Dash of Humanity 2: A New Dawn

by Kaidan


10. Wrench in the Gears

The memories of last night flooded back to me as I woke up underneath a very soft, yellow pegasus.

I had been turned into a female by the poison joke, as expected. It did catch me off guard that a different persona asserted itself this time, known as Heart. I would choose my kindness over my desires anyday when pranked. However, this did pose a problem if I kept ‘accidentally’ encountering poison joke. I would never know which personality asserted itself, or how strongly.

Yet playing with fire seemed worth it as I looked at the softly-expanding chest of Fluttershy. As she snored and rested her head on me she made a soft, almost-purring sound.

[That was the kindest thing you’ve done for her, Dawn.]

Thanks, Heart. I bet Desire is jealous as hell that you're the voice in my head right now. Now, I just need you to assure me I’m not crazy as I cuddle Fluttershy.

[Aww, I’d never let you go crazy, you’re much too sweet.]

I’m beginning to think you’ve got a crush on me, Heart.

[Well, if you, uh, want… next time you’re dreaming we could go on a date.]

Dating my own alter-ego in my dream while transgendered? Yep, I’m definitely sane. Perfectly sane here, nothing to see. Move along now.

Fluttershy yawned and stretched, poking a hoof right into my nose. She then wrapped a foreleg around my neck and pulled herself closer to me. I could feel her breath ruffling the fur on my neck, and her wing twitching against my side.

I don’t have the heart to move and wake her. Want to try and figure out when Fluttershy became so assertive? The way she took the lead last night was just... wow.

[Now you see what Desire and me were talking about? What a perfect little couple you two mares would make!]

Way to ruin the moment. You know I’ve got to go back to being a stallion for Dash… Lyra, for Lyra. So you might as well enjoy me being a mare until she cooks up the antidote.

[Aww, come on! It’ll be fun, and it’d be nice. Just look how lonely she is with nopony in her life.]

You won’t kill me with kindness, and I think being a mare that hears voices is anything but ‘fun’ and ‘normal’.

[Now you’re just being mean. You know you like us.]

I like having emotions, not having conversations with emotions.

[Hmph.]

With a sigh, I yawned and stretched myself out, causing Fluttershy to stir. She rolled over and started to wake up, and I tossed the blanket aside for now. “Good morning, sunshine.”

“D-Dawn? Good morning.” She rolled over on top of me and got comfortable on my side. “I haven’t slept that well in ages.”

“Me either.”


by Jinzahn.


Sunlight came through the window, warming us up. It served as a reminder that time was wasting, and that we had things to do.

“I hate to ask, but I need that poison joke antidote. We can’t just cuddle all day, cute as you may be,” I said.

“Oh, of course.” Fluttershy gave me a peck on the cheek and then stood up. She flew into the kitchen and I could hear her moving around pots and pans, and digging through pantries.

I cleaned up the bed by folding the blanket and stacking the pillows in the corner. The cushion had a damp spot, so I flipped it over. In the corner of the room I saw Angel talking to some of the other critters when he did the damndest thing: Angel smiled at me.

“Flutters, you okay in there? Your bunny is freaking me out.”

“No, no I’m not okay! This is horrible!” Fluttershy continued to dig through her cupboards.

I went in to check on her. “Calm down, what’s wrong?”

“I’m missing the swiftthistle! I can’t make the poison joke antidote without it. Oh, I’m so sorry. I should never have asked you to stay the night…”

“It’s okay, really. The spa was closed and I rather enjoyed spending the night here. We’ll just head to the spa and get everything fixed.”

Fluttershy flew out of the pantry and landed in front of me. “You’re not embarrassed to be seen as a mare?”

“No, I’m not. It’s just that last time this happened, I was hornier than a three-headed rhino. I was afraid of what might happen if I was left alone at my house when the poison joke kicked in.”

“At least nothing bad happened. I guess we should get going, then. The spa opens in fifteen minutes and we can get there before anypony else. Then we can go watch the iron pony.”

“Why not.” I smiled and walked towards the front door. As I passed a mirror I checked to make sure I was presentable and clean. Aside from a little bed head, which I was able to mostly fix with my hooves, I looked fine.

“Feeding time, critters.” I heard a bowl filling up with bits of food and watched Fluttershy work her way towards the door. When she finally got there she turned to me. “Come on, let’s go before the feeding frenzy starts.”

I walked out the door and heard her shut it behind me. The sky was clear today and I looked to my side as I heard something rustling in a bush. A family of squirrels ran out and darted between my legs. They entered the house through a small burrow near the front door.

My gaze wandered to the manticore, who was napping on some hay near a small shed. I had nearly forgotten that he was staying with Fluttershy for a few days. Hopefully he didn’t eat any of the critters while we were gone.

“Come on, Dawn. We can fly over there so we can get the first appointment.”

“Sure thing.” I was able to dart into the air with less effort than normal. While part of it was being female with a more aerodynamic form, I attributed most of it to the fun we had preening last night.

I was looking at the roses planted along both sides of the road—they were in bloom at this time of the year—when Fluttershy spoke to me “So, how was your trip?”

“Huh?”

“You ran off yesterday.”

I looked off towards Canterlot castle, barely visible in the distance. “It was… informative. I had time to cool down and that’s all I really needed.”

“I’m glad you feel better. We were all a little worried yesterday. After Dash and Soarin had calmed down, he apologized for punching you.”

I glanced down at the small creek marking the border of town. On the bridge was a pony fishing, though from here I couldn’t see any fish in the river. “Well, I’d rather talk about something other than him.”

[Don’t be so cruel, he apologized for it. I bet he’s really sorry.]

This isn’t a time for kindness, it’s a time for kicking his ass.

[How… how could you be so mean?!]

“Oh, well at least you’re back and feeling better,” Fluttershy said.

“Dawn!” I tilted my head to figure out the direction the voice was coming from. It sounded like Dash in the distance. A second later she swooped in next to us.

“Hey, Dawn! Wait—why were you eating poison joke again?” Dash crossed her forelegs. “I was worried you ran away or something stupid and you were just rolling in the flowers?”

“Hi, Dash, and no. I wasn’t rolling in flowers, I took a day to clear my head. Then I saved Fluttershy from a manticore and crashed at her place.”

Dash groaned. “You can’t just run away from your problems. I thought for sure you were gonna come check on me, and then you spend the night at Fluttershy’s house? Wait.” She swooped under me and came up in front of me, pushing me back. “You stayed at Fluttershy’s house? Why not your own?”

I raised an eyebrow and swallowed. “No reason, hers was closer and she had the poison joke antidote.”

“Oh yeah? Then why are you still a mare?”

Glancing to my side I hoped Fluttershy would help me out here. Instead she just shrank back slightly. I faced Dash. “She was out. We’re headed to the spa now.”

Dash looked at both of us, then flew between me and Fluttershy. I watched her nose scrunch up. “Oh yeah? I saw you two leave her house this morning, I was just giving you a chance to come clean! Hell, I can smell it on you. You didn’t even have the decency to shower!”


By NadnerbD


Anger started to rise up inside me. “It’s none of your business anyway! Shouldn’t you be off with Soarin?”

[Whoa, calm down, Dawn.]

“Hah! I almost broke up with him, because I thought maybe you were right about him. Then it turns out you’re sleeping around! I bet you never even really liked me or Fluttershy. Even without a dick, we’re all just sexual conquests for you.”

“Please,” Fluttershy whispered. “This is getting out of hoof…”

“Conquests?! After all I did for you! Soarin’s acting like a lunatic and I’m the one out to get laid. No! I think you’re just too used to him bending you over a bed to see straight.”

“I can see fine! I told you not to make moves on Fluttershy, but instead you run off and fuck her!”

[This isn’t getting us anywhere, Dawn.]

“At least Fluttershy is my friend! You’ve got a horrible attitude! All you care about is Soarin’s cock, even when he nearly knocks my head off! It’s always ‘Soarin this’ or ‘Soarin that’ or you gloating about your—”

Dash cut me off mid-rant by tackling me to the ground. I had just enough time to tense up my stomach and avoid getting the wind knocked out of me. “You no good—”

“Stop!” Fluttershy screamed. We both looked over at her. “That is enough! Both of you, apologize!”

I glared up at Dash, and she snarled. Neither of us wanted to apologize, and after a moment Dash just spit on the ground next to me and flew off. Once she was gone, I rolled over and stood up, dusting myself off.

“Did you see how crazy she was acting? She was—”

“No!” Fluttershy looked me straight in the eye, and I noticed she had been crying this whole time. The fur on her cheeks was damp where a few paths of tears had dripped down. We had been too busy fighting to notice her. “You were both being horrible friends.”

“Flutters, I’m sorry…” I tried to hug her, but she stepped away from me.

“You need to leave, Dawn. Go to the spa on your own.”

“You don’t mean that, I said I’m sorry.” I frowned and took another step towards her, yet she kept her distance.

[She needs a friend, you can’t leave her.]

I know that, now stick a sock in it!

“Go. I want to be alone.”

As she stared at me I couldn’t help but agree. It was probably best for us to all have some space right now, so I turned and flew off without another word.

My flight took me above town as I looked for the spa. I’d been there once, though I couldn’t remember exactly where it was.

[You need to go back, to apologize to both of them.]

Great, now you’re my conscience. Can’t you go find one of my other personalities and switch places?

[No, I’m not leaving until you apologize.]

Screw you, I’m not in the mood for guilt trips. Where’s Iris when I need somepony who would understand my desire to kick flank?

[Somepony called?]

There was a change in the tone of voice I was hearing in my head. It sounded like the stunt-pony persona I had met in my dream.

Iris?

[The one and only! I heard you were looking for somepony to help kick flank and chew bubble gum?]

And you’re all out of gum, fine, whatever. How’d you trade places with Heart?

[I dunno, you gonna cry about it or are we gonna go kick Soarin’s flank in front of everypony?]

I smirked. Finally I had found a personality I could agree with.

Damn straight, but I’m not gonna attack him unprovoked.

[Attack? I meant the obstacle course! Today’s the Pegasus race, and you’re totally a mare! I told you we’re more awesome at flying, and now we’re gonna embarrass Soarin by winning the gold!]

I laughed loudly, turning around and flying towards Sweet Apple Acres. The antidote to the poison joke could wait. Down below I could see groups of ponies heading towards the farm to watch the competition. It was interesting to know that none of them would recognize me, save for my blank flank. Soarin probably wouldn’t even realize it was me who had beat him in the race until I told him it was.

My flight to the farm was short, and I landed near the staging area for the Pegasus race. Above us the weather team had put together a much wider, larger obstacle course than the one Dash and I had practiced on.

After I was given my number, I saw Twilight and Applejack talking. They began to walk over to me as soon as they realized I was there.

“Dawn, are you all right? We weren’t sure if you’d dropped out of the race.”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I snapped.

“We, uh… well, Soarin apologized so we let him back in the race,” Applejack said.

“Good. I look forward to beating him.”

“We’re just waiting for Dash, have you seen her?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah, she can’t make it.”

Applejack frowned. “Well, we can’t wait forever anyways. I’ll go see if Ah can find her while you run the events, Twilight. Ah don’t want her sayin’ Ah only won the contest ‘cuz she skipped an event.”

We watched Applejack walk away for a moment before Twilight turned back to me. “Are you sure you’re okay, Dawn? I asked Applejack not to say anything but… you realize you showed up as a mare, right?”

“Yeah, so my sex organs are on the inside now. What’s the big deal?”

“Well, while there’s technically no rule against changing your gender to score better in an event I can’t say it’s… ‘normal’ of a pony.” Twilight was looking at me intently, examining my body as if it were an interesting book. “Plus, something seems a little off. Poison joke is usually, well, a joke, and you don’t seem too upset about it. Has it had any side effects?”

I was starting to get annoyed, as I’d come to embarass Soarin not chat about my tendency to switch genders. “Yeah, I hear voices in my head when I switch, alternate personalities emerge and I get overly frisky. You should know after invading my dreams to ‘study’ the Dewey Decimal System.”

“What?! I…” Twilight backed up a few steps, blushing. “How did you know that was me dreamwalking?”

I laughed. “You just told me.”

“I… I…” Twilight continued to open and close her mouth like a fish: an adorable, confused, suffocating fish.

“Can we start the event?”

She nodded.

“Good.” I walked over to the starting line and took a spot next to Soarin.

He was here in his Wonderbolts outfit, and took a good look at me. Soarin whistled. “Hey, you new here? If I’d seen a mare that hot in town before I’d remember.”

“Yeah, I’m a substitution for a sick pony,” I said. I looked back at him and smiled, figuring out a new way to mess with him. “Maybe you could show me around later?”

“Sure, I’m a bit busy with Wonderbolt practice but I could spare an hour or two tonight. I’ll show you around town and where the best places to eat are.”

I batted my eyelashes and raised my tail a bit. I caught his eyes darting back towards my flank. “I’d love to have a big, strong stallion all to myself for an evening.”

“Then it’s a date.”

Hook, line, and sinker. Man I’m gonna enjoy watching this bastard squirm.

[Good. Use your aggressive feelings, Dawn. Let the hate flow through you.]

Yeah! Wait, how’d you know that quote?

[You had this kick-ass Star Wars dream a few days ago. It was so cool!]

Whatever, you ready to help me do this? I’m gonna need some advice from you to win the race.

[Sure thing, I’ll give you a running commentary on which moves to pull!]

For a moment I paused and considered I was talking to myself about the need to tell myself how to fly. Then I looked at Soarin, and embraced my insanity.

Oh yeah, we’re so gonna kick his ass.

“On your marks!” Pinkie Pie shouted, high above us in a hot air balloon. “Get set!”

I dug my hooves into the ground, surrounded by a dozen pegasi participating in the race.

“Go!”

My muscles uncoiled, launching me into the air as I beat my wings. Soarin was a full pony-length ahead of me, and a pony to his right was even with me. The other nine ponies were all behind me. This race had gotten off to a good start.

The first obstacle was flying straight up, a tiring stage of the course. It was designed to test stamina and control as you fought gravity and your own body weight. Luckily, I felt a good twenty pounds lighter and was gaining on the two ponies ahead of me.

After that we banked left and dove towards the ground, flying above and under several clouds. It did seem easier to fly as a mare, and my mind began to wander.

[Bank right, ten yards!]

Iris’ command snapped me out of my daydream and I banked right, narrowly missing a wall of clouds that marked the end of the downward slalom. I had lost some ground on Soarin and grinded my teeth together.

With all my focus, I zig-zagged between the vertical slalom clouds to gain on him. He was fast, but I was also angry and the only cure was to see the look on his face when I beat him. I began to flap my wings even harder.

[Pull back a bit, legs in, roll side to side and don’t force it!]

I did as instructed and sailed past the obstacles a little more quickly. Up ahead I could see Soarin throwing his body weight back and forth, working against his own momentum. It was the only way the stallion could zig-zag this quickly. I, on the other hoof, was able to use agility instead of brute strength.

His tail was close enough I could have bit it by the time we left that obstacle. We began a free-form segment, flying through rings made of cloud. This allowed me to get neck and neck with him, and I was rewarded with a look of shock from him. Soarin clearly wasn’t used to anypony being able to match his speed.

As we exited the course we came to a straightaway, and began the sprint to the finish.

[Now, this is when you go all out! Legs back, head down, full speed!]

I used the ground as a guide as I lowered my head and neck so my entire body was in a straight line. I couldn’t see as much in front of me, but the wind seemed to slip over my body more easily.

The air broke over my two front hooves, flowed freely to my wings, and then whipped my tail behind me. The finish line was fast approaching and I realized I’d never flown this fast before. It was exhilarating.

The finish line burst into mist as we passed, and I heard ponies cheering below. I hoped they had some sort of photograph to tell who had won, because I’d been so focused on the race I didn’t even look to see if I was passing Soarin.

I landed on the ground and began my cool down stretches. Soarin landed next to me several seconds later.

“Whoa, where’d you learn to fly like that? You’re almost as fast as my ma… Wonderbolts captain.”

With a huge smile on my face I turned to face him. “Oh, really? Did you see my number?”

Soarin cocked his head back, eyes wide. “Number?” He gave a confused look at the forty-two on my flank. “Uh, hmm, I feel like I’ve seen that one before…”

With a deep laugh I pulled the number off, revealing my blank flank. To my knowledge, I was the only blank flank anypony had ever seen at this age. “It’s me, Dawn.”

“What?!” He yelled, looking at me in disbelief. “How’d you—that’s cheating!”

“Cheating? Like you were gonna do on Dash? Well how about this. You’ve wanted to know where I came from, what if I told you this isn’t the first time you got fucked by me?”

Soarin swallowed and looked around. I wasn’t sure if he was going to punch me or run away. “What do you mean? Are you a changeling?”

“Worse. I’m a human.” I advanced towards him, enjoying his fear. All my frustrations melted away as I watched him tremble. “Discord brought me here and put me in Dash’s body. Oh, it was fun for a while, and I especially enjoyed the way you ravaged me in that maid’s outfit.” I slowly turned around and batted my tail out of the way. “Look familiar?”

Soarin blinked, a dumbfounded look on his face.

“Dawn!” Twilight shouted.

I looked over and saw her galloping towards me. Her horn lit up, and I felt the familiar sensation of being teleported. Once my insides were done being squeezed through the eye of a needle, I rematerialized in the day spa.

Lotus looked at Twilight and me. Her mouth hung open and both eyes were wide in shock. The gust of air from the teleport scattered the papers from her desk. “Uh… Twilight?”

“Poison joke antidote. Spa. Now.” Twilight ordered in a serious tone of voice.

I smiled at her. “Heh, I was going to chan—”

Twilight yanked my ear with her magic, dragging me forward. “Unbelieveable! Us Princesses ask you to do one simple thing, to not incite a panic, and what do you do?”

I stumbled forward, yelping as we neared the spa. Lotus and Aloe were already pouring the antidote ingredients in it and pretending not to be watching this altercation. “I uh—”

“You use it as a weapon to embarrass Soarin! At a competition with hundreds of ponies watching! I don’t know how on Equestria we’re going to keep you secret now!”

I opened my mouth to apologize. Unfortunately, Twilight chose that exact moment to lift me with her magic and dump me in the spa. I thrashed around underwater for a few seconds, panicked, until I realized her magic had let me go.

When I surfaced for air and took a breath, I saw two blue forelegs in front of me. My body had been turned back to normal, and I was a stallion again. This left me with only one problem to face: the angry alicorn fuming next to me.

She seemed angry enough that she might burst into flames at any moment. “Look, Twilight, I—”

“I’m very disappointed in you, Dawn! I couldn’t believe what Applejack told me. Do you know what she said?”

I felt my ears fold down, and sank down into the water. “No,” I whispered, “but I could take a guess.”

“Fluttershy and Dash both in tears! And now Dash’s special somepony doing Celestia-knows what after you revealed the existence of aliens to everypony!” She let out a groan that was loud enough to echo throughout the spa.

“I’m sorry…” I lowered my eyes to look at the water. After my colossal screw-up I was in no hurry for me to leave the relative safety of the spa. “I had a bad day and things got out of hoof…”

Twilight took a few deep breaths, extending one foreleg in front of herself. “Okay. I’m going to figure out how to solve all these arguments, and fix all these friendships.” She seemed to be speaking to herself as she stared at the far wall. Twilight definitely wasn’t talking to me, and the spa ponies had wisely left the room. “I’ll get Spike, we’ll plan this out. I’m prepared. I can do this…”

“Um, Twilight?”

She turned to face me. “Oh, and as for you!” I gulped and held my breath. “I want you to stay in your house until I come by, and you better be ready to apologize! Understood?!”

I nodded my head yes.

“Good!”

Her horn lit up and I was teleported once again. As my eyes opened back up I found myself in my living room. A second later, there was a large splashing noise as the entirety of the water from the spa fell to the floor.

I landed on my damp couch as water soaked into the furniture and carpeting. There was a loud meow as a very agitated, wet cat jumped onto the mantle of my fireplace.

“Great, Bagheera, I just got put on timeout by a princess.”