//------------------------------// // Pros and Cons // Story: Here Comes a New Challenger! // by Chrome Masquerade //------------------------------// It was early morning and I was in high spirits. After all this time, I'd get to go to BronyCon! And my cousin Annabelle was going to take me along, since she was going too! Upon one condition. I had to cosplay as her favourite EqG character: Rainbow Dash. My response? "Done and done!" I had dyed my hair various hues, put on a black tank-top (because I lacked any of any other colours), painted my skin a vibrant cyan, put a skirt on over a pair of black shorts... by a quirk of my body, waxing wasn't even a necessity, as my legs produced little to no hair. You... probably didn't need to know that. Moving on! When the two of us entered, we saw what you'd see at just about any convention. Stalls selling merch, stalls selling various kindds of food, and of course, THOUSANDS of people! Now, I napped on the way, because social interaction tends to wear me out without proper preparation. So I was golden, for the moment. However, Annabelle was quickly lost in the crowd and I was left to my own devices. Sighing deeply, i thought aloud, "Well, there's one in every family.. Three in mine..." With that, i started to wander around myself. Soon enough, I found a stall with someone dressed as The Merchant from Resident Evil 4. But instead of having wares in his trenchcoat, he stood behind a table, like any other vendor here.. Before him was an assortment of MLP merch. But what caught my eye was a blue jacket and a prismatic wig. It felt like they were calling out to me, luring me in. Something told me that if I acted mnow, it would be my lucky day. But if I hesoitated, someone else would take it. Now, my dye job wasn't exactly top-tier, and would wash out with the next shower.It was also expensive AF to get dye of that many colours. I stepped up to the table. "Hey! Let me guess: you're cosplaying as The Merchant from RE4, aren't you?" In a point for point reproduction of the voice, he said, "Yeah... somethin' like 'at. Whattaya buyin'?"(1) "How much for that jacket and wig combo?" He named a price. "In fact, I can tell 'at it was meant fer ya. I'll even gives ya a discount jes fer 'at." Right there I should've wised up. Alas, hindsight is 20/20. I bought it. "An awesome choice, stranger!"(1) I walked away with my prize to one of the public washrooms. Once inside, i rinsed my hair of the dye and put the wig on. Then, (after washing my hands because I was a clean person, if not neat) came the jacket. Striking a pose, I looked at myself in the mirror. I looked more or less akin to the multihued humanized mare. With a few differences, naturally. Suddenly, I felt the jacket ripple with an unseen, unfelt wind. The wig jiggled similarly. Suddenly, the wig stopped moving. When I tried to remove it, It wouldn't come off! Worse, tugging at it only made my scalp hurt! But that wasn't the strangest thing. Next, the blue body paint that I had used flaked off all at once, replaced by pure blue skin, much more slowly. Thoughts began to race through my mind about racing, sports, generally being macho while not looking it. I shook my head, trying to clear those thoughts from my mind. "No! N-n-n-no! I hate those things!" Or did I? I suddenly couldn't tell where my thoughts ended and the person I was now becoming's thoughts began! As the blueness of m skin spread, parts of me began to change swiftly. My squared jaw rounded out, i shrank in size by a good foot or so, my features became younger in general, my modest manhood was replaced with a set of more feminine equipment. My miniscule moobs swelled to a more healthy size, but they were only barely breasts.(2) The muscles that i'd built up over the years didn't shrink, as you might imagine. No, they became more tightly corded. Apparently, Rainbow Daash has a fair bit of muscle, but doesn't look it. Then my clothes started to change. My black tank top changed to white and a lightning bolt arrpeared upon it.My boots turned a blue and white colour and hiked up along my legs. My skirt changed colour as well, going for a more tie-dyed look. Oddly enough, a pair of wings briefly appeared in two slips of my jacket, before folding into some unseen space. For a moment, my hearing became heightened, but then the tounds went back to normal. A tail snaked through the back of my shorts, but withdrew quickly. "Ooookaa- eep!" i said in a voice not my own. It was getting harder and harder to hold coherent thoughts. A voice in my mind said, "Sorry, but there needs to be a replacement." Suddenly, there was a pain in the back of my head and I blacked out. ------------------------ "Dashie! Wake up! Come on!" Huh? What was that? I thought that I heard- "Oh, please wake up, Dash! I can't lose you too!" I defonitely heard that! "DASH! WAKE UP!" "Owww..." I said, finally awakening. "Oh, thank goodness!" the first voice said, relieved. "How do you feel?" "Like I got hit by a truck. Then went on a bender. Ugh..." I groaned "Where am I?" "The emergency. Tat bit about getting hit by a truck? Yyyeahhh..." the third voice said. The second put in, "We thought we'd lost you! You saved that kid, but took the hit yourself." A fleeting pain went through my head, after which I opened my eyes. "Mom? Dad? Cousin Rose?" "Thank goodness! She remembers!" Mom said. "How bad?" I asked. A new voice answered, "Several broken bones, probably a concussion, one stab wound -which you're lucky didn't kill you- and..." "Great. Well, nothing for it." I said. "Well, let's just say that you'd be in here for a fair while, miss Dash. However, your wounds have healed miraculously quickly. Fractures have been reduced to bruises, that concussion has been reduced to a migraine, that stab wound will leave a serious scar, but nothing more. You're very lucky." This was my introduction into this world. This was how this story begins. Where things will go from here, well... only time will tell.