Sunset took a deep breath of clear air, the cool breeze through her mane. Birds sang along with the breeze and water streamed between hills and gently fell. After months of looking at cityscapes, she was starved for artistic inspiration back at Canterlot High. She hadn’t been sure what to make of Princess Twilight packing her things and sending her to Mount Aris when she mentioned that, but she had to admit, she really came through.
“And this is Harmonizing Heights!” explained one of her two guides, a white hippogriff colt with blue hair… feathers? Sunset didn’t know what to make of hippogriff manes, but felt it was a bit rude to ask about it. His name was Terramar, and he and his sister, Silverstream, were guiding Sunset during her summer stay.
Sunset tore her eyes from the landscape and turned to Terramar with a smile. “It’s wonderful! You two get to come here all the time?”
The other hippogriff, a pink mare with blue… let’s go with hair, nodded her head enthusiastically, only to twist her face then shake it. “Well, Terramar comes here a lot. I like it just fine, but you know, I’m way more excited by what’s out there!” she said, flapping her wings and waving her front legs out wide. “Stairs, indoor plumbing, you name it!”
While Terramar was fairly reserved, Silverstream was very excitable. She reminded Sunset of a certain other pink girl she knew. The unicorn pulled binoculars out of her saddlebag—she impulsively used her leg to do so, but switched to magic once she caught herself—and looked for anything that stood out to her.
Silverstream stepped in front of the binoculars with a smile. “So, Professor Shimmer, see anything you want to paint?”
Sunset blushed. “Uh, it’s just Sunset. I’m just a student like you are, not a professor.”
It was Terramar’s turn to twist his face. “Wait, really? But Twilight said you worked at a school. Aren’t you, like, the same age as Silverstream’s professors?”
Sunset smiled. “It’s complicated. Don’t worry about it. Anyway, it all looks so wonderful. We could just stroll around until I find inspiration for a still life.”
They walked and talked for several minutes through the Harmonizing Heights. Terramar explained the unusual geometry of the rocks and cliffs and how they provided the best acoustics known to hippogriffs. Meanwhile, Sunset rebuffed Silverstream’s attempts to get further explanation how Sunset’s a student. If Twilight didn’t tell them about dimensional travel and all the time weirdness involved, then she didn’t want to bog down their time together talking about that.
“So were you held back?” Silverstream asked innocently.
Sunset blushed in offense. “What? No! Look, it’s a very weird and very complicated situation, but I definitely wasn’t held back.”
The pink hippogriff rubbed her cheek, then her eyes widened. “Ah, wait! If it’s that weird and complicated, maybe you were held back, and you just don’t realize it!”
Sunset opened her mouth to respond, but she paused. School did seem to be going on for a long time. Eventually, something caught the unicorn’s attention from the corner of her eye.
“Oh wow, take a look at this.” Sunset’s magic reached into a bush and she levitated out a strange object. It resembled a large papaya, but the top bloomed into a pink and yellow flower.
Silverstream put her front hooves, or rather, claws up to her cheeks. “It’s beautiful!”
Sunset rotated it in her magic and examined it. “What kind of fruit is it?”
Silverstream shrugged. “I haven’t really brushed up on hippogriff surface level fruits… or hippogriff surface level stuff in general. Terramar, do you recognize it?”
The colt walked closer and scratched his chin. “It looks kind of familiar. I think it was used in some festivals, maybe? It might have been in some old wall drawings.”
Sunset grinned. “So, it’s an important fruit, then. All the better to capture it in paint, then.”
They walked out to a clearing. Sunset looked around, then placed the fruit near a stream. She then stepped away and set up the painting equipment she brought in her saddlebag. She placed the canvas on a stand, pulled out her paint, then got to work. Taking in the colors around her, Sunset adjusted green paint on her palette then brushed it across her canvas to make the background.
After a minute, she remembered her audience. “You don’t have to stay here while I paint, you know. It’ll take some time.”
Silverstream smiled. “Oh don’t worry Profess—er, Sunset. Seeing someone else paint is really interesting!”
“I’m fine staying here too,” responded Terramar.
Sunset nodded and got back to work. Thirty minutes of peaceful painting passed, interrupted by the occasional idle chatter, and she was making good progress. However, the wind picked up and—
“Oh no!” Silverstream exclaimed as the fruit fell to its side and then rolled into the stream.
“I’ll get it!” Terramar said. Touching his necklace, he transformed into a seapony then dived into the water. He surfaced a few seconds later. “Uh, is it just me, or does this look different now?”
Indeed, the fruit he carried in his fins couldn’t have been the one before. It was blue, for one thing. The flower had regressed to a bud, and there were yellow leaves drooping off it.
Sunset tilted her head. “Terramar, are you sure there wasn’t anything else down there?”
He shook his head. “No, I saw where the fruit fell, and this was where it was.”
Silverstream gasped. “I know what it is! Don’t you remember, Terramar? During your last transformation ceremony?”
Terramar thought for a moment. “Oh yeah, that! It was on the walls.”
Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Transformation ceremony?”
Silverstream nodded. “When a seapony chooses their gender, Queen Novo uses the Pearl of Transformation to change their body as they like. Well, the Pearl always has a particular look for you in mind, so it’s not like you can add more feathers or anything, and—”
Sunset interrupted. “Wait, the Pearl can do that? I heard about it, like, changing ponies to seaponies, but it can change your sex too? And it’s just like a normal part of being a hippogriff? That’s crazy!”
Silverstream blinked. “Oh, huh, yeah, I guess you ponies never had the Pearl, so you don’t do that. Weird. So what do you do then?”
“Well, it’s a lot more drawn out and, actually, I should probably explain what—” Sunset paused. “Actually, first of all, what’s the deal with the fruit?”
“Oh, yeah. This is the fruit of transformation. It has a proper name, but I don’t remember it.” Silverstream turned to Terramar, who transformed and approached with the fruit. “Met... more.. tuna?”
Terramar shrugged.
“Anyway, from what I’ve heard, this fruit transforms based on its surroundings—or whenever it wants to, really—so it’s a symbol of hippogriff transformations. I heard these were all lost when the Storm King attacked, so it’s amazing that we found one!”
Sunset put a hoof to her mouth. “We really hit the jackpot! Should we go tell the other hippogriffs?”
Silverstream hummed. “It’s not like we have to rush. I’d really like to see you finish your painting first.”
The unicorn twisted her face and looked at the fruit. “Well, I’ve been painting the fruit’s previous form, and I can’t really change it partway through.”
Seemingly in response, the fruit’s bud exploded into a flower, it changed back to yellow-green, and the drooping yellow leaves shrank back. It now looked like it never fell into the water.
“Ooh, looks like it wants to be painted too!” said Silverstream. Terramar placed it back where it was before and the two hippogriffs looked expectantly at Sunset.
Sunset shrugged and reapplied paint to her brush. “Well, if the fruit wants me to finish, then I can’t argue with that.” Checking the fruit again for no sudden changes, she got to work. “So about this transformation ceremony, how does the fruit get used there?”
Terramar responded, “It was just on wall paintings. Well, twenty-five of the fruit’s forms were on there.”
She whistled back. “I’m glad it’s sticking to this one right now, then. Though, if the fruit’s been missing for so long, maybe the original version of the ceremony used the fruit itself.”
Silverstream said, “That makes sense.” Her expression quickly changed to excitement. “Wait, Sunset! Now you need to tell us how ponies handle transforming!”
Sunset reeled back. “Oh, right. Well, like I was saying, it’s a lot more complicated. I’d have loved to have just used the Pearl to instantly transform into a mare, but I had to go through years of spell treatments to make sure everything went right.”
Terramar frowned. “Years? Really? And every pony has to do that?”
The unicorn paused and blushed, then placed her hoof on her forehead. “You know, I actually haven’t even told either Twilight I’m trans, so I can’t believe I just told you two.”
Silverstream tilted her head. “Trans? What does that mean?”
“What do you mean, ‘either Twilight?’” Terramar asked.
Sunset chose to ignore that last question. “Uh, well, ‘trans’ means in my case that I had a body where, like, doctors and my parents called me a colt, but that didn’t feel right at all, because I was actually a filly. I was able to make myself look like a filly, with my mane and such, but it was only after I became Celestia’s student that I could get spells to change my body cast on me.” She waved her hooves. “You don’t have to get your body changed to be trans, though. I was already trans when I had a colt body. Oh, right, both of you changed your sexes during the transformation ceremony, so I guess maybe you're both trans then?” She tilted her head. “Or something?”
The siblings were sitting with claws rubbing their chins. They looked at each other with raised eyebrows, and Silverstream said, “I… guess I get it. Weird that you have a special term for that.”
Sunset thought for a bit how to word her reply. “You see, because ponies can’t change their bodies that easily, the ponies that want to have life experiences that are unique to them. I don’t want to get too into it, but trans ponies also experience problems that other ponies don’t. Well, creatures in general, not just ponies. Because of that, it’s important for them to have their own name. Do you understand what I mean?”
Silverstream kept rubbing her chin, but Terramar stepped forward with wide eyes. “Wait, I get it! This actually ties into something I was thinking about!”
The two mares looked at him. Silverstream asked, “What do you mean?”
“The transformation ceremony! Remember, with the Pearl of Transformation broken up, all the recent ones needed at least five shards to work. Hippogriffs have mainly been staying around Mount Aris, but more and more have been traveling the world. I was thinking that with everyone spread out, it might be difficult to keep having them. It didn’t occur to me until now that other creatures might have experience with this.”
Sunset smiled. “Well there you go! We were able to figure out a problem way before it became a big deal. If I know Twilight, she’ll definitely get a long term solution ready for you guys if you ask.”
Silverstream sat in silence for a bit. Sunset gave her a concerned expression, and after seeing this, the pink mare spoke up. “It’s weird, I didn’t even think of the transformation ceremony as something a hippogriff may not have access to. You said before ponies have to use years of magic to transform instead?”
Sunset grimaced, “Yes, but to be clear, lots of trans ponies can get by just fine without, er, transforming as long as they have supportive friends and are allowed to just act like their gender without ponies questioning them. I can definitely see how that would all sound a lot worse than what you have now, but I can tell you that friends make it all a lot easier. Or in my case, the princess of Equestria, since I didn’t really have other friends back then.”
She considered talking about how trans people don’t even have magic in the human world, but decided that really wasn’t the right thing to bring up now. Instead, Sunset gave a supportive smile “So yeah, in short, other creatures have a harder time changing their bodies to match their gender, and yes, it sounds like that might be the case for hippogriffs in the future, but there’s a hundred percent chance Twilight and the others will help you figure it out.”
Silverstream took a moment, then gave a soft smile back. “I admit, I’m suddenly really nervous about this, but hearing that did calm me down. Thanks, Sunset.”
Sunset nodded, and then after a few more strokes of her brush, she announced, “And… done! Take a look, you two.”
She stepped away and the hippogriffs squeezed together in front of her painting. “Wow, this is amazing!” exclaimed Silverstream. Terramar nodded and gave an approving hum.
“It’s all yours, too. I wouldn’t feel right taking it with me.”
Silverstream flew up in excitement. “Really? Wow, thank you so much!”
She then dived down and embraced Sunset, squeezing their faces together. Yup, definitely like another girl she knew. Hippogriff fur and feathers made her a bit more ticklish, though.
They quickly cleaned up after themselves, with Sunset carrying the painting supplies, Silverstream carrying the fruit, and Terramar carrying the painting. Scrolling down to the beach, the adult hippogriffs they passed by murmuring as they saw the lost treasure. They approached the ocean and Terramar stepped forward. “I’ll put the painting in my room, then we’ll meet Dad.”
He jumped and transformed into a seapony. Right before he and the painting hit the water, Sunset’s eyes widened and she desperately lashed out with magic, thankfully pulling the painting out of his fins in time. Terramar peeked out of the water in confusion.
“Oh, sorry, this isn’t waterproof,” Sunset said with a blush. “Probably should have told you guys.”
Deciding to instead deposit the painting in Sunset’s room, they found the siblings’ father soon after outside his hut, talking to some other hippogriffs. The others gasped and the blue hippogriff turned around himself. Sky Beak put his claws to his mouth. “Good heavens, the metamorfóno fruit!”
Silverstream snapped her claws. “That’s what it was! Metamorf-una!”
In her other claw, the fruit started shifting and changing. It slipped out of her grasp and it fell onto the sand, where it proceeded to open up, exposing several large black seeds.
Sunset smiled with an open mouth. “A third form! What does this one mean?”
Sky Beak stepped forward. “This is the signal for the seed spreading ceremony.”
Silverstream hovered in the air and shook with excitement. “Ooh! I never got to see the seed spreading ceremony! Sunset, this is way more exciting than the transformation ceremony! This means we’ll be able to get more transformation fruit all around the island!”
Sunset looked at the black seeds. “So, do we just take these seeds and plant them?”
The pink mare shook her head. “No, silly! You gotta eat them first!”
The unicorn tilted her head. “But why would—” She froze as she saw Sky Beak rip his beak into the fruit’s flesh and swallow it without chewing.
Learning about the transformation ceremony and the fruit of transformation showed her how amazing hippogriff culture and history could be, but...
Sunset blanched. “I… think this is something I’m fine not learning more about.”
Author's Note
Per the rules of the Pride and Positivity event, I donated $20 to a charity with this too, of course.
