> Wish Fulfillment
>  by Boopy Doopy
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter One (Revised)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

BEST URGENT SPELLCASTER ADVERTISED. 100% GUARANTEED RESULTS. POWERFUL SPELLCASTER CALLED LORD ZULU TO HELP YOU GET WHAT YOU NEED IN LIFE. LOVE SPELLS OBSESSION SPELLS LOTTERY SPELLS AND MORE. CONTACT HIM NOW FOR YOUR TESTIMONIES. CONTACT HIM ON WHATSAPP NOW @(+1)200-969-7441. DO NOT WAIT. VISIT LORDZULUSHOUSEOFSPELLS.WEBSITE2.ME

“...what?” Rally couldn’t help but laugh to herself. It was just about the last thing she’d expected to see on a My Little Pony fanfiction website. An ad for a spellcaster in a forum about Rainbow Dash. The sheer shock of seeing the thing made her lean back laughing in her chair, almost falling out of the thing.

She was already clicking over to Discord to share it with her friends. It was something they had fun doing; browsing the website to see what silly things they could find as they chatted and read stories. They’d found some pretty wild things before, but so far, Rally could say that this took the cake.

Look at this, she typed out in a group chat with her friends, sending a screenshot of the ad along with a few of the comments from the forum. I love this website so much. We get such great content as this. Ads for spellcasters.

Where in the world did you find this, Rally?, one of them, Shorey, asked. How do they just allow ads for fake services about spellcasting to be posted? Seeing this makes me sad.

Doesn’t make me sad, Rally replied. I love it. I think stuff like this is great. Besides, I’m sure he’s one hundred percent legit, just like everyone else who’s claiming to be a spellcaster. As she typed, an idea suddenly came to her, and she said, I think I’m gonna call this Lord Zulu guy.

She knew this was what just about every MLP fan dreamed of, and wanted to play along with the idea for a while. Almost everyone she came across in the fandom said they’d rather be a pony than a human, and from all the stories she’d read, this was how those things started. It was a concept that made her laugh harder. She couldn’t imagine what she would do if, for the first time ever, it turned out to be real. Not that she even came close to suspecting it would be. 

She was already on the line when Shorey was telling her that she shouldn’t. You know, this could end up being something that you get charged by the minute for, he told her friend. You’re gonna call them and then receive a hundred dollar bill in the mail in three weeks, you know that, right?

Well, I’ll pay a ten dollar bill if I'm sent one, but not a hundred, she said with finality, completely brushing off what he told her. They’re gonna have to take me to court for that.

As Rally typed it, the line was suddenly going to voicemail without ever being answered. It was what she expected though. She didn’t expect to be provided with very much entertainment from a random ad on a random website. It wasn’t even a real phone number, one that was being hosted through WhatsApp. She didn’t think she’d be provided with much more than a few minutes of fun. 

They didn’t even answer anyway, she finished. I just wanted to be a pony in Equestria. I’m a simple girl with simple dreams.

However, as she typed it, her phone started to ring, and she started to laugh again. The spellcaster, Lord Zulu, was actually calling her back, to her surprise. Her fun would last a few more minutes at least.

“Hello?” she asked as she answered the phone. “Am I speaking to Lord Zulu?” She wore a smile the whole time, absolutely ready to start trolling whoever this person was.

“Yes, this is Lord Zulu,” the man on the other end answered, having an accent that Rally thought was Indian or Pilipino or Sri Lankan or from some other country in southeast Asia. “You are calling about a love spell sir, yes?” he asked.

“Um, I’m a ma’am,” she said quickly, silently cringing at her voice before brushing past it. “But I was calling about a spell to turn me into a pony in Equestria,” she told him.

She was back to smiling during the moment of silence as he tried to process what she was saying. After a second, he asked, “You are calling about what kind of spell?”

“I want a spell that will turn me into a pony in Equestria,” she repeated, doing her best to sound completely serious. “Your website was advertised on a My Little Pony website, so I want a spell that will turn me into a pony in Equestria.”

“Hmmm, I see,” he said, sounding like he was deep in thought. “I do believe this I can do.”

“Well, I don’t think you can, but if you could-” She wasn’t able to get out any more than that when she was abruptly hung up on.

She didn’t let the experience get her down though. After all, she was only looking for a few minutes of fun while she trolled the man. It was a surprise he even called her back in her opinion. 

She smiled to herself and let out a breath as she explained what happened to her friends. A few of them seemed to react as though they were laughing behind their screens at what she told them, which made her laugh harder herself.

He has a website and everything, she typed. I mean, how can you not trust a website hosted by website2.me? I absolutely would.

Well, it’s all fun and games until you get charged, Shorey told her seriously. When you get a bill in the mail, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

If I become a pony in the next twenty four hours, then I will pay whatever bill is sent to me. It would be absolutely worth it to be the cutest mare of all time.

Well, if you suddenly go missing in the next twenty four hours, another friend, Forrester, started, then I’m going to be the first to follow you. We’ll make it a group thing.

You better. I can’t just go alone. We need everyone there. You know, for science.

Oh, of course. I would never abandon you. Who’d be there to save you from whatever danger you found? Or whatever drugs you took, more likely? Shorey and I, obviously.

She laughed at the idea of that. She, Shorey, Forrester, and the rest of their group chat friends ending up in Equestria. If she did ever go, as unlikely as it was, she wouldn’t have been surprised to see a line of people right behind her. Rally couldn’t imagine anyone who would pass up on something like that.

She couldn’t imagine anyone she’d rather be with in Equestria either. Out of everyone on Discord, and even counting most of the people she knew in real life, she could safely say Forrester and Shorey were probably her best friends. She spent most every night online with them, hanging out and watching movies and playing online games and whatever else they came up with. She couldn’t think off the top of her head anyone else she had more fondness for, Shorey especially. If she could, she would absolutely want to go to Equestria with them.

She laughed the idea out of her head, putting it aside and focusing her attention on other things. As hilarious as she thought the ad was, it was still just a ad, and not even a real one at that. Rally had other things to take care of outside of it. She got back to work on other more important things, almost forgetting about it until she got a text from the spellcaster a couple of hours later.

Hello, I’m here to get back to you on the spell you requested, Lord Zulu wrote to her, making her smile wide as she read it. You said it is not a love spell, correct?

Nope, not a love spell, Rally texted back. I just want to be a pony in Equestria. Can you do that for me?

If you have anyone going through relationship problems, you can refer them to me, he told her, seeming like he was missing what she was saying. Not that she’d let that ruin her fun.

If you turn me into a pony in Equestria, I will refer my whole friend list to you, she told him. I already told everyone to get in my friends group to call you if you did.

I can, he said, but it’s going to cost you money for the materials to cast the spell that will turn you into a pony and put you in Equestria, that’s a three hundred dollar fee.

Before she could even reply, he sent a list of information Rally needed to provide to him. It contained things like her first and last name, her county and state, her age and phone number, and more. It was certainly more than she was willing to give out for a joke. More that that, she absolutely wasn’t going to be sending money to someone who she knew was clearly scamming her.

I don’t have that kind of money, unfortunately, Rally said. Think you could spot me for ninety nine cents? Also, since you’re a spellcaster, can you just read my mind and put that information in for me?

Do you believe this to be a joke? Lord Zulu asked in response. Dear ma’am, I am serious when I require three hundred dollars. Materials for transportation spells are quite expensive.

Was this guy being serious? Rally thought he’d have given up by now– most scam artists did– but it seemed like he genuinely thought he’d get her money. It gave her more entertainment, at least.

Exactly!, she replied. Which is why I’m offering you ninety nine cents! You can buy a cheeseburger from McDonald’s with that kind of money, or three cookies! Think of it! She couldn’t help but laugh out loud to herself when she saw the notification saying he’d read what she sent. Rally didn’t do things like this all the time, but when she did, she tried to go all out and have as much fun as she could with it. The sillier it was, the better it was in her opinion.

Or, since you’re a wizard, you can time travel and put it into Bitcoin and become a millionaire! Just think of the possibilities!

It was a longer time now before he sent a response, Rally assumed because he was finally catching on that she was trolling him. When he did reply, he only asked, Do you believe I’m trying to trick you? Is this a joke on your part?

She laughed at that question. Absolutely not! I would never ever joke about spellcasting! These things are a serious matter, which, as a wizard, you should know. It’s offensive that you would ever even insinuate such a thing of me. I’m insulted! Just for that, I might take my business elsewhere!

I see, he replied, almost impossibly fast, a matter of seconds after she sent her last text out. You are trying to play games with me. For this, I will teach you a lesson, one that will only be learned by granting you what you ask for. There’s no need for you to send your information. Your phone number should be sufficient enough to acquire it. The only requirement is that you tell other people of what I’m about to do. Since you and whoever you associate with are unbelieving, you will be used as an example of what I can do. When your friends know that you got your wish fulfilled, the rest will be required to pay for their spells. In less than twenty eight hours, your wish will be granted.

She couldn’t help but think about what an oddly specific number he’d chosen. Not twenty four or forty eight. Twenty eight. She didn’t know if there was any significance about it, but imagined he’d just chosen it off the top of his head.

Oh, I absolutely will, she responded. I’ll give them your Whatsapp phone number and everything. You’re gonna be so rich! But, you know, it would be better to just settle for my pocket change and go back in time and invest in Bitcoin. Also, you gotta make sure I’m an alicorn. I’m gonna be disappointed and won’t recommend your services if I’m not.

Rally waited for a response, but none came. She guessed that meant he was done dealing with her joking. With that, she sent screenshots of their conversation to Shorey, Forrester, and the rest of their group chat. It seemed like they got just as much of a laugh out of it as Rally did, and commented their thoughts on the situation.

I’m telling you, I’ll absolutely be the very first person to pay three hundred dollars to go to Equestria, Forrester said. Lucky you, getting to go for free.

And in twenty eight hours, too! she typed as she laughed behind her screen. It’s very considerate of him to give me that exact timeframe.

Just make sure to change your Paypal and Discord passwords and stuff, Shorey instructed. You know people can log into those things with just your phone number. I don’t want to see you get hacked and scammed, Rally.

Eh, I’ll do that if I get an email about a login attempt. I just can’t wait until I turn into a pony and get to meet Princess Celestia. It’s gonna be the best. Anyway, what have you guys been up to?

The conversation moved on from there, and any thought either Rally or her friends had of Lord Zulu left her mind. She didn’t even give the conversation they had a passing thought the rest of the night, or the next day as well. No thought came of either Lord Zulu or the ad, not even noticing that twenty eight hours had passed with nothing happening to her. It seemed just as quickly as the ad appeared in her thoughts, it left.

Around that time though, she did yawn and flop onto her bed, deciding that she could go for the rare nap after a long day of work. She set her alarm for two hours, thinking to herself that she’d get back up after that and proceed with the rest of her day. Before she closed her eyes though, she made sure to let Shorey and Forrester know that she was going for a quick nap, and assured them that their usual plans for voice chatting before bed were still going to happen.

Rally didn’t keep her plans, the rest of her day not proceeding quite the way she thought it would.
> Chapter Two (Revised)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rally grunted to herself as a blast of cold air hit her fur. She could hear the wind whipping around and sounding into her ears as it tried to force her into wakefulness. However, she persisted in trying to sleep, deciding that since her alarm hadn’t gone off, she wouldn’t be getting up. She wished though that she hadn’t left whatever window was cutting her with cold air open. Hopefully the sun would move over her and warm her up soon. February wasn’t the month to let cold air penetrate her home. 

She tried to make her spot more comfortable, but her bed didn’t feel as soft as it normally did, feeling more like a rock than it did anything she would actively choose to sleep on. She twisted and turned, looking for a good spot to rest again, but found none. A minor annoyance, but still not enough to deter her from finishing her nap. Nor was the fact that her blanket was taken from her, being replaced with a thin, slightly itchy sheet of… something. It made the cold cut deeper, but still, she was going to tough it out for the sake of precious sleep.

At least, she would have, if not for the slowly hardening appendage below her. It was one that caused a wave of disgust to wash over her and made her roll over off of the rock she was on and face plant into the snow. It was almost amusing how one’s lower head still seemed to take precedence over everything else and could control your upper head. In fact, Rally might have thought it was pretty funny, if she wasn’t retching in disgust.

She pushed back her desire to vomit, shaking herself off as she tried to get a good look at herself. Himself? Rally couldn’t be sure, because she was staring down at the body of the orangish-red stallion she inhabited. He was one with broad shoulders, a squarish muzzle, and a fiery colored mane like Sunset Shimmer, although the colors were more muted and darker shaded. Rally couldn’t tell by just looking down at herself, but she was pretty sure he was quite the looker, extremely handsome like she’d never seen or ever wanted to be. She almost gasped out loud when his hooves moved at her command, completely shocked by the development. 

There was a scream, and then a second later, tears as Rally flopped back down and curled up into the snow. It was probably the last thing in her life she expected to happen to her, minus her wish to be in Equestria actually being granted. Not that she considered yet what Lord Zulu’s involvement in this might have been. She was far too caught up in the moment to be able to do much more than cry at that particular moment. 

But only a minute it was that she was able to cry before she was forced to rise out of the snow, her body demanding so as her limbs started to go numb. She could imagine that, as bad as things felt now, becoming frostbitten or worse wouldn’t be any sort of improvement. Based on her surroundings, being a stallion was lower on the totem pole of problems she had right now.

It was a cloudy scene in front of her, the snowy landscape stretching out for what Rally figured to be dozens of miles before it turned into something green off in the distance. She was facing the edge of a cliff overlooking a mountain face below her, and a snowy valley leading off of that. She didn’t know much about distances, but the green she saw had to have been at least a day trip away. Almost certainly more than that.

Behind her was the rock she woke up on, a small little area of flatness next to a deep, icy gorge, and largely nothing else other than the peak of the mountain farther up. She couldn’t find any hint of information as to where in Equestria she might be, although she had a couple of guesses. The skies were a bit clearer in the direction behind her, but she already decided she had no intention of heading up the mountain. That gave her only one obvious direction to go.

Fear was already welling up inside her, her limbs shaking from the prospect of her situation. Or maybe it was just the cold wind biting into her fur. She could see the green, but from her vantage point, it was just a dot in the distance, separated by a long, long field of white. There was no shelter around her, and certainly she had no food, with water only available through the snow. She was certain some of her friends could brave something like this, namely Shorey and Moberly, as well as a couple of others, but she was just an office worker. The closest she got to adventure was walking the trail near her park. She certainly didn’t have to contend with the weather and wind and whatever dangerous things may or may not have laid ahead of her. 

Come on, Raleigh, she told herself silently, shakily taking deep breaths and exhaling upwards to try and keep her face warm. You’re a strong woman. You’ve faced harder than this. Your name’s Rally so you better rally up some courage and start walking. The sooner you leave the sooner you’ll be closer to… something. She wasn’t sure how true those things were, but it provided a small confidence boost. She would take what she could get. 

She carefully wiped any tears she had left out of her eyes with her shoulder before she started forward carefully. If she could start heading down immediately, she would have, but the cliff face prevented her from doing do. Instead, she walked along the edge, looking for an easier, less dangerous way down. She knew four hooves only gave her so much traction and ability to catch herself as compared to hands and feet.

It was only a few minutes of walking that the stallion did, Rally doing her best to disassociate herself from the situation, when something began to happen that intensified her already dreadful situation. Despite her protests, the side of the sky she was talking towards began to darken, and the sun started to set.

“No, no, no, no, no!” she yelled in complaint, as though her words would change anything.  “No, Celestia, you can’t do this to me! You’ve gotta be fucking kidding!” Celestia, however, seemed not to be kidding, and within a couple of minutes, the sky was completely dark of all light, minus a few stars on the mountain top behind her.

“Wow, what a perfect way to tie everything in a neat little bow,” she grumbled, staring out at the expanse as though the light would suddenly come back. “Why not just kill me now? It’d be faster and easier.” She remembered Lord Zulu with those words, and suddenly screamed out into the void, wondering if he was watching and listening to her.

“What the fuck did you do to me?” she yelled, a couple of more upset tears dribbling out as her body shook from the strong bite of wind that came in response. “How the hell is any of this– god! What the hell is going on?”

She was thinking back to their conversation, remembering how he said he would teach her a lesson for her disrespect. It seemed to her that his idea of a lesson was to strand her alone on a mountain top in the cold and snow, all alone in the night. Not to mention, she couldn’t brush off the psychological damage he was inflicting her with. She reasoned he knew full well that this would be the way to maximize her suffering, and wondered what he would’ve done if she called him stupid and a hack instead. Maybe then instead he would’ve tied her to a bed of nails and began torturing her. It seemed like the appropriate response if this is what she got in return for light hearted fun.

She didn’t consider how any of this might have been possible, much too wound up to really care. And cold. She didn’t know how cold it was, but it must have been below ten degrees, and standing there yelling off the side of a mountain was not an effective way to keep herself warm. The very first goal she had was finding any piece of shelter she could get her hooves on. Standing their complaining wasn’t an option.

Rally’s teeth chattered as she walked. She kept her eyes on the cliff next to her as she did, knowing that the last thing she wanted to do was make a wrong step and tumble down. With her luck, she wouldn’t die, but instead lay there in agony until she got hypothermia. She could already see it happening.

She had no time to consider any dysphoria she had, the cold was that bad. The wind constantly bit at her, leaving hardly any room in her mind for anything outside of concentrating on where she stepped and finding shelter. She had a coat to insulate her a bit, but it felt as though it offered no more protection than a hoodie. She tried to breathe deeply and let her breath keep her face warm, but was already feeling the tips of her ears and nose going numb. It sent another wave of fear through her, and got her to move that much faster to keep blood circulating through her veins.

She carefully scanned where she was walking as she moved as fast as she dared, looking for anything she could possibly climb down on four legs. It was a while, a long while, before she found anything, so long that the sky began to clear up and the moon started to shine its light on her, brightening the scene around her.  It was a good thing, too, because had it stayed as dark as it was, she might have missed the trail off the cliff face, barely visible in the dark as it was wedged between two large boulders.

The new trail she moved onto didn’t make her situation any safer. She knew it must have been a thirty degree incline she was descending, steep enough that she was afraid to sneeze lest she go tumbling down. She was forced to slow down again and take extra care not to slip and potentially break her neck, intensifying the numbness that she felt. The wind seemed like it was getting no better, and in fact might have been worsening. 

Rally didn’t know how long she walked, but she figured it must have been more than a few hours before she found something she thought she could use as shelter against the blistering wind. It was just a piece of rock that looked cut out of the mountain, but was one with three sides that she could rest against, and more importantly, one of the side was facing with the wind, which would make the cold less intense. It wasn’t anywhere close to ideal, but it didn’t stop her from taking refuge against it, stopping for a moment and leaning her back against the wall to rub her ears and face with her hooves. The wind chill here wasn’t quite so low as it was out in the open, exposed air.

She couldn’t say she felt particularly tired, the adrenaline she had from being placed into this position and the stinging she got from the cold being more than enough to keep her awake. However, she figured she might as well rest here anyway. She didn’t want to continue walking in the night, and certainly didn’t want to come back here if she did get tired later and couldn’t find a spot to rest at. She knew the odds of her finding anything better anytime soon were pretty low.

Rally huddled herself into a corner, placing her back against the cold rock wall and cradling her face close to her body to protect it from the cold as best she could. She carefully tucked her tail against her middle to keep her underside warm, unable to stop the involuntary grunt of frustration that came along with it. No, she couldn’t say she was doing very well mentally at that particular moment, and didn’t think that her mental state would do anything except decline as she descended the mountain. 

Oh, God, just let this be a nightmare, she thought to herself as she closed her eyes, trying to ignore just how painful the cold was, rubbing her ears for a long minute before settling in to try and rest. Let me just wake up and have this be a bad dream.

She couldn’t help but wonder what Shorey and Forrester and everyone else was going to think about her suddenly disappearing after wishing to be in Equestria. What would they say when they realized she’d been offline all night in the wake of whatever ridiculous magic was cast on her? She didn’t know, but she had a feeling a few of them would be showing up in Equestria at some point, too.

Hopefully things would be better when they showed up.
> Chapter Three (Revised)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The stallion, despite the cold, had managed to find a little bit of sleep, her teeth chattering the whole time she slept. Her dreams, however, turned out to be nightmares, not at all different from her current predicament.

It started off as a dream Rally had often, one where she stood in front of a mirror and watched herself change from a little boy into a full grown man. Without fail, it always made her cry, although normally she could wait for the end when the nightmare would end and she’d be changed into herself. This time however, before the dream got to that point, her body shifted and morphed into the orange stallion she’d recently become.

She almost forgot why it was happening until she looked down at herself, seeing her outward appearance matched the mirror. Now, instead of sad despair, she was frozen in fear, her eyes wide at the development and her body shaking. She didn’t expect this turn, and had no idea what should be done about it.

The room she was in faded into the snowy landscape of the top of the mountain, but the mirror remained, keeping her eyes transfixed upon herself. She tried to turn away from the sight and close her eyes, but the voice that belonged to the footsteps behind her commanded her to keep her attention forward.

“Look,” the man behind her said, his voice carrying sharp knives of wind that practically made her body bleed. Her frozen head wouldn’t move, her body forced to be stock still as she took herself in, watching as her coat now started to become patchy and the skin beneath it red with frostbite. She barely registered that the voice belonged to the spellcaster she spoke to the day before.

“You thought you could toy with a powerful spellcaster such as I?” he bellowed, his voice booming as the wind blew Rally’s mane wildly. It was snowing now, practically a blizzard around her, everything around her unclear and practically invisible in the middle of the storm of white. It blinded her eyes and forced her to squint as she tried to look up at him. The stallion's eyes, however, refused to move away from the mirror, locked in terror on them.

“Am I a child to you?” Lord Zulu asked. “A dog that I am to entertain you with tricks?”

“It was just a joke!” she tried to say, feeling herself starting to age, her own voice unbearable for her to listen to. “It didn’t mean anything! I didn’t hurt you! I was just having a little fun! It’s not worth this! I’m sorry!”

“You will be sorry,” he commanded as the stallion now started to cry at the sight of herself in the mirror. “Lord Zulu is not one to fool with. For your sins, you will receive nothing but exactly what you asked for. Enjoy your future as the stallion you were born to be.”

Rally couldn’t help but sob loudly. As numbing as the cold was, she almost preferred it to this. What had she done to deserve to have her life as she knew it wiped away from her? Other than that she made mild jokes about her lack of belief in the spellcaster, she didn’t know.

She didn’t know if she was ever thankful for having a nightmare before, but if she wasn’t, she sure was now. Once again, the world around her was shifting away, in a second finding herself laying curled up in the dark expanse of a room, directly below the tall dark alicorn that was Princess Luna. She took a breath and tried to calm down, but her teeth still chattered, now from her despair rather than cold. The princess wasted no time in bending down and wrapping her wing around Rally, touching the tip of her horn to one the stallion didn’t know she had.

“...not, sir, your night… more!” Luna proclaimed, Rally finding it hard to make out what she was trying to say. Her voice cut in and out like bad cell service, her movements appearing stilted, pausing every few seconds. It made Rally wonder just how far away from Canterlot she could possibly be to receive such a significant lag. 

“We must… where… Equestria are you?” She was asking where Rally was the stallion put together, as if she had a clue. “There is quite… large… in speaking to you.”

“I don’t know,” she responded, her voice cracking as she looked up into her questioning gaze with wet eyes. “I’m on top of a mountain somewhere, but I don’t know where. I only got here a few hours ago.” Before Luna could ask more, Rally continued, “I don’t know what happened. I asked some guy to cast a spell on me to bring me to Equestria, and now I’m up here in the cold as some awful stallion.”

“Are you not… be a stallion?”

“No,” she answered quietly. “I’m not even supposed to be a pony… well, I mean, I asked to be one, and I asked to be here, but I didn’t think this was a real thing that could happen, and I definitely didn’t mean as a man on the top of a mountain.”

“It is… if you… eyes, you… form yourself. It’s simple.”

“Huh?”

“Never mind. Do you… general idea where…?”

“I couldn’t begin to tell you where I am,” Rally said, figuring that was what she wanted to know. “I know I’m on top of a mountain, and there are mountains behind where I’m walking in the distance, and a green field or forest or something past a snow patch below me, but other than that… I don’t have a clue.” She paused and took a breath, continuing, “And I– I’m really scared, and I don’t know what to do. It’s cold out here.”

“Hmmm, that could… numerous locations. But… must ask. Are… Equestria? I do not… encounter you.”

That one took her a little longer to piece together what was being asked. “I’m in Equestria,” the stallion told her, “but I’m not from Equestria. Someone cast a spell on me to bring me here. His name was Lord Zulu, and he’s… I don’t know. I want to say some scammer, but obviously he’s not if I’m here. And he put me on this mountain, and I need help getting off of it.” A boatload of fear suddenly crashed over her again as she nervously continued, “I’m worried about what might happen if I’m stranded up here alone. I don’t want to die out here.”

Rally gave Luna a pleading look, mustering up the best puppy dog eyes she could, hoping the princess could fly over to her and rescue her. However, her heart dropped when she returned it with a frown and a sad expression.

“We cannot… subjects of Equestria. We are only permitted… international law, in accordance… nations, even in Equestrian territory… apologize.”

She had no idea what any of that meant, but knew it wasn’t good when she saw the princess fading out of existence and herself waking up just a minute later.

She almost forgot where she was, but the frigid temperature made sure to remind her exactly of her situation. Rally couldn’t tell how much time passed, noticing the moon hadn’t changed position. It seemed like the stars had though, and the grogginess she received waking up felt like an indicator that it was more than a little while.

She stayed huddled in her corner, not wanting to move at all, feeling too upset by everything to want to do more than put her head down and fall back asleep. But cold was still a good motivator, and she forced herself up to stretch out her stiff limbs. Her hooves and body didn’t feel that bad, but regarding her face she was genuinely worried that the tips of her ears and nose might become frostbitten. They were already painfully numb, but there was nothing more she could do than use her hooves to try and rub them awake. That, and keep on walking to keep blood circulating. 

Within a minute, she was back on the trail, the tiny bit of protection she had from her little shelter being left behind as a particularly nasty bite of wind hit her. It brought tears to her eyes, it was downright painful, and she couldn’t help but curse out loud at Lord Zulu.

He really intended to kill me, the stallion thought as she walked, moving as quickly as she dared down the inclining trail, willing to take anything to warm herself up. He wanted to teach me a lesson, so there’s no way he didn’t send me here on purpose. He’s really trying to kill me for having the tiniest bit of fun at his expense.

She had to wonder if it was really him telling her those things in her dream. She didn’t think so, but also couldn’t rule it out as a possibility. It would be interesting if she ever learned that he did, she decided, and was something she was going to tell somepony about. At least, she would if she could get off this stupid mountain.

Suddenly, another, somehow scarier thought popped into her head. What if Shorey and Forrester came here, too? She didn’t know what she’d do if she learned later that they came here and were stranded on the top of the mountain where she had started. Not that there was any way she really could know without going back up, but if she ever did learn that, she would almost certainly put the blame on herself. She didn’t want any of her other friends go to through this.

And then another strong bite of wind came, one that reminded her that she should be focusing on herself for now. She could worry about them once she was safe, something her aching ears and nose and her stiff limbs told her she was not.

I’m gonna get to safety, and then… what? Rally had no idea. Ideally, she’d get to Canterlot and speak to Twilight Sparkle, but judging by Princess Luna’s reaction, she didn’t know how great of a possibility that was going to be. Not that there was truly much to do, other than get changed into a mare. What was she going to say? That she wanted to go back to Earth? If she could be a mare, she would certainly take being a pony over being a human at all times. And if Shorey was coming right behind her, which was a large if, then… well, depending on what happened, she guessed she could take being a stallion for a little while. 

But any plan outside of getting out of the cold was secondary at that point. Right then, she wanted to focus on getting to safety, and anything other than concentrating on where she stepped was a dangerous activity until she was warm.
> Chapter Four (Revised)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rally couldn’t say that the sun was rising before she knew it. It felt exactly as long as it took when the first fellow rays made their way onto the horizon. It was hours spent walking down the incline of the mountain face when she finally got the warmth of Celestia’s golden sun on her frostbitten face and stiff coat. It made her breathe a long, thankful sigh of relief when the bright ball was hanging in the middle of the sky just a few minutes later, already a significant improvement over everything from the previous night. 

Her hooves and legs now were starting to ache from all of her walking, but she didn’t dare stop. She felt tired– no, downright exhausted– but not sleepy. As long as she had her concentration, she would continue to move forward, not wanting to spend one second longer than she needed to outdoors. If she did start to become sleepy though, she would be forced to stop. As much as she hated being out here, the only thing worse would be slipping on a patch of ice and breaking her back or bleeding out.

It was disheartening to the stallion to see how slowly she was moving though. It felt like the distance between her and the dot of green she saw at the top of the mountain was no closer now than it was before. A quick look behind her though showed she was nowhere near where she started this journey, which only made it more frustrating and frightening that she wasn’t any closer to safety yet. How long was this trip going to take?

“Fuck you,” Rally said aloud as she walked, mostly to herself, but imaging that the spellcaster could hear her anyway. “Fuck. You. All of this for one tiny joke. You’re absolutely horrible.”

It was mostly silence from there on out, her full concentration on her hooves. She wanted to try and figure out how she was able to manipulate them so easily without any trouble despite having never been a quadruped, but decided that it was way too risky to start getting into that. Better, it was, to just accept that she naturally knew as she came to a spot where the trail flattened out for a few feet, only to drop steeply from there, too steeply for her to continue. It’d be trouble enough to get down as a human, but as a pony, it was nearly impossible. Even worse, the trail seemed to be taunting her, leveling off into something close to flat past the fifty foot section of cliff she was stopped at.

I’m gonna try and get down there and break my leg, the stallion thought to herself. I just know it. Break my leg if I’m lucky, break my neck if I’m not.

She pranced in place as she tried to decide how best to go about this, staring for a few minutes at the problem. It was a long moment of still silence, not even wind to fill her head with noise as she considered what she was up against. The more she stared, the more frustrated she became until finally she screamed and sat down on her haunches in anger. 

She was at a dead end with no way to advance. From what Rally could tell, her options were to either sit there, head back up the trail and find another spot to descend, or risk killing herself attempting to climb down. The first option was completely untenable, and the second option was much too dangerous to even seriously consider. It left only the most frustrating one available to her. Heading backwards was the very last thing she wanted to do. 

“God damnit, come on!” Rally sank onto her stomach, wanting to cry, but unable to. She was tired and cold and dysphoric and hungry and wanted nothing less than to be put in this position. Why couldn’t Luna just help her? This wasn’t how real life was supposed to go, let alone being a human in Equestria. And yet, here she was, living out exactly what wasn’t supposed to happen.

If the cold was good for something, it was what kept her from being in one place for too long, her body starting to go numb if she stopped, even in spite of the sun. Unless she wanted to get frostbitten, she would keep moving. 

“Come on, Rally,” the stallion announced out loud to no one. “Rally up some strength or an idea or something. You’ll have lots of time to cry later when you’re safe. Or dead when you break your neck trying to get down this thing.”

She took a breath, not starting down immediately, instead pacing back and forth in thought. How could she do this? She was a unicorn, which meant that, in theory, she should know how to use magic. If she could, that would make it much more feasible to get to the bottom.

Of course, she didn’t actually expect to know, and after a few minutes of trying, proved she was no Lord Zulu. Even if she could use magic, she had no idea what kind of spell she would cast to get off this cliff. 

She had just as little luck with her hooves when she tried to see if she had some form of hoof grip. If she did, she didn’t know how to use that either, the hoof full of snow she tried to form into a ball not doing as she commanded. She couldn’t even get her hooves to latch onto it, nor the random rocks and pebbles she found lying around, or even her own mane. Her hooves weren’t an option, either. 

Fine, Rally thought, doing everything she could to keep from screaming. No magic or hoof grip. I’ll still figure this out. I am not turning around. 

She looked over the edge again and scowled. The cliff still taunted her, having ledges and hoof holds built into the side of it, like its express purpose was to climb up and down. Impossible to do without any grip though. She knew she’d only go six or seven feet before she fell, and that a forty five foot drop was about as deadly as a fifty foot one. There was no way she was going to get down the thing alive. 

“Eerrggghh, god! Fuck!” Rally screamed angrily as she began to stomp her way back up the hill. She didn’t go very far though, only a couple of hundred yards before she stopped again. It was just too demoralizing to head back up there and waste another day and night trying to find some other path down. She was going to get down the cliff one way or the other. Probably not the safest plan, but she couldn’t say she was in a healthy enough state of mind to care that much.

I’m not gonna die, she tried to convince herself. No one in Equestria ever dies. Ponies do dangerous things all the time, like head into the Everfree and fight monsters, and they never died. Heck, there was an episode where Rainbow Dash broke her wing and it healed in a day, and one where Twilight was slammed against a wall by Tirek, and they didn’t have any trouble. I’ll probably be fine if I end up falling down.

She wasn’t sure if she quite believed it, but it was enough to psyche her up and allow her the courage to start making her careful way down the side of the cliff. She moved backwards so that she could have some grip on the ledge with her fetlocks, knowing she needed everything she could get. It was extremely risky business.

Rally was shaking in anxiety as she looked down to find the next spot to place her hooves. She gingerly let her front hoof hang out, now having only one fetlock to support her as she leaned down to get to the next spot. She felt her hoof touch the rock it was supposed to be on, but then screamed as the limb suddenly slipped out from under her. 

Or rather, it nearly slipped from under her. She was somehow lucky enough to gain control of her body and stop that from happening, but only barely. Now though, she was absolutely shivering with fear, wanting to stop and pull herself back up. Her lack of hoof grip though told her that reascending wasn’t an option anymore. 

What the hell is wrong with me? Why did I think this would be a good idea? I’m going to die falling down this ledge.

She stayed where she was for a long minute, taking deep breaths to try and settle down again. She couldn’t be shaking when she continued to descend. The more stability she had, the better. 

Come on, Rally, you can do this, she encouraged herself as she quickly moved her left hoof down to the ledge her right was on. You thought this was a good idea, after all, now get your butt moving. Err, flank moving.

Another breath was taken, but before the stallion could move again, a particularly strong cut of wind hit her. It was enough to make her stop in fear again, unable to help the huge shiver she let out because of the cold. She was already realizing that her frustration made her make a poor choice. This was an incredibly dangerous idea with a high risk of death.

You’re not gonna die, she told herself. “You promised yourself a long time ago that you wouldn’t die as a man, and being a stallion is the exact same thing as that. Now get moving so you can find Twilight Sparkle and get yourself out of an ugly, masculine body for a second time.”

That provided her with the encouragement she needed. She didn’t know how, but somehow, with either hoof grip or magic, she was able to make her careful way down, step by step. It was arduously slow, but before long, she was a quarter of the way down, then nearly halfway. She started to become more confident, and moved more quickly, wanting her hooves to touch the ground as soon as possible. 

It was a mistake though, because the next thing she knew, she was slipping. This time though, Rally didn’t catch herself, her back hooves sliding completely off the ledge. She screamed again and closed her eyes, certain that this would truly be the end of her. 

Instinct was a powerful thing though, and something that saved her skin. By pure instinct, she was able to grip onto the side of the cliff and hold herself in place. Not that it was a particularly good position to be in; her hooves were dangling out under her, no support to rest them on. She was hanging on for dear life. 

“Somebody help me!” the stallion yelled desperately, hoping somepony was around to hear her. “Please! I need help! Anyone!" She might have been almost halfway down, but she didn’t need to experience falling from either height to know that thirty feet would hurt just as much as fifty feet.

No answer came, but she hoped somepony was coming around the corner. If they were, no one made a sound, but what could she do other than hang on for dear life? She didn’t understand how she was able to, and was too panicked to try and figure it out. It might have been a good thing actually. There was a chance that putting conscious thought into it would cause her grip to give way.

It still did eventually however, much to Rally’s terror. She tried hard to pull herself up, but didn’t have the strength to. Her heart beat harder in fear, the knowledge that there was nothing below her except solid rock forcing her to hang on as long as she possibly could. It was all she could do. Falling would hurt more than a little. 

“Lord Zulu, please!” she got out in a last ditch effort, her voice cracking as she was on the verge of tears. “I won’t mess with you again!” she pleaded. “I’ll give you whatever you want! Just don’t let me die like this! Please! I learned my lesson!”

As though listening and trying to spite her, her grip slipped further, and a second later, gave way. She screamed loudly, and closed her eyes a moment after she turned over and looked at the ground racing up to her, bracing for impact. It was truly going to end like this, over a joke.

The impact never came though, and a few seconds later, Rally opened her eyes to see she was suspended in the air. There was a brown glow of magic holding her up just a few inches from the ground. Somepony actually heard her and saved her.

Her body shook and her heart pounded hard as she gasped for breath, tears running down her cheeks as she was carefully settled onto the snow covered ground. She gingerly glanced up to see who her savior was, finding a vaguely familiar brown unicorn with a whitened out mane and little mustache. He was dressed in a little bit of armor and had a stitched together threadbare cloak, a stick for a staff and a rusted bucket for a helmet laying on the ground next to him.

She recognized him as the stallion who lived on Mount Everhoof, the one who stopped Cozy Glow from ascending on her own, which at least told her where she was. She didn’t remember his name though, or him being a unicorn, but she certainly wasn’t going to be complaining about that.

“I hafta say, that there was a close one,” he started as he gently trotted over to the fiery maned unicorn. “Good thing I heard yer screamin’ when I did. Another second and ya’d be painted all over the side of this here mountain,” he said as he magicked his bucket back on his head, covering his smallish looking horn. “What were ya doin’ up here anyhoo, what with no gear or winter garments or nothin’?” the stallion asked.

Rally opened her mouth to answer, but instead of words, sobs came out.
> Chapter Five (Revised)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rusty Bucket stood over the sobbing unicorn for quite a while, watching the stallion struggle to get control of himself. He couldn’t say he’d ever seen anything quite like it in his life, although there wasn’t a lot he’d seen since most of his life had been spent guarding Mount Everhoof. Regardless, he could say he might cry if he was saved from falling down a cliff face with only a moment to spare.

Eventually, he was able to pick himself up, and Rusty Bucket walked him to his home on the mountain. He still had a few tears dripping down as he hung his head low, the look on his face seeming like he was completely emotionally out of it. It made Rusty feel bad, and he found himself feeling some sympathy for him. 

“Sorry we have ta take ta walkin’ back to my house,” the stallion started, attempting to break the awkward silence that was building. “Used up a good portion of my magic teleportin’ here ta catch ya. Not that I mind it. Guardin’ this here mountain is my job, and that means protectin’ anypony that happens ta find themselves in danger up here, too. Speakin’ of which, what’s yer name? Mine’s Rusty Bucket.”

“R-r-raleigh…” the orange pony quivered quietly, still shaking from the cliff, as well as the cold. He didn’t have the strength to introduce himself further, speaking no more outside of, “I go by Rally.”

“Well, I hafta say, Rally, that was mighty dangerous of ya,” Rusty Bucket told him. “Climbin’ up there with no gear or nothin’– what’s a stallion like yerself doin’ up here all alone anyhow?”

He watched Rally flinch and quietly mutter something under his breath before looking away embarrassedly. Rusty Bucket only tilted his head in confusion, urging the stallion to speak louder.

“I-I’m a… m-mare, please,” Rally said again, just a little louder, flattening his ears against his head. He– or maybe she? Rusty didn’t know now– had a look like it was the last thing in the world he wanted to talk about. 

“I woke up at the top of that mountain,” Rally continued quickly, looking down at his hooves as they walked. Then his face went red, and he let out a long frustrated sigh of a breath. Rusty Bucket also couldn’t say he’d ever seen a more embarrassed and uncomfortable looking stallion in his life.

“Um, do you, um, have any clothes I could wear when we get there?” Rally asked shyly as the two walked. “Please?”

“I’ll hafta see, but ya aren’t really my size,” he told him. “But ya were sayin’ ya woke up at the top of Mount Everhoof?” he asked. “How’d ya go about doin’ that?”

“I don’t know,” Rally sighed. “Some guy named Lord Zulu turned me into a stallion and placed me at the top of the mountain.” Another sigh came as he– maybe they really were a she. This pony did kind of walk like a mare– continued, “I mean, I asked him to turn me into a pony and put me in Equestria, but I didn’t ask for all of this. I wanted to be put in, like, Ponyville or Canterlot or something. I didn’t ask to be cold and dysphoric and hungry and nearly die.”

“Hmmm. Well I’m not sure whatcha mean by all that, but I’ll go along with it. Where should ya be headin’ off to now?”

“I… I don’t know,” she said quietly. “I don’t have any plan or anything. I don’t know where I’m gonna stay or what I’m going to eat or where I’m going to go… I didn’t think something like this could actually happen.”

“Well, it’s dangerous out here for ya, so I’ll let ya stay at my place for a while so ya can rest on up. Whadda say, Rally?”

“Yes, please. I’d appreciate it very much.”

The two walked the rest of the way to Rusty Bucket’s home in silence, Rally keeping her head down and shivering every so often. Her savior couldn’t help but notice just how tall and bulky she looked, her body extremely stocky, like she was a slightly smaller version of Prince Shining Armor. She must have noticed this, too, because she closed her eyes and flinched every time he turned around to glance at her. 

It wasn’t a very long trip before they got to his home, a large, almost mansion like log cabin built into the side of the mountain. There was a fireplace glowing through the windows and smoke coming out of a chimney on the roof. It overlooked a large expanse of snow before the mountain started again, and behind it was the trail Rally was just on. Rusty walked her look around and take it all in, a look of recognition seemingly making its way onto the stallion’s face. She hadn’t been here before, had she? Rusty Bucket certainly didn’t recognize her. 

He let Rally inside and watched her breathe a sigh of relief, automatically flopping onto the carpet in front of the fireplace, like she wanted nothing else other than to pass out. He could only imagine what it must have been like to be outside presumably all night. She didn’t have any gear, and must have been cold. Her coat looked frosted over and her limbs stiff.

“This here’s my house,” he explained as he stepped in front of the stallion and hung up his cloak and bucket. “I don’t know about all this wakin’ up on the mountain business, but yer free ta stay as long as ya need. Been a while since I’ve had company over. I could use some companionship.”

Somehow Rally looked even more uncomfortable now, but seemed to try not to express it. 

“Do you have anything to drink?” she asked. “And something to eat if I can have it? It’s been probably a full day since I’ve had anything at all.”

“All in the kitchen around the corner,” he explained. “Feel free ta take anythin’ ya like. What’s mine is yers.” He looked the unicorn over for a moment before adding, “But if ya can, I’d suggest gettin’ yerself cleaned up first. Yer more than a might dirty, and I don’t want ya trackin’ dirt everywhere ya go.” He used a hoof to point out the bathroom, and Rally thanked him, making her way over and leaving Rusty Bucket alone to settle himself on the couch. 

Yes, he could say the pony was definitely weird, and so was their explanation. What reason did some creature have for teleporting a stallion to the top of Mount Everhoof? Other than to retrieve Grogar’s Bewitching Bell, of course. It might have been bad form to do, but Rusty Bucket could say they probably weren’t after that, what with how confused and scared and unprepared they looked. What else could there have been? He’d never heard of anypony called Lord Zolo or Zala or whatever they said.

He didn’t have too long to consider it before his concentration was broken by the sound of yelling. Panicked screaming was coming from the bathroom, and by the he’d gotten to the door, the sound of crying. No, he couldn’t say he could see this stallion being able to do much more than– well, almost fall down a fifty foot cliff trying to get down the mountain. 

“Are ya okay in there?” he called. “I don’t want ya hurtin’ yerself. I can come in if ya need me to.”

Rally took a few moments before she answered. “I’m fine,” she said, her voice sounding like it was cracking and filled with tears. “I just- do you have a towel so I can cover up this mirror, please? I don’t want to have to look at myself while I’m in here.”

“Sure, they’re in the closet off to the side, behind the toiletries,” he said. “Help yerself to whatever ya want.”

He stayed beside the door, waiting until he heard the sound of the shower turning on before he left again and plopped back down onto the couch. It didn’t seem like they were particularly mentallly healthy right then, but he could only imagine why. Being stuck up on Mount Everhoof wouldn’t be his idea of a good time. Not to mention, she said something about being a mare. Was something like that possible? He didn’t know, and he didn’t know whether to ask her more about it. She seemed like if he did, she might start crying again. 

He heard the shower run for quite a while, probably over an hour before she came out with a towel wrapped around herself. “I have a question,” she called as she stepped into the living room. She didn’t get far into her question, suddenly halted wide eyed at… something. He didn’t know, but once again, she looked uncomfortable and nervous, almost fearful. What could possibly have brought that on?

“Yeah?” Rusty asked, raising an eyebrow as she kept her eyes forward, looking like she wanted to look away. He watched her let out a shiver before continuing. 

“Um, I– I was just wondering if you’ve ever seen a little pink filly running around up here at all,” Rally asked. “A pegasus with blue curls? Probably seven years old?”

“Nuh uh, not that I recall,” he answered, putting a hoof to his chin and looking up in thought as he tried to remember. “Pretty sure I’d recall somepony like that being on the mountain. Whydda ask?”

“No reason,” Rally said quickly. She swayed back and forth on her hooves and bit her lip like she wanted to say something to him, but refrained. What was going on with her?

“What was, like, the last big villain to try and take over?” she asked. “I just need to know how long it’s been.”

“Don’t know,” Rusty replied honestly. “I might be the guardian of this mountain, but that don’t mean a lot happens. A lot of borin’ patches of time, honestly. I can’t even remember the last time I saw a pony before you. Might’ve been months, honestly, maybe years.” She let out a frustrated breath at that, and he continued, “Sorry I can’t be more helpful.”

“Would’ve been nice had I woken up in Ponyville,” the stallion muttered. Then she yawned and asked, “Do you have a place I can sleep for now? Or actually, water first, please? And some food?”

“Sure. Water’s in the kitchen and there’re a bunch of bedrooms down the hall from here. For food, I’ll fix ya up something ta eat later for supper, or ya can grab somethin’ yerself if ya wanna.”

“Thank you very much, I appreciate your hospitality,” she told him gratefully.

She left with that, heading to his kitchen for food and water before trotting tiredly off to bed, the sounds of the deep breathing of sleep heading to Rusty Bucket’s ears just a few minutes later. He couldn’t say he’d had very many days like today, finding a lone stallion on top of the mountain, but here he was.

His thoughts went back to what in Celestia’s name might have happened to get him up there in the first place. He didn’t think there was any way somepony would just do that, but then again, he didn’t see any tracks in the snow below the path to suggest any creature walked through. It wasn’t like it snowed last night.

They weren’t a crystal pony either. It both looked and sounded like they were an Equestrian, not that it changed what Rusty Bucket could offer them. Only shelter for now, and if they were leaving soon, supplies and well wishes. Beyond that, nothing much, except maybe some sympathy. He once again got the idea that they weren’t particularly mentally stable right then, and hoped some food and sleep would help. 

He didn’t think it would help though. It was just a feeling he had.
> Chapter Six (Revised)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shorey thought something was up the night before.

Rally wasn’t the kind of person to just go offline. Unless she was sleeping, she was going to be listed as online in their group chat. Whether out with friends or shopping or at work, it didn’t matter. She didn’t go offline. And yet, here she was, listed offline several hours before she normally went to bed.

It was probably nothing though. She said she was going to take a nap for a few hours before she changed her status. She probably just went to sleep for way longer than she intended to. It had happened before, a few times actually. She recently had to change her sleep schedule for a few days so she could do training at work for a promotion. Her sleep cycle was probably out of whack because of that. No big deal.

It also probably wasn’t a big deal when she wasn’t online when he woke up the next day, but it did grab his attention. It was less than a day spent offline, but there was no way would she be offline for this long without saying something unless something was wrong. Not that Shorey was concerned yet, but he was curious. More than likely it was nothing more than her being busy and forgetting to set herself as online again.

Hey, Rally, he typed to her in a private message, is everything alright? You haven’t been online in a little while.

Short, sweet, and to the point. She’d get back to him in a few minutes and say she fell asleep or was busy with work or spending time with her family or some other reasonable explanation.

By the time mid afternoon rolled around though, his curiosity did give way into concern. Rally still hadn’t come online, still hadn’t sent a message since she said she was going to take a nap the day before. Even if she was busy with something and couldn’t be online, she would never ignore a PM from him. He knew how she was, and she openly said before how she felt about him. It just wasn’t something that was ever going to happen.

Still, he didn’t want to overreact. Any second now she was going to come online and say that she was feeling sick or was playing some sort of prank on someone or watching sports or on vacation or something. It was going to be nothing.

He decided to try and call her around nine o’clock at night, to no answer. By this point, several other members of their group chat had noticed that she wasn’t around, and were starting to wonder about her as well. Naturally, the first person they all asked about her whereabouts was Shorey.

I don’t know, he told them all. She didn’t answer me when I called. She’s probably just tired because her work schedule changed. I’ll see if I can talk to her tomorrow. She’ll probably be back online before then, though.

She wasn’t back online the next morning, and by the time early afternoon rolled around again, Shorey was getting nervous. He didn’t see any messages typed from her account, no response to his PM to her.

Hey, we’re worried about you, he typed, sending one more her way. Let us know if everything’s okay. With that, he decided that now would be a good time to ask around and see if anyone knew what was up, starting with her brother.

Is your sister Raleigh around? he messaged. I haven’t seen her in a while and wanted to know what was up. Is she out with you guys or something?

I dunno, her brother replied. I can go stop by her apartment and check really quick. Gimme a minute.

He gave her brother a minute, and before he knew it, he was hearing back that he didn’t know where she was.

Her car’s still here. I knocked on the door though and she didn’t answer, so I don’t know. She could be in the middle of a call though cause she works a lot of overtime, but I didn’t hear her talking, either. If I can remember the password to her door, I can let myself inside.

Don’t do that, Shorey instructed. Call the police instead and ask them to complete a welfare check on her, please. Let me know what happens and what they find.

With that, Shorey went to their group chat to see if he could find out anything about what might have happened. He knew he was probably overreacting and that Rally was going to turn up in a minute, apologizing profusely. Still, it had been almost two full days, and in his whole time of knowing her, he’d never seen her offline for so long without sending one message. There was something going on.

He didn’t see anything obvious on a first scan through her messages the last few days before she went offline, and so started to move through more carefully to see if there was anything to be had. Talks about interesting calls she took at her job, complaining about her training, saying she just got back from eating out with her mother, a joke she made with some guy who said he was a spellcaster, a joke about how she would take out a ten thousand dollar loan and move to Iceland, talking about how she was going to vacation in New Mexico in a few months, how she wanted to drive back to Chicago to see her friends next week. There was nothing in here that would indicate she would suddenly disappear.

Can you call Rally’s phone and see if she’ll pick up your number? Shorey asked her brother. She might answer you. Not that she would ever ignore a call from Shorey himself, he just didn’t have the number.

Too late. I remembered her password and I’m inside, he said. She’s not here.

Shorey wished he would’ve called the police, but he didn’t complain. At least there was information to be had. Although it was weird to hear that she was missing with her car still at her apartment. Good news anyway, better than hearing she slipped and cracked her skull.

All of her stuff is still here, her brother continued. Her computer’s still on and lit up and both of her phones are on her bed. Nothing’s missing.

That was curious. It got Shorey to narrow his focus, thinking of his last direct conversation with her. She had said something about a joke with the spellcaster. She even posted screenshots of her conversation, which would make this a much easier process than it otherwise might have been.

Call the police and see what they can find, he told her brother. I’ll check around online and see if anything turns up.

With that, he got to work reading through the screenshots she sent. They detailed her trying to mess with the spellcaster she was talking to and him saying he would cast her spell for free. Her spell which, according to the screenshot, was to be a pony in Equestria. Something both completely impossible and extremely silly.

But where else could she be? There was the tiniest inkling in the back of his mind that maybe, just maybe, that might have been what happened to her.

Reading further, he saw that the spellcaster, Lord Zulu, told her that it would take twenty eight hours for her wish to be granted. It was a good thing to see, and it gave Shorey a timeline to check between her screenshots and her last message saying she would nap. Sure enough, it was within that twenty eight hour timeframe, about twenty seven hours between her screenshots and her last message.

There’s no way she was turned into a pony, Shorey thought, already typing the number of Lord Zulu’s Whatsapp into his phone. If she turned into a pony, then…

He didn’t know what to think, it was such an impossibility. He did know that he wasn’t going to hesitate to follow her into Equestria if it was a possibility. There were certain things he wanted out of life that he was almost certain he’d ever get on Earth, things most people didn’t know about. Rally knew, but what didn’t she know about him?

“Yes, this is Lord Zulu,” the phone finally answered after several rings, his accent obvious. It made Shorey frown, worried that this just might end up being a scam and that he was overreacting

“You are calling about a love spell, yes?” the spellcaster asked.

“I was calling about a spell to turn me into a pony,” he said seriously, shaking his head at himself that he was going along with this. “My friend said she talked to you about becoming one, and now I want to be one, too.”

“Ah, I remember your friend,” Lord Zulu remembered. “She is the one who believed me to be fooling when I claimed to be a powerful spellcaster, and tried to joke with me. So it seems she did as required and told her friends of her arrangement?” He didn’t wait for an answer as he continued, “What is your first and last name so I can begin work for you?”

“John Elliot,” he told him, “but before we go further, I want to go over the details of what’s gonna happen. I don’t want to just be placed in the middle of the Everfree Forest or something.”

“I see. What exactly were you requesting then, Mr. John?”

Shorey went over the details, describing exactly what he wanted to look like and where he wanted to be placed. What color his eyes would be and what his voice would sound like and how he wanted to make sure he was in the same place as Rally was– he didn’t leave one detail unchecked. He wanted to make sure he was getting exactly what he wanted should this genie type figure really be able to cast spells.

“I have your spell written down to be cast,” Lord Zulu told him. “Given the details you request, this could take up to one hundred and seven hours to be cast. As well, the price for you will be sixteen hundred and fifty dollars, as well as three hundred to pay for your friend’s spell.”

That was not what Shorey was preparing to hear. “I don’t have the money to pay two thousand dollars,” he told the man. Or rather, he wasn’t willing to pay that much, not yet. Two thousand dollars was too much to drop on something he wasn’t sure about without investigating other options first.

“The price will not be negotiable,” the spellcaster told him. “Nineteen hundred and fifty dollars will be required to cast this spell.”

“I- you’ll have to give me time to think about this,” he told him. “I’m not ready to commit to something like this.”

“Well, nothing can be done until payment is received. If you have no other questions, then good day, sir.”

Abruptly, the conversation ended, leaving Shorey hanging on the other end. He frowned at the way it went, severely disliking the idea of giving so much money to someone who was probably just a scammer taking advantage of a coincidence. But the idea of being able to go to Equestria was insatiably appealing.

He went back to his computer for a while, reading through the screenshots Rally sent and thinking it over in his head. It seemed possible, just based on the evidence, which, unfortunately, was largely circumstantial. But it didn’t make sense at all. What was more likely: Rally just went missing, or she was transported to Equestria?

A little while later, he was getting a message from her little brother, explaining that the police checked the apartment and didn’t find anything. He also said her wallet was still there, so there was no way she could’ve bought anything beforehand, or at least, it was unlikely.

He grunted as he pulled out his phone again to text Lord Zulu. He hated what he was about to do. He knew he was about to spend two thousand bucks on a scammer, but…

Where exactly do I send payment to?, he asked, mentally chastising himself for what he was about to do. This was such a scam, and he knew it. And yet, here he was, giving into one after he told Rally that this was a scam and that she shouldn’t call this person. He was gonna look like such an idiot when this was over.

Shorey only chastised himself further when he saw the email for the man’s PayPal, which was lordzulu@lordzulushouseofspells.website2.me. This was such a scam, and he was playing right into it, and he knew it. Maybe Rally was in on it. He almost hoped she was, that way he’d at least not be giving money to a random stranger.

He made sure though to put this down as shopping on PayPal, and put in purchase protection for when this inevitably turned out to be a scam. He also disconnected his debit card and bank account information after he put the money into his account, just in case this was a hacker as well. He wanted to be cautious as he did risky things.

I’m going to give you exactly one hundred and seven hours, Shorey told him, already setting an alarm on his phone for that time. If I’m not in Equestria by then, I’m gonna retract my payment.

I assure you, my spell will be cast exactly as you wish it to be. I will not begin though until full payment is received. It would, however, be cheaper for you if you ask for a simpler spell. Less materials and research would be required on my part, and so it could take place sooner, as well. However, that is the price for what you ask for. Whenever I receive payment is when I will begin work.

This was such a bad idea, and Shorey knew it, but he was willing to go through with it. He certainly wasn’t going to be changing anything about what he wanted if this was real. No way did he want to be some random pony in a random part of Equestria. The only way this would be worth it is if he got exactly what he asked for, something he'd never, ever get without some sort of magic spell.

With a grunt and great reluctance, he clicked the button and let the payment go through, starting the timer on his phone for when he should be gone.
> Chapter Seven (Revised)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rally slept through dinner, and the night, too, not waking up until the next afternoon. It was the same thing as last time that woke her up, an erection, but all the stallion could do now was grunt in frustration. It had been only a day and a half, but she was already completely over it.

She opened her eyes and felt her hooves and legs aching, muscles sore from the time she spent walking. She didn’t know how far it was, but it must have been at least twenty miles. Not to mention, her coat still felt stiff despite being in the warmth of Rusty Bucket’s house for hours now, and the tips of her ears and muzzle were stinging. She was fairly certain they were at least a little bit frostbitten, and wanted anything but to get out of bed. The only reason she put in the effort to do so was to go to the restroom.

Outside of the obvious dysphoria, the stallion found simply using the restroom to be an ordeal. She’d been intentionally trying to avoid looking at herself, but now she had to take time to inspect them, simply because their setup was completely different from a human’s. Not to mention, significantly larger. It didn’t help being on four legs or having a body as large as Shining Armor’s. It also didn’t help that the toilet looked almost exactly the same as one she’d find on Earth, not changed in any way to accommodate ponies. She wondered how she was even supposed to set herself up, especially with morning wood that still hadn’t gone down.

She eventually found herself standing on her hind legs with one hoof against the wall just to have a chance at not missing the bowl. She almost considered whether it would be more worth it to just pee in the shower, the only thing stopping her from doing so being the fact that this wasn’t her home. Needless to say, it was a process, one that felt like it took an unbearably long time and one that she knew wasn’t doing anything to improve her mental state.

She went in the shower again immediately afterward, and turned the water hot enough to almost burn the skin below her fur. All of the feelings she had yesterday– the tears and pain and dysphoria and fear– felt like they were more muted today. Or perhaps it was just that she couldn’t express her emotions as well now. She found herself wanting to cry, but instead scowling and grumbling to herself, letting the water wash over her fur. It probably was best if she didn’t cry anyway. There was a lot to do, although exactly how much, she didn’t know. But getting out of the middle of this frozen wasteland was first on her list of priorities. 

Rally stayed in the shower long enough to calm down both physically and mentally before heading out and looking for Rusty Bucket. He’d left the position he was in on the couch yesterday, one where he had his legs splayed open while he laid down, as though nothing was in between them, which the stallion was thankful for. However, she wanted to talk to him about where Ponyville or Canterlot might be. She didn’t have any good guess as to where in Equestria Mount Everhoof was located.

She found him outside, sitting on his front porch, all dressed up and stick for a staff in hoof. He stared straight ahead, letting out a bored sigh. Whatever his job was, Rally couldn’t say it looked like it was any fun, or the least bit interesting. 

“Do you just sit out here all day?” she asked as she stepped out, too, standing in the doorway. She didn’t want to head too far out into the cold today, having already spent enough time freezing her bits off. She leaned on the doorframe to support herself, still extremely tired, legs wobbling as she stood.

“This looks like a super boring job,” she said, trying to make small talk.

“Eh, most of the time it is, but somepony has ta do it, otherwise who’d help somepony in need when they’re about ta fall down a cliff?” The stallion’s ears lowered in embarrassed from the memory as Rusty Bucket continued, “The princess herself says it’s a important job. She pays me a good bit ta guard this here mountain.”

That was certainly interesting to hear, and led into Rally’s next question. “Do you think you could take me to Canterlot? I don’t really know where I’m going, but that seems like a good first spot to head to. That or Ponyville.”

“Can’t leave my post,” he told her. “That’ll be a trip ya hafta make on yer own. There’s a train in the Crystal Empire that goes directly there. Costs a bit ta get there though, more bits than I’m willin’ ta pay.”

“Where exactly is the Crystal Empire?”

“Just ta the south of here, past the Crystal Forest. Probably a four or five day walk from here if I recall correctly, but I got me teleportation ta help me. Guess it depends on how fast ya move and what ya can do how fast ya get there.”

A four or five day journey, Rally thought as she rolled her eyes. At least. It just keeps on getting worse, doesn’t it? This is gonna be such a bitch of a time getting anywhere.

The Crystal Empire might have been good enough though. If she could talk to Princess Cadance or Prince Shining Armor, she could probably get to Twilight Sparkle directly. And then from there, if Twilight turned her into a mare, Lord Zulu’s attempt to teach her a lesson for mocking him might turn out to be incredibly worth it. Being able to have kids of her own would be pretty darn close to that.

Yeah, right. With the way things were going, the second my body was fixed, I’d get pneumonia and die.

Regardless though, the stallion wasn’t going to be leaving now. As much as Rally wanted to say, “Screw it,” and continue onward, she was much too tired to do anything tonight. If she headed out without at least one more day of rest, she’d probably collapse and die from exhaustion before she got there.

“I can get ya some stuff for yer trip if ya wanted it,” Rusty Bucket offered. “I got tents and a little supplies ya can have. I don’t need it much.”

“I’d really appreciate anything you can offer, thank you,” she said gratefully. Then she sighed and continued, “This is going to be so much trouble trying to get through all of this.”

“Well how’d ya get up here in the first place?”

“Some guy named Lord Zulu teleported me up here,” she explained. “I’m actually not from Equestria. I’m from another world entirely called ‘Earth’. I asked that guy for a spell to turn into a pony and live in Equestria, but I guess he got mad at me for deciding to joke around a tiny bit because he put me at the top of this mountain and turned me into a stallion.”

“That second bit. Are ya not supposed ta be a stallion?”

“No…” Yesterday she might have cried, but right now, all she had was indignant frustration. Rally grunted and grinded a hoof into the ground as she continued, “

“I mean, it’s a whole complicated mess of a story what I am, but no. I’m a woman… err, a mare. I’ve been one for way too long to want to go back to living like this.”

“Go back to?”

“That’s the part that’s the complicated mess. The point is I guess I need to learn my lesson for making a joke with Lord Zulu. He said I was gonna die a stallion, and you know what? He might be right when I fucking kill myself.”

That got Rusty Bucket’s eyes to go wide with concern, and the stallion quickly backtracked. “I’m not actually gonna kill myself,” she said. “I was just exaggerating to say I hate this is all.”

Besides, I can’t kill myself if the cold kills me first! Lord Zulu wins again! God, It’s gonna be so much fun going back out there. I can’t wait. And that was going to be all the complaining she would do for the day she decided. Complaining was not going to make her walk any faster or feel any better.

“Mmm. Well, I can see how ya might not like that,” Rusty commented thoughtfully. “Can’t say I’d take ta being a mare very much, but I’m a stallion born and raised. Don’t think I know any stallion that’s not either. But if anypony can help ya, it’s sure ta be Princess Cadance. I heard a bunch of stories about how she and her sister help ponies all the time. Probably would be nothing for her ta fix ya right on up.”

“That’s what I was thinking. But I’m just way too tired to head out now, as much as I want to get going.”

“Well, yer always welcome ta stay here as long as ya want. Like I said, ain’t no trouble ta me. Speakin’ of which, I don’t recall ya havin’ supper last night. Let me go ahead and get started on some.”

They both headed back inside with that, and he got started on gathering things for her to take when she left. She did her best to ignore him taking off his cloak again and looked around his house to take it all in. It was just as pristine looking to her as it was yesterday, reminding her of the home she lived in when she was five. There were a few couches put up in the living room, and a dining room effectively attached to it with a kitchen farther back. It was all one level, which made the place feel bigger, and the warm fire was still burning. If she could own a house like this sometime, she would.

Rally headed to the bookshelf to see if she recognized anything, one with a horseshoe on the cover and five gems with a star in the middle of it being recognizable to her. A quick look inside at the first couple of pages confirmed it was indeed Twilight’s Book of Friendship, and gave her a little bit of information. She was placed into Equestria after season six, and before the middle of season nine, probably in either season seven or eight. It was a good piece of information to have, and would probably be useful in the future. 

She only read a couple of the stories before Rusty Bucket came back in and offered her a plate of food. Afterward, he talked with her and came up with a list of supplies she would need to get to the Crystal Empire, and assured her that he would have it ready for her in the morning. 

It wasn’t quite sunset when she started to get tired again, and yawned as her desire to sleep again took over. Before she went back to the bedroom though, she took the chance to ask Rusty Bucket a couple of questions, starting with Princess Luna and what she said in her dreams. 

“I was having a nightmare and Princess Luna visited me in my dreams,” the stallion started. “She said something about not being able to help me because I’m not an Equestrian? Do you know what’s up with that?”

“Oh, Princess Luna don’t be visitin’ the dreams of us here in the Crystal Empire,” he explained. “The border between them and Equestria extends about halfway up Mount Everhoof. I heard it’s because Princess Celestia wants to make sure Grogar’s bell stays in Equestrian borders, but as to why, I don’t know. But as of now, you’re officially in the territory of the Crystal Empire.”

“But what does that have to do with she not being able to help me? She saw me in my dreams and I told her I was stranded up there but she didn’t do anything because of some international law.”

Rusty Bucket shrugged, saying, “Probably somethin’ that was put into place hundreds of years ago that nopony cares about. She’s a stickler for things like that. All of them are, actually.”

That didn’t sound great to hear. She could only wonder how much trouble it would be to try and get something done hearing that if they didn’t even want to help her when she said she was stranded at the top of a mountain. How much trouble she might get in just for being in Equestria in the first place. Rally hoped he was just exaggerating the truth and that it was only Princess Luna who acted like that.

He put a reassuring hoof on her shoulder and said, “Don’t ya worry one bit. Princess Cadance is as nice as ever. I met with her a few times, and she was nothin’ but kind ta me. I’m sure she’ll be ta you as well. The ponies of the Crystal Empire can be a bit... eccentric, but the princess herself is sweet as pie.”

That honestly made her feel a little bit better, enough that she was able to muster up her first smile as a pony. 

“Thank you,” she told him, before yawning and saying, “I guess I’ll head to sleep now so I can wake up early to head out tomorrow. Um, can you show me the supplies you were talking about?”

“I don’t have it out yet, but I’ll get it set out for ya while ya rest. But ya don’t have ta leave tomorrow. Ya can stay here as long as ya want. It’s nice havin’ some company with me.”

“I’m not keen on going back out so quickly, but I cannot stand the idea of being in this body for one second longer than I have to,” she replied. “Being a man is just… ugh.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to keep herself composed, then finished, “But I’m gonna head off to bed now. Wake me up when the morning time comes? I don’t want to waste any time tomorrow trying to get to the Crystal Empire.”

“Sure, I’ll be sure to. Ya better go on now and rest up then. And if ya ever decide ta come back and visit Mount Everhoof again, make sure ta stop by.”

“I’ll be sure to,” Rally assured him as she trudged off. “Goodnight.”
> Chapter Eight (Revised)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rally headed out bright and early the next morning, Rusty Bucket not having time to wake her up. She took just a minute to shower again and eat a large breakfast before she geared up, the stallion tying the supplies he offered to her back. Then he gave her a quick, tight hug before she set off, Rally returning one last wave goodbye as she left.

It was just as cold outside now as it was before, but she at least had a hat and scarf now, so her ears and neck were protected. Not to mention, the sun was shining, and the wind seemed to have calmed down for now, which certainly helped. Walking itself was keeping her legs warm, but she couldn’t move as fast as she wanted. The trail was still steeply inclined, something that was made even more dangerous with the supplies she carried. She didn’t want to risk falling over and losing her things.

It was a mindless task, one made even more mindless with the less brutal temperature on account of the sun and her scarf. It made it a little bit more difficult to not pay attention to her newfound dysphoria, but it certainly didn’t stop her from trying. Still, she felt like she’d rather have gasoline in her veins than testosterone, and would rather have her fur shaved off than see her sharp, square muzzle whenever she glanced at her hooves. It brought back distant memories she had of years ago before she’d done anything, and made her grunt that she might have to do it all again. 

She wondered as she walked if her friends would think to come to Equestria, and if they did, if they’d be put in the same predicament as her. Probably not, she figured, since about half of her friends that were like her hadn’t done anything on account of not wanting to be ‘half’ of their gender. The other half who were like her probably wouldn’t do anything to intentionally piss of Lord Zulu if they decided he was real. No, this was probably going to be a punishment exclusive to her. 

Whatever the case was though, she kind of hoped they came to Equestria, so long as they weren’t put in any physical danger or mental distress like she was. Now that she was alone and had an objective, she found herself sorely missing them. That was probably the thing that hurt the most. Not the dysphoria or the cold or her aching legs. It was the loneliness associated with missing her friends dearly.

She tried to put all those things out of her mind though and keep placing one hoof in front of the other on her way to someplace else. The sun slowly warmed up the air, and she didn’t feel as nervous and frightened as she was when she first showed up or as angry and frustrated as she was at Rusty’s house. It was almost peaceful in fact, if not for being a stallion, and for how tired she was. Even still, despite knowing she was moving slower now than she was two days ago, she felt like she was making good time. 

It was only a few hours when Rally got to the bottom of the mountain, around noon when the trail leveled off into a field of snow. It was a slog to walk through, like stepping through thick mud, and she could feel her legs already starting to go numb after just a few minutes. She wished she asked about a pair of boots, because it was once again starting to get painful.

She didn’t dare stop though, at least not until she came to a frozen river that was somehow clear of snow. It was wide, stretching for what looked like a couple thousand feet, and moved entirely across the plain from left to right. She was almost worried that if she stepped on it it would crack underneath her weight, but a random bite of wind reminded her that it was likely frozen solid. 

She gingerly stepped onto it, testing the strength before deciding it was safe enough to be on. After that, she casually set her supplies on it, using her teeth to pull out a sleeping bag to lay on. She wanted a little time to warm up again, and crawled inside of it, shivering at the coldness of the ice for a while until her body temperature circulated long enough to make it somewhat comfortable. She almost thought it felt like a warm summer day compared to the weather she walked through, although that meant it was probably still under sixty degrees. She wasn’t going to complain though. A sleeping bag was certainly better than sleeping exposed in the middle of the snowy white plain. 

Four or five days out here, she thought as she lay in the bag for a while. This is gonna be brutal, but not as cold as I thought it would be. And she had supplies– a tent, some water, food– enough to last that long. In a few days, she’d be in the Crystal Empire, so long as she kept moving, and all of this would be fixed.

Well, not fixed, but at least dysphoria will be the biggest problem I have. Better that than having to be out here all alone freezing myself to death. Hopefully anyway. She knew dysphoria, and she knew how bad it felt. It wasn’t very likely, but she knew there was a chance that she’d pick being stranded out here to being dysphoric. 

Not that thinking those negative thoughts would help her, nor would thinking about how much she’d rather sink through the ice and drown out of frustration. What would help her was getting up and moving herself along, which is what she did. A lunch of frozen bread and cheese and a couple of apples is what she ate as she sat on top of her sleeping bag now. At the same time, she worked on trying to get either her hooves or magic to work all the while, although this seemed to be in vain. She wasn’t concerned yet though. At least one of them worked on instinct if need be. 

She headed back off after trying for a while to get those things to work, having a little trouble setting her supplies back on her back without any grip before she set off. She walked the rest of the day until the sun started to go down, not able to get to the green. She wasn’t able to even see it anymore, assuming because she was lower in elevation now. Before the sun went down though, she did spot dark clouds gathering and felt the wind start to pick up. She knew what that meant. 

“Wonderful. I get to deal with some Murphy’s Law bullshit, too,” she said aloud, doing what she could to push down her renewed sense of fear. She wanted to pretend she wasn’t so terrified by the prospect of snowfall as she was. 

“Can’t stand here and cry though,” she told herself aloud, setting her stuff down where she was. “Can’t get too terrified about all of this.” Or, at the very least, she could use her fear to set up shelter instead of standing there thinking about what might happen. 

Her heart was pounding as the sun sank and the clouds moved in, but she metaphorically kicked herself in the rear to get started with setting up shelter. Then she kicked the snow in real life to make a nice little spot where she could lay on the ground directly. The stallion didn’t know exactly what she was doing, but she figured it would be a good idea to not lay on top of snow.

It took much longer than she imagined, around half an hour to clear out a space the size of a big van. She was huffing and puffing by the time she was satisfied with her work, but didn’t stop. The wind was picking up, which only made her that much more afraid and determined to get something set up. If she could not have to build her tent in a blizzard, that would’ve been ideal in her opinion.

She started moving onto the tent, getting more and more anxious as she struggled to set it up. Her hooves still wouldn’t grip anything at her command, and using her teeth felt like an impossible task. It made her heart race that she would be in the open shelterless against whatever blizzard was coming.

“God damnit, come on and work!” she screamed desperately at her hooves, as though they would listen. “I cannot do this like this! Please!” Her hooves, however, didn’t answer her, predictably enough. 

She clenched her jaw and closed her eyes frustratedly for a second before going back to using her teeth to try and assemble her shelter. After a couple of more unsuccessful minutes though, the snow she expected to come started to fall. Only a few flakes right now, but it was enough to tell her it was time to give up and tough it out without a tent. 

“God, this is such fucking bullshit!” Rally complained bitterly. “Why does this all have to happen? It was barely even a joke!”

She shivered as a gust of wind hit her, trying to consider what to do. Her options right now seemed to be to either stay where she was for the night, head back to Rusty Bucket’s house, or keep walking through the snow. As unappealing as the first two options were, she was stubborn enough to not turn around and head backward. She knew that was just gonna piss her off more and ruin any of the progress she made today.

“Argh! This can not be happening to me! What did I do to deserve all of this?” She screamed into the wind as it whipped around her, little snowflakes landing on her nose as her mane blew wildly. “Why do I deserve Luna not helping me and being stranded on a mountain and not being able to pick things up and being stuck in the snow and risking death out here? Being a stallion is already punishment enough, and I didn’t even do anything! Why is this happening?”

She didn’t receive an answer outside of the wind biting her painfully again, cutting her and telling her she should huddle up with the protection she had available already. As much as she hated it, she did as it requested, and pulled the sleeping bag into the little opening of the tent as it lay on the ground. She knew the more layers she had between her and the cold, the better. The bottom of the tent on the ground would help keep her back from being so cold now, too. It was an improvement to yesterday, but an obvious downgrade to a fully assembled shelter. 

She let out a shaky, scared, frustrated breath as she huddled herself into the sleeping bad and hoped this wouldn’t be as bad as she thought it was going to be. She didn’t stop shaking with fear though as the wind howled. She was truly afraid that she would die alone out here in the snow, and knew she needed someone with her. Anyone at all would be better than being alone.

I really wish Shorey was here, Rally thought sadly as she closed her eyes and curled into a ball in the sleeping bag. She would know what to do.
> Chapter Nine (Revised)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Is she really still not online?” Forrester asked Shorey in a group voice chat. “There’s no way that Lord Zulu guy was real. She’s probably punking us.”

“I don’t know,” he responded. “The police haven’t found anything. They said they checked the security cameras by her apartment and didn’t see her exit. They said she came home from work and never left.”

“There’s just no way that’s real, as cool as it would be.”

It had been four days since they’d heard from her, almost three full days since Shorey called Lord Zulu. Sixty three hours, his phone said to him. Forty four hours until he was supposedly going to be pushed into Equestria, according to that spellcaster, and Rally, judging by her absence. It made him both nervous and excited to think about the possibility. He was wishing to be a unicorn in Equestria, one that would be built to give him the life he wanted. It made his chest fill with butterflies to think about.

He wondered what Forrester would think if– when– he followed him if it happened. He knew he wouldn’t care. Why would he? He made jokes that he might be secretly that way he was all the time. No one in their group chat would care about that... well, a few people, maybe, but they wouldn't say so out loud, probably. There wouldn't be any real repercussions within his friend group. It didn’t make him less nervous though. He wanted to vomit thinking about it.

Rally’s gonna have a blast with this if it happens, Shorey thought. Probably take me clothes shopping first thing. That sounds like what she’d do. She said before that she wanted to.

The idea of being that for real almost made it hard to concentrate. More than once he looked at the timer on his phone, watching it count down, as he did now. Forty four hours. Forty four hours, and then all of his dreams would come true. Hopefully. More than likely though, nothing would happen, and he’d be left slightly disappointed, but unsurprised.

“I’m gonna call him up, too,” Forrester decided. “I’ll put him on the line right now and see–”

“Don’t do that,” Shorey cut him off. “I already called him, and I don’t want you sending your money until I go missing. I have a timer set for when he said it was supposed to happen. There’s forty four hours left on it.”

“I can afford three hundred dollars,” Forrester argued. “If this is real, I don’t want to wait on going to Equestria just so you can go first. I want to be there! Don’t hog the glory!”

“It’s three hundred if you just want to be whatever the heck he makes you,” Shorey explained. “It costs two thousand dollars to pick the things you want, and I don’t want you sending out money until we know for a fact that this isn’t a scam.”

“Wait, did you send out two thousand dollars?” someone else, Davey, asked. “I’d expect that from Forrester and Rally, but not you, Shorey.”

“He’s just trying to hog the glory,” Forrester continued, feigning anger, but mostly joking. “Then he’s gonna be the first one to go and brag about it. He’s vitriolic like that.”

“Well, that’s not how the word ‘vitriolic’ is used,” Shorey countered, “and Rally was the first one to go there, so she’s gonna get all the glory, if there is any to hog.”

“Then this is clearly a plot to keep me down because you hate me so much,” Forrester joked. “I know it.”

“Sure, you can think that if you want.”

“But why would you do that?” Davey asked. “You have to understand that this is a scam, right? What did you see that made you think it was a good idea?”

“She’s not in her house, her brother said he hasn’t seen her, and neither has her family, and her last message was twenty six hours after saying Lord Zulu would send her to Equestria in twenty eight hours. It all lines up.”

“You know Forrester’s right, though,” he continued. “She’s probably trying to prank you, or it’s a coincidence or something. Spellcasters aren’t real. You should know better than this, Shorey.”

“Well, sometimes I have a very tiny brain and make dumb decisions,” he responded, “but that doesn’t mean I’m advocating for everyone else to make dumb decisions along with me.”

“Okay, but if you go missing, too, then can I do it?” Forrester asked. “Because I will. There’s no way I’m gonna miss out on my opportunity to be a griffon if I can. I wanna be as cool as Gallus is.”

The opportunity to be a griffon was what Forrester wanted, and was something that made Shorey chuckle. His friend was in it to have fun, unlike Shorey, who was seeking something he'd been missing for an entire lifetime. He didn't know how surprised they would be to see that he wanted the same thing as Rally, but he imagined that they'd either be completely shocked, or not at all.

“Sure, but we need to make a plan about all of this,” Shorey told them. “We can’t just go into this not knowing what we’re doing. For all we know, this guy could be looking to send us to Ghastly Gorge or something. We need to be specific about what we want.”

“I’ll be specific,” Forrester said. “I’m gonna ask to be a griffon in Ponyville. Or no! A griffon in Griffonstone! That’s what I’ll tell him!”

“Why would you pick Griffonstone if you could go anywhere in Equestria?” Davey asked. “I would just go to Ponyville if I could and then meet up with everyone there. That makes the most sense so no one’s lost.”

“I actually like that idea,” Shorey agreed. “If this is all real, which is a big if, then everyone who can should be asking to go to Ponyville so we can all be in the same spot and not in the Mysterious South or Saddle Arabia or something. I’ll meet up with Rally though and tell her that that’s where we’re going in case she’s not there. I asked him to send me there so I can do that.”

“Can I tell everyone else about this?” Forrester asked. “We should be asking to cure cancer if some guy can do all of this. Honestly, it’s kinda messed up that he wouldn’t.”

“Well, if one person going to Equestria is two thousand dollars each, then that’s like twenty trillion dollars for the whole world to go. I bet curing cancer would be like a hundred grand per person.”

“Yeah, I agree, fuck those cancer patients,” Forrester joked. “Why cure cancer when we can be ponies in Equestria?”

“You know I’m not saying that,” Shorey said seriously.

“I’m just kidding, jeez,” Forrester laughed. “It’s not like any of this is real anyway. You got scammed big time.”

“Well, I probably did. I hope I can get my money back at least. I hope even more the police can find Rally. It’s sad without her here.”

The conversation moved elsewhere from there, but Shorey still had it on his mind, as he did since he sent the money over to that spellcaster. There were about ten people in the group chat he and Rally used. He didn’t know how many other people he wanted knowing about this, but certainly no one outside of the fandom. Maybe not outside of their group chat either. Even saying he spent two thousand dollars on this to his friends felt like a lot. He wasn’t normally one to make such risky decisions, but the facts of the situation got to him.

He looked at his phone. Forty three hours. He might as well have told people, except in a kind of vague way. He didn’t want to give out too many details, just in case he ended up looking like the fool he probably was. It would have been great if he could get messages in their group chat to be sent at a certain time, but he’d just have to work with what he could do.

Look guys, he told them, pinging everyone in the chat, I’m at a loss for what might have happened to Rally. Police don’t know where she’s at, and her family doesn’t either. They said all of her stuff is still where it’s supposed to be, and her car’s still in her front yard. The camera footage they reviewed shows her entering her apartment and never leaving since then. I’m starting to think that whoever she talked to, Lord Zulu, was actually able to do something to her, as crazy as it seems.

I’m going to test that theory out. I already talked to him, and he said I should be sent to Equestria forty three hours from now. If I go missing, then we can conclusively prove this guy is legit. In that case, I was thinking we could all head there and meetup in Ponyville somehow. An even number of earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns would be great, if we could, too. The more people we could have there, the better.

Please don’t do anything until we confirm that I’m gone. We can’t be sure this isn’t a scam, and I don’t want people sending money to someone who’s unconfirmed. The amount they’re requesting is at least three hundred dollars, although I was told it would cost sixteen hundred dollars for my spell. The more specific you are, it seems, the more it’s gonna cost.

The chance isn’t great that this is real, but it’s large enough that I’d like to coordinate this out right now if we can. Also, if we can keep this to ourselves for now, that would be great. I don’t want this kind of thing getting out yet.

It wasn’t long before members of their group made their opinions known.

You’re really falling for a scam, you know that, Shorey? someone, Moberly, said. You’re supposed to be the smart one of the group.

I have precautions set up for if it is a scam, he explained. It's why I don't want you guys paying anyone for this yet.

Well, I have to say, you're dumber than Rally is, and he's an idiot. He, at least, didn't pay anyone.

If she's in Equestria, then she's smarter than the rest of us combined.

I have to agree with Moberly on this, Davey commented. Honestly, I would think someone hacked your account if I wasn't just voice chatting with you. Cause that’s what it seems like. You’re not normally this big of an idiot.

That’s why I’m only telling our group chat, Shorey said. I don’t want anyone else to know about this. Also, I said don’t call him or anything unless I go missing. I’m allowed to be an idiot, not you guys. If you send Lord Zulu anything, that’s on you since I told you not to.

Nah, he’s just super based and trying to show us up by going to Equestria first, Forrester said. Rally and Shorey are working against us. We need to spend our money on this scam first! Don’t let them win!

Probably not, Shorey typed, but if Rally’s in Equestria, she’s probably having the time of her life right now.
> Chapter Ten (Revised)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rally could say she was definitely losing touch with her emotions. 

A situation that would’ve made her cry before didn’t now. She felt the dread of the oncoming storm as she tried to sleep, but released none of the tears she normally would have. It had only been two days since she last cried– not long at all, she knew– but she still worried that she was losing touch with her emotions. It was not something that would help her at all, what with her declining mental state. She remembered what it was like before to be stone faced at all times, and knew she didn’t want that back.

It didn’t snow nearly as much as she expected, thankfully. She imagined she would wake up with a foot of the stuff covering her, and was grateful when it was only an inch or two. Perhaps Murphy’s Law wasn’t really out to get her. Any break she could get was good news. 

It somehow got colder though, her own body heat now barely enough to keep the bad decently warm. If she was on Earth, she would do everything she could to stay huddled up all day. But she wasn’t on Earth, and knew she had to force herself out. Out into the cold again it was for the stallion. 

It was the early morning when Rally woke up, and thankfully, she had a distinct lack of blood in a certain organ, a sign of just how cold it was getting. The wind might not have been blowing, but it felt like it was probably under ten degrees. She hoped the air would warm up with the rising sun and make today's events a little bit bearable. It certainly shone into her eyes as it forced her to get out of her spot.

She tried not to think of how depressing it was to be doing the same thing day after day, but couldn’t help the intense feeling of needing company that washed over her. Just like yesterday, she was feeling lonely all alone out in the open, snowy plain. She wished she had someone to walk with and talk to, bad enough that she would take anyone. Even someone like Moberly would be preferable to being alone.  

Please, she thought, as though someone was listening and would answer. Please just let someone come out here and find me. Please.

She got up and brushed the snow off her flattened tent, deciding that she could feel sorry for herself so long as she was working. She carefully rolled it and the sleeping bag up with her teeth, a task that took longer than she knew most ponies would take. As she worked though, she felt the air warm up, nearly warm enough to resemble a morning during early spring. It made her feel just that much better.

So did food and water as well. Bread and cheese weren't much, but were preferable to nothing, as well as some other things she could’ve been sent with. Any ounce of mental strength that she could gather would be important. 

She found a way to tie all of her stuff to her back again, and was setting off before long. It was just as boring today as it was yesterday, although now considerably warmer. It was a wonderful change of pace, and provided the motivation she needed to keep advancing toward her end goal. She was moving, and right then, that was what mattered more than anything. 

Besides, even given her current bodily ailment and her poor location, she was still a unicorn and still in Equestria. That was something she wanted to keep in her head. Sure, things were bad now, but so was a house that was a fixer upper. A little reconstruction, maybe some cleaning up of the neighborhood, and all of a sudden, she would have a great home in nice spot, something she could be satisfied with for years to come. And this house had the potential to be the home of her dreams, something she never thought possible or even dreamed of on Earth. All of the pain and dysphoria and loneliness was going to be worth it if she could have kids of her own. She would give up a week or a year or however long this adventure would take of her life for that opportunity. 

Kind of ridiculous that he didn’t just make me a mare to begin with, or at least fucking put me down in Ponyville, but whatever. It’s not like I’m doing nothing. I’m making progress. I just have to keep moving forward. Even better it would’ve been  if she’d just been born correctly the day she came out of her mother’s womb, but she figured that thought might as well be tossed unless some other major miracle presented itself. Not much sense in lamenting whatever wasn’t possible. 

She instead focused her attention on trying to find the dot of green she saw at the top of Mount Everhoof. That would be her sign she was truly making progress. She imagined the dot of green would be the Crystal Forest, which meant she’d be that much closer to the Crystal Empire and getting into contact with Twilight Sparkle. Any thought of what would happen when she got to the city would come once she got there. For now, she focused on continuing through the great wide open she was in, and silently hoped her scenery would change soon. 

It didn’t change that day, and before she knew it, the stallion was forced to stop again for the night. The temperature dipped right back to where it had been before, and with no progress made on assembling shelter with her teeth, she ended up using the same method as before to protect herself from the cold and any other inclement weather. Still not ideal, but what could she do other than this?

“I swear to God, if I don’t die out here, I’m gonna find Lord Zulu and punch him in his fucking face,” Rally said aloud as she huddled up again. “He’s dead if I ever see him or talk to him again.” Not that such a thing was very likely in her opinion. 

Even given everything though, she felt like she was managing decently in spite of the situation. Perhaps it was better than most ponies might have fared. She remembered times when she was a teenager and she would get depressed enough that she wouldn’t move from under her covers all day. She wasn’t at that stage yet, which was something. 

Not to mention, she was getting exercise, something she thought she needed. Even if her legs wanted to kill her, slimming down from how husky she was would make her feel a little better. Not as much as much as straight up not being a stallion would make her, or not being in the cold, or having a nice dinner, or a hundred other things, but losing weight was something. Once again, she knew she had to take what she could get. 

Another day it was that she woke up when the morning came, and another day she knew it would be spent walking. She tried not to feel so aggravated by it, but second to being lonely, walking out here was boring. She couldn’t imagine a task worse than what she had, other than one that required her to sit in place and watch paint dry. What could she do to pass the time?

Singing helped, although after she went through the five or six albums she could actually remember the lyrics to, decided her time would be better spent working on voice training. Harder for her to do without a recorder to listen to her voice through, but she did it once before, and had the general gist of the idea. Besides, it was better than continuing to stare at the eternal snowy nothingness that was starting to drive her crazy. At least on the mountain there was some variety, and as much as she hated the cold and wind, the blistering feeling of it gave her mind some attention. 

Not that she wasn’t still sore and becoming more so. Her legs and back were starting to ache now from being out here, something that wasn’t helped by sleeping on the ground. She needed another break and a bed to lay in, but she knew she wasn’t going to get one until she got to her destination. She was certain she was going to be ripped by the top she got to the city. Ripped and suffering from chronic back pain, probably. 

And dysphoria. Couldn’t forget the dysphoria. She wondered how bad it was going to be once she actually received a proper break from pretending to be a survival expert. 

She also tried to work on her magic while she walked. She found herself wishing she asked Rusty Bucket about it, but not enough to turn around and talk to him. She just did her best to try and force it to work, a nearly impossible task since she had no idea what she was doing. She looked up at the appendage sticking out of her forehead as though it would help, but nothing came. Not light or aura or even a spark. The stallion was currently magically inept, not to her surprise. 

She figured she was doing something though because a headache was starting to set in from all day spent trying to get it to work. Staring at the blinding white snow field didn’t help either. It was around sundown when she officially stopped because of how hard her head was pounding. She’d managed to give herself a migraine trying to use magic. 

This is completely useless, she thought angrily as she set up her tent and sleeping bag in the same way she did before, carefully laying down on top of it and looking up at the stars while it was still a little warm out. I don’t have magic, or hoof grip, or any idea where I’m going other than forward…

And she was alone out here. Once again, she felt that horrible pang of loneliness settle over her, enough to bring tears to her eyes. She wished she had someone to talk to, to tell her what she should be doing, to just keep her mind active and stop her from thinking about everything that was wrong.

And I’m not even myself anymore, Rally thought as the dysphoria started to kick in hard. I can’t live like this. I’m going to die out here alone like this.

She cried, shutting her eyes tightly and letting the tears drip down her cheeks. She hated this deeply, and wished she would’ve just not tried to joke with him. Why was this okay? On what level would someone say she deserved this?

She remembered the dream she had about Lord Zulu as the air got colder and the wind started to blow. “Enjoy your future as the stallion you were born to be,” he told her. She couldn’t imagine that there was any way she was born to be a stallion, but with as hard as the dysphoria was kicking in all of a sudden, she had to wonder if it was true. Maybe Lord Zulu was right. After all, she did spend all but the last few years of her life as exactly that. What did that tell her?

Why should I even keep going? she wondered, knowing it was bad thinking but unable to help the unhealthy thoughts entering her mind as her mental state deteriorated. Why shouldn’t I just lie out here and get hypothermia? I don’t want to do this again. 

Nothing but the wind answered, at least not for a while. Eventually though, her crying and self loathing was interrupted by a white hot flash of light entering her vision.
> Chapter Eleven (Revised)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shorey should’ve been working, but he did nothing but pace back and forth the whole day. He was a nervous wreck, not that he should've been. None of that Lord Zulu mess was real. There was going to be a reasonable explanation for why Rally was missing.

He looked at the timer on his phone. Three hours. In three hours, he’d allegedly be going to Equestria. What would that be like? Probably tearful, he imagined. If he got what he wanted, there was no way he wouldn’t cry on the spot, that he knew. Rally might cry for him, too, and then laugh and tell him that he was adorable like she always did. He might even agree with her for once.

Honestly, he almost couldn’t believe that more people hadn’t figured out his secrets yet, especially with how Rally was. She never outright said it– that would be crossing a line– but she did openly say things like how he had an extremely feminine personality or even just straight out calling him a girl in public. Somehow though, it seemed everyone had stayed blissfully oblivious.

“So when are you going to Equestria, Shorey?” Forrester asked in a voice chat, mostly joking. “Shouldn’t it have happened by now?”

“My timer still says three hours,” he explained. “If nothing happens, then we’ll know that I just got scammed hard.”

“Speaking of scams, were you wanting to join my reverse funnel system scheme?” Forrester laughed. “Totally not a pyramid scheme. We just make money selling essential oils.”

“You know what? If I go to Equestria, I will join whatever scheme you want me to be in,” Shorey laughed. “For now, I can’t cause I already spent two thousand dollars on a scam.”

“I still can’t believe you actually believed that,” Davey said. “You’re not that stupid. How could you fall for that?”

“Hey, have the police heard anything about Rally yet?” Forrester asked. “She’s not really in Equestria, is she?”

“Well, the police still haven’t found anything,” Shorey explained. “Her brother said they have no leads at all. Her security camera says she went into her apartment and never left.” He took a breath and continued, “I don’t believe in magic, but honestly, it might actually be a possibility. I guess we’ll know in three hours.”

The conversation trailed off from there, and after a while, Shorey was leaving the voice chat and pacing around his house again. Ninety more minutes. He really should’ve been working instead of doing nothing all day, but he couldn’t help it. The more he thought about it, the more he couldn’t see how anything else could’ve happened to her. He so wanted this spellcaster to be real even though he was unbelieving. It would’ve been so nice to be himself for the first time in a lifetime.

At the sixty minute mark, he sat in front of his computer to schedule out a few emails to his family and a few close friends for a few days in advance. He didn’t explain much, only that he was setting out on a journey and that he loved them and didn’t know when he’d be back again, if he’d be back again. He definitely didn’t tell them about Lord Zulu. He had no intention of telling anyone outside of his friend group, lest they try and contact him and accidentally screw something up. No one outside of he and Rally’s friend group was going to know about that.

Look at me, he thought as he chuckled to himself. Getting all prepared for something that’s probably not going to happen. It made sense to be prepared though. It was always better to be safe than sorry, even in instances where the chance was incredibly low of something happening. Besides, it was just the kind of person he was.

By the time he was done, there was still forty minutes or so left on the clock, and he used it to pace around some more. There’s no way this is going to happen, he told himself, trying to stop his heart from beating out of his chest. There’s no way this is real. There’s going to be a reasonable explanation for this. Even as he said it, he knew he didn’t want there to be a reasonable explanation. He’d take breaking the laws of reality as he knew it to be a mare. He might have been able to tough out dysphoria better than Rally did, but being a male was still absolutely unbearable.

I know for a fact that Rally’s going to laugh, Shorey thought with a little smile. She’s gonna laugh and say something like, ‘I guess I was able to get you to transition after all’. I just know it. I bet most of the group chat will if they follow me.

It was going to be amazing. It was going to be the time of his life… if this was real, which it probably wasn’t. His thinking that this could actually happen was setting himself up for disappointment when it didn’t happen, that he knew. He needed to keep his expectations low.

He checked the timer and sent a little message to his friends when he did. Twenty minutes left, he said. I guess we’re about to see what happens.

Probably nothing, Davey said. You definitely got scammed. Your timer’s gonna go off and then that guy is gonna say you need to pay more money for it to happen.

Probably, but that doesn’t explain what happened to Rally. Either way, I’ll give it up to two hours after my timer goes off to see if something happens. I won’t be picky and wait for the dot.

I’ll pay ten thousand dollars if I have to so I can go to Equestria, Forrester said. If you don’t send any more messages for the rest of the night, I’m calling that guy and asking to be a griffon and following you. You won’t be able to stop me.

Feel free to follow if I go missing, Shorey told him. I will have no qualms about it if I don’t send any more messages.

Shorey didn’t send any more messages, because a second after that, he was engulfed in a white hot band of light. His timer hadn’t even gone off when it happened.

He grimaced and shut his eyes to protect them, waiting a minute for the light show to calm down. When it did, the first thing he noticed was that he was on all fours. There was a pair of chartreuse colored hooves in front of him, and a pair in the back. A sextant for a cutie mark and a lemon yellow mane, he didn’t have to guess he’d have deep gray eyes on his pony. The look was completed exactly how Shorey requested, the most important detail not being forgotten.

The snow and cold around her weren’t even noticed as she shut her eyes and cried. The sense of completeness that overwhelmed her was strong, almost unimaginably so. She waited a lifetime for this moment, a moment she almost believed would never come. And yet here it was, the moment upon her, giving her that blissful satisfaction that she had to wonder how she lived so long without.

It was a long moment before she was able to gather herself, breathing deeply as she tried to blink the tears away. She could see why Rally didn’t wait around to transition. This moment was incredible, better than she could've imagined.

Thinking of Rally, where was she? Shorey was finally taking in the snow and the cold around her, feeling a little bit of wind in her fur, but not much. It was a wide, white, blinding field of snow lit up under a shining full moon. She couldn’t see trees or homes or animals or anything. There was nothing around her. Well, nothing but a stallion in the snow in front of her. Lord Zulu had delivered her body exactly, but must have missed the location, because Rally certainly wouldn’t have asked to be that.

The stallion in front of her had tear filled eyes of his own, looking like he absolutely hated everything about the life he’d been given. He was curled up in the snow on a little orange sleeping bag, shivering out tears of pain and sorrow, not caring at all about the fact that he was going to get frostbitten if he didn’t get under the protection he had. It was a sight to see, one that made Shorey worried. She wondered what could’ve happened to leave him lying in the snow like that.

“Excuse me?” she asked, getting the stallion to turn his head and blink at her. Her voice sounded soft and sweet, like a river of honey, one that made a few more tears drip down.

“What are you doing out here?” she asked, her voice shaky. “Do you know where a pony named Raleigh is? I was supposed to meet her here.”

That made the stallion grimace and audibly choke back a sob as he closed his eyes. Then he smiled, almost laughing as he looked back up at her and gave a little wave of his hoof.

“Hi, Shorey,” Rally sniffed out with a weak smile as her own tears ran down. “I missed you.”
> Chapter Twelve (Revised)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Rally?” Shorey asked the stallion, trying unsuccessfully to blink away the tears in her gray eyes. “That’s not you, is it?”

The stallion grimaced and looked away, only feeling more upset by it. “Unfortunately,” she whispered, her voice cracking. Then she turned around to face the mare again, saying, “But look at you.” She put on a smile and continued, “Here I thought you couldn’t possibly get more adorable, and yet you somehow managed to anyway. Now you have a body to match that unbelievably feminine personality of yours.”

Shorey put a hoof up to her mouth as though it would stop her from crying, not minding the cold or the snow or wind just yet. “This is amazing. I knew I was going to cry, but I didn’t think it’d feel this amazing.” She certainly hoped it would, but she also knew it was something she couldn’t possibly imagine until she felt it. Now she knew why. 

“It is,” Rally agreed with a smile. “You absolutely deserve it with how amazing you’ve always been.”

Shorey shut her eyes and took a breath as she started to get completely choked up. At the same time, Rally got up off the tent to wrap her hooves around her, her own tears still dripping down her face. No longer though was it frustrated, instead turning into something happy. Happiness and joy for a friend who’d been waiting a lifetime to get what she wanted. 

And what a lifetime it had been, even this one moment lasting what had to have been a lifetime. But eventually, the moment passed, and Shorey pulled away to evaluate the situation.

“What happened to you, Rally?” the mare asked. “There’s no way you would’ve asked to be a stallion, is there? And what are we going out here? Where is this?” Her eyes were filled with concern, and she could plainly see the hurt on her friend’s face.

“I don’t know exactly where we are,” she explained. “Only that I just came from the top of Mount Everhoof and am traveling towards the Crystal Empire. And no, I didn’t– I didn’t ask for this…” Shorey could practically hear her tears hitting the snow, or maybe they were her own, since she was still crying. 

“But don’t let my sorry state ruin your moment,” Rally said quickly, forcing a smile onto her face and putting a hoof on her shoulder. “You deserve to enjoy it.”

“It’s amazing,” she whispered. “Absolutely amazing.”

The two reached out for another hug, much more brief this time, before Shorey asked, “What are you doing out here? I thought you wished to be in Equestria? What happened with your wish?”

“I don’t know. Apparently Lord Zulu was upset that I tried to mess with him, and so made it his mission to hurt me as much as possible before killing me. I’ve been walking for days since I got here, all the way from near the top of Mount Everhoof.” Rally paused for a moment and looked down at her hooves. “It’s been lonely out here.”

The words brought on a third hug, this one tighter than the other two, before Rally continued, “But I stayed with Rusty Bucket for a couple of days, and he gave me some food and supplies and stuff when I was at his house. He said it’s only gonna be about five days before we get to the Crystal Empire, and I’ve been walking for three already.”

“And what about Lord Zulu?” Shorey asked. “I know what your message said, but did you do anything before you left that would make him do this to you?”

“Nothing other than what you saw. I didn’t, like… try to hurt him… but…” To neither’s surprise, Rally choked back a sob as she started to cry again. “But I guess it’s okay for him to hurt me over nothing. I know that he– he intentionally went out of his way to hurt me as much as he could.” She took a sharp inhale of air and shivered as she let out her breath. It was hard for Shorey to watch.

“I- I can’t imagine how much it must hurt,” the mare told the stallion, feeling genuine pain from the pain her friend felt. “I don’t know one person who’d be that cruel to someone.”

“Apparently Lord Zulu,” Rally said, wiping her eyes to finally get in control of her emotions. “But I don’t wanna keep bogging you down with my problems. You don’t deserve to hear them, at least not right now. I’m happy for you.”

There was one more hug between them before Rally continued, “Anyway, welcome to Equestria… err, the Crystal Empire technically. Apparently, there’s a difference since Luna doesn’t visit the dreams of non Equestrians.”

“How did you learn that?”

“Because she came to my dream on the first night when I was having a nightmare,” Rally explained. “I tried to ask her for help off the mountain, but she said something about international laws preventing her from doing so. I couldn’t really understand her because her voice was cutting in and out, but Rusty Bucket said the same thing. He said they were all sticklers for laws.”

“That doesn’t sound great… you said you’re going to the Crystal Empire? Because I told everyone else that we should all meet up in Ponyville if we can. They haven’t asked Lord Zulu for anything yet, but they will once they see I’m gone.”

“That’s where I was going, so I could see Twilight and see if she could fix my ugly mess of a body.” Then the stallion yawned and said, “But for now, I was going to stop for the day so I could sleep… err, have a near mental breakdown because of all of this. I guess it’s a good thing you got here when you did.” She looked away embarrassedly for a second as she said it. “Not to mention, my head hurts from trying to get my dumb magic to work all afternoon. But I can keep walking if you want to. The sooner I can stop sleeping in the snow, the better.”

“I just got here, so I’ll do whatever you want,” Shorey told her. “You have supplies, right?” she asked as she looked at her back. “Do you have a tent and stuff?”

“Yeah, but I need help setting it up. I haven’t been able to get this stupid thing up one time. I’ve just been letting it lay on the ground and stuffing my sleeping bag inside of it to sleep.”

The mare didn’t like the sound of that. Everything she heard indicated that Rally was having exactly the opposite time of what she expected. Shorey imagined she’d get to Equestria and find her living in Ponyville, or something similar. It almost physically hurt to see Rally hurting so badly. She could hardly imagine what it would have been like to be put into her position, all alone out in the snow with no one to help her. Made worse since Rally had to have been dysphoric. She could imagine that her friend was not doing well mentally.

But now she was here, and, and just like her nature, Shorey would try to help her as best she could. Rally carefully laid her supplies on the ground to show her what she had, which wasn’t much. Some food and water– probably not enough to last two ponies very long– along with a tent and sleeping bag, plus a couple of extra hats and scarves. Not much, but certainly useful stuff for being out in the cold. 

Rally explained who Rusty Bucket was and said that he told her they should get to the empire in about two days. Shorey agreed that it would be best to rest now and start off again in the morning even though she wasn’t tired yet. Rally certainly looked it, dark bags being placed under her eyes from a lack of sleep. Or maybe it was just exhaustion. She could imagine either scenario from what Rally described.

“He said there was a train station there, so I think that’s gonna be the best way to get to Canterlot. Plus, there’s probably books on how to use magic and hoof grip, or an instructor to teach us if we ask around.”

“Learning magic is definitely a good idea,” Shorey agreed as she used her teeth to help Rally start setting up the tent. “I didn’t ask to be a unicorn so I could spend time doing things with my mouth. The sooner we can learn how to do it, the better.”

“You got that right. Honestly, I’m surprised he even made me a unicorn to begin with. With everything I’ve gone through so far, I wouldn’t be surprised if he made me disabled. I haven’t even made a spark yet.”

“I’m sure you’ll get it,” Shorey told her kindly, sending a smile her way that seemed to put her a tiny bit more at ease. “It’s only been a few days. There’s no way you can expect to learn how to do something you’ve never done before without instruction.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s felt like years being out here in the cold, all alone. Like, honestly, it might as well have been a month ago that I was nearly falling to my death. I shouldn’t even be alive right now.”

That made Shorey uncomfortable to hear, but she didn’t say anything. If everything Rally said was true, then she deserved a chance to vent and complain to someone. Hopefully she’d get it all out of her system by tomorrow.

They both went back to focusing on assembling the tent, the mare smiling as they worked. It might have only been a couple of minutes that she’d been here, but Shorey could safely say that she’d never felt better in her whole life. Even in the middle of nowhere and having to deal with the snow and cold and sleeping outside, the wonderful feeling of euphoria took hold of her and made her smile. There was probably nothing in the world that could get her down, other than knowing her friend was hurting.

“Um, Shorey?” the stallion suddenly started, getting her attention. She turned to look her in the eye as Rally said, “I understand that you’re a lady now, but it would probably be better if you lowered your tail instead of showing off your vulva to me.”

Her face instantly went bright red and she reflexively lowered her tail, looking down at her hooves quickly. “Sorry,” she muttered, the embarrassment she felt plain as day. She wasn’t sure if she was intending to, but Rally had a little bit of bitterness in her voice that made Shorey feel worse. It seemed the two were not off to a good start in getting to wherever they needed to go.

“That was not meant to come out that aggressive, I promise,” the stallion said quickly. “I just wanted to let you know that you were raising it up and exposing yourself.” She wasn’t sure whether or not she believed Rally, but didn’t have much time to consider it as the stallion continued, “Help me put this spike in the ground?”

It took a while to get the tent set up in the cold, but with the two of them combined, they were eventually able to get it and drop the sleeping bag inside, the way it was supposed to be. Even with two of them though, it was still hard work, and Rally was yawning, looking ready to drop dead. Shorey couldn’t imagine how difficult it probably was to do this all alone.

There’s only one sleeping bag,” Rally said, “but I don’t mind sharing if you don’t, since it’s fucking cold out here.” As she said it, a particularly strong gust of wind blew past them, chilling Shorey to the bone. Cold was an understatement. It was brutal.

“I’m not that tired, but I don’t think staying up all night is a very good idea,” the mare said. “We could take turns sleeping if you wanted, but it’d probably be best if we just shared it with how the weather is. My face is going numb.”

“And yet you still have that adorably dopey smile on your face. I wonder what it is that’s got you so happy.” She was obviously joking, but it made Shorey’s smile wider anyway. Yes, she could say that in spite of how brutal it was out here and, according to Rally, the prospect of having to walk for days to get somewhere, she was still feeling happy and euphoric. 

“I’m only being myself,” she said, trying to be serious, but failing. It was an impossible task with how big her grin was. “What can I do?”

“You can try not to kill me with adorableness like you’re about to. You just never ever stop being cute, it seems.”

Yeah, Shorey could probably say she was cute. It was the first time in her whole life that she actually felt that way, and what a feeling it was. It was like a warm blanket of nice feelings wrapping around her, one she never wanted to leave.

A second later, Rally went into the tent and under the sleeping bag, leaving Shorey out alone to walk around for a while and try using her magic until she got tired. It also gave her time to think about what it meant being here. It meant many things, but a few were at the forefront of her mind. 

Outside of the main two obvious things, her thoughts were on Rally. She knew how the stallion felt about her– Rally said as much more than once. She also definitely expected it to come up. But what Shorey would say when it came up, she didn’t know. As of yet, her feelings hadn’t changed, but maybe they would. They were in the same place now, and would be presumably for quite a while. Maybe it was only a matter of time. Or maybe nothing would come of it. She didn’t know.

For now though, she focused on trying to get magic to work, and kept her mind on the wonderful feeling of being able to be herself for the first time in a lifetime. 
> Chapter Thirteen (Revised)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It might have been about ten degrees outside, but Rally felt like it was eighty five degrees in the sleeping bag. She and Shorey were pressed back to back in the small thing, both of them sweating through their coats. It wasn’t particularly comfortable, and made the stallion wake up in the middle of the night. 

“It’s way to fucking hot in this sleeping bag,” she announced as she woke up. “I’m not going to be able to sleep like this. Do you mind if I open up the tent flap a little bit?”

“I have a migraine,” the mare whispered, practically inaudible.

The news surprised Rally, but she knew it shouldn’t have. Shorey told her before about how she got migraines all the time. However, she somehow expected that not to be an issue as a pony. It made the stallion wonder about herself and consider if she would still have some issues she had on Earth, like GERD or dysphagia. It would be something to watch out for. 

I still have dysphoria, so that’s some proof that things will probably still be the same, she thought. She imagined that the mare was trying to use magic for too long and pushing herself, since it gave Rally a headache before. Knowing Shorey, she was probably way too intense with trying to get it to work.

“Is there anything I can do?” Rally asked, unsure and still not moving.

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

Rally did exactly that, a strong gust of wind pushing into the tent as soon as she opened it. It chilled her to the bone, but she loved it, shivering from the relief of the awful heat in the sleeping bag. She turned around to see her friend sighing in relief, too, not to her surprise. 

It was still very much night outside, the star shining brightly and the moon hanging high in the sky. Rally thought it was beautiful, and wondered if Princess Luna painted the picture herself. She took a minute to appreciate it until she remembered that the princess left her stranded on top of a mountain because an Equestrian law said she couldn’t save her. It was safe to say it ruined the beauty of the night a bit.

She stared at the sky for another minute before heading back in, closing the tent flap about three quarters of the way so cold air could still make its way inside. Then she settled back into the sleeping bag to rest for a little while longer.

She didn’t nod off immediately though. She found herself distracted by her thoughts, mostly of she and Shorey and what they might have together. Of course, the answer right now was nothing, and would remain nothing for a long time. But she knew it was not a secret to anyone that she liked the mare. The stallion couldn’t help but make it obvious, despite her attempts to be subtle.

Sometimes Rally got the feeling that she liked her back, but never said so. She didn’t ever explicitly tell her no to her advances in the past though, even when Rally asked for a no. Her phrasing was always that she wasn’t ready ‘right now’, something she did intentionally. She wondered if a time would come when she was ready. She could imagine that being in the middle of nowhere wasn’t the appropriate time to bring it up though.

“Can you please go to sleep, Rally?” the mare suddenly asked out of the blue, catching her by surprise. “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.”

“Sorry,” she whispered, letting out one last breath before turning over and closing her eyes. 

Both were waking up a while later, Shorey opening her eyes at Rally’s movement. She looked like she was still in a great deal of pain, and turned her head away from the sun that was shining in her eyes. It made Rally frown sympathetically to see. She’d never had a migraine, but she could assume that it wasn’t a pleasant experience. 

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

“Yeah,” she replied, already getting it out of her supplies, not bothering to ask if she still had a migraine. “If your head hurts too much, we can stay here for a while. I don’t want you to be walking around in pain and having to look at the sun against white snow.”

“I’ll be fine,” she dismissed. “I can walk if we go slow. The cold will help, too.” She crawled out of the bag, but looked unsteady, and took a breath like it took effort just to stand up. 

“Are you sure?” Rally 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 Rally got the tent disassembled and the sleeping bag rolled up. Even in spite of her pain though, the stallion noticed her smiling as she looked down at herself.

“Wow, I’m still a mare,” Shorey whispered happily in between the pain of her migraine. 

“So you are,” Rally agreed with a smile. “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.”

Slowly was the pace they moved at, walking through an endless white sea of snow that stretched out in front of them. Their pace was broken by nothing until around lunch, when Rally finally spotted the dot of green she saw at the top of the mountain days ago. A few more hours of walking brought them upon a large, long, looming treeline, one that came up upon them suddenly and moved from left to right across their sightline. The Crystal Forest, from what Rusty Bucket told her. 

“It shouldn’t be too much longer now,” the stallion explained. “He said it would be here. That means only a couple of more days until we get to the Crystal Empire. Maybe even by tomorrow.”

“I hope so,” Shorey said, speaking a little louder as she started to feel better. “I could go for a bubble bath. Or even just a shower. I don’t know how you went a week out here with nothing.”

“I took a shower a few days ago at Rusty Bucket’s house, but yeah, a bath would be nice.”

That, and a bed to sleep in, and a week to rest, and some clothes, too, Rally thought to herself. Although she was starting to get used to the fact that she was naked all the time already. Or maybe it was just Shorey, since she was a mare. She had to admit, being around Rusty Bucket made her feel a little bit uncomfortable because of a lack of clothes. 

They carefully made their way inside, but were only to get a mile or two of distance covered before the sun went down again. In a minute, the moon was up and the sky was full of bright stars.

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

“I’m fine to keep going,” Shorey replied, going back to wearing the smile Rally saw on her yesterday. “I want to make up for some time we missed from walking slower this morning.”

The stallion smiled back at her and led the way, feeling pretty good about it. This was the fourth day of her journey if she was remembering correctly. In theory, the Crystal Empire should have been coming up upon them at any time now. After that, there should’ve been a train direct to Canterlot or Ponyville, according to both Rusty Bucket and Rally’s own memory of the show. If she became a mare– when she became a mare– this whole experience would be worth it. 

But right now, the focus was on getting there. There was hardly any snow she noticed, the floor of the forest being almost entirely grass. It was also a bit warmer, much closer to an early spring night than the January temperatures she’d been facing. She wondered if this area marked where whatever weather ponies worked in the Crystal Empire did their job. The change between the field and the forest was quite abrupt. 

“I bet you we can get to the Crystal Empire tonight,” Shorey said aloud as they walked, surely noticing the same thing. “I’m pretty sure we’re close if that stallion you talked to was right. This forest is 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?”

Rally’s nose scrunched up and her eyes started to water. Whatever it was, it was strong, and it was bad. The scent must have been a cross between mildew, mold, rotting wood, and an old dumpster. She knew it wasn’t either she or Shorey, but looking around, her eyes didn’t catch anything that might be causing it. 

“It smells awful,” the stallion said. “Like the garbage can behind McDonald’s that was filled with yeast.”

“I don’t smell anything, but…” Shorey’s 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?” Rally asked, raising an eyebrow, only for Shorey to put a hoof on her mouth so she could stop talking, too. Then, she mouthed a word that made the bad smell make sense.

“T-i-m-b-e-r-w-o-l-v-e-s.”

That made her heart jump. There were timberwolves in this forest because of course there were. Nothing about this could possibly be easy, could it? There was no way Rally would ever believe that Lord Zulu didn’t intend for her to die every step of the way. All for making a few tiny jokes.

A second later, the stallion could see them. 

It was a pack of about seven or eight, stalking through the woods, perhaps a few hundred yards away from them. She could see them sniffing the air and looking around, clearly searching for prey. Rally didn’t have to wonder who their prey would be.

They looked now 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 Rally imagined, too, one of them waving to the others with its paw to follow it. It made her deeply afraid to see, and she could only wonder how the heck she and Shorey were going to get past this.

She knew one thing was for certain. This was going to be treacherous.
> Chapter Fourteen (Revised)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shorey gave Rally a look, silently indicating with her eyes the direction the two should travel in. The stallion didn’t waste any time following behind her, moving as quickly and quietly as she could. Her heart beat out of her chest from the danger she was in, harder now than it had probably ever before in her life. This wasn’t like the mountain she was on before, or sleeping out in the cold every night. If she got caught by one of these timberwolves, it would be certain death. 

She had to force herself to keep her breathing steady as she followed Shorey. She looked behind her every so often to make sure the creatures weren’t following. Every time she turned around, she saw them stalking around in the same general area, not really moving, just trying to catch a sniff of something. It made her gradually more confident, or perhaps just less nervous. Every second that they didn’t follow was another second that her heart rate slowed down from a million beats a minute.

The timberwolves could still be heard, but eventually, the two got far enough that they could slow their pace a little bit, only having to keep quiet and stay alert. The stallion turned around and walked backwards to watch them, allowing herself to smile a little bit when she saw them still several hundred yards away but drawing no closer. She wasn’t going to breath a sigh of relief just yet, but certainly within a few minutes she would be able to. The little ordeal turned out to not be as difficult as she imagined it would be.

Then the unicorn stepped on a branch.  

It felt impossibly fast to Rally how quickly all of their heads turned, the wolves not waiting a moment to start chasing after them. The stallion screamed as she ran forward, Shorey running just a second behind her. As they ran, the former couldn’t help but think of the odds that she would alert the timberwolves and put her life in danger once again. Murphy’s Law seemed out to prove itself to her. 

“I’m gonna die out here!” She couldn’t help but yell as she ran. “If stuff like this keeps happening, I’m gonna die!”

“Just don’t stop running!” Shorey commanded behind her. “I’m sure we can lose them, or they’ll get bored after a while! Just keep going!”

It was easier said than done. The stallion’s legs were not up to this task after doing nothing but walking for the last week. They were sore, and she wanted to do nothing but stop and rest for a month.

She didn’t know how long or far they ran, but it felt like a long while. The timberwolves behind them sounded like they were no worse from wear either. She didn’t dare turn around to check though. She was already playing it dangerously, having to gallop as a pony she decided. She wasn’t going to risk making a false step and ending up as timberwolf food.

It was a significant risk even without looking behind her. She was slowing down, no longer steaming ahead at a full gallop. She was not alternating between galloping and trotting, getting more and more worn out exponentially. She didn’t dare stop for a second though, hearing the predators howling behind her. 

“Come on, Rally!” Shorey encouraged, sounding more like a high school gym teacher than a mare with urgency about a dangerous situation. “You have to keep going! Don’t fall behind!” She slowed up to keep pace with the stallion. 

“I’m trying,” she huffed, desperately trying to force herself to keep running, thankful that she was even still moving. “I’m trying my best. I need to stop and rest.” 

She knew better than to do that though. She could hear timberwolves closing in on them, getting closer and closer faster and faster since she’d slowed down. In a second, they were right behind them, the whole pack running even pace with Shorey and Rally. It almost seemed as though they were taunting the two, and Rally heard something that sounded a bit like a hyena laugh behind her.

But there was a river ahead that they were approaching, maybe a few hundred yards away from what the stallion judged. She knew Shorey could swim– as a human anyway– but Rally herself could not. Not that there was any other option. If they could just get to that, then maybe…

“FUCK!” came Rally’s sudden loud scream, followed by a surge of pain in her flank. Or rather, in her tail as one of the wolves grabbed it with a claw. Rather than stopping her though, it simply tore off, leaving what felt like less than half a tail and what had to be the worst pain of her life. It renewed her adrenaline and got her to speed up again at least.

Shorey cursed, too, as one of the wolves swiped at her body with a claw, leaving bleeding cuts in her side. Neither stopped though, although Rally did start to slow down once they came up to the river. She was not a strong swimmer, even on Earth. Probably the best she could manage was to keep her head above water, something that wasn’t a guarantee in a river like this. Would timberwolves even be deterred by water?

No choice in the matter came for her, because she was being pushed in by Shorey before she could consider it.

Thankfully, it seemed to be a bit easier to keep her head above water with four legs, but Rally still struggled. A river like this was never something she had been in before, minus once when she was rafting down one at a camp. But then she had a life jacket, and no mythical otherworldly creatures chasing her. But the current was slow, and the ease she had keeping her head up compared to her human form managed to help her stay calm.

The water was freezing, cutting both she and Shorey like knives that stabbed at them continuously. The air wasn’t as cold here as it was on the plain, but refrigerator temperature still wasn’t very good. Hypothermia was going to be a risk, assuming that Rally could even make it across this thing.

But that was something to consider once the two of them got to safety. The stallion kept her eyes on the mare ahead of her and tried to follow behind her, but she wasn’t quick enough. Her companion was actually moving forward while Rally herself seemed to remain stuck in place. In a minute, Shorey was climbing up on the other bank and flopping onto her back in the grass while Rally still struggled to get off of this one.

But she could take her time getting across the river if need be. A glance behind her showed the timberwolves were not interested in jumping in the water after them. They stopped along the banks edge, pacing back and forth as though trying to contemplate how to maneuver this situation before sitting on their haunches. It was good, and helped Rally’s heart stop beating as hard, but she still needed to cross this thing. There were a hundred things that could happen in the middle of this river to potentially cause her to drown.

“Come on, Rally,” Shorey finally called from her spot in the grass. “You can’t stay in that water. Get over here.”

“I’m trying,” she replied, not able to really shiver despite how the water’s temperature was still cutting her. “It’s hard to move forward though! I’m not good at swimming!” Not to mention, she was worried about a rough current grabbing her, or bashing her head on a rock, or a million other things that could happen.

“You can do it, Rally,” the mare coaxed. “Your head is above water already. Just push yourself forward. You’re doing good.”

The stallion took the encouragement, and carefully started to make her way forward, making sure her breathing was steady. Each inch farther she got from the bank, the more assured she started to become. An inch turned into a foot, and then a yard, and then a quarter of the way across. She started to get into a rhythm, and moved a little bit faster as she progressed.

“That’s it, just like that,” Shorey encouraged. “You’re doing good. Over halfway there.” Rally didn’t stop for a second, taking the words as reason to move even faster now, although her fastest was still much slower than Shorey. No matter though, because she was getting there. 

It was about three quarters of the way in when Rally’s fears materialized, a particularly rough current of the river pushing her head under the water. She started to panic and flail as she choked, now struggling just to keep her head above water. After everything that she went through up to this point, she was certain that this would be the thing that would bring her to her end. That was, at least until Shorey jumped back in and grabbed the fat of the stallion’s neck in her teeth.

“Stay calm,” she instructed as she wrapped her hooves around Rally to keep her up. “You need to be calm so you can start swimming again.”

Rally coughed up water in response, her whole body shaking as Shorey basically dragged her the rest of the way to the other bank. Both climbed up and flopped into the grass, the stallion still coughing as she gasped for breath. It was all she could do to stay alive in spite of everything up to this point, and closed her eyes so she could rest and breathe. It was all she could do at this point.

A long minute of silence passed before a strong, brisk wind ruffled through the two’s fur and seemingly brought conversation back with it. “How are you feeling?” Shorey asked, breaking the quietness between them.

“Relatively? Good. In general? Awful. How am I even still alive?” She didn’t know, and decided not to consider it. As terrible as this all was, all of this struggling to survive focused attention away from her body. That was one good thing at least.

“I’m kind of at a point where I think the world should just kill me,” she continued after a small pause, her teeth chattering as she closed her eyes again. “I know we need to get out of the cold, but it’s going to be something else after this.”

“And I’ll be there to save you again, so we’ll be able to deal with whatever comes our way,” Shorey asserted, breathing just as heavily as Rally was. “Feeling okay enough to get up?”

“Yeah,” came the stallion's reply as she forced her tired body up. “I think… uhh…”

A glance to the other side of the river showed the wolves were still there back to pacing around and trying to figure out how to get across. One of them was sticking its wooden paw in the water, seemingly trying to test it out.

“I don’t think I have a choice in getting up since those things are gonna find out how to get across and kill us in about ten minutes.”

“Yeah, we should probably get out of here.”

“Need help getting up?” Rally asked, offering a hoof that the mare grabbed at, wrapping her fetlocks around it to pull her into a standing position. A second later, she realized what she just did, and started to laugh.

“What is it?”

“I’ve been trying to grip with my hooves,” the stallion said, “but I just realized that I was hanging off that cliff with my fetlocks. That shouldn’t be possible, unless fetlocks are actually supposed to be how you’re supposed to use these things.” She picked up a rock by the bank to test, and laughed when it latched on instantly. 

“That would’ve made things a lot easier,” she got out like it was the funniest thing in the world. “It’s very helpful to learn this a minute after I lost our supplies in the river. Thank God I can use these hooves now!”

Shorey only sighed, not seeing the humor that Rally apparently saw, and said, “Let’s get going now.”

They started off with that, moving at a slow but sure pace away from the river and the timberwolves. They didn’t stop again until they were sure the creatures weren’t going to follow them, and then only did so they could examine their wounds. 

Rally’s tail– or perhaps more accurately, what was left of it– was not a pretty sight. What was once something long and flowing was now reduced to shreds, practically nothing left except for pain and a little tuft of hair above her dock. If there was any sense of modesty she could’ve had before, it was now gone. 

Not that they’re going to be starting at my genitals anyway, she thought. More likely, they’d be more curious and confused about the bloodied mess of fur that was where her tail used to be before it was painfully ripped off. Her flank ached badly.

Shorey did not look much better than the stallion did. Her face didn’t show it, but Rally would not have been surprised if the mare was in more pain than she was. There were three claw marks on the left side of her body, from her leg to about her shoulder. They didn’t look too deep from Rally’s position, but they were still dripping a little bit of blood into the grass. She had a little bit of a gait because of the cuts, a sight that made Rally feel awful for being the reason– indirectly at least– that she was in this position.

“We need to get you to a doctor when we can,” Rally said, her body shivering. “And myself for that matter, too. But you especially. That looks bad.”

“It looks worse than it feels,” was Shorey’s quick reply, certainly disliking the fact that they stopped for even a moment. “Now let’s get out of this cold please?”

“Yeah… hey, Shorey?” The mare turned fully to the stallion now as she said, “I’m sorry that you’re in this position. I know it’s my fault.”

“It’s fine, Rally. Unless you’re whoever that Zulu person is supposed to be, it’s not your fault.”

“Okay,” the unicorn accepted, now finally walking forward again. She hoped this was all coincidence and that Lord Zulu’s punishment ended with sticking her on that mountain. If he was watching them and specifically taking his anger out on Rally, then she didn’t want Shorey to be caught in the crossfire. 

She worried that the mare already was.
> Chapter Fifteen (Revised)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Ooohhhhh… i-i-it’s f-f-f-fucking cold out here,” Rally got out, her and Shorey’s fur still dripping wet from the river. “There n-n-n-needs to be something we can do.”

She was a shivering mess as they walked, but certainly not tired. Her completely soaked fur and mane saw to that. Thankfully, it was warmer tonight than Rally had experienced up to that point, feeling somewhere in the forties. It was still dangerous to be outside with wet fur, but it was less so than the bitter cold of the mountains and plain she’d already been through. In any case, the body heat they generated felt like enough to stave away any potential hypothermia.

“J-just keep going,” Shorey instructed, the two walking side by side to catch each other if they fell. The stallion wouldn’t have been surprised if she flopped dead right there. It was certainly a possibility with how destroyed her mental state felt. How she hadn’t done that already, she didn’t know, except that part of it was that Shorey was now there to help keep her a little bit more sane.

“How far away d-did that stallion you met say th-the Crystal Empire was?”

“Like five days,” Rally replied. “And I’ve been out here for about th-th-that long. I think today is d-day five.”

“Well then I don’t see why we shouldn’t get there tonight,” Shorey said. “We can treat tonight’s walking as day five…” Then she sighed and said, “My side is absolutely killing me.”

“I really hope we get there soon,” Rally commented, being reminded of how badly her flank and dock still hurt. She hated how fully exposed she was now, and was glad no one was around right now to get an eyeful of everything she didn’t want to show off. She wondered how long it would take for her tail to grow back. She hoped it wouldn’t be long.

She took a breath and did her best to push down her dysphoria, an easy task with how tired and hurting she was. She might have before said there was nothing worse than being a man, but she decided nearly drowning and having her tail ripped off painfully were two things that were worse.

“I’m not spending another night out here,” I continued. “I wanna stop being outside for at least a year.”

Both walked slowly, tiredly trudging along and looking behind them to check for danger every so often. The foliage got thicker the farther into the forest they went, and the sounds of different animals came to them. The hoot of an owl, the flap of a bird’s wings, the rustle of something else nearby. It kept Rally aware and alert of her surroundings, and kept her watching carefully for the slightest hint of danger.

There was something else, too… was that crying? Rally turned to Shorey, and sure enough, the mare was almost full on sobbing as they walked forward, a change from the flat expression she had on a second ago. It caught the stallion by surprise, and she blinked in confusion at the sight.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, concerned, although not stopping since the mare was still moving. “Are you in pain?”

“No… well, yeah, but that’s not why,” she replied tearfully. “It just came on all at once. It’s because I’m a mare now, and you’re not, and we’re both really in Equestria, except you’ve had to suffer and be outside for a week and a half, and.. I don’t know! I’m just happy that I can finally be myself, and upset that you have to go through all that again.”

“Awww, you’re adorable, Shorey!” the stallion replied, not able to help but laugh at her concern and tearful happiness. “I told you before that all that estrogen was going to make you cry at the drop of a hat if you ever transitioned, and now you know first hand that it does. Err, first hoof. Either way, it’s adorable as heck.”

“This isn’t the drop of a hat,” she tried to refute, only making Rally laugh harder. “I was thinking about something sad. It’s not random.” Shorey was smiling, too, still sniffling as she spoke. Rally tilted her head and gave the mare a knowing look, and she blushed in response.

“Look, I already cry kind of easily,” she continued, a few tears still dripping down. “Heck, I cry when I have to say goodbye to my nephew. It’s not like this is something new.”

“Well that sounds like the cutest thing I’ve ever heard you say,” Rally smiled widely. “How you always one up yourself on the adorableness factor, the world may never know.”

“I don’t know how you can say that,” was the reply, the mare finally able to take a breath and wipe her eyes. “I’m just being myself.”

“Well seeing you be cute and happy makes it worth it to be dripping wet in the cold. I’m gonna have a heart attack from how cute you are.” It was a nice moment, one where the stallion almost forgot about the dysphoria and nearly dying and not having a tail. It made her smile to see her friend happy. 

“Heh, you’re crazy,” Shorey replied, her eyes still very wet despite wiping them again. “Dang, this is going to be weird to get used to.”

“You’re absolutely adorable. I love you, Shorey.”

“I appreciate the sentiment,” the mare finished, stopping for a moment to wipe her eyes with her hooves one final time. “You’re a great friend, Rally.” She looked up at the unicorn and smiled, before a gust of wind brought both of their attentions back to the task at hand. “Celestia, it’s cold out here,” she said, shivering. “Let’s start moving again.”

Both unicorns continued on through the night, carefully watching their back as they walked. Both could appreciate the night as they moved, even in spite of the cold. There was a bright sky full of stars, and there was another full moon hanging overhead, illuminating their path. It was an interesting thing to notice– the phases of the moon didn’t change over the course of the week Rally had been in Equestria. She couldn’t remember if they changed in the show or not, but it was certainly a difference between here and Earth. The stallion wondered what else might be different.

The word ‘fun’ could not be used to describe their trek. It was still chilly, and Rally found herself shivering and yawning as the two walked. She could feel herself drip drying as the night wore on, a little bit of frost forming on her mane as she could almost feel her coat getting matted and knotted. That, on top of being hungry, a bit thirty, and whishing for a shower, she could say she was just plain exhausted.

And dysphoric. Yes, right now it was very much a feeling quite far in the background, but it was still there. It was easy to push down, but she worried that once the second there was no more survival to worry about, it would hit her at full force. She already could say she wasn’t the most mentally healthy after a week out here. She knew her mental health would probably decrease further, even after they found shelter, and had no idea what to do to prepare for that.

“Is something wrong?” Shorey asked, sensing her worry as the sun began to rise, once again only taking a few minutes to get to the center of the sky and warm their fur.

“It’s nothing,” the stallion replied quickly, her voice breaking a little bit and dropping somewhat out of the femininity she was trying to go for. “I’m just stressing out is all. I’m fine. Are you okay?”

“I can keep going if the Crystal Empire is gonna come up to us soon,” Shorey. “I’m already exhausted after just a couple of days out here, and feel super grimey. I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for you over the last week.”

“I’ll be fine. I mean, this is what I wished for, right? And if I can be a mare and have kids eventually, then it’ll all be worth it to me.”

“Mhm. I understand,” the mare agreed. “Although I would’ve modified my wish if I knew you were out here. Ask for more supplies.” Then Shorey smiled and looked at herself, adding, “I don’t mean to gloat though, but I also wasn’t expecting being myself to feel this nice. I wish I would’ve done this before.”

“Uh, yeah, it’s pretty amazing, isn’t it?” There was a little jealousy in the stallion’s words, but mostly it was happiness. It was very hard for Rally to be jealous and bitter when her personality was bright and upbeat enough that Rally could be trapped in it like a moth that found a lamp. Not to mention, she saved her life already– twice, probably, with how hopeless she felt just before the mare showed up. It was very hard for Rally’s heart not to melt around her. She wondered if Shorey felt the same way about her.

Probably not, but either way, that’s a thought for nowhere near anytime soon. Need to get to the Crystal Empire first, then get myself fixed, and then… She didn’t know. Head to Ponyville? It would be pretty cool to see the city in real life, but anywhere in Equestria was good, so long as she got to be herself.

There was more walking, the cold not really bothering them as much as Rally thought it would. The sun being up now helped to warm the air up, the temperature reaching something almost decent. Although any tiredness the cold tried to zap away was in full force now. Her body ached from all the exercise she was getting, and knew she was going to be ripped by the time they got to their destination. Shorey must have felt the same way, as the mare was practically dragging her hooves now.

“Can we stop and rest for a while?” the stallion asked. “I can’t keep going like this on no food, and I haven’t had anything to drink since I took in a stomach full of water from that river.”

“Sure, but I think we’re almost there,” Shorey replied. “See the way that hill rises in the distance?” She used a hoof to point at something far off, something Rally couldn’t see. From what she could tell, this part of the forest was no different than the last part.

“No?”

“Well, if you could see it, the way it rises makes me think there’s a valley ahead. I would actually put money on it, and some on the Crystal Empire being there. That’s where I would build a city. We should be able to see it with how steep the grade looks from here.”

Rally couldn’t say she understood what she was saying at all, but it sounded like it made sense. She didn’t remember the Crystal Empire being in a valley in the show, but things in Equestria already weren’t one to one with the show anyway. Besides, given Rusty Bucket’s time frame, the two should’ve been very close to it by now.

The hill they walked up wasn’t very steep, but it was enough that Rally wondered if a cliff was coming up, something she wasn’t fond of dealing with again. There was a point in the distance that was particularly obscured by trees that they walked towards, one that Rally thought would probably be the spot that they would see the valley Shorey thought was ahead.

Please let us see it, she begged the universe, hoping for a break to be brought to her for the first time during her adventure as the two made their way to the top. Let us see the Crystal Empire in front of us. Please.

The universe answered with exactly what she wanted to see.
> Chapter Sixteen (Revised)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shorey nearly jumped out of her skin at how loudly Rally screamed at the view before them.

“Yes! Yes! Yes! Fuck yes! It’s actually right there in front of us! We’re so fucking close!” The stallion jumped up and down and screamed happily again, wearing the widest smile that Shorey had seen on her thus as she danced in place. She was glad her friend was excited, although the mare was certain it wouldn’t be as easy to make the rest of the journey as the stallion thought.

It was indeed a valley just like Shorey was predicting, one complete with another river than wound across it and a few trees that made it seem like it was in a perpetual state of good weather. The Crystal Empire itself was sitting just beyond that, probably fifteen or twenty miles off in the distance from the two of them. It seemed like an empire, too, one that stretched across where it had sat for what had to be just as many miles in either direction. It was certainly bigger than the tiny city the TV show had.

The only issue was that it was sitting on a plateau. The valley in front of it looked like it sat several hundred feet below them, but the plateau of the Crystal Empire had to be a couple of thousand feet above the valley. From the looks of it, it seemed like a sheer ninety degree rockface they would have to get up. Nothing particularly easy.

“If we move fast, we could probably get there in like four hours, and then we can find a place to sleep and talk to either Princess Cadance or Shining Armor about fixing me! This is actually gonna happen!”

“Yes you will,” she agreed, although Shorey wasn’t as enthusiastic about it as Rally was. “But we wanna be careful and not wear ourselves down if we can. We should probably rest here for a little while before we get going so that we don’t tire ourselves out trying to climb up what looks like a rock wall.”

“I wanna keep going,” Rally replied. “I don’t wanna stop for a second. I just wanna keep going, and then we can rest when we get there. Look at it! We’re already so close! It won’t take that much longer to get there!”

“Rally, we need to rest. We’ve been up all day and all night. Even just a few hours will be better than nothing.”

“But it’s right there. We’re so close! Can’t we just wait until we get there?”

“I know it’s right there. But it’s better if we just stop and rest for a little while before we start up again. It’s not like the city is going anywhere.”

Shorey watched the stallion’s energy deflate, her friend putting her ears down and now wearing a sad expression. 

“Okay,” came the sigh of a reply. “I understand. Sorry. Did you wanna just stop right here? Or somewhere else?”

“I think right here is fine. Or actually, at the bottom of the valley would be better.”

“Okay. That sounds good, I guess.” She didn’t sound like it sounded good, and watched the stallion look down at her hooves. It made Shorey’s ears drop back to see.

“It’s a good idea to rest, Rally,” the mare said again. “Only for a few hours, then we’ll start heading off again.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I just really wanna get there as soon as possible if we can.” She let out a long breath, finishing, “I just wanna be myself again. It feels like I’m gonna have to stay like this for a long time. Maybe forever.”

“I know that feeling,” the mare replied, her soft voice not dissimilar to the gentle hug she gave as she wrapped her hooves around her friend. Didn’t she know it, as much as 
Rally knew it. She knew how painful it was, and started to tear up at the thought of Rally hurting so much.

“We both know that feeling, and we’ve both been there,” Shorey started encouragingly. “You’re gonna get through it though. You’re so much stronger than I’ll ever be just being able to push through and get it all done a first time.”

“I’m not strong enough for this. I don’t wanna half to be strong enough for this. I just wanna flop down and die because I can’t even cry right now. I’m becoming stoic again.”

“You’re going to be able to do it,” the mare said again, pressing her neck into Rally’s and letting out a tiny sniffle. “I’m sorry you have to do it again, but I wasn’t even able to do it a first time. That’s proof of how much stronger you are.”

“I don’t know if I am…”

“I know you are, and I know you can do it,” she assured her. “I believe in you, and I’ll be there to help you if you need it. We’re gonna find Twilight or Cadance or whoever we need to, and they’re gonna fix you.”

The stallion sighed, but then smiled and leaned in before hugging her back for a second. “Thanks. Hearing that makes me feel better. I know I’m being a little dumb right now, but hearing that helps.” There was a small pause before the stallion added, “I love you, Shorey.”

“I love you, too, Rally. You’re a great friend.” Rally pulled away a second later, and Shorey continued, “Let’s try and get a little bit closer, and then we’ll rest at the bottom of the valley, okay? A little while to sleep would be good. We can stop by that river down there.”

“Okay. That sounds good.”

They continued along until they got to the river, both of them stopping in front of it like they planned after what felt like another hour or so of walking. Shorey and Rally both took drinks despite the water being unfiltered and unsanitized, deciding that another day of walking with nothing to drink would not be ideal. Then they both stood by the waters edge for a little while, Rally staring up at the city in front of them.

“I can’t believe we’re gonna be there soon… can you believe we’re actually in ponies in Equestria? I never imagined we’d see something like the Crystal Empire in real life.”

“Neither did I, but I was also under the assumption that magic wasn’t real, and it turns out it is. Who knew?”

“I hope they have some magic to use on us when we find a doctor. Speaking of which, is your side okay? It looks kind of bad. Like, bad enough that a hospital would probably be better than finding a place to stay right off the bat.”

“It looks worse than it feels,” Shorey answered, “but it still doesn’t feel that great. Let me check and see how your tail is holding up, too. I mean, if you’re okay with me doing that.”

“I don’t really care. We’re both naked, and so was Rusty Bucket, so it’s not like it’s gonna be a big deal. Although without a tail, I’m probably gonna be less modest than most ponies.”

“Yeah. Let me look.” She walked behind the stallion to get a glimpse of what happened, and made a sharp inhale at the sight of it. It was one that automatically had Rally asking about how bad it was.

“It’s, uh, not great,” she replied. “Like, almost all of your tail is missing, and there’s a few spots near your dock that are all bloody and dirty and look like they need to be cleaned the first chance we get. It’s not good. How bad does it hurt?”

“I don’t know. Enough that I can feel it when I move my back legs,” was the reply. “I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t enjoy sitting down because of how sore it feels.”

“Yeah, uh, I think you need a doctor more than I do. Your flank looks bad.” Bad enough that Shorey flinched at the thought of the timberwolves tearing off her tail rather than Rally’s. That would not have been a fun experience.

She didn’t say anything about an organ she tried to avoid looking at slowly stiffening below the stallion, but could practically hear the blood rushing to Rally’s cheeks because of what was happening. The mare tried not to, but she couldn’t help but blush, too.

“I’m sorry,” came a little reply from her friend, the stallion’s voice cracking like she was about to start crying in a second.

“You’re fine. I know what erections are. I was a man, too, up until yesterday. Or, well, two days ago.” Before her friend could say anything else, she continued, “Anyway, basically, there’s a large patch of fur missing, and the part of your flank that has no fur looks extremely bloody. I’m not a doctor, but it seems like it’s kind of inflamed, too, which I don’t think is good.”

“Do you think it’s worse than your side looks?”

“I certainly wouldn’t say it’s better,” Shorey told her. “I don’t know long it takes ponies to grow fur, but it looks like it’s gonna take a long time. We need to get to a doctor sooner rather than later.”

“Yeah, a doctor would be good. But so would food and shelter and… well, I guess we have river water.”

“And rest,” the mare finished. “Now let’s be quiet and rest for a little while, please. I don’t know if I’ll fall asleep, but if you do, I’ll wake you up in a few hours so we can start moving again, okay?”

“That sounds good to me… um, before we rest though, when do you think Forrester and Davey are gonna be here? Any time soon?”

“I don’t know about Davey,” she started, “but Forrester said he would be here as soon as he can. I don’t know if he was just joking though. I’m pretty sure Moberly would want to be here, too though. I’m unsure about the rest of the chat.”

“And then what? Forrester is gonna come here and talk about how come he’s not a mare when he loves playing Fallout: New Vegas all day?” She laughed at her little joke, and Shorey smiled as she continued, “And Davey’s gonna try and talk about cars and tell us how a pony actually has more than one horse power or something, and Moberly and Beryl are gonna argue back and forth the whole time like always.”

“Haha, maybe,” Shorey laughed lightly. “It’s gonna be a real group chat meet up, won’t it? First time ever. Although I’ve already meet you in real life before this, and Moberly, too. No one else though.”

“I bet Moberly would like Equestria more than the others.”

The mare chuckled a bit to herself at the thought of someone like Moberly showing up in Equestria. It’d be very interesting to see Rally’s reaction to them showing up, even though she probably already knew about Moberly. She might just laugh and tease her a bit, poking fun at her expense, although not in a mean way. Either way though, she expected some of the group chat to make it to Equestria, going to Ponyville like she directed them to if they did. Then they’d all meet up there. A however many miles trip that was from their current position.

“How far do you think it’s gonna be to get to Ponyville?” Shorey asked, although she didn’t get a response. Despite Rally’s wanting to continue on immediately, the stallion was already dead asleep and snoring slightly. She smiled and giggled slightly at the sight, and then closed her eyes to try and rest herself.