"We hereby call this council to order!" Princess Luna announced, and the room fell silent.

Myself and all the named ponies I recognized were seated around the large round table in the center of the conference room, while several more official-looking ponies stood around the perimeter. Princesses Celestia and Luna sat at the 'head' of the table in tall chairs themed with their respective cutie marks. Luna seemed to be the one taking charge and leading the meeting. Celestia... was looking morose, and avoiding making eye contact with just about anyone in the room.

I was seated over on the Canterlot Princesses' left, situated in the middle of Derpy and Moondancer on my left and Trixie and Spitfire on my right next to Luna. Then, from right to left, the seating order went: Lyra and Bon Bon, Cadance and Shining Armor, and then Princess Twilight and the Elements of Harmony. The Elements were basically sitting directly across from my Normal Pervert Squad. (When had I started calling it that on a regular basis?)

"Now then," Luna spoke, her voice projecting easily to all corners of the room. "We have two agenda items to cover this eve. The first item is... not quite a protected secret. It would be greatly preferable not to spread it around, but we will not issue any gag order or the like. The second item, however, is one of the gravest secrets we possess. There is a plan in motion to declassify it for the rest of Equestria and the world, but you will be forbidden from speaking to anyone else about it until that timetable is complete. If you dare, you may be liable under the law. Any civilians in the room who are not comfortable with that may leave now."

No response. The room had quickly filled with a quiet tension, everyone holding their breath.

"I should also say that the topics we shall cover will go into graphic detail. If you are not comfortable with that, you may also leave."

Fluttershy moved to cover her eyes. "W-Will there be any b-blood...?"

Luna shook her head. "No, no gore. Just sex. But graphic and extreme detail of sex." This caused some of the castle staff members in the room to gasp and mumble in surprise. This had to be quite a turnaround from business as usual in Celestia's palace, no doubt.

To my surprise, Fluttershy slowly lowered her hands. "Oh. Um... okay then."

The Princess of the Night looked around the room. No one else raised objections or vacated their position. "Then I take everypony's continued presence as assent. We shall begin." Luna rose from her seat and gestured over to where I sat. "Agenda item number 1: Pascal, the Avatar of Acceptance."

I stood, with a bashful look on my face. There were murmurs from the ponies that were unfamiliar with me, broken up by the Princess of Friendship saying, "WwwwwwWHAT?!"

"Yes, Princess Twilight, we will get to that," Luna responded calmly. "For those who aren't yet aware, a summary: 29 days prior, a freak casting caused by a discharge from the arcanosphere brought this human, Pascal Zenovich, from his home planet of Earth. He was promptly taken to Ponyville General Hospital to be quarantined, treated for his injuries, and to run a battery of physical and psychological tests on him to ensure he would not be an immediate threat to ponykind. After a week's stay, he was made the ward of Princess Twilight, and given shared residence with Ponyville citizens Lyra and Bon Bon.

"That is when the trouble began two-fold. The first problem was that, as some of you know, what little the public knows about humans paints them as evil. We know now that Pascal is categorically not the same kind of human as from our past, merely biologically similar, but at the time the Crown was not sure enough to make a public statement. So resentment was allowed to grow. The second problem was Pascal himself. Being a red-blooded male of his species, with an active libido, finding himself in a world where every citizen's... sexual characteristics were so pronounced... Well, despite his efforts, he could not conceal his base reactions, and tensions between him and the citizenry grew.

"These tensions came to a head late Wednesday night. After an unfortunate encounter with a local flower shop owner, a great portion of the town's population worked into a frenzy. They mobbed Pascal and drove him to Princess Twilight's castle. The situation was dire..."

Twilight grumbled, "And then Discord happened." Her eyes had been narrowing this whole time.

"Yes," Luna said, "Discord appeared before them and offered a solution. Pascal was a magicless creature, so it might be possible to implant a cutie mark, a cosmic concept, into his being with the same modified spell of Star Swirl's that previously led to Twilight's ascension. Discord proposed that the concept be that of one of his counterparts: Embodying that which is normal, acceptable, inoffensive. Given little other option than letting Pascal be run out of town, Twilight accepted and cast the spell."

Twilight raised her hand. "It wasn't just like that!" she protested. "There were risks involved. I made sure Pascal was aware of those risks before I cast that spell on him."

"A good point, Twilight. Taking this pony concept into himself threatened to transform Pascal into the most normal, acceptable, and inoffensive pony in both body and mind. But that is not what happened. At least not at first. The spell appeared to work as intended – the mob lost their ire, and Pascal was allowed to return to his regular life, without offending the townsfolk with his occasional glances. But he quickly learned that wasn't all the spell had done."

At the other end of the table, Princess Twilight buried her face in her hands. I could barely hear her mutter, "Oh no..." Smart as she was, she'd probably worked out where Luna was heading with all this. I had to wonder if at least some part of her had suspected the possibility the whole time.

"The spell did not just make Pascal 'normal' enough to get by. It made everything he says and does normal. With a few exceptions, he can do anything he wants, and no magical creature in this world would bat an eye."

My hands clenched. A few whispers echoed around the room, but most eyes were just focused on me, studying me. Scrutinizing me. Derpy reached over and placed her hand on mine in support.

I braced myself and stood up. "Actually, it's not quite that simple...? It's kind of a complicated power."

Luna nodded. "Yes, you would know more about the particulars than anyone. Why don't you explain–"

"WAIT A FFFF- gosh darn second!" Rainbow Dash shouted, springing into the air and angrily pointing at me. "You! You made me do the... thing! You made them do those... things! You're a mind-controller!!"

A little ways to my right, Spitfire chuckled and kicked back in her chair. "She finally figured it out."

"Shut up..." I muttered back, sick and tired of her antics at the moment.

"Yes, Master," she replied with a knowing grin.

"Oh, you are so not helping!"

Applejack slammed her hands on the table (making it visibly wobble a little with her strength) and stood up too. "The party. That whole party was your idea, wasn't it?!"

"I don't get it..." Pinkie Pie placed her hands on the sides of her head. "Wait, I DO get it??"

Rarity said nothing, but just stared at me in wide-eyed suspicion. Fluttershy's mouth fell half-open in shock. Twilight Sparkle, arms over her head, looked like she wanted to burrow into the table and establish a new Princessdom of the Mole People beneath the conference room. Bon Bon fixed me with a familiar glare. Lyra looked confused at everyone's reactions. Cadance was remarkably calm, a hand under her chin. Shining Armor glared at me with his arms folded, but seemed to be keeping control of himself. "I assume," the former Canterlot Captain of the Guard said aloud, "there's a reason we haven't turned him to stone already?"

Luna sighed at the chaos of the room. "Yes, there is. If I may have order..."

"What possible ffffriggin' reason could there be?!" Rainbow Dash shouted, apparently trying not to swear in front of the Princesses.

"Cease!"

I covered my ringing ears too late to protect them from the Royal Canterlot Voice. The room fell silent.

"The reason," Luna stated firmly, "will be covered in agenda item number 2. For now, let me say this: When Pascal and Celestia confronted each other Saturday night... he proved he had the morality to use his power responsibly, somewhat, and proved its worth as a power to heal, not just to control. ...Equestria can benefit from someone who can break through certain social barriers. And Pascal has agreed to use his powers for good. Much like the Spirit of Chaos, Discord."

"We have a counterspell for Discord," Shining Armor pointed out, "in case he tries to go rogue again. What's the backup plan for this guy?"

"We are... working on it," Luna hesitantly replied.

"Harmony."

All eyes turned to Princess Celestia, who was looking at the wall with her chin resting on her fist.

Without looking at anyone, she said, "If Pascal's actions threaten the balance of Harmony... no amount of Normality or Acceptance will protect him. The Rainbow Power within the Elements of Harmony will empower them to act, with immunity. As for what happens to Pascal after that, whether he's turned to stone or banished or transformed... I cannot say for sure."

Once again, Celestia managed to find a way to chill my blood when she wanted to. "Was... Was that a thing the whole time?" I mumbled. The Princess looked at me out of the corner of her eye and nodded stiffly.

Princess Twilight stood up. "That's for the end-of-the-world scenario. But what about all the things he's done up 'til now? Without us even realizing that we were under his influence?!" Oh shit, she was getting mad now.

"Yeah!" Rainbow Dash called out, gently flapping back down towards her seat. All of Twilight's other friends also voiced their agreement. Almost all of them, anyway.

Luna placed her hands on the table and leaned forward. "At this point, I should bring up something important. Pascal remained human, not a pony, after Twilight's spell because he specifically resisted, perhaps with Discord's advice. But the original spell resurged in its original purpose within a day, and continued to threaten him all through Sunday morning. Pascal was given very good reason to believe that his very mind, body, and soul was under attack unless he persistently did abnormal things – like public sex. So while yes, his actions can be attributed to perverted desires open to a lack of consequence, they were also driven by a sense that he had mere days or hours left to live. He was checking off his 'bucket list,' as the saying goes. Under those circumstances, we might consider ourselves lucky for what respect he showed and how little lasting damage he caused during those three days."

At this point, Cadance gestured something to her husband, and Shining Armor helped her (and all her wobbling assets) stand up.

"So let me get this straight," the Princess of Love addressed the room. She waved over at me with her free arm. "This young stallion- er, man... He's a social pariah for weeks, and then suddenly gets a semi-godlike power that lets him influence people, fulfill his desires?" And then she shrugged and smiled. "Yeah, I'd say anyone in that situation would go a little crazy."

The entire room broke out into confusion, including me. Was Cadance actually coming to my defense?!

"They're growing pains," Cadance continued. "When we find out we are capable of something new and exciting, it's natural to push our limits to the point of being a little reckless and dangerous. I mean, let me ask the unicorns in the room: How many of you went overboard once you learned how to use a growth spell, hmmm?"

Not all of the unicorns blushed and turned their heads, but it sure was most of them. Twilight, Rarity, Moondancer... Shining Armor even, and Luna too... Lyra... Well, Lyra was just grinning widely, and Bon Bon was rolling her eyes at her marefriend.

Satisfied, Cadance said, "Now, this is definitely bigger than that, since it involved other people. And if anyone's been hurt, I think it's Pascal's responsibility to give reparations, absolutely. But I think it's also important for those ponies, who were involved, to reflect on the personal reasons for why they followed along. Because it's not an absolute mind-control power, right? It just makes him normal. So everyone who chose to interact with him in the ways he asked had some kind of internal reasoning. Maybe not a healthy reason, and if so that's even more worth reflecting on, but you can't just write it all off as brainwashing and call it a day."

Princess Twilight looked up at her sister-in-law with a bewildered, and even mildly hurt, expression. "Cadance..."

"I am not saying that the blame should be shifted from Pascal to the ponies he engaged with. He should absolutely take responsibility for everything he did. But I agree with Luna – we should consider those first few days as magical growing pains. Those days would have been filled with some kind of strife and chaos no matter what. And if he's standing here now, ready to come clean, make amends, and help out in the future... Then we should take that as a sign that he's maturing, and getting used to his new powers. There should be honest and tough dialogue between him and whoever he's wronged, but..." Cadance smirked a little at me. "I mean, would he be standing there letting us judge him if he was intending to mind-control us all?"

"Certainly sounds like he's mind-controllin' you," Applejack muttered, sitting back down with her arms folded under her plaid-covered mega-mammaries. "He doesn't even need to say anythin'; it's just an aura, right?"

"Well, let's just say I still have my own personal reasons," Cadance answered mysteriously.

Shining Armor looked skeptically at his wife. "Seriously?" he muttered, just barely quiet enough for me to hear.

"C'mon," Cadance replied at a similar volume, "you know where I'm coming from on this."

Shining blinked. "What? No, this is nothing like 'that.'"

"This is exactly like 'that.'" What were they talking about?

Princess Cadance and Shining Armor sat back down. Luna let out a breath and glanced over at me. "Pascal, you were about to explain the particulars of how your power works."

"R-Right..." I shifted my weight from side to side, working out the soreness in my legs from standing in fear for so long. Everyone in the room watched me with their own unique mixture of expectation, confusion, and contempt. It took me a few moments to find my words. "Um. So... It makes everything I say and do seem normal. It doesn't always make what I say and do uninteresting... not always. It just means I toss up way, way fewer red flags. But it also depends on the person... er, pony, whatever. There's no such thing as a perfect blanket change I can make. Everyone reacts a little differently. The ways ponies process the dialogue of ideas, logic, emotion; that's still intact. I've just changed my side of the equation, to be more... neutral, I guess. No matter what I say. ...Oh, and I can give permission to others to do abnormal things, like... go around nude, for instance..."

"Speak up, Pascal, you are mumbling," Luna said.

"Sorry! Um, so there are three major limitations to my power that I know of so far! First is cutie marks. I can't convince anyone to go against their destiny, their core identity. I can't tell Celestia to give up control of the sun and have her think that's in any way a good, normal idea. I can't tell Pinkie Pie to stop throwing parties."

"Heck no you can't!" Pinkie called out.

"Trixie's illusionist show. Lyra's music. Applejack's love for her farm and family. I am absolutely blocked on all of these fronts. Admittedly, I can attempt to talk around them, but that's honestly... dangerous to me."

Across the table, Applejack frowned further and raised an eyebrow at me. "How the heck do you know what my cutie mark represents? Don't recall tellin' ya."

Don't say Season 1 Episode 23. Don't say Season 1 Episode 23. "Well, you're the Elements of Harmony, your cutie mark stories are practically legend," I fibbed quickly. "I don't remember who I heard it from."

"The second limitation, Pascal," Luna reminded me.

"Yeah, uh, related to the first one, it's basically 'core values.'" I made a point of looking more or less directly at Rarity as I said this. "Even if I'm normal, there are still some things you deeply care about, that you'd rather I didn't trample over. I'm not as strongly blocked as I am with cutie mark stuff, but... I've learned to look out for it."

Rarity's eyes widened, and her head tilted down and to the side in thought.

Looking around at the rest of the room, I put on a nervous smile and said, "And it's like you guys all... being mad at potentially being mind-controlled, heh heh... If this power worked perfectly, eventually you'd just brush this off because it's me..."

"Eventually we will," Moondancer spoke up near me. She stood up. "For those who are objecting or voicing concerns, the power is still working on them. It does not stop. It has no maximum range. Resisting may force it to take a while, but it will win in the end. It'll push you towards a conclusion in your own words that favors Pascal. ...Whether it's totally sane or not." The bookworm sat back down. The tension in the room ratcheted up a couple of notches.

I clenched my fists on the table and glowered at the surface. "Yeah, that's the part that fucking sucks..." I half-muttered. First Moondancer, then Celestia, and now there was a whole table of ponies who were being told the truth, a good portion of whom were going to be angry and resistant. How much more complicated was it going to get with all of them?

"I... suppose that would explain some of the more extreme reactions," Luna said cautiously. Had that little tidbit been news to her, too? "If that is indeed the case, we should perhaps endeavor to keep this more of a secret as well, to at least spare other ponies this sort of... crisis. And the third limitation?"

I sighed. Now that I had been reminded of my power's worst flaw, most of my energy had left me. "In a word, 'logistics.' If you're an expert in your field and I try to convince you something's a good idea when it's just not practical, you're gonna disagree. That's that."

"Very well." Luna nodded and rolled her shoulders. "There you have it. You know of Pascal's powers and how they came to be. I sense that all of you could use some time to digest this. We will take a five-minute break – you may not leave the room, but you may deliberate among yourselves and ask us questions. Starting now."

My heart skipped a beat as the room got into motion. Rainbow Dash rolled up her sleeve like she was going to sock me across the jaw, but Pinkie Pie grabbed her and started talking into her ear. Shining Armor whispered to his wife and watched me out of the corners of his eyes. Twilight Sparkle got up and immediately marched over to Celestia. Applejack organized the other five girls into a quick huddle. The other staff ponies in the room got some distance from me, as though to get away from my corrupting influence.

Moondancer scooched her chair back and looked up at me. "Sorry for raining on your parade," she apologized.

I turned around, bracing against the edge of the conference table, and shook my head. "Nah. It needed to come out. ...Fuck, though. "

Lyra and Bon Bon got up and walked around to face me. The green unicorn mare looked a little bit distraught. "So..." she said, "you and me... Was that...?"

I gave her a pitying look. "No, that..." I thought about it for a moment. "I want to believe that was all you, but that my power made it acceptable for you to ask. And to do it."

Lyra's face softened in relief. "You mean... so that ponies don't think I'm a freak for having, um, done it with you?"

"Yeah. It's not like I put the idea in your head. At least I don't think I did..." I blinked, and then facepalmed. "Wait, shit. The bench in the park. When I asked you to imagine something you wouldn't normally do."

Bon Bon's eyes narrowed. "And when you told Lyra she could masturbate. And we helped her 'finish.'"

Trixie, Moondancer, and Derpy looked among themselves awkwardly. Spitfire looked away and stifled her laughter behind her hand.

"Yeah, okay, so..." Lyra's head bobbed back and forth as she worked out the series of events. "I came up with that idea, and your power was on at the time, so when we were alone that night, the power helped me think it was okay? Is that about right?"

"Pretty much..."

Lyra nodded. "Okay. so it was definitely your influence, but I still brought a lot to the table. Basically what you said about how the whole thing works, right? It's a two-way street."

I nodded back.

Then Bon Bon dropped the other shoe. "So what happened at the station..."

I hung my head and said, "Like I said before, anger and malice."

The cream-colored earth pony put her hands on her hips and frowned at me for a long, long moment. I couldn't really make eye contact with her. Then she let out a groan and said, "That's why you apologized ahead of time. Ugh, Pascal..." She sighed and rubbed her temples. "You're pushing it now, but I guess I still accept your apology."

"I know..." I mumbled pathetically, still looking away. "Thanks anyway."

The two marefriends walked away, and Derpy looked up at me with those big yellow derped-up eyes. "You okay, Pasky?"

"I'm really not, actually," I admitted. I looked back over my shoulder at the Mane Five huddle-group, catching one of them occasionally looking my way every so often. To say nothing of the other critical eyes in the room constantly trained on me. "That whole 'resistance equals crazier rationalizations' thing... We just set that in motion, and I don't know how to stop it." I looked down at my hand and shaped it into a snapping position with my thumb and middle finger. "I guess I could make everyone in the room immune..."

Trixie stood up abruptly and grabbed my wrist. "Don't... do that. Turning it completely off and on causes more trouble than it solves. You'd be making the problem even worse."

"And some of these ponies look out to get you if it weren't for the whole 'it'd be rude' thing," Spitfire pointed out, leaning back in her chair.

"But what am I supposed to do?" I asked urgently. "I mean, it worked for you three, right? Trixie, Dancer, and Derpy are immune right now."

Spitfire's chair dropped back onto four legs. "The fuck you say? Why wasn't I included?"

"I'm not," Derpy said suddenly.

The four of us all looked at the gray pegasus.

"I mean, it's different on me. All of the positivity, none of the deception. You tweaked it in my case, remember?" Derpy grabbed my other hand and lifted it so it clasped my snapping hand. "Maybe you could tweak the general aura the same way?"

I stared wide-eyed at my hands and remembered. "That's right... The power's fully integrated now. I'm... I'm mastering it. It responds to my words... Maybe..."

Moondancer gasped and stood up. "We can edit how the Normal works!"

"Hold on, let's not rush into this..." Trixie muttered.

Now all four of the girls were standing up alongside me. Spitfire walked around to face me and said, "Kid, I know that whole mob situation's gonna make you worried about security." She pointed at the rest of the room. "But if you wanna make this crowd feel a lot safer, I suggest taking away some of the major felonies you can do."

"That's right," Moondancer agreed. "That stallion we talked to didn't care if you committed murder or not. Take that away!"

"Do we need to do that?" Trixie asked. "I'm not advocating for Pascal to be able to kill somepony, but doesn't the whole 'cutie mark' loophole mean some detective pony will arrest him anyway?"

"Not if normal ponies don't think to report the crime," Spitfire pointed out.

Trixie blanched. "Okay, yes, let's not play with that fire if we can help it."

"Pascal," Derpy said soothingly, placing a hand on my chest, "I know you're not the kind of guy who would do something like that..."

"No, I get it, that's a good limitation to have," I agreed. Derpy smiled and nodded. I took a step away and placed both hands over my non-existent pecs. "Okay. Okay okay okay... Hoo, let's do this..."

"Quit stalling!" Spitfire growled.

"First up, murder and assault," Moondancer said.

"Alright, alright." I took another deep breath and widened my stance. "Ahem... It is not acceptable for me to murder or assault another living being, except in extreme cases of self-defense."

My hands glowed bright blue. My vision went blurry for half a second. I could definitely feel something happening, like something was flowing out of my chest. A tingling warmth spread from my fingertips to the rest of my body, giving me goosebumps and forcing a few hairs to stand on end. I wasn't sure exactly what was happening, but I was fairly confident I was doing something.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Shining Armor roared, standing up so fast as to knock his chair onto the floor. He looked about ready to blast me with his horn.

I turned around, hands still on my chest, and announced, "Using my power on myself. Taking away some of my excessive liberties."

The whole room was silent and tense. All other conversation had stopped and all eyes were on me.

After another deep inhalation, thinking back to Rarity at the topless party, I said, "It is acceptable for people to turn down sex with me. It is not acceptable for me to aggressively proposition or forcibly rape anyone." Again: glowing, dizziness, a sensation of something leaving my body. All good signs so far.

Moondancer reached out and took one of my hands away from my chest, a worried look on her face. "Okay, Pascal, that should be enough for now..."

I shook my head and pulled my hand back. "Nuh-uh. Still the most important one to do."

Princess Luna stepped away from her moon-chair and yelled, "Pascal, stop!"

I paid them no heed. Why would I stop now? "When someone learns the extent of my power, they are allowed to form... their own opinion about it... and... me..." After groaning out the last word, I crumpled onto the floor like a sack of potatoes.