“I guess they weren’t kidding about how thick the forest is...” said Zack, breaking the silence that seemed to hang over the air. Despite it being a warm spring day, the forest seemed deadly quiet. The brown haired man couldn’t help but shudder, the lack of noise putting him on edge. His eyes scanned the path, not seeing a hint of anyone or anything.

A sudden snap of a twig to his left caused him to swirl his head. He blinked as something oddly purple seemed to dart away deeper into the woods. With a slight frown, Zack pulled out his water, taking a few big drinks as a breeze pushed his maroon tshirt against his white skin. It was a fancy glass bottle; European ice water. Not the sort of thing he’d normally buy, but it was on sale. How could he resist seeing if the ‘fancy’ water tasted any different?

With his mind wandering, Zack realized he hadn’t been paying attention to where he was going. He thought to himself, “I didn’t really just get lost thinking about water, did I?” As he looked around, a sigh escaping his lips as he realized he had no idea where he was. No matter where his brown eyes looked, they only found trees. Shaking his head, he walked forward as he silently berated himself. With as lost as he was, it was as good a direction as any.

It felt like a century to the man as he wanders the woods. No path, no people, No idea where to go, Zack worried that maybe he was walking away from the park and into deeper, uncharted woods. Its been so long that the sky’s turn dark. Or… is that just tree cover? He had noticed the already thick forest growing more wild the longer he’d been lost. Just as he considered turning back, he noticed something peculiar. A hut, adorned with tribal masks and glass bottles, built out of a tree.

Zack couldn’t help but blink twice. This was supposed to be a state park, who in the world could be living here? The question lingered as he started to walk towards it.

“This must be a park ranger’s shack!” he exclaimed, as if the large mask beside him would suddenly answer. It was definitely the oddest designed one he’d ever seen, but hey, with how little ever happens in the park the rangers probably had to find something to do with their time. “That… has to be the case right?” He thought as a slight tremor passed through his body. “No one could actually be living out here, could they?” Forcing a smile, he walked to the door, pushing a number of darker possibilities out of his mind. As three loud knocks rang out in the forest, he focused on how nice it would be to get home, and be back in civilisation.

The only answer was a loud creak as the large wooden door pushed slightly ajar. He waited for a moment, but only the eery silence of the forest responded. With more force, he knocked again, doing his best to ‘accidentally’ push the already ajar door fully open. Still not getting a response, Zack peered in.

“Hello?” he asked as he looked around the room. More masks and bottles greeted his gaze, along with a large cooking pot of some kind. Candles provided the only light, giving the space an odd vibe as the light passed through the colored glass of the bottles, painting a far wall a collage of dull colors. Without much thought, Zack walked inside, curious about the odd place.

Placing his bottle of water down on a shelf, he looks over the various bottles filled with various colors and viscosity of liquid. Some labeled, some not, but any markings seemed to be written in some language he couldn’t read, it was all the same to Zack. He shuddered again, looking back as the masks above seemed to glare down at him, judging him silently for entering their owner’s home, uninvited.

And it was a home. The bed he found in a small divide at the back made Zack sure of that. Whose, he couldn’t say. The shelves were too low to be comfortable for most people. He wasn’t the tallest person in the world, and even he had to get on his hands and knees to reach the books and bottles on the lowest shelves. Even the door, on second inspection, was clearly built for someone much shorter. There was a handle he’d missed when he’d first gone up to it, almost at knee level to him.
Licking his lips, the man reached out for his water, lost in thought. Something was wrong with this hut. Probably, now that he thought about it, something he didn’t want to be involved in. As he chugged a few big gulps, it was quickly becoming clear to him entering here could have been a bad idea.

A sudden burning from his tongue and throat caused him to stop mid drink. With a slightly shaky hand, Zack looked down his nose at the bottle he was holding. A blueish green bottle met his gaze, and its contents tasted ever so slightly sweet on his tongue as it slowly slipped into his throat.
A single frantic thought raced across his mind. “T-This isn’t my water bottle!”
This had definitely been a bad idea.

The burning from his throat quickly spread across Zack’s body like wildfire as he threw the bottle down to the ground. As he looked at his hands, his middle finger twitched slightly as its nail quickly grew dark, then black. As Zack gaped in equal parts horror and awe, time seemed to slow down.
The burning seemed to focus on his hands, the black nail growing down his finger. With a sudden crack, he feels his ring fingers forced straight and stiff against the odd black nail, the joints in either finger unresponsive. With impressive speed, the hard blackness consumed the other finger, merging them into one mass. As he felts the odd pressure push and mold his old fingers into something else, he realized he was growing hooves. White fur spread out from the growing hooves, covering the back of his hands. Stripes of gray zig-zag through the milky white fur, wrapping and forming bands on his arms as the unending heat of the potion continued its work.
Two harsh ripping sounds from below signaled that the burning and twisting he’d felt in his feet had grown to be too much for his shoes. His left foot felt almost like taffy as it stretched out of the ruined material, up to his ankle. Fur consumed the newly formed hindhoof in the same white fur and grey stripes that had taken his hands, while a harsh snap fills the air as his ankle starts to reset for its new appendage. Zack feltl a similar tugging on his right foot, singling that it too is beginning to reform just like his left. His weight started to shift onto his left leg as it started to shrink, his knee already a full inch lower then his right. The already short man’s new form was clearly not built for height.

Zack’s jeans were pushed down his furry hips as something grew out from his spine, the slight sound of popping accompanying the extension of his tail bone. A harsh shiver passed through his new stubby tail as fresh fur pushes out, longer stips of hair growing out the end. His quickly formed stripy tail waves slightly from the force of the man’s transformation, lightly brushing against his quickly plumping ass. While the lower muscles thickened, he felt his cheeks naturally spread as his rear grows taut and firm. His newly exposed tail hole sat below his tail as his new furry plot jiggled along with his new appendage.

The man’s nose snapped hard as it begins to spread and pushed against his skull. He gasped, expecting blood from his clearly broken nose, but it never came. Rather, there’s simply a prickling sensation as patches of fur grew out around his nose and mouth. His jaw cracked and Zack felt an odd and constant pressure from inside his mouth start to push it out. While the front of his face reformed, his ears gain a light coat of white as they pulled out and up. The constant pulling made Zack imagine that invisible hands were working on them; Pulling, stretching, squishing as his ears are molded to the phantom’s own desire. The burning inside his body focused on the very top of his head, forcing his hair to start standing on end. It felt as if it had been gelled straight up as the familiar fur starts to sprout on top his head, the white and gray color of his fur starting to color his brown hair from the roots up.

The candles flickered slightly as the masks on the wall watch the man lose his humanity. The bottle’s purple contents spilt out as it flew through the air. Before it had even hit the floor, Zack was already unrecognizable, his morphing body showing no signs of stopping.
A loud crash rang out in the tiny hut as the turquoise bottle smashed against the floor, cracking and spilling its thick purple liquid. The sound was followed by another hard snap as Zack’s jaw finally gave out. He groaned in pain for a moment as he felt his whole head shift, finishing with a final resounding pop as his jaw realigned for his newly formed snout. As he tried to get a look at his new maw, his eyes went out of focus, forcing him to blink. Every time he did, his eyes grew larger, shifting to a shape better suited for his equine head. Fur tickled every pore of his face as it finished growing in- the familiar milk white with dark gray on his snout and stripes. With a whimper of apprehension, the changing man brought his new hoof to his hair, the hard black hoof pressing his stiff new mohawk down. It quickly popped right back into place, as if nothing had happened. In the back of his mind, he had to admit that the feeling of his mane being stroked was rather nice.

“Mane…?” he wondered for a moment. It was an odd choice of words for sure, but… it oddly felt like the right one.

A long shiver in his arm brought him back to earth as his elbow was being pushed by some unknown force closer to body. He tried to resist it, attempting to lock his elbow in place, but was only met with a loud crack as his bones were forced to change to someone else's desire. It was no longer a true arm, but a foreleg. A small shiver passed from shoulder to hoof as his fur finished coming in. Had they not known better, no one would have suspected the limb belonged to a human just moments before.

A sudden breeze on his upper legs startled Zack. He no longer had pants. “O-oh god, I’m really becoming an animal,” he thought, bringing his other hoof to cover what little dignity he had left. Looking down, he could see the tattered denim falling to the ground. But, just as it seemed to reach the ground, the tatters of his jeans seemed to simply disappear. Even around what used to be his feet, there was no hint he’d been wearing anything previously. A quick glance told him that the same was happening to his shirt.

“Are those holes in my shirt I see!? Is there anything this potion can’t do to me?” The strangeness of the rhyme shocked Zack. He did not have long to question it, however, as he wobbled slightly, his knees protruding out to try to balance his new body. He wobbled again as he felt himself losing more height. The ex-man had lost over half a foot at this point, and his shaky balance warned him standing was growing more and more difficult.

The hot, uncomfortable feeling of his growing fur traveled up his chest and down his neck. He knew drastically little of him was still human. He tried his hardest to will the changes away, to force his body to obey his wishes. The only result was a hard pain in the back of his neck as he felt the vertebrae readjust. He felt his whole spine reject his standing, from his neck to his tail. His body screamed for him to fall on all fours, to stand like a horse… Or… a zebra.

The word popped into Zack’s head unexpectedly. But, as he thought about it, he knew it was what he was. A zebra. He rubbed his skull slightly, looking down at himself as he fought to stay standing. Something was wrong. The transformations stopped feeling foreign and strange. In fact… it felt natural. As if he was finally casting off an old suit that was a little too tight, and able to finally breath again. He was a zebra, and deep inside he couldn’t help but feel as if this was how things were meant to be.

His eyes went wide and he grimaced. The potion hadn’t just altered his body. It was now messing with his mind. Zack wobbled harder and harder, his center of gravity shifting, he worried there was no turning back.

It felt like a chair had been pulled out from underneath Zack as he tumbled to the ground. He pushed himself up to sit on his plot, wincing as pain shot through his body. A small tickle on his neck let him know that the fur had finally finished coming in. Looking at his body, he let out a light gasp.

“This has hurt a ton… Is my body finally done?” he gives a groan as he realizes he had rhymed again. “I can’t seem to help but rhyme. Maybe I won’t this time?” He cursed as he stomped his hooves down. “What did this potion do to me? Why did it not hear my pleas?”. For a moment, he looked at the ground, before getting a sudden idea. “If I must always rhyme then what if I say Orange? There’s no words that rhyme wi-”

Without warning, a sudden stirring in Zack’s crotch cut him off. He groaned loudly as he felt the familiar burning restart, this time deep in his loins. He cried out as his hooves reflexively go south as he felt his body shift once more.

He felt his cock twitch slightly as the heat reached it. Zack groaned lightly as he felt a pull on his member, at first causing it to grow hard. The momentary pleasure passed as the pulling grew more intense. His eyes went wide as his dick started to get pulled inside his body. It was like someone was yanking it into his body from the inside, and soon there was only a nub left. The pulling feeling suddenly grew intense as he felt his balls forced into his body. Zack couldn’t hold back a scream as he felt a sharp pain as both his cock and balls crossed a threshold, and entered his body fully. Panting weakly, Zack felt an odd burning inside his belly and crotch, this time deeper. It was like a surgeon was rearranging his internals, without remembering to knock him out first. The feelings were so intense and foreign Zack was forced to fight blacking out. As the feeling passes, a feeling akin to a shock goes from hoof to head.

“W-what… was that shock…? It seemed to come straight from my-” Zacks stopped, a female voice speaking for him. Gaping and looking down, she screamed, “I have been turned into a Mare!?! How could the potion maker dare?”
She was so angry she didn’t even care about the rhyme this time.

Zack gave one final shiver, feeling her body slowly cool from the fire that had consumed it before. With a slight groan, she blinked looking over her body. Her black hooves met her gaze, milky fur covered her body with dark grey stripes. A stylized sun adorned her flank, and although she couldn’t see it, her eyes had changed from brown to a deep blue. She pushed herself up on her haunches, eyes focused loosely on her hooves as the reality of the situation started to sink in.
Zebra. She was a Zebra. And not a full sized Zebra, almost… a Zebra pony. Zecora the Zebra.

She blinked again. “Ze...Zecora?”. She wasn’t sure where the name came from but it… seemed right. That was her name. Zecora the Zebra, maker of fine potions. She lived in the Everfree Forest, just outside of Ponyville. She is friends with Twilight Sparkle, and Applejack’s younger sister Apple Bloom. They helped her be accepted in town after years of being ostracized.

But yet… She was Zack. Her old life was blurry but still there. She could remember being a human, walking in the forest, getting lost and then… transforming into her current form. Its not that Zack was gone, just pushed to the side. Yes… Zack is Zecora, and Zecora is Zack, they were one in the same, and she was both. The sound of the door creaking broke her concentration, as a purple mare walked in.

“Ah, Twilight Sparkle I see!” Zecora turned, watching as Twilight shut the door behind her “Would you like to stay for tea?”

Why was she being so kind? She… knew Twilight. She had known her for a long time. And yet, this was the first time she’d ever seen the pony. Yet, she knew all about her. Of her other pony friends, and her dragon assistant. A dragon, of all things! It was so insane, dragon’s where fantasy, and she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was not only real, but that she’d met him before.

“Not today Zecora, I just wanted to run by a potion recipe by you and make sure everything sounds right.” Twilight's face turned to a frown as she continued, “I heard some commotion when I came in, everything ok?”
Zecora shook her head

“No no, not at all! I just” she stumbled for a moment “...had a fall!” she smiles wide sweating slightly, unsure if Twilight would accept the lie. She saw the purple mare’s lips curl into… a smirk? It only lasted a moment, but Zecora swore, she saw Twilight smirk.
“Well, as long as you’re not hurt, then no harm done!” Twilight walked up to Zecora, helping her back onto all fours “Oh… I guess you dropped that potion too?” Zecora followed Twilights to the familiar broken bottle laying on the ground.
"Yes, when I tripped, from my back it slipped. But enough about my fall, your potion do your recall?"

Zecora knew at some point she'd need to figure out just what happened to her, but for now that could wait. After all, she had a friend over, and what could be more important than that?

*************************************

Yet another TF story from me! Its been a bit, but I did this for a friend,  tfsential. He was making a TF picture series, and asked me to do a story for it. Here's the whole thing as just a story! You really should go and look up the pictures, Sential does amazing work.

I really hope you guys enjoy the story. I promise... the next one'll not be pony related.

The start of the image series: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/13230866/