[hr][/hr]
"Well, here we are," Cindy said, gesturing around the small room. "Your new home for the next week or two."
"It looks like a hotel room," Taylor noted, looking around. The room was reasonably spacious, though it primarily contained a small bed, a desk, a few lights and a bathroom.
"It is," Cindy replied. "And on that note, you may want to stay below the third floor." At Taylor's questioning look, the redhead explained, "The upper floors are set aside for current contestants, neighbors, and other volunteers who want the free rent. The lower floors are for people passing through and contestants waiting for their runs to begin." She paused for a moment before adding, "My room's actually right next to yours."
"I take it the upper floors get a bit crazy?" Taylor asked, recalling what she had seen of the show that had taken place in a similar hotel.
"It can," Cindy agreed. "Especially during spring break. The rooms up there are less expensive, due to the likelihood of getting caught up in the moment and getting filmed, so they're pretty popular with regular students on vacation." She grinned and added, "We've got an entire line of videos about partiers forgetting themselves and going wild."
"That doesn't sound particularly ethical," Taylor noted.
"Oh, we don't just publish the videos," Cindy said reassuringly. "We take the kids aside, show them what we filmed, and offer them either a one time fee or some royalties on the sales. If they don't agree, we don't use that footage." She shrugged and added, "I understand most of them appreciate the extra pocket money."
Taylor considered that for a moment. "If they know what they're getting into and are getting paid for it, I guess that's not so bad," she decided. Looking around again, she changed the subject, "Am I supposed to keep my bugs in here, or did you have somewhere else in mind? I can feel them a good distance that way." She pointed deeper into the compound.
"I found a nice, well ventilated and climate controlled room in one of our storage buildings," Cindy replied. "It's about half way between the hotel and the labs, so you should be able to control them the entire time you're here, unless you decide to go for a longer trip or something."
"I can't really see that happening," Taylor admitted ruefully. "It's not like I know anyone else in the area or have any money to spend."
"True," Cindy agreed. "But that's part of why you chose to get paid throughout the year, right? To make sure you had money of your own to buy things with?"
"Pretty much," Taylor said.
"Well, if it helps, I've got a few food vouchers for you while you're waiting for everything to be set up," Cindy began cheerfully. "They're good at the tavern, bar, restaurant, karaoke bar, room service, and a few of the less local places. If you want something fresh, it'll also work at the local grocery stores."
"Are the restaurants any good?" Taylor asked.
"It really depends on which ones you go for," Cindy replied, "and what you're looking for. The fast food places are fast food, so… yeah. Some of the restaurants are really good, though." A moment later, she winced and added, "Of course, you probably aren't going to have too much time to try them all."
"Busy schedule?" Taylor assumed.
"Very," the redhead agreed. "First, they're going to need to take care of your body mods. Depending on how extreme the changes you want, that can take anywhere between a day and more than a week." She pulled up Taylor's contract on her bracelet and scrolled over the relevant portions. "Based on what you're getting, most of it should be done in a day. The only lengthy part is likely to be the gills. That'll probably take a bit more time to restructure everything and make sure it all works correctly."
Taylor nodded her understanding. "I can see that being more difficult. I'm surprised it'll only take that short a time."
"We've gotten very good at this over the years," Cindy confided. "Anyway, once they finish modifying your body, they'll take some genetic samples and whip up a pair of siblings for you. That'll take a few more days as they grow, but you won't be involved in that part. We'll have your magical girl empowerment ritual take place sometime around then."
"That's a lot of stuff to do," Taylor said worriedly. "I was hoping to get some more practice with the rifle before the empowerment, too."
"I'll see what I can set up," Cindy promised. "For now, you might as well get settled in and get something to eat. Your appointment with the body modders is tomorrow morning, so you might want to get an early night as well."
"I am pretty tired," Taylor admitted. "I think I'll just order something from room service, take a nice, relaxing shower, and head to bed for the night."
"I'll probably do the same," Cindy replied. "I'll see you in the morning, alright?"
"That sounds fine," Taylor said. "Goodnight, Cindy."
"Goodnight, Taylor, I'll see you in the morning," Cindy returned before making her way out of the hotel room.
[hr][/hr]
Once she'd settled into her room with a nice plate of chicken fingers from room service, Cindy propped open her laptop and initiated a call back to Earth. "Evening, Boss," she said as Bob Ross answered the video call.
"Good evening, Cindy. Did everything work out alright with the transfer?" the executive asked, jumping right into the business at hand.
"For the most part," Cindy replied. "We had a little trouble with Mina, but everything went well with Taylor. Apparently there was some kind of an issue with teraporting, but it only lasted a few moments. I don't think we'll be able to get her back to Earth the same way, though."
"That bad?" Ross asked before shaking his head. "No, you don't need to answer that one. I'll start looking for an alternate way to get Miss Hebert home at the end of the year."
"Thank you, Sir," Cindy said, sighing in relief. "We could probably get her to take a teraport again, if we had to, but I'm sure she'd rather not."
"Perfectly understandable, if she had problems," Ross replied. "Now, what was that you were saying about Mina?"
Cindy coughed lightly before responding, "She apparently overexerted herself making the second portal. The mercenaries didn't think of using sex to wake her up, so they made an emergency landing to get her treatment as quickly as possible. Once I spoke with Corporal Ventura and realized they hadn't tried that method first, I contacted the medical wing here and told them it may be an effective treatment."
"Have you received any update on her condition yet?" Ross asked, a frown marring his face.
"I haven't checked recently," Cindy admitted. "Give me a moment, and I'll see what I can find." Muting and minimizing the chat, she opened her email and glanced through the headings. Not seeing anything promising, she flexed her hand to open her holographic phone while typing in a search with her other hand. Dialing the number she found, she waited a moment before saying, "Hello, this is Cindy Matos, with Slut Life. I wanted to check on one of your patients."
"I'll need to check your permissions first, please hold a moment," the receptionist replied. Cindy sighed as she was subjected to the hold muzak the hospital had decided on using. "Here we go. I see that you have limited access to some information. Which patient are you asking about?"
"I'm asking about a magical girl named Mina," Cindy began. "A group of mercenaries brought her in earlier today."
"I have her records here," the receptionist replied. "She is currently in recovery and is scheduled to be released tomorrow morning."
"I'm glad to hear it," Cindy said. "Does it say what happened?"
There was the sound of keys clicking on the other side of the phone. Finally, the receptionist answered, "According to Mina, the portal took most of her mana, like it usually does. She usually has just enough to close the portal before she would pass out from maintaining it. This time, something prevented her from closing the portal normally, and she didn't have enough mana to force it to close. Since it was still drawing on her mana, and she wasn't producing more, she passed out, with all of her mana generation going to maintaining the portal."
"So she needed an external influx of mana?" Cindy hazarded a guess.
"Right," the receptionist agreed. "Once she was awake, she gathered additional mana quickly before forcing the portal closed. That, of course, knocked her out again. She's just sleeping it off, now."
"I'm glad she'll be alright. Thanks for the information," Cindy said before ending the call. Bringing the video call back to the forefront on her laptop, she unmuted it.
"Well?" Ross asked. "What did you find out?"
"Something kept the portal open and it drained Mina's mana too far," Cindy explained. "They managed to get her up long enough to force the portal closed. She's still recovering."
"Great," Ross grumbled. "Another thing we're going to need to figure out. I'm glad Mina's alright." He sighed and added, "I'm going to need to see about getting her some sort of mana storage device if we're going to keep having her ferry people around, though." Shaking his head, he continued, "Thank you for the update. Please keep me posted of any other developments."
"I will," Cindy promised. Hesitantly, she added, "I'm going to try something with Taylor's body mod appointment tomorrow. If things go well, Taylor will be much happier, and if they don't, well, it'll be during the planning phase, so we'll still be able to fix it."
Ross gave his subordinate a hard look. "Just make sure she gets what she wants," he said seriously.
"I will," Cindy insisted. "She'll have plenty of time to make additional tweaks before everything is finalized."
"Good. We've messed up with her enough as it is already," Ross said seriously. "We don't need to be making things worse now."
Cindy shuddered slightly before agreeing, "Definitely not, Sir."
"Good. Now, I have some more meeting I need to get to before I can go home for the night, so I'll let you go," Ross concluded. "Have a good night."
"You too, Sir," Cindy said before ending the call. Yawning, she decided to head to bed. She would need to get up early to set up her plan at the body mod clinic before meeting with Taylor. The plan wouldn't work if Taylor knew about it beforehand. Luckily, the clinic should be just slightly outside her known range, so she shouldn't be able to listen in on the conversation if she suddenly figured out the eavesdropping trick she was working on.
[hr][/hr]
It had taken about two hours since she'd woken up, but Taylor was finally ready to undergo the body modification procedure. She could have been ready earlier, but she had been hungry that morning and needed to have a large breakfast. She also wanted to check on her insects, since they weren't sure if she'd be able to control them while being modified. Such were the risks of general anesthesia. In the event that she wouldn't be able to control them, her spider was in a decent sized enclosure with a nice, juicy beetle ready to be eaten, her ants were set up so they couldn't escape, her millipede was set up with a nice habitat and a good amount of vegetation to eat, her crickets were in a terrarium, and her bees had access to the outside, so they could forage for food.
She was worried about the egg sack of Darwin Bark spider eggs she had, because they could easily prove cannibalistic once they hatched. On the other hand, they didn't feel like they were ready yet, so she figured they had a good week or so before then. Once she was done with her modifications, she was planning on keeping the egg sack on her at all times. Sure, having a swarm of baby spiders crawling all over sounded creepy, and she wasn't sure how she'd take the sensations when the time came, but it was definitely preferable to losing her new silk producers.
Turning to Cindy, who was patiently waiting beside her in front of the medical center and laboratory's door, Taylor sighed, saying, "Alright, I'm ready. Let's get this over with."
"Sure, let's do this," Cindy agreed, opening the door for the younger girl. "Your room is all set up, over here," she continued, leading Taylor down one of the hallways. "Dr. Zecora is waiting for you."
Taylor flushed slightly. "Sorry, I didn't mean to make him wait."
"Dr. Zecora is a her," Cindy said simply. "And, don't worry, she's used to dealing with nervous patients." Before Taylor could say anything else, Cindy led her through a door and into a room. "And here we are."
Taylor looked around the room. For the most part, it looked very much like a waiting room. There were a few chairs along the sides of the room what looked like a gray mat in the center. In one of the corners there was a privacy screen. "Ah, there you are," a kindly female voice began, drawing Taylor's attention to the other corner, where a computer terminal stood, a woman sitting behind it. "I was worried you had wandered far."
Taylor stood, staring at the woman dumbly, momentarily transfixed on the two pointed ears, the black and white striped mohawk, and the pronounced muzzle the woman sported. This was one woman who definitely had a bit of zebra in her. Shaking herself, Taylor said, "Er, hi. Sorry about that, I needed to take care of my insects before getting started."
"It is good that you do not act in haste," Dr. Zecora said, standing and walking around the terminal. Taylor noticed that her legs ended in hooves and she had a striped horse tail swaying out of the back of her lab coat. "To do otherwise would be a waste."
"Dr. Zecora has a great deal of experience with transformations and magic," Cindy explained. "The higher ups thought she'd be able to offer her expertise here."
"Zecora you may call me. It will give us a better repartee. With Lyra, I came from the pony lands," Zecora explained. "So that we could learn about using hands. It turned out to be much fun, so I stayed even after my contract was done."
"Oh… that's nice," Taylor said awkwardly. She wasn't quite sure what to make of the rhyming doctor. "Er… should we get started?"
"Yes, there is much to do," Zecora said, making her way back to the computer. She gestured toward the screen and added, "Step behind the screen and we'll have a view."
Taylor blinked in confusion as she tried to parse that one. "I'm sorry, what?"
"Your image, we will need," Zecora explained, "so that we can proceed."
Cindy groaned, her hand going to rub the bridge of her nose for a moment before she translated. "We need you to strip down behind the screen so we can get a three-dimensional scan of your body. Then you can come back out here and we'll work our way through the changes you want to make using the holographic projector."
"Do I really need to be naked?" Taylor asked, even as she made her way over to the privacy screen. Come to think of it, why did they bother with the screen if they were going to be projecting her naked anyway?
"In the way, your clothes will get," the zebra woman said. "A good scan we'll need to not fret."
Taylor puzzled that one over before asking, "So you mean the clothes would get in the way of making a proper model to work from, so any adjustments I make would be wrong?"
"You are very astute," Zecora said, smiling slyly. "It's a good thing you're so very cute."
Taylor flushed in embarrassment, not knowing how to take that comment and rushed behind the screen. She quickly stripped down before calling out, "Alright, I'm ready!"
"There is no need for woe," Zecora called back. "We are all ready to go." A ring above Taylor flared with light before lowering around her. It traveled up and down her form several times before returning to its place in the ceiling. "The scan is wrought, now out you trot."
After a second translating that last bit into something normal, Taylor called back, "Can I at least get dressed first?"
"Go ahead, Taylor," Cindy replied. "We should have everything we need."
"Thanks," Taylor called as she pulled her clothes back on. Coming around the screen, she was met by the two women observing the nude holographic figure floating above the mat. Taylor flushed in embarrassment but made her way over to Cindy without saying anything.
"Where would you like to start?" Zecora asked. "What facet is closest to your heart?"
Taylor looked over the nude portrayal of her body and winced. Her too wide mouth looked even more absurd than she was used to, though she supposed that could just be the angle she was looking at it from. Still, even more than the mouth, there was one thing that truly made her appearance look like that of an upright frog. "Can we start with my belly?" she asked meekly.
"What change would you like to inspect?" Zecora asked. "I am sure we can have some effect."
Taylor sighed. That rhyming was going to get old fast, but she didn't want to say anything in case the quirk was cultural or something. Insulting your doctor right before surgery didn't seem particularly wise. "I've been jogging a bit to get rid of my paunch," Taylor admitted hesitantly. She blinked and slapped her forehead as a thought came to her. "And that was completely unnecessary since I'm going through this, wasn't it?"
"Well, mostly," Cindy admitted. "But it kept you occupied when you didn't have anything else to do, and it's a good habit to get into, especially since you're going to be a magical girl and want to be a hero once you get back home."
Taylor sighed in resignation. "You're probably right. Anyway, can we see about flattening that out? Make it toned?"
"If it is toned you seek, then we shall have to take a peek," the dark skinned woman said as she manipulated the computer. When she was done, the stomach of the hologram was noticeably smaller, smooth with just the barest hint of a six pack showing through. "What do you think of this style?" she asked. "I think it makes a nice profile."
"Yeah," Taylor had to agree, looking at the image in shock.
"Looks nice," Cindy added. "If you want anything more, you can probably get there with just a bit of exercise."
Taylor's eyes roved over the stomach for a moment before coming to a decision. "That looks fine. Anything more would probably be suspicious when I get back home, right?"
"If changes you wish to hide, then your time you must bide," Zecora agreed sagely.
"Right," Taylor decided. "Let's keep that as it is and move on to my face." Zecora nodded and caused the hologram to zoom in, leaving the group looking at a massive copy of Taylor's head. At the new angle, it was even more apparent how freakishly wide her mouth was. Frowning, Taylor asked, "Can we narrow my mouth a bit?"
"But your lips are so expressive," Zecora protested. "We should not be as aggressive. I will make changes bit by bit; you can tell me when to quit."
"And remember," Cindy added, "you're going to want to look close enough to how you did before so that discrepancies in your ID can be overlooked."
"Right," Taylor agreed warily. "We'll take it slow." She watched critically as the lips on the digital representation grew narrower and narrower by degrees. Finally, she decided, "I think that's enough. Can I see the full body again?" Zecora nodded and switched back to a whole body view. "That looks a little weird," Taylor considered, examining her altered face critically. "I don't think I'd be comfortable with my mouth being any more different than I'm used to, though. It already looks a little too narrow for me. What do you think?"
"It is a good smile," Zecora stated, to which Cindy added her agreement. "What part should next be on the dial?"
Taylor looked her image over again before stating, "Boobs."
"Now, keep in mind," Cindy cautioned. "You're also taking the Breast Expansion punishment, so you can always make your boobs bigger. Right now you're setting up your baseline size. And you also chose Always Perky, so you won't have to worry about sagging under anything remotely reasonable."
"I'll be of little help, this one admits," Zecora mentioned. "Ponies do not put as much stock in having large tits." Taylor eyed the buxom woman's chest dubiously but didn't comment. "We will start with a small A," the zebra woman decided. "Then we shall see what you want them to weigh."
Taylor watched as her flat breasts puffed out slightly. They were still barely noticeable, but at least they weren't pancakes. "Can you increase them more?" she requested.
"That I can do with ease," Zecora replied while causing the breasts to expand further. She continued to increase their size one cup at a time, pausing for only a few second before asking, "Though maybe not to your knees?"
Taylor could only stare at the image before her in disbelief. Somehow, the gargantuan breasts that covered her entire torso were still perky yet natural looking. "That's a little too big," she stated. "I think one of those first ones was probably good."
Cindy nodded her agreement. "Yeah… With how active you're planning on being, I don't think anything larger than a D-cup would be comfortable."
"If you plan on moving around, perhaps your breasts should be toned down," Zecora suggested, dropping the model's bust size down significantly.
"Can you switch back and forth between the B-cup and C-cup, please?" Taylor asked, studying the model closely.
"Remember," Cindy chipped in, "you'll have some control over your breast size. Right now you're just determining what you want the lower limit to be."
Taylor had Zecora flip between the two sizes a few more times before coming to a decision. "I'll go with the B-cups. If I change my mind, I can always just keep the breast expansion set at C-cups, right?"
"Exactly," the redhead concurred. "There's been a few times where I kind of regret setting my base size to C-cups. Not too often, but it does happen."
"Maybe I should stick with the A-cup, then?" Taylor asked nervously.
"It's up to you," Cindy said, "but there isn't terribly much difference between those two, so you should be fine either way. Worst case, you can throw on a sports bra to keep them from jiggling too much, but you shouldn't need that without a lot larger boobs."
"Thanks," Taylor said. "I think I'll take the B-cups. What's next?" From there, they went over the rest of her appearance, tweaking things to suit her tastes while keeping herself recognizable as Taylor Hebert. While each change was relatively minor, the combined effect was stunning. Where before there was a gawky, plain girl, there was now a very pretty, possibly even regal young woman. "I like this," Taylor decided.
"I think it looks good, too," Cindy agreed, proudly. She and Zecora had managed to coach Taylor into making multiple small changes to have the same overall effect as a single larger change would have, while keeping the girl more recognizable. Hesitantly, the redhead added, "But, before you finalize things, I need to make an admission."
"What?" Taylor asked curiously, wondering where this was going.
In lieu of answering, Cindy turned towards the doctor. "Zecora, can you pull up Taylor's original scan, where she started, and what we've come up with so far?"
The zebra nodded and complied, causing three images to form over the holographic pad before focusing on the three faces. "There is no need for alarm," Zecora said. "And we meant you no harm. We thought your smile was so cute, your self image we sought to dispute."
Cindy gestured toward the faces and explained, "This morning, before I came to get you, I came here and talked with Zecora. I know you think your mouth is too wide, but it's really expressive and looks good on you, so I convinced Zecora to set you up. If you look at the first two faces, you'll see what I mean."
Taylor looked at the two faces and immediately saw what Cindy was referring to. While the first face looked very similar to what she remembered seeing in the mirror, the second face had an even wider mouth. The third face was the one they had just finished designing, and its mouth was much closer to the original scan than the one she had started with was to the original. Looking at Cindy pleadingly, Taylor simply asked, "Why?"
"You've got a lot of low self esteem built up by those bitches at your school," Cindy began gently. "I thought if you had the chance, you'd see that you actually like some of your features, such as your mouth." She shuffled silently for a moment before adding, "If you want, we can always narrow your mouth more."
"No," Taylor decided as she looked between the different faces, "I think I'm good with what we have. I still think I'd look weird if my mouth was much smaller than we settled on."
Zecora clapped her hands and asked, "Then you are satisfied? Is this the look with which you decide?"
Taylor sucked in a breath before answering, "Yeah, I think it is."
"Good, then I must be frank," Zecora began brightly, hustling Taylor toward the door. "It is past time to put you in the tank. The changes will be quite profound, and will take some time to come around. Cindy will be there when you wake, but for now, you need to bake.