Luna left. She glanced over her shoulder once, but she strode away, and Tabitha was alone.

Part of her wanted to see more of what she had become, but she couldn't muster the will. Her arms shivered with emotion and her conflicting will.

So she was a freak?!

So, she was a freak.

Moisture fell onto her desk, her tears she realized only after it fell. She wiped away her face and rose to her hooves, shaking left and right dangerously. She needed her bed. She needed to just lie down and forget everything. She needed stronger booze than anything she normally brought home. She needed...

She thought of her mother and father, both departed and gone. Tabitha thought she was following their steps faithfully. She'd get married when she ran into a nice guy, and they'd pass on the building to the squealing brat they made together. It would have been great.

A hand landed on her pony back without noticing it. She grabbed and pulled at her fur and flesh. She could feel it. There was no denying that strange mass was part of her. She... She wouldn't have any child her parents would recognize. Hell, the ponies wouldn't grasp it... Unless she made ponies? She was a pony down there...

A sob forced its way free of her even as she wrenched her hand away rather than damage herself with increasingly tense nails. She advanced towards the door, making it a few steps before she collapsed against a wall. She had to pull herself together! "Let's look at the positives," she mumbled to herself. "You're still... you. You remember it all, your head and face, hey, still you." She slid down to her belly. "So what if you have a pony shoved up your butt..."

"Miss?" A female voice called out for her.

Tabitha gasped loudly and started wiping at her face with the backs of her arms. By the time Coco peeked in through the door, she was trying her best to put on a brave face.

It didn't fool Coco. Her expression fell from inquiring to dismayed instantly. "Oh no! Miss Tabitha..." Her eyes moved past that human face and guarded hands to her pony parts and she blinked softly. "I..."

She was going to run away. Run away from the freak... "Go ahead," muttered Tabitha.

Coco didn't run away. She took a step forward. "O-of course. What happened?"

Had she been misunderstood? "You don't have... to stay."

Coco blinked. "Why wouldn't I? You are Tabitha, my landlady, yes?" She approached more confidently. "You're obviously upset. Is this... not a second disguise then?"

A second disguise? That... was actually kind of brilliant... Tabitha smiled at the opportunity it afforded, at least with her tenants. "You caught me. My disguise wore off and I can't get it back. I thought you'd be scared of me."

Coco raised a brow as if she didn't buy it the way Tabitha said it, but she also didn't force herself past it. "You're still lovely, Miss Tabitha."

Lovely was, perhaps, an overstatement, and one that Tabitha didn't let lie. She rose to her new hooves. "Lovely?"

Coco blinked softly. "Y-your... I mean... You..." Her words were failing her, but she pointed at Tabitha. "I can see the pegasus I thought I was meeting at first, and the other half is that human I met afterwards. Neither side is... malformed, even if them being together is... novel."

Novel, a very polite word for freak. Tabitha cringed at the implications, but Coco came closer. "Please! I mean it. Miss, please tell me what happened. I promise--" she put a hoof to her chest. "I promise to listen and stay. We're still friends, I hope."

Still friends? Tabitha liked the sound of that. She could... use a friend. She reached out a hand and Coco advanced to it. She began to pet Coco, running fingers through her well-combed mane. She was a pony, but she was an intelligent one who took good care of herself. Tabitha snorted softly, realizing she was also a pony. She'd have to learn to take care of herself... "So, it began like this..."

She told the story of her elven roomie and how things has gone downhill. Coco settled at her side and listened. Tabitha petted, and Coco accepted it with that gentle smile of hers. "And then Luna left..." The story was over. Telling it hadn't changed a damn thing, but she felt better. She wasn't alone in knowing it, and Coco was still there, still pressed to her side. Still a friend... "So... you must think I'm a huge idiot."

"What? No! Goodness, I don't know what I would have done, but it certainly wouldn't have been better than that." She raised a brow. "She's still here, right? The elf? I'll be sure not to annoy her..."

Tabitha chuckled at that. "I made her agree to not... do this. No more magic on fellow tenants without consent."

Coco frowned a little before she nodded. She stood up. "You must be so confused right now. You... Could you stand up for me?"

Blinking, Tabitha did just that, unsure what good standing would do right that moment. "Here you go?"

"May I examine you?"

Tabitha went a bit red. She didn't want to be looked at! But... that wouldn't help. Coco had been kind and wasn't repulsed by her. "G-go ahead, sure."

Coco reached out a hoof to touch where pony fur turned into the smooth skin of her belly. The joining place felt odd, but not entirely bad if she let it be. The stroking Coco was doing made Tabitha's eyes half-shut and she almost purred, or was that more of a little nicker?

Coco was circling her, examining her. "Your wings look healthy and strong. Once you get used to them, you'll take to the sky easily I bet."

Tabitha quirked a smile as her wings were felt. The sensation was curious, but not awful. She spread her wings for Coco to examine and her eyes started to drift shut as the examination moved along those alien limbs and the gentle sensations radiated from it.

She snapped those wings shut as she realized she was drifting off and just how... inhuman it all was. She wasn't who she had been.

Coco blinked at the reaction, but moved along, poking Tabitha's hind leg before she gasped quite loudly.

"What?" Tabitha peeked over her shoulder at Coco staring directly at her back end with wide eyes. "I... Look, we're both females. You're just as naked, why are you staring like that?"

Coco shook her head and spun in place, looking away. "Y-you're not a mare!"

Is... that what she had... oh god. Tabitha crashed to the ground. She had lost everything. She wasn't even a woman anymore. She wasn't even female, a mare, whatever that was. She started to shake and cry, losing all grip on her ability to hold herself together.

"N-no! Please, stop!" It was Coco, who had turned back to her. "Please! I was just surprised. You are a mare, really."

"W-what? You said... You don't misidentify th--Ah!" Her words were cut off as Coco reached forward and just touched the named part. She was a mare. Things felt different back there subtly, but she was a mare. She wasn't a lady, but she was female. The relief of at least having that much brought a powerful, shuddering, gasp from her as she sank with relief.

Then the hoof moved. Tabitha froze as the alien sensations welled up. She was a male too. A stallion. A heck of a stallion by the sensations reaching her tired mind. She went red as she did what stallions do when mares take a pointed interest in what's between their legs.

Coco danced away, putting her hooves firmly on the ground instead of poking at Tabitha's sensitive bits. "That's what I meant. You're not a mare or a stallion. You're... a little of both, just like you're human and pony."

"And all freak."

"Don't say that!" Coco frowned at her friend, imagining the pain that must be hurting her, or him. Them... "You're fine. Whatever you want to be, you can be."

Tabitha turned to face Coco, which put her mismatched bits thoroughly out of sight. "Look, I wasn't searching for that kind... of thing, but even if I was, what... I mean who would even want anything to do with that?"

Coco blushed softly. "I don't know you that well."

Tabitha blinked at the response. "But you're alright besides that? You'd be alright with... that?"

Coco's tail was down, guarding herself. Off the cuff, no, she'd probably run screaming, but that was her friend, who was hurting so bad already. She wanted to help. "It means you can do what you have to do but you also know the other side, so I can trust you to behave well and properly. A stallion that is intimate with a mare's point of view could be quite good."

Tabitha quirked a smile at that as she slowly rose back to her hooves. "You're being nice, but thank you. I appreciate it. Look, this is enough for any land... person... to expect from any tenant. You can go now, really. I'm... fine."

Coco knew her friend was far from fine. "No."

That was about the first time Coco had ever refused so flatly. Tabitha was surprised. "Really, go ahead. I'm sure you have things to do."

"I'm not going anywhere without you. You've been through a terrible thing, and I won't leave you alone right now. You need a friend, and you have one." She took a step forward. "If you'll have me."

"You really don't have to do that." Tabitha smiled despite that, and it didn't feel nearly as forced as her other ones had been.

"I don't have to... but you didn't have to help me when I was feeling down, and that was my own fault." She smiled a little. "That's what friends are for, right?"

"But I'm your landlady," argued Tabitha lamely. A large part of her wanted to take the offer of friendship and shut the heck up.

"And you still are," agreed Coco. "You are also my friend. You are also somepony that is hurt. There is no shame in being hurt, or afraid. You're being very brave right now, but it's alright. You can be hurt."

"But..." She was supposed to be in charge! She was like the captain of the ship, or the president of some tiny building-sized nation. With her, it would rise or fall. Despite those mental words and more, Coco looked at her with empathy, willing to accept her, frailties and freakishness and all. "Alright..."

They left the office together. Tabitha locked the door securely on leaving and glanced aside at her companion, remembering something. "Hey."

"Yes?"

"You're a designer, aren't you? I don't suppose you could make an outfit that would fit me? I really don't want to be... so exposed."

Coco smiled at the question. "That's a very human question." She said it as a compliment, and it was taken as one. "I'd be glad to try. Let's go to my place and we'll share some tea while I get all your measurements."

Author's Notes:

Sometimes all you need is a big cup of strong coco to ease your worries away.

I might have spilled a few drops, beware typos.