//------------------------------// // 16. Whispers in the Dark // Story: Lunar Phases // by Dusk Writer //------------------------------// “A perfect plan must include failure between the lines.” ~Anthony Duquette, Author and Game Designer.         The three of us pile into Regi’s car, with said human driving, because he doesn’t trust us with his precious vehicle. To be honest, with my track record with cars for the past few days, I can’t really blame him. Well, really just my luck with cars in general, but that doesn’t matter right now.         The plan, which is such a stereotypical plan that has been so overused by this point that I would be surprised if it actually worked, is simple. Regi had a gun with him currently, and would act as though he’d taken the two of us hostage as well. A lot of the plan depended on him being able to get us in there, which shouldn't be too hard if my hopes were correct. Once inside, I would attempt to use my mist form again to escape and release North. At which point, we would look through the facility for this “Strawberry Frosting,” and once we find her, get out of the building as quietly and efficiently as possible. Then, Regi should be waiting at a nearby, within-sight location with the get away vehicle, where we would then escape to and drive off with the captured pony in possession.         Peter, or North Wind as he told me his name was, shifts uncomfortably next to me as we pull out of the driveway. I’m just going to assume that it’s mission nerves, because I am really hoping I don’t smell bad or something like that.         I look over to him and give what I hope to be a comforting smile, “You a bit nervous too?”         “Last time I’ve checked, my life was pretty good before. It also had 0% of ‘breaking into gangsters’ lair’ problem.” Yeah, I could see where the trouble he’d be having was with that. I was having similar problems adjusting to the harsh contrast between my old life and this new one. Going from an avid gamer that’s between jobs to being the Princess of an entire race in just a few days was kind of like throwing yourself off of a nice, safe boat into the cold, dark ocean.         “Yeah, I know how you feel. To be honest, I’m kind of terrified right now, and not totally sure on what to do when we actually get there,” I say. I’m hoping that this doesn’t end up scaring him too much. I mean, I still don’t know this pony very well, but I’m hoping he’s not going to look up to me as some kind of all-knowing being. Right now, I’m still just an ordinary guy that grew up in Colorado.         “At least you ended up as a mother flippin’ god. I’m a simple peasant who lost his job because I lost my… tools.” He looks down at his hooves, most likely remembering the feel of hands. I wouldn’t understand; I kind of got the full package, so my magic more than makes up for my own lack of hands.         However, I can tell this guy really needs some cheering up right now. I gently extend a wing and lay it over his back, to which he jumps just a tiny bit, but lets me keep it there. “Hey, right now, I’m no god, and I’m not sure I ever was in the first place. In fact, if anything, I’m just as lost as you. I’m stuck in a new, unfamiliar body, and now have a ton of responsibilitiesthat were just dumped onto me.” I wanted to make him happier, but I would not tell him that I envy him; no one would envy him in his situation. “I… guess,” He sighs, “I hope Berry is alright…”         I don’t reply, but simply look out the window at the passing buildings, retracting my wing back to my side, and retreating into my thoughts about how weird of a twist my life has taken, to which I seem to be taking very calmly. This worries me a bit, to be honest, because I’ve had problems like this in the past, where I subconsciously take everything stressful that happens to me and shove it down into some deep little locker, specifically that little section I remember Discord speaking of in my dream.         Eventually, I stuff so much in there that it begins to overflow. My Attack on Tia a few days ago was a prime example of that overflow in a rather minor case. Now, I am an incredibly tolerant person, so I think that I’d be rather justified in saying that I’m terrified of what would happen if that entire locker were to open completely. Heh, I guess you could call it my hurt locker.         Anyways, jokes aside, another problem I would have to face would be my parents and my friend. Now, I love my parents to death, which they may not think as I have not contacted them for a very long time, but I honestly have no idea as to how they’ll react to this. I don’t see them reacting badly and calling animal control or something, but I don’t think they’ll even remotely believe me without some form of evidence.         My dad was always a doer kind of person, while I was more of a thinker, so of course we’d clash quite a bit. He was always trying to find jobs for me that he thought I’d enjoy if I gave it a try, but in reality, I always hated those jobs. He was pushy that way.         As for my mother, if anything, she wasn’t pushy enough. She was a great person to talk to, and was always so open about her opinions. But, she didn’t take it too well when I finally admitted to her that I am atheist. Heh, irony’s a bitch, ain’t it? While she didn’t start throwing holy water at me or something like that, but her depression still felt like a punch in the gut. That’s about when I finally moved away to Muscatine.         Really, the only member of my family I could get along with was my sister; my human sister. While most siblings nowadays seem to fight and bicker all the time, my sister and I were never like that. I could talk to her for hours on end about stuff I couldn’t talk to my parents about. Out of all of them, I think she would react the most positively to my condition.         And my friend...well, it’s hard to tell with him; he’s a bit of an oddball. But, I think that my conversation with him will be fine, as he’s like a brother to me, and the one who got me interested in My Little Pony in the first place. Unfortunately, my thought process is interrupted by Regi talking. “Look, I’m sure I can get you a job back there. I’m sure a work horse can help at work.” He begins to laugh at his own bad joke while North and I groan in exasperation. North then gives his appropriate response. “I bucking hate you Reginald.” Okay, maybe not totally appropriate, but it sure does convey what we’re feeling about that joke at the moment.         A bump in the street draws my attention back to what’s happening on the road. I can see our destination just ahead. “Alright everyone, get into positions. We’re coming up on the facility,” I say, reaching down with my magic to pull up a few straps that we will attach to ourselves to make it appear that we’d been captured.         The facility itself is nothing too remarkable; it’s a gray one-story complex with a small parking lot. However, appearances can be deceiving. “I know I shouldn't jinx it, but I smell trouble,” Says North, and I can’t help but agree with him on this one. There’s something about this place that gives me the willies.          Regi groans in irritation. “You pessimistic horse, just shut up and let me do the work.” I use my magic to take the straps and tie both of us up, even the muzzle, which turns out to be incredibly uncomfortable. Before long, neither of us can move from how tightly bound we are and look as though we really had been captured. Regi picks up the gun from the passenger seat and aims it at North, just like in our plan.         “Look, I’m gonna do my best to get y’all inside, but it doesn’t mean you can just slack off. Be prepared.” I roll my eyes at him but don’t say anything since my mouth is bound shut. However, he’s right; we do need to be prepared for anything and everything if we want this to succeed.         We pull up to the metal gates in front of the main building and one of the security guards comes up and looks in through the passenger side window as Regi rolls it down. “Please state your name and intentions sir,” Says the guard politely, his voice giving off a faint German accent. “My name is Reginald, and Mister Barkov is expecting me. Bringing more of 'em,'” Said Regi, answering without hesitation. Heh, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say he was actually turning us in…         The guard’s eyes look over to the two of us and dawn with understanding. “Of course, right this way, sir.” He walks back over to the control panel held inside the small guard house and presses a button. The metal gate groans slightly as it opens slowly, sending chills down my spine; this exactly like a horror movie or something.         Regi drives the car forward a few more feet into the compound’s parking lot before being stopped by one of the other guards. Regi rolls down his window so he can speak with the guard. However, the guy doesn’t even give him a chance to speak and just says, “Don’t worry yourself none, we just have to take care of something real quick.”         Suddenly, both the doors in the back are opened by two more of the security guards, catching me by surprise. As I unsuccessfully struggle to get away from them, I notice as the one struggling with North takes a white cloth and places it over his muzzle, and the pony stops moving soon after.         “Shit!” I see Regi just sitting there, watching as they knock us out, but unable to do anything. I jerk around some more once I feel hands attempting to keep me down and still. “No! They are not going to get…What is that smell?” Too late, I realize that the man has placed a sweet smelling cloth over my muzzle, and I can do nothing as the darkness of unconsciousness overtakes my mind. ~~~~~~~~~~         The first thing I can feel when I come to is the cold metal surface I’m lying on. I slowly open my eyes and force myself to sit up and look around at my surroundings, realizing right off the bat that I’m in a cage. I blink a few more times to get the sleep out of my eyes, but when I try to yawn, I find that I’ve been muzzled, and with something far better than what I used; a bridle and a dog muzzle.         I panic a tiny bit, and find that along with my snout being bound, my wings are strapped tight against my body with some weird form of corset, which feels pretty awkward, my forelegs and hindlegs are chained to their counterpart, and I discover a metal collar around my neck. Fortunately, they seem to have left my horn untouched, but I apparently can’t use any form of magic for now, as any attempt to makes the collar send a warning electrical shock through my body. As for the cage, I feel rather cramped after discovering I have barely enough room to turn around in.         Any further exploration of my current predicament and surroundings is interrupted by a man clad in familiar black armor followed by another man in a suit. I glare at the two of them, and they just return it with blank stares. After several tense but short seconds that felt more like minutes, the suited man pulls out a key, unlocks the cage, and lets the door swing open. I stay sitting, not sure if he’s playing a trick, or just expecting me to play along. When he sees that I haven’t moved from my spot, he orders, “Stand up,” In a cold uncaring voice. To spite him, I stay where I am, and throw another glare his way. When he sees that I won’t be moving from my spot, he sighs, and motions to the larger man. The man in black moves to the open door and bends down so he has better access to the interior of my cage. I scoff, “What are they even going to do? Reach in and pick me u-” I fail to finish the thought as I let out a muffled cry of a pain and fall to the side of the cage, the left side of my face throbbing with pain. I look back at him and find him to be holding a kind of baton that lets off a quiet buzzing noise; it’s electrified. I can already feel the entire left side of my face swell up from the hit. The man in the suit once again says, “Stand up.” This time though, partially from the shock of getting hit, and instincts, I comply with his order, and stand up onto all four hooves. SInce the cage is almost too small for me, I shake off the pain and start to walk out, when suddenly the armored man hits me again, this time at the base of my horn. I collapse to the ground in pain, seemingly having temporarily lost control of my limbs as they twitch and jerk around sporadically for a few seconds. Once I regain control, I shakily place my forehooves beneath me so I can stand. As I do so, Suit walks over and grips the base of my bruised horn, causing me to flinch, but otherwise stay still in fear of being hit again. He leans down close to my ear, and whispers, “Now listen here you animal. Until further notice, I am your master. You do exactly what I tell you to, when I tell you to. I don’t even want you to blink without my say so. Am I understood?” Not sure what else I should do, I give him a shaky nod. “Good, I’m glad we could come to agreement,” He says, and pats the sensitive spot on the left side of my face, to which I wince slightly. He smiles in amusement and stands back up, releasing my horn. He steps back and retrieves something from the wall just outside the door, returning with a leash. “No, please don’t degrade me any further than this.” However, he is unable to hear my thoughts and attempts to attach the leash to the metal ring on the bottom of the bridle. When I jerk away, he growls something at Big Guy, who takes the taser-baton and taps the corset holding my wings closed. I immediately feel electricity flow through the entire corset and electrocute me on both wings, apparently sensitive spots as well. This time though, unlike when he hit my horn, I actually scream, albeit a bit muffled, but it was a scream nonetheless. I feel slightly unsteady on my haunches, and as I attempt to regain my balance, I don’t even notice that he’s put the leash on my bridle until he pulls my head towards him so he can say, “Now look, we can either do this the easy way, or the fun way. Of those two options, I think you’ll prefer the former, so please try to relax and play along.” I try to glare at him, but this time I don’t even have the energy to do even that, so I just nod again. He stands back up to his full height and tugs on the leash, prompting me to follow along behind him like an animal. Once we leave the room, Big Guy closes the door and falls in behind us, walking in step with Suit.         As we walk down several halls and closed doors, I figure that we must be somewhere underground, because there is no way the facility I saw was this big. Pretty soon, I find myself lost in the near identical halls, while Suit seems to know exactly where he’s going. Eventually, we finally come to an unmarked door, identical to all the others.Suit opens it walks in without any hesitation, pulling me along with him. Inside, the room is just blank gray walls for the most part, but I do find a small table with a pencil and paper already there. Suit pulls me over to one side of the table and hooks the leash onto a small attachment to keep me from running while Big Guy closes the door behind us. Suit sits down into a chair across the table from me and says, “Now, sit down.” With relief, I set my aching body down onto the ground and let my head hang for a few moments. When I look back to the man though, he hits the right side of my face with the back of his hand. I, not expecting the hit, stumble to the left a couple feet, my head getting jerked back by the leash. After I recover, I look up him in confusion, my look saying, “W-what did I do?” He gives me a short glare before he says, “Rule number one; never look away from your master.” I shakily nod my head again and sit back up again. He motions to Big Guy, who comes over and starts removing the muzzle from my mouth while Suit talks. “Now, I am going to have to ask you several questions, to which you will respond honestly and quickly. Throughout this procedure, you will refer to me as master and nothing else. Am I understood?” Big Guy finally gets the muzzle off of me, so I stretch my jaw now that I can finally open it again. “Yes, Mas-” I start to say, but stop myself mid sentence. “What the hell am I doing? Since when did I get so submissive?” I close my mouth and glare at him, my anger quickly rising. My horn powers up, and I can feel the collar shocking me, but I don’t care. Suit’s face slowly changes from that cold, calculating smirk to more of a neutral look. I know that face well; I use it when I’m trying to hide panic. He forcefully commands Big Guy, “The injection is wearing off. Get another one, now.” I hear Big Guy open and close the door quickly and run off somewhere in a hurry, but I don’t turn; I need to keep building power. The pain coming from the collar is almost unbearable now, bringing tears to my eyes, but I keep pushing. “I have, to escape!” I continue building up my magic in my horn, ignoring the pain the electricity from the collar sends through my corset, the swelling on my face, and the base of my horn. So deep am I in concentration that I don’t notice Big Guy’s come back until I feel the sharp prick of a needle in my neck. My concentration broken and magic gone, I jump up and away from the big man, swinging my head wildly in a desperate attempt to hit him with my horn. However, like a trained soldier, he jumps out of the way with a nimbleness unnatural for someone of his size and brings the baton down onto the back of my head. Stars explode in my vision and I feel my jaw smash against the concrete floor. Dazed, but not any less angry, I unsteadily get back onto my hooves and lower my horn so that it aims right at his chest. Well, one of them anyways, as Big Guy seems to fade in and out of focus. We begin circling each other in a predator’s dance, waiting for the other to make the first move. My breathing intensifies and I paw the ground with one of my chained forehooves. My head throbbing with the probability of a concussion, I take in a deep breath and- ~~~         I groggily open my eyes and yawn, immediately seeing that I’m once again sitting at the table with my head resting on the surface. I pull my head up and see Su- no, Master sitting across the table from me. He smiles, though for some reason it seems a bit strained, and says, “Did you sleep well?”         I do a small body run-down and find that they’ve given me a new and bigger collar, along with a more stylish corset. Oh, I love wearing these! They feel so comfortable and it seems as though that’s where they belong. I suddenly give a small gasp as I come to a realization, “Maybe they’ll let me wear a dress with the corset!” I open my mouth to voice my question, but I’m interrupted by Master clearing his throat reminding me of his earlier query.         I yawn again and give him a small innocent smile and say dreamily, “Yes, Master,” I wince, “Though, I do seem to have a bit of a headache.” I see his hands clench into fists, and a streak of worry shoots through me; did I say something to anger Master?         However, his hands then unclench, much to my great relief, and then says in a tight voice, “I’m sure it’s nothing.” Well, if Master says I’ll be fine, then I will be. He smiles and pick up the paper and pencil. “Now, let’s get to these questions, shall we?” At my eager nod, he continues, “So, your name is Princess Luna, and you started turning into a pony,” He adjusts his glasses and looks at the paper more closely, “five days ago?”         I eagerly nod my head like a small child being asked if they want any candy, “Yes, Master.”         He sets the paper down and clasps his hands together and gives me a small smile that seems rather cold for some reason. “Well then, tell me about your adventures for the past few days. After all, we want to...help as many ponies as we can.” I smile wider; Master is such a nice person! I open my mouth again and begin to talk. ~~~~~~~~~~         It’s now several hours later, and I feel absolutely exhausted. After telling him my story from start to finish, we moved on to several other tests. They all ranged from how electricity affected me without my corset and collar, to making me run on a treadmill until I couldn’t run any more. I didn’t enjoy any of them, but Master was right there next to me throughout the entire process, so it turned out to be okay.         Although, there were several times when all these bad and angry thoughts started surfacing. When I told Master of these occurrences, his assistant would pin me down onto the ground while they injected something into my neck. I didn’t like these times either, but they made the bad thoughts go away.         So, after what felt like hundreds of tests, we were finally at one last test. Master warned me that this last test would be more stressful than any of the others and to just go along with it. Still, that doesn’t help to calm my nerves as I stand in front of this final door with my handlers standing next to me. Master opens the door and leads me in, where I see a sort of box formed by wooden posts, much like the ones that they shoe horses in.         Master leads me into the box and ties my leash to the front horizontal post. Two more men come in through a much larger double door, each holding several ropes. My breathing quickens, but I manage to stay calm as I let them tie my barrel and legs to the different posts and reattach my muzzle to my snout. It takes them a little while, but when they finally finish tying me to the posts, I can barely move at all. I’m not sure I like this test at all.         Master and his assistant retreat into another room to watch through a window in the wall while the two men stay in here with me. When Master gives them a thumbs up through the window, one of them pulls out a small recording device while the other goes back through the double doors, supposedly to retrieve the next bit of this test.         My ears flick towards the other man in the room as he says, “This will be the last test on Subject Three, also known as Luna. It will be a long-term test on seeing if it is possible to breed these ponies with normal horses. The mare known as Subject One was too small for this to be tested, but Three is much larger than her, so it is safe to assume that she will be large enough.”         “Wait...breed?!” My eyes widen and my breath begins to quicken as I start to panic and struggle against my bindings. The man lowers the recording device quickly walks over to me, takes his free hand and starts rubbing my neck, softly saying, “Whoa girl, easy. It’s okay, just calm down.”         The man’s low tone helps a little bit, but I’m still scared and slightly panicking. He turns from me to a nearby table that I hadn’t noticed before and picks up a syringe filled with a clear liquid and speaks into the device. “Subject Three is panicking, and will most likely not cooperate. I am now going to inject the aphrodisiac.”         I can feel that effects of whatever that drug was fading as my anger and panic rise. I quickly begin building magical energy in my horn, easily forging through the pain of my collar due to the amount of adrenaline coursing through my veins. Seeing the amount of power I’m exerting, the guy backs off, the aphrodisiac falling to the floor and quickly forgotten.         Finally, the collar overloads and just stops working, thankfully not exploding, and the scientist turns and runs out the door in fear. After letting out a quick gasp of relief, I get to work on the rest of my bindings. The ropes, chains, and bridle all come off with ease, though the muzzle takes a bit more work. Once all that is off, I take hold of of the corset, and with some struggling, manage to slide it off over my head. I spread my aching wings with relief, letting them kind of do their own thing for the moment.         After I recover from the euphoria of my freedom from the bindings, I gather my thoughts together and start to analyze my situation. It isn’t looking very good; I’m exhausted and bruised all over from the many experiments performed on me today, as well as possibly having a concussion. Adding onto my list of problems, I have no idea where either North Wind or Strawberry are, and Suit and his guard have disappeared from the window, so I can assume they’re on their way here now to subdue me.         Without waiting for an invitation, I bolt for the door leading to the hallway, and when I slam it open, I immediately run into Big Guy. After recovering and staring at each other for a few seconds, I make the first move and use my magic to slam the human into the wall. Thankfully, it wasn’t enough to kill him; I refuse to stoop to that level. Looking around, I see that Suit is no where in sight, which is odd; I thought that these two were inseparable. Not waiting to see if he would pop up somewhere, I begin running down the hall as an alarm begins blaring.         However, I have no idea where I’m going, as this place acts very much like a maze. All I know is that I have to find North Wind, attempt to find Strawberry Frosting, and get the hell out of here. I open the many doors and peek in real quick to see if anyone is in there. After about five minutes of this running, I begin to grow worried. Where are all the guards that are supposed to stop me? Is it possible they’ve moved to secure the two ponies I’m looking for?         My body’s need for rest begins to make itself known to me in the form of burning muscles, a growling stomach, and heavy eyelids. This was bad; yet again, I’d gotten cocky and charged in head first, not heeding the warnings of those close to me. I shake my head, “Bah! I can criticize myself later. RIght now I need to focus on getting those two and finding our way out of here.”         And then, as though fate could hear me, I round another corner and almost run into North. In my attempt to avoid him, I trip over my own legs and hit my head against the ground, fortunately not too hard. Slightly dazed, I get my hooves underneath me and stand back up, looking over at North. I wince slightly; he looks absolutely horrible.         His fur is slightly matted in spots, a syringe half filled with some kind of liquid, possibly sleeping agents, is sticking out of his fur, he’s favoring one of his forelegs, and last, and most certainly rather odd, he is holding an iPod in his mouth. By my guess, he probably escaped in the middle of an experiment like I did.         Using my now low reserves of magic, I pull the syringe out of his fur and toss it to the side. I turn back to him and cautiously say, “Hey North, are you alright?” He looks to me when he hears my voice, his eyes wide in fright as he drops the iPod to the ground, though not too hard. “L-Luna… I don’t want to… to die.” Oh man, the poor guy’s terrified, and honestly, I can’t blame him. As I move closer to him, I can see he’s fighting to keep his eyes open. I look down the hallways to make sure that no one is in sight before slowly walking over and draping a wing across his back once again. “I know North, I don’t want to die either, but we can only do that if we keep moving. We just need to find Strawberry Frosting now, and then we can get out of here and back to Regi, as long as he’s still there.” I wish we could stop and rest, as North desperately needs it, but it just simply isn’t an option. In response to my attempted motivational speech, he leans back down and turns on the device lying on the ground, showing a map of the facility; that’s rather smart of the previous owner of this device. “I have… heh… the Deus Ex Machina. This will… solve…” Whatever else he was gonna say is forgotten, as his eyelids finally win the fight and close all the way, signifying he’s asleep. He begins to fall over, but I quickly jump forward and catch his surprisingly light body. I sigh, and think to myself, “We’ll need a place to hide while I think of another plan.” Looking around the hallway, I spy what looks to be a janitor’s closet. I shake my head at my unfortunate choice of cliche, but left with no other option, I drag North Wind’s unconscious body in after opening the door. After setting him down on the ground close to the back wall, I turn back, grab the iPod, and close the door as quietly as possible. I sigh and back away from the door, letting my body finally have some rest by lying on the grey floor. So much for stopping and resting not being an option. Bringing up the iPod so that it sits right in front of me, I activate the small device. Just like before, the map of the facility appears, with a helpful little arrow showing my location. After several failed attempts at using my hooves to navigate the small device, I resort to using my muzzle instead. After a couple of minutes of practice and navigation, I manage to zoom out completely on the map, allowing me to see the entirety of the facility. There are even little tags labeled Subject 1, Subject 2, Subject 3, and even one labeled storage. Fortunately, they only appear to be showing the locations of our resting rooms, so that means we don’t have tracking chips of any kind, and now that I know the location of the storage room, perhaps i can find all of my personal belongings. Unfortunately, any further time for rest or thought is interrupted by an echoing scream that sends chills down my spine. With only a moment of hesitation, I pick the iPod back up and look to the still sleeping North, wondering what I should do with him. After a few short seconds of debate within my mind, I decide to leave him here; after all, he’s so tired he’d probably only get in the way, and that’s ignoring the fact that he’s currently asleep. I’ll just have to remember where this little closet is so I can come and get him. I look down at the iPod once again for the location of “Subject 1” and “Storage Room;” this is a great chance to get all of our stuff back. Once I have it memorized, I take one last look at North to make sure he’s at least comfortable before quietly opening the door and darting out. I run as quietly as I can down the halls, which is, unsurprisingly, rather hard to do, as hooves aren’t exactly meant for “quiet.” Each loud hoof step onto the white, tile floor results in a loud clacking noise that echoes through the hallways. I would try to turn myself into my mist form, but I must have exhausted most of my magic earlier to get out of all that weird equipment, and throwing Big Guy into the wall must have just been some leftover magic. So, that means I’m stuck with having to alert almost every mercenary in the base to my position. Hopefully the echoes will throw them off a bit, and the constant buzzing of the alarm may mask at least some of the noise I’m making. My walking through the long hallways and no sign of any armed personnel gives me time to think. Not really about anything in particular, but just a bunch of different little things. I mean, there’s some thoughts still floating around here about my parents, a couple of my pony sister and what she’d probably say if she could see me right now, a few actually thinking about the task at hand, or hoof, I should say. Though, out of all of these, I can’t seem to get my mind off of that little girl, that one I guided home a few days ago. I don’t even know why I’m having these thoughts about her, I just can’t help but wonder how she’s doing, if she’s okay, and this other random crap. “Hmm, I wonder if after all this business with Strawberry Frosting if it would be possible to visit he-” My thoughts are interrupted by a little beeping noise from the iPod. Looking down with worry that it might be low on battery, I see that instead I have apparently arrived at my intended destination; the entrance to “Subject 1’s” room, which otherwise just looks like any of the other doors in this labyrinth. Quickly but cautiously, I set the iPod down and start to slowly open the door while looking inside. I get it open to about an inch and stop, looking into the room through the small space provided, and upon seeing no one, I quietly open the door a couple more inches. I repeat this process several times until the door is finally open wide enough for me to slip inside. Once in the room itself, I do a quick scan of the area; no guards at all. I hate to quote old movies, and by old, I mean the originals, but I’ve got a bad feeling about this. With two of their “precious” subjects having already escaped, one would think that they’d probably at least triple the amount of guards on their last subject. So this could mean one of two things; they were being reckless, or they were setting a trap. My jaw clenches in frustration at my tired and addled mind for not thinking of this possibility beforehand. I shake my head to clear it of these distracting thoughts. The fact that I may have gotten overconfident doesn’t matter now, all that matters is making sure I get out of here with Strawberry Frosting and North mostly intact. And speaking of which, I finally lay my eyes onto the still figure lying on her right side within the metal cage in the center of the room. From what I can tell, her coat is normally pink while her mane and tail alternate between yellow and a darker shade of pink. On her flank I can see a picture of a cake with, of course, strawberry frosting; I’ve found my mare. However, as I get closer, I begin to see the many different injuries she is sporting. Her coat has actually been burned off in small patches so I can see the bruised skin underneath. I can’t see her right eye, but the left looks as though it’s swollen shut from multiple beatings. Her muzzle has lines of dried blood trailing from her nose down to her mouth and cuts cover her coat with even more blood. I can’t even find a way to describe the rest of the injuries she has, only able to wonder, “How the hell is she still alive?” I can hear her mumble and moan under her quick and short breaths, her legs twitching as though she’s trying to run from something. I barely feel my rump hit the floor as I stare at her in shock and guilt, shock at the fact that humans would do something like this, and guilt because I felt as though I should’ve been able to prevent this atrocity. I lean down slowly and instinctively nudge her with my nose, to which she responds by unconsciously attempting to scramble away from me in fright, letting out small whimpering noises. I stay where I’m at and watch her pathetic form cower in the corner of the cage. I feel my shock subside as cold fury slowly takes over. Dark whispers begin to fill my mind, easily catching Selene’s voice by surprise and overriding her with pure force; they are my own after all. I begin to feel my power rejuvenate at an exponential rate, but it feels different, it makes me feel different. It makes me feel not only more powerful, but sexy in a dangerous way, much like River Song, but more sinister. I can’t help but let out a small giggle and smile. This power is so different from what I’ve been feeling, it’s just so much more...intimate, yes, that is the word I am looking for. I feel it in my mind, giving me power I never knew I had, and opening other pathways of possibility; pathways of power, lust, and seduction. My eyes roll back into my head and my wings begin to spread out as the whispers unbury old memories, memories of a previous life. In my mind’s eye, I see stallions and mares alike bound, gagged, and chained, sometimes alone, and other times, together. That’s right, I remember now, I was their Mistress, and they were nothing more than my pets, my playthings. Thoughts of rescuing the mare in front of me fade and my body begins to shake and twitch uncontrollably as more memories pass through my mind, all of them images of playing with my little pets. I begin to realize that they’re all trying to remind me of one thing, and one thing only. I am not the Protector of Dreams, I am their Mistress, and they will all bend to my will for my entertainment. I alternate between giggles and laughter as I feel my coat grow darker and more ragged, along with my face shifting and changing. My broad tongue grows longer and pointed, sticking out of my mouth, which begins to widen, splitting open at the corners until my smile reaches my ears, literally. My flat, herbivorous teeth spread apart from one another and sharpen until they form a mouthful of long and curved carnivorous teeth. The irises and whites of my eyes darken until they’re black, and my pupils shine with an unholy blue light. However, any further changes to my physique are interrupted by the door to the room opening behind me, and then closing after a few long seconds. My dark powers allow me to sense that five men have entered the room, and among them are Suit and Big Guy. My want to bend dreams to my will is temporarily redirected into hatred of those two. Those two had played the part of Master, while I was their weak and obedient pet. They did not deserve to live after such a transgression. Suit steps forward and speaks out to me in his velvety voice, “Well Luna, it looks like you’ve got nowhere else to run to, and we know how exhausted you must be feeling.” His honey-coated words may have affected me had he walked in a couple minutes ago, but not now. “Come with us quietly and we’ll make sure there’s not too much pain involved in your coming tests. Hell, we’ll even add in a bit of extra aphrodisiac to make that mating test more...enjoyable for you,” He says with a dark chuckle before continuing, “Whatever the case, your little game of hide-and-go-seek is over little Princess.” I begin to giggle, until it eventually evolves into full-blown laughter. When my mirth eventually subsides, I speak to him, though my voice has darker undertone to it, along with light whispers just loud enough for humans to hear, “Oh, you of all people should know, games like this never truly end, the rules just change.” With that I turn to them and present them with my new look, to which all of them except Big Guy takes a step back in shock. Behind them, the hallways outside the door begin to darken, and small tendrils of darkness attempt to squeeze in through the cracks between the door and the wall. I grin even wider, much to the soldiers’ discomfort, and say, “In fact, I’m feeling rather playful right now,” I take step forward, and the men take another step back, “How about a fun little game of Cat and Mouse?” One of the soldiers finally loses it and makes a run for the door and yanks it open, only to reveal a wall of darkness that reaches out with its tendrils, grabs onto him, and pulls him into the dark kicking and screaming. After a few seconds, the screaming stops, and the sound of blood splattering the walls and floor can be heard. The soldiers stare at the door in pure unadulterated terror now that they have nowhere to run if the situation were to go south. I look back to the now even smaller squad of men. “One down, five to go!” I exclaim with a maniacal laugh. I look Suit in the eyes and whisper just loud enough for him to hear, “Let’s play.” I open my mouth wide and lunge at him as he screams for mercy.