Wish Fulfillment (Legacy Version)

by Boopy Doopy

(13) Greener Pastures

“It’s way too fucking hot in this sleeping bag,” I said as I woke up, sweating through my coat. “I can’t do this.”

Shorey and I were pressed back to back in the sleeping bag, trying and failing to sleep. It felt like it was eighty five degrees in here with both our bodies heating the bag up. I was almost tempted to just sleep out in the snow.

“Can I open the tent flap?” I asked, not moving from my spot yet. “It’s awful in here.”

“I have a migraine,” she whispered, practically inaudible.

For some reason, I was surprised. I knew I shouldn’t have been. She told me before she got migraines all the time. I expected that things like that wouldn’t be an issue being a pony, but apparently, they were. It made me wonder if I would still have GERD and dysphagia here. I’d been eating food without a problem so far, but it didn’t always come up, so that would be something to look out for.

I still have dysphoria, I thought bitterly, so that’s proof that not everything has changed. Then again, she might have just been trying to use magic for too long. I gave myself a little headache last night doing that. Knowing Shorey, she probably was too intense with trying to get it to work.

“Is there anything I can do?” I asked, still not moving yet.

“Get some cold in here,” she whispered slowly. “And please speak more quietly.”

I did exactly that, a strong gust of wind pushing into the tent as soon as I opened it. It chilled me to the bone, but I loved it, shivering from the relief I had from the sleeping bag. I turned around to see Shorey sighing in relief too, apparently just as hot as I was.

It was still night outside, the stars and the moon shining brightly as they hung in the sky. It was beautiful, so beautiful in fact that I wondered if Luna painted the picture for us herself. I had to take a minute to stop and appreciate it.

Then I remembered that Luna just left me stranded on top of a mountain and frowned in annoyance. Laws be damned, that wasn’t an okay thing to do. I’m sure the rulers of other kingdoms would appreciate one of their subjects coming back from near death and learning that Princess Luna could’ve helped them but didn’t.

I stared at the sky for one more minute before heading back in. I closed the tent flap halfway, then settled back into the sleeping bag to sleep for a little while longer.

I didn’t nod off immediately. I was too distracted by my thoughts. I was mostly thinking about Shorey and I and what potential we had together. I thought it was great, but I still had no idea how she felt about me. Sometimes I got the feeling she wanted something like I did, and she never explicitly told me she didn’t like me or said no to any future potential. Her response to me was, in essence, that she wasn’t ready for anything right now when I last asked. Maybe that meant she was ready now?

Oh, sure, I thought. She’s going to be ready while you’re out here in the wild sheltering from the cold.

I sighed to myself at that. I was such a lovestruck puppy. Even now, out in the open in the middle of nowhere, I was still thinking about this. I’d never felt an ounce of romantic attraction for one person in my life outside of Shorey, to the point where I’d consider myself asexual or aromantic if Shorey didn’t exist. It hurt to think that the one person in the world I ever liked would probably never like me back. And even if she did, I had bigger problems to worry about than her, like me being the ugliest monster of all time.

God, I’m gonna die alone and loveless, trapped in this horrible mess of a body…

“Can you please go to sleep, Rally?” she suddenly asked out of the blue, in that soft, sweet, feminine voice that I didn’t have. “I can’t fall asleep if you’re still awake,” she whispered tiredly, painfully. “All of your sighing is keeping me up. Your breathing isn’t steady enough.”

And jealousy. Anything that could happen was never going to happen if I couldn’t stop being so jealous of her. Not even that. It was contempt, that I knew. Contempt that I knew I shouldn't have had, but did anyway. Contempt that she got exactly what she wanted after doing nothing to transition, while I had my happiness taken away after spending years working to get myself to where I was before.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered back, sighing one last time before I turned over and closed my eyes.

I was waking up again a while later, this time because the sun was shining in my eyes through the flap on the horizon. Shorey was awake, too, blinking her eyes open, but still looked like she was in a great deal of pain. She turned her head away from the sun and used a hoof to cover her eyes.

“I’m gonna need sunglasses,” she whispered. “Do you have any water?”

“Yeah,” I replied, getting a bottle out of the supplies. “Do you still have a migraine? We can stay here for a while if you do.”

“The cold will help,” she said. “I can walk if we go slow.” She crawled out of the sleeping bag unsteadily and took a breath, looking like it took effort to stand up.

“Are you sure?” I asked. “I can let you lean on me if you need it.”

“I’m fine. I probably won’t be much use carrying supplies though. I’m sorry.”

She grunted as she looked at the sun while I worked on getting our stuff disassembled. Even still, she smiled and looked down at herself, whispering, “Wow, I’m still a mare.”

“So you are,” I agreed. “And I am too, except only on the inside unfortunately. But that’s why we should start moving, so I can be one on the outside, too. Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah. But slowly, please.”

We moved slowly, the endless sea of white snow stretching out in front of us. It was broken by nothing until around lunch, when we finally saw that dot of green I saw at the top of the mountain. A few more hours of walking, and we were suddenly coming upon a large, long treeline, one that extended for quite a ways from right to left. The Crystal Forest, according to Rusty Bucket.

“He said this would be here,” I explained as we made our way up to it, the empty field slowly becoming thick with trees and foliage. “It shouldn’t be too much longer until we get to the Crystal Empire now, I think.”

“I hope so,” Shorey said, speaking a little louder now as she started to feel better. “I could go for a bubble bath.”

“A bath would be nice,” I agreed. “Or even a shower. I feel dirty after not having one for… what? Three days? Four? I probably smell bad.”

A bath would be nice, along with a bed to sleep in, too. And maybe some clothes, although I was starting to get used to the fact that I was naked all the time. Or maybe it was just the fact that Shorey and I were both ladies. Being around Rusty Bucket was, at times, intensely uncomfortable, almost as uncomfortable as certain appendages attached to me.

We made our way inside, but were only able to get maybe a mile or two of distance covered before the sun started to go down again. In a minute, the moon was up again and the sky was full of stars.

“Do you want to keep going?” I asked. “We can stop if you’re still feeling bad.”

“I’m fine to keep going,” Shorey told me, going back to wearing that smile she had on yesterday. “I want to make up for some time we missed from walking slower this morning.”

I smiled back at her and led the way, feeling pretty good about it. If I was remembering correctly, this was the fourth day of what Rusty said was a five day journey for him. That meant the Crystal Empire could be coming up at any time now. And then we’d take a train to Canterlot or Ponyville to meet Twilight Sparkle, and then I’d fix myself, and then I’d live the best life I could possibly live. I was smiling ear to ear thinking of it.

There was hardly any snow here interestingly enough, almost all grass. Not to mention, the air was a bit warmer, much closer to an early spring night than the tens and single digits it was out in the field. I bet that this area marked where whatever weather ponies worked in the Crystal Empire did their job, the field and the mountains behind us serving as the border.

“I bet you we can get to the Crystal Empire tonight,” Shorey told me as we walked, likely noticing the same thing. “I’m pretty sure we’re close if that stallion you talked to was right. This forest looks tidier than any forest I’ve seen in real life. Or maybe that’s just because it’s Equestria.”

“I don’t know, but I hope we can get there tonight. You’ve only been here for a day, but this would be the fifth night this week I slept on the ground, and I want to try and… what’s that smell?”

My nose scrunched and my eyes started to water, it smelled bad. It was like I was inside of an old, rotten dumpster, it was horrible. I knew it wasn’t Shorey or I, and looking around, I didn’t see anything that would be causing it.

“It smells awful,” I said. “Like the garbage can behind McDonald’s.”

“I don’t smell anything, but…” Her face was scrunching up a second later, too, and she looked like she wanted to retch in disgust. She covered her nose with a hoof and was about to say something else before her mouth shut and her eyes went wide.

“What is it?” I ask, raising an eyebrow, only for her to put a hoof on my mouth so I could stop talking, too. Then, she mouthed to me a word that made the bad smell make sense.

“T-i-m-b-e-r-w-o-l-v-e-s.”

That made my heart jump. There were timberwolves in this forest because of course there were. Nothing about this could possibly be easy, could it? Lord Zulu seemed to have set me up to die every step of the way, and all for one tiny joke.

A second after she mouthed the word, I could see them. It was a pack of about seven or eight, stalking through the woods, maybe a few hundred yards from us. They were sniffing the air and looking around, clearly searching for prey. I didn’t have to wonder who their prey would be.

They looked like they did in the show, maybe larger, standing fifteen or twenty feet on their hindlegs. They were made of a mixture of sticks and rocks, and had a sickly green glow in their eyes. They seemed smarter than I imagined, too, one of them waving to the others with its paw to follow it. It made me deeply afraid to see, and I could only wonder how the heck we were going to get past this.

I knew one thing was for certain. This was going to be treacherous.

Comments

[Chrome Masquerade]

For some reason, I was surprised. I knew I shouldn’t have been. She told me before she got migraines all the time. I expected that things like that wouldn’t be an issue being a pony, but apparently, they were. It made me wonder if I would still have GERD and dysphagia here. I’d been eating food without a problem so far, but it didn’t always come up, so that would be something to look out for.

When I was younger, I had frequent migraines; Drove me wild. I got prescribed Tylenol and Ritalin. Turns out I had a brain tumor. Ain't life weirf like that?

[Lunatic God]

Being around Rusty Bucket was, at times, intensely uncomfortable, almost as uncomfortable as certain appendages attached to me.

Okay, I understand not wanting to be a Male, but I don't really understand not wanting to be around males?

[Boopy Doopy]

11212935
She was uncomfortable because he was naked the whole time.

[chibilink]

That meant the Crystal Empire could be coming up at any time now. And then we’d take a train to Canterlot or Ponyville to meet Twilight Sparkle, and then I’d fix myself, and then I’d live the best life I could possibly live. I was smiling ear to ear thinking of it.

Well here's hoping it will be that simple, but something tells me it won't be that simple... and not just because of what happened at the end of the chapter. :P

[Papyrus Zest]

I knew one thing was for certain. This was going to be treacherous.

Don't you mean Tree-cherous

[Lunatic God]

11212943
Ah okay that makes so much more sense

[SethFilms]

oh god, Timberwolves

keep it up!