Announcementcontent warning: possible internalized transphobia; dysphoriaMy heart was racing as I opened my eyes again. I was still ying in my bed, in my room with the lights out. Nothing looked different, but under the covers I definitely felt different. And as much as I didn't want to admit it, I felt good.

  I quietly moved the bnkets off to reveal my magical girl body, once again dressed in that girly pink outfit. From the corset bustier thing to the short pleated skirt, even the heeled ankle boots were back on my feet. I wasn't sure how that worked, since all I had on before was boxers and a t-shirt. Obviously it wasn't transforming my clothes into their pink girly equivalent, so the magical girl outfit had to be coming from somewhere else. And presumably that's where my normal clothes went, while I was in this form.

  My smaller feminine hand fumbled on my bedside table until I found my phone, then I struggled to open up the camera app. It turned out that long pink fingernails made it a little more challenging to use the touch-screen, until I realized I needed to use the pad of my finger rather than the tip.

  Then it took me a few more seconds to figure out how to put the camera in selfie mode. I couldn't remember the st time I'd done that, if ever. The phone screen lit up bright white when I finally snapped a picture, and that left me blinking some spots out of my vision while I stared at the photo I'd just taken.

  Those butterflies in my tummy fluttered around happily, while my heart skipped a beat. I was cute again. I had cute pink hair, pink make-up, and pretty green eyes. And with no-one around to call me out on it, I was smiling openly. Both in the picture and as I looked at it.

  I actually had to bite my lip to get myself to stop grinning. And there was a little bitterness in my voice as I whispered to myself, "Just remember Bke, you're not a real girl. You can't be a girl. You're just doing this for science. Gathering data, doing some experiments, like Ellie and Harper said."

  With that in mind I checked the time so I could make note of when I changed. It was thirty-two minutes past ten, so I figured ten-thirty was about the time I did the magical girl transformation. I switched to the notes app in my phone and wrote that down in there, then y back on my bed again as I tried to think of what sorts of experiments I could do or what I could test.

  Ellie talked about magic, but I didn't know anything about that. Becoming a magical girl hadn't gifted me with any sudden knowledge or whatever, I didn't know how to cast spells or fling fireballs or lighting bolts or whatever magical girls were supposed to do.

  A quick check of my outfit confirmed that there were no pockets, I didn't have any hidden weapons or spell books or anything like that. No instructions either, and definitely no 'how to be a magical girl' guide book. The ring was obviously magical, but so far all it seemed to do was change me into a girl and back.

  After another minute or two of thinking about it, I finally came up with something I could test.

  I figured if magical girls were supposed to fight demons or monsters then they were probably pretty strong. And maybe indestructible, or at least really hard to hurt. Either that, or maybe they had accelerated healing or regeneration. I wasn't eager to test that out, I wasn't going to try and injure myself, but I figured the strength thing wouldn't be hard to verify.

  So I finally got up out of bed, then quietly moved over to my desk. It was a big old antique that my mom got from a local farm when they had an estate sale a few years back. It was made of solid wood instead of that lightweight pressboard stuff. And it was loaded down with my computer and books and things. The drawers were full too, and I figured it had to weigh at least a hundred kilos, probably more.

  Just trying to pick the thing up might have damaged it, or injured me if I wasn't actually strong after all. So to start with I tried to lift one side, like to try and tilt it. And to my surprise, it was easy. As if the desk was empty, I could tilt it up with one hand without any effort at all.

  There was another wide smile on my face as I gently lowered the desk back down. Then I moved over to my bed and crouched down next to it. I put my hands under the edge of the frame and lifted. The size and bulk made it awkward, but despite that I had no trouble at all picking the whole thing up.

  "Holy heck," I whispered as I carefully set it back down again. "Super strength confirmed!"

  That left me wondering about other strength-reted things, like could I run extra fast? Could I jump really high? Those were things I couldn't really test in my bedroom though, and I had no intention of leaving the house looking like this. So for now, those questions would go unanswered.

  I couldn't think of much else in the way of tests or experiments, at least as far as stuff I could do in my bedroom without making any noise. Although I was curious about the outfit, like if that was somehow part of the whole 'magical girl' thing or if it was more like a uniform but not part of the package.

  So I sat back down on the edge of my bed, then leaned forward and started undoing the pink ces on my pink ankle boots. There was nothing magical or special about them as far as I could tell, with the ces untied they came off like normal footwear. Under the boots I was wearing a pair of soft comfy pink footie socks, but I had no problem slipping them off either. That's when I discovered my toenails were also painted pink, but by that point I wasn't surprised.

  The skirt also came off pretty easily too, but only after I wasted a couple minutes trying to figure out how it was done up. I eventually located a hidden zipper on the left side, and once that was undone the pleated garment easily slid down over my hips then fell to the floor.

  That just left my pink panties, and after a few seconds of hesitation I decided to leave those on. For now at least. I didn't want to admit it, but I was scared of what might happen if I pulled them off. Or more specifically, I was worried of what I'd think or how I'd feel if I saw that part of my feminine anatomy.

  Unfortunately the corset bustier thing proved to be the real challenge. I found the zipper, it was right at the very back, but despite how flexible my magical girl body was I just couldn't quite get the leverage to unzip my top. There was also the possibility that I didn't try as hard as I could have. I might have been just as nervous about seeing my naked top half as I was my bottom half.

  I eventually gave up after a minute or two of struggling with it. My boots and socks and skirt were in a little pink pile on the floor next to the bed, and as far as I could tell they were just normal clothes that happened to be bubblegum-pink. Same with the panties and bustier, there didn't seem to be anything magic or special about them either.

  At that point I decided I'd done all the experimenting I could. Or all that I was willing to try anyways. It was about a quarter to eleven as I wrote the time down in the note on my phone. Then I took a deep breath, and gave the ring a little twist.

  There was another fsh of pink light, and the clothes I'd left on the floor were gone. Same with the panties and bustier. Instead I was once again wearing my boxers and t-shirt, but neither of them fit. In fact the boxers immediately slipped off and ended up on the floor around my ankles, while the shirt revealed the contours of my chest just a little too well.

  My cheeks were suddenly on fire, but I took a few deep breaths to try and calm myself down. I also snapped a couple more selfies, then found myself staring at my face on the screen again.

  It was kind of a toss-up between which version was cuter, to be honest. The long pink hair and bright green eyes were nice, but my hazel eyes and messy light-brown hair felt more genuine. My not-magic girl form seemed more 'girl next door', more down to earth.

  There was a little lurch in my gut as it hit me. This version felt more 'me'. More me than the pink magical girl. And more 'me' than my real body, which didn't make any sense at all.

  Then something else in the pictures caught my attention. I found myself studying the way I was smiling, as it dawned on me that I didn't see any of the usual tension in my eyes. Instead they seemed to sparkle with genuine happiness, and I couldn't remember ever seeing that on my real body. I sure wasn't smiling that way in any of the family photos mom took of me, like at birthdays or holidays or whatever.

  Finally I figured I should repeat a few of those other tests in this form, like to compare this version to the magical girl version. Sure enough I couldn't lift my bed even a millimetre. I couldn't budge my desk at all either. So non-magical girl me was apparently just a normal girl with normal girl levels of strength. Although to be fair my real body wasn't very strong either, I was probably just as weak in this shape as my real one.

  With that sorted out, I finally slipped back into bed and pulled the covers over myself. Then I y there marvelling at how different the bnkets felt, against my smooth soft arms and legs. It was nice enough that I ended up sort of wriggling around a bit as I enjoyed the way this body felt.

  Just moving around against the sheets and the bed felt good, and some parts of my new body felt better than others as I did that. So good in fact that I actually got a little carried away, and after a minute or two I even let out a happy little "Mmmm," sound.

  That's when it hit me what I was doing, and I completely froze up. My small delicate hands were pressing against my warm soft rounded chest, while I had the sheets kind of twisted around in between my legs. And a whole lot of butterflies were fluttering like crazy in my tummy, as well as somewhere a little further south of there.

  My cheeks felt hot enough they could have lit up the room as I forced my hands away from my chest. And I was grateful that there was no way anyone would ever find out what I'd been doing, because I was positive I'd have died on the spot from embarrassment otherwise.

  After a couple long deep slow breaths I was just starting to rex and calm down, when a light knock at my bedroom door nearly gave me a heart attack. My eyes went wide and I held my breath as my mind raced. If anyone opened that door I'd be busted. My body was still in girl-me mode, and there was no way I'd be able to expin any of this. Least of all what I was doing half naked in bed, with nothing on but a t-shirt.

  "Bke?" my mom asked in a half whisper, "Are you still awake hon?"

  My heart raced as I y there completely still and silent. It wasn't even so much a conscious decision to pretend I was asleep as a panic reaction to just freeze up and hope the crisis went away on its own.

  Fortunately it worked, mom must have decided I was asleep. She whispered through the door, "Good night honey." Then I heard her move away and into her own bedroom.

  It was probably another full minute before I let out a quiet sigh of relief. Then with as little noise as possible I carefully picked up my phone again to check the time. It was just past eleven, which was about right. Mom probably got off work at ten-thirty or quarter to eleven. Then she'd have come home and got cleaned up, now she'd be getting into bed as well. The TV was still on downstairs though, so I knew Amelia was up. That wasn't unusual either, since it was Friday and she didn't have any reason to get up early tomorrow.

  Still, between the embarrassment of what I'd been doing and the shock of almost getting caught by my mom I ended up just ying there staring at the ceiling while I waited for the transformation to wear off. It seemed to be taking a lot longer than I expected though. Nobody timed it when it happened this afternoon, but I kind of got the impression I was in the girl-me shape about the same amount of time I'd been in the magical girl form.

  In the end it wasn't until about quarter after eleven when I felt a wave of dizziness come over me. And as soon as it passed that cold weight hit me in my gut like I'd been punched. It was almost enough to make me feel nauseous. It dragged my mood right down, and I found myself suddenly feeling sad and listless.

  I actually had to force myself to make one more entry in that note on my phone, and for some reason I felt my eyes burning as I tapped out the single line. "Turned back to my real guy body, 11:15pm."

  So fifteen minutes as a magical girl meant half an hour as non-magical girl-me. I wasn't sure yet what I'd do with that information, but it was good to know. Then I found myself having to blink a few times to clear my eyes, as I finally closed the notes app and locked my phone. I set it down on my bedside table, then with a loud sigh I slumped back in bed.

  I ended up rolling over so I was facing the wall and my back was to the door, and did my best to push everything out of my head so I could try and get some sleep.

  PurpleCatGirl