Salad and Vignette

“What was my time?” Rainbow Dash asked herself.

With panting breath, she flew back to the automatic stopwatch setting on the cloud.

“One minute, forty seconds,” it read.

“What!?” Dash’s feathers bristled at the reading. “That’s a one-second loss from last week!”

“No need to yell.” Discord said, appearing on the cloud next to her.

Dash glared at the chaos god, before deciding to ignore him. Taking out a notebook, she studied the number written in it. On the pages were columns of times, weight, and measurements; they told a story she didn’t like. “This sucks. I just can’t get over this plateau. I can’t gain any more muscle, and my stamina isn’t getting better either.”

“Is there any way I could help?” Discord asked.

Dash sighed, letting the notebook fall to the cloud. “Sure, make me a stallion, so I can gain muscle easier.”

“Well if that’s all.” Discord snapped his fingers, and Rainbow Dash was consumed in a puff of smoke. The air cleared and something different stood where Dash had been. It looked very similar, but the pony’s features were decidedly masculine.

The stallion sat on his haunches, looking at his own body in disbelief. “Whoa. What did you do?”

“Exactly what you asked.” Discord said, holding up his paw to snap the spell away.
“If you don’t like it, I can change you back.”

“NO!” Dash shouted, darting forward to clasp the claw between his hooves. “Please don’t”

“Are you sure?” Discord asked.

Dash nodded his head. “Very.”

Smiling at a job well done, and a friend helped, Discord patted the stallion on the back. “Glad to help, but I must be off. Winter Wrap-up left Fluttershy swamped with chores. I promised I’d help her.” With a crack of magic, Discord was gone.

Dash laughed. Looking over her new body, she marveled at the frame, the muscle tone. She could feel the untapped potential. Standing, she tried to guess her new height. With nothing to compare herself to, it was hard to tell if she was any taller. She was pretty sure she was, but only by a little. Shifting her wings, she spread to wide see what change was there.

“Geez!” Dash gasped at the sight of her own wings. They were bit longer, but her wing’s new width was impressive.

Flexing her broad, powerful wings, she lifted into the air: everything felt familiar. A devil’s grin spread across her face, and with a blur she launched herself into the skies above ponyville.

An hour later, and Dash was satisfied she had pushed her male form to its absolute limits. Every muscled burned in that delicious way that told her she would be sore in the morning. Going into an easy glide, Dash let her pulse slow, and the wind cool her.

If you had asked her the day before, she would have said being a male would feel incredibly strange, but it didn’t. Other than the rather-different sensation in what the wind between her legs felt like, there was very little difference. Tonight, in the privacy of her own home, she would see just what things looked like down there now, but that could wait. Right now, she wanted to show her friend her new body.

A low rumbled Dash’s gut, and a sharp pain told she needed to eat too.

Banking to one side, Dash began her descent.

• - - x - - -

Twilight hummed a quiet tune to herself as she mulled threw her castle’s library. It was shaping up nicely with all the book she had acquired for it. She smiled: in a few years, Ponyville would have the best library in Equestria.

“Hey Twilight, you want to go eat?” a stallion’s voice called. It sounded familiar, but she couldn’t place it.

Confusion wrinkling her brow, Twilight walked towards the voice. Coming out of the library’s stacks, she found Rainbow Dash’s father standing in the doorway.

“Oh! Hi Bifröst.” Twilight’s scowl turned into an honest smile. “Sure, I’ll keep you company.”

“What!?” the stallion said, before bellowing into laughter. It was only then that Twilight noticed the stallion was far too young to be Bifröst. “ No, Twilight, it’s me, Rainbow Dash.”

"Dash?!" Twilight trotted clover to look at her friend. "What happened? Are you okay?"

"Never better." Dash waved a hoof, dismissing Twilight's concerns. "Discord turned me into a stallion."

"He did what!?" Twilight's feathers bristled. "Don't worry," she said, patting Dash on the withers. "Celesta can change you back. I'll let her know we're coming."

Twilight turned to fetch a quill, but Rainbow's hoof stopped her. The male voice laughed with a soothing warmth.

"No need Twi. It was my idea. I want to stay like this."

Confusion twisted Twilight's face. "Why?"

Dash kicked up onto her hind legs, and unfurled her wings with pride. "Look at this frame, Twilight,” Dash said, flapping her wings in slow even beats to keep herself balanced upright. “It's no where near it's full potential. Do you have any idea what I can do with a stallion's metabolism; they gain muscle way easier than mares."

Twilight tried to look any direction but Rainbow Dash’s, but her eyes couldn't break free from posturing stallion. Some primal instinct sent her wings to fluttering against her will.

“Dash, some modesty!” she finally scolded, regaining herself and looking away.

“Oops, sorry.” With a clack, Dash landed back on all fours, and tucked her wings away. “Guess there’ll be a few things to get used to.”

Walking over to a cushion, Twilight sat down before looking back at her friend. “So, you’re really changing your sex, without so much as batting an eye?”

Dash scoffed at the question. “Of course I am. I mean, other than some change in plumbing, I’m only gaining from this. I’m going to be stronger and faster than I ever could have been as a mare. Besides, if I decide I hate it, I’ll just get Discord or Celestia to change me back.”

“Umm... That’s kinda the point,” Twilight said, watching Dash pace the room. “It’s only reversible for a while, then you’re stuck; no going back. Only alicorns and Discord have enough power to cast the spell, and it takes increasingly more power to undo it over time.”

“So, I got what, a year?”

Twilight shook her head. “It’s nothing formal like that. My guess would be a month, though I could probably figure out a way to give you two.”

Dash paused, and again examined herself. Her chest was so much broader than she was used to, but only her previous muscle mass was on it. “I just can’t give up this potential. Not this fast anyway...” Again her stomach growled, reminding her of why she was her to begin with. “Now how about that lunch?”