Icarus' Fable - Chapter 3 - Accepting the Changes

Shit.
Your day was just getting better and better by the second. This morning, you woke up to find that although you had lost something the day before, another thing had grown to make up for it. A long, smooth, (admittedly beautiful) mint green and white tail sat slightly twitching between your now completely ponified legs. ­It was sticking out of your pyjama pants at a weird and crook angle, slightly pushed into the air, and now, just to top this wonderful morning off, you had accidentally smashed the microwave with one of your big and clumsy hooves trying to open it. Your new appendages seemed to be strangely strong and flexible now, which was very alien to you indeed. At least that was one silver lining in the sea of dark clouds that was your morning.
It had only been one night that you had been in your new house and you already broke one of the devices you thought was going to be quite useful in the times to come. The cabin had no oven at all, so this was all you had to cook with, or rather, *had* to cook with, seeing it was now completely fucked. You huffed and looked disappointedly at the broken microwave. Maybe you wouldn't need to cook now that you were going to become a... A pony. Ponies enjoyed raw vegetables, right? You weren't sure, seeing as you weren't becoming any normal pony, you were becoming a freaky marshmallow cartoon pony, certainly not suited for this world, or for any of it's food for that matter. You needed to start to become more honest with yourself. You had no idea if there was any coming back from how you were right now. I mean, your current situation seemed quite permanent. How could you even possibly be able to turn back? If you ever did, how long were you going to be like this? Again, you sighed and started to walk away from the microwave, its door now hanging on it's hinges.
Walking had become a complicated thing. You didn't want to completely succumb to the changes yet so you tried to walk, however awkwardly, on your "hind legs", using the furniture and walls to support yourself, Not to mention the new, yet somewhat small addition to your chest throwing you off balance even more. Taking slow, wobbly steps forward, you made your way in to the cabins living room and tried to sit down. You heavily fell down, causing you to mutter an effeminate "oof". You instantly felt heat rise in your cheeks, embarrassed at the sound you had just made. It was even harder to come to terms with the fact that you were now essentially a complete woman rather than the fact that you would probably soon be completely a short pastel coloured pony. That was odd enough, but a girl? Or, you suppose, a mare? Do you think you could get preg- NO. SHUT UP! You force the image way down to the depths of your mind. Even so, you could start to feel yourself getting slightly worked up again so you try to push the thought away and look around the room instead.
You and Stephen had just piled all of the things you had brought in with you onto the floor at the edge of the kitchen. More work for you to do... Oh well, it would have to wait until all of these changes were done with before you were going to sort that stuff into proper cupboards. You also observe that the cabin has a small CRT television in the corner of the room. After another quick look around, you see that the remote has been left on the table. Precariously, you lean forward and smack your hoof onto the TV’s power button.  It miraculously turns on the first time only to greet you with static.
Disappointed, you turn off the TV and lie down on the couch. Lying on your back is now hard because of your tails position so you roll onto your side to find that that position was also strange and awkward feeling. Gazing down at your weird pony legs, you try folding them a couple of different ways before giving up. You sit back up and bring your legs onto the couch with you. Hmmmm... That position was much better than before! Why hadn't you tried this before! You pulled your front legs up on to the couch and shuffled ninety degrees. Sitting with legs folded under your body like this and your forelegs in front of you definitely felt right now. You giggled at the thought of what a weird sight you must be now with a human body, human head and pony limbs. You had just started to lie down when you heard some footsteps from the other room and Stephen shout "Dude, what the fuck happened to the microwave"

You got to your fee- uh, hooves and balanced your way into the kitchen. Stephen was standing rested against the bench looking at the broken microwave.
"Care to explain why-? Oh, uh, care to explain why the microwaves door is now hanging on a thread?" He had faltered a bit when he said that after he saw you and remembered your more drastic change. His eyes turned away from the microwave for a second to look at you but rubbernecked when he spied something behind you. Your tail twitched involuntarily.
"Wait a sec..." He twisted his head around a couple of times and looked behind him.
"Whoa... A tail? Well, it wasn't really unexpected or anything, but damn..."
You giggle effeminately again but silence your self. Damn dude, I gotta stop doing that... You can feel the heat rising to your cheeks and can tell that you're blushing so you try to quickly divert his attention.

"Look, I’m sorry man, I’m not used to these new hooves. They're really fuckin' strong!"
"It's alright dude, just be careful. I'm gonna take a look at this and see what I can do. Probably not much, seeing as I have hooves, not hands, but whatever... I can still try I guess"
You stretch your back out a bit, it's a bit sore, you probably slept weird last night.  Stephen starts separating the pieces on the bench and (you think) organising them into some kind of order as you walk back into the family room. When you finally sit down, you sigh in frustration as you can now feel a pressure starting in your bladder. God fucking damn it, I already need the toilet? You push yourself to your hooves again and walk slowly into the hallway toward the bathroom. Walking like this was such a pain, if only you could... You looked behind to see if Stephen was looking but he was busy tinkering away, so you drop on all fours and start trotting along with relative ease. It was assuredly still an alien form of transportation, but it was much more natural feeling than walking on two hooves.
Now pretty happy with yourself, you are once again faced with the problem of sitting on the damn toilet. How where you going to do this? Sitting normally didn't work, what about sitting *over* the toilet? You dragged over the bathroom stool and rested your forelegs on that while you balanced your back hooves on the rim of the toilet. It felt comfortable enough for the moment and maybe you'd figure something else later, but now all you wanted to do was go to the toilet. Wow, this was so strange... It was so different not having anything hanging in-between your legs. The biggest downside to this was that you had no way of aiming besides moving your hips around and trying to keep your back hooves stationary. You finished off with surprisingly very little mess and stood there for a couple of more seconds as the rest dripped out. Suddenly, you felt two short and sharp pains in your back, causing you to seize up for a second and fall off of the bowl. What the hell was that? It felt like something had stabbed you in the fucking back! You can't look at your back very well from this position so you fall to all fours, make your way to the sink mirror and turn your back to it.
"Holy fucking shit."

That is all you can say as you examine two furry nubs on your back that were rapidly growing in size. You reach your hooves around your back and touch them a bit as their growth slowly starts to accelerate. They're pretty sensitive and feel like nothing you've ever touched before. Small feathers start to sprout from the elongating nubs and assure you of what is coming next you groan as you feel the skin around the area stretch almost to a breaking point but then become lax and shift to accommodate for your growing appendages. The nubs grow into long bones, almost to an arms length and then begin to slow down. A little more shaping and the addition of long, soft and sleek powder blue feathers, and your new wings are complete. Staring wide eyed, mouth slightly agape, you flutter the wings around a little. How ever strange this was, you felt very much in control of them, almost as if you had them from birth. You raised them straight up, and then brought them down with surprising might. Maybe too much might because immediately are launched up and on a slight backward angle, smacking yourself into the top corner of the room.
You let your wings down to your sides and plummet towards the floor where you collide heavily and exclaim in pain.
"Ah, shit! My fucking leg!"
You try and lift yourself to your feet but in that semi-crash landing, you seem to have twisted your ankle on your fore-hoof. As you examine it, you can hear some clopping of hooves on wood as Stephen approaches the bathroom and knocks of the door.
"Hey, are you ok in there? I heard two banging noises then you shouted!'
"I'm ok, I just think I might need a little help walking out of here"
"Ok, I’m coming in."
He opens the door and your eyes are immediately drawn to the most recent change to Stephens body. A pale red horn atop his head.
"How did you even hurt yourself? Did you slip on water or something" His eyes look down towards the wings folded up to the sides of your body.
"Oh. Ok then, I see"
You blush again and he puts his fore-hoof under your injured one.
With Stephens help, you walk, now not caring that you are both on all fours, to the couch in the living room. He helps you get up onto it and immediately goes off to find some ice from the freezer. As soon as he leaves the room, you feel a cool breeze rush in from the open window. It felt good to have wind blowing on you and was abnormally calming. You closed your eyes in bliss as you felt the wind pass over your neck, back, wings, and legs and crotch. Wait a second... OH SHIT! YOU WEREN'T WEARING ANY PANTS AT ALL! What had Stephen said anything? More to the point, why didn't you notice anything? Was becoming a pony even affecting your mind to not be embarrassed from wearing completely nothing? I mean, the ponies in the show wore nothing besides clothes that were just for looks, would you need clothes? You peer down at your crotch and notice to your relief that under all of the new fur, your mare-hood was not much more than a vague shape and a faint slit. Well, you certainly *felt* less embarrassed to be naked out here, but you had to test this out to see if it really was fucking with your heads. You decided to not mention it at all to Stephen and see what happened, if he reacts in anyway or just treats it as normality like you had. You sit in the recently discovered position and wait for Stephen to come back with the ice. After a couple of bangs and noises from the kitchen, Stephen finally trots into the living room, proudly showing off his amazing feat of pulling the ice block out of the freezer. You giggle at how proud he is (STOP FUCKING GIGGLING) and he smugly places the ice pack on your injured hoof.  So far so good though, in regards to your nakedness.
"Now what does the pretty lady say?"
You instantly lose all sense of joy and try to take in what he had just said.
"Ummm... Did... Did you just call me pretty, dude?"
"Oh shit, man... I guess I did... I'm really sorry, I know you still feel bad about this whole change. Even though I’m changing, I know that your change is a little more drastic than mine... Sorry again... I'll just leave."
You feel a little bit of guilt rising in your throat. You didn't mean to make Stephen feel so bad about himself. It wasn't his fault that you had turned into a girl, he shouldn't have to feel guilty for it.
"No, I’m sorry, Stephen, it's fine. I gotta get used to it sometime soon. I can't have you keep calling me "Man" and "Dude" any-more, seeing as I’m neither of those."
This seems to have perked him up a bit. He turns back to you and gives you a toothy grin.
"Well, what would you like me to call you?"
"How about Icarus? I mean, that *is* what I called my character. Seeing as we're now taking their place, it kind of seems right to use their names as well. My old name never really fit me anyway. How about you?"
"Well, I named my character Cogsworth, but that kind of seems too formal if you say the whole name. So, uh... How about Cogs?"
You nod.
Cogs... That was his name, and yours was Icarus. It was going to be a little hard to get used to calling each other these different names, but you'd be acclimatised soon enough.
Whoa, what the hell? It was suddenly really hot in here!
"Hey, uh, Cogs, could you open the other window for me?"
"Huh? Why? It's damn freezing."
"What how can you be cold?"
Oh wow, this was weird... It wasn't any normal form of heat you were feeling. This sort of felt like a fever heat, but... Good. Suddenly another breeze blew through the room and wafted a particularly strange but nice smell up to your nose. Where had you smelt this before... Oh god. You quickly fold your legs over, blushing the most you think you ever had in your entire life.
"Hey, could you get me some ice?"
"Yeah, sure Icarus. Oh, what’s that smell? Smells... Nice."
You blush even more as he starts to sniff the air, slightly angling his head towards you...
"Please? I really feel terribly hot."
He snaps out of his trance, nods, and clops on into the kitchen. You quickly look around the room for something to cover yourself up with. Looking around the room, you spy the blanket you had brought in with you from the bedroom. Oh, no, you couldn't use that! He would know something was up! With no other ideas in mind, you run back into your room, past Cogs holding onto a tray of ice with his mouth.
"Hhy! Whhre yoo goin'?"
Slamming the door behind you, you jump onto the bed and pull yourself under the covers. Why was this happening to you? Why couldn't you even control your own body! Tears started to build up in your eyes and you slowly sobbed, the sick feeling of sadness and pain welling up in your throat. You weren't a girl, you were a guy! This wasn't normal! The heat below was becoming more and more unbearable as time went on, your nethers even dripped a little onto the beds sheets. You almost touched  it again, but pulled your hoof away and cried even more.
"Hey, Icarus." You can hear Cogs talking from the other side of the door.
"Go away!" You cry/shout, "I don't need anything."
"Icarus, I’m coming in."
"No!"
He pushed open the door as he walked in. From under the blankets, you could hear him quietly sniff again. You could tell that he was starting to get an idea of what the smell was coming from.
"Icarus... Oh god, I didn't know. Is it really that bad?"
"Yes!" You shout. "And you being here isn't... Oh god..." Were you like this because of Cogs? No fucking way, he was your best friend, and still was. You were going to get through this together. Your mind brought up images of you and Cogs living together in this cabin, having a family, but again you try to push them away. How long could you resist this burning! It was driving you crazy, to the brink of simply screaming until it stopped. Oh fuck it. Fuck it all to hell. You threw off your sheets, completely revealing yourself.  As soon as he saw the sorrow in your eyes, he began to tear up as well.
"I can't... I'm.. so sorry, Icarus" He began to cry and walk away from the room. You couldn't just let him leave. Letting him leave would mean that both of you would be sad. You reach out your hoof and lay it on his shoulder. He turns around, eyes glistening with sadness. You pull him close and give him the tightest hug you have ever given someone, your hooves wrapped around his back. He freezes for a second or two, unsure of how to react, but then hugs you back. Somehow, this hug made everything feel better. The tears of sadness had turned to tears of joy and relief. Maybe living like this with Cogs wasn't going to be that bad after all.

After your brief but satisfying hug, you pull away , keeping your hooves on his shoulders. You smile at him and he smiles back with a smile that causes your heart to skip a beat.

You and Cogs walk out of the bedroom, your lust suppressed for now. You weren't sure when it would strike again, and now that you had revealed some sought of feelings for Cogs, you weren't sure exactly how it would play out. Walking back into the kitchen, you notice something different. The microwave! It was fixed!
"Oh, wow! Did you do this?"
It's Cogs' turn to blush this time
"Uhm, yeah. I guess I did"
"Whoa! How? It wasn't that long ago when you could hardly put together a lego house, let alone fix a completely wrecked microwave!"
"I dunno. I think it may have something to do with my cutie mark. I mean, I really was interested in the way things worked, I just was so clumsy with my hands before. Even without my fingers, I feel much more calm and collected fixing stuff than I did when I was a human. Or at least, more than 50% human"
You gaze over to his flank and see that his cog and flower cutie mark had completely materialised. That made you think about your own cutie mark and staring backwards at your backside, you see that the wings and halo that made up your cutie mark had also appeared.
"Holy shit, that is fucking cool as hell!"
Cogs smiles at you again but his smile falters and he narrows his eyes.
"What's wrong? My cutie mark? Does it look bad or something?"
"No, just hold still for a second."
He walks closer and stares at your flank for a second.
"Oh no. God damn it, it's happening again already?"
"What's happening? Whats happening again?"
"Look at my hips."
You stare closely for a couple of second and notice something. The pale red fur on his flank has started to slowly spread to him stomach area.
"Huff... Again? This shit better hurry up be over with. I'm starting to get tired of being surprised at the changes."
Cogs laughs a lot at this.
"Whoa dude, wasn't *that* funny"
"Sure it was."
You both smile at each other for a bit but stop when the changes speed up again. The fur is rising up your stomach and is only about an inch away from your chest when you suddenly feel your chest muscles loosen up a lot. You look down and see that your breasts have started to shrink and move down your chest a bit. It kind of makes sense, ponies don't even have boobs, or at least, don't have boobs where humans do. Even so, it saddened you to see your new playthings leave so fast after arriving. Oh god, did you just call them playthings? Snap the fuck out of it. Your breasts moved all the way down to your crotch, shrinking in size as they went until they were nothing bigger than two shapely lumps above your mare parts. Suddenly your back audibly cracks and you fell to the floor in surprise. You could feel the shifting of bones and skin as your body rapidly changed from that of a humans to that of a pony. Oh god, this was one of the weirdest fucking things you had ever felt, second only to when you had switched genders. Up until now, you had just looked like a human with strange limbs, but you were quickly changing to become a fully fledged female pony. The fur progressed all the way up to your neck and began to slow down, your chest morphing a little bit more before settling into it's rightful shape and place. Ah, thank Christ, it seems that you had stopped for now. Wait, wait, wait, no it hadn't! The fur growth had slowed down, but you could feel a very slight tingling in your head. Don't tell me that my head is already changing as well! The growth of fur started again and quickly engulfed the entirety of your now transforming noggin. Scratch what you had said before, THIS was the weirdest thing you had ever felt! Your head began to stretch, warp, and enlarge itself to suit character with the rest of your body. Your eyes got bigger, increasing your field of view and allowing you to see as your hair grew and changed colour before your eyes. Your vision became even crisper than it had been before and after a few seconds of absolute silence, your ears kicked in as well and started to swivel around the room, picking up the tiny pinpricks of noise. A final stretching feeling, followed by a pop as your nose changed into a pony muzzle, and you were done. Both you and Cogs stared at your new body for a couple of seconds, somewhat intrigued, somewhat impressed at how good you looked fully transformed. You looked up at Cogs, tears again beginning to fill his eyes. This did nothing to help your situation and you well up as well. You walk over and throw your arms around him, giving him another tight hug.
During the hug, Cogs begins to softly cry and his tears run down his face, wetting the new fur on your shoulder.
"I can't believe this... My family, my friends, my... Everyone!" Cogs began to sob and sputter "I'll be alone forever! I'll never see them again!"
"Don't worry, dude. It's not that bad. We may be alone, but we'll always be together, no matter what. I promise you that."
"But my mum! What about her? She can't handle this on her own. I can just see her now, crying that her only son has gone missing... I... It's all my fault."
"No! It's not your fault! You didn't choose for this to happen to you, it was forced upon you. Don't blame yourself. Maybe if we manage to meet up with the other people who had been turning into ponies, we'd be able to figure something out. That guy we talked to on 4Chan said that he was going to wait a bit for the others to see his thread, so they might turn up some time soon. Maybe if we came out into the open and showed everyone what we had become, they wouldn't dare to lock us up somewhere."
"Yeah *sniff* You're right." He smiles through his tears and wipes his eyes with his hoof.
"We have each other. I'm not gonna give up on you, or my mum. We'll find someway."
You both hug again, differently from before though. This hug was tender and sweet, It made your stomach fill to the brink with butterflies.
"Oh god, Icarus, I... I love you..."
You pull back a bit, not out of the hug, but enough to face him.
"Wait, dude, did you just-"
"Yes. I did. And you know what? It's true."
The butterflies in your stomach go into overload and explode through your mind. You never thought in a million years that you would ever feel this way about Stephen as you do now with Cogs. In a brief moment, you press his lips to yours and give him a deep and passionate kiss. He seems surprised at first, but quickly kisses you back. This was so strange. You had kissed another girl before, but it didn't really mean anything. You didn't love her, she was just someone at a party. This was new, different, meaningful. Was this the right thing to do? I guess that I’m not technically gay now, seeing as I’ve had switched genders, you think to yourself and that thought was enough instentive make you want the kiss to never stop.

Inevitably though, the kiss does come to an end. He stares at you, lids half open and smiling happily. You're glad that you are now able to think of him as Cogs and not Stephen. Although you were still you, and he was still him, you were different, both physically and mentally. Another breeze picks up through the room and you both shiver this time. The unbearable heat from before was over for now and you both agreed that it was late enough to go to bed. You could finally sort the food out in the morning. You both walked together to your separate rooms and smiled to each other as you closed the doors, the remaining butterflies in your stomach still a-flutter. You clop slowly towards your bed, get up, pull the sheets over and slide your eyes shut.
It's sometime early in the morning when you wake up. You're freezing cold and your teeth are chattering away violently, so you sit up and look around the room for something, anything to warm you up but find nothing. There were sleeping bags, but you had forgot to bring them out of the car. A though comes to your mind, and you get up out of bed, walk into the hall and softly open the door to Cogs' room.
"Are you still awake?" You softly whisper at the entrance to the room. After a few seconds, you hear a bit of movement and shuffling of sheets in the dark.
"I've been to cold to stay asleep. Keep waking up."
"Do you, uh, do you mind if I stay with you tonight."
A few seconds pass.
"Yeah, sure."
You walk up to the side of the bed as he holds onto your hoof and helps you up. You slide under the sheets and lay next to him facing the wall. He timidly puts his hoof on your shoulder and you shuffle back against his body in acceptance, smiling softly and putting his arm around you. He puts his muzzle to the back of your mane and gives you a small kiss.
"Sleep well Icarus."
Content again, you close your eyes slowly. With the body heat of each other warming you both up and calming your nerves at the same time, you quickly fall to sleep and sleep like a rock for the rest of the night.