Stable 200 was affectionately known the “Jail Bird Shelter” by the various ponies and unicorns who inhabited it and was located in Glascow, built in the middle of Old Appleloosa and Fillydelphia, the closest city being Cowpenhagen. Much like the many other Stable-Tec shelters this had been built to preserve the lives of citizens of Equestria during the zebra war 200 years ago though this particular Stable had initially housed criminals from the harmful effects of the balefire bombs that had rained down and nearly wiped out the pony populace.

The convicts all had varied crimes ranging from something as mundane as shop lifting and fraud to the more severe crimes such as murder and treachery that may sabotage or undermine the war effort though only these higher ranked criminals after being sent to Pinkie Pie’s reform centres and there memories removed were deemed fit for service others were just sent to help Stable-Tec build there fallout stables, in turn they’d be granted a pardon when there service was complete as well as a space guaranteed in a Stable-Tec Stable in the event it was needed.

With their end of the bargain upheld and the balefire bombs falling Stable-Tec honoured there end of the bargain, 300 of the former convicts were housed away with an Overmare to run the facility and guards provided and trained by the Equestrian Military to keep everything in check, of course 200 years later these original inhabitants had long since passed away making away for generation after generation so at worst now a pony who lived in Stable 200 was only likely to have broken a rule and made to apologize.

This meant there was no trait of any actual convict these days which suited Overmare Butter Blitz fine and dandy, Overmare Butter Blitz was the tenth Overmare to take over the mantle after her mother which had been no easy feat given that her mother Summer Blitz had been one of the more popular so it had been disappointing for most when she stepped down passing leadership onto Butter Blitz but of course no pony would rule out and hope that Summer’s daughter was equally as kind.

The Stable itself was reminiscent of every other built to Stable-Tec specifications, the same materials and aging Ministry Mare posters fading due to age almost unreadable now, the water talisman keeping fresh water flowing through the pipes to residents of Stable 200, an artificial orchard that produced apples and various other vegetation which despite their faux food like quality still tasted good when at the hooves of the Stables resident master chef, a stallion unicorn by the name of Gourmet.

Gourmet was white furred and had a dirty blonde coloured mane and tail, he had green eyes and cutie mark of a knife and fork atop a blue plate on his flanks, his horn somewhat comedically poking through a hole in his chef’s hat he wore along with his specially issued light grey Stable barding and chefs apron.

Many a mare had the fancy for him and even a few of the stallions who swung that way to for that matter but Gourmet only had a passion for the food he made and that seemingly couldn’t be spared for something like romance, it was a running joke that his hoof touch was like magic for food making the gag being that he was a unicorn as such magic was second nature to him anyway.

One of the few who had not really shown an interest in him that way was Tran Sketch a mare who was formerly a stallion till the medical pony Rose Aid had used her gender changing spell which was a joint effort between Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy, an age old spell that had amended Tran Sketch’s unease of her stallion body.

Rose Aid was a cute looking medical unicorn mare of standard height who’s fur was yellow and long orange mane streaked with red was tied back in a professional way and her tail kept trimmed neat so that it didn’t drag across the floor, her flanks had a cutie mark of red cross with blue roses intricately entwined around it and the Stable medical barding she wore emphasised her physique well and admittedly even as a stallion Tran Sketch had found her quite fanciable of course this hadn’t really changed much since being made into a mare either, it just felt more natural for her to live and act like she’d always felt no longer pressured to be the stallion everyone perceived her to be, also part of Tran Sketch hoped that Rose Aid was at least bi curious.

It was worth noting that Rose Aid was well versed in some of the lesser known spells studied by Twilight Sparkle, one of the six ministry mares whom had served during the war leading the research in Arcane Sciences which had helped produce spells believed impossible before the war and even during the duration of the zebra war not to mention the ingenuity of the PipBucks E.F.S (Eyes Forward Sparkle) system integrated into the PipBucks which could be used to identify friend or foe, red accordingly showing the life form was hostile, these were worn as standard by Stable citizens.

Terminals were used to store data, message over a network and control arcane technology such as the security systems which tied into the intruder detection function and the ceiling mounted magic turrets used to deter or defend from wrong doing within Stable 200 as well as some of the more important life sustaining functions of keeping the stable in a liveable condition that otherwise would have been repetitive if managed by any actual pony.

Though admittedly some of these items where Stable-Tec’s own devices just updated from a previous model such as the final model of PipBuck that was the 3000 series though it wasn’t unheard of for some of the more mechanically minded ponies to make their own alterations to improve upon the existing models to tailor suit there need with added functions or even something as simple as a unique HUD colour or more comfortable padding so it didn’t chafe there PipBuck leg.

Tran Sketch was a calm and creative pony who loved to draw, she worked in the PipBuck Technician sector overseen by her peer Purple Steel, a wizened and older unicorn stallion who had been in charge of maintaining everyponies PipBuck for at least 15 years before Tran Sketch had been picked to be his apprentice.

Purple Steel had always been adamant he was fine doing the task by himself but Overmare Butter Blitz had decided it was about time he take on an apprentice to carry on his work as and when he retired, as he was reminded in a nice way that he wasn’t getting any younger and it did seem silly to expect ponies with no experience to take on repairing such precious devices.

It made sense at least one pony have the skill set to repair the PipBucks. Secondly when Tran Sketch had got her cutie mark it was a pencil and paper which had tied in to her interest in drawing and art, of course it wasn’t exactly easy finding paints so she had to get creative using food stuffs and other items to create her paints and the colours, they weren’t perfect but they did the job.

Problem was that there was no opening for Stable Artists so with Tran Sketch being a unicorn it was decided she be put forward as Purple Steel’s protégé given that it was usually unicorns picked for such delicate tasks like this that an earth pony may find more tricky to achieve and without a clear role from the cutie mark it was either that or cleaner which would be a waste of unicorn magic.

There was however a problem, Tran Sketch’s levitation magic was not exactly top tier and doing some of the finer tasks required a lot of her concentration otherwise her magic would implode and drop the tools she was using and the PipBuck in which case Purple Steel kindly took over giving her an easier task to focus on instead. Though in all fairness it wasn’t exactly her fault levitating a pencil or quill was easy and second nature, the artist in her made that possible to do without thinking however as soon as she had to concentrate it made her levitation magic weaker.

It also didn’t help that with part of the gender swapping spell her horn once longer as a stallion had been shrunk down with her now smaller body in accordance of keeping it in similarity to her form and to most this sounds like nothing major however the size change had affected her magic somewhat and Rose Aid had warned this may be the case, a smaller horn produced lesser magic supposedly so though Tran Sketch may not have missed her stallion hood the horn had been the sacrifice to get the body her mind insisted she should already have thankfully though to make up for this she was still capable of more than just levitation.

She had some grasp of teleportation which sped up travelling between parts of the Stable not to mention it allowed for her to do her side job of delivering goods to other ponies in return for blank paper or spare supplies she could use for her art and Rose Aid had taught Tran Sketch some first aid spells during her time recovering from the change, it had been about a week for her to adapt to walking properly again but thankfully her magic was quicker to come back so at least she knew a few simple cut healing spells and one for numbing pain.

Tran Sketch was sitting demurely in the canteen of the Stable, many ponies queuing up for their daily helping of Gourmet’s “magic” food and talking loudly about whatever it was they deemed worth gossiping whilst many others were already sat down amongst their friends just happy to have a discussion and a break, Tran Sketch was always something of a loner really so it was nothing new for her to stare around the concrete coloured room with beams of entrapped magical light orbs throwing light around the large room behind panes of dusty glass.

As usual Pinkie Pie was sitting over her shoulder technically, an old Ministry of Morale poster of the bright pink mare with the faded words “Always watching” in large font underneath the wide staring eyes of Pinkie Pie, it admittedly creeped out Tran Sketch a little but she was the very epitome of what it meant to be methodical and a follower of repetition seeing as she always sat in the same place and was usually sat there by the same time and ordered the same bowl of tomato and fruit salad drizzled with some sauce concocted by Gourmet which reminded her of vinegar but not so strong, the only thing not so guaranteed was the effectiveness of her work however Purple Steel was pretty laid back and content as long as Tran Sketch put in effort at least for this she was thankful.

Today however her pattern was to broken as one of the new stallions who had been assigned admin duties sat at her table, a shy smile on his face and the tray of food held by his mouth which he tried to set down carefully and instead almost spilled the plate of artificial hay fries and faux grass burger onto his barding and the floor but Tran Sketch caught it in time her magical aura surrounding the tray a neon pink momentarily till it was settled on the table which she then cut off her hold over the tray.

“You should be more careful, almost ended up with your dinner everywhere but your mouth”

She said trying to be sociable as there was plenty of other seats available yet the stallion had sat at this table instead which in her mind implied he was trying to get some form of conversation or a piece of her flank.

The young stallion admired briefly how the silver mane of Tran Sketch’s curtained her face so well, the bangs either side her honey yellow eyes and the fringe cut along straight just above her almond shaped eyes akin to ponies of the eastern Equestrian lands so it was distinctive, the back part of the mane went down her neck and a little past her underbelly so not quite uniform regulation but maintained nicely regardless, her silver tail inches from scraping across the floor and the dark blue of her mane complimenting the mane and eyes nicely, Tran Sketch’s Stable barding form fitting and partly hidden beneath the long mane and complimented by a pink choker with an ornamental hoof hanging from it. He blushed and she noticed as he looked away awkwardly trying to hide his embarrassment somehow though the blush was very visible against his pale blue fur.

“Are you feeling okay? Perhaps you should see Nurse Rose Aid”

Tran Sketch suggested in her silky sounding voice, seeing his bright visage mistaking it for the stallion having a fever maybe.
Sitting back on his haunches and scuffing his front hoof on the floor he looked at the mare again trying not to let his embarrassment win over his ability to actually speak so taking a drink from his carrot flavoured juice he spoke up now.

“Your Tran Sketch right?”

It seemed more of a statement than a question but none the less the blue coloured mare nodded unsure of where this stallion was going with this but he seemed no harm at least.

“Umm… my names Nova Sprocket, it’s kind of funny you should mention Rose Aid as she suggested I speak to you”
He hoofed at the floor a little awkwardly.

Tran Sketch raised a brow in curiosity observing the caramel coloured stallion with a dark brown mane in a short style and a blue siren light across his flanks, his amber eyes looking at her.

“Well this is more than a little surprising, I can at least safely guess it isn’t for medical treatment right?
She may have taught me a few spells granted but nothing on the calibre of hers, not by a long shot”

Nova shook his head, his reply sounding much calmer than he physically seemed to be.
“No, no nothing like that… just that she suggested that after what she done for me that it’d be good to speak to somepony like myself”
He paused a moment thinking how to word what we had to say next.

“You had the gender change spell done as have I though in this case it’s reversed, I wanted to be a stallion for the longest time and well… now I am, just I feel a little awkward speaking to my old friends who knew me as a mare is all so Rose Aid suggested that speaking to you may help me come out of my shell, being that you’ve had the same thing done it’s less awkward”

Tran Sketch pondered what Nova said, she had never been exactly part of the social elite admittedly but she could understand the how awkward it must feel not to mention not all ponies were completely into the love and tolerance that was expected and taught to them, even Tran Sketch had experienced some intolerance and jibes at her “change” as it were but ignored it seeing as it had been her choice to be a mare in the first place, clearly Nova needed a friend on her side right now and frankly Tran Sketch wouldn’t be so cruel to ignore a pony in need.

“Well I guess if Rose Aid sent you then you can’t be too bad, so you want somepony to talk to then who understands what you’re going through right?”
The stallion nodded.

“So if you don’t mind my asking is Tran Sketch really your name, if that’s not too personal?”
Tran Sketch shook her head, her mane shaking a little from the motion before she stood up and then sat by the stallion now.

With a little breath of resignation, she answered.

“I was Doodle Sketch but Tran Sketch seemed to be the nickname everypony called me after, I don’t know if it’s because I was transformed or because Rose Aid had said I was transgendered or something so maybe a play of words is linked to that but in all truth, I don’t care as it rolls off the tongue pretty well don’t you think?”

Nova Sprocket couldn’t help but agree after all it didn’t even sound derogatory, just like any other pony who lived here in fact it also helped he actually found the stallion turned mare pretty cute however Tran Sketch didn’t show any such signs back but at least she was accepting which was more than he could ask for.

“So was Nova Sprocket always your name?”
The mare asked in return, Nova nodded swiftly in response.

“No nicknames as of yet, I don’t think anypony even realises I used to be a mare at the moment but that’ll get around soon enough no doubt, I wonder if they’ll try to at least think of something original… well I guess time will tell right?”
It was a rhetorical question as it was a guarantee in time some ponies would indeed realise the predicament and most likely give the stallion a nickname.

Tran Sketch shrugged and then pointed to his food with her forehoof.

“You going to eat that or let it get cold?”

Seemingly Nova had momentarily forgotten about his food at all but Tran Sketch had reminded him, he started munching at the hay fries and hoped that this would lead to them staying friends from now one as he ate, Tran Sketch waiting patiently for him to finish his meal.

Author's Note

Re-edited with some advising, hopefully it's better for it, apologies if it's not the highest quality but I've been out of practice for the last few years so I suppose I'm taking on a big step really, biting off more than I can chew XD.
I just hope it's enjoyable enough to read.