I was playing some kind of Sims game. Which, I didn't know. In dreams, did you ever really pay that much attention? I was directing Starlight around in a house I'd made for her. She was so happy, going about her chores with a little smile and a pep in her step.

I scrolled away from her and saw her neighbor, Cindy. She was sniffling and coughing. As happy as Starlight was, she wasn't.

I woke with a start, a hand moving to my head as I squinted against the lights coming on. A glance at the clock revealed it was way too damn early. But I had napped the day before? With a low grunt, I grabbed for my laptop and began typing that extremely short dream out. "What does it mean?"

Off to the bathroom I went, muggy and miserable and... fully horned. I reached up for them, feeling the long smooth lengths of both. My head hadn't changed much aside from that. I was an exotic horned creature. "Rawr," I playfully growled at myself as I turned to look at my profile.

Wings, I had those. They were larger. Still far too small to consider flying on them, but how big were Discord's? About the same size, I realized as I slowly wobbled them, stretching one out, then the other. I tried flapping them together, but they didn't lift me from the ground. If they didn't work, how did I fly, or was that just a dream?

I reached back and began stroking over the pegasus wing, feeling the feathers as best I could from the odd angle. They were soft... kinda nice. If I had gone pegasus, I would have gotten used to it pretty fast, I decided. I would preen my pretty feathers!

Wait, did that mean I had to preen these feathers, even if I only had one wing that couldn't even fly? I spread the other wing and moved my hand over to it. It was leathery, a flap of skin. It was also sensitive, as if the whole thing were one big finger that could detect touches on it. Of course, it was me touching me, so it wasn't like a surprise or anything, but I could feel the brushes keenly.

I mused how it would be for a moment to have someone close touching that wing. Maybe they'd preen the feathers on one while washing the bat wing. That... sounded stupidly good at that moment. Next cuddle session would be in the bath...

Next cuddle session? I frowned as I did my morning needs. "When did I start scheduling those?" Sure, I did have one with Starlight... It was kind of... nice.

No time for that! I had to get to... work...

"Crap." There was no work to get to. I returned to my laptop. An email from Cindy!

Hey Lores!

Did you get the soup or is it still in the mail? They'd better have gotten it to you before it went bad, or I swear I'll storm right over those people! Got the sniffles, ugh. Maybe I should have wore a mask like that guy was yelling at me about.

What guy?

Let me know if you got it or not.

Love and hugs (and later pets),
Cindy

I smiled at the letter a moment. Would she be willing to help care for my awkwardly out of place and hard to reach wings? It was an excuse to be in my personal space. She'd probably go for it. I hit reply and got to typing.

Morning! Is it morning? It's really early, but here I am.

Status report: Still stuffy and miserable and arguably worse than before, but... I feel more positive than yesterday. Not hard when yesterday, I was fired. Speaking of that, think I should try job hunting in the middle of this? I bet they'd do email and voice chat interviews in the current climate. What do you think my odds are?

But that's all beside the point. Soup! Your soup was just what I needed. For a little while, I wasn't miserably sick. I was a little child held in the arms of my loving mother and everything was just gonna be fine. Thank you. What guy did you mean though? Did you meet someone?! Spill the details! You know you'd want the same from me if the tables were turned.

Changed, but still your friend,
Lauren

I finished up my daily report to Doctor Miller. There wasn't a lot of physical changes to go over, really. I felt... basically done? I was a female draconequus. I was not a pudgy out-of-shape female human anymore. The old me had gone, but the new me... "I'm still Lauren," I reminded myself as I hit send. "Not giving that up. I have specific friends and wants and I'm still that person. Lauren is not dying, or going anywhere."

Speaking of those specific wants. It was too dang early to go haunting the hallways, and Old Lauren didn't do that anyway. I loaded up a game instead, smiling through my sniffles as I did battle with decrepit zombies and mythological baddies in a world rotting from the inside. "Ah, you bring a smile." An odd thing to say to a game so morbid, but it was true, even when I was busy dying repeatedly to some boss, I just enjoyed that game, and it remained true even with a sudden fur coat.

I will say, though, furry enemies had long since ceased to be alien just for being furry. So what, I had fur. Maybe they were nice people too! Except they were lunging for me with curved blades that put the idea of diplomatic routes right out of my head.

I reached a bonfire and rested, then turned off the game, satisfied with my progress. "I'd put that off for too long." I'd been meaning to get back to it for months, but a thousand little other things were more pressing.

A new icon sat on my desktop, confusing me. Oh, right! Discord! I had installed it when Starlight mentioned there was a server for other people turning into cute furry things. I clicked it and it popped up. A moment later, I was connected.

"Hello," I typed in. "Anyone awake?"

"Heya!" replied someone with an avatar of a grinning pegasus cartoon. "Never saw you before. What's up?"

A chorus of similar questions arose, everyone wanting to know who the new person was.

I grabbed the top of my laptop, aiming it as I took a picture with my best smile. I set it as my discord profile picture before reply, "Sorry for not chatting until now. Starlight invited me. I'm Lauren."

"That's not a very pony name," came the reply of a red horse-avatar. "Don't worry, yours will come!"

Noises similar in nature rose up, as if they were all trying to encourage me to look forward to and embrace my incoming pony name. "No," I simply typed. Three keystrokes, four if you count shift. "I am Lauren, nice to meet you all. I plan to stay with that, so there."

"You look interesting," someone commented, side-topiccing entirely. "What are you?"

A little smirk played across my face as I reached for another tissue, typing with my other hand, "Are video calls allowed here?"

"Yes," came the reply about a dozen times in a blur.

Well! I couldn't... deny them after that. I clicked on the voice channel, went to broadcast and went live. At first, nobody, but then someone joined, then another and soon there were about six patients crowded in there, watching me. "Hey," I started, waggling my sharp claws at them. "So I am a dra-kahn-E-kwas." I said each syllable slowly and purposefully. "I went from a pudgy girl to... this." I gestured down my slender form, turning in place so they could get a look at me. "Hideously weird, right?"

People began typing busily in the voice text chat, that is the channel for people to type in relation to the voice chat. The Internet was funny that way. "You look cute! !" smiling pegasus replied.

"Your eyes are really pretty," gushed the red horse. "Why do we all get such nice lashes?"

"Especially us girls," added one that looked like a leering bat on their avatar. "Come, lose your humanity, gain awesome lashes."

A round of lols rippled through the chat.

"Where are your lower bits?" asked, you know, I should stop describing them by their avatar. This one was Sweetie Bloom. "Did they get erased like mine did?"

My eyes went wide, typing quickly, "Wait, what? Yours got erased? Mine are still here, promise." I didn't rush to show mine off though, even if the webcam was still watching me. Actually, because the webcam was still watching me.

"There I was," continued Sweetie. "I was a nice normal middle-aged guy, pow! Now I'm a pre-pubscent pony filly with a squeaky voice and nothing back there but the bare minimums to use the bathroom, and you don't even seem to have that."

"Your voice is not squeaky," defended Apple Bloom with an equally cute avatar. "It's cute!"

"Aw, you're just being a friend." They exchanged hug emojis.

A new person typed. Twilight. "Hello, Lauren. I've heard about you from Starlight. You're certainly an interesting specimen! Have your physical changes concluded? How do you feel?"

I inclined my head a little. Twilight... Right! Starlight had mentioned her. "Where are you hiding?! I heard Starlight mention you, but never saw you."

"Different floor. I'm in floor 8. You're on... 13, right? With Starlight," Twilight typed in reply.

Big Mac joined, "Isn't 13 supposed to be unlucky? I thought they just didn't have 13th floors on things."

Bon Bon added, "Well, this is a medical building. Maybe they just said no to superstitions."

"Oh, yup."

So many people, and they seemed nice enough. It was... kind of nice talking to so many people. Still. "Wait, floors? Can I visit you then?" I typed busily, wondering if I could actually see them.

Twilight typed, "They didn't let me down to floor 13 when I tried earlier today, something about an order? Quite unusual, but arguing with the guards is a waste of time."

Wait, what? "Was travel between floors usually an option?"

A chorus of mixed answers came about. It seemed some ponies were allowed to move about, and others were not. I didn't like it... "Well, it was nice meeting you all." I ended my broadcast, denying them the chance to admire my strange form further. "Maybe we can do it in the flesh next time."

Big Mac added, "Yup." simply.

Apple Bloom's reply came quickly, "You take care now, ya hear? Ya looked a might stuffed up. Been there. It gets better, promise!"

"Yeah! Come chat when you're feeling despondent," added Sweetie Bloom. I could imagine a little pony waving excitedly at her screen, but I had no proof if that was actually happening.

I said my goodbyes and closed Discord. A glance at the clock showed it was closer to a reasonable hour. I decided it was breakfast time. I grabbed my card and tucked it away before heading for the door and peeking outside. The hallway was as lit as it always was. Did the floor ever have a sleepy time lighting? I clack-clopped my way towards the cafeteria, only to see someone in a hazmat suit.

Of course she wouldn't be there. She was as miserable as I was.

New idea! I skipped down the hallway. "This part isn't so bad..." It was... maybe kinda nice, just feeling so free, so... dextrous. Movement was a pleasure, not a duty. It was very not-Lauren, but Lauren could get used to that part at least. I arrived at the door and tapped on it with my claws. "You in there?" I called quietly, hoping to not wake her if she wasn't already awake.

"Mmmmf," came the muffled reply, then a thump. She was awake, if not coherent.

"You don't have to get up just for me," I promised. "Did they fix your lock?" I reached for the handle and tested it. It opened without resistance. "Nope. How long does it take for them to send a technician?"

"Lauren?" asked the voice from around the corner. "You sound different."

"I look different," I added with a little smirk, slipping inside and closing the door behind me. It clicked properly, but I doubted the lock would hold. "Want some company?"

"Yeah." I heard a butt hit a bed and danced around the corner, bringing her into sight. She was shaping up nicely. Her bright green eyes were not all the way open, instead looking as miserable as I had been. Scratch that, still was. I was just ignoring it in favor of the moment. "Hey." She raised a hand, waving it at me. "Wow, you weren't kidding even a little."

I approached her on her bed. "Is this just 'a thing'? People talk like it is. If you get a fur coat, you'll just have to get really nasty sick." I half-turned, displaying my wings to her. "Check these out, Jake."

She reached, taking hold of the feathery one first and gently brushing along it. "Wow... And..." She touched the bat-like one. Oh wow, it was just as powerful as I predicted. I wanted to either slap her hand away or sit down and invite her to keep going.

I went with the latter, sinking down on the bed next to her, turned to keep what she was exploring easily available. "Not sure what they're good for, but I have them. I have a unicorn horn too." I pointed to the curved horn atop my head.

"And another too." Her hands left my wings, aw, and began poking at my horns instead. They were not nearly as touch-sensitive. I could tell she was doing it, sure, but it didn't come nearly as powerfully. "How do you feel? Did you get a pony name yet?"

"I did, and I tossed it out," I noted with confidence. "I am Lauren."

"That's early," Jake noted. "Nothing here yet, just a lot more farming dreams. There was one that had you in it." When I looked at her, she began to blush through her furry face, her pony-snout curling in a smile. Like me, her face had changed quite a bit, becoming entirely an anthro-pony. "You were floating. Weird huh? You were just kinda ignoring all the rules while we talked about carrots."

She brought her hands together, worrying her fingers. "It was a nice little chat. I was worried about something. A rot in the soil? Dream stuff, I don't know, I was just... worried, and you calmed me down, told me it'd be alright." She reached for one of my hands, holding it with hers, fingers brushing against my palm. "And you just... You fixed it. I was so happy, and I woke up."

I squeezed her hand. "Hey, if I can fix something for you, I would. I know we just met. I swear, that's everyone around me... but you're all important to me." I leaned in, touching my big nose to her big nose. We both had nice broad inhuman noses. I could feel our breath mingling between us. "Has Starlight been by?"

"Almost every day." Jake smiled, taking my other hand. "She's a really good person...She said you're doing better than me. You can move. Shoot, you visited me, that kinda proves it." She glanced away and back. "This is a lot to ask, but..."

"You want to cuddle?"

Oh how red her cheeks became. "Can we? Starlight got really nervous when I brought it up. Please don't run away. No's alright too!"

I pulled her closer by her hands, forcing her to flop against me, her breasts, annoyingly larger than mine, against my own as I released her hands and moved to hug her. "We're both going to sneeze and get snot on each other. If you accept that, we can relax."

"That sounds great," she sighed out, looking relieved. She pointed past me. "I dropped the remote. Can you get it and put on something, then we can lay down."

Remote? I flopped over, releasing her and looking over the far edge of the bed. There it was, falling out of sight under the bed. I reached down and grabbed for it, but I missed and it slid further under the bed. "Dang it." I slid further after it, grabbing wildly, and pathetically, knocking it further back away and away. "Almost..."

Jake suddenly squealed, and it was clear to see what I had just popped free of the bottom of the bed and my snout was right between her legs on the floor. "What the?" I muttered, looking up to see Jake's thighs, but also mine just off to the side, my feet so very close. "The heck!?" I had just done the most epic stretch I'd ever seen.

"How are you... not dead?" spoke Jake in haunted tones. "Tell me you're alright."

I leaned off to the side, touching a cheek to one of her feet. "Doesn't hurt at all, also, here." I made one last lunge and grabbed the damned remote. twisting in place to offer it up towards Jake. "Here you go."

Jake took it as if it was made of some kind of explosive material. "You are bent over backwards over the bed." She paused to sniff loudly. "Then twisted over again while you're down there... How?"

I looked down at my hands, which were right where they were supposed to be, but the long trunk of my body was bent in all kinds of ways that should have been horrifically painful. "Is that right?" And suddenly it wasn't. I was pulled right back under the bed, thwipping my nose on the edge of it along the way. With a snap, I was back to 'normal'. "Ow..." I rubbed my sore nose where it had struck the hard metal edge. "Got it."

Jake set the remote down and pulled her legs up under herself. "Are you... alright?"

"Other than flexible, I'm fine, and is that a...bad thing?" I really wasn't entirely sure. "Let me try that again." I slid up to my feet and reached for my dragon toes. I was able to reach it without a hint of resistance, as if I wasn't even stretching. "Huh..." That was not a feat I could do before. I grabbed the floor and began pulling myself down until my spine bent over right at my hips and from there angled sharply right back to the ground where the rest of my body was. "That just looks crazy as Tartarus."

Jake slid forward along the bed and held a hand up behind me. "Give me a high-five without turning around." It was too low to make sense going for an actual 'high' five. I slid back and considered a moment before going for it, slithering right between my own legs over myself. There was her hand. I reached up and slapped it. "Ta da!"

"That is amazing, and kinda disturbing. Can you... just go back to normal for now?" She smiled awkwardly. "I'll put on something quiet."

I slid and pulled myself upright with a little ta da for good measure. "Behold me, for I am part snake."

"Part dragon," corrected Jake with a little smile. "Mine doesn't come with any perks like that. All I've gotten is boobs and a new way to go visit the bathroom."

"Hey, being a woman has more going for it than that." I joined her on the bed, but was reaching for the phone. "I'm going to order breakfast now, for the both of us. Put on something quiet and let's just enjoy the moment."

"That sounds stupidly nice right now," agreed Jake as she sank down onto her bed. "Thanks for not running..."

"Despite alternative phenotype, subject shows equally powerful pack bonding inclinations." Miller tapped busily on his keyboard. "A common bond in the transition? Subject shows no irritation despite understanding the limitations placed on her. Interactions with another subject at a similar stage of transition seems to be calming both of them, matching with previous observations. Starlight used to be the closest we had, but Jake's accident couldn't have been better timed to provide that social support." He moved between windows on his machine.

"She had introduced herself successfully to the greater community of subjects and appears to be welcomed. Consider controlled physical meeting." He paused to consider. "One of the filly subjects may be wise. Threat of complication is minimized." He tapped at his desk softly a moment before resuming typing. "Consider two or three. Pack bonds between The Three are strong enough that removal of one without the others can cause stress."

He didn't want stressed subjects, oh no. It was his job to avoid that sort of thing. "Schedule meeting with floor 5 head."

We were happy. Sure, we were still sick as all get out, but we were happy anyway. My arms were around her, her arms were around me. Our stomachs were just the right amount of full.

"Laura?" I heard clopping knocking, but it was an internal hearing, not an external one. Starlight was calling for me somewhere else. Where? "You home?"

My room? Shoot. I was not there by far. "You asleep?" she spoke more quietly. "Call me if you need me..." And then clopping noises. She was trotting. I couldn't tell if it was towards or away anything, just the sound of her trotting along.

"You alright?" Jake was watching my face. "You look distracted all of a sudden."

"I think--" I pointed towards his door. "Starlight may be coming."

Jack sat up with surprising force, only to groan and hold her head. "Aw, dang it... She'll think we've been doing--"

"--nothing," I cut her off. "We're listening to some chill music and relaxing. That's the truth and I'm sticking to it. Neither of us has touched the other in naughty places."

"Hey Flash," spoke Starlight who wasn't there.

"Hiya," he replied. "You look down, what's up?

Oh no, they were having a personal conversation. How did I turn off this thing? Why didn't it just come with a knob to twist?

"It's about Lauren," sighed Starlight miserably, a squeak of a chair against panel. Were they in the cafeteria? "The Doc made me feel like barely-warmed filth for liking her. He said I should, for him. Like it was ever about him!"

"Woah." I heard a faint sound. A hoof patting fur? "That sounds super rough. Hey, you two are... a thing? Neat." He sounded way too happy about that. Little perv stallion. "How does that work?"

"You're kidding." Starlight sounded aghast and unbelieving. "You don't know how lesbians work?"

"Why should I?!" he protested, sounding awkward. "I'm a guy. I like girls. I know how that works. I don't watch dirty stuff that has two ladies in it... So... how does it work?"

"This is a conversation I refuse to have." I could hear that flat denial in her tone. "I'll keep it simple. To start, kissing is fun no matter what gender the other person is."

"Oh. Ohhhh. Oh!" I couldn't see it, but I could imagine Flash getting all blushy. "Neat... Good luck. You two are nice."

Starlight's tone become kinder. "Aw, thanks... You're not jealous then?"

"Huh? Oh! We're not a thing, don't be silly." I heard a hoof hit something metal. "I'm chatting with AJ, don't tell anypony, alright?"

"Your secret's safe with me!" crisply promised Starlight, not knowing that secret was already blown. Not that I knew who AJ was. "AJ though? Nice. She's a good mare. I hope you two work out."

"You too!" A rustle of fur on fur. I think they were hugging. Ugh, how to turn off my hearing!

"You alright? Is she coming?" Oh, right, Jake was still there.

I tried to push the outside voices aside and focus on who was physically present.

Author's Note

We meet a bunch of new ponies today! Yay! Any particulars you'd want dragged over for a meeting? Is hearing your buddies a blessing or a curse?

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