Ehh wanted an Alternate universe version of Karen where she starts out as a horse and becomes an anthro, it was a interesting thing to write, fun too.

Story for  ehh123

---

Karen snorted in annoyance and stomped one of her forehooves as the wind whipped the rain into her face, causing her to shake her head violently as she tried to get the water out of her eyes. Why had the knight brought her here, it was miserable. She missed the warm stable, where she had grown up with Reggie, he wouldn't have bought her here, things hadn't been the same since he left. She often wondered where he went, not that there was much she could do about it being as she was just a horse, the knight who rode her here wasn’t kind like him, he didn’t even know her name.
Karen shook again as another gust of wind sent the icy rain against her side, making her whole body want to shiver. The storm was getting bad, the tower the knights had gone into was along a rather violent stretch of river on a normal day, making the only access a rickety looking bridge leading from the area where the horses were tied to the prison on the other side.
The river was now a turbulent maelstrom of water that licked at the underside of the bridge almost constantly now, Karen felt the area was unsafe but she stayed put with the other horses, huddling up to them for warmth. She might not like this knight, but she had a duty to be there for him. She wasn't about to forget Reggie's teachings even though he was gone.
It was then a slow rumble shook the ground, making the other horses stamp and neigh in panic, Karen looking around worriedly trying to find the source. She froze as she was the first to see it as it crested the falls further upstream, a massive wall of water and mud, filled with the remains of trees and other debris already caught in his path as it crashed over the falls further upstream on its destructive path.
Karen neighed in panic, trying to get the human’s attention as the other horses reared and fought at their restraints, trying to escape. Karen was tempted to herself, especially as the old wooden post finally broke and the others galloped away up the trail. Karen herself trotting in place at the end of the bridge, still calling out trying to get someone's attention. She felt her spirits rise as she saw the door open and one of the other knights stepped out looking annoyed before seeing the impending danger and turning pale. Karen saw him turn to warn the others but he never had the chance as the wall of water hitting the prison was the last thing she remembered before the water swept her hooves out from under her and carried her downstream.
Karen didn't know how long she was unconscious but when she slowly awoke sprawled out on a sandy bank of the river as it curved, she was happy she had survived. Struggling to her hooves she managed to pull herself out of the water fully before collapsing back on the sand. She felt stiff and sore all over, not to mention the she still had a few pieces of her armor hanging off her half broken.
Reaching back she attempted to pull it off. The remaining worn straps giving way easily enough, sending the plates to the sand with a thunk. Her bridle was still on her face though. Thankfully the reins were mostly gone, just a little bit of leather strap hanging from either side of her muzzle.
Taking a deep breath Karen rocked herself onto her legs and regain her footing. She had to get off the beach, she was starving. Not to mention she should try and find the knight...eventually. Munching on the grasses near the shoreline, the bit getting in the way annoyingly, but she was too hungry to care.
After grazing for a few hours,and managing to work heer bridle off by rubbing it against a tree, Karen started making her way upriver following the shoreline. She had only walked for a short while when she noticed something shiny on the ground a few paces ahead under one of the trees that lined the river's banks. Trotting over Karen sniffed it curiously. It appeared to be a grieve, caked in dried mud. Karen tilted her head in thought as to what it was doing here when something fell from above and hit her in the head sending her trotting off in a panic for a few paces before she looked back at what had attacked her.
To her surprise she saw the knights body hanging in the tree, limp and caked with mud. Walking over she let out a curious neigh below the body, but the stench of death that was starting to emanate from it made it clear that he was gone. Karen didn't care much for the knight anyway, but this left her in a odd situation of what to do.
She knew going back to her home at the castle stables would be safe. But roaming free without anyone telling her what to do would be nice as well, if a bit dangerous. Maybe she could try and find Reggie, but the land was so vast and she had no idea where he was.
Karen grazed as she thought, it always helped her relax and think. Hopefully it would help her come up with a plan. Eventually deciding to head back to the castle, though she would take her time getting there, spending a few days free would be nice she concluded as she slowly followed the river.
After traveling along the river for some time, Karen was starting to feel hungry again, it was starting to get dark as well. Stopping in a clearing she began to graze when she spotted something. In the middle of the clearing was a single flower that had grown out of the remains of a old log, it had blue petals shaped like her own ears. Karen felt oddly drawn to it and walked to the lone flower. giving it a sniff, and not sensing anything dangerous, she ate it without a second thought. It was very sweet and probably one of the best flowers she had ever tasted, though she still had a weakness for the tulips that grew in the castle garden. The flowers taste made her do something she never had never done before: savored a meal. Soon enough the flower was gone though, Karen feeling a bit disappointed as she saw no others in the field. As Karen continued to graze, she was unaware that the savoring was the first hint of some big changes that would happen to her.
As Karen finished grazing and continued on her journey over the next few hours, she began to notice the odd thoughts entering her head. She began to wonder about things that had previously seemed unimportant to her. Like why she wanted to go back to the castle. Sure it had a nice warm stable but she could find one of those anywhere, and now that Reggie was gone, it wasn't nearly as nice. Perhaps she had better not go back, she could do just as well on her own. As she continued pondering, she came across a gate, to involved with her thoughts to notice, she effortlessly opened the latch with her mouth and proceeded through like she had done it hundreds of times before. It wasn't till she closed the gate that she realized what she had done.
“How on earth?” she thought as she had never been able to figure out the latches at the castle, now she had done it without even a thought. In fact it was plainly obvious how the latch operated as she stared looked at it. “It's so simple” she thought and said as the words issued from her mouth quite to her surprise, causing her to backstep nervously.
Wickering to reassure herself, she was glad to hear the familiar sound, though she was curious and tried to speak again.

“Hello” she said, her voice coming out in a soft feminine way, much different than she would of thought given the way her neighs sounded.
What had happened? How was she able to speak like the humans? These thoughts raced through her head as well as the excitement of being able to communicate.
“It had to have been those flowers..” she concluded out loud as she thought back to when these strange thoughts started, right after she had eaten those delicious blue flowers.
Shaking head in excitement she decided she didn't care why it happened, but was grateful for the wonderful gift of speech she now possessed. She was definitely going to find Reggie now, the castle held nothing for her anymore. Thinking of all the things now open to her as she galloped down the road.
“But sir, I’m sure my friend would offer you payment for your services once I find him” Karen begged the innkeeper who gruffly replied “NO Money, NO Service” before shutting the door in her muzzle, leaving Karen standing in the pouring rain and mud.
If her new mind had allowed her to learn anything over the past few days it was that the entire land seemed to run on “Money” which explained all those little coins she always remembered seeing back at the castle.
“At least this one didn’t try and capture me” she grumbled as she trod past the warm inviting stables she had been trying to spend the night in. People trying to capture her was a real danger, she’d had a few close calls trying to talk to the wrong people. At least the half humans were a little nicer. A nice one that looked like a wolf gave her an apple and wished her luck after hearing her quest.
Shivering she laid down under a tree, her body sore for some odd reason, she assumed it was from all the traveling, but it had been getting worse and she never felt this bad when she was at the castle.
She hadn’t had much luck finding Reggie either, she wasn’t exactly following conversations back at the castle, but she remembered the word “Garrott” mostly because she thought Reggie had said carrot the first time he mentioned it. Turned out it was a city far to the west, and after spending half of yesterday trying to get someone to tell her what west was, that wolf person was very helpful, she now was heading in the right direction.
”Hopefully I’ll have better luck tomorrow….” Karen said to herself, working her jaw a bit causing it to pop loudly, the soreness lessening a bit there. eventually curling up as she fell asleep.
The next morning, Karen got up ready to resume her search. If she didn’t know any better, her body was even more sore than yesterday despite getting a great night’s sleep. As she stood up, Karen noticed there was something weird about her gait, it felt awkward, as if her forelegs were too short.
Despite trying to ignore it and continue on her way, by mid morning it was only getting worse, her muzzle looked odd as well, almost as if it had grown smaller.
Managing an awkward trot over to a creek, she was surprised at her reflection. Her eyes were much closer together than before, allowing her to see directly in front of her. The proportions of her body seemed off as well, her chest seemed to have shrunk and as she lifted a foreleg to examine it she was startled at how flexible it was. Her shoulder joints allowing a good deal of lateral movement.
Karen was starting to get worried, what was happening to her? Had the flowers cause this too?
“Reggie will know what to do.” she said to herself, her new muzzle feeling a bit odd as she tried to reassure herself before continuing on the path.
She didn't make it very far before she had to stop again. this time her fore hooves were hurting her, which was odd considering she usually didn't have much feeling in them. Now as she sat down and lifted one up to her face to look at it she could see why, it was smaller that before, she also seemed to be growing more as she saw 3 additional nubs on her lower foreleg, that she managed to wiggle a bit.
Realizing she was sitting looking at her both her hooves at the same time, and having no trouble supporting herself as she sat she felt curiosity get the better of her. Getting up, she reared and found she was able to stay upright with minimal effort. It felt unnatural and off balance, but that feeling lessened as she felt her hips pop loudly.
“Am I becoming one of the half humans?” she wondered out loud as she took a tentative step on her hind legs, succeeding, but just barely, her legs not changed enough to fully support that mode of locomotion...yet.
Returning to all fours Karen hobbled on her sore forehooves to a shaded spot under a tree, taking note of how it seemed bigger than it should have. If she couldn't walk normally without her hooves hurting her, and her body wasn’t ready to walk like the humans did yet, she would have to wait till she could do one of those again.
She quietly grazed under the tree as she watched the changes continue, the nubs growing and gaining little hooved tips as her former forehooves shrank down, till they were only slightly larger than the new ones. Her whole body was shrinking and re proportioning, her chest growing less barrel like as her hips continued to make odd sounds as they kept a lot of their former shape, but lost much of the size.
As the sun began to set Karen tried again to walk on her hind legs, which at this point seemed to be her only option. Her stance on all fours looking ridiculous as her forelegs had lost so much length compared to her hind legs, she also hadn't felt much else change for the last hour or so, the chances of things returning seeming slim.
As she got up, she found the loss of balance and unnatural feeling gone, and though it took her a few tries was easily able to work out a stride after only falling a few times.
Looking down at her new body, she smiled a bit at the new opportunities this opened for her, her hands would prove useful at gathering some of that money everyone wanted so much, though she did miss her old body a little as well.
“Maybe I should get some of those coverings they wear...” Karen wondered out loud as she headed to town, at least she wouldn't have to worry about people trying to capture her anymore.
“Come on...stupid..thing!” Karen grumbled as she struggled with the hair tie, giving off an equally annoyed snort for emphasis.
It had been a few days since she had changed, and a lot had happened. She had managed to get some money from doing something called “dancing” at some kind of bar. They had even provided her with some of the coverings, though they were rather skimpy. The man who hired her fired her after she kicked one of the customers across the room after he grabbed her behind. Karen was glad to leave anyway, she had gathered the establishment was about more than “dancing”.
She had gotten enough money from the few days she had been there to buy her own coverings, though they were a bit tight. They apparently didn’t have many half humans in this town, so clothing in a equine cut was hard to come by. Thankfully she was rather slender for her species, and the clerk was kind enough to cut a hole for her tail.
She and also found more work, this time in a flyer that someone had posted on the town board. Someone was looking for guards for a caravan headed out to the west, and she thought she might be good at that, having picked up some knowledge from her years at the castle. Not to mention Reggie was to the west.
Which bought her to her current situation as she watched in the mirror as her mane fell around her face as it escaped the hair tie. She had been struggling with a good way to keep it tidy since she noticed it had changed as well with her new body, There was a lot more of it on the top of her head than before, almost as if when her neck grew shorter, the excess had moved up there. It was constantly getting in the way of everything much to her annoyance, She had considering getting it cut at first, but she never liked it when the grooms at the castle trimmed it for parades, she always preferred it long.
Taking a deep breath to relax she tried again, this time taking the majority of her hair and pulling it into something that resembled her own tail, it took a few tries, but she eventually found balance that left her satisfied. Most of the excess taken up in the tail, while still leaving some that framed her head as it fell to her shoulders, the remains of her old mane still present on her neck.
“There, much better” she smiled, making mental note of the design so she could repeat it later as she looked herself over in the mirror. She still saw herself despite the drastic changes to her body, the human part still alien but she was growing fond of it. While being a horse gave her speed and strength, she could not believe how useful hands had turned out to be, even if hers were not as dexterous as a full humans. Overall she was pleased with her reflection, despite the ill fitting outfit.
Grabbing her bag, she headed out to join the caravan. Excited at the adventures that awaited her.