“Jasoooon!” the human stirred a little from his sleep at the annoying voice that tried to wake him up.

“Hey, Jason! Wake up!” the voice called again, causing the human to shift his head away from the noise.

“Jason, what vexes Mr. Cake the most?” the high pitched voice asked.

Jason now registered what was going to happen, and his survival instincts kicked in at full speed, making the human become fully awake and off the bed in an instant.

“Okay, okay! I’m up already. Please stop bef-”

“That his daughter is a biscuit, and he can’t eat it. GYA HA HA HA!” Cherry Bomb finished her joke, not minding the pleading face that Jason tried to give her as he tried to ignore her loud cringe-worthy laugh.

“For the love of everything, do have to do that?” he asked, massaging his head to soothe the headache that was breaking through his head. “I was already waking up, and don’t want to be woken up by your jokes,” he complained while gathering his clothes to make himself more presentable.

“Once I begin a joke, there is no stopping it, just like the Princesses of the sun and moon when they begin their daily shifts,” explained Cherry as she began to walk outside Twilight’s room. “Now, come. I’ll get you a good treat at my home,” invited Cherry with a wide smile.

Once Jason finished dressing himself, he noticed that Twilight was missing, since she was sleeping next to him last night, and so was Amethyst.

“Hey, Cherry, where’s Twilight and Spike? ...or Amethyst as ‘she’ now called herself,” asked Jason as he catched up on her in the great hallways of the castle.

The pink mare turned her head and smiled at him.

“They are waiting for us, at the lab,” replied the unicorn as she crossed the entrance doors and walked out onto the streets that went directly towards the house of the unicorn.

Jason felt the weight of guilt upon him once more and scratched the back of his neck, knowing that all of this was his fault that two more are now missing.

“So, when am I going to meet with this doctor?” he now asked, wishing to know when this will end.

“Soon enough,” replied Cherry, looking casually at the ponies that passed nearby with a smile on their faces. “Let us first take a quick breakfast and wait for a friend to join us. Then, we will meet him,” she promised as they continued on their way.

Jason frowned and tried to keep his steps next to the unicorn.

“Why can’t we go there now? And meet with him this instant?” he questioned, trying to block her path, but to no avail.

Cherry Bomb, not losing her rhythm and smile, almost ignored Jason’s question.

“Because, breakfast is the most important thing in the day, and nopony, or no one like you, should miss it,” replied Cherry as she turned the corner to another street and saw her house in the distance.

“Hey! I want to go there now, and I will not take a-”

“Jason! You want to hear another joke? I’ve been working on this one recently,” interrupted the unicorn with a wide smirk upon her face while never losing her pace to the shop.

Resigned, Jason had to keep his mouth shut for the rest of the walk, so that he could avoid any bad jokes from Cherry.

Cherry Bomb guided the human inside the house and invited him to sit down on the chair next to the table and wait for her to make something for them to eat.

Jason saw two plates levitating near Cherry, which she sat down on the table on each side they were sitting. A plate of sunny side eggs along with some mashed potatoes on one side were on each plate.

Cherry saw the dubious expression from Jason and guessed that he suspected something may have been poisoned in the food.

“Relax, Jason, it is only a simple breakfast, and there is nothing there to harm one of the key elements of the doctors experiment,” assured Cherry, giving him a glass of juice and beginning to eat her own plate of food.

Jason narrowed his eyes, hating to be remembered of his own slip up thanks to his primal instincts, causing the entire town to be afraid of a possible threat that could condemn him for what could be one of the worst crimes that could ever happen to the town. He ate nonetheless, though, in order to finish the situation and hope to have the chance to beg for mercy.

Jason was grateful that the mare was quiet during the breakfast, as they remained the next minutes eating until Cherry asked him a horrible question.

“Hey, Jason, do you know how Twilight calls Spike when he’s late?” she was smiling and expectant of Jason’s answer.

Jason narrowed his eyes and saw the creeping smile forming on Cherry get bigger from the passing second, awaiting for an answer.

“I don’t know,” he replied after five seconds of silence. He was sure that he would receive his answer, whether he liked it or not, so there was no need to delay the inevitable.

“Spike, the Drag-on! GYA HA HA HA HA!” Cherry slammed her hoof slightly on the table, sending a small tremble through all of the plates and glasses without letting them fall. Jason was somewhat grateful that the mare didn’t spit food from her mouth, which was probably the reason she remained silent for a short time.

Jason prefered to remain silent and send Cherry’s joke to deaf ears as he finished his food and waited for the pink mare to finish her own plate, so that she could guide him to where his friends were being held.

Cherry finished her plate and rested her back in the chair to let the food die down, but Jason wasn’t going to wait any longer and rushed from his seat to dash quickly towards Cherry and pulling her in a hug to carry her in his arms.

“Wha-? Hey!” she shouted Cherry, struggling and flailing her legs to get free of Jason’s grip. “Put me down! I can walk fine on my own, you know!” she protested as she was dropped slightly gently to the floor of her home.

“Well, now that we have eaten it’s time to get to the point and take me to where my friends are and to end this!” shouted Jason with a serious glare, opening the door to head outside and turning his head to make sure Cherry was following.

Cherry Bomb, shrugged and then walked forward to be in front of the human, guiding him. She turned around towards the back of her house and opened the doors of her basement with her magic and walked down a bit quickly to the end of the stairs.

“Why are we going to your basement?” asked Jason from above the ground level, not trusting a single bit of what Cherry was doing. “Aren’t you supposed to take me to his laboratory?” he demanded from his place.

“Jason… This is the entrance of the building,” she smiled and pointed to a more deeper part of her house. “It is a secret after all. Ge hi hi hi,” she placed her hoof on her mouth to suppress her giggles, but it made it more obvious than to conceal them.

“A secret lab…” he muttered with a flat expression on his face and stepped forward down the stairs until he was in the basement, watching Cherry close the doors with her magic and rushing to look for something on the ground. “Really? Is this some kind a sci-fi movie?” he again murmured those words and went to stand next to the unicorn with a glare and his arms crossed.

Cherry soon removed a small plaque of stone and revealed a small console with a button on it, awaiting to be pressed by the pink unicorn.

After a moment, a small compartment opened and an underground elevator emerged from it. With the chime of a bell, it opened its doors, and Cherry entered.

Jason had to crouch his body to fit inside, avoiding from hitting the roof, but it was still spacey enough for both of them to not be compressed.

Jason didn’t notice what button Cherry pressed as the doors closed slowly, and he felt the gravity lower, noticing that they had began to descend to lower levels below ground.
The sound of a light tune, from a speaker, filled the silence and increased the awkwardness, mostly to the human in this uncomfortable position.

“How did this doctor obtain this… secret lab?” he asked to make conversation, so as to not feel uncomfortable in such a small place. “I mean, this thing seems to take a while just to reach a secret lab.” During what he thought would be a long descend to reach their destination.

Cherry chuckled a bit and smiled at Jason. “The lab has been a family investment through many generations, although I do not know when it began,” replied the unicorn with making a mental note of what she had known of the place. “The lab is a big facility, and it is only one hundred meters below ground. It’s not that low,” she added before the elevator bell chimed, and the door opened to a room that was made more like a typical business entrance. A logo that resembled, from what Jason could think of, a sky blue tree with six hexagon figures around it was printed on the doorway.

“Come, Jason. We have to pass through some departments of the establishment to meet with Doctor Raziel,” invited Cherry, having took the lead and used her magic to open the doors to a room with the same color schematics as the entrance, but the floor had a black carpet and some other meaningless decorations and was more spacious, with several doors to other locations. But Cherry ignored them as she walked straight forward to the end of the hallway.

“Where do the doors lead to?” he asked, curiosity taking hold as he sees a golden plaque with a name on each door that he passed by.

“Most are just dorm rooms for the ponies who live here. Others are small rooms for a small group of scientist and magicians of their own speciality,” replied Cherry as she opened the last door to a small hallway. “At this time of hour, all should be in the ‘Biscuit Room’ as we call it. Also, that is where we are going first, before reaching where the doctor is,” she explained before reaching the end of the hallway and passing through the door that was at the end.

Jason was a bit curious in what could be held in a room with that name, but his question was answered once they passed the next door.

The next room was more animated than the last one, as the walls were in different layers of brown and beige from top to bottom. The ceiling had a chandelier that held three lamps that illuminated most of the room, but the most distinguishable part was that a total of, at least, fifty ponies were chatting at different tables that held different platters of cookies, along with three jars of different types of milk to accompany the tasty treats.

Jason could see them go idly by and getting along very well with each other, but he didn’t care about them. There was no reason for him to even waste his time to be touristing through the many rooms of the hidden building.

He walked along with Cherry, and his reason of being here returned to him as he felt that things stopped going his way. He couldn’t hide his annoyance anymore, and the thought about Cherry just delaying his reunion with the doctor and the other ponies was even more infuriating for him. This, and the fact that he had been used as a puppet increased his anger, as he couldn’t contain himself from asking a simple question with venomous intention.

“How much time until we’ll arrive with this mad scientist?” he said with a low voice in between his teeth, still walking forward, but the sudden quiet around him made the human lift his eyes around him to see that all the ponies around him stopped talking and eating to gaze sternly at him.

Every single pair of eyes in the room was looking directly at Jason, some with a piercing glare of hate and others with a look of disbelief. Jason could feel that he made a misstep with his choice of words, but he was angry at him. Nopony will make him change his opinion about that.

A quick tug from the neck of Jason’s shirt made him fall to his haunches at Cherry’s eye level, meeting her stern gaze of disapproval.

“Jason, you may have all the right to think whatever you want about Doctor Raziel, but in this place, it would be wise not to insult the stallion that is most respected among the ponies who live here,” warned Cherry Bomb, her eyes reflected with the same feelings as the others held.

Jason was somehow dumbfounded. Of course he knew that Cherry would respect the doctor as well the other ponies inside the same room, but he couldn’t deny his curiosity as to the reason behind such a thing.

“Why? Why does he deserves respect when he kidnaps ponies and even blackmails me to do this? Why do you, or anypony, have to help him in this crime!?” he shouted, standing once more from the floor, and gazing to the other ponies in the room.

“Because I owe my life to him,” replied Cherry as she illuminated her horn, and with a small spark from her left fore leg, she dispelled an illusion that it held, revealing a prosthetic limb of metal along with three wires that connected to her chest. “All of us. We our lives to him,” she corrected herself as she saw the other ponies do the same thing, as all of the ponies revealed their prosthesis in different parts of their bodies.

Jason’s anger dispersed into confusion and disbelief as he watched every single pony with their own set of metallic limbs and was a bit more eager to ask more details about them.

“In what way did he save all of you?” he asked, not understanding what the prosthetic limbs had to do with their so called ‘rescue’. “You all seem far less than saved, and more like ‘indebted’.”

“We all had our dark chapter in life when a terrible accident fell upon all of us. Mine was five years ago, when the ground below me crumbled down due to a sinkhole. The fall and a big rock caused me the loss of my leg,” she explained, touching her modified member and returning her gaze up to Jason. “If it wasn’t for Doctor Raziel, I would never be able to leave that hole alive!” she added, making him understand why she followed him through such lengths.

Jason look around the others, assuming that the other ponies in the room had the same story to tell, but he still wasn’t convinced, his hate unabated.

“But why help him do this? Why would you, or anypony in his right mind, decide to take part in crimes that many would be against?” he asked, trying to make sense of all the ponies doing such a thing.

“We better get going, Jason. We don’t want to keep you from getting to meet the doctor and assisting your friends,” replied Cherry, walking past him and going past the table of baked treats towards another door at the far side of the room.

“Hey! Wait!” he shouted as he rushed through the sneering glances and hateful whispers from the ponies to be able to catch up with Cherry and get out of the room.

Jason finally caught up to Cherry, and both of them walked silently through the next hallway of the building with a faster pace than before. Jason noticed that Cherry remained silent and that her face was serious. She remained silent when they passed the next room and never stopped.

Jason saw that they had walked inside a rotunda with several gateways, each leading to the path of a tunnel, since he could see that they each contained a railway that led into an abysmal darkness within each entrance.

“Where do those lead to?” he asked out of curiosity, looking at each of them while thinking of the possibility that they led to a different city in Equestria, but he only heard another door open with the pink unicorn passing into to it. “Cherry wait!” he then shouted, rushing behind her once more.

Cherry didn’t wait. She didn’t stop her trotting. She felt that the sooner she made Jason meet Raziel, the sooner she will end her thoughts of concern as she walked through another room that was empty except for a double door at the end, which had the same logo that the first one that Jason crossed by had before.

“Alright, that’s enough silence!” shouted Jason as he picked Cherry from the floor and held her against his chest. “I want an answer for your actions. I know that you aren’t that kind of pony, Cherry, and that is the reason I am asking: why?” he held the mare in his arms, but he never felt any struggles from the unicorn, or any complaints from her side.

Cherry remained limp, but a soft chuckle escaped from her lips as she rose her head to lean in on Jason’s chest. “Because I trust him,” she only said as she turned her head around to face the stallion.

“From the first day I was saved by the doctor, the day I received this prosthesis, I worked for him in many tasks that he had planned for me and the others to take care of,” she explained, her eyes closed and a soft smile growing on her face. “He never lied to us or even dared to abandon us for his own gain. And you may think that he is evil just because of what he is doing now, but this isn’t the first time he has done this. It all leads to some kind of benefit in the future,“ she then shuffled out of Jason’s arms.

“Really? Just because he does something good, you must do everything he asks of you or those others?” asked Jason, disliking the reason he just heard from the mare. “If you ask me, that is a dumb reason to work for a mad scientist,” he pointed out, crossing his arms and looking at a wall on his right.

“Having sex is a worse reason to work for a ‘mad scientist’!” Cherry shouted back with anger in her tone for hearing the insult from Jason, as she straighten up her neck and hooves to reach closer to the tall human. “You sold yourself to an unknown stallion that never forced you to do anything, and you never questioned it for a single moment, nor wondered if he had asked something in exchange. I was saved by him, helped by him and even received many benefits for me and my farm because of him! So, I don’t wish to hear your complains of his actions or mine!” she stomped her prosthetic hoof to the floor, causing a muffled bang sound in the room.

Jason flinched once the mare mentioned his recent mistakes and hung his head in defeat.

“Can we go and finish this once in for all?” he whispered in defeat and glanced to the next door in front of him.

Cherry huffed her breath to soothe her anger before smiling once more and acting like nothing happened, then turning around and trotting to the door. “This is the last door, so please be at least respectful, and don’t do something that you’ll regret,” she warned and placed her horn on the door to infuse her magic, causing the double doors to open.

Jason didn’t say a word and walked alongside Cherry once the doors had open for them, heading to the last room of the underground building.

The room was considered to be a laboratory, with large sets of chemical instruments. Another space had many bookshelves filled with books, from new to old, as well a space for dozens of scrolls. A black wood desk that held many writing utensils was next to it, and a giant picture of the map of Equestria loomed on the far end of the wall that was in front of Jason. Below it was Doctor Raziel, who meeting his eyes with Jason’s own.

“Jason the human, in person. It is a pleasure to meet you. My name is Raziel, as you have heard before,” the stallion introduced himself with a smile and gesture of his hoof. “I welcome you to my personal lab facility,” he added with a polite smile, pointing to his surroundings.

Jason glared at the stallion and walked forward to be at least several meters from him. “Where are the kidnapped ponies?” he asked, cutting what little of the calm atmosphere from the room there was.

Raziel frowned at his question. “Going straight to the point, it seems,” he lets escape a small sigh and faced the human from below. “In a moment, they will be here, so relax for a bit and fill your curiosity with the other questions you had in mind, from ever since I got you working for me,” he advised, sitting down and waiting patiently for the human to elaborate any doubt or to be silent for the entire time of this meeting.

“What’s your gimmick?” he simply asked with a flat voice and with a bored expression as he felt that he had seen this before.

“What?” asked back Raziel, confused. Giving a stern glare at Jason, he didn’t like what his simple question inferred. “What do you mean with gimmick?” he demanded an explanation from him.

“You know, the whole reason a scientist villain has for such crazy plans,” Jason explained with a casual face and a calm attitude from his part. “Like the; Want to destroy the world thing, or, that you are saving the world with ironic methods. Even the one where one says that they are just bored could be convincing,” he suggested, pointing out the most common reasons that a villain would do such things.

“You… need to stop reading the Power Ponies comics or the graphic novels of the Mysterious Mare Do Well,” commented Raxiel, groaning inwardly that Jason was accusing him for being a cliched character of a midget comic. “I mean, seriously: what does transforming one's body and having sex with them have in common with destroying the world?” he questions, dismissing Jason’s crazy theories right off the bat.

Jason opened his mouth, but no words came from it. He was thinking so hard about the entire situation that he couldn’t formulate of any thought in mind, as he was just too angry to do anything but to mock the stallion in front of him.

“Yeah, but you still fill that spot,” Jason argued back as he pointed behind him with his thumb. “Evil secret lair, several henchponies, plenty of resources and an evil scheme,” he pointed out, making sure his accusation was valid in all senses.

Raziel could understand what a little mind thinks of him, and Jason was no different from the others that could easily elaborate such things out of spite.

“Look, I don’t think you are in position to judge me and my reasons behind my actions, so stop acting childlike and be more serious in the matter,” Raziel told Jason seriously and with a low voice of anger to make an imaginary line in front of the human to make him stop such childish accusations.

.Jason fumed his anger and glared more intensely at Raziel as he stomped the ground.

“Then, what are your reasons for all of this? What good involves the kidnapping of innocent ponies?” he began to ask more seriously while being tempted to take another step forward, but resisting it.

“That now sounds like an intelligent question,” began Raziel with a smile, eager to explain to Jason the reason of his intentions. “To fill up that mind of yours, I shall just say it in one word… Evolution!” he exclaimed, standing on his rear legs and extending his forehooves to the sides.

“What!?” Jason asked in disbelief, having no clue as to what he meant with the word.

“Guess it was too simple for you to understand it,” Raziel lowered his body to all fours began to walk around a desk behind him to pick up the metallic orb from it. “Hope this will explain things for you, so you can start to understand better,” he said, and then tapped the orb to ignite the light from it and began to project a diagram image made of aetheric light.

“From the very beginning, only the Earth Pony existed in the land until, through several needs and adaptations, they evolved into the Pegasi and Unicorns that still exist in our modern time,” he began, showing the images of the three known pony races and then some more. “After many years, it was discovered that other ponies evolved into a new species, such are known as the Thestrals, Kirins, Pesadillas and Sleipnir, those are very rare among the land of Equestria as only the Thestral have a small number living in the kingdom. But from them, only a few evolved by their own accords of magical infusion that they achieved once in a lifetime, such as the Alicorns, the master race as many could call them. They had evolved into the highest status of them all, at least until now,” he explained, showing all the mentioned ones in the magical graphic. In the image, they were all connected from one the original Earth Pony, and all of them were labeled.

“What I am doing, thanks to your cooperation, is to achieve the next step of evolution and make the ponies gain new natural abilities that they alone can’t obtain,” he then explained his plan as simply as he could for the human. To help further his understanding, the image showed a new figure: a bipedal creature with horse ears and a long tail, as well wings and a horn.

Jason listened with all the attention he could and nodded absentmindedly, having waited for the stallion to finish, and then snapped his arms into the air and let go of a shout of disbelief. “That is your entire plan!?” he shouted, filled with hate towards Raziel’s plan. “What can a pony achieve obtain by having their bodies changed? And for what purpose!?”

“You may not have been here long enough, but you must have seen what most ponies can and cannot do in their current state to realize that this is a must for all ponykind.” Raziel turned off the magical projector and walked around the desk to be near the human once more. “Ponies, from each race, can do so little by themselves, and with the bodies they have, their mobility is still limited in what they can do.” He was ready to tell what the ponies needed and what they can obtain by the change he was going to apply.

“With a human like body, like yours, ponies can gain more mobility in their bodies. They can hold up on objects with far more precision than with their hooves, and the use of working instruments can be more efficient and less laborious for the majority, etc., etc.. And just imagine what new techniques and improvements this will bring if the inner magic of all pony races were to be applied in them! The possibilities are limitless!” he shouted, excited that evolution was the solution to the majority of the problems the ponies had in their lives.

“But ponies can hold pens, as well to be able to stand on two feet or reach many postures with their own limbs,” Jason pointed out, making a debate from what he could think of, for the fate of all ponykind.

“Correction, only a fraction of ponies can hold quills with their hooves. Pens don’t exist here. Using the mouth to hold the quill is very troublesome and will cause it to break, rendering it useless if one is not careful. Unicorns use them with their magic to obtain a refined calligraphy, but that is a waste for their magical energy, energy that could more easily be put to use were they to have hands,” corrected Raziel, explaining what Jason didn’t know about what most ponies have to deal with. “Also, ponies have the trait to stand on their rear legs only for what little they can endure it, so don’t consider it an achievement of its own. They also have a limited ability to realize any specific movements that doesn’t break part of their bone structure,” he then countered the next part of Jason’s complaints with a simple explanation.

“But this still seems all crazy and unreasonable to do such thing!”Jason maintained his position in the argument, but he couldn’t find any way to prevent the plan from occurring.

“And why would you be concerned of what will happen to them?” asked Raziel, tilting his head to give a better look on the human. “From what I learned from the reports that I have read, you never found any liking to the equines’ bodies… But that might be only limited in sexual desire... Am I right?” he snarled, his eyes narrowed in anger and his right hoof pointed in accusation right against his chest.

Jason didn’t say anything, not having any ideas how to argue that, but he still wanted to play as the defender in all this.

“But… what will it happen when they find out about this?” he asked, quite desperate to make the stallion desist. “What will happen to all the ponies, in this kingdom, once they realize they have a different body all of a sudden?” he specified his question on the fact that panic would be a bad outcome for all the citizens of Equestria once this plan takes effect.

“Your test subjects didn’t complain one bit about the change in any way, so... why would the rest of Equestria do any different?” Raziel gestured with his hoof, as if he was dusting off Jason’s question with another simple question. “Ponies won’t realize what happened to them, nor the fact of their sudden change from any relation of the past in the matter, such as photos or clothing,” he added, in case the human would go with the details of inconsistency.

Jason was now silent. He couldn’t think of anything else to argue that wouldn’t be countered from the doctor.

“Look, Jason… This does not concern you in any possible way, but you are already deeply involved in this, just as any other pony inside of this facility. Ponies will blame it all on you, because you are the first human to set foot here.” The doctor continued watching the expression on Jason’s face contort in panic at the mention of him being in serious trouble. “So, try to at least to be calm, and don’t ask for this to stop while waiting for our other guests to arrive,” he suggested, taking a seat behind the desk and relaxing during the silent moment.

Jason was in his own mind as those words echoed inside of it. Thoughts of fear and paranoia flooded his thoughts with the consequences of stopping this plan would bring for him. But, if this plan succeeds, then none of the ponies would ever notice it, and things will be back to normal. It would be even better for him with the possibility of having a normal relationship with, what he could describe them as, pseudo-humans.

Raziel watched how the human balanced out options in his hands with nervousness, trying to decide which option to go with and to think which was the best option to go with.

The doctor left him to his thoughts for the moment, as he just needed to wait for the others to arrive and let the final decision to come.

***

In a white room, there were seven brown, cushioned seats, a table, and all kinds of treats for a breakfast, and five humans currently sat inside of it.

With three bangs at the wall, an enraged mare tried to bash it down with her hands.
“Open up! You can’t hold us here forever!” shouted Berryshine at the wall, expecting to be seen and heard from anypony on the other side.

“Give it up there, missy,” a young voice called from behind the mulberry mare, “They ain’t gonna give a sound of chirp to us until they call us for whatever doodad they are planning,” said Greeny Smith with a plate of food in her hand and a glass of apple juice in the other.

“We can’t just sit here and wait for something to happen,” Berryshine complained as she walked back to the group and stopped right in front of the Apple matriarch, who was still eating carelessly. “We must find a way to get out of here.” she pointed her arm to another wall, making a point of them being held captive.

“It’s no use,” another voice called from the room. Berryshine recognized her as Bon Bon, from the time she was brought in the cell. “From the aspects of this cell, and the small ventilation system, there doesn’t seem to be any kind of door, which means there is no exit here unless you’re a unicorn with long range teleportation spell, but it seems that none of us are,” she theorized with a defeated sigh and gulped down what remained of her drink.

Berryshine watched the rest of the mares, eating their own plates of food on their seats, and her eyes landed on a mint green mare who was just finishing eating her sandwich.
“Wasn’t Lyra supposed to be a unicorn?” pointed out Berryshine with her finger towards the mint green pegasus that had her mouth filled with food.

Lyra swallowed the food and looked back at Berryshine with a confused look, “I have never been a unicorn, you know?” she replied back, ruffling her wings to make a point.

“I thought you always were,” mused Berryshine as she pondered in her head when the last time she had seen Lyra in the town was. “Are you sure you haven’t been a unicorn?” she asked to confirm her suspicions, while Lyra replied by a simple shake of her head.

The mulberry mare slumped down on her seat with a defeated sigh, joining the rest of the mares in breakfast, eating silently as she began to question the situation she was in.

Around Berryshine are four mares who she barely recognized, as only two pegasus claimed to be Bon Bon and Lyra, and the other two earth ponies said that they are Ambrosia Apple, who Berry was sure that resembled Big Macintosh but with a feminine figure, and Greeny Smith, another mare that she had never seen but was sure to have met her from someplace.

It was all too confusing, no matter where she looked: the foalnapping, the white room, and the four mares who shared the place with made no sense to her.

“Don’t fret none, Mon Amie,” said Ambrosia with a smile, placing down her empty plate on the table. “I would bet that our family and friends searching for us, and that includes our own Princess Twilight to be in charge of our search,” she assured, slouching on her seat and placing her arms on the back of her head.

“You might be right,” Berryshine smiled back to the red mare in front of her, as she decided to eat this time along the others. “Bet the Princess personally will come bursting from the wall in our rescue,” she quipped, earning a few chuckles from the others as the mulberry mare relaxed a bit.

Without a word or any warning, on the far end of the room a black gate emerged and from it came out Breach, Quick Thought and Think Fast, walking inside as they stopped to observe the portal for a moment.

All five anthro mares stood up, surprised, at the presence of the three mares, but remained in their on spot, confused on what to do in the situation. That is, all except for Berryshine, whom began to march quickly towards them.

“Over here, Princess Twilight and Amethyst,” Quick Thought indicated, causing Berry to stop in her place once she saw both female figures arrive through the portal and stood beside the three ponies. “Please have breakfast, and in twenty minutes, we will call for you to follow us,” Quick instructed to the lavender alicorn and her slightly disoriented assistant once they had entered.

Berryshine, along the rest of the other girls, was surprised to see her princess walking towards them as a new captive, just as the rest of them were.

“The same will be for you five. We will ask of you to join us when we come for you,” she directed to the other mares from the other side of the room before leaving.

“Hey! Wait a moment there!” exclaimed Berryshine from her stupor and tried to demand an answer from the one who seemed to be in charge. “I want to know the reason we are being held here, so you better give us a good explanation!” she demanded, trotting forward until she was intercepted by Breach.

“I know that all of you want answers, but please wait until we call for all of you to give an explanation,” pleaded the beige mare, giving a pleading look to the mulberry mare.

Both females kept their eyes glued on each other, while the others remained silent to observe how things would end up. Even when Think Fast wanted to get in between them to push back the offending girl to a halt, she was being held by her sister to avoid any violent results.

“Cute girls shouldn’t be fighting,” intervened Twilight, standing behind Breach and kneeling next to her. “Specially the little shy ones,” she whispered so close to her ear that the little earth pony felt the heat of her breath in it.

Breach blushed brightly as her body trembled, and her mouth began to gape, feeling her head seemed more lighter.

“Aga- buh! Ah, bu-, bu-, bu-, bu-, bu-, bu-, bu!” she stammered, taking a few steps away from the lavender girl and quickly ran through the portal.

Twilight frowned for a bit as she saw how quickly she ran out of her sight, while both pegasi mares smiled to each other at the scene and quickly left the room before the portal closed.

All five mares relaxed as soon as the tension of a possible fight vanished from their own eyes, but they still were surprised that their princess had been captured along with them, and held inside the room, while the lavender alicorn assisted Amethyst in taking a seat.

“Princess Twilight…” called Bon Bon, watching every aspect of her naked body to confirm that it was definitely her. “How were you captured?” she asked, wondering how the princess ended up in being in this situation.

“Well, I don’t, like, remember how I got here, but I, kinda like, only think of last night when I was being fucked by Jason real good,” explained Twilight, gathering food on her plate along some more for her assistant. “After that, I was so fucked that I, like, didn’t know how I got here,” she shrugged off, giving Amethyst her plate.

“Yeah, I remember that, too,” confirmed the purple girl as she was a bit disappointed that her plate lacked gems. “Bimbo brain here forced me to be paired with him, and I was knocked out once…” she didn’t wanted to finish that last part that she could remember from the incident, as a red tinted hue spread all over her face.

“Are you still going to call me that?” Ignoring all the stares and blushes from around, Twilight asked, faking an offended pout to her assistant.

“I’m still angry that you forced me to have sexual relations with him, so yeah, I am going to call you that… Until the end of the day perhaps.” She replied biting down her sandwich with more force than she intended to.

“Oooh, but you did, like, enjoy all of it… Specially when you came your brains out,” Twilight stated the purple girl with a mischievous smirk.

Amethyst was about to shout something when another voice beat her to it.
“Wait! Jason was with you before being here?” Lyra asked, standing in between the two to stop their discussion and focus on the new information.

“Well like, yeah, I already said that he was with us,” Twilight confirmed her question, eying the naked body of Lyra, “Weren’t you, like, a unicorn before…? You still look sexy though,” she pointed out with a seductive grin and a wink.

Lyra ignored the last part as she focused on her own memories and snapped her fingers in a sign of recall.

“Jason was with us, too, before we ended up being treated as lab specimens,” the mint mare looked at her partner, who nodded in agreement of her statement.

“He was also with us on our barn,” added Greeny, looking concerned that everything was related in this mystery.

“That can’t be a coinci-, coina-... like, that’s too similar to not have some connection thingy,” mused Twilight, watching at all the mares with careful eyes until she beamed a wide smile and clapped her hands together. “You all, like, love to lay with him, just like me!” she concluded.

The rest of the girls were astonishingly quiet, thinking that their princess had only sex on her mind and that nothing was serious for her anymore, not even the current situation.

“I don’t love him. My relationship with Jason is strictly professional,” said Bon Bon, her voice carried a firm tone of annoyance towards Twilight, but her eyes retained a calm expression. “Besides... he’s too much of a nice guy too be responsible for our predicament,” the cream mare pointed out, while the other four ladies nodded in agreement of their friend.

“Yeh can’t jest trust that a red delicious is good tah eat if it looks ripe enough,” interjected Greeny Smith, crossing her arms as she gave a hard glare to all the other girls. “Even if our fellow man here didn’t go and nab us from our homes, he sure is involved in this nitpicking situation here,” she expressed her doubts of mistrust, keeping her eyes on who would dare to object to her opinion.

“You can’t think that Jason is involved in all this,” objected Lyra, quite offended that the human was accused. “You don’t know Jason to say such a serious thing about him.”

“Ye’re darn tootin right about that, missy!” Greeny Smith shouted to the point she made everyone flinch in fear of the harsh tone of her voice. “Ah barely met the fellow, and that gives me tha right to think of him as a sly fox ready to invade tha chicken coop,” explained the young woman, giving a big spit on the floor.

“You still can’t accuse Jason, because you haven’t met him!” Berryshine stepped into the middle of the argue, glaring at Greeny, “Besides, I have never seen you, and your friend over there, before in town, nor have I heard your name.”

Greeny changed the position of her arms to her hips and leaned closer to the mulberry girl. “Mah name is Greeny Smith, Berryshine,” she replied like she had stated the obvious. “And I have been in that town far more longer than all ye’r years that yeh have been born with.” She added, puffing out her chest in a sign of being proud of living in the fair town of Ponyville.

Amethyst then shot her eyes wide open as the recognition fell upon her mind once she got a good look on the green lady’s face, the braided mane and the color of her eyes.
“Wait... you can’t seriously be Granny Smith!?” she asked, surprised to see the once known elder Apple matriarch.

“Ugh... Ah told that Apple Rose to never tell them folks about that rotten name calling of hers,” she groaned.

The silence returned when realization fell on all of them once they heard the, not truly, confirmation, and then they averted their eyes to the taller red girl that, now looking closer, looked similar to the big, working stallion that everypony knew about.

“So, does this means that you are Big Mac?” Amethyst quickly asked to her former male friend, gazing directly at the now gifted woman of splendorous figure of great proportions that held her body.

“It’s Apple Ambrosia,” corrected the red lady, huffing in frustration that it had been the second time that they confused her name for one of a male type.

“Wait a minute here,” imposed Lyra, trying to take hold of this development. “Is this the reason we are all held here? Or is it because of some confusion from someone that doesn’t know who we are? Because of some strange event that has altered our minds in some strange way?” asked Lyra, theorizing a possible reason of their their imprisonment.

“Listen here, ladies!” exclaimed Greeny Smith for the attention of the other girls to hear her. “This all commotion is way too confusing as it is to be guessing on the matter, so we should better wait for those fancy sciency ponies to return and give us a good explanation of this,” opted the mare, taking a seat on her chair in silence while the red lady nodded her agreement to the option, joining her relative in the process.

“She does make a good point there. After all, Twilight is too airheaded right now to make a good theory out of this,” Amethyst threw out her opinion, once she had finished her plate and rested her back in the chair.

Twilight glared at her assistant but didn’t say a word as she approached near the two pegasi.

“So, my little girls we still have, like, some minutes to spare, so... wanna fuck?” Twilight asked, receiving odd looks and a facepalm from her assistant along with a muffled voice from behind her, where Greeny had placed her hand on Ambrosia’s mouth.

***

“How long will it be until we arrive?”

Vinyl eyed the cyan pegasi who asked, expressing the thoughts of everypony in the group.

“Just a bit closer to that big rock over there, and we will be at the entrance,” announced the white unicorn, walking forward with a rhythm in her steps.

The group continued to follow Vinyl from the outskirts of the town, luckily not being spotted from any other pony on the way to the border.

Applejack on the far end of the group never left her eyes off Vinyl and kept her gaze in a suspicious manner, having a gut feeling that she wasn’t being honest with all of them.

“You will be burning a hole in Vinyl if you keep staring like that, Applejack,” commented Rarity, snapping the orange mare’s gaze from the DJ and focus them on her friend.

“What is it that bothers you?” Rarity asked, quite concerned in whatever her friend would say.

“Ah don’t know much, Rarity, but that mare seems to be keeping more secrets than Celestia’s private vault of cider,” commented the farm pony, averting her eyes to see Rarity directly. “I might be paranoid, but this seems all too convenient for jest being a rescue mission.”

“I agree. It can’t be a coincidence that once we saw Pinkie in such state that that mare and Vinyl showed up with this kind of information,” Rarity stated, when she felt a horrible realization creep over her. “You wouldn’t think that the both of them are setting us up for a trap?” she questioned, her worries and fears written all over her face.

“Ah hope not, Rarity, because if they are, then they’ll have to deal with mah friends, Buck Mcgillycuddy and Kicks McGee,” the orange mare explained proudly, shaking her one rear leg after another at each step once she mentioned those names.

“I’m sure they are more than capable to deal with any ruffian that would dare to go against you.” Rarity smiled and felt more calm about their current situation. She found it somehow laughable that Applejack named her rear legs, as if they would wield strength on their own by having such title.

Both of them laughed quietly for a moment, but Applejack’s glare hadn’t soften in any way.

“Anyway, we better be ready for anything that can pop up from any place. Who knows what kind of varmint is behind all this evil doing around town?” warned Applejack as she returned to keeping an eye on Vinyl while at a safe distance behind her.

“The Doctor is no varmint!” shouted Hard Light, who was still being carried by Pinkie in front of them. She shut her mouth with her hooves once she realized her slip up she made.

Both mares glared curiously at the unicorn from below them, wanting to know what she meant.

“And who is this Doctor you are defending?” asked Rarity, her suspicions having began to grow more from this development and made sure to focus on any expression from their little guest.

Hard Light remained silent, averting her eyes to ignore the gazes of the two ponies that would truly press the matter upon her, or towards Vinyl.

“Here we are!”

Hard Light felt relief once Vinyl made a small divergence from the situation, although she believed that the subject was far from over and her cover was certainly blown.

“This is the entrance where our friends are being held hostage,” exclaimed the electric blue maned mare, pointing her hoof to the boulder.

“Well, what are we waiting for? A permit? Let’s go!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash, giving a good shove to push the rock aside, slowly but surely revealing a small door with a panel.

Vinyl stepped before Dash could force the door open, “Alright, I’ll take care of this.” The white unicorn then placed her hoof on the panel and ignited her horn to send the magic signature to open the doors to a small staircase.

The dark stairway brought a skeptical look from the other mares as they could notice the eerie feeling that the dark hallway emanated from the end of the stairway, and they doubted it would to be a safe route to their destination.

Rainbow wasted no time as she began to descend through the stairway.

“Wait just a moment there, Rainbow!” exclaimed Applejack with one stomp on the ground. “You can’t go in there and assume that there is no trap in that place, now can you?” the question resounded too rhetorical for the cyan pegasus not to notice.

Vinyl stepped back a little and tried to look calm and friendly. “Look, I can assure you that there is nothing to be worry about. Trust me,” she did her best to convince the group, but it deemed to be harder than it looked, as the glares of Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash were enough to unmask the lies that she had made to them.

“Darling, please... you may be acting on good intentions, but there is no way we would go down there just because you say it is safe to do so,” Rarity gave a valid point for Vinyl to be nervous and ashamed, even if her shades had concealed those feelings from the others.

“Look girls, I promised to tell you everything, but you must go through this tunnel to truly understand what we’re doing here,” Vinyl insisted, doing her best to avoid sounding desperate, in case that aroused more suspicion than she already had.

“You can explain here and now,” demanded Rainbow Dash, landing in front of the DJ to force her by intimidation. “And you better do it now, because we still got friends to rescue!” she pressed on her forehead to shove the mare back.

“Hey! All of you better calm down,” Octavia shoved Dash away from her friend, placing herself in the middle of them to avoid any further contact. “We won’t gain anything just staying here and discussing about an explanation when our friends are still in danger.”

Taking the distraction as an advantage, Hard Light focused her magic to enable a signal to communicate with Breach to indicate their position and to prepare an alternate passage for the other ponies.

“Look, Sugarcube, Ah know that you want to avoid things heating up here, but you gotta understand that there’s still a bit of doubt with Vinyl here,” Applejack explained as she stood next to Dash as her expression softened during her explanation to Octavia.

Octavia gave a pleading look to her friend, but she was conflicted on whether to defend her or convince her to tell everything she has been hiding and about what is happening at the moment.

Vinyl was reluctant to tell them any more than this, but realized that the only way to convince them any further was if she were to tell them everything she knew.

“Alright girls, you wanna know the truth? Well, the thing is-”

“Hey, girls! My tail is twitching!” Pinkie announced, interrupting Vinyl as she could sense the end of her ponytail vibrating from the end of her hair.

At that moment, everything happened too quickly to be noticed at once; Hard Light jumped over Pinkie’s shoulder and casted a constriction spell on both pegasi’s wings. Unable to react in time, the five mares felt weightless for a moment as they lost contact with the ground they were all standing on, soon replaced by the feeling of being sunk deep down into a black abyss, one created by magic itself.

Octavia rushed to the edge of the portal and couldn’t see anything at the bottom, nor could she see where the others had gone to. It was all black, where it was impossible to make out any form or sound from anywhere within the dark void.

“What happened? What have you done!?” shrieked Octavia, looking on as the portal began to close right in front of her eyes.

“Wa- wait! Hold on a second! That wasn’t me who did this,” deflected Vinyl, taking up a defensive pose and holding her forehooves up in case of a hoof flying at her face.

“We better get moving now that the others are inside and will be on their way to meet Jason and the others,” informed Hard Light, taking the stairs down, getting ahead of them. “Uhm... you both are coming, right?” asked the mare timidly, feeling that it was imperative they follow her inside the facility.

“We will be there,” confirmed Vinyl, watching how the navy blue unicorn went ahead of her and left the last two mares alone for the moment. “Now… you wanted answers... then, I’ll give them to you, on our way down to reunite with the others,” she then explained to Octavia before she descended down the stairway, not giving the earth pony a chance to say anything to her.

“Wait!” Octavia wanted to have those answers now, and was willing to force them out at any cost now that things were too out of control for her to make heads or tails of this situation, but her efforts went to deaf ears, once she saw her unicorn friend’s head sink down the passage.

It was at this moment that Octavia had a decision to make: to go down and follow her friend and learn what was happening, or to leave and let things be solved by somepony else.

“What am I even doing?” the grey mare asked to herself as she was feeling a strange pull that forced her legs to go down and follow the two unicorns.

It could be for many reasons Octavia did this, but she felt that the most important one was what her heart felt it wanted, what her mind needed to see what the human had gotten himself into, especially if there was any possible way to help him, along with the others that had been foalnapped.

Author's Note

Okay then one last chapter to end this madness.