Chapter 5: Shaping Hearts and Minds
Matthew sat watching over her mother through the full night. Her mother had insisted on having all her clothes removed before going to sleep. That had bothered Matthew at first, because there was nothing to cover her mother with, but the fact that a large number of others in the sanctuary seemed to be taking the same actions made it easier to accept. Most of them were asleep by midnight, leaving Matthew to watch over them all in rapt fascination through the night.
Transformations really did move at an accelerated rate while ponies slept. She could actually watch changes happening right in front of her and not have to wonder if she was imagining the changes happening before her eyes. She could see fur advancing up their torsos, see their arms reshaping themselves into proper forelegs, see muzzles growing, eyes expanding, and bones resettling. If this was a movie it would seem like some sort of extreme body horror, but it didn't cause that kind of disgusted reaction from her. It was actually kind of soothing to watch.
By four in the morning most of the ones that had been in the last stage of transformation were now all fully ponies, her mother among those. She was now a definite unicorn, with an eye jarring match of red fur combined with yellow and purple striped mane. Soon after her transformation had ended Matthew had watched a contented, happy smile appear on her muzzle. Whatever she was dreaming about was a seemingly good dream at least. That made Matthew smile as she saw it.
Around five in the morning she got some visitors, as John and Haley came into the sanctuary. They looked tired, not in terms of being sleepy, but as if they had been working hard. Haley had said there was some sort of trouble earlier, but Matthew hadn't given it much thought at the time. Putting the pieces together now she wondered if there had been an attack near the hospital like the one near the high school.
"Hello, sorry if we look a little out of sorts, it has been a long night," Haley said as the two of them carefully landed from a hover next to Matthew and her mother.
"That's an understatement," John said with a yawn.
"What happened?" Matthew said as she looked at the two tired ponies.
"Humans, again. Bunch of teenagers in two or three pickup trucks; they decided that they'd have fun by taking some guns and shooting out the windows of the hospital," Haley said with a sneer.
"That's horrible! Where were the police?" Matthew exclaimed in shock.
"The police are pretty much shut down at the moment. The ones that are transforming aren't in any shape to do their duties, and the rest of them are all held up behind closed doors trying to wait out ETS. The few who have fully transformed are trying to help out at the different shelters as it is, but they aren't taken seriously by humans," Haley said with a sigh.
"So how did you deal with them?" Matthew asked, wondering what kind of defense ponies could mount against humans with guns.
"We got a lot of mane clippings and started dumping those on them from above, it panicked them so much they took off," John said with a devilish smile.
It was pretty well known by this point that the ETS virus was easily transmitted by contact with infected hair. Matthew wasn't sure how she felt about that means of defense. Yeah, it seemed to work, but that was essentially forcing ETS on humans. At the same time the humans had been attacking ponies and didn't deserve to be treated gently as a result. There was an ironic cruel justice in making them become those they tormented, but she wasn't sure or not if it crossed some line. If they had done that to a hospital full of humans they would have deserved just as harsh of consequences. What would possess someone to shoot at a hospital?
"This'll all pass eventually, once everypony on Earth is transformed. We just have to keep us safe until then," Haley said as she looked around the ponies sleeping in the sanctuary with a smile on her face.
"Do you think it'll really come to that? Everypony on Earth? I didn't hear the full news, but remember hearing they caught whoever was responsible for all this. I figured that they'd be finding some way to cure or vaccination or something now that they had whoever caused it," Matthew said with her voice coming out with a bit of a squeak.
"Aww, that's so cute with your voice shifting. The mare smell is really strong on you now, but it's kind of cool hearing the signs of it too. Most ponies don't have their voice change, but guess you're a little different," Haley said with a laugh.
"Yeah, that's new, but you didn't answer my question," Matthew said with a blush, her voice was still doing the squeak. It was really annoying, and she hoped it settled out into something less off-pitch soon.
"Well, I definitely think that it will spread still. Yeah, they caught the one who started this, but that doesn't mean they know how to undo this. Transformations are still happening right now after all. Even if they figure out something it's far too late for them to put a stop to it, and I've heard very few ponies say they would want to go back to the way things were before. Why would anypony want it to go back to how it was before anyway? We can do all these amazing things, we don't worry about race anymore, and ponies who are like you get to be what they should have been from the start. This is all the best thing that ever happened in the history of the world," Haley said with confidence.
"Look at what happened tonight, the ponies in that hospital were at the complete mercy of a bunch of random teenage humans. We don't have the ability to operate cars so we can't transport goods or food over long distances. What if we get sick? We had generations of immunity built into us, does that carry over now or are all just going to get sick and die of any little bit of flu bug that comes around in the future? This world isn't built for us this way, not without humans alongside us at least," Matthew explained.
"I think that you might be exaggerating the need for humans. Unicorns can do anything a human can do with their horns, more in fact. If we're able to produce food locally we don't need to be transporting large amounts of stuff over large distances; and I've yet to see any pony be sick, once you get over the initial flu we're about as healthy as you can get. The world isn't built for us right now, but we can reshape it so it is in the future, just takes a little time," Haley said with a furrowed brow.
"It doesn't matter to you that there isn't any choice about accepting this new life?" Matthew said in her still squeaky voice.
"No, it doesn't, it's better and everypony should be happy about it. I understand that the humans are scared, we all were when this first started, but they'll come to embrace it like we do. There's at least a few humans transforming in that same hospital that was just attacked that insisted on others infecting them since the transformation cures all illnesses. As we get more established the non infected will come in droves to be transformed too," Haley insisted.
This felt wrong to Matthew, and the idea of "this is better so accept it" felt chillingly close to what her father had been shouting. Did she want this herself or was she being compelled to want this? The fact that she was going to get to be an unquestionable mare definitely had a strong appeal, but she could undergo transition as a human too even if it wasn't as thorough, Tonya had after all before she even transformed. But beyond that was the impact on others where everything they knew was going to be forcibly changed, and she didn't doubt that some of her concerns were indeed legitimate.
Perhaps Haley was right in that it was an inevitability though. Was it wrong to not try to move it along faster if it was? The sooner all were ponies the sooner society could adjust, at least if it was a sure thing all would be ponies eventually. These were all questions for ponies other than herself, she didn't factor into deciding any of this, she was just one mare. There were things at work far greater than herself.
"Maybe you're right. I'll be happier when this all is over no matter what," Matthew finally said. She didn't feel like they were right, but she didn't know how to argue her point. She wasn't dumb, but she wasn't smart enough to construct an argument.
"I am right, and you'll be happy. Speaking of which, we've been trying to talk to you about what it means to be a night pony. The rest of the types all seem to know what they should be doing, except those crystal ones. You can feel rather lost when you first finish transforming because our jobs aren't as obvious. We wanted to kind of take you under wing and help you start off on the right hoof," Haley said.
"And what do we do?" Matthew asked with interest.
"We do a lot of things; watch over ponies while they're sleeping at night to make sure they're safe, but we also make sure everypony knows what it means to be a pony," Haley said with pride.
"I don't understand the second part," Matthew said hesitantly, again feeling a sense of unease.
"We can touch their dreams and give them a vision of what it is to be a pony, of what ponies can achieve. John and I haven't been doing too much of that sadly, because we've got to keep watching out for humans, but the others are working hard to do so. I'm certain everypony around you now was or is being given the vision. We'll help shape society through this," Haley said proudly.
"Oh," Matthew squeaked. Alright that sent a million red flags up in her head. That felt like borderline mind control. Trying to indoctrinate ponies to a belief was one thing, but invading their minds to do it? That was horrible and she knew already that she wanted nothing to do with it. But again, what could she do about it?
"You'll learn a bit more about that after you are done. Things are moving really fast now with the transformations. You may well be done by tomorrow. We need to get back on patrol again, a few hours left till everypony is back awake. Take care, we'll be in touch," Haley said with a smile, before taking back to the air and flying out of the door, John following close behind. Flying seemed great but did they really need to fly indoors?
Matthew settled back down to just watching her mother sleep. She pulled her own shoes off as they were really starting to hurt. They had been too big for the last day or so, but she had worn them anyway. Now looking at them she saw that her feet had now started going through the final stages of becoming hooves. When she woke up next they were almost certainly going to be done. Fur had appeared on them as well, more grey, night ponies didn't seem to get as many bright and colorful fur types, at least she had her bright green mane.
Hours passed by and soon some of the newly minted ponies started to rouse from their sleep. The reactions to their transformations all had the same range with little deviation. They instantly took interest in exactly what they looked like, which was definitely understandable, and then they started walking around even if it just resulted in milling about. A few waved at her and asked if they looked good, and expressed their happiness that it was all over with now. No pony seemed upset that they were no longer in any way physically human.
Her mother wasn't the last to rise, but she was definitely one of the deeper sleepers who slept in longer. By the time her mother was opening up her eyes Matthew was trying to stifle a yawn and the sun had been up for some time. Her mother's first reaction was to bring a hoof up in front of her face and just stare at it, then she booped her own muzzle, causing her mother to giggle as she did it. Her mother then pushed herself up to a standing position and carefully lifted up and set down each hoof trying them out. She seemed positively thrilled at the whole experience. It took her mother a full minute to take notice of Matthew.
"How do I look?" her mother said with a happy smile.
"Like a happy red furred unicorn that would make any small human girl squeal with joy," Matthew squeaked.
"What's with your voice?" her mother said with a raised eyebrow and tilt of her head.
"Guessing my voice is going to change with everything else with me. No stallion voice for me. Hope it doesn't come out in this pitch when I'm done though," Matthew continued to squeak. She sounded like she had a dog's chew toy in her throat.
"Oh, guess that makes sense," her mom said as she took a few steps around and swished her tail.
"I'm really happy to be in a proper functioning body again, you'll be just as glad when you're done too," her mother said as she did a little prance in place.
She then looked at Matthew and gave a big sniff.
"I don't know how I know other than instinct, but yes, you definitely smell like a mare," her mom said as she glanced around. "Everypony around here seems to have their own distinct smell, but there are things that you can kind of pick out of each one. I can smell if it is a mare or stallion, whether they're a foal or an adult, whether they have feathers, all kinds of things I can tell about the ponies around me without even looking at them. It's like a radar sense..with my muzzle. I know I should be surprised that I can keep track of all that information and know all of that with just a little sniff, but it all just feels like the most natural thing in the world."
"I got confirmation about my smell again by Haley and John while you were sleeping, but nice to hear it from you," Matthew said as she looked down. "Um, did you have any weird dreams?"
"Yes! I had the most vivid dream I ever had actually. It showed me what ponies could do if we all work together and how we should all treat one another. There was this big white pony, like an angel, in it that was showing me all kinds of things," her mother said excitedly.
"Guess that confirms what I was told," Matthew said with a sigh.
"What were you told?" Her mother asked with a tilt of her head.
"Mom, the dream came from night ponies, they've got powers of their own just like every other pony. They use those powers to spread that dream to ponies, or at least ones close to it," Matthew explained.
"Hmm, that's interesting. You seem upset about it. Why?" Her mother asked.
"Why? Are you serious? Your mind was invaded and there were ideas planted, didn't you just hear me?" Matthew said incredulously, spreading her wings wide as she did.
"Oh, I heard you about how they spread the dream. I wouldn't say they planted ideas though, nurtured them perhaps. They more or less reconfirmed things that were in my heart already. Ponies are just being given a reminder of what it is to be good, and there is nothing wrong with that," her mother said with a smile.
Matthew didn't know what to say. She had just told her mother that her mind was invaded and her mother just shrugged it off like it was nothing. No, she shrugged it off as something that was perfectly good and she did it without much of a thought. Where did anypony go from that in trying to say it was wrong? Defeated she just hung her ears and shoulders, not knowing what to do.
"If they do this with everypony you'll have it done to you as well soon enough. You can get a better idea then why I don't really care that I was evangelized by a few ponies. They didn't say anything I didn't already believe in," her mother reconfirmed.
"Might not be a long wait, things are going really fast. These transformations seem to speed up each day," Matthew said as she looked at her almost hooves.
"I'm looking forward to seeing you in a proper mare's body. I don't know if I should have recognized the signs earlier, or if it was just normal foalhood stuff, but I feel bad for stifling that part of you for so long," her mother said as she walked over and gently touched a hoof up to Matthew's face.
"Why do you feel personally responsible for it?" Matthew asked, still uncertain what her mom was talking about.
"When you were really young you never seemed to be able to conceptualize the idea of sex or gender. It took us forever to get it to where you understood there was a difference between male and female. Though looking back now it seems you might have had some as it was the little fillies you were constantly associating with. Your father had to pull out an actual anatomy diagram and break it down that way. It was such a crazy thing to do with a preschooler, but you just didn't seem to get it. Even after we got you convinced you were a colt we still had to go explaining for a while who was a filly and who was a colt," her mom shook her head with remembered frustrations.
"Really?" Matthew asked, remembering none of this.
"Yes really, and you really didn't like the fact most of the ones you seemed to like more were fillies and you were told you had to play with colts."
"That went on? I don't remember any of that," Matthew said as she gazed at her mother.
"Holy lord, it definitely went on, from the time you were not quite three up until you were nearly ready to start kindergarten. We were worried you were going to end up making a scene of yourself in school if you didn't get it, but it did finally seem to stick. Though there were a few particularly embarrassing instances along the way," her mother continued.
"Like what?" Matthew asked, afraid of what she might hear.
"You made me have to cover my face in embarrassment as you told a doctor that we said you had to play with colts because you were a colt. Therefore you wanted the doctor to take your penis off since that was what you were told made you a colt. You said it with such a straight face too. It took being extra firm about it constantly and a lot of paddling your bottom, but it finally stuck," her mother said with frustration, then lowered her ears. "Turns out we were just teaching you to be ashamed of what you are. I am a horrible mother."
"I really did that?" Matthew said with an embarrassed laugh, bringing a hand up to cover part of her face.
"Oh, you definitely did that, and I think your father and I about had a heart attack due to embarrassment at the time. I should have paid more attention to the fact you didn't see yourself that way. I thought it was just a weird stage. Maybe it was a sign I should have caught, or maybe it really was just a stage of being a foal, but now it just makes me feel bad about how things ended up," her mother said with a frown.
"Are you going to try talking to Dad again today?" Matthew asked in a low tone.
"I should, at least I need to go check on him. If he isn't here in the next few hours I will trot over there and see how he is. It should take me far less time on my own hooves than in that car last night," her mother replied as she did a shuffle of said hooves.
"Are you sure that is safe? If there are humans attacking ponies you could get hurt," Matthew said with concern.
"There are lots of pegasi around that can keep an eye on me from the air to make sure nothing bothers me. I never get a mile from the church so they should have no problem seeing me from the air. I will figure out how to use this." She gestured at her horn. "Then if he isn't here I will go check on him and tell him if he wants to talk to come back to the church with me."
"Just be careful," Matthew said, still deeply concerned. There was a lot of area that might be hidden by trees along the path back to the house. She was not confident her mother would stay in the sight of the pegasi the full time as a result.
"I will, you get some sleep now. I know you were staying awake for me, but you can't be staying up late like this or you are going to exhaust yourself. I'll try getting up a little earlier from now on so we can get time together before you need to go to bed each day. I'll be here when you wake up tonight and we can talk some more before I need to get some sleep myself. Things will be better tonight, you'll see," she said as she reared up on her hind legs and wrapped Matthew up in her forelegs.
"Okay, Mom," Matthew said, knowing that her mother was right about the sleep.
Matthew curled herself up into a tight ball, that would have been uncomfortable as a full human, and laid down as she heard her mother's hooves walk away.
Stats
Page generated in 0.047 seconds
Total duration
956 users online
223,756 hits today, 2,782,760 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Hoping to get around to changing her name soon, the whole "Matthew" name makes me fall into saying "he" when writing. If you catch any occurrences of it let me know. I think I caught them all, but still double checking.
Not sure how long I will keep this pace of updates going. Am on a writing spree and just kind of riding it. Have most of chapter 5 done.
Most of them were all asleep?
Said "at least" twice in the same sentence.
I am not liking Haley at all. I do enjoy how they used false knowledge to scare their victims. If I remember correctly for a while touching the hair was a way suspected of the further transmission but later confirmed to have been the flu. Hopefully when Matthew gets his dream he will see the truth and be able to spread the truth.
8898366
Definatly good to ride the wave while you can. I have been enjoying the update frequency so than you for that.
Only a few chapters in but I'm liking this so far! It has that nice old school TF fic feel to it.
Interesting turn of situation, odd that his mother makes a complete 180, and I wonder if he wish's that it was better judging mother then that evangelisms one that he has.
Mmmmmmmm... definitley a creepy pony cult vibe going on now. Also this sure sounds ominous since I don't know the timeline, ''If you know your Pandemic timeline you should know what is coming.''
I'm guessing these people are either forgetting about places like Tristan da Cunha and the Pitcairn Islands, or just don't know about them.
The dialogue in this chapter feels really unnatural.
Suggested for writing style: When you have characters voicing large paragraphs of text, having the speaker identified only at the very end can be jarring. I find it better to have the character say an intro bit, then have the "said" bit, then the rest. For example, this:
Might be better structured like this:
That said, overall good chapter. One reader commented that the dialog seemed unnatural. I don't quite agree, but I do think it needs to be broken up a bit more by things like emotional reactions. Good dialog is hard to achieve and even harder to teach someone to do, so I can't offer anything that says "this is the way to do it."
8922553
Dialogue is a struggle for me as I don't have natural flowing dialogue in my real life conversations, not even with family. Most I can say on that it is a work in progress. I am going to be looking at my dialogue a bit closer seeing what I can do to make it easier flowing. It is probably my top concern in terms of areas of improvement.
Good pony, getting the willies from that dream muckery. I'm not really perturbed by physical alterations, with magic, stuff happens y'know? But re-writing people's personality, their essence, that's anathema to me. 'tis like murder in my mind, worse even, a deliberate erasure of what makes someone unique and special. Every soul has value in it's individuality, and to casually plaster over that individuality is a black horror.
I'm still not understanding how they can tell who is going to be what just by sniffing them also are the dreams really a form of mind control?
9025621
Much stronger sense of smell that can pick up on subtle differences. Females and males have a slightly different scent to them. Humans have a defect in our sense of smell (yes it is genetically defective) but when you smell someone who hasn't put on deodorant if it weren't for that defect you would be able to identify that person as male or female without even seeing them as well. Since ours is defective it just comes out as a stinky smell all around.