First Date
Richard had not planned very far beyond her first sip of the potion. She knew the way she wanted this night to end, though she was a little fuzzy on some of the details. She'd known she wanted a new marefriend by morning, who she could show off to Cody. Nothing else really mattered, so long as Richard could accomplish that goal.
And for a good several hours, it looked like that was exactly where the night would end up. Once they'd had their meal, Amy joined her for a few rounds of laser tag, and didn't even complain the way she did when Cody tried to get her to play. But they didn't drink—Amy apparently had a better place in mind. "You'll like it," she insisted, leading Richard away from Alexandria's main thoroughfare and down a side street. Richard grew increasingly nervous as she walked—it wasn't that much happened to ponies in Alexandria, there was almost no crime. But if something bad was going to happen, it would be just like fate to make it happen when she was most vulnerable.
"Don't be such a baby!" Amy teased, as they finally reached their destination. A barn just on the edge of town, looking deserted from the outside. Nopony lived out this way, so there was nopony to hear it. Or to see the bright lights slipping through the holes in the building. "They won't card us here. I know the bartender."
"I thought only the arcade was open on weekdays," Richard squeaked. "Why haven't I heard about this place?"
They made their way around to the back, where there weren't any more exterior markings of what must go on inside, but at least there was a smaller door. One that would feel less crazy than just opening up the gigantic, rotting barn doors.
"Because it's a place for misfits," Amy answered, lowering her head. "For people who aren't ponies, or... people who aren't into the same relationships as everyone else." She nudged Richard from one side, warmer and more affectionate than she had ever felt from Amy. "You wouldn't have liked it before. Now you're a freak too, so you're invited." She opened the door.
Whoever had set up this place had taken great pains to make it not look like an old barn inside. There were new floors, flashing lights, and no dirt anywhere. The air was thick with the musky smells of ponies who hadn't washed in a long time, and the air was smoky with all kinds of different things. Loud pre-Event music played, poppy beats Richard never would've listened to on her own. But somewhere like this, with lights that flashed with the music and bodies crowded on the floor, maybe they wouldn't be so bad.
Amy was right about the sort of ponies who came here. Lots of not-ponies were dancing on the floor. Changelings out of their disguises, griffons, and the weirder ponies. Ponies like Amy, who ignored what was sensible and logical and were interested in the wrong sex. It doesn't count for me. I'm really a stallion under all this magic. I'm not weird.
They made their way over to the bar, which was high enough that there was no place to sit. Richard's mouth fell open as she saw the pony working behind it—the same pony who had sold her potion earlier today. Only Alex had braided one half of her mane, while spiking the other half with crazy gel. Her clothes as well were as crazy as everypony else's here, bright colored fabric with random, sensual openings. "What..." she stammered, even as Amy muttered their drink order. "What are you doing here? Aren't you grown up?"
Alex looked her over, recognition coming to her face far quicker than it had for Cody. She didn't even look surprised. "Oliver's working all night again. He has fun with his job, I have fun with mine." She tossed a few iced glasses from under the table, flipping them through the air with such precision Richard almost thought she was a unicorn. She shook up something cold and poured it over ice, then added a layer of bright green over the cream and passed the glasses over. "Try this. But don't have more than one."
"Thanks!" They took their glasses over to a quiet corner, with standing-height tables looking out at the dance floor. From the way the room was arranged, it was quite clear what ponies were expected to be doing here. There wasn't very much room for observers.
"It's something different every time," Amy said, sipping on her glass. "Always good, though. I don't know where they get all their flavors. It isn't brewed in Alexandria."
Richard took a sip, eyes widening. She'd never have admitted it, but the sweetness of mixed drinks like these always seemed better than the harsh burning of more masculine drinks. She only pretended to like those when Cody was around. "You come here all the time?" she asked. "Without getting a girlfriend?"
"Not yet," Amy admitted, setting her glass down. "Most ponies are too old. We haven't grown up enough yet, so adults get nervous." She glanced briefly over her shoulder at the way they'd come, then scooted closer to Richard. "Be careful with how much you drink. Less mass means—"
"I know." She levitated the empty glass down onto the table. "I'm not scared. I'm with you! That means I'll be safe."
Amy's eyes widened. "I had no idea you were like this, Rich. All these years, you've been kind of a jerk. I didn't know you could be..." She reached out, running her wing along Richard's side. "So soft. How are you the same person?"
She shrugged, leaning closer to Amy and enjoying the sensation. She'd always wanted to be close to somepony, though she hadn't imagined Amy would be the one. Not until their conversation, a few days earlier. When Amy gave Cody her ultimatum. "I dunno. Guess you just didn't know me as well as you thought."
"Guess so," she said, still a little disbelieving. "I've never seen you dance. Can you dance? We should go out there." She didn't wait for an answer, grabbing Richard by her dress and yanking her away from the table, towards the floor. Before Richard would've just laughed if Amy tried to force her to go anywhere, but now she was shorter and smaller and apparently light enough to get dragged across the room.
"I don't know how!" she argued, though she wasn't really struggling that hard. The music and the smells and the alcohol were already starting to play tricks with her mind. Maybe she wanted to dance a little after all. If it meant a chance to get closer to her new marefriend... "I don't know how this body is supposed to move!"
"Like this!" Amy exclaimed, before proceeding to show her.
It was more fun than she would've thought. More fun than she'd had in months, really. She could only imagine what her mom might've said, if she had known where Richard had gone and what she'd been doing. But Moriah wouldn't find out—there were only two ponies in this place she recognized, obviously that meant that none of them recognized her either. Alex isn't close with Mom anymore, she won't tell. And Amy… Amy was her marefriend now, she'd practically admitted as much! She wouldn't tell if Richard asked her not to.
The night didn't end with dancing. That was, as Richard had expected, only how it began. Things didn't go quite as far as Richard had been hoping, but in some ways, that was probably for the best anyway. She wasn't sure she wanted her first time to be in a body she completely hated and planned on getting rid of the next morning.
She did eventually fall asleep with Amy on the couch in her small apartment, surrounded by pre-Event artifacts.
That was also where she woke, when Amy brought in a few cups of coffee and offered her one.
"So, uh... now what?" Amy asked, shuffling nervously on her hooves as she watched Richard drink. "Have you thought about… maybe... not changing back?"
Richard set her glass down, completely drained in only a few minutes. She was still a little sluggish as she started to wake up, but that would change quickly enough. Coffee might be the only good thing humans had ever invented.
“I… I guess I didn’t,” she admitted, honestly. “When Cody chickened out, I didn’t know if this was gonna work. Poison joke does what you’re most scared of… that’s what my father told me… but how do you know what you’re scared of? I thought I knew, but it was really just a lie. You… can’t tell Cody I said that. I told him how sure I was, but… secretly, I half thought I was gonna turn into a cow or something.”
Amy shivered involuntarily. “That would’ve been less pretty. Also more dumb? Cows are dumb.”
“Anyway,” Richard continued. “I haven’t thought about what I would do when it was… over.” She sat up in bed, looking down at herself. She still felt disgusted by what she saw—but that reaction didn’t feel as authentic as the memories of her night. It was someone else’s fear, not really her own. Good thing the poison joke can’t change its mind.
Amy crawled back onto the couch, resting against her. Richard had been a little drunk when she got in, hadn’t really noticed… but now she did. Noticed how nice it felt to be held. Amy was taller than she was, and stronger too. Maybe one night hadn’t been long enough. “I have a suggestion.”
Hating the transformation was one strike against, but Amy was worth at least two in the other direction.
“If I stay…” Richard said, speaking slowly. “People will find out. They’ll think I’m weird! Or just crazy…”
Amy shrugged. “People do crazy things for love.”
“Couldn’t you do it?” she began, prying her way free of Amy and getting up. She began pacing back and forth in front of the couch—the coffee was hitting her stronger than usual. “Cloudy doesn’t care what you do, you’re not even living at home anymore. She wouldn’t care if you changed into a…” She trailed off, stopping in place and looking down at her hooves. “Oh.”
Amy giggled, watching her. “Yeah. That doesn’t really get us anywhere, does it? Unless you’re suddenly interested in stallions. I’d do it too, if… but I don’t think there’s any guarantee poison joke would do what we want.”
She shook her head vigorously, sticking out her tongue. “N-oh. No no no a thousand times no. I don’t know what my mom is thinking.”
Amy giggled again. “Don’t ask me. I asked Alex that same thing, and she can’t explain. I think every single one of them is lying. To themselves, or to me. I don’t know which.” She didn’t sound serious, but there was bitterness in her voice all the same.
“But if I do try to stay this way… my dad will just think I’m crazy, but Mom… she’ll kill me. Tear me apart with her own hooves. Stab my eyes out… something.”
“She wouldn’t,” she argued. “Moriah isn’t that bad. She just… went through more than most ponies. Besides… poison joke worked for you. Just give her some! Maybe her husband’s a little upset, but he might not even notice. Barely even leaves school to begin with.”
“She’s tried it,” Richard said. “Didn’t work. And maybe she wouldn’t kill me… but she might throw me out.”
"You could move in with me!" Amy suggested, gesturing around the apartment. "I mean, I know it's not much. But it's not like the rent costs that much. We just have to do maintenance work on the empty apartments on our floor. It'd take half as long if you helped me! Maybe even less, since you're so magical."
Richard looked away, blushing. “Maybe I’ll… see what happens. Pretend it was an accident, but… not ask for the antidote. Maybe that’ll work.”
“Yeah!” Amy began. Then she winced, looking down at her hooves. “Poor Cody. He’s gonna be heartbroken.”
“That’s the friendzone for you,” Richard said, grinning mischievously. Telling Cody about last night was something she was very much looking forward to. She was gonna take it nice and slow, maybe embellish the details. For once, I win.
“Shut up.” Amy pushed her with one of her wings. “Don’t go changing back into old Richard. You’ve gotta be nice about it.”
“Uh…” She looked up. “Okay, fine. I’ll be nice to him. But in exchange, you have to shower with me.”
This time Amy was the one to look thoughtful. Then she shrugged. “Why wouldn’t—” Then Richard kissed her. She probably figured it out after that.
* * *
They met Cody for lunch at the usual time, when he was off from work at the power plant. Cody was the only one with a “real” job, which also meant he was usually the one to pay for what they did. Well, he usually just bought Amy’s food, but this time he paid for all three of them, bringing over a huge container of hayfries along with their usual milkshakes and burgers.
Richard hadn’t felt hungry when she first woke up, but she felt hungry now, levitating the whole tray over to her mouth and lowering her head like she really had been changed into a cow and it was feeding time.
“Guess you two had a busy night,” Cody said from across the table. The only one sitting on that side. “What’d you do to her, Amy?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Amy said, expression flat.
Cody’s expression was almost worth the price of the embarrassment that flooded her at the implications. She might be pretty clueless sometimes, but she was no Joe. She could tell what Amy was implying.
But what did I expect? I didn’t have to do this.
“Well, uh…” He took a long sip from his milkshake. “That’s great, you two. I guess that means that you’re both…” He touched his front hooves together. “An item?”
“Yep.” Richard’s mouth was still full of food, so she couldn’t answer before Amy did. “Yep. Rich and I are… together. My first girlfriend. I think her’s too?”
“Yeah.” She finally finished chewing, straightening in her chair. “Mine too.”
“Alexandria will not fucking believe this,” he said, after a long pause. “Richard, of all people... I can’t believe it. I’m happy for you both, don’t get me wrong. But…”
“Don’t even start.” Richard cut him off. “I know what you’ll say. I don’t know how long I’m gonna stay. But Amy convinced me to try it. I don’t want you acting even a little bit different until we’re done.”
“Really?” Cody’s eyebrows went up, and he stuck out his hoof. “You owe me three chits for lunch.”
“Except that,” she corrected. “I will permit you to pay for my meals like a gentleman. But nothing else.”
Cody rolled his eyes, and Amy giggled. There was a long, confusing moment, while the two of them just looked at each other. Richard stared, trying to make sense of it—but there wasn’t any magic. No telepathy was hidden in their changing expressions. Even though it seemed like there should be.
“Well, I got you this.” Cody reached around and stuck his nose in his saddlebags, lifting a tightly folded bit of paper onto the table. It looked like maybe twenty pages, printed on yellowing pre-Event sheets. “I got it from my mom. It’s her early journal entries. The ones that, uh… talk about what you’re going through. She thought it might help.”
“Oh, thanks.” Richard levitated them over, though in reality she had no intention of even opening the bundle. She stopped when it was halfway there, holding it in the air between them. “Wait, you told Alex?”
Amy shoved her with her wing again. “Stupid, we saw her last night. She already knew.”
Cody rose to his hooves. There was something strange about his tone—something Richard had never heard from Cody before. She didn’t know what it was. Whatever he was feeling, Cody obviously wanted to leave. “It’s not my mom you have to worry about, Richard. It’s yours.”
He left.
Richard and Amy ate in awkward silence after that, though Richard did most of the eating. Amy didn’t seem to have much of an appetite.
“He’s right,” Amy said, after a long time. “When you go home… are you ready?”
“Nah.” She shook her head, grinning. “I figured it out. I just won’t go home. Cody can get my laptop… I don’t really care about anything else. I’ll just live with you, like you said. You’ve got everything I’d need… I can keep going to school, help you keep the place up…”
“Really?” Amy looked like Christmas had come early. “You mean that?”
“Yep.”
And so it was. Richard had Cody collect some of her stuff—a little more than just the laptop, but not that much more. Amy lived in a cheap apartment right across the street from the University, so she didn’t have to walk as far to class. Yeah, the apartment had less amenities than her parents’ massive mansion, but having fewer beds and showers was an advantage in her mind, not a detriment.
Aside from what they did together, living with Amy wasn’t all that different from living at home. Both Moriah and Amy were obsessive about humans, talking about them constantly. The biggest difference was that Amy didn’t wish she was one of them, she only liked reading about them.
It was an important difference.
The three days Richard spent with Amy were the best of her whole life. Then Moriah found out.
It didn’t happen in Amy’s apartment—that would’ve made things too easy. Maybe it might’ve ended differently if she’d been able to get away.
But she hadn’t been in the apartment, Rich had been at the store, getting ingredients for Amy to use to make their dinner (just because she was a mare now didn’t mean Rich didn’t have standards about her mate). By then, just about everypony in town had heard about her. She hadn’t changed her habits at all, still spent her time with the same ponies, and sat in her same seat in school. It had only been a matter of time.
Moriah cornered her in the back of the store, by the cooler. There were no other ponies around—few did their shopping a few minutes before the store closed. Richard had meant to do it earlier, right after school. But she’d been tired, and distracted, and that hadn’t worked out.
Then the lights went out. Well, the back lights did, along with the cooler. Moriah stepped out from the aisle leading around the corner to the rest of the store. Her horn already glowed from beneath the prosthetic.
“Hello Richard,” she said, her tone icy. “We have to talk.”
“Just Rich,” she muttered, backing up as her mother advanced. “I’m… Amy suggested I just go by Rich.”
“That’s interesting,” she said. “That’s really interesting.” There was no anger in her voice, no emotion of any kind on her face. She looked colder than Rich had ever seen her. “Did you really think I would allow this?”
“I don’t…” she began. “I’m not committing to anything. Just trying a few weeks with—”
“Yeah, I’m sure,” she said. “You’ve been manipulated, son. Everything about pony magic is a trick. You’re not the first one to be fooled by poison joke. There was a woman, ended up a shark… she got away. Right into the ocean, before we could cure her. Far as anyone knows, she’s still out there. Tricked into becoming a monster. Just like you.”
Rich’s flank touched the chilly wall of the cooler. Where was the owner of the store? Hadn’t Stockroom noticed the lights were going out? Rich thought about calling for help, but decided against it. Moriah was a powerful unicorn, with the most powerful unicorn in the world as her husband. She knew enough magic to level city blocks, prosthetic horn or none. What was some dumb earth pony going to do to stop her?
Moriah levitated a bottle out of her saddlebags. Rich recognized it at once as the potion she’d bought to cure this, back when she’d thought she would only stay this way one night. She removed the cork with her magic. “I’m going to save you, son,” she said. “There was no saving what those fucking horse monsters did to me. Only Joseph knows how, and he won’t teach me. But you? You I can save.” She kept getting closer.
Rich tried to push the bottle away, but her magic might as well have been a gnat. Moriah dispelled it without looking like it cost her a second’s concentration.
“I won’t drink it!” she protested, loud enough that she was sure ponies would hear. They had to! “You can’t make me.”
“Funny thing about this potion.” Moriah smiled at her, her first real emotion since walking into the store. It was the most terrifying thing Rich had ever seen. “I don’t have to.” She smashed the side of the bottle against a nearby shelf with such force the entire top half broke free. Then she brought the rest down in a violent jerk, pointing it at Rich.
She was completely soaked by the brownish sludge. She could feel its magic begin immediately, though she couldn’t identify it.
“I don’t blame you,” Moriah said. “You thought ahead, bought yourself this.” She dropped the empty bottle to the ground, letting it shatter. “Obviously this wasn’t meant to be permanent. I smoked pot when I was a teenager, can’t blame you for trying something forbidden. You’ll thank me once the damage wears off. And considering your friends were going to let you do this to yourself, maybe you’ll think about making some real ones.” She vanished with a faint flash of light, and the lights flickered to life.
Rich ran out back, past the edge of the store, and jumped in the lake as quickly as she could. Maybe if she could wash it off… but no, she hadn’t done it in time. An hour later, and the magic was reversed. And I can't get more Potion... I'm not afraid anymore. It won't work.
Richard floated in the lake alone and cried until it got dark.
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Wow, Moriah's an ass. Like, assault-charges awful.
Well... She's back to being #1 bitch of the early years.
Yes I'm counting Odium on that list.
Holy-
Damn Moriah. Way to reap the whirlwind.
Damnit excuse the laugage but I was hoping that Moriah would just be surprisingly accepting of the gender change.
Starscribble stop breaking my heart ;-;
Will this potentially get continued? Even if it doesn't I loved this ^^
8289701
I forget, was Moriah gender-bent? In any case, she's got about a metric fuckton of problems. I'm not surprised by her reaction at all.
Cody probably should've grabbed the antidote, too, considering Richard still wasn't certain he wanted it to be permanent.
Wow, I'm not sure who to hate more.
Moriah sounds like she had good reason to think Richard wasn't making a free-willed choice, but the whole confrontation still reads like something out of a horror story...
Damn, now I want to know how it ends. There's one more chapter, right?
Well fuck! This has been REALLY good, but also REALLY sad. This chapter got super dark T_T
I REALLY hope there's a happy ending for this...at least for Rich T_T
Poor Rich.
Can't get a lucky break, eh?
Love is the greatest poison, but also the greatest gift. Hopefully (s)he can stay like that...
Wow, if I was in that situation, I would tell my mother to forget she had a son, make piece with the girl, and make myself scarce. Assuming I managed to restrain a temper actually strong enough to incite violence.
I've never been close to that angry. I imagine rich would be closer.
8289952
Yes and no. Indications are she was transgender. FtM before the event but not "out" so she felt extremely cheated she didn't become a biological male. Doublely so because any transition she might have done as a human was not going to be possible in a primitive pony society.
I sort of want to see art of Alex in that nightclub get up. I just can’t picture her like that...
They do say parents have a tendency to project their issues onto their children, often passing said issues on. Creating a cycle of trauma
Dang i did not expect to get this many mixed feelings about this
On a completely different note: The shark pony got away? Aweso- oh wait i just remembered what the ocean becomes in the future in this world...
On an other note:
If i understand this correctly it did nothing for moriah, meaning they are literally living what they are most scared of. I suddenly cant find it in myself to be angry at their actions here anymore...
Bahaha! That's too funny. That is so like early Alex.