Six Trans Mares

by pertelote345

She Doesn't

Twilight

We gathered around the great crystal table, all looking miserable, and definitely not ourselves.

Spike was completely lost. "I don't get it, you guys all look fine to me... well, not fine, but normal!"

I had about fifty books on transformation spells sitting on the table, even Rainbow Dash was actively helping in the research...

This didn't make sense! There was no magical residue, and turning a mare into a stallion was so magically difficult I'd actually used it to scare off Trixie! There had to be something I was overlooking...

A knock came on the door. Princess Celestia walked in, with Luna in tow. Spike had sent them a letter about five minutes before I stopped screaming.

I lifted up my head, they like the rest of Ponyville it seemed, were unaffected by whatever had happened to us.

I ran up to Celestia, and gladly accepted a hug from her wings... I... I actually started crying...

She held me tight, in that same warm embrace she'd used to keep me going so many times before. "There, there Dusk..."

I pushed myself away, horror was back. "You... you don't remember?"

She blinked. "Remember what?"

Rainbow Dash groaned. "Oh, I dunno, like us all being mares?"

Celestia got a very calm look. I knew it well, it meant she was actively processing something.

Luna stepped forward. "Dusk-"

"THAT IS NOT MY NAME!" I shouted, I was at my wits end.

Luna held up her hooves apologetically. "Sorry, what would you prefer I call you?"

"My name! Twilight Sparkle! This doesn't make any sense! There's no evidence of you being the victim of mind altering magic! There's no evidence of any magic! Why doesn't anyone remember my name?!"

The princesses blinked.

Cautiously, Celestia raised a hoof. "Has it occurred to you that you could have been the victims of mind altering magic?"

I tilted my head. "Huh?"

Celestia closed her eyes and let out a breath. "Follow me on this trail of logic. If someone were to cast a malevolent spell that has clearly caused all of you so much trouble, wouldn't it be easier to simply convince you that you had always been mares instead of performing a theoretically impossible transmogrification spell on you and a practically impossible mind altering spell on the rest of Equestria?" She put a hoof to her chin. "Although, frankly if they wanted to make you miserable it seems like there would be plenty of easier ways to do it."

I considered it. It made my guts churn to think about myself as always being male, but it made a little bit of sense. Then something hit me... the lie couldn't be consistent!

"Spike! Tell me about your feelings for Rarity!"

He raised an eyebrow. "Who?"

I winced. "That one." I said, shoving a hoof in Rarity's direction.

"Oh Elusive? Well he's kind and generous and just... amazing."

I blinked, that was unexpected. "Wait, so you're saying that you're gay?"

Spike raised an eyebrow. "Uh... Yeah, I came out when I was 8. Why did you forget that too?"

Okay, so Spike was different as well.

The princess of the night let out a breath. "Clearly something terrible has happened to all of you. I'm not sure how to fix it, but, whether it is mental or physical is easy to determine."

Celestia raised an eyebrow. "You have a plan Luna?"

She nodded. "All I need to do is go into their subconsciouses. If they actually are mares they will see themselves as mares there... well, at least in the halls of their desired selves."

Celestia tilted her head. "Wouldn't they see themselves as mares if their minds had been altered?"

Luna shook her head. "Not if I go deep enough... Well, only if the spell had physically altered their spirits, and their neural physiology at that, both of which would be magics I have never heard of."

Dash was by her side in a second. "Great! Scan me! Prove I'm a mare so we can fix this and I can stop feeling like I want to hurl!"

Luna held up a hoof. "It's not that simple Blitz..."

"Dash!" She said through her gritted, masculine muzzle.

Luna blushed. "Sorry, Dash, I can only safely get that deep when you're asleep."

Dash was gone and back in an instant with a pillow. She started snoring loudly.

Then she opened her eyes. "Twilight, this isn't working, do you have any melatonin or whiskey or... Actually alcohol sounds really good right now..."

I groaned. "Why don't I just cast a sleeping spell?"

Luna looked a little tense. "It's 11:00 am, are you sure you wouldn't rather wait until..."

All of us glared at her, including Celestia.

Luna sighed. "Alright then, let us begin..."

#

My eyes opened and I saw me! The real me, back to normal! I let out a cheer of joy and ran down the mountain of carefully organized stories to meet my friends!

Rainbow was there, in her Wonder Bolts Dress Uniform, and Rarity followed behind in the most beautiful dress I'd ever seen. Pinkie bounced behind with a mountain of cake on her back and AJ gave us a wave.

She looked so darn proud, and why shouldn't she? She'd planned the perfect wedding for her little sister (they grew up so fast)...

We were about to head out together when the castle door opened up in front of us.

I tilted my head. "Princess Luna? I thought you were going to meet us at the ceremony, what's up?"

She stared at us in horror.

I blinked, then I remembered.

"This... This isn't real is it?"

She shook her head.

#

We woke with a start. My head was killing me even worse than this morning...

To be fair, we'd fallen asleep in a pile of sleeping bags in our weird little rotunda, so I couldn't say it was the most comfy nap I'd ever had, but this was something else.

Luna was pacing. Celestia eyed her warily.

"This is bad..." The princess of the night muttered. "This is very bad..."

Celestia walked up to her sister. "Luna calm down, I'm sure whatever you saw we'll be able to handle."

Luna stopped and took a deep breath. My friends began to stir, rubbing the sleep from their eyes.

The blue alicorn turned to us. "I'm so sorry... I don't know what caused your condition, but I think I believe you." She sat down, something of a tremor in her voice. "Tia they're suffering."

Celestia put a hoof on her sister's shoulder. "It's okay. This isn't a second Chamomile, it's just a magical problem. It may be bad, but we'll find a way to fix it."

Luna bit her lip. "What if we can't though... We know what dysphoria does to ponies."

Celestia hugged her sister. "These are strong ponies, they're going to be okay."

"But Tia..."

I cleared my throat.

The gods stopped.

I rubbed at my forehead... I was going to down like fifty aspirin after this...

I let out a breath. "Look, whatever's happened to us, we're still here. I appreciate you both trying to look out for us, truly I do, but if we're going to figure out what caused this mess we're going to need to sit down and get on the same pa-"

"Wait... Where's Fluttershy?" Rarity asked suddenly.

We froze.

The sun and moon sisters blinked. "Who?"

Comments

[2tail]

Luna is best princess. I guess being the overseer of dreams she understands how important the mind/body connect is.

Still funny. I will guess they switched minds with their counterparts in another dimension. So in their home dimension there are 7 stallions in the bodies of mares.

[Lord Solaris]

my shipping ideas
Celestia x Dusk
more later have to think

[Atuhor Name]

One thing I think you could play with a bit here is that they all recognize each others mare names.

[pertelote345]

6002547
Well, she's certainly seen a lot of ponies inner thoughts. Celestia cares about them just as much though, make no mistake.

As for your prediction, you'll just have to wait and see :).

[pertelote345]

6002953
Oh that's not all I plan to play with.

[pertelote345]

6002908
They might be a good pair if Dusk was actually there.

[abfarmer76]

This is a great story! I can't wait for more!

[Vates Despero]

6004671 Pervert. Taking advantage of the Elements' confusion and uncertainty to play with the poor things like they're nothing but some sick sex toys. For shame.

[Madeline L-Equine]

No. Just... no.

" "Magically induced or not, they're all gender dysphoric!" She started breathing heavilly, "It's a good thing I see nightmares about this all the time. Let's see, we'd need to get them on hormone therapy and do something to get rid of the testosterone..."

Celestia balked. "Get rid of their testosterone? You want to castrate the elements of harmony?" "

I get what you're trying to do here. Maybe I was too mean in my comment on the first chapter, but the points there stand. Here... let's be nicer.

I get that you're trying to pull in a lot of real-world trans issues, but you're doing it in the most jarring, awkward way possible and it FEELS like you're forcibly jamming real-world issues into MLP like a puzzle piece that just doesn't fit or a horse dildo during a night of tequila-inspired bravery. The way it's written, it just doesn't fit. It doesn't sound like something that belongs in-universe at all.

[Penn Hooven]

I'm sorry. I tried to go into this with an open mind, even after reading a little of that review you sent me, but, I just can't read more of this.

Okay, my issues with it, as an author. A lot is going on, but I feel like I'm reading everything on fast forward. I get there has been a gender-swap of some kind, but with the pace that all this is happening, from the moment Twilight wakes up to Luna seeing them in their dreams, it seems to happen too fast. It almost seems like we missed a few hours somewhere. And the actions....better yet, what actions? All I feel is happening is conversations, and they seemed rushed to me, once again leading to my fast forward feeling.

my other issues. It's possible to write about sexual identity issues and have it good, but this feels too rushed. Sure, I get the idea that he's been thinking he's been a she his whole life, but having a shocking revelation that's not the case in two seconds...that doesn't really fit with the reader. Why? Poison Joke? We've seen that before, so it'd make sense, but just....Okay, and why is Spike suddenly ashamed of being gay, if he's been gay his whole life? I've known gay people in my life, and when the question is brought up, ninety percent of the time, they challenge the question. "Yeah, I am. What of it?" They don't slink away. (Granted, this is from my own personal experiences).

Okay, I could rip this apart, but what good would it do? It needs improving, and I think this could be an amazing story, if you work a few angles to your advantage. First off, what if you started off the story, that they all know they are guys, but they all have feminine qualities that start out small at first, but build over time. I'm not going to suggest what it could start as, as I'm already stepping into hot water commenting about this, and may be getting hate already for (Not understanding). But, say those little things make them feel better about themselves, like 'yeah, this feels right'. As time goes one, these little things build. Finally, after some time, they wake up, thinking, 'I'm a mare. I'm a mare trapped in a stallions body!' and then freak out because they realize the truth about their, uh, real identities.

I feel like that would be a much better way to approach this story, as it would also help others who don't understand the difficulty of...this subject, and be informational. Also, keep more in character with each character- I'm talking about Luna freaking out. Even in the worst case, she wouldn't freak out that bad. And don't fall into stereo types. I'm talking about how others react to the idea of homosexuality or sexual identity issues. Sure, there are plenty who are weird out because they don't understand, but there are others who perfectly understand, and I think a kind wise ruler of all ponies (mind you, probably had seen this time and time before) would be understanding of this, especially if she saw the whole process in ponies she really cares about.

Okay. Okay. I think I got it all out. So, to recap, potential, work it at a different, slower, angle and build it. These are just my opinions, and your welcome to disagree with them.

[Penn Hooven]

6425614 I agree. Also, I feel like things are going too fast pace for us to keep up. It's almost like, "I just want to get this done, so I'm speeding through all the important build up so I can get the what I want to write about."

Or at least it feels like that to me.

[Solarfollow]

Huh. I kind of pictured Dash being laid-back about this. Something like this:

“Eh, Twilight and the Princesses will fix this weird gender-swaping thing. In the meantime: I'm just going to go fix the weather, take some naps, and do my thing”.

[Solarfollow]

The Princesses are seriously debating physical vs mental treatment, this soon, when they don't even know what happened?

I'm kind of agreeing with 6425614 said: It feels like you're just jamming transgender issues into this, even when it doesn't fit.