A local ice cream store known as the Life-Changingly Good wasn’t very busy, nor was much of the town, for that matter. When a couple composed of a tigress and fox anthro walked in, they were only the fourth and fifth person, respectively, to visit that day. “Mo’ning!” the shop owner waved and called out in his Boston accent and its dropped Rs. “It’s good to see you two again!”

“Good morning, Immanuel, good to see you, too,” the tigress said. “We heard that you have a new flavor?”

“I do!” the skunk behind the counter replied. “And it’s one that ‘equi’es two people to make the potion in it w’uhk! I call it the Sweet Switch Sundae.”

“We’re interested,” Chester said. “Is it a body-swap effect?”

The skunk, Immanuel, shook his head. “It causes a species swap, which lasts about five days.”

The couple looked at each other. “Let’s try it,” the tigress said, and her husband nodded. Off to the side, a raccoon woman had just finished turning into a snow leopard guy courtesy of something that appeared to be vanilla and mint with chocolate chunks. He stood up and looked himself over as the couple reached the counter.

“Looks like you have a new customer,” Chester said.

“I shu’uh do! I al’eady fo’got thei’uh name, though, sta’ted with an N, I think.” The snow leopard waved as they left, and Immanuel waved back.

“Well, I’d like to get to know them at some later time. Anyway, one Sweet Switch Sundae, please!”

“You got it!” Immanuel took out a glass bowl and put four scoops into it, taken from a container of a mess of orange, white, red, and purple. Subtly, he scraped the tip of one finger against the side of another, causing a single strand of fur to fall out into the ice cream, which instantly disappeared with a faint shimmer, activating the transformative potion in the couple’s treat. He listed the price, which the couple split.

“Thanks, Immanuel,” Ning said, taking the bowl. Immanuel handed Chester a pair of spoons, and the couple crossed the room and took a seat at a booth by a window that offered a view of the nearby woods. Chester was the first to taste it.

“Fruit salad,” he said.

Ning took a bite next. “Yeah, it does taste like that.” They waited a moment, and proceeded to dig in. It wasn’t long before the changes started setting in, with Chester’s nose turning pink becoming larger and gaining a slight depression in the center, while Ning’s turned much darker, shrank, and became closer to a perfect triangle. The changes spread from there, Chester’s snout becoming shorter and broader, while Ning’s thinned and elongated. As they continued working away at their treat, Chester’s head became bulkier and slightly more rounded out as his wife’s head thinned in some places while other details became more pronounced, particularly her cheeks. They watched each other as the changes happened, Ning seeing Chester’s pupils round out, as he saw hers thin and elongate vertically. Following that, her ears lengthened slightly and turned triangular in shape, and his became elliptical and a little bit shorter, twitching every now and then as they did so. With their heads transformed, and with Ning losing her stripes while Chester gained his own set, the changes headed downward. Ning’s body lost a fair amount of its bulk, and her tail became longer and much fluffier while the opposite happened to her husband, his body becoming noticeably more muscular as much of the fur on his tail was lost. The last changes were their claws, Ning’s becoming larger and fixed, and Chester’s thin and retractable, just after they finished the sundae. Their first reactions, as they stood and Chester picked up the bowl to put it on the return table, were Chester rubbing his hand over his face, taking in its new shape, and Ning caressing her tail, watching her hands completely disappear into the fluffy mass.

“Did you enjoy it?” Immanuel called out from over the shoulder of another customer that had just arrived.

“We sure did!” Ning chimed. “Take care today, Immanuel. We’ll be sure to enjoy these new forms!” The couple waved, and the shop owner waved back to them as they went through the door.

* * * * * *

“At least I’m still taller,” Ning said with a smirk. She glanced down at her feetpaws. “That is an odd feeling, my claws being fixed out like that.”

“You’ll get used to it,” Chester answered, running a hand through his wife’s bushy tail. “And I guess I’ll have to get used to being the least fluffy of us.”

“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with-”

“There you two are!” A familiar voice came from nearby. The two turned, and from across the park, they saw a black-furred wolf lady waving to them.

“Hi, Karina,” Ning said.

“What happened to you two this time?” the wolf asked as she came closer. She looked them over, and being able to both see and manipulate aura, she could tell who was in which body.

“We’ve been species-swapped!” Chester answered. “Courtesy of our skunk friend, he’s got a new flavor at his shop.”

“And I like the results!” Karina drawled. “You two are lookin’ quite cute!”

“Why, thank you,” Ning said, “are you thinking of trying it yourself?”

“I might! I don’t know who I’d try it with, but I am interested.” She stepped forward and petted the couple on their heads. Chester nearly pulled away when she did, but he stood there and chuffed softly instead. “So very cute,” the wolf insisted.

“Say, is anyone up for a swim? Because I suddenly am,” Chester said.

“Sure, let’s do it,” Ning agreed. Before any of them could even start to move, however, a fourth person entered the scene.

“Aren’t you three a bit old to be wearing costumes?” a human woman asked somewhat forcefully, scowling at the three anthros.

“Uh, miss, these are not-” Ning tried to say, but the human interrupted.

“Yes, they are, and you should give them to my son!” Said son was nowhere to be seen. “He has been getting very good grades and he wanted a costume, and you should give him yours!” Chester rolled his eyes, and that made the lady get right in his face, hers red with anger. “Don’t you dare roll your eyes at me! Take that costume off right now and-” she froze as the tiger’s eyes began to glow, as she was looking right into them. As soon as Chester’s magic took hold, the woman’s body hollowed out and collapsed to the ground, where it came apart into the various pieces of a tiger fursuit.

“Alright, that’s taken care of,” Chester said as his eyes returned to normal. He nodded to Ning, and with a flick of her wrist, the suit disappeared into a portal to somewhere that wasn’t there.

Karina looked at that spot on the ground, then back to her friends. “Now that whatever that was is over, let’s hit the pool.”

* * * * * *

Chester had been turned into a tiger (or tigress) many times, but he had never gone swimming as one before. The new form was very well suited to swimming, while his wife, in her new vixen form, was having a noticeably harder time. Karina, meanwhile, was swimming as fine as she always had, slow but steady. Chester had just finished another lap of butterfly stroke when he noticed another friend of his, Lehua, walking across by in his lifeguard uniform. “The new form looks nice,” he commented as he went by, only glancing at Chester briefly. His gaze turned briefly to one of those folding yellow signs, which Chester thought was to mark that specific lane as reserved. A newly-formed swim team, perhaps.

“Thanks,” he replied, disappearing beneath the surface and launching himself off the wall, starting a perfect front stroke as soon as he surfaced. By sheer chance, he, Karina, and Ning all reached the far all at the same time - and then, in the lane to Ning’s right, a salmon leapt out of the pool and fell back in, followed by an empty swimsuit floating to the surface. Chester looked around and saw Lehua disappear into a closet, emerging moments later with a net in one hand and a vial of something in the other.

“Hey, Lehua, one of the swimmers just turned into a fish,” Karina said, pointing across the pool deck.
Lehua looked at the lane she was indicating, and sighed as he stopped at its edge. “You mean, another swimmer has turned into a fish.”

“What do you mean, another?”

“I mean everyone who touched the corner between the end wall and floor on that end of lane five for the past two days has turned into a fish.” It was his turn to point, and he indicated the yellow caution sign. Now, Karina actually read it, and it warned the reader to not do precisely what Lehua had just laid out, showing a stick figure half-turned into a fish. “I know what to do.” He carefully scooped the fish out of the water in the net, opened the vial, and splashed its contents on it before carefully lowering it back into the water. He tossed the swimsuit over to it as it started turning back into a bear anthro.
“Yeah, I think I’ve seen enough for today,” Chester said, hauling himself out of the pool. His wife and then his wolf friend followed.


“Want to get a family portrait later? Tomorrow, perhaps?” Karina suggested as they exited the locker rooms, back in their normal clothing.

“I’d be up for that!” Ning answered. Chester quietly nodded.

“Good! You two should try this sort of arrangement more, by the way.”

The couple looked at each other. “We should,” Chester said, grinning.