Taste of Change

Chap 3

I entered the restaurant; glad for the opportunity my new costume gave me. I looked around me and saw that there were some tables left. I was about to go to one of them when I saw a sign that said, “Please hold for a waiter.” in front of me. I mentally facepalmed and waited for a representative of the resto to lead me to my seat.

Before I could find a seat, however, Reginald and Mark entered the resto and stopped behind me. I turned my head to see that they were searching everywhere for me. I giggle in my head, finding it silly that the person they were searching for was right in front of them.

When the waiter finally came for me, Regi stopped him. “Mister, have you given a seat to a man about as tall as...” He looked around and decided to point me. “...this woman? He has short blond hair with pink tips and might look tired.” I looked at the waiter and saw his slightly annoyed expression.

“I don’t know who you are talking about, mister, but if it’s a joke, please show a little maturity and stop it right now.” He said while keeping his poker face. Still laughing in my head, I mentally examined what I could do about this situation. I decided to lead the joke to another level.

“Waiter, could you give us a table for three, please.” I said, trying to talk in a higher pitched voice to make it sound like I was a real girl. Surprisingly enough, I sounded exactly like a woman. The waiter nodded and motioned us to follow him. The men looked at me with confusion, but decided to follow me.

After giving us the menu and water glasses, I took my menu and started browsing through. Regi looked at Mark, shrugging, and both started to look at their menu. After deciding what I wanted, I placed the menu back on the table and placed my head in my hands.

“So, you’re searching for Anthony?” I said nonchalantly. Both of them dropped their menu and stared at me. “Yes, I know who he is. And he wanted me to tell you a message, but only after dinner. Just to tell you, he’s not coming right now, he had to do something else.” They both sighed.

“So... if we’re eating together, want to tell us more about you?” Mark asked. Regi whacked him behind his head, whispering something about ‘not a thing you ask a woman’. I nodded, smiling at what was happening.

“Well, my name is...” I was about to say something that looked like Anthony, maybe Anny, but a name kept flashing deep in my mind. “...Berry, you can call me Berry.” I said. They looked at each other and shrugged. They must think that it’s not my real name, and it’s not... well, I don’t even know anymore.

“So, where do you work, Berry?” Regi asked. This one was a tricky one. I was about to say another made up lie, but something caught me off guard. I closed my eyes and realized that I was having a flashback, but I didn’t know where it came from. Wait, this is the exact same thing that happened to me yesterday. I realized.

When I opened my eyes, I was looked at two other ponies. The first one had a yellow-orange coat and an orange mane and the other was light blue with a mane composed of two shades of pink. By their appearance and attire, I could see that they were both husband and wife and that they were chefs.

In their hooves were papers, which I recognize as my curriculum vitae. They were looking through the pages with an incredible speed. They had been bombarding me with questions for the past ten minutes and I was hoping they would hire me. After few seconds of quick looking, the placed the papers back on the table. They looked at each other and nodded.

“Berry?” I nodded, waiting impatiently for their answer. “Congratulations, you’re hired. Welcome to Sugar Cube Corner!” At the last word, I stood up and started jumping and screaming with joy. After one or two seconds, a totally pink pony started jumping with me. I shrugged it and calmed down, happy that I had the job as pastry chef.

I opened my eyes again, only to see both men waiting impatiently for my answer. I cleared my throat and, right when I was about to give them my answer, the waiter arrived to take our orders. I ordered cheese sticks with a good ol’ cheeseburger. They both took club sandwich with a side of fries.

“So, where do you work?” Regi asked again. I gave the menus to the server and looked at the men in front of me.

“I work in a pastry shop outside Muscatine, about 30 minutes away from here. I doubt that you have ever eaten there.” I said simply. It looked as if my simple answer was enough for both of them. An awkward silence later, the waiter arrived with my cheese sticks. I was so hungry that I decided to let my girl demeanor slip away and eat like a man.

I started chowing down the sticks like a madman...woman, surprising both men in front of me. It only took one minute for my plate to be empty. Regi was looking at me like I was a psycho and Mark was laughing his ass off.

“What’s wrong? I was hungry.” I said while cleaning my mouth with the napkin beside me. Mark patted Regi, inviting him to laugh. Regi just shrugged off what had happened and laughed a bit. I decided to join the laughter and, for 30 seconds, we all laughed.

The time between the entrance dish and the desert was normal, as normal as a transvestite playing a prank on two men can be. When I received my s’more, which surprised me; I didn’t know that they actually had those here, I removed a part of the marshmallow and looked at it.

“Mmmm. Marshmallow. Soft.” I said before throwing the thing in my mouth. Reginald looked at me in confusion. I smiled, seeing that they didn’t get the reference.

“Uhh, obviously...” Mark said to my statement. I shook my head.

“Let me quote the Blair Witch Project in peace.” I winked at Mark and, I swear to god, he blushed. This was when my mind finally came back to reality. I dropped my s’more and raised my head slowly to look at Reginald. I saw that him too was blushing.

I stood up and turned around in one violent movement. “I really got to go. You can keep the s’more.” I quickly said. When I started to walk away, Mark stopped me.

“Wait, no need to pay for your dinner, I have it covered.” He said while placing a piece of paper in my pocket.

“Thank you, Mark.” I started walking away while waving my hand. “See you one day, call Anthony to get my phone number.” I said before running away outside the restaurant. I entered my car, turned my key and, like when I came there, went from 0 to 80, trying to run away from that place. Seeing that it was a straight road, I searched in my pocket for the paper Mark gave me. It was his phone number. My joke went waaay too far... what the hell happening to me?

When I arrived at my house, I locked the door behind me, placed my coat back on the hook and immediately ran on tiptoes toward the bathroom. What I saw in the mirror was... I had no words to describe it. I removed the hair elastic Reginald ‘gave’ me and let my hair flow. It was completely colored into a barbershop pole of pink and blond. Also, it now looked long enough to be a girl’s hair.

The thing that creeps me out more than the hair is the... things lurking in them. They were... ears? I started poking the little flesh and fur things poking out of my hair and realized that I felt every sensation from them. I looked to where my ears were normally located and realized that it was flat and... earless.

While having a staring contest with myself in the mirror, trying to figure what the hell was happening, I started to feel an itchy sensation in the base of my spine. I scratched myself, but the itch kept coming back. I looked in my closet and grabbed my hand mirror. I removed my pants and placed the mirror in such a way that if I look at the wall mirror, I would be able to see my back through the reflection of the hand mirror.

What I saw blew my mind. I dropped the hand mirror in my shock and turned my head to physically see the thing I just witnessed. Attached to my back, plugged to my coccyx, was a real tail made of real hair. My mind drew a blank as all rational thought left me.

In my head, I could feel all the nerves controlling my new ears and tail. Like a keyboard, I pressed the ‘move tail left’ button and the tail... my? tail surprisingly moved like a normal tail would. The other side was working too, as well as my ears. They were detecting every sound coming from any sources around my house. I swear I could hear my neighbor’s dog bark even though he’s on the other side of the street.

“Quesque c’est sa? C’est donc b’en weird...” (What is that? That’s so weird.) I said in French, due to the fact that I was alone in my house. I started to feel light headed. Physical reconstruction was against the law of mass conservation and the energy required to do any transformation is way too much for a single person to handle. The problem is, against all odds, I had just raised my middle finger to a lot of science laws.

I decided to take a walk under the dark sky. I looked at the nearest clock and saw that it was 8:10 pm. I took my coat and placed the cap on top of my ‘way too long for my taste’ hair. I unlocked the door, went outside and locked it behind me; hoping that nothing weird would appear. I started walking, but an uncomfortable feeling of having my... tail in my pants surfaced. I sure hoped that this feeling would stop.

The night air always felt like a blessing to me. It was cold, but inviting. The night sky was also pretty interesting. Stars are the things that are in largest quantity, if we talk about solid stuff. There are more than 5x10^42 stars in the observable universe, which is only a part of the entire universe. If I hadn’t been a biologist, I would have been an astrologist.

I started walking toward the park, the cold air going through my lungs. I grabbed my coat with both my hands and pulled it around my body. Even if the night was beautiful, it’s still freezing cold. I knew that this walk would be short.

When I arrived at the park, however, I wished I had stayed home that night. A group of 3 men, obviously drunk, were hanging out at the entrance. When they saw me, one of them started whistling while the other started shouted that my ass was beautiful. I decided to ignore them and turn around. What I didn’t know, however, is that drunken people could be fast, even though they are not stable at all while running.

“Aww, come on girl. You come here and you don’t even give us a little treat.” The hairiest one of the bunch told me. Wow, subtlety really is your special talent. I thought sarcastically. The men started circling me, one of them started cracking his fists.

“Well, you only have one choice. The only thing you need to do is to enjoy it. Boys, grab her.” He ordered his friends. They tried to grab my arms, but I dodged them.

“Laissez moi tranquille, bande de trou de cul.” (Leave me alone, gang of assholes). I shouted at them. They looked at each other and smiled evilly. They tried again to grab me, but failed.

“Oh, the girl is speaking fancy. I’m going to tell you again. Suck it or we’ll beat you and force you to do it.” He shouted, and for the third time, they tried to grab my arm. One of them succeeded, but I managed to dodge the other.

“I said LEAVE ME ALONE!” I shouted. I contorted my free hand into a fist and manoeuvred myself into a punching position. As my fist flew towards the man a large amount of power rushed through my arm. It felt like if a surge of energy was coursing through it. When my fist collided with his face, I noticed that my fist was more powerful than normal. The knockback was enough to make him fly few feet, effectively knocking him unconscious.

I turned around and looked into the terror filled eyes of the other two drunkards. I could see fear into their etched in their expressions. “Grab him and run... or else.” I said before raising my fist in the air. "From hell’s heart, I’ll stab at thee!” The hairy one grabbed his friend and both of them ran away.

I quickly ran to my house, unlocking the door and running in. After locking it again, I stared at my fist in surprise. Did I really just knock somebody in one punch? Even I was surprised, but after all that happened, I decided to shrug it off as an effect of the ‘transformation’.

I started to feel the effect of exhaustion taking over my body. I left my fist alone and walked towards my bedroom. I removed my clothes and tried to find a position where my tail wouldn't be such a nuisance. It only took few minutes before I fell into Morpheus’ arms.