The circus tended to be a good place for families, even those as odd as this one. They were an odd bunch: Sam, the redheaded firecracker; Jenny, the animal-minded blonde; Ebonii, a literal witch; Wrenni, the silver-haired friend who brought them together; and Lilly, Wrenni’s Asian sibling. They were good together, and though they had no reason to stay with one another their love acted as a bond stronger than anything else.

It was almost a shame that they’d chosen this particular circus.

The five were seated front-row at Davenport’s Traveling Circus, blissfully unaware of the consequences of their seats. All they’d known was that a friend of Ebonii’s had gotten them the tickets, and that the dark-skinned witch hadn’t found them suspicious.

“Holy shit, would you look at that! It’s a real tiger!” Lilly exclaimed, her eyes shining. The girl hopped in her seat eagerly, looking to her sister.

“Language.” Wrenni smiled, petting the girl’s head and smiling as her hand was swatted away. “But yeah, it is. We’ve never been to the zoo, have we? We’ll need to go after this…”

“Or I can make us one.” Ebonii smirked, cutting the girl off. She laughed at the look on her face, rolling her eyes. “Only a joke, you know I don’t like to get you involved in work.”

Wrenni opened her mouth to reply, only for the announcer to boom in over the speakers.

“And now… For our front row volunteers!”

“The fuck?” Sam grunted, lifting a hand to her eyes as the light was cast upon the four of them. She looked to Jenny in confusion, finding her sister similarly flummoxed. Then they looked to Ebonii, finding that she was also at a loss.

That said, the dark-skinned witch was a natural showboat, and she rose with a smile. The look of confusion dropped from her face in an instant, and she smiled just as though she was one of the performers.

“Thank you, thank you!” Ebonii shouted, her voice echoing around the tent. Her magical amulet glowed as she took center stage, the rest of the girls following her unsurely. After all, when in Rome…

There was a crack of smoke and a flash of light, and a man appeared amidst them, a smirk on his face. “Hello, ladies, and thank you for your time. I’m sure you’ll enjoy your stay.”

The girls smiled to him uneasily, all save for Ebonii. The witch knew real magic from performance when she saw it, and she summoned her own protectively. “Girls, get ba”

She froze mid-sentence, and her four friends blinked in shock. Slowly they began to realize that today was going to turn out very differently than how they’d first imagined.

“Now now, one at a time, one at a time… This will be far easier if you all take your turns at it. I’d change you at once, but that’s hardly as good of a performance.” The man grinned, a twinkle in his brown eyes.

“Change us? What the hell are you talking about?” Sam glared defiantly, turning to grab her sister’s hand. Jenny didn’t respond, and Sam looked back only for her heart to sink. The girl was frozen in place, all save her eyes which spoke only of fear and panic.

“No… You bastard!” The redhead turned to him, only for her shoulders and hips to pop violently. She yelped as she was thrown to all fours, her eyes widening in shock. She looked up, only to groan as her body began to reform.

It was like nothing she’d ever experienced in her life, and nothing she’d ever wanted to. Her skin was crawling as her very bones ached, a cramping across each of her muscles settling in as though she’d just run a marathon.

“Such a defiant one… Well, I’m sure you’ll make quite the good predator, won’t you?” The magician spoke. “Thus, the Dauntless Davenport decrees! Our lovely lady shall make a fine lioness!”

“Liorrnrrrs!?” Her words degenerated into a primal growl, her face stretching out into a muzzle. Desperately, she looked to her frozen sister, their eyes meeting as hers turned golden. She knew that there was nothing she could do, nothing that could be done.

For a moment, Sam thought of running. Then a whipcrack heralded the arrival of the show’s beast tamer, a gorgeous blonde. Sam turned towards the woman, her body growing as her brain shrank. A low growl emanated from deep within her throat, and she grew a tail so it could swish behind herself with anticipation.

The whip cracked about herself, dancing scant millimeters from her growing golden fur. It tore her clothes to bits, and she growled apprehensively, only to forget moments later what their purpose was. They were constricting her, after all…

No, that wasn’t right. Sam growled, batting at her head with a hand. No, with a paw? She looked to it, watching as it bulged into the familiar shape that she was used to seeing. Claws adorned her paw, and she rested its lush pad against the ground, shaking out her coat.

She couldn’t remember what was bothering her, couldn’t…

The whip cracked, and she stood at attention, padding towards her trainer. Her own worries didn’t matter. After all, she was the circus’s predator.

“N-no! Change her back, please!” Jenny screamed, falling to her knees. “She’s my sister, you have to… Wait, I can move?” She blinked, patting at her form. Quickly, she turned back to her friends, face falling as she saw they were still frozen.

“Oh, you can do a good deal more than move, my dear girl. You can dance!” The magician cackled, his laughter growing as Jenny began to hop from foot to foot.

“N-no! Wait, please!” She yelped, her heart sinking as she realized that she was moving to his command just as Sam had. “You can’t do this, it’s not right!”

“No, I think it quite is. Don’t worry, you’ll be a predator just like her. Now go on, and give our audience a roar.”

Jenny whimpered, feeling her body begin to grow. Her muscles started to swell, her gut in particular expanding as an itching warmth spread across her skin. Brown fur poked from her pores, and the blonde shuddered as she felt something building in her throat.

“Rawr!” She let it out, mewling like a girl doing her best impression of an animal. It was embarrassing, and her face flushed seconds before it too was covered with brown fur.

“Oh, come on! Once more, with feeling!”

“Grr…” Jenny could feel it building again, and this time she knew that it would be the defining moment, the one that would damn her utterly. She tried to fight it back, with all of her might. Maybe she could hold it in, could

“GRRRUUOAAAR!” She thundered, her face deforming into an ursine muzzle, jowls flapping as drool flecked from her dark lips. The girl looked to her stretched face in numb shock, patting at it with her paws even as she jumped from foot to foot.

Wait, paws!? She looked to them in a blind panic, hearing the soft thudding of paws against the ground as well. She was changing so much, so quickly! Had Sam changed that fast?

More bear than human, Jenny looked to her sister, then to her tormentor. She tried to plead for their lives, but all that slipped past her lips was a mangled “Gawwaughr”.

“Of course, of course! Those clothes must surely be impeding your performance.” The magician cheered, grinning impishly.

Jenny’s response was immediate: she tore at her jeans and jacket, shearing them from her body in a matter of seconds. While her claws might not have been suited to removing her clothes like a human, they were distinctly suited for tearing them from her form like an animal.

Her nudity wasn't as bare as she'd expected, considering that her body was covered with thick fur. It rustled as she moved, and she realized that she now sported the ears of an ursine too. It was enough to send her into a numb shock, enough to stun her mind. Which in turn, was enough to erase it.

Her jaw slackened as her mind simply vanished, washed away in a matter of seconds. There was no resistance; there could be no resistance. Instead, all there was was a numb unintelligence, then silence.

Ebonii could feel it happen to her; had done such things enough to others to know the effects of a mind alteration spell. She looked to the dopey bear that was once her friend, watching as the last of the blonde’s hair became a dull brown.

Then the hold on her slackened, and she unleashed a torrent of her power at the magician. To her horror, he didn’t so much as stagger. The emerald wave swept across him with little consequence, and he chuckled.

“My dear, dear Ms. Eshuu… You clearly aren’t aware of all the laws of this land. First and foremost: never challenge a magician on their home turf.”

Ebonii could feel his power encroaching, and she steeled herself against any change of form. Species flitted through her mind, and she readied counterattacks for each of them. Sam and Jenny might have been easy sport, but she’d keep Wrenni and Lilly safe.

“Yeah? First rule of mine’s don’t piss me off. And you already broke it.” She growled. His magic flowed around her form and she slackened her defenses, just enough to see what would become of her, starting with her nose.

She braced herself for the gray of an elephant’s trunk, or perhaps the pink of a tigress. Instead, she was greeted with a large green ball, her sinuses swelling as they became rubber. Shocked, Ebonii pressed a hand against it, unintentionally releasing a loud honk through the air.

The sound rattled her brain, and before she knew it she had squeezed it again. And again. Every clamp of her hand elicited another echoing sound from the clown nose she sported, dropping her intelligence like a rock.

“Second rule, though I doubt you’d understand such things… Don’t let your opponent have the first move.” The man chuckled, walking to the woman who was swaying unsteadily on her feet. He plucked her amulet from her slackened fingers with a hum, casting a further spell on her.

It started with her hat, her loose cap tightening on her head slightly, brightening to a festive green. Her hair turned a bubblegum pink beneath it, losing its curl, shortening until it hung just past her shoulders.

Ebonii couldn’t think of protesting, couldn’t think of anything. Instead, the stunned woman honked her clown nose feebly, a stupid laugh escaping her mouth.

Her cheeks flushed, only to be covered with snow white makeup, and her lips took on a viridian hue that matched her cap. Then the rest of her clothes shifted, shrinking around her body to leave very little to the imagination.

It took a matter of minutes for the helpless witch to become a slutty clown, and the magician clearly wasn’t done. He walked to her with a grin, honking her nose himself and grinning as the motion restored her intelligence.

“Whuzzat-wait, the hell? No fucking way!” Ebonii took a step back, pressing her hands to her head. “Get out of my”

The amulet. She stopped, her mind finally catching up with the events she’d glossed over. Ebonii looked up to find him dangling it just out of arm’s reach, then screamed as a new presence forced itself into her mind.

It was bubbly and dumb, cheery and lusty. “N-no way, I’m not some dummy dum!” A huskier voice spilled from her lips, which swelled as she spoke. Her curves were growing too; stretching tight an already-taut costume.

“Your own words beg to differ, dear. Though don’t take it to heart… Good clowns do enjoy pleasuring their audience, after all.”

Pleasure. The word sent a shot of lust through her, and Ebonii moaned. As a witch, she used it as the core of many of her spells. As a clown, it was the core of her existence. Her every nerve sang with the need for ecstasy, and she wiggled her hips eagerly.

“Not dummy, gonna get back to normal… After gets a good fuck…” She muttered, mind swimming.

She wanted to remember her name; to keep focused on why those two girls were so important to her. But every second that passed drained more of her intelligence and memories, and she soon forgot everything but her wanton need for sex.

“Backstage, then. We’re a circus, not a brothel.” The magician chuckled. “Though I’m sure you’d rather the latter be the case.”

The clown didn’t reply. Instead, she dashed from the ring, sex burning with an aching need. The audience marked her departure with laughter, especially when she clumsily bumped her nose into the entryway.

“And then there were two…”

Wrenni shook her silver hair out, taking a wary step away from the man. She’d seen many things in her life with Ebonii, and yet she’d never seen Ebonii defeated. The girl took another step back, only to begin walking forward, her eyes widening with panic.

“Please, I don’t want to be an animal…” She breathed, thinking of herself an instant before remembering her sister. “And… Lilly, leave her out of this.” She spoke with a blush, a little embarrassed to not have put the younger girl first.

“Ah, selfishness. You can try and hide it, but I know who your first thoughts flitted towards.” The magician smirked, holding out Ebonii’s amulet. “Which really isn’t a matter of concern… Given that such a trait would be perfect for an assistant of mine.”

Wrenni blinked at that. “Assistant?” She repeated him, her heart soaring for an instant. She reached for the amulet warily, but gladly. If that was true, she might be able to keep her body; to keep Lilly safe. Who knew? With time, she might even learn to defeat the man and return her friends to normal!

“Assistant.” He spoke, grinning as she took the relic. “Of course, it does require some alterations.”

Wrenni had just long enough to look shocked before her body stiffened. Her eyes glazed over as she was rewritten, her silver hair darkening to a rich azure blue. Funnily, it was the only change to her body, the rest of the assault focused on her mind.

“Like… I feel funny.” Wrenni said, tilting her head from side to side. “I… Like, I feel… Like…” She struggled, at a loss for words.

“That’s because you’re mixed up right now, Raven.”

“Raven? Raven…” She muttered, lifting a hand to her head. Her eyes began to refocus, thoughts of a girl named Wrenni losing themselves to this new name. It felt like she was waking up from a long dream, emerging into her life as a magician’s assistant.

“Like, right!” The blue-haired girl giggled, shaking out her hair and gripping her amulet. Her clothes shifted to a more revealing mirror of the magician’s, and she beamed eagerly. “Sorry about that, I don’t know where I got those ‘Wrenni’ person thoughts from.”

“I wonder.” The magician smiled, at some joke that Raven didn’t quite get. That happened a lot, but she didn’t mind. After all, he was supposed to know more than her, wasn’t he? That was the whole point in having a master.

Though he seemed to be forgetting one… Raven pointed to the Asian teenager with a smile, tilting her head. “I think you’re kinda spacing on one of them, though… Shouldn’t we change her too?”

“Ah, yes. Last but not least… My dear, if you’d be so kind?” The magician turned to Raven, and the smile seemed to pass from his face to hers.

“Like, of course sir!” She chirped, bubbly as ever. Raven skipped to the girl who, in another life, was her sister.

At that, the bonds around Lilly released themselves, and the girl fell to her knees with a sob. “N-no, Wrenni… Everyone…” She whimpered, looking up helplessly to the magician’s assistant. “Please, you have to remember me…”

She’d never felt so lost, so alone. Lilly had been spoiled her entire life, and now that all of that was taken from her all that she had left was a lonely emptiness. She stared up pleadingly at her sister, pawing towards her boots.

“Wrenni, please…”

“Wrenni? Like, I’m Raven.” The girl chuckled, shaking her azure locks over a shoulder. “And you’re… a horse.”

Lilly’s breath hitched; then came out as a snort a second later. Her nostrils broadened on her face, and she stared at them in a numb shock, watching as they began to stretch farther and farther from her face.

“NuHEEGH! NawgHEEt mUHEEIEGHGH!” She whimpered and neighed, nickering plaintively. Her ears stretched out, growing long and floppy until they hugged the sides of her face, and she shuddered. The motion of her head caused her ears to flop against her stretching muzzle, and she looked up for mercy.

Instead, all she saw was a performer’s smile, Wrenni-no, Raven’s face locked in a proud grin. “So, little horse. You can neigh, but can you prance?”

Lilly sobbed, her darkening eyes brimming with tears as she rose to her hands and feet. Then she began to gaily prance like a rodeo horse… Or rather, like a girl doing a very good impression of one.

It was humiliating as it was devastating, the girl’s heart sinking as she came to the same realization that her friends had: that there was nothing left.

In time with her desperate admission, her form bulged. The girl had seen it happen enough to know what was coming, and she let out a strained whinny as her neck lengthened. She wanted to press her hands against it, to try and hold her cheeks in hopes that it would keep them from stretching from her shoulders. But her hands were still stuck pawing at the ground, even as they began to coalesce into hooves.

She thumped them against the dirt of the circus’s ring, trying not to focus on how much they sounded like the thundering of a real horse’s hooves. The sound only increased in her ears as her mass increased, the girl’s petite belly swelling as her muscles bulged.

Her demure sundress was no challenge at all for her growing bulk, and her body shredded her clothes within seconds. She drummed them against the ground as her body grew and grew, fur covering her bulking form and a mane erupting from her neck.

Lilly’s dainty face creaked out into a large, equine muzzle, the last of her human appearance shedding itself. And her mind was following suit, she could feel it. She could feel thoughts of her sister being replaced with thoughts of being Raven’s prized mare; feel her friends becoming animals and performers in her head.

She didn’t even have a chance to react to it before everything about Lilly vanished, instead replaced by the mind of a mare.

The horse nickered, nuzzling into her owner’s pets. Her ears lay flat against her head as the audience cheered loudly, and she burrowed her snout into the girl’s arms. It was so much better like this, to focus on being with her owner…