With a soft chime, we stepped off the elevator. I felt like I was walking into something. It was like the universe was watching me, closely. The hell. Did that mean I couldn't get away with what I usually did? Fear. I had avoided it on the ride down, increasingly confident that I held all the cards.

But did I?

I lashed my tail behind me, working on my smirk as I followed them. No reason to tip my hand that anything was wrong. Looking around, I could quickly see that the floor was laid out just like the one I started in, but the rooms were used differently. That sort of made sense. They probably built all the floors first, then furnished and refurnished them as needed.

There was no bright and clean cafeteria, or clothing depot. None of the nice features were in sight as they led me along. A security room over there. Lots of closed doors everywhere. "So, my friends?"

"Get in." One of them was pointing with their club at a door. "And stay in."

"Are they in there?" I had to roll my eyes. "Opening doors with handcuffs is a bit tricky. If you don't want me doing odd things, which you made crystal clear you don't, maybe take them off?" Ugh, was good security that hard to find? Where was that nice, oh, there he was. "Hey." I smiled at him, my longer tooth shifting position in the grin. "Nice to see you again."

"Uh, hey," he replied without the confidence I was faking. "Will he turn back?"

"Over time," I replied as truthfully as I knew. "I didn't change him, just made him younger. Can you?" I turned to offer my hands, claws hands wriggling at him. Another guard shoved against me, sending me thudding against the door by my front. "Asshole, that doesn't get me through the door. I swear..."

I felt hands take mine. "Stay calm." It was Mr. Nice. One of the few guards that acted like he didn't want to escalate the situation. Hirrah. He soon had the cuffs off. "Nice and slow."

"Nice and slow," I echoed as I reached with the tingling wrist, blood returning to it. That's when I noticed, there was no card slot on the outside. Cheeky devils, they'd reversed the locks! You needed a card to get out of the room. Little hotel prison rooms. Nice... I pushed down the handle and stepped inside before they took it as a sign of my 'resisting'.

The door slapped shut behind me, likely yanked by one of the many guards actually terrified of me. A glance showed, yep, there was the card slot. "Cindy? Starlight?" I walked around the corner, my noclip seeming to be off. I couldn't will myself into the air, and tapping the wall was enough to know I couldn't slip through it as I had several others.

There was a single twin-sized bed. There were no friends, or anyone else for that matter besides me.

They had lied. Of course they had. I threw up my hands with a suffering groan. Why did I even think they'd just do the nice thing when being dicks was so clearly part of their standard operation? At least Miller had tried to do right. But there I was, with the universe breathing down my back. How had they pulled that off?!

It was only then that we entered day nineteen. I actually had a normal amount of sleep without a single dream of places I wasn't actually in, doing emergency surgeries or conversing with gods of other realities. Just a quiet time of darkness. It was almost relaxing. Then I woke up and remembered where I was, locked up at the basement of a lab, my friends? Who knew...

"Hey, dicks." I didn't normally curse so much, you should know that by now, but I was on edge. "It's time for me to do my morning report. Bring my laptop, unless your power trip includes making sure I don't do my job."

"Let me go," I heard as if through half a foot of wool. "I'm an agent of the lab!" Starlight? "I've followed all the reg! So she made a little mistake. She fixed it too."

The voice wasn't coming from a specific direction, like it was bouncing around in all that wool I mentioned. I looked around as if I could home in on it, which I couldn't. As if I could slip through a wall to get to them, which I also couldn't.

"Where's my Lore?" came an angry male voice. "If you hurt my--" A sound? Did they hit him!? "Bastards, when I--" The voices cut off, as if the wool got thicker. My poor Cindy was trying to fight for me when he was in need of his own saving!

So the universe wanted to stare at me? Let it! I brought my hands together in a sharp clap. The eyes of reality flickered towards the sound, barely looking away from me. I had a brief time, even for me. It would have to be enough. I dove into the nearest wall, emerging into pure darkness and intense crushing discomfort in my midsection.

The wall had caught my noodly body right in the middle as I was going through it. My hands were free. With a sharp snap, I burst free and hit the ground, panting. That muffled feeling was just a little lesser. Were they focusing it on the room they put me in? That sort of made sense.

The room I was in looked much the same, minus every shred of hospitality. Cold stone floors echoed as I stepped forward. Boxes of...stuff were around me. It was just a storage room. I was being watched. I turned and glared at the camera, and the impression faded instantly. They were learning, but that meant they also knew where I was, crap.

What if I just wasn't there? The door thundered open from around the corner. I could hear booted feet slapping that hard cement. Did it have to be my noise? They were making plenty. The universe's attention was wobbling, like a high pitched humm. Between one stomp and the next, I just ceased to exist, at least there.

I hit the ground, hoof and claws clacking as I bent and twisted. I was in my work room. There was my computer, unused for weeks. I approached it, flooded with nostalgia. "One day, we'll get back to work." I gently ran a fuzzy finger over the monitor. "But not today..."

My friends were locked up in a creepy lab, and who was going to rescue them? Call the cops? Oh, man. I could already imagine them laughing as I spun that story, which could elevate to being shot if they saw me. No, no. I was a little quasi-god. I had to handle my own mess!

The mothballs in my head had lifted. I was away from whatever was jamming up the works. Time to take advantage of that. "First priority, not being hurt." I sat down at my chair which was... too wide. It was made for my plump old self, not my new noodly incarnation. Regardless, I stirred the computer to life and got to browsing. I plucked advanced armor from web pages and casually put them on, outfitting myself from things that were still not even released fully for soldiers to have.

Why the heck not? Not like I had to pay for manufacturing or anything. My vision was shades of green before I reached up and flicked off the night vision mode. "That's kinda cool." I was ready to wage a war. A war for my friends! But wars were not won with defense alone. Not being battered or shot to pieces was a plus, a big plus! But it didn't equal victory.

A gun? I shuddered violently. I didn't want to shoot people. I didn't even really want to hurt them. But they were big angry men and I was just a nice noodle lady. I tapped my chin with a draconic finger. "Something to take the fight out of them..."

I could zap them, like they had been ready to do to me? But that was less lethal, not, you know, just not lethal. Being electrocuted can mess someone up. Kind of half the reason you don't poke light sockets with metal things.

My phone rang, I literally hopped out of my skin, leaving my armor and outer layer to crumple into the chair. "Jesus..." And that felt really weird! I had spent all that time being not naked, not really naked. I could feel a breeze tickling my raw flesh. "Creepy..." I grabbed for the phone I hadn't used in ages. Who used land lines anymore? Well, I had to fax once in a while, okay, so I had a landline...

"Hello?"

"Lauren." It was Miller. "I was hoping you were there."

Shit. "You ratting me out?"

"No, but they've likely already figured it out. Lauren, you're endangering innocent people by being outside of containment. You understand that, right?"

His call was monitored. They knew what number he dialed. It would not be hard to figure out my address. He wasn't wrong. He didn't have to actually rat me out at that point. "I'm not here to bother anyone. I won't get near to anyone. I'll be right back anyway. There's no one in here but me. Give me a few minutes and I'll be back, alright?"

"I'm glad to hear that. The safety of the community at large is the priority. We can handle our issues without endangering them--"

"--Release my friends," I hissed, my skin back on me, armor over that. "Let them go. They didn't do a damn thing wrong and you know it."

"You know I know it," he countered, and he wasn't wrong. He wasn't the problem. "We inspected your goods. They passed. Payment has been made, expect it to arrive in your checking account in 1-3 business days."

I had to laugh. "Great, so tell your boss to shut up and let me get back to work. I'll fill out the next invoice, get paid. Everyone can be happy!"

"I am certain he's heard your offer." Jerk. Of course he has. "Please return. Miss Sheila sends her confused thanks."

Miss... who? "HR Lady? Oh, that's sweet, really." I was smiling. I was legit happy she was alright. "I'd much rather be talking about how she's doing than all of this, but I'd better be going."

"Back here?"

"Yeah." I hung up. I'd be back there, I had to be. Not like...

Wait.

Why couldn't I just yank them out? I turned to an empty part of the room. "Practice makes perfect." I reached out a gloved hand which had four fingers for my four fingers despite the original having five. With a nice crisp snap, I reached between spaces in a great big scoop and pulled free an incalculably massive-feeling blob of stuff and let it crash to the ground, filling my room with Cindy's various belongings that fell over themselves and rolled every which way.

I had become the owner of Cindy's life. A theft, on some levels, though he had said he wanted me to rescue them, right? They were safe in my house. "If I can get all of you, getting two people should be relatively simply."

Besides, I'd gladly return them the moment he was safe from the lab and could return to something approaching a normal life. Even if he had hooves, and a big horse nose, and a big horse tail... and a big horse package... He was a big bipedal horse. It would take time before 'normal' entered the equation.

I reached up and clicked the night vision on, then turned it further in the direction it had no business turning further in. My vision became shades of pinks and purples. I was in noodle vision, under my control. I turned in the direction the lab was in. There, amidst the sea of pinks was a bright blue blob that extended downwards. I reached up with both hands, adjusting the focus that the goggles didn't have before. I zoomed right in to get a better view of the facility.

I could see the shapes of people coming and going upstairs, where I had gone and never come back out. The elevator ran up and down. The first floor or two were different, but then became the hotel-looking blocks I had gotten used to. A little 'Home' sign floated in green just over a room. Yep, that was my room. Home? Well, I supposed it was for the moment until I could set my home back to my actual house! It was something. Further down!

That was when I noticed something else. The various shapes had different hues, a sparkling purple that filled some of them, in others it was spotty, spreading from their limbs inwards towards their cores. Others were entirely clean of it. Ponid. I was seeing their Ponid. The ones still changing, and the others who were entirely given to the way of pony, griffon, or whatever else.

For just a moment, I wanted to see myself, but I had to focus! I was looking at something miles away. Looking away would cost time I didn't have. Amid all the colors and shapes, a little icon popped up, pointing at a shape. It was a smiling Starlight icon, winking eternally. Not far away from it, Cindy's equine face was grinning and offering a thumbs up. Each pointed down to a specific shape. I had found them.

Cindy had been hit. Starlight worked for them. They seemed to be treating her a bit better. My choice was clear. I stepped forward, not across my room, but entering what I saw, slipping right beside the shape that owned the Cindy icon.

My vision was lost to purple as I heard alarmed gasps and cries. I smacked the switch, flicking it to normal vision. "Step away from him!"

"Lore!" There was Cindy.

There... was Cindy. I felt numb. His face was swollen, eye puffed out where he had obviously been struck one time among many more. He was tied to a wall like a dangerous psychopath instead of a harmless social butterfly. Blood. He had it, and it wasn't all on the inside. "Lore..." He sounded so happy to see me, but also scared. So scared...

I was punched in the side. No, they had shot me. The bullet-resistant armor I wore had done just as it promised, spreading the impact of the pistol across my entire side, making me rock as if I had been shoved instead of being stabbed. "What did you do?!" I roared out, feeling my body swell, new armor plating growing beneath the soft mesh that had turned away the initial hit. "Cindy deserves nothing but love," I hissed out, not a drop of love in my own voice.

The guard that had took the shot took a step back, but there was another, firing wildly. I could barely feel them, my skin growing harder by the moment, the flesh underneath racing to catch up. The mothball sensation was there, but I was cutting through it like a red hot knife of pure rage. "You don't even deserve that." An image of him as a pony had come and was brushed aside just as quickly. "Tell me your worst fear." I was on him. Another loud bang filled the room as his friend fired wildly into my growing form, but they were helpless. I tore his friend's head open to reveal its secrets. "Oh, that's nasty," I rumbled, shoving him forward as he screamed.

His screams became broken, his body falling apart as I turned on his friend. "Do you have a nicer--" I paused, a bullet hovering just in front of my eye. "Son of a whore, that could have hurt." I reached up, casually plucking the incoming munition. "Like you hurt my friend. I'm just returning the favor."

The pressure was immense. I felt like some inside part of me was rubbing against sandpaper. It hurt, but I also didn't care. Nobody would hurt Cindy again. "Pathetic slug," I growled at him as he made a break for the door. He slipped on slime that hadn't been there before, slamming face forward. Blood and pus spread as he scrambled helplessly, his body losing definition as his clothing gathered on his back, becoming a brightly-colored shell for his new life. By the time he reached the door, he was a huge helpless slug, oozing against it impotently. "You're lucky I didn't bring salt." I stomped on him, kicking him aside and knocking him over. His friend had broken apart into countless scurrying ants. He was dead, and I didn't much care.

"Cindy." I wheeled on him. "You're safe."

He didn't look safe. He was trembling, terrified. "You're safe," I repeated. "They can't hurt you. Let's get out of here."

"Lore?"

Did he not recognize me? There was only one noodle. There was also a lack of time. "Yeah, let's go." I grabbed him and wrenched him free, the chains popping as if they were made of little more than a single sheet of cardboard. "We're leaving." I hurled him backwards, his form lost to a portal as I sent him home. "One more."

I grabbed the door handle and wrenched it with such force that it came off, the door unmoving. Crap. I grabbed the edges of the door with two different great ape hands and crushed it inwards. I felt so powerful. I felt unending pain. I would share that pain. I threw the door aside with a dull thud of metal on the cement. "Starlight!" I howled as I charged into the hallway, tail lashing.

Something bit me right on the right rump. Then the electricity flowed from the bite downwards towards the ground. My goat-hooved leg twitched but twice before the whole thing went wet and slimy, the entire leg becoming that of an electric eel, as if fish had legs. With a low grunt, I sent the electricity right back down the lines, exploding the shock-gun another guard had dared to fire at me. "Brown pony." I waved dismissively, ignoring the startled whinny as I coiled around a corner. "Red pony." I grabbed a guard that was passing the same corner and threw them forward. By the time they hit the ground, it was with all fours, startled neighs filling the hall.

In front of the door I could smell Starlight behind, four men stood side by side, grim determination on behind their visors, as if they were putting up some grand last stand against some terrible foe. They were the terrible people. I was just speeding along karma a touch. I slammed down a draconic paw. "So many ponies, waiting to be born."

"Her bones can be broke," reminded one of them, all of them clutching their batons as if their lives depended on it. Silly little men. Their lives were not in trouble, just their humanity. Such a little thing. They'd get used to it, eventually, and maybe emerge better for it. I was doing them a favor.

I bumped into the wall with an annoyed grunt. Why did the whole hallway feel too small? I let our an ursine howl and lunged for them, bear claws tacking the ground alongside tremendous clomps of rhino hooves. I didn't realize it at the time, but my stability was looking especially... unstable, for lack of better words.

They screamed back, maybe hoping it'd scare me off. It didn't. One of their batons struck my right arm as I was raising it, the two meeting with such force that the baton exploded on contact, peppering us both with splinters. I grabbed him with insectoid pincers. "Boy pony." I threw him aside, slamming him into the wall as his bones popped and creaked, becoming a little pony far more quickly than the comparative mercy of Ponid.

"Girl pony." My voice was alien even to me as I grabbed his baton in my jagged, uneven teeth and crunched it in half. I charged through him, running him over. As my huge heavy feet crushed him beneath me, I could feel that sparkling purple welling up. He wasn't dying, even if it hurt like hell. He was becoming a mare, his groan becoming a feminine cry of pain.

One of the guards took a step back, faltering. "Please..."

"Big pony." I grabbed the second to last guard, giving him a big kiss with lips that didn't quite fit with his, not that I cared. I blew powerfully, his fingers popping out into big hooves, his limbs straightening as he became a big pony just like I imagined, a stallion earth pony that was left reeling, their insides on fire from the forced change they had endured. "Little pony." I closed with the last one, drool splattering to the ground beneath me.

"I'm just doing my job!" he wailed pitifully. I drove him to the ground, growling, but he was still human, for the moment.

"Your job sucks," I noted eloquently. "The mare in there is on your side, the stallion you beat up didn't do a damn thing wrong." I grabbed his hand that was trying to swat at me and smashed it into the ground in a gorilla's grip. I could feel bones cracking. His chocked gasp of shock was clear enough. "If you had balls, you would have gone for me. At least I'm the trouble."

"Don't kill me. Don't... kill me," he sniffled out, losing it entirely.

"Kill you?" My laughter, oh god, in that moment it unnerved even me a little. It was like an entire zoo was cackling. "Change." I ate him, one big bite, chomp, gone. I chewed, hearing him scream, then spat it out, a little ball of fur with curly locks on her horrified little head. "Cozy Glow," I announced. Where I had got the name, I wasn't sure, but it was his, er, her name then. "Get out of my sight."

She squealed in maddened horror, tripping over herself and scrambling to get away, but doing a really bad job of it. Her little wings beat erratically, not helping her move. I didn't care. I ignored her. I threw myself against the door and it crashed inwards along with a great portion of the wall on either side. "Starlight!"

Starlight looked up from where she had been sitting, reading a book? "Lore? What in Celestia's grand plot happened to you?!"

I reached for her and she shied back. "We don't have time. We have to go, yesterday." Could I yank her out yesterday? There was no time to consider that. Everything was pain. "Let's go."

She leaned to the side, getting a peek into the hallway and the sounds coming from it. "I'll go, but you need to calm down, right now."

They had picked such a good pony for freaks like me... "I can't calm down until you're safe. After that..." After that, I imagined passing out for basically forever. "Let's go, now." I didn't wait anymore. I lunged for her, grabbing her with a raccoon-like arm. "You wanted a god, and now you have one."

Starlight trembled in my grasp, perhaps realizing just how bad it could get to be in the reach of a god. Space folded around us as I dived for safety, away from that accursed floor and its equally damnable tyrant of a boss. He'd get his, some... other...

Day...

Author's Note

That escalated...

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