(F To Clydesdale Stallion)

Princess Aurelia lived a pampered life, spoiled rotten since birth. As an adult, this was only made worse by a newfound authoritative streak. She invented laws as easily as breathing, and broke others’ rules even easier.

So naturally, she wouldn’t pay any attention to the Whispering Falls’ simple instruction placard. There were two simple sentences, phrased such that any commoner could understand. “Men to the mens’s spring, women to the women’s. Break this law and bring peril to all.”

“-bunch of horse dung, is what it is!” Aurelia finished her overlong tirade, huffing for a moment to catch her breath. “I’ll not be seen bathing by lowborn riff-raff, certainly not due to some sign put up by… Ah. How did I refer to the locals?”

“Horse-rutters was your preferred term, milady.” Lena, the captain of Aurelia’s guard, was used to this. Her weather-beaten face creased into a familiar patient disapproval. “That said, you are aware of the tales of the Plainsfolk?”

“Baseless superstition that certainly didn’t keep us from conquering them,” Aurelia huffed. “I see no reason some old sign should bear more weight than my word, do you?”

Lena hated to admit it, but the princess had half of a point there, which was a good deal more than she usually sported. She eyed the springs for a moment, gauging the distance between the baths.

Just as Lena knew Aurelia, Aurelia knew her guard well enough to tell what she was thinking. “There’s barely a gate between the springs. If there’s any trouble, I’ll simply shout.”

“… As you wish.” Lena relented with a shrug that clinked her armor’s mail. “Ladies, with me. Let’s leave the princess be.”

Aurelia watched her guards trudge off, a self-satisfied smirk on her face. Then she promptly spun on her heel, enjoying the quiet as she moved to the so-called men’s spring. The relaxing sounds were soon joined by a calming sight, serene milky blue water greeting her. Faint wisps of steam rose from the surface, and Aurelia disrobed in an undignified hurry.

Her slender, elegant figure kissed the water, and a sigh of content slipped past her perfect lips. She sank deeper into it, feeling the warm water caress her muscles, kneading away her worries and troubles.

It was in this moment of relaxation that the spring’s enchantment took hold of her noble figure. It started with an odd itch in her ankles, one that she couldn’t quite get rid of. Aurelia played her toes against her skin, freezing at the sensation of something unusual against her big toe.

A glance down found what looked like white hairs clinging to her skin. They reminded her of her guards’ mounts, and she crinkled her nose. “Of course those horse-rutters would leave the water dirty. I should have sent Lena and her lot to the men’s spring.”

She lifted her leg, rubbing her fingers against the hairs, trying to scrub them away. Instead of removing any, the motion only served to double, then triple the hairs’ density. Each hair grew to be long and wiry, and the forest of them soon coated her feet so completely that she could barely see her toes.

Unfortunately for her, she could still feel them. Her dainty, slim feet cramped as her toes clumped together, crushed by some invisible force. Soft soles used to riding in carriages hardened into hooves meant to pull them, and Aurelia let out a wordless cry of distress.

Her ankles flared too, muscle rippling up from her new hooves towards her calves. Aurelia panicked, realizing too late that she should have just heeded the sign’s warning. She struggled to stand, but her legs were far heavier than she was used to, weighing her down in place, letting her feel every moment of change.

The creamy bells of fetlocks around her legs were offset by rich black hairs dancing along her legs, and Aurelia’s heart sank as she recognized it as fur. She tried to turn her head towards the women’s spring, gasping as another ache stabbed at her muscles.

“H-help! HGHLP!” The words caught in her throat as it seized. Aurelia’s slender neck thickened grotesquely, swelling with new, powerful muscles. Her tongue felt lava-hot in her mouth, and she squeezed her eyes shut, trying to spit it past her lips.

To her horror, she was successful. Her tongue shot out, stretching and swelling, hanging well below her chin. She could feel her lips thickening against it as she sputtered, hands flailing towards her face. Unused to her new neck, instead of catching her tongue, her fingers pressed against her thick, equine neck.

“Mglhuh! Hhhuh…” Tears dewed at her eyes as an unpleasant memory returned to her. As a child, she’d spoken with something of a lisp, and had to take special speech training to perfectly enunciate her every word. The thickening clumsiness of her slab of a tongue felt worse than it had then, outright making it impossible for her to speak.

Still, she tried her best. “Luh! LgghuhnhhRRREIGH!” A rattling, equine neigh traveled up her throat, and with it her torso barreled out into a proud horse’s frame.

Aurelia tried to reach her hand further up, as if sealing her mouth would stifle any further whinnies. All the motion did was tell her how much her fingers had thickened, her hands twisting just as her feet had. “HGHRREIIGH!”

Then, she heard them. From across the fence, a chorus of whinnies and snorts replied to her own cries, accompanied by the sound of frantic splashing. It seemed the sign hadn’t lied about peril falling upon her guards, her last hope for survival.

Unexpectedly, this soothed Aurelia for a moment. Misery did love company, after all. Then her delicate nose flared wide, growing thick and ugly. She snorted through it, blowing a humiliating jet of snot into the water.

Suddenly clear, her sinuses picked up a new scent, something oddly pleasurable. Her human brain recognized it as a horse’s smell, but something deep within her knew of it as a mare’s scent. No, not just one – a herd of them.

That deep ache within her twisted at her insides, swelling her heart and making it pound with desire. Aurelia slurped her tongue into her mouth and chuffed her thick lips. Why did she feel this way? Why did she-

Her musings were interrupted by a mirrored heartbeat between her legs. Her eyes bulged and rolled in their sockets, and a thin trickle of pleasured drool leaked from the hairy corner of her mouth. There was a distinct pressure that built and ebbed twice, and Aurelia tried to paw with one of her front hooves against her groin.

Or… His groin, as the motion confirmed. Aurelia choked in outrage. Not only was this curse going to steal away her humanity, but it was going to take her femininity as well? But before she could so much as neigh about this latest offense, gravity claimed her body.

She’d been on her new hind legs for too long, and enough of her body had bulged outside of the water that they could no longer support her weight. She splashed forward into the water, and could actually feel her brain thump against her skull with the violent motion.

His eyes glazed, and new muscles let his stretching ears twitch in confusion. He… She was… Aurelia had been upset, but for a moment, she’d forgotten why. She’d forgotten to be upset that she was turning into some dumb stallion. She’d-

A loud crack flooded the stallion’s ears as his skull squeezed down against his brain. He choked out a spluttering whinny, snorting through his nostrils and breathing deep of the mares’ scent. Of his mares. Aureli’s guards. Aureli… Aurel…

The name was rapidly losing meaning, as his brain lost its ability to process even the most basic words. Memories of a spoiled royal upbringing were too easily lost to a brain that had no need for the past. The only thing that mattered to a stallion was the present, the present need to gallop, to eat, to breed.

He shook his head, tossing his coarse, wild mane over his shoulders. A few dislodged strands of human hair fluttered from his head, but he couldn’t even comprehend why a fading part of him was distressed by that. He splashed in the water, turning towards the scent of the mares, towards the thin wall that divided them.

He had to get to them. He had to see them. He had to breed them.

The new stallion rose from the water, his massive frame unrecognizable from what it had been. “NuhhuhEEIGH!” He thundered towards the gate, eager to become very, very familiar with his new mares.