A wave of pressure runs through your head, but it's far from painful, instead a giddy ecstasy that leaves you panting and trying to gather yourself to little effect. Whatever was happening, you had to get out of here. Maybe your friends could help? You take a single step with a firm clop. Your hand is more of a hoof, hard and the obvious source of the noise you just heard.

You're becoming a horse, though not getting any larger. If anything, you are getting smaller, sorta. You're standing as tall as you can, but the room was still so tall compared to you. Being on all fours would do that. Why did this feel so perversely good? You sway your new tail, or should it be said it sways itself? You weren't trying to move it, but it's moving quite well on its own with the built up energy.

"Nnng." A shout? You still weren't very good at that. One more step, closer to the door with ragged pants, in more way than one. Your clothes had abandoned you entirely. Fur grew, and now covered your form in... comfort? If you weren't a bit odded out by what was going on, it'd be kinda nice, that warm security blanked that felt better than it had any right to feel.

You hear a bang, a thumping. From the front door? Splintering of wood, though still muffled, and thumping. Something's going on out there, and you're here, stuck in the bathroom. That seemed suddenly way less important as you did what a guy could do when so overloaded with sensations. Were you taking pride in this? Either way, you exploded all over the ground in a sudden fit of spasms. Tension flees you with the release. Maybe just... What are those noises?

They're making it hard to sit still, even if that was what you wanted to do. With an audible pop, another release, but from your forehead. Something just grew there with no pain, only growing pleasure. In fact, all the aches and pains lovingly collected over a lifetime fade away with little explination.

A hole appears in the door in front of you, wood chips flying out with it. What's going on out there, you have no idea, but that's... a bullet hole. You never saw one before, but it's not hard to guess. "What?!" Your voice. Another strange surprise as it comes out softer and higher, like a lady was talking, a young lady at that. "Guys?" You shudder as the sensations begin to slow down.

You're still a mess, and something just happened, but something was still going on. You slide up next to the door, pressing your altered body to the wall just in time for something to crash out there. Crap, it was still going on, whatever it was. You reached for the doorknob, but realize quickly that's silly. You have no fingers, just hooves. You glare at the knob as if it's the thing at fault.

And it turns.

You can feel like you're doing it, as if you just grabbed the knob and turned it, with fingers you don't have attached to an arm you also don't have. But you feel it, and you turn the knob, cracking it open just a bit, a peek!

The furniture's a mess, and so is the room. A body flies in from the direction of the kitchen and smashes against the couch, the both of them crashing to the ground with a painful sound of broken bodies and furnishing. "Shit!" You didn't mean to speak, but you had anyway. "The hay's going on?!" You hadn't meant to say 'hay' either. Then again, you made no plans to become whatever you had become. But you were that.

You had to survive the day, then you could regret it, right?

"You alright?" That wasn't you. That's Nick. He's alright! You feel your chest flutter with joy at knowing that. "Stay wherever you are. I'll handle this."

Handle this?! He's in the middle of a hostile home invasion and he's going to 'handle' it?! He was no martial artist, nor had a stash of high calibre weapons lying around, at least that you knew about. Why's he being so calm about it?

Nick stormed into view. "It didn't have to be like this. I offered you a nice and peaceful way out. We coulda both won. Friendship's so much easier than this." He punched the down man across the face, blood arcing. "But no, jerks like you don't listen." He brought in his other angry fist, just for the half-pinned man to catch it.

"Get off your high horse." The downed man shoved Nick back, sending him flying as if he weighed nothing. Nick does not weigh nothing, you can personally testify. The guy was in his mid 100s, and seeing him fly backwards was a new experience. The invader got to his feet quickly, but so did Nick, the two of them facing each other with death in their eyes. "Pity I'll have to kill whoever's talking too. Just you would have been enough."

Crap. You're 'whoever's talking!' You were being threatened, and your chest thumped with a rush of fear and adrenaline. Why couldn't just one life-altering event happen at a time?! Relying on Nick to settle things and calmly waiting felt like a poor idea, but maybe he had it under control, just like he said he did. He sure wasn't showing any fear as he charged back into the battle.

You look around wildly and spot it, the thing that made the hole in the bathroom door. There, lying a few feet away from the combatants, was a handgun, forgotten and left behind. You could grab a doorknob without actually touching it so maybe it was time to grab a gun without reaching it?

You had to do something, right? Nick could get hurt, or worse, and you'd be right after him when that finished.

Author's Note

The result, and the reason for the chapter's name. But what do you do now?

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