Despite her earlier confidence, Sidney fretted as she and Duncan climbed up the side of their bed.  They were both doll-sized, and made of soft rubber.  Toys for her daughter to play with, when awake.

“What if something goes wrong in the night?”  Sidney fretted.

Duncan shook his head.  “We’ll be fine.  Robo-Duncan is normal sized again, he can handle anything that comes up.”

“It’s not fair that you have an out and I don’t.”

“Gwen doesn’t have an out, either.  Not once the Moon sets in a few more hours, anyway.”

Sidney sighed.  “I feel bad for her, sleeping in the basement.”

Duncan laughed as he pulled Sidney up onto the bed with him.  “Did you want her sleeping in here with us?”

“Well... no.  Fine.  The guest room is for guests, and all.”  Sidney looked around her.  “Wow.  The bed is huge like this.”  She tried bouncing on it, but the duvet absorbed most of her jump.

Duncan led her on a trek to their pillows.  “Should be pretty comfy.  Other than the vastly reduced thread-count.”

Sidney hopped onto her pillow and rubbed her hands over it. “It feels coarse, but still soft enough.  This is going to be weird.  Are we really going to be stuck like this?”

Duncan hugged her tight.  “Yes.  Until a little after lunchtime, when the Moon rises.  You can bail then if you really can’t take it.”

Sidney thought about that for a while.  “So we’re only stuck for the morning?”

“Yeah, we’ll sleep through most of the time the Moon is below the horizon.”

“Okay then.”

They snuggled together, then Sidney started giggling.  “Regretting making the dolls anatomically incorrect, yet?”

“Nah.  You?”

Sidney bit her lip.  “A little.  But...”

“I think I know what you want.”

The door to the room creaked open, making Sidney squeak fearfully.  The figure that loomed through the doorway did little to help her reactions.  Until she realized who it was.

Robo-Duncan faked a huge yawn, stretched, and started taking off his clothes.  “Mmm, that bed sure looks comfy.”  He slid under the covers, and was soon ‘fast asleep’.

Sidney stared at the giant’s body beside her.  Then she whispered to the doll beside her.  “I see you kept him anatomically correct.”

The Duncan doll giggled.  “Yep.  Go play.”

* * *

In the morning, two little dolls hopped out of bed and went out to explore the house.  It wasn’t long before they were found by Courtney.

“Mommy Dolly!  Donna Dolly!  You’re still here!” exclaimed the little girl, towering over them.

Sidney squeaked in surprise, but Donna just grinned and held her arms up.  Courtney scooped them both up in a big hug.  “Can we play?  Is Auntie Gwen Dolly still here?”

“Wouldn’t you like some breakfast first?” asked Sidney, struggling in her daughter’s grip.

Courtney nodded, and trotted to the kitchen where she looked expectantly at her mother.  “Breakfast?”

“I think you’re going to have to pour your own cereal and milk today, sweetie,” said Donna.

“Duncan!” hissed Sidney.  “She’s only five.”

“Let’s see how she does before you fuss.”

Courtney looked doubtful as well, but with Donna Dolly’s encouragement (and a step-stool) she managed to get a bowl, fill it with cereal, and pour some milk into it without making too much of a mess.  Donna clapped and cheered on her good job.

Sidney shook her head.  “What are you going to do with Victor?  It’s not like he can change his own diapers.  Or feed himself like that.”

“I made a large Donna-doll that I can inhabit while Robo-Duncan’s at work.  We’re covered.  I’ll try to keep her out of Courtney’s sight, though.”

When Gwen made her way upstairs a few hours later, she found a tea party already in progress, and was promptly scooped up into it.  Donna-doll kept Victor from causing problems, so the tea party evolved into a steeplechase and then an adventure through a blanket and pillow fort that in the end took up a large part of the living room.

By then it was time for lunch, and while Courtney was pretty sure she could make her own peanut butter and jam sandwich, Sidney insisted that Duncan help out.  So Courtney got to see the big Donna doll, and enthused over that just as much as over the little ones.

After a rather late lunch, while the big Donna doll was reading stories to the little ones, the little Donna doll gathered the other dolls in the kitchen.  “The Moon is up.  Anyone who wants to bail now can.”

“I’ve been having fun!” Gwen said, quickly.  “I could go another day of this.  How about you, Sidney?”

“Well...  I suppose it hasn’t been all bad.  If only Courtney had some clothes that fit us, the fashion show would have been much more fun.”

Donna grinned.  “I can create wardrobes of clothes for us at this size.”

“Oh!  Well, maybe that could be fun.”

“Or you could turn us into proper dolls,” said Gwen.  “Ones the same outlandish shape as her Barbie dolls.  We barely seem like dolls at all.  We’re just slightly rubbery versions of small people.”  She flexed her arm and wiggled her fingers.  “We can move easily, instead of stiffly, and don’t have ball-joints at our shoulders.”

Donna raised an eyebrow.  “I can turn you into a real Barbie doll if you like.  Maybe a copy of one of her favourite ones, but keep your face.  You’d still like to be able to talk, right?”

“I guess.”

Donna’s other eyebrow rose.  “I could turn you into nothing but a simple doll, sure.  Unable to speak or even move under your own power.”

Gwen nodded, and shortly afterward stopped moving at all.  Her body was longer and thinner than before, her hair looked artificial, and her face froze in a pretty smile.

Donna shook her head.  “I hope she has fun.  Shall we go with Barbie-like proportions ourselves?”

“But still able to move?” asked Sidney.  “I... sure, why not.  Courtney would like to dress us up in her doll clothes.  Those clothes looked itchy, though.”

“I’ll make your skin tough enough that you won’t notice.”

Courtney squealed when she saw the two dolls carry a third into the room.  “Barbie Mommy!  Can we play dressup now?”

They spent hours at that.  Courtney eventually fretted about Barbie Gwen, until Donna nudged a little power Gwen’s way and she gave herself a voice once more.  Courtney asked Gwen what it was like to be a ‘real doll’, which drew a few snickers before Gwen answered.

“It’s remarkably relaxing, not having muscles.  I’m just a toy for you to play with.”

“Can I be the toy, and you be the little girl?” asked Courtney earnestly.

“I don’t see why not,” said Gwen.

“I do!” protested Sidney.

“Aww, why not let her have some of the fun?” asked Donna.  “I’ll make it a short change, she’ll be human again by dinnertime.”

Sidney sighed.  “I guess that’d be okay.”

Soon Gwen was four feet tall, and dancing her little dolls around in brand new magic-made ballgowns.  Courtney giggled and squealed at being treated like one of her toys, and asked if they could go live in her dollhouse.

Donna made some changes while they were ‘having tea’ yet again, the painted-on decor becoming much more realistic, with actual fabric curtains and plexiglass windows.  When she was done, it was Sidney that sighed the most.

“Oh, I would have killed for a dollhouse as amazing as this when I was her age.  Can you keep it this way?”

Donna nodded.  “It’ll stay like this until the full Moon anyway, and I can make it permanent then.  You’ll have to remind me.”

“Cool.  I might play with it, too...”  Sidney looked out wistfully.  “All that’s missing is the Barbie car.”

“I could make one easily enough.”

Sidney clapped her hands eagerly.  “Make me a Barbie car!”

Donna raised an eyebrow at her wife as the change started.  Sidney squeaked as she felt her body shifting.  Her hands and feet were turning round and black, while her torso was widening.  “Me?”

“It is what you said.  Go with the flow, for once.”

Sidney stared down at her blackening hands, then back up at her doll of a husband, face a mask of confusion.  “I...”  Whatever else she was going to say was lost as her face melded away into her hood.

Donna patted the bright pink car comfortingly.  “You look awesome.  Who wants to go for a ride?”

“Me me me!” called Courtney.  “Mommy car!”

Donna hopped into the driver’s seat, and Courtney sat beside her.  A touch on the gas pedal, and the car swooshed into action, zooming across Courtney’s bedroom floor and out into the hallway.  Gwen dashed after them, giggling.  Soon she was reduced to fit the back seat, and the four of them had a blast tooling around on the floor.  Victor got into the play as well, toddling after them as best he could.

By dinnertime, Donna’s promised reversion was starting.  Courtney soon outgrew the car, at which point everyone got out and Donna started Sidney changing back into a doll.  

Courtney hugged her dolly Mommy, and thanked her earnestly for being her car.  Sidney smiled, and hugged her back.  “Any time, sweetie.”

Donna’s eyebrows rose at that.  “Are you just saying that, or serious?”

“I...”  Sidney’s eyes went wide.  “Not now!  But being her doll has been fun.  I’d do that again.”

“But you want to go back to being yourself, is what I’m hearing.”

“Someone has to make dinner.  But... can you just make me big?”

Donna and Gwen both grinned.  “Getting used to being thin?” asked Donna.

“I... yeah.”

“Done.”

Sidney rose up, taller and taller, becoming flesh and blood but still every inch a Barbie in shape.  She laughed when she was done.  “I didn’t mean quite this crazy thin.  God, I feel like a twiglet.”

Her body thickened, then, and her legs shortened while her torso stretched.  Before Sidney was even halfway back to normal she called out “Stop”, and Donna did so.

“How do you feel?” asked the doll by her feet.

Sidney lifted up her tiny husband and laughed.  “Amazing.  Can... can I keep this body?”

“Think you can explain it?”

Sidney’s face fell.  “Not easily.”

“It’s not that bad.  My parents know about magic, so they’ll understand.  You don’t see your old friends all that often, so there’s little to explain there...”

“I can stay like this?” Sidney asked, eagerly.

“We’ll see how it goes.  Maybe halfway to start, and work up to it?”

“I’ll take it.”

Sidney sang cheerfully all through her preparations for dinner.  The songs had familiar tunes, but the words were all about dolls and dresses.  Duncan-bot returned home while preparations were underway, and then promptly got set aside in the bedroom while the Donna-doll grew into a fully human person once more.  

Sidney sighed to see that she was still female.  “Can’t you be...”  She gestured to Donna’s body.

“Male?  Sure, no sweat.”  A flicker later, and a clone of Duncan was standing where Donna had been.

Gwen returned herself to normal beside Sidney.  “And human, too.  Don’t forget that.  So you can actually eat real food, for once.”

Duncan nodded.  “If I remember what that is.”

“Stop whinging.  You can be fully human if you want to be.”

“For the next two weeks.  Well, except for the night of the full Moon, anyway.”

Sidney shook her head.  “You could be human then, too.”

“Honestly... no.  I really can’t.  I could look human, and have the body of a human, but while the Moon is riding me, I’m something else entirely.  Something that transcends whatever shell I’m wearing.”

“That doesn’t sound like a bad thing.”

Duncan smiled.  “No, you’re right.  It’s incredible.”

“Except for the whole ghoul thing, anyway,” added Gwen.  “Speaking of which, how is Bunhill doing?”

Duncan shook his head.  “She asked to spend the month as just a plush bunny.  She’s still in Courtney’s bed.”

Courtney nodded seriously and said she made sure Bunhill got lots of cuddles.  Duncan smiled approvingly, and hoped it was doing some good.

After dinner, everyone decided to stay human, with Gwen extracting a promise from Duncan that he’d stay that way.  Sidney was especially excited to hear that her husband would stay home during the days and send his double to work, and didn’t object when Gwen asked if she could take “a Donna” to the club that night.

Donna inhabited her big doll body and left with Gwen, taking the shrink-ray with her.  Gwen grinned when she saw it.  “Going to set up some lap dance fantasied with girls actually fitting in their laps?”

“That’s one option,” said Donna as they walked to Gwen’s car.  “Another is to see if you can use the little crystals’ power after the power core absorbs them.”

Gwen’s eyes went wide.  “I could do magic before the full Moon?  That would be awesome!”

The reaction of the dancers at the club was at least as enthusiastic.  They’d been without magical enhancements for several weeks, and were eager to play.

Using the shrink ray as a power source proved tricky, as the empowering and firing mechanisms were the same.  After a few tries Gwen figured out how to “steal” much of the power during a firing, and used it to grow her test subjects back to normal.  After giving Nissa and Neysa some upgrades while they were tiny, of course.

Donna offered to modify the shrink ray with a cut-out between the power crystal and the shrink emitter, but Gwen shushed her.  “It’s way more fun this way.  Plus it’ll work for Ray, too.  He’ll be pleased to find a way to shrink people without accidentally erasing them.  Do you think we can keep it here?”

“You could…  Or I could make a custom rig for the changing room.  Something with a bigger hopper, and multiple height settings.”

“So it could shrink and grow people?”

“That was the idea.  Or we could just have six inches, one foot and two feet…”

Gwen giggled.  “No restore?”

Donna stared off into the distance for a time.  “Maybe a general restore.  Back to normal height without losing the other changes…  No.  Too complex to automate.”

“But you could add a ‘five foot six’ option to the shrink-o-mat?”

Donna nodded.  “Or maybe just five even.  You can tweak their height with the bleed.”

“And because not being able to fully restore themselves amuses you.”

Donna grinned. “You know me so well.  But five feet is still pretty normal...”

“How about one, two and four?  Six inches is a bit small without someone watching over you.”

“Sounds like a plan.  I didn’t bring enough crystals to build it or stock it, though.  We’ll have to do it later.”

Gwen grinned.  “Save it for the full Moon, then.  I’ve got this for now.”  She held up the shrink ray, then aimed it at Donna and pulled the trigger.  In a moment, Donna was doll-sized once more.

“Let’s go have some fun!”