Halloween Special: Horsin' Around

Halloween Special: Horsin' Around

[Story Listing]

This is a Halloween special release free for everyone to read. Thank you for supporting my work! 

Mia owned by @awamboldtart; Celes owned by @TuttyTheFruity

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Celes glanced outside the window, quietly enjoying the autumn weather from the peace and quiet of her workshop. Though the air was getting chilly, the warm colours of the leaves were certainly nice to look at. Celes had turned away from a sketchboard, a cup of hot cider in her hands.

She glanced to her board, her eyebrows furrowing. A couple of costume concepts were sketched in pencil. She tapped a pencil idly against the windowsill, humming to herself.

"Halloween's coming up in a hurry..." She muttered to herself. "I'll need to set more time aside if I'm gonna make any of these. Mia would be heartbroken if they didn't have a-"

Celes' train of thought was abruptly cut off with the tingle tingling of the front door's bells, the stomping of hard boots, and the emphatic sound of the door slamming shut. Celes grimaced at the cacophony, frowning to herself as the tranquil moment slipped through her fingertips.

"C'LEEEEEEES! You gotta see this!" A familiar voice hollered through the house. Celes' mouth opened wordlessly.

"Eh? I-I, um...coming!" Celes called back, sorting her things as she shot up from her chair, hurrying for the door. She hobbled to a stop, glancing back to the sketchboard, and then over again to the door.

Grimacing, Celes stretched her arm across the room to flip the sketchboard over. With a nod that the evidence had been hidden, Celes reached for the handle.

"Is this important, Mia? You actually caught me in the middle of something and- what the heck are you wearing??"

Celes staggered out of the door, doing a double take at a strange sight. She knew it was Mia who just came in, based on the usual manner they whooped and hollered on his way in, but they were wearing a pretty goofy outfit. Celes stared into a pair of hollow, glassy cartoon eyes sewn into the sides of a large brown horse costume.

At least, she assumed it was a horse; the rear half seemed to sag like a deflated balloon, legs strewn floppily about like... well, like Celes herself on one of her off days.

"It's our Halloween costume! Whaddaya think? Waitwait, don't tell me, I can tell by the look on your face! You're ecstatic, just lost for words!~" A chipper voice cheered from behind the mask.

"...It... it's charming!" Celes tried to find the appropriate words for the situation. "I-I thought you didn't like horses?"

"Ah, this guy was on sale! And it fits two, so it's, like, double value!" Mia hopped on his "hooves" excitedly.

"A-ah..." Celes played with her hair anxiously, forcing a polite smile. "I-I was actually, um... working on the sketches for... mm, nevermind." Celes shook her head, leaning from side to side, appraising the costume more carefully.

It was certainly a charming little number. Celes couldn't deny that the white speckled patterns on the side gave the creature a particular folksy charm. She smiled warmly to herself, recollecting fond memories on the times she'd visit the horse breeder on the edge of her hometown. Of course, the dopey cartoon eyes were pretty funny too...

Mia beamed proudly, stretching their cheeks with a giddy grin.

"This is some quality material too! And I made my own modifications inside... There's a fan so it don't get too hot in here." The horse raised its head; Celes recognized the motion as Mia puffing their chest out, and flashed a smile of her own... even if she struggled to determine where she ought to be looking.

"...You said this costume fits two? So both of us would..." Celes studied the rear end with some degree of trepidation.

"There's a zipper underneath!" Mia clarified, shifting to the side to expose a flap wherein Celes could enter. "You gotta bend over to fit your head, but..."

"...M-my, that's a little cramped..." Celes covered her mouth. "I... I suppose we could trade if my back gets stiff. ...Though on the other hand, I... mm."

Celes never really had nice things to say about her body's physical anomalies, especially considering the years of dysphoria that came with it, but she had a fleeting thought about how, at the very least, she couldn't develop back pain hunched over like she was; it's not like she had a spine to begin with. She sighed wearily, looking to the slack rump.

"Perhaps it would be better for me to be in the back." Celes mused to herself. "This thing looks like it'd be... difficult to coordinate ourselves in."

"Ah, don't worry 'bout all the specificities. We're like two peas in a pod, we're on the same wavelength! All you gotta worry about is following my moves, and we'll be in perfect sync." Mia nodded with earnest enthusiasm.

Celes grimaced. Mia was very excited for this costume; Celes understood better than anyone how Mia could hype themself up over big savings. She should at least give it a chance.

"Well, when you put it that way, it... it sounds fun." Celes nodded. "So I need to... get in the back here?"

Celes quickly found the seam through which she could enter; she tucked her hair back and ducked right in, and with a bit of shuffling, she got it all sorted out.

...

"I-it's actually pretty dark in here..." Celes muttered with an uncertain quality in her voice. She waved her arms in front of her, trying to make contact with Mia. It was pitch black inside, and Mia was the only one with eyeholes.

"Ah... your eyes will adjust! Prolly!" Mia chuckled. "Maybe we should walk around a bit? Start with your right foot, we'll do some laps 'round the room."

"O-okay..." Celes didn't much like walking without being able to see, but Mia was taking the lead. They tried to coordinate their movements, slowly and deliberately; Celes had to feel out Mia's movements, but they found a rhythm and were trotting around the room in no time.

"Th-this is really kind of exciting, isn't it?" Celes cooed happily. "I didn't think we'd take to it so quickly."

"You surprised? We're soul mates, of course we'd be pros at this sort of thing!~" Mia bragged with just a little haughtiness, a swelling sense of well-deserved pride.

"I still can't see very well in this here costume though... i-it's a little disorienting." Celes admitted a little more quietly."

"Really? Hmm..." Mia considered swapping positions with Celes, but it'd be a ton of effort. "Just reach for something to hold onto." Mia advised Celes instead.

"I-I'm trying, really. Maybe I need to reach a little further..."

Celes reached around more, but the only thing she found was...

FLOOMPH!

"Ack, pfbht, Miaaa! Your taaaail!" Celes whined; an enormous cat tail—Mia's tail— billowed up into her face from the front, its soft fur quickly getting mussed up in Celes' goop.

"Tail? What tail?? I was bare naked when I got in..."

"YOU'RE NAKED!?" Celes blurted.

"N-No, the skin, it... I-I was normal, not a cat!" Mia exclaimed. Between the two girls stirring up into a tizzy, it was getting pretty hot inside that costume.

As it turns out, Mia was a werecat, and would often change between human and cat forms, often on a whim... and even more commonly, seemingly at random. And the change was sudden, as Celes was quick to observe as an anxious, lashing, fuzzy tail was wagging erratically in her face.

"M-Mia, there, ptoo. thur's fur in mah mouf!" Celes jerked her head back. "I can't see and there's fur in my mouth and my hair and-"

"I-I get it, lemme just... hmmm, haah..." Usually if Mia focused really hard, he could change right back, but right now they were terribly flustered. Which agitated their tail a bit more, and continued to bat away at Celes.

Squish squish.

Mia jumped slightly, feeling something slimy pressing against their upper back... it slid up their shoulder, and pressed against their cheek. They could feel two hands gripping their waist in turn.

"C'les!?" Mia blurted. "What are you doing??"

"Ohhh, that's what it looks like up here..." Celes muttered with a blink; her voice sounded like it was coming from right next to Mia, rather than behind them. Mia blinked, thinking on what that could mean, grimacing as Celes' slimy biomass continued to press against Mia's cheek, pressing their head back as they fought for space. It was warm and soft...

Mia's eyes widened in realization; Celes stretched her neck out to look out the front!

"H-hey, this head's only got enough space for one!" Mia exclaimed.

"Well I can't see from the back at all..." Celes muttered. "C'mon, move over a bit."

"Th-there's no room!" Mia stuttered, feeling Celes' form continue to press against them. Celes getting all cozy like this got a laugh out of Mia, but the laugh quickly turned uneasy as Mia could feel their balance swaying hard to one side.

Celes seemed to detect this too; her arms seemed to lengthen further, wrapping around their legs and waist... which only added to their problems. And before long...

"Ack!"

They exclaimed in unison as the pony tipped over to the floor, their legs sprawling across the floor. A large, catlike tail slithered out from the unzipped opening from under the pony, caked in purple slime; a puddle of this slime seemed to accompany it.

Celes and Mia simply sat in the costume for a spell, enjoying each other's company. They were also rather tied up in knots.

"...Y'know, Mia... maybe it would've been smarter to put you in the back." Celes recounted with a sigh. "You got that night vision, and... and we could cut a hole for the tail to poke out of."

"Eeehhhh... it's one thing to go cuttin' holes in the back of my raggy pants, but I'd feel bad messing up a costume'a this quality." Mia replied. "Sides, you ever heard of a pony with a cat tail?"

"I-I suppose, but... well... I do agree, this costume was made from some nice material." Celes chuckled earnestly.

The costume writhed as the two girls shifted about inside, before poking their heads out of the seam. They turned to each other with warm smiles apiece.

"You wanna swing by my workshop for a bit, Mia?" Celes invited Mia, tilting her head. "I was actually sketching out some Halloween costumes myself, and maybe you'd have something to-"

"YOOO, you make costumes too!? Golly, there's nothing you can't do!" Mia grabbed Celes by the shoulders and tried to hoist her to her feet to match their own energy; Celes' torso seemed to elongate on its own as her feet scrambled to find footing underneath her.

"You know I'd make a killer vampire, yeah? Look, I already got the fangs!~" Mia pulled back the corner of their mouth to expose their canines. Celes leaned closer to appraise them, before laughing along with Mia.

"I bet I could work out a stylish noble cloak. I was thinking of something princess-y myself..."

"Hehe. Always took you for a bonafide princess, even if you're from way out in the country." Mia nudged Celes. "You'll rock that kinda look."

"W-well, I'm a little stumped in the sketch phase, so maybe a fresh pair of eyes will... w-well, come see, come see!"

Celes grabbed Mia's hand, ushering them over to the workshop with a giddy smile. They both enjoyed Halloween for their own reasons, and loved to share those experiences with each other. The two really were inseparable.