Seventy six.
Seventy six letters!
Three days and I had already received seventy six letters in total! That was more than I had ever expected to receive. Well, after filtering out the crazies and angry ponies anyway. But we’re not counting those, they didn’t reach me anyway, they were filtered out beforehoof.
Now I had the majority of it spread all around myself on the couch and the table, reading them and taking notes as I went. Sunset was long asleep in the bedroom and it was late at night, Luna’s pet rock shining in through the windows, the night air crystal clear.
Luna sighed from her place by her desk and let her head drop down to rest on the stack of papers before her, “I wish I could make my sister do these.”
I smiled and looked over to her, “Tax reports?”
“Funding requests,” she grumbled without lifting her head before she groaned and sighed again, “It needs to be done, but that does not make it anymore fun.”
“Be glad it’s only the major ones,” I said and gently put down a letter from a little filly from Manehattan. She wasn’t a batpony, but she sent me one anyway. She thought my wings looked cool. She made a drawing too.
I’m going to have to answer to that one especially, it was one of the rare ones with a return address on it.
It was one of the few ones that made me smile. The stories seemed to have similar enough themes. Not going in public without their illusions, afraid of what might happen if they did.
Some lived out of the villages, away from the cities. Almost like Fluttershy did. Kept away from other ponies.
It just made me... so sad.
They shouldn’t need to live like that just to not be shunned by other ponies. Driven away. It shouldn’t be like that, but how do I fix it?
“I know,” Luna sighed, “But that does not make it anymore enjoyable. How are things going for you, My Page?”
“Depressing,” I admitted, “They should not need to go through this.”
“I didn’t expect so many,” Luna admitted, “I thought they were almost gone in this time.”
“Seventy five,” I said and looked at the letters around me, “Even counting that I expected maybe ten percent to answer, that’s still less than a thousand thestrals. That may sound like a lot, unless you compare it to the pegasi population.”
Luna nodded and jumped off her seat by the desk and crossed over to me, “I… I’m not sure if it is wrong of me to wish for it to be all of them,” she admitted, “The thought of all these ponies… yet alone hundreds more to be forced to live like that is not a nice one.”
I sighed and gave her a small nuzzle, “I want the reverse,” I said and then smiled at her questioning look, “I want there to be thousands upon thousands of bats in hiding!”
“...Why?”
“Because then there is a small chance for them to get normal lives,” I said and motioned towards the letters, “All of this… all of this can be made to go away, forced away. Knowledge is the poison of fear and ignorance. If there are many thousands of batponies, there is a chance that they can be common enough to get acceptance!”
“Did you think that would… work?” Luna asked uncertainly.
I nodded and gathered the letters up, moving them to the side to give Luna room to join me on the couch, “I do,” I said as she jumped up to lay down next to me, “It did for your guard. Nopony blink at eye at the sight of a pegasus in batpony armour. It’s when it’s clearly not in armour, but a real batpony that it’s a problem. That can be fixed with familiarity, but only if there are enough thestrals to reach the critical density needed for ponies to get used to them!”
At least that’s pretty much how I think it will work with ponies. With humans it would be a tossup, but ponies are generally nervous herd beings. When they get used to something, it’s usually no longer a problem
For crying out loud, ponies had stopped looking nervous when I walked around town with Fern on a lead! My wings were still drawing looks, but I had only been in public a legfull of times since my new... look.
Luna slipped her wing across my back, nuzzling softly at my mane, “I hope you’re right. I think you may be, but I don’t know. I tried.”
“I know, My Sky,” I said and turned my head to give her a small kiss, “I don’t know if this can ever be truly fixed… and mind this only works if there is enough and if they are all willing to stop hiding. I don’t know, maybe it’s not possible,” I admitted, “But it’s the only idea I have right now. I don’t know,” I repeated, “I sent Sparks a letter about it a few days ago to see if she has any ideas as Princess of Friendship and smartest pony I know, see what she comes up with. But I think she’s busy with other things right now.”
Luna nodded and nuzzled with a small sigh, “You should get some sleep, My Page.”
“...Yeah, it’s late,” I admitted and leaned against her, resting my head against her neck, “But I don’t want to. I want to stay here with you.”
Luna smiled softly and gave me a small kiss.
At this point, a reliable estimate of the bat pony population would be extremely useful. Enough of them and they can become normalized. Otherwise, the number will greatly help decide Page's next course of action.
For now, Page has an extremely tentative estimate, but it's based mostly on assumptions. What they need is, say, a large sample of the population, from different cities, to get a proportion of bat ponies to pegasi. I think it was stated that bat ponies can only disguise as pegasi, but I'm not sure. The other option would be to research the genetics and discover the chance of a pegasi being born with the bat genes.
Blank Page, revolutionary.
Somehow I get the impression that Page will become the Prince of the Thestrals. Or Prime Minister of the New Thestral Republic.
I know what Page is thinking right now.
"Things were so much simpler when the whole universe was at stake."
I still want to see him rip that solar guard a new one for being a racist prick. Maybe a dishonorable discharge as well!
Thanks for the new chapter! Looking forward to the update!
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"Do you hear the ponies sing? Singing a song of angry mares? it is the music of the ponies who will not be slaves again... "
"NO BLOODY SINGING!"
"Aw..."
Is it wrong to hope that during this a certain angry loudmouthed drunken Batpone shows up?
i get the feeling discord turned him like that for a reason. if he never did, then he would still be ingornant to the problems of the batponys. ;P i think that is where this story is heading.
10375654
I know exactly who you mean and i'm ALL for it
So, the other way to get around the critical density for exposure is to have the thestrals be in high exposure areas, such as modeling/performing arts.
You can always go the route of making ponies feel guilty. Talk up the point how they're driving a species/tribe to extinction and what do you think your foals' foals' foals (grandfoals+++++++) will think of you knowing what you did/failed to do due to your ignorant fears.
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It would certainly add another layer of complexity to this story.
Ironically put Batponies into the human world, with little ribbons on their necks and they will be overwhelmingly accepted images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/850593f4-dfe6-4517-820a-351f786e5e46/d6jsx8s-cf2a319b-6a72-4c0f-8f1a-eb594a030c76.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOiIsImlzcyI6InVybjphcHA6Iiwib2JqIjpbW3sicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvODUwNTkzZjQtZGZlNi00NTE3LTgyMGEtMzUxZjc4NmU1ZTQ2XC9kNmpzeDhzLWNmMmEzMTliLTZhNzItNGMwZi04ZjFhLWViNTk0YTAzMGM3Ni5wbmcifV1dLCJhdWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6ZmlsZS5kb3dubG9hZCJdfQ.M0X4Vahx2JIb0j0m7AKgGSJ7DV3h2Ei7954iPCfs82E
Bat ponys need definitivly a activ seed bank. They are a endangered pony subrace.
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As long at she has a scottish accent, is in the lunar guard, and has a batpone friend in the celestial guard who is an outrageous flirt.
If the only problem is familiarity, you could get the Night Guard enchanted amulets to make them look like bat ponies even outside of armor. Maybe even enlist some Day Guard volunteers for some off-duty bat time.
It's not familiarity alone, though. It's prejudice. Ponies looking down on this "other" tribe and internalizing stereotypes about them that may be even further off base than most stereotypes, since nopony sees 99.99999% of bat ponies as bat ponies.
I would bet that if every bat pony in Equestria suddenly lost the ability to cast illusions around themselves, ponies the nation over would discover that some of the hardest working, least troublesome pegasi they know are actually bats, because as things are, they need to keep a low profile. You don't do that by being a lazy, good for nothing, lying, cheating, stealing, loud-mouthed blowhard; no, you do that by being a model citizen and keeping your nose down and your self out of widespread notice!
NGL, I read that as fucking requests. I think I need to go to sleep...
MC could try another book series with a harrowing batpony as protagonist. That could help some… maybe Star Trek? Zebra as Oohoora, batpony as Kirk, changeling as Spok…
Called it! Children are a lot more prone towards gentle curiosity towards the unknown!
I want a batpone and a Changelings to snuggle