(19) Reintroduction
I didn’t think I had very good instincts before, but apparently I did. Before the mare could tumble down the rockface to the valley below, I caught the fat of her neck in my mouth. Why I went for that specifically, I didn’t know, but it worked, seeing as she wasn’t falling to her death. Apparently, I was stronger than I thought, too, although it helped that she was smaller than Shorey.
“FUCK!” she screamed, sounding a mixture between angry, in pain, and afraid. “Why did you have to catch me with your teeth! That hurts!”
“Grab the rock with your hooves!” I instructed as I kept hold of her in my mouth. “Use your fetlocks to get a grip on it.”
I kept her neck in my grasp until I was sure she had the rock in hers. As she got a hold of it, I tried to guess who she might be. Certainly not Forrester or Davey, since neither of them were mares. Raven didn’t seem like the type who would want to come here, not without her kids, Beryl was the least active in the chat and might not have known we were out here, and Moberly would almost certainly never ask to be a mare…
“What in the world are you doing out here?” she asked as she held on to the rock. “I didn’t expect to be dropped onto the side of a cliff!”
“What are you doing out here?” Shorey asked, looking down at her. “I thought I told everyone in our chat to meet up in Ponyville!”
“That spellcaster said it was gonna be eight hundred dollars extra to go to Ponyville,” the mare explained as she found her footing. “He said the cheapest option was to just be placed where you two were. I didn’t think that meant being put on the side of a mountain!”
“Plateau,” I corrected, “but who are you anyway? You’re not Beating Heart or Beryl, are you?”
“What? No! I…” The mare stopped before she could say her name, her navy blue cheeks suddenly going bright red. It took me a second to process why she would be doing that, but when I did, I laughed just like I said I would. In a few minutes though, I knew I was going to be extremely irritated.
“Who are you?” I asked, wearing a stupid grin on my face. I was about ninety nine percent sure I knew who it was, and it was just too funny of a fact to me to not laugh about.
“Ugh! I– I’m Moberly…” she got out, her voice trailing off as she said it. She looked absolutely embarrassed as she said it, keeping her eyes firmly fixed on the rockface we were standing on.
“You know,” I started, unable to contain myself, “I thought you were gonna be too embarrassed to ask to be a mare, but here you are.” Who would’ve guessed it? Surely not me. Oh no, they weren’t repressing anything with how transphobic they acted in public.
“Look, I didn’t ask to be this,” she said quickly, her face bright red as she did her best not to smile. “I wanna make that clear. I didn’t ask to be a mare.”
“Oh yeah? What did you ask for then? I find it hard to believe you didn’t ask for anything since you said Lord Zulu told you it would cost more money to go to Ponyville.”
"I- I just- I didn’t ask- look!” She sounded absolutely flustered as we finally started to climb again. “I’ll explain what happened after I keep myself from falling off the side of a cliff. What are you two doing out here anyway? And what happened to your tail?”
I laughed at that, but took her up on her offer. I couldn’t wait to hear what explanation she tried to think up. She’d certainly have time to come up with something by the time we got to the top.
Shorey and I explained what happened as we climbed, detailing the last few days of adventure. As we did, I noticed Moberly seemed like she was a natural at this. Shorey, too. In all honesty, I was probably the weakest member of the group climbing up this plateau, both of these ponies having years of outdoor experience between them, maybe even decades. Despite being in Equestria the longest and having what was likely a superior hoof grip, I was the slowest moving of our trio.
Finally, though, we made our way to the top, to the destination I’d been trying to get to for over the last week. The Crystal Empire stretched out before us, as far as the eye could see from left to right. It was gigantic, with a tall castle situated in the center, one that could be seen even from our position. I smiled widely at the sight of it. We were finally getting somewhere. I was that much closer to being able to be myself again.
“So wait,” the new member of our group asked. “Are you saying that you’re Rally? I didn't think you’d ask to be a stallion.”
“Unfortunately, I am,” I sighed, knowing exactly where this was going. “And no, I didn’t ask for this, but I didn’t ask for anything because I didn’t think it was real. Actually, Lord Zulu said he was gonna ‘teach me a lesson’ for trying to joke with him, and so decided to make it so I want to die.”
“But you didn’t ask to be that, did you? Just like I’m sure Shorey didn’t ask to be a girl, did he?”
We both turned to Shorey, who looked like she wanted nothing to do with the discussion we were having. I expected her to just out and say that she did ask to be one, but she didn’t. Instead, what we heard was, “Can we walk and find a place to sleep for the night? I don’t want to spend all night out here.”
Interesting deflection, but I’d come to expect that from her when she didn’t want to talk about something. I didn’t see why though. It wasn’t like it was some big secret what she asked to be.
“You didn’t choose to be a mare, did you?” Moberly asked, a little louder this time, more forceful.
“Yes, she did,” I answered for her as I started walking forward along with her. “She’s trans too.”
Somehow, my words only earned me a glare, one I didn’t expect. I didn’t see what the problem was. It wasn’t like it would stay secret anymore. Moberly was smart enough to put one and one together.
“You’re trans, Shorey?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “I don’t think I would’ve expected that from you.”
Now it was her turn to sigh. “Yes, I am,” she answered, a bit of an edge in her voice. “But I just thought we had more important things to worry about right now. We’re standing naked and broke in the city of a foreign country. Rally and I are both injured and half-starved. Can we talk about my mental illness another time?”
The way she described being trans as a mental illness made me grimace. I almost physically flinched hearing it. I knew she thought that, but seeing it said in text or hearing it in a joking way felt different from how she said it now. There was so much anger in her voice.
“It’s not like it’s not obvious, Shorey,” I tried to tell her. “It was only gonna take him about three minutes to put it together.”
“It doesn’t matter how obvious it is, Rally. I told you not to tell people that.”
“You told me you didn’t want anyone from Equestria knowing that, not–”
“No, I said I don’t want anyone knowing that. I specifically used the word anyone because I don’t want anyone knowing.”
“And then you followed it up by saying, ‘Obviously the group chat is gonna know’, implying that–”
“It doesn’t matter what I implied,” she interrupted, getting more upset now. “What matters is what I said, and I said don’t tell anyone.”
“You’re getting way too worked up over nothing.”
“It’s not nothing! Just don’t say it! I don’t care whether you think they’ll know or not!”
As nice and kind and amazing as Shorey was, she had a way of arguing that just completely put me off. Every single time. I didn’t know if it was her word choice or tone of voice, but every time we had a conversation that started to escalate, she did nothing but get me more riled up.
This time though, I knew exactly what I was bothered by in her saying not to tell Moberly or our other friends, but I didn’t bother saying it. I was way too tired and exhausted to want to engage in an argument with her right now. That meant I had to be the one to apologize and appease.
“Sorry,” I told her, trying not to sound too put off. “I won’t tell anyone else.”
“Thank you,” she said back, using a tone of voice that just put me off more. I was aching to tell her exactly what the implication was of her being bothered by letting the group chat know she was trans, but held back. Better, it was, to just keep it to myself, especially when I was unsure she was gonna change her mind anyway.
We walked for a little bit in silence, I just following wherever Shorey thought was best to go, before asking, “Did you want me to use he/him pronouns on you then, Moberly?”
“I- no!” she responded, looking like she was gonna drop dead from embarrassment. “I didn’t ask to be a mare, but since I am one now, it doesn’t make sense to call me a stallion, does it?”
“Of course not,” I said, half annoyed by the attitude they still had, but wanting to tease a little bit. “You’re just a cute mare now, aren’t you?”
She smiled for a second hearing that before putting her face down again in contempt. “Yeah, unlike you, who’s the same you’ve always been,” she said.
Yeah, that was a sign that I should just shut up. I’d heard her say things like that before, and was mostly unbothered by it when she did, but right then, it hurt. But, of course, it was what I deserved for poking a tiny little bit at people. Cause fuck me, I guess. It seemed Shorey thought the same thing, with as silent as she stayed at that comment, but I hoped it was just that she didn’t hear.
I was silent as we walked, listening to Moberly ask questions as we entered the city. It was more upscale than I was expecting, but that might have just been the crystal streets and houses making me think that. Either way, it seemed there was a nightlife scene here, with many ponies out and about. Almost every single one of them had the classic, crystalline look they had in the show, but that was expected. They were doing things like eating food and drinking and talking and laughing and just generally having a good time. It looked a lot more like Earth than I expected, except with ponies.
I saw a few of them staring at us, and realized right then just how bad we looked. Maybe not Moberly, but both Shorey and I had our coats matted and manes tangled up. I would bet we didn’t smell that great, either, and Shorey’s cuts were looking kind of nasty. My flank wasn’t really hurting that much, mostly just sore, but a quick look behind me showed it didn’t look that good either.
I didn’t say anything though. I was just way too upset and out of it to care either way. I just wanted to find a bed and go to sleep and stop dealing with everything. I didn’t think I was gonna get the third thing anytime soon though, even being in the Crystal Empire. Some other obstacle was sure to find its way to us and see to that.
“What do you think, Rally?” Shorey suddenly asked out of the blue, catching me off guard.
“Huh?”
“Did you want to just head to the castle now or find someplace to sleep for the night? I’m sure one of the ponies out here knows where a shelter is, if there is one.”
“Oh. I don’t care.”
She raised an eyebrow at me. “Are you okay, Rally?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I lied. “Let’s just go.”
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Considering how you practically insulted her while she's already in a rather bad mental state due to dysphoria and nearly dying multiple times, I dont know why you would even think to ask that.
11247950
Um, you know Shorey asked that...right?
My bad, I got the characters mixed up-
I think i don't like shorey very much, like bro if you choosed to be female and YOU KNOW 100% that people from group chat will come to you (people who will recognize you because spell caster will send them next to you) and you are still making drama out of it for no reason because it is unavoitable, like i get that she doesn't want to tell anybody that she is trans but that would be like showing up to the party with friends after gender change and tellin them: yeah i am not trans
Like bro didn't she speak in group chat that she gave spellcaster description of her oc?
Double negative.
Whoopty doopty, a new story from boopy doopy! Time to give it a read!
I'm surprised at how well Moberly is taking this. She even accepted to use female pronouns. Of course, this may be superficial, but she's not as bitter as Rally, superficially. What's going on inside her head I don't know, with her not being a fan of trans, she might've accepted her fate because it's going against her principle to change back, or she wants to turn back into a male since it's not her original gender. She could be a trans in denial, that's another bit to consider.