A Mercenary's Ending

The streets of Manehattan were nearly empty, something that never happened. It wasn’t known as the City that Never Sleeps for nothing. Even during the night there were ponies out and about. It was one of the busiest port cities on the eastern coast, or it had been. Ever since the death of a single human, trade between nations had slowed considerably. Of course, that had only impacted about half of the businesses in Manehattan. The other half dealt with domestic trade between other east coast towns like Baltimare. Many other businesses had begun filling the voids let by the drops in foreign imports, or had been trying to. There had only been partial success in that area.

The reason that the city was so empty was due to the fact that the mayor had declared a state of emergency for the city. The attacks by a mysterious alicorn on Dodge City and on the new town of Maretime Bay had by now become public knowledge. Not only that, though, but there had been a number of ponies who had begun to express distaste for the way the majority of ponies treated nonponies. After all, it had become public knowledge that the mystery alicorn had dealt with towns which had bad reputations for being unwelcoming to foreign species, and sometimes even foreign ponies, especially chiropterans.

Manehattan was so big that most ponies there were more ambivalent to the presence of other species in their town. They had grown desensitized to the idea of seeing races like gryphons, dragons, and even the occasional zebra or two along with others. There had even been a couple sections of the city, the Broncs and Dragontown where the majority of the businesses catered to species other than ponies. The latter was now deserted as most of the inhabitants had left to go back to their homelands, while the former was still a bit more occupied, but by poorer ponies more than nonponies.

Mayor Rocky Road, an earth pony stallion with brown, black, and white patched fur, light brown mane and tail, and gray eyes, sat in his office looking over his daily paperwork and reports. The most prominent report was the one from the police chief who had reported that a group of ponies who had been giving peaceful protests about equal rights for all species in Equestria had been attacked by another group of ponies, mostly middle aged ones. The group of ponies that were attacked were mostly younger adults who were, in their own words, ‘…begging for significant change so we can represent a true harmonious society.’ They had taken the conversion of two towns full of ponies into other species as a sign that some higher power was displeased with the current state of affairs.

Rocky put the report down and grabbed the coffee mug. The coffee had since gone cool. Frustrated, he stood and walked to the outer office where his secretary, a pegasus named Phantasia Dreams, was typing away on the typewriter. Phantasia was a light pink pegasus with bright green mane and tail along with dark periwinkle eyes. She wore a white dress shirt and a black formal skirt. When she heard Rocky come out, she nodded at him. “Mr. Mayor,” she said.

“Just getting some more coffee,” he said, lifting the mug as he walked over to the small counter where the coffee machine sat.

“I could have done that for you,” she commented.

“Nah, I needed to stretch my legs anyway,” the mayor replied as he dumped the cold coffee down the drain and poured a new piping hot mug. He put in some creamer and a bit of honey, the latter being something he’d learned from his time on his family’s quarry from his father. “Busy day today,” he said dryly as he took a sip of the coffee, enjoying the taste.

Phantasia snorted in amusement. “Sure is, sir,” she replied with a slight hint of amusement. “Busy, busy, busy.” To emphasize her point, she typed something on her typewriter a bit louder than normal. She paused, leaned back, and stretched before grabbing for her own coffee, which the mayor noted was still steaming and black as could be. Phantasia liked her coffee black.

Rocky picked up one of the remaining muffins that Phantasia always brought in for the staff. Currently, there were plenty of muffins left because a majority of his staff were working from home, sending their own paperwork to the office by carriers. The biggest reason Rocky was in the office was because he wanted to show the ponies that he was working hard to keep them as safe as he could from any kind of invasion by a rogue alicorn. However, ever since rumors of the alicorn having performed some nasty attack on the hive of scum and villainy known as Thornfall way out in the Badlands, there had been nothing. It had been nearly four days since that city had been attacked. Many ponies were anxious and needed reassurance.

Rocky put his mug down and looked out of the window of the official mayor’s office building. He caught the tail end of a taxi cart driving past the walkway leading up to the building. The skyscrapers that surrounded the office building rose high into the sky, but most of the windows were dark. He saw only a hoofful of lights on. The skies were clear, with the sunlight reflecting off of some of the skyscraper windows. “It’s like we’re all in some kind of pandemic again,” he muttered, “or some post-apocalyptic world.”

“If it was a pandemic, we’d be wearing masks,” Phantasia replied, “but yeah.”

Rocky nodded as he turned back to his younger secretary. “What do you suppose this alicorn is trying to accomplish? And could this new group of younger ponies, the…uh…what’re they called…?”

“True Harmonists,” Phantasia replied.

“Yeah, those ponies. Could they be related to this alicorn?”

Phantasia shrugged. “If I knew that, I’d probably be awarded a million bits or something,” she said.

Rocky snorted. “I’m sure the crown would award anypony with information,” he remarked.

“I’m not sure if there is any relationship between the two,” Phantasia replied.

“The timing is a bit suspect, though,” Rocky said thoughtfully.

“I mean, yeah,” Phantasia said as she stood to stretch her hind legs. “It is a biiiig coincidence.”

“At least they’re being peaceful so far,” Rocky said with relief, “although those counter-protesters are a pain in the rump.”

“More than that,” Phantasia said, “they’re proving the protestors’ point.”

Rocky chuckled. He knew Phantasia leaned more towards the more progressive protestor’s viewpoint. To a certain extent, he agreed. The treatment of nonponies in Equestria had gotten worse over the decades, but even before he was born they weren’t treated well. He knew the procedures to make foreigners into citizens, and the rules for nonponies were a lot stricter than they were for foreign ponies. There was some rationale for these distinctions, of course, but when he’d looked over them once more to familiarize himself with them, it just seemed silly. Still, he was the mayor, and it was part of his job to make sure the city was kept safe. “I know,” he agreed. “At least it hasn’t gotten too violent.”

“Yet,” Phantasia said with a frown. There had been small skirmishes, but nothing too serious yet. All instigated by the more conservative counter-protestors.

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Rocky said softly, hoping and even praying to Mother Erda that things wouldn’t get too heated. He decided to steer the conversation away from the current depressing topic. “Did your folks make it out of the city okay last weekend?”

Phantasia’s eyes softened and she nodded. “They’re settling into Glenville very well,” she said. “The ponies there are all really nice and not like most of those throughout Equestria. I helped them move there, and it’s a nice hidden valley. Of course, if you don’t mind most of the ponies having Trotland accents,” she added with a chuckle.

“Aye dinna mind a Trotland accent, lassie,” he said in his pitifully pathetic Trotland accent.

She snorted and began to chortle. “Don’t make me snort coffee out my nose, sir,” she said between laughs.

“Sorry,” he said, slipping back into his native accent. “I’m glad they’re doing alright. I hear Glenville is a sheep town?”

“The ponies and sheep there have a profitable relationship,” Phantasia said with a nod. “The sheep’s wool is some of the best around, and the ponies there are some excellent clothing makers. They mostly do everything by hoof.”

“I own a Glenville sweater,” Rocky said. “It was expensive, but it’s my favorite sweater. I hope your parents fit in there and find a great way to put their skills to use.”

“Don’t worry about that, sir,” Phantasia replied. “They’ll be opening a new bed and breakfast soon enough, although I suspect it’ll be more about breakfast than bed,” she added with a chuckle.

“One of these days, I’ll visit that town,” he said, “maybe in a couple years when I’m not in office anymore.”

“Sir, my parents like you,” Phantasia said, “and I’m sure they’d love to see you again sooner than that.”

“Well, until things settle down, I can’t,” Rocky said, belatedly kicking himself for inadvertently bringing the subject back to the topic he’d been hoping to avoid. “But someday, yes. I’d like to go to Glenville. Maybe I can buy some more clothes there. My sweater is getting a bit old and worn, so perhaps I can get it repaired there and buy some more.”

She was about to reply, when a pegasus came walking through the outer office door. He was a younger messenger, and judging by how the young stallion was panting, he had come here in a hurry. Rocky vaguely recognized him as Hurried Tone, one of Manehattan’s fastest couriers. “Mr…hah…mayor sir…” he panted, completely out of breath.

“Easy there,” Rocky said as he quickly poured the stallion a glass of water. “Drink this.”

The pegasus downed not one, not two, but three glasses of water before he could calm down enough to speak. “Message from the Broncs, sir,” he said, referring to a poorer part of Manehattan, “there’s been an attack.”

“Shit…” Rocky slipped into his natural affinity for cursing, a rarity among ponies, and something he normally kept in check. “What happened?”

Hurried and Phantasia both had their ears down at the cursing, but that didn’t stop Hurried from making his report. According to him, there had been a peaceful protest led by one of the more prominent branch members of the True Harmonists named Peaches ‘n Cream when a group of the conservative counter protestors, who called themselves True Keepers of Equestria, or simply Keepers, began heckling Peaches. The earth pony was undeterred and kept on giving her speech until she was struck by a large rock which gave her a gash that sent her immediately to a hospital. This caused the Harmonists and Keepers to get into a brawl, with the latter attacking the Harmonists harshly. The local police and even the guard had gotten involved and had made a mass arrest, most being Keepers, although a few of the more rambunctious Harmonists had been arrested as well. More than one pony was in the hospital, most being Harmonists who had defended their own.

Rocky could feel a massive headache coming on as he quickly finished his coffee. His stomach twisted into knots. “I swear to Mother Erda,” he muttered, before turning to Hurried. “Nopony’s died, have they?”

“None of the injuries are fatal, Mr. Mayor,” the pegasus said.

“That’s good at least,” he said in relief. “The Manhattan Times is gonna have a field day with this one,” he said, the headache only increasing in intensity as he imagined what the older and more conservative newspaper would say and how it might twist the incident in their favor. “Is there anything else?”

“Not that I know of, sir,” Hurried said.

“I need you to go back and bring me as much information as you are able,” Rocky said. “I have a feeling I’ll be getting on the radio later today to give a statement about this attack.”

Hurried gave a salute, then flew away before Rocky could say anything. Rocky watched from the window as Hurried went through the dedicated balcony reserved for pegasus couriers and flew away, heading towards the hospital. He put a hoof to his temple, trying to massage the ever increasing headache. He was so lost in thought about what he would have to say when he would address the public that he didn’t notice Phantasia walking next to him, standing in solidarity next to her boss. When he finally did notice her, it was because she placed a small but damp and cold towel against his forehead. “Thanks,” he said, pressing the towel hard against his head.

“You gonna be okay, sir?” she asked.

“No,” he sighed as he stepped away from the window and turned back to his office. “I’ll be in my office. If any of the newspapers call, tell them our office has no official statement yet but will in the coming hours.”

“Yes sir,” she said as she returned to her desk, where coincidentally the phone was just beginning to ring.

Rocky closed the door to his office, then sat down, grabbed a paper and a pencil. This was going to be a long day…

The mournful stratadon lay its-no, her-head into the lap of her mother. The elder earth pony mare, Golden Jubilee, stroked her daughter, who had once been Cherry Jubilee, as the large reptilian shed a few tears. “Let it all out, my little filly,” Golden said.

The stratadon that had once been her daughter opened her mouth to speak, but all that came out were mournful growls. Even though Golden knew that her daughter’s personality was still there, hearing a predatorial growl still made the older pony nervous. She pushed down her natural instinct to flee. Her daughter needed her comfort now, more than ever.

It had been a long week since the mysterious alicorn had appeared and did this to most of the town excluding foals and a few ponies, and the town had been quarantined by the Equestrian Guard, with food having to be delivered by courier services. Now that the majority of the town needed meat to survive healthily, fish and other seafood had been delivered to the town. There were a few holdouts who refused to eat anything and had tried to stick to their old pony diets. Those holdouts had all sadly died. It had taken all of Golden’s strength to force her daughter not to become one of the dead.

“Everything will be okay,” Golden assured her daughter, hoping to soothe Cherry’s broken heart. “The one who did this will be found and this transformation will be reversed, you’ll see. Just hang in there.”

Golden thought back to that day where the mystery alicorn had appeared, but focused on something else. The black clad human who had been with her. She knew what a human was, but the fact that this creature looked familiar to her had bugged her until Princess Luna made an announcement to the town regarding him. Then Golden remembered the day two years ago where the vast majority of the town had chased out what they had described as a monster in a growling machine. Now it was clear that her daughter had led a mob to chase Erda’s second human out of town into the neighboring Badlands where he would have surely died.

Cherry made a mournful noise and covered her eyes with her claws. Golden continued comforting her. After a bit, Cherry reached out, grasped a large piece of paper and a piece of large graphite that all of the newly transformed ponies used to communicate. I hate this, Cherry wrote, I’m nothing but a monster!

“You’re not a monster,” Golden chided her daughter gently, “you’re still you.”

Cherry growled in frustration, and replied But I am a monster! I have to eat meat and can’t even talk!

“Dragons and gryphons eat meat,” Golden reminded her, “does that make them monsters?” Golden actually had known a couple of dragons in her time, and despite the nasty stereotypes about them, the two young adult dragons she’d met had actually challenged her perceptions on other species. She’d met a few other races who had passed through their town over the years, including a few gryphons, diamond dogs, and an abyssinian or two.

They can talk!

“The ability to speak does not make one intelligent,” Golden replied, using a mantra that she had learned from a wandering pony mage. “Cherry, listen to me. This alicorn who did this to you could have done a lot worse. She could have killed you. She could have changed you into a small insect, or into stone. Remember what Princess Luna said? Apparently, this alicorn was punishing the guilty who chased that other human out of town.”

Cherry lowered her head. I was just protecting the town, she hesitantly wrote.

“I wasn’t there when it happened, but was that human hostile?” Golden asked. Instead of writing anything, Cherry sniffed, a tear forming in her eyes as she shook her head. “Then why are you giving that excuse?”

I don’t know! We couldn’t take that chance!

Golden shook her head in disappointment. “Cherry Jubilee, I love you, I really do, but you chased out someone who didn’t act like he wanted to hurt anypony in town. You didn’t give him a chance to explain. Now, I’ll be here to offer you support in this trying time, but despite me agreeing that this alicorn went too far, you should take this as a lesson. You and the others are still alive. You’re still yourselves!”

Cherry looked down, and even though Golden couldn’t really read the body language of her daughter too well, the look in her eyes was one she knew well. A scolded foal who had learned her lesson. She grabbed the piece of graphite. How can I say sorry to the human? Cherry asked, looking at her mother with a pleading look in her eyes.

Golden inwardly smiled. Her daughter could learn her lesson when she needed to, and that encouraged the older mare. “I think if you meet him, a simple ‘I’m sorry’ is a good start-”

She was cut off when Cherry began to glow the same color she and the others in town had when they had transformed. Cherry began to make confused noises, then they turned to fearful ones. She fell onto the ground and the light surrounding her. Golden covered her eyes as the light became overwhelming. The roars of her daughter quickly turned to screams. Screams in Cherry’s old voice. The sound of magic quickly overwhelmed the screams until both were instantly cut off. At the same time, the light vanished. When she looked back, Golden gasped in shock.

Her daughter had transformed again, but not back into a pony. Instead, a pale bipedal creature lay on the ground with dark brown hair that had some lighter brown streaks through it. She was lying on her back, eyes clenched shut and body trembling. She looked like a human, but since Golden didn’t know what a human mare looked like, she wasn’t sure. Still, the features were unmistakable.

Cherry opened her eyes, and the moment Golden saw the green orbs, she knew this was her daughter. “Ow…” Cherry moaned, “my body hurts…”

“Don’t move too much, honey,” Golden said, ignoring the shock that her daughter was talking again, “I’ll get you some water. Don’t open your eyes, either.”

“Okay…” Cherry said. When Golden returned with a glass of water in her hoof, she lifted her daughter to a sitting position and leaned her against the nearby couch before lifting the glass to her lips. “Open up and drink,” she said.

Cherry did so, swallowing the entire glass. Golden refilled the glass, and Cherry downed it as well. After the third one, Cherry nodded. “That’s enough, thanks mom.”

“Of course, dear,” Golden said. “Is the pain going away?”

“Yeah…” Cherry said. “I’m just tired now. Just like last time.”

“Well, when the pain goes away, I’ll help you to bed so you can rest, okay?” Golden reassured her

“What do I look like?” Cherry asked. “I know I’m not a pony still. There’s two large weights on my upper body.” She pointed her head down to the two large lumps on her upper body, which looked like teats of some sort.

Golden debated whether or not it was a good idea to tell her daughter about her new form in her current state of mind. She decided that Cherry needed rest. “You need to sleep first,” Golden insisted. “I’ll tell you when you’re rested, okay?”

“Is it that bad?” Cherry sounded fearful now.

“You can talk, and you’re alive,” Golden said, “focus on that.”

Cherry shivered and seemingly by instinct wrapped her two new arms around her midsection. “At least I’m not a mon-…whatever I was,” she corrected.

“Stratadon,” Golden replied as she picked up a blanket and wrapped it around Cherry. “Here, you don’t have fur right now.”

Cherry let her mother wrap her in the blanket. “That blanket feels…scratchy,” she said as she wriggled underneath it.

“You have skin instead of fur,” Golden said. “Hold on, and I’ll get you onto your bed.”

It took about ten minutes of careful maneuvering, but eventually Cherry was carefully draped over Golden’s back. Golden noted that Cherry, despite being taller than her old form, was lighter. Eventually, Cherry was lying down in her bed, which she noted would have to be extended since Cherry barely fit in it, all the while, the new human had trusted her mother not to open her eyes. When she was in bed and covered up, she finally opened her eyes and looked around. “This is…weird,” she said, blinking a bit. “Whatever I am now, I can’t see as much as I can normally, but the colors are…enhanced? Clearer? Not as faded? And things look a lot crisper.” She turned to Golden. “You can tell me now. I can take it.”

“You really should rest-” Golden began.

“Mom, please,”

Golden took a deep breath. “You’re…I think you’re a human mare now.”

Instead of the fearful look on her face that Golden was expecting, Cherry threw back her head and actually laughed. “Of course I am,” she said after a while, moving her new hand to examine it. “I wish I had my fur color as a skin color, but I guess that’d be too much to ask for.” She let her hand fall to her side and looked over at Golden. “I don’t know what humans eat,” she admitted as she ran her tongue over her new teeth, “but I doubt they can eat hay. Can I have some cherries when I wake up?”

“I’ll bake a cherry pie for you,” Golden promised, reaching up and putting her hoof in Cherry’s new hand, causing her daughter to clench around it with her new fingers.

“Thanks…” Cherry said tiredly as she closed her eyes, her grip going slack as she immediately fell asleep.

Golden closed the curtains to the room to let her rest in peace, then walked to the kitchen to get started on making the cherry pie. However, five minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Pausing her preparations, she walked to the door and opened it, finding one of the guards left behind by Princess Luna. She knew the guard as Sergeant Wild Ace, a pegasus in charge of the small contingent left behind. He was young but serious, a light orange pegasus with yellow tipped wings and dark green mane and tail. His cutie mark was a stylized cloud with wind blowing from it. “Sergeant? Is something wrong?”

“I’m not sure yet,” Wild said. “Did something happen here recently?”

Golden briefly considered lying, but figured that was futile, so she nodded. “My daughter changed form into something else a few minutes ago,” she said. “Before you come in,” she added quickly before Wild could take another step, “she’s asleep and I don’t want her to be disturbed. Remember what happened when the town fell asleep last time”

Wild Ace nodded, and Golden saw a very slight shudder run down the stallion’s back. “What did she change into?” he asked.

Again, she knew it would be stupid to lie, but she decided to push it a bit. “I think she became a human mare, or female or whatever they’re called,” Golden said, sounding unsure, “but I don’t know what they look like.”

“A human…” Wild said thoughtfully. “I see.”

She looked past him. The town looked like it had for the past few days, quiet and almost deserted. “Has something happened?” she asked the pegasus.

“This is the fifth transformation in the past few hours,” Wild explained. “The other four stratadons changed into humans.”

“Only five?” Golden was confused. “Why?”

“We’re not sure,” Wild admitted. “What was she doing when she transformed, or did you see it?”

“We were talking about recent events,” Golden replied.

“Anything specific?” Golden relayed the conversation to the sergeant. He listened and nodded, then when she finished, he let out a deep breath. “Interesting…”

“Sergeant? What’s going on?” Golden asked.

“I don’t know for sure,” he replied, “I’m not much of a magic expert. We did receive a report that the alicorn made a move on Maretime Bay, transforming many of those ponies into humans flat out.”

That shocked Golden. “Not stratadons?” she asked.

“Nope,” Wild said, “just transformed almost all of the adults there into humans.”

Golden took in this information with even more confusion. “I see,” was all she could say. “So why are five ponies now humans?”

“We have a theory, but we need to confirm it,” Wild said. “Is your daughter okay otherwise? She can talk now?”

“Aside from probably needing some clothes to cover her new skin, she’s sleeping peacefully like I said,” Golden said.

“Good,” Wild said. “If that’s the case, do you think we can relocate the hay she’s been using to the others?”

Golden nodded. Since stratadons were larger than even humans, beds were impractical, so unfortunately they had to sleep outside on beds of hay. It wasn’t ideal but there wasn’t much else that could be done until some more permanent solution could be figured out. “Go ahead. She can fit in her old bed.”

“So can the others,” Wild said. “Thank you. If you think of anything that might be helpful to the situation, please let me or somepony else know.”

“Of course, sergeant,” Golden said.

Wild gave her a smile, but Golden could see just how tired the poor young stallion was. “See you later, Ms. Jubilee,” he said as he gave her a slight bow.

“See you,” Golden said as the two went their separate ways.

In the Maretime Bay town hall, a large number of ponies turned humans sat on the ground, each of them wearing some hastily made clothing. Without their fur, the new humans had to wear something to cover their extremities. They were not the best, but since it was summer, they didn’t need much. They also needed some sort of foot covering because their new feet were more sensitive to the roads. Already there had been injuries thanks to their inexperience with their new bodies, there hadn’t been anything too serious.

Standing next to a pony guard who was there to provide support should she fall, former mayor of Ponyville Ivory Scroll stood at an impromptu podium, looking over the large crowd of humans and the few ponies remaining. She wasn’t really the mayor of the town anymore, but in the emergency that had struck their town, she had stepped up to try and use her talent to figure out next steps in their lives, especially if this was a permanent change.

“Hello, everypony,” Ivory said, her hands gripping the sides of the podium tightly, “I know you didn’t quite expect to see me again, and I understand that. I’m not here to pretend to be a mayor, but I’m here to try and help keep everypony from panicking too much.”

When nopony spoke, Ivory breathed a sigh of relief and brushed her now naturally silver hair back with her hand. “I won’t lie, this will take a long time to adjust to, especially if it’s permanent, but things will have to change.”

“And why should we listen to you?” a random voice called out. “You were involved in chasing that human away, too!”

Ivory looked down in shame. She had been one of the first to turn Jason Wright away two years ago when he had come to her office to find a job. It was one of her biggest mistakes, and it was one she could never apologize to him for. “I won’t ever deny that,” she said, looking back out at the crowd. “I rejected a creature in need when I should have helped him.”

“This is all those damned Element’s fault!” another voice shouted angrily. “They chased him out first!”

“No, it’s that former princess of friendships’ fault!” yet another voice shouted in rage.

“Everypony please-” Ivory held up her hands to try and get the crowd’s attention.

“If they didn’t hurt the human, we wouldn’t be here!”

“That lighthouse hermit should have known better!”

Normally, in a situation like this, Ivory would have felt helpless, but something inside her ignited. She felt anger unlike anything she had felt before bubble up. Bringing up her hand, she seemed to instinctively ball it into a fist. Walking down to the human who had started the argument, she brought her new fist back and slammed it right into the male human’s face. Not only did this send him sprawling, but it got the attention of the others. The room was silent as an incredibly furious Ivory Scroll panted heavily. Her mane-hair-was a bit out of place, her eyes wide, heart beating, and her teeth clenched. “Shut. The. Fuck. UP!” she bellowed, reaching down and grabbing the shirt that the human male wore. She brought him up and moved him towards another wall, slamming him against it. “We ALL caused this! All of us who became human CAUSED HIM TO COMMIT SUICIDE!”

The human male, who she couldn’t remember, had his eyes wide in stunned silence. His mouth was hung open and there was a look of fear in his eyes. When he did get his voice back, he stammered out, “B-But they started-”

“If you dare say they started it, then go back to kindergarten, you son of a whorse!” Ivory growled, throwing the human male down hard and standing over him in what felt menacing. “It doesn’t matter who started it! We continued it, and that makes us worse! It means we couldn’t think for ourselves! It means we were fools!” She brought up a foot, making as if to stomp on the human, who flinched. For a few tense seconds, there was silence. Finally, she lowered her leg, strode back over to the podium, and looked at the crowd. “Now then, are you all going to stop acting like a bunch of foals and put the blame on everypony else but yourselves, or are you-GAH!”

Ivory stopped and fell to her knees, holding her head as she felt something within her change again. When she had become a human, she felt her natural earth pony ability vanish. Sure, there was the fact that she had some new senses and could see differently than she had before in a few good ways, but she felt powerless. There was something missing from her senses ever since she woke up as a human female.

She heard the sound of magic being cast, and a part of her tried to figure out where it was coming from. It took her a few seconds to realize it was coming from her. The sound increased and she put her hands to her new unexpressive ears, trying to block out the sound. It worked for a brief moment before the sound grew louder. Finally, when she was afraid that her eardrums would burst, the sound cut out. Slowly, she removed her hands from her ears, nervously opening her eyes.

“Miss Scroll, are you alright?” the member of the Royal Guard asked, approaching her carefully.

“Yes, I think so,” she said, sticking one finger in her ear in an attempt to get the ringing to subside. It quickly went away and she shakily stood. “What on Erda just happened? Did I transform?”

“Not that I can see,” the guard said. “You still look the same.”

That’s strange, Ivory thought. She thought for a brief moment that she felt some of her earth pony magic return to her-

She froze. It wasn’t a temporary feeling. Aside from her new human body, her connection to the earth was back. She looked down, then grabbed the podium, lifted a leg, and brought it down towards the ground. The ground around her foot cracked like it would had she been a pony. She looked back at the guard. “I still look the same, you said?”

“Yes, Ms. Scroll,” the guard said.

She nodded, suddenly feeling tired. “I’m going to…go home and rest,” she said before turning to the crowd. “Sorry for leaving early. Just…think about what I said. You all know I’m right. Start admitting it to yourselves.” With that, she turned and left the building, helped by another Royal Guard.

It took her a little while longer than usual to get home because of how increasingly tired she was feeling, but eventually she walked into her new house and collapsed into bed, barely having enough energy to pull the covers over her body before she passed out into a dreamless sleep.