It's our party, we can say what we want

It took Nick a second to process what happened. Then another second to understand it. And finally, a third second to realize that Dakota had just done something that he wasn’t okay with.

After the longest three seconds of his life, he turned on Dakota with a frustrated expression on his face, and with the whines and cries of the women in his harem echoing in his ears.

“Dakota!” Nick roared. “What the hell is the matter with you?! What did you just do?!”

Dakota blinked innocently.

“Whatever do you mean?” She asked, a smirk splitting her face in two. “This is part of the party, my love! Take a look!”

She raised her cane and gestured at the transformed girls.

“Don’t worry, the transformations are temporary. Just for tonight. But what a night! The theme of the party is ‘The Zodiac Farm’ and… well, I’m sure you know the story of the zodiac, don’t you?”

“I do,” Dawn seethed, walking forward and glaring at Dakota. Of all the girls, she had changed the least, so it was easy to adjust to her new body. “So let me guess, Nick’s the emperor, right?”

Dakota nodded, her eyes glimmering brightly. “Something like that…” she murmured.

“And you made yourself the dragon, what a surprise,” Dawn continued, rolling her eyes.

Dakota stood up a little taller and held her head up high. “Why, of course I did. Don’t you think it fits me?”

“Nah,” Gina scoffed, shaking her head. “I’d be a way better fit for the dragon.”

Dakota raised her eyebrow, and smiled incredulously. “Really? You?”

“Yup,” Gina nodded. Then she cracked a grin. “Dragon deez nuts! Heyo!”

Dakota just stared blankly at her, not amused. The punk girl broke out into a fit of laughter that seemed to shake everyone out of their confusion, including Nick.

And Nick was getting really sick of these games.

“Listen, Dakota, enough!” He cried. “Change everybody back!”

Dakota’s expression soured. “I’m not the one who invited everyone to a party,” she pointed out. “I told you, everybody will change back when the party is over. This is all in good fun.” She clapped her hands together. “And don’t worry, these transformations won’t make your harem act in ways contrary to their interests! It just gives them a bit of an… animal instinct, as it were.”

Again, Dakota wasn’t doing a great job of convincing Nick she should be trusted. He glared at her, and she just smirked back at him.

“It’s all up to you,” she replied with a shrug. “Do as you like. The night is young! But girls… if you don’t fulfill your roles, well… you won’t be getting any boons from this party, as I’m sure you know. In fact, it might even disadvantage you… and we wouldn’t want that!”

And with that, she was gone, leaving Nick alone with eleven women who had all morphed into animal girls on him.

“This is so weird!” Dani wailed. She was trying to stay standing, but her legs were wobbling like a newborn faun. A fitting analogy, given that the number of legs she possessed had just doubled.

“At least you get to be a centaur!” Carly wailed. “Look at me! I’m all… piggy!”

That was true. Carly’s transformation had resulted in stripping away her cosplay, and without that, she was buck naked. Save for dark brown bodypaint that carefully concealed her naughtier bits, making her look like she’d just finished rolling around in mud. Nick knew it was rude to stare, even though he’d seen her naked many times before, but… never like this. Turning into a pig girl had somehow made her even curvier, and while her chest didn’t have much growth to do, her butt and thighs had plumped up quite nicely to give Gina and Morgana’s transformed asses a run for their money- or, in the case of Mary, her natural genetics.

As for Mary, well… the same couldn’t quite be said for her.

“Mooooo!” She wailed, her cries having morphed into the braying of a cow. As would be expected of anyone turned into a cowgirl, her breasts had received a sizeable increase. They were bigger than Nick had ever seen them before, and jostling with delicious milk. And her clothes had received a change as well; she’d gone from one cowgirl to another, trading in her daisy dukes and flannel for a skimpy cow print bikini.

“This is so cool!” Kim turned and took a look at herself in one of the mirrors that Dakota had so kindly provided her. “Look! I have feathers now! And wings! Hey, I wonder if I could fly?” She flapped her wings and tried her best, but she couldn’t get off the ground. That didn’t seem to put a damper on her mood, though.

At least one person here was happy.

“So what are we supposed to do here?” Rose wondered. “I mean, I love the fluffy clothes, but is that really it? Just being transformed into animals?”

“Dakota said that we’re supposed to play our roles,” Sylvia said, scratching her hair, which had gotten curly and rough compared to its usual straightness. A golden tail flicked behind her back, curling up and extending. “I guess that means we’re supposed to do animal stuff?”

Dani glared at her. “I swear, if you start flinging your shit at us…”

“Hey!” Sylvia protested. “It wasn’t my fault I got stuck with the Monkey mask! It’s not like I was gonna become a pig!”

“It’s rather fitting,” Nick couldn’t help but admit. “Considering you spent so long as Dakota’s little flying monkey.”

“Oh, ha ha ha, is this some of that infamous ‘dad humor’ I’ve heard so much about, Daddy?” Sylvia mocked, sticking out her tongue.

“Either way, this is a big change,” Dawn said, looking around at the others. “I mean, we all turned into animals.”

“Bigger change for some of us than others,” Gina noted, glancing at the vet with an amused smirk on her face. A forked tongue slid past her lips. “I mean, all you got was a cut and color. MY hair turned into snakes!”

Dawn leered at her from behind her glasses. “I’m just trying to keep everyone from freaking out. Don’t forget, this is YOUR party, Gina. We’re here because you invited us!”

Gina responded by sticking out her tongue. Rude as that was, she probably could have just been smelling the air. After all, she was a snake.

The middle finger she flipped up immediately afterwards confirmed she had no instinctual motives for her actions.

“I-I don’t wanna be here anymore!” Morgana wailed, scurrying around in a panic. Everything seemed so frightening and dangerous now that she was a mouse! “Just let me go so I can change back!”

“I don’t think it’s that easy,” Dani said, shaking her head. She’d managed to get her balance pretty well at this point. “Or else she wouldn’t have transformed us like this in the first place. If we could just walk out the door, that kind of defeats the purpose, don’t you think?”

Carly groaned. “She DID say that we could earn some boons… but come on, by doing what? I’m a pig! Am I supposed to roll around in the mud or something to pay my role? Because it looks like I already finished that!”

“I’m curious about me,” Holly said, frowning. “I mean, I got booted out of the harem! I’m not earning any boons. So what’s the point of transforming me?”

“Or Marley,” Sylvia noted, looking at the other eliminated girl.

Marley… didn’t seem bothered.

“This is so fun!” She gushed, leaping onto Nick and wagging her tail. “So fun, so fun!”

Then she licked his face.

“M-Marley!” Nick exclaimed, pushing her off. “What the heck!? Don’t just jump on me like that, it’s not safe!”

“I know, I know!” Marley’s tail couldn’t help but wag. She was getting really worked up. “But I can’t help it! I’ve got all this energy now!”

“The transformation must have had an effect on her personality,” Dawn realized. “It’s caused her to get really worked up and excited, like a dog. And those public displays of affection…”

“Aww, man! I knew I should have gone with that one,” Carly groaned. “Getting an excuse to jump on people like that?”

“When have you ever needed an excuse?” Marley fired back with an amused grin.

“Well, I already know what I’m supposed to do,” Holly said, bouncing over to Nick. She turned and wagged her cotton tail at him. “Bunnies only have one purpose, after all!”

Everyone stared at her in surprise.

Holly blinked. “What? What is it?”

“Holly, um… are you sure you’re feeling okay?” Mary asked, stumbling over to her friend. Her tits had been so inflated with milk that walking straight seemed like a pipe dream at this point; her back just had too much weight to bear.

“Why wouldn’t I be feeling okay?” Holly asked, still confused.

“Because… you just propositioned Nick, didn’t you?” Kim noted. “That’s not like you. I mean… you’re not the kind of girl who wants actual sex, right?”

“Don’t you get off on being a cuck?” Carly inquired curiously.

Holly blinked again. “…Oh, shit! Yeah, you’re right!” She looked down at herself. “That… it didn’t even cross my mind!”

“That’s curious…” Sylvia scratched her ear wondrously. “So Holly… her transformation isn’t active right now?”

“N-no, it is,” Holly said, shaking her head. Her ears twitched and bounced. “It’s just… I don’t know, right now it doesn’t feel like such a big deal. It’s like, if I concentrate, it’s still there, but if I don’t think about it, then… I’m just me again.”

That revelation was a gamechanger.

“What about everybody else’s transformations?” Dawn demanded, looking around at the others. “Does anybody have any mental transformations that would normally be messing with their thoughts? We need to work this out now.”

It was definitely something to be concerned with. After all, in the girls’ present states, coming off the high of these sudden and massive new transformations, it would take a bit of getting used to. But everybody needed to focus on what had changed.

“I… I don’t feel any different in that regard, but I don’t think… hnn…” Mary tried to provide some clarification, but then she winced. Her cheeks flushed.

“…Well, it’s obvious she still has the arousal transformation,” Kim noted. “As for me… hmm… I don’t really feel any compulsion to finish anything, but then, I haven’t started anything, either…”

“Ah!” Gina’s eyes widened as she finally caught up with where everybody else was. “Hey! I don’t feel that compulsion to be a good girl anymore! Oh, yeah baby! I’m back! I’m… aww, fuck! There it is again!” She groaned.

Her reprieve was short-lived. It seemed that while the girls could ignore most of the effects of their mental transformations, those effects were still there, bubbling under the surface. If one spent too much time thinking about it, then it would give that transformation weight again.

“As for physical transformations… it seems to be a bit different. Those really did change in a considerable way,” Carly noted, studying Dani closely.

Dani couldn’t help but smile. While it was true that her body had gone through the most drastic change (what, having horse hooves like a centaur) there had been other changes to go along with it. For one, her body had, physically, mostly returned to her original physique- at least, the parts of her that remained human, anyway. She still had her abs (though they faded into a horse hide) and her muscular arms were fierce. The only real difference was her hair, which had turned a deep chestnut brown, like her original coloring, and remained long- tied up in, fittingly, a ponytail.

“I’m not sure you really changed that much,” Rose said, studying Dani closely. “After all, you’ve always been a horse’s ass.”

Dani’s eye twitched. “Don’t make me kick you!”

Her physical transformation wasn’t the only significant one. Rose’s body was covered in soft, woolly fur, the same color as her blonde hair. She didn’t seem to mind it very much, though, certainly not as much as some people were minding theirs.

Morgana looked at her diminutive figure and sighed.

Mice were small, and Morgana had become that in so many ways. While she wasn’t as flat as a board like she’d been before joining the show, the majority of her goth curves had slimmed down. She’d also shrunk considerably, rivaling Holly and Dawn in height.

Dawn, who was chagrinned in her own right.

“…You know, it makes sense,” she said, adjusting her glasses. “Dakota obviously intended for me to get the Tiger mask. So of course she wouldn’t have transformed me to have any boost to my height.”

“Or breast size,” Holly pointed out. Not that she’d done any growing in that area, either. She didn’t need to, though, because she put so much value on her petite pride!

“…Right,” Dawn said, trying to resist the urge to chuck Holly out the ballroom window. “Or breast size.”

“Anyone else feeling like it’s weird that Dakota didn’t tell us what we’re supposed to do, though?” Kim wondered. “I mean, losing my hands kind of sucks… and what, I’m just supposed to be like this all night? How am I supposed to ‘play my role’ when I’m a rooster? Or a chicken or whatever.”

Rose frowned. “I thought you of all people would be knowledgeable about this sort of thing,” she said, confused.

Kim placed her wings on her hips and scowled. “Why? Because I’m asian? You know that I’m Japanese, right? It’s the Chinese Zodiac.”

“O-oh, sorry, I didn’t know,” Rose immediately apologized. “I had no idea! I thought that Japanese people cared about it, too.”

“I’m from the pacific northwest, Miss Foreigner.”

“Okay, I think tensions are getting a little high in here!” Marley exclaimed, leaping into the middle of things. “Come on, guys! We got some free transformations! They aren’t harmful or anything, so we might as well make the most of it, right?!”

She licked her lips, her tongue practically falling out of her mouth. “And I don’t know about you guys, but I’m starving!”

Having improved the mood considerably, Marley turned and ran for the buffet tables.

Carly realized what she was doing a moment too late.

“Wait, sis!” She shouted after her sister as Marley tore over to the buffet.

Marley skidded to a stop just in time… or did she?

“Wait, no way!” Dawn’s eyes widened in surprise. “Look! They’re more than ten feet apart!”

It was true. There was no way the distance between Carly and Marley was less than ten feet, it looked closer to twenty!

“Oh my gosh!” Marley gasped. “Hey, you’re right!”

“O-oh!” Morgana squeaked. “So that means…”

“I guess that means we can be separated,” Carly noted. “Without any penalties. Probably to help get boons, or something? I don’t know.”

“I’m not going to complain,” Marley shrugged. “This is great! I mean, we can spend time to ourselves… eating… cuddling… playing fetch…”

Her eyes glazed over.

“…Is it just me or is Marley being a little bit more… dog-like?” Mary asked worriedly, turning to Sylvia.

Sylvia shook her head and frowned. “It’s Marley… I mean, she was already pretty impressionable back when she was a Mimic Jelly… apparently, this dog transformation might have brought a little bit more of her old self out than she usually shows to other people, I guess.”

That was a safe way to think about things. But Sylvia wasn’t thrilled by it.

“Hey, is everything alright?” Mary asked, placing a hand on the monkey girl’s arm.

Sylvia shook her head. “Alright is a strong word,” she muttered. “What would ‘alright’ look like, Mary? I mean… I’ve transformed into a monkey… and while that’s not THAT big of a deal, the rest of the girls in Nick’s harem have all transformed, too, and because of Dakota’s little games… I want to do better, I want everyone to enjoy themselves, but… what?”

Mary was staring at her in surprise, with her mouth wide open.

Sylvia frowned. “Mary? What’s up? You good?”

“You… you just…” Mary stammered, pointing at her. “You just said Nick’s name!”

Sylvia blinked. “What, I did? I said Nick?”

Her eyes widened. “Oh, gosh! I did! I can say Nick’s name again! Nick, Nick, Ni- N-Nick…”

The more she said it, the more she seemed to struggle with it. After a few seconds of nothing coming out, she clamped her hand over her mouth and shook her head.

“…Unfortunately, my girl, it’s not something that can last for very long,” she admitted solemnly. “But it is what it is, wouldn’t you say? For now, we have to focus on figuring out how to play our roles.”

She glanced at Mary’s heavy chest as it swayed with every breath, practically overflowing with milk.

“…For some of us, that will be easier than others,” she added with just a tiny hint of envy in her voice.

Mary blushed, and covered her chest as best she could. She wasn’t like the other girls, especially Carly, she wasn’t used to showing off like this. But there wasn’t much she could do about it, either, it wasn’t like she had any other clothes she could change into.

With a tired sigh, she realized it was probably pointless.

“I’m probably going to have to get milked, aren’t I?” Mary had practically resigned herself to that by this point.

“At least that’s better than rolling around in the mud,” Carly pointed out. Then she reconsidered. “Although…”

“I’m a tiger,” Dawn pointed out. “What, am I supposed to maul somebody?”

“Maybe you’re supposed to eat Morgana,” Gina suggested, draping an arm over the now-much-shorter goth, and flashing a toothy smile. “Or maybe that’s my job?”

Morgana turned pale.

“N-no thank you!” She said quickly, shaking her head.

“Either way, Daddy, it’s up to you,” Sylvia said, turning to Nick. She almost felt sad, calling him that. Which was strange, because she usually enjoyed it quite a bit.

Nick tensed. “…Me, huh?” He’d been trying to avoid things going in this direction since practically the second the girls’ transformations had kicked in. But was he really able to do that, at this point? After all, he had transformed too. At least… he expected he had.

Because the mask on his face had disappeared.

“There’s something else we need to consider,” Nick pointed out, gesturing to his face. “My mask vanished, too. So I’m transformed, too.”

That could be a problem.

“What even is the story of the Zodiac, anyway?” Rose asked, aimlessly playing with a lock of her woolly hair. “Dawn, you seemed to know, right? You said something about an emperor?”

Dawn sighed and nodded. “That’s right,” she confirmed. “I had a book when I was a kid, a picture book about the Chinese Zodiac. There was a man called the Jade Emperor, who thought that there should be a way of telling time. So on his birthday he told the animals that there was to be a race.”

“Oh!” Dani’s face lit up. “Wait, I know this! This is that one story, um… Fruit Sandwich or something.”

Carly sighed in exasperation and Morgana turned red.

“It, um… it’s Fruits Basket,” she corrected the tomboy.

Dawn squinted. “Shouldn’t it be Fruit Basket? That’s a poor use of plurality…”

Morgana stared blankly at her.

“Um… no.”

“Whatever,” Dani scoffed, waving her hand and clopping her hooves. “That series sucked anyway, the wrong guy won.”

“No!” Morgana said firmly, shaking her head. So what if she was intimidated by the fact that Dani was nearly twice her height now? This was about shipping, and it mattered! “Kyo was the perfect boy for Tohru! Yuki didn’t even like her romantically!”

“Yeah, yeah, that just shows it was a shitty story,” Dani scoffed. “Yuki was a way better fit for her!”

“I don’t think Yuki is a good fit for anybody,” Sylvia said, shaking her head. “She’s crazier than Dakota.”

Dawn’s eye twitched. They were getting off topic!

“…Anyway!” She snapped, cutting them off. “What happened is that the emperor held a race, and all the animals raced. The order in which they crossed the finish line would determine their importance in the race.”

“Yeah, we know, all this was covered in the anime,” Carly pointed out.

“This isn’t about the anime!” Dawn snapped. “Okay, fine, whatever, I guess you don’t want to know which place everybody finished, then!”

“The Rat placed first,” Dani remembered. “And the Cat didn’t even show up, because the Rat tricked him. And, the Rat was a cheater.”

She glanced pointedly at Morgana, who turned pale.

“I-I don’t play dirty!” Morgana squeaked.

“Wait, there’s a Cat?” Rose frowned. “I thought it was a Tiger? Isn’t Dawn the Tiger?”

“Yeah, there’s a Tiger, AND a Cat,” Carly informed her. “Only, the Cat doesn’t actually count because it never showed up. So there’s actually thirteen Zodiac animals.”

“Wait, isn’t the thirteenth like, ophiuchus or something?” Kim scrunched up her face, trying to remember. “That’s weird…”

“No, completely different zodiac,” Nick replied.

Dawn sighed. “Look, guys, I’m pretty sure Dakota has no intention of turning this into a race. I think this whole thing will be resolved if we just try and act like our animals. Especially in regards to Nick. That’s my guess.”

The other women looked at each other and considered their options. They all agreed that theory made a lot of sense.

“…So, mud wrestling?” Carly asked hopefully. She’d really come around on this transformation of hers by this point. Pigs rocked!