After a series of shenanigans, Simba ended up absorbing a lot of excess energy from Rafiki's staff. At first, he only got a snow leopard tail from it, something he was happy to live with. Now, it had snowballed into a full snow leopard transformation which was much harder to swallow. Strangest of all, when Nala pinned Simba, tail, paws and belly transformed too. She wasn't as keen about it as Simba was and convinced him to go see Rafiki with her... after a persuasive glare.
As the pair approached Rafiki, the mandrill pinched the bridge of his nose. ``I warned you, Simba,'' he said, ``I warned you to take it easy.''
``I know... I'm sorry, Rafiki.''
Rafiki to Nala with his staff and Simba realized it wasn't him who needed an apology. Rafiki waved his staff above the two ``big cats''. ``Well, I have good news, bad news, more bad news and slightly better news. The good news is that this transformation can be reversed.'' Simba was relieved that he didn't massively screw up. ``The bad news is that I cannot reverse it until all your excess energy is used up and you still have a lot of energy left. That is the more bad news.''
Simba and Nala exchanged anxious looks. ``Then what's the slightly better news?!'' demanded the new snow leopard.
Rafiki turned to face Nala. ``Your transformation can be reversed right now.''
Nala was delighted. Simba was jealous. ``Why does she-?!''
``She does not have any excess energy,'' Rafiki interrupted.
Simba sighed, then he smirked. ``Then let me do it!'' He turned to face Nala. ``I transformed you once, I can-''
``STOP!'' Rafiki interrupted again, ``It is true, the energy inside allows you to transform others but you do not have the experience to control it properly. You could easily turn her into an antelope or whatever-else.''
Nala's eyes widened. ``Yeah, don't do that, Simba.''
Simba sulked as Rafiki waved his staff over Nala. ``Then how am I supposed to get rid of my energy?''
``You will listen to me and Take It Easy. The energy will fade in time, you must be patient.'' Simba reluctantly agreed but one thing he greatly struggled with was patience.
Reversing Nala's transformation took no time at all and she sighed with relief when it was over. ``Now run along, you two, back to pride rock,'' ordered Rafiki, ``I'm sure your father will be very interested in what you have to tell him, Simba.'' Simba didn't say anything. He wanted to keep it a secret but even if he tried to keep a low profile, a snow leopard would stick out in the savannah. He sulked all the way home.
Mufasa was not impressed when Simba explained why he was now a snow leopard. ``I thought we were done with this nonsense, Simba,'' he said sternly. Simba looked ashamed. ``However,'' he continued, ``I know you didn't intend for this to happen and no harm has been done to anyone else. Let's make sure you keep it that way.''
``Yes, Dad,'' said Simba reluctantly.
``Good. Now let?s find a place where you can burn off your energy in peace.''
The place turned out to be a corner in the back of the den. His parents tried to make it as comfortable for Simba as they could but the snow leopard wasn't happy. ``Keeping me back here like I'm a freak or something. Even with my stupid hooves, I was able to go outside.'' Rafiki came to see him everyday to check his ``energy level''. It was going down but painfully slowly. Mufasa could tell that his son was unhappy.
One day, the den was empty except for Simba in his corner. The former lion cub was feeling bored and batted a rock back and forth. He wasn't sure if it was a trick of the light but he could've sworn it was changing colors slightly. He gave a little half-smirk. It was then that he saw a mouse scurrying across the den floor. Simba wasted no time to try to pounce it. The mouse got out of the way and Simba tried to catch it. His snow leopard fur was thick and heavier than what he was used to but it didn't slow him down. He caught the mouse by the tip of its tail.
Then it happened. As soon as he touched it, the mouse began to grow larger and larger. If it hadn't been frozen in surprise, it could've done serious damage. Simba himself was stunned with disbelief too.
``Shrink it, Simba!'' called a familiar voice. This was no time to question who the voice belonged to. The young snow leopard placed his paws on the mouse and concentrated hard. To his surprise, the mouse started to shrink beneath him. Once it was it's normal size, Simba let it go and it disappeared into a crack in the wall. Simba felt very pleased with himself.
``Well done, Simba!'' the voice said again. Simba now recognized it as his father's. He turned and saw him standing there.
``Thanks, Dad!'' Simba's tail swayed with pride.
``I know you're not dangerous, Simba, you just need to keep this energy you have under control and after that display, I think it's possible that you can.''
Simba smiled wide. ``Does that mean...?''
``Go stretch your legs.''
Simba happily trotted out of the den. He stopped at the entrance as a thought struck him. ``Wait. You didn't plant that mouse just to test, right?''
Mufasa chuckled. ``Sometimes the best tests are ones we don't plan on.''
Simba spent the day exploring the savannah and playing with friends as he normally would without anything strange happening. He secretly wanted to play with his energy but decided not to push his luck... at least not yet. That night, his father slept next to him in the corner. If nothing happened overnight then he could live life normally while he waited for his energy to drain. It was most unfortunate that Simba should toss and turn in his sleep, sending a wave of energy towards his dad's head.
As ever, Simba was the first to wake up the next morning. ``Wake up, Dad!'' There was no response. His body was turned in a way so Simba couldn't see his head. ``Dad!'' He tried shaking his dad and accidentally gave the specific area tiger stripes. ``Oops!'' He pawed again and was able to turn it back. He breathed a sigh of relief. ``Come on, Dad, wake up!'' He ran around to look at him in the face and gasped. He still had a mane but the head was not his dad's. His ears were longer, his muzzle was longer and thinner with a black nose and the hair coming down his forehead was off-brown. His fur was still golden-ish but not the same golden as before. Not that Simba knew, this was Jake the TF Labrador's head. ``Dad! Dad, please wake up!'' he said frantically.
``I'm not your dad,'' came the groggy reply, ``go away.'' Gears began turning in Jake's head. His eyes fluttered open. ``...Dad?'' He was wide awake now and absorbing his surroundings. ``Hey, this isn't my room.'' He tried to stand up on two legs. ``And this isn't my-oof!'' Only to fall flat on his belly. ``...body.''
``Yes it is!'' said Simba, frantically, ``You're my dad...! Right?''
``I'm sorry, kid. I don't know what's going on but I'm not your dad.'' Jake looked over his new body. Despite not recognizing Simba, it did look familiar. ``If you want my opinion, I think this is some sort of head-swap.'' Simba twisted his head to the side. ``And I know what I'm talking about.''
Simba's face scrunched up into a serious expression. ``Then I'm just going to swap it back!''
``Uh... What?''
Simba didn't reply. He just concentrated harder than ever before. With one large burst, he unleashed another wave of energy on Jake. It would've worked too, if only Simba's aim was better.
Instead of hitting Jake's head, he hit his back end. The lion body he had from the mid-section-down became slimmer and the toes of his hind paws fused together to make hooves. His tail shrank until it was practically the tuft of his lion tail. He now had the back end of an antelope but that wasn't the end of it.
Jake watched as a pink, bulbous mass formed between his legs. ``An udder?!'' he exclaimed, ``You gave me an udder?! Or your dad's body an udder...? Wait, I'm confused.''
Simba was shocked by what he did but he had done but fought through it. ``I can fix it! Maybe if I have direct contact...'' Without another word, he put his paws on Jake and concentrated... Nothing happened. Not even his fur pattern changed. Simba had used up all of his energy. Realization slowly dawned on him. ``Oh no! No, no, no!'' He turned away, plopped down on the floor of the den and placed his forelegs over his head. ``My dad is going to kill me!''
Jake wasn't sure what to make of this distressed, apparently magical snow leopard. He thought the best thing to do was to at least calm him down. ``Hey, uh... it'll be alright, you know, kid? What's your name?''
``Simba.'' The reply was short and curt.
Something clicked in Jake's mind. ``Simba...? Your dad wouldn't happen to be Mufasa, would it?'' Simba nodded. Jake suddenly felt very excited. He really liked The Lion King. He tried his best to keep calm. ``Simba, I know your dad. By reputation!'' he added hastily, ``He's fine and I know everything will turn out okay.'' Simba put his paws back on the floor. ``This is just a shot in the dark; Rafiki's a part of this, isn't he?''
``Yes, he is.''
``I'll tell you what. You go find him and bring him here. I'm sure he can sort everything out.''
``Yeah... yeah, of course! He can fix this, no problem! Don't worry, Dad, you'll be home soon!'' With that, Simba dashed out of the den, eager to find Rafiki.
Jake smiled to himself as he watched him leave. ``So, I'm king until he gets back, huh?'' he thought, ``Better make the most of it.'' He made his way to the den entrance himself. Using both antelope legs and lion legs at once took a little getting used to. The udder certainly didn't help either. Still, with all of his transforming experience, he quickly got the hang of it and found a comfortable walk cycle.
He made his way to the edge point of pride rock. He attempted to roar like a lion to get the attention of those around the rock. He ended up howling instead. ``Wait, that's not right.'' He tried again, this time bleating like an antelope. ``Come on!'' He kept trying under his breath until he finally managed a few growls. ``There we go!'' And he roared loudly and long. There was a good number of animals nearby and they all gathered beneath Jake.
``Attention, all!'' Jake announced, trying to sound like Mufasa, ``As you can see, some parts of me have been transformed. Do not be alarmed, I have decided to mark this by declaring today as TF day!'' There were confused murmurs among the crowd. ``Transformation. It means transformation,'' said Jake assuredly. The murmurs became more understanding. ``So... yeah, have fun with that!''
Jake watched as the crowd dispersed, feeling pleased with himself. ``That was not the greatest speech a king has ever given,'' said a voice from behind him. Jake turned and saw Rafiki and Simba standing there. ``So, you like transformations, do you?''
``Yes. They don't call me the `TF Labrador' for nothing,'' Jake laughed nervously, ``...I was just playing around just now, you understand.''
``Well, you were technically king when you declared it; `TF Day' is now official.''
``I say you celebrate by getting a lion head,'' proclaimed Simba.
``Okay, sure,'' said Jake, ``It'll complete the look of my front half.'' Rafiki waved his staff and shot a massive blast of energy. Another thing suddenly clicked in Jake's head. ``Wait a minute.'' But it was too late
Rafiki zapped Jake's head and it disappeared. One moment, it was gone; the next, Mufasa's head appeared.
Simba was ecstatic. ``Dad!'' he exclaimed and hugged his father's foreleg.
Mufasa tousled his son's head. ``It's good to see you too. Wow! That was insane.''
``So what happened? What did you do?''
``All in good time but first, you need to answer something.'' Mufasa flicked his tail. ``What did you do to my body?''
Simba's pupil's shrank. ``Um... I was trying to turn you back and...''
``...now I'm half-antelope, with an additional udder.''
There was silence. ``Well, it'll take time for me to build up to full energy again after an inter-dimensional head-swap but I should have enough to get rid of that udder at least.''
Mufasa smiled. ``Oh, I think you could use that energy for a better purpose...''
***
``So let me get this straight,'' said Oliver, ``You got head-swapped with king Mufasa?''
``Yup,'' answered Jake.
``And during your short reign, you created `TF Day'?''
``Yup''
``Wow!'' exclaimed Oliver, ``We're going to have to go back there again.''
``Yeah! Say, what did Mufasa do while he was here?'' asked Jake.
``Mostly, we talked about different kinds of transformations.''
``Oh? Like what?''
***
``It's not that bad, really,'' said Nala, tapping on Simba's new turtle shell. Simba only sulked. ``At least it's only until Rafiki completely recharges his energy. That should take more than, what, a few hours.''
``Well at least, I don't see you pinning me with this thing,'' replied Simba.
``Come on, I'll race you to Rafiki's tree!'' said Nala, ``He should be recharged by the time you get there!'' And she ran off.
``Hey, get back here!'' Simba raced after her with the speed of a turtle.
