Like all transit hubs, there’s a great deal that can go wrong, and crossing between worlds only adds to the drama. The Canterlot Exchange Complaints Department is buried in the labyrinth of offices below the exchange. Like most such departments it is a sterile set of rooms, divided by glass partitions and whitewashed wooden panels. I sit next to a young mare, with a painfully pink mane and lavender coat, cradling a cup of water between her fetlocks. Her name is Matt Mailer, which should explain why she is in the complaints department. There is a large argument ongoing in the next room, but Matt makes no move to join in. She keeps her ears pressed flat against her head and stares at her reflection in the water.
“So,” I begin. “Shall we talk?”
A deep sigh escapes the mare. “I don’t feel much like talking right now, Sandy.”
“Sometimes that’s when we need to talk the most. Or would you prefer to join in the shouting?”
Matt shudders. “Urgh, no. Why bother arguing? We all know whose fault it was. We all know he’s never going to admit it. We can all tell it’s not going to be fixed anytime soon, otherwise someone would be fixing it. Why rant and scream?”
“Well, I hear it’s the second step on the road to acceptance.”
“That's dealing with loss,” Matt points out. A moment later she rolls her eyes. “Which is, I guess, a pretty good way of describing crossing the gender barrier. Urgh...” She presses a hoof against her head. “This is nuts. I told them magic was going to come back and bite us in the ass. I told them we should have just gone to damn Miami. Sure the drinks would have been expensive as shit but at least I wouldn’t have to relearn how to piss.”
“I think you’re drifting back to anger,” I observe, with a slight smile. “I wouldn’t worry so much. Anything that is caused by magic can be fixed by magic, at least in my experience.”
“Yeah?” She fixes me with a piercing glare. “Well how do you fix act of Ted?”
“I’m not sure I follow.”
Matt sighs, long and deep. “Ted broke the magic. I knew we shouldn’t have trusted him with the damn amulets. Sure, there’s always a disclaimer that going human to pony can result in random effects, but that’s what, a one in a hundred shot? And even then you’re just as likely to come out as a breezie as lose your manhood. Ellie convinced us that we should all get directing amulets. You know, pick out whether you wanted wings, or magic, or stamina. I went for stamina by the way. You know, in preparation for the hangovers.”
A weary chuckle escapes me. “Let me guess, Ted switched the amulets around?”
“Oh no. If he’d been dumb enough to do that we would have caught him straight away. No, the utter genius managed to change the fucking spells using a hot needle. So now the morons running this place have no idea how to fix us beyond just sending us home and hoping the change doesn’t stick.” She downs the cup of water in one gulp and crushes it between her hooves. It was a metal cup, but she seems not to care.
“God damn it!” She slams her hooves against the bench, which creaks in protest. “This was supposed to be a vacation. I was supposed to be on a train to the beach right now. I was supposed to be pre-drinking my brightly-coloured tail off!”
“And what’s stopping you?” I enquire.
Her glare is withering, but I match it and, after a few moments of silence, she slumps. “Nothing,” she admits with a sigh. “Nothing is stopping me. Sure, Facebook’s going to laugh its collective ass off when they find out, but who gives a shit really? In a year this’ll just be a funny story and I know that, in the abstract, it still sucks to actually be a mare.”
I arch my eyebrow.
“Ack!” Matt lets out a strangled squawk, as she catches up to what she just said. “I mean. It sucks that I’m a... I didn’t mean that... I...” Her eyes narrow. “You’re finding this hilarious, aren’t you?”
“Extremely,” I say with a wry grin. “But I’ll waive any offense on the part of my gender, for now. Why is it such a problem?”
“It isn’t,” Matt protests, then frowns. “Or rather, it is the problem, but not a problem...” She lets out a long sigh and slumps in her chair. “It just wasn’t the plan. I know that things are going to work out, even if they have to get Princess Twilight down here to sort them out, so I’m not worried about getting back to normal. And I keep wondering...” Her frown deepens. “Well... Why not just go with it?”
“How so?”
“Well, I’m here to have fun, aren’t I?” she says. “All we wanted to do was go to the beach, find a bunch of parties and get so drunk we can barely stand. Swapping which restroom I use isn’t going to change that. I’m still going to be able to drink and dance and make a load of stupid decisions with the rest of the guys– girls– whatever.” She shakes her head and lets out a bitter sigh. “Hell, I can probably still find a few cute mares to hang out with. A different type of mare than I’d originally thought, but hey, I’m hardly in a position to judge.”
Matt drums her hooves on the bench for a moment, pursing her lips. “I guess I worried about... well, not being worried. It’s a vacation. It’s supposed to be a chance to get away from yourself. It’s supposed to be a time when you do things that you don’t normally do. Okay, I’m a small female horse, which is pretty far out there, but that doesn’t mean I can’t still have fun. It won’t change who I am.” Her ears prick up. “Will it?”
I give her a comforting smile. “That’s up to you. But I hear travel is good for the soul, regardless of whether you enjoy the journey.”
“Urgh, that’s not an answer,” Matt says, pouting. I do not point out how cute her pout is.
“Like I’m going to tell a teenager on Spring-Break what to do.” I roll my eyes.
“Heh, fair point.” She gazes at the floor tiles for a moment. “I just feel that I shouldn’t be okay with all this. I mean, being a man is supposed to be this big important thing which you have to go along with. Absolutely have to. Now, though, the Equestrians sell all sorts of magic and those rules just aren’t so hard and fast any more. Does it make me less of a man for just saying ‘fine, it’s a pain in the dick but let’s roll with it’? I don’t know. But I know I don’t want to be stuck in the pity party.”
Matt groans and leavers herself onto her hooves. She is a little unsteady, but seems to be fast acclimatising to four legs. “I guess that answers my question.” She shakes her head. “Well, I’d better go check on Ted, see if the medical ponies are willing to let him go.”
I frown, glancing down at my notes. “Wait, when did Ted get hurt? I thought he only sabotaged everyone else’s amulets.”
“Oh, he did. But the genius thought none of us would notice him pointing and laughing as we stumbled through the portal, so now he’s got an acute case of bruised testicles.”
I wince in sympathy. “That’s gotta hurt.”
“I hope so,” Matt agrees. “And if he hasn’t learned his lesson I’m going to keep kicking until he does. Thanks for the talk, Sandy.” She gave a haughty flick of her tail as she turned and walked away.
I close my notebook. Somehow I figure she is going to be okay.
I most definitely would be interested in seeing a continuation of the story from this chapter. Getting changed from a man to a mare (assuming she was the only one, aren't they part of a larger group?), and decided to just roll with it anyway, on a teenager style hormone induced break. The awkwardness, the sweetness, the exploration of—as said—the forbidden subject.
I'm reminded of some of those stories I've looked at, where people get their gender changed at points in their life (without consent), and they either use the experience to experiment and decide what they want, or cling to their preferred gender behavior and "tough it out".
The key point being, that it's just temporary, and they can change if they wanted to. Without that, it is a pretty different story.
6843285 There's also the griffoness Terry Anton from Chapter 2 if we're talking about gender swapping.
6843465
Yes, but the circumstances are different. Terry is partially trapped (she needs the job), while Matt could come and go if she really wanted, and may not even return to Equestria in the same body if she did so, since they used the amulet in the first place (which Terry can't afford).
It's about how you handle the opportunity, which is what Matt is thinking about, if she even has the right to do. (Again, Terry is kind of between a rock and a hard place, and it's not a leisure exploration, but rather being backed into a corner).
Awesome!
...wait a minute.
I see... whatever he/she/it is he always appears as the same species and gender as the pony he is talking to...
interesting.
This has kind of cemented it for me, but I hope I'm not wrong, that this mysterious individual is, though suspicious, thankfully not malevolent. Please don't prove me wrong.
I figured they must be college students by that line alone. Nobody else has this combination of utterly stupid and far too smart for their own good.
If botched transmutation spells are a tenth as dangerous in MLP as they are in most other magic systems then Ted is either very skilled, or very, very lucky. His "prank," could have easily killed someone. If just one of the other students decides to press charges he could be facing some serious prison time.
6843974
"Dude, bro, it was just a joke bro! Why you so upset dude? Bro, don't be a pussy, dude."
Maybe I just have an extremely low opinion of dudebro college kids ...
6841687 Ooo, awesome pick, and a great guess. No spoilers just yet, though we're on the home streach now so you won't have to wait long.
6841770 It's definitely an interesting time, in both senes. I've always been tempted to do a political events focused story which this would fit well into.
6841889 I can't help but feel I think you're biased
6842388 Absolutely. I'm happy with people ducking into my canon, especially with a story like this where there's so many options for vignettes. I'll state that officially after the final chapter.
6843285 Matt's not the only one in the group, Ted got everyone bar himself with a gender flip so there's about a dozen ponies lining up to buck him in the face. Anyway, I did really like this concept, it brings to whole idea of choice back into the genderflip and raises a big question over what it means to have a physcial identity when someone is selling transformations. I'm not sure if I'll come back to this one, I can see the story, but that kind of situation comedy isn't really something I write. Still, it's a fun idea.
6843292 Bang on target And good spot. Fixed.
6843620 Hmm... How do you define malevolent?
6843698 Smart enough to do it, not smart enough to figure out why it would be a bad idea. It's a dangerous combination.
6843974 I'll be honest, I tend to favour an Equestria where magic fails safe, but I imagine if there weren't rules against thing kind of thing before Ted's little experiment there are now.
6844510
Whatever you do, do not say this to Terry.
6844683 I define it as "Intending to do others harm."
6844669
It doesn't have to be situational comedy, I'd actually prefer it if it wasn't. I'd rather the introspective look at it, personally. After all, if it doesn't really get Matt (and the others) at least thinking about it, what their identity means, then I feel it'd be missing the point of the thing. Situational comedy might be interesting, but it can just as easy be cringe-worthy, so not really what appeals to me about the scenario.
Really the question is, would they be willing enough to put aside their annoyance to have a good time? And would any of them opt for the mare transformation on purpose for another future trip, and beyond?
I find it interesting that Sandy never seem to introduce themselves, but everyone just knows who they are. Just another part of the 'Everything is as you expect it to be' spell that they seem to be using.
As a trans girl I find the pronoun use here... interesting, but I sit here wondering, is this a post "trans people are a thing" world? Have changes to one's body become so easy that it no longer matters really?
Philosophical cans of worms are all over the place here... I love it!
6846503
Honestly I WANT THAT WORLD
if we ever can make magic real Im sure trans people would be first in line