“So, are you ready to look around, Ember?”

The pony girl formerly known as Cassady Dixon beamed up at her therapist. “So ready!”

The trip to the Farm had taken the better part of an hour from her apartment. It was outside the city limits, in a relatively isolated patch of countryside. Ember had been buzzing with energy for the entire journey, almost as nervous as she was excited. She had an image of her prospective forever-home in her mind, and her anxious intrusive thoughts had suggested the reality may not match up. Or perhaps, darker voices suggested, there was no Farm. Maybe it was all some elaborate ruse to prank her, to make fun of her for her bizarre equine idiosyncrasies. She stubbornly ignored the paranoid whispers - Eliza Cotter was a professional, with absolutely no reason to do her harm.

Her fears lost out to her hopes, at any rate. If there was any possibility that she could finally live freely as the pony she was on the inside, she was going to pursue it - if it didn’t work out she’d be no worse off, and if it did, her deepest desire would be granted. At this point, it seemed extremely likely that Eliza and her Farm would be everything Ember had ever wished for. The hypnotherapist had already given her three incredible, fulfilling sessions where she got to leave behind the burden of human intelligence - three hours of her life where she was allowed to be her true pony self. That was already more than she could’ve hoped for - and those magical hours may soon become just the first three of millions.

No matter what she thought of the place, Ember knew this wouldn’t be the day she actually came to live there. She still needed to tie up loose ends from her human life, which she and Eliza would discuss in more detail today. But she was here. She was at the Farm. It was a real place, not just a fiction or a fantasy. She was at an establishment where a bunch of otherkin already lived, where she could live herself, as a pony, not a person. The mere fact of that had made her whinny exuberantly as she’d half-galloped across the pebble driveway towards the sizeable farmhouse, the front door of which swung open as she’d approached.

It seemed Eliza had been waiting near the door, looking forward to the visit as much as Ember. (Almost, anyway. The pony still couldn’t tell whether the doctor reciprocated her rapidly-growing crush - they’d discussed her attraction to her, and being owned and handled by her, in their past sessions, and Eliza was quite comfortable with the hypnotised Ember rubbing up on her in her aroused state, but she could just be indulging her animalistic whims.) The doctor was dressed in a plaid shirt and light blue jeans, which rather suited the farm aesthetic. After exchanging pleasantries, and offering the eagerly-accepted invitation into her home, she flashed Ember a dazzling smile. “Well, come on in, then, please!”

Eliza turned and strode deeper into her house, giving Ember the space to step inside - as well as a great view of her pert, demin-clad ass. Ember had to force herself not to ogle her (for more than a couple of seconds, anyway). She led her through to a large, well-lit living room, the layout of which was not unlike her office. The key differences were an additional couch where the desk would have been, and the half-naked woman lying on it. Eliza stopped short at the sight of her, spinning round to face Ember with a contrite expression. “Ah. I didn’t realise she was in here, I just came from upstairs...”

Ember just stared at the couch’s occupant, her eyes wide. The young Latina woman was tall enough that her legs hung over the armrest. She lay on her front, her bare chest pressed into the cushion beneath her, her head angled to the side, eyes half-closed. On the bottom half of her body she wore a pair of dark brown shorts, which appeared to have been modified so they had a hole in the seat, with a metal ring around its edges. A long, slender tail protruded through the hole, the same dark brown shade as the long hair that flowed from the girl’s head and down her back.

“Oh well,” Eliza said breezily. “I intended to introduce you to aspects of the Farm gradually, but Lindsey here seems to have put paid to that. She never has much respect for my plans - that’s cats for you.” Reaching out, she stroked the prone girl behind the ear. Lindsey shivered and raised her head a little, leaning into the caress, her eyes still closed.

Ember swallowed hard, gazing intently at the girl on the couch. She’d been at the Farm a full five seconds, and already here was an otherkin in her most natural state of being, just lying around enjoying life as the beautiful creature she was. Lindsey must have beeen at least half-awake, and probably knew there was a visitor in the house - but she clearly didn’t give a flying fuck. Because she was a cat, of course. She wasn’t a person - she was a feline house pet, and was utterly disinterested in anything that didn’t provide her with pleasure.

Also, she couldn’t help wondering about the tail. It wasn’t a real tail, of course, and therefore it could have been clipped onto the outside of her shorts, to a belt loop or something, rather than coming through the hole in the rear. Ember supposed that for the sake of realism Lindsey would want its end attached as close as possible to her flesh, as a real cat’s tail would be. So perhaps it was affixed to the inside of ther shorts... or to her body... or into her body... The possibilities were making her mind race, and her body tingle.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a low mewl from Lindsey, as Eliza continued to provide scritches over her head and neck. The cat girl arched her back, her mouth hanging open. “Mroooow,” she moaned happily.

Eliza lifted her hand away, and Lindsey finally opened her eyes and stared up at her resentfully. Then, seeming to accept that no more scritches were forthcoming, she sank back down onto her front. “So ungrateful,” the therapist chuckled, and brought her hand towards the cat’s face. “Here, kitty...” Gazing at it through hooded eyes for a few seconds, she nuzzled up to it and started to gently lick Eliza’s fingers.

Looking up, Eliza smiled ruefully at her newest patient. “Sorry to blindside you with this. Like I say, I wasn’t going to immediately show you a half-naked cat girl, I wanted to ease you into it...”

“It - it’s totally fine,” Ember stammered, still staring at Lindsey, watching her lap at Eliza’s hand with her tongue.

The doctor smiled, took her hand away from the cat girl’s mouth, gave her two more tender rubs on the top of her head, and turned and walked away, across the living room to an open doorway on the other side. Ember hastily trotted after her, shooting a last glance back at Lindsey, who seemed to have dozed off again almost immediately.

“Can I get you anything to eat, or drink?” Eliza asked, as they entered a reasonably large kitchen with painted yellow walls. “I know it must’ve been a long trip, I could rustle you up a sandwich...”

“Th-that’d be nice, thank you,” Ember replied, tossing her hair a little as she perched on a stool by the counter. “And a glass of water, please...”

Eliza dutifully poured the pony girl her drink, and then prepared a cheese sandwich for her. “So, anyway, that was Lindsey,” she said with a slightly self-conscious grin.

“She seems nice,” Ember offered.

Eliza raised an eyebrow. “She can be! I can’t imagine you’ll see much of her while you’re here. She explores outside sometimes, but she’s very much a house cat. She’s one of three who live here in the house - the others live outside, at least during the summer. In the winter months we have space inside for everyone, although the outside animals don’t often take us up on that unless it gets really cold. And we’ll still have space if you ever want to sleep inside, instead of in your stable. Although if everyone wants to come in, we might need you to share with someone...”

“That’s fine,” Ember nodded. She’d been to sleepovers and on school camping trips before - she had experience sleeping in close proximity to girls she didn’t know very well. She wasn’t the least bit put off by the prospect of sharing a sleeping space with a fellow otherkin.

The doctor handed over the sandwich on a plate, and Ember tucked in gratefully. “So, I know you won’t be spending much time in here,” Eliza said, gesturing around herself at her house. “But while you’re here - d’you want to meet its other residents?”

Ember grinned and nodded eagerly, unable to reply audibly with her mouthful of cheese and brown bread. She couldn’t wait to meet more otherkin, to see them living as their true selves just as she soon would be. The brief encounter with Lindsey had been thrilling enough already.

“Alright! Well, I think my husband’s taken Kora for a walk across the field, so I’m sure we’ll see her later. But I can take you upstairs to see Chloe. Please, follow me.”

Clutching her half-eaten sandwich in one hand and her glass of water in the other, the excited pony girl followed Eliza back through the living room (where Lindsey still lay slumbering), into the entrance hallway, and up a flight of stairs. As they reached the top, Ember saw a slender, dark-haired young woman emerging from a room on the other end of the corridor.

“Hey, Ronni,” Eliza said brightly, “how’s it going?”

“All good, boss,” the woman replied casually. “Just bathed her and got her gear back on. Hi there!” she added, noticing Eliza’s companion. “I’m Ronni. You must be our newcomer...”

The pony girl smiled politely. “Yeah, that’s me! I’m Ember.”

They shook hands. “Great to meet you,” Ronni said, sounding quite sincere. “You’ll have to excuse me, I gotta dash and change into dry clothes!” It was at this point that Ember noticed the large damp patches all over Ronni’s red shirt and blue jeans. She and Eliza stepped aside courteously, allowing Ronni to dash past them into another room, closing the door behind her.

“Happens a lot,” Eliza remarked, strolling towards the room Ronni had exited initially. “Chloe’s a sweetheart, but she can be a bit of a handful during bathtime.”

Ember swallowed. “She... Ronni bathes her.”

It was more a statement than a question, but Eliza answered anyway. “Yes. Chloe can’t wash herself - none of the patients can. They’re animals, and animals can’t really operate bath taps!” Stopping in her tracks, she shot a glance back at her pony patient. “Are you comfortable with that?”

“Yes,” Ember answered, perhaps a fraction too quickly.

Suppressing an amused grin, Eliza nodded her understanding and stepped into the room. Ember hurriedly followed - and was greeted by the sight of metal bars, only a few feet in front of the doorway.

Each bar was affixed to the ceiling and the floor, emerging from the far right wall and continuing in a line about three-quarters of the way across the room. Then there was a ninety-degree angle, and another line of bars continuing right up to the back wall. The cell that encompassed a significant portion of the room had a door in the side, which was currently locked shut.

Inside the cage, the portion of the floor next to the right-side wall was taken up by a mattress and a mountain of pillows. At the back of the room, outside the cage, was some kind of water cooler, the tank just over halfway full, with a nozzle that protruded through the bars on the left side of the cage. The room’s back wall, within the cage’s boundaries, had a sliding glass door, which was currently wide open and appeared to lead out onto a balcony overlooking the wide grass field behind the farmhouse. So it seemed the cage may not actually be a prison - its occupant could leave any time she wanted, just as Ember would’ve expected from the humane setup of the Farm that Eliza had described.

Not that the girl in the cage seemed in any hurry to depart. Hanging from the ceiling by a thick brass chain was a swing, a sturdy wooden seat between a widely-arched golden beam. It closely resembled a bird’s perch - which seemed apt, given that the cell had evidently been designed to resemble a birdcage. And given that its occupant was clearly a bird.

The young woman sitting on the perch was skinny and pale-skinned, with long, dark brown hair, visibly straight and damp from having just been washed. The lower half of her face was covered by a pyramid-shaped mask, designed to resemble a dark brown beak, with a slightly hooked end. She wore a strange kind of thick shawl that enclosed the top half of her torso, with sleeves that covered her arms. The soft garment was adorned with layer upon layer of feathers, most of them a very light shade of brown, some white or light grey, and fewer still dark brown, making up speckles amidst the rest of the pale plumage. Her hands, resting on her thighs, were hidden within sewn-up sleeves, more feathers protruding past the ends of her arms. The feather shawl ended above the girl’s navel, and below that she wore nothing at all. Her bare legs were crossed, her feet off the ground, the perch swinging gently back and forth as she sat still and calm, gazing up at the ceiling as if lost in thought.

She was beautiful.

Ember was so enraptured by the bird girl that she almost forgot Eliza was standing beside her. When the therapist spoke again, she jumped slightly and tossed her hair. “Ember, allow me to introduce Chloe!”

At the sound of Eliza’s voice, the bird girl glanced over dreamily. Then she seemed to notice an unfamiliar face, and her eyes lit up. She jumped down from the perch, her feet landing in the soft cream carpet with a thud, and hopped across her cage towards her visitors, her ‘wings’ flapping gently at her sides. Coming right up to the cell wall, she scraped her beak along the bars right in front of Ember, who took a step back, startled once again by the loud clanging.

Eliza put a placating hand on her shoulder. “It’s OK, she’s just saying hello. Sorry, I should’ve warned you...”

“It’s alright, I’m good,” the pony assured her with a grin.

Chloe stopped clattering her beak against the bars and stood quite still, her body relaxing into a slouched posture, even as her eyes fixated intently on Ember. Then she let out some high-pitched whistling sounds from behind her mask: “Wheet eet eet eet eet! Wheet eet eet...”

Ember let out a small delighted whinny in response. “Is that how she talks?” she asked quietly.

“Essentially, yes,” Eliza replied in similar sotto voce. “It’s her birdsong.”

“It’s really pretty,” the pony girl murmured.

“I think so too.”

Chloe emitted a few more whistling chirps, and then apparently lost interest in them and danced away to the back corner, towards the water cooler.

“What kind of bird is she?”

“She’s a mourning dove,” Eliza told her. At Ember’s inquisitive glance, she continued, “Not quite as depressing as the name suggests! They’re also called rain doves, or turtle doves.”

“Like from the Christmas song!”

“Exactly. Chloe always knew she was a dove, but she also knew she was a songbird. Mourning doves are the only songbirds in the dove family.”

As they spoke, Chloe angled her head to one side and lowered her face towards the cooler’s nozzle, using the end of it to push her beak mask upwards until her real mouth was exposed. Then she wrapped her lips around the end. At the same time, Ember noticed, the bird girl had reached through the bars beneath the nozzle (the gap being wider than average, presumably for this exact reason), and her covered hand clumsily pressed a big red button on the front of the cooler. Ember heard loud gulping as water was sprayed up the spout and into the dove’s waiting mouth.

“Does she realise she has a human mouth as well as a beak, then?” Ember whispered.

“Oh, yes,” Eliza nodded, “but she doesn’t think of it as her ‘human mouth’ - more like, her ‘eating and drinking mouth’. I gave her the suggestion that she’s a special kind of bird who has one mouth for speaking and singing, and one for consuming food and water - just as I taught you that each of your legs have two hooves, so you can switch between a biped and a quadruped.”

Ember had thought the ‘extra hooves’ suggestion was something Eliza had thought up on the spot, but now that she thought about it, she must have had to give each of her otherkin patients similar suggestions, teaching them that they were special kinds of whatever animal they were, to allow for the dissonance between their fauna personas and their actual bodies. She was impressed by the doctor’s ingenuity.

Having apparently drunk her fill, Chloe fluttered over to her ‘nest’ of pillows and lowered herself down gracefully, burying herself amidst them while wrapping her wings around herself snugly. Her legs splayed out, leaving her vulva clearly exposed, and Ember blushed and quickly looked away. The dove girl didn’t even seem aware that she was naked from the waist down, and certainly didn’t seem to care. She lowered her head and rested her face against one of her wings, closing her eyes. In seconds, she seemed to fall asleep sitting up on her mattress, propped up by pillows on all sides.

“Let’s leave her to her nap, shall we?” Eliza said quietly, casually taking Ember by the upper arm. Stupefied by everything she had just witnessed, the pony girl allowed her therapist to lead her by the arm, out of the room where Chloe the mourning dove dozed in her birdcage.

“So, that’s Chloe,” Eliza chuckled, relinquishing Ember’s arm (to the pony’s inner disappointment). “She usually gets sleepy after her bath, so really we were lucky to get a couple of minutes with her...”

“Are all your patients half-naked?” Ember asked, laughing a little nervously.

Eliza’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh. Right. I didn’t even really notice - I’ve seen Chloe’s cu- her, ah, her vagina, literally every day, so I’m barely even aware of it any more. I didn’t think...” She chuckled again, this time a little guiltily. “Sorry, I suppose I’m not being the best tour guide. I should’ve warned you in advance... Yes, most of our patients spend their days in states of undress, unless it’s too cold. Kora’s the only one you’ll see fully clothed, probably. None of them care about being seen like that - but I should’ve realised that you might not be so comfortable with -”

“No, I’m - I am comfortable,” Ember insisted. “I am. It just took me by surprise, that’s all. But it’s natural, isn’t it? Animals don’t wear clothes. The feather shawl thing is nice, though - do all of them have things like that? I noticed Lindsey had a tail...” She neglected to mention her theories about said tail, and how exactly it was connected to Lindsey’s body.

Eliza nodded, giving her a tight, grateful smile to show she understood Ember didn’t mind being exposed to nudity, but still regretted failing to properly warn her. “Yes, most of our patients wear types of clothing to better emulate the appearance of their animal selves. Some of them we’ve had to get specially made, like Chloe’s shawl. The only real exception is Dylan - I should warn you about him now, in fact, before we go out into the grounds. Dylan’s a wolf, and he tends to stick to the woods around the Farm, but he sometimes roams around the field and comes to play with the other animals. He’s a little wild, but harmless - he’s never hurt anyone, apart from in the throes of passion.”

Ember nodded, remembering that Eliza had mentioned the otherkin at the Farm were permitted to have sex with each other, as long as it was consensual. Apparently Dylan had indulged in that opportunity, probably with more than one of his fellow patients.

“Dylan has a den on the edge of the field, which my husband built for him. And he’s usually completely naked, so beware of that.”

The pony nodded again, smiling serenely. Although she’d been embarrassed by the initial encounters with the half-nude Lindsey and Chloe, she actually had nothing against nudity. Once she moved past the surprise, she was sure she’d adjust quickly to the sights of bare flesh everywhere she turned at the Farm. Seeming to register that Ember was comfortable and ready to continue the tour, Eliza smiled and walked back over to the stairs, and her guest trotted after her quickly.

As she followed the doctor back to the ground floor and through to the back door of the farmhouse, Ember’s mind was occupied with thoughts of ‘otherkin clothing’ - specifically, her own. She hadn’t really thought about what she would wear once she began her life at the Farm - she’d been concerned only with the notion of her mind being fully transformed into that of a pony, not her body. But it was an intriguing line of thought... What could she wear? How much flesh would she have on display? She was a little shy about being seen naked, even partially, but was sure she wouldn’t be bothered by such things when hypnotised into a full pony. Her mesmerised self seemed to have no inhibitions - she’d pretty much humped Eliza’s leg halfway to completion in their last session!

Stepping out into the garden behind her home, Eliza turned to Ember with a warm smile. “I’ll take you to see Heather and Layla now, over at the cow shed.”

Ember’s eyes went as wide as saucers. Hucows. This oughta be good.

As the doctor began to turn away again, Ember spoke quickly. “Um, Doc... would you mind, uh...”

Eliza looked back at her. “Yes?”

“Could you maybe... take me by the arm again, like you did upstairs? And, um... lead me there?” Blushing furiously, Ember lowered her gaze. “It, uhh... it feels nice when you lead me.”

Eliza chuckled fondly. “Ah, you want me to take the reins, so to speak? Not a problem at all.”

The next thing Ember knew was the firm grip of her doctor’s hand on her arm, sending thrills through her. She forced herself to look up and make eye contact. Eliza’s smile was still wide and encouraging, but had a little bit of an amused twist to it now, as if taking delight in the pony girl’s submission.

“Come on then, girl,” Eliza said, in the same light, chivvying tone Ember had used herself to urge her childhood ponies along. With a flustered nicker, she meekly obeyed, allowing her owner to lead her across the field.

Quickly glancing back at the house over her shoulder (flicking her hair as she did so), Ember saw the balcony that backed onto Chloe’s room, and noticed that one end of it had a set of wooden steps that led down to the lawn. So despite living in a cage, the bird girl truly had the freedom to leave and wander the property whenever and however she wished. Although Eliza had told her as much, it was still comforting to see proof with her own eyes.

Ember trotted across the grass at Eliza’s side, trembling a little at her tight grasp, overcome with desire and obedience. She shot the doctor a nakedly lustful glance, exhaling heavily as she stared through hooded eyes, her mouth hanging open. Eliza didn’t seem to notice, her eyes remaining fixed in front of her as she strode towards a large shed on the other side of the expansive garden.

They were still a good distance away when the first of the hucows emerged from the shed’s open door. Plodding forwards heavily on all fours, the otherkin paid no attention to the approaching women directly in their sightline, instead making her way further into the field. As they got closer, Ember was able to see more details, observing the cow girl’s dumb, vapid expression, her eyes glazed and dull beneath stray strands of her long ginger hair. She was clad in a cow-print micro-bikini that almost entirely failed to conceal her pendulous breasts - udders, Ember corrected herself - or her shapely rear. The bikini bottoms were basically a shoestring, the only coverage they actually provided being a thin strip of black-and-white material over her vagina. On her head she wore a hairband adorned with large soft cow ears, white with black spots, and two similarly fluffy white horns. One of the fake ears had a yellow tag pinned to it, on which was a three-digit number Ember couldn’t read clearly.

Her hands were encapsulated within dark latex gloves designed to resemble bovine hooves, with two large toes pointing forwards. Ember figured that her hands must be clenched into fists somewhere inside - she wasn’t sure how they could fit otherwise. Above that, her wrists were decorated with frilly cow-print cuffs. Her knees, on the other hand, were covered with thick pads, cushioning them against the ground. She seemed to have no difficulty walking - admittedly her pace was slow, but her entire demeanour was placid and unhurried.

Around the cow’s neck was a collar, and from that hung a copper-coloured bell, which swung gently from side to side as she walked, jingling quietly.

“Ah, here’s Heather now,” Eliza said brightly. “And - of course, Layla’s not far behind!”

Ember’s awestruck eyes flickered away from the lead hucow to take in the sight of another girl exiting the shed on her hands and knees. Whereas Heather was all curves, Layla was rather skinnier, with thicker, shorter, jet-black hair. Her own hairband had more realistic, golden-brown horns, probably made of plastic. She didn’t have fluffy fake ears, either - but Ember could see another yellow tag hanging from one of her real ears instead. Her collar matched Heather’s, with another clanging cow bell (although it looked slightly larger), and her hands and knees were covered in the same manner.

The main difference was Layla’s attire - or lack thereof. Her udders - which were smaller than Heather’s, closer in size to oranges than melons - were uncovered, jiggling alluringly as the hucow trotted forwards. She wore cow-print bikini bottoms, which were slightly more conservative than Heather’s, although it didn’t matter much with Layla’s ass waving in the air, tight enough against her skin to leave little to the imagination anyway. There was a telltale bulge in the front, and Ember licked her lips, stirred by the implied presence of girldick.

While the first hucow was ambling aimlessly, her gaze dreamy and unfocused, Layla was resolutely following her, and her eyes were fixated on Heather’s butt - for which Ember could hardly blame her. The cow girl’s ripe cheeks were giving her a sudden craving for apples. Layla seemed to be keeping a respectful distance, though, making no attempt to speed up and get close enough to bury her face in her companion’s rump...

“Afternoon, girls,” Eliza called cheerily, marching towards the cattle - pulling an unresisting Ember along with her.

Slowing to a halt, Heather lazily raised her head, staring up at them blearily. “Mmooo,” she moaned, her voice low and gravelly, her eyes sleepy and uncomprehending.

“Moo,” Layla echoed in a slightly higher pitch, also stopping in her tracks a short way behind Heather. She spared Eliza and Ember a brief glance, and then returned her attention to her fellow cow’s buttocks.

“This is Ember,” the doctor continued smoothly, undaunted by her hypnotised hucows’ lack of understanding or interest. “She’s a pony. She’ll probably be joining us here soon, so I thought I’d come introduce her to you two.”

Ember shivered delightedly, appreciating Eliza clarifying her true nature. She’d noticed, too, that Eliza had said she would ‘probably’ be living on the Farm - she’d stopped saying she ‘might’ be. It had gone from a mere possibility, to a near certainty - in the therapist’s mind, anyway. Ember had already considered it pretty much inevitable.

“Say hello, ladies!” Eliza urged lightly.

“Mmooo!” Heather lowed, her head nodding clumsily in Ember’s direction, her face remaining slack and lifeless.

“Mmoo,” Layla agreed.

Eliza reached down and patted Heather on the head, gently stroking her mound of red hair. The hucow closed her eyes and smiled blissfully, rubbing her head into the doctor’s palm, letting out another soft, “Mmoo.”

“They’re so...” Ember couldn’t find the words to finish that sentence. She was looking for something that said ‘beautiful’, ‘blissful’ and ‘bovine’ all at once. The English language really needed expanding to include words that applied to good hypnotised otherkin.

“I know,” Eliza said with a nod, seeming to understand precisely what her pony patient was feeling. “They’ve both been here a while, and yet I still get a thrill of out seeing them. All of them, really. Species dysphoria is endlessly fascinating to me, as are those who have it...”

Eliza took a little quivery breath, her shoulders shaking so slightly that Ember wasn’t sure she’d even be able to tell, had the therapist not still been holding onto her arm. It was a very subtle lapse in her composure, but enough for the pony girl to pick up on.

It was then that the truth hit Ember like a lightning bolt. Dr. Cotter wasn’t simply helping her dysphoric patients out of the kindness of her heart. She wasn’t just studying them out of academic interest.

She had an otherkin fetish.

The young Senator’s daughter couldn’t believe she hadn’t seen it before. Eliza had never had any issue with Ember openly showing her lust for her. She had said outright in their very first session that she sometimes had sex with her patients. She’d phrased it to imply that she merely did so as part of their treatment, to provide them with relief as a selfless, therapeutic act - and the pony girl had naïvely believed that notion. But of course Eliza got something out of it too. Why else would she devote her home, her career - her life - to keeping hypnotised otherkin on a farm, most of whom wore little to no clothing? The doctor got off on it. She got off on them. She frequently got off with them.

Although taken aback for a moment by the epiphany, Ember didn’t see anything wrong with it. As long as it was consensual, and it benefited the patients, what was wrong with Eliza enjoying her work? She’d set up this entire facility, put in so much time and effort, and risked her own career, just so the otherkin could live as their true selves. It was a wonderful, beautiful gift. The least they could do in return was allow Eliza to take pleasure in them, in caring for them and taming them and fucking them.

Also, if Eliza was turned on by otherkin, then the chances that she’d have sex with Ember were much higher than she’d previously believed.

She tossed her hair again, making an effort to shake herself out of her reverie and refocus on the hypnotised patients before her. “So... there’s two of them,” she noted, smirking at her own incredible observational skills. “Is that unusual, that there’s more than one?”

“Oh yes,” Eliza nodded. “I was actually going to mention that, because I find it so interesting. They’re the only duo on the Farm - we have a cat, a dog, a bird and a wolf, but we’ve got two cows. And of my otherkin patients who chose to suppress their animal sides and return to their normal lives, there were another two cows.”

“Huh,” Ember snorted. “That’s... wow, yeah, interesting. I had no idea it was so common.” She grinned ruefully. “Then again, until a month ago I had no idea there were others like me in the world at all...”

Eliza chuckled. “It took me by surprise too. I’ve often thought about why it is, that cows are the most common kind of otherkin I’ve come across. I suppose it must be something about being a slow, placid creature with a simple existence... And then there’s the significance of being milked, as well. Some might describe that as the most significant part of a cow’s life, their purpose, to provide milk. There must be an element of humiliation too that they could find erotic - being no more important than their udders, and what they contain. And of course, there’s the sexual factor of having those udders squeezed...”

Ember listened raptly to the doctor’s musings, suppressing shudders of arousal. “So, you - you m-milk them?” she asked tremulously.

“We do,” Eliza confirmed, shooting her a sultry glance, seeming to notice the effect the discussion was having on the pony girl, who blushed and averted her gaze. “We usually use breast pumps, although once or twice a week one of us does it by hand. They don’t produce much - especially Layla - because frankly, neither of them are expectant or recent mothers, so their bodies naturally aren’t prepared to produce much milk. But it’s not so much about the physical result as it is the psychological and spiritual effect it has on them. They find being milked very pleasurable, believe me...”

“Moo,” Heather added, as if agreeing, nuzzling her face into Eliza’s outstretched palm. Then she lowered her head towards the lawn, to a patch of bright green grass. Tugging a few strands free with her lips, she pulled them into her mouth with her tongue and began to chew.

She was actually eating grass!

As Ember gaped, Eliza gave another light laugh. “Ah, yes - they do that from time to time. Cows do enjoy snacking on grass! Don’t worry, we make sure they’re given adequate sustenance throughout the day...”

“But it’s fine, that they just do... that?” Ember mumbled, watching intently as Heather lowered her face for a second bite.

“Oh, sure. A little bit won’t do them any harm.”

They stood and observed for a minute longer, before Eliza gave Ember a firm tug on her arm. “Let’s leave them in peace.”

Ember let Eliza pull her away, glancing back one more time - to see Layla approaching Heather from behind. The leading heifer’s ass was raised in the air as she continued to eat grass, and she didn’t seem bothered when her companion nuzzled her face between her ample buttocks.

“Oh wow, they’re -” Ember started to say.

“Ah, yes, that happens quite a lot,” Eliza sniggered. “When Heather’s enjoying her favourite meal, Layla tends to take the opportunity to enjoy hers.”

Ember raised an eyebrow. “Grass and ass?”

They both burst out laughing. “Exactly!” the hypnotherapist hooted. “And as I said, there’s nothing wrong with that at all. They have blanket consent with one another - if either of them didn’t want to have sex, they’d simply move away, or push the other away. They’ve never needed to go to any more effort to get the message across.”

“What about others? Do they have sex with anyone else?”

Eliza nodded. “Mainly Rhiannon, their cowherd. It’s her day off today. And my husband Bob, from time to time.” Noticing the pony’s slight frown, she smiled awkwardly. “I realise it probably sounds strange, that I’m comfortable with my husband having sex with others. Frankly, I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t, because I have sex with some of them. We have kind of an open relationship when it comes to the patients, because it’s part of the therapy we provide. We never sleep with any other humans! The otherkin are basically our free passes, as long as they not only consent to it but clearly indicate they want it. None of us - me, Bob, Ronni or Rhiannon - ever makes the first move without being absolutely certain it’s desired. And each patient has their own way of showing that it is.”

Ember nodded slowly, understanding and appreciating the steps Eliza and her staff went to in order to take care of the patients. She couldn’t help wondering, though, if there were more kinky reasons for her and her husband being OK with each other fucking the otherkin. Perhaps there was an element of cuckolding, or voyeurism? Maybe they sometimes had sex with a patient together, in a strange kind of taboo threesome...?

“So, which ones do you have sex with?” she asked, trying to keep her tone casual.

“Hmm... I’ve been with almost all of them at one time or another,” the doctor said slowly, seeming to consider the question. “Chloe and Kora more than the others, I suppose... They live in my house, so I suppose that’s just geographical convenience, really,” she laughed.

“What about Lindsey?”

“No,” she replied instantly. “Not Lindsey.”

The doctor looked perturbed at the question. Ember swallowed, worried she might have crossed some kind of line without realising. Eliza’s expression softened. “She and I don’t have that kind of relationship. She’s... different.”

Ember hesitated to inquire further, wary of potentially offending her hypnotherapist further. Before she could speak again, she was distracted by the sound of loud, high-pitched barking from across the field. Turning her head, she saw a figure lolloping towards them on all fours, yelping madly. They scampered up to Eliza and began darting from side to side at her feet, their head raised to stare excitedly up at the doctor.

“Oh, hello, who do we have here?” Eliza said in a playfully childish voice. “Does puppy wanna play a game?”

“Arf! Arf!” the puppy girl cried, still bounding about, bursting with energy.

“Well, heeere I come!” Eliza made a grab for her with both outstretched arms, but the canine otherkin sprang aside with a yip.

The therapist let her dodge out of the way a couple more times before ‘catching’ her, tackling her onto the grass. With the dog girl on her back, Eliza knelt beside her and vigorously rubbed her belly. She panted and growled happily, spasms going through her, waving her paws above her chest, one of her hind legs jerking and kicking in the air.

Eliza grinned up at her newest patient. “Ember, this is Kora - our dog, in case you hadn’t guessed! Kora, this is Ember; she’ll probably be joining us soon. Say hi, girl!”

Kora gazed up at Ember, seeming to notice her for the same time. “Arf!” she cried, grinning wildly.

Ember giggled. “Hi, Kora!”

“Arf! Urf, ruff!”

Eliza let Kora scramble onto her hands and knees again, and she bounded over to Ember, plonking her butt down and gazing up at the unfamiliar face with bright eyes, a gaping mouth, and a lolling tongue. Her body shuddered with barely-contained energy.

Ember shot Eliza an uncertain glance. “Go ahead,” the therapist said with a smile. “She won’t bite. She might lick, but she won’t bite!”

Reaching down with a little lingering trepidation, Ember cradled the puppy’s head and began to tenderly rub either side of her face and neck, her hands moving out of sync. Closing her eyes, Kora whimpered and writhed with delight, rolling her head around in time with the increasingly rapid, zealous rubs. Ember’s attentive hands worked her into a frenzy of pleasure.

The pony girl had a moment to study the puppy girl’s appearance. Her short bob of dark hair had been thrown into disarray by the head rubs, although it hadn’t exactly been tidy beforehand, thanks to her speeding around the vast garden. She wore a hairband topped with two fluffy, caramel-coloured dog ears, which curled forwards in a fairly rigid fashion, seeming largely undisturbed by the puppy’s hyperactivity. Her skin was olive-coloured, her teeth gleaming white, and her tongue reached down to the end of her chin. As she shook from Ember’s touch, droplets of drool showered from her tongue onto the turf below.

Just as Eliza had told her earlier, Kora was mostly clothed, in contrast with the other patients Ember had seen so far. In quite ordinary human clothing too - a black crop top and navy blue shorts. However, a long, dark tail protruded from the seat of her shorts, which appeared to have been modified for this purpose like Lindsey’s. Her hands were clad in dark blue gloves shaped like paws, with soft leather padding on the palms - the soles. Her knees, too, wore protective pads, much like those worn by the hucows. Both her sets of paws looked severely scuffed and muddied, somewhat unsurprisingly, and every square inch of her body, clothed or not, was covered in grass stains. She wore a simple black collar around her neck, with a silver heart-shaped dog tag that clearly read ‘KORA’ hanging from a metal ring.

“I was wondering where you got to,” Ember heard Eliza calling out. Her hands slowing to a halt and falling away from Kora’s head, she looked up to see a tall, muscular man in a T-shirt and cargo pants approaching from the near distance. “I thought you were supposed to be keeping this one under control?” The doctor’s tone was lightly teasing, as if she didn’t really expect him to do so.

“You know Kora,” the man chuckled as he reached them. He smiled and nodded at Ember by way of greeting. “Hard to handle her when she’s hyper,” he added, clearly more for the pony girl’s benefit. “Best to let her wear herself out fetching tennis balls and chasing butterflies.”

He affectionately ruffled the kneeling puppy’s hair. “Ap! Aff!” she yapped eagerly, jumping up and pawing at the man’s thick torso, Ember seemingly forgotten.

“Ember, this is my husband, Bob,” Eliza told her, stepping towards him and putting an affectionate hand on his shoulder.

His grin growing broader, showing off a set of dazzling white teeth, he extended a massive hand. “El’s told me so much about you, I’ve been really looking forward to meeting you!”

Ember gave him a bashful smile in return and shook his hand. His grip wasn’t as tight as she’d expected - he clearly wasn’t one of those guys who tried to intimidate with a handshake, preferring to use it to welcome and comfort someone. (At least when it came to his wife’s patients.)

Bob let Ember judge when to break the handshake, slipping her hoof free of his grasp. His outstretched arm lowering to his side, he put the other around Eliza and gave her a squeeze. Ember felt a stab of jealousy, which she fought to suppress with a flicker of shame. She had no right to feel territorial over Eliza - ‘El’. He was her life partner. Ember had known her for a month. Any inclination she might have to compete with him was ridiculous and immoral - and besides, she’d surely lose.

Kora, who apparently had no such qualms, whined for attention and scrabbled at Bob’s legs with her leather paws. His attention still on Ember, he gave the puppy more headpats, which seemed to settle her. “I’ve been spending the past few weeks getting your accommodation ready,” he said, a twinkle in his eye. “We could show you now if you’d like, before I take the pupper for her bath?”

A wave of feverish excitement spread through Ember, and she stood up straighter, a soft whinny escaping her mouth as it spread into a beaming smile. “Yes, please, yes! I’d - I’d love to see it...”

The therapist and her husband exchanged a grin. “Very well then,” Eliza said warmly, “come along, Ember.”

They trooped across the field in a different direction, towards the far distant side. Bob led the way, Kora gambolling about at his heels, yipping and yelping dementedly. Eliza and Ember followed, the doctor’s hand once again firmly gripping the docile pony’s arm.

Ember was abuzz with eager anticipation. Exploring the Farm, meeting its various otherkin denizens - Lindsey the cat, Chloe the dove, Kora the dog, the two hucows, and the as-yet unseen wolf Dylan - and seeing the ways in which they’d been able to immerse themselves in their true animalistic natures had been deeply fascinating, encouraging, and (if she was honest with herself) arousing. But she had a feeling that the wonders she’d seen so far would pale in comparison to finally stepping inside the stable that would soon be hers, adapted and modified to suit her purposes. She felt exceptionally giddy.

Something was nagging at her though, just a little. She didn’t want to say anything and risk threatening her place there - but in the interest of her safety, and her peace of mind, she had to ask. Perhaps she could build up to it.

“So, the other otherkin,” she began casually, and then giggled a little at the repetition. “Uh - how many of them changed their names?”

“Most of them,” Eliza replied matter-of-factly. “Chloe and Lindsey kept their previous names, but the others preferred to leave their human identities behind, like you. Layla and Dylan chose their new names; I picked Heather and Kora’s for them.”

Ember swallowed nervously. “And - and the other patients, they all chose to suppress their animal sides? Seven of the twelve, they had you hypnotise their species dysphoria away, and then the other five chose to come here instead?”

“Yes, that’s right.” The therapist’s tone was still nonchalant, and her gaze was still straight ahead, not meeting Ember’s eyes. But the pony girl thought she could see her jaw tighten, just a little. She knew where this was going.

May as well just get to the finish line, she told herself. “I count six otherkin here, Doctor Cotter.”

Slowing her pace, Eliza glanced round and stared at her for a long moment. Then she let out a heavy sigh, as if she’d been expecting this to be brought up eventually. “Five of them were my patients,” she admitted. She seemed reluctant to elaborate, to admit the identity of the sixth. But Ember thought she’d already guessed.

“The other one’s Lindsey, isn’t it?” she said quietly.

There was a long pause, before Eliza nodded, abruptly looking away again. They had slowed to a standstill now.

“Who is she, then?”

Eliza stared into the middle distance. “Someone who needed my help,” she said faintly. Then she refocused her gaze on Ember. “And someone who wants to be here just as much as the others, I assure you. But I’m afraid I can’t tell you any more than that. It’s... private.” She looked uneasy, guilty about keeping some information to herself.

After a beat, Ember nodded her agreement. “OK. I understand.”

She didn’t really - not with so little to go on. But she trusted Eliza, because Eliza had trusted her. The doctor had been such a huge help to her, and had given her such an incredible opportunity. She’d been completely open thus far, and confided secrets about the Farm... She was giving so much to her patients. She was entitled to hold some things back.

The pony girl was sure nothing untoward was going on with Lindsey. If Eliza said the cat girl was here willingly, that was good enough for Ember.

The tension slowly passed, and Eliza summoned a smile that was only a fraction less bright and warm than usual. “Now, we’ve got something to show you, haven’t we?”

Beaming, Ember let her doctor lead her on towards the edge of the field, where Bob was waiting for them, Kora kneeling at his feet panting contentedly, her slobbery tongue still hanging out.

Behind them, right on the boundary between the farmland and the woods, stood a tall, wide stable, under a canopy of branches that covered the roof. The large wooden doors were locked shut from the outside by a metal bolt, but as Ember and Eliza came nearer, Bob reached out and slid the bolt across. One of the doors creaked, stirred by the breeze, and swung slightly ajar.

“Welcome to your stable, Ember,” he said benignly.

The pony girl thought her heart might burst with joy.