• Published 20th Dec 2013
  • 30,082 Views, 2,382 Comments

Dash of Humanity 2: A New Dawn - Kaidan



I'm stuck in Equestria, which reminds me of the dark ages. Instead of internet and fast-food, I have Rainbow Dash. She's been asked to help me learn to fit in... I'd like a refund.

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3. Lowering Expectations

I had been enjoying the sun on a park bench when I smelt a familiar scent. Stallions have an odor to them—a sort of subliminal display of masculinity—I could smell it in the wind, all around me.

There was something about it that still unsettled me, so I rolled off the bench and stood up on the ground. The musky scent of sweat and hay, mixed with fresh rain, was getting closer. It sparked recognition in my mind. I knew I had smelled it before.

“Mmm, he’s coming for you,” a voice said. “Better get ready.”

To my left I found the source of the remark: a mare who was the spitting image of myself. For some reason, her coat and mane colors were reversed. The pink highlights at the roots of my hair had been replaced by larger cyan highlights throughout her dirty-blonde hair. Her coat was now that light shade of pink.

“Who are you?” I asked.

She giggled and batted her eyelashes. “Little ol’ me? Isn’t it obvious?” She pointed to her blank flank with the tip of her wing. “Only pony without a cutie mark is you, because you’re ignoring who you really are.”

“If you were me, you’d be a stallion.”

“Are you really that dense?” She circled around me, running her primaries along my sides. “I’m you, the real you. I’ve come to remind you what you really are.”

The fragrance was getting much stronger, stirring something inside me. “You mean a human?”

“Now you’re just pretending you don’t know what I mean. We both know what you really want.”

She ran a feather beneath my tail, tickling something I hadn’t felt since I shared a body with Dash. I leaned forward onto my forelegs, looking underneath my belly. Somehow I’d been turned back into a mare.

“How—”

My question was cut off as a heavy weight landed on my back. Soarin. I finally recognized that smell, the stallion from that fateful night and longtime object of Dash’s desire.

“Stop!” I whimpered. As he climbed onto my back I wanted to resist, and scream, but all I could think about was how strong his muscles were, and how he had set six flight records. My mind clouded as if it was full of Dash’s memories and not my own.

I heard the other mare giggling beside me as I surrendered to the stallion. “See? That wasn’t so hard!”


Meowing noises slowly brought me out of my fitful sleep. My cat sat on the nearby dresser, watching as I kicked the sheets around in an attempt to escape my dream.

I calmed down as I lay there, a little sweaty and sticky but otherwise unharmed. This was the first time since I had been given a new body that I felt like I had relapsed. For a few minutes in the dream, I had begun to think like Dash again. What made it worse was how easy and natural it had felt.

Bagheera jumped off his perch and ran downstairs, chasing after some imaginary prey. At least one of us was feeling normal. Still, I was very glad to have at least one familiar face from Earth, even if he wasn’t much of a conversationalist.

Some sunlight was pouring around the edges of the blinds and I figured it was about time to get out of bed. To be honest, I’m surprised Dash hadn’t woken me up at the crack of dawn. She had promised to teach me to fly like “I wasn’t a brick with wings”. I was probably late for our practice, but I didn’t regret the extra sleep.

I headed to the bathroom and cleaned myself up, brushing my teeth and running a comb through my mane. The last couple days had been stressful, and I’d spent most of them in my home. Applejack had been kind enough to bring by some fresh produce for me to eat.

Rarity’s flight suit waited in my closet, and I looked it over suspiciously. The zipper ran from the neck to the crotch, and it looked more like some flesh-eating monster than a practical garment.

I guess the only way to learn is to put it on.

My right foreleg was first into the suit, which had the odd stretch and feel of spandex, but felt a bit tougher and far more durable.

I Wonder if I’ll look as good as Soarin; the way his suit brings out his muscles is amazing.

I shuddered, scolding myself mentally for going back to that line of thought. It took some fidgeting to figure out how to get the suit straightened out over my back until I put my right hindleg in.

The outfit was technically half on, and after a few failed attempts that ended up with me tumbling to the floor, I managed to get my left legs in. As soon as I did, everything seemed to slide into place. My wings had come out the slits in the side, and the zipper was all that remained.

Not recalling I had a handy pair of wings, I opted to roll onto my back to free my hooves to use the zipper. It made little noise as it glided along the teeth, closing up the outfit.

Looking in my nearby mirror revealed a stallion in a flight suit that shifted colors subtly as viewed. I wiggled around, getting used to the feel of the fabric, then headed out onto my balcony.

Two birds flew by, drawing my gaze to the neighbor’s bird feeder. She was watering plants and gave me a wave, which I returned. If I wanted to do some bird watching, there was a padded beach-chair on my balcony. It would’ve made a good place to nap in the sun.

I felt something in the air, like a twitch in my wings. My body ducked, acting on the information it had received. Dash flew by at breakneck speeds a second later. She had tried explaining to me how a pegasus can feel wind currents, barometric pressure, and sense precipitation. I had to write most of that off, as my “weather sense” was nowhere near that developed.

Luckily, a pony hurtling at you is pretty easy to sense as long as your wings aren’t covered. It seems evolution didn’t want pegasi flying into each other in mid-air all the time.

“Yo, Dawn, what gives? I could be taking a nap right now,” Dash scolded from my roof. “I thought your house would at least be on fire for you to be so late.”

Shrugging, I flapped my wings and hovered. “I ran out of matches, and just couldn’t get the curtains to catch fire. They must have been OSHA approved, fire retardant.”

“Say what now?” Dash pondered.

The wind felt a bit uneven, as if my wings had gaps or flaws in them preventing the wind from giving me enough lift. Granted, you can always beat the air into submission to fly, but her goal was to teach me to peacefully fly through it. When you’re not fighting the air, you save a lot of energy.

Dash groaned. “Look at you, like a colt fresh out of flight camp. How long did you spend preening your feathers this morning?”

“Preening?” I ask.

Her face vanished behind her hooves. “Ugh, how did you go a whole week without getting us killed?”

“Easy, I spent a lot of time with this really awesome mare who helped me out.” Dash looked at me and smiled, nearly blushing. “Her name is Fluttershy. Remind me later, and I’ll introduce you two sometime.”

She scoffed, and flew down to my balcony. “Alright, mister. Time to teach you a lesson.”

I landed in front of her. “The safeword is banana.”

Her eyelid twitched. “Turn around.”

“Go easy on me.”

“Damn, we’re just preening!” she snapped. Her tone wasn’t as playful as it usually was.

I turned around and sat down, lowering my ears to my head. “Hey, I’m sorry. Everything going okay?”

“Yeah, it’s fine.” She sighed, taking a deep breath to calm down. “I wasn’t sure what to tell Soarin when he asked about you is all. Lift your wing.”

I lifted my wing up in the air, spreading my feathers. “Why not just say family and leave it at that?”

“I suppose, but rumors are rumors and he’s heard plenty about us; rumors I’d like to stop making sound real. Now, preening isn’t just about straightening and aligning feathers. Natural oils in our saliva waterproofs them and helps prevent damage.”

She gently bit down on one of my larger primaries, sending a tingling sensation down my wing. The entire appendage was more sensitive than a leg, having been built to detect subtle differences in airflow over the leading edge.

I watched how she tugged at the feather, sliding it between the two nearby ones. “Then you’ve got to repeat. Start with primaries; they generate most of the lift and control. Do your secondaries after, or you’ll have poor dexterity when you’ve gotta dodge something unexpected.”

Dash straightened a few other primaries before beginning on the secondaries. Each feather felt like a separate finger being manipulated. The sensations were bordering on arousal. For the first time, I was actually thankful for Dash’s ‘gift’ under my sink. Between it, and the flight suit, I was able to control my erection. My wings were a different story.

“Tertiaries are always last, they’re small and only need to be perfectly preened if you’re gonna pull a stunt or two. Otherwise, they only exist to protect the larger, more important feathers.” Dash chuckled softly as my wings had spread wide open. “Well, that certainly makes this easier. No doubt, you’ve noticed this before. When a stallion or mare is attracted to another, they display their plumage to prove their worth.”

I nodded. “Yeah, wingboners. I’ve heard of them.”

Dash scoffed, yanking one of the tertiaries out. I yelped in pain. “Broken feathers have to be plucked. If you see one that’s full of blood, that’s a growing feather. Don’t pull one of those, and if you do, put pressure on it and make sure you let Doctor Stables know. As for ‘wing boners’, that’s the vulgar way of putting it. They’re not ‘rigid’ so much as your biological drive is trying to impress somepony.”

“What’s so important about blood feathers then?” She nudged my other wing and I opened it up for her to preen.

“I’m teaching a foal,” she whispered softly. “Blood feathers are a growing feather. You only have eleven primaries, and each one molts and regrows about every two months. If you break or have to pluck one, that’s two months with ten percent less lift.”

As if to prove some sadistic point, she plucked a primary right out of my wing. “Gah! What the hay?”

Dash spit it out, revealing a broken primary. “That was your fifth primary, or P5. A broken feather is worthless, but look here.” She nudged my wing in front of me. “This is a blood feather, P4.” In front of me was a feather with a bright red vein running through the shaft. “After they’re about half-grown the next one grows in. You’re lucky, that broken feather will start regrowing within a week. You lose this blood feather, and it’d be a full two months.”

“Wow, I never realized there was so much to wings. Actually, I kinda figured we just used some kinda magic to fly.”

“Hah! Magic is for eggheads. We fly with nothing but our wits and some paper-thin feathers ‘cuz we’re badass,” Dash cheered.

“You sure are enthusiastic, I’ll give you that.” I angled my wing back as she began preening again.

“The larger ones are six and seven,” Dash explained. She preened out the longest feathers on my wings. “You can use them almost like a finger to manipulate things, but don’t get carried away. They’re fragile and can’t support much weight. Yeah, you could eat hay fries with them, but try to lift a cup and you’ll snap them.”

Dash seemed to be finishing up, but one of the feathers seemed to have gotten stuck. “You got it?” I asked.

“Yep, just hold still and stop fidgeting. Just because you can move each primary individually doesn’t mean you should.”

I chuckled. “You mean like this?” I wiggled the muscles in my wings, scattering the neatly-preened feathers back into disarray.

“Stop that! I worked hard!” She put her forelegs on my back and pinned me to the ground. “Now hold still while I fix it again!”

Dash resumed her work getting me ready for our flight lesson. “Yes, ma’am—”

“Dash?” Soarin landed on my balcony, shooting me a nasty look. “Is this the Dawn I’ve heard so much about?”

She stepped off my back, allowing me to stand back up. “Yes, Soarin, it is.”

“I’m Dawn,” I offered him a hoof. “Nice to meet you.”

He stared at it as if it would bite him, before finally giving it a hoof bump. “You forgot about lunch, Dash, though I think I see why.” He glared at me again, making me a bit uncomfortable.

“Oh crap, I totally forgot! Dawn, can I use your restroom?” Dash asked.

“Yeah, go ahead.” I watched her run inside and heard Soarin walking up to me.

“Listen, Dawn.” He waited until I’d turned back to face him. “Don’t think just because there aren’t many stallions around that you can swoop in on another stallion’s mare. There’s plenty of mares in the town.”

I flapped my wings so I could put my forelegs up in surrender. “Hey, buddy, you’re getting this all wrong. Dash and I are just friends.”

“I hope so. Mares go on and on about being nice and friendship, but if I find out these rumors I’m hearing about you two are true, there will be nothing friendly about my reaction.” Soarin gave me a large happy smile when he saw Dash returning. “It was nice to meet you!”

Dash trot out of the bedroom to join us. “Whew, glad you two got along. I’m sorry, Dawn, but you’ll have to show up on time if you want a flight lesson tomorrow. Oh, and let the restroom air out.”

She flew up into the air, giving Soarin time to smirk and shoot me one last glance. He turned and flew off. “Hey, Dash, race you to the restaurant.”

And like that, they vanished into the distance.


After Dash left I went back inside and tried to do a little reading. No matter how hard I tried I just couldn’t get into the Daring Do book I had been given. There was always the town marketplace, or visiting a friend, but part of me just wanted to mope around for a bit.

There was a knock at my door and I flew over to open it. My wings definitely sliced through the air better now that they’d been preened, as opposed to bluntly beating through it.

Opening the door revealed a very happy pony. “Hey, Pinkie, how are you doing?”

“Good, but how about you? I got a knee pinch and a tail waggle which usually means someone decided to be mopey,” Pinkie explained.

“If that was a lucky guess, and not some freaky sixth sense, you can come in.”

“Okie dokie lokie! But what if it was half guess—half Pinkie sense, and half wanting to see my bestest new friend Dawn?”

I watched her trot into the house and set down her saddlebags. She’d packed them full of what I could only hope were cupcakes. Pinkie always oozed optimism and had a mane that looked as bouncy as curly. If she had forgotten the cupcakes, she’d still find a way to cheer me up.

“You realize that’s too many halves?” I deadpanned.

“So,” she began, ignoring my remark. “You haven’t told me if it’s okay to throw you a surprise party yet! I’ve got a really big one planned, but Dash keeps on saying it’ll spook you or something and I said ‘no way!’ You do want a party, right?”

“Yeah.” I took a seat on my sofa and watched as she got onto a nearby chair. “Could we have it somewhere other than my house, though? I hate cleaning up after parties.”

Pinkie gasped, offended. “What?! I would never make the guest of honor clean up after their own party!”

“Oh. . . well, your parties are already twenty percent cooler than any I had on Earth.”

Wait, where did I hear that before?

“Haha, well, there is no party like a Pinkie party! So it’s okay?”

“Sure, you have my permission to plan a surprise party and scare me to death when I least expect it.”

“Then I’ll have to look death in the face and have a staring contest, until he laughs, so I can get you back.”

Chuckling, I walked over and gave her a hug. “Pinkie, never change.” I was already feeling much better about my day.

“Why would I change? I’m not wearing any clothes.”

I let her go and took a step back. “I just mean, I really needed a laugh, Pinkie.”

“Hey, it’s why I’m here. Ponies may think I’m all fun and childish games, but I really care about making sure nopony is sad. Parties are just a magical mcguffin that always works, no matter what!”

Pinkie got up and pulled two boxes out of her saddlebags, setting them in my kitchen. “Cupcakes?” I inquired.

“Yep, my work here is done. Only one last thing.” She trotted in the room and looked me in the eye. “You need to go outside more, mister. Why don’t you go hang out with Dash? You seem to enjoy that.”

“Oh.” I frowned. “I can’t. She’s on a date with Soarin.”

“I see.” Upon glancing up at her, I was shocked she had a magnifying glass out and seemed to be intently studying my face. “Well, then we’ll just have to find you a date. Then everypony will be happy!”

“It doesn’t work like that, Pinkie.” I gently lowered her hoof to get the magnifying glass out of the way. “You don’t just go date somepony because you’re sad.”

“If you don’t want to, why not hang out with somepony else? You still haven’t tried apple bucking, and Rarity would probably love to use you to design new fashion wear for stallions. Or. . .” Pinkie stepped forward until she was inches from my muzzle. “Why don’t you go have fun with Fluttershy? A little birdie told me that you had a thing for her while you were inside Dash. Don’t you wanna ask her on a date?”

There was something in the way she spoke that built my confidence up. I had, in fact, been attracted to Fluttershy. She was, and still is, a beautiful mare. She had an urge to nurture me when I was stuck inside Dash, even before the others had gotten to know me.

“Yeah, you know what? I think I will. A little tea and inviting her out to dinner can’t hurt,” I replied. “Thanks, I’ll head over there. But first, let’s try those cupcakes.”


Fluttershy’s house was easy to locate as long as you followed the edge of the Everfree forest out of town. She had a large enough yard to house dozens of families of animals.

The trail leading to her cottage passed by several burrows, and I spotted everything from groundhogs to rabbits and snakes. Some of the trees were nearly thirty feet taller than me and had nests on every branch.

I also spotted a large den, more of a shallow cave really, with a grizzly bear inside of it. My first instinct was to take flight, but the bear smiled and waved back at me. Apparently not everything with sharp teeth wants to take a bite out of you in Equestria.

Asking Fluttershy out on a date had seemed like a great idea, but I was already getting nervous. I figured flowers would be a little too cheesy; after all, I was just asking if she’d like to go to dinner. Now that I was on her front porch, I sorta felt like an ass for not getting any. There were some daisies planted in her planter. I could give her one of those, but then I’d be giving her a flower picked out of her own garden!

The door opened quietly and Fluttershy peaked her head out. “Um, Dawn? You’ve been standing on my porch staring at my flowers for a while now. Are you okay?”

“Huh?” I glanced back at her, then at the flowers. “Yeah, of course! They just look… tasty! Yeah, that’s it…”

“Oh.” Fluttershy giggled, picking one up for me. “Here, they are quite tasty.”

“No thanks, everypony knows you don’t eat flowers. Vegetables, maybe.”

“Dawn, you’re a pony now and ponies love to nibble on flowers. Trust me.”

“Well, anything for a cute mare.” I grabbed the flower, biting half the petals off and chewing them. True to her word, this flower did taste amazing. It wasn’t quite a fruity taste, and it definitely didn’t taste like vegetables. It was sweet with a slight tang, dry but not brittle. Before I knew it, I’d bitten the flower off the stem and finished it all.

“See?” Fluttershy smiled, her wide eyes staring at me in a soothing way.

“Thanks, that was really good.” I smiled, trying to think of some witty pickup line.

“Care to come in? I could get some tea.”

“That’d be great.” I followed her inside and made my way over to the couch.

No sooner do I sit down, Angel jumped onto the table thumping his foot. He stared at me, glancing down at my groin and shaking his head.

Wait, is a rabbit seriously trying to cock-block me?

“Go away, shoo!” I bat a hoof at Angel, who dodged it with a single hop.

He laughed at me, making a soft squeak and facepalming. Angel gestured with his arms, trying to convey something to me. For a moment, he almost looked sad instead of angry.

“I don’t play charades, sorry.” I smiled at him and noticed Fluttershy coming back in.

She set the teacups down and sat down across the table in her recliner. After tasting her tea, she brushed Angel off the table who looked quite upset to be pushed aside. “Dawn, what’s on your mind?”

Taking a drink of herbal tea only bought me so much time before I was left right back where I started. When I looked at Fluttershy’s eyes it seemed like I didn’t have a worry in the world. She might have been the only one of the ponies who truly treated me no different than any other pony. Her kindness broke through to me when I felt isolated and alone.

“Well, I got to thinking today that I, uh… don’t want to be alone, and stuck in my house all the time.” I glanced at her cutie mark and suddenly felt butterflies in my stomach. Asking someone out was very different than making crude sex jokes with Dash, and being here with Fluttershy was nerve-wracking.

“That’s good advice. You’re welcome to come visit me anytime.”

“Yeah, I’d like to do more than visit. . . Would you like to go get dinner?” I spit the question out, as if it were hot tea I expected to burn me.

“Hmm, I suppose I could eat out tonight.” She glanced around, surveying to ensure all the pets have been given supper. “I’ve already fed the animals.”

“Awesome, it’s a date!”

Fluttershy glanced up at me, her eyes widening and the first hints of a frown forming. “Oh my. . . “

I gulped. “Um, Fluttershy?” My wings twitched nervously as my legs began to feel rubbery. No doubt my body was preparing to get crushed, the only mare other than Dash I was this close to was rejecting me.

“It’s, um. . . a long story, but I’m afraid we can’t date. We can still be friends, though!” Fluttershy looked around the room for an exit. At least she was as uncomfortable as I was.

“Friends.” There was a speech I’d heard before. “Thanks, but I’m not really hungry so I’ll just head home.” I got off the couch and headed towards the door.

She must have seen past my smile, penetrating my facade. A moment later, she stepped in front of me, now in full nurture mode. “Dawn, sit down.” Her firm, gentle voice made it clear I should do it, without coming off as an order.

“Okay.” After reversing course, I reached the couch and sat down. I poked it with a hoof, noticing how fluffy the red cushion was.

“Dawn, there’s something I don’t tell too many ponies. I really don’t want to hurt you, so I’ll trust you with this.” Fluttershy draped a wing around me. She had climbed onto the couch silently and light as a feather to sit beside me.

“Yes, I’ll keep a secret.” I leaned into her side, enjoying the closeness.

“I thought you knew, since you spent all that time inside Dash. The reason why things get awkward between us occasionally, why she’s so protective of me, why I haven’t gone out on any dates with a handsome stallion like you. . .”

I leaned away to give me room to look at her, my curiosity piqued.

“You see, Dawn, I’m. . . a fillyfooler.” Fluttershy smiled, running a hoof across my shoulder.

“Oh.” It definitely softened the blow, but still left me feeling a bit dejected. A jealous part of me, upset at Fluttershy’s rejection, wished I’d never helped Dash get together with Soarin. Then I’d be able to pursue a relationship with her. Unless. . . “Wait, is Dash a fillyfooler too? But she and Soarin. . .”

She squeaked and hid behind her mane. “Oh no! Dash is a perfectly normal mare, not like me.”

“Wait, don’t talk like that. You’re perfectly normal, and drop-dead gorgeous. Why would you be afraid to fall in love with another mare?”

Her cheeks turned pink. “It’s my fault, though. At flight camp, Dash and I were just kids. I had a crush on her and talked her into making out with me. We finally agreed it’d be a good way to see if we had something more. Unfortunately, the other fillies and colts found out.”

“Oh no, so they picked on you?”

“Worse. It turns out Dash didn’t enjoy kissing me. She liked me as a friend, but even to a little filly I could tell that what she felt when we kissed was much different than what I did. Dash didn’t share my feelings, but everypony in school called her the fillyfooler. Just because she has a rainbow mane, everypony picked on her when I was the one who liked fillies!”

Fluttershy sniffled as she began to cry. I reached under her wings and pulled her to my side. “Hey, those fillies were idiots. Dash is still your best friend, trust me. She cares a great deal about you. Yeah, she’s not a lover but she views you like a sister. Even though things didn’t work out, you still became the kindest mare I’ve ever met. If you ever doubt you’re beautiful, know that when I see your flanks I imagine they’re softer than a cloud. There. I said it.”

Her sobs were interrupted by soft laughter as she thought about my joke. “I—you really found me that attractive, that you’d want to date me?”

“Of course! And if I knew any other mares I’d totally try and get you a date or something. Yeah, I’m bummed we can’t date but I still consider you and Dash my closest friends. You’re the only two ponies that really get me.”

Fluttershy hugged me tighter. “Thanks, Dawn. Here I wanted to comfort you for rejecting your date, and you ended up comforting me.”

“That’s what friends are for,” I replied.

“So. . . you still want to get a bite to eat, as friends?”

“I have a better idea. Why don’t I give you a massage, as friends? You did give me quite a belly rub on my first night in Equestria. I feel like I should return the favor.”

She climbed out from under my wing and laid down on the sofa. “Okay, but you’ve done this before, right?”

“Pfft, of course! Sure, I’ve got fewer fingers and toes, but it can’t be that different.”

I reached below her wings and applied pressure, rubbing my hooves into the muscle. Fluttershy immediately let out a yelp of pain.

“Stop! No, not like that.” She got up and waved a hoof in a circle. “Turn around and lay down. I’ll teach you how to give a massage with hooves. That does mean you will owe me two massages, however.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I joked. I turned around and quickly laid down on the soft couch. My body sank a few inches into the cushions and I felt her hooves begin to trace one of the muscles in my back.


Author's Note:

Bonus points to Pinklestia for the idea of Dawn's feminine side appearing in a dream.