report any signs of conspiracy, unusual behavior, or latent thaumatic ability to the appropriate Newman Naturalization authorites immediately.

The Poly Little Pony

by Chatoyance

Welcome To The Survivors Of Humanification Support Group For The Greater Portland Area