A Look Back - 3
Language check. Anything wrapped in < > in this chapter is spoken Batstralia, everything else is in English.
"Where to even start? Maybe when I first met Mike? When he changed into Lyra?" Rose Quartz lay under a willow tree, on the edge of the Thompson River. "And when do I end? When I decided to finally call myself Rose Quartz? This stuff is so much easier when all I have to do is write down what others say."
Rose could sense the huge bunyip near the shore—it wasn't hiding from him. "<Are you going to swim all day>?" When the big beast didn't move, Rose just sighed. "<Suit yourself>." His wing, holding a pen in oversize padding, began to move.
It took a while before he adjusted his position a little, shifting legs, tail, and neck. Rose looked down at the page and sighed. "Now I know why they tell me their stories. It's good to just get it out."
"Dinner's ready!" I called, and smiled at the sound of four hooves approaching through the house.
Mum was gone, but I didn't let her take my happiness with her. Each night I would head back here after school. Dave's house. I smiled when he poked his head around the corner of the kitchen door-frame.
I turned to face him, each wing holding a bowl of mixed fruit: the diet Ms. Robertson said would suit a bat. Setting one down on the table first, I realized Dave's eyes weren't following the food at all—he was looking at me.
"Looks great." Dave finally walked into the room. It took me a while to get used to us all being young-adult bat ponies. He climbed up on his seat, not saying anything further before lifting the first few bite-sized pieces of fruit to his mouth.
I sat down opposite Dave, set my own bowl down, and started moving the fruit into my mouth. Unlike a bat, bat ponies could and did swallow fruit, but like bats we tended to shovel it in. Half my bowl was gone before I realized it. "You know my graduation's tomorrow, right?"
Dave, having taken his time eating, wasn't even a quarter of the way through his bowl yet. "Yeah. Figured you would want someone there with ya." He tossed another bite-sized piece of apple in his mouth and started chewing. "Still want to work for us?"
Living at Ms. Robertson and Candela's house, with Tufts in residence, I had gotten used to bat screeches of joy. I just never expected one to come from my own mouth. "Do I? You've dangled that carrot before me for most of the year. Of course I want to work with you!"
"You're gonna need some tickets. I don't expect ya to have ya explosives or anythin' like that, but mine safety, first aid, that kind of thing." Dave studied my face as he ate, it was almost unnerving.
"Alright. But I'm gonna do work up there anyway. In the places I don't need a safety ticket to work in." I stewed on the thought that he might be having second thoughts, and be using the certifications as a way to stop me.
I looked up from my introspective eating, and realized he was looking at me again. This time he had a little grin on his face. A stray thought floated through my head, and almost made it to my mouth: Damn he looks cute.
Everything froze. I'd been working with Dave since before I even started turning batty. The sight of him, human or bat, was familiar. But, now I was seeing him in a new light. I gulped, not knowing what to say.
I realized he was gulping down his fruit as fast as me, and felt a moment of relief. Once he was done, I could clean up and go back to Lyra's place to sleep. No sooner did Dave fish the last piece into his mouth than he pushed his bowl forward.
Jumping from the seat, I reached up to grab the bowl—which required me to rear up a little to reach it. At the same time Dave climbed off his seat—bumping the table a little.
I tumbled forward when my footing on the edge of the table became treacherous. Spreading my wings, I screeched in panic and then found myself falling against Dave.
Movies were terrible. They insisted that when a guy and a girl in a romantic comedy stumbled together, they invariably ended up kissing. They were terrible, but apparently accurate.
Dave's lips were soft, belying the hard-working bat pony he was now. I trembled for a moment, thought for sure he would pull back. But he didn't. Nearly a minute of slow, cautious kissing later, and I finally managed to get my wits about me and break apart from him.
We both sat there, looking at each other. It certainly didn't count as a kiss, because neither of us had started it, I thought. But if that was true, why didn't either of us stop earlier? I tried to speak, to say something, but my eyes kept tracing Dave's lips, and I imagined my own there again.
"That was an accident." Dave didn't break eye contact with me. His lips moved perfectly, enunciating the words exactly. I had no idea why I kept watching his lips, remembering their taste, but I did. "Rose, was that—"
I'd moved without realizing it, leaning closer and pressing my lips to his mouth again. This was a kiss. I felt his warm lips pressing to mine, and then one of his wings reached out touched against my jaw. My eyes fluttered shut to enjoy the moment and—
Looking down at the page, Rose blushed. It wasn't that his first kiss with Dave made him blush (anymore), but that he was writing a little more than he needed to for an historically accurate document.
Looking away from the book, he saw only a scant few bubbles in the water, and knew that Chompy was there. He also wasn't stupid enough to jump in with him there: Chompy was a friendly animal, but he was still a wild animal. "I'm glad one of us is relaxed."
The following morning had been like any other. I woke up, brushed my teeth, had a shower, had breakfast, and wore a silly little smile about it the whole time. It hadn't been taboo, I still thought of myself as much a mare as a stallion, but it had been a real kiss with someone I really care about.
We hadn't talked much, there hadn't been much time with how long we spent playing tonsil hockey, but we had made a promise that we would talk today, after the graduation ceremony.
I left the house before the others, and almost right away I noticed something odd going on: all the bands where Cowwarr and Stonecrop overlapped, had blurred. I walked to school, and found Dave arriving just as I got there.
Our eyes met, and I saw a smile spread all over his face. My heart pounded, and I trotted over to meet him. "Hi."
"Hi yourself." Dave leaned forward a little, expectantly.
I felt self-conscious, kissing in public, but when I pressed my lips to Dave's, my worries evaporated into thin air. I had to fight my own desire to keep kissing him, to draw back and turn myself to his side. Lifting my wing, I pulled it around Dave's back.
The comfortable companionship we had shared working at the mine and ignoring my mum (something we had both become good at toward the end of her stay) made me appreciate how comfortably I could just stand with Dave.
Adjusting the wing that wasn't draped over Dave's back, I made sure I had my prop well hidden. Lyra's little joke she had wanted to play was a little more complicated than just a prank, but I could appreciate her sense of humor.
"Not gonna to say anything?" Dave's voice broke my reverie.
I nodded slowly. "Just thinking what to say. So, us?"
"Does 'us' feel good to you?" he asked, and I nodded back. "Then I guess us works."
"I didn't know you were gay." Good going, Rose, blunt as a hammer. "Well, I mean—"
Dave stopped me from shoving my foot further down my throat with a kiss. Just a little peck on the lips, but it was enough to shut me up. "I don't exactly want to advertise, Cowwarr is—was—a tiny town. Rumor spreads fast, and having your mum move in worked out better than I would have thought. Is it a problem?"
"I like guys. I've always liked guys. That—that's why Lyra and me didn't work out. She really embraced being a mare, and it fit her. I just couldn't see my boyfriend in her anymore." My mouth was just rambling on its own, but for the first time ever it actually seemed to be on my side. "I'm a stallion, and I like stallions." I shrugged.
Then something occurred to me. "Did you like me before—"
"No offense, Rose, but you were a girl. You filled out jeans like a girl, and had more happening up top than I liked. Now…" Dave brought his wing around and rubbed his chin. "I liked you, but it couldn't have gone this way."
"And what way's that?" I asked.
His answer was another kiss, just a brief one, but it was a great answer.
"Lyra will be here soon, you might want to get ready." Candela's voice startled me more than Dave, and while I jerked back from the kiss, he was prepared to let me keep going. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."
My brain hit the "emergency babble" button, and I was just opening my mouth to start unleashing confused chatter, when Dave's lips touched my cheek. I was struck mute.
"Thanks, Candela. Rose'll be ready." Dave's tone was relaxed, easy, and I was surprised by how much that actually calmed me, too. "There they are now."
I snapped my head around, and spotted Lyra and her family (not that that was hard, what with her being the only aquamarine unicorn in the country). "Oh." I started to walk, but Dave wasn't coming with me. I turned to look at him, but Maud had approached us. "Hi, Maud."
Maud's eyes were always impassive, but over the year she had developed her normally mild expression into something truly amazing. She could wear the most stone-neutral, completely emotionless look, and she could carry it off with the driest wit I had ever experienced. Sometimes even Lyra had trouble keeping up with her. "Hello. Are you ready to graduate?"
I noticed the slightest flicker in Maud's eyes. She had indicated Dave without a single recognizable gesture (at least recognizable to anyone who didn't spend most of five days a week with her. I smiled a little sheepishly, and nodded.
The change in Maud's expression was phenomenal. Her mouth pulled into a smile, and her eyes widened. "Congratulations." Her voice hadn't changed that much, but I could hear the somber brand of excitement that belonged only to Maud Pie.
Dave shifted under my wing. "Okay, I missed half of that, and what I did catch I am still confused about."
"When are you getting married?" Maud's deadpan expression was back, and it was the highest quality I had heard from her in a while.
"What?!" Jerking back, Dave looked between Maud and me for a second before groaning. "I fell for that, didn't I?"
"Yes." Maud had the same look, but now she let a hint of a smile through again. She turned her gaze back to me. "Do you have the book?" When I nodded, she gestured over to where Candela was gathering people and ponies together.
Rose wrote in a quick summary of their little gag, and the laughs they had garnered. She read over her words a few times, and a wry smile pulled at her lips. "Close enough. I don't think anyone could fully capture the antics of those two."
She just looked at the page for a few minutes, reading the description over and over. "I can't believe she has been gone for a month."
Heaving a sigh, Rose Quartz' pen started to move once more, avoiding the actual discussion he'd had with Dave—smiling all the time his pen moved—and instead moved to after the talk, and their personal time to think. It was Dave's house, so Rose decided to go for a walk.
Which is how I wound up on the merry-go-round at the park, talking to Paul Harrison. My notepad had been meant for me to write my feelings in, but instead it became the first of many.
After Paul's story, the finale of her transformation, and the mad race to find Dream, we met up with Lyra, Joyce, Candela, and Robin. I only needed one glance at them to know their target. "Dream?"
"<Yeah>!" Lyra was actually shouting, seemingly as if her ears were not working. "<All this magic hit me at once and I can't think properly! Hopefully she can help>!"
I looked to Joyce, who shrugged back at me. The oddest thing about what Lyra had said, was that she had said it in a different language, and I could understand it perfectly.
"<Where is that filly of mine>?" Candela was like a battering ram. She plowed past everyone and into the house. "<Dream>!"
We piled in after Candela, with Joyce in the lead, and got as far as the kitchen when we heard the screech of excitement from the bedroom area.
The rumble of hooves revealed Dream Thunder in the hallway. "<I did it! I got The Knowing to work! Did it work>?"
"<Yeah! It worked>!" Lyra's voice was still raised in a shout. "<It was awesome, Dream>!"
"<Dear, please don't yell>." Joyce was trying to get Lyra's attention, and then had to lift her voice a little more and repeat herself.
"<I'm not yelling>!" Lyra yelled, and only drew a giggle from everyone. "<Well, I'm not>!"
Dream waved a wing-claw before Lyra's face to get her attention. "<You are yelling. It must have something to do with all the magic>."
Lyra tilted her head in Dream's direction. "<What was that?! I can barely hear you! It must be all the magic>!"
I didn't know if Lyra was making a joke, or if it was serious, but I couldn't stop giggling at her antics. Deciding that Joyce and Candela could handle any problems in the hallway, I tapped Robin's shoulder with my wing. "Come on, let's make everyone a cuppa."
"<You're still speaking English>? Huh, I don't even know why I was speaking in—in whatever that other language is." Robin followed me into the kitchen proper, and we began the task of getting drinks for everyone.
Paul Harrison stuck her head around the corner. "Did you need me for anything else?"
In all the excitement I had forgotten she was with me. "Yeah, Paul. I'll still do the babysitting for you, but you might not need the lessons in Equish now." She looked at me confused. "<Because I have a feeling we all know this>."
Blinking at me in confusion at first, Paul opened her mouth and closed it a few times. At last, she cleared her throat. "<Like this? Hey! This is pretty cool>." She stood there for nearly five seconds, looking really excited. "<I'm gonna go talk to Porcelain>!"
Paul's head disappeared from the doorway, and I heard pounding hooves lead to a flapping sound. "<It's still hard to get used to the idea that people can just fly>." Only after speaking did I realize I was still using that new language.
"<Well they can now. A few hours ago it took a lot of work to learn how to fly>." Robin sounded a little grumpy, but she was working on making cups of tea with one wing, while the other juggled a large knife that she employed to dice up fruit.
Despite seeing Robin employ her skill with all things fruit related many times before, she still amazed me with her juggling. I moved up and circled around her, and started working on cups. "<You could do a lot of great work in a restaurant with that skill>."
"<This? Nah. I want to be a doctor, like Mum>." Robin sidled away from the cups and, with one wing chopping, grabbed more fruit from the fridge with her free one.
Which was when Tufts winged in and landed on the outstretched wing. "<You got me a banana! You're the best daughter a bat could hope for>." He was already climbing along Robin's wing, reaching out with his own wings for one of the bananas she had dangling from her thumb-claw.
"<Tufts! You can have some grapes>." In a smooth gesture, Robin tossed the bananas over her withers and caught them with her other wing.
"<But I want a banana! I love how squishy they— Ooo, grapes>!" Tufts had been starting to climb over Robin, when she dangled a bunch of grapes before him. A moment later speaking seemed impossible for Tufts, there was just too many grapes for him to get words around.
Rose sighed. "This isn't as easy as I thought. Everyone else made this look like you just told your story and bam." He kept staring at the page until a sound behind him caused him to jump to his hooves and turn.
Chompy was right behind Rose. The big beast leaned down, its breath playing over Rose's sensitive nose, before it opened its gaping maw.
Eyes widening in surprise, Rose tried to get ready to run away, when Chompy's big tongue licked from the tip of his nose to the tops of his ears. Getting used to the big omnivore's ways was a learning experience for Rose.
"Come on, you big softy. You almost had me worried there." Rose reached a wing up to rub Chompy's throat, which caused the bunyip to crane his neck and let out a happy sigh.
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Hehe, sometimes things just happen!
I don't like the fact that the gender change ruined the relationship between Mike and Rose. I stated in an earlier comment that I don't like gender transformations and that is still be biggest negative about this story.
9151114 Like I explained before, just because their sex was changed, doesn't mean their gender changed. Mike still thinks as guy wanting girl and Rose still thinks as girl wanting guy. I like to think I handled the situation with more aplomb than most writers who seem to see a sex changed character as a reason to completely reverse their personality. If you don't like this aspect of the story, I would suggest you find another story.
9151114
Think of it as their bodies changing, but their minds stay intact. Gender, unlike sex, is sort of a mix of masculinity and feminity. There's not really a gender spectrum, but usually one or the other (male or female) sides. Certain traits belong to the male or female side. You can be a masculine woman or a feminine man, but over all you are still male or female. The average 'masculine man' likes women, and the average 'feminine woman' likes men, but not everyone is like this. There are abnormals to the normal expectation. Though I could just be shitting out my ass about all this, so take what i've said with a grain of salt.
I'm not saying you have to enjoy the idea if gender swapping, but I do feel I need to help further explain the 'Lyra liking mares' part. Lyra in this fic still has that 'masculine man' personality and seeks the 'feminine woman', as to be expected (I wouldn't have been shocked if it was different though).
((Please note: I did not say there were multiple genders, aside from masculine or feminine, only varying intensities of the two types. Everyone usually has a mix of both masculinity and femininity, since families usually have both a mother and father.))
9162474 I'll actually argue the point about it only being one or the other. I'm asexual, I'm perfectly fine with that. I'm aromantic, and I'm fine with that too. Also, I'm agender. Try not to make this simple or easy to understand. The reality is that—like everything in nature—gender, sex, and alignment are complex.
There is no way I can get you to understand it all, but Dr. Doe might be able to help (being a professional helps).