//------------------------------//
// The Dare 
// Story: PaP: Bedtime Stories 
// by Starscribe 
//------------------------------//

"So, you realize this is a bad idea," Alex said, her voice exasperated. "Like, maybe the dumbest idea ever."

Richard had spent his whole life hearing ponies talk about how important Alex had been as mayor of Alexandria. He found it a little hard to believe now that she was working behind the desk at a pharmacy, shorter than he was, and probably younger too. But she also happened to be working the hospital pharmacy, and so there would be no way to buy what he wanted without getting her approval.

Richard pushed forward the pile of plastic chits again—what amounted to an enormous fortune at his age. They had been hard-fought, but if this was what it took to rub Cody's smug face in it... he'd pay. "I want one dose of poison joke antidote. I know you grow the plants here, and that you keep the potion in the fridge. I want to buy one."

"I don't know where you found it..." Alex whispered. "But it's not something you should play around with. Just because nobody's died from using it doesn't mean you couldn't."

"Are you gonna sell to me or not?" Richard asked, annoyed. "We both know the town will just give me the antidote if something goes wrong. But I'm being responsible." He pointed to the money. "I'm using safely. Now give me my potion." Alex grumbled, turning away from him with a harsh flick of her tail. Richard stared after her, unapologetically appreciating an earth pony who had joined the growing trend of not wearing very much.

The pony he was interested in almost certainly would be wearing clothes tonight. Amy was frustratingly obsessed with dumb humans and their dumb old culture.

Alex set the potion on the counter across from him, a few ounces of brown slop in a translucent plastic container. She had to use her mouth to lift the scanner from under the counter and check his chits one at a time, tossing them into the register. She pushed half of them back. "Chaos magic is no joke," she finally said. "It plays on your insecurities. It never does what you want the way you want. Whatever you have, you should burn."

"Thank you very much," Richard said, levitating the bottle and his change both into his satchel. "Bye."

He left. There were far more important things to be doing than talking to Alex.

He returned to his own home, where his best friend Cody was already waiting. The young stallion watched him come in with anticipation on his face. "She shut you down, didn't she? She laughed when you told her what you were planning, and she didn't help."

Richard made his way past him, towards his own open bedroom door. Clothes already waited inside, clothes Amy had picked for him. Probably not expecting him to wear any of it. On his desk was a worn-looking laptop computer, the plastic yellowing from the sun. He'd forgotten to switch it off when he left, and the screen flickered even now, with a few dead pixels scattered across it in uneven patches. It was in quite good condition for something owned by a teenager. Beside the computer was another bottle, a worn-looking glass bottle with deep blue potion inside it.

Richard didn't answer as Cody followed him into the room, just levitated out the antidote and set it next to the first potion.

Cody gaped. "No shit. She actually... what the hell did you say to make her give it to you?"

"I bought it," Richard said, truthfully, levitating over the blue bottle as though it were nothing. He put on a show of not being afraid, anyway. He was terrified. Despite everything he'd read about this potion, there was no tangible way to get a guarantee about what it might do to him. It very well might not affect the change he wanted. Not the one I want. The one Amy wants. It was only because he was so disgusted at the prospect that made him so sure it would do what he wanted.

"You're actually gonna do it?" Cody sat down on his haunches in the hallway, staring in at him with indignance. "I don't think you've really thought this through. What if it works?"

"Then I will have a girlfriend, and you won't."

"Alright," Cody grumbled. Richard could sense his frustration, and his fear. His friend was too scared to do what Richard was about to do. He was the one who had always had a crush on Amy, but he was too afraid to do what it took. Richard would get the mare tonight, not Cody. It was about time he win at something. "But suppose she likes you?"

"Then I'll have a marefriend," Richard said again, smug. "So what?"

"You're gonna stay transformed forever, idiot?" he asked. "Why do you think I said no? Because if we have to change to have a relationship, we aren't right for each other! You want someone to like you, not you potioned into something else. Unless you plan on staying that way forever."

Richard hesitated, considering a weakness in his plan he hadn't thought about. Then he shrugged, and downed a long draft from the bottle. It tasted floral and strange, but then eating flowers had always been more an earth pony thing to begin with. Poison joke was supposed to be a flower, one that was boiled and concentrated to increase its potency. But at first, he felt nothing. "We'll see what I decide." He set the bottle down, mostly empty now. "Our parents were two-legged monsters, and they got used to being ponies. Maybe I could get used to being a filly." He said it, but didn't really mean it. Disgust practically rolled off his tongue at the thought. Few considerations in his life seemed more degrading, more awful.

Richard had spent his whole life listening to his mother complain (when she didn't think he was around) about how awful it was to be transformed into a mare. Richard had heard all those fears, and made them his own. And now he was defying them, daring the magic to work so that he could have what Cody couldn't. He would win tonight.

"Whatever." Cody turned, with exactly the same gesture his mother had used only an hour earlier. "I'm gonna go meet Amy at the arcade to wait for you not to show. If you don't come by nine, we'll stop by to make sure you didn't dry up as a fish, or..." He glared at the potion bottle. "Whatever that thing does to you."

"I'll see you in a few hours!" Richard called after him. "Your favorite mare and I are going on a date!"


* * *


Richard felt the eyes on her. There was no reason for it—nopony would be expecting a pony with her same blue mane and yellow coat, wearing a short dress that actually fit and shuffling nervously into the laser arcade. Though it didn't look like anypony was paying more attention to her now, Richard would've sworn there were always at least two pairs of eyes on her, making it impossible to concentrate. Okay, maybe that wasn't the only thing that made it hard to concentrate.

There was no escaping from the reminder that things were different. Ignoring the strange absence between her legs, ignoring the fabric of a garment she'd never worn, ignoring that her steps moved to a different rhythm, everything was bigger now. The universe had grown a foot taller, stretching upward. She wasn't just shorter, Richard had become frail and dainty as well. Exactly what she had feared. Exactly what she needed to be to have what Cody couldn't have.

The arcade was always one of the more popular nightly destinations for young ponies in Alexandria—basically everyone was here. It didn't just have an amazing arena in back, with exciting recreations of pre-Event settings to fight each other with aging laser-tag equipment—it had a bar, and a restaurant, and a stage. Richard generally came for the drinks, despite what his mother thought. What will mom think if she finds out I did this? Moriah was an easy pony to upset, and this very specific kind of magic was one of her most sensitive areas. Richard could only imagine what she might do. But she won't find out. I can change back tomorrow morning.

Her friends were waiting at their usual table at the back of the bar. They had stacks of trading cards piled up on the table in front of them, some boring human game that depicted colorful monsters of the pre-Event world. Richard had never learned it, and just now doing so was hardly the first thing on her mind.

Cody recognized her first. She recognized the exact moment when his jaw hit the floor, and his eyes started doing things she'd never seen him do before. He quickly stuck his muzzle into his drink, and didn't look up again. This caused Amy to turn, brushing her mane out of her eyes as she looked up over the chair at Richard, only a few paces away by then. Her expression too was one Richard had never seen on her before, though it was very similar to the way Cody had been looking. Just a little more obvious.

"So, uh... I was right," Richard said, pulling up an empty cushion and sitting down without introducing herself. "It was exactly like I said it would be." She smiled over at Amy, expectant. "That means I get that date, right?"

Amy took several seconds to respond. She yanked one of Richard's forehooves over, turning it over and inspecting it. Her eyes were wide, watery, and her tone quavered a little. "Yeah, Rich. Sure. We can have that date."

"Awesome!" Richard said, loud enough that a few ponies from nearby tables turned to stare at them. As usual, they looked more at her than either of the others. Being a mare shouldn't be this weird. Half the population does it all the time. Why are they always looking at me?

"Sorry, Cody," Amy said, looking across the table, sympathetic. "He actually did it. A promise is a promise. We can... tell you about it in the morning?"

Cody got to his hooves, shuffling all his cards into his saddlebag with one hoof, then slinging it halfway over his back. "Sure thing, Amy. Just... think about what I told you, alright?" He paused, glaring at Richard this time. "Don't say I didn't warn you. This is an awful idea." He left.

Richard shuffled uncomfortably on her hooves, settling herself into Cody's now-vacant spot at the table as best she could. "So, uh... have you eaten yet? I know that's how dates are supposed to start. Ponies go somewhere nice to eat. Or I guess they could finish that way."

"That sounds nice," Amy said, still staring at her. She looked almost like the other onlookers, if not even more insistent than their many eyes. "There are some places still open. Where do you want to go?"

"Wherever you want to go," she said, thinking it the proper thing to say. It was the sort of thing a stallion with a girlfriend would say, she was sure of it.

"Right here." Amy finally looked away from her, where she started sweeping up her cards with one wing. "Walking would be a waste of time... I can't believe you actually did it." She shook her head slightly, pointing. "You sound different, you smell different, you feel different... you were willing to do all that so I'd let you take me out? That's... the sweetest thing anyone's ever done for me."

Richard grinned, raising one hoof to signal the waiter. This was starting out exactly the way she had imagined. "Yeah, I guess I am pretty awesome," she said. "Err... you're pretty awesome. And I know you'd never go with a stallion. Cuz you don't want a boyfriend." She winced, wishing she could take back what she'd said the instant the words were out of her mouth. She was getting a little nervous—sitting so close to Amy, all alone. If she had expected her feelings towards mares to change because of her transformation, she was apparently dead wrong. Her friend was just as attractive as she remembered. Tall, willowy, her wings fluffy and clean. The kind of soft she just wanted to squeeze.

Amy hardly even seemed to notice her bumbling, or her looks. "You turned out pretty good for a curse. That dress is... really flattering. I'm glad someone short enough to wear it came along."

The restaurant didn't have waiters so much as an attentive owner who worked the kitchen while delivering food at the same time. She'd finally noticed Richard, and hurried over with the menu. They ordered, Richard watching nervously as she stared, wondering if she would recognize her. But she eventually just took the order and left, leaving them alone again.

"I'm not short," Richard finally said, folding her forelegs together on the table. "Unicorns just aren't freakishly tall, that's all. We're from a noble lineage."

Amy giggled loudly. "You didn't get that one from your mom."

"No. Everypony knows to stop listening whenever she talks about ponies and humans and stuff. I might be pissed too if I'd come back with a broken horn. I know my dad would be."

And so, their conversation went on. Richard was amazed at just how relaxed Amy became after only a few minutes of them together. She watched Richard almost all the time, her expressions becoming increasingly distant and vague.

Then they finished eating, and it was time to do other things. Richard could already tell her date was going to be one of the best ever.