Wish Fulfillment (Legacy Version)

by Boopy Doopy

(23) Into The Great Wide Open

The next day was almost entirely spent job hunting.

A lot of places looked like they were hiring, but hardly any seemed to be paying very much. It seemed like the average wage was around fifty bits a week, which would put us as a group at six hundred bits a month on the high end. Even assuming we did nothing but save our money and didn’t spend on anything, it’d still take a good half a year for us to get a ticket to Ponyville. The thought of that was unbearable.

It didn’t help that some jobs requested specific cutie marks or cutie mark types. Probably close to seventy percent of them were looking for either experience or a specific cutie mark, like a vial for a nurse, or 5 years of experience to be a chef at a restaurant in lieu of a chef's hat marking. We didn’t see anything for our three cutie marks, mine a keyboard, Shorey’s a sextant, and Moberly’s an infinity symbol.

“Maybe you can be a math tutor or something?” I suggested to her as the three of us sat in the park and read a newspaper. “And you can be… a historian, Shorey? Have either of you taught anything?”

“I didn’t see anything listed for teachers,” she said.

“And my cutie mark is something I chose,” Shorey added. “It certainly doesn’t mean teaching history, although that sounds like a neat job to have.”

“Well then it sounds like our collective talents would earn us physical labor,” I said. “And honestly, that just sounds way too depressing.”

“We’ll have to make due with something. We can always change jobs to something else. But we need something.”

“I know,” I sighed, looking at the newspaper again. “I don’t think there’s gonna be very many great jobs for mares like us. Maybe there’s something to do with music?”

“Well, a job is a job,” Shorey said. “We can just take whatever pays the most that we can actually do.”

That ended up being trash collector, a job we applied for and were quickly rejected from, on account of being unicorns and not being able to use magic. We were also rejected from janitor, house painter, train attendant, farm hand, radio host (apparently they had those in Equestria) and office receptionist. What a day.

The only good thing was that the interview process in Equestria was fast. You walked into a business or office that was looking to hire, spoke to the pony employing for about ten minutes, answered a few questions, and got yourself a job. Or were rejected. We were able to breeze through seven or eight job opportunities in the span of about four hours.

Finally, we had to settle on something that paid on the lower end, and got hired to be librarian assistants for twenty five bits a week. The librarian, a mare named Paper Page, or just Page, looked ready to turn us away before agreeing to take us on. I didn’t think it was because she was desperate for help though. The library looked completely empty except for the four of us.

She paid us upfront, explaining that it was to incentivize us to work hard and stay dedicated. Then she showed us around, explaining our job, which was exactly what you’d expect a librarian assistant to do. Who would’ve guessed putting up books was in our job description?

“Now some of these books can be quite heavy, as well, there are gonna be boxes that weigh well over fifty pounds containing them,” Page said. “I guess that’s what he’s for though,” she continued, pointing a hoof at me.

I’d been largely able to ignore dysphoria for the last couple of days, but that little statement brought back a tsunami of it. Somehow, up to this point, the issue of pronouns hadn’t come up while we were in Crystal City.

“It’s she/her, please,” I told her politely. I avoided saying that I was a mare specifically, lest ponies get confused. Wouldn’t want that, would we?

“But you’re a stallion,” she commented, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, it’s just what I like, please,” I said politely, trying to smile as I took a deep breath so as not to flinch. This was an almost physically painful conversation to have. At least my ears didn’t want to die having to hear myself speak.

Don’t think about how repulsive your body is. You’re gonna get this horrible mess of a monster that you inhabit fixed. That’s the whole point of working here. Just breathe.

“Huh. I guess you two want to be called stallions then?” she asked of Moberly and Shorey. The question only made me cringe and clench my jaw.

“No, we don’t,” Moberly said quickly. “He’s just being special.”

“Can you not act like that?” I asked, both I and Shorey glaring at her. How she was allowed into our group chat, I didn’t know. I certainly didn’t invite her. I guessed she was more friends with Shorey.

“Moberly,” Shorey started, sounding angry. “You’re in no position to talk about who you think is special and who’s not.” That made her cheeks blush bright red in shame. Or maybe it was just embarrassment for herself.

And now there was the jealousy I had. I couldn’t believe for a second that Moberly didn’t ask to be a mare, but even if she didn’t, that only even made it more unfair. Someone who was openly transphobic and still transphobic after being turned into the gender she wanted to be was nothing but unfair. And I had to sit there and watch her pretend not to be happy about it.

God, this dysphoria is hitting me like a truck all at once.

“Anyway, I’d really appreciate it if you referred to me as a mare,” I said, having to close my eyes and take another breath.

“Well, uh, okay, I guess. I guess if I’m calling you all mares, that should be easy,” she said, seeming confused. “Anyway, I showed you, uh, girls around, so if you could get to work now, that’d be great. I’d like to get some of these books put up before the library closes in a couple of hours.”

“You want us to work right now?”

“I certainly didn’t pay you three to not work,” she said. “It’s just gonna turn into a bigger pile of books and more work for tomorrow if you don’t get it done.”

That was weird to me, and probably Shorey and Moberly, too, but we didn’t argue. She kept her eyes on us as we pushed the cart of books over to the shelf and started to put them up, watching us until she was satisfied we were working.

“She seems way too young to be running a place like this,” Moberly said. “I mean, who in their right mind pays their employees up front?"

“I don’t know, but I’ll take it. And she seems nice enough, even if she’s paying us less than all the other job listings offered us… “Rally?” Shorey suddenly asked, grabbing my attention. “Why are you stopping?”

“I’m getting dysphoric as hell,” I said quickly, staring down at my hooves. “I hate looking like this. I hate feeling like this. I just want to go back to the apartment and lie down and cry.” Not that I could cry.

“That sounds like you just want to be lazy,” Moberly commented. “How you feel is affecting your work performance?”

“Yes, it is, and the comments you make don’t help in the slightest, for what it’s worth.”

“And hearing you talk about it ad naseum can’t possibly be helping you either,” she countered. “I’ve only been here a few days and I’m already sick to death of hearing you talk about it. Maybe you’d feel better if you stopped bringing it up so much and just dealt with it.”

Did I really talk about it that much? I didn’t think so, but now I had to think back and see if I did. I knew I thought about it a lot, but did I really just complain all the time? Even with as much as I was hurting, the thought that I might be made me feel bad and my ears flatten. I didn’t want to be that kind of person. It hurt to hear, but I did specifically ask them to tell me when I was bugging them.

Shorey apparently didn’t think I was whiney, as I looked up to see her glaring angrily down at the shorter mare. She looked angrier than she did when I told Moberly she was trans. She seemed like she was ready to scream at her.

“It’s the truth,” Moberly said before she could say anything. “She’s being whiney, and I’m sick of hearing it. With as long as you’ve been here, I’m surprised you’re not.”

“And I would be whiney too, if I were in her position, maybe even more so. You know you would be too, so stop belittling her.”

“I–” Her face was bright red as she said, “Even if I was dysphoric–”

“I don’t care,” she interrupted. “Just stop treating her so badly.”

She looked ready to argue, but stopped herself, maybe because we were in public and didn’t want to attract attention. Instead, she went back to silently placing books on the shelf, looking a mixture between angry and embarrassed as she rolled her eyes. This was definitely going to be something that was discussed after we were done.

I took a breath and tried to get myself to move faster, not that it mattered much since there were only a few minutes left before the library closed. Page explained to us that we should be back there at nine in the morning sharp, and would be working Tuesday through Saturday. With that, she let us go, seventy five bits in hoof between us.

It was a silent walk back to the apartment, Moberly and Shorey looking like they were in extremely foul moods. I honestly expected Shorey to take her side on this, since the two had known each other longer than I’d known Shorey, and was honestly a little surprised that she didn’t. The former opened her mouth a few times, looking ready to say something, but stopped each time. I thought she might have been trying to find the right words to apologize with or explain herself. She looked like she felt at least a little bad about what she said, even if it wasn’t very much.

“I’m sorry if I seem whiney,” I said once we got back to our apartment, not heading inside yet. “I’ll stop bringing it up if it’s bothering you guys.”

“Yeah, it’d be appreciated,” Moberly got out, the mare getting a glare from Shorey in response.

“Anyway, just gonna walk around for a while and try to clear my head. I’ll come back later.”

There was more I wanted to add, but neither I nor they said anything else as I left, heading off to where, I didn’t know. I didn’t really care either way. My mental state was completely fucked, and I wanted a chance to take a break from everything if I could. When I got back, I’d have to stay with two people who got exactly what they wanted after not putting in one ounce of work to be who they wanted to be, and not able to talk about how I felt lest I bother them and come off as whiney. It was one of those moments where I hated everything about my existence.

I just want to be myself again…

Somehow I found myself in the center of town, right in front of the castle again, walking up to the Crystal Heart, a dozen other ponies around me talking and smiling. I remembered reading an MLP comic about Sombra where looking into it could show you your destiny. I was curious, but also terrified, worried that it would show an aging old stallion. I didn’t know what I would do if it did.

Come on, please, I asked silently as I closed my eyes, taking a step closer to it. Show me as a mare with Shorey. Or at least as just a mare. Please…

I opened my eyes to stare into it, gasping loudly when I saw a beautiful, orange coated mare reflecting back at me. She was one who was smiling widely, looking like she loved everything about her life. It made me smile and give myself a quick hug as the tears came down in streams for the first time in what felt like a long while.

The future was wide open.

Comments

[Chrome Masquerade]

Come on, please, I asked silently as I closed my eyes, taking a step closer to it. Show me as a mare with Shorey. Or at least as just a mare. Please…

I opened my eyes to stare into it, gasping loudly when I saw a beautiful, orange coated mare reflecting back at me. She was one who was smiling widely, looking like she loved everything about her life. It made me smile and give myself a quick hug as the tears came down in streams for the first time in what felt like a long while.

The future was wide open.

I get the feeling that he/she is getting flat image from it because he/she asked it to.

[silvadel]

Fast ways to make money in Equestria:

Music -- You have a whole catalogue of songs that were made in this world that do not exist in Equestria.
Books -- You have a huge number of books that you could blatantly steal from.
Inventions -- Even something as simple as a ball point pen could be worth a lot of money. You could design the first rubik's cube.
Knowledge -- The physics/math/etc knowledge you have could be worth a lot to the right pony.

Very slow ways:

Filing books in a library.

[Boopy Doopy]

11274663
Right now they have nothing. They're not gonna stay there forever.

[silvadel]

11274669

I know they have nothing tangible -- but they do have knowledge. I don't know just what knowledge each of the characters has, but it doesn't take tangibles to pass knowledge on. It DOES need finding the right ponies when you don't have any money to start with. However, when you don't care if somepony makes tens of thousands of bits off your idea and only gives you 1,000 for your contribution -- it still buys you a ticket.

[Ardent Dusk]

Woo! Bit of hope now. Hopefully that'll bring
her spirits up some.

[Rhombicosidodecahedron]

So moberly's just going out of her way to be a cunt
Lovely

[Thranx]

At least something is lightening up her mood. So that's good.