When Sandbar receives an invitation to attend a Yakyakistan Hearth's Warming festival with Yona, he should logically be overjoyed at the opportunity! Right? Unfortunately, life is more complicated than that.
Sandbar is a transgender colt who loves all things feminine, and because of this, he suffered from frequent transphobia throughout his childhood in Boltamare. This left him with deep anxieties over new cultures, sparking a resurgence of intrusive thoughts that he has to fight to suppress.
Can he overcome his fears and truly be himself at one of the biggest yak festivals in all of Equestria?
Rated T for mild references to bullying and transphobia. Reader discretion is advised. This story is dedicated to all the trans and non-binary pony fans out there. Trans rights are human rights!
Edit: Second ever story to make the feature box, yay! (11/10/2020)
Nice work
10475183
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it :).
This was a really fun story, and a really good topic. Anxiety over gender nonconformity in trans people isn’t a topic I have ever really seen discussed much in fiction before. Also, Sandbar and Yona’s relationship in this is just super cute. Great job!
10475229
Thank you! That's precisely why I wrote this story. Though I'm not exactly trans myself (it's complicated :P) I do have many trans friends whom I consider the best people in my life. They deserve as much representation as anyone else!
really shoulda made a trans oc for a story like this, tbh
10475664
I'm curious why you think so?
A very well done and respectable look into the issues of transgenders, while at the same time telling a very good story about Sandbar visiting Yakyakistan for the first time.
10475710
cuz sandbar isn't trans
and i'm tired beyond tired of people mangling canon for their representation when they can make their own representation
10475747
Well, I have plenty of other stories that include trans and non-binary OCs. But in this case, I felt that writing Sandbar as trans fit the story I wanted to tell. Besides, there are plenty of other fics that may change character ships, swap genders or otherwise change aspects of the characters. Are they "mangling canon", too?
10475737
Just an FYI, "Transgenders" isn't a word, because it has strong negative connotations toward them. A better way to phrase your comment could be "transgender people," or just "being trans". That said, I'm happy to give you the benefit of the doubt, because there's a lot of misconceptions out there.
Thanks for the feedback all the same!
10475750
yes, but in certain cases, it could work in canon, and therefore is acceptable
but this is pure assumption and frankly that irks me
sandbar isn't trans, and there's not even vague hints in canon that he might be
he's an airhead surferbro who's in love with a yak, thas it mang
10475759
So are you saying all characters are cis until otherwise stated?
10475763
i'm saying not to assume, dear
though to answer your question, yes
that's how it is irl, that's how it should work here
10475768
I disagree. We shouldn't be assuming people stick to a strict binary by default. That's part of the problem I'm working to undo. Besides, fanfiction is, by its very nature, not canon. It can work with canon, but is not bound by it.
10475772
...
so you're saying that gnc people are just trans in disguise or something, huh
i was trying to be nice but you're really pressing my buttons here
10475778
I'm trying not to be rude, as well. I'm happy to take constructive criticism. However, your excuse that a character being trans "breaks canon", while gender swap stories, grimdark stories, expanded universe stories etc, do not? It's quite transparent. I don't want to suggest you are transphobic, but I do invite you to challenge potential preconceived biases, and consider why this one subject isn't acceptable.
10475784
i'm not against trans people
i'm against creatively bankrupt jackasses taking characters who weren't a certain minority(or somesuch) and making them such for the purpose of representation
my point is thus: you have trans ocs, use those next time
10475811
If it isn't creatively bankrupt to write a story where Yona is a pony, then it isn't creatively bankrupt for a canon character to be trans.
10475814
actually, they both are
i reiterate: you have trans ocs, use those next time
as an aside, you're real close to getting on my last nerve
10475759
I have a friend who is transgender and he sometimes don't like how people misuse characters from shows or movie and video game just to fit their narrative he even told me it felt forced
Edit
Yeah I kind of figured Some people don't agree about my opinion
A good story, nicely done, it gets a favourite and an upvote from me.
This story was super cute! I really like your idea and the YonaBar was extremely heartwarming and goofy throughout. While no one felt out of character, I think that some of the dialogue was a little heavy-handed near the end. You can convey morals about acceptance without making characters speak too far out of their normal patterns. But other than that, this was a fun exploration of yak culture and a trans kid. I have a hard time finding FTM characters on the site, and it always is awesome to see one as a focal point. GNC trans characters aren't touched upon as much either, so it was nice to see how the yaks were so awesome at helping Sandbar feel comfortable.
One thing I would suggest is to consider making the story Teen-rated if you're going to touch on transphobia. Obviously, it wouldn't be a hard teen-rating with warning labels to go with it, but the only canon discrimination the show really has is specism. Transphobia just tends to really not fit too well into the E-rating as a concept.
I really hope that there's a follow up in the future! You write these two nicely and I'd love to see Yona help Sandbar navigate uncomfortable areas of his life.
10475664 There is literally nothing wrong with writing a canon character as transgender if it is handled well. You're just salty lmao.
10475747
There is nothing in canon that suggests that.
10475811
cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/692239896773001217/764639123943456778/Wallflower_hereby_calls_bullshit.png
10475818
Oh nooooo, your last nerve??? Gosh we'd better be careful, so scary <_<
Seriously, who do you think you're fooling? No one cares. This is a cute story with a good premise and people like it. Have fun being mad about it 👋
10475906
Thank you for the feedback! Yeah, I'm not all that great with subtle themes in my stories, it is something to work on. I have considered whether this should be T rated, partly because of the minor themes of transphobia. This is a story that is technically suitable for all, but the subject of trans identities and passing-anxiety does suit a more teen demographic. Truth be told, I just wanted to write a story that was suitable for everyone, since all my stories are T rated or higher XD.
But I suppose that's just the natural demographic I shoot for ^_^.
10475928
I blocked him, because he was clearly making an exception for anything that isn't transphobia. Good riddance to bad rubbish!
10475818 actually, all of the Ponies are trans. I’m amazed you didn’t realize this. You’re obviously one of those fake MLP fans who only pretends to like the show.
*aggressively tap-dances upon the aforementioned nerve*
10475937
It was good that you were explicit with the theme of acceptance, I would just focus on how you convey that through dialogue.
That's really understandable! I would put it more like this: having a trans character is not an inherently teen-rated concept, but how you talk about them is. The site uses the everyone rating to brand content that could be conceivably understood by the same audience of the show. Trans characters are one of those concepts, though how you talk about them decides what the rating would be. I saw transphobia is an inherently teen-rated concept because to have transphobia, it is inherently tied to the concept of that existing on a larger scale. Kid's shows and media generally handles things as "We shouldn't bully someone for being different" instead of "These people are often treated in bad to atrocious ways because of their universal differences" because one of those approaches is better understood by kids. If you want to keep the everyone rating, I'd just edit the dialogue a bit. Otherwise, good luck with your future stories!
10475946
I think I'll try and edit the dialogue a little. I'll look over that in the next day or so. Your feedback has been super helpful, thanks!
10475950
Awesome! Good luck!
10475952
Before you go, do you have any specific lines of dialogue you think could be updated? Just to help me identify the specific tweaks I could be making ^_^.
10475955
Admittedly, I don't have specific ones in mind. However, I do have some general advice: stick with vocab you think a character would probably use, if you're writing e-rated stuff avoid certain implications (ie. using "bullying" instead of "transphobia" but obviously you can specify why/what the bullying was about and still fit it in the e-rated realm), and imagine the character saying the line while you're editing. If it sounds odd in their voice, ask yourself why and if it needs to be revised.
Like, oh wow.
This was really cute.
I'll admit, I never pegged Sandbar as Trans, but... fuck it, he is now to me. (And apologies for the downvote bombing, people be like that. It's shameful really, on the surface people seem to shrug off Trans ponies but when you actually get down and talk about it...)
10475664
Can you go 5 minutes without showing your whole ass on this site? For real
10475940 The ponies are also all vorarephile furries who love to be swallowed whole while being pounded in every orifice by dragon-manticore-Quarry Eel hybrids!
It's crazy that people can't read between the lines and realize such obvious things!
10476045 that’s Equestria Girls. This is FiM. Do your research, fool.
10475818
For every comment that you made i will now convert one canon character to trangenderism for future fics.
Gretting's.............. Mythic Mind, I am Seth Standmore also known as, C.L. Strife, and I am a author of story's about violent's and death, why am I here on your page you may ask well, that's because I heard you wrote a story where a character from the show was transgander and I Seth Standmore belief in supporting author's who write story's about character's having different gender's, sexuality's, and other differences in canon, why not too long ago my chum of chums wrote a story where scootaloo was nonbarnaby and I showed my support their too
You see it wrinkles my thoughts when people show no support for the people of non ganders, this world need's to be made of love and support and not hate and prejudice, yes it is true maybe in the show Sandals is not actually a trans character but, in the show Rarity and twilight do not kiss, Starlight Glimmer does not kiss Twixie and not too long ago I wrote a story where Scootaloo is a murderer who worship's a creature called the Sphincts and that is not canon either who cares?
When we wright the fafnictions we remake the story in unique way's that always don't go along with cannons and that is fine there is no problem with it. This is a good example of story's breaking cannons but in a good way that is helpful, why well because people who are transgander deserve to be seen and apreciated, I believe strongly in a world like that and I support people who write story's about this, but I DO NOT SUPPORT FOALCON OR NAZI'S OR BIGGOTS but there are no nazi's or foalcon's in you're story so you are okay
Therefore I SethS tandmore give this story my covenented ROY STANDMORE GOLDEN STAR OF HERO, thank you for helping to make transgander people more visible with you're story, it will now be my head cannon that Sandro is transgander I will write a story about that shortly
Take care and remember that my grandfather Roy Standmore is watching over you from heaven, he fought for a world where people are free from pre judice and died killing Nazi scum, be strong against those red down vote's and hold you're head high you dont need to worry about upvotes for you are GREEN THE COLOR OF UPVOTE's and I STAND MORE WITH YOU.
Sincerely Seth Standmore
10475818
Bitch please, we're fanfic writers.
We'll make them Gundams if we feel like it.
Before I read this, I wanna share something cool. Years ago, back when care was actually given to the lore, Magic: the Gathering introduced a really cool trans character in Alesha, Who Smiles at Death. Basically, she was such a badass warrior that everybody followed her example and she wound up as Khan of the Mardu, leading the entire tribe/nation. The Mardu are basically the Mongols, except with lightning magic, and they battled man-eating dragons on the regular.
What a sweet story. I obviously don't have experience with the particular brand of anxiety here, but I like how you portrayed it. I sometimes get that nagging, irrational voice telling me things, and it's hard to really stomp it out. A few things help, but it always seems to come creeping back. In the end, it was nice to everyone so supportive, and that Sandbar's fears were assuaged and he had a chance to speak them instead of letting them rumble about in his head.
10475747
Boy it must suck to suck.
Overall, this was a wholesome read. I am mildly concerned about something, just not the obvious bit, which is perfectly fine and made for a compelling source of tension to drive to story. That being: why would Yona's parents name her after a holiday? Like, it's bound to have led to a ton of unnecessary awkwardness, right? If I ever have a daughter, I certainly wouldn't name her Christmas or Passover.
Also, since when is yellow not a manly color? Even if it wasn't before, it became one the second Saitama picked his costume.
10475750 Oh, I didn't know that. Thank you for clarifying that.
This was pretty cute. I don't think I've seen a trans story on here that touches on the trans character being GNC as well, so that was an interesting angle. Kudos.
And because of the transphobic asshat in the comments, I'm inspired to try my hand at writing a trans story sometime. So, win-win all around.
Too many dislikes on this story. I’m going to help fix that.
10475759
Sandbar is trans. Trixie is asexual. Rarity is genderfluid. Pinkie Pie and Applejack are agender bisexuals. Celestia and Luna personally invented transness. Discord has no clue what a "gender" is and will happily body-mod anyone who asks.
Anyway, have you considered not being a fucking coward?
10475759
Dude. it's a freaking fan-fic. Your point is there is nothing showing that this is a part of canon so they shouldn't do it?
You must really hate stories that go so far off the deep end as to be unambiguously against canon!
*rolls eyes*
We all know what's actually going on here. You can lie to yourself all you want. But it's as clear as day
10476062 No no no! You're not seeing the BIG PICTURE, where everything's CONNECTED!! BY VORE!!
I see Late Night being downvoted in the comments. I like the story. :D
Congrats on the feature!
10476918
Thank you! I'm super happy to see my lighter fics get recognised X3.