Things to know before reading:

--This fanfiction file is actually an archive of short stories. If you came wanting to read the story that was referred to by the current description/summary, then you'll want to go over to the chapter drop-down list and then read the last entry.

--The stories…are very odd. A lot of them aren't really in place or in a specific time line. They're just kind of…random, miscellaneous. And they are also written on whim, which means basically that they come out sporadically and often not in the best of forms.

Now, in reference to this particular fanfic:

--This is from the perspective of me, Aura Kage.

--I used to have a Glass Shoyru. Then a poll turned all Glass pets into Tyrannian pets. This is the horribly written, frustration-driven result.

~Disclaimer: Neopets, Shoyrus, and all other whatnot are copyrighted possessions of Neopets.com. Therefore, I myself do not own them – only the story and my opinions.

Unwanted Transformation

By Aura Kage

Everyone has a daily routine when they get into Neopia. Mine starts with a glance at the New Features, because you can manage to look at the latest additions to the site without having to log in, and this way you know which places to look for new things, and whether you have to do anything special at all.

The first thing that caught my eye was a picture of a Shoyru – the ugliest, most pitiful looking Shoyru I'd ever seen. It had glaring mahogany eyes, somewhat of a little mane with leopard spots, a sickly yellow coat, and a tail that was shielded with a hard shingle, tipped with an arrow. Tyrannian colored, I knew that instantly – no other paintbrush could have such a…less-than-beautiful color. I knew I wouldn't be getting one soon, and left.

I went to check on Fyrlyte, who now spent his days at Dark Skye, lazing around, chatting, and doing various other things with his own species. He greeted me with a lazy wave of his tail, and I left – nothing interesting was happening at the time, and what did happen that was interesting usually didn't involve Fyrlyte, his sister, or his cousins and two neices in any way. One thing I did know was that Fyr was enlisting in an army, and so was Arimah – who was what I liked to call an "AiShoy," for reasons of my own. I wasn't so afraid, because Fyrlyte was a strong Eyrie and Arimah was only to do small jobs inside the Clan – besides, the place had had seasons of peace.

I left and went straight to the Games, where I went through three rounds of Meerca Chase before leaving for Mystery Island to try a draw in Tombola. Much to my well-worn disappointment, I headed back to Neopia with a bag of Neopoints and a can of peas. I deposited the latter at the Money Tree and started up Main Street, counting the houses until I got to ours.

Our NeoHome – or maybe my Neopets' home – was made entirely of Bamboo, since I was poor at the time. Since I couldn't afford Wooden rooms but didn't want to set my Neopets into Cardboard rooms, I decided upon Bamboo, the cheap, rigid alternative.

I opened the door and sauntered in, dropping the Neopoints on the floor and leaning the door to have it shut. Sighing tiredly, I waited for some sign of life inside the house.

"Aura, is that you?" a voice called from not far away. Before I could reply, Cureia walked forth, pretty lavender eyes narrowed in exhaustion. Trailing after her were MoonKist and StarKist – her twin "Shoybies" – Shoyru young-lings. We had reasoned out this term for ourselves, saying that baby Shoyrus were neither cubs, nor pups, nor chicks, nor any other sort of weird youthful thing. "Aura, you're home!"

"Yeah…I've got the Neopoints, and if you want a quick supper I can go grab something from the Omelette –"

"Omg, with the sobbing and the crying and the sulking and the whining – I didn't think I could take it anymore!" Cureia continued, going on as if she hadn't heard me. Moon and Stark frowned and kind of cowered back. "Aura…omg – I need you to watch Moon and Stark while I go out for a little and try to rescue Ashie."

Moon was short for MoonKist, Stark was Star's nickname – there were so many "star's" in Neopia that Cureia had decided to nickname her daughter "Stark" – and Ashie was Cureia's mate. Ash had been trapped for six months, his owner (whom I knew personally) having been hacked…TheNeopetsTeam (who was in our family referred to as "TNT" for obvious reasons) had done absolutely nothing about it, and we were still trying to get it back.

Cureia waved her paws in the air in frustration, picked up Moon and Stark, and deposited them at my feet with a grateful sigh; then she opened the door, walked out, and slammed it shut.

"Well, then," I said conversationally, picking up the two baby Shoyrus. They were both blue, and flawlessly identical except for their foreheads – on one was a crescent moon, on the other was a star. Hence their names, and how you could tell them apart. "I guess she's been in that mood all day…poor things. Be careful not to even try to sound like whining, or else-"

"We not whining, Aura-san!" Moon replied with youthful accent, squirming delightedly in my arms as I walked into the pitiful excuse for a kitchen.

"Yah, Muffer Cway-uh gotted mad at Antie Wayn," Stark agreed, nodding so rapidly that I was sure her head would fall off.

"Got mad at Rayn? Why?"

"A'caused Rayn's day-mon was all 'round da house cryin'," Moon answered. Rayn's "day-mon" was actually her petpet – a Bluna named Aurora. Rayn liked to call her a daemon because daemons were creatures that were almost like souls to their owners, and both could not stand being apart. But that's another story…Phillip Pullman's The Golden Compass. I highly recommend it, by the way.

"Oh, dear," I cooed, placing the Shoyrus on the Fresh Bamboo Table. "And you two were so brave to listen to Mother Cureia, weren't you?"

"Yea, Aura-san!"

"Okay, then…well, you two just raid the Safety Deposit Box for anything you'd like to eat," I told them, tweaking their noses. I was terribly fond of Shoyrus, and they were terribly fond of chocolate, which I had stored up because I found them at a low price and couldn't resist.

"Yay!" they chorused together, and then scampered off. I watched them for a moment, then sighed and headed up the stairs. If Rayn were sulking, like Cureia had said, then it would most likely be in her room.

As soon as I placed my foot on the top step, an ice blue blur shot out from behind a corner and hissed at me. Aurora, the Bluna – she had a cute serpentine form complete with billowing fins and large eyes. Her whole body was encased in an aura of some sort that I guessed helped her float in the air like that. She snarled and lunged at me, and I backed quickly. Touching a Bluna when it didn't want to be touched could give someone a bad case of frostbite, as you've probably heard in some Petpet shops.

"Shh, Aurora!" I said, trying to said comforting. "Hey, hey…it's okay, it's alright –"

"Rawr!" Aurora replied maliciously, baring unseen fangs. I backed further, then hardened my attitude.

"Hey, you," I said in a threatening voice. "If you don't behave, then I'll take you away from Rayn and sell you – you know Blunas are in demand for some people who want elegant, pricey petpets, and I can put you up at a thousand Neopoints."

At this, Aurora frowned at me but closed her jaw, then "slithered" off with a reluctant growl. I proceeded to the top floor and cautiously confronted Rayn's door, then opened it. The room was dark – the lights hadn't been turned on.

"G…go away," a voice growled. It was Rayn's, and it trembled as if she were crying, and sounded terribly hoarse.

"It's just me, Rayn –"

"Go away!" Rayn repeated, this time in a further demanding tone.

"Rayn, Cureia told me you were sulking –"

"That's right, I am! Now go!"

"Raayyn…here, let me at least turn on the lights for you," I said, moving my hand around the wall and feeling for the switch.

"NO!" Rayn cried out suddenly. It was too late – I flipped the switch, and started looking around for my Shoyress's diamond form.

"Rayn…?" I called. "Where are you?"

"Go away…" Rayn restated. I followed her voice, and found a sickly yellow and brown blob curled in the corner of the room. I recognized it immediately – the hideous Tyrannian Shoyru. Rayn peeked up from her new leopard-spot mane and stared at me with eyes glazed over in sadness, with a body that looked more male than female. "Okaasan…look what they did to me…"

I was taken aback. For one, Rayn had never called me "okaasan" before – that meant "mother." For two, "they" were TheNeopetsTeam. For three…how in the world had my pretty little Shoyru become a monster?

Crystal_Rayn had had a hard life from the start. I found her at the Neopian Pound about a month after I started Neopets. She was a Yellow Shoyru, curled up at the back of her cage, a day old and already abandoned. Since I had wanted a Shoyru ever since I had seen them, but because a baby Eyrie (Fyrlyte) was too much to handle, I had never gotten one. But seeing that little creature huddled down at the back of the cage…

Needless to say, I adopted her and attempted to re-introduce Rayn into her new home, showing her various toys and books that Fyrlyte had discarded because they were too boring. After a while, she began warming to me, and I to her, and later I eventually scraped together enough Neopoints to buy her a Glass Paint Brush so that she would match her color.

Then the Tyrannian War came about. Rayn wanted to battle badly, and so I brought her to war to try her luck against the Tyrannian Korbats. She didn't stand a chance – in the first round, she was knocked out and I rushed her to the Healing Faerie. That was another strike against her pride – being disowned, then being defeated by the easiest opponents imaginable.

Then her boyfriend, Trenku, had decided that he didn't like a Shoyress with a loss in the Battledome and dumped her. This ultimately saddened Rayn and we heard no further word from Trenku about having another Shoyress for a girlfriend or that he was even alive anymore.

Then I had gotten Chibi_Finn for her, and this made her extremely happy. It was actually supposed to be for Cureia, but she had dismissed it as disgusting and I gave it to Rayn instead. She was happy with her Searex, but it wasn't long before I went broke and had to sell the poor thing in order to feed the three of them (Arimah was not born yet) to keep them alive. Then I got Aurora, the Bluna…this was the best petpet for Rayn, I thought, because it matched her perfectly – in both color and personality. After that first day, Aurora would let no one touch her except for Rayn and "Rawr'd" at anyone who hurt her owner.

And now this…

"Th…they changed all G-glass p-p-pets into Ty-tyrannian on-ones," Rayn explained, looking away. "B-because of a p-poll…"

That, I thought, was the most ridiculous thing that could ever happen. For one, the people who probably voted on that poll were people who didn't have Glass pets, and just wanted to have a new color.

"Rayn…here, I'll bring you out and paint you Blue right now –"

"No!" Rayn protested, looking back up. "That'll mean taking me to the Rainbow Pool…in front of everyone…"

"Rayn…you can't stay here forever! And after I paint you blue, I'll paint you…paint you Desert, how about that?"

Rayn sniffed and didn't answer, so I left, calling back to tell her to take care of Moon and Stark. Aurora snarled softly at me as I passed, but I paid no attention; already I could see the shining gold and navy stripes of a Desert Paint Brush, and it didn't matter how much Neopoints I had to spend…