Commission for and story by  GreyHawk89 - where a favour of transformation spirals out of control.

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Isabella's shift in the café kitchen was almost over, they carefully dried the last plate and put it away. "Ha, finally!"

Blaze, at the other end of the kitchen, nodded. "Rough day."

Izzy giggled a little. "Well, we're had worse. Time for me to go home and spend the rest of the night catching up on my She-Ra binge. Just lemme sign out and get 'changed' and go."

The valstrax caught the emphasis on a certain word and rolled her eyes.

The yellow Fey Dragon fiddled with the little computer hanging on the wall that had been designed to resemble a retro punch-clock device. "All done being Izzy for today." Isabella took a step back and closed their eyes. They concentrated, focusing on the the magic core deep within themself. The 'gathered' it, preparing it. Izzy imagined their body's original shape, the sensations that came with having it, moving in it, living with it. Then they released the power they'd built up.

Somewhere within them, where magic energy and physical matter merged, a switch was flipped. All the little genetic and mystical 'codes' Isabella was composed of went from 'reading' Fey Dragon to 'reading' Werewolf. In a matter of seconds, all of the tiny velvety yellow fur coating their body coarsened and elongated, re-coloring into shades of black and grey. Their human hair on the top of their scalp remained the same length, but, except for the red tips, darkened from pink to black. Izzy's long dragon tail thinned and retracted as the growing fur turned it into a canine brush.

The pink moth-like wings dispelled as the process of magic neared its completion. The nostrils moved slightly closer together as the skin around them grew black, moist, and bumpy, distinct from the rest of the snout. At the rear of the head golden horns retracted back into the skull. The little cartilage ridges covering hearing membranes lengthened and expanded greatly, growing into fuzzy wolf ears.

Zeydaan stood where Isabella had been seconds ago, yawning a canine yawn.

In fact, Zeydaan's jaws opened so wide as they yawned that they let out a cute little squeak in the manner of canines who yawn too wide.

Despite being an armored dragon from another dimension who could shoot lasers from her wings, Blaze gave a coo of delight akin to an ordinary human woman, reached over and gently dug her clawed fingers into the fur and hair at the base of Zeydaan's eras, scritching away.

Zey gave a surprised happy noise and leaned into the scritches. A random person just walking up to a furry anthro and starting petting them without consent was considered inappropriate at best and mild assault at worst, but Blaze was a friend. After a moment, Zey broke contact by pulling their had away. "Heh. nice. Probably should get going now though." They took a step and a half towards the door before spotting a curious expression on Blaze's face. "What is it?"

"Oh! Uh." Despite having scales, the magic that had originally transformed Blaze from a feral dragon the size of a private plane into one of a more human size and shape both physically and mentally allowed her to blush. "What's it like?"

"'It' what?"

"Shapeshifting like that. Changing your body however you want. I mean, the one time it happened to me, I wasn't in a proper mental place to fully appreciate it. too busy panicking and falling out of the sky as my brain overflowed with all these new abstract thoughts of greater existence and personal identity." Blaze tapped her forefingers together nervously.

"Oh, it's a-" Zeydaan paused, realizing this was going to be like trying to explain the color red to a blind person. "Hmm.." Then, Zeydaan had an idea! Zeydaan had a wonderful, awful idea! I'll dress up as Santa Claus and steal all the decorations in Whoville! No, wait, that's not it... "It's hard to use words to explain it. But if you trust me, I can show you. Err, your shift is almost over too, right?" "Oh? Yea?" Blaze's wings flickered on and off.

"I'm gonna turn you into me!"

"You wot now mate!?"

The wolfish smile on Zeydaan's face was confident-perhaps a little too confident. "Ever since my dragon-side came out, I've been training myself extensively to help me use it better. I'm pretty sure I can infuse enough of my magical essence-pattern-thing into you to temporarily make you a copy of me."

Blaze shuffled with nervous excitement. "That sounds cool, but are you sure it's safe? Just temporary?"

Zeydaan's confidence wavered slightly. "I think so... my other friends have also been helping me train, so I do have some practice with this sort of stuff. Some. so far. I'll give you an extra 'charge' my energy so that you can change back to yourself at a time of your choosing, rather than just wait for the change to wear off on it's own at some random, possibly inconvenient time, okay?"

The valstrax was growing slightly less nervous-excited and slightly more nervous-nervous but still nodded after a pause. It was nice to see Zeydaan so giddy about themself, so unlike the shy, almost mopey wolf who they'd first met a couple of years ago. "O-okay!"

"Alright, just stand still and think about me, really, really, hard! I think it'll help!" Zeydaan reached out and placed a hand on Blaze's shoulder. They concentrated on the magic inside them, much as they had just a few minutes ago to switch between their two forms, but this time focusing on Blaze's draconic body instead of their own 'Isabella' body.

They felt the little tendrils of they magic extending out of themself and into Blaze, threading itself though and into the other dragon's morphic field. When they thought it was 'enough', they 'expended' the charge. Their arm spasmed and glowed an odd blue color, black veins appearing on it.

A flash of pink-grey light blinded Zey for a moment, and when they opened their eyes, they found themself looking at... themself. "Aha! success!"

The new 'Zeydaan' blinked too, wolf muzzle opening and closing. "Wuzzle? Awva Wuff mouff nao?" Fuzzy hands poked a fuzzy face curiously.

"Yup, you have a wolf mouth now. It worked!" Zeydaan puffed with pride. Nothing had gone wrong! "Just take a moment to focus yourself. I'm been switching between being a werewolf and dragon for awhile now, but you should probably sit down for a bit first."

The newly Zeydaanified Blaze wobbled on her wolf-feet, clearly being unbalanced but her lack of wings, shorter tail, and covering of fur instead of scales. The ears twitched wildly, so far different from her old dragon-ears. "Wererf!" she agreed. "Furrfle. Ur merment." the last couple of words sounded more, well, word-like, so she was apparently getting used to her new teeth. She took unsteady steps to the closest chair and sat down awkwardly, not accustomed to doing so without adjusting for having wings and a longer tail.

Zeydaan contemplated their duplicate's newfound fluffiness and grinned. "One good scritch deserves another!" They reached out and started scrtiching away behind Blaze's ears just as she'd done to them earlier. Blaze made garbled Happy Wolf Noises. Scritches Good!

Amrin chose that moment to step into the kitchen. "Hey, now that we're all closed up we need to- Um, Zey, why are there two of you?"

The real Zeydaan waved to identify themself. "Oh, I'm me! That one is Blaze!" They quickly noted that that was clearly not enough of an answer for their boss. "Uh, I changed after work was over, and Blaze asked me what it was like being able to be something other than a dragon, so.... I tried to show her. Manually. With her permission!"

Blaze tried to stand. "Zhaysh reyght! Itsh oakey, jussh wered."

Amrin was making little hand motions that indicated a strong need to commit some strangulations. She took a deep breath and let it out. "...Oh-kay then... and you're SURE everything will be back to normal in time for work tomorrow? Blue is still hibernating for a few more days. If Blaze is gonna be late for work because she still doesn't have to laser-wings to rocket herself here on time!"

Zeydaan gave a very canine yelp of fear and nodded vigorously. Blaze, unfortunately, was not paying as much attention. This wasn't so bad, now that she was beginning to adjust to it. She could feel what she guessed was the 'charge' of magic Zeydaan had mentioned, like a bubble somewhere inside her that could be 'popped' with a strong enough mental 'poke'.

Then, Blaze had an idea! Blaze had a wonderful, awful idea! I'll dress up as Santa Claus and- no, wait, not that. I wonder, how close a copy of Zeydaan am I now? Do I have their powers? Could I use this charge is a different way? Like, say, turning another person into yet another Zeydaan? Maybe my parkour friend Eli would be interested in what it's like to be a werewolf and all that...

Fortunately or unfortunately, she chose not to vocalize her plan to the others, merely watched them. Talking was tricky right now anyway. They were also too distracted to pay her any mind at the moment. Zey licked their wolf-chops hungrily. "Saaay..." they slobbered, "is there any chance you could let me have a couple of the unsold snacks from the fridge? I could use an energy boost for the recent use of my magic." Amrin raised an eyebrow but acquiesced to her worker's request.

"Sure, why not." she grumbled. "Mind you, I'll watch to make sure you don't go into another feeding frenzy like LAST time." Just as the others walked over towards the big refrigerator Amrin waved her other employee off home for the night. Blaze waved back "Rwokay! See you bothk rrater!" She warbled with her increasing mastery of her wolf-mouth.

As she went out the door, she vaguely heard a shout of "Wait, stop! Not the whole chocolate cake! No, not all the pies! Just one!"

In her enthusiasm, Blaze failed to consider two things- Firstly, while she did in deed have a copy of Zeydaan's powers to a small degree, she had no training in using them whatsoever.

Secondly, that sometimes, when you make a copy of a copy, it's not as well, sharp, as the original...

28 ZEYS LATER...

It was mid-afternoon when Sapphira Azula Cerulea 'Blue' MacGregor woke up from her long winter nap with a mighty dragon-yawn. "Has it been almost month already? Ugh, morning mouth! Bad enough after one day, but after twenty-eight or so!? ...I need mouthwash. Strong mouthwash!" The Scottish Flood dragon pulled herself out of the bed she'd been dozing in in a near-coma.

Despite the name for it, she only needed to go into 'Winter Hibernation once every five or six years, during especially cold weather. Or due to sheer laziness building up to near toxic levels if she ignored it for too long.

She walked into her bathroom and spend a great deal of time catching up on various toiletries and grooming that she needed for feeling and looking her best. By the time she was ready to go out in public again, it was late afternoon.

Fortunately, work was not far at all, less if she flew, but she swore that local air laws had been designed for bias against winged people. Oh well! She stepped outside in her glorious French Maid style outfit and strutted her stuff.

As she was walking to work, she vaguely noted that the streets of Mailor City were oddly empty today, but she put it out of her mind by humming a cute song she'd heard on the radio before going to sleep. Then, when she was still a few blocks away from the café something black, white and grey stepped out onto the sidewalk right in front of her, finally grabbing her attention. It was Zeydaan, wearing their Maiden Menagerie uniform, walking slowly and awkwardly, a spaced-out expression on their face. Blue blinked. Usually, Zey transformed into Isabella before going to work then changed back into werewolf, but there was no actual rule about what form they needed to assume while on the clock. "Hey Zey! How's it going? Is your shift over already today?" She glanced at the orange sunset sky. "Seems early."

Zeydaan perked up upon realizing they'd been noticed. "Scritches?" they practically begged, tail wagging like a friendly, mundane canine "Huh..." Blue was confused. Zey was not usually a touchy-feely person. Still, they'd always looked sooo fluffy, and she'd been curious what their fur felt like. "Uh, okay?" She reached forward and stuck her claws into the soft hairs around the ears near the back of the head and began scritching away. It was very pleasant, and Zeydaan was making happy little whimpering noises.

Just then, a second Zeydaan walked up to them.

They were wearing a slightly torn pink t-shirt, ripped up sneakers, and the rear of their blue jeans had a tail bursting out of a hole. "Scritches?' they asked hopefully, seeing their twin on the receiving end of some.

"What?" Blue said confusedly. "Why are there two of you?"

"Scritches," the two Zeydaans moaned in unison. Blue yanked her hand free from the first Zeydaan's fur and backed away nervously. "What!?" Her fingers were all itchy, they flexed under their own power. She pulled them closer to her face, eyes flicking back and forth between her them and the approaching Zeydaans. Her hands spasmed, fur was sprouting out from her scales. "What's going on!?"

The itchiness was spreading all over her body. Her hands, now covered with grey fur and with black claws just like the ones on the Zeys' hands. "Argh, soo itchy!" Her wings and tail flexed wildly. They no longer fully under her control, and were going slightly numb. There was a wrenching sensation at the base of her long tail like it was starting to pull into her, shrinking down.

Long black hairs were sprouting from the tip. Likewise, little holes were painlessly appearing in her wing membranes, as though she was being eaten by invisible moths. The tip of her snout felt cold and wet. She furiously clawed at herself, ripping her clothes. "OH! I need, I need... SCRITCHES!"