Tales from a Con

by Admiral Biscuit

REJECTED Dare Ya!

Dare Ya!

“Come on, everypony’s doing it,” Hoops says.

“Yeah.” Dumb-Bell flutters up, crossing his forelegs.

“You some kind of coward?” Score adds.

“No,” you say, your voice shaky. “But Mom says it’s dangerous to play around trains—”

“Mom.”

“Mommy’s boy.” Hoops slaps you with a hoof. “You do everything your Mommy tells you?”

“Does she do your homework for you?’

“Does she style your mane?”

“She must, that cut’s so out of style.” Score blows his forelock back.

“It’s just a penny or two, what’s gonna happen?”

Hoops puffs his chest out. “Guys, don’t be rude, that’s his lunch money.”

The three of them are the coolest ponies at flight camp, everypony knows that. Big and strong, good fliers. Hoops aced the obstacle course yesterday, and Score almost set the record on the race. He wasn’t more than ten seconds slower than the current record-holder.

You’re not so good at flying. You didn’t grow up in a cloudhouse and your opportunities to really practice were limited. Maybe you’re making good progress at flight camp, maybe you’re not—some days it feels good and other days it doesn’t.

“You work the fields like some mudpony to get your bits?” Hoops asks. “I bet your Mom’s a mudpony.”

“She’s not,” you mutter. Not that it matters to them, you can’t win a battle of wits with them.

You could fight them; that might earn you some cred at camp. But that’s been tried already, and the hapless colt who did got detention, while they got off scot free.

“You’re a terrible flier,” Dumb-Bell says. “I could fly the obstacle course with my eyes closed and do it faster than you.”

Prove it, you think. But he won’t, and it won’t matter anyway.

“I can see a train coming,” Score says. “Over there.” He points down the tracks, rather unnecessarily. Locomotives bellow out smoke which is always visible from the air; even if you can’t see the tracks, you know where they are.

“It’s miles away,” Hoops says. “So you’re not gonna get squished.”

“Not if you’re quick,” Dumb-Bell adds. “Maybe you’re not so quick, it’s a long way down and back up.”

“Whatever.” You wave a hoof at them and turn your attention back to your locker. Flying classes are fun, book classes aren’t as much fun. You’ve got both—and so do they. As snarky as they are, they struggle in the book classes. You’re not sure that Dumb-Bell even knows how to read; whenever the flight instructor writes something on the board he just watches with a vacant stare.

“Do it,” Hoops says. “We’ve all done it.”

“Real ponies do it,” Score adds. “Go on, put some coins on the railroad tracks.”

“Everypony’s doing it.”

Nopony’s doing it; you haven’t seen a single pegasus fly down, put some coins on the track, and then fly back up to watch the train run them over. And now that you think about it, how many friends do those three even have? Besides each other? Still, the counselor seem to respect them, as do the younger pegasi—if you did put some coins on the railroad tracks, would you become part of their group? Would Hoops teach you the secrets of the obstacle course? The trick to not smashing through a cloud ring?

Would Score give you some tips on fast flying? There’s a blue mare at camp who’s kind of a loser and kind of braggy and kind of cute and maybe—

---

[CHOICE]

>Do it, you coward (chaos)
>Stand your ground (hero)

---

[CHOICE A: Chaos]
“Fine, what’s the worst that could happen?” You check the progress of the smoke cloud again; the train’s still a ways off.

Those bits are your lunch money, but a few of the smaller-denomination coins can be risked without real consequence. No dessert for a day, it’d be worth it to get in with the in-crowd.

You rocket down, beelining towards the railroad tracks. Even though you know the train’s a ways off, it still makes you nervous. Mom said to never play near the tracks.

And never put anything on them.

You lay out the coins in a neat row and are back on your cloud before the train hits them.

You weren’t expecting much; coins are small and soft when you bite them; trains are big and heavy. You thought it would squish them, instead the locomotive rides over the coins and then falls off the track, all the cars behind it piling up into a mass of splinters and smoke.

You watch as the crew evacuates the locomotive, running towards safety. Just in time; the locomotive explodes in a cloud of steam and sparks. The three bullies are watching wide-eyed, until finally Hoops looks over at you. “Dude. That was awesome.”

“I can’t believe you did it,” Score adds.

“Best train wreck ever.”

---

[CHOICE B: Hero]
You slam your locker shut. “I don’t need you,” you tell them. “So go find somepony else to annoy. You think you’re hot stuff now, bullying everypony you can, but wait until you’re older and you can’t find a job. I know your kind, you think you’re better than everypony else and years from now you’ll still be the same jerks you’ve always been, working a dead-end job as assistant to the cloud wrangler.

“If you want coins squished on the tracks, fly down and do it yourselves. Go on, what are you afraid of?” You look at each of the trio in turn. “Detention? They gonna take away your pudding at dinner? This camp means nothing in the grand scheme of things. You’re bigger and faster than me but you’re not smarter . . . one day I’m gonna be your boss and you’d do well to remember that.”

“Big words for a little pony.” Hoops rump-checks you knocking you off balance. “Whatever, you aren’t worth our time. Go on, dream of sitting at a desk and ordering proper pegasi around.”

Your resolve falters, and then comes back. Rainbow doesn’t take any guff from the bullies, and if you want to impress her, you shouldn’t either.

Author's Note:

Also since someone mentioned it in the comments (on the previous story), putting a coin on the tracks won't derail a train. Most likely it'll squish it flat, maybe meld it into the railhead; there's also a chance it'll launch it off the tracks.

This is not a recommendation to put things on tracks; it's probably illegal to do so (besides just the fact that you're trespassing), and also trains are sometimes sneakier than you'd think and can squish you.